Children's Discovery Museum

Ethan and I had quite a fun today at the Children's Discovery Museum! They have a really fun exhibit completely designated for infants and toddlers. It's called the "Wonder Cabinet" and it has all sorts of stations for the little ones to play in. Ethan especially loved the station called the "Crawl Space" where it had mirrored cubby holes, cupboards to open and pull out stuff, musical instruments, and tons of toys. Other stations included story time area, a smelling station, art wall, building blocks area (with huge soft blocks), and tunnels to crawl through. He had so much fun investigating everything they had to play with. We also went down to their water exhibit so he could watch the bigger kids play. The cool thing was, they had a water exhibit just for 4 and under too. Ethan loved splashing in the water and picking up the balls and throwing them. He ended up getting totally soaked and his smiley picture was taken right after he got done. I think we will be going again very soon. I had so much fun watching him discovering new things and just being a kid. As we were leaving he turned his head around to look at me and gave me the biggest smile and that totally made my day. I hope that Ryan can come along and experience this with us sometime.

Standing

This is just a little video of Ethan playing on his car set. Hopefully it isn't too dark to see. He's so cute!

It's Been Awhile!

I feel like I haven't posted in a super long time. There is a reason...I've been super sick! I started getting over my sinus infection and then ended up getting food poisoning or some sort of stomach bug on Friday. It was awful! I really didn't enjoy having little Ethan bawling his eyes out every time I got up to run to bathroom to throw up. Luckily I have wonderful support people in my life that my things so much more bearable! Ryan came home for lunch so he could take Ethan for an hour and then Mike and Emily took him for the rest of the day. I don't know what I would have done without them! It's just a shame I had to use my "alone time" being so sick. I started feeling better on Saturday, but I think I got going to quick and got sick again in the afternoon. I swear it's the worst feeling in the whole world! Good news though, I'm back in action. I started to realize how much I really get done when I'm feeling good. I had 4 days worth of "chores" to do and I finished them all in one day. Go me! So now my house in clean, my fridge is stocked, and I even have some meals made in the freezer. Now I'm just going to have to sit around and sip lemonade by the pool. Just kidding (although I will have to get some serious pool time in this week).

Here Comes Trouble!

I heard Ethan rustling in his crib after his nap on Tuesday so I went in to go get him. Well, I was shocked to find him standing up and lunging over the railing! He has learned to pull himself up, climb on top of the bumper, and try to lean over the bar! We lowered the mattress all the way down, but he still trys to do mini pull ups so he can look over the edge. Now that he's learned his favorite new trick, he won't go down for naps. He just stands up, grabs the bars, and shakes them like he's in jail and he wants out NOW! I guess it's bad timing for this no nap thing since I'm suffering from a serious sinus infection and just need a little bit of sleep. I feel bad since I usually take him out everyday to do something whether it's to the store or out for a walk. I just don't feel like doing ANYTHING and he's got all this energy. He crawls all over the house and climbs on everything. Maybe he has tons of boy energy, but I feel like I've got an energetic (and a little mischievious/curious) boy on my hands.

Childhood memories

So I discovered some old videos on the internet of some of the childhood shows that I watched. It was so crazy that I could sing every word to every song even though i probably hadn't seen these shows in like 18 years! I want to post just a few of the wonderful treasures that I found. Maybe it will spark a few memories of your own.

Sunday Lesson

I'm teaching Relief Society on Sunday and it's about the talk that Elder Stone gave at this past April conference. The talk is "Zion in the Midst of Babylon". I'd love for all of you to read it and email me your ideas, impressions, comments, etc. I'm interested on your thoughts on what kinds of things are "Babylon" in our lives? What effect does our American culture have on our lives (good or bad)? How do we create our own "Zion in the midst of Babylon?" I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Today was Ryan's first Father's Day as a "Daddy." We started out the day with no pre-church meetings and a side of fresh pancakes. Then at church Ryan got a special Father's Day candy bar from the Young Women. We did a post-church grill out complete with homemade ice cream cake (made by yours truly). Ryan even got a special gift of Father's Day shirts and a nap. I hope Ryan felt special today. He's such an awesome dad and Ethan and I love him so much! I just wish I could have given him a win for the Dallas Mavericks tonight!

