Tis the Season

Does anyone else feel like the month of December is just a mad dash to the 25th? I've been meaning to post these pictures for a while, but... Notwithstanding the test of endurance that the blessed month brings, we've been loving the festivities. We started the month out carrying on a tradition from Tony's family -- December 1st gifts. When Tony was growing up, each family member would get some small gift on December 1st to begin the holiday season. For our December 1st gifts, Tony got Afton and me Whitman College garb. He knows the way to my heart.

Then we decorated. Afton kept herself occupied with some plastic holly berries while I pulled out our decorations. We don't have much, and what we do have I credit to my mom and grandma. They both love the holidays and have supplied us with many ornament and decorations.

Then, the tree. (Yes, Tony was still sporting his Thanksgiving "beard" at the time this picture was taken. It's gone now.) Afton was pretty bored with everything but the lights and beads.

Never try to string beads on a tree after you've decorated, especially when you're sporting a bundle-o-joy in a baby bjorn who can reach and grab. To his credit, Tony only sighed after I broke the third glass ball ornament as I was trying to loop the beads around. :). He also tends to get nervous whenever I use a knife in the kitchen...

The finished product.

The First Thanksgiving

We are mourning the passing of Thanksgiving (Afton's first), largely because we loved the four days of doing relatively nothing.The long breaks between busy semesters is the one thing I miss about college life. Some days, Tony and I would kill to have two weeks off at Christmas just to do, well nothing in particular. But I digress...

On Thanksgiving, Afton woke up from her afternoon nap just before we sat down to eat. No worries, however, because there were ample volunteers for the job of holding her. Note the distance from the table -- Afton is now a reacher, grabber, and yanker. When it's the table, it just makes a mess. When it's my hair, it really hurts.

Fortunately, the version of stranger anxiety that hit Afton in September is over. She had a great time with her grandparents and didn't shriek when they held her. As a side note, I will say that one of the perks of my Latin/Latin-influenced in-laws is FLAN! Nothing tops off Mark's Thanksgiving dinner like Ive's flan.
If it looks like Tony just woke up, it's because he did. For me, Thanksgiving is about the family, the traditions, the food. For Tony, Thanksgiving is about the food, the nap, and the football game (although I'm not sure if it's in that order).

Probably the best part of Afton's first Thanksgiving is all the time she got to spend with her dad. Tony took the Friday after Thanksgiving off, so we had four entire days to spend as a family. Tony took her on a couple walks -- which she loves. It's mesmerizing.
And, of course, a little daddy-daughter time before bedtime never disappointed anyone.

Tony is going to love this one...

Okay. I was husband tagged twice in the last week or so, so I'm obligated to respond, right?


1. Where did you meet your husband? At the J. Reuben Clark Law School.

2. How long did you date before you were married? Not as long as we will tell our children. Our first date was on October 15. We were married on July 22 the next year.

3. How long have you been married? 3 years plus a little

4. What does he do that surprises you? You must remember that my first impression of Tony was through our acquaintance in law school. He was my constitutional law TA (who taught the finer points of constitutional law - such as the dormant commerce clause -- did anyone know there was a commerce clause, let alone a dormant one?), and he argued some complex point of civil procedure (in a sharp-looking suit and tie) during the exhibition round of the moot court competition. Needless to say, I spent much of my first year with Tony being surprised when he’d get lost driving home in a familiar neighborhood or got really confused by math – no, not trigonometry or calculus, but plain ol’ addition and subtraction or occasional long division.

5. What is his best feature? Smile.

6. What is his best quality? His humor – or shall we say, “razor wit.”

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Not really.

8. What is his favorite food? Sausage and/or steak.

9. What is his favorite sport? Hm… he played tennis, but he watches college football and basketball and some golf…

10. When and where was your first kiss? Around Halloween at my apartment in Provo.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Doing things as a couple? Wow, that’d be nice… It may sound strange, but I like doing ordinary thing with Tony. Before Afton, we used to do grocery shopping together frequently. (Although, I’d leave him in the produce isle to inspect 100 apples individually so he could pick out the three he wanted and then I’d do the rest of the grocery shopping and meet back up with him).

