Thanksgiving 2012

Our Tom the Turkey. I did a 24 hour brine and it turned out great!

JR LOVES his Pop-Pop

We had my parents, Carly, and Luke for Thanksgiving this year. I did the turkey, but everything else was a joint effort between me, my Mom, and my sister. It was fun to have it at our house. Justin didn't take a nap that day though, so he fell asleep in my lap shortly after this picture without even eating dinner!

Our G Man is always fun entertainment

4 Months Old

Dear Garrett,

At 4 months old you are a solid bundle of joy that is all smiles and chill as can be! You are positively delightful. Your only downfall is your poor sleeping habits. You are king of the cat nap. Staying asleep at night is also not a strong suit of yours. But, at least you aren’t fussy, so I guess we’ll count our blessings. You love to hold your toes and talk to us. You have even given us a few little laughs. A couple days before you turned 4 months you rolled over from your stomach to your back, and you are very close to figuring out how to roll from your back to your stomach. You are content to sit in the bumbo, swing, or lay on a blanket and watch whatever is going on around you. As long as people are within sight, you are happy. You respond to your name, which is very cute, and burst into the biggest grin when you make eye contact with me from across the room. We’ve introduced you to the jumperoo, and you figured it out pretty quick. You love to jump, but you’re also very interested in the lights and animals around the outside of the seat. You are fascinated by your big brother and carefully watch him whenever he is in one place long enough for you to focus on him! You continue to be such a happy guy, and we love having you around.

Your 4 month stats are:

Weight: 18lbs. 5 oz. = 93%

Height: 27.5” = 97%

Head Circumference: 90%

Halloween Festivities

For Halloween this year, we were a band of pirates. I LOVED my little pirate and his parrot. I thought they were so cute. The best part about this costume was the sayings that Justin would do while in costume such as, "Arrrr Matey!" and, "Walk the plank ya swabby!"

We took the kids to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch a couple weeks before Halloween to pick our pumpkins. It was so much fun. Justin LOVED the hay ride out to the big field, the train ride, the petting area with baby goats, the hay jumper....it was such a great outing for his age. As always, Garrett was a little angel and was along for the ride, happy as can be.

Justin LOVED trick or treating this year since he actually understood the concept. He was sad the day after Halloween when I had to explain that we couldn't go again until next year. My parents come up on Halloween and walked the neighborhood with us. Ryan even put on his whole pirate costume for trick-or-treating which made Justin love it that much more.

4 Year Anniversary

Pictures coming....

This year, for our anniversary, we went into San Francisco for a night. It was such a nice break from our normal routine. My parents were nice enough to take the kids for us, and I even left the baby with them! We went into the city late Friday afternoon and had a delicious dinner at a Thai restaurant. Afterwards, we walked around Union Square and got apple spice drinks at Starbucks. Then we went back to our hotel and watched a movie on demand. It was the most perfectly low key, relaxing  night- just what we needed. On Saturday, we got up and got breakfast and then walked to Pier 39 where we rented bike. We biked across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Saucelito. We were totally running short on time, so we were biking as fast as we could to be able to catch the ferry back to SF. Luckily we made it! We then took a trolley (Ryan's first trolley ride!) back to our hotel in Union Square, checked out, got lunch, and rode BART back home. It was a quick little getaway, but totally perfect and so much fun!

JR's Big Boy Room

(I wrote this post months ago and just never published because I wanted to add a picture of the finished room. Still haven't taken the finished room picture, but figure I'll add it when I can and publish this in the mean time.)    

Since we're in a rental and not painting, and Justin's room already had everything for a baby, I haven't really had to get anything new for baby #2.  So, I have been putting my energy into creating a new, big boy room for Justin. (I combined my need to be creative with my need to have projects and dove into sewing, which took care of both needs!) I was all worried that the transition was going to be so hard because not only was he moving into a big boy bed, but into a completely different room. I was spending all sorts of brain power on what the best way to do it would be, and in the end, he did it on his own and has been happily sleeping in the new "boy room" as we call it, without any trouble at all. I love him so much! The room already had some appeal because it's where Max would sleep when he and Emily would come stay for the weekends. Then, as he saw me added things to it, I just made a big deal about everything so it seemed really special and just for him. After I cleared the bookshelf and put his books, stuffed animals, and toys on it, he decided it was time to sleep in there. From night #1, he has slept fine and stayed in bed from when we tuck him in until the morning. Hooray!

