I cannot say how excited I am to be going home for Christmas! I have been very blessed to have friends that are more like family here in Oregon, and I do not want for anything. But every once in awhile, and especially around the Christmas, one wants for family!

And home doesn't seem very Christmasy this year. We are moving the week before to a house, and, while it will be nice to have more space, I didn't get decorations up before we started packing. No Christmas tree, no lights, no nativities. But we will have a week back home, to enjoy it. Besides, how can it be Christmas, without snow?

Fall is in the air!

I never realized how much I LOVED fall until this year! Maybe it's the extended time of fall, the time to enjoy the colors, and savor the smells of it! Maybe being in the country helps too! I don't know, but fall is definitely grow in popularity in  my book!

We have started solid foods here in the Pistorius household. So far Jacob has tried cereal, which he liked as long as there's applesauce in it, sweet potatoes, bananas, peaches, plums, and peas, which he'll only eat if I mix applesauce in it. I guess that means he likes applesauce, too, but he's never had it by itself. So far, I'm not so impressed with store bought canned baby food, I want to make my own baby food. Anyone have any suggestions about or experience with that?

SUPER BABY! Check out my bib/cape!

 Every year, our ward has a "Harvest Party" that takes place of a trunk-or-treat or any other "evil" Halloween parties. Anyways, it's usually a chili cook off, and they had pumpkins to decorate, and people brought some of the produce they grew to share with others. They also had a pie eating contest. The elders had signed up to do it (they took our sisters out and gave us elders a few months back, not yet impressed) and they backed out at the last minute, and Ben got do do it! I had to feed him and we took second place! Crazy part: Ben continued to eat his chili after having eaten an entire cream pie.

Some of our friends  invited us to go to this farm. We had a lot of fun! I loved it! They had this awesome barn!  and a HUGE pick your own pumpkin patch, and a corn maze, and chickens! Everything a farm should have. Jacob enjoyed riding around on Daddy's shoulders.We bought pumpkins, and came home and carved them! It was a lot of fun!

Changes!

It seems like everyday, someone asks me, "What's new in your family?" so, here is what has been going on in the last few months in our home!

Ben is finally registered to start classes the end of September! He will be doing mostly online classes this term, and then next term will go full term on campus. He is taking Intro to Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, and a writing class online, and Tai Chi Chuan on campus. He is really excited to be getting back to school!

We joined this group called Gleaners. As traditionally understood, gleaners would go to harvest extra food from fields. So far we've got Blackberries, apples, potatoes and corn. Another thing we do in this group is picking up near expiration day, but still good, food from local grocery stores. Milk is among them, and we've had to buy very little milk to feed Ben's mild addiction!

We are also training to run the Turkey Stuffer, a 5K on Thanksgiving Day. Ben, being the great runner, doesn't need much training to be able to run it. Me, on the other hand, I do not have the stamina to make it that far. As such, I am currently in week 5 of the workout program, Couch to 5K! Still getting used to running, and on top of it in toe shoes!

Starting tomorrow I will be babysitting two boys from our ward, Zack (3) and Taylor(7). They are both rather quiet boys, but it will be nice to get some experience with more than one kiddo, and Jacob will grow up, at least for a little while, with other kids to play with.

Mmmm. This is a tasty swing!

The biggest changes in our family though, have been in Jacob! He is now 5 months old! When we went to his 4 month checkup, he weighed 15lb. 3 oz and was 26 in. long! That's 75th Percentile for height and 30th for weight! He's just long and skinny, like his daddy! He loves cooing and "talking" to us! His tongue is constantly hanging out of his mouth, and he almost always has a smile on his face, though it seems to disappear with the appearance of a camera! He has started chewing on just about anything! Fingers, toys, stuffed animals, blankets! anything and everything he can get to, gets into his mouth!

