Christmas Photo Shoot

Our super talented friend Breanna took some pictures for us last week, at Shoreline park. She did such a great job and even had her husband Martin and daughter Claire come to make Ethan laugh. We LOVE all the pictures. She is amazing!!!! Thank you Bre!

I just LOVE this one of two of my favorite boys. 

Christmas cards

We had a bit of a diaster when it came to Christmas cards this year. Frist off, let me apologize if you didn't get one - I just sent them Friday so you may have one coming. It was all thrown together super last minute and we have vowed to do a better job next year (ie. start the process much much earlier). We didn't send any to family (other than immediate and grandparents...sorry)
Okay here's the story. Well we had amazing photos taken (as you can see in the post above) by our awesome friend Bre. The pictures weren't the problem. The problem was the fact that I didn't even think about Christmas cards until a couple of days ago. I designed a card on tiny prints and loved it! I was so excited to send it out and when I went to order it, surprise surprise it wasn't scheduled to arrive to my place until Dec 21-26, which obviously wouldn't work out since we are going out of town on the 21st. Anyways, I then designed a card on shutterfly, to find the same problem when I went to order them. At this point Ethan was very tired of me being on the computer and I felt a rush to get them ordered so onto Costco's website and boom they were ordered. Fast forward to the next day when I picked them up...to my surprise Chris's head was cut off. I hadn't even noticed the day before. My boots being in the picture took priority over Chris's head...what can I say.

Be prepared for awesome Christmas cards next year!

Thanksgiving

We had such a great Thanksgiving weekend with family in Utah. We are so blessed to have such wonderful families!
Highlights from the trip:
- Ethan spending time with his cousins: Noah, Logan and Ava
- Ethan's first Aquarium visit, with Chris's family
- Temple Square and the lights with Chris's family
- Turkey Bowl with my family
- Delicious thanksgiving food with my cousins
- Chris's homemade pumpkin cheesecake pie - it was delicious!
- Bear Lake Cabin. My mom beating all of us girls in an arm wrestle - she is strong!
- Throwing my first babyshower with Erica for Megan (my sister due in January)
- Spending time with long time best friend, Jessa
- Going to tumbling class with my mom, sisters, and Jessa - yes, my mom. She can still do flips.
- Visiting Collin
- And of course spending time chatting with our families.

9 Months

I can't believe my baby boy is 9 months old! I know I say this every month, by time seriously flies!
He had his 9 month appointment before we went to Utah for Thanksgiving and here are his stats:
Weight: 19 lbs. 45th percentile
Height: 28.5 inches 65th percentile
Head: 85th percentile (can't remember the exact measurement)

A few things about Ethan at 9 months:
- Crawls like a champ. Everywhere. All day long. Keeps me on my toes and I love it!
- Is starting to stand up to everything. Started with kneeling up to everything and in the past couple of days started standing more.
- Is only a mamma's boy when he's super tired, otherwise he's happy to play with anyone.
- Loves other kids.
- Loves the park.
- Loves dogs, to my dismay...and Chris's delight. 
- Can play catch and loves it and loves to watch others play catch.
- Is 100% boy. Loves balls, wheels, and has continued his fascination with cords/outlets.
- Bonks his head a least 3 times a day.  I promise I keep a good eye on him
- Great eater. Will eat anything. I haven't been able to distinguish a clear favorite because he eats and seems to like whatever I give him
- Still nurses 5-6 times a day (2 of those times are during the night...)
- Still waking up anywhere from 2 - 4 times during the night....I know I know I need to start sleep training
- Isn't a huge fan of napping, although I think he's setting a record right now (2 hours and still going!)
- Has four teeth and two more coming through

He brings so much joy into our little family. I am so lucky and grateful to be his mom.

