Exciting, but only for us

I know this will sound lame to most, if not all of you, but bear with me. We planted some new grass seed in our backyard to replace what the dogs who used to live here ripped up, and this week I noticed that there are some "grass whiskers" coming up. That is exciting because it means that soon, our yard may not look as white trash as it did when we moved in. Slowly, but surely, we are improving our house! I can't wait to see the finished product! (yah right! like that will ever happen!)

Memorial Day

Yesterday we went to the cemetary with my parents to take flowers to my grandparents and brother. Ethan was, well, Ethan, running around and thinking it was so fun. It was fun to see him with all the flowers. Some of them had blown over in the wind and he was kind enough to put them back right side up.

Looking and looking for some one he knew.
My boy loves flags and when he saw this one, he had to go grab it, we did put it back.
Boy, was he lovin' it when Grandma took him over to the veteran's memorial. So many flags, he had to have one for each hand, and eventually, he tried to hold 5 at the same time.

I know I shouldn't laugh, and sorry Aunt Grace and Uncle Gary...

Last night we went to a BBQ at my Aunt Grace and Uncle Gary's house. The food was yummy and the company was great. I always have such a great time hanging out with the Bauer family. (Especially Julie!) Most Memorial Day's we can go swimming, but this year it was colder and raining off and on all day. However, Ethan found a way to get around that and manage to make it into (or rather onto) the pool.

I knew I shouldn't have been laughing so hard, but it was funny to see. And when he was doing it, Julie did say that the cover was strong enough to hold an elephant, at least "that's what it said on the box."
Look, he even made it.
Here he is after all that excitement! I credit his mischevous behavior to his daddy!

Ethan says the funniest things

This morning while Ethan was playing in his room I heard him mumbling something about something. (I couldn't quite understand and I was far away.) I went into his room and he was playing with all his dinosaurs, sitting on the floor with the bottom of his feet touching. He said, "Me feet are kissing!" I said, "Oh, are your feet kissing?" To that he responded with a kissing noise and then laughed.

Cool Spiderman Hat

A week ago, Ethan and I were out on a walk and found a friend who had a hat. After that, Ethan was set on getting a hat of his own. The other day we were at his favorite store, Wal Mart, and found a Spiderman hat. Of course he loves Spiderman, and it was cheap enough, so we walked out of Wal Mart with a new hat! He wore it to the park, and pretty much kept it on the whole time, well, except when he was hot and had to wipe the sweat from his brow. He'd take it off, wipe his brow, and put it right back on. It was so funny to see.

Tired boy=Indiana Jones for Mom and Dad

Last night Ethan asked to go to bed at 7:45! (Yipee!) Which left lots of time for me and Mike to watch "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." We are excited to see the new Indy movie and in preparation, and anticipation, we are watching all the Indy movies at night after Ethan goes to bed. It was fantastic to have him in bed so early so we could start the movie (and still get to bed at a decent time, Mike gets up super early)! And you know what, he was so tired from Tuesday night and being up and bed hopping, that he slept until nearly 9:30 this morning!

Sleeping with Mom and Dad

Again, a crazy windy night. (And for those of you who are wondering, yes, my dumb, crappy shed blew over again. Though this time, it blew completely over and landed right-side up, in the corner of our backyard! I'm anxiously waiting for my neighbors to call at 3 AM and advise us to get rid of our shed.) I don't know if the wind was keeping Ethan up or if he was just not sleeping well. I was almost asleep when I felt a thud next to me and between me and Mike. It was Ethan. He'd gotten up and made his way to our room and Mike plopped him in bed with the two of us. He was pretty scared and I don't blame him. The wind was loud and it was scaring me a bit too. Sorry to all of you who do this, but I am really opposed to kids sleeping with Mom and Dad, UNLESS they are scared, and then it's just until they fall asleep. (I was too lazy and tired to go put Ethan back in bed and try to get him back to sleep.) The last time Ethan was in bed with us was the morning after we got home from the hospital. He woke up and I was too tired to get up, so I grabed him from the cradle, right next to me, and put him between me and Mike. I know I sleep better, and Mike does too, and I know Ethan does too, when we are all sleeping in our own beds. The good that came out of this was a few good laughs early early in the morning, and when the wind picked up, I felt Ethan burrow his head into me and it felt nice. Almost like I was protecting him. He did finally get to sleep and I put him back in his bed, and he stayed there for the rest of the night.

