Trunk-or-Treat and other Tricks

Trunk-or-Treating is the cool thing to do instead of trick-or-treating these days.  We decided to participate in this Halloween festivity.  It was actually our first time because trunk-or-treat probably became popular 10 years ago or so.  Since then I have not been participating in the candy giving or receiving. My rating of trunk-or-treat on a scale of 1-10 would be rated around a 4...Positives might include that it is safe, kids get candy, and you can decorate your trunk.  It's pretty lame because kids just run around in a circle getting as much candy as they want without having to work for it, there is suddenly no option of actually giving out a "trick" instead of a "treat", and it is over way too quick.

We decorated our trunk like a birthday party! Really cool Glow-in-the-Dark balloons that I must have for my next Birthday Bash!

Inside the church during the Halloween Carnival
We are dressed up as my favorite thing: A BIRTHDAY PARTY! Yvonne is a cupcake with a candle on top, I am a pinata and Matt is a birthday present!

Yvonne is changing on us! It seems that Yvonne kind of does the same things for awhile and then all of a sudden Matt and I say to each other "Yvonne is different!" She is growing up and it is too soon! We were leaving for church and our neighbor was talking to us as a fly flew up in Yvonne's face.  Our neighbor Juanita said, "Oh that fly comin' to steal some of yo' suga'!" while waving the fly out of Yvonne's face.  She is changing but still as sweet as sugar!

Yvonne practicing sitting up

She can only sit up for so long before she tips over! But she has fun doing it!

Yevvie is so animated and giggly these days awwwwwe:)

There are a lot of different suggestions on when to start solid foods for babies...Yvonne is almost 5 months and seemed interested in food, so we gave her some ice cream because it is my favorite! 

Just joking...it is only rice cereal.

First bite of rice cereal

From this picture it looks like she has still not taken any bites of rice cereal...

Yvonne can do a lot of cool tricks and I have been working on my own.  I have been really getting into Yoga lately!  It has been good for my body, soul and mind.  I have always had some anxiety issues (remember when I cried the whole way in and out of Coyote Gulch because I was so afraid of heights?!?).  Now I worry about much more important things such as being a new mom, moving to a new place, dealing with A LOT of bills.  So I practice Yoga.  I still run, which has also been a major de-stressor in my life, and now I love Yoga too! Matt sometimes does Yoga with me.  It is not only a girl thing.  At first women can really excel in yoga through flexibility and men can really excel in the strength area in yoga.  Then ta-da, if you practice a lot you can get stronger and more flexible in body and mind. (sorry about the yoga plug! but try it! you will like it!)

A warm up move

Grasshopper!! I have been practicing this move for a couple weeks and I finally did it!

 Matt is in the Young Men's presidency in our church and he got to go on a campout! Everyone was in hammocks and he didn't even need a coat in October! Two things that wouldn't happen in Utah (I still love you Utah!)

Matt's new office at work

We went with some of Matt's classmates to Moss Rock for a little hike:)

Earth Family:Tie-dye, tribal headbands, and those shorts Matt wears every single day

Oktoberfest

The previous two Octobers were spent being so sick I could hardly enjoy them!

October of 2013 was the last month before I went gluten free.  I had serious stomach issues and a skin rash mostly on my legs and arms.  Luckily after some self-testing and experimenting I found that the culprit of my problems was from the gluten.  By mid November of that year I was feeling a lot better! 

Last year, October of 2014, was spent with morning sickness! Work during that time was especially horrific (some events I don't even want to be known....) that made for long, exhausting, sick days.  The dry-heaving and/or vomit was brought on even more by the constant aroma of squash roasting in the oven (you folks know who you are)! 

 YAY for an October I am enjoying!!

We had a few friends over for an Oktoberfest celebration.  Matt lived in Germany for a couple years and was not really able to explain the purpose of Oktoberfest.  So we just kind of did our own thing.  We had some good brats with sauerkraut, ketchup (not really German), and Dijon mustard (German!).  We listened to German music and Matt taught us a few German words, i.e. haus.  We made soft pretzels.  They turned out great and I did not know that the key to making them was to put the pretzels in a baking soda water bath before you cook them in the oven. We had Rootbeer tasting and floats to end the night off.

Brezels und Rootbier!
The ones on the ends are Amy and Jake.  They are our doppelganger (German word!)-short and tall! The couple in the middle is Zach and Megan with their cute babe Navie.  Both couples are in our ward.

Matt is really loving the trails out here.  There seems to be more trail races than road races! Matt ran a 16 mile trail race that the Birmingham track club put on.  So he got a free race entry! He also won it and got some $$ in a gift card.  Definitely worth it.  We only paid 18$ for the both of us to be in the BTC and it sure has been fun being a member and totally paying back.

Matt as overall winner! Mr. Tosch who has gorgeous hair!! The picture doesn't give it justice!! oh and he directs A LOT of trail races down here.

