Family Photos

This post will be mostly pictures, since I don't have much to update since my last post. But isn't it amazing that I am posting again so soon?! I think so.

A couple of weeks ago we did a "mini session" with the talented Stacie and Geoff Lang. They got some great shots in just 30 minutes. Wes had woken up just before we got there, so he didn't feel like smiling very much, but I still think he looks cute.











We even took one of just us, although Brett is usually opposed to such nonsense.

There were others that we liked, but I just wanted to include a few.

By way of a quick update, Thanksgiving was fun. We had breakfast at Brett's parent's house and then the big feast at my parent's. We ate way too much, but that is just what happens on Thanksgiving, right? Even though sometimes its hard being here because we feel like we're just in limbo, it's nice to be able to spend time with our families around this time of year. My mom and I did the big Black Friday sales on the day after Thanksgiving. We were at Target at about 3:45am waiting in line. It got me wondering how people who live where it snows ever do the Black Friday thing because I was freezing and it really wasn't that cold. We hit 2 Targets, WalMart, Kohls, and JCPenny's before calling it quits. I made sure that my mom got all my Christmas shopping done. :) I can't believe it's almost December and that my baby will be turning one! Time has flown by. I love that little boy more and more every day!

So I'm a holiday behind

I guess when you go private even less people read your blog than before. It could also have to do with the lack of posts... but at any rate, it's no longer private and since I don't really have the excuse of being "too busy" to blog, I figured I would write a quick update.

We're still waiting around for the day that we'll get a phone call saying "you're all clear. Brett can start working so you can be real people again" or something to that effect. This is a sore subject, so we try not to talk or think about it.

Wesley has always been a bit of a clotheshorse. Somehow he was given four showers, each with more cute outfits. But his Halloween costume was one of the only clothing items I bought for him. I decided to go with the warm skeleton outfit.


But Grandma Anderson liked the Tigger outfit he already had (courtesy of Julie Barnes)



So he wore one to my parent's trunk or treat and the other one to Brett's parent's trunk or treat. I thought he was cute either way. I dressed up as Pippi Longstocking and felt silly the whole night because most kids have no idea who Pippi is (those poor little fools) and Brett dressed as this:


Maybe one day I'll get to go to one of those sophisticated Halloween balls, but that day is clearly not today:


We look forward to many more years of exploiting our child's cuteness for candy. I mean look at this kid go! He's pure Halloween candy gold!


Wes is now walking which apparently means bumping his head regularly. We took him to get a flu shot a while back and I was nervous that they were going to think we were beating him or something. The kid just has no fear and is very independent, so I can't just hold him all the time to keep him from getting hurt. Even when he does get hurt, he only lets me comfort him for about a minute and then he's pushing me away to get down. With walking has also come getting in to EVERYTHING. Sometimes he even gets his own snacks.


But we love him all the same. And what's not to love?! Oh wait... OK, so I don't love changing diapers or the fact that he already throws tantrums, but with the bad stuff comes a lot of good, which makes up for all the bad.


I guess those are all the updates for now. Happy Thanksgiving!

Family vacations

While we are still waiting to hear word about Brett's job so that we can move, start making some real money, live like normal people again, etc. For the time being, we are still in Arizona. We knew that we would be here for the summer, which was initially exciting because we wanted to spend some quality time with our families before heading out to that other coast. Now that summer is nearing a close and we have yet to hear about Brett's job, we are starting to be less and less excited about life. But, that's OK. This blog is going to be about the summer fun and not how much we hate this little limbo phase.

The first big family vacation was with my family. We headed to San Diego for the 4th of July. This was our first road trip with Wes and he was actually pretty good except for the drive home when we got stuck in traffic for an extra hour. For the trip, we bought a little pool to stick Wes in at the beach and it turned out to be one of the best ideas ever.


He even got in a pretty good nap at the beach.


We went to the 4th of July parade on Coronado Island, which was fun, but definitely no Gilbert Days ; ) Wes' favorite part seemed to be the bagpipes for some reason.



All-in-all the trip was a success. The weather was a bit on the cold side for me, but Brett loved it. We were only there Friday through Monday, but it was still nice to spend some time with my family.

