BBQ and Elvis

That's what first comes to mind when I think of my uncle Gaylen. He is my mom's older brother, and he passed away last week after a brief battle with cancer in his kidneys and lungs. His funeral is today, and I'm sad we can't be there with the rest of my mom's family. He is the first of any of my parents' siblings to pass away, which is a little difficult to think about.
When I was little, I remember him managing BBQ restaurants and at family reunions, he was always the resident BBQ expert. He also loved all things Elvis. From my perspective as a kid, he seemed kind of gruff at times, but he was also a jokster, too. Now, as an adult, I remember him as a fun-loving, faithful and loving person, and a very hard worker. We will greatly miss him!

Thanksgiving Weekend Adventures

We had a fun and full Thanksgiving weekend with my parents coming for a visit. Our fun times started Wednesday evening when Adam and I started making rolls and pies.







We made five pies (Pratt family tradition to have one for each person): lemon meringue, pumpkin, apple, cherry and chocolate orange mousse (not pictured).




















The cooking continued Thursday morning and went on all day long. It was fun to be with Adam in the kitchen all day, making the various Thanksgiving dishes that we love so much. The aches and pains that go along with being 8 months pregnant slowed down my cooking mojo a bit, but we still had a good time and got everything ready.

The brined turkey, ready for baking.

The turkey after baking, perfectly browned on the outside and nice and juicy on the inside. YUM!



My parents arrived at about 5:30 that night and helped us get the final details ready for dinner. First, though, was the doting on the grandchild, of course.















Josh looks at a puzzle and book that Grandma brought.

And finally it was time to eat! Everything was delicious, especially the garlic mashed potatoes, which made me happy just eating them.

The rest of my parents' visit was filled with shopping, putting up a wallpaper border in Josh's room, putting together the baby's crib set, going for walks to the park with Grandma and Grandpa, going to the Riverwalk to see the Christmas lights, playing games, putting up our Christmas decorations, building block towers with Daddy and Grandpa, finding the house that served as the mission home when my Grandpa was the mission president of the Texas San Antonio Mission about 30 years ago, making Christmas candy, and making a blanket for the baby.













































































































































My parents had to leave Tuesday afternoon. We are so glad they were able to come visit for Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun times and enjoyed every minute of it.

30 weeks down...

...10 to go!

Besides having a hard time getting over this cold this past week, this pregnancy has been going great. I'm getting into the "big and uncomfortable" stage, and I definitely feel it. That and being tired all the time, but that is normal at this stage, too. We are getting more and more excited to have a little baby girl soon, even though sometimes it doesn't seem real to me yet that we're going to have another baby in a few months. I'm sure the reality check will hit me soon enough!

Happy Halloween!

We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat activity tonight, and Josh got to show off his mad ninja skills. Adam took him around and I manned the candy giveaway at our car. Josh did well for 7 or 8 cars, holding his candy bucket and saying "thank you" (he hasn't quite conquered "trick-or-treat" just yet), but then he lost interest pretty quickly. He sure was cute, though, even if he wasn't a fan of his headband.




Let's go get some candy, Daddy!



























The ninja thrives in his natural habitat.




















Somber ninja is in a reflective mood.








Happy Halloween everyone!

MMMM...mmmm...

That must have been one good cookie!

Are you ready for some football?

Why yes, I think we are. Especially now that Joshua has his new sweatshirt.

The crappy thing about watching the NFL in Texas is that they mostly show the Texan and Cowboys games. Boo! The only merchandise available in the stores is for the Cowboys. Boo! I miss being able to watch the Seahawks every week, even if they aren't doing very well this year. Just because I live in Texas now, I'm not about to become a Cowboys fan. I asked my brother if they were still selling Seahawks sweatshirts at Walmart, and he was nice enough to send one to Joshua. (Thanks again!)

Now, if only the weather would cool down some more, it might actually get to be sweatshirt weather :)

He says it better than I could

A friend of mine posted a link to this article on Facebook yesterday, and I wish I had read it before I did my post yesterday. I love it. It seems like everyone in this area was against letting their children listen to President Obama's speech yesterday, and that just boggles my mind. I really like the points this guy makes in his article about how not every president was perfect, but there are things about each of them that make them a good role model. President Obama is a great role model for the power of education and working hard, and I think we can appreciate that aspect of his life, even if we don't agree with all of his policies.

