The Gibbons

Lost tooth and the Mascara bandit

2011-12-30T12:27:00.001-08:00

The day after Christmas, I randomly asked my M-I-L how old kids are when they start losing their teeth. One of Ethan's front teeth was getting longer than the other one, so I thought that it was growing out and going to get looser. Little did I know, the next morning, I gave Ethan some breakfast, he took one bite and said his tooth hurt. I asked him to show me which one hurt and it was the shorter front tooth. I put my finger on it and it was really loose. Then, the next day, he was wrestling with Danny and Maddie and there was some blood on his lip. We looked in his mouth and it was coming from the tooth. Danny asked if Ethan wanted him to pull it out. Ethan looked at him like he was crazy and said ' NO'. Then, a few minutes later, he came to Danny and asked if he could pull his tooth out. I couldn't look and I was making all kinds of noise so I didn't hear it either. Then, Danny was saying something about the tooth fairy, and Ethan was standing there looking really confused. I asked him if he was okay and then I saw the gaping hole!
Now he looks super funny!

I asked him how much he thought the tooth fairy would bring him. He said 1 dollar and 1 penny, and he received that under his pillow that night. How did he know?

While I was tending to Ethan and his tooth, Maddie was getting into my make-up bag.
She wanted to put on mascara just like Mommy. She actually did get some on her eyelashes. I'm just glad it didn't end up on her eyeball.

This is her being pretty.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

2011-12-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve is always a good time. We usually go over to Danny's parents house and eat lots of junk, play games and have a special FHE where we give our gifts to the Savior for the following year. The kids also got to open their Christmas Eve gifts, another tradition we have, where they get new jammies and a pillow case. My mom usually makes the pillow cases and PJ's so I thought I would try to carry on the tradition and I made the kids their pillow cases. However, making PJ's was too ambitious for this year, so I bought them. Maybe I will make them next year after I have practiced with the sewing machine a whole lot more.

Maddie, so excited for her birdie Pj's

Ethan loves his Rocket Pj's and Slippers.

He also carried around his pillowcase ALL night!

Maddie woke up first and then came and got me out of bed. Then, I had to wake Ethan and Danny up so we could start. After all, it was already 9:30am.

Maddie got really girlie things this year. Necklaces, bracelets, a watch, a purse, a couple of dolls and a stroller. She LOVES all of it.

I didn't really get any after pictures, but Ethan got a huge pirate ship and a batman car track and car set. He also got a dinosaur DS game.

They got lots of loot in their stockings too. They made out like bandits and then got more stuff when we went to Grandma and Grandpa's later.

Christmas Mater

2011-12-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

On Center Street in Orem, by Target is a tree lot and they have Tow-Mater sitting on the corner. We pass by it quite a bit and the kids freak out. So, today I took their little selves to see Mater and they thought it was so cool. I felt weird because it belongs to the guy who is selling the trees and since we were the only ones there, I felt like we were being watched. Well, then a couple more cars pulled up and then I felt ok about leaving without buying a tree (btw, we already have one).

Trick or Treat Smell my Feet

2011-11-11T09:10:00.000-08:00

This year, Danny had to work on Halloween, so I went to my In-Laws neighborhood to go trick or treating with the kids. My sister-in law came along with me for company. First, we went trunk or treating at the church nearby and then went around the block. This took 1 1/2 hours by itself. The kids' buckets were so full and heavy, but they wouldn't let us carry the buckets for them. Madison also wanted me to carry her most of the time too. We went back to Grandma and Grandpas house and got the stuff we left behind, got in the truck and went to Danny's work and trick or treated him. On our 10 minute drive home, both kids fell asleep and when I took each of them out of the truck to take inside they both stayed asleep, which never happens.

First, they got to Trunk or Treat Grandpa's car.

Maddie didn't want to wear her tiara, but wanted to hold it instead. She kept thinking I was trying to take it away from her, until my sis-in-law asked if she could put it on her, then she said ok and wouldn't take it off the rest of the night.

This house had a chucky doll sitting right next to the door. I think the kids love of candy overpowered their fear and were willing to do anything for it.

Hee Haws

2011-10-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

First of all, Hee Haws..........why do you cost as much as Cornbelly's and have 1/5 the amount of stuff to do? For adults, boring. However, the kids LOVED "the fair". Madison fell asleep a whole 2 minutes before we got there, so I was pushing her around the whole 1000 square feet of the place. We decided to go through the corn maze after we walked around the entire place in 5 minutes. You could tell which way to go by how packed down the mud was. Maddie eventually woke up with all the bumpiness from trying to go over all the stalks of corn laying on the paths. We came out of the corn maze and decided to go down the slide, which was where the bulk of the people (who were as dumb as we were for paying all that money) were. Ethan and Madison were going down the slide together. It was actually really cute to see him waiting for her to get on the potato sack with him before going down the slide. Then, there was a train, which Ethan probably rode about 5 times. There was no one there (because they were all at Cornbelly's) so, he stayed in the train and made the BORED 16 year old kid drive him around. This kid seriously looked like he wanted to jump off a cliff if he had to keep driving that kiddie train all night. After we did those things, there was nothing left to do except for the kids to play in the kernals of corn, which by that time, Stephen and Noel had joined us in making one of the worst financial decisions of our lives. The kids loved the kernal pit. Some of the other kids (like 9 year old kids)loved it too, so much that they were full on throwing the kernals at everyone. They were even throwing it at Noel, who was holding cute little baby Aspen. It was awesome. And, yes, the parents were sitting right there. Did they say anything? No. We only found out it was the parents because they said it was time for them to go home. And since we had done everything, it was time for us to go home too.
(There actually was a petting zoo, but even the lady selling the tickets didn't recommend going in because you were more than likely to step on something nasty)

"How Great Thou Art"

2011-10-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

"How Great Thou Art"
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for that song. I didn't know what it was about it that always made me tear up. But, I do now. I guess I had felt the spirit from the music but never really paid full attention to the lyrics:

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

This beautiful song describes perfectly my feelings about what my Beloved Savior has done for me. It brings me to tears to think of all that He suffered for us so we could return to live with Him again. I also feel connected to my family with this song. It was my beautiful mother's favorite hymn as well as her mother's. We sang (rather tried to sing) this song at Mum's funeral a couple weeks ago. It made me think of her, no longer in any pain, and now with joy in her heart to be reunited with her family who has passed before her. My mother is special to a lot of people in this life and no doubt in the next. Some of her qualities include: Charity, Love, Compassion, Honest & True, Faithful, Thoughtful, Creative, Devoted, Caring, Intelligent, and Successful. I could go on and on because she really was everything. But, these are the qualities I think that really speak of how she appeared to others.
I know with her passing, I want to make her proud. I have reassessed areas in my life that I've been wanting to change and think about her before I do anything. I know that my testimony has grown. I don't know how it couldn't when the last words Mum ever wrote down (a few days before she passed) were about how excited she was that another temple was to be built nearby. I know where she is. I know that I will see her again. I know that she was a good and faithful servant on the earth and I know she is STILL a good and faithful servant. She has a faith that NEVER waivers. As soon as she was introduced to the church at 16 years old, she KNEW without a shadow of a doubt that this church is true. I hope that I can convey that same strength of faith to my children. I know this church is true. I have seen too many blessings to doubt it. I know that Jesus Christ died for us so that we could repent of our sins and be clean and return to a loving Father In Heaven. I know that our family is forever. I know that Joseph Smith restored the gospel to the earth in these latter days. I know that the temple is where I want to be so our ancestors who have passed before us can have the opportunity to know for themselves too. I'm a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and I'm a Mormon.
Interested in what I believe?
Visit: Mormon.org or LDS.org

Artists?

2011-09-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

So, I'm upstairs, deep cleaning the bedrooms/bathroom and I come downstairs to this:

Yes, that IS sidewalk chalk ALL over the carpet!!!!! Ethan says "Mommy, me and baby did it. It's blue." Yes, Ethan it definitely is BLUE. ALL OVER THE BRAND NEW CARPET!!! At first, I was upset with our landlord for choosing this awful carpet that shows everything but, now, I am going to hold my tongue. With an hour of scrubbing and a cramped hand, I was able to get it all out. If it had have been a lighter color, we'd probably have a hefty bill of recarpeting the downstairs. NOTE TO SELF: Never leave sidewalk chalk out for two small children to get into without supervision.

First Day of Preschool

2011-08-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

These aren't the best first day of school pictures ever, but, I forgot we had a new camera (since we've been without one for over a year) and I didn't want him to be late for his first day. Also, once we got there, he forgot all about me and booked it to his classroom. Yeah, so much for attachment issues. What surprised me the most was that Madison was the one who was torn up about it. She cried her eyes out for a good 20 minutes because we left Ethan. She kept saying "Mommy, where Epan?" It was the cutest, saddest thing ever. Normally, these two fight and wrestle each other all day, so I thought she would be happy to have 2 1/2 whole hours to herself. But, to my surprise, she was super happy to go get him from school and even said "I missed you" when he got in the car.

I asked Ethan how his first day was and if he made any friends, and his reply was. "Mommy, I don't like boys, I only like girls.....I Love girls." Um, I think it's already time for homeschool.

Cleaning eyeballs

2011-08-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

I come into the kitchen to find the kids with my makeup bag on the floor. Luckily, it wasn't long after they had gotten it. Maddie was still taking everything out, but Ethan had opened the mascara and put it on his eyelids/cheek. I asked "Ethan, what are you doing? He said, "I'm cleaning my eyeballs like you." HI-larious. Luckily he didn't actually put in ON his eyeballs.

