All About Our Lives Lately

Sorry this post is so long. I just wanted to write down everything that has been happening to us lately, especially my little man. Ethan is growing up so fast. He is talking like a madman now. He talks like I should know exactly what he is saying. Sometimes I can tell what he is talking about because he'll add a real word in every now and then. He is getting such a personality. A strong one at that. He gets frustrated now when we don't understand what he wants. The other day, I bought bananas because I know he loves them. He saw them on the counter and stood underneath right where they were and reached his arms up and started saying "Eee, eee!" This is what he says when he wants something. So dang cute but I can't tell sometimes what it is. This time was pretty obvious but sometimes not so much.

Ethan's vocabulary consists of hi, uh-oh, ba-bye, Da, Ma, Oh wow, No no no no, Thank tee or thee (thank you), hoof (which is what a dog says :)), Eee (please), baw (ball), here (when he wants something or is giving you something), and occasionally he'll say papa (grandpa). His signs are water, milk, please, more, thank you (from the cheek, not chin), bye bye, and no no (which is him shaking his finger at me).

Other things he does lately is:

*He'll wake up in the morning and say uh-oh till we go in. If I go in, he immediately starts looking for his Da. If Brian goes in, he's fine and dandy and wants to eat his breakfast.

*He throws fits when he gets frustrated. Its sometimes funny and I look away so that he can't see me smile.

*He climbs stairs like a pro. He LOVES to play on our stairs. I moved the gate to the bottom of the stairs and he could seriously play for hours on those stairs.

*He can feed himself with a spoon, even though it gets really messy.

*He throws anything he can get his hands on up in the air and laughs so hard when he does it. *Still waves bye backwards. It almost looks like "come to me".

*When he wants someone to pick him up, he'll clap his hands twice then reach. Its almost a demand "clap clap, now pick me up".

*He gets super excited when we go to Tara's or Missy's. His two best friends are Clint and Abbi.

*He's doing better with sippy cups. Still won't have milk from them but is great with juice and water.

*He LOVES to read books, especially by himself. He likes to play a lot by himself as well. I try to play with him sometimes and he pushes me away.

*He hides in the cubbies in our laundry room. He thinks it so hilarious when I pretend I can't find him then he pokes his head out and laughs so hard. I love doing laundry for this reason alone.

*He shrugs his shoulders a lot. Whenever he doesn't like the feel of his shirt, when he's walking and is bored walking normal, pretty much whenever he wants. Its too cute!

*He growls a lot. You might think he's getting mad at you but he's just growling and its because he wants you to growl back.

*He's learning a cheesy smile. I tell him when he's sad to be happy and I smile big so he's starting to copy me.

Such a silly little boy! We love him so much and don't know what we would do without him in our lives. Ethan is such a joy to have in our family and we just love him more and more everyday!

Now on to Brian. Brian has started a new job with a company called Spike. He is a salesman for them and gets to work from home. Its fantastic! I love having him home. Ethan, on the other hand, is having a hard time letting his dad work. He will hear Brian on the phone in the extra room and go knock on the door or put his fingers under the door. He just loves his dad so much. But Brian is working hard and is doing really well for only working for a week. He loves being able to wake up at 8:00 in the morning and go to work in his pjs. He said he loves the commute too ;) It is really nice to have a job that we know he will be getting paid and we feel so blessed for Brian to have this opportunity. Thanks Jase for getting him this job.

Now me. Not much to report except that I am doing massages more often. I go down to Kaysville about once a month to work on some fabulous ladies. Its nice to get back into doing massages. There was a time there that I wasn't a huge fan anymore but I'm glad I got back into it. Other than that, my calling and Ethan keep me pretty busy. I love being a mom, despite my other, more recent posts. Our family is doing really well and life couldn't be better!

*Pictures to come, I promise.

Power of Being a Mother

So I have to say, I love being a mom. Ethan is not so much a mama's boy lately but I still take care of him all day everyday and love it. So when he was sick for the couple days he was this week, he didn't act any different except that he wouldn't eat a lot. And the throwing up and diarrhea of course. But I was the one who changed 19 out of the 20 poopy diapers he had in two days. Also the four times he threw up, I cleaned it up. So naturally you would think I would get whatever he had. Nope! I am well and feeling great but Brian is not. He flew out to Colorado to get started on his new job Wednesday night and apparently was incredibly sick all day yesterday. Luckily, it didn't interfere too much with getting everything started. Anyway, he called me last night and he was so sick! Funny thing is Brian was only around Ethan maybe a few hours the whole time he was sick but caught what I'm thinking is the 24 hour flu. Funny thing is, I'm usually the one who gets sick but since I had Ethan, I've been sick once and Brian is the one who catches everything now. The power of being a mother is fantastic. We can withstand almost all illnesses so that we can take care of the babes who get sick, including our husbands :)

Kristy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Part 2

I'm writing this now hoping nothing else can go wrong. Ethan threw up on me twice this afternoon, once all over the carpet, couch and himself, while my friend Carlin and her little boy were here. I really hope they don't get sick. Then he threw up again but I caught it fast enough that he threw up in the sink, mostly. Honestly, being a mother is really hard work. And it stinks sometimes too.