A few thoughts...

Note: I rarely wax political. OK, I never wax political, but lately I have felt a need to find my own opinions in certain matters, and I'm slowly starting to find them. I believe everyone has the right to believe what they want to believe. I don't mean to attack anyone or their beliefs. I'm just trying to figure out what my beliefs are.

This has been a very politically charged year or so, and I usually try to stay out of politics. It doesn't really interest me, and the people that do talk about politics are the ones who are passionate about it, and I don't share that passion, so I feel unqualified to contribute to the conversation. When people around me are talking about politics, they ask me if I'm interested in politics, and I usually say no, not really. I think the problem is that I don't know where I fit in. The political conversation is usually dominated by politically polarized people, and I am somewhere in the middle. I am definitely conservative in my views, but I hesitate to use the word "Republican" because lately that word seems to have the connotation that you worship Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, and frankly whenever I hear one of their rabid followers talking about the government conspiracies and whatnot, I look at them incredulously and shout in my head, "Do you know how crazy you sound???" I am not a Democrat, either, and I think the people on the far left sound just as crazy as the people on the far right.

So I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't like confrontation. I don't like to be part of debates, either, because I don't have the facts to back up my thoughts and ideas, so I feel like I have nothing to argue with. That's OK, though, because I don't want to argue. I haven't really studied President Obama's policies, so I don't know if I would fully agree with them or not, but I don't think he is evil, either.

A word I've been hearing a lot lately is "socialism." Republicans seem to be afraid of President Obama's socialistic tendencies. Again, I haven't studied his policies, so I have no opinion of whether he has socialistic tendencies or not. This is just what I have noticed from the news and from hearing people around me talk about it. As I've thought about it, I don't think socialism itself works as a economic system, and I think history has shown that socialist and communist systems ultimately fail. But I can't disagree with the underlying basic principles of a socialistic system. From my brief study of socialism this morning (I looked it up on Wikipedia), I can generalize the basic principles to be individuals working together for the betterment of the whole society. This sounds like a good idea to me. Again, I don't think it works as a government-run economic system, but I believe when Christ comes again and rules on the Earth, the Law of Consecration will basically be individuals sacrificing what they have for the building up of the Kingdom of God on the Earth. In essence, individuals working together for the betterment of the whole society. I believe these ideas can and will work with Christ at the head.

Specifically today, those afraid of socialism are very worried that President Obama's speech to the kids in school today will be oozing with socialism. I've read the speech, and I just don't see it. I see a president who is worried about the future of this nation, as well he should be, and I see him encouraging students to stay in school, don't make excuses, and work hard to be successful. The future of our nation depends on the kids who are in school now. That's a scary thought.

So, there's some of my infantile thoughts on politics. (I mean infantile in that I feel like an infant in the world of politics, and my opinions are in their beginning stages.) For some reason, I feel the need to express them and get them on (virtual) paper. If I don't, I think they will rattle around in my brain forever until they get an outlet.

Ahhh, parenting...

Being the parent of a 2-year-old, I've had many opportunities to try and teach Josh what behaviors are correct and which ones are not so appropriate. Whichever discipline methods you choose, you hope you are successful in teaching correct behaviors and not just scarring your kids emotionally for life.

Recently I've had occasion to reflect on this part of being a parent, and I was overcome with awe and responsibility as I thought about the trust Heavenly Father puts in us when He sends His spirit children to us. It is amazing to me that He trusts His children with people (us) who have so little knowledge and experience compared to Him. He knows full well that we are just learning, too, and will make mistakes with His children, but still He created His plan so that we all learn together, parents and children.

I hope this makes sense. Sometimes it's hard for me to put feelings into words. I just know that I want to be a better parent, especially with another child coming soon, and I pray for guidance from my Father in Heaven that I can correctly teach His children that He has entrusted to me so that they can grow up to be responsible and well-balanced people.

Josh!

I thought I would post some pictures of Josh since I just got his 2-year-old pictures done.



