Art

Around Christmas time, Hannah drew this adorable picture of our family. I have it saved as my computer desktop background because I love to look at it.

I seemed to remember that Chance had drawn a picture of our family for Kindergarten as well (it was an assignment). So I went through Chance's old Kindergarten stuff and found the one he drew when he was the same age as Hannah.

Poor Chance, he has my art skills and Shawn's art skills combined! I laughed for days over this!

Two Months

Height - 23.5 inches (75%) * Weight - 12.0 pounds (50%) * Head - 39 cm. (25%)

At almost exactly eight weeks, West started to smile! He smiles a lot at Hannah, Chance, and Shawn. He doesn't particularly like to smile at Rags. I don't know what he thinks of Rags! Rags thinks he's a baby, so he sits in the bouncy seat when West isn't in it, and also has his own binky! It is the weirdest thing. At ten weeks, West started to giggle! He giggled at me when I was taking off his shirt. He hasn't done a deep, belly laugh yet but I know it's coming. Also at ten weeks, West slept through the night. How he went from sleeping three and a half hours one night to nine hours the next night I will never know! But he has consistently been sleeping through the night for about ten days now, with the exception of only a few nights. It is sooooooo nice! He is such a good baby, very mellow and sweet. He hardly cries, just fusses a little.

Based on a true story...

I rhythmically rocked my newborn baby boy to sleep in the quiet of the night. It was his first night time feeding, meaning there was another to anticipate. Most evenings I enjoyed the night hours alone with my son; just the two of us quietly sitting together to relax. I gazed at his soft skin and little nose and began to feel my eyelids close.

I was abruptly yanked out of my peaceful state by the sound of a honking, horn-like sound. "ANGH! ANGH! ANGH! ANGH!" The sound bellowed through the walls of my once quiet home. My heart began to pound rapidly against the interior of my chest. I waited patiently to hear any reaction to the noise from my other family members who were sound asleep. Nothing. I waited. "ANGH! ANGH! ANGH! ANGH! ANGH! ANGH!" The noise was louder this time. Was it moving toward me? Was it inside the house? Outside? I couldn't tell. The sound resembled a combination of an alarm clock and a sputtering motorcycle without a muffler. Or maybe an electrical malfunction of some sort of household appliance. After the noise quieted, I again intently listened for someone else in the house to wiggle or rustle their covers in reaction to the noise. Nothing. "ANGH! ANGH! ANGH! ANGH!" Was it a bomb? Why was it so loud and why wasn't anyone doing anything about it?

I quickly put the baby down into his bouncy chair, silently praying he would stay asleep while I left his side for a minute. "ANGH! ANGH!" As I ran down the stairs, I determined that the sound was definitely coming from outside. So much for blaming the noise on an obnoxious alarm on my husband's cell phone! "ANGH! ANGH! ANGH! ANGH! ANGH!" Ugh! Annoying! Enough already! I flipped on the light switch for our back porch light and flung open the back door.

The January snow had an icy crust and was glistening white under the reflection of the glow from the porch. The bright orange feet and bill stood out in shocking contrast to the snow. Yes, I said orange feet and bill. A giant white duck was standing smack in the middle of my back yard. It was as still as a statue, and silent at that particular moment. It looked huge, not like your regular little duck in the neighborhood pond. I couldn't believe my eyes. A duck? In the winter? Aren't ducks supposed to migrate or hibernate or fly south or ... be somewhere other than standing in my backyard?

I closed the door so the freezing cold air would not penetrate the warmth of our little house, and ran back up the stairs to awaken my husband. I didn't know what to do! The bird was standing so still, it looked like it was frozen solid. Maybe it was frozen solid. Should I try to scare it away? Should I politely invite it inside? Was I being filmed for Candid Camera?

"Shawn! Wake up!" I nudged my sleeping husband. He had only been asleep for a little over an hour and had to wake up in less than five more. "What is it?" he asked groggily, rubbing his eyes. "There's a duck in our backyard." I started to giggle. It sounded so silly when spoken aloud. "What?" he asked. "There's a big, white duck in our backyard and it is quacking so loud!" I laughed a little harder. "Should I bring it inside?" I asked. "Are you kidding me?" Shawn asked. "That thing will tear this place up!" "Oh, you're right. Well, what should I do?" "Nothing." Shawn replied. He rolled over and went back to sleep.