Temple Saturday

Today I was lucky enough to get to go to the temple and seal some families together for all eternity. I love to do sealings. We had a great sealer and he really brought the spirit into our room. I love to go to the temple. It's is such a calm, peaceful feeling. I get to leave the world behind and focus on what's really important in life. I envy my mom, mother-in-law, aunt, and sister-in-law who get to work in the temple more often than I go. I am truly blessed to have the blessings of the temple in my life and to have so many temples so close to me.

Here is my little family in front of our favorite temple.

Flasback Friday

Ethan's first taste of solid foods, after rice cereal. I'm pretty sure this is sweet potatoes. He really liked those.

Mmmm, here they come....
Not so sure about them....

Yippee!

There maybe some of you who don't think this is really exciting, but I do and I just have to scream it to the world....WE FINALLY GOT OUR TAX REBATE (or "Bush money" as Mike calls it) TODAY!! I am so excited. We can pay our bills now...and then maybe improve our house more too!

Ethan's first experience with hail

This afternoon as Ethan and I were sitting down to eat our lunch, it started to hail. I thought Ethan would think it was cool to see so we watched it and even caught a bit too.

Here's Ethan with a shot of the hail behind him.
Not a bunch, and it melted pretty quick, but it was fun for a few minutes.

It happened again, and then again!

Last night we had a crazy wind storm. It kept me up and I couldn't fall asleep for most of the night. I don't know if it was the rickety screen on our window, or the sound of the metal on the shed, or the thoughts of whether or not Ethan's outside toys were going to be all over the backyard, or even still in the backyard, when we woke up. I think I fell asleep for about an hour around midnight. About 2:30, I hear a huge gust of wind and then a crash! I jumped up and looked out the window and there, right outside my window, upside-down was our shed. Yup, the stupid piece of crap blew over again. I really don't know why we still have it. We don't use it! Mike likes to keep it on the one side of our house to keep Ethan in the backyard (there isn't a fence on that side of the house). However, in my opinion, Ethan is getting old enough that we don't have to worry too much about him escaping, and I'm always out there with him. We eventually will put a fence there and if we ever get our tax rebate money, I'll suggest using it for a fence.

Back to my story...after about 20 minutes of the wind still blowing and the metal of the crappy shed blowing in the wind and keeping us up, Mike got up, put on his trusty flip flops and a sweatshirt and went outside to brave the wind and put the shed right side up, again. There are no doors on the shed, stupid doors broke off long before we moved in. So, Mike put the big, open door up against the house to keep the wind out. Well, that lasted about 20 minutes, maybe, then the shed blew over, AGAIN! ARRRGGG! Luckily it just blew on it's side so the flappy metal didn't flap so much in the wind. Here's a picture to illustrate what I mean and what I found this morning when I got up.
Even those dumb bikes aren't ours. They are broken! If anyone wants to have them and fix them, let me know within the week, I will throw them away after that! Just a word to those who are selling, about to sell, or will ever sell a house, for the sake of the buyers, please take all your broken crap with you! We have found so much here after the people moved out, it's irritating! Just remember the golden rule of moving--leave your house the way you would like to find your new house.