Old Pictures

As I was looking through Ethan's old pictures I also found some good oldies of us before he was born. Enjoy some more good photos.

Making a really good cake for my best friend's baby shower while we were living in lovely Wymount June 2004
Family vacation in Orlando June 2005 I think I was about 21 or 22 weeks pregnant at the time.
Some of my nursing school buddies trying to revive "SAM" in our ICU lab. Unfortunately "SAM" didn't quite make it :( August 2003
The graduates August 2004
My cousin Stockton and me at Grandma's Christmas Party 2003 ( I think Ethan looks a little bit like him)
In San Fran with Xander & Tanya and Mike & Emily Sept 2004

Another Pool Day

Hello to all my fellow blogmates and family! Today was a pretty good day. Ethan slept for just under 2 hours for his morning nap and then we went swimming at the pool with our friends. Ethan LOVES the pool and swimming with Mom. All of us girls were running races in the water(trying to get in a good workout) and Ethan totally cuddled up to me and enjoyed the ride. All the swimming totally knocked Ethan out and he slept over 2 hours for his afternoon nap. I hope he sleeps well tonight, but at least I got tons done today while he napped.

The Early Days

I know Ethan is only 7 1/2 months old, but I was looking through some pictures of my little guy from when he was born all the way through now. It's so interesting to see how he's changed, but also stays the same. Enjoy some fun pictures!

Progressing Through the Months

Paper Wrestling

So I was talking on the phone with my wonderful sister-in-law (she's pretty much my own sister) and trying to get ready for my friend's baby shower. Basically, I wasn't paying too much attention to what Ethan was doing and he got into Ryan's Young Men's papers. I looked down to find Ethan wrestling with a wad of "Zion's Camp" forms. He was crinkling the paper, flinging them around, tearing them apart, and then trying to chew them. I was finger sweeping slobbery globs of paper out of his mouth for like 10 minutes. I'm sure the "parenting" classes advise not to allow babies eat paper. Oh well, put me on the bad mother list.

Such Cute Spikey Hair!

I decided to put a little gel in Ethan's hair the other day and spike it up. It looked so cute! For those of you who were at my wedding were warned that I loved playing "beauty shop" with all my cousins when I was little. Ryan isn't a fan of the "spikey do", but I'll spike Ethan's hair when Ry's not home.

They Have Arrived!!!

Finally, the pictures have arrived straight from the White House! I'm hoping to post the official "Presidential Pictures" soon (once I find someone with a scanner). The pictures are so cool! I got 2 8X10's of the President holding Ethan and you can even see Ry and me in the picture. They included a card with a presidential insignia on it and it says "With the compliments of the President" and then the pictures say "To Ethan Elmer with Best Wishes" and then they are signed by the President!!! This will be framed and on Ethan's dresser forever!

Summer BBQ Season Has Begun!

Mike and Emily threw a hoppin' BBQ tonight! It was quite fun and there was great food (including an extremely burnt hot dog and really good tri tip as shown). The kids got to play some baseball and run around, the babies hung out, and the "pregos" got to show off the bellies. We should really do this all summer long! It gets me out of cooking for a night so I'll take advantage any time I can.




Just a reminder for all the girles here in Cali...The Diaper Days is this Wednesday at the camera 7 theater in Campbell. Just search "Diaper Days" on yahoo and it should pull up all the info. The movie is The Da Vinci Code and it starts at 12:30. Call me or e-mail if you want to go. I'll be skipping out of playgroup early to get there so you can follow me if you like. Hope to see you there!

Rub a Dub Dub

Ethan is now big enough to sit up in his little tub so Dad took a little snapshot of him playing in the tub. He was too interested in his toy to look at the camera, sorry.

Ethan and Sydney Video

This video was from a couple of days ago at Janelle's house. Ethan and Sydney love playing together and you can't keep them away from each other. Sydney is about 3 months older than Ethan. They are so cute!

So You Had a Bad Day...

