Happy Turkey Day!

This Thanksgiving marked a special occasion--I made my first pie. Ever. I know, you all think I'm such a domestic goddess and yet I've never even made a pie. Well, now I have and you can hang onto your assumptions about my amazingness. Anyway, I was actually really nervous about making pie. Luckily, my sister in law was staying with us and she is a Family Consumer Science (aka Home Ec) major, so she supervised and gave me tips, but I really did do the whole thing myself. It turned out great! It looked fairly pretty and tasted fabulous. I was very proud of myself. Here I am in all my domestic glory.
I also made a green bean casserole for the first time. It was also very tasty. So, I spent all morning cooking and I didn't even remotely have to do the whole dinner. I'm not really looking forward to the day when I will have to do all the cooking and host the big dinner at my house.

We went to my Auntie Barbara's house for Thanksgiving. It was beautiful with TONS of great food. We are so incredibly blessed. It was fun to visit with family and to be together. Here's our little clan.
Weston literally ate half of that roll and that is all. The next day he asked when we were going to have Thanksgiving. I was like, "it was yesterday, remember? You didn't eat anything." He didn't quite get the whole idea of the holiday. Weston was buddies with his cousin, Emily, most of the afternoon. They sat together for dinner. This is the best picture I got of him all night.
Weston got a little hyper after we had been there for a couple hours and decided to clomp around in Daddy's shoes. He thought he was hilarious. It was actually really amusing.
We had a nice Thanksgiving and enjoyed having Aunt Aly with us for the last week. She was so helpful with the boys and keeping me company and running errands, etc. I am so excited that it is officially Christmas time. I am in the full swing of listening to Christmas music and in the process of decorating today. Ian is outside putting up lights and last night we watched The Grinch. I love Christmas and am looking forward to this entire month with baking, picking a Christmas tree, wrapping presents, lighting candles, singing my favorite Christmas songs, and the general good will that seems more prevalent at this time of year. I hope everyone is catching the holiday spirit too!

On a final, completely non-holiday note, Weston is almost officially a big kid. He started pooping in the potty several times in a row this past week and keeping his pull up dry. Today he is in underwear and no accidents thus far. I am SO happy that we are nearing the potty training finish line with him. I have no idea what suddenly made it click for him, but I am happy it did.

Tom Cruise. Star Wars Kid.

Here is a little video I did for fun.

Park It.

Weston has been very into playing with cars these days. He has slowly amassed quite a collection too. His new favorite thing to do with them is to "park" them in the piano. This is what my piano looks like by the end of a typical day. I think it's so funny because apparently Ian says fitting the cars between the black keys like that is exactly something he would have done as a kid.
Fun thing #2 to do with cars? Line them up to make them look like a choo choo train, of course! Weston seriously was entertained for about 45 minutes putting this together. He was very proud of himself too. He asked me to take this picture of him with his cars.
Last weekend was my old roommate, Lisa's, wedding. It was so fun to attend her sealing and remember all the amazing things that happened on my own wedding day. It was fun to have that to think about the day before my own 5 year anniversary. Aren't they such a beautiful couple?!?
That night we went to the reception and brought the kids. They were both pretty well behaved, the hall was absolutely gorgeous and the good was amazing. The reception was actually at a garden center, so there were TONS of plants and little waterfalls and stuff. Really pretty. So congrats to Lisa and Ryan. I was glad I could be a part of your day.
Also last weekend Ian was working on leaf clean up in our backyard and Weston got to "help." Leaves are a nightmare at our house because we have 9 mature trees on our little .16 acre lot. As you can see it's a big job. I think Ian has already filled 20 bags with leaves. Luckily our city does a leaf clean-up program and provides big leaf bags and allows you to drop off the filled bags at designated sites. Anyway, I thought this picture was too funny of Weston trying to play baseball in all those leaves and wearing his cowboy hat. I love that kid.
Well, the holidays are officially upon us. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I am excited to eat me some turkey and mashed potatoes. I am also going to be making my first pie ever to contribute to dinner at my Auntie B's house. I'll let you know how the pie making goes. We will be busting out the Christmas decorations this weekend and lighting the house. Yay! I can't wait. Everyone have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Has It Been That Long?

