A return to the best zoo ever!

Today we went back to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco.  I fell in love with this zoo on our last trip - even during the heat of July.  This time I wanted to enjoy it again in cooler weather. 

This was also our family reward for the girls wearing underwear during the day everyday for a week.  They weren't accident free, but they made a lot of progress.  Every time I helped them clean up an accident I'd think about visiting the zoo and smile.

I'm tired so this post is going to be pretty quick.  But I have big news coming tomorrow.  Like big, you don't want to miss news.  So you have that to look forward to.  

We started out our adventure on the opposite end of the zoo from when we started last time.  We'd been pretty tired and hot by the end of the trip last time, so we didn't care about the animals very much by that point.  So this time around it was like visiting a whole new zoo.    

Another big difference from last time was that we didn't have any sort of stroller to push the kids around in.  They have all grown up enough that we trusted them to stay in a group while we explored.  Yes, kids do get a little bit easier.  

The kids had fun playing with some big butterflies before the real animals caught their interest.

But soon they noticed the animals and were in heaven.  These are scarlet ibis birds but the girls called them baby flamingos.

This little monkey came right over to the glass when he saw the kids.

We saw Dori, Nemo, and Daddy fish again.  The girls noticed there were three clown fish in the tank so they said the third one was Coral.

These are alligators.

Derrick is obsessed with turtles.  He loves to point to pictures of them and shriek.  He was ecstatic when he saw this snapping turtle.  The turtle must have liked Derrick too, because he followed us when we moved to another viewing window.  Here is a video of that.  

Here is a sleeping bear.  He was HUGE!

This cool slide went right through part of the otter exhibit.  That's an otter standing on top of the slide.  The girls loved the slide and went down it a lot.  Derrick went down once, but he didn't like it.

Here is our good friend the Jaguar.

Charlotte was so excited to go inside this tepee that was on display.  Lydia laid down on the ground inside it (that's what I get for putting her in white).  

Here is a buffalo.

The kids loved looking at the snakes in the reptile house.

This was a cool little thing called a skink.  It looked just like a snake only it had arms and legs.

We stopped and had a snack of fruit snacks, canned fruit, and left over Halloween candy.

The kids started getting tired when we got to the African Safari part of the zoo.  Derrick spent a lot of time on Brandon's shoulders.

The girls had a lot of fun playing with this giraffe statue.  They kissed it goodbye when it was time to move on.

The flamingos.  The girls LOVE flamingos.  One day I think we may have to get some lawn ornament ones.

The elephants were more active today than they were last time.

Derrick liked looking at them.  He was so happy all day long.  Every time I looked at him he had the cutest little smile on his face.

This is the freaky orangutan.

Some more statues.  Some kids showed up later and Charlotte and Lydia were kind of possessive of their "horsies."  Brandon and I pretended they weren't our kids.

I just have to say that formula is so convenient.  I'm not against nursing in public (with a cover) but it just isn't very practical with 3 other young kids running around.  I love that I can just pre-measure formula into a bottle and then add water when I need to feed Veronica.

There was this cute little step chime thingy.  The kids had fun stomping on it to make it play.

We had a quick lunch of peanut butter and honey sandwiches when we got back to the car.  Lydia and Derrick were so tired they fell asleep before we even started driving.  Sleeping kids are always a sign of a good day.

A Surprisingly Typical Day

I don't want to jinx myself by saying this, but I am shocked at how easily we have all adjusted to Veronica. Having 4 under 4 isn't as awful as I expected it to be.  In fact it's not awful at all.  Maybe it's because I'm just so used to having babies in my life that I don't notice how inconvenient a newborn is.  Maybe I'm more relaxed as a parent. Maybe she is just an "easy" baby.  Maybe it's because for the first time EVER I only have to deal with getting up with one baby in the middle of the night.  Maybe it's because I have more energy now that I'm not pregnant.  Maybe it's a combination of all these things and more.  

