Happy New Year!

Well, it's that time of year to start making some New Years Resolutions so here are a few of my own personal resolutions:

-healthy meals
-continue to work out
-keep up with E's "learning time"
-take E to story time, more library time
-keep a balance between YW and family
-my home projects

A lot of resolutions or New Year projects are all about diets and getting organized. I guess this has been my year to do that. We bought our house this year and it's amazing how organized you can get with a new house. It's taken little by little, small project by small project, but our house is pretty organized. I've got our house cleanings down to a science so it's usually pretty clean. Don't get me wrong, it takes a ton of work, but our house is clean and organized. I also took this year to lose all my baby weight. It's nice to start this new year with my goal accomplished and now I'm just trying to maintain it. This year will probably just be a juggle of keeping everything going. Balance staying healthy, being a mom, a traveling husband, YW, keeping house, cooking, and chasing and teaching a very active little boy. Easier said than done. Good luck with 2008!!!

The Nursing School Years

I was just thinking back on those good ole' days of nursing school today. I have no idea why, but I was and all the fabulous things that went on then. I remember it being so stinking hard and studying all the time. You have to know that at BYU (and most schools) the major is predominately female, not only that, but over-achieving females. That in itself led to some pretty funny situations during nursing school. So for all my nursing school friends here are some of my classic BYU Nursing School memories.
-Barbie and I making up our "nursing school song"
-the day I passed out, hit my head on the wall, and had a doctor catch me (so embarrassing!!)
-working in the Neuro ICU with Kim
-all our nursing labs where we learned all our sweet skills on each other like shots, IVs, drawing blood, NG tubes, physical exams, blood pressures, etc.
-studying my brains out!
-writing a ton of papers, journals, patient summaries, course summaries, research reports, blah blah
-the day my Nursing preceptor made me cry in L&D, that was awful (I've gotten a thick skin since then)
-my patient that had triplets
-the Burn Unit at the U of U
-all the funny (and scary) stories from the State Mental Hospital and the day we did the Schizophrenia exercise, that was so scary!
-my Capstone clinical at Shriner's Hospital, those kids were so stinkin' cute!
-driving the many hours to and from clinical, so early in the morning and late at night!
-my favorite clinical instructor, Ron!
-Graduation Day, when the Dean of the Nursing school read my
Essay for her graduation address
-taking care of all those cute (and sometimes mean) old people at the nursing home
-working with Barbie at Crestview
-hating that you were totally waking up your poor post op patient at 7 am because your clinical instructor always wanted you to be "doing something" for your patient. I remember trying to hide from my instructor or trying to act busy because my patient told me to leave him alone and let him sleep
-eating really good lunches with the drug reps
-wearing the "Sympathy Belly" in our L&D lab, that was funny!
-staying at my Aunt's house on the nights before clinical so I could get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep
-the first baby that I watched be born
-the first person I watched die
-Nursing conferences
-giving flu shots
-communication lab-all the crazy scenarios we had to talk ourselves out of
-the day my nurse had to catch a baby by herself
-learning A LOT!!!
So that's just a few of the crazy memories from nursing school. There is so much more to tell, but a lot of it is just too long, too boring for you, or too gross to post. Sorry, if you really want to know, just ask me. I'm full of great stories. So to all my blogging/nursing buddies, I hope you enjoyed this blast from the past. This picture is of me with a few of my friends working on SAM our automated patient. It was always fun to work on him. He had pulses, a heart beat, breathed, blinked, and he could be programmed to do all sorts of scenarios. Unfortunately at the point that this picture was taken, we were losing him and Kim was doing CPR. I think that Barbie can attest to this one, that people don't look this happy and laid back in a real code. But we were just naive little nursing students back then. Those little smirks were wiped right off the minute we had RN stamped next to our names. Those days were filled with so much stress, hard work, and so much fun all at the same time. I am so grateful for all the preparation it gave me to be a great nurse and now a great mom.

