Christmas, New Year's, and Caleb turns 2 months old

What a wonderful Christmas we had! We celebrated just the three of us a few days before Christmas, and then the next day we completely surprised Brent's family by flying to Colorado to be with them, courtesy of Brent's dad. At first I was mad that Brent had booked us a flight for 6 in the morning (traveling with a newborn for the first time was already daunting enough), but it's a good thing he did, because right after we took off, a huge snowstorm hit Utah and about 80 flights were cancelled. My sweet sister-in-law, Katie, who was in on the secret, picked us up from the airport and we hung out at her house until the rest of the family showed up unsuspectingly. We sat under the Christmas tree with bows on our heads and a sign that said "To: Mops, From: Pops." The reactions of each person was great as they walked through the door, especially his mom, who got quite teary. Brent's brother Josh came later, and so Brent hid under a giant box with Caleb, who Josh had yet to meet, and Katie asked Josh to help her move the box. Surprise! Josh didn't even give Brent a hug before reaching his arms out to hold his first nephew.

our sleepy little traveler

De-icing our plane for 45 minutes before takeoff

We celebrated our first year anniversary while in Colorado, so Brent's parents made us go out and celebrate while they watched our baby. We ate at a yummy Italian restaurant and then finished our holiday shopping. There was much singing, board-game playing, laughing, Wii-playing and movie watching for the rest of our time there, and my first Christmas in Colorado was great.

Meeting Grandpa Owen

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!

Santa Waffle. I can't help myself.

The day after Christmas we flew back to Utah, and spent the rest of the break at Snowbird, where I skied my first black diamond! I only fell once. It was terrifying. We spent the New Year's watching very drunk Snowbird employees attempt to ski down the mountain for their annual light parade. It was quite amusing.

Take that Black Diamond!!

The light parade! This part of the group must have been more sober than the rest.

After we returned, we had a couple weeks of normalcy before we decided to be crazy and take a road trip to California to visit my parents for the MLK holiday. My California bones needed to smell the ocean air. We drove to Primm on Friday, spent the night on some very uncomfortable beds, then drove the rest of the way on Saturday. My mom was busy with a trunk show with Kitty Chen, who happened to make my wedding dress! So we went and introduced ourselves and our baby to her. She is lovely person! Then my dad went with us to the glorious beach. That night we met up with my dear friend Alessandra and ate some yummy ice cream. Mmmmm.

Sleepy traveler again. So glad he sleeps so much in the car. Also, he kinda looks like a frog with his legs like that.

Caleb's first trip to the beach! Too bad it was just a tad chilly. But for January, I can't complain!

Alessandra!

Sunday was stake conference for Camarillo and all of the Ventura area, which was broadcast from Salt Lake. It was all about missionary work and the speakers, which included Elder Anderson and Elder Eyring, were great. Then my grandparents came over for dinner and we played some Shanghai. Aaah I love that game.

Like grandfather like grandson

Monday we ate at the Lure, where my family once spotted Julia Roberts. She was sadly not there this time, but the food was great. Then we took off again, spent the night in Mesquite, then made it to Provo the next day. This leg of the trip marked Caleb's first in-car diaper explosion, which required cleaning out the carseat. Yummy.

In other news, Caleb turned 2 months old over the weekend! I can hardly believe it. He looks more and more like his daddy every day--I love it!

Here is a little bit about our sweet boy:

Likes: bath time, laying on his changing table, sitting in his bouncer or swing, eating. So much eating. I'm sore just thinking about it. He also seems to enjoy our jogs in his stroller.

His "perplexed" look that he often has

Dislikes: Tummy time. Nothing will put him in a bad mood like that. Sorry kiddo. Also--bedtime. Getting this little guy to bed is already like pulling teeth. (Except that he doesn't have any of those). This is my curse, since I was the worst bedtime stall-er growing up. He generally sleeps pretty well once he is down though.

We are so in love with our little Caleb. We had a very busy last few months and we are glad to take it easy for awhile and *hopefully* get some kind of routine going.

I'll end this post with some more pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Outfit courtesy of my friend Katie

Happy morning baby!

When we put him on his playmat, he usually prefers to just look at the brick wall. So much for toys.

