Happy Birthday!

Hiking the hills behind our house...

Ethan's adventures...

Ethan's First Birthday

So the park has been reserved and we're getting ready for the party. Start watching for an invite, if you haven't already gotten one.... (or send me an email and I'll make sure to get you one).

Personal swimming pool

Hiking

Crazy about those graham crackers

It's been a while!

Wow... so I always love it when friends & family update their blogs so I can see how they're doing and here I am neglecting my own! Sorry! I can't believe it's been a month....

Well Ethan is 11 months old. I am now planning his 1st birthday party (and it's going to be a big one). I can't wait to send out invitations (I guess I need to make them first). Ethan is doing well... his little tooth now has a friend (2 bottom front teeth!). He's also crawling all over the place- he's got a turbo speed so he can get into the things he's not supposed to that much faster. I think our dog might be starving because we keep putting her food out of Ethan's reach, which is also out of her reach. oops! Ethan is also really good at standing up. He can balance on his own for a few seconds at a time but prefers to hold on to something. And he just loves walking in the grass (again, attached to someone). I could just write on and on and on about how wonderful Ethan is. :) I need to get some pictures up but I don't have my camera close by.

Dave and I are doing well... enjoying the summer. Next week Dave's best friend is getting married so we are preparing for that. It will be a fun day to go celebrate. It makes me think of how Dave and I are getting that much closer to getting sealed. :)

Anyway... I'll try to be better and I'll see about getting some photos up.

High Chair

So Ethan has moved beyond his baby food- he has no interest in anything in a jar. He just wants what mommy & daddy are eating. And he wants to feed himself. It's fun to watch- Ethan really enjoys it. So in the past week we got a high chair so that Ethan could really go to town with his own food (before we had a booster seat so he could sit at the table with us).

It has been fun watching Ethan discover foods- right now he seems to love Strawberries.

We had strawberry crepes for breakfast- Ethan wanted to feed himself.

Ethan is just so pleased.

Loving the High Chair & the crepes

This is my favorite picture. :)

Eating in Action.

I know it's been way too long

Man, it's amazing how quickly time can pass. I have been meaning to update the blog for a while now but time just slips away. I have been really busy with work and with Ethan. And amazingly I haven't been taking that many pictures lately (that will change now that it is summer and Ethan is going to be 1 here in a few months).

So how about some updates? Ethan is crawling... for real crawling, no scooching. It's awesome. :) Sometimes he gets crawling too fast for his little arms to keep up with him and he does a face plant (it makes me laugh). Ethan has a tooth as well! He wa

s pretty fussy one night and the next morning- a tooth! :)

As for me and Dave- we're doing well... more of the same. Dave is doing outdoor soccer on Mondays- it will probably be his last year of outdoor soccer. He also plays indoor soccer on a game by game basis. So he's definitely keeping healthy. I have been working a lot lately- we're getting ready for a new fiscal year so there is a lot of prep to go with that. My mom & dad finally moved to Utah. We are all so excited about that. :) I have so many plans for the fun things we'll be doing this summer and beyond. Now we just need the weather to start agreeing with us... it's still been pretty cold and rainy. Unusual for this time of the year- we had snow (!) last week!

And now we're trying to decide if we want to remodel our kitchen (new cabinets & counter). We'll see.

Anyway- here are some pictures! :)

Look at that beautiful face!

Just try to resist that smile. :)

On the move...

Daddy & Son (One of the Mother's Day Pictures)

What a good looking duo!

Walk in the park

Surfer Boy

Okay so I have been wanting to get some pictures of Ethan in his little board shorts for a while now and I finally did! Dave, Ethan, and I went to the Rec Center on Monday for Family Home Evening... and it was so much fun! :) Ethan just loved having Daddy with him, and like always, loved the lazy river and the fountains. And Mommy had the chance to sit in the Hot Tub & the Steam Room while Daddy & Ethan played.

Ethan was getting a lot more adventurous this time... he kept putting his face in the water. Of course, every time he'd get a mouth full of water. Anyway, I just think that Ethan is the cutest little man in his board shorts (Thanks Heather & Myka!).

That's a smile you just can't resist. It makes me smile just to see this picture.

Swimming

So we (Grandma and myself) took Ethan swimming at the Rec Center (South Davis Rec Center to be exact). One thing I love about Utah is that they do Rec Centers right... I love ours. There's an indoor track, 4 pools, lots of space and equipment, etc. As for the pools- even the pools are awesome! The "Leisure" pool has a lazy river, a slide, and a climbing structure for kids. In the summer there's an outdoor pirate ship for kids to play on. I love it! :)

Anyway... back to the point. We went to the pool on Monday afternoon. It was actually the saving grace of our Monday (we were supposed to have a fun & fancy free day but nothing we tried worked out- until swimming). Ethan loved the water! I thought that we'd spend maybe 15 minutes in the water before we had to leave, but instead after an hour we were leaving only because we needed to get dinner- Ethan would have been fine to hang out a little longer. :) Ethan loved the various fountains and the lazy river. After just a few minutes Ethan was one relaxed baby! :)

We went again this afternoon. Both times I have wanted to take a picture of Ethan in his cute little board shorts (thanks Heather!). He is seriously so cute in his little trunks. But I left my camera in the car and I don't think the other ladies in the locker room would appreciate that. One of these days I'll get some pix of him. But it is so much fun to have one more excuse to go to the Rec Center! :)

Scooching, Teething & Waving...

