3 Year Anniversary

Wednesday was our 3 year anniversary, but we didn't celebrate until yesterday. Every year we get the "traditional" gift for each other. This year was leather so we set out to find some sort of leather gift. I wanted a leather couch, but that request wasn't flying with "Mr. Moneybags." I ended up with a leather belt and Ryan got a leather picture frame for his office. My friend, Amy, watched Ethan so we could go out to dinner by ourselves (a first since my mom watched him at Christmas time). Next year the traditional gift is fruits/flowers so that should be interesting. I'm requesting Harry & David's fruit of the month club memeberships for my gift!

Grandma Cheryl's Favorite

This is just a super cute picture of Ryan reading to Ethan. Ethan loves to be read to and he usually tries to mimick what you're doing so he tries to read along.

Ethan's First Swim

That's a sticker on his chest, it turns orange when he needs to get out of the sun.
Having fun with his "girlfriend" Becky
Cool dude in the tube
A bunch of us girlies decided to have a kid/baby/prego pool party. This was the first time Ethan has ever swam in a pool and he LOVED it! I guess it's just one big bathtub to him. He was so cute in his little floaty and swimmer diaper. It was so fun to lounge at the pool with the girls, eat twizzlers, and talk. Of course all the sun and swimming made him super tired so he's going to sleep well tonight. Afterward all the swimming we went to our apartment's "Greek Night" party so I got to try some good Greek food. I even won $25 off our rent. Doesn't help much when you're paying oodles of money for it anyway, but I'll take what I can get.

Ward Playgroup

Look at all these "hot mamas"! (this isn't everyone from playgroup, but just some of us that would get in a picture)
Sydney and Ethan playing together
Cute little Spencer on his "leash"

Today the ward playgroup went to a little farm with lots of animals like ducks, cows, sheep, goats, and roosters. We have an awesome group of fun moms to hang out with and the kids have a great time too. It's always fun to get together and get out of the house (and make the kids really tired).

Photo Shoot

My lovely friend Hilary took some of the best pictures ever today! Remember, she also did the pictures of Ethan when he was newborn too. She is super talented! I LOVE all the pics she got today. These are just a few from the shoot, but if you'd like to see more I can e-mail them to you. Thanks Hilary!!!

Hello, Mr. President

Ethan with President Bush
President Bush shaking hands with people
Ryan and Ethan at the event
Our front row seats

Yes, that is our son with the President! My best friend from high school, Tiffany, got us totally hooked up. Her husband works for the President and since the President was in town visiting Cisco Systems, they got us front row seats to the discussion! We even sat by the mayor of San Jose! So after the whole discussion we went up to the front so we could shake Bush's hand as he came around. Well, when he got to us, he looked at Ethan and picked him right up so I could take a picture of Ethan with the President. Everyone there started clapping when the President picked him up. Then he turned to the Presidential photographer so the photographer could get some pictures and had me get in a few too. The photographer gave me a card with all the info so I can have the pictures sent to me. Then the President gave Ethan a kiss and handed him back to me. It was incredible! A once in a lifetime opportunity! Too bad Ethan won't remember any of this, but at least we have pictures. After the whole thing everyone came up to us to see the "famous baby" and a newspaper guy got all our info for the paper. I'm excited to see if we made it in the paper. Thanks Tiff and Gregg for the wonderful opportunity! You guys are too cool! I just thought I was going to have good seats to see the President. I never thought I would actually get to meet him and have him hold my child. Too cool!

A Day at the Beach

My friend Amy invited Ethan and me to go with her to the beach in Santa Cruz. It was a gorgeous day! We had tons of sun and 78 degree weather. Ethan totally loves the beach and dipping his little toes in the freezing water. It was a great day of sun, sand, and socializing. I'm sure Pres. Elmer wants to know if I was able to boogie board, but unfortunately I didn't. I wish. The whole day wore out Ethan so he went to bed early. Lucky me. Thanks for a fun day, Amy!

Curl Up with a Good Book

I want to get a good book to read and I'm wanting to poll my fellow blog readers about what books they like. I need some good recommendations on a good one. I'm not to particular on any types or anything. I know a lot of you guys are avid readers so I'm expecting some good feedback. Thanks!

Easter

Ethan's 1st Easter Eggstravaganza
Hugging his gift from Grandma Cheryl
Trying to get at his gifts

Our Easter was a good one. Ethan had tons of fun getting eggs and presents. Despite what Emily said in her comment, the "strawberry disaster" was a disaster. It wasn't as good as I thought. We did have a great dinner though. I had a great time with our friends and we even played a new game that was really fun called "A Ticket to Ride Europe," very fun.

