It's finally over!!!

Can I get a Yeeee-haw? Brent is done! We survived (barely) our first semester of dental school. Brent finished his last test yesterday morning. Unfortunately, we all have colds and are not enjoying the moment as much as we would like.
We went out to dinner last night to celebrate the occasion. Now we're just hanging out and trying to get our house in order before we head home for Christmas, which is in just five more days...

I'm in the cantata performance tomorrow night, and I'm a little nervous. We had a good, but extremely exhausting and long, rehearsal this morning. Now I just have to survive the performance. As most of you know, anytime I have some kind of performance, I am ALWAYS sick, so it's fitting that I'm perfectly, miserably entrenched in tissues and nose spray. Yuck!

I wrote a Christmas story to share with my girls in Young Women's tomorrow. Check it out on my other blog: megtalbot.blogspot.com.
Merry Christmas! We can't wait to see all those of you waiting for us in Utah!

Early visit from Santa...

That's right: The big man in red has already been to our house, although I'm sure Drew will get another visit at his grandmas' houses. And he wasn't too sneaky about it either...

For the Staples Society at OU College of Denstristry, Brent was recruited to play the jolly saint. It was quite a chore getting him all dressed up, and that was just to make sure everything fit ok. Then he had to do it all over again at the elementary school where they passed out presents. Brent said it was a lot of fun, and the kids loved him! The school had some underpriviledged kids; Brent said they asked for things like coats and shoes, although a lot of them wanted videogames and skateboards, too. They passed out stockings to some of the younger kids, and then they had some fun presents, like basketballs, for the older kids. A local TV station even interviewed Brent, but we haven't been able to find the interview. :(

Unfortunately, Drew didn't like the whole Santa thing much, so this is the only picture I could get of him -- ready to run away!

So I decided we should do Christmas early because A) it's less time I have to wait for Brent and Drew to open their presents, and you all know how impatient I get about stuff like that, and B) so we could enjoy it before we go home for the holidays.

It wasn't a big thing, but it was a lot of fun. I have to admit that while I got all my shopping done a few weeks ago, you wouldn't know it was Christmas at our house. We haven't bothered with any decorations or a tree.

Santa brought Drew some more books, and Drew's favorite present is "The Ten Friendly Fireflies" book. You count up the number of fireflies, and you push a button to make them light up. Drew thinks it's the coolest thing ever!

Then from us he received some more books (what can I say? the kid loves books!) and a little magnet doodle thing. But the biggest present...

is a potty! I know Drew's no where close to potty training, but I got it for a decent price and I thought it would be fun for him to open it. It's in the bathroom to plant the idea of him one day using the potty. He knows the sign and he knows what it is (he comes in and tells me every time he sees me go into the bathroom). It's a cool little thing because you can remove the seat and use it on the big potty and it also turns into a stepping stool so he can wash his hands and maybe brush his teeth.

I got Brent some shirts and Wall-E, and he got me some new earphones for my iPod and a couple of movies. But it's definitely more fun to watch Drew open his presents. I can't wait for next Christmas -- I've already got his present for that. He's getting a MegaBlocks set. I wanted to get it for him this year, decided he was too young and I wasn't going to get them, and then I found them for a really good price. But for now, he'll have to be happy with a potty. :) Ahhhhh, the simple joys of my little boy. He'll probably think we're crazy when he's older.

Back to work...

We loved having a break over Thanksgiving -- although it wasn't really a break for me so much as it was having Brent home from school. We went to the zoo when Brent got done with school early on Tuesday. As you can see, we've still had lovely weather. The zoo was pretty empty, so we let Drew run around. He helped us push the stroller and climbed on the statues (this is a chimpanzee).

We spent Wednesday cleaning, and our house really needed it. It's nice to have a clean house; now I'm just trying to keep it that way. We had a nice Thanksgiving (see previous post). Then on Friday we hit the Cowboy Museum (see post before the last one), and went to the light parade. Now that was an adventure! We invited our friends Brian and JQ Hanson and their little boy, Joey, to see the parade with us. I thought it would be in Bricktown on the little canal. Not so much -- it was on the actual river that runs through the city. Still, we thought it would be fun. We found a Little Caesar's nearby on the Internet so we could go get pizza and go to the parade. We've had problems with the Internet being very innacurate and restaurants just not being there. Such was the case, AGAIN! Luckily I had brought our phone book, but the next closest one was quite a trip. We ended up getting to the park by the river just as the parade was supposed to start, and our friends were trying to find the park where we had agreed to watch the parade. The evening just got more ridiculous:
First off, it was VERY cold! We had brought some warm things, but not enough. We were freezing!

