Happy Birthday, Joel!

Dane and I spent the whole day preparing for Joel's birthday. We made him a birthday banner...okay, I made the banner while Dane took a nap. But that was a great help. Then, we wrapped his presents and got dinner ready. Joel requested a special birthday dinner with Colcannon, an Irish dish that is great for winter. It worked out well because the day brought the first snow of the season. As soon as Joel got home from work, the festivities began. We ate dinner, had dessert (chocolate pudding cake with extra pecans, another of Joel's requests), and we watched The Biggest Loser, our favorite show. And yes, we always see the irony of scarfing down dessert while watching a show about weight loss. Joel's favorite birthday present was a trucker hat from the trailer company, Great Dane.

The party was so fun, it completely wore Dane out. Happy 29th Birthday, Joel!

It's Autumntime, It's Autumntime

So, Dane and I have been going on a lot of walks lately. I need the exercise (I just can't handle the gym thing. And by "can't handle" I mean "I would never go even if I tried"), and I want to maximize what little time we have before the weather gets too cold and snowy. Here is a photographic journey of some of the things we've encountered along the way:
This is a pretty, leafy trail near our house

I just loved the contrast of the yellow berries with the blue-grey sky.

This is a cat that crossed our path.

Sheep!

He always find the walks very soothing...except for that time I walked all the way to Wal-Mart. I think it's a little over a mile, one way, and I didn't set out until later in the afternoon, so it got kind of chilly by the time we got back. That wasn't so soothing.

And here we are, modeling the new stroller my dad got us while he was out here for the blessing. (Those are Dane's little feet sticking out in front.) And that's my new hair. It's not a close up because I made the mistake of forgetting to take a picture the day I got it cut; it's always so much better when it's professionally styled. But you get the gist of it.

I'll be sad when fall is over. And it sounds like that'll be tonight. Oh well.

It's Official

We had Dane's baby blessing on Sunday. Stephen and Meghan live nearby, and Kenji is pretty close, so we expected them to come, but then Joel's mom and Laurie Jayne planned on coming, and then Paul and Tess were going to be in town, and then my dad surprised us by flying out for the event. All in all, we had a pretty good crowd.
My mom made the little outfit for Dane; it consisted of a teeny white shirt, a vest with teddy bear buttons (in honor of my grandma), tux pants with suspenders, little shoes, and a little bowtie. He was adorable.

The picture's kind of dark, but you get the idea.
It was great to have everyone there, the lunch I made ended up being pretty good portions (I'm always paranoid about not having enough food), and a good time was had by all.

Dane was very well behaved throughout church and the blessing, but by the end of it all, he was pretty hungry and tired of all the pictures.

Our new little family:

Chili Cookoff!

Our ward had the Friends of Scouting Chili Cookoff tonight. It involved a silent auction of things the scouts had collected, a live auction of desserts, and a chili contest. I contributed some chili, and Joel and I hoped to win some cool stuff. Here is some of our bounty:

We won those sunglasses and the wooden peg game in the silent auction, and we won the castle cake and pumpkin dessert in the live auction. The pumpkin is yummy; we haven't tried the castle yet. For both of them, we felt bad because no one was bidding on them and we didn't want them to go for just a dollar, so Joel and I kept outbidding each other until they got to a respectable price. I think we confused the auctioneer.
As for the chili contest...

I won Most Traditional Chili! Which is actually funny because it had chorizo and cocoa powder in it. But I was still happy to win. I pumped my fists in the air and ran up to the stage to claim my prize; people laughed at me, but I think that's how prizes should always be received.
Also, here is the picture they took of me and Dane at the midwife clinic, now that we're officially done with all pregnancy/labor related checkups:

I'd like everyone to note that my face is not nearly as puffy as it was during pregnancy. Even though I'm not anywhere close to losing all my pregnancy weight, it's nice not to have a fat face anymore. Plus, you may have noticed that I have had my hair in a ponytail almost constantly for the past 10 months. While I was pregnant, I was just too hot to blowdry it or have it in my face, and now I keep it back while I'm nursing (which is all the time), plus I don't have much chance to do it. But soon I'll be sporting a new 'do because I also won a haircut and style at the silent auction. I'll keep you posted!

Halloween II

Halloween was a happy time. Joel had a fun office party...here's his story:
We had 22 minutes to create Halloween costumes from anything in the office.

I found the stocking cap from a build-your-own-snowman kit, and made the glasses from a computer cord and tape. I won second place, behind scarecrow. My boss gave me FIFTY BUCKS!

So Joel was Waldo for Halloween. Then, we went to a party at our friends' George and Melanee, and we unveiled Dane's costume:

The Golden Snitch! I've very recently gotten into Harry Potter (nursing gives me lots of time to read), so I decided to make him a snitch costume. I was all excited and tried to make the trick-or-treaters guess what he was before they'd get candy, but none of them knew. I guess Harry Potter isn't as big with kids as it is with adults. Oh well. Here he is with his daddy, the Dementor:


And here he is with his cousin Lauren (the chicken) and his friend Sami (the elephant).

We finished off the night by watching Michael Jackson's Thriller video. All in all, it was a very happy Halloween!