Anyway, here is the typical day post that shows what my life is like with twin three year old girls, an almost 19 month old boy, and a six week old baby girl.  This is everything we did on Wednesday November 6, 2013.  

6:30 am Lydia comes into my room and climbs in bed with me.  I pretend to still be asleep because I wish I was.  I'd been up until about 12:45 with Veronica and Charlotte the night before.  This was a record for Charlotte who has a habit of having some pretty late nights.  If she takes a nap during the day it's pretty much a given that she will be up until 11:00 pm at night.   

7:00 My kids have an uncanny ability to know when it is 7:00 am.  And today is no different.  Lydia says, "IT'S MORNING!"  I open my eyes and sure enough the clock is pointing to 7:00.

Lydia wants breakfast and so we get out of bed.  She's the only one awake and the kitchen counter is clean so I decide this is a good day to make pancakes.  I give her a bowl of cereal while I mix up the batter.  

7:21 The first batch of pancakes is on the griddle. Lydia wants to take a picture of me cooking.

7:35 Derrick wakes up, Lydia needs a fork, and the pancakes need to be turned.  Simultaneous needs like this occur all the time when in my house.  I turn the pancakes, give Lydia a fork and then go get Derrick.  Derrick is snuggling with his big bear.  He brings the bear out with him.

7:45 I go into my room and get dressed while the kids eat.

8:00 Charlotte wakes up and I give her some breakfast.  (Check out her beautiful curls.  I am so jealous.)

8:15 Change Derrick's diaper.  Lydia is poopy so I change her into underwear.  We've been doing "hardcore" potty training this week.  That means the girls wear underwear all day unless we are going somewhere.  It's been met with mixed success.  I change Charlotte into underwear too.

8:18 After both girls are in underwear they can check their Christmas stockings.  They get one ornament in their stocking every day.  We admire the hand painted ornaments that "Bestemor" (Brandon's mom) painted.  Then we hang them up on the Christmas lights that I strung along the top of the living room wall.

8:20 Veronica finally wakes up.  Lately she has been sleeping for at least 7 hours in a row every night.  I hope that trend continues because it is WONDERFUL.  I nurse her while the kids play around.

8:40 The playing turns to fighting, and so I decide that we need to go to the park NOW.  It's a cold day so we have to find shoes and socks and put on jackets.  Plus Lydia needs clothes and Charlotte refuses to sit on the potty before we go.  Veronica hangs out in her chair and Derrick keeps her company.  He loves to pat her on her head.

Finally we are all ready to go.  I put Veronica into the front pack and the girls decide they want to have babies in their "baby back pass" too.

It's cold windy and wet outside, but it feels so nice to be out there.  I'd heard the wind start blowing while I was still in bed and it seemed to be calling me.  I love windy days.

Veronica is all bundled up next to me and she quickly falls asleep.

The kids like being outside, but this is one of the first cold days we've had this fall.  Charlotte keeps telling me her hands are cold.  So we don't stay at the park for very long.

9:15 Lydia finds some leafs on the way home.  They are wet so I don't let her bring them in the house.  She starts bawling.  I put Veronica into her bed and turn on Cinderella for the kids.  Then I sit and hold Lydia so she can feel better.  

9:30 I'm able to get away and check my e-mail and facebook.

9:40 The kids all come into the kitchen and want to eat the pancakes that are left over from breakfast. I clean and straighten up the kitchen with they eat.  I also start some laundry.  

10:10 Charlotte wants to help me take out the garbage.  When we open the front door we discover that it is raining.  Good thing we already went to the park. 

10:15 Its Derrick's turn to need to be held.  I sit with him and finish watching Cinderella.

10:35  The movie is over.  Derrick gets off my lap and starts playing with the pink vacuum.  He LOVES to vacuum.  I made this little video to show how much he loves both the real and pretend vacuum.    

Charlotte helps me move the laundry over to the dryer and start washing a new load.

10:40 It's time for our "project" for the day. Today we make snowmen out of cotton balls.  Lydia is obsessed with snowmen. She's been making me draw pictures of snowmen for her for over a year.  The girls have fun making the snowmen.  Derrick just plays around.