Maddie Gaga

2011-07-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

Bridal Veil Falls

2011-07-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

We went to Bridal Veil Falls last week with my brother, Darryn and his family. The kids had fun, mainly at the little pool at the bottom of the falls. Madison and Lila fell in the water completely, but it was hot, so I don't think they minded.

Summer is Here!

2011-06-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

Summer is finally here. We've been waiting all year. (Yes that rhymes and I even giggled to myself as I was writing it) The kids and I have been spending more time outside and are happy (besides a minor sunburn in it's itchy stage that has Ethan wanting me to scratch his back every few minutes) to be out, enjoying activities that require sun!

The other day we went to this fun park in American Fork:

Where Ethan got to slide down this "hollowed out tree trunk". But only once, because it was HOT! Seriously, I think that Utah should take note of most parks in Arizona and Nevada, where there are large canopies over the playgrounds to keep the kids from burning themselves! They did, however, go down the tube slide a million times over since the inside was nice and shaded.

I don't know what to do with this girl's hair. It fits her personality because it's wild and so is she, but sometimes I wish I could just buzz it off. Every morning it's like a rat's nest and she HATES, HATES, to have it brushed. Every day it's like torture, and not just for her, but for me too! She will never leave a pony tail holder in, which adds to the rats nest-iness ( yeah, I know that's not a word). Her bangs are so long that they fall in her eyes and so I try to put a clip in her hair (or a pretties as she calls it) just to keep the hair out of her eyes. But as you can see in this picture, it's half falling out and her hair is about to be in her eyes anyway.

We also bought a little blow up pool, and put our LittleTykes slide in front of it. This is the favorite thing to do at our house. Hours will be spent on this. Although, all the splashing means refilling the pool, so I limit how long they are out there by how many times I have to refill the pool. Since we don't have a hose.....I'm being oldschool and filling it up with a pitcher, using the water from the kitchen sink.

Last weekend we visited "This is the Place" in Salt Lake City. It was a reunion for my husband's Heber C. Kimball lineage. There were lots of things to do like: Pan for gold, ride trains, tour the pioneer houses, ride ponies, etc. Ethan's favorite part, of course, was riding the trains. That's pretty much all he wanted to do. And while we were on the trains, Maddie's favorite thing to do was to try and get out the windows while I had mini heart attacks the whole time. That girl scares me! You wouldn't think so with that sweet face of hers.

Burrito

2011-06-23T20:18:00.001-07:00

I was going through my pictures and found these little treasures! Even though the pictures were taken over 18 months ago, they are just too cute not to share. Especially the last one.

Orem Summerfest

2011-06-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

We went to Orem Summerfest on Saturday afternoon. We had fun, especially the kids. The parade and fireworks were their absolute favorite. Even though Danny said that the parade was like watching a 2 hour commercial. Which, for the most part, I had to agree. But, I wasn't watching it all that much anyway. I was more focused on making sure the kids were not too far out onto the streets. Those people driving their trucks and floats and motorcycles are too busy waving at people to actually watch where they are going. We had a clown car driving zig zag down the street and he came over to give someone next to us a flier and almost took out 3 kids in the process.
The most disgusting award of the day went to a girl on the tornado ride (the ride next to the one we were standing in line for). This ride goes forward first and then they slow down and go backwards. As the ride was slowing down to go the opposite direction, she was screaming to get off and yelling at the attendant to let her off. At first, she looked like she was scared, but then as the ride started to go faster again, she yelled "I'm gonna throw up!" Too late now. Everyone behind her and below, brace yourselves and CLOSE YOUR MOUTHS!! Anyway, she barfed, and barfed again, and then as the ride was slowing down to stop, she barfed a third time, but this time it was right in front of everyone in line to get on that ride. There was a collective moan of "O0000000hhhhhhhh" and lots of cringing. It was disgusting, but funny at the same time.

Maddie enjoying her Snow cone. She ate 2/3 of it and then dumped the rest of it on herself. ..........Awesome.

Ethan and his cousin Savannah on their fav. ride.

The name of the kid right behind Ethan, was Ethan. So, whenever we would talk to him, this other kid looked confused and when the other kid's parents said hi to him, our Ethan would wave to them and have a huge grin. This car was one of the best things that happened to him today. He was so focused on driving it correctly, until we started having him give us "5" as he came around again. Good thing it wasn't a real car and hopefully he won't be like that when he's 16. Great, now I can picture him driving around town with his window down, high 5ing everyone.

Then, we got this gem of a picture.......yeah, that's my kid. Apologies to all the parents who had to witness and also to the parents whose children sat in that car after my son.

Ethan is 4!

2011-06-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Holy cow! My little boy is 4. I can't believe how the time has gone by so fast. He is starting preschool at the end of summer and is so excited. Every time we pass a school, he wants to go inside and is sad when I tell him he's not quite old enough. He LOVES trains and cars and will play with them for hours on his train tracks and his road rug. The baby is not allowed in his room when he is playing in there and will close the door so she can't get in. Then, you can hear him making train whistle sounds as he drives them around the tracks. He loves to play with friends, loves to go to the park and is sometimes a sweet big brother. If Madison needs help, he's always the first one to help her or ask us to help her if it's something he can't do. I love him and am so glad to have his little self in our family.

We kicked off his birthday celebrations with our trip to Park City over Memorial Day weekend. We went hot tubbing, because of the stinky snow. (Otherwise we would have been swimming) We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2, which was awesome. **We actually went to the hot tub after getting back from the movie and a little bit of water from the gazebo dripped on Ethan's head. Then another drop of water fell on his head and then he chanted "inner peace".** Which, if you haven't seen the movie, you totally won't understand, but if you have seen it, you will be laughing really hard right now. We came home Monday afternoon and then today we visited the Living Planet Aquarium with Ethan's cousins Peter and Jeremy. They had a lot of fun looking at the stingrays and penguins and the huge sea turtle and sharks. Mostly they just liked running around with each other and hiding in the coral mazes. Thanks for coming guys! It was fun.

Me and Ethan at the condo in Park City, cheesing it up and playing Chinese checkers

Here is the huge semi truck that Ethan got for his birthday to carry all of his little matchbox cars.

Playing inside the sunken pirate ship at the Living Planet

Jeremy, Ethan, Maddie, and Peter. Jeremy sat up just at the wrong moment. He's the one that is blurry.

At the penguin exhibit.

New toy?

2011-05-26T09:49:00.001-07:00

I understand that this isn't normally something a good mother would let her children do. But I do have to say that the treadmill was set to .5 (so, no, the children were not flying off the end) and they played on it for a good hour so I could get some stuff done. Good parenting? Not so much. Good fun? Heck ya!

Phone Camera + Kid Movement = Blurry Pictures

Last Images

2011-04-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

This is what my 2 little monkeys were up to, right before they busted the camera. The 5th camera, I might add, that we have had since we've been married. Anyway, here are the last of the photos taken just before the tragic departure of our last camera:

Courtesy of Ethan

I think this last photo is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Can you just imagine Ethan saying "Hey, Maddie, jump in the picture with Mommy while she's sleeping and make a goofy face. It will be so awesome!"

Cleaning the slide?

2011-04-20T15:20:00.001-07:00

So, last Sunday, Danny's family had their monthly birthday party for April. There were about 30 of us there. Mostly all the kids were playing in the backyard, and the adults were all in the living room, talking and playing games. I was talking, when I looked up and saw this:

In this picture, you can see Robert telling off Peter for peeing on the grass as Ethan pees on the slide. You can also see Jeremy climbing up the ladder, ready to slide down.

I know the picture is small, but, yes, that is Ethan, PEEING ON THE SLIDE! I guess he couldn't hold it? Thought it would be fun? Was making his own waterslide? Who knows. Either way, my screams of "NOOOOOO" were too little too late. (As though he could have heard me anyway) But, as I yelled "NO" the whole family looked out the huge picture windows, just in time to catch the show. As we were all DYING with laughter (Danny was literally on the floor, and I was crying, I was laughing so hard), we didn't see that he had finished and pulled his pants up. But we did look up in time to see that he was about to slide down the pee soaked slide. This time there was a collective "NOOOOO", but it was too late. He slid down the slide....pee flew everywhere, even onto his cousin Peter, who happened to be standing at the bottom of the slide. We all laughed even harder than before. It couldn't get any funnier, until we looked up and saw that little Jeremy was about to slide down right after him. Luckily Jeremy's daddy, Robert was outside, cleaning the yellow liquid from Peter's face, when he noticed little Jer about to go down too. He caught him just in time. In a world where there are camcorders accessible everywhere, there wasn't one nearby for this little episode. I think we could have won the $100,000 grand prize from America's Funniest Home Videos.

A Walk In The Park

2011-04-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

It's starting to warm up a little, so the past couple of nights we've been taking a walk when Danny gets home from work. It's been nice to get outside as well as spend that time together as a family with no other distractions. Yesterday we went for a walk along a trail that we didn't even know existed, yet we live 8 blocks from it. Tonight we walked along the Provo River Trail and stopped at 2 of the parks along the way for the kids to swing and slide and play. They are loving the adventure of playing with sticks and running along the trails, chasing each other. Plus, it doesn't hurt that all the walking is exercise that is not boring.

Maddie is a HAM. She loves the camera. Every time I would go to take a picture, she would stop, pose and say "Cheese" then after, the clicking noise of the camera, she'd say "got it"! I love her.