We tried to keep Drew bundled up, but no such luck. His little nose got so red.

The second thing, we get to the park, put down our blanket and sit down to eat our pizza. And ouch! The ground was covered in stickers! These were weedy little things that were extremely sharp and stuck to everything. They were all over my shoes, got on our blanket, in my coat, in my hoodie, EVERYWHERE! We tried to keep Drew in the stroller as long as possible because we didn't want him covered with the little evil plants, but again, no such luck. We did keep him mostly unharmed, but he still fell down a couple of times.

Our friends finally found us, and luckily the parade hadn't started yet. They were just in time for some fireworks, which was fun. We had to wait around probably another 10 or 15 minutes after that for the parade to start, and it was lame! The boats were too small, didn't have enough lights and were on the other side of the river. We felt bad ditching our friends, but Drew was cold and ornery, so we left.

(Doesn't this picture look just like my sister? This is a totally Sarah face, and Drew looks just like her!)

Drew must have enjoyed the whole advernture despite our mishaps. He was in a great mood. When we got home, we shared some grapes and then he wore the bowl like a hat.

Such a character! What would we do for entertainment without our little Drewby bear?

Our break is over, so I guess it's back to "work" for all of us.

Ahhhhhh, Thanksgiving...

We had a great Thanksgiving. Our friends Marcus and Turia Pope, and Turia's sister, Jessica, came over and we enjoyed a big meal together. Marcus just graduated from dental school in Virginia and he's at OU doing a residency. They had a turkey, and Turia made a from-scratch pumpkin pie that was to die for! That made things really easy for us; we had a table, so they came over to our place, and I got all the easy stuff, like potatoes, stuffing and rolls.

It got too hot in the house with all the cooking, so Brent and Drew spent some time "sweeping" the deck.

Drew, the smart little turkey, is now tall enough to reach our dead-bolt locks. Nothing keeps in the apartment any more, except for a stern, "You stay in here!" I don't mind so much if he goes out on the deck. We've tried as much to make it a safe place for him, but he loves to play with Brent's grill, and we have wooden posts. There's a spot on the middle post where the wood is splintered a little bit, so he'll pull off wood chunks or paint chips and eat them. :(

Drew didn't eat much, but he loved having people over. Our friends have a 10-month-old son who is pulling himself up and crawling around. Drew got down and wanted to crawl with him; he couldn't figure out why Elian wasn't chasing-crawling after him. Of course, we ate way too much, but it was delicious. I think I felt full for three days. Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving!

Yeehaw!

After much ado, we felt it was a rite of passage for us to visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum now that we're Oklahomans, sort of. That's what we did with our Black Friday instead of waking up early to fight over stuff with crazed shoppers.

Drew makes a pretty cute cowboy, but unfortunately I did not buy this hat; he wouldn't wear it anyway. I just had to get a picture. :)

I wasn't as impressed with the museum as I thought I would be, but it's still "mighty awesome." They had incredible artwork on display, which we didn't really get to enjoy because Drew was grumpy. I'm sure that played a big part in our lessened experience. They also have very impressive displays about the wild west, what people wore and did, and a whole wing dedicated to western movies, including a small theater where you get to watch a 15-minute video about the genre.

Here's Drew and Brent next to the John Wayne display. Drew was very bored, but we thought it was pretty cool.

They also have an area dedicated to American rodeos: This one's for you, Cowboy Steve!

It really made me miss Dusty LaRue and all my other cow-friends. You know who you are. :)

My favorite part of the museum is an old West town. Here's a picture of the inside of the school house.

I didn't get any good pictures of the outsides of the buildings because the museum simulates nighttime in this wing, which includes cricket noises and everything. They had a train station with a real car behind it, a dentist's office, a newspaper, a church, the school house and several other buildings.

Drew was rather impatient with the diaramas and artwork, so we headed to the kids' area, where you can touch all the displays. This didn't interest him as much, either. He's still too little to appreciate it, I think. It will be fun in another year or so. There's a display where you can dress up in western attire, so we had to subject Drew for a picture. Again, cute cowboy.

There were also several saddles you can try out, and a little log cabin just Drew's size with cooking equipment around a "fire." Drew actually enjoyed those displays.

It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed the grounds of the museum, where we saw several wonderful statues as well as ponds, streams and fountains.