11:00 Derrick starts flipping out because I wont let him touch the scissors.  So it's time for him to go take a nap.  I put him in his crib and give hi his "bedtime treat" of three goldfish crackers.  The girls want crackers too so they tell me they want to go to sleep too.  This is what I call the "fake nap," but it usually buys me about 20 minutes of quiet time so I always play along.  Lydia lays down in my bed, and Charlotte lays down on the window seat.  I give them their crackers and tell them to sleep well.

11:01 The fake nap is faker than usual today because as soon as I walk back into the kitchen I hear Lydia yell, "I SIT ON THE POTTY!"  She runs into her bathroom and Charlotte joins her.  One of them sits on the potty chair and the other climbs onto the toilet.  After they use the potty they each get a skittle.

I go back to straightening up the house.  Brandon had a three day weekend last week and we spent all of Friday cleaning the house so there isn't that much that I have to do today.  I'm trying to get the laundry room clean because its the only room I didn't get to on Friday.

But Charlotte and Lydia want my help putting together the Nativity Scene puzzle.  So I help with that.  And then we read a bunch of books together.  The girls start playing on their own. I sit on the couch and read on my computer while they play.

11:52 Charlotte poops in her pants.  We go into the bathroom and take care of that.  She tries to convince me that she still deserves a "pooping treat" (a bit size candy bar). I tell her that she needs to poop in the potty to earn one of those.

11:55 We start mopping the laundry room floor.

The girls take turns helping until one of them slips and falls. Then I take over.

12:10 We are done mopping.  Veronica is still asleep.

The girls play together in the living room.  A few months ago Charlotte started pretending that she had some puppies.  I think she got the idea from the movie 101 Dalmatians.  Here is a video of Lydia and Charlotte calling and then trying to catch the "tender puppies." 

12:20 Veronica wakes up.  I sit on the couch and feed her while the girls play with the Nativity Scene characters.  They hold them and talk to each other like they are each character.  They pretend that the stable is a boat.  Then they pretend that the laundry basket is a swimming pool.  It's so fun to watch the girls pretend together.

12:45 I'm done nursing.  Veronica falls back asleep and I put her in her chair.  The girls have moved into the toy room and I can hear them laughing together.  I get on my computer and relax by reading this blog about a mom's trip to the store with her 4 kids.  I can totally relate.

1:05 Somebody pees their pants and I have to take care of that.

1:15  We have a little lunch.  The girls still seem pretty full from all the pancakes they ate this morning so we just have peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

1:30 The girls start asking to lay down again.  So I put them in the separate rooms for fake nap number 2.

1:40 Fake nap is over.  I go in my room and start putting away laundry while they girls jump on my bed.

1:48 The girls need to use the potty again.

1:50 Veronica wakes up.  I'm trying to get all the laundry put away so Charlotte and Lydia entertain her while I hurry and finish the laundry.

2:10 Derrick wakes up. I get him out of his bed.  He doesn't seem hungry which is kind of out of character for him. But I can't worry about it because I need to finish the laundry and then feed Veronica.

2:20 Veronica is crying and the girls are starting to fight.  We all go into the living room and watch Wall-e while I nurse Veronica.  Lydia likes to stand on her head while she watched TV so I sit in one of the green chairs to avoid getting kicked in the face by her wiggling feet.

2:45 I'm done nursing.  I get on my computer and plan to work on the invitations to Veronica's blessing day, but as usual I get distracted by facebook.  That's okay because Veronica needs to nurse some more so I nurse her and type a message to a friend at the same time.

3:10 Charlotte and Lydia get into a huge fight over Veronica's binkie.  One of them is trying to suck on it and the other is trying to stop her.  I have to break them up and put them in separate rooms.  Lot of crying is involved. They calm down soon though.

3:35 Veronica is back asleep.  Derrick has been intently watching Wall-e this whole time.  I realize he never had a diaper change so I take care of that.

