We have been in Colorado for just over three weeks and
are enjoying it. We did the drive in one, long day. Poor Jeff drove 17 hours on
only four hours of sleep and poor Tyler was stuck in a car seat for that whole
time! Tyler did great the first 14/15 or so hours, but had a hard time after
that. I don’t blame him! We are staying with my aunt Julee and Uncle Bryan.
They have been kind enough to let us stay here as long as we need. They have
even offered for us to stay here for Jeff’s entire program, two and a half
years! It would be tempting if Jeff
didn’t have such a long commute. In the mornings he leaves at 6:45 a.m. and it
takes him 40 minutes to get to school. In the afternoon, he leaves at 5:00 p.m.
and it takes an hour, sometimes more, to get home. So, while it is wonderful to
be here, we know it can’t be long term.
The two words I would use to describe the house are
spacious and gorgeous. The house looks like it could be in a magazine. Up at
camping, Linda called it “the castle”. I think that is fitting. Jeff, Tyler and
I pretty much have our own “wing” of the house. A few days after
being here, we had all of our things delivered from Pods in Philadelphia. When
the Pods delivery man came to this house, he kept remarking on what an amazing
house this was. He asked Jeff if it was his house and when Jeff told him no, that
didn’t stop him from continuing to tell Jeff how great the house was. Jeff said later on he
could hear the delivery man on the phone with a friend talking about what an
amazing house this was. We are keeping our things from Pods in the barn until we move
into our own place.
There was wedding her yesterday. Random. But an
older couple in Aunt Julee and Uncle Bryan’s last ward needed a “place with a
view” for their small wedding and so the bishop asked if the wedding could take
place here. Aunt Julee said sure. It was kind of funny, the wedding took place
outside, but then the photographer (who was also Aunt Julee and Uncle Bryan’s
realtor) took the couple inside and took pictures all around the house!
Funny story. The scenery of this house and actually
Colorado in general is beautiful. I thought it would be. Well, something that
is neat about here is that deer roam freely. One day I said to Uncle Bryan, “We
saw three deer this morning”. Uncle Bryan replied, being the hunter he is,
“Those are bucks and how many horns did they have. Three and four? There are a
few three and four horned ones that come around.” I said I didn’t know and he
said, “Well, I’ll let it slide this time, but from now on you better know how
many horns they have.”
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| "Bucks, not deer" |
Another funny thing is, well kind of sad, is that because
the windows reflect the trees, birds often fly into them and die! Depending on
how loud the bang is, you can predict if they made it out alive or not. We are
so grateful for Aunt Julee and Uncle Bryan for opening their house to us.
It is so fun to live here. The kids are so funny. At home
are Baylee, Shelby, Trista, and Tanner. They are all pretty fun in their own
way. Baylee reminds me a lot of myself when it comes to school. Shelby’s new
thing is to tell yourself, “You’re great, don’t even worry about it” as a way
to boost your own self esteem. So, ten times a day you hear someone telling himself or herself that he or she is great and not to not even worry
about it. Trista is so good with Tyler, it is crazy. She can put him to sleep
when he is fussy. Tanner is so funny to watch, with and without Tyler. Tanner
thinks it is so gross when Tyler spits up on him. He just laughs (something he often does) and
goes “Gross!! I have to go change!” It
is crazy to see them growing up because I remember them all when they were
little. Aunt Julee is a really good
person to be able to spend time with. She is a good example of a righteous and
good hearted mother. I think I can learn a lot from her. It is neat to see that
Uncle Bryan not only works hard at his job, but comes home and helps around the
house too. We are blessed to be around such a great family.
Jeff has been in school for two weeks now. His first week
was pretty easy, just setting up accounts, getting lectured by financial aid,
getting an id card, etc. The second week, and next week, is a lot harder. They
are/will be lectured all day and receive some intense training, that way they
can start working on their own patients. Jeff already helped put on and take
off a set of braces. I was impressed but he wasn’t, apparently he had already
done that in dental school. Well excuse me! ;)
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| Worn out! |
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| Studying with dad |
Jeff has also decided to take up fishing again. He
bought a pole last Friday and went fishing the next day. I am happy he will
have a hobby.
