The Petty's Place

Back to the Basics

2011-03-06T12:48:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if I know how to simplify my life... but I'm sure going to try. As a consequence of my busyness, I haven't been blogging or facebooking very often, but I did want to post a few pictures of my baby who... is now 18 months!

I finally made myself go out and take some pictures of her around our neighborhood a few weeks ago because I knew I was never going to get around to doing a "photo shoot" with her.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2011-01-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I never made it to getting Christmas cards out this year. I had high hopes, but, like a lot of my high hopes, it didn't happen. I've decided that is what my resolution will be this year... do more of the things I make a goal of doing. I'm reading a book by Stephen Covey called "The Speed of Trust". There is a part of it that talks about learning to trust yourself by following through on the things you tell yourself you are going to do. Anyway, here is a recap of Christmas:
New Years Eve Day: Leaf Piles (only in Texas (and a few other states) can you do this sort of thing in December!
Sugar Cookies with Grandma:
Note to Santa: "I think that cookies are sugary. Thanks for the presents."
Fried Chicken for Breakfast: A Petty Tradition
Grandma made all the kids matching dresses and vests. Eric got a vest and tie too and I got a matching hair clip. They were adorable!
Stockings:
Kara's new backpack:
Ethan's magnifying glass:
... and tool bench...
Elia's horse arena:
Helping open a chocolate orange:
All she really cared about:
Ethan's "Toy Story Camera"... his only request besides a watch.
I included this video because I want to remember how fun it is that Ethan got as excited about toothpaste and an electronic toothbrush as he did about all the toys and candy.

Eric carrying the crew up the stairs... on to a new year!

Ready... Set... JUMP!

2010-11-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

Here is our family update in a nutshell:
Ethan... just played his last soccer game Saturday. Loved his teammates, coaches and playing and is ready to sign up for the next season. Of course, not much strategy at this point... In fact if Ethan got the ball he usually dribbled it in whatever direction he was facing. Still we were proud of him for being pretty tough when he got knocked down (which happened a lot) and we saw glimmers of hope from the whole team that they were beginning to "get" the game. He came up with their team name: "The Jets" and wanted to be a jet plane for Halloween so we made an A-10 Warthog for his costume (Thanks Bre for help with cutting and taping cardboard together!). I was very happy with it and it even won first place (out of probably 100 other kid costumes) at our Halloween Festival!
Stage one... after paper mache
Stage 2 painting grayStage 3: detail paint and winning! Oh and it was his idea to be a "chinese fighter pilot". He found this outfit that Eric brought back from China and wanted to put that on "underneath" his plane... maybe it was that part of the costume that won. :)
Elia... loves kindergarten and we love watching her learn to read and be creative. She spends a ton of time at our craft table drawing or coloring pictures and making them into books. She is also so good with Kara. She wanted to be a witch for Halloween... such a change from the last few years... princess, fairy princess, ballerina:
Kara:
Into fake laughing... (we are trying to get it on video)... screaming at the things (or people) she doesn't like. Loves climbing
And dogs...she'll give any one of them a hug (if we let her). She's 15 months old now. I can't even believe how fast the time goes. She smiles so much... every time you look at her she busts a smile out. Kara was a leopard for Halloween... the same thing that I think all the kids have worn when they were her age.
All three kids with their costumes...
Eric and Jen... we were rock climbers for Halloween (hey we have to make use of our gear somehow...
We just had our birthdays (Jen- 30), (Eric - 31)... and decided to go all out and do something
we've always wanted to... SKY DIVING!!!! I wanted to go first just in case something happened I would at least get to go... it was primarily my birthday treat you know. In any case, it wasn't at all scary and there are so many precautions that we felt very safe.

Unmotivated

2010-09-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

I am really not motivated to do a blog right now. By now, I am sure no one is reading my blog since it has been three months since I posted. Nevertheless, I have been hounded by Eric's sister, who is begging for updated pictures of her cute nieces and nephew, so here's one for you Karen (and anyone else who might still check on me to see if I am alive).

There are big changes brewing at the Petty's Place... where to begin... in no particular order but certainly not chronologically or based on importance.
1) Elia started Kindergarten and turns 6 tomorrow (the sixth). Where has all the time gone! For her birthday we are doing six days of fun. We went for ice cream yesterday, tomorrow, we are taking her to get her ears pierced (she's been asking for them since she was four). On Thursday and Friday we are doing two mini parties instead of one big one. We figure we will spread out the fun and make it last longer, plus she will be able to play more with each of her friends instead of having one big party.
First day of school...

With her friend and walking buddy Samantha. 2) We are moving... Eric got a new job about a month and a half ago. It is on the other side of town. If it rains (and he can't ride his motorcycle), there isn't bus service, so I would have to take him the 50-60 minutes to work, come back home, then drive up to get him and come back home. (The joys of having one car). On Wednesday, we close on our new house (which is just five glorious minutes from Eric's new office building). Of course, this job change and our move has other implications, but probably the biggest is that I will not be continuing as editor of Sugar Land Magazine. I've had a great time doing it, but I was ready to move on... so really this timing is perfect as far as that goes. I am kind of looking forward to the break, but knowing that I am not very good at long breaks, so I'll have to find something else fun to do. Additionally, we will now be renting out the Sugar Land house and joining the ranks of landlords (SCARY!!!).

3) We went to NH for our family vacation for two weeks. We had a great time escaping the Houston heat, playing on rope swings and relaxing...
Ethan eventually did it by himself and actually was bolder than Elia at first.

Our trickster...

Ahhh, nothing like breakfast overlooking Waconda Pond. Kara turned 1 while we were in NH. Now she's walking all over the place and signs more, please and drink.

Summer's coming!

2010-05-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

So, what have the Pettys been up to? Well, we can start with Mother's Day. Eric and the kids made me a wonderful blueberry pancake breakfast. Then while I got some extra sleep, they made me cards and said what they loved about me. Later that day they made chocolate covered strawberries (YUM!). Then, we all got to go on a bike ride. It was a perfect day!

Elia started her swim team practices. Everyday we head to the pool for practice. They will have five meets this summer. I don't really care about the meets, but I think it is just a great way for Elia to become a strong swimmer and get exercise, plus a few of her friends are doing it, so that makes it fun:

A side note... Elia is the same age as the other girl in the middle, one year younger than the girl on the right and a year older than the girl on the far left... it looks like Elia didn't get my height genes. :)

Eric and Ethan went on a "father-son" camp-out. Ethan was super excited about the whole thing. I told Eric to get a picture for the blog... so here it is:

Our other new activity is... *drum roll please* ... Magformers. We love these little magnets and probably play with them three times a week...at least!

This bridge is for Grampy...95% made by Elia Aren't these cool?

So, I know Elia's birthday isn't until September, but when opportunity knocks you have to open the door right? I stopped by an estate sale and saw this beautiful tea set all for $20! I told Elia that we could get it, but it would have to be for her birthday. She is playing with most of it, but keeping the large tea pot and two cups that go in the basket. She has played with it every day since we bought it.

And finally, I've been promising my mom some updated pictures. So here they are mom!Actually, I have one more... here's a bluebonnet flower.... the Texas state flower. Just a little memory of Texas.

Even though the heat is already here, I'm pretty excited about the summer. We are having Eric's niece come for a little bit, then will have my mom in July and then we'll be heading to New Hampshire in August. Have a great week everyone!

On a roll!

2010-04-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Wow. Two weeks in a row. We started off Monday with a fun family home evening... rocket launching! I LOVE Ethan's crossed eyes as he measures himself against the rocket. Eric went off to Peoria and the women (and Ethan) stuck around the house doing work. I took out this huge bush (this was what was left of the root), bundled up thorny bush branches, mowed, weed-wacked, and edged. The yard looks awesome though! I was joking that even if Eric didn't get an organized wife he got one that isn't afraid to do a little work or get a little dirty. In fact, I'd rather be outside working than doing housework.

On Friday, Nancy and I took the kids to Lake Jackson, TX. For those Texas friends who haven't been there, they have two awesome (and FREE) "attractions"... a science center that has a touch tank, a fish hatchery that you can tour and a natural science museum that has the largest collection of sea shells in the southern U.S. Pretty amazing.... and did I mention they were both free! I love a bargain.

Finally, a picture of my two sweet boys... Ethan's health isn't doing too well. I think I mentioned, he had pneumonia a week an a half ago. The doc prescribed an antibiotic, he got better, but now he's having a hard time breathing and another fever. Poor guy. Back to the doctor. Keep him in your prayers.

Oh and one more thing. We had a garage sale on Saturday. Perfect weather and we were able to get rid of a bunch of clothes and some other things we didn't need anymore. Yeah for downsizing and simplifying. You know, blogging isn't so difficult when you don't wait a month! Have a great week!

April in Review and a Birthday to Boot

2010-04-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

So much to say, so little time! Where does it all go? A week ago, Elia had her final ballet recital. She loves dancing and is always making up dances at home. She's the one in the middle of this picture: Hip Hop routine:
So, this picture is pretty cute, but it would be even better without her tattoos. Grandma sent them to her for St. Patty's day and they are still on her arms a month later! I guess their idea of temporary is different from mine!

We have a fun little splash pad at a neighborhood park. The kids had a great time and Ethan got to sport his new birthday swimming shorts.

Don't forget our littlest... growing fast. She's already 8 months!

My new favorite picture:

Eric is always like one of the kids, he just jumps right in (at Ethan's birthday party he was the one dad up jumping on the trampoline and playing games with the kids.... I love it!).In other news... we now have a three year old! Today (April 18th) is his official birthday. We just invited some of Ethan's friends over and had cake and ice cream:
He requested a Spiderman cake and as usual, I do my best to comply. The hardest part of this cake was making sure the frosting was RED and not pink... Some cupcakes to go on the side and then some presents. We told people not to bring presents, though a few still did. He had fun opening them. He got some money from his Nana and Grandpa, Grammy and his Uncle Earl (and some from us) and we purchased a rocket, a scooter, and the baby doll he requested (I think he was tired of having to share Elia's all the time and always getting the one she didn't like at the time).
His Grandma sent him, among other things, a new pair of "Cars" tennis shoes...He is in love with them! You want proof?
Here is a miscellaneous picture we thought was fun... Is playing a puzzle on the computer that tiring? And finally, a few pics from Eric's trip to London. I was so jealous! Someday I'll get there too, but I really was excited that he got to go someplace cool... a lot more interesting than his usual Peoria, Illinois trip (no offence Illinois friends).
Oh, one more. Eric and I went to a friend's wedding last night. We never have pictures of the two of us, so here we are. Don't we make a handsome couple? In June it will be nine years! Nine, wonderful years! (Awwww) Now...

Then...

Strawberries Picking and Easter Egg Hunting

2010-04-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

We've had a great week with lots of fun activities! It's been nice to spend some extra time with Eric since he was gone the week before.

On Monday he met us at this indoor playground that is at a baptist church up the way. It is awesome and free! Since it was 5:30, we had the whole place to ourselves. We played hide-n-go-seek and tag (well, the tag lasted about two rounds). The kids mainly were just happy climbing and sliding with Papa.

On Wednesday we went with our neighbor Emma to a nearby strawberry patch to pick our own strawberries. We walked out $45 and 25 pounds later. I'm not kidding! Funny thing is, less than a week later, they are almost all gone! We are loving us some strawberries! There was a shirt there that said, "I had a berry good time at Froberg Farms." I think they should have had a shirt that said, "I went berry overboard at Froberg Farms." Seriously, who eats 25 pounds of strawberries in 5 days! I did make my first-ever jam, but most of the berries we just straight out ate. Yum!

Emma and Elia

On Friday we decided to go on the rare eating out activity. We don't go out very often, but it's nice to go out with the kids, teach them that napkins go in their laps... or even what napkins are.

We also had a nice Easter weekend. On Saturday the kids found their easter baskets hidden in the dryer...

And opened a giant egg my mom had sent...

Then we went to church and participated in the ward Easter egg hunt... Here are a bunch of Elia's friends...
Here is the picture of the day... This is pretty much what the kids did all day... Eric and I have decided that it is a lot easier to have the kids eat what they want in one day and then get rid of the rest. So, maybe they had almost no nutrition, but one day won't kill them... I hope! We donated the rest to the missionaries who came over for dinner Saturday night. They could either eat it themselves or give it away to some of the kids they see when they visit families. Our house is once again candy free. On Sunday we went to the church to watch General Conference in the morning. I also showed the kids some of the videos on the church website about the real meaning of easter. I wanted Sunday to sort of be separate from the Easter Bunny stuff. We had a nice relaxing day and even went for a bike ride in the evening, though I think those days are coming to a close. It's 82 degrees right now and we even had to turn on our A/C this weekend! Sad :(

Well, have a great week everyone!

Alligators, Friends and Fun Photography

2010-03-21T19:01:00.001-07:00

I've become one of those bloggers that I used to scold. The kind that post once every other month! I can't believe it's been six weeks since I posted. Where does the time go?

So since I last posted, Elia broke her arm while running around the kitchen with Ethan. To make a long story short, we didn't know it was broken, so we waited almost two weeks to take her in. She got this sweet cast in time for Valentines Day, then, less than a week later (thanks to a very naive mother who believed she could keep her arm on the edge of the tub), got her cast soaking wet. We managed to slide it off, blow it dry, but couldn't get it on the next morning... so we cut the cast open, pried it open and slid it back on her arm. It sounds simple, but it was definitely NOT easy. The original cast cost $800 and if we could make the old one work, then we were going to! Thankfully, when we took her for her post cast x-rays, her arm was completely healed. As a side note, following this experience, I thought it would be very interesting to add up exactly what you spent on each of your kids over the year (besides food). I'm not organized enough to do this, but I sure think it would be interesting.
Elia also lost her first tooth on February 23rd. We were all pretty excited. The toothfairy decided the exchange for the first tooth would be a silver dollar.

Also new to me is joining facebook. I think I'm just about the last person I know to join, it's nice to catch up on people I haven't seen for a very long time.
Nana and Grandpa finished their wonderful visit... It only took a little persuading to get Ken in a photo :)

By the way Ken, we found the secret to watching the Olympics. Someone has to stand holding the antenna in this exact spot to get NBC. If only we had known that when you were here! :)

It's sad, but true, Eric spent much time in this position so we could watch speed skating, figure skating and bobsledding. I think the Olympics inspired Eric and one afternoon we spent some time in the back yard watching Eric do trampoline tricks.My dad came for a visit at the beginning of March. We had a great time visiting some of Houston's best sites. Including the San Jacinto monument
I love this family... These two girls were sweet to come up to a photo shoot for the magazine and watch the kids while I helped with the shoot. The kids had a blast... If anyone else has a 10-year-old they would like to farm out for a little bit. I'll take them! And finally, our most recent activity. Camping with the Forbushes at Brazos Bend. We saw a ton of alligators and some awesome birds. The weather was perfect and getting out into nature was exactly what my spirit needed to refresh itself...

It's hard to believe that this...and this...
Grew from this:I loved the birds too. This one caught a crawfish...
After it's meal...

I think I took about 20 pictures of this cardinal. His bright colors against the drab scenery were just so striking to me. This image is SOOC (Straight out of camera) with no color pops.

The kids (notice Ethan's new haircut):

I've been getting into playing with my nature pics.

Maybe a little too bright... especially compared with the last one, but I like it.

And so you can see what it used to be:

These girls are like cousins... It doesn't matter how long they go inbetween visits... When they get together they are like best friends.

I LOVE the expression on Elia here. It is just so peaceful and sweet, though it makes me

realize how much she has grown up. Kindergarten is only 6 months away! Now we're done with the setting sun,

If you hung in there, congrats! Here's to a new week. Eric's gone to London (how exciting for him) and I am totally jealous, but I'm so excited for him that he gets to go to such a cool place. I'll get there someday... soon hopefully! :)

Happy 6 Months Kara!

2010-02-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

I feel like I live in a whole new house! Nancy and I have been sorting and organizing many areas in the house. It is SO much easier with someone else. We have sort of a system where she sorts the items in an area and then I put them away where they go. It's so nice to have an extra opinion and have someone tell me that I really don't need the key chain I've never used but have had for a year. The below picture is all the things that were in our kitchen "junk" drawer. Last Sunday Ethan slid off the bench and did a face plant into the corner of the hymn book holder. It immediately swelled up and he looked like he had no curve on one side of his nose. Eric wouldn't let me take a picture it was so ugly. The Hunchback of Notre Dam came to mind. After the swelling went down, I did sneak in a picture of his black eye.

A funny thing about those pennies on the counter, Ethan has a penny holder, and gets one penny per day to "pay" for a snack. This was to prevent him from asking me five times in the morning if he could have a snack. The other day Grandpa told him he couldn't have lunch, so he went and got a penny and tried to pay for it. If only food really did cost a penny!

Well, our baby is now 6 months old! How time flies.Don't you wish our skin could look like that?! ... her feet on the other hand, are always purple no matter how much we cover them up.

A few more...

I love this expression!

Here's a video of her crawling effort of about a week ago. It is already out dated, because she now can take 5-6 crawls without face-planting.