It was over 5 years ago that Ian and I met and fell in love. Long story short, we met at ward prayer in our BYU ward in the summer of 2003. We spent every waking minute together that whole summer. In August we got engaged in Portland, OR.
We got married November 22, 2003 in the Los Angeles temple. It was a fabulous day. So fun and exciting. We were so happy that we could become a family that day and know that we would never have to leave each other again.
Since we have been married we have had the good, the bad, and the amazing. I will highlight some of the wonderful, fun times.

We saw Jimmy Eat World from the front row at the McKay Events Center. Amazing.
We played lots of Settlers and Cities and Knights with our wonderful friends from BYU in Provo.
We spent a really fun weekend in Vegas for my best friend's 21st birthday.
We saw lots of BYU football games, but this one we got to watch from the 2nd row! It was so cool.
Towards the end of our college days Ian was invited to do an internship with an ad agency in New York City, so we packed up and sealed up our apartment in Provo to go and sublet a teeny tiny apartment in midtown Manhattan. We were there for 3 months. It was such a great experience. We had plenty of time to do all the tourist sites. We also enjoyed feeling kind of like real New Yorkers. Here we are at Madison Square Garden watching a women's basketball game.
The iconic picture from the top of the Empire State Building.
When we first got to New York we found out that we were expecting our first baby! Let me just mention that the smells of NYC are not my most fond memories of that time.

At the end of 2005 we both graduated from BYU and moved up to Murray where we could be closer to Ian's "grown up" job in Sandy. He has been working at Verite ever since. A month later Weston was born. Parenthood changed our marriage, but in a good way.
On Weston's 1st birthday we put an offer on a house and moved in by the end of the month. We LOVE having our own place, but have definitely seen the down sides to home-ownership. Here is a picture of me and Weston playing the piano in our house.
Summer of 2007 we found out we were pregnant with baby #2. Davin was born in March 2008. Here is our first full family picture. I actually don't have a more recent one of all 4 of us.
To celebrate our big 5 year anniversary we stayed at the Hilton in downtown Salt Lake. Our anniversary was on the same day as the big BYU v. Utah game, so our romantic dinner was at the Skybox sports grill at the Gateway. If we had won it would have been perfect. It was still a blast watching the game on a HUGE screen and getting to eat dinner at the same time. Here we are at Skybox.
Us in our hotel room before we headed back to real life.**
Looking back, we have had a pretty busy 5 years. It has been quite the ride. I am so glad that Ian wanted to marry me. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful guy by my side through everything. He already does such a great job, but continues to try harder to make me happy. He is a fabulous daddy. It is so fun to watch him with our boys. He works hard to provide us with our home and all the things that go with it, including allowing me to stay home with our kids. Here's to 50+ more years!

**Thanks for staying with the boys Aly! We SO appreciate it. :)

Two Little Men and a Mommy

I spend my days with my two little men. They are so adorable and we have a lot of fun. I have been staying home a little more often than normal since our household cut back to one car. Not by choice, of course, but we are making it work. I usually still have a car because Ian carpools to work. Also, I have been babysitting a newborn one day a week. I don't go on any outings when I have three kids.

Today Ian had to drive to work, which meant an entire day homebound. It actually was pretty nice. We got a slower start to the day and did baths, I had time to exercise and shower while Dav took a morning nap. When Davin woke up we headed to the park, taking advantage of the sunshine and relatively warm temperatures. I forgot to get the stroller out of the car, so I put Davin in the Snugli and headed out. We had such a great time. We were the only ones there, so we had all the playground stuff to ourselves and we took turns going on the slide. As we were walking home I thought how wonderful it was to just hang with my boys with no pressures of needing to be anywhere. Just playing.

The rest of the day I managed to have a picnic lunch with Weston while watching Sesame Street, make cookies, mop the bathroom floors, and tidy things up. We spent the evening after dinner playing too. It was a fun, hands on mommy day. It felt good.

Here are the many faces of Davin. He is such a doll. Now if he could just take a nap for more than an hour I would be in baby heaven.

Davin always gets really fussy in the evenings, mainly because he is tired since he doesn't nap well. I try to keep him up until at least 7:30. Tonight I started getting him ready for bed then realized he seemed perfectly happy to be naked. When Weston saw that Dav got to have naked play time he wanted to strip down too, so I let him play in the crib with Dav. It was so cute.

I love these little men. If only every day could be as fun, whine free and playful as today was. I know they won't though, so I'll keep these pictures on file to remind myself how great mommy-hood is when I just relax and let the day take shape.

