things…..good things……..

This week, Tuesday November 16th, Ethan took his first steps! He was just 11 months and one day old.  What a big boy! He can take 4-5 steps on his own, balancing himself and loves it. We have a feeling that as soon as he figures out walking, he’ll be running and then we’ll be in trouble. He has a very cute obsession with Daddy right now. Last week I asked Jared to do an early morning feeding with Ethan so I could snooze in bed. That totally backfired on me because when Ethan saw Daddy he was ready to party and not interested in eating or sleeping anymore. I  rarely ask for helping during the sleeping hours, but I certainly won’t ask for help again!

Bryce on the other hand is being a big “Mama’s boy” right now. He is into everything, on top of everything, and some how ends up with some sort of head injury at least every 2 days. His face looks like a Crayola crayon picture sometimes. It’s nice that he is a happy, funny little guy. He loves to dance and tease. And cheer for his siblings. It is like he wants to be a big boy and not listen to me, be independent; however, at the same time he still wants to be held, snuggled, and always in sight of me.

And for an update on our sweet Hope. She calls herself the “little Mommy” and that I am the “big Mommy”. And she lets me know when I am needed, and when the “little Mommy” can take care of something.  She is the only one of the children that actually understands what a rule is and follows them (ok, most of the time) but loves to enforce them on others (mostly Bryce). Thank heaven’s for girls, because I often feel like “The little Red Hen”, and Hope is really stepping up to put in her share of helping.  She has always been socially reserved with people other then family and now is starting to open up and introduce herself and play with others her age. Our preschool group has been a good experience for her.

Goodbye October, Hello November.

It is great to end each year with fun holidays. We had a safe, and fun Halloween. We enjoyed a night of Trunk or Treat with the Formans at the Colfax ward. Hope was one of the kids voted for “cutest costume” although every kid there was adorable. Sunday morning I decided that we should finally carve a few pumpkins. Daddy was at a meeting and Ethan was asleep so Hope, Bryce and I attempted it. I cut my hand within 30 seconds trying to cut the top off. After I came back from getting it bandaged Hope said, “Mommy, I think that we should wait for Daddy. He is better at cutting pumpkins.” Turns out Daddy is awesome at carving pumpkins. We had the pumpkins hollowed out by the time Daddy came home and he did a great job carving out Jack-o-lantern faces on them. That was the first time in our marriage that we had ever carved pumpkins together so I didn’t know he was so good at it. So now we have bags of candy that we don’t know what to do with. I am the mean Mom who doesn’t want the kids to eat it all, doesn’t want to waste it by throwing it away, and is just not sure what to do. Perhaps they’ll forget about it being in the cupboard.

A visit to Bishops Farm

I have been wanting to take the kids to the pumpkin patch. However taking them on such an outing is a lot like having a shot. It is good to do it but usually you have to talk yourself into it and sometimes squirm during it. But usually it isn’t as bad as you think it is going to be. It is getting easier to take all three kids places, but it still takes a lot of energy. So with just a few days until the farm closes for fall we finally made it. Grandma Christensen has cousin Avery staying with her this week so we invited them to come along, too. Bryce still isn’t exactly back to himself, but the weather was good and he so loves being out and being social.  

What do two years old need to have fun but just a plain pole?

Porko Arena. For the Mother Goose story and pig show.

Bryce is better

Sunday morning playing with Daddy. It’s the best.

Bryce finished his last dose of antibiotics last night and is much better. He is still coughing, which I guess might last another week or so, but no more fever and lifeless boy. What a blessing from Heavenly Father for modern medicine and his recovery! A hundred years ago we would have lost our little boy from such an illness. It made for a stressful, tiresome week. Especially with Hope’s bed butting up to Bryce’s and her being woken up so much at night. That was not pretty. One day Hope was such a wreck that I had to call Grandma and ask for a sleepover. Thankfully Grandma Forman could help us out and Hope slept on the way up to Grandma’s house. Slept in the next morning. Took another nap. And then went to bed on time back at home. Last night, for the first time in a week, our whole family slept well. :)

Well, the word is getting out that we are no longer building a house and instead have decided to buy one somewhere close by with a yard.  Things are in the works and we are excited and hopeful that within a few months we will have some more space. Nothing has been finalized yet, so we are trying to be patient, but Mommy is really holding herself back from breaking out boxes and just packing things up so that we ready at any time!

Been up since 3am

These are some pictures I tood on my phone so they are a bit fuzzy. Ethan is all over the place. I was talking to Hope and turned around to find Ethan in the toy box. I don't know how he climbed in there. He did it again with the basket of books. And then about nose dived into the flour bucket. Mommy and Daddy are running on adrenaline at this house. Our Brycie-boy has pnuemonia. We have been up since 3am this morning. He began a fever and coughing on Friday that would not go away. The cough kept getting worse and the fever was constantly spiking up and down. I took him to the Doctor on Tuesday and they said wait a few days. But by Wednesday morning I knew that he was getting worse so I called and was so let down to find out that the Pediatrician doesn't work on Wednesdays. I left a message for her and by noon her nurse had called and a chest x-ray was ordered. Then at 4pm the Doctor called from home and electronially submitted an antibiotic and gave me instructions. Thank Heavens for a Doctor that cares! I should have asked more questions from her because even though the fever has lessoned he hasn't slept since sometime in the 2 o'clock hour and has been coughing extensively to the point of gagging. I guess it is good that I can't really get him to eat because he doesn't have anything to throw up. I hope that we start to see improvement today because I am so anxious to have our boundingly active boy back. Thank heavens Hope was able to spend the night at Grandma's and Grandpa's so I know at least she got a good nights sleep. (she has not enjoyed being woken up multiple times a night by sick-boys coughing)

Fun

Daddy and Ethan at Christian’s birthday party. Tongue sticking out is Ethan’s signature. As always Aunt Rachel put on quite a spread. :) It was fun.

