30 Weeks

Who's excited for Thanksgiving?

This guys is! We're so excited to see family and eat some delicious food!

"The Ponderer"

I was going through some of my pictures and I came across this one. It was from one of his weekly photo shoots. I remember loving it when I uploaded it. We'll call it, "The Ponderer."

29 Weeks

Still loving his toes!

Woodland visitors

When people hear Orange County, they assume terrible traffic, the beach, and high maintenance people. Don't get me wrong, areas of here that are like that, but there are also areas that make you feel like you're out of the city. Take our house for example. 

Ethan and I were talking in the living room when he looked out the window and what did we see?

Not only do we have deer coming into our back yard, but we also get lots of raccoons, rabbits, and potentially other critters that come around when I'm not looking. 

A boy and his blocks

As of late, Target's dollar bins have provided us with some fantastic entertainment. For our trip to Louisiana, I got science and history trivia cards for Ethan and I, and a little light up Halloween toy for Nixon. The last successful haul included about 15 Christmas gift bags, toddler lacing toys, and blocks. I put the lacing toys away until he's a bit older, but I thought we could try out the blocks. I had some laundry to do, so I set him up with his blocks and started about my business. About 15 minutes later, I look over and see this:

Exactly where I had left him. Still playing with his blocks. I think we may have found a new favorite toy.

28 Weeks

Nixon finally had his 6 month check up. Here are his stats:

Height: 28.75in (98th percentile)
Weight: 15.2 lbs (6th percentile)
Head circumference: 42.50cm (17th percentile)

We have got a tall, skinny boy on our hands! The pediatrician actually wants us to go back in six weeks to do another weight check. He says he's not too worried about it yet, but he just wants to make sure he's getting everything he needs nutritionally. He's still growing, so we're not worried either.

We've introduced solids now and he's doing great so far. We've done oatmeal and green beans. He's sitting up on his own for longer stints, and he's still so smiley. Though, he definitely has his moments.

Moving to Coto De Caza

Back in August (or around there) we got a call from Ethan's great uncle that lives in this area. He told us that they would be leaving to go on a mission to Salt Lake City for our church. We were so excited for them to go, but kind of bummed as well. They were really the only family we had in the area, and they were headed out just as we were getting settled. The conversation took a turn when he told us that they wanted us to come stay in their home while they were gone.

We had been to their home a couple times and I was dumbfounded. This is a bit larger than the apartment we were in considering it has six bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, 3 different living rooms, a game room/loft, and a HUGE kitchen (with a double oven!!). It also has a spa pool, fire pit, and trampoline in the backyard. I couldn't believe they were really asking us to come to their home. I had finally started getting use to the idea of living in a small place. Joke was on me!

We ran in to a bit of a hiccup when we remembered we had signed a contract with our current apartment for a year. We contacted them and they said it wouldn't be a problem for us to move out early–we would just have to pay a cancellation fee of $2,500, pay the rent until someone else moved in, or find someone to take over our lease. We were slightly stressed, but we just prayed that everything would work out. And what do you know? It did!

About a week before the big move, I contacted our leasing office and they told me they had leased out our apartment! We were both ecstatic and humbled at how blessed we felt. Everything fell into place just as it should and it made us truly feel like we made the right decision.

So now, we are living in Coto De Caza, CA. We have one of the most spectacular views in the area, and we feel so blessed everyday to have the opportunity to live in this home.

We are now accepting visitors!

Look alikes

I've tried to decide who Nixon really looks like. He obviously has a very strong presence of Ethan in him, but I'm not so sure he looks nothing like me. Case in point:

Me and Nixon

Nixon and Ethan

The fact that these pictures matched so perfectly didn't hurt either. So.. what's your vote?

Clippers vs. Jazz

Our friend from Rexburg, Victor, and his friend Ben were taking a trip down to Camp Pendleton and they were kind enough to come visit us. On Monday night, we decided to have some fun. We drove with them up to Los Angeles for the Clippers/Jazz game.

We left our house at about 4:00pm. It took us about 2 hours to get up there. We had a little bit of time before the game started, so we walked around for a bit to find a place for dinner. We settled on Fatburger, which none of us had been to. It was decent, but nothing to write home about. It was about time for the game, so we finished up our meal and walked back to the Staples Center. We were pretty high up, but realistically, there really wasn't a bad seat in the place.

I wasn't too worried about Nixon because he does really well with groups of people and lots of stuff going on, but it was a later game, so I made sure to have some stuff on hand for him to play with. For the majority of the first and second quarter, he was standing on my lap (holding my hands of course) taking it all in. By the third quarter he was getting slightly restless and a bit fussy. I sat him down facing the court, and in minutes, this is what happened.

Nothing phased him. He slept like that for a good 30 minutes or so during the third quarter. I love when he falls asleep in my arms.

We were technically cheering for the Jazz because Vic and Ben follow them, since we don't really follow any team. The last five minutes of the game were actually pretty good. The Jazz almost pulled it off, but they couldn't play defense to save their life and the Clippers hit some pretty sweet shots. But after the game we decided to get some pictures.

 Ethan, me, Victor, Ben, and Victor's friend Evan, who lives in LA

Outside of the stadium, Fox Sports was there doing their post-game show. It was funny to see them basically just talking to this camera that moved all around them. You could also tell when it was on commercial, because they didn't really talk at all to each other, but they bobbed their heads like they were listening to music or something. 

We drove home and got back about a hour later, around 11:30. Vic and Ben were leaving that night to drive back to Rexburg. They got talking with Ethan and didn't get going until about 2:00am. I was a little worried, but they said they drove better in the middle of the night, so I just hoped they drove safe, and luckily they made it home.

It was an awesome night, and hopefully not the last of NBA games for us!

27 Weeks

Every week I try and get a different pose out of this guy, but he loves his toes! At 27 weeks this kid has finally been to his first (but not last) NBA game, and was a total champ! He's still our happy little guy and sleeping great. 

Happy Halloween!

I don't know if it's any surprise, but I am a total fan of group costumes. I was struggling to think of what we should be this year. It was going to be Nixon's first Halloween, so I wanted it to be out of the ordinary. With a little help from my brother Nathan, we settled on this:

Sacks of Idaho potatoes!

I ordered these old (and used), vintage Idaho Potato sacks from an Etsy shop. For mine and Ethan's costume all I did was pick the seam from the bottom, cut two arm holes, and threaded the top with some black ribbon.

For Nixon's costume, I just used a white onesies, and cut out a pattern on some cardboard. I used the template to then cut out the potato sack. I made sure it was about an inch bigger so when I was gluing it I could fold it over there there was a nice edge. And that was it! Put it with a pair of pants and you have a mini sack of potatoes!

We attended our ward Trunk-or-Treat, and without realizing there was even a costume competition, we won "Best Group Costume"! People loved our costume and we had fun wearing them.

Now.. what to do for next year?