First Real Food

I gave Ethan his first taste of baby food today. He loved the bananas, I think because the oatmeal I give him has bananas. He wasn't a huge fan of the sweet potatoes but I think once he gets used to it, he'll love it. He is such a good eater. I am so blessed that way. I don't know what I would do if he didn't eat good. That would be so frustrating. He has always nursed good and takes formula just grand. Now he eats pretty much anything I put in his mouth. He loves it when I put a drop of water on his tongue. I think he's just intrigued by the new tastes. Hopefully he keeps it up.

This Past Week

This week was full of fun things. First, Brian went to California on Wednesday for work to meet with a company that will be doing work with Scentinel. Him and Jared left really early Wednesday morning so that they could go to the meetings and get back to Utah that night. So I decided to go spend the night at my mom's on Tuesday because Brian had some work to do and wouldn't be home till late the next night. Ethan and I went down and spent some time with my mom and Heidi. We also had a great time with future uncle Casey. Ethan was loving Casey even when he was super ornery that night because it was time for bed (I mean Ethan not Casey). I tried to look for a used stroller but couldn't find one that was decent for a good price. So the meeting went really well for Brian and he was very happy he was able to go. We missed him very much but were grateful that he got a lot accomplished. My favorite was when Ethan finally saw him after about two days because he didn't get to see Brian until he came home from work Thursday. Ethan was so happy and couldn't look away from his dad. He kept touching his face and just being so cute. I love that he loves his dad so much!

Then later this week we watched Abbi so that Missy and Brad could paint their new apartment. It was so fun, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. Abbi was super happy and wanted Ethan to play with her so bad. It was so cute. Soon Abbi, soon.

Then today our ward split. It has been in the makings for a long time now, ever since we moved into the ward over a year ago. We didn't know that many people because our ward was so huge but we are going to be sad to lose some good friends we made that will be in the new ward. Our ward being split also means that Brian has a real calling now. He was called to be the 2nd councelor in the Young Men's and assistant Scout Master. So if anyone knows Brian, they know that scouting is not his thing. He always said that if he was called to do scouts, he'd turn it down (joking of course, he would never turn down a calling). So today when the first councelor in the bishopric came over to call him to the Young Men's, I was so excited to see if he would actually do it. But Brian accepted with a smile and is really excited to work with the Young Men in our ward. It will be a very fun and exciting experience for us both. I am still the chorister for Relief Society but we'll see how long that lasts. We lost half the RS presidency today so changes are coming. I'll keep you posted.

This is Ethan having too much fun in the laundry basket.  

He wasn't sure at first but then loved it.

Ethan and his aunt Heidi. No matter how hard I tried, Ethan wouldn't smile at the camera. He just kept eating Heidi's hair when he'd get excited. 

I love this picture. It was a candid shot.

Here's the shot when Grandma knew it was coming. So cute.

And Ethan with his uncle Casey.  He loved him!

Our Faves Part 2

So I forgot a couple of more things that Ethan does that we just absolutely love.

1. When he's done eating and falls asleep while doing so, he puckers his lips and looks drunk.  It is so dang cute!

2. We love how he is so interested in the world around him.  Whenever we hold him, he just can't stop looking around at everything, especially when we take him outside.  Usually he hates it when wind hits his face but lately he loves it if we're playing outside.  He'll get all excited and kick his legs like crazy.  

Until next time.

Our Faves

Brian and I decided we wanted to write down a few things that Ethan is doing right now that we absolutely love.  Here's our list:

1. Ethan runs his fingers through my hair.  It is always the back of my head and he hardly ever holds on and pulls.  He just likes the feel of my hair I guess.

2. We love his little voice.  He talks so much now and his voice is a little raspy.  We love it!

3. Brian loves his little gushy thighs and his huge big toe.  I love that he plays with his feet any chance he gets.  Everytime in his bumbo he plays with his feet if I don't have the tray on. He'll pull off his socks just to get to his toes.  Its so cute!

4. I absolutely love his laugh.  He is laughing so much more now and not just when we tickle him.  He laughs so much at his dad.  He just loves Brian.

5. Ethan gets really excited when Brian walks in from work.  I think by that time he's tired of me so he gets so excited to see someone new, especially his dad.

6. I love it when we hold him and he puts his little hand over our mouths.  It is so funny like he just doesn't want us to talk.

