Back from Oregon

We are sad to be back from our fabulous Christmas vacation we had in Sunriver, Oregon. Phil's family decided rather than trying to cram everyone together somehow in Washington we'd go stay at a huge cabin in Oregon that my sister-in-law's family owns. It was SO fun! It was the first time I actually FELT like I was on vacation because I didn't have to constantly be on Bruin-watch. Nothing was breakable and the stairs weren't steep so I could actually relax and enjoy my time. THANK YOU to all Phil's family for giving me that and helping be my eyes and ears and Bruin's playmate so I could enjoy Christmas too! He LOVED his aunts and uncles and after the confusion of grandma and grandpa having different faces (from my parents) he loved them too :)

The cabin in Sunriver is right near Bend, and we stayed for five days there. We basically played games (Spoons, air hockey, Wits and Wagers, Scrabble, and lots of Wii), got in and out of the hot tub, snacked on goodies and watched movies all day long. It was a 5bed/5ba cabin so every married couple had their own suite to enjoy.
Christmas Eve day we went shopping at the outlets in Bend, grabbed some lunch at Pizza Hut, then went bowling. I bowled a 107 and Phil bowled a 155. Then we drove back to the cabin and made sugar cookies, played Wii and a board game and hottubbed and opened our pajamas before bed.
Christmas day we opened presents and stockings (we got a toaster oven! yay!) and I was able to make my own family's traditional Christmas morning breakfast of eggs golden rod. Mmm!
After breakfast we went outside in the snow and played a game of touch football. Brianna fell and hurt her hand and had to later go to the urgent care. These are my inlaws :) They get down rough and tough, even the girls. Came in and played Wii Tennis, watched a movie, and then ate a big Christmas lunch of ham, rolls, funeral potatoes, and martinellis. The rest of the week was filled with more hottubbing, air hockey tournaments (with brackets and all), mean games of Spoons, movies, puzzles, etc.. A great Christmas!!
I think I gained 10lbs this week eating so much candy, chips, soda, cookies, etc and I definitely look pregnant now. The drive home took 10 hours but Bruin was pretty good for the most of it. Now we are back in Fresno, staring at each other wishing we lived near all our families so we could hang out and play.
Here are some pics of the week

Wii Golfing


Running for SPOONS


Wits and Wagers game... one of our favorites!


Doing a puzzle... (Sanette, Brianna, Courtney)


Bruin's gonna be a great big brother. He liked to bring Lynley toys, give her kisses, and feed her a bottle... even if she was full.

Just a quick clip of a SPOONS game

Santa Baby

This past week we attended two ward parties with Santas in attendance. The first was our ward's party where I played a duet with another sister in the ward and another song with the Primary. At the end Santa came out and we were excited to see Bruin's reaction. All month long he has been so excited for Santa and says "Ho Ho Ho" everytime he sees one. I've even heard him wake up at 4am and say "Ho Ho Ho" in his crib over and over and then go back to sleep. However, when the big day came it was the typical scary Santa moment. My camera died right as I brought it out to take a pic, of course so this is the only one we got with Phil's camera and it was after his meltdown.


Then we went to the YSA ward's Christmas party the next week because my dad is the bishop and was gonna be Santa at it. We got some of their meeting on video.




I got a pic with my dad too.. I mean Santa


And of course we got the classic "Santa is Scary" photo.



These are just photos I took last Sunday of my cute boys ready for church



And one of my growing belly. I've popped out so much faster this time, which is both embarrassing and nice at the same time. Nice, only because strangers will know more quickly that I'm pregnant when they see me and not just suffering from post Baby #1 baby fat.

I've been really bad about taking pictures lately but here are a few to document.

Thanksgiving we spent in L.A. with some family from my dad's side. We stayed with my Uncle Chris and his wife Linda and had a wonderful BBQ Turkey meal at my Grandma's house.
This is us out to dinner one night. My dad was so sweet and sat Bruin next to him at the opposite end of the table so that we could have a break and relax for once eating dinner. It was such a treat!! And Bruin loved sitting with Grandpa. He was all smiles and we even looked over at one point and he was just snuggling grandpas arm relaxing. SO DIFFERENT than how he acts at restaurants with ME!




Last week we took a road trip to Utah and visited a bunch of friends. We also made sure to hit the necessary restaurants we've missed being in California, namely WINGERS (for their sticky fingers) and CAFE RIO. My sis-in-law Courtney took me shopping to my now favorite store "Kid to Kid" and I got Bruin some cute clothes. It was sooo cold there and I felt very wimpy. I didn't have anything warm enough for Bruin so I picked up this huge marshmellow jacket for Bruin and he looked so funny in it!