Here we are in Old Town San Diego


For the 24th of July, we headed up to Utah for the Walker family reunion at Bear Lake. This was my first time flying with my little baby. He did pretty good on the way there, but the way back was a little more difficult just because it was in the evening so he was more cranky and didn't want to hold still. At Bear Lake there was something like 29 adults and 11 kids all in one cabin. It was a really nice, big cabin, but it still felt crowded sometimes... especially when you want to put your baby down for a nice, quiet nap... Wes got to meet his only living great-grandparents and we had a lot of fun with Brett's extended family for a couple of days. The area around where we were staying was beautiful.

I just love these pictures of Brett and Wes. (And yes, Mandy, that's the outfit you gave him)





Here is Wes with his dad, grandpa, and his great-grandparents.


After a couple of days with all the Walkers, we drove down to Sundance to spend about a week with Brett's immediate family. The cabin we stayed in was incredible and again, surrounded by beautiful mountains and greenery.



Look at that. We even took a picture of us.


We had a lot of fun with everyone. We played some games, went on a beautiful hike, and I school everyone in some pool. Now that we've had plenty of family time and survived another summer in Arizona, I think we're pretty much ready to move on. After going through so much school, Brett (understandably)wants to be doing something other than manual labor in the blazing Arizona sun.

Also, this little guy is almost 8 months old!

He's got two bottom teeth, is crawling like crazy, already figured out how to go up the stairs (yikes) and pulls himself up on everything. Now if he could just sleep through the night, everything would be great. Next week we're starting some sleep training of sorts. I've already discovered I don't have it in me to just let him cry it out, but I know there's going to be plenty of crying anyway. Any tips?

Learning as I go

While I'm not sure how many people actually read this, I've had a couple of requests to update, so here we go. It's going to be relatively short, but all anyone probably wants is to see are the pictures of Wes anyway...

Isn't it funny how when you were little you thought that your parents had all the answers and they were invincible...? Then you become a parent and you realize that your parents probably had no idea what they were doing most of the time. They even had scary dreams and made mistakes. Now that I'm a parent, I'm learning all of this. But on the plus side, I'm also learning how much my parents loved/love me. I can't believe how much I love my little Wes. Even though he tortures me sometimes, I can't get enough of the little guy. Here are some of the latest photos...

Here he is swimming for the first time. I know you can't tell in this picture, but he loved it.


Aren't these the cutest slippers?


Cute PJ's courtesy of Connie




Here he is at 4 Months


5 Months


6 Months


At his six-month check up he was 15 pounds and 27 and a fourth inches long. He continues to be long and skinny, but he's starting to pack on some weight now that he's eating solids.


He got some photos done at 3 months, so in closing...

I have a what?!

Firstly, as I stated in my previous post, I'm making our blog private here in a while, so if you haven't left your email and you want an all access pass to our lives (via our blog), let me know. Secondly, I can't believe I have a four month old baby! It seems like not long ago I was getting kicked from the inside just waiting around for this little guy to get here, and now he's kicking me from the outside and starting to outgrow clothes. It actually makes me a little sad that he's already outgrowing clothes. It's no secret that people are at their cutest when they are babies. But, I guess there are also fun years to come. He's just so cute and sweet now that I sometimes think that I would like him to always be a baby, but then I guess I would always be really attached to him and unable to do much else... so maybe it's not so bad that he's getting older. I just wish there was a way to bypass the teenage years - you know, the time when boys' brains fall out. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll stay a sweet, well-behaved boy like he looks in this picture:




Little Wes is getting really good at grabbing things, including my hair, and he's starting to roll over now. He also talks a lot. Sometimes when he wakes up in the morning, he'll just lay there and talk to himself for a while. I think he's planning out his day. Yesterday at his four month check up he was 23.5 inches long and weighed 13 pounds. (He sure feels heavier than that when I'm carrying him around in his car seat though.) Even though he came out pretty big, he isn't much of a tank now. I'll admit that his head is a little big, but the rest of him is pretty long and skinny. I wish he would get a little more fat on his legs for me to squeeze. I think he has skinny legs because he's such a busy body. His little legs rarely stop moving when he's awake. He also has a very expressive face, which makes me laugh a lot, and he sticks his little tongue out when he concentrates... which I have to admit I think he got from me. He's usually pretty happy and smiley but when he's upset, he's not afraid to let you know it. Sometimes I can tell he's not crying at me so much as yelling at me... I'm still adjusting to being a mom, but he makes it easier by being super cute, especially in the mornings, which is good because I am NOT a morning person.

Here he is at one month:


Two Months


Three Months


Here he is on his blessing day. He has a bit of an attitude in the picture...


