Such a busy month, where to begin is really the question.

Week 1 of October
The first week of October was conference, we really enjoyed the various talks and of course attending church wearing jammies from the comfort of the couch wasn’t too shabby. I personally enjoyed the straight-forwardness of several of the talks, especially about the Book of Mormon and following commandments. During this week we also went to “Wee Witches” which is a little fun festival for kids with activities, prizes, games, etc – and of course lots of people dressed up like witches.

Week 2 of October
The second week of the month our ward had the primary program which I helped to plan, along with the rest of the primary presidency. To be honest I have only seen maybe 3 programs total so planning it was a little interesting to say the least. I honestly wish I would have written the program in April or May when I had a ton of time on my hands. The program went very well though and the kids all knew their lines and sang beautifully! Karsten also turned 3 months this week! At the 3 month mark he is approximately 26.5 inches long and about 13 pounds – chunk chunk.

Week 3
The third week of the month I started teaching an online class for Salt Lake Community College in event planning, so far it has been fun. I have 30 students in the class and each seems to be there for a different reason and have very different backgrounds so it makes for a lively course. At the end of the week we went to our ward’s trunk or treat where I dressed up as a witch and Karsten was a dragon!

Week 4
I celebrated my birthday – yippie! Ryan and I went out to dinner and I had crab cakes and prawns while he had Mahi Mahi (YUM). After dinner we saw the movie Couples Retreat, it was pretty funny. While we were out on a date Karsten hung out with his friends Brooke and Boston…and of course their mom and dad. The next night (Friday) Karsten and I hung out with Brooke and Boston again so their mommy and daddy could have a date. Karsten loves to watch the bigger kids and he especially likes to watch Boston who is walking and only 9 months older than him.

We had our first snow this week (yuck) and I am happy to report that most of the snow melted within a few days. The mountain tops have snow on them but our little mountain and the valley do not have any snow left.

Of course the last week of October also means it is time for Halloween, we carved pumpkins…well Karsten watched while mommy carved, I made butternut squash soup and apple pork-chops for dinner, we handed out candy to all of the 8 kids who came to our house, and Karsten sported his fun costume.

On the night from the 30th to the 31st Karsten also slept through the night for 10.5 hours for the very first time! He didn’t repeat this the next night because he caught a cold…and was up every once and a while last night. It is so sad to hear him cough and sneeze. My little man has his first cold.

In general
Karsten’s favorite things to do this month:
1.Talk and coo – he loves to just talk talk talk
2.Eat it – if he can hold it he wants to eat it
3.Cuddle – in the mornings he really isn’t ready to get up yet but when daddy leaves for school he starts to whine a little so I put him next to me on the bed and he goes right back to sleep
4.Sit in the Bumbo or the swing – he loves to sit up and play with his toys or watch the television….he loves the tv
5.Take baths – he gets super excited when I give him a bath, it is really cute
6.Sticking out his tongue – a relatively new development but very cute
7.Suck on his hand – occasionally he wants a binky but most of the time he is just content to suck on his hand or have a “food dream” where he just sucks on his tongue while he is asleep or drifting off
8. Pulling the blanket over his head - for some reason he just loves to do this

Karsten is just about grown out of his 3-6 month clothes, he isn’t chunky enough for the 6-9 month stuff but he is more than long enough. If his 3-6 month stuff has feet he is now too long for it and even some that don’t have feet end up looking like capris instead of pants. What is funny to me is that waist wise he still fits into pants that are 0-3 months but shirts, onesizes, need to be 3-6 months and sleepers, and coveralls need to be 6-9 months….kid you crack me up.

The BEST development this month for me….getting to open the boxes of clothes that have been in storage waiting for me to be able to fit into them – YEAH – I have a whole new wardrobe…again!

October Pictures

Playing Around

Recently we bought Karsten a play mat and he absolutely loves it. After one day he started grabbing, hitting, and kicking all of the little toys on the bars. Plus he was feeling all of the materials on the mat. We have also seen him get so incredibly excited as he plays on this mat, kicks to make the music come on, pulls toys that jiggle, and puts things in his mouth (okay not too thrilled about this but hey I know it is normal). I think out of all the different things I have bought, this is what Karsten likes the most thus far.