Croup plus Ear Infection

Our little Mr. Ethan has been so sick. Thank goodness he is back to his happy healthy self! It all started last Wednesday night. He woke up with a horrible barking cough. And when I say "barking" I mean he literally sounded exactly like a barking seal. It scared me. I looked online and immediately knew he had croup. I called the nurse and she confirmed my research and told me to take him into the bathroom with the hot shower on for 15 minutes - so in we went and let me just say at the end of 15 minutes I was sweating up a storm. I was rocking/bouncing him the entire time and wow, it was a sauna in there! Needless to say, we had a rough night. Rough couple of nights actually. On Friday night, Chris and I found ourselves standing in the dark, one of us on each side of his car seat, swinging him back and forth. Unfortunately, after we realized he was just staring at us, we couldn't stop laughing, which didn't help him fall asleep. Let's just say we were all exhausted. He was so sad. We felt horrible for him and wished so badly we could take away his suffering. On Saturday, he was just miserable, so we took him in to urgent care. I had called the nurse a couple of times and she told me it was virus and to just wait it out at home. Well we were done waiting it out, so we took him in, and thank goodness we did! Turns out on top of croup he had an ear infection and his tonsils were so swollen they gave him steroids to help him breath. We saw drastic improvement after Saturday and he is now...finally...back. YAY!

8 Months

Time just flies by! I can't believe Ethan is already 8 months! It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.
Ethan is such a joy! I seriously can't get enough of him.
A few things about Ethan at 8 months:
- Crawling. He gets faster and faster every day. It started as an army crawl and just today he started a few "offical" crawl steps.
- 2 bottom teeth and 2 top teeth popping through.
- Loves to look at himself in the mirror. I say he gets it from his dad ; )
- Still wakes up at least 2 times during the night...sometimes more. Hopefully he will just learns to sleep through the night himself...crying it out doesn't work very well when we only have a one bedroom apartment.
- takes 3, 30-45 minute, naps a day. Occasionally he'll surprise me with an hour + nap (like right now!)
- Great eater and has been learning to pick things up and feed himself (although I still feed him baby food jars and oftentimes pick up the little pieces of food and stick them in his mouth...but he is improving). The only thing he hasn't liked is the Gerber Mac n' Cheese.  Loves strawberries, avocado, bread, bananas, cheerios, and all baby food jars (except the mac n' cheese).
 - Is very persistent and will crawl to something over and over again. He was playing with a plastic bag the other day and so of course I took it away and hid it under the crib (it had diapers from Costco in it) anyways he immediately crawled and stretched his arm under the crib and grabbed the bag and began shaking all the diapers out. After a minute of watching him I threw the bag in the garbage and without skipping a beat Ethan crawled to the garbage knocked it over and began playing with the bag again! Persistent little fellow!
- Favorite "toys" are cords, floor heaters, shoes, plastic bags, toilet bowls...you get the idea.
- Loves the water. The swimming pool and the bath.
- Loves attention and loves other babies.
- Loves his dad. He often cries when Chris leaves to work in the morning. Is a mamma's boy at heart. If he's sad, he wants mom.
- Loves the outdoors, especially the park.
- Is randomly scared of certain people. He bursts into tears whenever he sees my neighbor and my apartment manager, but is fine with most other people.
- He is such a happy little guy and we love him so much!!

Just look at that little face! So kissable! We love you Ethan!

7 Months

A few things about Mr. Ethan at 7 months:

- He loves to chat with himself in the mirror. 

- He is awesome at sitting up and rolling...everywhere! He very mobile and before we know it he will be crawling. Like within days...

- He is great at eating his baby food. I haven't determined a favorite, he seems to like it all. 

- He is not so great at drinking his milk (nursing).  We have to be in the same spot in our apartment, he has to be very tired, and there has to be ZERO distraction for him to nurse. 

- He is a social little guy and loves other babies, kids, adults, people in general. 

- He loves to jump. We bought him a bouncer and he loves it!   

- The other day he "jumped" (fell really) out of his bumbo onto the table and was headed for the floor, luckily I was a ninja and caught him. It gave me a heart attack. He no longer sits in the bumbo. 

- He loves peek-a-boo

- He is very ticklish and has the cutest laugh (check out the video at the bottom)

- He is such a happy baby! 