While Matt was taking first place Yvonne and I took last place in the 4 mile loop... But it was a great hike! We hiked to a lake and saw some great views.  The leaves are changing a little...can you tell?

We have a huge counter in the master bathroom.  In the mornings while I do my hair and make-up (o.k. let's be honest...when I actually do my hair and make-up) I plopped Yevvie down in her Bumbo in front of the mirror and she is as happy as can be.  I especially like this picture because it shows her with bedhead!! She has enough hair to get it messy:)  She will have a pony-tail in no time.

Getting ready for the day

One outing we like to take sometimes during the week is to Bahama Bucks! I swear I didn't like shaved ice until this place.  We meet our friends, Brianne (a wife of one of the guys in Matt's class) and Caroline (her daughter who is a month older than Yvonne).

Looking on Point for our outing!

Matt just got introduced to the movie "Heavy Weights", a classic I thought everyone knew by heart! Also a movie that will not be redone anytime soon because it is not "politically correct".  I think it is hilarious and very quotable.  Matt has been rehearsing the lines from the movie constantly (you know how well Matt does impersonations) and has been making me laugh so hard.  In Tony Perkis' voice, "You have been a good girl Yvonne...fair...strong...Your mother would be proud."

Random and kind of related to the movie...I made Matt eat the following plate of  food for dinner after he told me he ate 5 or 7 Krispy Kreme donuts (people always want to introduce us to these donuts here because they think they haven't made it to the west yet??), several chicken 'n biscuits, and a big hot dog.

Quinoa Salad, Salad, Sweet potatoes (they are so yummy!!! I'm not sure if it is because they are from Georgia or if it is how we have been cooking them but they are my favorite food right now!!)

We are the Running Family

Some of you might know us as "the running couple" ha ha ok totally kidding!! But our friends Chris and Karley did make us this wonderful magnet featured below.  And yes it is on our fridge...to help us remember who we are...he he 

 

 

They admitted to stalking our social media accounts to obtain these photos.  But we love the magnet and more than that-we love them! It is true Matt and I both really like to run.  I would even dare say that running is what brought us together.  My younger siblings, Kim and Kyle, were on the SHS cross-country team together with Matt and it is through them that I met Matt.  We have made it a goal to always stay active and running is our favorite way to do that! 

 

Coming to Birmingham has been a new running experience!  I have been getting back into running since after having Yvonne (I totally did not run the last trimester of pregnancy!) So I have been getting used to that.  When we first got here the humidity and hills killed us!! Utah has mountains but when you are in Utah Valley-it really is a valley! Our neighborhood is full of rolling hills.  Every run felt like hill training.  We are getting a little more used to it now and we have found more route options.  I really like the humidity and the glowing skin it gives me.  Running in humidity is wet.  Real wet.  Matt was running with some friends and he thought it was raining.  Nope-it was just the  sweat beads flying off of the guy next to him:)  When I ran my pony-tail would act as a windshield wiper on my swack (sweaty back).

 

Matt signed us up for a running club.  They have runs twice a week with water stops along the way.  Matt usually goes every Saturday morning for their longer runs (10-15 mi.)  He really likes it!  Saturday we decided to both go out and do it.  It was the Vulcan 10k race course with chick-fil-a after.  How could you say no to that?!  There is about 100 people that came to the run and we saw two other running clubs downtown! The Black Men Run Club and the Black Girls Run Club (only in Alabama).  We were the only ones with a stroller.  I liked it because it slowed Matt down considerably!  Yvonne was a happy baby during it:)

 

 

First time as the running family.



Matt running through the Rainbow tunnel downtown Birmingham.  The city put those lights up to keep the homeless out (so they don't sleep?? IDK)

 

 

Friday we had date night at a restaurant suggested by a classmate.  Not my favorite place to eat but I loved this kid that stared at us the whole time. The food was not memorable (sadly) but this boy was! 

 

The boy in the corner...

Yvonne has been kind of a stinker lately with the whole sleeping thing.  I thought once a baby sleeps through the night you are good-to-go! Well that is not the case...Yvonne used to be the best sleeper So it has brought us to experiment with different methods.  We are still swaddling her.  She likes it!! There are so many opinions on the internet about when to stop swaddling... We decided that no one really knows exactly how to parent...you just have to do what feels right for you and your babe.  We are most recently letting Yvonne cry and put herself to sleep.  She did good the first and second night! The first night it only took 20 minutes of crying.  The crying was probably worse for mom and dad (super sad!).  We played a game of Bananagrams (trying to take our minds off of the crying) and we had our timer out.  We checked on her every three minutes.  After six times of checking on her (patting her belly, telling her we loved her, cheering her on) she was finally asleep! Then she slept 'til 7 am.  Yay! Hopefully it just keeps getting better.



Dad and his professional bundling skills