Also new this week, Jen discovered Facebook. It's sad, but true, her mom even beat her on. She decided to do it more to expand her photography business, but found it's kind of fun seeing what people are doing.

January Family Update

2010-01-31T14:23:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go? Kara will be six months this week! I can't believe it! She is getting up on her hands and knees and moving a knee and hand forward in sync... It is pretty much crawling, though she doesn't go fast she gets wherever she wants to go. She is also almost going from a crawling position to sitting... She just started doing that this week. She growls almost all the time, resists a pacifier most of the time, won't take a bottle at all anymore, and is a wonderful sleeper at night... She'll go from 8 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. We started her on cereal about a month ago and now has sweet potatoes mixed with it. I'm hoping to take some more pictures of Kara when she turns 6 months, but here are a few I took in the middle of January...

Ethan is... well, he's just his own unique self.... As he says, "I'm in charge of myself". That would be fine... if only he did what he was supposed to do all of the time. Unfortunately, we have to make up for the times when he doesn't want to do what is best for him. Here is a picture of him after he looked into the molasses bottle. I thought it gave him a pretty nice eyebrow arch. He loves looking at books and his favorite is Alladin. We have an Alladin book that is quite a long version that he is constantly requesting. I have the habit of abridging it while I read to fit our time schedule. He also loves to say, "I love you all the way up to the airplanes" an adaptation from the book "Guess How Much I Love You?" Finally, he is really into his French lessons. Don't worry it is nothing serious, but we go on the bbc.co.uk and watch these little French videos every day. He always reminds me if we haven't done them yet. I think he really likes them because some of the characters wear helmets (another thing he is really into).

He recently learned how to jump on the trampoline...

Elia is loosing her first tooth! I can't believe it! Our baby is growing up! By the way, what is the going rate for the tooth fairy? Has anyone done something cool around tooth loss that I might try?

We also emptied Elia's piggy bank and took the money to the bank. She had about $65! I thought about setting up her own bank account but since they get almost no interest, I decided to open up an on-line account with ING that gets a little more. It isn't like she's going to get rich on the interest she makes from $100, but it is better than nothing!

I love Elia's sense of style. She has quite the eclectic sense of style and often wears skirts with jeans under them or dresses that are too small as shirts. She loves girly things, fancy shoes, jewelry, etc. Not sure how she got that way, but I'm certain it isn't from me!

We are in the process of putting finger sucking on extinction. Every day she doesn't suck her fingers she is rewarded with a disney figurine. It's been working so far, though I think the next step is to get rid of hippo... (her stuffed animal she's had since she was a baby). I saw her go to him one day, pick him up, suck on her fingers a few times, put him down and take out her fingers. It was total stimulus-response... like she had to get her "fix". I've suggested putting him away in her baby box, but she hasn't really agreed. I don't want to make it traumatic... any suggestions?
Our neighbor Emma comes over after school to play. I thought this routine they put together was so cute...

Hmmm, so on to the adults. Eric has been traveling a lot recently, so it's been nice to have Eric's parents close by. They have been in and out on trips around Texas, but it has been nice to have their help. We've been sorting through clothes, painting bathroom cupboards, getting yard work done, etc.

Our healthful eating isn't going quite as well as the first couple weeks, but we want to get through the meat in our freezer. I didn't think we'd be super strict, and we are eating a lot better than we've eaten in the past. Our no dessert or candy rule has been good for us and we're enjoying fresh fruits for "dessert" after dinner. I think the kids have benefited from more veggies at dinner too. Last week, when they wanted a snack I suggested a tomato. They both ended up eating two whole roma tomatoes... just like you would eat an apple. It is fun to see them like things like that.

I'm still trying to figure out how to be perfect. :) Just kidding. I told Eric I wish I could help the kids learn how to put things in their place, but I don't know how to do it myself and I'm afraid Elia is the same way. She can have something and not know where it is ten minutes later!

P.S. Kim... if you are reading this, I can't get onto your blog anymore so e-mail me!

Thunderbird Party Pics and Healthful Eating

2010-01-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

While we were in Utah, we got together with some of our Thunderbird friends for pizza and bowling... well, we didn't bowl because of my knee, but we had a great time catching up on what everyone was doing.
The girls...
Now it is back to normal life in Texas....
First up, was grocery shopping. Because I can't go walk around the grocery store for an hour and because our fridge looked like this when we got home:
Eric bravely volunteered to go to the grocery store this morning... it isn't that he hasn't gone before, but this was a MAJOR shopping trip and after looking at all the ads, I even persuaded him to go to... (can I say it?!)... Wal-Mart. And it wasn't just picking up a few things... I had gone through all the ads and price-matched about 20 items. Eric came home with about 60 items that cost just under $70... most of it was produce, so the actual number of items was much higher. I was so proud of him (sniff, wipe a tear)!
We had so much stuff I decided to put it on display on our counter before filling our fridge...

Here is our full and happy fridge... So about our healthy eating plan... It includes (as you might be able to tell) lots of fruits and vegetables. It's been interesting to see how it has affected the kids. Today when Eric was packing his lunch, Ethan wanted to eat a carrot.... and not just any carrot... the biggest longest one he could find in the bag. He munched on it the whole time I was shopping for a few odds and ends later in the morning. When we were putting away all the food he picked up a tomato and wanted to eat that. Of course he's always been a fan of oranges, so he had a couple of those today too.

We're trying to base our meals around vegetables instead of around meat, since we are supposed to eat meat sparingly. Usually we think about having chicken and wonder what we will put with it... Then our plate is 50% chicken and then 25% veggies and 25% potatoes or rice.

So far, the meals have been a bit more labor intensive than I like, but I think I will get used to it, find easier ways to do things, and our family will feel better. I don't want our kids to have to change their eating habits and thinking processes when they are adults. I hope it will come naturally. Even if what we are doing is a little extreme to begin with, I think we will even out over time and eat much more balanced meals.

We're going to need a lot of it, so wish us luck!

White Christmas and a New Year

2010-01-01T00:41:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful break we've had in Utah. We go home Monday and I think we will be lost as to what to do without all the wonderful company. It has been awesome to have Eric home with us for 2.5 weeks, not to mention visits with all of the cousins and in laws. Here are a few of our highlights...

Staying with Eric's sister's family... Here is Eric's nephew with Kara...

Going to the Nutcracker with Eric's niece Bre. It was Elia's first "ballet" and she had a great time watching the beautful ballerinas.Visiting the lights on Temple Square... the cold pretty much sucked the life out of my battery and when I thought my camera was dead, it was hard for me to be able to enjoy the pretty lights without being able to take pictures of it! I'm not sure what that says about me, but I told myself that I could still enjoy it without taking pictures... I put the battery in my pocket and I was all the more glad when my battery did warm up enough for me to take two pictures... Eric's sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to take Kara... It was fun to enjoy the lights with just Elia and Eric and I (Eric's parents had Ethan).

We met some friends on Temple Square a few days later so I could take pictures of their family (www.pettyphotography.blogspot.com). It was so great to see them. After we kept to our Cafe-Rio-after-the-temple tradition that we had started in Arizona and enjoyed catching up over sweet pork burritos.

Another few days of our trip were spent meeting Eric's brother's family (they live in Montana) at his mother-in-law's house in Idaho.

Everyone joined in on the sledding and playing games until midnight or later. All-in-all, we went sledding three or four times while we were in Utah.

Back in Logan we played with our cousins (some from Colorado Springs and some from Morgan, UT).

All of the grandkids that were home for Christmas...

The ones in Colorado Springs have a girl a year older than Ethan and a boy a year older than Ethan. They LOVED playing together. The girls especially are like peas in a pod. Eric's cousin's wife had recently returned from a trip to India and bought the girls these matching dresses...Christmas morning! Elia loved her "Build-a-bear" clothing sets
And Ethan loved the sword Elia picked out for him at the dollar store.
I made the kids church bags and put the new gospel art picture books in them. They love taking them to church and I don't have to pack all their stuff around. The bag I made is in the bottom right corner of the picture. I thought it turned out super cute.
Our little Santa baby. She got two teething toys... What else can a 4 month old want?! :)
We followed presents with the Petty tradition of fried chicken and biscuits. Supposedly it is a Texas tradition (his whole family is from Texas)... though I've never seen anyone there do that. Whatever its origins, it is a lot of fun.
Eric's sweet grandma and Kara... Four generations...
Well, after two and a half weeks of vacation we will return to Texas totally exhausted. I guess that is what we get for playing games every night until 1, 2 or 3 in the morning :)! To come are also pictures from our great Thunderbird get together.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that I had knee surgery a week ago so I could take advantage of all the extra help here. The surgery went well and, though I'm still hobbling around, the recovery should be less than a month.

I can't start the new year without some mention of our new year's resolutions. We've decided we won't watch TV shows during the week and we aren't going to eat dessert food this year. The TV show goal will help us go to bed earlier, get up earlier and accomplish everything else we want to do like read more, exercise more regularly, keep a cleaner house, etc. And the sweets goal will help us eat healthier and curb the sweet teeth of our family. Wish us luck! Here's to a new year!

A little of a lot

2009-12-13T11:55:00.000-08:00

Where to begin... I've neglected my blog these days. It hasn't been THAT long (three weeks) since I've posted, but so much has happened that it feels like a lot longer. It seems like old news to talk about, but I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving, so I better start there. We were invited over to a friend's house for Thanksgiving which was really nice so we didn't have to cook everything from scratch just for the four eaters of our family. We spent pretty much the whole day there, just relaxing and eating. Thanks Browns for a great time!

The first weekend in December, "Grampy" and "Yia Yia" came to visit. They only came for a long weekend (Thursday afternoon through Tuesday morning), but we had a great time. (Thanks guys for all your help and company!) We visited the Children's Museum...

... attending a Sugar Land Town Square Concert and our church Christmas party...

...and just hung out around the house, watched a few movies, and my Dad helped with regrouting part of our shower.

It was actually really nice that they came when they did. I had a ton of work to get done with the magazine and they were great with the kids while I finished the editing work I needed to do for the next issue.

For one assignment I had to go to the Museum of Natural Science. While I was looking around for other "subjects" I took this picture of Elia cozying up to a giant alligator skull. When she's in the mood, she really poses for the camera. I prefer to catch her naturally, but at least she was cooperating instead of running away like she sometimes does :)

In other news, for our second year in a row, it snowed in Texas. It was funny because my dad came from New Hampshire (where there was no snow) and it snowed while he was here!

Of course, we've also done the "Santa" thing. I think these pictures were from our fourth "Santa sighting". Ethan especially is just so wide-eyed about Santa. It's fun to see their excitementAlso on my list of things to do was to get a nice picture of the kids. I told Eric I wanted to take an updated family picture, but then decided I would just get one of the kids for a Christmas card (which I haven't had time to do yet):(... and may not get to in time for Christmas... so don't feel bad if you don't get one. Eric was awesome! On the morning of said pictures, I had picked out the kids' clothes, gotten everyone dressed and hair done and it was drizzling! Since it is such a production to get everyone ready, we still went a head and took pictures. Eric is always so good at getting the kids to smile that I knew I needed him with me. It was a short ordeal, but I was happy with the final picture of our little cuties: I took a few extra pictures yesterday after one of my photo shoots. You never know what expression Ethan is going to pull, which is why that last picture is just so indicative of his personality.

Our little Kara... always smiling! She's rolling over now and we've stopped swaddling her. It's fun to see her reaching for things and moving all over the floor. At her four month check up the doctor said she is exactly in the 50th percentile for weight and height.

So, that's it for now. We leave for Utah on Thursday. I can't believe the break is almost here. I'm rushing to get everything done that I need to do before I leave. I love to think about relaxing when I get to Utah, but I've already planned to take my whole backup of my computer hard drive and sort through it. Vacation? What's that!? Merry Christmas to everyone!

2009-11-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

Where has the year gone? I can't believe there is just one month and a week left! So, what have we been up to these past two weeks? Well, our little ballerina finished off her dance class. We watched her recital a week ago. We were so proud of her! We wondered if she would get nervous dancing in front of the 50-70 people there, but she did great! One of the songs they danced to was "Just a Spoonful of Sugar". She loved the song and loved it even more when we watched Mary Poppins. They also did a little hip-hop dance. You don't have to watch all of the videos, but they are on there mostly for you doting grandparents :).

Elia was so happy dancing! It was fun to see her do something she loves.

The whole group...

Elia is second from the right in the following picture...Speaking of Elia, her personality has totally been changing this past month. She is so enjoyable to be around. She is much more self-directed, is so helpful, and more creative. She still has her moments, of course, but it seems she has more confidence. It's really been fun to see her create actual pictures instead of just smooshes of colors on a piece of paper. She learned how to draw a star last week at church. I stepped her through it and after a few tries was covering her paper with stars.

In the home improvement area, we painted our kitchen... It's only been a year since we first wanted to do it, but couldn't because we had less time after closing and moving in. It was fun. We painted it this yellowy color called "charismatic". (I liked the name too).

Before...

After... It is hard to get the color right with a camera, but I love how cheery the kitchen feels now.
In other news, I took the kids and a friend of Elia's (Amelia) to the Children's Museum. As always, we had a great time. Elia and Amelia get along great... their birthdays are just three days apart, so Amelia missed school this year too.
This is all too often how we find Ethan... "fight". This picture wasn't posed at all. He just is always raring to go!...
Finally, I went with some friends to the Thursday night midnight showing of the New Moon Twilight Saga movie. I'm not like a go-crazy, die-hard Twilight fan, but it was fun to get out and do something that I wouldn't normally do. It was a pretty good flick. I'm still tired from the endeavor, but I had a good time.

Today was stake conference. About 30 minutes from the end I look over and Ethan is sleeping. My friend took this picture. He's sitting on our book bag, but for the first 30 minutes he was actually standing up sleeping on the bench. It was so cute (though not so cute when we got home and wasn't tired enough for a regular nap).

I think that is about it. Eric and I are yet again turning over new leaves this week (in regards to going to bed early, waking up on time, exercising, etc. etc. etc.... (Good thing we have an endless supply of leaves to turn over)... so here's to our good ambitions!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

P.S. Kim T. - if you read this, I can't get in your blog anymore, so send me an e-mail! Please! I really appreciate all your comments and want to check up on what you guys are doing so thanks!

Halloween Pics and Kara turns 3 months!

2009-11-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

Halloween and the week prior turned out to be a little crazy to say the least. Elia was sick the Sunday before Halloween, Eric and Ethan got sick on Tuesday and Wednesday and then I started to get sick Thursday night. We took Eric to the airport early Friday morning so he could go through the temple with his nephew who is going on a mission. I was so sick on Friday and then Ethan decided that one sickness wasn't enough and he spiked a 102 degree fever again on Friday. Luckily I got him in to the doctor (I called at 3:30 on Friday afternoon and they were able to see him as the last patient of the day) and my suspicions that he had pneumonia were confirmed. We got him on antibiotics. I had a 103 degree fever on Friday and felt pretty bad still on Saturday, but I still managed to get the kids to the trunk-or-treat. On Sunday I felt better and took the kids to sacrament meeting, though I felt Ethan shouldn't go to nursery still. We picked Eric up from the airport on Sunday afternoon and I told him that he owes me a sick day during Christmas break. I never got the sick treatment since he was gone the whole time... to his credit, he did take care of me Thursday night when I felt the worst even though he wasn't 100 percent better. Considering my condition, I'm lucky I took any pictures of the kids in their costumes, but here they are...Ethan was convinced that spider man wore boots, hence the rain boot addition. Elia went back and forth from a witch to tinkerbell and finally decided to be a ballerina (quite easy considering she had ballet that day). Not to be a party pooper, I pulled out these two M&M costumes for Kara and I.
On Tuesday before Halloween while the boys were sick in bed I took Elia to pick out a pumpkin.I never get very many pictures of her, so I thought I would include this one of my little five-year-old... not so little any more is she?

In other news, our "little red" is getting older too... I took these pictures on Friday for her "three-month" mark. Where does the time go? She is such a wonderful baby. I shouldn't put this out there because I know there are many moms who would be jealous, but she sleeps from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m. every night and is pretty content during the day. It is such a blessing to me that she isn't a needy baby... God must have known I needed to keep my sanity. She will smile at anyone who talks to her and especially loves when Elia does pat-a-cake. Sleepy baby... Kara and her little faux hawk... Well, this week we are getting back on track. We renewed our workout routine a week ago Monday and then Tuesday sickness infiltrated our house and, well, everything went to pot. Here's to a new week and new goals!

Happy Birthday Eric!

2009-10-25T17:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I think about writing a blog, I think I can only write when I can "top" what happened last week, but since we probably won't have that exciting of a week for a while, I might as well post what is happening since this is as much for our family history as it is to let everyone know what we're up to. In any case, we did have a pretty fun weekend. We went with our friends the Forbushes to Quintana Beach. I didn't take very many pictures, but we did something we haven't done in a while... relaxed. We usually get up on Saturday morning, play at the beach in the morning and then go home about noon, but since I had a photo shoot in the evening, we had to stay there during the afternoon. We watched a movie in the tent on the laptop, took naps, read books and just relaxed. There was nothing for the kids to get into and Ethan could explore to his heart's content.

