Ethan Turns Four...

Ethan's birthday was Saturday, December 27th and we celebrated with friends and family. Everyone made their own little pizza, then we dug into the Lightning McQueen cake which turned out more pink than red, but Ethan kept telling me how "awesome" it was so don't tell him it was pink! He got some new snowboots, clothes, a CARS pencil box with paper, a pencil sharpener, colored pencils, and lots of other good stuff inside to keep him occupied. He also got a BSU hat and tshirt so he can show his Bronco pride when we take the boys to a basketball game next month. He's been quick to let everyone know that he's four now and has been asking when he will turn five. I'm just glad that we're done with birthdays until November, it's been a really hectic two months!

Let It Snow...

Here are some pictures of the boys enjoying the snow over the last few weeks. Ethan has been waiting and waiting for the "good snow" to build a snowman and on Sunday we bundled up and were finally able to go out and build our snowman family. They didn't last long, by Monday morning they were getting smaller and smaller, there's not much left of them!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy EtHaN!

Dear Ethan,
I can't believe you are 4 years old already, where did the time go? We are so blessed to have you in our lives and you bring so much joy and laughter to our family. Like yesterday when I was telling dad that I had signed up to have the missionaries for dinner and you asked if they were going to come eat with us and I said yes and you responed "That's good that you aren't going to eat them." Or on Saturday when you kept asking when your "real birthday was going to start" and I'd tell you that it was your real birthday but you said it couldn't be your real birthday because it was snowing.
You're always so concerned about the well being of others, you're a very caring and compassionate little boy. You're a great big brother and take such good care of Kamden and you can't wait for our new baby to get here, 7 months is just too long for a 4-year-old to wait.
Whenever I'm cooking or baking you always have your little chair right there beside me, asking what you can do to help. Even though you get into your share of mischief, you've taught me not to take life too seriously and to remember to laugh. Ever since the day you were born, you've been my best little buddy even though I was scared out of my mind to be a mother and had no idea what I was doing. But you were patient with me and we figured it out together.
I love you so much, Ethan, and I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

We Should Name Him Peter Pan!

Ok, so the cat is out of the bag and I'm pretty sure that everyone knows this by now, but we are going to have a baby in July. The last 4 weeks have been pretty rough-basically a repeat of when I was expecting Ethan; 9 months of nausea. I'm hoping for a balance between my first 2 pregnancies because with Kamden I only had a week of being sick. I guess we'll see what the second trimester brings.
My life has pretty much consisted of lying on the couch while the boys play, watch movies, and Ethan asks if we can go somewhere followed by my predictable reply of "No, my stomach hurts." Which he gives a heavy sigh and says in complete disbelief "Again?!" And then I run for the bathroom and vomit. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
So Jeff decided it was time to tell the boys, especially so Ethan can understand why he's been neglected. We sat down and explained to Ethan (Kamden could really care less, he started running around the room before we even started talking) that mommy has a baby in her tummy and he gets to be a big brother again.
His response: hysterical laughter and rolling around on the floor.
"You know what we should name it?!" Ethan yelled between giggles "PETER PAN!"

Peter Pan Stoker.

I guess we'll find out soon enough...

HaPpY BiRtHdAy {yesterday} HOLLY!