It Once Was Lost, But Now It's Found

E's "blankey" that is. Last Tuesday night I went to put Ethan to bed and I couldn't find his special "blankey" anywhere. I thought it was so weird that it wasn't on his bed and I looked around for a little bit, but he was so tired that I put him to bed without it and began to search. It was no where to be found so I went to bed and hoped it would surface the next day. I looked and looked everywhere and still no "blankey." We had been running and chasing the past few days so we began to retrace our steps. The funny thing is that I don't let him take it anywhere so I knew it had to be at our house. But just in case, I called the car wash, the eye doctor, all the stores we went to, and Aunt Amy's. No "blankey." Well, on Thursday we went down to my mom's to spend the day with her and then E was going to spend the night so I could go to a Christmas party and go to my last boot camp the next morning since Ry was taking the GMAT. I knew I had to have his "blankey" for him so it would be a little easier on my mom to get him to bed. I decided to try and trick him and buy a similar one at Target and then have my mom give it to him as if he had forgotten it at her house. The minute he grabbed the blanket he sniffed it and handed it back to her and said, "Baby blankey." The kid recognized the fake through smell?! Are you kidding me? It wasn't his "blankey" but he did like it as a replacement. So days went by and still no blankey. I have to say that I was even getting a little sad over it too. I just started thinking about the fact that he's had this blanket for 2 years now and how much he's loved it. His Aunt Suzy made it especially for him and it has been on all our trips, it has been next to him at every bedtime and nap time, and this little symbol of his babyhood is gone. How sad. Finally on Sunday as I was making Sunday dinner, E was messing around in the kitchen and all of sudden his blue "blankey" was in his hand! I have this very thin cupboard next to my dishwasher that holds my big serving trays and breakfast trays (so I rarely get in there). Well, he had slipped his "blankey" in there and pushed it to the back so when I looked for his it, I couldn't see it. Tricky tricky. So E is reunited with "blankey" again and the replacement has been put away for safe keeping in case we ever have this happen again.

Christmas Festivties

It's been a very busy time in our little household lately so it's been good to have the holidays to take some time off and be together. So here is what went on for our Christmas celebrations.

Christmas Eve:

Ever since I was little my mom would always have us help clean the house to get it "ready for Santa" (smart thinking Mom). So Ryan and Ethan helped me get the house ready for Santa even though we weren't actually doing Christmas at our house. It just makes everything nice to put all our new things away when the house is clean. That night we went to Ry's Aunt and Uncle's house for the big family Christmas Eve party. They had all the kids dress up and act out the nativity. Ethan and his buddies/cousins Matthew and Jack were the Wise Men. (Ethan is the one in the gray shirt)
I don't think it was the best idea to put the youngest boys at the very end of the program. By the time it got to their part, Ethan almost ripped his crown, he was wandering around wondering where all the kids went, and wasn't able to follow any directions. Maybe next year he could be a "lost sheep" or something.
Later that night we said good bye to everyone and drove down to my parent's house to spend the night with them. By then it was almost 10 and he was running on all cylindars! He was excited about being at Nanny's and that he got to play with his cousins, and there was excitment in the air and he just didn't know why and don't let those blue eyes fool you!

He didn't get to sleep until 11 that night and Ry ended up falling asleep with him. So Mom was the one to be sure that Santa knew where to put everything.

Christmas Day:

Christmas Day started at 6:30. Can you believe that the kid went to see at 11 and he still woke up at 6:30?! I don't think Ethan has ever slept past 7:30 since he's been born, that's not even a joke. Anyway...Ethan came down to find that Santa had left him quite a batch of presents!

He must have been a good boy this year. Santa brought him a new tool bench along with a big set of tools. He also got some new movies, pjs, and sweatshirts. Ethan was so excited to play with his new stuff! He got an easel with a chalkboard and paper roll from his Grandma Cheryl and he would go back and forth from his tool bench to the chalkboard all morning. He would even scribble on there and tell us what it was. He would draw a "hairplane" (airplane), "kitty", and "pack pack" (backpack). He even thought the paint holders were sippy cup holders.


So we spent the morning playing with toys and then opened presents. My parents got us our Christmas tree and decorations and we also got some gift cards so we can go on a date! Yeah! Ethan got a sweet bean bag chair from Nanny so we can sit and read books together and he can have his own seat in the family room now. Nanny also got him a new BYU sweatshirt and a new cash register equipped with a scanner and credit card swiper (his favorite).

Grandma Cheryl got him a collection of childhood books on DVD. It's like an entire library on DVD and he loves to sit in his bean bag chair with a cup of juice and watch. So cute! Mommy picked up Hi Ho Cherry-o for his new game. He couldn't wait to play! He has to still learn when it's his turn and what exactly to do with the cherries, but he loves to count them. So it was a great Christmas for everyone. Our Christmas came a little early since we ordered a new home computer and it came a couple days ago. Our old computer was on its last leg and was basically useless. It was my old one from college so needless to say it is slightly old and out of date and was put to good use. So I am very excited to be off the lap top and now have a fun new toy to play with. At 11 my brother called! He's on his mission in Tempe, AZ and he only has 5 months left! It was so good to talk to him and he's doing really well. I can't wait until he comes home! Randall's call was the best Christmas gift for everyone! After his call we made our classic Christmas Day dinner, steak and shrimp! Yum! It was perfect! After dinner, we put Ethan down for a nice little nap so we could play games and watch movies. When he woke up we let him play a little longer and then we had to pack up to go. That was a nightmare for Ethan. The poor kid thought we were taking all his toys away. He had no concept that we were putting them in the car to take them hom and no matter what I told him, he just wanted his toys back. I felt awful! But once he was in the car, surrounded by his toys, he was fine. We drove back up to Ry's Aunt and Uncle's house to see Aaron who just got in from Australia. Ethan even got to hitch a ride on his cousin's new motorcycle. It was quite the site!