Ethan and Maddie went on the dual slides a couple times to "race" each other to the bottom. Ethan totally understood that they were racing, but Maddie was just having a blast with the sliding.

Mommy-Ethan Date

2011-04-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

Ethan and I went to see "HOP" on a Mommy/Son Date last night. Ethan was soooooo cute with his GIANT bucket of Kettle Corn Popcorn (My fav.) And also his orange soda and skittles that we snuck in mommy's bag. Shhhhh! We did buy a large popcorn after all.

Anyway, Ethan loved the movie and I thought that parts were cute and funny, so overall, it was a success!

Christmas

2011-01-01T20:23:00.001-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! We started our Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve as usual. Spending some time with Danny's parents having family hour. We discussed the Lord and his many gifts to us and we then wrote down our gifts for the Savior for this coming year. My favorite part is to read the entries I wrote in previous years. To see my goals and see which ones I actually was able to accomplish. I love spending that time, reflecting on what Christmas is really about. So, then the next morning, we had family prayer and a big breakfast and headed over to open all the presents under the GINORMOUS tree! The kids had a great Christmas, full of family, junk food, and playing with their new toys. I LOVE my little babies and loved watching them open their presents. Although, as kids are, they kept wanting to play with their cousins presents, so we decided that next year we will start opening our presents just with our kids and then going to Grandma and Grandpa's afterward.

Here's my little Maddie with major bedhead

And Ethan with his trains! The kid sleeps with his trains he loves them so much. Even when he isn't playing on his tracks, he has to have one in his pocket.

SNOW!

2011-01-01T20:09:00.001-08:00

So, we've been getting our fair share of snow around here the last couple of weeks. Last week after 10 inches accumulated on EVERYTHING, we had Ethan outside to play in it. So, Danny and Ethan decided to make a huge snowman. When they put the second ball of snow on top of the bottom, it fell apart. Instead of making a snowman, Danny made Ethan a snow slide, which makes for a lot of fun!

Cornbelly's Halloweentime.

2010-10-19T12:18:00.001-07:00

So, I know that Halloween was over a month ago, and that Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are well on our way to Christmas, but I am just bad at blogging and saw these pictures today of our adventure to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point. We had a great time, jumping on the giant trampolines, racing the rubber duckies, playing on the hay bales, riding the cow train, going through the kiddie corn maze, going down the slides, looking at the awesome carved pumpkins, also looking away as we passed by some teenagers tasting each others tonsils. It started out as a great family outing (luckily the kids are too young to know about the tonsil hockey :)

And then, the night ended like this:

Notice the poor little girl's wet pants. Yeah, that is barf. After all the jumping and running around, we stopped at the tents to have a bite to eat. 5 minutes later, Maddie had it ALL down the front of her. She happened to be sitting in her stroller at the time, so needless to say, it got a HUGE scrub down after we got back and Miss thang got a much needed bath.

Family Home Evening-Halloween edition

2010-10-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

So, as I was at Target a couple weeks ago, I found this Graveyard Cookie Kit. I thought it would be fun to do this with the kids for Family Home Evening. So, this box shows what the scene is supposed to look like:And, with the kids help, this is what it actually looked like:

Ya......um, obviously the kids are little, so they just wanted to eat everything. Not to mention there were tubes of frosting missing from the box. Either way, the kids LOVED eating it. So, I will call this Halloween edition of FHE successful.

And, after they ate it, they desperately needed a bath:

Friends

2010-09-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

One night, when I got home from work, Danny and Ethan were waiting for me outside behind a tree and when I got out of the car, they jumped out and scared the crap out of me. Ethan was laughing and laughing and it was the best time of his life. So, now, every night I work, I call and let Danny know when I'll home so that he can bring Ethan out to scare me. He LOVES it so much that he asks when I will be home so he can scare me.
The other night, I came home and after scaring me, Ethan put his arm around me and put his arm around Danny at the same time and said "My Mommy, my Daddy, my Friends." I know that he's not always going to feel that way, but it was so sweet and something I will never forget.

Ethan also, LOVES his baby sister. Don't get me wrong, he is super mean to her sometimes, but he just loves to play with her. He gets so high strung, that sometimes he doesn't know how to control himself (Mostly on account of him not ever taking naps). Their relationship is kind of like the boy who cried wolf. He has pushed her down and run her over so many times, that when he just wants to play, she doesn't believe him and runs away crying. It leaves Ethan all sad that his baby sister doesn't want to play with him. But lately, they've both been kind of getting it. They are playing better and they even cuddle together while watching "The Backyardigans" or "Yo Gabba Gabba". He tries to protect her from getting into things that are dangerous and sometimes he even calls her his friend. I hope that they will always be friends and understand how important it is to be close.

The Y Commercial

2010-07-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

I saw this commercial on a friends facebook status and thought that it was hilarious. Considering that I LOVE the Old Spice commercial with the guy on the horse. Anyway, you need to look at your computer screen, then look away, then look back, then laugh a little bit, you're on a chair, watching a commercial.

New Spice | Study like a scholar, scholar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ArIj236UHs

Family Reunion #1

2010-06-17T15:49:00.001-07:00

So, we had our first Flexman Family Reunion since 2002, which I didn't even get to go on because I had to work! So, this was awesome because the entire family was there. Now, compared to Danny's family, our group is small, but there was still 26 of us in VEGAS!! We had a lot of fun. The house we stayed at had a pool in the backyard, with a fence around the patio, of course, to keep the kiddies from wandering into the pool. That would be bad. But it still didn't stop me from freaking out when I couldn't find one of the little rug rats. Anywho, we hung out in the pool a lot, went to Lake Mead, and some of us went and did little things here and there that we wanted to do. We were going to visit the Las Vegas ZOO.......Can anyone tell me why that place is even there? It was a city block.....Literally....We drove around the entire thing in 15 seconds. Needless to say, we DID NOT pay to get into it, considering, we could have just knocked on a door in the neighboring apartment complex and asked if we could look out their window. We would have seen all the animals in 2 minutes. So, we punched in attractions on the trusty GPS and we found the Natural History Museum. It was way bigger than it looked on the outside and we spent a good few hours there. The kids had a blast.

THE GIBBONS

We also went to Circus Circus where Ethan got to see this HUGE Spongebob.
Doesn't the look on his face explain everything?

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There was also an injury! Ethan was playing with his cousins when he fell backward and hit his head on the corner of a wall. Hence the staples. His head cracked the wall and the wall cracked his head. I think the wall won.

Summer Weather

2010-06-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

It is FINALLY starting to warm up. The weather has been gorgeous the last few days. There was a point where I thought it was going to rain and snow forever. But, it won't and I'm happy about that. I LOVE summertime and get a little depressed when it's dark and gloomy. I'm excited for this summer because we have many things to look forward to. My family reunion is this month in Las Vegas. WOHOO! And, then, a week later we have Danny's family reunion. It hopefully will be nice weather for both so I can get a tan on my pasty self.

To enjoy the beautiful weather we've had lately, we took the kids to Timpanogos park in Provo canyon and let them run around and throw rocks into the river. They had so much fun and didn't want to leave.

Last few months

2010-06-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

We've had so much going on lately, and I know I've been a blog slacker, but we FINALLY, FINALLY, can I repeat?......FINALLY got a camera again. Ethan broke our last one. It turned on and everything, but he busted the zoom and we said goodbye to the focus. We've been married for almost 5 years and we've had 5 cameras. This is not at all because we are upgrading to a better camera every year, but we just don't have very good luck with our cameras. Danny bought us one right after we got married, but it was a dud and it drained batteries like crazy. Then, we bought another one and we took it camping. We had out camp chairs sitting out and the camera was in the drink pocket. We woke up to the camera missing....stolen by about 20 college hooligans ( yes I did just use that word) that were up in the canyon playing their guitar til 4 in the morning at the site right next to ours. They tried to steal our chairs too, but we came back out of the tent just in time to stop them. But we didn't notice our camera was gone til it was too late. So we bought another camera shortly after that.........it was dropped in water. We didn't have one for a while and then bought one a few months before Madison was born. That is the one Ethan dropped on the floor. Anyway, enough rambling about our bad camera luck, I hate to post without any pictures, so for mother's day I got a new camera!!! YAY! But it was too late to take pictures of Danny's birthday in March, Madison and my birthday in April. And pretty much everything else after Christmas until May.

We did, however get pictures for Ethan's birthday. His favorite thing in the whole world right now is Thomas the Tank Engine. He LOVES trains and plays with them all day. And I do mean ALL day. When he wakes up in the morning, he has to find his train. He carries it everywhere he goes: To the store, to the sandbox, then to the bathtub, then he holds it as he's going to sleep. Over memorial day weekend, Thomas the tank was at the Heber Valley Railroad. Since his birthday was the same weekend, we took him to see Thomas. He loved it's guts! While we were on the train, it was hard to get any pictures of him facing me, because he just loved to stare at everything as we went by. All in all it was a fun day.

Soooooo Thankful

2010-03-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

The other day I was thinking about all the miracles and blessings in my life. It especially came about when a friend posted a link on my facebook page about a 14 month old drowning in a bathtub.......in Provo. The miracle of the story is that this little boy lived! You can read the story here about the Staker Family's ordeal on their blog. It is an account of the events from when this little boy was born to just recently being in the hospital. It is both heart wrenching......get your tissues out.....and a beautiful testimony of the Lord's hand in everything. Make sure you have about an hour to spend before clicking on the link. You will NOT want to stop reading the story.....and it's long......but you won't want to miss anything because the ending is TRULY a miracle. You can also watch their video here, about their story, on the Today Show.

