Scrooge

I say it every year, so, it should come as no surprise that I don't love Halloween. I normally find any and every excuse out of Halloween parties, because I don't want to dress up. Now that my days of playing pretty pretty princess are over, Halloween just doesn't do it for me anymore. Ha!

I've heard once you have children Halloween becomes fun. Well, I have a child now, but he's too young to care for the holiday, so, lucky me, I have a free pass out of any real celebration this year. And hopefully next, too. Maybe the year after that? We'll see.

Despite being less than enthused about this here holiday, we made it out to our ward Halloween party anyway. Free dinner people! It gets me every time. And since I put next to zero thought into what we (and by we I mean Preston) should dress up as, we went with what was easy. Thanks to our beloved San Francisco Giants for making it into the World Series, and my bro. and sis in law for supplying us with the goods a few months back, our baby was quickly turned into, Pablo Sandoval, aka Kung Fu Panda. And we followed suit, as a Giants fan and Tim Lincecum. We're so original. I hope Halloween is this easy every year.

And just because I have no interest in a particular holiday, don't think that means I pass up an opportunity to make cute treats. I don't pass up free meals, and I certainly don't pass up opportunities to make treats. Ever!

Last night it dawned on me that today is Halloween, and we had two pumpkins just sitting on our front porch untouched.  When I causally mentioned this to John, I didn't quit expect him to jump right up, set everything up (Christmas music included...yes CHRISTMAS music) and get to work.

So, our pumpkins got a makeover after all. And I now have Christmas music, in October, stuck in my head.

I'm neither the artistic one or creative one in our relationship, so, instead of doing some fancy shmancy pumpkin, I went with what was easy. I consider this "doing my part" in the upcoming election. 

 

Halloween, I don't hate you, but I don't love you either. But that doesn't mean I don't at least TRY to enjoy you. I've definitely been enjoying all of the candy I bought for our cute little trick-or-treaters. Thankfully, they're all coming by tonight to take it off my hands. What sweethearts. They just better not wake-up my sleeping baby, who goes to bed at 6:30, or, the porch light goes off, and I'll continue to eat the rest myself. Which I'm not opposed to doing mind you.

One more Halloween (almost) out of the way, and the best time of year just around the corner.

Happy Halloween from our little panda to all of you!

Oh Utah

I'm still waiting for the day when leaving Utah is easy. Why oh why is it so hard for me to leave Utah behind when I have no desire to stay there long term anyway?  I love being away from Utah far too much to ever go back, yet, whenever I'm home, it just feels so comfortable to be there. I know it has everything to do with my parents being there, and less to do with Utah itself. But there are those mountains, oh those glorious mountains, with their fall foliage and all, and I miss them whenever I'm away, especially this time of year. And, maybe the fact that I grew up there might play a small role. It's home, it will always be home, whether I like it or not.

Little PJ and I just spent the last week in Utah hanging out with family, preparing for a wedding, and relaxing as best we could while on vacation. Now that I have a child, relaxation and vacation no longer belong in the same sentence, especially when you add a wedding to the mix. But, we still tried the best we could, and I'd like to think there was a little bit of successful relaxation involved, even if it was in the smallest of doses.

There were too many highlights of this trip to name. But the biggest highlight of all, my sisters wedding. And let me tell you, the entire day was next to perfection. Perfection! Oh, I wish we could go back and relive that day all over again, and it wasn't even my wedding.

Low point of the trip, the flight back. Bless the man who sat next to me for being so understanding of a whinny, sleepy child, it was semi-rough. But on a happy note, I have now successfully completed my first round of flying solo. It feels good to have that under my belt. Note to self: the complimentary bag of pretzels is just as good a toy as any. And here I thought I needed to pack all of his prized possessions. 

Even if it was hard to leave Utah behind, again, a simple reminder that snow is in the forecast is all I needed to hear to remember why it's not so bad to be away. Away in Oklahoma where it's 80 degrees. I'll take it. At least for seven more months anyway.

Family of Three

Five months after his grand debut into our lives and we finally got around to capturing this little family of ours on camera. My only requirement for our family pictures, they had to have an Oklahoma feel to them. I'm fully embracing where this family of ours started, Oklahoma glory and all.

Thanks to one of my friends out here for capturing us just perfectly. I'm in love with how they turned out, and I'm totally biased, but I think I have some fine looking men on my hands. 

Our week according to my iphone

We went on an actual date and celebrated our birthdays, just the two of us:

Had family visit for a whopping 24 hours:

 

 Someone discovered he can roll from his back to his stomach:

And, thanks to a storm we had FIVE months ago, we're finally getting our new roof installed.


It's been a thrilling week if you can't tell.

T.G.I.F.

Pre-Christmas

John thought maybe it would be a good idea to celebrate our birthdays a few days apart, so we could each feel equally important, but then I reminded him, that I'm the one that makes the cakes, and dinner, and perhaps I'd get the short end of the stick on that one...then again, I guess that means nothing would really change.

Maybe I'll just put him in charge next year...

We've said it before, and we will probably continue to say it year after year, but our birthday's are basically a Christmas before Christmas, if you will, or, maybe just another anniversary. Whatever you want to call our double birthday day (maybe just our birthday, duh), we make it work, and we have fun with it.

As we laid in bed Saturday night, we each listed the highs and lows of our last year (an old tradition back from my college days), and without fail, our biggest accomplishment/highlight of our 26th and 28th year was our new little addition to our family. The past five months have been nothing but heaven with him around. 

Our 27th and 29th years have a lot in store for us, namely John graduating from dental school, the air force shipping us off to who knows where, hopefully a few good vacations thrown in for good measure, and the end of a big chapter in our lives here in Oklahoma. A lot of unknown lies ahead, but I'm excited to see what's in store,  and I only hope this next year is equally as good to us as the last, we deserve it, right? ;)