Well the big action is finally hitting. Ethan has figured out how to get (almost) mobile. He's not crawling yet. But he's right on the verge. I have a feeling that one day, out of the blue, he's going to lean over and just start crawling. The past few days we've been placing objects just out of Ethan's reach (or sometimes what we think should be well out of his reach). And in the past few days Ethan has learned how to get himself to those objects (unfortunately for us, sometimes). It's quite cute. Although Dave might be rethinking his excitement in Ethan learning to crawl. :)

Ethan has also spent the past few days (weeks?) teething. He's not eating and sleeping as well, and this is really taking its toll on me. And on his grandmas as well... Ethan has been pretty grumpy because he is both hungry & tired. That translates to wanting to be held all the time. Yikes. I'm not sure how long it's going to take for those teeth to finally show up, but it can't be too soon.

And the cutest thing... Ethan has started waving. It kind of looks more like a salute, but I love it. If we wave at him he'll hold up his hand to wave back. And if we smile at him from across the room he'll wave at us as well. I love it.

Sorry no pictures this time, but I'll get there.

Family

Okay, so I finally got my camera back from Portland. And my brother is in town. So what does this mean? A whole bunch of pictures of Ethan to make up for lost time. Below you'll see Ethan on his own, with Grandma and Grandpa, and with his Auntie and Uncles.

Uncle Louie and Ethan (tired baby)

Sizing each other up.

Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma

Grandpa

Uncle Doss

Uncle Doss & Auntie McKenzie

Henry

Auntie McKenzie

Auntie McKenzie & Henry

Happy Baby (standing on his own)

Happy Baby, sitting at the big table.

Things I'm supposed to be doing...

It's so funny the way I can be so productive, when I am trying to avoid doing something I really should be doing. Take for example today... I am supposed to be working on my lesson for tomorrow's primary class and, more importantly, I am supposed to be writing my talk for church tomorrow. So far I've got zip on either of those. But man, my house sure is clean. And I love the new paint in the bathroom.

Tomorrow Dave and I are giving a talk on the Plan of Salvation. A nice wide subject. Dave already has his talk prepared and nicely printed out. I made him read it to me in hopes that there was something in there I could steal. :) Dave makes things look easy- like when it's his turn to teach our primary class. The kids actually pay attention and things go great. When it's my turn, it's crickets and/or barely controlled chaos. Same goes for this talk- his was done within 24 hours of getting a phone call about it- and it's really good. I love him, but man, I am a little bit jealous.

Wish us luck!

Companies I hate

Okay, so I keep putting writing this blog off... but really, I spend time thinking about how much I hate some companies every day. I know I should be using my thoughts/energy more wisely, but DANG! Some companies just really get under my skin.

I am finding that more and more there are fewer and fewer companies that I am okay with giving my money to. There are entire industries that I hate (banks, cell phone companies, internet providers are the big ones). It just seems like it is getting more obvious that companies are taking advantage of their customers- there doesn't seem to be this "I provide a service or product and the customer pays for it" anymore. Now it seems to be more of how little of a service or product can I provide and get as much money as possible out of the customer?

I am an econ major so I understand the mechanics of the market. However, it really seems to me like the power is getting too one sided- consumers really don't have a choice in things anymore. I am finding more and more that I am trying to use my money as my voice- I don't give my money to companies I hate (or I try to give them as little as possible if I have no other option). It seems more often that the first thing I think about when thinking about purchasing something is "can I live with giving that entity my money." I am comfortable paying more for something that I feel comfortable supporting (local stores or something that has meaning).

Anyway, the thing that brought on this gripe today? Qwest. We finally got the internet at home. We didn't have it at home for many reasons, but working from home necessitated getting it. Man I am already pissy about it. It costs so much money for something so basic and then! I found out that Qwest actually charges it's customers a service fee FOR PAYING THEIR BILL. I have seen other companies that do this as well (big banks and credit card companies). Whatever happened to customer service? What the hell is the reasoning in charging your customers extra for trying to be good customers?

Economics also talks about barriers and it seems to me adding a "pay your bill" fee is one more barrier between receiving money and not. But I guess companies just figure that customers will roll over and pay the fee. I think it's crap.

I can already feel my blood pressure flying through the roof when I think of all the different ways companies are using the system to screw the consumer. Between subsidies and bail outs and fee increases and general inflationary increases (heaven forbid the average worker actually gets a raise to stay in line with the cost of living increases). Yikes. I am going to work myself into a frenzy.

My advice? Put your money where your mouth is... pay cash, and support companies you can live with.

And We're Back

Man, so my schedule has just been so messed up over the past 2 weeks. I don't think I have had a moment to myself in that time. Let's see 2 weekends ago Dave went to Ohio to visit his friend Jason. That was pretty great for him, but left me on baby duty 24/7 for 4 days (Meghan, I don't know how you do it). It was actually my first time completely alone with Ethan for 4 days in row- and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't have to worry about keeping the house clean or cooking dinner while Dave was gone, so it was surprisingly easy. Well, easy isn't quite the right word, but that's the idea in general.
And then last weekend Ethan and I went to Portland to visit my family. That was awesome and I definitely learned something... I need to pay more attention to when I am flying. The flights to and from Portland happened to overlap both of Ethan's naps (his morning and afternoon nap) and his lunch. So I flew to Portland and back with a very angry little baby. That was NOT fun. But I learned to pay more attention about when I schedule flights, and maybe even that driving is easier. As far as Portland- it was a blast to hang out with (Ethan's) Grandpa & Grandma and his Auntie McKenzie and Uncle Doss. We played Killer Bunnies, which is one of my new favorite games... if anyone out there is interested in playing call me, I need game buddies. This is the part where I would be posting lots of pictures of Ethan with various family members, but my camera is actually still in Portland. It's one of many things that I left there (I'm great at packing apparently). On the other hand I did find my teddy bear from when I was a baby and brought that back with me (yes, it is on the bed now).
Anyway, so now we're working on getting back on schedule.