The weather was beautiful.

When we were ready to go home, Elia was a huge help. She dragged and carried every article from where our tent was to the road so we could load it in the car faster. I thought it was very creative that she put everything in a line. Can you find Ethan in the upper half? You can see how much help he was :)So, sometimes I think I am going crazy when I can't find things and it is no secret that I'm not the most organized person, but it doesn't help that we have a boy who likes to secretly stash things in this little cupboard in the wall. It is there to give access to the bathroom pipes, but when Eric was looking for his flip flops on Friday and we couldn't find them, I happened to look in there and found his flip flops... along with 5 videos, Elia's favorite belt (that she'd been looking for), a tube of glow bracelets, and some of Eric's boy scout materials (that he'd also been looking for). I'm not the only person to blame when things go missing! :)

Eric's already enjoyed his present (see last post) and we already had cake, but tomorrow's the official day... Happy Birthday Honey! The big 30!

U2 Baby!!!!

2009-10-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I can finally talk about my surprise for Eric's 30th birthday! It was so hard for me to keep the surprise, but the excitement at the end was totally worth it! On Wendesday I dropped the kids off at our friends', the Forbushes, house and I gave Eric these (U2 360 Tour tickets):
He was totally surprised and totally psyched. U2 is one of his favorite groups, if not his favorite group and the concert was awesome!.... A little loud, but awesome. This was the stage...

And here's a picture.... It is so hard of course to get pictures in the concert because it is so dark, but of course the screen is huge and has a great picture. We actually had pretty decent seats and since I bought them off craig's list and negotiated with the seller, I got them for about half price of what they retailed for. I was pretty proud of myself and after all of the agony about whether this is what I should spend our birthday money on or not, I'm really glad we did. We didn't get home until 1 and were totally exhausted the rest of the week, but it was worth it. Thanks so much Craig and Lynette! They watched all three kids and Lynette put them to bed at our house and stayed up until 1 a.m. when we got back. Plus, they live across the street from the stadium so we parked for free at their place and walked over.Here's a little video...

On Thursday, Eric got called about being involved in a dragon boat race. I had signed him up when I heard about it because it seemed interesting, but it didn't seem like anything would happen, but then one team needed an extra rower. Eric had a great time (though was completely exhausted after and couldn't bend over at all today because his back was so sore). Here's his team during the race (I put a little green circle around his head).... Here they are after...

His team won the rookie cup!... He didn't get to keep the trophy, but I thought it was cool enough to warrant a photo...They also had great entertainment including a lion dance, martial arts performances, asian drum performances, etc. It was a blast.

The race this year was to raise awareness for breast cancer. They had pink firetrucks that were towing this pink ribbon. We gave a cheer to Gram when we took this picture... Today, we held an "October Birthdays" party. It started off as just and idea to invite a few friends over for cake to celebrate our birthdays, but then I got to talking with another girl in the ward whose husband has a birthday in October. We expanded it and decided to meet at a park because the weather has been so nice. We ended up having right around 40 people!. A few people brought extra treats to share and we had plenty. Here is the cake Kellie and I made. We put chocolate shavings and chocolate stars on top of cream cheese frosting. Everyone enjoyed it so much that they want to do it again in November. So, Happy Birthday to us!

Fun week, but very exhausting.

Yes Day!

2009-10-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

We checked out a book from the library called, "Yes Day". As the name implies, the little boy's parents say, "yes" to his requests on this one day. The kids had the idea to have our own, "Yes Day". I thought... "This will be pretty harmless." So, yesterday we had our own "Yes Day". It started off with Elia requesting to not make her bed and to watch cartoons which she did for an hour or so. Then kids the requested smoothie shakes (fruit smoothies with sherbet). They had a lot of fun eating with whatever utensil they wanted to use...Then Elia wanted a freezer pop, but as she was looking in the freezer, she saw the icing that was left over from her cake, so instead she and Ethan had a serving (whatever that is) of icing. Ethan wanted to put chocolate syrup in his smoothie, so they both did that (only to decide that it wasn't that good). Elia then played on pbskids.org for about an hour and then requested more icing. Grumbling to myself I made myself say "yes" (the first time it was kind of a cool request, but the second (and then third) time I was feeling a little annoyed. We then asked Elia what she wanted to do and she wanted to watch more TV. I was annoyed at this too because I felt it was so boring! I was afraid she'd want to watch TV all day! In any case, she watched a little more while I cleaned up the kitchen and Eric mowed the lawn. She then thought about it and said she wanted a puppy! I really was shocked by this request because I didn't think there was anything she'd come up with that we really couldn't do. In any case, we aren't ready to get a dog, but we went over to the animal shelter and spent about an hour playing with this dog ("Highway") and several of the kittens they had there.
While Elia was in the car and we were getting Kara buckled to go to the shelter we looked around for Ethan and this is how we found him on the front porch...

He had requested a popsicle earlier but then changed his mind. I guess he had decided that this was a good time. Keep in mind that all of these treats were eaten before 11:00 a.m.
After playing with Highway and the kittens at the shelter...
...they had both requested not to have nap time, but we went home with the idea of having Ethan take a nap with Eric. When I got home though, I got a call from a friend reminding me of the volleyball tournament for our ward. I grabbed the kids a cucumber (hopeful I could get at least something nutritious in them) and we went to the tournament. We didn't win, but since we are part of the Sugar Land 1st ward, we thought it would be fun to put up number 1 fingers. We had a great time. I'm so glad Eric was so supportive and kept the kids from going crazy while I played.

We then went out for pizza and slurpees and then home for movie night. Elia asked if she could stay up "really late", so we stayed up until 9. They sure went to bed easily!

In retrospect, Eric thinks the day was great because we get too much in the habit of saying "no" to things and it was fun for them to indulge in their fantasies. I mean, does it really matter if they eat a smoothie with an ice cream scoop once in a while? I'm glad yes day isn't frequent, but it was fun.

In other news, we are loving the weather! It's been so cool that we've kept our windows open!

We took Elia and Kara to the doctor last week for their 5-year and 2-month check-ups. They are both 75% on height and 50% on weight.

We blessed Kara about a month ago, but I finally got to taking these pictures of Kara in her blessing dress. She is getting more and more personality.

She smiles a lot more now and has been sleeping 11 hours at night. I feel so spoiled. She also has just one dirty diaper a week, so I decided I'd try cloth diapers again (I lasted a day with Elia... she had about six or seven a DAY!). I still use disposables at night and when we go to church and stuff, but I use cloth during the day. It has been working out really well. In fact, last week I changed a cloth diaper and it was just a tiny bit dirty so I put on a disposable and 15 minutes later she had done her one poo for the week! Isn't that amazing!? So far it is working for us. I'm not cloth diaper crazy, and I'm not sure how long it will last when she starts having more dirty diapers, but I'm saving about six diapers a day.

That's about it for the Petty's. Here is one last picture of our imaginative boy... He just makes me laugh all of the time. I'm amazed at his sense of humor...

Me (to Ethan after he had tooted): "Who tooted?"

Ethan: "You"

Another time, Elia was putting her feet on Ethan's chair in the car and pushing on it. He was complaining and we told her to stop, but she wouldn't. We then started counting to three (something that we try not to do, but still do sometimes). She said, "Don't Count!" Ethan then said, "Count!" It was all Eric and I could do to keep our laughing silent as we sat in the front seat.

That's all folks! Look forward to a special post next week. For our birthdays (Eric's is the 26th and mine is the 13th) I'm taking him to a super sweet surprise! Have a great week!

A month in 517 words! (and yes I did a wordcount) :)

2009-10-05T18:17:00.001-07:00

I've noticed that the longer I wait to write a post, the harder it gets to do it. I think that's true about a lot of things in life including housework, organizing paperwork, keeping the car clean, and cleaning out the fridge, just to name a few... which is probably why I get so behind in some of those things... Well, I've vowed to turn over a new leaf. Eric and I listened to church conference this past weekend and heard the story about they guy who said he decided he would never miss a day of scripture study and though some days he only read a little bit, he still got it done and hasn't missed a day. Here it is in writing... Eric and I have decided to commit to do that too. Maybe my persistence will carry over to some of those other things that are so easy to put off. So, here it goes....

First, a few of my favorite sayings:

1) Ethan: "What the heck. That's a bad word. We don't say that?" (After we've told him again and again of course that we don't want him saying that).
2) Elia wanted to sleep on the floor last night. Ethan was in his bunk, but then I heard giggling. I asked from the other room... "Elia, is Ethan in bed?"

"No, he's laying by me."

"Is that ok?"

Elia-"Yeah, is that OK with you?"

"...(smiling to myself)... Yes... as long as you guys go to sleep."

WOW! My opinions actually matter to her?!?! WOW!

(Footnote: of course they didn't go to sleep and they eventually got put back in their own beds).

Now, here is the month in pictures:
Church 50's sock hop. Eric helped serve and I made Kara's poodle skirt in about 10 minutes... with no pattern might I add. (I lucked out and had purchased Elia's outfit from a garage sale for $1 last month (Thanks Birdie!))

That same day I also watched PJ as his mom was in the hospital delivering their second. Ethan and PJ are about the same age... I know you wouldn't be able to tell that by their height. Most of the time they get along just great. For some reason, sticking out your tongue at the camera was what I got when I told them to smile...

Kara... poor girl. I have good intentions of taking more pictures, but I haven't taken very many recently. She is just starting to smile a ton when you talk to her... yeah! I love that! This was her at six weeks. She's two months today and changing so fast!

Pig on a stick...

The benefits of being small. Elia wanted to try it after, but we told her she couldn't :(

Last Saturday Eric did his first official bike race... a 70 miler in Lufkin, TX. I'm so proud of him... he took a picture! He said they rode well and it was quite a change because, yes, folks, there were actually hills! What a shock!

Meanwhile, I stayed with the kids. We went to the airport open house. It was more impressive than I thought it would be. They had Apache helicopters, A-10's, lots of old planes the kids could sit in, Learjets, news helicopters, and gliders. Oh, and take note of Elia's skirt. I made it!

In honor of Grandpa:

Ethan couldn't quite get the thumbs up idea. He kept putting his pointer finger out too, but the guy sure got a kick out of him.

Here is one last picture. It is Ethan pretending to take a picture. I find him so cute... even if he does get into all of my stuff. We need more practice putting things away!

2009-09-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

OK, what's new for us?
-My mom left Friday morning, but before she left I got some fun pictures of her with the kids...

-My mom was a great help... Among other things, she made this outfit for Elia (I've started making another skirt for Elia with the same pattern), folded laundry, shredded a bag of chicken so I would have some in reserve for future meals, helped with the kids while I took breaks, watched the kids so Eric and I could play volleyball together, played Settler's of Catan games with us, had fun shopping for some new clothes for Elia for school, and took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. She also contributed to helping us break the cycle of locking the kids bedroom door at night. See, we locked the door when we first put them to bed because Ethan would be in and out like a yo-yo, but now we don't have to. She did it once while we were out at their bedtimes and now they stay in for us too. Sometimes you just need another person to shake things up. Thanks mom!
-I had a two-year-old photo session and the girl would not smile... and I mean she was straight faced almost the whole time! I tried everything!... including my monkey imitation that I only use when I'm desparate!,
-The magazine issue is almost done! Hooray! I'm excited to start over for the next issue... I know I haven't finished this one yet, but I'm excited to improve my process and be more organized for the next one.
-I had fun watching Ethan play in the rain. Notice the multi-functionality of his rainboots... he was making me a birthday cake.

I love watching Ethan at "work". He is so creative. I included a video demonstrating a typical scene in our house.

He is always cooking something, going to work or carrying something in a bag. He is famous for saying "look at me" whenever he talks to us because he's figured out that we are paying more attention to him when we have to look at him, he also loves saying, "Closeyoureyes!" and then a half a second later, "Openthem"... "I have a present!" He says the first two so quickly that you might think they were one word.

Once Eric did this to Ethan and Ethan did it back. He was kind enough to repeat it for the video camera!

I like these types of blogs that share a little more about everyday life because I know it is the cute little things that the kids do that I'm going to want to remember. Thanks for checking in!Hope everyone has a great week!

Momnesia!... Happy Birthday Elia!

2009-09-06T12:44:00.001-07:00

As I'm going through the week things happens... the kids do something or I have a thought that I think would be great to share on the blog... then Sunday comes and I don't have anything fun that I can think of to write about! I really think at times I've lost my mind altogether. Eric thinks that talking about being crazy makes me that way, but I did a little research about whether being pregnant and having a baby makes you more forgetful or not and it seems that official studies confirm that "momnesia" (not an official name mind you) is really real! Yeah! I feel somewhat justified.

My favorite story (that I can remember) goes as follows...

Eric was out in the garage and came in the door. He said, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." I replied.

"You look like you've been doing something... You look guilty," he said.

"I haven't been doing anything," I said.

"What were you doing in the closet?" he asked.

"I wasn't in the closet."

"I heard the door close," he said.

"I promise! I wasn't in the closet. I was just standing here waiting for you to come in."

"I heard the door close," he insisted.

Once again I insisted I hadn't been in there, but then an image came into my mind of a box of food that we have as part of our food storage in the closet... Oh yeah, I remember that box. I was in the closet! ...

"Oh, I do remember opening the closet," I tell Eric... "Now what was I doing in there?"...

After a minute more of thought, I remember...

"Oh, yeah!" I tell him. "I put the mop away."

Keep in mind that I'd had the mop in my hand just three minutes previously! Incidences like these, which are very annoying, are frighteningly frequent around here. One expert I read gave me hope though and said that we (new or expecting moms) aren't getting dumber, but our brain is getting a workout... like a sleep-deprived medical resident. "You are learning a lot," she said. "Once your mommy brain gets readjusted, you get more efficient, and you become smarter and learn things faster, but it won't happen all at once."

Isn't that hopeful? I love the prospect of being more efficient and be able to learn things faster after the haze lifts... if only I can make it through my current state a while longer without totally putting my life in a mess. If anyone wants to read one of the articles I read you can find it at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-03-03-momnesia_N.htm.

Still, even if I have an excuse to be forgetful, I can't afford to be forgetful with the photography, magazine editing deadlines, preschool, playdates, and all of the other things I have and want to do. I have become addicted to my phone as a reminder and my day planner for planning (though I don't always remember to look at it). I put everything into the calendar on my phone and set an alarm including when I have to take my vitamins, when I have to go places, when I have photography work, when I need to do budgeting, etc. As I was writing this, I had the idea to put an alarm in my phone to check my day planner! Genius!

Anyway, enough about my deficient brain and this whirl of a week. A week ago Saturday, Eric and I went to the temple and Elia went to a birthday party. My mom came Sunday night (driving all the way from Yuma, AZ) to see the new baby and spend some time with us. It was such a blessing that she came when she did because Eric went out of town Monday morning through Wednesday night, we decided to sign Elia up for an official preschool and Sept. 1st was her first class, she had ballet on Friday morning and her birthday party on Saturday morning (more about these things later). My mom's timing couldn't have been better! Having my mom here for all of this transitioning (and party planning) has been super. She's always willing to stay with one or more of the kids while I go do something or even just take a break. I went to five stores one afternoon during the kids' naps to get supplies for the party and errands done. How nice that was to not have to pack the kids in and out of the car! I went to Sam's club and bought a berry shake and just enjoyed it all to myself! She leaves Friday and it will sure be hard.

Before my mom came Eric and I went to do some shopping with the kids. He had asked me a couple of days before if I was ever going to go shopping by myself (i.e. during the week while he was at work with the three kids). After we went shopping all together I think he understood why I wasn't jumping to go to the store by myself with the three kids!

So about our new schedule...

We signed Elia up mainly because she sometimes has a hard time leaving me or Ethan. Since Mom was here and could stay with the kids, I went one day to observe the class and see what she was doing in class so I could talk to her about it. It's a Lutheran preschool and they have a little devotional each day. She volunteered to say the prayer which I thought was great. I think in just the week she's been going she feels more comfortable with things. She didn't have much of a hard time going to school that first day. I stayed a little bit at first, but when I said goodbye, she was fine with it. It was nice that I didn't have the other two kids with me which would have made it crazier.

Ballet was on Friday. We started out the day by delivering 10 meals to some housebound local seniors with the Meals on Wheels program. We deliver meals every first and third Friday and this was my second time doing it and the first time on my own. Again... nice to have my mom. She put in the addresses in the GPS as I was delivering the meals. Elia decided after the first house to toss her cookies and lost her breakfast all over the backseat (thank goodness for leather!). I took her carseat out and hosed it off at a water spicket at one of the apartments. She seemed to be doing fine, so we took her to ballet (which she loved). Ethan peed in his shorts on the way home, so then I had the van to clean up and Ethan's car seat cover to wash! What a morning! Eric texted me at 10 and asked me to call him when I could. I called him at 1 because that was the first chance I had!

