oliver stanley hunt was born on november 28th! what a good baby, as that was his due date. congratulations, annie and chad and sophie! he is a cutie! here is the quilt i made for his arrival (one of my favorites to date ... weston almost didn't want to give it up) :)
i'm sure we'll have a picture or 2 of oliver to post up before too long - weston got some beautiful shots, as always.
congrats!!!
i was in monroe for about a week before thanksgiving visiting my sister and her 2 younger kiddos. because of that, kate was away from her daddy. she really misses him when he's gone or when we're gone. i consider that a very good thing. the night he got into town, he caved and gave her a present we intended for christmas.
weston and kate have this special kind of hug they invented - it's called a koala bear hug and she's been doing it for about the last year maybe. it was the only way he could get her to give hugs and the name has stuck. he's been on the lookout to give her a koala bear and we found one just before thanksgiving. here is the presentation
and reception
then they spent a good amount of time reading and snuggling.
what a great dad!
so i know i'm a day late for this title, but it is what it is.
first, a couple of frustrations:
1-why is it that coming home from vacation or time away makes it seem impossible to get back into the old schedule? for example: i have still not unpacked any bags, have not done any dishes (until just now), have not done any laundry, and have not made any beds. what have i done? perhaps eaten a box of oreos and milk, read a 500+ page piece of fiction and may or may not be starting the next one, watched too many teenage soap operas (just to catch up), and have tried sleeping as much as i can. which brings me to my next frustration...
2-why has my daughter reached that most annoying of annoyances - i am referring to the food power struggle. she has decided to skip all but 2 or 3 bites of dinner for the past couple of weeks and rises way before the sun does crying of hunger. like i want to go back to nighttime feedings with this one? because of that, the last few mornings she has received a baggie of goldfish - the breakfast of champions. this morning i gave in and fixed her a bowl of oatmeal ... selfishly of course, and it paid off. she woke up around 11am. i think she would eat all of her breakfast, lunch, and dinner if it consisted of 'mac&cheese'. but i'm not about to start giving her whatever she wants to eat because i refuse to play this game for much longer. she needs to learn to eat what we're eating, right? ok, frustrations over.
thank you.
on to december 1.
i know kate is still quite young on the "let's get into christmas!" thing, but i figured she may be building memories right now for all i know. anyway, what i do know is that it makes it funner for all of us. yesterday i made this adorable advent calendar found here. 
the best part is that it involves no chocolate (the best part? you ask? yes, it means one less thing i consume this time of year) but a fun activity to do each day. december 1's (yesterday's) activity was: make a paper chain.
we hung it in kate's room last night before bed and she got to rip the first chain off. even if she doesn't remember doing these things, she is loving it right now. the expressions and sounds she makes everytime we do something this christmas season and the wonder on her face - she's loving it. so we're loving it.
here's to the next 23 days!!!
These are Kate's favorite shoes and sunglasses. She is constantly asking me to put these shoes on her. Sometimes she manages to get one on by herself, and I'll just find her wandering around the house with one shoe on.
Good thing we bought her another pair in the next size up.
as in, "what? i can't hear you..."
blasted ear infection ... it is clearing up on the left side but has now invaded my right side. will i ever be healed???
dramatic, i know :)
i have been fighting an ear infection since thursday night. i can honestly say that this pain is horrible and (since i had a great c-section experience) is worse than when i had kate. i get a couple of minor ear infections every year ... i usually can irrigate my ears at home and they clear up within a day or two. not this time - i think the irrigation made it worse. finally saturday morning (after a very unsuccessful night of sleep) i went to instacare and saw a doctor who prescribed me some drops with antibiotics. then it got so. much. worse.
saturday night was awful! i slept a total of about 2 hours (in 5-10 minute increments of sleep). it was a nightmare. the pain was so bad it kept me awake and i was up re-heating my bag of rice every 30 minutes or so. not only is there this constant pain that doesn't let up, every few heartbeats i would get this zinger of what i can only describe as a searing hot needle being shoved through my eardrum into my brains. needless to say, weston took kate to church alone.
sunday afternoon, my fever kept rising and i completely gave in to the tears. crying makes it worse because it only increases the congestion and the pressure, but they flowed freely :) i forced myself to take a hot shower (doesn't that always make you feel a little better when you don't feel good?) and realized i needed more help. i asked weston to give me a priesthood blessing and thankfully, he did. i'm not saying i was cured, but things immediately started to improve. there were two very specific things that concerned me (sleep and taking care of kate) that were specifically addressed in that blessing. how great it is to have a faithful husband who honors his priesthood! within 20 minutes i was fast asleep (for a longer period of time than the entire night before).
weston woke me up after almost 3 hours so i would be able to sleep that night and i was feeling really good. we had dinner, played with kate, i took some benadryl, and i was out. it was such a great night! i only had to wake up a few times to take more ibuprofen and my eardrops.
