I'm Proud to Say.....

that Operation My First Turkey was very successful!! Ethan absolutely LOVED stuffing his face with all sorts of delicious new food! I think the mashed potatoes and stuffing were his favorite. The apple pie and vanilla ice cream came in close 2nd. We had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that everyone has a safe, happy, and filling Thanksgiving Day! I for one, am glad for a day to celebrate the things I am grateful for--it really shouldn't take a special day to sit down and give thanks for all the blessings in our lives--but I know that sometimes I take the things that I have been so blessed with for granted. I thought it would be appropriate for me to take the time to list a few of the things I'm grateful for:

I'm so thankful for.....

*My wonderful, loving husband--who is a great example to me and loves me with all he's got! He's such a hard worker and great provider which allows me to stay home with our son (which I am sooo grateful for). He is so great with Ethan too--just a good guy all around and sometimes I can't believe he's mine!

*My handsome baby boy! My life has been changed by having this sweet spirit in our home. He has taught me so much about patience and love and has brought me closer to my Heavenly Father. I'm grateful to have been trusted and blessed with one of God's children. I'm grateful to be a mom!!

*The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't know where I would be without the knowledge that I have.

*Temples--without them my family could not be eternal--and nothing would break my heart more than not being able to be with my loving husband and family forever and ever! Families CAN be together forever and I'm so grateful for that!

*For a roof over my head, a car to drive, clothes to wear, and food to eat. (Oh, and warm water and plumbing and pipes and stuff).

*My family--for parents who taught me the gospel and never gave up on me! For my brothers and sisters who are amazing examples to me on a daily basis. For Scott and Jared who prepared me for motherhood! :-) I also have fantastic in laws--I couldn't ask for a better family to marry into.

*Great friends!! A girl needs her girls!! And I'm lucky enough to have a few fantastic friends that I know I can always count on!

*Last but not least--I'm grateful for the internet-for without the internet I would not be able to google things I needed information about, I would never be able to navigate my way around town without mapquest, I would actually have to leave my house to go shopping and rent videos, I could not stalk people without blogs/myspace/facebook, and I would actually have to call people that I don't want to talk to instead of sending an email which avoids long, unwanted (and possibly awkward) conversations.

So there you have it--a few things I am thankful for (even though there are really too many to mention). I'm off to make Ethan's first Thanksgiving Feast! Oh the little joys in life! Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I'm so grateful for all of you!!

I've been TAGGED!!

Thanks Val! Ok, here goes...6 Facts about me that you may not know.....

1. I CANNOT wait until Ethan is big enough to sit at the table and be done with his highchair. I seriously do not like cleaning the highchair after my messy, messy child has been in it. When Ethan is done eating I first have to wipe his tray before I can wipe his hands and face because if I wipe his hands first, he bangs on his tray (which is messy) and I have to wipe his hands all over again. Then, when I'm done cleaning his hands and face, I have to wipe the tray again because somehow crumbs and more food fall on it. Next, I grab the dust buster and take it directly to Ethan's clothes. You would be surprised at how much food gets caught in the folds of his clothes. After that, I lift him up, shake him off some more and set him down. At this point I'm still not done. There is usually a TON of food inside the chair. I pick up what I can, then vacuum up the rest. Then I have to sanitize and wipe down the highchair one last time. And I do this 3 times/day!!! It is so tedious and time consuming that sometimes I consider not even bothering!! But now that I think about it, by the time Ethan can sit at the table, there will probably be another baby occupying the highchair. What did I get myself into?!?!

2. I am a big time belly sleeper. That is the only way I can sleep. I don't know how people can fall asleep or get a good night's sleep laying on their backs. I've tried it and it just doesn't work out. Same with side sleepers--I can fall asleep on my side I suppose, but I always wake up on my belly. I don't know how I got through the last 3-4 months of my pregnancy. If I didn't love being a mom so much--that would probably be my reason for not having more....not the pain of childbirth or the crying or late night feedings--but not being able to sleep on my belly!

3. I love baking and DECORATING cakes! I've taken some classes and I'm actually pretty good at it. :-) I've never really considered myself as very artistic or creative-I don't like to do artsy things like scrapbook (I tried and while Ethan's scrapbook turned out cute enough, I just didn't really like doing it) or paint, draw, etc. But I do LOVE to make cakes! I made a Louis Vuitton purse cake for my friend's birthday and it was a lot of fun!!!

