1 Year Anniversary

Yesterday marked the one-year wedding anniversary for me and Miguel. I can say without a doubt that more sh** happened/changed in our first year of marriage than in the entire course of our courtship. Ha!

Let's recap:

- Got married
- Moved into our rv and began traveling
- Traveled to the East Coast
- Found out I was pregnant
- Traveled through the South and to the West Coast
- Returned to Colorado
- Moved into my parents' basement
- Began working at the kennel again (both Miguel and I did)
- Moved out of my parents' basement and back into the rv
- Lived at a campground
- Started working at Home Depot (both Miguel and I did)
- Got too pregnant to be comfortable in the rv
- Moved back into my parents' basement
- Got hernia from pulling hoses at work
- Quit Home Depot
- Mig got his old job back in Denver and started working there again
- Mig lived in the rv in Denver for a month to save on gas money
- I was bit by a dog on my hand, swelled up for a week
- Mig moved back into the basement and began commuting to work
- Had a baby shower
- Had a baby :-)
- Stayed with parents for a few more months
- Moved into our own home
- Salem turned 3 months old

And that brings us to our first anniversary as a married couple! Happy Anniversary babe! Its been one hell of a ride!

Let the Nesting Commence!

Much to our dismay, Miguel and I were unsuccessful in securing a home for our little family prior to Salem's arrival and we were destined to live in my parents basement for a few more months. Not really a big deal except that I was robbed of my chance to 'nest' during my pregnancy.

On September 3, we finally moved out of the basement and into our first home as a family (and our first real home in almost a year)! I was so excited to finally give Salem a room of his own and that became my priority.

Because of my obsession with outer space, we decided that a room full of spacey-ness would be perfect for our son. First order of business was to assemble his furniture and then get to decorating. Miguel, Sara and I all pitched in to make the letters of his name from space inspired craft paper. After completion, we framed the letters and spelled his name up on the wall.



Next was to hang the variety of original artwork friends and family had given our lucky son.



Then, I ordered a super sweet (to scale) solar system mobile for his upward viewing pleasure and some spacey wall decals. Once they arrived on the doorstep, I immediately continued my work on the room.



Even after all of this, I thought the walls were still kind of bare so I cut out a bunch of hand-drawn stars from the left over craft papers we had used for the letters and placed them randomly throughout the room.

Finally, I decided to sew a new valance for the window and matching bumpers for his crib (which I naively thought were just for decoration until I found Salem with his head against the crib rails one night). I decided to document the process of bumper making and will type a short tutorial for my next post.



So, here's to my little man and his awesome room! Now that his space is complete, its time to tackle the rest of the house :-)

Salem Oliver Banuelos

Because I have been out of the blogging loop for so long, I figured I should probably give some information regarding our son, Salem Oliver Banuelos.

Salem (named primarily after the city in Massachusetts because that was where we discovered his presence) was born after a fairly quick and easy non-medicated delivery on June 28, 2010 at 7:50pm. He weighed in at a mere 6 lbs, 13 oz and was 18.5 in long. By my side during the whole process were my amazing husband, Miguel and wonderful sister, Sara.



Our little man came into the world beautiful and perfect!

The Scariest Halloween Ever!

Miguel and I spent Halloween Eve in Salem, MA, which I have always wanted to do. We were at the very beginning of what was planned to be a year-long honeymoon filled with travels of the U.S.

However, on October 31, 2009 we discovered that only four weeks after our wedding, I was pregnant. This day will go down in our history not only as our 4-week anniversary, but as our scariest Halloween EVER! I'm still flabbergasted as to how this happened (not the birds and bees part, but the timing and all). How is it I went from a carefree, traveling newlywed to a mother-to-be in just a month's time? Needless to say our trip had to take a serious turn. We went from the northeast to the northwest (by southern route) in about two weeks and ended up back in Colorado.
Currently, we are struggling to find employment, living in my parents' basement and simply trying to hold on. Thank goodness we have each other for I don't know what I would do without my Miggy. So here I am, a thirty year old wife and soon-to-be parent asking myself, "what happened?" Talk about expecting the unexpected and being forced to be flexible.

Firsts

After a wild weekend and a couple funny dreams, my mind has wondered to the thought of a person's firsts. You know, their first words, first steps, first dance, first kiss, first love, etc. Well, I was reminded that just because we have a few more years under us, doesn't mean the firsts have to stop. For instance, on Friday night in the freezing rain, a car load of friends and I decided to do a 'fire drill' at a stop sign. Some may remember doing these at stop lights in high school: the driver abruptly stops and each passenger must leave their spot in search of a new seat (a musical chairs sort of game). You can tell that age and wisdom has caught up a bit though, for we didn't think it was safe to do at a stop light, so we decided a stop sign in a neighborhood would be equally as fun and much less dangerous. This little incident was the first for us all, and maniacal laughter ensued afterward. Good times.

I also spent a few hours yesterday engulfed in art. I have been thinking a lot about my wedding (another thing full of firsts; my first save-the-dates, my first engagement, my first wedding dress, etc). In thinking of the nuptials, I was inspired to test my skills as an artist and try drawing a sugar skull; our wedding is Dia de los Muertos themed, more on this in a later post. Anyway, after what I believe to be a great first try at drawing this colorful guy, I feel amazing. The point to all of this could be summed up as, never stop trying new things. Never stop having fun and pushing yourself to discover new areas of wonderment. If you don't try, you will never know what you're capable of! So enjoy each moment and never forget to appreciate all your firsts!