We put shoes on him for the first time, for church this Sunday. He did NOT like them! And neither did Ben! But he looked so cute in his church outfit! It's been to warm most of the summer to put a sweater and long pants on him, now tis starting to get cooler.

And to end Jacob LOVES to be tickled! He's all sorts of smiles and giggles when we "get him"! He's growing up big and strong!

Jacob Payson Pistorius!

I guess I should blog about what happened a month ago! In my defense, our computer cord broke while we were in the hospital, and the replacement came in the mail two days ago!

March 31, 2011 came and went without a baby. Not that we were expecting him to come on his due date, but he continued to not come for the next week and a half, and we, along with the doctor, decided it was time for this little boy, who seemed very content in his watery apartment, to be evicted and come into the world! April 10 we went in to the hospital for an induction. Jacob was a stubborn little boy! He didn't budge! They tried a couple things, and finally, with not even pitosin causing regular contractions, we decided to break my own water at about 11 am on April 11. Man, was that a bad idea! contractions started in earnest! 7 hours later, Jacob finally made it into this world!

On April 11, 2011(4/11/11) Jacob Payson Pistorius made his beautiful entry into into this world at 6:18 pm(18:18)! He weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz an was 22 inches long! At one point we thought the due date was off, but when he came out, he had no vernix, and his skin was all wrinkly and peeling! He was very much ready to come out!

We ended up staying an extra day in the hospital for a little bit of jaundice, Jacob got to spend some time in the wonderful blue billyruben lights, and be our little glowworm for a night, but we are happy to say he is 100% healthy now!

Now, a month later, he is 10 lbs 1 oz, 15.6 in long, and very cute! We love playing with him! Since birth he's been holding his head up! He would just stare at us for the first hour or so, after he was born! He loves staring out the window in our apartment, and will concentrate on things, as if he's trying to understand them! 

We love our little Jacob, and are very happy to have him!

I finally did it!

So, every time I think about needing to post on our blog, I think, oh, I'll do it... On Saturday, because Saturday I don't have work. But it never got done. Then, as work drew to a close, I said, I'll do it when I'm not working, then I'll have time. Well, I quit my job almost a month ago, and today, with my nesting instinct setting in, I decided to do some things I might not get to any time soon, like cleaning the house and updating the blog! I hope to be better at writing when Jacob gets here!

I guess I should start with that. We did find out we are having a BOY, and his name is Jacob Payson Pistorius. As you can see, I am getting VERY pregnant! And Ben is still as skinny as ever! He is due on Thursday (yes, 3 days from today) and we are patiently anxiously awaiting his arrival. About a week ago I started having more contractions, rather frequent, and close together. I thought it was the real thing. But it wasn't, but he will be here soon enough (if his parents don't go crazy before then)! We are getting things ready for his arrival. I won't say we're almost ready, but its getting there! Not having done this before, I have no idea what I'm forgetting. But we are definitely ready to love this little boy!

Funny how life sneaks up on you. You're going along, being a kid, and suddenly, being an adult sneaks up on you, and you realize, "I've been married to the most amazing man for a year now, and any day there will be a completely helpless child entirely dependent on me for EVERYTHING! This is a crazy idea to me! Didn't I just grow up myself? Now I'm going to help someone else grow up? WOW! This is going to be our BIGGEST adventure yet!

In other news, Ben is still working for Arby's as the Assistant Manager. But he is looking for a different job, one with better hours, and more opportunity to advance. He is the Assistant ward mission leader in our ward, and would like to have more time to spend on his church calling. I have been called as the Secretary in our Primary. Life is super busy here!

Two weeks ago my sister, Amanda, came to visit us. She attempted to induce labor, but no such luck. But we were able to have some fun, we went out to the coast, and silly girls that we are, decided to walk on the beach barefoot! It was a bit chilly! But the sun came out! That was the only time it did while she was here, but we still had fun!

This week Ben's SIL Brooke came to help me get ready! She's been a super help! I am sure glad she came!

