Happy Halloween

We had such a great weekend. For the first time in at least 5 months Abe hasn't had to study over the weekend so we got to spend a half day on Friday and all day Saturday together. We have some WONDERFUL friends that volunteered to watch Ethan and Taylor on Friday night so Abe and I could go out and celebrate. Saturday we had fun getting ready for Halloween. We decided to go with a Peter Pan theme for our Halloween costumes. Ethan has wanted to be a pirate for months and Ethan refers to Taylor as Tinkerbell so that was settled. Thanks to a costume from high school I was Princess Tiger Lily. Ethan had the most fun. He was told he could only swordfight with people at the ward party that also had a sword so he spent most of the time just wandering around looking for people with swords. He hardly got any candy, which only makes Abe and I sad since he can't eat it and we were hoping for more, because he spent the whole time provoking people so they would fight with him.

Abe doing his best "angry pirate" face.

Taylor was a trooper about her tu-tu. Friday night I decided I didn't like the onsie that I was going to put under her tu-tu so we whipped out a green dress in a couple of hours and I think it turned out so cute, well as long as no one looks too closely.

I put some gel in her hair to give her some little curls and she worked on ruining her hair do from the minute I put it in.

She loved to eat her wings all night long.

So Proud!

So today has been such an exciting day. Abe found out that four months of studying paid off and he passed the boards! I am so proud of him. He was a little worried after he took the test so we have been not so patiently waiting to hear the results. What a relief! He has had a great month starting his rotations and getting into being at the hospital. I know he will hate this but I'm going to brag on him a little bit. Last week, I think, he was helping the doctor in the operating room. The doctor was letting him do some parts of the procedure. Once they were finished and the doctor had left the room the nurse told Abe that the doctor had never let a medical student do that before. I have always know that Abe would shine once he got to the hands on part of medical school so I am so excited for him.

You guys will have to bare with me with all these random video posts. Taylor is growing and changing so much and I feel bad that Abe misses out on all the fun things. So these are for him. I was in the kitchen today, while periodically checking on Taylor to see what she was up to. I saw her trying to pull herself up for the first time by herself. So I grabbed the camera and was able to capture the moment when she finally got herself up. Being the good mother that I am I stopped filming before she crashed to the ground (actually she sat back down pretty gracefully). I love seeing all the new things she can do. She is so close to "really" crawling but gets around quite well with her little army crawl. Today she was rocking and picking up one arm and then the other. But she just can't figure out how to get it all together.

Today Ethan used his new favorite phrase "Mom, can you do me a favor?" I think he got this from my mom or maybe the babysitter says it. But it often is followed by something kind of annoying like "Can you do me a favor and not make a mess when we get home?" That would imply that he actually cleans up messes that I make. Even when I agree to do whatever favor it is he asks of me it is sometimes followed by a doubting tone and "do you promise mom?" Oh if only he actually did all the things I asked instead of just memorizing them and using them against me. Thanksfully even with the long weeks I can still find the humor in that little boy.

Just for you Abe

So Abe has been gone for the last week and was on call over the weekend so we didn't see him. I know he misses us so we made a little video of Taylor. It's not all that exciting but she gets so excited in her swing. I thought he would like it. I know it makes me laugh. Who knew a baby swing could go this fast.

We can't wait to see Abe on Friday. Love you Abe!

Our New Adventure Begins

So this week Abe left for his first rotation and another chapter begins. Needless to say it will be a challenge since it starts the first of 3 months that he will be gone at least Monday through Friday and some weekends. I'm not looking forward to single parenthood either. But we are so excited for him to be able to start 3rd year and be one step closer to being done. And so far we are surviving just fine. And Abe is doing great in his rotations. He is doing OB-GYN so he has been delivery babies all week. We are so proud of him! Keep him in your prayers as he takes the boards next week and we will be so excited when that is done. Then maybe we will get to see him on weekends.

Ethan and Taylor are both doing great. Ethan spent a couple of days with my parents a few weeks ago so I could get some projects done around the house. Ethan had a blast with all the attention. My mom called me with lots of great stories about things Ethan had said. We definitely missed the funny things he says. He sat down outside the door to the bathroom and when my mom asked him what he was doing he said "Just making sure you don't get into anything." I love when you hear your words coming out of his mouth.

Though we missed him it was nice to have more free time and the ability to get things done. Mainly we got a lot of painting done and we moved Taylor and Ethan into the same room. I like all the change and Ethan and Taylor have been doing great together. Ethan does end up in Taylor's crib many nights. Just now I was interrupted by Taylor crying and found Ethan and his blanket in bed with Taylor. He was totally asleep. We are going to have to break him of this habit somehow. But overall they have been so good in the same room.

We went to the pumpkin patch this week and Ethan had a great time with the pumpkins, petting zoo, and hay ride. He has no fear of the animals and was all about sticking his hands in to touch them all. Even Taylor didn't seem to mind the animals getting close. I would sometimes forget that she was in the backpack when I turned around and she was up close with the animals.