4. I do NOT like red sauce (unless it's on my pizza covered with cheese and pepperonis)! I don't think I have ever really cared for red sauce to begin with--I always preferred white sauce-- but I could stand red sauce growing up and I'd eat it if that's what was served. But when I was pregnant with Ethan that was just one thing that I couldn't stand even the sight of. It made me sick. I couldn't even sit next to Skyler if HE was eating red sauce. It was that bad. And I guess it just stayed with me after having Ethan. I still can't stand red sauce, and sorry Skyler--I don't think I ever will......

5. I am a HUGE fan of game shows. I absolutely love watching them. When my mom and I found out Bob Barker was leaving the Price is Right, she flew to Vegas and we drove to LA to be on the show! I was 7 months pregnant and my shirt said "I'll name my firstborn Bob Barker for a chance to play PLINKO!" Everybody thought it was so cute and everyone in line kept telling me that I would HAVE to get called to come on down! Even one of the producers called me out of line to take a picture of my shirt. But no. I didn't get to come on down and I didn't get to play plinko and I didn't get to give Bob Barker a kiss. I waited in line from 2 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon for nothing! (Val, you seriously didn't miss out on anything). Because I didn't get lucky from the Price is Right, I figured I'd give Wheel of Fortune a shot. I don't mean to brag, but I am GOOD at Wheel of Fortune. I can always solve the puzzle waaay before the contestants on the show--and it REALLY bothers me when people buy vowels when they KNOW what the word is. Why waste your money on the vowel? So I was chosen to audition for Wheel of Fortune. There was probably 40 other people there and what we did is run through a couple simulated puzzles--if they called your name you had control of the puzzle. On the very first puzzle they called someone's name and she lost control of the puzzle so they called my name next! I was pretty nervous, but I stood up and spun the "wheel" and ended up solving the 1st puzzle! Food and Drink was the category and I'll never forget GARLIC MASHED POTATOES!!! I'm still waiting to hear back from them........

6. Thanks to my husband, I LOVE almond M&M's. Now, I've always loved M&M's--any kind really. Peanut, plain, peanut butter--you name it. I wasn't the type to discriminate against M&M's. But for some reason, I never tried the almond kind. I liked almonds, and obviously liked M&M's, so it would make sense that I would like them, but I never really noticed them. When Skyler and I started dating, those are the kinds of M&M's he liked (remember how I don't discriminate? Well Sky does--those are the ONLY kind of M&M's he likes). Anyway, I tried them and LOVED them! Now I still don't discriminate--if someone handed me a bag of any kind of M&M's I would like them and eat them (unless they were dark chocolate-yuck), but I only buy the almond ones now! So there you have it!

Ok, so now, thanks to Val--I have to post 6 embarrassing moments in my life. And while I'm sure I have had much more than 6--these are the ones I could think of...here goes nothing!

1. Ok, so I think Jessi may appreciate this one: Back in high school Jessi, me and Trisha (I think) decided to go and TP Lisa Welch's house. I seriously don't remember why we did that--cause we liked Lisa! But anyway, we started doing it and they had really tall trees at their house so we were launching the rolls up and around the trees. I don't know if we were being too loud or what triggered it, but Brother Welch came out and was visibly angry (I guess I don't blame him :-) ) He was not at all happy with us and made us clean up what we had done. It was a pain getting the TP out of the really tall trees I told you about! Anyway that was embarrassing enough, but the real embarrassing moment was seeing him at church the next day!! It was awful.

2. When Skyler and I had just been dating for a few weeks, I was over at his apartment and we were sort of playing that Battle of the Sexes game with a bunch of people. Where girls had to answer guy questions and they guys had to answer questions about girls. Well, the question was "Where are you if you're at the Mile High Stadium?" And I blurt out, "In an airplane bathroom!" Everyone just kind of looked and me and then started laughing hysterically. I had confused Mile High Stadium with the Mile High Club! I was soooo embarrassed that I said that, but luckily was able to redeem myself. After everybody calmed down I was able to say "in Denver watching a Broncos game." Duh.