Contacts

Ok, awhile back (I have no idea how long ago) I swear I read on someone's blog that they found the cheapest place to get glasses and contacts. It's that time of year again for me to get my year's supply of contacts. I also need an eye exam. So, whoever posted that back in the day, PLEASE PLEASE come forward and re-tell me the info. Anyone?

Swimmer's High

Today was the big day: my first Master's swim meet. I haven't swam competitively in a meet since my Junior year of high school, 8+ years ago. I was a little nervous and really excited. We got a slow start to the morning and left a little bit late only to get almost to the freeway and realize that we forgot Davin's bottle and the camera. So we got there a little later than planned, but the meet was running a little late too, so it was fine. I got in and warmed up and practiced starts to make sure my new goggles would stay on.

I swam in the second event, the 50 backstroke. This was MY event in high school. I was second in our league in high school in this event. It went great. I felt good, and my time was about what I was expecting. I swam it in 42 seconds. In high school I swam it in about 35, but hey, it's been awhile, so I thought 42 was pretty good.

I had a short break then I swam my second event, the 100 IM (one lap each of fly, back, breast and free). I had never raced this event before, so I had no idea what to expect. It went ok. I think I could have done it faster, but I was pretty happy with my time of 1:33. They were experiencing some computer issues, so we all ended up having to get up on the blocks and back down twice before we finally got started. Here is a pic of me waiting to get up and take my mark, then of me diving in. I am in the blue suit in the middle (right under the diving board. The 100 IM was a fun race and I will definitely do it again.
Ian and the boys came to cheer me on. They were amazing and stuck it out, staying until the end. It ran a little long. We got there at 8:15 and didn't leave until almost 1pm. Ian stayed with the little men while I swam and hung out on deck with my team buddies. Here is my wonderful, supportive hubby. Love him!
This is my cheering section. Davin was more interested in eating the sign than cheering, really, but he was certainly cute. Weston made friends with the other kids, ate snacks and listened to daddy's ipod. Davin just hung out and watched all the action, ate a bottle and even took a little nap. What good, sweet boys I have.
**That other sign Dav has says "Team Shan". Thanks for making me signs Ian. :)
After a colossally long break the meet got started back up and I swam the 100 freestyle. It was a pretty fun race. I didn't know my time when I registered, so I just put 1:28. I actually swam it in 1:20. Go me. If you click on the picture to make it big you can see my name and my time, place and lane. Their computer system was pretty cool.
My last event was the 100 back. I was pretty tired by then, but it still went well. I came in on 1:30. I actually liked this race because I was in lane 1 closest to the deck, so I could see my team standing on the side cheering for me. It definitely gave me a boost and helped me pick up the pace at the end.

So my first Master's meet was a great experience. I was glad that the universe aligned for me yesterday so that I could buy a new suit that fit better than my other ones and goggles that weren't broken. I had fun chatting with my friends and cheering them on. I also had fun sitting with my family during downtimes. I am so glad that they came. After the meet we went to lunch at (where else?) McDonalds. Weston is finally brave/strong enough to climb all through the playplace, so it's a lot more fun for him. I am feeling a little sick from eating a big mac right after swimming. Probably not the best choice. Oh well.

I am really happy about finding this swim team class and getting to participate so much. I especially appreciate Ian for being so supportive of me and my swimming. He gets up with the kids when I go to class in the mornings and was excited about the meet too. I am planning on doing 3 more meets this year.

You know the phrase "runner's high"? Well, I loathe running, so that never happens for me, but there is a theory that I learned about in one of my rec therapy classes called Flow. Read on if you are interested in why recreation can be so absorbing.

With Flow the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi names the feeling of complete and energized focus in an activity, with a high level of enjoyment and fulfillment. As Csikszentmihalyi sees it, the components of a Flow producing activity are:

• We are up to the activity.
• We are able to concentrate on the activity.
• The activity has clear goals.
• The activity has direct feedback.
• We feel that we control the activity.
• Our worries and concerns disappear.
• Our subjective experience of time is altered.

Not all of these components need to be present together for Flow to be experienced.

I definitely experienced some flow today. I love that feeling of being so involved in what you are doing and feeling challenged, but capable enough that you lose all sense of time.

What activities give you a sense of FLOW?