3:37  I find my phone for the first time all day and text Brandon.

3:40 I go into my room to put away the last little bit of laundry. Lydia come in and tells me that she peed on the floor.  I can't find where she peed and I want her to tell me where.  She wont tell me.  I get pretty upset at her because I want her to understand that we need to clean up her mess.  Then I realize that she has already cleaned it up.  I apologize for not understanding what she was trying to tell me.  I hold her and we watch some more Wall-e.

4:05 Wall-e is over.  The girls want to watch "Rabbit eats his carrot" (The short movie Presto) while eating carrots. Lydia puts her carrot onto her snowman and says, "it's his nose!"

4:15 I start making some pizza.  Charlotte gets really excited and runs into the food storage room to grab some olives.  She doesn't know what they are called, but she remembered buying them last time she went grocery shopping with Brandon.

4:35  Things start getting a little hectic.  Veronica wakes up, we are still rolling out bread sticks, and Derrick needs a diaper change. We hurry and finish up with the dough and put it on the oven to rise.  I change Derrick and then I sit on the couch to feed Veronica.

4:40 My plan was that we would sit on the couch and read while I nurse Veronica for 20 minutes.  But Derrick and Charlotte start fighting over what book to read first.  Lydia is still in the kitchen. Then she comes out and says, "I peed!"  She runs to get new underwear.  She brings them back so I can help her pull them up over her bum.  I do that while still trying to break up the fight between Derrick and Charlotte - oh and I'm still nursing Veronica.

4:50 Amist all the craziness I think I hear the jeep pull up in front of the house.  I tell myself it's just wishful thinking because Brandon hasn't been home before 5:00 in a long time.  But then I hear the car door slam.  And in a second he is walking through the door.

The kids immediately get happy again.  Brandon takes over finishing up the pizza while I feed Veronica and read to Derrick.  Derrick has certain books that he loves to "read."  He'll point to the pictures and say "AAHHHEEE!"  And I say what ever it is.  He especially loves pictures of turtles, balls, and balloons.  

5:30 We sit down to a wonderful pizza dinner.  The kids love helping make pizza, but they don't really like eating it.  That's why we make bread sticks because they will eat those.  

5:45 Charlotte starts falling asleep in her chair.  This is what happened the night before.

There is no way Brandon is letting Charlotte fall asleep yet so he immediately gets up and gets Charlotte and Lydia ready to go check the mail and go to the park.

I stay home with Derrick and Veronica.

Derrick pushes a chair over and starts climbing on the counter.  I put Veroncia down to get Derrick and she starts crying.  When I pick her up Derrick climbs up on the counter again.

After going back and forth between them a few times.  I decide to just put Veronica to bed.  So I hurry and swaddle her and put her in her crib with a binkie.  She goes to sleep.  Then I get Derrick off the counter again.  He starts flipping out.  No matter what I do to distract him he just stays mad at me.

I decide that since he's already mad this is a good time to give him a hair cut.  So I take him in my bathroom and cut his hair with the electric clippers.  He cries the whole time.  I'm pretty proud of the haircut.  This is the third time I've cut his hair and it's the first time I felt like I knew what I was doing.

Then I put him in my bathtub.  He poops pretty much right away so I move him into the other bathroom's tub.  

The girls come back from the park and jump in the tub with Derrick.  Brandon cleans the poop out of the other tub.

6:40  All the kids are clean and in pajamas.  We all go into the living room and start Scriptures and Prayers.  This is about an hour earlier than we normally do it, but everyone seems really tired.  We sing a hymn, read one chapter from the Book of Mormon, read a page from the conference edition of the Ensign, and write in journals. Recently we finished the March Ensign and started on the new November one.  You can't really tell in this picture, but the old Ensign is pretty dog eared and tattered.

7:00 We put the kids in their room and give them their goodfish cracker "bedtime treat." Lydia refuses to sleep in her crib so we make her a little bed on the floor with blankets.  Charlotte pretends to lay down in her bed, but we all know that is just an act.  We say a family prayer.  I sing one more song to the kids and give them hugs and kisses goodnight.  Derrick likes to give me a kiss through the bars of his crib.  