I figure for $8.00 it was worth keeping him warm in Utah and in Bend for Christmas in two weeks.
All is going well with Baby #2. We find out what we are having when we get back from Christmas. Can't wait!

A Penny For Your Thoughts

This is the debated question;

Is drinking a Decaf Caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks against the Word of Wisdom (drinking maybe one or two a year)

If you don't know what a Decaf Caramel Frappuccino is it is decaffeinated coffee blended with ice, caramel, and cream topped with whipping cream and caramel.



Phil and I would both love to hear your thoughts or opinions!!


Reference: WORD OF WISDOM

Official

Got my official due date finally and its May 22nd

Bzz

We were Bees for Halloween and Phil was a scary masked chain-saw murderer, and later used his scary monkey face mask to scare the kids in my parents' neighborhood.


Bruin had nightmares that night from the scary monkey man mask and woke up several times crying. It was very sad :(
Phil now keeps it hanging on the side of his bed so Bruin stays out of his nightstand

Guess What

News from the Casper Crew... We are pregnant with baby #2! I am 11 weeks along and yes I am a sick and pathetic mom.
Being pregnant the second time around is so much harder than the first! Especially with Phil gone for work so much. I have fantasized that some kind soul would whisk Bruin away for the next few weeks and return him when I'm no longer sick! I just want to lay on the couch all day and nibble on the 15 boxes of cold cereal I bought. Instead I hold my breath while I change poopy diapers, make and clean up revolting meals, and get crawled on while I try to get Bruin hooked on cartoons with no success. Such a bad mommy, I know! But as I've been told, he won't remember and in a few weeks I'll be fun mom again.

Big shout out to Phil though, when he is home he always helps put the place back together by cleaning and tackling all the dishes that build up in the kitchen.. (I just can't always stomach them.) Thanks hunny!

And my momma for letting me sprawl out on her floor while she entertains Bruin and offers me dinner.

Oh and my dad for paying me generously for office work so that I can supply my "Food Cravings/Eating Out Fund."

I don't know what I would do without you guys!

Anyways, that's our news and its fun to finally be able to announce it :) Here is a pic of the little one




...And one of the big boy because I just can't believe how old he looks lately

Found

A day in my life....

Where is my ____ (insert name of object ie: cell phone, book, keys, mascara, shoe)
........
........
........



Found it

WANTED

Looking for a partner to walk on the Clovis Trail with me every morning (or every other) from 9-10am. Stay fit and get some fresh air with the kiddos! Call me!.. or comment :)

Our Scary Pumpkin

During half-time of the BYU game we carved our first pumpkin with Bruin. He thought the innards were so disgusting and made the funniest faces, but of course he still played with it.
When we were done and we lit it that night, Phil and I were pretending that the jack-o-lantern was biting our hand and he got so scared of it. This is funny because Bruin isn't scared of ANYTHING. Lately though if we pretend something is scary he catches on and gets really concerned. Anyways, now everytime we pass by our jack-o-lantern outside our door he points at it and stomps his feet with a concerned look on his face. But hey, Halloween is for being scared right?

Notes

Note to Self:
Always keep phone on Key Lock when letting Bruin play with it, or you will wake up to a 5am alarm that says "Airport"... what the ??? grrr

Note to Self:
Never give a toy that can potentially hold any amount of liquid to a toddler in a bath. You will wind up with a cup of water to your face when you least expect it.

Lessons Learned

We are Alive

It has been almost a month since my last blog and I am so sorry for all those who have clicked on our site and been forced to hear the BYU fight song over and over :)
My sister April came in town with her little boy, Gavin, who is 2 and we've been having so much fun hanging out everyday. The boys played really well together, which gave us a break so we were thrilled. We ate lots of good food and did some fun things and the best part was just hanging with my sister and mom every day. Phil thinks I'm gonna roll into a ball of depression now that she left, haha!
It is 8:45am and for some reason Bruin is still sleeping so I now have the opportunity to blog some of the stuff we've been up to. Most of the pics I will end up posting on Bruin's blog because they're of him, but here are some from the past month.

On wheels



Feeding the ducks at the park. There were so many scary geese we finally got in the car and fed them from there! Much safer :)



At the beach.. he kept doing this and rubbing his head in the sand. Must have felt good!


