Seth's New Room

Seth hit a new milestone this month: His crib days are history! Luke and I have been working on his room for about a month now and we finally got it done last weekend. The room already had some built-in shelves, but whoever built them was decidedly NOT a carpenter. It was a pretty shoddy job. So, a lot of our job consisted of reworking the shelves and re-trimming out the whole thing.

Progress:

Luke was a very good sport to put up with all my ideas (as usual) and help me execute them. Including an accent wall that turned out to be a lot more work that anticipated. (Word to the wise: don't try to do any elaborate accent stripes or walls on a highly textured surface. No matter how well you seal the tape lines, your paint WILL seep. We spent two full nights with tiny little brushes touching up all the paint that bled under the tape.)

Seth's new room:

 Seth has transitioned really well. The first night he woke up at 4:30 am and came in our room, but after a quick diaper change he went back to sleep until 7:30. Since then, he's slept every night until about 7 am, which is an hour later than his usual wake-up time in his crib.

Seth's reaction to his room:

I'd say, overall: favorable.

Catching Up

I used to be so good at updating this blog, but lately it has fallen through the cracks a little. I realized I hadn't posted since Halloween! -- How sad is that....

We had a busy end of the year doing quite a bit of traveling. In November, Seth and I flew home to help celebrate my Mom's Birthday and my parents' 40th Wedding Anniversary. My siblings and I decided to throw them a surprise party, which turned out great, despite a few panicked phone calls along the way. Who knew it would be so hard to pull off a surprise party! We even had to ask the Temple President to tell a few white lies for us so they could switch up their temple schedule and be able to attend the party! Whew. But, we had such a great time together and were able to share a lot of laughs and memories.

Cutting the cake:

Luke joined us for Thanksgiving, driving all the through the night the day before Thanksgiving, and Seth was a VERY happy camper to see his daddy after missing him for two weeks.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures -- (this year my resolution is to always have my camera with me, and take more pictures!). Amy's family and Neal were able to come and we had a really good time.

CHRISTMAS

Luke has a pretty good chunk of time off during the end of December, so we were able to fly to Portland and be with his whole family for a little over two weeks. We flew in on the 19th -- a super late flight that with several delays didn't get us to the Werretts' house until well after 2 am! All his siblings arrived within a few days of that and we had the whole crew together for the first time in quite a while. It was chaos, but the kind of chaos that is wonderful. We did all the usual traditions leading up to Christmas day: gingerbread houses, chimes, decorating cookies and even added a new one -- a talent show on Christmas Eve.

Decorating gingerbread houses:

Taking a walk and throwing things off the bridge (one of Seth's favorite things!):

Visiting the Zoo to see the lights and ride the train (or the "toot-toot" as Seth calls it.)

All the grandkids modeling their brand new PJs Christmas Eve:

After New Years, Luke and I were able to sneak off for 5 days to Bend, OR for a little getaway, while Grandma Brenda watched Seth. This was the first time we had left him for more than one night, so we were curious to see how he would do, but he did awesome. Grandma Brenda kept him busy and he had a blast.  (Thanks again to Luke's parents for letting us do that!)

MY BIRTHDAY

At the end of January, I celebrated my 28th birthday. Luke made a really nice dinner and also my requested "Lemon Cream Cake" (a copycat Olive Garden dessert) and it was SO good. Seth was more than happy to help me blow out my candles to ensure that I get my wish this year. ;)