3. This is another embarrassing moment with Skyler in college....we had only been on a few dates I think--still trying to get to know each other at this point. We had plans for a date one night, but for whatever reason Skyler had to take his car into the shop. So instead of bailing on our date (which I would have totally understood), he borrowed his roommates car. He came to pick me up and when we walked out to the parking lot I couldn't see his car and that's when he explained that he borrowed his roommates car. Well there were tons of parking spaces available right in front of my apartment but we kept walking farther and farther into the parking lot--I didn't understand what was going on until I saw it. It was a VERY old Jeeplike station wagon thing that had no paint but the body of the car was a few different colors of grayish metal. It looked like it had been in an accident or two (or three or four!) and the windows were rolled down because they could not roll up! The interior seats were stained and ripped. I think I was mostly embarrassed to go anywhere in it because Skyler was clearly embarrassed to be driving it (hence parking ALL the way in the back). So we got in and kind of nervously laughed about it--and decided to just drive to the movie store and rent a movie for the night. On the way there we stopped at like every red light!! And people in other cars were like pointing and laughing! I so badly wanted to duck down because I didn't even have a window to "shield" me! When we got to the movie store, Skyler parked so far out I thought I would need some hard candy or something to make the hike to the store. He said he did that so no one saw us get out of the car!!! It was pretty embarrassing that's for sure. Oh and did I mention that the car made a LOT of weird noises too?!?!? Especially at red lights!!!!

4. I like to go tanning--and one day the salon I went to was offering free mystic tans. I had done them before and they weren't too bad, so I decided to do it. The tan turned out great, so I left to go to the gym. I was working out on an elliptical working up a sweat when some lady came up to me and told me that something was wrong--that my white shirt was turning brown!! I totally didn't even think that I shouldn't work out right after doing a mystic--I don't know what I was thinking! I went to the bathroom and sure enough there were streaks of color on my face (from sweating) and my clothes were streaked brown! I wiped my face the best I could--and it was incredibly embarrassing to walk out of the gym looking like that! People were definitely giving me weird looks. When I got home I washed my face a million times to get rid of the streaky look and to this day I have not gotten a mystic tan!

5. I guess I should preface this embarrassing moment by telling you that when I was pregnant with Ethan I was paranoid about having a red headed baby. Not that there's anything wrong with red heads, I just didn't want one. So after I gave birth I think the first question was what color is his hair?! I was relieved to know it was brown...When I was induced to have Ethan I had the most wonderful nurse. She was so funny and easy going. Right after I had Ethan she cleaned him up and gave him to me before taking him to the nursery to bathe him and do the other necessary things. When she came back with the baby she was telling me how Skyler and I make beautiful (perfect) babies and that people like us should procreate. It was such a nice compliment (and I maintain the fact that I was on drugs) and I said, "oh thanks--I'm just so glad he doesn't have red hair." The nurse had RED HAIR!!!! She looked at me and said "Girl do you SEE the color of my hair?!" I was so mortified I didn't even know what to say-I think I was able to stammer out, "You have pretty red hair--and girls look better with red hair..." something to that affect. Luckily she had a good sense of humor and was able to just laugh it off. But I was so embarrassed!

6. This one kind of goes hand in hand with the above embarrassing moment. About a week after I had Ethan I went to get my hair cut and colored and of course my stylist wanted to know everything about the baby and birth etc. My stylist has a private room at the salon and there was one other lady sitting under the blower waiting for color to set. I figured she was a woman and it would be fine to talk about the birth and everything-either that, or I figured she couldn't hear because of the blower or wasn't paying attention because she was reading a magazine. Anyway, so I told my stylist about how I was worried about having a red headed baby and we joked that if I had in fact had a red head, he would be the one sitting in the chair getting his hair colored! Anyway, I told her about what I said to the nurse with red hair and how embarrassing it was. When it was my turn to go under the blower, the lady and I switched places so the stylist could finish her hair. When she washed her hair out and sat her up-- to my horror-- her hair was RED!!! Not only was it red, but it wasn't naturally red--so this lady was CHOOSING to color her hair red! And all the while she could hear me talking about how horrible it would have been if I had had a red headed baby. She looked at me and said, "is this red color awful?" And once again, I think I was lucky to stammer out, "No that's pretty red hair--and girls look better than boys with red hair...." I have stopped talking about having red headed babies...........

Dancin Baby Boy

Check out this hilarious video of Ethan getting his groove on! He constantly amazes us with what he can do--sometimes we say "he's just a baby!" but now (sadly) I think he's starting to be a big boy! He does things on a daily basis that just crack us up, and this is one of them! Skyler was getting ready to feed Ethan breakfast this morning and his alarm (the music) went off during breakfast and Ethan started dancing--so Sky grabbed the camera. Enjoy!!