Watching the hot air balloons take off


At the zoo





Playing in the water outside

so worth it

This is Phil. Volume one for this post. On Friday I cashed in the frequesnt flier miles and flew to my Bro-in-laws in OKC where we (and his bro chad and our father-in-law mark) drove a few hours down to Dallas to watch BYU(20) vs Oklahoma(3). The game was in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. We met Ty Detmer (again) and Brian Keele as we went in for the game.





What a place. I used to think that if I wanted to experience the atmosphere/environment of a football game then I should go to the game, and if I wanted to see the best view of the game, then i should stay home and watch it on TV. Not anymore, at that stadium we got atmosphere and view with the 60 yd wide by 24 yd tall score board / replay screen.




Anxiety and nerves were killing us, and it wasn't long before I realized my voice was not in shape for football season. BYU fans only filled about 25% of the sold out game, so we had to yell loud to make up the difference.

The place went crazy when Hall hit Jacobson in the end zone for 6. OU then missed a long field goal and that was it. What a finish! BYU was victorious, and the upset was complete. We were exhausted but could not have been any happier.



Today the new rankings came out and BYU went from #20 to #9. This is great but not. Being ranked #9 is a lot of pressure, and will put a huge target on their backs. Hope they learned their lesson last year. This week at Tulane, next at Home vs a fast Florida st. Since I'm sure all you moms care.

Bob

Bruin and I were bored and decided to go check out the Bob the Builder Exhibit at the Fresno Metropolitan Museum. It was a bit crazy in there with all the kids and I had to keep a vigilant eye on him, but we had fun. I invited along some friends but it was hard to chat while keeping track of the kiddos. They had all sorts of things for the kids to do and we couldn't get to them all. There were fake tool sheds with projects, tractors to climb on, fake flowers you could plant, puzzles, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Yay for the Met!

Short Brown Hair

Its the new me.... At least until all the blonde ends have been chopped off

Wedding Weekend

Last weekend Phil's younger sister, Brittney, got married and we flew to Washington to be there for it all. Everything was beautiful and it was sooo fun to hang with Phil's family. We were really sad that the trip was so short (on Friday through Sunday morning) but we were happy to have been able to go and help out. My sister in-law Courtney took some pics while we were there and I've posted a few of hers and also some others took for those wanting to see some. More pics the Courtney took are on her website. For anyone interested, Courtney is a photographer in Utah, and here is her website where you can check out her work! http://www.photographybycourtneyz.blogspot.com/













Getting home was a PARTY in itself, let me tell you. Buddy passes can be awesome! Buddy passes can be awful. Last weekend they were the latter.
Sunday morning started at 4:30am and then seemed to never end. After missing the first flight and waiting 6 1/2 hours for the next, there was only one seat left on the 3:15 flight out of SLC to Fresno so we quickly decided to send Phil with Bruin and I would wait for the next (at 9pm that night). We figured this was the logical answer considering Phil had work the next day and Bruin was so far tired from running around an airport all day and could handle no more. This was us in the airport.... We finally busted the pack n play out when we were too tired to chase him down anymore



This nap lasted all of about 30 minutes...



Once they were on the plane, I kind of had a mini-panic attack when I realized my phone was about to die (with no charger on me) and there wouldn't be any seats on the next flight that night, AND I realized Phil had no books, spare diaper, etc for Bruin on the flight. I quickly wrote down some important numbers out of my cell incase it died and got to figuring out where I was going to stay that night in SLC. No one was answering their phones and my cell was slowing dying. Thankfully my big sis Kristen answered and found me a place to stay with her in-laws in Murray, but they couldn't pick me up til later so I just moped around the airport. Overwhelmed with anxiety I sinned and bought a Caramel Frappucino and chocolate muffin from Starbucks :) mmmm nothing like indulging yourself when stressed! I just sat eating and sipping and listening to Enya on my iPod by the baggage carousel. Then I decided to try to hype myself up for this unexpected free, babyless, evening away so I switched my iPod to some upbeat dance music from my single days and tried to enjoy it! My iPod died and I was back to staring at people.
Anyways, after a fun evening with Trudy, filled with adult conversation and quiet time, I spent the next day sitting in an airport again.. and sitting and sitting... finally I got on a flight around 4pm (that was of course delayed) and was home by 5pm. (Thank you Mom for watching Bruin!) After 15 hours in the SLC airport and I am confident in reporting that my days of standby travel as a SkyWest employee are not missed.