2013 in Review

Wow, we had a crazy year. In fact, I doubt any year will top it anytime soon. And that is PERFECTLY fine with me.

January:

We started the year off by finishing our honeymoon, which involved cruising to Mexico.

We went to Snowbird for a few days with Brent's family, where Brent re-taught me how to ski after not having done so for about ten years. I surprised everyone, including myself!

We moved into our Wymount apartment.

February:

I started a job as a long-term substitute teacher at a charter school in Alpine, where I taught mostly art to middle-schoolers. By far the hardest job I had, but it was highly rewarding.

We celebrated our first Valentine's Day by me getting strep throat (yay). Wonderful Brent dragged our TV into our bedroom where we watched all of The Lord of the Rings movies instead of getting dinner and massages as originally planned.

We got those massages the week after V-day. We decided here to make a tradition of celebrating V-day a week late as it insures that we will always get a dinner reservation.

March:

We found out we were expecting!

I turned 25.

April:

We both graduated with our Bachelor's Degrees! I graduated in Art Education, Brent in Physics.

We found out the Brent got an internship with Los Alamos National Labs!

May:

We packed everything we could into our two cars, put everything else in storage, and hauled ourselves to New Mexico for the summer and waved goodbye to our Wymount residency forever.

Brent began his internship, while I began volunteering at the local art center.

We moved into our first family ward, and realized we didn't want to move into a student ward ever again.

June:

We decided to go all out for our 6 month anniversary since we knew we would be too busy with a newborn for our 1 year anniversary. We stayed at a cute B&B in Albuquerque (that most unfortunately had a couple cockroaches but was otherwise great), went to the zoo and aquarium, went to the mall (this was a big deal for me, since the closest mall was 2 hours away from our home), and ate tons of yummy food.

We fed the giraffe. Fortunately it didn't eat my hand off.

Trips to Bandelier National Park and Santa Fe were made.

Bandelier

We went to Colorado to attend the wedding of Brent's good friend

July:

We went to Alabama for an annual family reunion with Brent's mom's side of the family. I ate a lot of new southern foods for the first (and last) time, as well as witnessed the wonderful game of redneck shuffleboard.

It's a boy!!!

August:

I went to California to attend my cousin's wedding. I also was able to go to the Holllywood Bowl and see Steve Martin perform bluegrass music, attend the Ventura County Fair where we enjoyed Hall & Oates, and visit a gorgeous beach called Paradise Cove.

My favorite event at the fair: tiny racing pigs!

We went to my family's annual Lake Powell trip.

Little Rascals

We packed up our cars again and sadly said goodbye to our adventures in New Mexico.

We lived with my brother for a week until we could move into our new place. Thanks Dan and Barbara!

We moved for our third (and thankfully last) time. We immediately fell in love with our new apartment, even though I was admittedly a little bit sad to be back in Provo.

September:

Brent started his PhD in physics, and also went to California to do cool jet noise measurements using knowledge I will never obtain in this lifetime.

I began babysitting my sister's two adorable kids full-time, which would last until the mid-October.

We found a leaf bug on one of our walks

October:

End babysitting. I finished settling us into our new place.

I launched an art website with my sister!

November:

Caleb Owen Reichman entered the world!!!!!

My mom came and took care of us, which included making us a wonderful Thanksgiving meal! Thanks Mom!

Brent turned 26 on Thanksgiving

Brent with all his birthday presents. I think his favorite is the one he's holding.

December:

Brent's mom came and continued to take care of us. Thanks Mops!

We surprised Brent's family in Colorado for Christmas :)

We celebrated 1 very happy year of marriage!!!

We went to the annual Snowbird Reichman reunion, where I skied my first black diamond (which technically happened this year, since I did that on January 1st.)


I can't imagine that the year to come will be nearly as adventurous, as we have no intentions of moving or producing more offspring within the next twelve months. This year does start a new chapter for me--the life of a stay-at-home mom. Let me tell you, it is very strange to be living in Provo and not be a student. I have been a student since I was four and now that familiar stage has ended and a new, very unfamiliar one is beginning. Am I apprehensive? Sometimes. But I am looking forward to the adventures to come and intend to "enjoy every sandwich."