7. Ethan puts everything in his mouth, regardless of shape and size.  He was playing with a movie case and tried so hard to put it in his mouth for about 15 minutes until he got too frustrated because it just wouldn't fit.  So funny!

8. When he wakes up, he doesn't cry anymore.  He'll just talk to himself for about 5 minutes and then he'll start crying if I haven't got him up already.

9. When he tries to talk, sometimes he gets so excited that his tongue will get stuck to the roof of his mouth and he tries so hard to get noise out I think he's trying to push out some toots or something.

10. We love that he loves his food.  He eats it so good now and will lunge for the spoon when it gets close enough to his face.  It is so funny to watch him eat because everytime I put some food in his mouth, he has to makes some sort of noise, whether its just humming while he swallows or he'll start to talk and try to swallow at the same time. 

11. When he cries, Ethan sticks out his bottom lip ever so slightly and it looks so sad.  I love his sad cry, does that make me a bad mother?  He just looks so sad with that lip!

12. I almost forgot one of my absolute favorites.  Ethan will put his little hands on my face and pull it to his mouth for kisses.  I love it! I don't think he understands what he's doing besides trying to put one more thing in his mouth to chew but I love it because they are kisses to me.  

Our little man is just so precious to us.  We love him so much and are so grateful that we have him in our lives.  We can't even imagine life without him now that he is in it.  We love you baby!

His fat little foot. It is so cute I just want to eat it!

How could you not love this face??

Ethan did it! Number Two...

If you don't want to hear about poop, then stop reading now.  Ok so Ethan has had a problem with having regular bowel movements since he was about two months old.  I have had to give him suppositories every seven days for two months then every three days for one month. So this weekend I decided I was done and that I would just see how long it would take him to go on his own.  The second day, Easter, he did it!  It was so great and really funny because me and Brian got so excited about his poopy diaper.  Then he did it again.  He pooped on Tuesday morning all on his own.  It was so exciting.  Last night, he was sitting in his bumbo just loving life when all of a sudden his face went bright red and he grunted really loud.  Brian was home for this one so he got to change it.  Out came the hospital gloves and about ten minutes later, Ethan had a clean diaper and a big smile on his face.  Its amazing, he's pooped three times all on his own in the last five days.  I never thought that I would be getting excited about him pooping but its great.  I love being a mom.  You get excited about the strangest things sometimes.  Anyway, enough about poop.

Ethan and I have ventured out a lot this week because I really don't want him to be a home body. I want him to be ok going other places because he just hasn't been very good about that lately.  So we went down to my friend, Coriann's, house on Tuesday with Missy and Abbi. It was a lot of fun to see her and her little girl.  Then yesterday, we went to lunch with my dear friend Randi, with Missy and Abbi and Randi's little boy, Gavin.  He is the cutest little guy, making us laugh all during lunch.  It has been a fun filled week so far but now we're home because I need to just breathe at home and so does Ethan.  I usually have been going to water aerobics on Thursday nights but I have a bad headache today so it looks like lots of T.V. and cuddling on the couch with Brian tonight. Oh shucks! 

Ethan's First Easter

This weekend was a very crazy, fun-filled weekend.  We first went over to Brian's parent's house on Saturday for a wonderful lunch and Easter egg hunt for the kids.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone and to just hang out.  The boys all played some football and an egg tossing game.  They had a lot of fun just being boys.  Then me and Brian came home and watched the wonderful Ten Commandments, which was on T.V.  Sunday, we went to church and dressed Ethan is his cute little Easter outfit.  He looked so handsome and it was a very good day at church.  The lessons were amazing, as always on Easter. I just love how everything is about Christ and the Atonement.  Its nice to have a day to just reflect on everything Christ has done for us and it makes me appreciate the Atonement so much. I love Easter. After church, we went to Laura's for a turkey dinner.  It was fantastic but how could anything Laura cook not be?  We had an Easter egg hunt for all the kids there too so it was fun to watch them go crazy for the eggs.  It was a very enjoyable weekend with tons of activities and things to do.  Ethan had a good time too. He's such a cute kid.  He got laughing so hard at Brian when we were at Laura's because Brian would clap his hands and it would scare him, then he would laugh really hard.  So cute! I love this kid.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  

Me and my handsome boy

A poor attempt at a family portrait for Easter Sunday.

