Announcement!

For those of my friends and family who have not already heard... We are expecting again! I'm only about 6 weeks along and I was going to wait until I was much further to announce it, but Loren has been pretty excited about telling people. Add to that the fact that I am already getting really sick, and I guess it just wasn't meant to stay a secret for long. :) I haven't been to the doctor yet, but my due date (according to a calculator online) is Valentine's Day 2010!

Ethan has already been showing us that he's excited to be a big brother. When someone is upset he will go up to them and softly rub their cheek while quietly saying "shh, shh" to them. When I peeked in on him during Nursery on Sunday he had a baby doll and was rocking it.

I have the ambitious goal of getting him potty trained before the new baby comes. I don't think it's unrealistic, it's just going to take some extra effort on my part. He uses the toilet really well as long as I remember to have him use it.

We have had lots of people ask if we want a boy or a girl. Honestly, from a practical view, I'd prefer a boy: I already have the stuff and I would know what I'm getting in to. Other than that though, I don't really care either way!

I appologize for not posting much(at all) lately, but if I get sick and/or and am on bedrest I most likely will be making up for a lot of lost time!

Anniversary Pearl!

On Friday Loren and I went to the mall to a kiosk for the Great Salt Lake Pearl Company. They have the oysters with the pearls in them where you can choose an oyster to get a pearl. (Wow that was obvious...) Then you can have the pearl put with jewelry for a necklace or ring. I tried to get Loren to make as many of the decisions for it as possible and I was well rewarded! I know our anniversary isn't for a while yet, but I really wanted to get this before the kiosk left.

Oh, and the background of the picture is Sage's fur. I was having a hard time finding a background that didn't create glare or make the camera spazz out. I had the random thought to lay the necklace on Sage and viola! Perfect picture. :)

Sleeping

I think it's interesting that most of the pictures I take anymore of of Ethan sleeping. I guess that's the only time I really can get the camera out and take pictures. :) Here are some cute ones from today after church.

Mischief as always.

I have decided that Ethan is the King of Mischief. He truly amazes me with all that he can find to get into. I don't know how many times I've thought all the crayons and pens are put away, then I discover another "mural" on the walls. I put freezer paper on the fridge for Ethan to color on and when I was changing laundry he pulled it off and colored all over the fridge itself. I didn't notice it at first since the fridge is white. Let me just say, thank goodness for Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser!!!

One of my biggest challenges during the day is keeping Ethan away from my computer. Loren's is easy because it's in the office and I can just close the door. I keep mine on the kitchen table during the day though so I can have tv, Pandora radio, or a dvd going. I get super lonely and the day drags by if I don't have some kind of noise going in the house. Since my computer isn't all that old I am particularly protective of it. And for some reason, Ethan is fascinated with it. Occasionally I'll let him press some keys or play with the mouse a little. I don't know if that helps or hinders the problem.

I think the last picture in this post Ethan was growling at me. He seems to do that a lot. Loren taught him to growl. Actually, Loren teaches him a lot of "bad" things. For example, Ethan thinks it's funny to throw things at me. I guess since Loren gets a kick out of it it's just automatically funny to Ethan. *sigh* At least he also taught him to hug us on command. :)

"Words, words, words! I'm so sick of words! I get words all day through, first form him, now from you. Is that all you blighters can do? " (First person to respond with where that is from gets... the satisfaction of knowing... yeah...) Ethan has been speaking a little bit lately. He can say "Daddy" really well. He also says "juice"(although, any beverage is "juice"). He really knows how to say "Uh-oh". I think it's one of his favorites. He used to say "Mom-mom" but hasn't for a while now. I got him to say "Please" the other day and occasionally he'll say other words when we say them. He is close to saying "Cat" but it just sounds like " 'at" right now. I think he is also on the verge of saying "Grandma."

Sleepiness

Well, I woke up to the sounds of birds and it just put me in such a good mood I decided to do a short post! Sorry, there won't be pictures, and it will be pretty short.

Sleeping- Ethan is sleeping so well through the night. Last night he woke up once when Zoey got right by his face(she was really being annoying to all of us last night. Ugh.) and went right back to sleep after about 30 seconds.

Running- Ethan has passed beyond just walking and now runs most of the time. He really can get going and while he certainly wouldn't win the Olympics, sometimes we have a fun time trying to keep up.

Garden- Today is going to be a big day in trying to get the garden ready. A friend of ours is going to come over and help us get that area as cleaned out as we can get it. There are still a bunch of grapevines in the ground that are pretty thick, and several plum tree shoot stumps that could really be a nuisance. Hopefully we can get those managed a bit so I can start building the boxes and get soil in them. I'm trying to get everything done pretty early so I can be sure to be planting on time.

Walking- I have set up with my neighbor Alice to go walking most weekdays. We went for the first time yesterday and, granted I was pushing a stroller, but I was a bit embarrassed by how out of shape I've gotten over the winter. We got to where I used to only turn around if I was having a bad day and I was very ready to turn around. Alice is somewhat elderly(Although I doubt she would refer to herself as such! But she does have great-grandchildren who aren't a whole lot younger than me.) and she set the pace and I think she probably could have gone further. It was so nice to be out on the river trail and see the birds and just be in nature. I really love that trail! Ethan had a ton of fun and was so distracted that he didn't even try to pull his hat off until we got home.

And that's my post!

Fun stuff and the bed

These are just some fun pictures of Ethan. The bedspread is the one I got for myself for Christmas. It wasn't totally complete when I got it and it took me around a month to get the rest of the pillows and the comforter for the duvet and stuff like that. I love it though! It took me a long time to find one I liked. This still isn't what I pictured for what I wanted, but I love it! The comforter is so fluffy and big and warm. I've never had a bunch of matching pillows that look as good as this. I still want my giant teddy bear for right there in the middle, but I guess Ethan will work for now. :)

PS. Yeah, I know our bed is small. I thought ahead though and got a King size bedset with just the sheets being the full to fit it. However, we probably will still have this bed for a long time so who knows.

Valentine's Dinner

We didn't plan anything major for Valentine's Day but I did make an awesome dinner. :) I made homemade chicken cordon bleu, steamed veggies(you can see the steam in the picture. :p ), rolls and strawberry cheesecake! I think Loren was impressed. He asked me to make more of the chicken cordon bleu which made me feel good. It was really tasty. Loren got me three "romantic" movies that I've been wanting for a long time. Well, ok, they weren't necessarily romantic, but they were close enough to warrant being given for Valentine's Day. It was a good day. :)