Well, I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I can't wait to hear all about it!

Ethans Favorite Christmas CD

Ryan's work had a white elephant gift exchange the other day and Ryan came home with a CD from Trans Siberian Orchestra. So the next day I stuck it in for Ethan and me to listen to while we ran errands. For those of you who are not familiar with Trans Siberian Orchestra, the CD is full of Christmas music set to electric guitar, synthesizers, and an orchestra. It's like a Heavy Metal Christmas or something. Well, Ethan LOVES it! I'm telling you! He even knows which number he likes so he'll tell me, "Momma, more song 4, more song 4." And then he'll say, "Momma, I want song 8." He always wants more and I think I listened to the Wizard in Winter song for 30 minutes straight. Who thought that it would be a kids favorite? Only Ethan!

Who Would Have Thought?

I just received a wonderful little parcel in the mail from a giveaway that I won a little while ago. I won a Pocket Snails Potty Training DVD from A Mom's Review. I stuck it into the DVD player the other day to see if E would watch it and went about the kitchen making a little dinner. I look up over the sink to see Ethan totally enthralled at the TV! He seriously didn't move for at least 20 minutes, and you all know how big that is! Sometimes I almost have to beg him to sit and watch a little TV so I can have a moment to get stuff done. For whatever reason, the singing snails and dancing potty chairs just sparked his interest. He's been doing a little bit of potty training here and there, but we're not really going all the way with it right now. I don't quite think he's ready yet, but he's doing really good. We'll see if the DVD helps in other arenas besides entertainment.

Work Christmas Party

Last night was Ry's work Christmas party so we were able to have his mom watch the E man for us so we could go. They had a charicature artist there so we ended up having ours done. I think it looks a lot like Ry, but I'm no so sure about the whole mall thing. I'm Mrs. Frugal, not Mrs. Charge it! Anyway...it was funny. The party was fun since a lot of the wives there are my friends so we had some great girl chat. It was a good night out!

Just An Update

It's seems like I've been blogging in spurts these days. I'll go like a week without blogging and then I'll end up doing 2 posts in a day. Life is just a little crazy right now. Well, I think everyone's life is crazy right now. Anyway...here is just an update with what happened to our furnace. Our heat is finally fixed (for now). I hope I don't jinx myself there. We ended up going 2 weeks without heat! Ah! It broke on Thanksgiving day, we called to get it fixed and they couldn't see us till Tuesday so we froze until Tuesday. On Tuesday the guy came to look at it and couldn't find anything wrong with it. He just reset the systme and it worked fine...for about 5 hours. It was out before I even went to bed! I called the furance people back and they couldn't see us until Friday (the day of my ornament party). Well, when he came out he took a look at it and said that it needed a new computer board and he would order the parts. So I said, "what am I supposed to do until then?" He told me he changed the fuse and we'll just have to wait 3-4 days until the parts came in. By the time my party came around, the furnace was down again. So I didn't ahve heat or A/C and with 25 people in my house, it got awfully toasty! So we went without heat until that Tuesday and finally the owner of the furnace company came out. He thought it was a problem with the sensors so he did a few things to help it work for awhile and told me he'd be back to replace the sensors the next day. The heater went out again that night and luckily he was coming back to replace the sensors. The sensors were replaced and we had heat that whole day, but of course in the night it went out!!! So you have to understand this is now Wednesday of the next week and our house was getting down to 65-67 degrees at night. Thank goodness it was somewhat on the warmer side that week. Wednesday night I was at my wits end with this whole thing! I was tired of waking up with a sore throat, I was tired of having Ethan sleep in my bed to keep warm, and I was tired of having to stay home to let in the furnace man! So 2 weeks from the day it went out, my favorite furnace man came and found out what the problem was. I guess the outside panel would defrost the coils and the water was getting on the wires and causing it to short. Finally, some answers! So now we have heat and life is better! Yeah! Man that was frustrating! I'm just glad everything was under warranty and that it wasn't a bigger problem. Sorry for the long, boring post.

My Christmas Decor

Yeah! I actually have Christmas Decor!!!! Can you tell how happy I am? Apartment living doesn't really lend to very fun Christmas decor so we never bought a tree 1. because we didn't have anywhere to put it 2. we didn't have anywhere to store it and 3. because we always went out of town for 2 weeks for the holidays. Now we're in a house and live around family so we plenty of room to have a little Christmas in our home. So this is what it looks like. My parents bought us our artificial Christmas tree as our big gift this year. I am so excited about it. Ry and I decorated it with all our little childhood ornaments along with some red, gold, and silver ball ornaments. I think it turned out pretty good. I also found some cute berry picks on sale at Michael's on "Black Friday" so I picked up a bunch of those. I found a lot of good deals while I was out on "Black Friday." My stockings and tree skirt all match and they were all an extra 25% off at Garden Ridge (great place for Christmas stuff). I picked up a couple garlands and my ball ornaments and called it good. Not too much. I figured I'll just add a little bit every year. Oh, and I also filled my hurricane vase with some really cute red and green ornaments. So this is the finished product.