You know that new song by Daniel Powter, "Bad Day"...that song has been my soundtrack for today and it has been in my head non-stop. Today has just been a day full of all sorts of sad news, bad news, and disappointing news. I guess everything hits all at once. To make matters worse, the people I mope with were either part of the "news", working, or "unavailable". I wanted to get out today, but things just didn't happen so I stayed in all day. Not good for the soul.

A Brother on a Mission

This picture was taken back on January 1st when Ethan was blessed.

My brother goes into the MTC tomorrow and I can't believe it! He's headed to the Tempe, Arizona mission. This entry is dedicated to my bro, see ya in two years (unless we end up moving to Arizona and living in your mission)!

Just Another Day at the Pool

I love hanging with the girls. We have so much fun together!

Memorial Day

We had a little Memorial Day BBQing going on today which was fun. It was a good time to get outside with the kiddos and enjoy some sun. We were going to go to the beach in Santa Cruz, but Ethan hasn't had the best day today. He didn't sleep last night and he only slept in the stroller for about 20 minutes while we went on a walk. I have no idea why he's so upset. It doesn't look like he's teething at all and he's not sick. Go figure. Anyway...He did have some fun with his little girlfriend, Emily (they're two weeks apart).

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

My good friend Emily works at a law firm that totally hooked her up with some sweet tickets to the San Francisco Giants game. Her husband called us up with the invite and even a volunteer to baby-sit so we couldn't turn it down. Andy and Angie came over to watch little Ethan for the evening and we got the night off. Our tickets were right behind homeplate, we had an awesome view of the game. We were hoping Barry would break the homerun record while we were there, but that didn't happen. We did get some really good ballpark food though. We had some "Gilroy Garlic Fries" that were the best fries I ever had (we all had to eat them though or else our breath would kill someone). Thank you Emily and Mike for such and awesome night and a huge thank you to Andy and Angie for taking care of our "little angel".

Here's a video from the game. I wanted to capture the moment that Barry Bonds hit homerun #715, but it didn't happen. Well, enjoy the crowd, the guy selling lemonade, our friends, and a good game of baseball.

The Crawlmeister

Ethan has been trying to crawl around these days. He hasn't quite figured out how to pull his legs underneath him so he crawls around army style. One day while Ryan was getting ready for work he came out to find Ethan in his computer bag. I guess Ethan justs misses his Daddy so much that he wanted to go with him to work. Ethan has also started making funny sounds that sound like words. He didn't want to start with the typical "mama" or "dada", instead he chose "head", "hit", and "hat". I have a picture of Ethan with Uncle Randall in his favorite "hat". I also wanted to announce that my parents finally bought a house down in Dallas! They will be living in Keller so be sure to give my parents a holler once they get down there. I think they close on the house towards the end of June so they are very excited!

I Love Girls' Night Out

It was Hilary's birthday this weekend and a bunch of us went out to celebrate. We had about 14 girls come to dinner at Cheesecake Factory (yes, I buried the hatchet) and then about half of us went over to Ginger's for cake and ice cream. We had so much fun chatting into the wee hours of the morning. I swear I haven't stayed up past 12 with friends since Ethan was born! Anyway...My friend Michelle had a funny experience at the restaurant with some random guy trying to hit on her the whole time we were there. It was hilarious! Well, I stole this picture from Hilary's blog so I hope she doesn't mind. I really think we should have girls' night out more often! So when's the next time we're going guys?

Ethan's First Invitation

So Ethan got this in the mail about 2 weeks ago, but I haven't had the chance to post pictures since I left for Ohio. I'll be catching up on picture posting for the next few days. Anyway...Ethan got invited to his cousin Tyler's 1st birthday party. How exciting is that! I just wish we lived in Dallas so we could go :( By the way Molly, your invitations are soooo cute!

Baked Potato Anyone?

This is a video captured from my brother's floor at Helaman Halls at BYU. I thought it was pretty incredible. Basically, about 15 guys covered a kid's room completely in tin foil while he was gone on a date. They covered pretty much everything including pillows, hand towel, toothbrush, chairs, books, and every individual soap/shampoo bottle. Randall said it took all of them about 2 hours to complete the whole room. Gotta love the BYU Helaman Halls experience!