Kristy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

So today has been terrible and horrible, if you can't tell by the title. Have you ever had one of those days that everything that possibly can go wrong, does? I am having one of those days. Let me tell you why.

First, I was woken up at 6 A.M. to Ethan whining and crying. I laid there for a while thinking he would go back to sleep. At about 6:20, Brian was getting ready to leave for work and he went to lay Ethan back down. Brian came into our room saying that Ethan had thrown up everywhere and he was in desperate need of help. I went in there and there was vomit everywhere in his crib. The poor kid had been sitting in it for 20 minutes because I was too lazy to go check on in. AHHH! What a horrible mother I am. We got him all cleaned up and I laid him back down. He was so tired he fell right to sleep.

Then, Ethan woke up again about 8, which is his normal wake up time. I looked in the mirror and low and behold, another cold sore! I just got over one a few days ago. I have never had two in a row like this and I'm pretty upset about it. This one is making me feel sick and it hurts deeper than the other one did. AHHH!

After I had jumped in the shower with Ethan to clean off the throw up I missed with wipes, I got him and me all ready for the day. I was feeling pretty good about this because it was only 9:30 and we were both all dressed and ready to face the world. Well about two minutes after I was finished getting Ethan dressed, he had a huge blowout! He sat under our kitchen table and exploded everywhere, including all over the rug. I had to give him another bath, change his entire outfit, do ANOTHER load of laundry and clean up anywhere he had touched while doing his business. After all this was finished it was about 10:30 and Ethan was exhausted. He is still asleep by the way, which is probably the best thing that has happened all day.

After I laid Ethan down, I figured I would do the dishes and be a good wife. Well, I learned my lesson. I turned on the cold water and the pipe disconnected from the valve under the sink and started spraying water everywhere. That was the last straw. I hurried and shut off the water and just sat and started to cry. How can so many things go wrong before noon??

Now that I am thinking about all that happened, I'm glad it was all such trivial, little things, instead of seriously bad stuff. I am so grateful Ethan is not seriously ill and that he is so happy regardless of how he must be feeling. He was laughing so hard while I was getting things in the washer because he thought it was funny to step in and out of the cubbies in the laundry room. He laid down without a noise because he was just happy to sleep. And Tara had her appointment today and she didn't end up having to get all the painful, crappy tests they told her she would have to get to see what's wrong with her baby. Life is good, despite everything I just wrote above.

Now I just ask that everyone keep Tara in your prayers. She found out her baby has some problems and might not live very long. The baby has some fluid on its brain so it could mean a number of different things, none of which are good. But we're hoping and praying for a miracle. She is 13 weeks pregnant and needs all the prayers she can get. We love you Tara and are praying for you and little baby Stevens!

Our Christmas

Christmas this year was fantastic. I absolutely love Christmastime. It was so fun to be able to hang out with both our families and just relax. Christmas Eve was spent at Brian's parents' house, having a fantastic roast dinner. Christmas Day was so great this year. We let Ethan open his presents in the morning, went to Brian's parents' to talk with B.J. He is still in London for the next 6 months so this was our last time talking to him before he comes home! Its insane that he's been gone for a year and a half. It feels like he left just yesterday. We're so excited to have you come home, Beej! We can't wait for Ethan to meet you! After talking with B.J. we headed down to hit my mom's and my dad's. Ethan was loving his Grandpa's house because it is full of really cool stuff, very valuable by the way. So the whole time, Brian was trying to stop Ethan from breaking everything in sight. Needless to say, we didn't stay very long and we headed to my mom's to hang out with some of my sisters' and my brother's families. We had a wonderful turkey dinner (thanks to Jason). Pretty much a crazy but really fun Christmas this year. And Brian surprised me by getting me the ninth season of Friends. If you know me at all, you know how great this is. Thanks babe! We have been very blessed this year and are so grateful for the wonderful family and friends we have. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying this New Year!

Ethan was so excited to see the tree all lit up and with presents underneath.

Loving opening the gifts. He was more a fan of having them open to play with though :)

I have to say, his favorite new toy. He gets so sad if I turn it off. He goes round and round until it makes some sort of noise (me turning it back on).

My favorite two guys in the whole world!

Ethan with his load. He got tons of fun things from Santa this year. Thanks again Santa!!