Father-Son Weekend

(Ethan's face looks shiny because I just put lotion on him)

I was actually able to sleep in until 8:30!!! Oh my goodness!!! Ryan usually goes to basketball every Saturday morning at 6 so I have to get Ethan when he gets up, but this Saturday Ry decided to stay home and let me sleep in :) I can't believe 8:30 is considered sleeping in! I also went to the mall with Hilary to get a shirt for one of my skirts. I haven't been to the mall with a friend and without any kids in forever! Every mom needs a day to herself. After the mall, I started making some of the things for Easter dinner. I tried making a new recipe out of one of the cookbooks my Aunt gave me. I think I'm going to call it "Strawberry Disaster." We'll see how it tastes tomorrow. Sorry to our guests, Mike and Emily, who will be eating it at our Easter feast. I'll let you know what happens.

Just another day

Back to the uncomely days of rain :( I didn't do much today. I made some pear baby food and Ethan helped me out in his high chair. I'll post some pictures later (they're really cute). Making the baby food was a whole lot easier this time around since I knew what I was doing. I also finished up my Relief Society lesson for Sunday. Our friends had a little birthday party this evening so we got to get some cake and ice cream in before little one had to go to bed. Sorry, I'm so boring, but it was a boring day:(

80's music

I'm a big fan of the music from the 80s and I was just wanting to get a fun little collection of songs. What is your favorite 80's songs? Please post a comment and let me know you're top 5 faves (or more if you'd like).

This is why everyone wants to live in California!

Ethan checking out all the kids on the playground


Ethan in the swing (yes, those houses behind him go for over $800,000!)


The weather was absolutely wonderful today! It was such a great day! I went walking with some of my friends from my ward and enjoyed the sunshine. Then I had a little yummy lunch with Hilary. I got home and Ry was there eating lunch so I got to spend time with him and I also got a chance to clean up our room while he played with Ethan. Later this afternoon my friend Amy called and they were at the park so I took another walk up to the park. It was beautful outside, finally!!! Ethan was so good too. He just sat there watching all the kids from his stroller and then he laughed a lot on the swings. We had a really good day.

Once again...

Once again, the internet is not my friend anymore. I swear Ry's computer does this to make me mad. Right now I'm at the apartment clubhouse plucking out my blog entry with only eight minutes left before it shuts off. Booo! I barely get time to check up on all my e-mails and see all my friends' blogs and it's over. WHY???!!!! I just want normal internet! I guess that's what we get for trying to be "thrifty" and not having to pay for internet. Well, I have to use my last 7 minutes wisely so I better makes this brief.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Ethan is quite the roller these days. He'll go across the whole room while I'm not looking. He also grabs at everything whether it's Mom's glasses or the phone. He's growing up so much!

New Pics

For those of you that have the link for the Yahoo Albums...I just put up a new album so you can check it out. If you don't have the link and you'd like to see them leave a comment or e-mail me.

A Stalk in the Park

It was finally a day without rain so I decided to take Ethan on a walk in the stroller to the park. There are quite a few parks to choose from in the area so that's really nice. I walked over to one of the parks and as i was scanning the area, I got a really weird feeling. I saw a guy there that just gave me the "hee-bee-gee-bees" . I just didn't think I should stay there so I decided to walk to another park further down the street. Once I got to the other park, I saw another mom there with her little girl so I felt a little safer. Anyway...I got Ethan in the swing and as I was taking pitctures of him, I noticed that strange man from the other park riding his bike and looking at me. So I was swinging Ethan and stuff and then the guy decided to sit on the park bench next to the swings and watch me. I was totally freaking out by then. I picked Ethan out of the swing, grabbed the stroller, and walked over to the other mom on the play place. I told her the situation and told her I felt really uncomfortable. I didn't want to walk all the way home either since he could follow me. This nice mom packed us all up in her car and she dropped me off in front of my complex. Maybe I'm just paranoid or maybe I'm a little sensitive in my surroundings, but I felt really weird with some random guy watching me at every park. So much for our fun outing. At least I got some cute pictures.

It's Alive!

