Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving! This year we decided to stay in Durham and enjoy a little family time to ourselves. It was a hard decision to stay home especially because we had the option of going to NYC like we did last year with the Pelfreys, but for some reason, we just felt like we should stay home. When all is said and done, we were very glad we stayed in our cozy little house. Jack ended up getting a really bad cold and cough and we enjoyed some very relaxing, quality family time. This semester was so busy, it felt so good to just hangout. It was finally a weekend where John wasn't traveling, writing a paper or competing in some type of mock trial.
John woke up Thursday morning, ready to decorate! He loves Christmas decorations more than anyone I've ever known. He had the tree up before I had breakfast cleaned up! After cleaning/decorating we went on a beautiful walk Thursday morning (some do a turkey trot... ours was more of a nice nature walk! Between a pregnant woman and a toddling 2 year old, a walk is about all we could handle!) On this walk we each listed the top 5 things we were thankful for. It was such a great conversation. It's so wonderful to be reminded of the many things we have to be thankful for. We are so blessed! Jack threw in his 2 bits as well... Thomas the Tank engine, fruit (nanas, orange, appies), dump trucks, Ethan (friends), and mommy/daddy!
Then we came home, I finished baking a few things, while John took a nap and Jack played in his crib (silly little boy would NOT take a nap. I guess he was too excited to eat turkey). We then headed over to Anna and Andy Despain's house and joined a few other law friends: Dan Leslie and his mom Lauri, and Melissa and Doug Hansen (8 adults and 4 kids... it was a perfect size group).
Thank you Despains for hosting Thanksgiving dinner. Food was delicious, the table was beautiful, the conversation was great, the game was fun, Jack's 1/2 hour nap was a life saver, and you guys are wonderful :-)

Turns out almost ever single thing I contributed to our Thanksgiving dinner contained at least one package of cream cheese! Spinach Artichoke dip, strawberry jello pretzel cheesecake, cheese ball and crackers, pumpkin roll, and the famous 7 layer salad (no cream cheese, but very tasty).

The beautiful turkey dinner :-)

Friday Nov. 28th we went to the Duke Bball game against Duquesne and we won 95-72. It's not very often that kids are allowed to go to Duke Bball games, but on games that are a little lower in attendance and not quite so intense, coach K opens the gym to families! We thought we'd take advantage of this chance to introduce Jack to Cameron Indoor Stadium... he LOVED it.
During offensive free-throws everyone puts their arms up in the air and if the shot is made we say, "Woosh". Jack thought it was really funny, he did it more often than just free throws!
The next day we decided to try out a Duke football game. Although nothing will ever compare to Cougar football, we had a pretty good time. At halftime we were so cold we decided to go home and drink hot chocolate. Jack's nose was runny and he kept looking up at me saying, "I'm beezin (freezing) mom" it was then we decided to go home.

We went to the game with our good friend Dan Leslie (he and his mom joined us for Thanksgiving dinner). They live in our complex and Dan in his first year of Law School at Duke. Go Blue Devils! Overall, a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Where's baby brother?

Me: "Hey Jack, where's baby brother?"

Ummm... I'm not quite sure!

Actually... I know where he is!

Jack: "Een Jack beyye"

Me: "Are you sure?"

Jack: "No. Een Mommy's beyye!"

Although Jack is still a little confused where baby brother is, he's pretty excited. Jack and I have been going over the alphabet letters together and he doesn't know or recognize and letter except "B" is for "baby, boy and brother". He is at such a fun stage right now learning so many words and just oozing with personality. His favorite things are trucks, (dumptrucks, tractors, fire trucks, you name it!) He's a HUGE fan of Thomas the tank engine (or anything that has to do with choo choo trains), and cars... He's such a boy! His favorite movies are Finding Nemo, Cars, "Jesus" (aka animated stories) and Farmer Joe (a movie we bought on a road trip in dire need to help him last just a few more hours. He loves farm). His favorite foods are oranges, bananas, apples, cheese and hotdogs. I'm thinking I should buy that new cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" to hide some veggies into his diet! He had a few melt-downs this week over who knows what? Perhaps I'm seeing foreshadows of "terrible two's"? I'm not looking forward to it. He is still the cutest thing I've ever seen and is becoming more sneaky, funny, and smart every single day.