7:10 As soon as I shut the bedroom door I start getting ready to go shopping.  Veronica wakes up, but Brandon starts making her a bottle and tells me to get going.  I grab my purse, keys, and phone and go out to the jeep.  Charlotte and Lydia open their bedroom window and say, "Bye Mom!" and "Where are you go?" while pushing their heads up against the scene.  I tell them I'm going grocery shopping.  They wave goodbye while I drive away.

First I drive into Killeen and go to the Hobby Lobby and Office Max to buy some things for Christmas cards and presents.  Then I drive back to Copperas Cove.  I stop off at my friend Heather's house and pick up some Disney princess costumes that she is selling.  I'm planning on giving them to the girls for Christmas.  Finally I go grocery shopping and put gas in the jeep at HEB.

9:45 Brandon says that the kids all went to sleep really easily.  He's spent the evening tracking down people to act as references on his security clearance paper work that is part of the Warrant Officer application (yes we are still working on that.)  Normally we would watch an episode or two of Psych, but he is still working on the 20 pages of paperwork.  I jump online and play around while he works.  I also message and e-mail a few of our college friends to ask then if they will be references.  

Veronica wakes up at some point and a feed her.

11:00 I put Veronica to bed.  She'll end up sleeping for the next 8 hours! (Please let this continue.)

11:15 Brandon and I finish up online and go to bed.

4:50 Brandon gets up and gets ready for work.

5:20 He kisses me goodbye and leaves for work.  

6:45 Lydia comes into my room and asks me for breakfast.  And the whole day starts all over again.

Thankful Thursday: Week One

It's the first Thursday of November so here is a list of the people I've written a Thank You Note to each day this month.

This is kind of a hard post to write.  I don't want to sound like I'm bragging about being such a great person by writing thank you notes.  I just want to list who I've written and why.

Friday, November 1 - Brandon was the first person I knew I had to thank this month.  He is the best part of my life.  I rely on him so much.  He does so much for me and for our family - especially during these last few weeks.

So I wrote him a long note to tell him how much I appreciate everything he does.  Then I left it on the kitchen counter for him to find.

Saturday, November 2 - On my very first Sunday here in Texas I met a girl from my hometown.  Sarah and I found out that we were in the same graduating class and even went to the same high school for a semester, but we never met back then.  It's a shame that we didn't because she is very nice.  So nice in fact, that she passed on her piano to me when she moved out of state.  She even took care of figuring out how to transport the piano to my house.

I wrote her a quick facebook message thanking her for the piano, and for being my first friend in the ward.

Sunday, November 3 - When I was single I lived with my Aunt Vera for a school year.  She had an across the street neighbor named Lindsey.  Lindsey had 3 little boys and was pregnant with a girl when I met her.  I spent a lot of time in singles wards after I moved out of my parents' house so she was one of the few mothers that I knew during my early 20s. Even after I was married I didn't know many other women who had kids yet - and the ones I did know only had one or two little babies. So Lindsey always stands out in my memory as what an experienced mother is like.

I wrote her a facebook message listing several of the things she said and did that I remember. I told her how those things that she unknowingly taught me help me with my own kids.

Monday, November 4 - My neighbor Marlene was a big help to me when we lived in Bountiful and Brandon was at basic training.  She'd often come over and watch the kids when I needed a quick break.  I remember one day in particular when I reached a point where I just couldn't deal with the kids anymore.  I looked out my window and saw Marlene in the common area between apartment buildings.  I asked her to come in and watch my kids while I took a walk around the complex to relax.  She came in right away and entertained the kids with videos on her phone until I came back.

I wrote her a quick facebook message thanking her for being a great neighbor.

Tuesday, November 5 - Brandon was the ward mission leader when I was pregnant with Derrick.  One day the Sister Missionaries were over at our house and they asked if we needed anything.  I jokingly told them that I needed my bathroom cleaned.  They readily offered to clean it. Their service helped me know that I could ask people for help with things that I needed.

