Christmas 2010

 

Who needs Santa, when you have Grandma?

Enjoying the Christmas tree lights.

Bouncing in cousin Jake's Jolly Jumper.

Spencer and I got a kitten for Christmas. Actually, just a baby that sounded like one. Drew's purring and fever were a little too much for this first time mom to handle so we headed down to the Children's Hospital of Atlanta. They slapped two stickers on his PJ's, a bracelet on his wrist and had him assessed in no time. A nasal vacuum, breathing treatment, and x-ray later diagnosed the little fella with Croup in the upper airway, Bronchiolitis further down, and a little bit of Pneumonia in the right lung. The doctor called him a "Happy Wheezer" since he couldn't stop smiling at all the new faces. A few days of antibiotics and Drew is almost back to his old self... Just in time to get on a germ filled airplane again. 

bada bing bada boom.

 2 years now, and still going strong. It's fun to look back at our wedding pictures and remember that special [snowy] day.
(As well as reminisce about skinnier times.)
Now we can add pictures of little Drew to our collection.
We have been so blessed in two short years. 

Happy Anniversary Spencer. Love you.

My Final Final.

I told Spencer to look for me in the testing center via THIS site.
There I am. About to go take my last final of 2010.
Now we are done and thoroughly enjoying our Christmas break thus far.
One more semester to go.

Family Resemblance

Everyone knows that Drew and Spencer are spitting images of each other

But looking through some pictures today made me realize where he gets that sassy tongue...

CCC.

Christmas Card Commotion.

I have always loved getting Christmas cards and family letters during the holiday season. It is fun to see how families have changed and grown. I think I have to get a little bit older, or expand my amount of friends before I get enough to cover my fridge. My mom sets the cards up along the mantle over the fire place, and I've seen others string them across the room on a piece of twine.

 I love the cards and stationary offered by Shutterfly this season.

(like this one, this one and this one... oh and this one)

Notice how all of them have multiple spaces for pictures because I can never choose just one.

For example, Drew's birth announcment that may have graced your refigerator at one time. I told you I couldn't choose just one picture.

We also got our wedding book there, which unfortunately was only signed by guests at one reception... but that is a story for another day.

Now, can you say "LINK OVERLOAD!" ?

Well here is just one more for you.

CLICK HERE

Here's an opportunity for you to blog about Shutterfly...

and recieve 50 FREE Christmas cards.

You can't beat free.

Thanks

Drew (literally) drooled over our Thanksgiving Dinner. Everything was great. Including the two dishes I brought, if I do say so myself. (Aunt Diane always has the BEST recipes) We were too busy relaxing (if that makes sense) to even pull out the camera. So the only pictures I got were weird low quality random pictures from my phone.

 Grocery store, day before Thanksgiving.

Drooly Drew showing off his smile.

It's fun for Drew to be the only grandson on the Orton side. He gets lots of attention from his aunts and uncles.

Wal-mart 12:01am Black Friday. Chaos.

Trying to keep our little Baldy warm.

Storms a-Brewin'

I got a text today from University Communications that read, "This is a Y-Alert:  a major blizzard warning has been issued by the National Weather Service. Because of the severity of this expected storm, BYU will close campus at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010. All classes should be canceled after this time." AWESOME. An early start to Thanksgiving vacation. Spencer keeps saying things like "storms a-brewin'" and "the Blizzard of 2010" (said like twenty-ten). He is trying to make me nervous, and it is working. Hopefully everything is just fine, but if we happen to lose electricity Drew will be sporting his sherpa lined snowsuit.

Reminds me of Randy off of A Christmas Story. Now I just have to make sure Spencer doesn't lick any light posts during this cold spell.

Fresh.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday mornings I walk to school. (Tuesday/Thursday I drive to insure quicker access to Drew) It just so happens that from where we live and where campus is, I have the opportunity to walk through the dorms.

It is usually my favorite part of the walk. Often alarm clocks are heard going off as I approach and pass the buildings- which mean either the dorm is empty, or there are some heavy-sleeping freshmen inside. Freshmen girls emerge from the buildings with perfect ringlets in their hair, pounds of makeup, TOMS or UGGS gracing their feet, and enough perfume to make my nose hairs curl. 

