Happy November!

I can't believe it's already the middle of November!  I took this picture a few weeks ago on one of our walks.  Have I mentioned that I love living so close to a beautiful Temple?!  I love looking out my windows every day and seeing it there on the hill across the street.  We are so lucky!  And I just loved the beautiful fall leaves.  It's exciting that we have snow now, but I would have been happy to have just a couple more weeks of the beautiful fall weather!

Here is Winston with his toy box.  He just loves being able to get out all of his toys from the box.  And then he loves climbing on the box and playing with it, more than playing with his toys.  Go figure!

Rockin' the mohawk.  I don't think it's quite his style, or at least I need to learn how to do a better one :)

This is what we dressed him up as for Halloween.  He did have a hat, but it didn't stay on for long.  There is a Korean singer that is super popular these days.  He is quite chubby and really silly, so we thought Winston would be perfect dressed up as Psy for Halloween.  There just aren't a lot of chubby Koreans around these days :)  However, I didn't find a little tuxedo for him to wear, so he really doesn't look like the singer.  So he was just a rapper, or really just a kid in a track suit with sunglasses on.  We are so lame.  Next year he'll have an awesome costume, I promise!  I just wasn't quite up for it this year.

Here is his crazy hair!  It just keeps sticking straight up and was growing over his ears.  So we gave him a little haircut, and it ended up looking super dorky.  So a week later we shaved it all off!

 A couple of weeks ago I took a photography class to learn how to better use our camera.  I learned tons and have been trying to improve my photography skills.  I still need a lot of practice, but have had fun experimenting with light and the different camera settings.  Yay for learning new things!

 I keep trying to catch his expression, but I haven't quite got a stellar photo of it yet.  Whenever we give him fruit out of the fridge, he grimaces like it's the worst thing in the world.  But then he gobbles the fruit up, I think it's just the cold that bothers him at first.  It's so fun for me to watch!  I guess a kinder parent would let it get to room temperature first, but I just love seeing the faces he pulls!

And he loves looking out the window while he eats.

 And sometimes he gets tired and just lays his head down for a bit :)

 Here he is in his shaved head glory!

 Another attempt at capturing a cold fruit face :)

He's a fun photography subject :)  Although he never stays still for more than a couple of seconds, so I have to be quick!  He's become quite mobile this past month (even though he still doesn't crawl "normally") and is enjoying his new found freedom.  He's started getting into cupboards, crawling up on things, and moving all over the place.  It's exhausting!  But so much fun to see him learn and grow.

We continue to get ready for our baby girl.  I have to exercise a lot of self-control whenever we go shopping.  I want to buy tons of girl clothes, they are so cute!  But I've held back and only gotten a couple of things on clearance :)  I've started making a quilt for Winston's toddler bed.  Once I finish that and get a dresser, his room will be all ready for him.  Then I think we'll be set.  We are so excited to be getting another addition to the family, and I think Winston will enjoy having someone to play with.  I just hope he learns quickly to be gentle!  Yesterday at church, another boy came over to share Winston's toys and play on the ground with him.  Winston kept grabbing his hair and face and just about gouged his eye out!  I know he's just curious, but let's not be a bully Winston!  :)

Happy Birthday Winston!

Can you believe it?  Our little guy turned 1!  What's even harder to believe is that I have managed to blog for every week of his first year.  I don't know what makes me more excited, the fact that Winston's reached this great milestone, or the fact that I no longer have to blog every week.  Yay on both accounts!!!  :)

 Wednesday was his actual birthday, and so we sang to him and lit a candle.  He was fascinated by the flame and first tried to hit it and then tried to eat it :)

 Later in the week I got out his toy box and he was happily playing on the floor.  I could hear a little sucking noise, and came over to find that he dug up one of his old pacifiers.  He didn't like them at all when he was little, but now he thinks they are quite fun to play with.

 Saturday we had a little party for him.  Doesn't he look thrilled?

 Since Winston is (in part) named after his dad's fishing rods, I decided it would be cute to have a fish themed party.  He loves goldfish crackers, so we had them on all of the tables.  My sister made this fabulous fish cake for him.  She is so creative and talented!  I was impressed :)

 Here is the birthday guy with some of his Anderson cousins.  Everyone was so nice to travel our way to help us celebrate.  Winston had so much fun watching everyone play and eat and try to make him smile :)

 He had a great time opening presents and has loved having some new toys to play with.  Thanks everyone!

 I'm still jealous of his eyelashes!

 Blowing out his candle...

 When we put the cake in front of him, he went straight for the frosting.  I'm not particularly fond of messy kids, so I ended up taking the cake away and feeding him a couple of bites with a fork.  He is definitely part Christensen, he loves anything sweet!  He gobbled up as much cake as I would give him, which wasn't very much.  I'm so mean.  But he was getting tired...

And finished off the night with a bang!  I'm learning it's best not to plan things that will interfere with bedtime. For some reason, Winston doesn't think it's cool to stay up late.  I'm hoping that phase will last a really really really long time.

So happy first year Winston!  You have brought more joy and love into our lives than we ever could have imagined.  You are the best thing that has happened to us and we are so glad you are who you are.  I love every bit of you and can't wait to see what this next year brings!