Now what. I had a sinking feeling he didn't believe me. Not that I cry wolf all of the time, but maybe I have exaggerated a little bit in the past... I slowly walked back down the stairs, trying to figure out what to do. I saw my cell phone on the kitchen counter and decided I needed evidence. Hard, fast evidence of the creature lurking in my backyard. I slowly opened the back door, careful not to scare the duck away. I held the phone out in my hand and took a picture of the frozen duck. The phone flashed and the evidence was captured! I quickly took a look at my phone screen and was disappointed to see a black square without any sign of the white duck. I guess cell phones were not created to take pictures in the dark. Were cell phones created to take pictures at all? Hmm.

As I was squinting to see any sign of the duck within the dark photograph, I felt something furry graze my ankles. My little black and white Shihtzu, Rags, had darted through my legs and out the back door. "Rags!" I yelled. "Rags! Come!" It was too late. Rags had spotted the duck. He stared at the duck, slowly taking in the unusual sight just as I had moments before. Then Rags darted directly at it. The duck frantically flapped its large wings and began to fly. It was too large to lift more than five inches off of the ground, but it swiftly headed toward the front yard. Rags took off, determined to catch the strange being that had invaded his territory. "Oh, great," I thought to myself. I envisioned white feathers flying everywhere if Rags was to actually catch the poor animal.

Rags wears a collar that deters him from running too far away from the house, so I knew he could not chase the duck forever. And Rags was a Shihtzu, not a Retriever, so I probably should have been more worried about Rags getting eaten alive rather than the duck. But I couldn't help but worry about that darn duck. Was he cold? Lost? Sick? I worried for a minute, let the dog back inside, then walked upstairs to go to bed. It was no use losing sleep over the feathered fowl.

As I climbed in bed, I again enjoyed the silence and stillness of my home. Yet in the distance, I heard a faint "ANGH! ANGH! ANGH!" and I wondered if the ghost duck had succeeded in haunting yet another house. Or if someone captured a photo of it. Or if someone invited it in from the cold to stay the night.

Christmas, birthday, and everything in between...

--Christmas Eve
One of my favorite celebrations of the entire year is Christmas Eve night with my sisters and parents. We get together, have great food, and laugh a lot! Our parents literally spoil all of us rotten. The kids can hardly wait to open presents, and I can't wait for the mint dessert! It was no different this year. My mom has become an impressive cook. She somehow gets all of the food, perfectly cooked, out on the table at the same time. It's really quite amazing. We needed to take family pictures to put on an iPad that we bought for my grandparents, so here are the results of our attempt:

My mom & dad are the cutest! Mom lost 60 pounds in 2010! She gave her chubby daughter (me, obviously!) all of her old clothes! She looks amazing!

Last year with Shawn's family we decided to exchange "homemade" gifts with one another. I thought it would be fun to try that with my family. There were many grumbles and groans but I think it was sort of fun! Homemade gifts just mean a little more than buying a gift card.

Sabrina - Me, Steph, Lindsay - homemade, beaded bracelets. soooo cute.
Mom - Steph - Apron with cleaning supplies
Dad - Lindsay - Note on parchment paper (how creative! he was very proud of that...) and a gift card to Hobby Lobby so she could make her own gift. (cheater?)
Nat - Mike - Soft, jumbo size blanket
Shawn - Mom - Magnet board made out of metal with "Warburton" and an elk at the top
Steph - Jason - Movie gift basket (cheater!!)
Mike - Dad - "Homemade" salsa and chips from El Matador (another cheater!!)
Lindsay - Me - CUTE framed picture that says "Redd Family" and one for West with his date of birth and name
Jason - Shawn - Recessed lighting in our house

Yes, one of these gifts is not like the others! My brother-in-law Jason came over and helped us remove our outdated florescent lighting in our kitchen and replaced it with recessed lighting! Jason had already done this little project in my mom & dad's house. I was so jealous and somehow my mom talked Jason into doing it for our house! My mom & dad bought the materials for it as our Christmas gift and Jason donated his time to get it all finished. Isn't that awesome? Best Christmas ever, in my opinion. Except for cleaning up afterward. But I'm not complaining!