All-in-all, life is good. Tiring and frustrating sometimes, but good. :)

Going Dark

Nope, this post is not about either of us changing our hair color... rather about making the blog private. So, if you're interested in continuing to read about the life and times of the Walkers, let me know. I know I don't update very often, I'll try to be better (I say that all the time)... sorry. That's all. I'll be checking this regularly and deleting the comments (so email addresses won't be out there for too long).

Mombie

I posted in a previous blog that my brain wasn't functioning quite right when I was pregnant. I was really looking forward to being able to think straight again, but as it turns out, your brain is still mush after you have kids. In fact, it may be more mush now than it was before. While I was pregnant I forgot things, I once left the key in the door of our apartment, and I once added an extra zero to my tithing (thankfully I realized it before we left church that day), but now I still forget things, can hardly get entire sentences out, and the other day I drove down the wrong side of the road... into oncoming traffic. Now, granted this was in a construction zone where I got confused, but still... yikes. I'm a total zombie, or mombie as it were. Thoughts of my little baby consume me, and plus there's that lack of sleep thing that is catching up with me. Some days I'm more alert than others, but I'm pretty tired a lot. I've also just started working again. Yes, it's from home, but it still requires my time and brain. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about going back to an 8-5 type job. I do it when I want, where I want, and how I want (mostly in sweats, obviously).

Seeing as how I'm still trying to figure out how to budget my time with a baby, this blog will probably not be super long, but I am going to try to wrap up my birth story in a short, hopefully ungross package. So here it is...

I went into the hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 16 to be induced because I was overdue. I was already dilated to a 2 when I got there. They gave me some kind of cervix ripening gel (that should be the grossest thing I mention here) to get things going. After that I dilated to a four and then from there, things really picked up, so of course I asked for my epidural. Once that was in, it was pretty smooth sailing for a while. My contractions were really picking up and by about 8pm I was dilated to an 8. Unfortunately, I got stuck there. So for about three hours, the contractions got closer and closer together until they were about less than a minute apart. The nurse even came in and talked to me about what would happen during the birth and all that jazz, so I thought we were going to get going pretty soon. But then when the doctor came to see if I was completely dilated he discovered I was still at an 8 and the baby was "sunny side up." I asked if I could move around to try to flip the baby, and he said that was ok, but that his recommendation was to do a c-section. When he said that, my heart dropped. My mom had 5 c-sections so I knew how painful they were and I didn't want anything to do with them. But after moving around, the baby still didn't flip, so the doctor said he would give Brett and I a minute to talk it over, but again, his recommendation was a c-section. After everyone left the room, I cried for a while and then asked Brett for a blessing. He gave me a blessing, we said a prayer and then we decided to go through with it. Yadda, yadda, yadda... Wesley was out at 11:54p.m.
He was only 20 inches long, but he was 9lbs. 1.7oz! The doctor said that because of his size (which they didn't know before) that I probably would have pushed forever and still ended up with a c-section. So there you go.

After that, we were in the hospital until Sunday night. It was a ROUGH few days for all involved. Brett couldn't sleep, I was in the most pain I've even been in, and Wesley had to have an IV put in and spend time in the NICU because they thought he had an infection because he was breathing really rapidly.

Here's poor, exhausted Brett trying to get some sleep.

My parents and sister came out and helped us pack up the apartment and take care of the baby. A week after he was born, we packed up the car, stopped at the doctor's office on our way out of town to get my staples out, and drove home. We stopped in LA Wednesday night, and then we were home on Christmas Eve. It was a whirlwind of events. Then Brett had to make that 10 hour drive again just a couple of days later to get the rest of our stuff. (We only brought home some stuff, he went back to clean up and finish moving us.) All-in-all, December was a stressful month for us.

Here's us at Brett's graduation (my due date - hence, I am huge in this picture)

Wesley on Christmas Day - 9 days old

We're in AZ now for the time being. One day we'll move again, but this time it will be a more permanent move. We both love little Wes and can't get enough of him. Being pregnant was one of my least favorite experiences, giving birth was the most painful thing I have been through, and motherhood is one of the scariest things I've ever done... but they are all the most rewarding. When I got home from the hospital and eventually checked out Facebook I saw that Brett had updated his status to say something like, "Tired. Hungry. Poor. Never happier in my whole life," it made me cry. We're both so happy with our new little addition.