So, after reading this blog and watching the video, I realized that some things in life are not important. Take time for the most important things........family! My little Madison will be 1 in 2 weeks. Where did that year go? Ethan will be 3 in 3 months. Where did that time go? It's time I can't get back and time that I wish I'd spent more of, getting on the floor and just playing with them. To let go and be unselfish of the things that maybe I want to do and do the things I NEED to, to make sure that these beautiful babies remember their childhood, not off by themselves, but with a mother that loves them, plays with them, and wants to be with them always! I am thankful for so many things as I think about family and blessings at this time. This story made be realize of a miracle of our own.....a close call.....that I NEVER want to happen again. A few months ago, it was a normal Saturday. We all woke up and had some breakfast.....well, maybe not Danny cuz he never eats breakfast.....but I fed the kids and myself breakfast. Anyway, after breakfast, Ethan got down from the table, Madison was playing on the floor in the living room, Danny was watching a football game in the living room, and I went upstairs to our computer to put some bills to be paid on our online billing. I'd been upstairs for about 20 minutes, when I heard a knock at the door. This is NOT unusual at the Gibbons' house. Ted got up and answered the door, and a man stood there with Ethan. WHAT?? How did Ethan get outside? This man said he was driving down our street and the car in front of him slammed on his brakes and swerved. He said he also slammed on his brakes and noticed there was a little boy in the middle of the street. He stopped completely and got out of his car to see if there was anyone around with this little boy. Nope, no one. He looked up and noticed the house in front of him had the front door WIDE open. So he took the little boy up to the door and knocked. This is when Ted came to the door, wondering why the door was open and this man was holding Ethan. This is a miracle! Not only was our little boy spared, but someone......trustworthy......brought him home. So many things could have gone wrong in this scenario. And what were we doing that needed to be done SO badly that our children were watching themselves? I'm grateful every day that I get to hug and hold and teach my beautiful children. I am so thankful for the Lord to trust me enough to send them to me. It's frightening at times, but I can't imagine not having them! I love them so much.

Horrible

2010-02-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

Me, I'm horrible at blogging. When I finally do, there's just so much to catch up on. Well, folks, we're back in OREM! CIVILIZATION! THINGS TO DO! The funny thing is, we haven't done much since we moved back. We have, however, been able to spend time together as a family. We got some renters in our house. We just didn't want to take too much longer trying to find a buyer and being separated as a family. We do eventually want to sell it, so if you ever hear of anyone moving to Helper or Price, let them know of our fantastic house.

I was late with the Halloween pics, so i might as well be late with the Christmas ones too. We spent Christmas day with Danny's family and spent the next day with my family, as they all came up from Arizona and California.

Every year it is a tradition at the Gibbons' house to do a family hour, every Christmas eve, centered on Christ and the gifts we want to give him over the next year. It has been a great thing for me to realize the importance of the season and how I want to live my life, not just around the holidays, but all year. I've been joining them on this tradition since 2003 and have enjoyed looking back on my gifts from previous years. This tradition gives me a sense of who I want to become. Each year I have written things that I want to do better on and it's amazing to see the things that I have accomplished and the things that I write every year that are still a work in progress. I just know that because of the things I HAVE accomplished, my testimony has grown that much more.

This year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas I did a small drive to get some winter clothing, personal items, and food for those less fortunate. We, ourselves don't have much, but we are so blessed with what we do have.....A warm house, food to eat, clothing on our backs, cars, a beautiful family. I have a wonderful husband that works hard for our family, loves the gospel and loves our children and makes them laugh. I just wanted in a small way, even if it meant giving one person a coat or some socks because they don't have them and no way to get them, to feel compassion and joy in helping others. I want to thank all of the family members that helped to make such a HUGE donation, filling the back of my truck, with coats, socks, shoes, pants, hats, scarves, blankets, food and more. With all that help, it made it so there were just that many more people that didn't go without. So thank you. And start saving for next year. I would like to make it a tradition every year to take a LARGE donation the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Below are some pictures from Christmas

Here's Madison and Stephen and Noel's little baby girl Anabella. Aren't they cute holding hands on accident. Or maybe on purpose........if we could just read their minds. maybe they're like, ok, hurry and take this picture. Is it over? It's over? Ok, let go of my hand. Either way, they're adorable.

Maddie, trying to crawl in her too tight jeans. The modesty talks need to start already, and at only 8 months.
But she is a beaut......That's Beaut...as in Beauty, not Butt....as in butt.

The next two are Danny and Ethan while we are sitting around the table playing games.

Halloween-The extremely late version

2009-12-08T11:56:00.001-08:00

First of all, this is really late.....I know. Like, it's 2 weeks to Christmas. Ethan broke our camera a couple months ago, so we haven't really been able to take many pics lately. These pictures were from Danny's Dad's camera. He was nice enough to take some pictures for us. The night before Halloween, Danny's parents ward had a Christmas party. They had lots of fun games for the kids. There was one fishing game that Ethan couldn't stay away from. You throw a fishing line over a board and someone from behind the board attaches a piece of candy and throws it back over for the child to get. We eventually had to leave the party altogether because Ethan wouldn't let anyone else have a turn. He would get the candy, come show us, and then run back and try to grab the pole from whichever kid was next. Yeah, he's not into sharing just yet.

One of his many candies of the night. Hyped up on sugar is not any time to teach a kid about sharing. All they're wanting is more sugar......any way they can get it. Here's my 2 pumpkins I entered into the contest. My pirate won the most unique category. And I hope that you can tell that the other one is a bat inside of a moon that has a face. Danny couldn't see the face of the moon. Then it made me all self conscious about my poorly carved pumpkin.

This is the first candy of Madison's life. Daddy was teasing her a bit and she wanted it bad. She didn't know what it was, but it was red and shiny and she wanted it.

Here it is, almost to the mouth.

Oh, and here we have it. To the mouth it goes. SO YUMMY!

And here's after Daddy took it away. Mean daddy!

The next night was Halloween and it was Ethan's first REAL trick or treating experience. We went with Jared and Heidi and their 3 kids. We figured Ethan needed some other kidly guidance. Their kids were Wendy, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, and it just so happened Ethan was a pirate. Kind of accidentally perfect. We got to the first door and Ethan stood there with his friends and they waited and....nothing. Next door, waiting......nothing. I'm sure Ethan was more than confused. But 3rd time is the charm, and the door opens. The kids say trick or treat and Ethan copies them with "Ker Treat". Then, the next door and by the third opened door, he was a pro. Banging on the door until they open it, shoving his way in front of the other kids."ker treat". Even entering some of the houses to see what was taking so long with his candy. Awesome. My kid knows no bounderies. We are in trouble.

Just before going out to Trick or Treat

At the end of the night, we buckled him in his seat, he asked me to open a candy. I did and then handed it back to him. The car started, I looked back and he was OUT. He hadn't even lifted the candy to his mouth. He was just holding it, opened.

Screaming Children

2009-11-24T09:02:00.001-08:00

Monday morning, I woke up at 6am to stand in line to get vouchers for the Swine Flu vaccination for my children. They said they were going to start giving them out at 8am. So, I got to the Health building around 6:30 and no one seemed to be there. I kept seeing cars pull into the parking lot, and people walking in. I was thinking for some reason they were employees for that building. I was expecting a line like this:

Around the outside of the building, wrapping around it, times over. Instead, the line was inside. I could have been one of the first in line, but I was around #60. Luckily, they were pretty efficient and they were just giving out the vouchers, not the shots. So I had to return to the Health building Tuesday with both children. One 2 Yrs and one 7 months. I didn't know what to expect, but up and down the halls you could hear this:

SCREAMING CHILDREN!!!

Needless to say, I was nervous. How was Ethan going to do? He screams like crazy at the Dr's office and the Dr. hasn't even touched him. Now, a nurse he's never seen is gonna shove this thing up his nose. How's that gonna work? We got to a part in the line where they split into about 8 different lines to give the vaccines. As we were in this line, I could SEE the
SCREAMING CHILDREN!!!!! AAAAAGH!
So, we get to the nurse, and she tells Ethan she's going to put something in his nose that feels like water. He just kind of looked at her like she was an alien from outer space. She put it in, sprayed it, then she said she was done. He sniffed. Then smiled. Who on earth smiles after getting sprayed in the nose? Ethan.

Rambo

2009-11-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

So, for the past 4 months or so, Ethan has had an obsession with my headbands. Yeah, headbands! So the genius I am told him he was Rambo when he wears it. This is my lame attempt to make it seem not so girly. It does NOT, however, work out so well when you are in the grocery store and your son has decided to choose a PINK headband to be Rambo that day. Then I find myself needing to explain the situation to anyone who I come in contact with. I'm hunting down the person behind the customer service counter to grab the microphone and announce over the loudspeaker that "MY SON IS RAMBO!!"

For Sale

2009-10-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

If you didn't know, we are trying to sell our house in Helper, UT. We made a blog with pictures and info so we can put it in the paper and get more word out. If you happen to know anyone who may be interested, please refer them to the link below.

http://16southmainhelper.blogspot.com

Madison's blessing

2009-08-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we were able to bless Madison. My parents came up from Arizona for the weekend and we had lots of friends and family come to our house in Helper. Madison looked beautiful and her dress was amazing. My mom spent a LOT of her time laboring on her dress. And it was beautiful. Thanks Mum!!!!! A million times over. Danny gave a wonderful blessing and then we all came home and had some delicious food. And everyone hung out and talked and had a good time. Thanks everyone for coming and sharing the special day with us.