There was one part of the stream with fish in it, so Drew's doing the sign for fish in this picture.

Playgroup

We had a fun playgroup on Thursday and went to the Quail Springs; there's a big play area with lots of things to climb on. Of course, Drew mostly ran around and then out of the area. We sat and talked forever, and then we all had lunch together in the food court, and then walked around the mall a bit. It was so much fun -- we stayed there until halfway into Drew's nap, poor kid.

Here's Drew and Ady in the little boat. Arrrrrgh!

Thanks for hanging out with me, girls! I'm so glad I have your company. :)

Stuck!

I'm really enjoying my time with Drew right now, and I know it's a big blessing to get to stay home with him. We're doing all kinds of fun things together, like going to play time at the library, hanging out with our Okie friends at the zoo or mall, or just playing together.

Drew always finds a way to make me laugh, and I'm trying to make sure I don't fill my life with too much other stuff so I'm always ready to enjoy laughing and playing with him.

My mom bought Drew a walker when he was just getting interested in walking, hoping it would help our little guy get around faster. Instead, he considered it confinement instead of a set of helping wheels and he hated it! However, he loved the little toys on the tray part. We still have to leave it out because he loves the toys.

Go figure, he never let me put him in there -- he would scream and fuss until I took him out. Now I'll hear him go in his room and play with the musical, light-up toys, and then he'll start whining a bit. That's when I know he has climbed into the walker and can't get himself out. On Monday, he really got himself into a predicament:

He has chocolate all over his face even though it's about 9:30 in the morning. We had gone over to the office to try to send a fax to our Army recruiter, and our wonderful apartment manager, Jennifer, loves to see Drew come in. She gave him a cookie, which he thoroughly enjoyed, as you can see by the chocolate smeared across his cheeks. Don't ask me how he got this way. But when I saw it, I just couldn't get him out until I had snapped a few candid shots!

One of my favorite memories of Drew will always be the day I heard him whining in our room while we were living at Sunset Ridge in Cedar City. I went in to find him, and discovered him UNDER our bed, folded in half. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that one. I never know how this kid gets himself into these situations, but it sure makes life interesting!

Ever the big kid now, he listens to the ear phones with daddy, catching up on an embryology class, I think. :)

Drew's newest word is "me." He walks around the house saying it over and over and over. It sounds like a little song. This kid is full of personality!

Happy Thanksgiving

I can't believe it's the middle of November and Thanksgiving is actually next week! We're just staying home for the holiday, probably not even doing a big meal but enjoying some time with Brent during a well-earned break from school.

It still doesn't really feel like November here; maybe late September. The leaves have changed color, but the weather is warm, usually somewhere in the 60s or 70s.



We're not up to any too noteworthy for the time being. I'm writing a Christmas program to accompany a choir performance in December, and I'm nearly done. It's in the editing stages, and I'm hoping to complete it this week.



Drew is learning at an accelerated rate. He's understanding more, and listening to me more, which I'm thoroughly enjoying and don't expect to last. :) And as always, he never stops running.


This happened a while ago, but I haven't posted the pictures yet, and I thought it was so funny: We had some soda leftover from one of our various dinners/parties with our Okie friends, and we finished off the 2-liter at dinner. Drew really wanted the little bit of liquid you can't seem to get out of the bottle. It just reminded me how much he's like Brent; for those of you who know him, he has a reputation for compelling the waiter/waitress to bring him a pitcher of whatever he's drinking, they have to give him refills so often. And Drew is just like his daddy...


Brent is studying hard and taking several tests every week. He's doing well in his classes, but it takes a lot of hard work. We've completed an application for the Army; we're hoping to get on their Health Scholarship program. They'll pay for everything he needs for school -- tuition, books, equipment, health insurance, everything! They even give us a monthly stipend to live on, and although it won't quite be enough to cover our expenses, it's that much less we have to borrow -- a LOT less. That means we'll come out of dental school with minimal debt. We then repay the years they pay for in time working on a base somewhere. It also affords Brent the chance to specialize and get paid for it! We feel really good about doing the Army; we just have to get Brent past the physical. And next summer, he'll likely go to officer training for 45 days. We hope it will kick in for us next semester. We'll keep you posted.


Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Drew, the Kangaroo?

Drew has become our little kangaroo. On Saturday, he just started doing this weird, new little jump thing. We were holding our sides with laughter, and he was thoroughly enjoying it too.