Thanks to the magic of social media I'm friends with one of the sisters on facebook.  So I messaged Celinda and thanked her for her service.

Wednesday, November 6 - This was probably the most overdue thank you note that I wrote all week.  16 years ago I had the time of my life at my first year of girls camp.  And it was all due to one leader in particular - Sharon.  She was so much fun.  We played pranks and did silly things that she came up with.  A few years ago I wrote a blog post about all the things that went on that year.  And it really got me thinking how many of those memories I owed to Sharon.

I (you guessed it) wrote her a facebook message and told her how much fun I had. I also included the link to my blog post.  (You can read it here.)


Well that's it for this week.  If you are participating in this whole Thankful Thursday Thank You Note Thing go ahead and leave a comment with who you thanked and why.  Or you can leave a comment with a link to your own blog post about who you thanked.

And it's never too late to start.  So if you haven't written a thank you note yet just grab a pen and paper (or jump on facebook) and write someone.  It's an easy way to brighten someones day.

Love Story: Part Three - November

I met Brandon at the beginning of September 2006.  By the end of the month we had already had our first kiss followed by our first DTR (Defining The Relationship) talk.  In that talk he told me that he wasn't interested in a relationship, but we could still be friends.  

Brandon made good on that promise and our friendship developed throughout the month of October.  We started at least seeing each other every day.  I could tell that Brandon wanted to kiss me again, but all he did was hold my hand and cuddle with me.  At the end of the month Brandon went to Salt Lake for a visit home.  He didn't call me the whole weekend.  I was afraid that he would come back from that weekend and tell me that he didn't want to spend as much time with me anymore.

I shouldn't have worried.  We hung out again on his first day back in Logan.  Hanging out usually consisted of doing homework at his house, making dinner together, watching a movie (while cuddling), and then walking back to my apartment.  We still had some late nights, but usually I went home around midnight. 

I was pretty certain that I would see Brandon everyday so I didn't feel a need to keep postponing going home each night.  I also stopped inventing reasons to go to his apartment every day.  In the early days of our friendship I'd make sure I left something at his apartment so I'd have a reason to call him up and talk to him again. But now I felt comfortable calling him and saying, "hey, I'm bored can I come over?"

And I was legitimately bored quite often.  I had two roommates who I didn't really click with.  They were both nice, but I didn't relate to them enough to want to hang out with them.  I had some friends who I did hang out with occasionally, but they had jobs, homework, and relationships of their own.  Ultimately Brandon was the only person I wanted to spend time with on a regular basis.  He was, after all, the man I wanted to marry.      

I had been praying to know whether or not it was a good use of my time to keep spending time with Brandon.  The last thing I wanted to do was waste my time on a guy that I shouldn't be with.  One day, while taking a shower, I was thinking about Brandon.  The thought came to my mind, "it's okay to pursue him."  The word pursue was especially fitting since I was the one who usually had to take the initiative and call him up (though he would call me too).  

My plan was to spend time with Brandon and have fun.  I figured that eventually he'd either get sick of me - in which case I'd move on - or he'd realize that he wanted to marry me.  Either way he was such a great guy that I didn't feel I was wasting my time.

Our relationship took a big step forward the evening of November 3rd.  It was a Friday night and as usual I was over at Brandon's apartment.  We made chocolate chip cookies and then watched a movie or two.  After the movies ended I didn't go home.  Instead Brandon and I kept talking and cuddling on his super uncomfortable and misnamed "love seat."   

As the hours went by I was aware of two things.  1.  I'd dropped a few chocolate chips down my shirt by accident when we were making cookies.  I never had a chance to get them out without Brandon noticing.  I could feel them melting against my skin.  But 2. I could sense that Brandon really wanted to kiss me so I didn't plan on going anywhere until he made his move.  