Today we also went to an event called Wee Witches with a friend, and her kids. Wee Witches is a Halloween-ish event that takes place at a little shopping village with these ultra cute boutiques. There are “witches” all over the place live, in decorations, etc. The village even does hay rides to witch houses that are in a field near the village. The kids also have a kid’s parade, which is super cute. After visiting the boutiques I definitely want to go back and if anyone comes to visit I have added this to my must go to list…so please make the request to go to Gardener Village if you come up for a visit. When we went I dressed Karsten up as a pirate, in a little outfit we already had since I don’t have his Halloween costume yet. It was a bit cold today, all of about 55 degrees, so he looks a little confused and out of it in the pictures…they had loud music on which he found a bit distracting and it was chilly and I had just taken his jacket off before we took pictures.

What's been up with the Westlakes

We have been having such a busy month. Karsten is growing like a weed! At 2 months old our little man is 12 pounds 9 ounces and 24.25 inches long, putting him in the 95th percentile for height and 80th percentile for weight! Karsten loves to play on his super soft blankets. He has been practicing grabbing toys, his favorites include his linking rings (LOVES those), his elephant, his peek-a-boo rattle, monster rattle, and of course his teddy. Recently Karsten has taken up sucking on his hand…or a few fingers, depends on his mood as well as blowing bubbles with his spit. Karsten has also mastered the social smile – so darn cute, it makes it hard to get upset with him, even when he wants to stay up until 2am! Yes, he is our little party animal and although most nights he makes it to sleep by midnight or 1am on occasion he likes to live it up until 2am…this makes for a very tired mommy. One awesome development has also been Karsten’s willingness to sleep in his bassinet…I had to cover the little mattress with a soft blanket but once I did…BAM right to sleep in the thing….amazing! So we have learned that like his mommy, Karsten loves soft blankets and is stubborn enough to not settle for anything but the softest, even if that means keeping everyone else up or annoyed.

Speaking of things that “annoy” I have decided that I hate it when babies poop and it goes out the diaper…this is so gross and I feel like hosing down my kid when this happens, granted it doesn’t happen a lot but it is still gross.

In other news, Ryan has been back to school for a few weeks now and he is settling into his study routine. He has been working on Friday nights and one Saturday a month this year in addition to interning and going to school (40 hours a week) so he has been super busy. But as the awesome daddy that he is he makes time to play with Karsten for a little while each day – which I admit is super cute. Yesterday they sat on the couch and watched college football (not the BYU game mind you…we don’t get Vs. even though we have Comcast). Ryan taught Karsten about the drugs he was studying during down time in the game…I swear our kid’s first word is going to be a drug…can you see it “Ambien, Zoloft, Nuvaring, Symbacort” ---I can see the confused faces of parents now.

Recently I have also been trying some new things. I have been teaching myself to can various things like fruits, jams, baby food, etc. I have also discovered that I like the show Desperate Housewives (I know, cheesy but it makes me like that I have DVR because it airs on Sundays) and that I really cannot function on 3 hours of sleep like I could in college and high school….gone are the days when I could stay up all night and still have a productive day. Another new thing I have recently taken up is comparison shopping and coupons. I have always known that if I took the time to look at the ads and clip coupons that I could save money and stock up on things when they are cheap but I never had the patience….well I finally decided to give it a go. Amazingly we now have food storage, our freezer is full (yes like things will fall out if you don’t put them back in their exact place), and I can make Ryan’s lunch for under $1 per day..and no he isn’t eating Ramon noodles! I have also discovered that buying cereal for less than a dollar per box is fairly easy…and can save a lot of money, not that cereal is that expensive but hey I want that extra dollar or two for something else. Lastly, I have found that if I watch the Food Network while feeding Karsten in the morning that I can learn how to cook at least one new meal each day --- this has been kind of fun and helps me to plan the following week’s menu.

Well here are some pictures of our little, not so little, man! Sadly this week he has grown out of his 0-3 month clothes pretty much…while I am excited to have him sporting his new little 3-6 month outfits it makes me sad that he is growing so fast.

So Karsten loves his burp cloths for some reason, I swear they are like a safety blanket.

Picture: Karsten kind of making what we call "kissy face"...and his gasta pose. LOL.

Karsten and grandpa Rich

Karsten and Margaret

Karsten and great=grandpa Roberts

Karsten & Zack rockin' out

Our little man

All smiles

This is me not screaming

So you think you can sleep huh?

me and mommy

maybe I will smile

gotcha of course I will

mmmmm my boppy

I love my rubber ducky!

My First playdate...Eli and Karsten

Father and son time

Karsten and aunt Crystal

Takimg a nap in the backyard at home

Here we are after the blessing at Ryan's parents' house

Baby Blessing...same outfit Ryan wore..."ages" ago

I have no belly button...wait yes I do!

Bumbo aka Baby Lazyboy

Chilling with grampy Westlake

Karsten and great-grandma Westlake...in Idaho.