My handsome, handsome boys. I love them both so much!

Ethan in his cute Easter outfit. I love his face in this picture.

We hung out at Heather and Robert's Friday night and Ethan got a little tired playing in this bouncer, which he loved. He started to fall asleep. It was too cute to not take a picture and video:)

 I just love this picture. We took some other pictures of Ethan in Brian's Red Sox hat but I accidentally erased them.  So this is the new one that I just love. He looks like such a stud!

I spoke too soon

Unfortunately, I spoke too soon when I said that Ethan was being such a good baby. He was good for about two weeks and it was heaven, let me tell you.  But now he is back and as cranky as ever.  I am thinking he is finally going to break a tooth or something because he just hasn't been very happy the last week and a half.  He usually is pretty good when we take him places but recently he has been such a stinker.  If anyone holds him besides me or Brian, he screams like they are hurting him. I know he's just sensitive and I feel so bad for the little guy.  He isn't so bad when we're home but still pretty sensitive when he gets tired or hungry.  Anyway, I know its just a phase and we love him so much. Last night we went over to Missy and Brad's and Ethan was just being fussy when Brian just laid him on the table and put his hat over his face.  Ethan started to laugh so hard. It was so cute I wish I had my camera with me.  And Ethan has found his feet.  He discovered them a week ago and now can't get enough.  He tries so hard to put them in him mouth when he's in the Bumbo.  Its so funny and he's accidentally taken off his socks a few times as well. I love the surprised look on his face when he does it.  So cute!

I finally got Ethan to eat cereal.  I just had to try a different kind. I got oatmeal and bananas and he loves it. I think this kid is going to love food that has lots of flavor because he still won't eat rice but he downs the oatmeal. I can't wait to try real food to see how he reacts.  It'll be so fun.

This weekend we went down to hang out with our friends, the Van Camps.  It was so fun and I wish we could see them more often.  They are the friends that Brian went to school with before his mission.  They are such good people and I absolutely love their little girl, Kylie.  She is just too dang cute. They are trying to potty train her and it was so funny.  I definitely am not looking forward to that part of being a mom.  Hopefully, Ethan is just a natural and has no problems. Yeah right!

After we hung out with them, we spent the night at my mom's so that Brian could do a gas line for Casey's (Heidi's fiance) brother the next morning.  It was fun to be able to hang out with my mom and Heidi and to be able to watch conference.  I love conference and I love to hear the prophet speak.  He is just so amazing and so are all the apostles.  I absolutely love them and know that they are men of God.  How could you listen to them and not know that?  They are so amazing.  Anyway, Sunday we just stayed home and were lazy watching conference, then went to Brad and Missy's for dinner and games. Thanks again guys for a fun night!

How could you not love this face?  So cute!

My two handsome boys. I love these two more than anything else.

He did it!

Ok, so Ethan finally did three things but I'm excited about all three.  First, what I initially was writing about, was that he finally rolled over again.  I put him on his belly, as I usually do everyday, and he just rolled over like he's been doing it all along and didn't take a few week break.  Oh I love this kid. Second, he took a three hour nap with a minor interruption. This is amazing if you know my child. He only usually sleeps about forty five minutes at the longest. He did that today but then only cried for about ten minutes then went back to sleep for another hour and forty five minutes. It made me so happy.  Third, he ate about four bites of rice before he started to cry. It was great. He pulled his usual "this is incredibly nasty" face then swallowed those bites.  I think he's finally starting to get the hang of solid foods.  Now we're going to try oatmeal! Oh and he pooped but that was still with some help. Hopefully soon he'll do it on his own. 

Oooh Brian got a ticket!

It was so funny. I usually do all the driving in this family. The way Brian drives literally drives me crazy. It is very similar to how an old man would drive and when he's on the phone, its like he forgets he's driving. So needless to say, I do all the driving. But lately its been harder for me to see at night so we were driving home from Layton last night and I had Brian drive. It has been probably a month or so since he's driven with me and we've had a headlight out for about a week now. I have driven every night this week somewhere and no cops. But last night we were driving through our lovely little town of Millville when we passed a cop. I said to Brian "I bet he pulls you over." The cop turned around and started to follow us. It was so funny because Brian wasn't speeding and he was wearing his seat belt for the first time in a while so he thought there would be no way the cop would pull him over. Less than a minute later, lights turn on and Brian has to pull to the side. I was trying so hard not to laugh because this is the second time he's been pulled over for a headlight that was out when it should have been me driving. The police officer was very nice, I think he saw that we had a sleeping baby in the back seat so he just gave Brian the fix-it ticket and told him to get our car registered. It expires the end of this month so I'm so happy we got pulled over now instead of the first of April. Can you guess what we'll be doing today? Yep, fixing that light.