Oh, and I have to tell you about the free CD that I got in the mail, I mentioned it a few posts earlier. I got the Michael W. Smith CD in the mail and I listened to it while I put up my Christmas decor and also on my way down to watch the Mavs game on Monday. This CD was great! I especially love the orchestral parts. This CD is more of a worship type Christmas CD than the "Pop" type Christmas stuff that you hear on the radio all the time these days. I like that it's more Christ centered. Believe it or not, he's actually going to be doing a performance in Dallas tomorrow, Dec 4 and Wednesday Dec 5 so if you're in the area grab some tickets! You won't be disappointed!

Weight Loss Results-Bootcamp Week 11

Well, it's official, I have lost enough weight to reach my "goal weight"!!! I've actually done it! Now with 3 weeks of boot camp left I can get to my "ultimate weight" during the holidays and be ready to start the New Year off with a bang. It's so nice to not feel like I have a big hurdle to jump over this New Year. So during the entire year of 2007 I have lost 20 pounds! I can't believe I actually had that much to lose (I'm actually embarrassed to say it), but that's what a baby does to you and it was obvious when you saw me. So here's to 3 more weeks of busting my butt and then on to keeping up with my healthy lifestyle and exercise.

Latest Wins

I won two giveaways this past month that I'm really excited about. I won E a Time Out Spot from Classy Mommy's Baby Shower. It came in the mail last week and I'm so excited to try it out on the E-meister. I also won a book of stamps from Phobia Mom's Blog.

This will be perfect for sending out all those wonderful Christmas cards that I have piled up on my desk. With all the stuff going on, I haven't had a chance to sit down and address them yet so that is what I'll be doing this week. Thank you Classy Mommy, Time Out Spots, and Phobia Mom!!!

My New Decor

I've done a few things with my house the past few days. Back when I was in Utah, I bought a really cute rod from Rod Works and shipped it home to myself. I just had to wait to get our family pictures done and ordered before I could hang everything up. Well, all the pictures are in and framed so I was able to hang them up with a little help from my family. I've been looking for something to put in our family room for a long time and this just adds great color and some much needed family pictures on our wall. I also got a storyboard to go above my piano that says "Live, Laugh, Love" and I think Toni captured that perfectly in the pictures that we chose.

We Have Peas!

As most of you know, I was the Personal Progress Advisor for YW since August (now I'm 1st Counselor). Well, for the month of September our focus was on Faith. I taught a little Personal Progress Spotlight about how our Faith is like a seed just like it talks about in Alma. So I packaged up some seeds for each girl and helped kick start one of their faith projects that they could work on. I'm also trying to get my medallion with the girls since I got my medallion with the old program. So I did my 10 hour project of planting a seed and taking care of it in a garden, then liken it to my faith. So my seeds have been growing and now we actually have little pea pods in my garden! They look great and I've noticed that my actual faith seeds have been growing as well. I just have to say how much I love my little garden and all the little lessons it teaches us.

Girls Night Out Ornament Exchange 2007

Well, last night was the big ornament exchange that I hosted. I really wanted to get a mixed group from church, family, friends, bootcamp, etc. So I ended up sending out a big Evite out and we ended up having a pretty good turnout. I had about 25 girls come for the event and it was so much fun! Lots of good food, games, lots of socializing, and of course ornaments! I think the girls were a little too nice to each other because we didn't have a whole lot of stealing going on. We've got to spice things up a little more next year. Well, it was just nice to be able to hang out with lots of different people and enjoy a night out without the kiddos. The party started at 7 and we ended at 11:30 when Ryan came home with Ethan and crashed the party. Well, here is the ornament that I wrapped up for the exchange. I liked it so much, I had to go back to Hobby Lobby and get one for myself. Is that bad?