Ethan is obsessed with being a pirate for Halloween and he has a pirate sword from his costume that practically doesn't leave his hand. Well unless Taylor finds it first because she loves it as much as he does. And she loves to stick her tongue out also. I find it adorable because I'm used to Ethan's tongue that doesn't stick out. We took some family photos at my mom's house and Taylor's tongue was out most of the time for the pictures.

Taylor loves finger foods. This was a picture from her first attempt at eating cereal. She would get so excited when she got them between her fingers and figured out how to get them into her mouth. It's nice to have a way to distract her when I need to get stuff done.

So Ethan's new favorite toy is a rope swing that Abe put up under the back porch. He watched a movie where the pirates were swinging from a rope swing so that is all he wants to do. This little video is Ethan once he discovered on his own how to climb up the playhouse and swing off. We are waiting for the day that this little trick lands us in the emergency room.

Our Utah Vacation

It is kind of sad to be home from our vacation to Utah. I'm sure the best part was that Abe didn't study like he should have and we got to spend lots of time with him. But it was a really fun trip. I think Ethan probably had the most fun of anyone. Abe's parents house is like his dream come true. There are horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, a pool, heavy machinery, plastic swords, swings and pumpkin pie.

We went up the canyon one evening for a picnic. Ethan had a blast with his cousin Peyton. Ethan was a little sad when Peyton told him that he "wanted to be alone." Ethan doesn't understand the concept of wanting to be alone but I'm sure he will learn it once Taylor gets big enough to want to tag along all the time.

This sword did not leave Ethan's hand for the better part of the week. He would have it sitting on the table while he ate his breakfast and didn't put it down for the rest of the day. Usually his eyes would barely open and he would mutter "wanna sword fight?" Thankfully there were two swords so everyone else had a chance at defending themselves. They were short enough and hard enough that he could get some good whacks across your knuckle. He was quick to remind Grandpa that "we only hit swords" when Grandpa got a little out of control. Ethan's sword fights involve a lot of sound effects, rolling on the floor, and an adorable little kick. It is really quite a sight. We learned from Ethan that "girls can't sword fight" when he took the sword away from Aunt Leah to give it to someone else to fight with him. We did finally convince him that he was wrong and he let Leah play.

I decided to get a new haircut while I was out in Utah. I'm still getting used to it.
I know I have mentioned before that Ethan LOVES hats. He was once again loving Grandpa's house with its never ending supply of hats. He had about 3 that he rotated between. Usually first thing in the morning it was the "pirate" hat that he would wear while he ate breakfast, with the sword close at hand. Then when it was time to feed the animals he would put on the cowboy hat, because Grandpa told him he couldn't ride a horse if he was a pirate so he had to be a cowboy. Then to the park he would wear one of Grandpa's ball caps mainly because he couldn't sit in his carseat with the cowboy hat.

We all had a good time playing in the pool. Though Ethan seems to have a death wish when it came to the pool. He tried to drown himself twice, unsuccessfully. We had a cookout on Saturday when a couple of Abe's siblings and their families came over. Taylor loved all the attention the whole week. She loves it when anyone holds her or looks at her. She loves to stare at people until they smile at her and then she gives them a big grin. She was loving all the people on the plane that she could look at through the seats or across the aisle. On the flights out to Utah things were pretty slow and most of the flight attendants had held her at some point in time. She is our attention junkie.

This is Abe's dad fixing something on the flag pole. I thought he was absolutely crazy for doing this. Though I'm guessing such feats are somewhat common since no one else seemed to bat an eye at this. Note Abe and Ethan are driving. Stephen wasn't thrilled with me for taking the picture so I'm sure he will LOVE me posting it.

We had a great time visiting our friends Becca, Brett, Aidan and Ethan. Ethan kept wanting to hold Taylor, well he called her "it". Of course Taylor loved it because Ethan has great hair for pulling, which is her favorite hobby. Our Ethan kept asking to go back to their house for the rest of the week.

Taylor is getting enough hair back for some hairdos and I'm loving it! Of course this one only lasted for a little while since Taylor loves to stroke her hair and pull out the clips.

We were lucky enough to be visiting Utah at the same time that our sister-in-law Leah and her daughter, Julia, were in town. Taylor and Julia are about 2 months apart and they were so cute together. Taylor enjoyed rolling on top of Julia and trying to suck on her feet. Can't you just imagine Julia thinking "put down the camera and save me!" I'm sure if Julia and Taylor had spent another day or two together Julia would have learned to roll just to protect herself.