So I was up with Bryce calling for me at 4:30 in the morning because he has a little virus. He woke Hope up and as I was trying to get them settled Hope sat up, began pulling at her nightgown and said, “Mommy, I am all itchy from church!” And she was not happy about it. I think she has Mommy’s nighttime discussion delusion where sleepiness causes unusual things to come out of your mouth.

Ethan is 10 months old!

Sweet Ethan at just one month being cuddled by his beautiful sister who has undying love for him.

I have not been able to figure out how to fix the settings on my camera since the Train Conductor at the Zoo changed them and now all inside pictures look really bright. Oh well. Little Ethan is getting so big. At this point exactly in Bryce’s development we began to have complications that caused his weight to plummet on the growth curve, and I also unexpectedly found out I was pregnant. It was such a stressful, challenging time. I am so grateful that even though Mommy struggled with the pregnancy that Ethan has been completely healthy. He is still following his growth curve which is such a blessing and relief! He has four teeth, two on bottom and the top two and just pushing through. He LOVES stairs, and is a busy body! He can stand on his own and scoot around furniture and will be off and running as soon as he learns to walk. His is social and always greets people with a smile. The other day a lady at the grocery store enjoyed one of his grins and said that was enough to make her day.  He is absolutely sweet and wonderful. 

Come on Mommy! Give me some milk! Poor baby. I was trying to figure out how to change the camera settings so the the color looked right.

Weekend for two……

Thursday, September 30th -Sunday, October 3rd

Jared and I were able to take a weekend trip together to Northstar, Tahoe. It was wonderful. We weren’t sure what to do the first two days and were constantly going. We were hiking the hill by 8am Friday. The bonus was that we had the mountain and lake we hiked to by ourselves. It was so peaceful. I savor quiet moments. The first two days we couldn’t figure out how to relax and were constantly going. By Saturday we were finally getting into the vacation and we watched a mid-day movie in bed, took a nap, just sat together outside and chatted, and even went to a restaurant just for dessert. We never do any of those things! By the time Sunday hit we were more then ready to see our beautiful children and we felt revived! There is nothing better then being married to your best friend and getting to spend a little bit of un-interrupted time together. 

just playing

Just playing at the park. The kids are still in pjs because it was 100 degrees today and so we went right after breakfast. In fact, only Bryce had shoes on. Casual Tuesday.

Big 27 & 9 months

September 15th Daddy turned 27 and Ethan turned 9 months. Hooray for our boys! We love our Daddy and Ethan boy! And this last week Ethan started sleeping all the way through the night. Yippee!

dream a little dream for me……….

One day.

Daddy’s new office

Well it has been a lot of work but the awesome company Daddy works for, GFBB Benefits, is moved into it’s new office. Daddy put in long hours and lots of work into the move and we are so proud of what he has accomplished for the company. This is his new personal office. But the best part about it is Daddy’s new commute is just 10 minutes from home! 

sickness….a tender mercy

Today for the first time in months….literally months…..I had a real nap. The kind that you sleep until you want to get up, not the one where you doze off and are abruptly and prematurely awakened by crying. It was so great. No, it was awesome! Better then chocolates or flowers. Hope started school this week and Bryce came down with a little virus all at the same time. So today, right now actually, is the first time in a week that I actually got all the kids to nap at the same time. A few days no one would nap and yet all were crabby. And as life usually goes Hope, Ethan and I came down with the sickness yesterday.  And as a tender mercy to sickness….I am not doing anything today! Thankfully Jared had Golfing scheduled for this morning and was an angel to cancel that and watch the kids so I could take a 2 hour morning nap. And all I had to do was just get sick. Forget winning the lottery, I’d rather get a nap! and maybe a visit from the laundry fairy! Now, I don’t enjoy sickness enough that I am going to start licking sick kids spoons after they eat applesauce, but it sure has been nice to stay in pjs, not do dishes or clean, and enjoy a little slice of the daily pampering that I give others. :)

Hope feeding Ethan for me. I am sure they enjoyed playing Picasso with the high chair more then eating anything. But she sure is a dolly to help me.

Ethan’s favorite toy. The stairs. We don’t buy anything for the poor lad. And as such a sweetheart he doesn’t even care. He is just happy to see and be with us.

First day of Joy School

Tuesday was Hope’s first day of Joy School.  After much worry and thought regarding which preschool was right,  Joy School just fell into our laps. And I feel really good about the fun curriculum and about Hope’s age and classmates. She was so excited and had such a great first class. She told everyone that her favorite color was pink and that her favorite food was cherry tomatoes. Hopefully the rest of the year is as fun as every keeps telling us Joy School is. :)