The morning conversation is always humorous to listen to. Topics include writing on people’s cars, staying up late to finish homework, and my most favorite, using enough NyQuil to get a buzz. Cool. I started to cut through a few buildings and take a different route a few weeks ago. And I am ever so happy that I did. A white board, propped in the window of a particular building has a different saying written out every day when I walk by. What a little treat... things like...

You can’t be late until you show up.

Friends help you move… real friends help you move bodies.

Energizer Bunny arrested — charged with battery.

Whoever said nothing was impossible, has obviously never tried slamming a revolving door.

Stealing ideas from one is plagarism, but stealing ideas from many is research.

If you choke a smurf, what color does it turn?
If the grass is greener on the other side, you can bet the water bill is higher.

 *The President Obama surfing bobblehead also adds some nice ambiance.

4 Months

Our little muffin is 4 months old today.

Time sure flies when you're having fun.

Twins

Sometimes my boys dress like twins...

Now if only I could convince Spencer to shave off his head and eyebrows...

Spencer turned a quarter-of-a-century on Saturday. 

We celebrated with football games, food, food, and more food.

Happy Birthday Spence. We love you.

Halloween 2010

Drew was a skeleton

This chunker is anything but skin and bones

We were dice.

Not the most baby friendly costume.

I think we were inspired by our recent

Las Vegas vacation.

We had a lot of fun and at the end of the night had to pry this candy from Drew's hands.
Maybe next year little buddy.

Deep Thoughts.

Never make a sandwich with mustard on it before you have to go somewhere important. You will end up with mustard on your shirt.

Global Warming does not exist in Utah. Snow in October? Really Al Gore?

Refrain from falling asleep in class (or other public places) because you will most likely wake up passing gas. People around you will act oblivious. But they know what just happened.

If you think a test takes 30 minutes, give yourself an hour. They turn the lights off in the testing center at 10:00pm on the dot.

Facebook stalking in public places is never a good idea. You might be stalking the person sitting next to you.

Tony's Frozen Pizza's taste better at 9:00pm than they do at 3:00pm. But no matter what time you eat it, there are still 1232 calories in it.

Sometimes doing laundry at a laundromat is nice. You can do six loads of laundry in the same time it takes you to do one.

It's a Buffet

We spent the weekend in Vegas meeting up with my parents who were there for one of my dad's work conventions, Aaron and Stacey drove over from L.A. and we drove down with Mike. 3/5 siblings were there. Nathan was there too, but on his mission, so we didn't happen to run in to him. We were finally able to meet our new nephew Reid. (Who I don't even happen to have a picture of)

Dahl and Ty with Draw. Right verb. Wrong conjugation.

They got it right by the time the weekend was over.

The weather was great, especially compared to today in Utah. (SNOW) We walked The Strip and saw enough skin and smelled enough smoke to last us till our next trip to Las Vegas.

Enjoying the Venetian Canal Shops.

We visited Hoover Dam and saw the impressive bridge that now makes driving across the dam obsolete. The bridge opened on October, 19th so we enjoyed being some of the first people to walk across it.

Drew has now been to Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and of course Utah.
Not too shabby for 3 months old.

Standing on the NEW dam bridge. (dam jokes are fun)


One of my favorite moments was when Dahl dropped his fork on the ground while we were at a buffet. He looked at his dad and said, "Oops, sorry." Then Aaron looked at him and said "It's ok, it's a buffet" Then for the rest of the night when anything fell or got knocked over Dahl was sure to say, "It's a buffet. At a buffet you can do whatever you want..."

We had a fun time getting away from school and now have Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to.

More pictures can be seen here.

The Latest

 (Drew thoroughly enjoying the fall colors on our walk home from school)

Last week I met with my academic advisor. If I take 16 credits next semester and two classes online for a grand total of 22 credits then I can walk in April. If not I can just take 16 credits, and the other 6 credits during spring semester and be done in June. Considering the max amount of credits I ever took pre-baby was 14 a semester- I am just plain crazy.

My classes are enjoyable and I really love all the things I am learning especially now that I am into the classes for my major (besides the stats class I still have to take.) Every Tuesday in one of my classes we turn in a 1 page paper on a certain topic our teacher assigns. We drop it on the front table as we walk in, where our professor sorts through them and chooses 3 or so interesting ones. Those students go up and summarize their  paper for the class. (Hopefully you are still following.) I am always on edge when he calls out the names, hoping that my paper doesn't qualify as greatness in order for me to avoid going up. Today he called out two names (which have slipped my mind) and on the third name he said "Jimmer" but he didn't say Jimmer. He said Himmer. Like with a Spanish accent, like one would say Jose or something. I just started laughing and thought "HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO JIMMER FREDETTE IS?" By the way, he had a great paper, if I do say so myself.