Update on The Future

2009-08-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know yet, Danny got a new job. He will be starting Monday and it is in Orem. Right now we are deciding on what to do with the house we just bought and moved into 5 months ago. At the moment Danny will be staying in Orem during the week and coming home on the weekends, until we figure things out. I am also starting back at school next week as well as having both babies at home full time. Life will be extremely busy and we will miss Danny at home during the week. Who knows what the future will hold, but we pray we will make the right decisions for our family.

HSM 3

2009-07-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

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FHE

2009-07-15T05:05:00.000-07:00

About 15 Minutes from our house, there is a state park with hiking, camping, and day use with picnic tables and fire pits. We decided to take our little family up to do s'mores at one of the fire pits for FHE this week. It was a lot of fun exploring the area. It was tons of fun for Ethan, who ran around like a mad man. He fell down what seems like a million times, but he didn't care. There was one point where he was going down a small hill and got into one of those running modes where you can't stop because if you do you are going to face plant the dirt. It was hilarious. I guess for a 2 yr old's tiny legs, any decline is a large hill. There was no one else up there, so we had the whole place to ourselves to roam. Madison had fun too. She likes the baby carrier so she can look around at what's going on.

Summer Fun

2009-07-15T04:43:00.000-07:00

We bought Ethan a Whale pool to cool off in the summer heat. Not that there has been too much of it this summer so far. But he loves it and insists that he fill it up when we put water in it. At first he would not get in. We had to tell him it was a bath because he loves baths, but he just didn't get it until Danny went in it with him.

Father's day.

2009-06-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day Dad!

My dad is the greatest. He is always there for me whenever I need him. He is always supportive and has the greatest advice when I have a problem. I can always call him up and he will readily be there to talk. You are the best dad. I love you. Happy Father's Day.

Bear Lake

2009-06-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

This year for the family vacation, we went to Bear Lake. Even though it rained a couple of the days, it was still a lot of fun. There was a small break in the weather where we were all able to go down to the beach. Ethan had so much fun that we hardly saw him. He was off playing with all of his cousins pretty much the entire time. Every once in a while we had to stop what we were doing to make sure he was not gone or seriously injured somewhere. He hated to go to sleep at night, in fear of missing out on something. We did find him one time sitting on the porch swing with Grandpa. They sat there together for about an hour. It was so cute. Madison is starting to smile more and more every day and is getting cuter by the minute. I'm sure she had as much fun as a baby can on vacation. It was nice to see everyone, to talk, play games......Rockband.....good times.

Ethan's 2nd Birthday and the Spongebob Cake(s)

2009-06-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

My sweet little Ethan turned 2 today! He is such a beautiful boy. I can't believe how time flies, but it seems as though he's been in our lives forever. I can't imagine my life without him and I'm so happy that he is a part of it. Here's a few pictures of his first couple months at life. In the pic above, you can tell he had his own little personality already by his facial expression. Below, he was having a cute little dream.

He was just a month old in this one, where his proud and loving daddy is holding him.

He was still getting over a bit of jaundice in this pic at just 2 weeks old.

Our little jail bird on 4th of July. We walked down to the park by our house and watched the fireworks. Well, I watched the fireworks. Danny was working late and Ethan was sleeping. Danny met us right after the fireworks started, though, so he did get to see some of them.

Now to the meaning of today's blog title. So, Ethan LOVES Spongebob Squarepants (or ba-bob gwa as he would say). So, i decided I wanted to make him a Spongebob birthday cake. I got all of the items I needed: Cake mixes, frostings, food colorings, cake decorating items, etc. So, Friday night, I baked two cakes in a rectangular pan, waited for them to cool, placed one on a flat sheet pan, put chocolate pudding on top, placed the other cake on top, then did the base icing and set it in the fridge. I figured I would do all of the detail work the next day before we left to go to orem for the weekend, where we were having a family party for him. So, Saturday morning, I got the cake out, drew the design on the icing with a toothpick, then began to decorate. I went into the other room for a minute, then I hear Ethan say BA-BOB! I come back to the kitchen, Ethan is up on the counter, attacking his cake with a knife. He drops the knife and then starts going to town with his hands. We had to leave at about 4pm when Danny got home from work, and it was about 1pm when this happened. I immedidately got him off the counter, started on another cake.....obviously not as good.....then put him and the baby in the bath. You can tell by the pic below....he REALLY needed one!

So, here's the demolished spongebob cake....It was unfinished, luckily. If it had have been all the way done, Ethan may not have made it to his 2nd birthday today.

So, after, the bathing of a messy child, the other cake was just cool enough to start icing, which I needed to do in a hurry, so I got all the tools ready again. Danny came home just as I was about to start and was like, "are you ready to go?" Um....NO!! Then he said.."What happened to the Spongebob cake?" DON'T ASK!! Anyway, I iced the next cake in like 20 minutes, packed all our stuff, took a shower, then finally left an hour and a half after we were supposed to. So below is the second cake. Not nearly as good as the first one would have been, but still Spongebob nonetheless.

We had the family party on Sunday and then came home early this morning. Below, Ethan is taking a cute birthday nap.

And here's his new tricycle. He's funny because he will not ride on it. We tried to show him how to do it, but....he IS in his terrible 2's and is extremely independent. He must do everything by himself. We tried to put him on it and he screamed at us, arched his back and wanted off. So, he just pushes it around the living room. So awesome!

Here's a video of Ethan "blowing out" his birthday cake candles.

Daddy Shoosh

2009-05-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Ethan LOVES to wear shoes....or shoosh as he calls them. He will sometimes go get his shoes and ask me to put them on, even if we're not going anywhere. If he can only find one shoe, then sometimes he's walking around the house with only one shoe on. Recently he started to realize he doesn't only have to wear HIS shoes, but he can put on other's shoes as well. With a failed attempt to put on his newborn size shoe....which only velcroed around his toes, he then noticed, he needed bigger ones.....and here we are, with daddy's shoosh.

Sleeping Angels and the big boy

2009-05-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

Isn't it so precious when children are asleep? I always wonder what they're dreaming about. Especially because they can't tell you.

Here's Ethan just before we moved into our new house. I was cleaning the house and I came into the kitchen and found that he had pushed the chair up to the sink and was doing this:

Madison's Journey Thru Pictures

2009-05-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some Pictures of Madison's journey through life so far.

This is me just prior to giving birth. I was all happy and felt hardly any pain at all.

Here's Lydia holding Madison, just after she was born.

Here's the proud daddy who was able to make it for the birth. I called him from the hospital at 7am, he arrived about 9:30am and she was born 12:20pm

Here's the grandpa holding her later on that evening.

Here's my mom. She drove in from Arizona 12 hours after I called her from being admitted into the hospital.

Here's Joe, I think the day after she was born. He was hesitant to hold her because she was so little, but I made him do it.

Here, Madison is being prepped to go home. Being changed from her hospital garb, to her going home clothing. She still has the bow on her head from the hospital photographer.

Enjoying life at home in her preemie clothes that are too big for her.

Sleepy little angel. Wrapped in the crocheted blanket my mom made for her.

Then, back to the hospital. Dang RSV!

The little stickers on her cheeks held the oxygen tube in her nose so she couldn't take it out.

This is a vanilla flavored pacifier. I think it was weird to her at first, but she kinda got used to it. It really helped to soothe her. But she couldn't suck on it for too long because her nose was so stuffy.

And here, back home again, AT LAST! Ethan loves to hold her.
Sometimes he calls her (My baby).

Madison Aroha Gibbons

2009-05-01T12:51:00.001-07:00

I figured it's about time I posted about our little girl, now that she's 4 weeks old already! I came up to Danny's parents house 4 weeks before her due date because Ethan was 3 1/2 weeks early. I went in to my 36 week appt. and the Dr. said I was 3 cm and 80 % effaced. I'm thinking, this girl is coming out TODAY! Everyday there was anxiety....when is she coming? I made it another week to my 37 week appt. I was 4 cm and 80 % effaced. Really? I went into the hospital with Ethan at 3 cm when the day before at my 36 week visit I was 2 cm. Anyway, I left the 37 wk appt. wondering if she was even going to come out early at all. Well, the next morning at 5 am I felt a strong contraction, 15 min later another, 15 min later another, 15 min later another. I headed upstairs because I heard Danny's mom up there, she asked if everything was ok and I said I think I'm going into labor now. She was about to head off to the temple, decided she would change her clothes and take me to the hospital. Now, I wasn't quite sure weather to go to the hospital because with Ethan my contractions hit fast and were immediately 5 min apart. We went anyway at about 6:30 am and by the time we got there 10 min later, I'd had 3 more strong contractions. The nurse took me in and checked me at about 7am . I was 5 cm 100% effaced. Now the contractions were 3 min apart, and the epidural was on the way.....thank goodness. The dr. came in right after and I was 6 cm, then 8, then I stood at 8 for an hour, so they decided to give me some petocin to speed it up because of the epidural. About 15 min later, I was at a 10 and they were ready for me to push. I was supposed to have another c section because of hospital policy, but because i went into labor spontaneously and was progressing fast, the dr. decided it was ok to try natural birth. I pushed a few times to get her lower in the birth canal, pushed a couple more times with the help of forceps to get her out quickly, so we wouldn't have to do an emergency c section, and she was out. The cord was wrapped around her neck when she came out, but the dr was able to unwrap it quickly. I pushed for about 10 min total and she was born at 12:20pm on April 2nd. 7lb 1 ounce and 18 in. She had a slight case of jaundice and had to get tested for 2 days after we went home. At her 2 week she was 7lb 8 ounce and 20 in. But at that visit, the dr had us go back into the hospital for RSV. Her oxygen level was 85, which the dr's like to see it above 90. So, she went into the hospital and we were there for just over a week. SHe was only on a trace amount, but couldn't quite ween off it fast enough. The dr heard a heart murmur while we were there and ordered an ekg. We were sent home Sat. the 25th with an oxygen tank and an apnea monitor and today, she is finally able to be off the oxygen and needs only the monitor at night when we are asleep. We also got the ekg results today and everything looks normal. So, WE FINALLY GET TO GO HOME!!! Danny moved us into our new house days before Madison was born, and we've been there a total of 4 days. But today, we get to go home and the only thing left is the apnea monitor, which we'll probably have another week.