Miracle Of The Chili and Continuation of "Life Comes At you Fast"

So Tuesday started out pretty bad. My furnace was still out (it had been out since Friday) and the furnace people couldn't get to us until Tuesday. So of course I had all my visiting teaching appointment set up for Tuesday from 10-12 and that's exactly when they wanted to come. So bless my companion, she went ahead without me. The furnace guy came and couldn't find anything wrong with our furnace so he reset the system and it started working again. That night I had the sister missionaries coming over for dinner and they also brought along a family of 3 that they're teaching. I made the Turkey Chili that was a big hit at the Chili party that I had on Halloween. Well, the recipe was supposed to make enough for 8 servings so I figured I would have just enough to feed the 6 adults and 2 children that I had coming. Well, we were sitting through dinner and every person there had at least 2 bowls (except for the poor boot camp girl) and some people even had 3! I started to worry a little bit that I didn't have enough. Well, I got a phone call from one of my young women. Her mom has cancer and she just got out of surgery to remove the rest of her thyroid. Well, she asked if I could bring them a meal so I told her I would. As I did, I just kept thinking to myself, "How in the world am I going to do this?" I have YW on Wednesday night that I'm in charge of, I'm cleaning my house from top to bottom on Thursday for my big ornament exchange, and then I have my party on Friday. How was I going to have time to make up another meal when I wasn't even planning on cooking the rest of the week because of everything going on. Well, as I was cleaning up the chili and putting things away, I looked into the pot and to my surprise had plenty left over to take over to their family!!! Are you serious?! This pot of chili was only supposed to make 8 servings and it ended up making 16!!! This was truly a miracle! I packaged everything up and thought to put in an extra Tupperware of frozen chili that I had left over from the Halloween party. More about this miracle later. Well, Wednesday Ry left out of town and of course the furnace went out again. When I called in, they couldn't get me in until Friday! Are you kidding me? You took 4 days to get to me the first time, don't fix my furnace, and now I have to wait another 2 days! What the heck?! So we've spent our days in multiple layers. My mother-in-law called me and asked me if I would want her to come up and spend some time with Ethan so I could get some things ready for YW and for the party. Bless her!!! I was able to run my errands, make my mini quiches, make the wedding gifts for the upcoming wedding receptions, and wrap all the gifts for YW and the ornament exchange. When Ethan got up from his nap, he ended up sounding really congested and was super cranky. I was planning on taking him with me to YW that night since Ry was out of town, but my mother-in-law offered to stay with him so he wouldn't infect everyone. THANK YOU!!! Right before I left for my YW meeting, my little YW called asked me for a ride so it was perfect timing to bring over the meal that I had conjured up. When I got there I was so relieved that I brought that extra chili since her grandparents just got into town to help. What a wonderful miracle! I ended up being late to my meeting, but at least I was able to help someone out. My activity went well on Wednesday night. We ended up doing a "Christmas Family Tradition Show and Tell." All of the girls brought something to talk about and they all loved sharing their special family traditions. After that we did a "White Elephant Exchange" and the girls loved doing that too. We had each girl tell a silly fact about themselves before they opened their gift so the new presidency could get to know the girls a little better. All in all, the night turned out pretty good, especially since it had been planned in such short notice. Well, my mom came up that night to spend the night so I could go to boot camp in the morning so my day started very early yesterday. When I got back, Ethan was up and he didn't sound good at all so I hurried and got ready and took him to the doctor. So we've got some medicine on board now so he should be getting better soon. While I was gone, my mom started cleaning my house. The plan before was that we would both put in 2 hours and that would be like me cleaning for 4 hours by myself, but with E getting sick, the plans changed. Well, I had a dentist appointment after the doctor so I dropped him off and ran did that and picked up E's prescription. When I got home I got started cleaning with my mom. I just have to say my mom is amazing and she is the best mom on the planet! She totally rocked it out and helped me get my house in perfect order for the party. She left after lunch and Ethan then wreaked havoc. He started dumping out his toys and taking the toy bins and pushing them around the house so he could stand on them and get into things that he shouldn't. By the end up of the day I had so many items locked away in the laundry room: chairs, toys bins, potty chairs, a plunger, you get the idea. Ry got home late last night so it's good to have him back home. Tonight is the big ornament party that I'm hosting. It should be really fun and I'm really excited for it. I'll take lots of pictures. But in the meantime, here are some pictures of my little cooking helper. My mom got the apron and chef's hat for free when she bought the movie Ratatouille at Circuit City the other day. I think he looks so cute! This picture was when E was helping me make pies for Thanksgiving. He likes to stand on his toy bin and help cook.

Life Comes At You Fast

I haven't posted since Thanksgiving because life has just been crazy lately. I spent Black Friday hitting all the deals to get Christmas decorations for my house. This is my first year to decorate for Christmas because the past years we were always gone for the holidays and last year we were staying with my parents so there was no need to decorate. I'm actually glad that I waited this long to get my stuff because I'm able to get exactly what I want and what fits in my house. I will be taking pictures soon. My parents got us our Christmas tree as our big gift for both Ryan and I and they got us a sweet tree! It's one of those pre-lit trees that only has three sections that unfan like an umbrella so it's really easy set up. I love my tree! They came Friday afternoon to deliver it and to help me hang up the Rod Works bar that I bought while I was in Utah. My pictures from Toni came in so I was able to put my pictures and bar up and it turned out so cute. I will also be taking pictures of that soon.
Saturday we spent decorating the Christmas tree and spending time with Ry's family for his Dad's birthday. Then Sunday I got my new calling, 1st Counselor in the YW. I'm so excited to be able to stay in YW with the big changes that have been going on with the ward (we got a new bishop and they're changing out pretty much all the presidencies). I just love the girls. I'm also really excited to work with this new presidency, lots of great women!
Monday night my dad got some sweet tickets on the 6th row to the Mavs game. My sister-in-law, Amy, watched E for us and he stayed the night with her since I furnace was out since Friday (that's another story).