Friday afternoon we did all the preparations for Elia's party. Then on Saturday we had 12 little girls over all dressed in dresses. We painted jewelry boxes, made necklaces, played kiss the frog prince...ate mini-sandwhiches cut with cookie cutters, played on the playset between activities...took pictures in front of the castle mural (the art creation by my mom, Eric and I that took about 45 minutes to create ...... and 5 minutes to destroy...opened presents and had cake...and ice cream. The cake I have to say was a joint effort between Eric and I. On Friday night I frosted the dress and he put the frosting on the doll's top. It looks pretty cool, but Eric and I think it looks like it didn't take as much time as it did. It seems like it would be pretty simple. This Belle doll is Elia's first Barbie-type doll.

Everyone had a great time and though our house was pretty much a disaster, we were exhausted, and we realized why people only let their kids have parties with friends every other year (something that was a new idea to us, but that lots of people here seem to do), we had a great time planning and hosting the party. Our little baby is five now!
To top off the week, we blessed Kara in church today. It was fun to bless her on Elia's birthday. It seems every time I have a baby I have a renewed sense of urgency in regards to teaching the kids and raising them so they will know they are children of God. One of the guys today mentioned in his testimony the phrase, "God is my friend." I loved that because I think if we realized how true that really is, our lives would be so much easier because we would realize the eternal perspective of everything. Going back to Elia praying at school, it's nice to know that she's comfortable enough talking to God that she would pray in a new situation.

So I have four more days to get my mom's help with stuff before she goes back home. I feel so great today... probably because Kara didn't wake up to eat last night. Let's hope that continues! Have a great week!

Officially Outnumbered

2009-08-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

How time flies! It's been a whirlwind since Kara has been born... mostly because I've been trying to get projects done while I've still had help around... but alas, the help is gone (besides Eric who really has been wonderful). Ken and Nancy left early Saturday morning, but during the course of their stay they helped out a ton with the kids which gave me a break and allowed me to get some great organizing and catching up done. Ken did a lot of my "projects" including yard work (uncovering a 10'x20' piece of yard that was hidden under bushes), mowing the lawn, fixing our lawn mower (the pull string came untied and I'm certain it was probably working its way out during all the times we've moved previously, but which happened to come undone while he was using it), putting up a shelf and numerous pictures, cooking several delicious meals and helping me hang up my thermal curtain panels. Nancy was great with the kids and would take them swimming and to the playground while I got stuff done around the house. They also took the kids to the beach one day, which the kids really loved. So with tomorrow (my first day on my own and my first day officially outnumbered) right around the corner I feel like a kid getting ready to start school -- I'm excited to get back into a routine and try out this new phase of life, but am not sure how it will go. Fortunately, several ward members have volunteered to bring meals over this week, so that will really be nice in the transition.
I love Sunday afternoons. Eric, Kara and Ethan take naps and Elia and I get to do this:

Have a great week everyone!

A Rose By Any Other Name...

2009-08-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

We've read a children's book by Kevin Henkes many times. In the book a little mouse is named Chrysanthemum by her parents. Here is an excerpt from the book:
"'Her name must be everything she is,' said her mother.
'Her name must be absolutely perfect,' said her father.
And it was."

After much deliberation, we've finally chosen a perfect name for our perfect little girl:

Kara Lisette

Kara means: pure; sweet melodie; dear one

and

Lisette means: God's promise; devoted to God

We're so excited to have officially chosen a name (though we've called her "baby" for so long that I still have a tendency to call her "baby"... maybe that will be her nickname :))

As of right now (12:50 p.m. Monday) she is five days old, but it seems like she's been a part of our family forever.

She sleeps beautifully during the day and pretty good at night... that is, after I moved her to her own room. I lasted exactly two nights at home with her in the pack-n-play beside our bed. I would feed her then lay her down. She'd be quiet for about five minutes then start squeaking, then start fussing. Now that she's in her own bedroom I can feed her in there without disturbing Eric (man our Love Sac (a huge beanbag) is so comfortable in the middle of the night), lay her down and she goes right back to sleep. Last night, which was her first all-nighter in her own bed she woke up twice to eat... which is expected.

Yesterday I took some pictures of her, though I had a lot of help from the kids, so our "session" didn't last very long. Here's my favorite:

Some have commented that she's looking more like Elia... I really can't tell, but Elia sure loves her. Eric commented yesterday that Elia has held Kara more than he has! Getting the three of them together was tricky. They aren't the greatest pictures, (there is something about jostling a baby that wakes her out of her quiet slumber) but at least in these two pics Ethan isn't leaning away from Kara!Ethan has been very interesting. He's sort of indifferent about her, though he likes watching her, when you ask him if he wants to kiss or hold her he says, "no". I'm trying really hard to give both he and Elia extra attention so we can avoid any feelings of being left out.
I gave Kara a bath on Saturday and love how curly her hair gets when it's wet, so I thought I would document it for the future:

I clicked right at the right moment to get this sweet little smile during a dream. I sure wish I could read her dreams. Some people hypothesize that babies dream about nursing, but I like to think that they still have a glimpse (or sense) of what heaven was like and maybe they dream about heaven. I sure think about what heaven is like when I look at her.

Ken and Nancy leave on Saturday night. I have to say I'm sort of dreading doing this by myself and I know other people have it much worse and don't get any help, but it sure is nice to have extra hands. Ken trimmed our bushes today and as they were leaving with Elia to visit some people they know here (while Ethan, Kara and I nap), Nancy said, "I'm looking forward to folding laundry when I get back." It's times like these that I sure miss being near family.

I feel like at the end of this week I'll have to really get back to the real world! AAAAHHHH! Sunday, while the others were at church, I couldn't sleep and basically made a plan and goals for the next little while... things I wanted to do to improve myself, things to make our family and home function better, and ideas on how to manage my time and life better. Eric was a little speechless when he saw the "plan", but I told him not to worry... I'm better at planning than implementing:). That is really quite true, but if I can even do half of what's on my list I think things will be more smooth.

It's A...

2009-08-06T18:02:00.000-07:00

Girl!!!
Baby Girl Petty is Finally Here! No, we still haven't decided on a name, but we know what gender it is, so that's a start. Our top five girl names now (in alphabetical order) are: Ava/Eva (We like the name, but if we spell it Eva people will say it wrong and we'll sort of be stuck with E's), Hannah, Kara, Lisette and Zoe/Zoey. No guarantees that we'll listen, but feel free to cast your vote (see poll to the right). This is the first time Eric and I have been at an impass with names. Usually we are in-sync, but not this time. We have until Monday to decide.
Labor and delivery went well. Here's about how it went:
1:30 Couldn't sleep because of contractions
2:15 Woke Eric up to time contractions, wrote blog post, took showers
3:00 Went to hospital
6:00 Got epidural (which slowed contractions down)
9:00 Doctor broke water
12:15 Felt like the baby was going to come, checked with nurses who confirmed that I was ready.
12:20 Nurses called doctor, Eric called his mom to bring Elia.
12:30 Doctor came
12:35 Elia came running in from the parking lot
12:40 Pushed 2.5 times
12:45 Baby came
We decided earlier in the day that Elia (who had requested to watch) could come watch. She sat right on the bed next to my shoulder and held my hand (we told her that was her job). She saw the baby after it came out and saw the umbilical cord get cut and then she and Eric watched the nurse clean off the baby while I got two stitches then cleaned up. She really was just so interested and curious in the baby, asking so many questions. I am really glad we included her.

Ethan likes to be near the baby, especially if Elia is, but is generally less interested and more of a roamer in the hospital room. Nancy told me that on the way out of the hospital the first time Ethan said, "I don't want this baby. Let's put this white baby back. I want a brown baby." (It's a good thing Ethan didn't get his wish.)

It's been so nice to have Nana and Grandpa around. Eric's been able to stay with me the whole time in the hospital, the kids have come to visit several times, but have been able to leave before they get too crazy and Ken made a delicious chicken enchilada dinner for our homecoming today.

I saw someone do this on their blog and liked the idea. I'm including a picture of Elia and Ethan (in no particular order) on their birth days. Can you tell which picture is Ethan and which is Elia? Who do you think the baby looks most like?

So, we're home now (out of the Garden of Eden of the hospital). Eric thinks the hospital is like that for new parents and then you have to go back into the real world when you check out. We'll tell you how the real world is with three kids. Wish us luck!

Baby, Oh, Baby!

2009-08-04T23:57:00.000-07:00

Well, there really is nothing to do at 2 a.m. when you can't sleep because of contractions (which you are trying to figure out if they are the real thing or not) and everything is ready to go for the trip to the hospital. I guess our preparations yesterday worked! Yeah!
Yesterday we did just about everything known to man to naturally induce labor. We did the more common ones (some of which aren't mentionable on a blog) and the uncommon ones including a motorcycle ride, running up the stairs, and applying pressure to several different acupressure points (while my father-in-law laughed on).
I told Eric on Friday that I thought I would go into labor on Tuesday (yesterday)... I'm not sure if that was a hope or a feeling, but when yesterday came and went I thought... "Great! I'm going to go late!" I even scheduled another doctor's appointment for Friday.
However, yesterday I put up the pack-and-play bassinet in our room, charged all my camera batteries, packed our hospital bag (which I didn't do with Ethan until I had to take breaks from getting stuff ready because of the uncomfortableness), adjusted the straps on the car seat from one-year-old Ethan size to new baby size, taught the kids how to swaddle a baby and buckle it in the car seat (and learned from Elia in the process that it wasn't good to step on the baby), expanded our potential baby name list from 3 to 10, and pulled out some newborn diapers.
The power of suggestion! I guess baby listened.
It's now 2:30. My toenails are freshly painted (thanks to my dear husband, who, though he thought it was a little silly that I wanted nice looking toes during labor, still painted them), Eric is taking a shower, and then we'll be on our way. We'll update you all after he/she comes! (And lets hope that this really is the real thing and I don't delete this post in a couple of hours when I come home from the hospital after finding out that it wasn't the real thing)!

Beach Babes but no Babies

2009-07-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well, our family count is still at four! I have just under two weeks to go and I guess the baby isn't done cooking yet! First, if you haven't taken our baby gender poll, it is posted to the right. We're curious to see what everyone thinks the next Petty Pea will be.

Eric was going to take Elia to the beach on Friday night, but we all decided to go (I know... it's a little crazy to be camping at 9 mo. pregnant), but we had fun... well, for the most part. After pitching our tent, we started our peach cobbler and then went down to the beach to catch some crabs (well, that was the intent). The kids loved playing in the warm water while Eric and I took turns throwing a line out with bacon attached. Eric and I ALMOST caught one. We reeled one in and saw it holding on to the bacon, but it escaped before we could scoop it in a bucket. We must have cast that line out there 50 times or more! We need more practice I guess. We returned to camp unsuccessful, but ready for some yummy dutch oven peach cobbler. We dished some for Ethan, Eric blew it off and then tested it with his lips, but when Ethan took the bite he screamed in pain... Eric tried to get him to spit it out, then he tried to scoop it out with his finger, but we couldn't get it out. We felt horrible! The damage had been done and Ethan spent the rest of the night and the rest of Saturday in pain. It was so sad to look at him. He looked like he was almost ready to cry the whole next day. He woke up numerous times at night crying and all morning he just put head down and held his cheeks out so he wouldn't feel the pain so much. I think his mouth and/or tounge was swollen. Poor thing! We went back to the beach after the cobbler to try and catch a crab. We never could catch one in the water, but Eric chased a sand crab and caught it as a consolation prize. It was very interesting. It could fold it's eyes in to the side and then pop them out again! The kids, who weren't interested in swimming stayed on the beach on our sheet. This is how we found them when we gave up fishing for crabs...

The morning was beautiful. We couldn't sleep in (like we wanted too) because it was so light, so even though we had gone to bed after midnight, we all woke up about 6:30. The morning was beautiful...

We went to the beach in the morning and Ethan just laid in the chair on the beach while we took turns swimming. I can't even convey how bad we felt for him!

Eric caught a dozen or so hermit crabs that we had fun watching burrow into the sand after we had collected them all in a bucket.
We left the beach earlier than we probably would have if Ethan was feeling better, but he just wasn't feeling good so we all went back home and slept for about 3 hours or so. In the evening I had fun watching Eric get a "spa treatment" from Elia.

He was well warmed with towels, got a "binky" (a cabinet knob) to keep him quiet while he got his hair "cut" with a hair clip, his ears cleaned with a Russian nesting doll and got to pick out a "hat" (those things in front of him).

He also got his feet rubbed with a water bottle and his big toes adorned with doll shoes...

She fussed over him for probably 45 minutes.

So, it's Sunday once again. I couldn't resist posting these pictures of Ethan. We usually have him eat breakfast naked so that he will go to the bathroom in the toilet if he feels the urge. I loved his little bum poking out behind his apron. (He thinks he is getting too big for bibs and resists wearing them every once in a while). I sensored it to make it more PC friendly.
And, finally, a random shot from the week. Ethan loves going to "work" dressed in Papa's motorcycle helmet and gloves and his own boots.

That's all for now. You will all be the first to know when the baby comes! Hopefully it will be soon, though I went to a store the other day and the lady at the store said I wasn't ready and would be going late.... see if I ever shop at that store again!

Historial Ranch, Photoshop Fun, and a Poll to boot!

2009-07-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

20 days to go until my due date... though I'm hoping to go a little early as I did with the other two. Eric went to the doctor with me on Friday... hoping for some surprising news, but the doctor said, "You're a one... see you next Friday." He also offered to help me have the baby a little quicker, but I'm not in that much of a hurry. You all have to take the poll (on the right side of the blog) and tell us if you think baby No. 3 will be a boy or girl.

A few pictures from this week and some photoshop playing. The kids and I went with a new family in our ward......to George Historical Ranch which is down the road from us. We picked a great day considering it is July and most of it was outside. It was a little cloudy for much of the morning. George Ranch is a working ranch that has houses built as early as 1830. It was interesting to see the difference in the homes as time went by... and wonder how on earth people lived without air conditioning. We are so spoiled! Interestingly, when I went to my doctor, he said he remembered getting air conditioning in his house when he was five or six... so, although he's not young, it wasn't that long ago! It makes me realize how lucky we are and really how comfortably we live.

I thought this picture of Elia peeking through the slats at the pig was fun...

Cool treehouse...

So here is some other fun stuff. I got to playing around on photoshop today (which I try to minimize because it does get time consuming and almost addictive) and thought I would share some before and after pictures. Before I got into photography I always wondered what pictures looked like right out of the camera of professional photographers. And, of course, I wasn't trying to be professional on this day, but I thought it was kind of fun to share some of what Photoshop can do...

Before... blurry picture, but I loved Ethan's face.Water color filter in photoshop. Looks more artistic than just like a blurry picture...We were riding the tractor back and I saw this cool tree that I thought had potential. The light was pretty flat because it was midday...
A couple of color boosting layers and a vignette around the edges (also looks cool as black and white)... OK, these next two I know it will be hard to tell the difference, but here is the original...

I darkened the sky to give the clouds more contrast and lightened the fence just a shade...

So, that's the end of the Photoshop/Ranch tour. In other news, Eric hit a milestone on Saturday... 100 mile bike ride! He started at 3 a.m. and got done at 9 a.m. He was so excited to break the 100 mile point. He's gone a little over 90 before, but never to 100. Amazing as that is, the guy he rides with started at 9 p.m. and did 200 miles total! (He's training for a race). I'm glad Eric has found some great people to ride with. In other news... my first issue as editor for Sugar Land Magazine came out! As soon as they put it on-line, I'll post a link so you can see what it's about. It was interesting taking over mid-issue and this fall issue will be my first complete issue, but it has been a lot of fun. Ask me again how I feel about it in two weeks when the baby comes and I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but I am really enjoying it now.

Hey, I know most of you don't live here, but if anyone has a story idea that we can localize for Sugar Land, let me know! It was a lot of pressure coming up with 20 or so story ideas for the magazine!

"Cow"stumes and Maternity Pictures (not the same:)

2009-07-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

OK, if you can't tell by the title of the post, my humor is sort of weird these days. I guess that comes with having four weeks to go until baby comes and really not feeling ready! I'm counting down and though I'm ready to be done with back aches and heartburn, I'm not quite ready to have a newborn. We've been spending lots of time at the pool which offers some relief, but the heat is killing me!
I've been doing projects here and there like putting scrapbook paper on name letters for Elia and Ethan and my latest project for "cow appreciation day" at Chick-fil-A. My cousin sent me an e-mail about the event. Chick-fil-A gives you a free meal if you dress like a cow. I had this cow material I'd bought for a couple of dollars at a garage sale almost a year ago. I decided to go crazy and make cow costumes. So, on Thursday night, without a pattern, I created a jumper for Elia and these cute shorts/overalls for Ethan. I was quite proud of my efforts (which is why you get to see a lot of pictures). I went with four other families from the ward and one of them talked me into submitting my picture into the Chick-fil-A contest, the link is: http://www.showusthecow.com/photos.php?view=browse&tag=PETTY and if you could take a quick minute and vote for Ethan, that would be great. :) Of course, only if you want to, but consider it an early baby present for me :) The winner gets a free year of food, and if you ever come to visit, we'll share.

Ethan was being such a stinker... he did NOT want Elia sitting by him for a picture. After they first sat down (above) this (below) was as close as I could get him to her. She'd move closer to him and he'd get up and go to the other side of the step. Gotta love little brothers!

