The Greatest Thanksgiving Ever....

Our first Thanksgiving as a married couple was pretty hard to beat. We didn’t have money to fly from New Hampshire to Utah to be with family, so we made the best of it in our tiny old apartment. Our oven and stove were half-size so we could only cook a turkey breast. While the rolls were rising, we played croquet on the lawn in the cold, New England rain. We watched The Sound of Music and ate pumpkin pie.

We were thinking this year would finally topple our first year’s Thanksgiving as “the greatest ever.” It sure had a promising start with cousins Christy, Gentry, Mark and Laura, along with Uncles Kevin and Mike, Aunts Justina and Melanie and friend Wyatt in attendance. Nana and Granddad would be hosting a fabulous-as-always meal at their place.

The day started out very nicely with Eole and Christy making the rolls.

And Christy teaching Julia how to braid Eole's hair...and then Eole threw-up. Daniel was sure this was just because she had been coughing a lot. So we got in the car to head over to Nana and Granddad's...and she threw-up again, and again.

While everyone else gathered for what I'm sure was a fantastic meal...

Julia, Eole and Davyn sequested themselves in Nana and Granddad's back bedroom with a throw-up bowl and a movie.

We made an appearance for a family photo where Eole was able to hold it together until "the serving of pies" was announced and she threw-up everywhere. Oh, well, maybe next year will be the Greatest Thanksgiving ever.

It's Autumn Time

We discovered “leaves” this Fall.

And what is more fun than leaves and friends?

Davyn took his first swing

We hiked up to Hanging Rock to see the (mostly fallen) Autumn leaves.

Grandpa Ed and Grandma Jammet came to visit!

Halloween

Being a big three-year old, it's time to start some family traditions! We opted to paint pumpkins this year instead of carving.

Davyn-the-Bear supervised the efforts.

The finished product. Can you guess which one Eole painted? It's supposed to be a portrate of Mommy...very life-like, I can assure you.

Davyn went as a bee this year, and his mommy was his honeycomb.

Eole and her neighborhood friends all dressed up and ready to Trick-or-Treat.

Eole Turns Three

Daddy wanted to make his little girl's cake. He made a batch of pink frosting and had partially frosted the cake when Mommy informed him that Eole's favorite color was actually blue. Daddy, always willing to accommodate, quickly added blue dye and viola: A mostly blue-ish pink cake!

Blowing out the candles

Eole was a most gracious gift-receiver. She excitedly Ooohhd and Awwed while opening all her gifts. Highlights included "Froggio" game from Grandma Jammet and a tent from Nana and Granddad, and...

a trampoline from Auntie Melanie

Daniel Turns 30!

How do you celebrate such a milestone? The stars aligned and Daniel had 4 days off in a row! (love that Peds ED rotation!). Since it was October, we found a lovely beach front condo to rent for cheap, cheap. And since it was October in North Carolina, we had 80 degree weather with sunny skies.

Daniel's traditional Pumpkin Pie cake

Digging a "wind" hole

Davyn and Mommy

Charleston

Once every 8 years, my husband and I get to go on a date (at least that’s what it feels like). For our 8-year anniversary, we headed down to Charleston sans kids (thanks, Nana, and Granddad). Highlights of the trip included:

Our fantastic little B&B, The 1837. We stayed there due to the rave food reviews and it did not disappoint.

We loved shopping on King Street, especially the Honey Shop. It was like wine tasting (not that I’d know) but with various flavors of honey…. “oooh, this one has a nice floral bouquet to it.”

The food in Charleston will not be forgotten anytime soon. Who knew cheesy grits and crab stuffed catfish could be such a great combo?

We loved browsing the open air market with our fresh squeezed lemonades. And if we had the money, we would have snapped up that purse made out of the armadillo.

We walked the art galleries until we had to give respite to our tired footsies at a local café.

We toured gorgeous mult-million dollar Southern mansions and sat on these courting “joggling” boards.

Our final summation: We would recommend Charleston for your 8th anniversary (or 1st, or 18th or any excuse you can find).

My First Haircut

When I was in grade school, it was standard procedure stay at Grandma’s towards the end of summer. The week would end with a shopping trip for new school clothes at The Penny’s in Price and a trip across the pasture to Connie’s house for the new “school do”. Connie was (and still is) the "go to girl" for hair in Huntington. Being that it was the mid-80s, Grandma would request a cut and permanent(people over 70 refer to “perms” by their full name). No, I am NOT going to post a pre-braces, 1980s perm picture…it would sear out your eyeballs. However, it was with great pleasure that I was able to take Eole to Connie’s for her very first haircut!

Connie has upgraded to a new, beautiful house with her little salon right off the garage. If I could have anyone in the world give my girl her first haircut, it would have been Connie.

The Annual Pilgrimage

This past July the kids and I took the annual pilgrimage to Mecca--Utah-- to spend a fun-filled month with family. Poor daddy was left behind to endure his heaviest rotation where he got to sleep once every three days. We flew in to Denver (which cost half as much as flying into SLC…seriously, SLC?? Why you gotta be like that?). Grandpa picked us up and took us on a lovely trip along I-70 with a scenic detour through Aspen.