I started another boot camp on early Tuesday morning so my day started at 4:45 am and since I a few day last time with my bronchitis, it was hard to come back. I was so sore! Anyway...I have a lot more to talk about because this week has just been weird and crazy, but I want to write a separate post for this next thing that happened.

Pie Making Central!

Yes, it is "Pie Making Central" around here today! We're doing Thanksgiving with Ry's family this year and since I'm not having to make anything else except pies, I decided to put out all the stops. I'm making 3 pies this year: Deep Dish Caramel Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and my favorite Chocolate Whipped Pie. Last year I had such a hard time making my pie crusts from scratch. I did it all by hand and cut the butter in with a pastry cutter, but it just wouldn't hold right. I made about 4 batches and only 1 turned out. Kind of discouraging, but this year I have my brand new cuisinart that makes things 10 times better and easier! The blades cut the frozen butter into the flour evenly. It came together quite nicely and rolled out very well. I only made enough to do a bottom and top for my apple pie so I did the boxed crusts for the pumpkin and chocolate. I didn't want to waste my time making a ton of pie dough if it was just going to turn out bad. The recipes will all be on the recipe blog, Two Moms In The Kitchen so head over there to check them out. I'll post some pictures so you can check out my work. I hope they taste as good as they look!

Free Christmas Music from Michael W. Smith

I just found out that the first 150 bloggers to request a CD can get a free Christmas album from Michael W. Smith. Once you get the CD you have to listen to it while putting up your Christmas decorations, blog about your experience, and post the banner. That's it! So hurry because it's only the first 150 people. Go get some great Christmas music, I can't wait to get mine!!!

Once My Best Friend, Now My Worst Enemy

As many of you know, my child is what we call a "MacGyver." He can get out of anything in a matter of seconds. He climbed out of his crib when he was about 18 months and he could get out by the time I turned my back and shut the door to his room. Once the door was shut, I could hear him knocking on the door. What the heck? He's been able to open my mom's doors since he was able to walk and pull the handle (11 months) and he's been able to open the knob doors ever since he was 19 months. Last month he learned how to undo our deadbolts (on both our door and glass door) and now we've reached the limit...he's learned how to do the knob covers!!! He's been in his big boy bed for about 3 months now and we put a knob cover on the inside knob of his room so he couldn't get out or else he'd just escape every time we'd put him down. For the past 3 mornings I have woken up to him standing next to my side of the bed and saying, "Mama wate up." He used to just stand by his door and knock on it until I came to get him. Last night was a huge pain to put him to bed because he kept opening the door and running out. I hate getting frustrated with him and being so stern with him, but it happens. What am I going to do now? Am I going to have to reverse the doorknobs so I can lock him in? Do you have any tricks I could try? I'm going to buy some locks to go on our front and back door sthat go on the top of the door so he can't open them. Help me!

Our Weekend

As I said before, we were out watching our cousins while Uncle Joe and Aunt Steph were at Brad's wedding. The weekend didn't start out as planned when I got stuck on the freeway for 2 hours because a tanker truck overturned and exploded in the middle of the freeway. I got about 2 miles from home before I turned around at the next exit and tried to take the back way. Everyone else had the same idea so basically it took me 3 1/2 hours to get to their house when it should only take 20 minutes. Thankfully Ethan was asleep for most of the ride and I was totally stocked with drinks and snacks. Unfortunately we missed piano lessons, but what can you do? Well, Ethan found a great friend at Joe and Steph's...Dingo their Golden Doodle. Poor Dingo just had stomach surgery a few days before so he wasn't feeling too well while we were there but he just let Ethan pet him and play with him. I thought it was so funny when Ethan tried to take Dingo for a walk. Every time Ethan would grab the leash, Dingo would come take it out of his hands. It would totally frustrate Ethan and he would scold Dingo and then come cry to me that Dingo wouldn't let him have the leash. I was just cracking up. Here is a video of Ethan trying to walk Dingo and play with him. I just love it when Ethan tells Dingo to "sit." So funny.