Josh has been doing well with the move to Texas. Before we left, Adam found a toddler bed on craigslist for a good deal and when we moved in to our new house, we set up the toddler bed in Josh's room. He's been doing pretty well with it. For the first few nights, he would get out of bed and play with the closet doors, the door stop, and anything else he could find in the room. Eventually he would fall asleep. After a couple nights, though, the curiosity wore off and he was able to stay in bed and fall asleep pretty quickly.



Josh has been growing and growing. He loves to run around like a monkey and play with his toys, especially his cars. His speech is improving and he is able to repeat more words lately. His doctors have told us that he will probably need speech therapy to overcome the delay in making certain sounds due to his cleft palate. He is learning his colors and is really good at blue and orange. He can recite his numbers from 1 - 10, but for some reason he always skips 7. He still LOVES Blues Clues ("Bah Poo") and has started shouting out when he sees a clue ("a poo, a poo").



He eats the crusts of his sandwiches first, and sometimes won't eat the rest of the sandwich. He won't eat ice cream. He used to not like cookies, either, but recently he's changed his mind on that. Sometimes I don't know where he came from (who ever heard of not liking ice cream!), but he's a cutie and we love him. I especially love his giggles. It makes up for the frustrating times that come with being the parent of a 2-year-old.

Surprise!

One of the worries I had in moving to San Antonio this summer was finding a new OB and making sure I had the continued prenatal care I needed. I was able to find a new doctor (that was accepting new patients and had appointments available within the next week) relatively easily, and I went for my first appointment this past Tuesday. When the doctor said it was time to listen to the baby's heartbeat, he said, "Oh wait, you're almost 20 weeks. Let's do an ultrasound." YAY! I love being able to see pictures of our baby, especially since we would be able to find out the gender of the baby, too. I was hoping to be able to at least schedule an ultrasound at this appointment, but instead, we got to do it that day. We had to wait a little bit longer than they originally thought for the sonogram room to be available, but it all worked out because it gave Adam time to get there on his way home from work. It was also Adam's birthday, so seeing pictures of our little baby was a nice little birthday present.

The doctor was very informative in telling us what we were looking at and what he was measuring. All measurements looked good for the gestational age, so that was good to know, especially since I haven't really been gaining any weight yet during this pregnancy. It's good to know the baby is still growing as it should. The doctor asked if we wanted to know the gender, and we said YES! He said it was a girl! We are very excited to welcome a baby girl into our family.



This is a very close up profile of our baby girl's face with her hand below it.



This is looking right at the face and head (on the left) and the body. I guess. This one is a little harder for me to make out, but that's what the doctor said, and I trust him.

Like I said, we are VERY EXCITED to know we are having a girl!

The Riverwalk

Last Monday while my mom was here we all went downtown to the famed Riverwalk. We were in the mood for BBQ, so we found a place called The County Line that looked good and found a parking place nearby. The entrance was down on the Riverwalk level, and the food was pretty good. After dinner we walked down a few blocks to one of the Riverwalk tour boat stations and bought tickets for a tour. The tour was very pretty and informative about San Antonio history. Joshua even sat still for most of it. His favorite part was the ducks on the river and he quacked at them every time we saw them. The Riverwalk winds through lots of restaurants, a mall, the convention center, and other historic buildings.

Josh and Mom

The tour boat

Josh and Grandma

"Quack
quack
quack
quack
quack!"








































Mural on the con-
vention center made up of 1" tiles. It was a gift to the city from Mexico.
























We were worried about the weather, particularly that it was approaching the 100s, but the evening was pleasantly shaded with a slight breeze, so we had a very nice evening on the river. I think I'm starting to like this town!

Update

I've been meaning to blog about our move and everything, but I've either been busy or too tired. I was going to detail all our stuff being packed up and everything, but suffice it to say it was very nice to have movers pack all our stuff and truck it on down here. They packed it up on Thursday the 30th, and loaded it up on Friday and headed on down the road. The next three days were filled with cleaning, touch-up painting and minor repairs, and we are indebted to our family and friends for all their help with everything. Especially since it was in the high 90s and into the 100s that week.