I'm fighting a cold this week but I just discovered the goodness of Theraflu... WOW that stuff is yummy. Nothin better than a warm cup o tea! For all you pregnant ladies fighting colds this winter, Dr. said Theraflu is OK, but Airborn is not (too much vitamin C I think?) We're looking forward to quality family time this upcoming week. We're staying here in Durham for Thanksgiving and I've been dreaming of cooking the past few nights. I'm very excited!!

John is still recovering from the very sad Utah vs. BYU game last night. The call from his sisters celebrating in SLC after the game was over didn't help much either!! Hee hee j/k ladies, he loved hearing from you. It was the first time I'd ever watched that game with fans from both sides in the same room. It added a fun dynamic. Thank you Warners for ordering the special sports package so we could enjoy "the MTN" in your home. You're the best.

Fall Photos

Update:
It's snowed for about 10 minutes today, which would explain why Jack and I were so FREEZING on our little 2 mile walk this morning. I usually go walking then let him play at the park where we park our car. He played for about 3 minutes then came running to me saying, "Hold you mommy, Freezin!" That was my cue to put him in the car and drive home with the heat on high!!
-John is busy at school, preparing for the hard month ahead... finals. Yuck! He made it to the quarter finals of moot court and those round will be held sometime in Jan/Feb. Congrats babe. With all thats going on, he still spends a considerable about of time with us! Obviously, some weeks will be worse than others, but he's so good at balancing daddy time, wife time, church time and school. He's pretty much the coolest guy I know.
-Jack sings all the time. Most of his songs are to the tune of ABC/twinkle twinkle. Why are those the same tune? Jack gets so confused... He's still cute as ever and I can't kiss him enough times in the day. He doesn't cry any more when he wakes up from his nap or in the morning. He simply just calls for me until I come get him! "Mommy...Mom? All done! Get out!" This morning he called out for Daddy (that made John VERY happy considering he's been the one getting him up and ready the past couple mornings... thanks hun).
-I'm 21 weeks along and feeling great (most of the time). I can't believe I'm half way done. Time goes by way too quickly. Baby is kicking lots, which is perhaps my favorite part of pregnancy. Due date is still on for April 1st, 2009 and I'm getting so excited for the holidays I can hardly stand it.


So... maybe I should have done a slideshow for this post! I didn't realize how many pics there were. Last week we took pictures around Duke campus and Jack did pretty well for the most part. I was playing around with my camera's settings and it wasn't until I got home that I realized that most of the pics I took were all fuzzy. Darn it! Oh well, besides that, he was in major need of a haircut! So, I uploaded the pics and gave him a haircut, and he's still the cutest kid around.

I think everyone should live on the east coast some time in their life. We love it here. The colors are like nothing I've ever seen in my life. (Granted I did grow up in Mesa, AZ where there are pretty much 2 seasons: HOT and bearable.) Need less to say, we love the fall in Durham, NC!

Halloween festivities

I must explain why all of these recent posts are about a month late: We upload all of our pictures onto John's computer (cuz I'm afraid mine is about to crash any day and it's runnin VERY low on memory). Anyway, of course John takes his computer to school all day everyday and therefore I don't have any pictures to upload, post, or blog. So any chance I get to get my hands on his computer, I'm blogging :-) But then lately, John's computer has been having some issues with the video drive (or something like that) so it's been a little difficult as well. Non the less, today is Sunday, therefore we get to partake of yet another post focused primarily on our little Jack. Happy Halloween...We went to "Scott's Pumpkin Patch" all together for FHE. I've never seen pumpkins with warts before? Interesting...

Later that week for an enrichment activity, we went to "Farmer Mark's". This farmer does strawberry picking in the spring and tours of the farm in the fall. At the very beginning of our tour we were standing by a tractor full of hay and Jack was freaking out because he wanted a handful. He kept saying, "Hay, moo cow! Hay, horsey" I didn't even realize he knew the word "hay" let alone what its used for. Then I remembered, he has a book about the farm! So, I let him have a little handful to feed to the cow but he didn't even last past the chickens. I didn't have the heart to tell him that chickens don't eat hay! He didn't care. He was in heaven at the farm. John was very pleased to hear that he's got farm boy in the making! It makes his Idaho heart proud!