I do love the times when Elia is so sweet and caring to Ethan. Today she tucked him in for his nap and rested with him. When we made her leave and go to the playroom for her quiet time he yelled from the room, "I want my Ellie." I love those moments.

Eric went camping with the boyscouts on Friday night. They went to the beach. Eric had a great time fishing for crabs at 11:00 p.m. (he got snapped by a few) and then spending the morning "skimming" and boogie boarding. After working out Friday morning (he's started his exercise routine again and he always goes overboard the first couple of days), spending all day at the beach playing and getting sunburned on top of it all, he's having a difficult time walking today. I'd post pictures except nobody in the whole group brought a camera! I have to work on that boy (though I didn't remind him, so I guess I'm partly to blame)!
Finally, "thanks" (a lot) :) to all of you who have been bothering me about maternity pictures. Eric's been reading all of the requests and finally talked me into taking pictures. So, you can thank him. You even get two pics!

Well, now we're on to weekly doctor appointments. Our top two names are Claire for a girl and Will (William) for a boy. Hannah is a close second for a girl name. Happy week!

Home from New Hampshire

2009-07-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

It's always hard for me to post pictures when I go on trips because there are so many and I want to post pictures that represent everything we did, so here is the brief about our NH trip. For those of you visiting Boston/NH look no further than this for your ultimate travel guide:
-New England Aquarium... I love the jelly fish and would seriously consider having a tank in my house if it weren't too expensive and if they weren't dangerous...
- Family get together. It was held at the same place Eric and I had celebrated our wedding with the family during our honeymoon. We were honoring my Nana and Grampy. Grampy Bud passed away in January or February. All of the kids and almost all of the grandkids were there. It was so great to see everyone. My dad's four littlest grandkids... -We took a great hike with the kids, my sister, dad and aunt, uncle and cousin. I remember taking the hike when I was younger. Such a great view overlooking the lake.
-The dock off the A-frame on Wakondah Pond. We took a canoe ride early in the morning with the kids and we saw one of the loons that nests on the pond up close. All the next week Ethan boasted, "I saw the loon on the lake." He loved it! It is just so peaceful out there. - Center Harbor beach on lake Winnipesaukee was where my sister and I would spend a lot of time during our summer visits. Our kids loved it as much as we did.

-Boston Children's museum... These pictures make it seem like it was empty, but in reality it was a mad-house of children! The best time was in the "art room". They only allow 15 kids (or so) plus their parents in, play classical music and let the kids (and parents) be creative. Who knew coloring could be so peaceful!-NH Children's museum in Dover. I loved this wall where you could make an impression on one side through the plastic sticks and it would come out on the other side.Ethan loved looking through their mask collection...

We also happened upon a variety show outside of the museum. I loved this picture of dad and Elia sitting together...One of my favorite places was the See Science Center in Manchester. It was small enough to not get overwhelmed, but still had a lot of great exhibits. The most impressive site was this lego replica of the mill district in Manchester. It took 10,000 volunteer hours and 3 million legos. It is the largest small scale lego display in the world. All of those buildings, the train, bridges, etc. are made of legos! The picture just doesn't do it justice.

A day at the beach... and the Hampton beach sand sculpting competition. Isn't it amazing what people can do with just sand and water?

I liked this next one because it was titled, "Bring your A game" (All of you Aggies should get this one). They had mentioned that the weekend before you could get free sand sculpting lessons. I think that would be cool to do sometime.

There were so many other things that we crammed into our visit. We had a great time! I took several pictures with my dad's camera that I couldn't post (I love, love, love the Squam lake science center)... and so many more memories that I don't have pictures of. The local libraries have free or discounted passes to several of the museums around so several of the museums were free or very inexpensive. Really though, it is just so nice to see family that we don't get to see very often, watch the kids interact with their cousins, grampy and yia yia, relax and enjoy having someone else do the majority of the cooking and cleaning, share the fun of goodwill and salvation army with my sister (who I think is a total convert now) and just enjoy nature. Oh, I forgot to mention the wonderful weather too. While Texas was having a drought and hotter than average temperatures, NH was cool and rainy... though not so rainy that it wasn't enjoyable.

But now we're back home and counting down the last month until the Petty Pea arrives! I can't believe how fast the time has gone!

Eric decided at 11 o'clock on Friday that we should participate in the Freedom 5K run on the 4th. Loving his spontaneity (which I joke is really just a lack of planning) we got up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. He ran the 5 K at 7 and then we did the family fun walk at 7:45. Of course Eric overdid it and is sore today, but I never expect anything else from him. I love that he just wanted to get up and do it on the fly.

After the race we found a group of people from church that also participated (notice all of the long basketball shorts:)). Eric's ready to make it a family tradition, but I'm pulling for the turkey trot race in November instead (who wants to be out in the Texas heat in July?). Maybe I'll feel differently when I'm not 8 months prego.

Well, another week's ahead. The days just keep coming and going. What can you do but make the best of them, right?

Eight Happy Years, Going on Nine

2009-07-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was our anniversary! We marked our eight years by packing all morning and then sitting either in the airport or across the aisle of an airplane for nine and a half hours! Romantic, don't you think?

We were headed back from our trip to NH, which explains our weird anniversary "celebration" and which I'll comment on in a few days once I get unpacked, and actually, Eric and I spent our almost three-week long honey moon in Boston, NH and Maine and it was fun to be reminded of that, but for now I wanted to comment on what a great eight years it has been. Anniversaries deserve their own post right?

I can't even believe it's been that long. I feel like we haven't gotten any older (except when I look at our wedding pictures). It's just been a fun ride. When I look at Eric now I really appreciate what a great husband and father he is and how well we compliment each other. So, here's to eight great years and many more to come!

2009-06-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

Well, where to start. (I feel like I start like that a lot, but I don't have time to go back and look right now, so if I start all my posts like that, I apologize for my lack of creativity) Anyhow, we've been a little crazy these past weeks. The kids and I arrived in NH last night for two weeks with "Grampy and Yia Yia". We've been trying to take advantage of the time before the baby comes to continue to finish our house decorating. Plus, I try to make sure my kids' schedule doesn't get too hectic, so we take time to go to the Children's Museum and Zoo as well as the pool. Combined with the work for the magazine, (I was hired just before the deadline for the summer issue, so it's been a busy, but fun time). Bless his heart, I left Eric with a whole list of things he could do while he was gone. I didn't want him to be bored or anything. :)
A few snapshots from our past weeks (Oh, and thank Eric for the photo editing... didn't he do a great job? He posted the pictures from TX so I could do the blog tonight)... I made Eric fruit braid... his favorite food as an early Father's Day surprise. Elia decided to eat the flour. We thought she'd just taste it, but she proceeded to eat what was left on the counter after we made the fruit braid.

One of our evening activities this past week was washing the car. Ethan decided that sitting in the soap bucket was more fun... Isn't he adorable (by the way, everytime Yia Yia says, "You're adorable." He says, "I not adorable." (Which, if you can't guess, is VERY adorable).

A zoo trip with the Staub girls... They have this cool tunnel through the water that the kids can crawl through.

The girls... Channing, Elia and Chloe...

... add a little boy.

Look, Eric even put a vingette on this picture! Way to go babe!

In other news, I took Eric and the kids to the OB's office. I felt it was probably good that he met the doctor before the day comes. What a change from Elia... I think Eric came to almost every appointment. Not that the appointments are exciting, but to be truthful, they seem like a waste of time, but when is life supposed to be convenient, right?

That's all I can think to write about now, so have a great week!

Smorgasbord

2009-05-31T12:16:00.001-07:00

There is a reason why I shouldn't wait two weeks in between blog postings. Everything gets jumbled together and I really can't remember anything we've done! Plus, all those funny little kid moments that I want to remember as they happen get totally forgotten. I'm going to try and do better, because it really is a lot of fun around here and I want to remember those times and not just what we did. Nancy finished out her visit with a bang... and we're so grateful for her help. Among the things I was able to get done while she was here include organizing the attic and my craft closet, sewing curtains, and Eric and I organized the entire garage.

During her last weekend we went to the beach:

Also, if anyone has lost their head, we found an extra one... maybe I'll keep it to use when I loose mine... which, you might decide I already have when you read the end of this post!

Here is my maternity picture for all of you who have been wondering what my expanding belly looks like... thanks to Eric for the artistry and modestly placed shells. I wouldn't want to reveal too much :)

We visited some relatives along the way. Their bunnies were a big hit with the kids:

Ethan was so tired on the way home he fell asleep mid-carrot:

It's getting hotter and we've started swimming. It's so much fun to go with friends... It reminds me of AZ days.We celebrated Memorial Day with a small backyard BBQ with friends. Of course, we had to eat watermelon...
And wash off after... I also wanted to include these pictures that I completely forgot on the last post! I took them on Mother's Day and forgot to post them because of all the San Antonio activities!

A note about Elia's picture on the motorcycle. It is completely not posed... She had climbed on the motorcycle while I was finishing taking pictures of Ethan and was in this pose when I walked in the garage. I thought it was a pretty creative pose, called her name and took the picture. What a funny girl. Also, you may be wondering why Elia got a rose on Mother's Day too. Well, Eric wanted to make sure that Elia received her first red rose from him. (I'm a little worried about what he'll be like when she can actually leave the house by herself with a .... Boy; I picture a lengthy interview process.)

So, I saved some exciting news for all of you who made it to the end... Some of you know that I've been writing articles and doing photography for a quarterly magazine (http://www.sugarlandmagazine.com/sugarland%20news.html). I wrote one article for the current issue and just finished two others for the next issue. Well, the editor just had her first baby and decided to step down. I (insanely perhaps) thought I would apply for it. Everything seems to have just fallen into place and after a very involved application and interview process I found out Friday that I'll be taking over as the new editor! My mom is probably shaking her head right now (because she already thinks I do too much), but it's only 10-15 hours a week (which in August when we have #3 might seem like 40) and I get to work from home. I'll cut back on my photography but there will be some slow weeks in the production process that I'll still have time to do a little of that. I'm really excited because, as it happened when I worked for the newspaper, I'll get to know the community really well and be able to combine my writing and photography interests more. I am really excited. For all of my Sugar Land friends, the magazine is always interested in freelance writers, so let me know if you are interested!

In just two weeks we head off to New Hampshire to visit my dad.

Seeing the Sites... San Antonio and Sea World

2009-05-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

Another whirlwind week (gotta love those)! It started with a wonderful Mother's Day last Sunday. Eric made his mom and I crepes with a choice of eggs, jam and powdered sugar or fruit with whipped cream (or any combination) for breakfast. He also bought three roses (one for Elia too) and a box of petit fours that the young women were selling as a fundraiser. I learned in church that the woman who fought to establish Mother's Day then fought against it because it had become so commercialized. I'd like it to never get that way for us. I did get a "Mother's Day present"... getting my sewing machine fixed, but I hope my kids in the future just do something nice for me... or better yet, just give me a day off. :) The longer I'm a mother the more I appreciate just taking a break! :) Here is a picture of our roses and breakfast...

So in around-the-house news, a friend came over last week and helped me sew some curtains for my windows downstairs. I was very excited to get them done. Eric and I will hopefully get the rods up tomorrow morning before he leaves for his trip to Atlanta. Eric's mom has been very helpful in helping with the kids while I get some of my "projects" done. She watched the kids, plus one when my friend came over to help sew. I'm hoping to put pictures up very soon.

Speaking of pictures, I was looking through the pictures of the week and came across 89 pictures that Elia had taken with our camera one day when we weren't watching her. She took pictures of the computer screen, her toys, the clothes in our closet, the playroom, etc. Actually, most of them are pretty in focused. I thought this one of Ethan was cute to post. It's of him getting ready to slide down the temporary "slide" (a cardboard box) in the playroom.

While Eric's mom has been here we've also been out to see our cousin Abby's horse riding lessons and visit the children's museum. Here's a picture I took of Elia as we were going to the museum.

The highlight of the week was definitely our trip to San Antonio. Eric took off work early on Thursday and we drove to San Antonio. Using the Marriott points Eric has built up from his work travel we were able to stay for free. We hung out at the pool on Thursday night. Ethan loves using the cooler lid as a "boat" even when we're at home, and finally he was able to really use it as a boat...

I know... frogs keep turning up in our blog. Here is Eric's recent find...

We went to Sea World all day Friday. Here are our picture highlights as well as video clips from some of the shows we saw. We wore ourselves out and had a great time, but still managed to not get sunburned! What a deal!

This walrus was HUGE! The picture doesn't do him justice...

We enjoyed the sites of San Antonio on Saturday including a boat ride along the River Walk... ...and the Alamo (which is the most visited site in Texas). It rained all day Saturday, so we didn't see as much as we might have, but it was a nice break from the jam packed Friday at Sea World.

I wasn't kidding when I said whirlwind! Part of the reason our life is always a whirlwind is this...

Yep, that's usually all we see of Elia! Have a great week!

Fun in the sun

2009-05-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

After such a huge post two weeks ago, I guess I've finally recovered enough to do another post today. Two weekends ago, we went to Galveston to listen to a time-share presentation... in exchange for a short cruise. We talked the whole time to the kids about the beach and ocean and all Ethan did when he got there is try to get back into the car. I'm not sure what this face was, but I thought the expression combined with the beach hair was pretty fun.Elia on the other hand loved the ocean and ran through the waves. The water wasn't actually that cold and if the sun had been out the whole time, it would have been really nice.

Elia got particular joy from feeding our french fries to the seagulls. I honestly don't know why we even order french fries (and actually, we usually don't). They are only really good 15% of the time and most of the time we eat a couple each and then throw the rest away.

I've been trying to keep track of the funny things Elia and Ethan say and do. Here are a few that I can remember...
The other day, after biting off half of her pink marshmallow (one of her Easter basket treats), Elia stuck the other half to her eye and said, "Look mom, I have pink-eye." Now, I'm pretty sure she has no idea what pink eye really is, which made the whole thing funnier.
Some of our other funny Elia moments are:
Moment 1:
Elia in bathtub: "Papa I peed!"
Papa (from other room, kind of wondering why she's telling him): You're not supposed to pee in the tub.
Elia: Papa come here. I peed in a cup.
She had peed in a cup that the kids play with while they are taking a bath and wanted him to come dump it in the toilet.
Moment 2:
Elia: What are you doing?
Mama: Putting this empty vinegar bottle in the recycle bin.
Elia: The opossums gave Jesus vinegar to drink...
I then explained that it was the soldiers that gave him vinegar and the apostles were Jesus's friends. It made me wonder what else my children think is reality.

To close, I'm including a short video from our backyard pool. After trying to decide what to do one afternoon and thinking of our friend who practically has the beach as her backyard, we filled up the kiddy pool. The thing that is so funny about this is Ethan's screams. He is clearly enjoying the water, but if you were to just listen to the audio you would think he was in pain!

Post Birthday Party

2009-04-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for a whopper of a post? I sometimes think about splitting up posts sometimes so they aren't so huge, but then it would require coming twice to the blog instead of once... so this one is just going to be big! I'll divide them into individual posts for you :)

BIRTHDAY PARTY AND THE ENSUING RECOVERY
I think we've finally recovered from the weekend festivities. Birthday parties are something I really look forward to, but am also glad when they are over and I don't have to think about them anymore.
We've been lucky in the past that we've never had a birthday party rained out before (though living in sunny AZ could have helped our "luck"). This year the streak was broken with a complete day of downpour! All in all, it rained almost 7 inches on Saturday! So, what was supposed to be a relaxing day at the park where there would have been lots of room for the kids to run and play turned into a small chaotic festival in our house. Don't get me wrong, we still had a great time, it was just a little cramped and crazy. Thanks everyone for your support!
We started off with Recycle Scategories where everyone had to list an alternative use for some specific recycled items such as a catsup bottle, a toilet paper roll, a plastic bag, etc. Then we did bowling with pins that were made of recycled juice bottles filled with rocks (Eric's been bringing them home from work for the past several weeks). For prizes we gave out those reusable grocery bags you can buy from the supermarket. I had thought of other games, but they were more conducive to the park scene, so we just bagged them.
Eric started the grill during a light rain part of the day only to find out five minutes later that the gas had run out. We resumed our "BBQ" in our already-full kitchen... just in time to beat the heavy downpour of rain that came.
Everyone was so great to bring "recycled" presents as we had requested. Ethan got a lot of fun stuff... everything from a Noah's Ark Little People set, to a bug box, electronic toys to puzzles to a baseball hat, to tractors, blocks and a mini piano. It was fun that everyone wrapped their gifts in recycled stuff too. It's nice to have a change in toy selection, but great too that people didn't spend a lot on the gifts.

Our pride and joy... the cake was eaten next. Eric knows that for the kids birthdays I go a little crazy about making a fun cake. I decided that next to making a cake with a recycle symbol (how boring would that be?), a tractor cake would be sort of along the theme of my party. It was green at least and sort of represents gardening. It was a team effort to make the cake on Friday and Saturday morning, but it turned out pretty great.

Kudos to Eric who even attempted the John Deere symbol in icing on top. I was ready to just forget it, but it turned out amazing!...

