Amanda and I celebrated our year anniversary this year in San Diego. As luck had it, we left a 100-degree Wildomar to spend a week in cloudy and misty 60-degree San Diego, but we made the best of the weather. Mostly we enjoyed our time at Sea World and bumming around Downtown. We both ate the best steak of our lives while we were there and now I know the secret to a great steak: all the inner juices should be replaced with butter.
The biggest news of our family is that Amanda is pregnant! Maybe even more surprising is the fact that we our having a girl, no one more excited than us and perhaps our mothers. We now have several outfits for her and some I still have to figure out how they actually go on the baby. It seemed like overnight our house went from neutral colors to monochromatic: pink in all its 1000 shades. The pink is definitely the sight to see and it makes me wonder how it can be so dominant when we boys (Charlie and I) still outnumber Amanda two to one.
Countless people have asked us the name of our baby. Tranquilo. We still don’t have a name for the baby yet so baby “no-name” is what my in-laws decided to call her. Our baby should be coming in the next couple of weeks so we hope and pray that everything goes well. More importantly, we hope she has a name by that time but the Internet is giving us nothing.
Charlie turned one this year. He is officially our family’s biggest “winner” (not loser) when it comes to his weight as he gained more than 70 pounds in one year. At least I know his food isn’t going straight through him—contrary to what my backyard lawn tells me. He’s matured some during this past year and just recently he’s been beginning to realize that cats are now his mortal enemies.
Other events this year include taking a trip to Solvang, having 4th of July on the U.S.S. Midway, and finally ditching our big-box projection TV for a high def flatscreen TV. The Laker games will never be the same…neither will Vampire Diaries (for Amanda).
I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and we love you all!
Ryan and Amanda Stevens