I love that Jack is old enough to finally understand that mommy and daddy do all these crazy traditions and holidays because it's actually FUN!! On Thursday night October 30th, we had our ward "Halloweenie Roast"/trunk or treat. Jack thought it was pretty cool to see all his friends dressed up so "silly" as he called it. His favorite was the cupcake walk. I'm pretty sure he ate his fair share of sugar that night!
This is our darling little pumpkin (or butt cheek depending on who you're talking to!!... see post on Oct 19, 2008)

This year we were the "Jack-O-Lantern" family, get it? We had our Jack, then I was the "O" and John was our "Lantern". We tried to be creative without actually going through all the effort of big costumes, hence our homemade, iron t-shirts! Maybe next year we'll go all out. I've always wanted to go all out but somehow always ran out of... time, money, creativity, and now I'm running out of excuses! I'll start planning NOW for next year!

Our darling little Pumpkins. Cameron Warner and Jack (o-lantern) Gochnour. hee hee

Jack and BFF dinosaur (aka Ethan Pelfrey).

October 31st, 2008

We had a very fun Chili party on Halloween night where pretty much anyone/everyone was invited and we managed to eat our way through 4 crockpots of chili. Pretty impressive crowd and I might add that Mom Gochnour's "Sweet Chili with shredded beef" was quite a huge hit. Mom, you were talked about all night long... they ate the whole thing and were asking for more!

Anyway, I wrote this (very embarrassing) poem for our chili party and I am will be the first to admit that it is very cheesy almost to the point of Velveeta! Here goes...

"Halloween is coming, it comes but once a year.
We've decided to have a party and we'd like to have you there.
Come for several hours or just a minute if you please.
Just wear your chosen costume and get ready to say "cheese".
We'll provide the chili if you could bring a chair.
We'll be outside sipping cider in this chilly autumn air.
If it gets too cold for pleasure grab your little girls and boys.
Our homes are always open with much warmer seats and toys.
If you'd like to help by bringing a topping or a treat,
just let us know by email, we'll assign you something neat.
Freaky fudge or mummy dogs or popcorn balls will do.
Or sour cream or cheese or chives it all depends on you.
Please respond by Wednesday night so we can have a count.
We want you all to come to this, no matter the amount.
The party is this Friday night 5:30 is when we'll start.
This party will be so much fun, you'll never want to part!!"

And, there you have it. Between the food and friends, we had a great night.

I went visiting teaching Tuesday night before Halloween and before I left I had mentioned to John all the things I wanted to do that week such as carve our pumpkin, make our shirts, start the chili (it's a several day process), clear out the junk in Jack's room so the kids can play... Anyway, I came home to this beautiful pumpkin sitting on our front porch! Daddy and Jack carved this together. Isn't he the best! The only sad thing? No footage... oh well! When I asked John if he had taken any pictures he said, "If I would have thought about it that would have been a great thing to do! Besides that, I had pumpkin guts all over my hands!" This pumpkin lasted forever! It was carved a few nights before our party and it still looks great on the night of Halloween. In AZ, you carve a pumpkin and it goes black and moldy within 24 hrs.

Thank you Loralee for the delicious "Mummy Dogs".

Yummy, beautiful apples provided by the Nelsons!
I bought dry ice to add to the Halloween experience, but then I realized we were having HOT cider at the party I decided against it (good thing it was only $0.99/lb). I didn't want our warm cider to go cold, so I put the dry ice on the counter and forgot about it until after the party. Well, after everyone left the real party began :-) Were cleaning up, saw it sitting there and it was right then and there I decided to have our own little "Witches Brew Party". It was so much fun. Jack got a huge kick out it as you can see in the videos. He's so darn cute. He first reaction was, "Oh no, HOT!" and "Oh no, where'd the juice go?" After he was over the initial shock if it all, he started blowing into the pot and would congratulate himself by saying, "Oh, NICE!"