Of course it could have looked like a tractor heap and the kids would have still liked it... They sure liked sticking their fingers into the frosting.It tasted as good as it looked too. I did a half and half cream cheese and butter cream frosting... it was very hard to work with, but delicious! Having the party at the park would have also facilitated clean-up, but fortunately for me, my friend Paola stayed behind and helped me clean the kitchen while Eric played with our kids. It's amazing how much easier it is to clean when you are talking with someone and when you don't have kids running around! We finished cleaning, mopping and vacuuming later in the evening and were very proud of ourselves for going to bed with a clean house.

HIS AND HER PROJECTS

So this is the project I've been working on for the past month... a playmat for Ethan's Birthday. I have loved doing it, but am very glad it is done too... This is Eric's project:One night I'm in bed and Eric is downstairs getting some water. I ask him if he's coming and he says that he'll be just a minute because he has a surprise for me. About 45 minutes later (after I've fallen asleep and woken up again) he's still down there, so I go to investigate. It turns out he sort of ran into a small frog (above) when he was going to get water. He decided to catch said frog and it turned into a 2.5 hour surprise chase! The smart frog first hopped under the dishwasher. It was there I found my Honey trying to probe the frog out with a metal hanger. After contemplating removal of the dishwasher, Eric decided it would be better to go look outside for another frog. We turned out the lights in the kitchen and Eric wandered around outside our house for 20-30 minutes trying to find another frog. Coming up empty-handed, he came back into the house where we discovered the frog had emerged from under the dishwasher. Eric tried to catch it again, but this time he hopped under the oven. Brilliantly, while Eric was trying to coax it out from under the oven, I covered up the holes under the dishwasher with hotpads and a towel so he couldn't go under there again (I was really afraid that if he did go under there again, the dishwasher would end up sitting in the middle of our kitchen). The frog finally came out from under the oven (I think being poked by a metal rod had something to do with it) and tried to go under the dishwasher again. He landed in the towel and we finally caught him. So, we were supposed to go to bed at 9:30 and finally got in bed about 11:45. That was a surprise alright! After determining that our frog was a Spotted Chorus Frog and deciding that keeping a wild frog was not the best idea, we kept him until morning until we could show the kids. We then released him into the backyard. What an adventure! I bet he'll think twice before trying to come into our house again... We're still not sure how he got there, which issue is a little disturbing because if a one inch frog can come into our house, I wonder what else might try.

THE OTHER STUFF

Are you still with me? I'm almost done. Just a few quick pictures of Ethan's hobby... pouring water over his head, gasping for breath and then smiling and doing it all over. And, to finish, I've been bested by a novice shopper! We went to the grocery store for some frozen wings (because I wouldn't let Eric buy them at a restaurant). He found some on sale for $6.99 (they were regularly $8.99). They rang up $7.99 and we told the checker that they were listed for $6.99. I ran back and got the tag to show her. The manager walked by, looked at the tag and told the checker that the tag was three months old and just to give us the wings for free! Now, Eric, who has been "scolded" multiple times by me for not finding the cheapest item or for not checking prices as the items are scanned, is holding this one little incident over my head to prove he is the better shopper. Does that seem fair? :)

Easter and Our New Addition

2009-04-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

I know, all my blog titles seem to be baby related! I guess we're just getting geared up for August... even though it is still so far away. We did get a new addition this weekend. I traded a photography session for this sweet playground set:

The kids love it and we've only had it for one day! We are so excited for the rest of the time using it. It came from a great family whose children are too old to enjoy it. It was well cared for and the lady was genuinely sad to get rid of it because they'd had so much fun on it. She was glad to see that it would be used, but it was interesting to me to see that she'd had so many memories with it and I hope we can add our own great memories to it. I'm looking forward to "sending" the kids out to play while I prepare dinner sometimes or when it is too hot for me to do anything but sit inside, but they want to play.
We had a fun Easter weekend. We decided to do candy and Easter Bunny stuff on Saturday. Elia and Ethan both got a little basket and book from Grandma and then a few things from the Easter Bunny. We didn't want to go overboard on candy, so I bought some candy, and then icy pops, marshmallows, toothbrushes and underwear for Elia and flipflops for Ethan. I know, underwear doesn't sound too exciting, but she needed it and when there is tinkerbell on it, Elia is sure excited about it.
Ethan couldn't stuff enough chocolate candy eggs into his mouth. We told him to slow down and eat them one at a time. He did better after that. All I can say is that it's a good thing our kids like to brush their teeth!
First off was an egg hunt at the church:
Our pals, Channing and Chloe:

Elia and Eric "cleaned up" the "big kids" area after they were done and their good spying found them a few extra eggs.

I got this cute recipe about this divinity that ties into the Easter story and Jesus. We made it this morning with the kids and talked about the real meaning of Easter. You make it and put it in the oven. When it is done, it is hollow like the empty tomb:

It's a boy!

2009-04-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

No, we didn't find out the gender of our unborn child, but on Saturday, we took Ethan to get his first haircut... maybe now we won't get comments such as, "How old is she", etc.:We took some video too, but I didn't feel like editing it tonight. If there is anything interesting, I'll include it next time... so more pictures will have to do:There is no turning back and we've got a ponytail in a bag to prove it. Ethan didn't want anything to do with his cut hair, so Elia held it for display:Eric and I finally agreed that it was time and though we miss his curls we both really like his new haircut. In large part due to the two suckers and multiple animal crackers he was given, he sat pretty still during his first cut. I'm very glad I didn't attempt it myself. I like his hair even more the day after...

So, that is the exciting news for the week, but it was also fun to get to go to the Children's Museum with "Papa" last Wednesday. I had forgotten what it was like to only watch one kid at a time! Elia was feeling a little crazy after the museum. She's always coming up with new ways to amuse us (and herself). Here is her latest:

One last note, Ethan is really picking up on how to be polite. Whenever he asks for something and you give it to him he says, as if it were one word, "Thankyouwelcome". We think it's pretty cute.

After having heard several things during Conference this weekend about how we can improve ourselves, there is much work to be done! :) So, on to a new week. Happy living!

Rain, rain come again

2009-03-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

Last week was full, both of stuff to do and rain. I had my ultrasound on Monday... baby looks good, but, for those of you who are going to ask, we still don't know what gender it will be. We also got a new refrigerator because our old one had a leak with the ice maker. That was a lot of work to have to pull everything out, put it in the deep freeze and then put it back in after. I've also been trying to put up shelves and get more organized. Eric and I went to a friend's house to help them move in on Saturday and seeing her house and remembering how cute it was before made me even more motivated to get decorating. I am having a nightmare of a time picking out curtains, but I am one step closer... I actually went and got a few to try out. Wish me luck! It also rained many days last week. I know our grass was happy, but we were all getting stir-crazy, and I thought, "What do we have raincoats for anyway?" The kids ran through puddles, floated sticks down the gutter, helped me pull weeds from the cracks in our driveway (the pile below is purely weeds we pulled from our driveway cracks),and before I could stop them, they laid down in the puddle (see video). So much for raincoats! Elia about lost her jeans and Ethan didn't like the floating dirt that looked like bugs and if you wait to the very end you will see his cute reaction to the bubbles in the puddle.

They ended up muddy from head to toe, but it was actually very nice to not try and keep them clean or from stomping in puddles and to actually get those weeds pulled. I just had them strip down in the garage before I carried them up to a nice warm bath.

Here is our personal eye-spy game. Can you find Elia? This is how I found her one afternoon during her nap:

And, last but not least, we are getting ready for Ethan's birthday on the 18th! I decided to have people bring "recycled" gifts... meaning something Ethan would enjoy from either the Goodwill or from their own collection. Then, I just sort of got carried away and decided to make it a whole "green" themed party. It isn't that I am ready to chain myself to a tree to prevent it from being cut down, though I do think it is important to protect the environment, but the idea sort of snowballed and it has been fun to think of eco-related party games and center the party on a theme. I am far from an environmental protection pro, but it should be fun. Oh, and one more funny thing, I was finishing up the invitation today and I started to wonder when Earth Day was. I looked it up, and it is April 22nd. Honestly, it is just so coincidental that I would plan this kind of party for Ethan's birthday and it is the weekend before Earth Day. I guess it was meant to be! We'll let you know how it turns out.

Brothers, Bugs and Babies

2009-03-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how green it has gotten here... just in the last couple of weeks it seems like everything has put out their leaves. Our backyard went from skeletal to bushy it what seemed like two days.
We are very excited to plant our garden this week. Our garden box is full of dirt and the plants are in the garage. Hopefully they will go into the ground on Monday. It is our first gardening experience in Texas, so we'll hope all goes well. I'm especially looking forward to fresh tomatoes! Our neighbor knew I was going to do a garden and came over with the name and number of her mother who has a truck and said that her mom would be glad to help me get a truck full of dirt. This was a huge blessing as having the dirt delivered would have been more than the cost of the dirt! The woman was super nice and happens to be a master gardener which was also great because when we went to the soil store there were like 5 different kinds of dirt to choose from!
Eric and I also watered and put "weed and feed" on our lawn for the first time. Our lawn has a lot of recovering to do, but we're cheering for it. We have also seen an increase in bugs. We have at least one mosquito hawk in our house each night and we caught "Karen" the caterpillar:
And "Mark" the roly-poly:

I was going to keep the caterpillar and have him turn into a moth, he will be a giant leopard moth, but he wasn't eating any of the variety of leaves I gave him and I didn't want to kill him, so I put him outside and he escaped. Oh, well... maybe next time. :(
Here are a few pictures Elia took one afternoon. I thought they turned out pretty well, so I wanted to share...

And, the fun part are the videos. This first one demonstrates exactly why Elia has a brother. He doesn't even know what he is arguing about, he just likes to say the exact opposite... if he isn't doing that, he is copying her. Either way, she rarely takes it well.

This next video shows how Ethan walks around the house maybe 50% of the time... on tippy toes! He has amazing balance and is so comfortable doing it... maybe he just feels he can see better. Who knows!

Aren't little brothers great?

Oh, I almost forgot to mention why I put "baby" in the title. On Monday we go in for our 20 week ultrasound... And nope, we're still not going to find out. We're excited to see the baby though! I'll try to scan some pictures for next week's blog and you guys can try and guess if it is a he/she. By the way our name thoughts are Hannah or Liza if it is a girl and Will if it is a boy. Of course, these aren't set in stone, but we both like those names.

Cruising

2009-03-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

Life is just cruising along here in Sugar Land. I can't believe the year is almost 1/4 over! Where does the time go?
I was about to start the blog by saying that not much was going on, but then I thought about how the kids have both been sick, Ethan is on steroids, we bought a pass to the Children's Museum, did our taxes and Elia is really getting into bike riding... and then I wondered which I should start with! Life is never dull is it?
So, the kids have been sick, I think it is probably the flu virus... Elia was sick first and stayed home from church last week with a fever... then Ethan got sick and when he gets sick, things are just complicated because of his breathing problems. I ended up taking him into the doctor (Yes, I finally found one... after 7.5 months here, it was about time), who put him on two medicines in the nebulizer machine, a steroid and an antibiotic. It seemed a little overkill, especially since I really thought it was a virus that wouldn't respond to antibiotics, but the doctor said he just wanted to make sure he got everything. So, this week we kept Ethan home from church. He kept pulling at his polo and saying, "church shirt"... he was not happy about staying home from church! Maybe next week, we'll all make it.
This week I also splurged and bought a pass to the children's museum. We used part of our tax return money for it and I think we'll get a lot out of it... especially this summer when it will be too hot to do much else.
I was also proud of myself for completing our taxes... and pretty early too! My eyes were really opened to what I'll have to do next year when I really have to do taxes for my photography business.
Last, but certainly not least, Elia is really excited about bike riding. Eric was anti-training wheels and he had Grandpa take the wheels off before they even gave it to her. I was a little skeptical, but I had no luck changing Eric's mind. We bought a little bike from the Goodwill and took off the pedals so she could learn to balance. She wasn't too keen on this, especially since she has this fabulous pink bike that Nana and Grandpa gave her for her birthday. So, we've been helping her with it and it hasn't taken her too long. She is still far away from riding completely by herself... but she can balance and pedal. She is getting a lot better at steering, though she needs work on that and on getting started too.
Of course, Ethan gets included too. He and his little bee helmet that he loves to wear even when he isn't riding, but really, it is too small for his head...
Enjoy the video. I combined the one of Elia riding and Ethan's cool trick (assisted by Eric).

A visit from Grampy and Yia Yia

2009-03-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

The day after we got back from Utah, Grampy and Yia Yia (in case you are wondering, that is Greek for grandma) came for a visit. It was a whirlwind of five days. On Thursday we hit some of the free museums downtown (The Museum of Fine Arts and the Health and Science Museum). On Friday we drove to Galveston and played in the sand. Eric couldn't join in the fun, but he helped us get ready...Ethan has a love-hate relationship with these boots. He wants to wear them all the time, but hates them because they are a little big and sometimes fall off.

Ethan was so mad that I wouldn't hold him or stay with him on the beach because I wanted to wade in the water, so he sought comfort from Grampy.On Saturday we went to the Houston Arboretum... Eric and Elia resting on Sunday afternoon. The love sac in front of the window is one of our favorite resting spots. We got lots of extra rest with Grampy and Yia Yia. The kids sometimes bothered them in the morning instead of coming right to us. I love Elia's position in this photo...

On Monday we stayed around the house and dad, as helpful as always, helped me build a new box for our soon-to-be vegetable garden, helped fix our shower curtain rod and shower head. I specifically didn't make a "to-do" list so he could be on vacation... but I think he can't help himself. It was such a nice relaxing visit... though it was too short! We can't wait for our June visit!

Thanks for a great visit Dad and Yia Yia! I love this picture of the two of them.After they left, it was back to normal... or semi-normal, seeing how Eric was gone for all week to Atlanta. I got a lot of stuff done around the house last week including spending about three hours sorting and filing our stacks of papers. I hate paperwork! Does anyone have suggestions on how to deal with it? It is so overwhelming to me. Eric wants to go paperless and scan everything. What do you think?

Well, about one more month until Ethan's second birthday. We are seriously debating putting his hair on the chopping block... literally. So, the debate is whether to trim it... maybe 3 inches off the back (make it less mullet-ish as people think it is), or go for a classic little boy haircut with short sides and back and longer top (kind of like Eric's). Any opinions?

Finishing up in Utah

2009-03-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

What a week! We got back from Utah on Tuesday, then my dad came on Wednesday night for a long weekend visit. We figured that between all the moving we have done and all the time he has spent in Florida taking care of my grandfather, it had been about a year since he has seen the kids! They leave tomorrow, so I'm going to wait until next weekend to post the pictures of their visit. For now, I'll post the rest of our Utah pictures.

On Monday we spent the morning with my sister Davina. Elia adores Davina and could spend all day watching her do her hair and put on her make-up. Davina has a pass to the Discovery Gateway Children's museum and we all explored there for a few hours. It was pretty crowded since it was President's Day, but we all had fun. We also got to see Davina a week later when we stayed at her house the night before our plane left. She cooked us a gourmet dinner that was a spin off of our favorite childhood meal: homemade macaroni and cheese and hamburger patties with fried onions on top. Elia found this fun wig in one of the closets and was the biggest ham with it on:

In Utah we enjoyed the snow thanks to some borrowed snow clothes from a neighbor who has kids about the same age as Elia and Ethan.

Sledding with Nana:Campfire in the canyon (with Grandpa):

On our way back to the airport, Elia insisted on pulling the suitcases. Our suitcases have three wheels on each side that rotate making it very easy for even a kid to pull. I didn't weigh my suitcases and was 10 pounds too heavy in one of them. What a pain to have to transfer stuff while at the counter! Argh!

Ethan and Elia's favorite thing: A Rudolph the red-nose reindeer nose. This is my favorite picture of Ethan with it on. He even says, "red-nose reindeer". So cute!It will sure be a change this week from the last few weeks. I'll be solita this whole week because Eric has to return to Atlanta from Monday through Friday and dad leaves Monday. It will be a little lonely around here, but it will also be a good chance to get back on track with everything.

Utah, Here we Come!

2009-02-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

On Thursday I arrived in Utah to visit with my sister and spend time with Eric's parents. I was going to only come for the long weekend, but when we figured out that Eric would be leaving for Atlanta the day I got back, we used an extra frequent flyer ticket and got a seat on the plane for Elia. The kids were pretty great on the plane. I told Ethan that he had to go to sleep even though it was 10:00 in the morning and he doesn't sleep until 12:30 or 1:00. When I didn't give him any toys he was convinced that taking a nap on the flight was probably the best option. Nancy picked me up at the airport and took the kids to Logan while I spent the weekend with my sister:

We had a great time staying with her friends in St. George and "hanging out" with the girls. We all drove back to Salt Lake City on Sunday where we met Nancy. We spent Monday morning at the Children's Science Museum and then Nancy and the kids and I went to spend the afternoon with Eric's sister's family. I think we wore Elia out, plus I wasn't sure if I had any pictures that showed how she sucks her fingers so, while we can't see the end of finger sucking in sight, I thought I would document it:

I had to share some pictures of Ethan in our sink tub, so I thought I would share some pictures. He doesn't exactly fit, but he sure thought it was fun.