If you have a child, you DEFINITELY feel my pain!

2009-03-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sitting at the table in the kitchen, while Ethan is eating some raisins, drinking some milk, and watching Spongebob in the living room. (I think he loves Spongebob, or ba-bob as he calls it, more than us). Anyway, all of a sudden he starts saying "mommy" and runs into the kitchen. I notice he has something on his hands and his arms. It's brown, and I wonder, "where the heck did he get chocolate from? Was there a piece under the couch he found or something?" Then I SMELL IT! It is definitely NOT CHOCOLATE! Yeah, it's poop. Aparently he decided to do a stinky in his diaper, and then put his hands down into it. Needless to say, we took a quick trip into the bathtub. As I'm sitting there, giving him a bath, (by the way, this has no relation to the poop, but just an indication maybe of how the day is gonna go?) I can see something out of the corner of my eye, moving on my shoulder. Yeah, a spider decided that was the right moment to land on me. It was pretty large, and I smacked it off my shoulder, and it landed in the bathtub. It started to swim, so I quickly grabbed Ethan out of the tub, getting soapy and soaked in the process. So, anyway, those of you who have children, you probably have your own poop stories, and I've been lucky up until now, but I realize, with the second child coming any time now, there will be more of my own stories to come. I also felt that I would spare you all the graphic nature, so I didn't post any pictures!

.......2 months later

2009-03-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

I realize it has been 2 LONG months since my last post and nothing has changed except for my growing belly. We are STILL...I repeat STILL waiting to close on this house. It has been a tremendous nightmare. I understand that the home buying and closing process is usually brutal, but I was not prepared for this. We keep having to put in extensions on our contract for the deadline because underwriting is taking FOREVER!!!! The seller is frustrated, our real estate agent is frustrated and, of course, we are definitely frustrated. Hopefully we will be closing this week and we will be able to move on Saturday, which I'll be extremely happy about because we have boxes and tubs everywhere. Not only this, but our landlords are selling the house we are currently in, and they call all the time to let us know they are showing the house to prospective buyers. Normally, this would be ok, but, in the middle of moving, signing papers, dr. visits for the fastly approaching baby, AND having to deep clean the house every third day.....it just adds to the frustration.
On a lighter note.....It's Danny's 30th birthday today!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!
Unfortunately he had to work, but we should be able to do something later for him.
Maybe we can actually go on a REAL date or something.
.

Where the heck is Helper?

2009-01-18T22:25:00.000-08:00

http://www.idxvow.com/cgi-bin/cecidx/bridge/mls.cgi?view=res.cgi&show=yes&mls=10504

Well, we've done it. We've taken the leap to buy our first house. So far it's been a pretty painless process. We applied for a loan, got approved within 2 days, a day later, went and looked at house after house, found a house that was perfect for us, put an offer in, got a counter offer the next day, we countered the next day, our offer got accepted the next day and the contract was signed. All in all, it took a week and a half from loan application to contract signing. Now we just have to do the dreaded home inspection. Which hopefully will be done by the end of this week. You can see pictures of the house by clicking on the link at the top of this post. The house we have found is in Helper, UT. Where the heck is Helper? you may ask..... Well, it's about 5 or 6 miles before you get to Price. Well, where the heck is Price? some of you may ask. If you head through the Spanish Fork canyon and go for about 50 some odd miles, you'll reach Helper. It is the first city you get to on the other side of the canyon. Price is just a few miles further down the highway. I must admit, never in a million years did I think I would be living in a small town called "Helper". Why the heck is it called helper anyway? It's a strange name, but apparently back in the olden days, coal trains would get stuck trying to go over the pass into Utah County or from Utah County. So, there were a set of 4 or so tracks in the small town that housed engines to go and help push or pull the trains out of the canyon, thus the name Helper. If the home inspection goes well, and we still want the house, we should be in it by the end of Feb. Just in time for me to get settled before the babe arrives.

The Poll Results are in:

2008-12-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

We had our ultrasound yesterday afternoon and the results are in. There were 14 of you who guessed we were having a girl, 5 of you thought a boy, and 5 of you said alien. Very funny. Although, the pictures look very alienlike. I will upload them later, but for now, those of you who thought we were having a boy......WELL YOU"RE WRONG! We are having a girl. The Ultrasound technician couldn't tell at first because the baby had it's legs crossed tight. She bounced the reader up and down on my stomach to try to get the baby to move, with no luck, and lots of pain on my part. So, she said we'd take a short break, I'd go get my weight and blood pressure taken and then go back down to try again. I jogged up the stairs, ran in place while we were talking and then jogged back down the stairs, all the while jiggling my ever growing jiggly belly. I got back on the table and she tried again, The baby still hadn't moved!!!! I was not leaving til I found out. Finally, on her last pass, the baby opened it's legs, and there it was, nothing. We are officially having a girl.

Trunk or Treat

2008-11-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

My sister's ward had a trunk or treat a couple nights before Halloween. They had tons of games, candy, music, candy, hot chocolate, french bread and...you guessed it, more candy. Ethan wasn't too sure at first. He just stood behind me holding my leg or sitting on my lap. But, later, he decided he wanted to run around the gym with the other kids. Outside, when we were trunk or treating, he just stared at everyone while I said trick or treat. He had no idea who these people were or why they were all smiling and throwing candy in his bag. Pretty much, he didnt' get it, but he sure got how to eat the candy later.

Here he is with my nephew Courtney. Usually Ethan won't go to him, but he was scared of everyone else running around that he didn't know, so he liked that there was a familiar face.

If you couldn't tell, he's a bat. But who cares anyway, he looks so dang cute. Here's his first candy of the night and BY FAR not the last.

He took a few steps away from me, shortly to return, but my nephew is in the bottom right corner of this picture enticing him with more candy....trying to get him to come to him.

This video is of Ethan running around the gym while we were cleaning up. I was trying to get him from the front running to me, but he kept running away from me. My favorite part is at the end where he cutely looks at me and says "hi"

HALLOWEEN!

2008-10-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

It is so close and yet so, so far. Oh how I love the Halloween season. Looking at all the cute costumes I could dress Ethan up in,(Which, by the way, he is going to be a bat this year. A very warm, cuddly bat. I wish I had a dang camera. Maybe by next post.) wishing the baby was already here so I could do all the "baby's first halloween" thingys, the fresh crisp weather, all the leaves falling to the ground, eating caramel apples and candy until I can't look at them anymore, all of the autumny colors everywhere, and the knowledge that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner with all that yummy, yummy food. Anyway, Happy Halloween.......a little bit early.

It's that time of year again!

2008-09-26T20:22:00.000-07:00

Well, it is that time of year again. You know, when we pull out our 7 tubs of Halloween decorations and start decorating our house and yard. Last weekend, I put up all of our gravestones and such in our yard. Our yard is perfect this year. It's not too big, and not too small and it's fenced in. It even looks a little creepy by itself. Unfortunately there are no pictures just yet, as our camera broke a couple of weeks ago. No matter how many batteries we've put in, it just says there's no battery power. So, we have to wait until we get a new camera. So, anyway, you'll have to rely on description. You can even scroll back to our post from last year so you can see what decorations we have. We didn't do a whole lot different, other than we got a few more gravestones and we got some black lights to surround the porch, so it kind of glows. But our yard is small enough this year to where we could put gravestones on both sides of the walkway up to our house. We've gotten quite a few comments already from people in our ward and also some people walking by as the decor was being installed. As for the pregnancy, I am now 11 weeks, and not nearly as sick as with Ethan. I've had some rough patches, but as a whole, I'm doing pretty good this time around. I have noticed to myself that I'm starting to show already, even though I didn't really start to show with Ethan until I was about 5-6 months. I guess your body, after one, already knows the drill and is trying to jump the gun. Oh well, there will just be more of me to love.

3rd Anniversary

2008-08-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

Our 3rd wedding anniversary was a couple of weeks ago, but it kind of got trumped by the baby news. It's been an adventurous three years so far. We've been to California 3 times,( Disneyland twice, Magic Mountain twice, Sea World twice, San Diego zoo once, the beach to eat dinner once)Decorated for halloween way too early every year, went to Arizona to watch a real Chicago Bears game, moved 4 times, worked a million hours too many at Papa Johns (therefore, knowing utah county more than we should), bought and sold 3 cars, (One of the cars was twice), played a billion too many hours of Halo 2 and 3, bought and sold 4 xbox's, ate more than our share of JBC's, 5 piece nuggets, and frosty's, went to East Canyon 4 times, had fun, swimming, and games at 3 different family reunions, while almost dying at one, had a beautiful, healthy, chubby baby boy, with another baby on the way and we are still in love and looking for many more years and adventures to come.

