O Christmas Tree!

Weslee's first look at a Christmas tree

Ah, a tall tree! After 4 1/2 years of marriage, we finally have a tree taller than 3'! I hit the sales after Christmas last year and scored a 6 1/2' tree for only $10 at Wal-Mart. Go me!
Life at our house is never boring, and putting the tree up was no exception. I had put all the bottom branches on and fanned them out nicely, when I realized the top section just wasn't going on right. Ken, in all his brute strength, tried to force it on a little harder. Instead, the base of the tree that holds the legs snapped, and the tree fell over. I (along with a little help from Ken) spent the next hour super gluing and holding the cracked pieces together in hopes that the tree could be salvaged. That super glue was worthless- it didn't hold anything together except my fingers (I'm lucky I'm not typing with fingers permanently adhered to each other). We tried a little duct tape over the broken pieces, and that held for a couple minutes, but the base still gave way under the weight of the tree.
Finally, in a last-ditch effort to salvage the tree I'd spent so much time putting together, I grabbed the roll of duct tape and started wrapping it around the base. It worked. Half a roll later the tree stood up as straight as it originally had. Afterward, Ken found the tree's warranty (who knew fake trees came with warranties?) and discovered we still have a year left on it, so hopefully they'll send us another base to the tree so I don't have to buy another one this year.
Weslee was in awe at the tree when I showed it to him in the morning. We put it all together while he was asleep- one so he would be surprised, two so he wouldn't get in the way. Hooks and glass ornaments do not mix with the fast little hands of a baby. He just stood and stared at the tree for a few minutes before trying to figure out how to get to it. I'm glad we have a gate to put around it.
I think we'll go shopping this year for a "baby's first Christmas" ornament. Right now we have Ken's first ornament (from 1985) on the tree, since it's for a boy. I'm so looking forward to getting to show Weslee what Christmas time is about. I know he won't understand about Christ's birth this year, but he will get the joy of all the new things happening around him, and that's still pretty cool.
Next on our list is decorating the rest of the house and putting lights up outside (that's Ken's area). This will be the first Christmas we've really had the whole house decked out. I feel like a "real" family now, starting our own traditions that we can follow through the years.

raspberries for dad

Ken and Weslee making raspberries at each other at The Chowder Bowl.

weslee's first beach trip

Dad and Weslee, first time touching sand

First time touching the ocean

Family photo

Trying to comfort Weslee

Enjoying the view from his high chair at The Chowder Bowl

Last Monday we decided to take an impromptu visit to Winema beach, and have a little family adventure. Weslee did terrific on his first longer car ride, and was very excited to see everything when we walked to the beach. The excitement ended the second Ken put him down on the sand. He did not like the sand, and he did not like the ocean... so Weslee is not a fan of the beach just yet. Hopefully when he's a little older he'll enjoy running around and making sand castles. For now, it was a fun experience, and a learning experience for us for future trips. We headed down the coast to Newport after the beach, and had dinner at our favorite place, The Chowder Bowl. Weslee loved the restaurant, and enjoyed watching all the people. Hopefully we'll find more days where we can make little trips as a family.

almost 6 months

Time sure flies. It doesn't seem like it's been half a year since Weslee arrived. Just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital and carefully handling our fragile package, right? Our little guy is sure growing! He went to the doctor last week and weighed in at 17 1/2lbs! That's nearly triple his lowest weight- holy cow! He can now sit up on his own, and bear walk (hands and legs straight instead of knees) to move himself across the floor. He tries crawling when he really wants to be somewhere, but much prefers if mom and dad get things for him. He love his feet, and is usually playing with them in some way. Right now he's lounging next to me with his Ellie-Phant in his hands, clapping his feet together like a seal. He's deep in conversation with the toy, lol.
He still doesn't have any teeth that have broken through, but we noticed another little white bump almost where molars should be on the bottom right. Now we wonder if he's going to have a bunch of teeth all come in at once... poor kid.

We're looking forward to the 6-month appointment with the doctor to hear her opinion on how Weslee is doing. He's always been a little bit ahead developmentally. If crawling goes like sitting up, he may be doing it by 6 months. We're excited to see what he's going to do with his first solid food. I found a recipe for homemade brown rice cereal that I'm going to try since it's more healthy than processed white rice cereal.

Hopefully I'll keep up on blogging fairly regularly now that Weslee can kind of amuse himself for short periods of time.

caterpillar project

In progress
On the wall

Up close

Ken and I have been pretty busy getting everything ready for Weslee's room. One of my bigger projects was painting letters for his name and making a caterpillar to hang on the wall. We're kind of going for an Eric Carle-type theme, but sticking to the very hungry caterpillar. I love the way the author uses colors in his book, and how detailed things are.