Gratitude

I realize that I am a little late weighing in on the election, but I decided that this ecard says exactly what I think about the outcome.
I hope that the collective "we" (I didn't actually vote for Obama, but still) have made a good choice and that Obama really is capable of bringing about some positive change for our nation. I have my doubts, but I am still hopeful that things will be better in 4 years than they are now.

So, as you know, I haven't been quite feeling myself lately. A little depressed, burnt out and blah. I have been trying to think about all the things I am grateful for to put my life into perspective, and with Thanksgiving just around the corner, now is the perfect time.

First of all, I am grateful for these two little nutters.
They are my world right now. Sometimes that is awesome and sometimes it's overwhelming, but I love them more than anything.

I am thankful for Ian. I get so excited every day for him to come home. That wait from 4 o'clock (after naptime) until 6ish is the hardest part of the day. I'm glad that we really like each other and have fun together.

I am thankful for my house. Yay for living in a house and not an apartment. We have 3 bedrooms, a garage and a backyard. Yes, I want to move into a newer, bigger house, but I really love the one we have.

I am grateful for our car. I would say carS, but Ian's is recently out of commission, so now we are down to one.

I am thankful that we have good friends and that one of them works at the same company as Ian, so they can carpool most days. I don't like being completely housebound.

I am thankful for my awesome swim class, buddies and coach and that it is so close to my house.

Lastly, I am grateful for allrecipes.com for supplying me with this recipe I have made 4 times in the last 2 months. I love cookies.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
2 c. white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
15ish ounces of pumpkin (one small can or half of one big can)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice**
1/4-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
4 c. flour
1 bag milk chocolate chips

Combine all ingredients in order and mix well. Spoon generously onto greased cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 11-12 minutes. This recipe makes about 5 or 6 dozen and the cookies taste amazing warm and even better the next day. Not sure why. Enjoy! We certainly have/are.
**My own addition. If you don't have it they will probably turn out fine.

What are you grateful for today?

Motivation?

I have had so very little motivation to do anything lately. It seems like I have no energy and am always tired. I just mopped the kitchen floor for the first time in I have no idea how long. Let's just say the juice and mustard and brownie drips were too numerous to spot clean anymore. It took all my mustering to get the mop out.

I'm not sure what the deal is. I am usually a pretty productive and motivated person, but I just can't seem to handle much these days. I am wondering if I am low on iron. I had severe anemia when I was pregnant with Davin and was on iron supplements. I am going to start taking them again and see if it makes a difference.

Anyway, Davin is not feeling good and is running a fever since last night. I'm not sure what is wrong. Possibly just teething. I'm not going to worry too much about it unless it doesn't get better/he doesn't pop up a tooth in the next couple days. It's sad because he looks so tired and blah. The upside is that I am getting lots of snuggles and loves, he is taking longer naps and he even let me rock him for a few minutes earlier today.

I have my first swim meet this Saturday. I am a little nervous that I possibly registered for too many events. Hopefully I am not toast after my first race. I am going to swim the 100 IM, 50 back, 100 free, and the 100 back. I will also probably do the 200 free relay. Send me good, fast vibes on Saturday.

Lastly, just a quick little Weston story. He is getting very excited about Christmas and likes to read his book about the story of the first Christmas and Christ's birth. So the other afternoon he found this scarf in his toy bin and wrapped it around his head, then got his baby doll and said he was Mary and he was holding baby Jesus. He spent a good hour being Mary and handing baby Jesus to me and then taking his turn cuddling him. It was kind of funny that Ian and I couldn't persuade him to be Joseph instead of Mary. Oh well. I'm glad he knows the reason we celebrate Christmas.

Modeling and a Wedding!

Finally I am getting around to posting the last bit of California pics. I mentioned that my friend, Paige, did a little photo shoot with the boys and I while we were there. The pictures turned out so cute. These are my favorites. If you want to see the rest of the pictures from the shoot go to www.thegreenpaige.squarespace.com and click on Galleries. We are under Bowles Boys. Thanks again Paige!