We love you!
Love,
Jeff, Ethan, and Kamden

Catching Up

The last few weeks have been filled with all things Christmas; parties, shopping, planning, decorating, and wrapping. Ethan was asked to participate in the Primary Christmas Program and to dress up as a Shepherd. When I told him about it he said "No, I won't be that. I will be a chicken or a bird."
I finally convinced him that neither of those was an option and when I told him he could have a stick to poke the sheep with, that sealed the deal. He was only too disappointed when there were no sheep in the program. He made up for it later that week when we went to my parents' house and he convinced my mom to be his sheep.
We finally had a little snow and it was all I could do to keep Ethan inside until a decent hour of the morning. The snow didn't last very long and he's been on the watch for it to come back.
Kamden has been depriving us of our much-needed sleep by pulling stunts like waking up at 4 in the morning or staying up until 4 in the morning. I'm not sure what happened to our little guy that slept through the night but we are anxiously awaiting his return!
For some reason, Kamden has also started really accentuating his K's by dragging them out and adding a gurgly, saliva-filled sound to them. He now says "Milk-k-k-k" and does that to words like "work" "drink" or anything ending in K. I'm not doing it justice by writing this because I don't quite know how to get the whole gurgling, gravely, almost-choking sound in with it.
Both of the boys have a few new obesessions-the first is the movie CARS. Kamden got several of the little cars for his birthday and he HAS to have one when he goes to bed or takes a nap. Kamden also spends several hours of the day being our 'Puppy' and crawls around the house, climbs up in our laps, and barks. He and Ethan sometimes really get into it and request that their food and drinks be served on the floor.
The boys borrowed a Lion King movie last month while we were Visiting Teaching and have a new obsession with Simba. If they aren't being puppies, then we have two very loud lions roaming the house. They also really enjoy taking the cushions and pillows off the couch for some reason, I've lost track of how many times a day this happens and have almost given up on keeping it together.
They are both enjoying the Christmas season and anytime we go somewhere Ethan always wants to know if we can look at the Christmas lights. He keeps asking how many days until Santa comes and the answer is never good enough becaus he "doesn't want it to take that many days". He's also very interested in what Santa is going to bring him and when asked what he would like Santa to leave under the tree it's always something different. Too bad Santa has already finished his Christmas shopping!
So that's a little of what's been keeping us busy the last little while. We have 3 parties this weekend and next week we will be getting ready for my sister to come stay with us and for the Christmas party with my family. Only 13 days until Christmas!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy KriStEn!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my AWESOME, AMAZING sister! I hope you had a WONDERFUL birthday!

(I don't have any pictures of you because I only have my laptop right now but maybe I can find a good one at dad's:)

Thanksgiving Week

This week has been full of recouperating from the Vegas trip (it's always nice to come home but the laundry seems to take FOREVER!) and getting ready for Thanksgiving while enjoying time with family. On Wednesday the boys helped me make apple, lemon, banana cream, chocolate, blackberry, and 2 pumpkin pies. This is the first time I ever made pie crust that didn't involve a box and unrolling the premade dough and it turned out really well. I even peeled and sliced the apples, making the filling from scratch! I was very proud of myself.
That night we went to my parents' house and set tables, made rolls, and did all of the prep work we could before Thursday. Jeff got to go play football with a group of guys at the elementary school and conveniently got home as we were finishing preparing the meal :) So I didn't feel too bad for him when he complained of his old, sore body for the next day and a half.
My nieces stayed the night with us Thursday night and the next morning we went with my sister Kristen and two of my nephews to Target. This is the first time I've gone shopping the day after Thanksgiving and we didn't get there until 11 and it was still pretty crazy.
Then we went and saw Twilight and I'm keeping my opinions to myself because I'm going to go see it with Callie and maybe it'll be like the first time I saw Napolean Dynamite.
That night we ate nachos and watched movies at my parents' house and on Saturday I went to lunch with Kristen before she left town. Then we spent some time catching up around the house and Jeff got the garden tilled and my flower baskets taken down for the winter. It seems wierd that tomorrow is December 1st and we've actually had some pretty nice weather latley and it hasn't snowed here yet. Hopefully we'll at least get some snow for Christmas! Ethan keeps getting his sled out of the storeroom but there's only so much you can do with it on grass and gravel.
The boys have runny noses and coughs, only the begining of the winter-sick-season but hopefully we'll have an easier/healthier go of it this year. Last year it felt like I couldn't keep them healthy for anything and I'm pretty sure I was solely responsible for keeping the cold medicine and tissue companies in business.
Tonight we're celebrating our good friend Joe's birthday and after the candles were blown out Kamden grabbed one of the burned matches and, of course, ate it. He also pooped in the bathtub last night, so life's back to normal after a busy and hectic week.

Here are some pictures of the boys playing football with Jeff, Ryan, and Joe. I have no idea what's going on with Kamden's hat.

Our 5th Anniversary was last Friday and we celebrated in Las Vegas. We were able to stop and visit Jeff's grandparents and someone he used to work with several years ago. While we were at Grandma and Grandpa Hurst's house they told us about a bridge being built at Hoover Dam so on Saturday we drove out to see it. It was pretty interesting but I could NEVER work on something like that, can you imagine being that high, relying on cables to hold you up? It makes me nauseous just looking at the pictures!
How would you like to ride in that?
The two arches on either side had men working on them also, if that was my husband's job I wouldn't want to know where he went every day until the bridge was finished!