Around 4:00 am Brandon and I were still awake and talking to each other.  We had wedged ourselves into a somewhat comfortable position laying next to each other on the love seat.  Our lips were incredibly close together, I wanted to kiss him so badly, but I wanted him to kiss me first.  I needed him to know that he had initiated the kiss.  So I just kept talking to him as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.    

And then he kissed me!  We would later refer to it as our "second first kiss."  I don't remember much about it other than I was so happy that it had finally happened.  By kissing me Brandon was signaling that he was willing be more than just friends with me.  

Brandon and I stayed on the love seat the rest of the night. We kissed some more, but mostly we just tried to sleep on that awful couch.  I was a little worried about staying the whole night at his house, but I knew that I wouldn't let anything progress beyond kissing.  I'd made up my mind on that matter long before meeting Brandon.  And I had a mess of melted chocolate chips down my shirt.     

The kiss had changed things between us, but I wasn't Brandon's girlfriend yet.  Instead we'd moved to the "friends with benefits" status.  I had always been leery of this status with other guys.  But Brandon was different.  For one I knew that there was no way he had any other girls on the side.  He spent way too much time with me for there to be any other serious prospects out there.  In fact, the day after our second first kiss he was walking me home and said something like, "so we are planning on seeing each other every day right?"

A few days later Brandon took me for a drive up Logan Canyon.  We stopped at Third Dam and got out of the car.  We went for a walk but there was snow everywhere so we ended up just sitting on a picnic table.

"So where do you see our relationship going?"  Brandon asked me.

"Well, don't get scared, but if you asked me to marry you I would say yes."  I answered candidly.

"Well, I'm not asking you."  Brandon hurried and said.

"I'm not asking you to."  I explained, "I just thought you should know how I feel."

After that was out in the open we had a talk about what we thought our relationship should be.  We opened up and were completely honest about how we felt about each other.  Neither of us wanted to waste time in a relationship playing coy little cat and mouse games with our feelings.  Brandon was still a little commitment shy, but I understood his reasons better.  He'd been in a relationship before that had been bad for him and he wanted to make sure things were going well between us before getting in too deep.  He was also trying to focus on school and flying, and he didn't want to get too involved with someone who would interfere with those things.

By the end of the  DTR (Defining The Relationship) talk we had decided to not become boyfriend and girlfriend yet.  Instead we'd continue with the whole "friends with benefits" thing for a while and see where it went.

Where it went turned out to be a lot of "boyfriend/girlfriend" type things. During the next 10 days we did the following: My new furniture finally showed up and Brandon helped move it into my apartment.  We went to a Girls' Choice institute dance together.  Brandon gave me a ride and hung out with me at my friend's bridal shower.  We signed up for tithing settlement with appointments right next to each other.  We organised the ward Activities Committee closet supplies.  Brandon took me on a drive to see his family's property in Eden.  I met Brandon's family and went to his sister's baby shower.  He met my family and went to my sister's high school musical performance.

In Eden

Brandon was in charge of a linger longer after church on Sunday November 19th.  It was a huge Thanksgiving dinner type event that involved lots of turkey and other Thanksgiving food.  There was also a pie making contest.  Brandon and I had made a pumpkin pie together.  It won "best tasting."  I later confessed that I didn't like pumpkin pie, and Brandon wondered why I had helped him make one.

After the linger longer was all cleaned up I met up with Brandon at his apartment.  Somehow we ended up laying on the floor and talking together.  I mentioned that everyone in the ward thought we were an official couple.  Brandon said something like, "well we do spend a lot of time together." We started talking about our relationship again.  I brought up the point that since everyone thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend we might as well be boyfriend and girlfriend.  Brandon thought about it for a minute and then he agreed.

He also told me that he loved me.  He said, "I don't LOVE you, but I love you."  I told him I felt the same way.  

This picture was either taken right after Brandon agreed that we should be a couple, or after he told me he loved me.  Either way I was pretty happy.