The duvet cover. It's even reversible! I had to piece together and sew each of the color strips separately. I was very happy with how straight it turned out.

For the bottom of the duvet I sewed the end about 12" on each side and then used velcro to close the rest. It looks and works great!

Coordinating pillow case #1 (also reversible) And yes, I had to cut and sew each of the stripes for this as well.

Coordinating pillow case #2

Window treatment. I also sewed the blackout panels that are behind the navy curtains.

The decorative stitching I did on both the pillow case and the top window valence. It took a little bit to get the thread tension just right. Man, sewing can get frustrating sometimes, but it is very rewarding in the end.

Bottom trim on the curtains.

X-Factor 5K Mud Run

At the beginning of October, Carly and I ran a 5K Mud Run in Sacramento. It was really fun to do this with my sister. After each obstacle, we did a running/jumping high five with a high pitched "whoo!" We didn't worry about running the whole thing, it wasn't even a timed race, so it was purely just for fun. The obstacles weren't too bad, but challenging enough to be fun. My Mom probably had the more difficult job of watching both Justin and Garrett while we ran the race. Thanks Mom- you're the best Maime ever! 

Brothers

"Mmmmmuck!" (that's what JR says when giving a kiss!)

Every once in a while I catch really sweet moments. In this particular instance, JR was giving Garrett his binky and confirming to him that he had nothing to worry about. "Don't try Darrett. It's otay. Brudder is here. Don't need to worry. Binty will mate it better."

3 Months Old

                                                                                                                               October 5th

Dear Garrett,

This past month it has been so fun to see a little bit more of your personality come out. You are very smiley, and you coo and ahh and have long conversations with us when we actually have peace and quiet to focus on just you! (Your brother is a bit of an attention hog these days.) You suck on your hands a lot and are getting better at keeping a binky in your mouth, particularly if you’re hungry, which is good because the minute you decide you’re hungry, you definitely let me know! You are starting to have a little bit of a routine and take a short snooze every morning around 9ish and take another dependable nap in the afternoons. You are eating great and growing everyday it seems. At night, you still wake up to eat about every 3 hours, but hopefully, we’ll get those stretches of sleep to be longer soon. We can already tell that you will be a social one because you love to be wherever people are. If I’m holding you, northing can really upset you, even loud roars from Justin. If I’m not holding you though, you get startled by loud noises pretty easily, and consequently are definitely not a fan of when your brother is being a dinosaur or a monster. Oh- and you are in the prime time of blow outs! You always seem to do the biggest ones in the most inconvenient places like at church or at the mall. I now carry 2 spare outfits in the diaper bag at all times. I also have to mention your burps…they are seriously big, loud, manly belches that you think cannot possibly come out of something so small and cute. It’s pretty funny. You are getting rounder and rounder, and I could honestly just eat you up. You are really good at holding your head up now, so I’ve started to squish you around a little more and you love it. We’re looking forward to all the fun times ahead. 

My Nana

         A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Boise (just me and Garrett) to visit my Nana for a couple of days. She is 92 years old, and just recently has moved into an assisted living place (somewhat against her will!), but it was for the best. She hasn't been doing great in terms of her health lately, so it was really important that I get out there to see her. It was such a wonderful, bitter-sweet trip. She is such an amazing lady. She has lived to see so much and is honestly one of the wisest and definitely smartest people I know. As a grandmother, she has never missed a birthday and has always made me feel special. When I think of my Nana, I think of so many characteristics. She is an amazing cook and artist, crossword puzzler, advice giver, listener, comedian, the list could continue. She has always had a very quick wit and even now, at 92, continues to make me laugh with her little comments here and there that could be easily missed if you aren't paying attention. She loved getting to meet and hold little Garrett. He brought life into everyone at the facility. She kept repeating to him "Na-na, Na-na" to teach him to say her name. It was really sweet. Saying goodbye was really hard because I don't know that I'll get to see her again in this life. She doesn't want to continue living too much longer as it is really hard for her to not be on her own and not be able to physically do all the things she is used to doing for herself. She reassured me that she believes that there is a better life waiting for her. She misses my Grandpa Bob who passed away 2 1/2 years ago. They truly had an amazing love story that I hope to emulate by the end of my life with my marriage. I was able to tell her how much I loved and admired her, and how I appreciated her being the best Nana anyone could ask for. I pointed out that my little Garrett wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her, and she smiled and said that everything starts with love. I am so blessed to have such an amazing person for my Nana.

2 Months Old