Getting ready for baby

So, as many of you know, we are expecting our first baby on the 1st of April! We are very excited! I am almost 18 weeks pregnant, and, because someone asked me to, I am posting a few pictures.

This is my baby bump. Not much really going on there yet. I look more chubby than pregnant, I think, though Ben is quick to correct me on that.

Today we went to the doctor's office. We had an ultra sound, and everything is going well with our little baby. Two arms, two legs, developing normally, and right on track for April 1st! Here are a couple of the pictures we liked.

Baby in profile. About 7 ounces now, we got to watch him kick his legs a bit. So Cute!

And here's a baby footprint! This one is my favorite!

Unfortunately, we couldn't get a positive Boy or Girl, this kiddo must be shy( though I don't know where that would have come from) though the tech said she thought it is a BOY! We will be going back in 4 weeks, right before Thanksgiving, and then, baby permitting we will be sure that this baby is a boy and we can call him Jacob without any doubt!

In other news, I did finally get a job! I will be teaching preschool, about 25 hours a week, and hopefully we'll be able to save some money/pay of some debts before this baby makes his debut into the world!

Exploring our new home!

So, we are settled and enjoying this new city of Springfield.  Ben has a good job managing an Arby's over in Eugene, and enjoys the work he does. I have settled into a fun life of going out with the sister missionaries, crochetting, and reading good books. I'm still thinking about finding a job, but don't really know what to do.

Last saturday Ben and I decided we wanted to start exploring this area, seeing what we had close at hand. We spent the day Saturday visiting the Visitors center in Springfield, the Library (of course with two bibliophiles, that would be one of our first stops, right?) and the Saturday Market, which is much like the farmer's market in SLC, only more psychedelic. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and, in visiting the visitors center we found, not only a fellow Latter Day Saint, but also a large array of things to do in and around Springfield. We decided that we definately needed a visit to the coast, it being only an hour away, so bright and early Monday morning we were off on another adventure!

The drive proved to be very beautiful, passing through more trees than I think I've ever seen in my life. Some of the leaves were just starting to change color, and it was a spectacular sight. Trees curved over the road, creating a tunnel for us to pass through. It was a sunny fall day, very warm, and very much PERFECT for our adventure!

The city of Florence, Oregon is 65 miles from Springfield. We stopped there first, to enjoy the small "old town part" with it's little shops, and river shore restaurants. It is very much a quaint little town, and we found good eats, and beautiful scenes all around us. My favorite part was the bridge, I have pictures, just can't find the camera, but will post soon.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Mo's which has fabulous clam chowder! And then decided to get out of town to see the OCEAN! As we left town we stopped back at one of the first gift shops to get a wind chime I had spotted that I wanted to get, and we then we were on the road again.

11 miles north of Florence is the world's largest sea lion cave in the world. It houses a herd of over 400 Steller sea lions, and we were excited to see them. Unfortunately, we arrived to find that they are not in their cave much during September, and will be back in the winter. Fortunately, we watched hundreds of sea lions play in the waves and scurry up the rocks to sun themselves. It was a great adventure, and we look forward to returning sometime in the winter to see them more up close in the cave.

Less than a mile north of the caves is the Heceta Head Lighthouse, with its neighboring beach. We decided to take a break from walking and play on the beach for a little while, enjoy the cold water soak our feet in before we hiked up to the light house. Mother Nature, being crafty and sly, decided to hit us with a huge wave, that soaked us both! Before heading up to the lighthouse we had to dry off and by the time we got there, they had closed for tours, but we were able to take pictures, and enjoy the view from the lighthouse.

From there we decided it was dinner time and almost watched the sun sink into the ocean, instead it sunk into a bank of clouds, and then into a dike, maybe next time we will have better luck! We did get to see some spectacular stars as we drove home, too!

All it all it was an amazing day! We thoroughly enjoyed or excursion, and hope to continue exploring as long as weather permits.