Some of the other sights:












It was a fun trip but not somewhere I want to go again. Thanks to Tyler and Jolynne for watching the boys, Ethan can't stop talking about all of the fun he had!

Nothing Like A Good Morning Read

Duck Hunt

Last week we had some friends over and they brought their 'Ghetto Nintendo' as we affectionatley call it. This was one of mine and Jeff's favorite pastimes while we were dating and it was fun to play some good ol' fashioned Mario Brothers. Ethan really liked the Duck Hunt game and this is how close he'd get to shoot them.

Jordan & Ariel Engagement Pictures

You can see more of my work here.

The New 'Do

I chopped my hair off! Well, I didn't do it, Callie did, but still. I've been growing it out for quite awhile now, ever since the tramatizing haircut I received at a local salon about 2 1/2 years ago. It was one of those haircuts where you go in with a picture but the lady just keeps hacking and chopping and you really know you're in trouble when you hear the hum of the clippers and the cold steel against your neck. On top of that, I was 5 months pregnant and overly emotional so you can imagine what it was like for me to see my hair that had just moments ago been past my shoulders now cropped close to my scalp. I looked like a dude.
I cried and told my husband I couldn't go out in public for several months and vowed that I would never again step foot into that salon. And I haven't.
That's been quite awhile and since then I found someone to cut my hair that did a great job but I let myself get busy raising kids, remodeling the house, and just life in general. Then I met Callie.
And today she chopped my hair off.

Cute, huh?

How do you know when it's time for potty training?

A. Your child poops in the bathtub twice in 3 days
B. He develops a habit of taking his diaper off every chance he gets
C. He takes his diaper off without you knowing AND he has a messy diaper. Before you realize what he's doing, he has sat on your mom's living room carpet and has poo smeared all over his legs
D. All of the above

If you chose 'D' then you are unfortunalty correct.
Welcome to my life.

I should have known what kind of day it was going to be when Kamden woke me up at 5:30 this morning. The boys and I went visiting teaching this morning, ran a few errands, and I was really looking forward to naptime.
Ethan didn't take a nap but he had quiet time in his room while I started on dinner. He came downstairs and was helping me in the kitchen when we heard Kamden knocking on his bedroom door upstairs, wanting out from his nap. Ethan ran upstairs and I soon heard him telling Kamden to hold onto the handrail while walking down the stairs.
Then I heard "EW! GROSS! Mom, come here, hurry!"

I'll leave everything to the imagination but there was Kamden with only his shirt and socks on, but covered, COVERED in poo.
I lifted Kamden up and held him out as far as I could while hurrying to the bathroom and put him in the shower. Then I went into his room.
All I will say about that is there was his diaper on the floor, clean as if it had just come out of the box. His pillow had to be thrown away, the bed stripped down, and I won't go into detail about what was smeared all over the back of his bedroom door but it wasn't pretty. Thank goodness for disinfecting cleaning sprays.

Deffinatley time for potty training.

HaPpY BiRtHdaY KAmDeN!

Kamden turns 2 tomorrow, it seems like I just posted about his first birthday, how can he be 2?!
We had a birthday party for him on Saturday at our house with family but Kamden decided to take a nap half an hour before it was supposed to start. I woke him up after everyone was already here and eating dinner and it took awhile for him to liven up and realize the night was all about him. The balloons were the best additon to the party-a cheap way to entertain kids for hours! As we were blowing up the balloons and Ethan was running through them and tossing them through the air he told me "This is the best birthday EVER mom!" And, a day later, those balloons are still holding their attention.
After we sang Happy Birthday to him, Kamden pointed to the lit candles and said 'Hot, hot' and I didn't think he'd try to blow them out but Ethan hopped right up there and together they got the job done.
Then it was time to open gifts and Kamden went crazy. I don't think he could focus long enough to find out what was in the bag, he just wanted to play with everything all at once and discovered he didn't have enough hands to hold all of the toys at the same time. It was pretty funny and I ended up opening most of the gifts for him. Thanks to everyone for coming to celebrate with us!
Today we met Jeff's parents over at Wade and Lauren's and had dinner with leftover cake and ice cream from the party. They brought Kamden a great little airport with a helicopter, airplane, and motorcycle. He's really been into airplanes ever since we went to that airshow a few weeks back, so he's really excited.
Well, we're halfway done with our family's birthday parties for 2008. Jeff and Kamden down and Ethan and I in December. I'm thinking we might just have to do a combined party in 2009!