Happy Birthday Week

John's birthday, a month late :-)

So, this year for John's birthday we celebrated for an entire week. Here's the break down:

I wrote this little poem in his birthday card, cheesy... I know
"Your birthday is here, its come again. It's time to have some fun.
When thinking of a gift for you, it's hard to get jsut one.
This year we'll do things differently, to spread out the birthday joy,
Don't worry you'll still be celebrating with the momma and the boy!
Instead of just one day of fun, we'll celebrate all week.
A gift each day? That's not so bad, just open your eyes and seek.
The gifts, I think you'll like them I picked them out for you.
In hopes to make this birthday year a wonderful dream come true!"

10/11/08 On his actual birthday I fixed his favorite breakfast (flat pancakes aka crepes) we hungout that morning, he took a nap, I brought him lunch in bed, then we went to our weekly babysitting job. The people I nanny for like to go on dates every Sat night and we don't mind giving up one of our weekend nights to earn a little cash. Anyway, their friend got married that weekend and we couldn't really say no (given that we're their only babysitters they know) so we babysat on John's birthday from 2pm-11pm. After the kids were all asleep, we ordered Papa Johns and he watched football all night on their big screen TV... it felt like a party.

10/12/08 John left the next morning for an interview in Houston. He spent Sunday with good friends (thanks all of you for feeding/entertaining him).
10/13/08 Monday he interviewed with Baker Botts (a firm in Houston that he really liked) and came home that night. I picked him up from the airport and had a little surprise party waiting for him at home. Thanks Nat for being the host while I was gone. He was totally surprised to huge thanks to all who were there. He told me later, "That was really fun, I've always wanted a surprise b-day party!" I said "oh good, and just so you know I would NEVER like a surprise party!" End of conversation!

John's request, "A cake from Costco". He really likes their icing and given that John thinks that's the MOST important part of the cake... Costco it was! Jack did NOT like when we opened the door to our dark house and suddenly someone flipped on the lights and yelled "SURPRISE" really loud. He held on VERY tight to daddy for a long time that night.

10/14/08 Tuesday, came around and his BIG present finally arrived. It was a dutch oven. There is only one real way to try out a dutch oven and that is to go camping!

10/15-16/08 I had made plans to go camping with some friends on Wed and Thurs. The Pelfreys, Warners and us all arrived at "Hanging Rock" within an hour of each other and the real fun began! The Despains had already been camping for a little while before us so we met them up there as well. We had so much fun. Here's a few highlights...

The top of our hike.

Daddy and Jack under the waterfall :-) where our little hike came to an end.

chubby feet in the FREEZING cold water

Got a little dirt mixed in with his grub

dirty camping face

In the middle of the night John got up to use the bathroom (or a tree) and on his way back into the tent I said, "Hun, my feet are freezing, will you please get my sock in our bag?" I vaguely remember him saying, "I can't find them... oh here they are". He put them (or better yet something warm) on my feet, I fell back asleep, and when I woke up the next morning, this is what I found... I love my John!

our awesome tent I got for my birthday in March (thanks Mom Gochnour). we're so glad we finally got to use it. The biggest perk: it fit an air matress AND an pack n' play. We all slept VERY well that night. The weather was perfect. We weren't cold at all (excpet my feet!)

John the dutch oven master making yummy egg, bacon, and potato breakfast.

Family at the lake

Skipping rocks

Jack, Soren, Ezra

10/16/08 Thursday: We got back from camping just in time to watch the very disappointing BYU vs. TCU game. We went to the Law School and watched it in the Star Commons room. (none of us have cable, but we're glad the Law School does!) Since it was Fall Break for all law students, there was NO one there. That was pretty much the only cool thing about this night. In the pic (Dan, John, Eric, Taylor... all looking a little distraught, as they very well should).

10/17/08 Friday John caught up on some homework and I babysat all day for my nanny family. We went out to dinner that night to a place called Piazza Italia located downtown in Brightleaf Square. It was all very yummy until...

10/18/08 Saturday John woke up with a 24 hour bug and all that calamari and risotto came back up... it wasn't the best way to end a full week of birthday fun, but I did make yummy homemade chicken noodle soup and we rented a movie that night. At the end of the day John said, "You mean to tell me that when you're pregnant, you feel nauseous like this all the time?" I smiled and said, "Not the whole pregnancy, just the first 3-5 months. That's all!" He had a lot more sympathy for me after that! But of course by then I was almost over my morning sickness. Ironic? I think so...