Conference Weekend

 I just love conference weekend!  We had our traditional Saturday morning breakfast of egg mcmuffins and juice.  Yum.  We watched the morning session, went to my grandma's and got some bookshelves from her, came back and watched the afternoon session.  Then we went for a walk, Whit went to priesthood, and some of my good friends came over and we had dinner and talked until the boys came home.  It was such a great day!

 Winston keeps trying to crawl, but he gets stuck on his leg.  He can't seem to figure out how to get over it.  But any day now I know he is going to get going :)

 He is really good at feeding himself though :)  He can pick up the goldfish crackers and put them in his mouth.  It's so much fun to watch.

 I don't know why, but it always seems that we end up matching!  I honestly don't plan too, but I guess a lot of our clothes are the same colors.  Funny huh?

 Here's a good picture of his cute little 1 1/2 tooth.  I'm so glad he's finally getting some teeth!

Our delicious dinner that cooked all during conference.  It was so nice to be able to stay home, watch both sessions, play with Winston, go on walks, and eat this yummy dinner that Whit made.  It was a pretty awesome way to end a wonderful weekend.

And this morning I had my ultrasound and baby girl is doing well and all looks good.  And now she is scheduled to arrive Feb. 16!  I love that every time I go to the doctor's, they keep moving my due date up.  If only that could keep happening :)  But I know all good things must come to an end, and so we'll just plan on the 16th.  Yay for February girls!  They make the best Valentines :)

Cabin Fever!

We got to spend a wonderful weekend up at the cabin.  We are so lucky!!!  Thank you Jim and Karyn, for sharing your cabin with us--we can't wait until you get home and we can visit you there :)

 Don't they look alike? Same expression :)

We drove up to the cabin Friday morning.  On the way there, I saw a sign for Mirror Lake in the Uintahs, and I said to Whit that would be a fun place to go.  I haven't been there in years. When my mum and dad got to the cabin, my mum said she was thinking it would be nice to go to Mirror Lake, since we were so close.  Great minds think alike!

Another twinner photo, Winston and Grandpa both have their eyes closed :)

 We walked around Mirror Lake and then hiked a whole mile to this lake, I can't remember it's name.  But it was pretty.

 Then on our way back, we had to stop for some jumping pictures.  What would a family trip be without them?

 On the drive back to the cabin, we stopped at this pretty waterfall.  I've never been here before and it is beautiful!  I'm so glad we stopped.

 Back at the cabin, Winston was showing off his tongue twisting talents.  He's recently started doing this and it's funny to watch.

 Friday evening when we got back from the Uintahs, we found that the crew working on installing the new water line had accidentally cut our power line.  So we were without power for the evening!  Now that's a true adventure :)  But Rocky Mountain Power was awesome!  They sent a crew up to repair it--at 7:00 on a Friday night--the same time as a BYU football game, they reminded us.  But they worked hard and the power was back on at 11 that night.  Yay!

 Saturday morning we went for a lovely hike to Hidden Lake.  The leaves were so pretty and these pictures don't really do them justice.

 See what I mean?  Such pretty colors!

 Winston fell asleep on the way back and was hanging out of the backpack.  Doesn't look very comfortable to me, but he slept the whole hike back.

He loved playing with this big stuffed dog.  It's about as close to a pet as he'll get, if I have my way :)

Saturday afternoon my parents and sister went back to their homes, and we had a nice quiet family night.  I went down to Marion to watch the Relief Society broadcast (which I loved and practically cried through the whole thing--silly pregnancy hormones!) and then Whit and I started watching a BBC series.  So nice to just be able to relax and enjoy being together!  Sunday we went to church, Whit made a delicious roast, we went on another walk, we cleaned up, and headed back to South Jordan.  It's always hard to leave such a wonderful place!  I could live that weekend over and over again and be perfectly happy!  :)

Another fun week!

 If you look closely, you can see his tooth!

 Winston's first time wearing jeans!  And this is how I slick down his hair nearly every morning,

 and yet somehow it ends us looking like this!  Oh well.  And this is how Winston almost crawls, every day.  I just know one of these days he's going to surprise us and figure it out, but for now this is as close as it gets.

 Thursday I made this stew, with Whit's step-by-step instructions.  Somehow, his still tastes better!  But this batch turned out alright, and we met our friends up in the canyon for dinner.  It was super fun to see everyone and the canyon is gorgeous with all of the fall leaves.  But of course I didn't take any pictures!  Next time I'll have to be better at that.

 Then on Saturday we went down to Spanish Fork.  We took our queen bed out of the spare room, and gave it to my sister who is living in Springville.  Then we went to my grandma's in American Fork and picked up another queen bed that she gave to my mom and dad.  So we took that one to Spanish Fork.  By the time we were done with all of that driving, loading, and unloading, we were pooped!  So we went to the temple :)  My parents and sister took Winston to a picnic and Whit and I went to the Provo Temple to do sealings.  We had such a nice time, but we were so tired!  It was a busy day.

 Sunday we stayed in Spanish Fork for the morning so my mom could watch Winston while we went to the Brigham Temple dedication.  We all ate lunch together after, then we headed home.  That night we enjoyed a nice walk and hanging around the house.  We've been trying to teach Winston how to drink with his sippy cup.  He is just fine if someone is holding it, but he can't quite figure out how to do it himself.  Well, he was just playing on the floor, rolling around, and when I looked over at him I saw this!  Yay!  He's finally got it.  Now we'll just have to see if he can do it sitting up :)

He sure is one happy, drooly, baby!