We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's on Saturday night so that was very fun and the kids were so good about taking Ethan through the play place. I actually got to sit back a little and watch the fun. The only problem that I had the whole weekend was Ethan trying to escape! He could totally unlock all the deadbolts so I was constantly trying to keep an eye on him. If I would get up to get a drink of water and turn my back for a second, he would be gone. Then I'd spend 10 minutes just trying to look for him. I was so worried since they have a pool so of course I would always be looking over the pool to be sure he wasn't near there. For most of the time he would try to run outside and get on the trampoline. I had to pry him off there about 4 times! How did he even get up there in the first place?! So besides our little "escape artist," everything went really well and I think the kids had a good time.

I'll Be Out...

Okay, so I'm packing to head out to watch my husband's cousins while Uncle Joe and Aunt Steph are out for Brad's wedding. We watched their kids last year when they went to Switzerland so we're excited to go watch them again. So I'm going to be a mother of 5 (if you count the large dog that just had surgery). I'll have one in high school, one in junior high, and one in elementary school and my lovely toddler at home. Luckily I really don't have to "watch" them too much, I'm mostly a chauffer to all their activities. I'll be back on Monday.

Can I Get Some Sleep???

This is picture is about how I feel and have felt for the past 9 DAYS!!! It all started with a scratchy throat on Sunday and watery eyes. I totally thought I was just having an allergy spell with all the changing weather, but it didn't stop there. Then I started getting a really sore throat and congested. I couldn't sleep because one side of my nose would be completely blocked and then when I would turn over, the other side would be blocked. Plus with the sore throat, it would hurt so bad to swallow. So it went on like this for a few days and then it started going down into my chest. Every morning when I would wake up I would have to spend 10 minutes just blowing my nose and coughing to just get it all out (yuck, I know). Then I started getting that dry cough that always tickles your throat and makes you cough. It would get really bad at night and I couldn't stop coughing enough to fall asleep at night. I felt like I was fighting this tickle in my throat and it just wouldn't stop. So finally I got myself into the doctor and he said it's pretty much viral (duh! that's why I waited so long). Basically I have an upper respiratory infection and bronchitis. I got a steroid shot and some prescription decongestant and cough suppressant. I took all my medicine yesterday, but last night was the worst of all! I could not sleep because I kept coughing! I honestly slept 2 hours! I'm just hoping I can get some sleep soon!

Our Family Is Photo Of The Day!

Toni submitted some of her work to Go check out Pink Ink Studio and they chose our family picture as "Photo of the Day"!!! How exciting is that?

2 Year Check Up

E had his 2 year check up on Tuesday so we made the trek to the pediatrician. Here are his stats: Height- 34 1/4 inches and Weight- 29 lbs 6 oz and he was 50-75% across the board. Yeah E, he's progressing right on track. The doctor said that his verbal and motor skills are still advanced (great for him, not fun for me sometimes). The pedi said we can go ahead with the potty training if we would like since he is able to undress and verbalize the need to go to the bathroom so I think I'll just continue doing his "potty runs" at routine times, but I'm not going to push it until I see him really ready. He also has a little bit of a cough, but the Dr. said to let it run its course and he'll be fine in a few days. I'm not big on medication anyway if it's not really necessary. That's a whole other nurse's rant for another day. Anyway...E is doing great and he did fine with his flu shot. The poor kid screamed when he got it and when he was all done he kept saying, "Hold you, hold you" because he wanted me to hold him. Then once I was holding him, he kept saying, "hurt." After that he was back to his old self again. Thank goodness for a non drama child!

Latest Win

I just got this in the mail a couple weeks ago and I just haven't had the chance to post about it because of Halloween and Ethan's birthday. I recently won some Skip Hop Tableware thanks to the wonderful website, My Mom Shops! I picked the farm friends set since I really like the colors and the pattern. Well, when it came in the mail, E was super excited to open it. If you don't know already, the kid says the word "chicken" 25 times a day because he loves "Chicken Little." When he saw that there was a chicken (actually a rooster, but we won't tell him)on the plate he immediately fell in love and even took a nap with his new plate. I'm not even joking, the kid took the chicken plate to bed! Anyway...I love the tableware and E loves it even more! Thank you Skip Hop and My Mom Shops!!!

More Family Pictures

So they're in! Go to Toni's website, click on "client proofing" on the top. When it asks for the password, type in "Ryan and Brittany" and be sure to include the spaces and then you'll be able to see our session. Let me know which one we should use for our Christmas card and which one we should use for our big family portrait for our house. I love the picture of E covering his mouth and laughing, that is so him!

Christmas Giveaway 2007

Just so you guys know there is a great giveaway going on over at 5 Minutes for Mom. There will be a lot of fun things to win so go on over and check it out. I've added their button on my sidebar so you can just click on that.

