Getting in Together

What a whirlwind on a week! Although, I'm not really sure if the whirlwind was so much a part of the week as it was a part of my head! First things first though... let me tell you all, that it was so great to get so many comments! I felt everyone had dropped off the face of the earth, and (as all of you who blog know) comments are so fun! So... Thanks!

A little flash back first. A week ago. We went to Asia night on campus. The food was great and the entertainment was spectacular. Elia learned how to eat with chopsticks...

And Ethan learned what it was like to be hand-fed by a beautiful woman:OK, so she's closer to one than to womanhood, but it was so cute to have her reach over and feed him cereal pieces as he opened his mouth!

Of course, the lion dance is always our favorite. This time we were sitting right up front and the lion came off the stage and right over us. It was jaw-dropping for Elia and fun for all of us.

Monday was great too. We invited a bunch of friends to go on a sunset hike for family night. We shared a message about finding balance in life and saw a great sunset.

Here is our friend Spence with Elia and their little boy Lance. We joke that they will make a great couple when they get older. Who said arranged marriages were over?Life is good:
So after the lesson on balancing life, I felt totally hectic by the end of the week! Wednesday was great. I went to Sedona to take senior pictures. We had a great ride up there and we had a great day shooting. If you want to see the sneak peak, go to my photography blog. (pettyphotography.blogspot.com)

The problem started Thursday. My schedule was thrown off because preschool was moved to Friday. I almost forgot about a photo shoot that I was supposed to do in the morning because I had scheduled it when Elia was supposed to be at preschool. Elia and Boston (the older brother of the little girl I was taking pictures of) had a nice time watching Curious George.When I was cleaning house later in the afternoon, I found a baby shower announcement that I thought was that night. It wasn't for another week, but I panicked and hadn't told Eric anything about it. I realized, 5 minutes after I told him, that the shower wasn't until next week. So then we went to Target. I left the wallet in the car and didn't realize it until after our stuff had been rung up, so I had to run out to the car to get it. When we were all loaded in the car, I panicked again because I thought I left my wallet in the store. We're talking about the fact that I can't remember what happened 5 minutes ago! I started running back in when I remembered I had given it to Ethan to play with. Oh brother! Friday started off much the same. I was taking my time walking back home from working out, (which by the way I am still sore from) when the preschool leader for the week called and asked if Elia was coming. Yes, I know it was only yesterday that preschool was changed, but my brain was somewhere else. I ran the rest of the way home a got Elia to preschool. Eric was wondering where my brain was too!

The rest of the day was okay. It all concluded with a date night, sponsored by the Thunderkids group. We dropped Elia off and spent a nice romantic evening putting together a book case that has been sitting in our room since Christmas. It was nice to get it done. Ethan sure enjoyed climbing in and out of it. He was funny and would lay down on the shelf inside:

One final funny note. Elia, who is getting very good at her persuasion said to Eric, "I can put the Parmesan cheese on all by myself" (see we usually don't let her because she puts too much on) "I will be really careful and when you tell me to stop, I have to stop." Well, how could we argue with that logic! She did very well "all by herself". One other mom moment was when we were at church. Eric's stomach was hurting and I turned to him and said, "Do you need to go potty?" Oh, brother! For my sake (and Eric's) let's hope I'm more with it this week! Have a great one!

Oceans of Fun

I can't believe it's been two weeks since a post, and even though our trip to Florida is sort of an excuse, I remember when I first started blogging how I sometimes wrote more than once a week!
So, here is the summary: Eric and I took the kids to Englewood, Florida (about 1.5 hours south of Tampa on the Gulf) to visit my 91-year-old grandpa. He is still doing great! He lives on his own in a house that is about a 5 minute walk from the ocean (and actually a 30 second walk to a inlet canal across the street where Eric and I launched the canoe one evening to view the sunset).
The weather was actually a little hot and sticky when we got there, but the warm temperature provided nice weather for ocean swimming. Elia loved the ocean:

But Ethan wasn't so fond of the cold water. He preferred the sand (and eating it).
And the views were spectacular. We were joined by Grampy and YaYa (which, for all you who are wondering, is "grandma" in Greek).They flew down from New Hampshire. Elia loved making pancakes with grampy (a tradition for every visit) and playing in the water:
It was really a true vacation. We did very little traveling, just a 5 - 10 minute drive to different beaches. Elia of course loved the sand and the beach. She loved jumping over the waves and search for treasures on our beachcombing excursions. Her grampy found a dead crab (which she quickly took ownership of as she exclaimed, "Look what I found!" She carried the crab body for almost a mile down the beach and was convinced that she needed to take it home, but we finally talked her into feeding it to a great blue heron in exchange for a purple shell. She is very into starfish and though we didn't find any on the beach, we went to a shell shop and picked one up for her (see hand below). She now talks of nothing else! If you ask her, she'll tell you that the starfish was her favorite part of the trip. We're sure visiting Grampy and YaYa was right up there too! :)At the end of our trip, the kids and I adorned ourselves with alligator tatoos (Elia's idea). We had gone to a nearby state park and seen some real ones:One last picture. Everyone got a kick out of the fact that Ethan slept in the garage. Hey, if it works, why not? He actually took some of the best naps he's ever taken and his breathing returned to almost completely normal while we were in Florida! For now, we don't have to use the breathing machine anymore. Hooray for everyone!

The Beginning of the End

Eric didn't want to pass over the computer until he had typed in the title, so he made up the title for this post. Can you tell what he's thinking about?

Well, nothing stands out this week as particularly exciting. We paid rent, played with friends at the park, got more medicine for Ethan (he is living off samples until his appointment with the pulmonologist on the 14th because our insurance didn't approve one of his medications).
Also this week we've gone pretty much without a car. We've had to borrow a car from our friends the Leavitt's to go to church and to an appointment, but it has been interesting not having a car. We walked the mile to the grocery store to buy milk and it was very nice to spend the time together and get the kids out. Eric remarked that it is sad that our car has to be out of commission to get us to do more things like that. We've also been planning our meals very well because we don't have the luxury of just running to the store if we need something.

Really, everyone's been so helpful. I made arrangements to go to the park with some friends (not even thinking that I didn't have a car). Later that night, my friend Joy called and asked if I needed a ride. I probably would have woken up, gotten ready to go to the playground, walked outside and then realized that I didn't have transportation. Thank goodness for friends who are more with-it than I am!

Also tonight we received the news that the Patriots lost. We watched the last 51 seconds of the game. Enough to see their tragic fall! Better luck next time.

This week should prove more exciting. Eric has a job interview on Monday (actually four one-hour interviews with a company here in Phoenix). Then on Wednesday morning we leave to Florida! My grandpa lives there and my dad is meeting us there. We're looking forward to the 75 degree weather! Phoenix is getting too cold :)

Oh, one last thing, perhaps the most exciting part of our week was Elia moving from diapers at night to underwear. We told her she had to go a week without peeing in her diaper, which she did. Tonight is her third night in underwear. We don't totally trust her though and told her she can't move out to the lovesac anymore (which she was doing in the middle of the night because of Ethan's coughing).

P.S. Elia is in love with these shoes now. She got them from her friend Sofia and thinks they are great! Also, here are a few more pictures of her playing around on the sidelines of the soccer field where Eric and I played on Wednesday and Friday last week. By the way, she didn't get the "skirts are cool to wear" idea from me! Just another one of those "I can make up my own mind" things.