This year we went to Lagoon, and as most of you know, normally I hate Lagoon. It just doesn't compare with Magic Mountain or with Disney. Last time we went to Lagoon, we had just gotten back from southern cal and all their fun amusement parks. We stayed for a couple of hours, were bored out of our minds, and I vowed never to go again until my kids were old enough and didn't know any better. Well, Danny talked me into it, seeing how this year for our anniversary, we were planning on Disney World, then it fell through. He needed some feel for an amusement park, so we went. The new ride "Wicked" I admit, it was fun. And lines at Lagoon? yeah right. Anyway, we had fun and we were there all day. Disney World would have been so much better, but, we will go another year.

One of our engagement pictures.

Right before going into the temple to get married.

On the temple grounds after we got married.

Are we crazy?

2008-08-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

We just might be crazy. I will have my first official dr. visit in 2 weeks, but, so far, we are set to have this baby around April 23rd. Supposing he/she doesn't decide to come 3 1/2 weeks early like Ethan. We are a little nervous, and a little excited all wrapped into one. It will be fun for Ethan to have someone to play with. He normally loves other kids, hopefully it's not a trend of loving someone elses kids. Anyway, there's the news. Take the poll to the right of this page and let us know: What will the baby's sex be?

Stephen & Noel's Wedding

2008-08-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

The following beautiful pictures were taken by Noel's sister Camilla. She's extremely talented and you can see some of her work at: http://www.camillabinks.com. The wedding was on

July 25, 2008 at the Mt. Timpanogos temple. It was a beautiful day, as you can see, and they looked absolutely perfect. My favorite part was the actual sealing. They got married in the same room as Danny and I and also were married by Danny and Stephen's uncle, Dan, just as we were. It was almost like we were able to look in on our own wedding because when you are in the moment, everything is a blur. I'll admit, I cried. They were beautiful sitting there together.

Here's all the Gibbons brothers. This is just the brothers! (There's 5 sisters as well) From L-R is Mike, Josh, Danny, Stephen, Adam, Chris, and Robert.

Here's both families and a few friends that attended. I love the temple.

This is at the field across the street from the temple. You get to see the whole back part of the temple.

Here's Stephen and Noel at the reception site. It was held at the castle amphitheatre in Provo by Seven Peaks. It was a beautiful there as well.

Here's the front of the temple with the large grassy area, almost like an aisle leading to the temple doors.

And, here's my beautiful Ethan outside of the temple. We were waiting for the happy couple to come outside.

2008-07-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

I stole this from my friends blogs cuz it's a cute idea.

Directions: Leave a comment on my blog about a memory of you and I together.

It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, just whatever you remember.

Then repost this on your blog to see who leaves comments for you!

Let's reminisce, it'll be fun!

4th of July & the thing in common

2008-07-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

So, maybe someone might want to tell me what the next three pictures have in common? Well, besides the fact that my cute baby is in all 3, wearing a dirty onesie. Anyone notice the bright orange thing he is holding in his left hand? Yes, folks, it is a spork. A baby spork. He loves it. He needs it. It's like his security blanket, only, it's doesn't keep him warm, and it's probably not gonna make him too safe. It's more like a forklet. Once he's got it, he will not ever let it go, unless he's about to drink a bottle. Even then, he usually will hold it while he's drinking.

Here he is on the couch with it. He was waving it up and down.

Here he is, dumping out his toy box, still holding it.

Here, he is waiting to give me 5, with the super cutest cheese face. Yep, and still holding it.

The 4th was better this year. Ethan was actually old enough to enjoy at least the fireworks part of it. The county had fireworks at the fairgrounds, which is a couple miles from our house on a hill, so we didn't have to go far. We could see them from our porch. So, we got some sparklers to do at home while we waited.

Here, Danny is having way more fun than Ethan. I think Ethan was more fascinated by the neighbors "real" fireworks they were lighting off in the street.

This one, he wanted the sparkler REAL bad and the picture is REAL fuzzy, cuz i had to drop the camera and grab him before he grabbed the sparkling ball of fire.

Vacation

2008-07-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

This year we went to Saint Anthony, Idaho for our family vacation. We went there last year as well. Ethan was only 2 weeks old. It is crazy how time flies. Last year Ethan slept 20 hours a day. This year, he was awake 20 hours a day. We had a lot of fun. We went to Bear World, the zoo in Idaho Falls. We also saw the falls with views of the temple. It was beautiful. We went to the Hicee hot springs up in the hills through Rexburg, where Ethan went swimming for the very first time. We were there for 3-4 hours and he was in the water the entire time in his little baby raft we got him.

Here's Ethan chillin' in our room. Yo.

He doesnt' look very happy here, but he's looking at the Gibbon monkeys, playing with his toe, wondering why his cant wrap around a tree limb.

Here's Danny comparing his wing span with that of a Golden Eagle. I think Danny wins. He could totally take a Golden Eagle in a fight.

We took Ethan out of his stroller so he could see the animals better, but 2 min. later, we had to put him back in, cuz he just wanted to crawl around.

This is a baby bear at Bear World. So cute and cuddly. I wanted to hug him.

When we got to the frog exhibit, we couldn't find any of the frogs. I thought it was a hoax. At the front gate, they were like, yeah we have a new frog exhibit, it's hard to find them because they are so tiny. There were about 5 windows and no frogs. This one was the only one we saw and almost didn't see it cuz its the same color as te hose it's on.

Here's the little petting zoo area. Ethan's totally staring at the rooster. He also got to feed some goats and sheep.

This was the petting zoo area at Bear World. Danny was trying to make Ethan pet the goat. Long story short: Ethan cried.

Here's feeding time at Bear World for the little baby bears. Right after this, we went over to the little kiddie rides, where Ethan got to ride his first amusement park ride. It was a group of 4 huge bears that you sit inside and it's kinda like the tea cups at disney, where you spin the wheel in the middle as the ride spins. Though, Danny didn't spin the wheel because we weren't too sure how Ethan would handle it. His face was blank after getting off. Then he said "Take me to six flags next time!"

When we left Bear world, this is what we saw in the parking lot. Dogs driving a vw bus. I couldn't get my camera fast enough, but when we first saw it, one was in the drivers seat and one in the passenger seat looking straight out the front window.

I had to put this pic in just for my dad. I know he'd get a kick out of it. At the zoo, there was an australian region and these were the bathrooms. Or, Dunnies. I didn't get the guys side, but it said "Blokes". There dad, Blokes and sheilas.

Idaho Falls

2008-06-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

Idaho Falls is beautiful. Last week we went on our family vacation to Yellowstone.
Danny and I went up a day early and stayed the night in Idaho Falls so we could
look around. We went to the falls, and you could see the temple beyond. It was
breathtaking.

Ethan's First Birthday

2008-06-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

We had Ethan's first birthday party on May 31st. We just had family over to Danny's parents house. We played some games, had lunch, cupcakes and a pinata. It was lots of fun to watch Ethan and how much he's grown. We even gave Ethan the bat and had him hit the pinata first. We'll have to include that video later when I download it onto the computer.

Here's Ethan playing with his balloons on his actual birthday. The party was the day before his birthday.

You can't see grandpa here, but Ethan is playing hide and seek with him behind the bar stool.

This picture was the day after his birthday. I came into the living room and he was staring out the screen door. I quietly went (crawled) out of the room behind the couch so he wouldn't see me so I could get the camera. Once he sees you, that's it, he wants you.

He'd just had a bath. We slipped some *Propecia in his milk, so hopefully that kinda mohawk will be a full on mohawk in a month. Just kidding.

*No babies were harmed in the making or consumption of Ethan's milk. By Propecia, we really mean Nestle Quick. Danny says it'll put hair on his chest, so it should put hair on his head.

This pic is from his actual birthday at Mica and Adams Son, Bridger's, baby blessing. The house we went to was beautiful and the grounds were breathtaking, so I thought I'd get some good shots of Ethan just crawling and playing around.

This was not staged. He's just a natural poser.

Here's the cupcake time. It was everything I hoped it would be. We didn't even have to smoosh it in his face. That chocolatey face is all his doing.

The end of this video is my favorite part!!

2008-05-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

TROUBLE AHEAD!

So innocent...........

.......... NOT!

This week, Ethan has really..emphasize on the really started to explore his new little world.

We began the week, by me making some chocolate chip cookies. I left them on the rather high kitchen counter to cool before putting them into a tupperware container. I went to clean the living room. Danny was in the kitchen on the computer and Ethan was playing on the floor behind him. I finished cleaning the living room and was on my way to clean the bedroom. Question:What room do I have to walk through to get to the bedroom?
Answer: The kitchen.

Question: Who was on the kitchen floor eating a chocolate chip cookie?

Answer:My little 11 month old.

Question: Danny, how did Ethan get a cookie?

Answer: What cookie?

Danny had no clue, but Ethan got onto his little tippy toes, reached onto the couter, grabbed a cookie and seconds later...Massive amounts of chocolate; On hands...inbetween fingers, in just cleaned hair, on freshly put on jammies. But those were the cutest brown teeth i'd ever seen.