Aspen is full of chic people, but Eole bumped it up a notch by introducing French Chic as she took off all her clothes and ran through the town fountain. Highlights of Grandma and Grandpa’s town included

Going 4-wheeling with cousins

Running through sprinklers in the pasture

The local waterpark (with Auntie Jen)

A fossil dig in the Swell with Auntie Anna and fabulous cousins imported from Japan Salt Lake City was fun as well with

Climbing trees with more cousins

A fantastic BBQ at Auntie Sue and Michelle’s place

A wonderful priesthood ordination

And hanging out with ALL the surviving cousins we have (to date…). We look forward to doing this again in July 2013.

Oh What do you do in the Summertime?

Oh what do you do in the Summertime…

Learn to swim at Nana and Granddad’s pool

Visit Old Salem, home of early Moravian community

Climb trees

Discover the World

The Best Birthday Gift

My best birthday present this year was when my husband took our baby son in his arms and gave him a beautiful blessing. And to top it all off, we had Uncle Mike and cousins Gentry and Christy down from Virginia to participate, along with Nana and Granddad. A Special thanks to Christy for recording some highlights from the blessing which include blessing our son with “wisdom concerning others.” This is one of his daddy’s strengths too. We hosted an open house afterwards as an excuse to get together with great friends and neighbors.

...take special note of the MacKay Plaid tie and blanket.

I Love You

If I could have a nickle for every time I say "I love you" to Eole, we could retire now. I think every parent looks forward to the day when their child says, "I love you" back for the first time. Well, Eole finally said those golden words for the very first time the other day, but she didn't say them to me or to Daniel. We put baby Davyn on her lap and as she gently nuzzled him she said, "I love you, baby Davyn." We couldn't have asked for anything more tender from our little girl than that.

What’s in a name: I think it was either our first or second date when Daniel told me that his first born child would be a girl named Eole. I didn’t argue because a year later, I met the namesake, Eole F. a wonderful woman who lives in Siena, Italy. . Boy names are another story. There is a criterion for boy names that makes it very difficult for us to agree on, well, anything. For three generations, the first-born Pugmire male has been given a first name starting with “D,” and the middle name McKay (which goes back around nine generations). It so happens that there are practically no “D” names we both like enough to name a son. And so, for the past seven years we have casually tried to come up with a suitable name for a first born son. Enter December 21st: the day before we were to find out that we were having a boy. We both assumed we’d have another girl, but then the evening before the ultrasound, I started to panic. What if this was a boy? We’ve got to find a name TONIGHT!! Enter the internet: thank you technology! We like our names to have some family or personal or literature tie, but desperate times call for desperate measures. As I scanned Boy “D” names, one jumped out at me: DAVIN. It sounds so nice, doesn’t it? And I’ve never met anyone with this name (part of my personal criteria). But what does it mean? I can’t just attach a random “D” name to our boy. On further searching, I find that Davin is a derivative of David. That could be fitting seeing as Daniel’s dad’s name is David. Then I see that there is also DAVYN, which is the Welsh form of David. Daniel’s grandmother is Welsh. PERFECT!

And so, here is our Davyn McKay Pugmire, photographed against the McKay Tartan Plaid.

My girl has expensive taste:

While at our local CVS a few days ago, Eole asked if she could have a toy car. She is very into cars and trains because all her little friends are boys. I allowed her to pick out a car from the case: there were fire trucks, school buses, Model T Fords, Mustangs….and what does she reach for? The Yellow Porsche Carrera GT, 1/36 scale. You can own a full scale one, second hand, for a mere $339,000.00. I bought the car, but told Eole that this was the only Porsche I was ever going to buy her.

Pregnancy One versus Pregnancy Two:

Let me explain: this is a picture from my first pregnancy…the one where I didn’t know what was going one…the one where I made all the wrong decisions. First there was the weight gain. I had never felt such horrid sickness day in and day out and while I really didn’t enjoy eating, eating was the only thing that helped limit the nausea. OK, full disclosure: around 20 weeks, I actually started to enjoy eating again and then I wasn’t going to let anyone stop me. There was even an incident involving my husband throwing my McDonald’s french fries out the window of the car in pure disgust at my rapacious appetite. Was it some hormonal imbalance in my first pregnancy that induced me to get a horrendous haircut? Why did I think a bob would be a good idea? Wasn’t my face round enough at that point? Did I really need a hairstyle to accentuate that roundness? And oh, those clothes! I bought them on some discount maternity online store. I’m pretty sure they were leftovers from the early 90’s. I remember receiving compliments from some co-workers (the ones who thought business dress was a nice pair of sweat pants) saying that they appreciated that I was wearing matronly maternity clothes instead of those modern-day (translate as stylish) maternity clothes young (hip, gorgeous) pregnant girls were wearing. I should have gone straight home to burn all those matronly clothes then and there. And why did I decide that it was a good idea to stop wearing make-up? Daniel confessed to me (post-pregnancy) that in my final weeks, he had come across my old driver’s license photo from New Hampshire and had almost started crying at how beautiful I had been. You know it’s bad when your husband thinks an old driver’s license picture is prettier than what you have become.

So, I’ve learned my lesson. I bought some stylish shirts that my former co-workers would not approve of, I’ve limited food consumption…sorta, I’ve stayed away from the beauty salon, and I put on make-up each and every day. That last one is even a step up from the pre-pregnancy days. Maybe this way, my husband won’t go into a deep funk when I tell him in a few years that I’m ready to get knocked up again.