On a side note, our little guy is finally starting to talk! He's been saying uh-oh, yeah and no for a while, but now he's really using them and learning more words -- nana (banana) and ok. I'm so excited to hear his little voice!

And fall has finally come to Oklahoma. We woke up Saturday and it was like fall had suddenly made a stop in this prairie state. And it's been around 80 degrees, so it doesn't feel like November at all. But all the colors are really pretty. We'll probably go into shock when we come home for Christmas, since it will feel like it's just after fall instead of the middle of the winter.

Super Drew!

I promised my mom I would post pictures of Drew's new pajamas. He wore them the night before Halloween, because you might as well dress up for bed if you can. :)

When I got the package from my mom, I pulled out all the clothes she sent, but Drew went straight for these pajamas. He loves anything red. He walked around the house with them for like 20 minutes.

It's a little hard to tell (he runs around too much to get a really decent picture), but these pajamas are not only Superman, they come complete with a little red cape that velcros onto the back.

Unfortunately the pants a little big. :) Nothing I can't hem up.

All Hallow's Eve

Instead of enjoying Halloween for just one night, it was like we had a week of Halloween. No complaints -- I worked hard to get our costumes made so I'm glad we were able to wear them more than once! On Monday night, we headed to Haunt the Zoo with some friends from our ward. Yoda only kept his hat on long enough for pictures and then he ripped off his ears!

I know this picture is blury (in my defense, I didn't take it) but until I get copies from my friend Turia, this is your glimpse at our Jedi family. :) As you can see, Drew is not happy about his ears.

On Wednesday, Brent had an event at the school and got to wear his costume, and Drew and I had a Young Men/Young Women Halloween party. Then on Friday, we got to do some trick or treating with Drew's friend, Ady. Here we're at Zack's house, and Drew is just pushing his way in because Zack's mom (who's visiting to help with their new baby) has candy inside. :)

We just went to a couple of houses; Drew was kinda cranky and wanted to walk in everybody's houses. Ady, on the other hand, knew what was going on and very sweetly said "Trick or treat!" everywhere we went. Drew wanted to eat his candy immediately. I had to dig a jawbreaker -- that was still in the wrapper -- out of his mouth. He didn't like that very much. Then we headed back to Jordan and Katrina's for our Halloween party. We all brought food and drinks and had a great time eating, playing Wii Sports and card games while the kids ran around.

We had so much fun! And we're so glad we have awesome friends to hang out with. Drew and Ady are so cute together! They're such good friends, although sharing toys is still hard...

Halloween preview

All Hallow's Eve is a big event at the Talbot abode, and one of my favorite things to do it make costumes. I didn't make Drew a costume for his first Halloween because he was only 6 months old, I had one given to me by Uncle Steve (a bat) and we didn't really celebrate Halloween last year because Drew had a minor surgery just days before.

In my mind, this is really Drew's first Halloween, and I just finished his costume moments ago. That means we have to try things on and take pictures, and it's just so cute I had to share right away.

So here's a little preview of what Halloween will look like at our house; let's just say there's going to be a lot of lightsaber action. :)

Thank goodness we bought the lightsaber, otherwise his Yoda hood would be off in a second. He has yanked and pulled at it each time I've tried it on him today. I'm glad we have a distraction so he'll keep his costume on; I just hope we won't have any casualties.

Happy Haunting!

Dental school

On Saturday we went to the school to pick up a book for Brent to study and then hung out on the concourse between the dental building and the library. It's a beautiful green walkway right through the middle of campus. It starts with a roundabout and a clock, it has a cool fountain in the middle, and then I'm not quite sure where it goes. There's a statue and a walkway between buildings, but we haven't gone past the fountain. We had wonderful weather to walk around and let Drew enjoy being outside.

This is the fountain in the middle. It's pretty cool as the water just flows down the steps. Drew was a little frightened of it, which was probably a good thing. He could easily have gotten into it if he wanted to.

I've really been missing Utah. Everyone has gone up, looking at the leaves. Some friends from our ward even went out a few weeks ago for a fall/hiking trip. I was so jealous. But finally, I see fall is coming to Oklahoma. I'm seeing more and more rusty reds and burnt orange. It definitely feels like fall today -- wet, cold and foggy.

Here's the clock tower. From here, the dental building is just on the left, and the library on the right. Across the street is a new building (integrated medicine on the left) and the student union building.Drew loved being outside. He threw these rocks like it was the funnest thing in the world. His hands were filthy! It was fun to take a break and just hang out with each other.