This project has actually been going on for months. I made the name when we found out we were having a boy and decided on the name, and have been working all this past week on painting cardboard cake rounds for the caterpillar. Word of advice for those who want to try this and have animals-- cats like the fuzzy balls and pipe cleaners used for the antennae. I spent a couple days trying to find the green fuzzies that the cats had stolen and lost.

Today I finally got around to the hot gluing, and Ken helped me hang the things on the wall in Weslee's room. I can relax a little more now that this project is behind me. Next is the cloth wipes, which I've never made before- wish me luck!

Christmas is coming

I am so ready for Christmas! I've been avoiding all of the Christmas advertisements on TV for the past week, but now I can embrace them since Thanksgiving has passed. I have two rooms full of boxes from the apartment that I still need to put away, but as soon as it's done I'm decorating our house for the holidays! Ken and I will be working hard to find a place for everything today so I can start decorating by Monday. We've only got a few weeks left in the holiday season, and I want to make the most of it! There's just something about all the beauty of the colors of this time of year that makes it so special to celebrate Christ's birth.

I'm looking forward to all the holiday baking, and then sharing that baking with family and friends! I still have all the ingredients out for my apple muffins, and hopefully will have some time to get to them today after the walk-through at our apartment. I am SO happy to be done there! We spent the entire day emptying and cleaning the place yesterday, and I'm hoping all that hard work pays off today.

Every time we move I swear I will never do it again because it always ends up so stressful. Now I'm looking forward to being able to decorate the house, and then the Weslee's room, which will be pretty exciting for me. I can't wait to take pictures of the finished product to show everybody!

new adventures in life

I can't believe it's already been a month since I last blogged! Things have been so hectic the past few weeks that I just haven't been together enough to sit down and write anything coherent. I am writing from my bedroom in our new house, which is turning out to be much better than the apartment we were in! I must say I love that I don't hear the next door neighbor playing their music/tv/video games at all hours of the night. It's quiet here, with the occasional sound of passing cars.

I have to admit my favorite place here is the kitchen. I have two ovens and a glass stove top, and cooking is so much easier and more fun! Ken and I have been doing a lot of cooking together because there's enough room for both of us in the kitchen now. Yesterday I tried my mom's recipe for Dutch Babies, which I have been told are the same thing as German pancakes. They were delicious, and I'm planning on having them more often because they're so easy to make! This week I've got a recipe for oatmeal apple muffins that my Grandma Ruth gave me years ago, and I want Ken to try them. I'll hopefully find where I put my camera by then so I can take pictures and post the recipe here.

Only 10 more weeks until I'm considered full term and Weslee is free to be here. I'm coming up on the 28th week in pregnancy, which means that fun glucose tolerance test. I'll let you know how it goes, but I am NOT looking forward to it. We had a little excitement a few weeks ago, and I ended up at the hospital and the doctor's office and ended up finding out I've pulled a uterine ligament. I've had to be pretty careful about not stretching the ligament any more, and have worked at physical therapy for a couple weeks to help reduce the pain and strengthen my core so the uterus has better support and the ligament isn't as strained. This morning I found out that I get to do maintenance on my own, which will be nice. Ken has been very helpful with all the restrictions I've got now.

With the final trimester comes these lovely practice contractions called Braxton Hicks, and I've felt a few now. I am not so much looking forward to labor after feeling them, but they aren't anything unbearable... just uncomfortable.

I am looking forward to the holidays- my favorite time of the year! Ken said I can decorate before Thanksgiving if I can get all of our things put away here at the house, so I'm working hard to reach that goal! With Thanksgiving so late this year, there isn't much time before Christmas, and I want to have a month to appreciate all the twinkle lights and pretty ornaments. I will hopefully make it another week before I start singing carols all day long... I think.

'tis the season

This time of year is my favorite! It's nice and chilly outside, perfect weather for sweaters and scarves. This year Ken and I get two Thanksgivings- one at his parents' house, and one at my parents' house. It's a week of festivities!

I'm thinking about decorating the apartment, and trying to decide how I will do that. I know I want white twinkle lights- everywhere! I think the tiny Christmas tree will go in front of the fireplace for now, and it's easy to move if we decide to have a fire. I will also be rearranging our guest bedroom in hopes that I can somehow find more room in there! I don't know what we'll do when we have to make room for the baby.

We've had maroon and silver, and blue and white so far since we've been married, and I think this year I want white and silver- like snow. Maybe if we're lucky we'll actually get snow this winter! Yay for winter! Yay for holidays! Yay for Christ who was born and died for our sins!