Today I was smelling onions everywhere I went. Particularly every time I would pull something out of my backpack. Later I found a little piece of onion between the pages of my U.S. Geography textbook. Spencer was obviously doing some serious Iron Chef moves last night while he was choppin'.

It's been hard to find time to exercise when extra minutes are spent writing papers or reading textbooks (or posting on this blog apparently). And even when I do exercise I am so ridiculously sore for numerous days after that there is no point. Studies have shown that bedrest can be more destructive than beneficial. Studies have also shown that hindsight is 20/20. I have been informed that being on bedrest for an extended amount of time deteriorates bone density, excels muscle loss and can result in lots of joints out of place. I feel it. I am like a 93 year old with achey hips and knees. All of this isn't helping with my weight loss endeavors. Neither are the treats our neighbor left when we were "Boo-ed" last night.

The Halloween season is upon us and I have yet to figure out costumes. So unlike me, considering Halloween is one of my most favorite times of the year. Spencer doesn't appreciate Halloween like I do, so maybe that is why there is such a lack of festivities going on in our household. Spencer has finished up with his Law School applications which is exciting and nerve wracking. It will be fun to find out where we will be this time next year.

Drew has been rolling a smidgen more here and there. He loves being on his stomach, so instead of toppling to one side or the other he lays his head down and falls asleep... But hey, I'm not complaining. He keeps his hands pretty tightfisted (which might be a sign of stinginess in his future) so tight, that when they finally do separate there is sometimes little pieces of lint in there. But he's a baby so it is cute. I can't imagine some full grown human having clammy hands and lint between their fingers.

TGIF

I am finished with classes for the day and lets just say Thank Goodness It's Friday. Midterms are [mostly] over, and I am finishing up a couple papers and projects here and there. I have 3 classes back to back MWF mornings- afternoons are spent watching Drew, homework, and cleaning our perma-messy apartment. To explain some of the craziness that has been going on, here are some events from this morning alone...
 - I wore my t-shirt backwards today. (At least I kept my jacket on the whole time)
 - I could smell poop sitting in my first class, later I found out it was on my finger from changing Drew right before I left. (Well, I think it was from Drew)
 - I grabbed my notebook out of my backpack and somehow a feminine product came flying out too. Landing at the foot of a boy sitting 3 feet from me. Awkward.
  
    So lets just say TGIF.

In other news, my motto lately has been "C's get degrees." Of course I am aiming for A's but if I happen to get a C on a test that I managed to find 15 minutes to study for, then it's not the end of the world. Because in the long run C's get degrees, and I will still have my diploma that I will eventually enlarge to poster-size, frame, and hang in every room of our house.

 Also, we've been testing the waters lately and branching out to other brands of diapers, but we have learned the hard way that NOT ALL DIAPERS ARE CREATED EQUALLY. Without going into detail- We love Pampers, and I have a lot of laundry to do this afternoon.

Drew is going on 3 months (on the 12th to be exact) and is growing, eating, sleeping and smiling fantastically. We feel so blessed to have him in our lives.

Mobile Uploads: Chapter 3

[Previous chapters can be seen here and here]
It is that time again. My phone is full of pictures.
I average a lot more pictures a day now that I have something super cute [Drew] always around.

Drew's first picture on a cellphone.

Our little muffin loves to sleep holding his hands up.

Someone stole the sign at the MTC.

 Lots of people tell us Drew looks just like Spencer.

I still can't decide.

Snuggled up for a morning walk.

First day of school I tripped on the stairs, scraped my knee and ruined my new pedicure.

Yes, I said first day of school. Awesome.

Drew getting an ultrasound on his kidneys.

I saw the ROTC walking down the street literally singing

"I dont know but I've been told."

(Maybe I should have taken some video instead of a picture?)

170 hours to build. 21,367 LEGO bricks.

Guess who is in my class?
There is a hint here, here, and here.

Can you say DREAM COME TRUE?

Drew showing off his snazzy church clothes.

His latest trick.