CHRISTMAS TREE!!!

Like I said, we just couldn't wait to put up our Christmas tree! We were so excited to get it out and decorated because we knew that Ethan would just love it. We figured that Ethan would try to pull the ornaments off the tree so I wondered if I had just set myself up for Tree Patrol for the next month and a half (and lose my mind)--but Ethan just loves to stare at the lights! He did try to pull the bottom ornaments off once, but I got down next to him and pointed to the ornament and firmly said "NO." Skyler and I are relieved that he is starting to understand our language! He hasn't touched a ball since! Oh, and speaking of knowing the language, I was holding Ethan the other day and said, "Can mama have a kiss? Give mama a kiss." He looked at me and gave me a big, wet (opened mouth :-) ) kiss! I was so proud! He's probably getting sick of giving me kisses though because I ask him for one at least 10 times/day. And sometimes he just looks at me like "Oh mom, please no. Not again." He also started waving at people at the stores, so we get a LOT of attention. It can get annoying though because you get some people who (in baby talk all up in his grill) ask Ethan how old he is, what his name is, if he likes shopping with Mom, etc. So I have to politely say, "he's 9 months, his name is Ethan, and yes he's a very good little shopper." When really I'm thinking, "Come on lady, he's only 9 months old, he can't answer your questions, nor does he understand them, so please--don't waste my time." I'm all about getting/giving quick compliments, but seriously, let's not be ridiculous. I mean, I knew that after having a baby my days of just running in and getting some milk "real quick" were over (getting baby in and out of carseat, juggling baby and items, paying while being accosted by a baby who wants your wallet/credit card/keys)--but 10 minutes for a "quick trip" for 1 item?! I don't think so. I guess that's my rant for the day--so please, let's all make the world a quicker place and just give a simple compliment (or none at all) and be on with your day. ;-) Oh, and Happy Holidays!!! :-)

Look who's getting so big!!

Well, of course it's Ethan, or as we like to call him these days--peek-a-boo. It's his favorite, favorite game and it gets his attention every time. For example, he has ALWAYS been difficult to diaper because he instantly tries to roll over to his belly and crawl away...until I started saying PEEK-A-BOO! (in a silly exaggerated voice) and he lays perfectly still for me. Because we know that humors him, it has become habit to say that when we need his attention or to wipe his face (or anything else he hates for that matter). And lately, I think we've been saying that as a little nickname--like "Goodnight peek-a-boo" or "Come on peek-a-boo," "Let's eat dinner peek-a-boo." I don't know how it transitioned to that really, and I think I'd be worried that he might think his name is Peek-a-Boo, if he didn't already respond to Ethan. I can just imagine grocery shopping with Ethan and having some little old lady ask him what his name is and he responds, "Peek-A-Boo." Oh well...it works out for the time being--and I'm glad I have something to distract him because he is a VERY busy, curious little boy. Here are some pictures of how big and handsome he is getting (I think we may have problems with this one in a few years! :-) ). He LOVES the remote (it lights up when he presses buttons) and the pictures will show him crawling across the couch for a plate (which makes me nervous because he still doesn't understand that he could FALL off the couch).

Holiday Cheer!

So it looks like we can't wait any longer to put up decorations for the Holiday Season! Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of Thanksgiving decorations, so we are just going straight for Christmas! Whoo hoo!! We are soo excited to put up our tree and stuff because we know that little Ethan will just love it! I think the problem is going to be defending the tree from Ethan's tiny grasp! He is such a little dare devil now! He will be standing at the couch and then he will just decide that he wants to be at the coffee table--so he will literally let go of the couch and lunge for the table! It freaks me out--but luckily he has been successful every time. Also, he loves to get into any drawers or cupboards and pull out all of their belongings. The other day, he pulled out all of our dvds. When I removed him from the mess to clean up, the next thing I knew--all of the remotes/magazines/diapers had been pulled out of the coffee table drawers. He sure keeps me busy! Stay tuned for pictures! I know we're putting our decorations up a tad early, but hey, we don't really care. We are too excited and really, who is going to see them except for us? Maybe some good friends that come to the house, but other than that.....also, I need addresses for Christmas cards....Thanks!!!