What you don't see is the cookie underneath his bum and chocolate all over his backside.

So, then, 2 days later, I'm watching a movie in the living room. "Ethan, where are you?" You see, I realized I hadn't heard him in a while. Yeah, you parents know what I mean. That only means trouble. "Ethan?" Nothing. So, I start to explore the house. Where is he? Not in his room. Not in the kitchen. Not in the laundry room, where he likes to put his hands on the dryer when it's on. Not in the bathroom, although that, now is his favorite room in the house....eating toilet paper, putting his arms in the toilet......yuck...anyway, I make my way into our bedroom, and there he is, my sweet little boy, on the floor, playing in his can of formula, which is now not in the can, but on the carpet, and he's stuffing the dry formula in his mouth. Silence....a parent craves it sometimes....just some peace and quiet. But, when you do get it while your child is not asleep....BEWARE! TROUBLE AHEAD!

2008-04-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Price, Our new home.

There are many outdoorsy things to do in Price and the surrounding areas. Ethan and I went for a drive one day while danny was at work, and we went up a scenic byway. I took some pictures along the way. It's beautiful here, but our camera doesn't do it any justice. I tried, though. So here's some pictures:

It was a cloudy day, and about to rain, and this tree looked really cool against the clouds.

These were some bushes along the highway. They were a fiery red and really pretty.

This is what this entire area looks like.

We passed by all these deer. I have one picture that probably has about 20 of them in it, but it was really blurry. The deer were really close to the road.

THere is a new park called the "Dino Mine adventure park" The community came together and donated their time and money to complete this park. There were about $14, 000 volunteers and it took 2 days to complete. It's really fun and only a few blocks from our house. We like to take Ethan there. It reminds me of the Discovery park in Pleasant Grove by the PUrple Turtle.

He crawled through, only because he saw rocks on the other side he wanted to eat.

At the park again. Ethan loves it.

HE loves the swings. I promise. He doesn't look like it in this pic, but he does.

Here's his head poking out the hole of a rocket ship.

He took time away from his precious snacks, to look at me for one moment so I could get this cute picture.

No, he is not wearing makeup. WE're not that mean. Danny says he looks like he has lip gloss on.

The Littlest Monkey

2008-03-28T23:50:00.001-07:00

Oh, he looks so innocent, but you can see it in his eyes......he's a little monkey. The pajamas say it all!

So, I was doing some dishes and then I came back into the living room where Ethan was playing. Yeah, I knew he was a little too quiet.

He found his little snacks, opened the lid and dumped them ALL out on the floor and was stuffing them in his mouth. He was picking them up in one hand as he was stuffing them in his mouth with the other hand. Then he stood up next to me and gave me this smile. Hi Mom, I am totally a genius. Look at his top teeth. So cute.

This is Ethan playing in his big new room. He's getting better at playing with toys. He's starting to understand them.

Then there's this pic,
He got a hold of Danny's pen...........
And....well, tried to eat it.
It didn't quite work, as it is all over his cheek. I wonder what the
inside of his mouth looks like.

Here's some pics of our new house in Price. We moved the second week of March so we would be closer to work.

Here's our huge closet and our bedroom.

On the left is our kitchen, going into the living
room.

On the right is the extra half sized room. We use it for storage and for the pantry.

On the left is our kitchen from the living room

The doorway leads to the laundry and the hall on the right goes to the extra room, the bathroom and our bedroom.

On the right is another shot of the kitchen from the living room.

The left is from the front door into the living room. The door on the right is Ethans room.

The right is the living room with the doorway to the kitchen, and there's danny playing on the computer.

The left is the living room from Ethan's room and the right is Ethan's room closet.

Both of these are pics of ethan's room obviously

2008-03-06T10:33:00.001-08:00

ARIZONA

My sister and I went to Arizona for two weeks in February to help my mom after her surgery. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in November and had been doing intense chemotherapy from that time until the end of January, when she had to stop to build her immune system back up for surgery. She had a mastectomy along with reconstructive at the same time and then had all lymph nodes taken from under one arm. She is amazing. She has the most positive attitude and a love for life, where she just wants to get going. All the nurses at the hospital would hide out in her room from the patients they didn't like so much. She came home after a few days and we cared for her there. The doctors and nurses have all been amazed at her recovery. Before we left she was standing up and sitting down by herself, walking around, and climbing up and down the stairs(even though she shouldn't have) Naughty! But she is doing awesome!. Thanks to all of those who prayed and fasted on her behalf.
The following are some pictures that were taken while we were there.

Mum and Ethan the day after surgery.

Ethan's two teeth.

He looks like an impaired rockstar with my mom's wig on. That's some crazy hair for a 9 month old.

He fell asleep in my dad's rocking chair while my dad was rocking him.

Yummy remote...what you didn't know is that we traded it from those pink slippers you see.

Cuddling with Papa. What papa doesn't know is that is Ethan's gas face. Just Kidding.

Mom, I'm going to get you whether you like it or not.
This is Ethan coming full speed at me because he wants...no, not me, the camera!

I took him for a ride around the house in this laundry basket. He thought he was at disneyland.

2008-01-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

So, Ethan had his first Christmas and he had a lot of fun. Actually his gums were hurting him really bad that day, so he was a little sad, but for the most part he enjoyed hitting all of his presents. Yes, "hitting". We just handed him the present and he would whack it with his hand for ten minutes and then we would pull a little piece of the wrapping off and let him pull at it. Then he would use the piece of paper he tore off to aid him in still hitting the rest of the unwrapped present.

This is Ethan's favorite thing to do. We call it Superman. You try doing that all day long and see if you have abs of steel. You will. He's got little baby abs.

Here's Ethan at Christmas with his cousins. I think he needs to go to the tanning booth.

This was too cute. I couldn't resist taking a picture. What you don't see is the big puddle of drool on Danny's shirt.

Ethan's a gangsta' at heart. WEST SIDE!!!

Mom, if you take one more picture..............

This one's going out to all the ladies. Yeah, you know who you are. Call me.

He's only seven months old, but he loves the camera. And he knows what to do when it's pointed at him.

He loves to play "hit daddy's face" and then laugh.

This is Ethan trying to wiggle away from getting his pajamas on. I think it took Danny 20 minutes to actually get them on. Sometimes we just give up and he just rolls around naked until he calms down.

2007-12-06T16:28:00.001-08:00

So Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Ethan and I went to Arizona to visit my parents for a week. It was lovely 80 degree weather the whole time. We were watching the news one night and the weather person said: "Temperatures next week will be in the mid seventies. Looks like winter is upon us." And then I had to laugh. That is not winter weather! It's summer all year!

Here's Ethan playing with mom's turkey "Mr. Gobbles"

This is his attempt at holding his own bottle. There's a hole on the bottom that he grasps and pushes it into his mouth.

We went to the swap meet in Mesa and I couldn't resist this picture opportunity.

I put Ethan on the floor in a sitting position and he went immediately down to suck on his feet. Then he looked up at me.

After his foot sucking demonstration, he sat straight up and posed for the camera. 20 seconds later he fell over.

Ethan wanted to try on my dad's cowboy hat.

So, I was taking random pictures one night, and he made this face. And it looks like he has two teeth and he wants to fight, but the light was reflecting off the drool on his gums......and he does really want to fight. I wouldn't mess!

He's a poser, what can I say?

Ethan's first real snow!!!!

Mom, I'm blind from the flashing. Please stop.

Ethan and Danny by the humongous tree.

Halloween

2007-11-09T19:20:00.000-08:00

Ethan's First Halloween

Don't mind the lady on the right. She was helping hold Ethan up in his little kissing booth.

So, Ethan is a monkey. He also is a monkey that likes to poke out his tongue.

I took him to Saratoga Springs, where my sister's kids were having a Halloween carnival. Ethan had fun looking at all of the people. He's not much into candy yet, but I bet he will be next year.

Ethan said he wanted to sit in the graveyard. No, he really did! He said, "Mom, I would really love it if you put me in the graveyard right now."

This is our front yard . The wind kept knocking it down, so we had to put it back up like 5 times.

This is a little set up we had on the right of the front door. There is a blacklight behind it, so it would make the white things really pop out, especially the mice.

We had this on the left side of the door. The head in the ball moved around and spoke to you. The lamp also had flickering candlelight.

The Ethanator

2007-10-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Danny has been working for my sister and brother-in-law, installing satellites for DirecTV. It is has been really nice, because he was previously working two jobs starting at 8 am and finishing no earlier than 11 pm, sometimes working until 2 am. We were just making ends meet, with just having the baby and Rachel no longer working. It definitely was a change for us. But this job has been a blessing. Not only is Danny making almost double what he was making at both jobs, he is also getting home much, much earlier, and sometimes doesn't have to leave very early. He is working mostly in Price, UT, and we are planning to move there sometime within the next few months. It will save a few hours a day and also lots of money in the ever rising gas prices. Rachel is at home with Ethan, and also helps Danny do his office work. Ethan is cuter than ever. He has been biting everything. If something is near his mouth, it automatically opens and his head goes toward the object. It's to the point where we have to start actually making sure there isn't anything on the floor. Somehow he picked up a carpet fuzzy off the floor the other day and we found it in between his fingers and he was stuffing his fist in his mouth. It was pretty gross and scary at the same time.

He likes the blankets the best to stuff in his mouth because he can grab them better.

He is trying to bite his ear. J/K but this is the funniest face I have ever seen.
I'm guessing he likes frog legs.