Ethan Turns One!

Ethan getting ready to dive into his birthday cake - I think the cousins had a harder time keeping their hands out of the cake than he did!

Sweet baby Ethan giving daddy a taste of the cake - he always loves to share his food and anything he has in his hand! So cute!

We celebrated his birthday in Springville with Kade's family. We had a really nice time visiting and Kellin & Ethan had SO much fun with their Aunts & Uncles, Cousins and especially their Grandma & Pops!! Here he is opening a present with them.

I just wanted to write a few little things about Ethan since I use this blog as a family album/journal/scrapbook. I have loved watching his personality develop over the past year, he his such a sweet baby, always greeting us with a huge smile and full of love. Recently, he has started hugging me back when I hug him, he will snuggle into me and pat my back as I pat his. I call it "lovey" and I swear it is one of my favorite moments of everyday. He is also an incredibly curious and adventurous little man. He is all over the house, up the stairs, under the bed, in the closet, cabinets, fridge, etc. He also loves to be around people, in fact, he cries, no, he screams, as soon as he realizes he has been left alone in a room. But, if there is someone with him, he will play happily for hours. At his most recent doctor's appointment, he was in the 90th percentile for height & weight, as he has been pretty much since he was born. He is very tall! He is just learning to walk, taking a few fast steps before he falls down. Kade has been working with him on walking & gets so excited when he takes a few steps, it is so fun to watch. I remember that I really wanted a girl when I got pregnant the second time, and although I still really want a girl, I can see that Ethan is exactly what our family needed and he has brought so much joy into our home already. I just love him to pieces!

First Day of Preschool

Kellin started his second year of preschool this month and was so excited. He is going to preschool at the new community/rec center here in Saint George. Our good friend Amy is the preschool coordinator and has put together a great cirriculum for them. He gets to do a variety of learning centers with music movement, learning rhythm and singing, jiu-jitsu, gymnastics, swimming and PE. His good friends Kaden & Kaley & Aiden are in the preschool with him so he has a blast every day. I also started "working" in the preschool with him just for and hour or so on Monday, Wednesday & Friday. In exchange, he gets free preschool & Ethan gets free day care at the community centers' day care. It has been fun to try something new with working in the preschool and I can't believe how challenging it can be to get 21 4-year-olds to sit still and walk in a line! But, I am having a great time with it and really working on learning more preschool songs to sing with the kids. I'm also looking for good books to read with the kids at the end of the day before dismissal, so if any of you have favorite books that you'd like to recommend, I love to hear about them! One last note on Kellin starting preschool - I can't believe that at this time next year he will be going to kindergarten - it is really freaking me out!!

Breaking Dawn

I just finished reading the last book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, and I am so sad. So sad it is over. So mad, so mad I read it way, way, way too fast. So happy, so happy everything I wanted to happen, happened. Now I have three long months of waiting, waiting for the Twilight movie to come out (which comes out on my birthday!!) for my next "fix". I just have to say that if anyone reading this blog has even the slightest interest in reading, I recommend this series, it is so much fun to read and so fun to become completely lost in this magical, thrilling world. I know I sound like a complete nerd, and I guess, somewhere inside of me, a huge nerd lives who LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to read and really wishes vampires were real, at least vampires like Edward & Bella.
PS - I can hear Kade laughing already as he reads this blog! Laugh away, honey, laugh away!! Haha!

Family Condo Trip

This past week we took a trip with my family to our San Clemente, CA condo because it was one of a few chances to see my sister Emily & her daughter Noelle who live in Alabama. She was visiting for a friends wedding so we met her in San Clemente. It was a great opportunity for most of the family to get together and let the cousins play together. Kade wasn't able to come due to work, and we REALLY wished he was there. We had a great time going to the beach, talking, watching movies and letting the kids play. I am so happy that our family has this great condo to be able to create so many lasting memories - it provides such an awesome opportunity for us all to meet up and re-connect, especially with all of us spread out between California, Nevada, Utah & Alabama.