The kids have been having a great time in the snow. It has been snowing ALL DAY today and the kids came outside while we shoveled the driveway (something I definitely don't miss). Elia loved jumping from one snow mound to the next... ...while Ethan went around eating handfuls of snow and licking the snow off his coat.

Of course, what is snow without snowmen. Elia and I made an "Elia" snowwoman and a new baby snowperson. We haven't gotten around to an "Ethan" snowman yet, but it has been ordered. After Elia put the head on I told her when I came back to put her arm around the snowgirl so I could take her pictures. I thought it was as cute from the back as the front:

P.S. For all of you out there who don't have a webcam to video chat with your family, now is the time to buy one. K-mart has a special (that started Sunday) on the Clique Hue webcam. $14! It is so cheap. My sister now has one and I bought one for Eric to take on work trips. Go get one if you don't have one and you can keep in touch with your family so much better!

Pre V-day

2009-02-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

Well, Valentine's Day is coming! We're getting ready. Elia made all her Valentine gifts (bracelets designed after a Family Fun Magazine idea:
Elia and Ethan got a surprise package from Grandma for Valentine's Day. They loved the surprises. I still remember how she used to send me letters with little trinkets and toys when I went to camp. She would start sending the letters before I even left so I would have them the first day I was there. This was Elia's pride and joy from the package: a huge marshmallow sucker (which I am happy to say she shared):Ethan got some new sweat pants which are so cute on him. They will be great for cold weather. I'm not sure what kind of face he's pulling here, but what a character he is:
Speaking of Valentine's Day and cold weather, I'm going to leave Eric all by himself for a week around Valentine's Day. Isn't that nice? I'm going to visit my sister and Eric's mom and dad in Utah while he goes to Atlanta for work. Hey, they say distance makes the heart grow fonder anyway, so we'll be working on our heart fondness long distance.
In other news, I am super excited because I will be writing a story for the Sugar Land Magazine. I contacted them about freelance writing and they sounded interested, but said they already had all the stories covered for the spring edition, so they wouldn't need me until summer. Two days later they contacted me again and said they had one story I could do for this edition which comes out the first of April. I loved writing for the Vernal newspaper and I'm pretty excited about doing some writing again.
I'm concluding with a fun video of Ethan's talking. I think he takes after his sister because he really never stops. This week the dialogue was very interesting:
Ethan: "I go roundebuh"
Eric: "Round de buh?"
Ethan: "Round de buh" with a head nod?
Eric: "Round the bush?"
Ethan: "Oh... I come!"
Most of the time we can make more sense of what he is saying. Elia serves as a great translator as well.
Ethan is very focused these days on Santa. Everytime candy is mentioned he usually mentions Santa (because that's who brings candy of course)! :

Tramp Hair

2009-02-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

Nothing much new around here... We're enjoying the beautiful weather (it's been high 60's or 70's much of the time) by spending lots of time outside. On Saturday, Eric spent some time on the trampoline with the kids. This was the result: I went to my first prenatal visit on Wednesday... It was very... anti-climactic.... not that seeing the baby was unexciting, but the doctor informed me that I was exactly 12 weeks, 4 days (one day off of what my blog counter had), and that yep, there was a baby in there. I was secretly hoping for some big surprise like: "Oh, there's two in there!" or, "You're actually 15 weeks." But, no surprises for now... I guess that's why we're waiting until the baby is born to find out the gender. I guess I shouldn't hope for too many suprises -- we just want a healthy baby. Elia is requesting a little more. She has emphatically said that it needs to be a girl. "We already have a baby brother," she says. "I've been saving all my clothes for my baby sister." I try to explain that only God knows and maybe our family needs another boy, but she's not buying it. Only time will tell.
So, like I said, when you post every week (like I do) ;) There isn't much to tell all the time, so TTFN. Have a great week!
P.S.
Here is our newest indulgence: Molten Chocolate Brownies! You may not even want to try them because they are beyond-word delicious.

Eric wasn't sure about sharing the secret goodness, but being Sunday and all, we thought we would be nice. http://busycooks.about.com/od/cakerecipes/r/moltenchococake.htm

Alligators

2009-01-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

Things on the homefront are pretty much the same as usual. Eric left for Atlanta today and will be gone until late Thursday night. We make it through when he goes on trips, but there isn't anything to look forward to at 5:30 in the evening. You should see the precision timing I get the kids to bed with when he is gone! I joke that sometimes it is easier when he goes because I don't cook as good of meals (so I don't have to clean up as much by myself) and I do enjoy a little more "me" time after the kids go to bed, but it's hard to not have that extra support when it is something I'm so used to. Elia cried halfway home from the airport which, let me tell you, made it SO much easier to have him leave! :) I can't really complain though, I know he has a job that he really enjoys and his job lets him be around for a lot more than some other jobs allow. Also as a bonus, his company informed the employees that they weren't planning on doing any lay-offs, but that they were using this time to evaluate their employees' performance. So, we feel pretty blessed to have what seems like a stable job and great friends to boot.
Anyway, here are a few pics from the week:
Elia was talking to me in the car one day about Ethan climbing into bed with her. She said that sometimes she lets him and sometimes she doesn't. I was unbelieving and questioned her -- probably something like, "He really does that?", to which her reply was, "I'm SERIOUS Mom". Well, one morning, when they didn't wake up at their usual 6:30 time, Eric and I went in and found this:

Hey, if they sleep an extra 45 minutes when they sleep together, I might as well get rid of Ethan's bed! :) Ethan sure is being a pain in the middle of the night. He climbs out of bed and quietly walks into our room. We hear the door open, but we've watched him just stand outside our door for 5 or so minutes. Another time, Eric went in in the middle of the night and found Ethan sitting between Elia and the wall, drinking water from her cup that she keeps in a little basket by her bed. He climbed over her to get back into bed when Eric went in and she didn't even stir! What happened to our soundly sleeping boy?
I'll tell you what happens... when he gets in comfortable places such as the bike trailer he does this:
We had just finished dropping Elia off at a friend's house where he had gotten a graham cracker on our way out. I ride the short (less than a mile) distance home and find him asleep, graham cracker uneaten and still in his hand. I've started making sure I bring gum on any car trip because it is a lifesaver to keep him awake!
On Friday, my friend Lynette and I went with our kids (she has two too... a girl and a boy each a little younger than Elia and Ethan) out to a place called Brazos Bend: a State Park with alligators. Our walk around the swampy lakes turned out very unfruitful (we saw a total of one alligator), but in the visitor's center we got to pet a baby alligator and learn a lot about them as well as some of the other animals in the area. All was certainly not lost. It was so great to be outside. The day couldn't have been more perfect. It was about 70 degrees, sunny and just gorgeous. This weather is why people stay in Houston... because I can tell you, I don't think they stay for the May-September months.

Kung Fu and Jumping

2009-01-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

First off, my favorite sayings from Elia this week:
Mom: "Elia, you're exhausting!"
Elia: "I'm not a stocking!"
A different time:
Mom: "This is great!"
Elia: "Grapes? I love grapes!"
Gotta love four-year-olds!

Here are two fun videos for your enjoyment. Ethan is working on jumping... being tutored by Elia who can do a standing jump of about 5 feet! It is amazing!

We have some toy storage furniture in the playroom. One day Ethan crawled to the top, acted like he was king of the mountain and then did these funny kung-fu-ish moves. I said, "Are you doing your kung fu?" The next couple of times he would do it at random times, but when I was video taping the jumps he climbed up there and I prompted him to do his kung-fu... and he actually performed! What are the odds of that?

Close to Home

2009-01-15T17:07:00.001-08:00

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard.I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of. He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out. The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks. Curious I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.' The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 - he's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'

I got this on my e-mail and I hardly ever forward stuff on, but this was just hit too close to home not to share. If I feel like this now with only two kids and one on the way, how is it going to be with three preschoolers at home? :) Will I ever be caught up on sleep? One day I went to bed at 9:30, woke up at 7:00 when the kids got up and still felt tired!

The Cat and The Bag

2009-01-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

So now the 'cat' is really out of the bag. A few posts ago I wrote: "Did you know that Celine is the youngest of 14 kids? Man, we are only working on our third... we still have a long way to go to catch up to that." That was my way of trying to sneek in the announcement. As my sister-in-law pointed out, it was so subtle that no one except for our immediate family understood what was going on. Looking back, I can see how that phrase might have meant many different things.
We were going to wait until the twelfth week or so, but I've been feeling nauseous and I didn't really have too many excuses for being sick every day when my mom came for Christmas, and once you tell one person you really just have to tell everyone. So, there it is. The third Petty peanut will join our family near the beginning of August. Each of our children will have been born in a different state!
I still haven't chosen a doctor... something I need to do ASAP, but things have been going just fine so far. Eric and I plan on keeping the gender a secret again. For all of you who are expecting and haven't found out or for all of you who will someday have more children, we highly recommend not finding out the gender. We did that with Ethan and loved it!

To Christmas and Beyond

2009-01-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

So much has happened over the last two and a half weeks. I guess that is why I shouldn't wait so long to do a post!

My mom came for a visit over the Christmas break and she kept us busy! Some of the highlights (in Reader's Digest condensed version) include playing about 10 (or more) games of Settlers of Catan and several variations of it, visiting Galveston beach (on about the coldest day we could), going to several farmer's markets, going to "First Noon" at the Children's Museum, spending 12 hours recoloring the grout in our kitchen, getting curtains made for our kitchen and dining room, and swimming in our friends' pool and hot tub. Eric was completely amazed at my mom's motivation to get things done! We know we probably still wouldn't have done our floor (especially if we knew how long it was going to take) and most likely, we wouldn't have curtains either... but I had told my mom I wanted to do those things and she pushed to get them done. Thanks mom!

Now for the fully illustrated encyclopedic version:

On December 10th it snowed! I hear it happens once every five years or so. This is about the extent of what we got, but it was still fun. I love going outside in shorts and t-shirts still, but part of me missed the white snowy mornings, sledding and having a real reason for hot chocolate!

One of the guys Eric goes riding with invited him to come swimming the week after Christmas. They had heated the pool while family had been there and he invited us to take advantage of it while it was still warm. We all loved it. We all went as a family once and then Eric took the kids one afternoon while my mom and I were on our hands and knees for twelve hours re-coloring the grout on our kitchen floor. About that, I had no idea it would be that time consuming or difficult. I woke up the next morning with sore muscles and bumps on my elbows and knees! I felt bad complaining because my mom and spent about 3 or 4 hours starting the project the day before! The floor looks amazing, but I'm not sure I would have started had someone told me I would be at it for 12 hours!

My mom also motivated me to put up some valance curtains in our kitchen. I finally picked out some fabric and hardware (that process was like pulling teeth for me). She cut, measured, ironed and sewed all the curtains and Eric and I hung up the rods. I'm going to take some pictures of the kitchen and living room soon and post them... I just have to put away all the Christmas stuff still :! I know, not too many people still have their tree up, or the stocking re-hung :)!

Another highlight for Elia was her hair cut. Eric took her to this cute girly shop where they spray glitter in your hair when you are done. We were tired of the stringy thin hair that Elia never wanted to put in a pony tail anyway: On January 1st we went to the Children's museum for 1st Noon. They had a parade and a ball that you counted down to noon with. I made this hat for Eric, which he graciously wore. Ethan got soaked at one of the exhibits:After naps we all went out to Galveston to see the beach. It was amazing how much rubble was still around from the Hurricane. Of course, just our good planning, we picked a completely freezing day to go, but being around water is still always fun:

We went out to eat after and Grandma ordered Elia a special ice cream sundae. Elia love putting the m&m's, sprinkles and chocolate sauce on top (or rather just dipping her fork in the sauce and licking it off).
On Saturday, my mom took the kids to the park where I was doing a photo shoot. Lucky me, Elia asked to have her picture taken after I was done with my clients. She hardly ever wants to have her picture taken.
Even Ethan cooperated...

...for a little while:

Then it was off to play again:

We sure had a nice break! Eric didn't have to work much and we got to do a lot of relaxing. Of course Christmas was fun. The kids had a great time with their stockings and presents. We made cinnamon rolls for breakfast (sorry no fried chicken (that's what Eric's family usually does for Christmas morning) and a traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, ham, pie, etc.
I can't believe it is 2009! How time flies! I love the idea of new years with all the emphasis on setting goals. Let's just hope I become a better person every year. Then I think I'll be OK. Cheers!

"I'm Alive"

2008-12-21T19:43:00.000-08:00

Well, if we still have any devoted readers out there, thanks for sticking with us through the drought of blog postings. However, we do have a good excuse. We lost our internet connection about the time we were planning on posting. It was out for over a week! Because of the inconvenience, and so we wouldn't cancel our contract, Comcast gave us a free month of service. But it was still very, very annoying. (Not too long ago we didn't even have internet. It's amazing what you get used to.)
So here's what we've been up to:
At the beginning of the month we visited Santa. On the way there, Elia said she was going to ask Santa to go on a rocket to another planet.(We always knew she was unique:) She ended up asking him for the usual; a candy cane. Yep, that is what she always asks Santa for. Maybe its because she knows he will give her one right then and there. At our church Christmas party though, she asked for a telescope. We didn't even know she knew that word! (Definitely reaching for the stars!) Ethan on the other hand, didn't want anything to do with Santa. That is why you don't see any pictures of Ethan with Santa without one of his parents. He REALLY wanted the bag of candy Santa was giving out though.

On December 4th, a monumental day in history, Jen got on an airplane without the kids! She had won Celine Dion tickets back when we lived in Glendale, and decided to take a mini-vacation and go back. At first she was planning on selling the tickets, but then her most wonderful, thoughtful husband, convinced her to go. (Thanks Honey!) She got to see lots of friends. She stayed the first night with the Giauques and the other two night with the Taggarts. She went to lunch with Erika and Katie, hung out with Paola, and got a make-up lesson from Kim. Thanks everyone! Katie and Jen went to the Celine Dion concert on Saturday night and had an amazing time. Being the novice at going to concerts that she was, the Taggarts helped her prep for the experience by listening to Celine music. She was an amazing performer and has an amazing voice. Did you know that Celine is the youngest of 14 kids? Man, we are only working on our third... we still have a long way to go to catch up to that.
Jen didn't know what to do without the kids, so luckily the Taggarts had cute Lance to keep her busy. The best part, well maybe not the Best part, but Jen really liked being able to read her book and go to the bathroom in the airport without company... all those of you with kids know what I mean! Jen, being the big ice cream fan that she is, really liked this sign, but we've been on another no sweets challenge since Thanksgiving. This time it only lasts until Christmas...but it may end sooner:)

Meanwhile while Jen was out gallivanting around Phoenix, Eric had a great time with the Kids. At one time Jen called and asked if he was surviving. His response was that he was Thriving! What a great honey and father! The big "event" of his weekend was his work Christmas party. They got to have their hands painted, Elia made about 10 ornaments, Ethan made 2, they received a hard-backed copy of "The Polar Express", and eat one cookie each. (As a break from the no sweet challenge.)
The week after Thanksgiving we bought our Christmas tree and began decorating for Christmas. We sort of forgot to take a picture of the completed tree, so that will come later...but not too later:)

Jen's mom came on Friday for Christmas and we are all ready for Thursday. We just barely put up our outside Christmas lights this weekend. Better late than never. We hope all of you are enjoying the Christmas season. Merry Christmas!

A Whole Lot to be Thankful For

2008-11-30T18:26:00.001-08:00

Well, our Thanksgiving break has come and gone. We started off by going to our ward's Turkey Bowl on Thursday morning. Jen even got to jump in and play some football. The kids had a blast playing with this large wooden pole on the sidelines with Aubrey and Lauren Ward and Karina Hulet:
After the Turkey Bowl we thought we would head to downtown Houston and help serve food at the Houston Superfeast. I thought since we didn't have family around, it would be nice to be able to help others out... well, we got there and (though it might not be true) it seemed like there were more volunteers than people to serve! Many of the volunteers were just standing around and others were waiting in lines of 10 or so to be able to volunteer when the current volunteers left! I'm glad there were so many people willing to help, but we didn't want to stand around and do nothing, so we drove home and put the kids down for a nap... we tried anyway.
In the evening we went over to the Hulets for a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner. Shanna cooked one of the most moist turkeys we've ever had... and it was her first time! We had a great feast complete with Eric's super mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. The Hulets provided delicious homemade roles, Jell-O, stuffing, and Jason, their twelve-year-old, made super-rich chocolate cheesecake! The meal was complete with sparkling cider, sparkling grape juice and sparkling strawberry drinks. Hulets, you guys are amazing! Thanks for being our home away from home this Thanksgiving. We also played a few games with the family after dinner. Jason beat us all at "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" but we all think our questions were harder! :) It was so fun hanging out with them. Our kids love their kids and we all had a great time!
On Friday morning, my friend Amber and I got up at 3:50 A.M. to hit the sales. It isn't something I'd want to do alone, but I had a great time going with Amber. We hit Kohls, Wal-mart and of course Michaels and JoAnn's. I went a little overboard buying frames, but I love a good sale and will need them to decorate our house. In the afternoon we celebrated Amber's birthday with a little get together at the park. Can you believe we got all the kids together for a picture? Thanks Shanna for sending me the picture!
On Friday afternoon Eric went with the scouts on an overnight camping trip. I sent him with the camera with express instructions to bring home a picture for the blog... This is what he came up with:

Yep, nothing! And he calls himself my husband!
In any case, it rained on him and he hadn't put the rain fly up, he is somewhat shocked by 12-year-old boy behavior, and in spite of it all, had a great time :) I even talked him into camping out in our backyard with Elia last night. She slept like a log and he slept terribly. Yay, camping!