Ode to my mother

In honor of Mother's day, I would like to post a few pictures and tid bits about my mother and mother-in-law. They are truly great women that I look up to and am grateful for. My mom was and still is a FANTASTIC mother. My mother-in-law is great too. I am still getting to know her better but I know that she was, and continues to be, FANTASTIC too. Happy Mother's day to both of you!
My mom was always there to make sure I was properly dressed in the morning.
My mom (and dad) took me piano shopping when I was looking for a piano. And when I was out of town when it was delivered, she, and dad, were there to let it in my house and rearrange my living room so it would fit and look great!
My mom loves to spoil her grandchildren and when she heard there was a pj sale, get a pair for $4, she called me so we could go get some. She bought Ethan a pair and he loves them.
Mom makes cool Cookie Monster cakes! This one was just for Ethan.
Everytime we are at my parents' house, Ethan pulls her over to the piano to play and sing songs. She happily does it and it is so funny to watch!

My other mother

Now, it's time for my mother-in-law, Patty!
When Mike walked for his graduation from BYU, she and my father-in-law drove 1000 miles to be with us at the time. They are very supportive and we appreciate that about them.
This is one of my favorite pictures. Patty loves to play with Ethan, and he loves to play with her. If you can't see it in this picture, blow it up and you can see on Ethan's right cheek a dimple. It is the spittin' image of Patty's. And one of the first things I noticed the night he was born.
Patty is a big Twins fan! For Ethan's 1st birthday she sent him a Twins outfit. Go Twins!
Patty made our wedding cake a did a fantastic job on it. Not only was it yummy, it was beautiful!
The best thing that Patty could ever give me was her son, Mike! I know we look goofy, but hey, that's us. Two goofy kids in love!

Need a laugh?

I'm not so sure this is "blog legal" but I'm gonna do it anyway! If you really need a laugh today, please check out my cousin's and friend's blogs. Julie has a great, funny, and cute list of bloggin rules. (If you don't think their funny, no more bloggin for you!) And Leslie has a very funny 3 minute clip of what a mom says every day all day. You may have seen it, but it's worth seeing again and again! ENJOY!

Peace to read

This has been a crazy, stressful day, I will spare you the details. It has been very nice outside though. This morning, Ethan and I went outside to enjoy the sun. We took some of his toys with us, and suprisingly, he played with his toys all by himself (he usually wants me to sit down with him and play with him, which I do, but today was a day I just wanted to sit alone.) It was great, he played and I read my book. It was a relaxing morning. I wonder if he could somehow sense that I needed the time to be alone. What a great kid!

Sadly, no picture!

Yesterday after church, when we were all tired and needed a nap, I had a meeting. It wasn't a long meeting, 20 minutes, but when I got home, the house was quiet except for the music from the main menu to a Baby Einstein. I wandered through the house and found Mike and Ethan snuggling and sound asleep! I really wanted to take a picture, but I really didn't want to wake either one of them up. I would have joined them, but I had another meeting at our house soon. So, no nap for me, but I did get to sleep quickly when I went to bed that night! I really miss Sunday afternoon naps! Will they ever return....?

Lunch out, minus Ethan!

Today Mike and I went out to lunch with our friends who live oh so far away (a block) with NO KIDS! It was great! We ate yummy food, and had coupons, made the food taste even better. And we talked, and talked, and talked. It was a shame to have to leave and go home to rescue our moms from the kiddos. I know this sounds lame, given that we only live a block away from eachother, but it was really fun and exciting to get out of the house with my husband and friends and not have to keep pulling Ethan's finger out of his nose or give him pack after pack of smarties to keep him quiet so I could enjoy myself. I told Mike on the way home that we really need to make more of an effort to go out with these two at least once a month, with no kids.

Yoga boy!

Who likes to run? Who likes to exercise? Mike loves to run and I can tell a difference when he does. It relaxes him and rejuvinates him. Well, I hate to run and I have a few exercise videos that I like, but I get bored of them so I have to mix things up a bit. This morning I decided to pull out my yoga video (yoga helps me relax and feel better). Ethan was already up and I asked him to stay in his room and play with his dinosaurs so I could yoga. He was really good about it for a god 15 minutes, then he wanted to come see what I was doing and what was on the TV. He saw what I was doing and decided to try out some of the poses, he was even breathing deeply like I was. I've seen that there are some kids yoga DVD's out there, maybe I should look into getting one of those sometime.