Dear Spring...

Please hurry!

Ethan's First (and hopefully last) Trip To The ER

It's after 10pm and I just tucked Ethan in after a trip to the Emergency Room. He was racing Jeff up the stairs and put his arm sideways between Jeff's calves when Jeff took his next step without realizing where Ethan's arm was, twisting it. I debated weather or not it was serious enough to take him to the hospital but when Ethan (who doesn't like going to the doctor) started saying "I just wanna go to the doctor" I figured we'd better go. He'd been holding his arm and would cry in pain if I touched it. He could bend his wrist and wiggle his fingers but said from his shoulder to below his elbow hurt "really, really bad."
Since Kamden was already asleep, Jeff waited at home while I took Ethan in. They did x-rays but his arm hurt too bad to turn it the way the technician wanted him to and since I'm pregnant I had to stay behind the wall and couldn't stay beside Ethan, I felt so bad for him and hope he never has to go to an Emergency Room again though I'm greatful for the doctors and nurses who took care of him. On the drive home Ethan said he "Only liked the doctor with the white shoes because he gave me stickers."
It ended up that he'd just bruised it really bad and they sent us home with his arm wrapped up and said it shouldn't be bothering him within a few days. It's a horrible feeling when you have to decide if you should take your child to the emergency room or not and I hope I don't find myself in that position again but I'm so thankful it wasn't anything too serious and that he's going to be up and running (probably jumping off the couch and racing up the stairs) in no time.

2008 Recap

Since 2008 seemed to go as fast as it came, I looked through our pictures and found the ones that best captured the last year of what went on with our little family. Jeff and I were able to take trips to Seattle, Denver, and Las Vegas and we were also able to be with his older brother and his family in Bountiful, Utah as they were sealed. Another favorite memory from 2008 was being able to take Ethan and Kamden through the Twin Falls temple open house. We also visited my sister and her family twice last year (yes, Kristen, I'll try to do better in 2009!) I was able to reconnect with a good friend from High School and we also made some great new friends who we are very thankful for! We also found out our little family is continuing to grow and we're all excited to meet our new addition in July 2009.
I think my most favorite memories are just the little, every-day occurances like pictures of the boys in the garden, playing in the backyard on lazy summer days, walks and bikerides...just the small moments that make up our lives. The pictures really made me miss the sunny weather! (And they made me realize how much the boys have grown-especially Kamden!)
We made lots of trips to visit Jeff's family, though I don't think we'll ever make enough trips to satisfy Ethan. He just loves going to see his cousins and keeps asking when he gets to play in Great-Grandma Hurst's ditch again!
We went to the zoo about 4 or 5 times this year, I lost track but the boys loved it each time and it was fun watching them run around being kids and seeing all of the new animals.
Several projects around the house were completed in 2008 and what a blessing to be able to cross more off of our To-Do List! (Though it seems like once you cross something off, three more projects get added to it) Jeff has done such a great job on all of the work he's done from installing a stair railing to replacing the ancient porches and we can't tell those who've helped us how grateful we are!
One of my favorite days in 2008 was the 4th of July, it was just a really fun, relaxing day and you can read more about it here.
We gained a new sister-in-law on Jeff's side in 2008 and my youngest brother got engaged so we're excited to add another sister to our family in the coming year. Besides a wedding and the birth of our 3rd child, we are also looking forward to a visit from my brother and his family who live out East and we haven't seen them in 2 years, we can't wait!
Our lives are so blessed, I've really been mindful of that lately. How no matter what comes our way we always seem to get through it and everything works out. It's funny how the things we stress and worry about the most usually turn out not to matter as much as we'd thought they would. I'm not one for doing New Years Resolutions because I don't even make it through January with them, but I hope this year I can be more grateful and appreciative than I was last year and try to always be mindful of how blessed I truly am.
So have a happy, safe, and grateful 2009!

Happy New Year!

For New Years we visited Jeff's family and drove down on Wednesday and stayed through Sunday. It was great to spend time with them and we did fun things like go to the movies New Years Day-it was Ethan and Kamden's first time in a movie theatre and it'll be awhile before they get to go back! They did pretty good for the first half hour or so but then all they wanted to do was run around and go out in the halls.



We also went bowling, spent time lounging around in our pajamas, watching movies and football, and the boys had a blast playing with cousins and staying at Grandma & Grandpas. It was really nice having Wade and Lauren staying there with us, the boys just love them and they are so good to play with Ethan and Kamden. Ethan really didn't want to leave and Kamden is wandering around looking for "BaaMa".
2008 was a great year filled with so many blessings and fun times, we can't wait to see what 2009 holds for us!
Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

So I'm finally blogging Christmas! We had a great holiday season this year and enjoyed all of the time we were able to spend with our friends and family. We spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house but had to get home before it got too late so we could get ready for Santa.
Christmas morning the boys woke up around 8 (I refrained this year from waking everyone up early) and they wandered downstairs to see what Santa had been left behind. After the gift-opening frenzy, we had my parents and brothers over for breakfast and just spent the afternoon relaxing before going to my parents house for Christmas dinner. And, I must say, my husband made some yummy scalloped potatoes...so he can cook!

Playing In The Snow With Bear

I'm behind on my blogging, these pictures are from before Christmas when the boys played out in the snow at my parents' house with their Uncle Jeff, their daddy, and grandpa's dog.

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!