Shawn gave me a classic homemade gift as well. Engraved metal stars. He outdid himself yet again. Not to mention the "hoodie-footie" pajamas in Pepto Bismol pink! ha!! I actually have a picture of me in them that is never to be viewed by the outside world.

Shawn's attempt at gift wrapping. I laughed forever at this sight!

--Christmas

We had such a fun Christmas this year! Santa sent letters to the kids mid-way through December to encourage them to be good. I don't know if those letters did any good, because Hannah was testing our patience up to and including Christmas Eve! Little stinker. On Christmas morning, Hannah was soooo relieved to see that Santa actually brought her gifts. "See Mom! I was good!" The main gifts this year were Nintendo Dsi's, which are basically Nintendo DS's with internet capability and cameras. Shawn and I gave Chance Jazz v. Bulls Jazz tickets and an Al Jefferson Jazz jersey. Shawn put them into a basketball-like scripture case. His face upon opening that scripture case was priceless!

I actually entered this picture into a contest for free Jazz tickets and a free jersey on www.jazz360.com. We'll see if he wins! Hannah received "Go Go My Walking Pup" which Rags promptly decided to make the moves on. Rags got a Snuggie. In Camo.We had Shawn's parents, Sarah, and John over for breakfast casserole on Christmas morning, then we went over to the Redds later that night for dinner and opening MORE presents. Shawn's mom had already provided our family with another wonderful 12-days of Christmas, so we had presents for weeks before now! --New Year's Eve
We celebrated New Year's Eve by going to the movies - Hannah, Mylee, and I went to see Tangled and Shawn and Chance went to see Gulliver's Travels. Gulliver's Travels has Jack Black in it and it looked pretty funny. Chance came out of the show laughing his head off and Shawn came out of the show rolling his eyes, if that tells you anything about it. Now Tangled, on the other hand, was SOOOO cute! I loved it. Just a cute, feel good movie. West had a change of scenery and spent a few hours with Grandma Debbie. After I picked West up from Grandma's and was driving down my street, I noticed fireworks in the sky. They looked awfully close to my house. Come to find out, while I was at Grandma's, Shawn had produced illegal (Wyoming) fireworks out of nowhere and began to light them in the backyard, making everyone run inside after they went off so the police wouldn't know who was lighting them! That's the extent of our exciting New Year's Eve. When you're old and you don't drink, New Year's is pretty lame. Lighting illegal fireworks was pretty rebellious, though! The kids sure had fun by having Mylee sleep over.

--New Year's Day
Shawn, Chance, Hannah and Mylee all took a trip down to the Redds for a New Years Day feast of London Broil, twice-baked potatoes, and appetizers. Much football watching, as well. I stayed home with West and cleaned this messy house. It really looked like a tornado had hit.

--Day After New Year's Day
After church, my husband the chef prepared an early birthday dinner for me featuring crab legs and Rib Eye steaks! Heaven on earth. I attempted to make cheesy cauliflower but was corrected by the master chef because I did not thicken the sauce enough. It turned out okay, but I really just need to leave the cooking to the master! Lindsay made chocolate parfaits that were to die for. I wish my birthday was more than once a year just for the food!

--Birthday
Since we had basically celebrated my birthday the night before, I wasn't planning on doing anything for my actual birthday. All I wanted was a nap! Mr. West likes to get up every three hours NO MATTER WHAT. I think half of the time he is full and just likes to wake up to see if I'll go get him. So I did get about a half-hour power nap, which was all I wanted. But later that night we went to dinner to Texas Roadhouse as a family. They are famous for making people with a birthday sit on a saddle and embarrass them to death! I know I'm a party pooper, but I couldn't bear it so I refused the saddle treatment. Shawn and the kids gave me the FUNNIEST cards, one of them entitling me to a Kindle and case. It was a very nice birthday. I'm 34 now, but it wasn't a birthday I was dreading. "Age is just a number" is my new philosophy.