On a more recent note . . . Davin has a new "spot". His sitting up on his own skills aren't quite as stellar as they could be, but he keeps falling off the couch, so this is the compromise. He seems to enjoy it.
This is what we woke up to yesterday. It continued to snow all morning and into the afternoon. Weston was so excited to get to play in it. He is "shoveling" the snow off the grass and onto the walkway. How helpful. He would have done it all day too, if I had been willing to stay out in the cold with him. I think it is time to break down and buy the kid a snowsuit.
Also yesterday morning I frosted cupcakes for the bridal shower I helped host. Weston was a big fan and didn't make as big of a mess as he did with his last birthday cupcake. The funny thing was that he took real bites and ate the entire frosted top then told me he wanted another one. I told him to finish the one he had. He thought it was cornbread. :)
My friend and old roommate from BYU is getting married in a couple weeks (the day before my anniversary). I helped host her bridal shower. It went really well. We decorated with green apples and accents of black, served soups and yummy breads (which was perfect with the snowy weather), had cupcakes and played Two Truths and Lie with Lisa and Ryan. It went great and was well attended. I had SO much fun staying afterward and talking and laughing with my friends. Here are the 5 of us who have been friends since the dorms at BYU, 7 years ago now! (L-R: Lex, Liz, me, Lisa, Tara)
My Aunt Pam and my cousins watched the boys during the shower. I so appreciated it. Apparently the boys were well-behaved and went to bed without a fuss, so that was good. I am not loving the cold weather. It is so cold that the snow didn't melt today, even though it was sunny. Blah, winter is officially upon us. The only good thing about winter is that Christmas is in the middle of it and I can bake whenever I want. I'm still pulling for one more day in the 70's before the warmth is sucked out of Utah forever (no I don't think that I am being melodramatic).

Costumes and Crazy 8's

Our Halloween night was pretty fun. Our dysfunctional ward doesn't quite get the whole how-to-throw-a-Halloween-party thing, so they had the ward party ON Halloween. We went for the trunk or treat part then just left and finished up trick or treating. Weston was a BIG fan of trick or treating this year. He loved walking around and getting candy. Here he is getting ready for the festivities. Arr Matey!
The fam at the ward party. Unfortunately you can't see Ian's costume. I didn't dress up this year and Davin ended up being sort of a puppy. It's really just a regular outfit, but it had ears on the hood and puppy feet as the footies, so it worked. Perhaps next year I will plan ahead and we will all coordinate and be cute.
The boys in costume. After the trunk or treat I took Davin home and we hung out and gave out candy. Weston trick or treated our neighborhood for another whole HOUR. I was so impressed. He was tired when he got home, but excited to check out his stash and help hand out candy. Overall, definitely a successful and fun Halloween.
Now that Halloween is over I am fully launched into the holidays and Christmas will be here before we know it! Crazy. Speaking of crazy. I got tagged to do this Crazy 8 tag. Here goes . . .

8 TV Shows I Love To Watch...
The Office
Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
Lost
Scrubs
What Not to Wear
Mythbusters

8 Favorite Restaurants
Cafe Rio
Spaghetti Factory
Claim Jumper
hmmm . . . we don't eat out that much
McDonalds (Weston loves to go there. I am actually really sick of it)
Mimi's
In N Out
Golden Spoon (does that count as a restaurant?)
Red Lobster (lame, I know, but I love fried shrimp and their biscuits)

8 Things That Happened Yesterday
Went to swim practice
Did 5, yes 5, loads of laundry
Fed Davin green beans without getting any food on his bib. Yay!
Shopped at Smiths
Got gas for 2.44/gallon
Washed bottles
Played the piano
Watched "Father of the Bride" and ate pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To
Lisa's shower
My swim meet
Baking a pie for Thanksgiving
Christmas shopping for the kids
Davin sleeping through the night
Seeing the midnight showing of Twilight
Going to Disneyland again
Our anniversary

8 Things on My Wish List
More sleep!
To actually lose the last of the baby weight
A new wardrobe (perhaps with guidance/money from What Not to Wear)
A cruise with Ian and a couple of friends
To live closer to all my family
A new D-SLR camera
A bigger car
Someone to clean my house or at least take my kids away while I clean

If you feel like doing the tag I would LOVE to read it from everyone! I am feeling pretty overwhelmed with all the stuff I have going on in the next few weeks/months. I hope I can manage to get everything done and still keep my sanity and actually enjoy all the fun things coming up.

Today I bought the most amazing fuzzy socks at Bath and Body Works. They are making me SO happy! I am even almost content with the gray, rainy weather since I'm wearing such great socks. Also, I took the kids this morning and VOTED. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this election is and what the future holds.