What ever happened to the days of paperdolls, marbles, jump rope, and coloring in the lines? Well, I saw this toy on a show today and it sounds so cool! Isn't it so bad that the mom wants the toy more than the kid? It's from the Discovery Channel store. Basically the toy has an inner clock that you set to your babies age and as the baby gets older the toy adjusts to his developmental stage. The buttons will light up differently, different music will play, new knobs appear, etc. It's pretty incredible. It's called the Ann B. Dextrous and you can see it at http://shopping.discovery.com/product-59439.html . It's $60 so we won't be getting it anytime soon (not in the budget), but maybe for his 1/2 or 1st birthday.

Thanks for the Advice

Thank you to everyone that gave me advice from the previous blog entry. I will put it all to the test for the next few days. I hope I can get him to do better with his night waking. We are making progress though on his "getting to sleep" routine. He can actually go down for his naps and bedtime without crying at all. That is a huge step for him (those of you that have been around him at those times will agree)! Once we've got the "sleeping through the night" down then that will be a dream. Well, wish me luck and hope for some zzzz's.

Can I Get Some SLEEP??!!!

I am sooooooo tired! Ethan's sleep habits are getting worse instead of getting better. I have been up with him about 4-5 times a night for the past few weeks and it's really starting to wear on me. I'm trying to figure out why in the world he's not doing better on his sleep habits and all I can come up with is our sleep situation and the weather. Right now he's sleeping in his crib in our room because we're still in a one bedroom apartment. :( I think he wakes up whenever someone turns over or moves. It's also been raining for the past 28 days consecutively so it's been really hard for us to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. The best time he ever slept was in Australia due to the fact that he had his own room and was out and about in the sun. I could be totally wrong. If anyone has any ideas please tell me. We've got white noise for him and everything. I was thinking about my past sleep situation and here's what I figured out. I haven't had a full nights rest in the past 18 months! I worked the night shift for the past year and was on constant "jet lag" mode. Since my sleep habits were so weird I would go to bed super late and would have a hard time with waking up in the middle of the night. Then with pregnancy I was up all the time with heartburn, bathroom breaks, restless legs, aching body, etc. Now I have a child that wakes up at 11, 1, 2, 4, and 6 (it varies at times). I need some major sleep. Can I just be like Rip Van Winkle and take the next year and half off and get some sleep. The hard thing is that Ryan tries to help me out on the weekends by taking Ethan so I can get some extra rest, but I end up getting up when he cries since I'm conditioned to wake up or I wake up in pain because I need to feed Ethan. Sometimes I just wish I could detach my "nursing friends" and let someone else take care of it for awhile. Motherhood is not easy and sometimes it's not fun, but I would take the no sleep and never ending nursing sessions any day for little Ethan. I love him so much and I would only do it for him (and for the other children coming in the future). Sorry for the vent session, but this mom needs a little TLC!

I Love the Library!

Ryan and I have always had a special place in our heart for the library. Usually it's a destination for a "post-FHE" activity. We like to check out old school movies and DVDs from our childhood or some good classics (since we're "thrifty" and all the movies are free). Ethan does really well in the stroller so I buckle him up with some toys and hit the shelves. Lately I've been checking out all kinds of things. I started my baby food making with a baby food cookbook from the library last month. I also like to look at the informational/instructional type books and videos. Ry and I tried out an awesome neck and face massage video last week and now we've got a good foot massage one this week. I love the library! You can totally learn tons of different things every time you go. I guess it's my outlet for learning now that I'm staying at home and I'm not studying in school right now. It's great!

How compatible are you?

Just a funny thing we tried out last night. Give it a whirl.

SimilarMinds.com Compatibility Test

Your match with Ryan you are 63% similar you are 44% complementary

How Compatible are You and Your Friends?

Back in Action

Hooray for technology! The computer is back on track and I'm a happy girl! All I have to say is that we will have REAL internet once we move. Well, Ethan is 5 months old today. I can't believe I have a 5 month old! I just keep looking at him today and realize he's getting so big and growing so much. He enjoys trying different solids, he rolls all around, grabs and eats his feet, reaches and rolls to his toys, sleeps a little bit better, and he's so alert. Ethan is about 16 lbs with diaper and cloths on so he's getting to be quite the big boy. It's so hard to carry him and groceries up 3 flights of stairs to our apartment, but I get by. Anyway, I had a really fun night tonight with my girly friends. Totally love potluck nights when you can let your hair down and speak your mind. It's so nice to be able to be reassured by everyone that they have felt the way you have about certain things. Thank you girls for a very fun night. I really needed it!