12. Do you have any children? Just one for now. Sweet baby Afton.

13. Does he have any hidden talents? He remembers everything – Tony v. my family in Trivial Pursuit = Tony wins. He tops all of our collective knowledge.

14. How old is he? 31… turning 32 in just a month!

15. Who said I love you first? Tony. He was so angry about it too. In all fairness, I had (conversationally) cornered him. It went something like this:

T: Why don’t you stay in Utah after you graduate?
H: I have a job in Boise.
T: You could find a job in Salt Lake…
H: But, I don’t really have many friends or family in Salt Lake.
T: uh…
H: [feigning innocence] Why would I stay in Salt Lake?
T: uh…
H: [waits]
T: ah
H: [keeps waiting]
T: well…
H: [still waiting]
T: because, um…
H: [waits even longer]
T: [completely flustered] agh, ugh, because I love you.

It was not aesthetic, but it was functional.

16. What is his favorite music? Hm… I’m now beginning to doubt my knowledge of my husband… He listens to all sorts – classical and opera, blues and folk, alternative/rock. He even lets me listen to country and can now distinguish between Alan Jackson, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, and “the Garth” (as he calls him).

17. What do you admire most about him? His dedication.

18. What is his favorite color? Blue (I think…)

19. Will he read this? yes. (and he probably regrets the joint blog)

20. Who do you tag? Whoever needs an excuse to bug their husband ☺.

We thought it was daylight savings time...

or a growth spurt. Or both. Starting on Halloween and continuing into last week, Afton was just out of sorts. She got all finicky about eating, and as we tried to get her back to a 9:30 p.m. bedtime after daylight savings time, her sleep seemed all whacked out. She woke up in the middle of the night one night, and then by Thursday she was little Miss Moody. As we waited for Tony to come home, Afton pitched a fit anytime I so much as thought about setting her down. We tried all sorts of make-the-baby-happy tricks, and then we found it: a tooth.

The little white thing poking out of her fleshy gums solved the mystery, but it probably took us so long to figure it out because it is way in the back. I only happened upon it by pulling sweet baby Afton's lip down and over (which she loves). According to What to Expect: The First Year, this is the tooth that typically comes in fourth. It's not surprising that Afton is teething in an order all her own. She has a knack for doing things her own little sequence, such as only being able to roll over back to front (not front to back), gnawing only the back or edges of pacifier (instead of sucking on the front), or, geez, being born before she really had the ability to eat. We'll see if she somehow is able to walk before she crawls :). In the meantime, we're occasionally tossing her teething ring in the freezer and letting her gnaw on our fingers whenever it strikes her fancy.


(Nope, no picture of the tooth -- I am not skilled enough to pull her lip down and over, keep her still, and click the camera at the same time).

Stop Global Warming!

Save the penguins. Happy Halloween! Love, Afton

Say it again now

Last week I took a break one evening to be with some friends and returned to the smell of grape juice and the sound of Linda Lyndell singing "What a Man" courtesy of the Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration CD. (A year ago I wanted to donate to NPR -- Tony agreed if I would get this CD as my thank-you gift... When our local NPR station "forgot" to send it, Tony called them to "remind" them...I got the warm feelings in my heart from donating and Tony eventually got his music.)

The Saturday before, Tony and Afton had picked the grapes from our grapevine. Actually, Tony picked the grapes and Afton picked the leaves.

That night, however, they went in to full-blown grape juice production. The only thing better than the taste of the juice was the sound of Afton giggling as Tony danced to the music. Someday she too will know the pencil sharpener, the hitch-hiker, and the sprinkler. I did capture it on video, but I love Tony, so I will only say that it was classic.

FOUR MORE YEARS!!

A little over four years ago I more or less invited myself out to dinner with Tony to get the ball rolling on this relationship. To his credit, even though I had to initiate the first date, he really took the ball and ran with it. When I suggested dinner, he planned for us to go up to Park City. It was fall, the leaves were changing, Main Street would be good for strolling, and the restaurants were nice. Each year since, we've celebrated by heading back to the hills and having dinner in this lovely tourist town. We were lucky this year to have some friends who were kind enough to watch Afton so we could have our first real date in... well, since Afton was born.

(I look goofy, but it was nice of some random Park City tourist to take a picture of us in front of the moose.)