We had our friends over on Monday night to play some games and Ethan was getting tired but wouldn't go to sleep. I think he was slap happy because he just had to look at Brad and he would laugh. So Brad, being the funny uncle he is, started to play with him and got him laughing pretty good. Here's a video clip.

And here's another video of Ethan getting scared to death. I grabbed his rattle and it scared him so bad. I saw him a few seconds after I had shaken it and he was still shaking himself. So I kept shaking it to get his reaction which is so hilarious.

Such a spastic baby I love it

Two Hour Church...Need I say more?

It was awesome. The Draper temple was dedicated yesterday and we have church from one to four. The problem was that the dedication started at four thirty and they needed to get everyone out of the church and get everything ready for the broadcast of the dedication. So we only had church from one to three. It was kind of nice. Our sunday school teacher is a hard one to listen to for long without going to sleep. I'm not speaking from personal experience because Ethan always keeps me busy during church but everyone around us always bobs their heads. Not yesterday, after the teacher was finished setting everything up, he only had about ten minutes to teach. It was great! Not that gospel doctrine isn't enjoyable, its just hard when the teacher reads the whole time without getting any comments or involving people. Anyway, Relief Society only lasted for about fifteen minutes, which meant that I only had to lead one verse of the opening and closing song. I'm the Music Coordinator for Relief Society. Its great. I love music and it has made me appreciate the hymns and the Spirit they bring into the lessons.

This last week Brian actually had to do his calling. Are you ready for this? He's the Class Advisor for Enrichment. He basically has to babysit four times a year. He was called to do this about six months ago and has only done it twice now. He loves it because 1. He loves kids and 2. Its a really easy calling. A lady sets up all the activities and treats and all he has to do it put it in motion. So he basically just has to show up. And yes, this is his only calling. Our ward is huge and has needed to split for the last two years and it finally will sometime soon we're hoping. We have been in the ward for over a year and are now finally not being asked if we're new every week. Its a huge ward and we have only met a handful of people. Its sad so we're really excited for it to be split so we can get to know more people.

Brian's been really busy with work lately. Him and his brother. Jared, are getting really busy with QPC and they are also working for Scentinel candle. Both jobs keep them super busy. We feel very blessed to have them busy, especially at this time when so many people are out of work.

I've been up to absolutely nothing. I am just enjoying being at home with my little one and taking care of him. I actually left for a few hours on Saturday to go to lunch with most my sisters and my brother for my dad's birthday. We went to Sizzler and had so much fun. I left Ethan home with Brian and it was great but I also felt good coming home.

Ethan is being so stubborn. He rolled over a few weeks ago but now will not do it. Its almost like he forgot how, which is weird because I was having him do it at least three times a day and he was a pro. Then one day, he decided he no longer wanted to and now he is back to screaming and shoving his face in the floor when on his belly. So stubborn! Love him anyway though.

Friday was a great day. After Brian got off work, we went straight to his parents' house so he could help set up their tramp. I can't wait for Ethan to try it out. I am sure he will love it because he loves to be bounced. After, Lorie fixed us wonderful hamburgers on the grill and it was so fun because it was like summer. Such nice weather, grill going, and wonderful company. It was a blast. Saturday night, we went over to Brad and Missy's and played a very fun game named Bohnanza. It was super fun and we couldn't get enough so they are coming over tonight, along with Traci and Brody, to play again. We're really excited. It was so funny on Saturday night because Ethan was super tired and usually he whines and cries until he falls asleep but I was holding him, playing the game, and he just started to nod off. It was so funny. I have never seen him do that and I couldn't stop laughing. Missy took some super cute pictures of it and a really funny video but the video was too big to email so the pictures will have to do for now.

I know I'm biased but he has got to be the cutest little baby ever!

This is him nodding off. He kept hitting my arm with his head. So funny!