today has been a really good day. my parents were in town so they brought me lunch and visited with me for awhile. i had some pain early in the afternoon and my ear is still pretty plugged up, but things feel so much better already. here's to hoping i can sleep again tonight :)
the best part of today is right now, however - i can hear my little girl growling to herself over and over as she lays in the dark of her bedroom :) maybe it's not laughter that is the best medicine, maybe it's your family ... although i guess our families bring the laughter :)
so i feel like i am neglecting my blog. i just don't have ideas springing up for posts! anyone else have this problem?
first of all, i've been in a major slump. maybe it's because i feel like i don't really live at our place? i've been gone a lot lately and i'll admit: i still have a half packed bag from my last trip away from home (a couple weeks ago). i have been so lame. i don't want to pick up anything, make any beds, do any laundry, clean any bathrooms ... and it's just been a SLUMP! but i'm out of it. i'm going to try to put all of the laundry away today! that in itself can be a big accomplishment! if i find that easy, i'm going to mop the kitchen floor. as you can see, i'm not giving myself this huge list of things to do so i don't feel like a bigger loser when i only cross off 1 or 2 things tonight :)
second of all, i shouldn't feel guilty for always blogging about my child, right? okay, so here's a bunch of information about kate colton:
she put her headband on herself (can't you tell?) :)
i love catching her dancing in the kitchen (when she doesn't know i'm watching) or listening to her sing "head shoulders knees and toes" or play ring around the rosies with herself. SO cute! of course the second she knows i'm there, she stops and laughs. 
what do you think of when you see this photo? does it make you think christmas necessarily? i only ask because it looks like winter to me. although, to be fair, i did search "christmas and snow" to find it....
ok, here's what i'm getting at: does it bother you when christmas comes early? (i mean early as in celebrating before thanksgiving even hits) i think this probably used to bother me, but i have learned to enjoy the christmas season as long as i can. sure, i set up and decorated my christmas tree on halloween a few years ago ... no i have not done that since. but i am of the school of thought that "christmas celebrations" (if that's what you have to call them) can begin as soon as november 1st. now, let me clarify - i have no intentions of decorating my home for christmas before thanksgiving (although i have done that the night before we left town for thanksgiving ... just so it was finished when we got home and that was wonderful) but i say bring on the music and commercials (they always make me cry) as early as you want, people! it just seems too short to celebrate such a great time of year in only a few weeks' time. i love getting in the spirit of things as soon as the weather turns and sweaters, coats, and scarves become part of every day's attire.
so i say bring it on, hallmark!
trick or treat!
remember that cute little turtle last year?
crazy how quickly time flies...
so we decided to stay in monroe for the festivities so kate could spend halloween with her cousins. kate was a cute little fish this year and looked adorable!
the night before halloween, weston and i made a spontaneous trip to gunnison for a halloween movie friday night - they were playing sleepy hollow so we made the half hour or so drive (just like driving to salt lake, right?) 
it was totally worth it - a quick date is always a good thing!
during the afternoon on halloween, we went to the playoff game between south sevier and parowan. believe it or not, i actually watched some of the game! the SS rams won, by like 30 points or something, so they will advance. 
it was a beautiful afternoon and kate had fun hanging out with sophie and aunt annie.
while this was kate's 2nd halloween, this was her first time actually trick or treating - and she did a stellar job! we celebrated in central where they had a parade, trunk or treat, and carnival at the park and community center.
walking the parade route with mom and grandma
her bucket was totally getting heavy but she wouldn't let go of it for anything!
ali
sophie
karli
all the girls
even grandpa colton got in on the action!
halloween feast at lotsa motsa - yum!
hope you had a great halloween!
kate hasn't stopped talking about her fun halloween :)kate and i hung out last week in monroe. we spent the time with grandma, grandpa, sarah, and her 2 kids. the little ones had a great week with grandma & grandpa!
monday night i drove to salt lake to pick up sarah who had been in canada for several days. jane and reynolds were in monroe with my parents and she and i arrived at their house at about 12:30 monday night. we had a girly week, complete with mani-pedis, eating, eating, and eating, and even some sewing (how did your skirt turn out, sarah?)
we planned a few fun things for the kiddos to do since we were "snowed in" for a day or 2. i say "snowed in" because it was nothing like the snow they would have had if they were home in denver. the kids played outside for a bit each day, 
had bubble baths in grandma's big bathtub, painted pumpkins (thanks to the mathies!), 
and even made caramel apples.
it even got warm enough at the end of the week to swing with grandpa
thanks, mom & dad for hosting some crazies this last week. thanks for being so patient with all of the kids and with sarah and me, too :) i'm sure you can't wait to do it all over again in a few weeks!