Updates
So I have decided that over the past few weeks I have been bad at updating our blog. I have felt busy, I am sure because we have been busy, so here’s a review of the past few weeks with the Westlakes.

3 Year Anniversary
Ryan and I made it to the 3 year mark on August 4th! We celebrated a week later by splurging on Dairy Queen, My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, and “chatting” like teenagers while “parking.” So looking back over the past 3 years I would say our celebrations have been very different….year 1: I took Ryan to the Melting Pot for dinner ($$$), he bought me jewelry and flowers ($$$); year 2: we celebrated early and went on a 7 day cruise to Mexico then out to eat to Macaroni Grill the day of ($$$); year 3, lunch and a snack, plus parking…free baby-sitter ($). Interesting evolution.

Ryan’s Parents Visiting
Just before Karsten turned 2 weeks, Ryan’s parents as well as his younger brother and sister came to visit us. We enjoyed having everyone over, holding the baby, and digging in on some BBQ chicken. For some reason I cooked enough BBQ to feed like 30 people…I think my ability to portion must have left me along with sleep and my sanity.

Trip to Idaho & 2 Year Check up
Stats at 2 weeks: 8 pounds 8 ounces and 21.75 inches

When Karsten was exactly 2 weeks old we went in for his 2 week check up…where the doctor does the 2nd PKU blood test…well the medical assistant who did the test didn’t exactly put the band-aid on securely and Karsten bled all over my shirt, his carseat, and himself…boy was I glad I packed a second shirt in the diaper bag because we were headed to Idaho straight from the doctor’s office. The band-aid incident as I like to call it might have been payback for Karsten attempting to poop on the doctor…icky.

We took the scenic route to Ryan’s grandma’s house through Bear Lake where we dined on YUMMY fresh raspberry shakes, a delicacy I highly suggest indulging on when visiting the area. The Bear Lake area was a whole 70 degrees as a high the day we visited and to be honest it was a rather welcome cool off. I believe 70 degrees year round would be just perfect, not too hot, not too cold.

While visiting Ryan’s family in Idaho we introduced Karsten to Ryan’s grandma as well as a host of uncles, aunts, and cousins. Ryan’s parents were also visiting his grandma while we were there and Karsten took a lovely 2 hour nap on “grandpa” Westlake’s tummy (Ryan’s dad). During the evening we headed over to Ryan’s uncle Albert’s house where we got to meet his new wife, Merri, Karsten loved snuggling with her. We had a yummy Dutch oven cook out and introduced Karsten to the horses as well as lots of family.

Trip to AZ
Estimated weight at 4 weeks: 10 pounds

Right before Karsten hit the 4 week mark we embarked on a trip to Arizona to visit family and for Karsten’s blessing. We decided to bless Karsten in Ryan’s parent’s ward as opposed to our own so that we could invite friends and family to attend and help out. We drove down on Saturday….Karsten was great for about 10 and a half hours of the 11 hour trip but he lost it and decided he was done with his carseat the last half hour.

Sunday we blessed Karsten, surrounded by friends and family (thank you to the worthy priesthood holders who came and stood in the circle) as well as a BIG thank you to the friends and family who came. The blessing may have only taken a few minutes but for me I think time stopped. Karsten wore Ryan’s blessing outfit for the occasion, after 25 years it still looked cute as can be (thank you to the dry cleaner down the street)…okay I am totally biased.

Since having Karsten my back has been sore on occasion, scratch that it goes into spasms that are horribly painful for hours on end (ouch). Saturday night after driving up my back decided to spasm…ouchy. So for most of the week I tried to deal with a super sore back. No more sleeping on the couch for me (for about 2.5 weeks prior to the trip I had been sleeping on our couch with Karsten because he would not sleep very often if he was not being held and because he is/was bottle feeding so I had to pump and feed him every few hours…since the couch is next to the kitchen it just made sense to sleep downstairs). Thank you to Courtney for letting us barrow her room and bed (again), it made a huge difference for me and really helped me feel a lot better over the course of the week. But of course when we headed back home on Saturday my back started hurting again….but so far this has been the most painful and annoying part of having a baby.

We were thrilled to be able to hang out with friends and family while in AZ, thanks to all who visited with us and let us visit with you! Karsten was thrilled to meet his “baby” buddies Eli, Zack, David, and Brian as well as his older toddler friends Kaylin, Shane, and Gabby. Karsten is also looking forward to coming back to meet the babies who are on their way as well as those he didn’t get to meet….social little guy already!