On Tuesday we flew to Austin and rented a car to drive to San Antonio and pick up our cars at our friends' house. They had been shipped there a few weeks before. We went to our new house and turned on the AC (it was 93 degrees inside), then went back to our friends' house for dinner and a dip in their pool. When we got back to our house it was getting down into the 80s inside. We set up our air mattress and set up Joshua's pack 'n play and camped out in our house until the moving truck arrived on Thursday. My mom also flew down Thursday afternoon to stay with us for a week and help with the unpacking. The next week was filled with a flurry of boxes, packing paper, and sorting out where everything should go. We're still not done yet, but it shouldn't take very much longer to get it all unpacked. Then there's the matter of putting up the curtains and the pictures on the walls and everything. It's starting to look more like home.

We've done some fun things, too. Last Monday we went with my mom downtown to the Riverwalk (pictures to follow in another post), I went to the temple for a RS enrichment activity, and my mom watched Joshua for us one night while we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. We've gone to our new ward a couple times now, and even though it seems small, we're meeting new people and getting callings soon. Josh and I went to a play group yesterday made up of moms and kids from the ward, and I got to know a lot of the moms and Josh had fun playing with the kids. Hopefully we'll all be able to make some good friends.

The weather had been hot, hot, hot. Thank goodness for air conditioning everywhere. Adam's commute is 20 minutes from leaving the front door to sitting down at his desk, which is very nice. We've been here for a little over two weeks now and we are enjoying all the space in our new house and are settling into our new life here in San Antonio!

One Week

Adam here. Today marks exactly one week left until we move to San Antonio. The past few days has been a whirlwind of activity. With the assistance of my brothers and our friend Dean, we tore up the old vinyl flooring in the kitchen and dining room, and then put down tile. It is now all nice and grouted, thanks to Brek (who is installing new baseboard molding today) and then all I have to do today is seal the grout and it is ready to have appliances moved back into the kitchen. With the assistance of Lisa's family, we painted the bathrooms and the office. They both look great now. It's the rest of the house that is a mess.

We moved a bunch of stuff out of the office in order to paint it, and that stuff is sitting in the garage, along side a bunch of the stuff that had to come out of the kitchen and dining room in order to do the tile. Good thing our cars are already on their way to San Antonio, eh? Also, our stove and fridge are currently in the living room until the tile is ready for them to be moved back in there. So the extreme disarray of the place is almost over.

And then it will all be thrown back into disarray on Thursday of this week. That's when the packers from the moving company will be arriving to pack everything up that we are allowed to ship down with us. I have no idea how long it will take, but I am really hoping it will go quickly. We need all the time we can get in order to finish a thorough cleaning and to do the yard work that needs to be done to pretty up the outside of the house. So that will be a bunch of weeding and laying down beauty bark.

It's crazy, though. Sometimes it still doesn't seem completely real that we are moving in a week. All of the stuff around the house that needs to be done has successfully distracted me from really taking in the enormity of what we are doing. We're moving halfway across the country, trying to rent out our house up here in Washington, and hoping for the best. We'll be separated from our families by quite a bit of distance, and on our own for the most part.

The strange part is that I am not scared about this huge change. I'm definitely nervous, of course, but not scared. I guess it's a side effect of my general "go with the flow" attitude toward life. That attitude has served me well in the past, and hopefully it will continue to do so going forward.

So, onward, I guess. We'll be doing a ridiculous amount of cleaning in the next few days.... You never realize just how much gunk can accumulate around and behind things that you really don't move very often. After the cleaning and the yard work comes the new carpet installation on the day before we fly out for good. I hope the renters appreciate and enjoy all the work that we have done to make the house nice for them.

Camping

Last weekend we went camping with the Pratt side of the family. We went to Keller Ferry campground right on Lake Roosevelt, which is the lake behind Grand Coulee Dam in Eastern Washington. The campsite was right on the lake, which was pretty, but there was no separation between us and the other campsites, so that was kind of weird. The weather was very hot, but we had fun cooling off in the lake. The afternoons got windy, too, and one evening the wind was relentless until well into the middle of the night. But like I said, we had fun in the lake and the kids had fun riding bikes and playing with bubbles and various other things.



The campground.



Our campsites were on the end, so we had some nice views of the water all around us.




Joshua playing in the lake with Ryan.
(I copied that picture from Brandie's blog. I hope she doesn't mind.)



Bubbles!



Grand Coulee Dam.

We had fun being with family. I'm glad we had time to spend with them before we move in a couple weeks!