Home is just utterly boring compared to all the fun we had in Utah. Ethan continues to ask to go to the pool or if we have any pumpkin pie (which his Grandma had made for him). Thankfully the day after we got back I had to go to work and he went to play at his friends house and that took his mind off our boring house. I thought to myself after the plane ride out there that we may never fly with two kids again but the kids redeemed themselves on the way home. They were really good even though we had to get off one plane and run to the next and immediately sit down again. So we can't wait to go and visit everyone again. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

An Update

Thanks for all your concern about our babysitter quitting. Luckily we have found another babysitter and she is great! As of right now she might just be around until September when I have to rethink my plan for when I work because she has night classes that start at 4 (which she didn't mention until after she was hired, I didn't say she was perfect but she is great). Ethan seems to really like her and Taylor is actually taking a bottle from her and drinking a whopping 10 oz. of milk while I'm gone all day. This is a record since she was drinking 3 oz at most from the old babysitter. So that is one stressor down for the moment. I do have to complain about one thing with the new babysitter. You know how I had ranted in my last post about the horrible "goodwill" pants that the old babysitter had put on Taylor. Well I come home after the first day of leaving the kids with the new babysitter only to find that Taylor was once again wearing the "goodwill" pants. Either babysitters, by profession, have no fashion sense or Abe is trying to tease me by changing the children before I get home. I will also mention that Ethan had on a "belly shirt" (a shirt that was obviously too small and showed his little belly). My kids might be scarred for life from these outfits.

I just love these two pictures of Ethan. He was watching the Sword and the Stone the other day and he decided he wanted to joust. So in a moment of creativity, a fleeting moment, I made him a little costume. He was just so cute as he rode around on his "horse" with his stick. In the top picture Abe had Ethan make a mean face. He is just so cute.

Ethan-isms

Ethan has been driving me crazy lately with the things he says and does. He tries to act so grown up. Abe finds them quite amusing so I thought I would share some of them with you. I took the picture above this morning. He sat at Abe's computer and told me that he had some work to do. I was talking to him about what he was doing and he picks up the voice recorder, puts it to his ear and says "Mom can you be quiet, this is an important call." I know where he has heard that before.

The other day he came out of his room before quiet time (in lieu of nap time) was over and I asked him who told him he could come out of his room. With all seriousness he said "Monkey (his stuffed animal) opened his eyes and said it was time to wake up." Today during another non-nap time he came downstairs with a blanket on his head and I said "Ethan why did you come out of your room?" He replied "It's not Ethan, its just a ghost."

The other day I asked him if he had seen the sling I have for Taylor. He wasn't sure what I was talking about so I clarified "the brown polka dot sling." He was quick to point out that it had "white spots". And the sad part is he is usually right but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

I had cleaned up the other day and I threw away some things that Ethan had brought home from nursery since he hadn't looked at it since Sunday. I made the mistake of throwing them in the bathroom trashcan so later when Ethan went into the bathroom he said "WHAT HAPPENED!" I think I just played innocent and acted like I had no idea what he was talking about. Then in a totally patronizing voice he said "Mom, Jesus doesn't go in the trashcan."

I don't think I have mentioned that Ethan told us recently that he has a brother that hangs out at Food Lion (which is kind of across the street from our house). His name is Nathan. When I asked him if his brother lived at Food Lion and he looked at me like I was completely crazy. He said "No one LIVES at Food Lion." So I'm the crazy one cause its completely rational just to hang out there but not to live there.

So I have finally found my one crafty passion. This has taken many years and much money wasted on things that I did once and put down. As Taylor has lost a lot of her hair it is hard to put ponies and barettes in her hair. Not to mention the fact that she likes to stroke her hair while she eats and will pull out anything that is in her hair (and any hair that might be attached to it). Because of her rather large head I couldn't find many headbands that will fit her head so I decided to make my own. So I spent a while (I won't confess how long it actually took) figuring out how to make them adjustable and how to make it so I can just switch out the ribbon so it takes me about two minutes and maybe 50 cents to make a new one. It is pretty sad that I'm so excited about my accomplishment but like I said, I don't do crafty very often. So here is Taylor modeling my first creation. She is pretty good about wearing them though the other day in the car I heard Ethan say from the back seat, "Mom, Taylor is being a pirate" as the headband had covered her eyes. I felt kind of bad so I was talking to her about how I was sorry and I would fix it when we stopped. Ethan looked at her and said "Don't worry, now the sun can't get in your eyes." Such an optimist.

And the rest are just some random photos that I forgot to post. We once again abandoned Abe and went to my parents house on one of the weekends that he had classes on Saturday and Sunday. It is so nice to have them close enough that we can pop in for the weekend.

We had a fun 4th of July and Ethan loved his "flag shirt". Any time I put it on him now he points out that it isn't the 4th of July any more.

Ethan's enthusiam went down from here once he realized that we weren't going to let him shoot the fireworks off.

So this picture is from one day when the babysitter did Taylor's hair. I don't know why she always makes it stick straight up but it looks so funny. I can't remember if I ranted about this or not but forgive me if I have. So I have this pile of clothes that people have given me that I decided I didn't like enough to keep and I have been meaning to take it to goodwill or something. For several days straight I would come home to find that the babysitter had dressed her completely in goodwill clothes (by the way this is not one of her goodwill outfits). I personally think Taylor has lots of adorable outfits so I can't figure out why in the world she would pick these to dress her in. It annoyed me to no end. Not to mention that I'm so annoyed with this same babysitter because she wrote me an email last night saying that she is quitting with hardly any notice because she found a better paying job. So annoying!