Family Pictures

We went out on Saturday with Toni (who happens to be our cousin) from Urban Photo Studio to take our family pictures and Christmas card pictures. We went around our downtown area as well as a really cool bridge and wooded area. Go check out her blog to see a sneak peek of what we got. These are the first few off her camera so if they're this good now, I can't wait to see what else she got. You have to know that E wasn't too cooperative during the shoot. He just wanted to wander the sidewalks and not pose AT ALL. Thank goodness Toni is so patient and she was so good with E. I remember last year when we took our Christmas pictures at Target (I will never go there again) and the photographer there just ended up being super loud and over the top when she was trying to get him to smile. It just ended up scaring E and it started to scare me too. So I will be gladly going to Toni from now on. She does such a great job so go check her out and spread the word.

Chili Recipes

I just posted my chili recipes from the party on the recipe blog so if you're interested in some great chili, head over there for the recipes.

Fun Times with Nanny and Papa

Since my parents work at the temple on Wednesdays, they weren't able to come to Ethan's big Halloween celebration so they came on Friday instead. It was such a beautiful day so we took E outside to ride his trike. I took a bunch of pictures with my new camera and I'm loving my new camera!! Check out these fun pictures! I love the 3rd one where E looks frustrated. His facial expression makes him look really old.





Ethan had lots of fun with Nanny and Papa. We ate lots of left over chili and Ethan got to open some really fun presents. He got a toy drill, a toy vacuum (a very manly vacuum), and the game Lucky Ducks. I have been playing the Lucky Ducks game all day today, not even joking. I may have to get a set of back up batteries for when it dies. He just loves to put the "duckies in pool" and watch them swim and then take them all off and put them back on again. Whatever makes him happy.

Happy 2nd Birthday!!!

It's my little E's 2nd birthday today! I can't believe he's 2 already! The kid has been growing like a weed! I was watching him at the Trunk or Treat last night and just thinking how my little baby is now a little kid. He is so funny. So here's up he's up to:
-he can say over 200 words (most of which are in Ethanese, but I completely know what he saying...I'm basically his translator). His favorite things to say are, "Momma Pitty" (Mom's pretty...I taught him well), chicken, play, juice, Woody's hat, hold you, help you, "otay" just like the kid on Little Rascals, and he says "Jack Jack" just about 30 times a day because it could mean Jack off the Incredibles, Jack-his cousin, or Jack-his friend.
-he's very very active. He can run, jump, kick a ball, golf, shoot hoops, chase frogs, throw a ball, and he can almost pedal his tricycle
-he's just finishing up getting in his 2 year old molars...Hallelujah, 2 came in during our trip to Utah. What a good boy!
-he has a really hard time sharing, but what 2 year old doesnt'. He totally acts like he'll give up a toy and once a little kid reaches out to get it, he takes it away and makes them cry on purpose. We're working on it. We're also working on not hitting.
-He loves to eat spagetti
-He helps around the house with dusting, sweeping, throwing stuff away, and he LOVES to vacuum.
-his favorite activities are getting into mischief, coloring, looking for frogs, riding his trike, playing with friends, getting into mischief, cooking with Mom, visiting his Nanny, going to the park, watching Max and Ruby, and did I mention getting into mischief
-he loves his naptime and bedtime stories
-he is now completely off his binky and sleeps in a big boy bed without any problems
So basically my baby boy is growing up a lot and I just love my little guy so much! Happy Birthday!

Halloween Continued...

Here are a few pictures of E in his Halloween costume and from the Trunk
or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Today was a very FULL day to say the least. First of all I woke up with my legs KILLING me! I'm not even joking, it's hard to sit down. If I have to bend down to pick something up, it's sheer agony. I've popped a couple Ibuprofen, but I'm still not doing so hot. So the day started off with getting the house ready for Ethan's birthday celebration like decorations and setting the table. I made up some pretty yummy cornbread muffins.

Next it was on to the chili. I did 2 pots and I have TONS left over now. One was a low fat turkey chili from America's Test Kitchen and the other one was a regular beef chili from my Taste of Home magazine. Both turned out pretty good I think, I didn't get to eat much, but the house smelled really good. I'll be eating left overs for awhile so I'm sure I'll find out if they're good or not.


Well, the party was hoppin' and we had a lot of our friends and family come and wish Ethan a happy birthday. The kids were all dressed up and ate lots of food, had fun with the pinata and ate lots of ice cream cake. Ethan was so excited to blow out his candles that he blew them out before we could even sing to him. He's so funny. He wanted to blow it out over and over and over.



After the party we headed out to the our ward's Trunk or Treat. I just have to say that the Ethan was so funny in his Dash costume. He looked like a little man in his suit. If you'd ask him to show his muscles he'd flex and if you asked to see his costume then he'd put his hands on his hips and stick his chest out. Crack me up! Speaking of cracking me up...my friend Kaitlyn is freaking hilarious! A mullet wig and her husband's motorcycle boots??!! She was totally in character the whole time and I loved it. This is why she's my friend.