We love our little guy.

Triathlon

I did my frist triathlon on Saturday and LOVED it! Yeah, it was just a sprint (400 meter swim, 10 mile bike, and 3 mile run) but hey I've got to start small and work my way up, Iron man here I come! Just kidding, I'm not that crazy. But seriously, I can't wait for the next one. 

The swim was interesting...I have never done any open water swimming, other than playing around in the ocean, which surely doesn't give me any sort of advantage. I was a little over confident in my swimming abilities and started at the front and was attacked with swarms of people before I finished my first stroke. After I finally got started, I realized that lakes don't have lines at the bottom like the swimming pool which meant my ability to swim in a straight line was shot. Luckily the swim was only 400 meters so I survived. 

The bike and run felt great! I was proud of myself for finishing the run in 23:17, definitely my strongest  portion of the race. My total time was 1:06:26. I loved it and am so excited for the next one.

 I did the race with 4 other ladies from my ward. So fun!

 Ethan wasn't sure what to think of green headed mom

My fans. 

One lucky girl

Isn't he just the cutest little guy you ever did see? I'm totally not biased at all.
I love him. I love every minute of being a mom. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband who not only is incredibly good looking but works so hard so I can hang out with Mr. Ethan all day. I'd say, I'm one lucky girl.

Adoption

I have a number of friends and family members who are looking to adopt. I absolutely LOVE being a mom and want everyone I know to experience the same joy that I feel. I can say without any hesitation that I have the absolute best job in the whole world. I want to help my friends/family in any way that I can. This blog post is a shout out to my friend, Julie Lisonbee.

I met Julie while working at BYU Independent Study. From the moment I met her I knew that she was a genuine, honest, and kind person with a great sense of humor! She made me feel welcome and I always looked forward to chatting with her during down time at work.

Chris and I went on a double date with her and Landon (Chris actually went to high school with Landon) and I just remember getting the feeling that they were so in love. They were so sweet to each other the whole time.

I know Julie will make a fantastic mother. She is crafty, athletic, funny and most importantly dedicated to the gospel and her family.

Here is the link to her adoption blog.
http://landonandjulieadopt.blogspot.com/

6 Months

Mr. Ethan is 6 months old today. 6 months! Its seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital! His 6 month check up was yesterday. He did awesome. He was tougher than his mom during the shots, only whimpering for a few seconds.

His 6 month stats:
Head circumference: 44 centimeters (69 percentile)
Height: 27 inches (66.2 percentile)
Weight: 16 pounds 15 ounces (40.25 percentile)

A few things about Ethan:
- Already has his two bottom teeth (they popped through a couple of weeks ago)
- Sitting up really well - although I like to sit behind him because he still topples sometimes
- Awesome at rolling from his back to his stomach, but struggles to roll from his stomach to back (he can do it - just not as easily)
- Sleeps best on his stomach - just like his dad.
- Naps for 30 to 45 minutes tops, unless I'm holding him then he'll go for an hour or two.
- Goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:30 and then wakes up twice for feedings and is up in the morning around 7 - I think he sleeps great. His doctor wants me to cut out the midnight feeding...
- Starting to love solid food. Funny story, my mom and our friend Lyn came to visit and the first day they arrived I told my mom that he loves to eat the food I am eating but isn't a fan of his baby food. Well, grandma was full of magic tricks. Warm the baby food up and add rice cereal so it is thicker. It never occurred to me that babies liked their sweet potatoes warm. Thank goodness for grandma!
- Loves peek-a-boo / to be surprised
- Cutest laugh! *the video at the bottom is of him laughing with Chris - you have to watch - it's to die for. I'm not biased at all : )
- Adorable smile!
- Beautiful blue eyes
- Such a happy baby!

At his doctors appointment

Ethan with grandma.

I am still learning how to feed Ethan. Most of the time Ethan looks like this afterwards.

Sitting

He wakes up so happy. If you look closely you can see his two bottom teeth

We love our Ethan!