“Baby Ty Ty”, name given by Mason (or MPC as he refers to
himself as), and I just stay at home. I am trying to learn more about him and
find out how to be the best mom I can. It is so stressful to think that I am
responsible for a human being’s development! I read what he should be doing at
each month in order to make sure he isn’t behind. He is such a funny little guy
(and yes, I realize I use that word a lot). He has great big brown eyes, a huge
smile and cute little laugh. When he smiles really big, his ears move back. He
has been sleeping a ton since we got here. I was worried at first, but quickly realized
he was probably so exhausted from all of our traveling this summer and that he was just catching up!
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| Baby and Momma time at the beach in CA |
A few things about him:
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| First Nap in Colorado |
-He doesn’t like the dark. In fact, if I don’t put his
shirt on over his face fast enough, it freaks him out.
-He always has his hands busy and has since he was in the
womb! The doctors told me Tyler was head down but I didn’t know how that could
be true because I always felt this little scratching in my lower stomach. I
thought it must be his feet moving. Well, when he came out and had his little
fingers scratching and moving I finally realized it had been his hands all
along!
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| All Smiles |
- He is big for his age. We haven’t taken him to the
doctor yet, but a few weeks ago Jeff did some at home measurements and he was
in the 99% for height, and in the late 70s for his head and weight. On Sunday I
was talking to this woman who was holding a small baby girl. I thought because
of the baby’s size and sleepiness, she must have been a few weeks younger than
Tyler. Nope, she was born four days before him!
-He is an active and alert little baby. He has actually
always been pretty alert, right from when he was born. The nurse said “Let’s see
if we can get him to open his eyes” and then said, “Oh, he already is.” Anytime
people saw him or his birth pictures, they often commented on how alert he was.
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| Looking Innocent |
-He has brought Jeff and me closer together. Having
children really can help bond a family. Having a baby is hard work and is
overwhelming, but I just keep asking for Heavenly Father’s help.
-His hair only stays "done" for a few minutes, for the time it takes it to dry. He was born with a lot of hair and still has most of it. I brush his hair right after he comes out of the bath but you would never know it if you saw him more than five minutes later.
-He used to love to drink his own bath water! What a terrible habit he got into. Thankfully, he forgot it once we got to CO. Actually, I made the mistake last week of letting him taste water from the tap and he remembered that he liked his bath water and spent the rest of the time in the bath trying to drink the water.
Since we have been in Colorado, I have been able to visit
the Reeds and we have seen the Wheats twice. I went to Krista Reed’s farewell
the first Sunday we were here. She will be serving in the St. Louis mission. I
told her about Ted Drews, even though I have never been there. It is amazing to
see her go on a mission; I remember when she was 12. Woah, have I known the
Reeds that long? I guess so. Tyler spit up all over Brother Reed: his suit, tie, shoes, and even managed to get
it on the carpet. I had warned Brother Reed Tyler might spit up on him but
since Tyler had already been burped and spit up, he thought Tyler wouldn’t do
it again. (Oh ya, Tyler always seems to spit up on Jeff. No matter if he ate,
two minutes or two hours ago, he always spits up on Jeff). I love the Reeds. I
hope to see them soon. We saw the Wheats a few days after we got here. We went
to their house for dinner and games. We played a pretty cool game, a game that
looked lame, but was actually very interesting. Kevin had been given the game
years ago but never played it because it looked so weird (the cover looked
anime-ish). Last night they came over
for games. Kevin is so ridiculous. He told the kids that Jeff came home early
from his mission because he was flirting with a girl in Venezuela. I said it
wasn’t true and to not believe anything Kevin says. Baylee said, “Oh, I was
going to say, ‘Really? Ace, did you know this?’”
Well, I think that is it. Tyler has been napping and
instead of napping myself, I decided to write a post. I have been wanting to
blog for awhile now but haven’t had time because when Tyler sleeps, so do I.