A few days later we went down to Salt Lake together for Thanksgiving.  One of the great things about our relationship was that our parents only lived 15 minutes away from each other.  So we were able to spend a lot of time together over Thanksgiving break.  Since we were such a new couple neither of us felt comfortable inviting the other to our Thanksgiving dinner.  But I went over to his house on Wednesday night and he came over to mine for pie and games on Thursday night.  We also hung out together on Friday.  And on Saturday we went to a hockey game with his sister and brother in law and their friends.    

The Monday after Thanksgiving we went to Brandon's FHE "Family Home Evening" activity.  (I never once went to my assigned "family."  I always tagged along with Brandon.)  It was a pie eating contest and Brandon won for eating the fastest.  It was our first ward activity as an official couple, but I don't think anyone noticed anything different.

Everything was going great in our relationship.  But at the end of the month I had a tiny problem.  It was Brandon's birthday and I had no idea what to get him for a present.  I ended up giving him what I considered to be "our song."  It was "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flats.  I felt like it perfectly described my search for someone as great as Brandon.

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you
It was a good present, but it would be 6 years before I felt like I gave Brandon the birthday he deserved.

On Brandon's birthday we went to Burger King (it really was the only place we ever wanted to eat out) and then went for a walk up and down Main street.  We had fun looking at all the displays and window shopping.  It was a perfect evening with glittery snow falling lightly. As we passed Levan's Bridal I stopped dead.  There in the display window was my dream wedding dress.  I pointed it out to Brandon and told him, "I've never seen a dress that I liked as much as that one."

Brandon said something like, "maybe it's a sign."  I think he meant it to be teasing, but it came out sounding rather serious.  Then Brandon seemed a little embarrassed for bringing up marriage.  I knew that we still had a long way to go before he would be ready to talk about that type of commitment.

Click here to find out what happened next.

Putting up the tree - already

Normally we don't put up the Christmas tree and other decorations until after Brandon's birthday at the end of November. But this year we are planning on being in Utah for half of December.  So it didn't seem right to wait to decorate and then only enjoy it for a few weeks.  Plus Charlotte has been after me to put up the tree again ever since our stuff showed up in January.  This was the soonest I was willing to put out the decorations.  

Here is Lydia showing off a sparkly ornament while modeling our heirloom tree skirt.  

Brandon put the tree together.  We've had this tree since we were dating.  All the lights burned out last year so the lights are new this year.

The girls thought the tree was so cool.  Charlotte kept saying, "I LOVE this tree."

After the tree was up we all laid under it and looked up at the lights.  This is my favorite tradition.  We always say that we are each other's best Christmas presents.  This is another thing that Brandon and I have done since we were dating.

Derrick wasn't too happy about the tradition.

Lydia took this picture of Veronica.

Then we set up all the other decorations.  Here I am showing one of the manger scenes to the kids.

And then I put it up high where it will be safe - and not a moment too soon.  Derrick learned that he liked clapping the figurines together.

We also set up a little Thanksgiving display.

Here is a little train decoration I got last year, but didn't have a chance to put up until this year.

This is my favorite manger scene.

We put the stocking up like this.  I'm still deciding if I like them here.  I kind of want to move them so they are above the piano.  Charlotte found an old piece of taffy in the toe of her stocking.

The kids liked playing with everything, but most of it wasn't very kid proof.  Thank goodness we have this wooden nativity scene that Brandon's mom painted 13 years ago in anticipation of the day that her future grandkids would want to play with it.

The girls got pretty good at putting the pieces back together.

And here is what the tree looks like.  The girls spent the evening decorating and undecorating the tree over and over again with the few ornaments that I let them touch.  Most of our ornaments were hand painted by Brandon's mom.  There is no way I'm letting the kids play with them.  This year I have plans for some sort of advent calender where each kid gets one ornament out each day.  I think we will hand the ornaments from hooks high up on the wall again.  But I still need to get that all set up.  

The weather has turned a little bit colder here so it sort of seems appropriate to put up the tree.  But it mostly feels weird to have it up already.  The trees outside have barely started loosing their leafs.

But the girls are so happy to have the tree up, and that makes it okay.