Kellin at the beach in San Clemente, CA. He loves to play on the shore & sand but didn't really like going out any further - Grandpa took him out there but Kellin wouldn't let Grandpa put him down. Although I can't really say that I blame him, the first day at the beach it was Red Flag which means stong undercurrents and rip tides as well as BIG waves!

Mommy & Ethan keeping out of the sun - Ethan loved the swings at the beach and getting his feet wet in the water. He did have to spend most of his time in his stroller though because otherwise he would eat mouthfulls of sand. He was well taken care of though, everyone LOVED Ethan and kept playing with him and making him laugh all day long.

Grandpa pushing Kellin & cousin Aubrey on the swings at the San Clemente park. Kellin was being "camera shy" so I could only get a shot of the top of his head.

Ethan had fun playing at the park as well, that is until he concked out in the swing!

Kellin loved playing with all of his cousins, especially his cousin Whitney - she shares his sense of "mischevious" adventure and they love to instigate fun together.

Summertime Fun!

July has been a great month full of all things decidedly summer!! We have spent more time in the water or near water or on water than I can keep track of but I guess that's the only thing to do here in 100+ degree weather. It seems just about everyday includes some type of swimming/water play activity. One of our favorite places to go to beat the heat is up to Pine Valley which is about a 45 minute drive from here out past Snow Canyon & Dammeron Valley. It is BEAUTIFUL and COOL with lots of trees and shade. And, it's the only place we've been fishing at that we actually catch fish - well except me. Kade & Kellin caught 7 fish this last trip and Kellin caught his fish all by himself thanks to his Pops (Grandpa Ken) teaching him all about fishing. Everytime he was reeling in a fish, he kept repeating over and over, "slow & steady, slow & steady". As for me & Ethan, we just enjoyed the cool breeze and shared some goldfish crackers & warm milk!

Surgery

Kellin before the surgery - looking for Transformers on the TV.

So for most of you, I'm sure having your child to the hospital in nothing new - I know my sister Emily has had her kids there many times, and I assume it's the same for most moms, at least a few trips to the hospital. For me, it was the first time having one of my kids to the hospital for surgery and it was hard. I think mostly because I have only been in the hospital once (aside from my deliveries, of course) and have never been "put under". Kellin was diagnosed with sleep apnea and when we took him to the specialist he said that he had never seen tonsils so big, he was surprised Kellin could eat! So we scheduled him to have his tonsils & adnoids out. Kade was great with Kellin, and talked with Kellin about what would happen for a few days before he actually went in and it helped a lot that Kade has been through this a couple times before with nose & knee surgeries. Kellin was very brave at the hospital and they gave him some medicine to settle him down so they could do the IV which made him "drunk" as they said. He was so funny on the medicine and started singing songs we've never heard of and smiling lots and telling us how much he loved us - "as big as kamerica" as he says. I was really nervous and kept hearing the anestesiologist say that although death is unlikely it is estimated to happen in about every 1 in 100,000 patients. Great, so what if Kellin is the 1! Which is weird because I'm not a "what if" type of person usually, but I couldn't shake the feeling. So I carried a silent prayer in my heart through the hospital just to remind God how important Kellin is to me and that I really would be very, very angry if something happened to him (understatement). The surgery was done before I knew it and they brought Kellin down to the recovery room - and then the fun began. He was yelling and screaming and thrashing around, trying to pull the IV out and really completely inconsolable. This went on for almost an hour and again, I was so blessed to have Kade there because he stayed calm and worked to settle Kellin down. I just cried at seeing my little guy so upset. Finally the nurse cleared us to leave and took the IV out. Once we were in the car Kellin settled down and it has been smooth sailing since. His voice sounds very different which the doctor said would happen since he doesn't have these huge tonsils in his throat anymore. Last night Kellin wanted to sleep with us and usually we don't let him because he snores so loud that neither of us can sleep. So I decided to try it and see if the surgery fixed that and sure enough, we were all asleep in a few minutes in silence. I just have to say that I feel so much more now for parents who have to have their children in the hospital and my heart really goes out to those of you who have.

Dance, Dance, Dance

Sorry about the sideways filming - I guess you can't rotate videos like you can pictures! If anyone knows how, let me know.