High Tech

This is a video from awhile back when we met the President. A guy at the discussion ended up taping the "moment" with his PDA and then e-mailed it to us. It's only a few seconds, but you can see President pick up little Ethan and all the people clapping in the background. I swear Ryan and I have watching the stinkin' thing a million times. Anyway...My good friend Hilary let me know how to post video on my blog now so I can be cool like her. Enjoy!

New Tricks

Well, I'm still out here in Ohio visiting my family and it's been great! Ethan has also been doing awesome too. He's learned a couple new things since he's been out here. Yesterday we went out to breakfast at Bob Evan's (the best breakfast place ever!) and Ethan kept grabbing my water so I let him try to use the straw and he actually got the hang of it! So now he loves drinking from a straw. The best trick of all that he's learned here is sleeping through the night! He went to bed at 8 and didn't get up until 6:30! I actually slept from 11-5 and then I got up to be sure the kid was still there (and the fact that my milk machines woke me up :(). I couldn't believe it! My mom thinks he'll be walking and talking by the time we go back to Cali.

Home Sweet Home

Well, we finally made it home to Ohio. I had to spend an extra 2 hours in Chicago with flight delays, but I eventually got here. It's just so nice to be able to go spend some time with my family and to have some extra hands to help with Ethan. I'm also excited to do some of the fun things that I love about home.

Booo, Cheesecake Factory

So after all my cooking yesterday, I didn't feel like cooking this evening. I had to get a lot done around the house and finish up packing, but Ryan and I wanted to eat out too, so we decided to call up Cheesecake Factory and do the "To Go" thing. I got all my stuff done and gave Ethan a bath by the time Ryan got back with the food. I ordered a grilled BBQ chicken sandwich and I was so excited to get my little dish (as well as the cheesecake afterwards). So I took a big bite of my sandwich and the chicken was TERRIBLE!!! It was so chewy, I could barely even able to get it down. I had to spit it out! What a bummer! It totally ruined my mood for the evening. I don't think I'll be headed back to Cheesecake Factory for awhile. :P BOOOOOOOO!!!! I can't put into words how mad I am about it!

Healthy Meals

So I'm leaving on Saturday to go home to Ohio for 10 days and I'm soooo excited. I've been getting stuff together, doing laundry, making lists, etc (the usual travel preparations). Well, as a part of my preparation I've followed my sweet mother's example and made some meals for Ryan. The poor guy doesn't have the best eating habits! Despite the fact that his mom is a Registered Dietician, he hasn't really "caught the vision" when it comes to being nutritious. For example, Ryan's idea of eating fruit is a glass apple juice, orange juice, or juicee juice. I agree that fruit juices are good for you, but he DRINKS fruit instead of EATING them. I just know that if I left him without things to eat, he would live off of cereal, PB& honey, or Panda Express the whole time I was gone. So I spent the day making chicken enchiladas, homemade bolognese sauce, Mexican casserole, and oriental beef and veggies and stuck them in the freezer for him. As I was doing it, I started thinking I should just take one day out of the week and make a weeks worth of meals so I don't have to make dinner every night. Maybe I'll try that when I get back from my little visit.

6 month check up

Well, Ethan had his 6 month check up and shots today. He's grown almost 2 inches and has gained 1 1/2 lbs since his last visit. I'm so proud! The pediatrician gave me the go ahead on doing more solids now. It's going to be kind of weird having to bring along food whenever I go out instead of only nursing. It will be nice to be able to have other people be able to feed him, but it's a lot more convenient when I'm around just to "use what I got." Anyway...I l LOVE my pediatrician, she's so great. She's not the type of doctor that just writes you a perscription and sends you on your way. She's good at doing, what I call, a "nurse's approach to care" like spending time on education and using natural remedies before resorting to medicine. It's great. I've recommended her to a lot of people in the ward and I've gotten a lot positive responses so far. So the pedictrician gave Ethan high marks and says he looks wonderful. Good job, bud!