My Mornings

I don't know if I'd say that I'm a morning person, but I have certainly been forced to become one if I wasn't already. Weslee is a great sleeper; he sleeps right around 12 hours a night. The funny thing is that he usually goes to sleep around 5pm... which means he's awake before 6am. That means mom is up before 6am each morning, even if she was able to sleep in.
I have to say the mornings redeem themselves when I get to hang out with my little guy. Today Weslee and I got up at 6am and let Ken sleep in. We played a little, then Weslee played while I cleaned the kitchen and made muffins, we snuggled and Weslee fell asleep, and now we are sitting together on the couch. He is carrying on some sort of enlightening conversation with me, which is very cute.
Just us, the Pandora Christmas playlist, and some gusty arctic wind. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this little bundle of joy he Lord has blessed us with?

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.

snow berm

I woke up early this morning and just couldn't get back to sleep, so I made myself some hot chocolate and took a gander out the window. There are inches of new snow this morning, and it's still coming down. We have a spruce tree by the garage that was hanging a bit lower yesterday because of the quarter inch of ice sitting on it. This morning I could probably walk up and kick it because it's nearly touching the ground. The snow has brought the branch down about 8 feet. I'm not sure if we had more freezing rain during the night or if the snow is just really heavy, but the poor plant life is suffering.

When daylight comes I'm going to stick a measuring tape in the snow on the walk and find out exactly how much we got overnight. Ken had to sweep the walk again last night so people could make it to our house, and looking out right now you can't really tell that the snow was ever removed.

If all those weren't signs that this storm is very different from others I've seen, the news this morning clinched it. I turned the t.v. on and the announcers were taking a look at a car that was high centered on some snow. The anchor used the term "snow berm" which I'm pretty familiar with from winters in Alaska. That's the first time I've ever heard that term used here. The guy also made an amusing joke about changing the name of the program to "Good Morning Fargo".

Snow berms. It's official... we're not in Oregon anymore.

let it snow!

After Church

Safeway Parking Lot

It finally feels like winter here, with the snow storm that hit yesterday. Today it is cold and beautifully white out, and some of the snow is hanging on through the sun. We are supposed to get hit with another wave of snow around Wednesday, but I'm taking that forecast with a grain of salt. It may be too much to hope for another day of snow.

Yesterday it started snowing around 8 am, and continued through the whole day. Ken and I went to the church Christmas program, and it snowed about 2 inches in the time we were there. The roads were icy and slick, and we managed to get to the top of the only hill on the way home before our tires spun a little. Ken and I took some cookies to people and then decided to take a walk to Safeway to get some sugar on sale. It was cold and snow was blowing, but there was something beautiful about the fresh white snow and lack of cars on the road. We did get to watch people slide through the stop signs by the store, which made me thankful we walked instead of drove. On the way home we met a woman named Amy and her son Atlas. It turns out that she lives in the apartment we just moved out of! Ken says it's a God-thing that we met her, because we'd never gone on a walk before. I think we're going to take her some welcome-to-the-area cookies this week, which will be fun.

Today Ken and I are hanging tight at home and wrestling with the heat, which has been working a little slow. I let out a cry of joy when the thermostat hit 70, even though a digital thermometer says it's only 64. Somebody will be out Wednesday to check the system unless something else goes wrong before then. I'm sure they are busy helping all the people who have heating problems because of the storm. Quite a few people didn't have power last night or this morning, and were much colder than we are.

I'm hoping to get in another walk around the neighborhood before all the snow is gone, and maybe find some other cool places to take pictures.

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!

winter wonder

The tree outside

Tuiles

Truffles

This morning it is beautiful outside! This is the second day that I've just felt really happy, and I'm enjoying it so much. Ken and I took a walk yesterday morning, and we'll be heading out to do the same in just a few minutes. We're hoping to make this a habit, as it gets us in shape and allows us to have some time to ourselves outside of the house. It's nice and crisp outside- perfect weather for our walk. I snapped a few pictures of the events of the morning so far. The sun streaming through the trees, and the cats lounging in the sun. Enjoy!

new year

Well, I've made it through another year, and I'm still alive and well! Praise God for everything He did in my life last year! Everybody has been reminding me that '08 will be a big year for me, with the baby coming and all that jazz. I thought I would take some time and write down a few things that I want to focus on this year- maybe they're resolutions, maybe they're not. I have a bad time keeping new year's resolutions, so I will call them "determinations"... and feel free to say that in a Schwarzenegger type voice.

~ Find time each day to read my Bible... even if it's just opening it to a random page and studying.
~ Pray more with Ken, pray more alone... just pray more.
~ Rejoice in each day God gives me
~ Get out of the house more than once a week, for reasons other than groceries.
~ Read all the books I've been putting off.
~ Finish school... without driving myself crazy.
~ Figure out a budget that works.
~ Make a chore chart (finally) so I don't go on cleaning frenzies.
~ Take care of myself (and baby).
~ Organize the whole apartment so I don't feel so stressed.
~ Learn to let the stress go (this may be the hardest of all).
~ Laugh more.
~ Kiss and hug and let Ken know how much I love and appreciate him, every day.
~ Learn to accept change and be o.k. with it.

That's what I've come up with as of now, and I'm sure there's plenty more that I could be doing, but this seems like a big enough task for now. Notice that I don't have anything related directly to the baby... I have 7 months before I really need to worry about him/her in real life, and I have so many other things that I want to accomplish before he/she is here. Hopefully by doing those things, I will be better equipped to be a more godly wife and mother. The other reason is that I don't think a woman can ever really fully prepare herself for what comes with motherhood :)

So wish me luck and pray for me; God has changed a lot in my life over the years, and I'm looking forward to giving it all to Him and trusting Him to guide me in the direction He has planned for me in the years to come. What a great and mighty God we serve!

'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!