Really though, we are so blessed. Nothing like Thanksgiving to make you really remember. Of course we try to be thankful all year long, but we're reminded once again what wonderful, blessed lives we live.

Still adjusting (will that ever end?)

2008-11-23T18:07:00.000-08:00

Another week has come and gone. I can't believe we've been in Texas for almost four months already! Things are going well... the kids and I spend a lot of time outside. The weather has been beautiful, even a little cold sometimes, but we have picnics at the park probably three of the five week days. The kids do so well together... Elia is still like a little second mom, telling Ethan what he can and can't do and picking him up to help him go places (even though he is perfectly capable of walking). For some reason he doesn't always like the help...

The house is slowly but surely getting into shape. This week we passed a huge milestone... we actually fit the car in the garage! Amazing... I know! A big thanks to the Ratliff clan who provided this year's fall foliage. They sent these beautifully laminated leaves... the leaves here in Texas just get ugly brown. We made a mobile of them and they hang above our kitchen table:

Ethan has officially given up morning naps. Sad time for our family, but he was taking a short morning nap and then complaining all afternoon. For his afternoon naps now, he usually climbs out of his crib, plays for a little and then climbs back in and goes to sleep, well, when I went in one day, this is where I found him.

I thought it was funny how close he was to his crib:

Next, the joys of home ownership. Our bathtub drain has been clogged... well, since we moved in. The water drained so slowly, but we just never got around to taking it apart. Eric finally did it and found this little gem:

What a nice home-warming present for us! Yech!

Now, for some real beauties. I was trying to take pics of the kids for Christmas cards this year. Here are a few of my favorites.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Bad Things: Being Wrong and Spending Money

2008-11-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

One quick note, this is my second post today, so check the post below too!
OK, so there are two things that rank right up the list of things I don't like: I don't like being wrong and I don't like spending big chunks of money (well, usually anyway... and especially if you can get things cheaper). Yesterday, both things happened!
So, Ethan, although he is 19-months-old, was still sitting in a rear-facing infant seat (as of yesterday) (contrast that to the fact that we were so excited Elia was growing that we moved her to a forward facing seat as soon as we could (about 13 months). He really was getting fed up with the seat and the problem was compounded when, not thinking strait, I would accidentally start buckling him in Elia's seat and then have to move him. So, we decided it was time to make the switch and give Elia's seat to Ethan and buy Elia a new booster seat. We went to Target and decided on a moderate booster seat that was $49. (A lot better than the $99-$125 that a toddler seat costs). I was pretty excited about saving some money (something that ranks right up there on my list of favorite things).
Then we were walking downtown and went into this children's store to look around and see if it was a place I could display my business cards. We saw another booster seat that latches into the car. Eric loved the fact that it didn't wiggle around and was convinced it was safer. I thought either would be fine on safety and I didn't want to pay $89 for this booster seat when I could pay $49. In any case, we bought it and decided to research both seats we had purchased and try them out. I should point out that the more expensive seat was on a "20% off" sale that ended today.
So, this morning, I, still convinced that my $49 would be fine, humored Eric as he "tested" both seats (see another big factor in the decision was that Elia needed to be able to still buckle herself). He tried out one seat and then the other, each time having Elia buckle herself in, about five times per seat. Reluctantly, I finally conceded that the $89 seat WAS better. It didn't wiggle around and seemed more secure, the belt seemed to be better positioned on Elia's shoulder, and Elia could buckle herself because the buckle didn't wiggle around as she was trying to fasten it.
I guess all is not lost though, Elia got lots of practice buckling herself in and last night Eric said that if we went with the $89 seat he would give me four 15-minute massages... I guess you win some and loose some, and though we're spending more of the kids' "allowance" than I would have liked, Eric definitely turned the situation into a win-win for all of us... hey, did he learn that in his business negotiations class?

Elia's election

2008-11-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

So, I was thinking back over the past week about what has been happening and realized I didn't have any pictures! I know! Crazy! Not that we did anything too exciting, but still I usually have something!

However, I did have this poorly shot video and shot a second one this morning. So I would have SOMETHING to show for this week. Actually, the reason this week was so busy was that I was in charge of preschool... Yep, four three and four-year-olds were at my house for three hours on Tuesday and three hours on Thursday. Although having that much energy at once is always a little overwhelming we had a great time voting on Tuesday (I had the kids vote for President, VP, Governor and Mayor... which actually was a very interesting experiment in the way children think) and learning about the five senses on Thursday. Of course it is always very interesting to see how your child is with other children. I don't think she is like this at other houses (though maybe she is and I just don't know it), but Elia is very "in-charge" when preschool is at our house... Her quote, "The girls are in charge... My Mama is in charge and me and Lauren (the other girl in our group)." Poor guys! What is funny though is that both of the boys put themselves first in the voting activity. While both girls chose someone else to put first. I wonder if you could use that kind of activity to study what kind of personality a kid has... Hmmm. Any researchers out there? I know some good subjects!

In any case, we're teaching Ethan animal sound because it is just so fun to hear little kids attempt animal sounds and, let me tell you, Ethan LOVES animals... That is normal I know, but he won't choose any books besides books with real animal pictures. Sorry about how bad this first one is. You would think I would know more about light, but that combined with the fact that I had to rotate the video and it is squished a little makes the video really poor. Luckily, you really just have to listen.

Other than that, we've just been unpacking... I think the process will never end! So for now, have a great week! Oh, the only other great news is that I bought a boogie board at a garage sale for .50! I was pretty excited. TTFN!

Happy Halloween... and Scissors, our new pet!

2008-11-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

Well, another Halloween has come and gone, our Tinkerbell and baby chick had a great time cruising the neighborhood and then cruising the car trunk line at church. You can't really tell, but I'm dressed as a Hogwarts student from Harry Potter. I have a red Harry Potter cape and I made a wooden wand. I even tied my own tie! (Thank goodness for the Internet). Elia loved going door-to-door and wasn't discouraged in the least when people weren't home. She was very good about saying "trick-or-treat", "thank-you", and "happy halloween" (people really loved when she said that).
Ethan picked up quickly on the idea of gathering candy. He wanted to eat it at first, but then we told him he had to put it in the bag, so he would hold out his hand, get the candy and put it in the bag. Then he would stop about five feet away from the door and try to take it out!

Our friends the Nielsens came over to join us for our neighborhood trick-or-treating. Robbie and Natalie came as a cute cowboy/cowgirl duo. We were very impressed that Natalie left her hat on the whole time!

Wow, how lucky! Three kids looking at the same time!

We went trick-or-treating first, then came home to pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters who came by our house. I didn't want to buy a huge bag of candy, but I did buy these cool glow-in-the-dark eye tatoos (you can kind of see one on Elia's arm in the picture above). So, when we got home, we sorted through our candy and gave most of what we didn't want away to those who came to our house, along with the tatoos. I'm sure they enjoyed getting a handful of candy (they didn't know they were getting our rejects) and I just didn't want a huge bag of left over candy at our house! The effects of candy fever will linger for long enough without additional candy to fuel it. We told Elia she could eat all the candy she wanted last night, but starting today she can only have a piece or two after lunch every day.

In other news, a new pet joined our family yesterday. Meet "Scissors":
This friendly little jumping spider joined Elia in her room yesterday. I had seen it before her nap and it was right on her pillow! Though I was freaked out, I appeared calm because I didn't want her to freak out. I moved the pillow and it disappeared. I looked all through her bed and on the floor, but couldn't find it. (She kept asking me what I was looking for, and I don't know what I said, but I didn't tell her it was a spider... talk about a nap inhibitor)! In the middle of her nap, I heard her calling me... turns out, "Scissors" as she would later be named is now on her window. I capture her and Elia asks if we can keep her for a pet. See, Elia loves bugs! I don't want her to know that many times, they creep me out, but I want her to not freak out about them, so for example, when she saw the cockroach and wanted to keep him, I calmly caught it and we gave it some leaves and kept him in a jar for a couple of days. When we went to the bug lab, they had these huge Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches and Elia like them so much she held one twice! So, when she woke up and came downstairs to see the spider I asked what we would name it. She saw the scissors laying next to the "cage" and pronounced that that would be her name. Actually, I thought it was a pretty great name especially since it was Halloween! This morning, I took a few pictures of her before Elia released her outside in the garden. I should mention that after I caught her I did a little research on-line to identify what type she was. I found out that she wasn't harmful. (And yes, it is a girl... the female's eyes are greenish). I actually think this research made me like her A LITTLE more which made me more able to take a picture of her (though I was still leary about having her jump on me) so you could all enjoy our visiting pet.

Black Eyes, Birthdays and Muddy Underwear?

2008-10-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

So, where do I start! It's been a little crazy around here (but what's new). I think I've mentioned that we joined a playgroup with three other moms who all have kids around Elia's age. It has worked out so well. Now there are two boys and two girls in the group. A week and a half ago we took the kids to the Children's Museum in downtown Houston. The kids loved dressing up (a precursory experience to Halloween) and pretending they were "newscasters": Our little "students" (l to r) Elia, Mark, Robby and Lauren
Captain Ethan at the periscope:
I thought it was so appropriate that Ethan was holding a fake corn on the cob from the museum's "market" while looking at this baby chick. I think the baby chick thinks it's real!
I went to a house to look at buying some things. The lady thought the kids were so cute she gave them a balloon animal kit. We've been making balloon animals all week! We've gotten pretty good... well, Eric has gotten better than I have, but alas, all the balloons are gone and there will be no more balloon animals. Ethan loved putting this monkey over his head.
I let the kids play outside while I was making dinner one night... it's one reason why I love having a backyard, but the underwear Elia had taken off so she could get in the paddling pool earlier in the afternoon, soon became her buried treasure!
OK, so this is kind of a random picture, but people have asked about Ethan's hair length and knowing I would want a picture when I eventually cut it, I've decided to share it with you:
Happy Birthday Papa! It was Eric's... 29th birthday yesterday. I put 3 candles on his cake telling him that he was close to 30 and 29 candles were too many! He's not sensitive about it, so I knew I could get away with the joke. We had Mexican corn which is cooked corn on the cob slathered with mayonnaise, queso seco (a dry crumbly cheese) and chili powder. Even Elia loved it! It is tradition to push the birthday boy's face in the cake (we had deliciously moist tres leches cake) and since I was taking pictures Elia kindly obliged:

After... what a good sport:Eric's work held a party for all of the kids. Elia, who I thought was going to go as Ariel since she's been talking about it since her birthday, chose instead to go as Tinkerbell... thanks in large part to the huge billboards with Tinkerbell all over the sides of the freeway. So... we brought out the wings I bought for her second Halloween when she was a little over 1 and the tutu I made largely for a photography prop last year.

Ethan dressed as a chicken... and I know we're biased, but boy was he cute!

Last but not least, you may have noticed the black eye in some of Ethan's pictures. He face planted into our tile step and what started out as a small cut developed into a black eye a couple days later...

... and because I have fun with this sort of stuff, I thought I would reveal the power of Photoshop. I loved the picture so much, but didn't want the black eye, so I took it out! You know all those perfect looking models in magazines? I'll leave it to you to deduce how they got that way!

Pick your pumpkin

2008-10-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've been neglecting the blog... perhaps it's because our whole house is full of boxes... yes, I KNOW it's been a whole week, but No, I don't have them all unpacked yet! :) I've taken a few pictures that I haven't posted, but have gotten so far behind that I'm not going to post those.
I'll just start from where we are now. The kids and I went to a pumpkin patch yesterday. I went with two other women from church. The kids had a blast with their boys and came home thoroughly exhausted! I was disappointed to learn that carved pumpkins only last about five days here in the humidity and heat. Elia was most excited that the pumpkin she picked out was of the "Cinderella" variety.
The Griffiths boys:

Wonder Woman (Elia probably gets her muscles from carrying Ethan all the time): Our little family (minus Papa)... doesn't Ethan look thrilled?:

This is my favorite picture! I'm not sure if this is Ethan's idea of a kiss or that he already knows how to torment girls ;)

The kids slept all the way home and I parked under the tree in front of our house and read while they kept sleeping.

In the evening, was another example of how great our ward has been. It's only been a week since we moved in and my visiting teachers came with flowers and a Twix for my birthday our home teachers also came with warm chocolate cake! Yep! It was my birthday. It was nice to have such thoughtfulness, because unfortunately, Eric is out of town... we'll celebrate when he gets back. My mom said she felt bad for me having to celebrate my birthday by myself and said she would pay for my dinner tonight but that I had to go to a place that would sing me happy birthday. I'm trying to figure out how to tell the waiters it is my own birthday... maybe I'll have Elia do it... but it is worth a free dinner!

Stars align in the Lone Star State

2008-10-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

I really feel overwhelmed and blessed all at the same time. Whew!... buying a house and moving is a big job! There have been so many things to do (and really, there still are), but I know "Someone" is looking out for me because things have just come together... It is kind of long, but I just feel so blessed I couldn't help but share:
1) I switched the utilities, but the electric company told me that my scheduled turn on would be on Monday and the scheduled shut-off was on Friday (yesterday). That would have meant we would be the whole weekend without power... but, because of Hurricane Ike all requests like these are suspended until they restore power from the hurricane damage. So, luckily we still have power!
2) On Friday we needed to paint. I found one person to watch the kids for three hours in the morning and another to watch them after their naps. The girl who watched them in the afternoon watched them for four hours (and she has two kids of her own)! She is amazing!
3) On Friday we had scheduled the arrival of our bed and refrigerator and the installation of our internet. The internet company came earlier than we thought and the computer was still in our apartment. They said we would have to reschedule and the next appointment was Thursday! However, they said if they had time, they would come back and do it. I left right then to get the computer at our apartment (about 25 minutes away, one-way). Eric called me as I was starting back and told me they were back... I was panicked they would leave again, but they had 20 minutes of work to do before they needed the computer so I made it with the computer just in time.
4) Our bed was supposed to arrive on Friday too. The delivery truck called to make sure we were "home" and it was then discovered that they were going to our apartment! We called the store and the salesperson remembered putting in our new address, but something didn't go through. He tried to tell us that they could deliver it on Monday (which would mean no bed all weekend) we talked to him some more and he checked with his supervisor and told us they could still deliver it after their other deliveries.
5)While we were painting on Friday we also discovered our water had been turned off. I guess our request for water had been lost. They said they could still do it that day if we submitted our application again (and pay a $25 same-day service fee). Eric and I talked his mom through the submission of the application (we didn't have internet service yet) as I was frantically trying to get the computer from our apartment and get home in time. (I really know now what a chicken feels with its head cut off).
6)In the afternoon I remembered that I needed to call the truck company to check on the truck... I don't know how I missed this, but I needed to schedule a drop-off time. I knew the truck was here, I had been checking on the status, but for some reason I was just thinking they would call me... (A no-headed chicken thing I guess). I called at 3:30 and they said they could deliver it Monday... I was seriously panicked now because we had 7 people from church volunteer to help us unpack at 8:00 this (Saturday) morning. I basically begged him to drop it off today (I was really desperate) and he said he could do it between 12 and 2 in the morning which I gladly accepted. He called at 9:00 p.m. saying he was coming and needed a signature. Well, that would have been great except we had left at 8:30 p.m. to get the rest of our stuff from the apartment. I was thinking, "Oh, great, I lost the opportunity", but he called his boss and got the approval to drop off the truck with out a signature! I was so impressed with ABF. I would totally use them again.
Do you see what I mean about everything just working out for us! It sure makes me want to live better so I can be blessed like this all the time!
7)This morning we unpacked the truck in less than 90 minutes. We had about 8 guys there and 2 women (one of which was my visiting teacher and I asked her to take the kids for a walk and watch over them... which was great).
8)Oh, and to top it all off, my visiting teachers called and asked if they could bring me dinner and told me they would make enough to last Saturday and Sunday! One brought a casserole, salad for dinner and blueberry muffins (for breakfast tomorrow). The other brought strawberries, whipped cream, cookies, rolls, bottled water with crystal light packets and paper plates and cups! I am so grateful that they were so thoughtful. With all our stuff in boxes it is so helpful to have something nutritious to eat (so we don't just eat left-over donuts we bought for the people who helped us this morning).
Talk about nice people. You always hear how friendly people are in Texas and now I can really see why. We have been so warmly received and cared for already! I wanted to get all this down and I know it is long, but thanks for reading (if you got this far). God really knows we are here and what we need! (I knew that already, but it sure is nice to get such a huge reminder!)
I'm planning on doing another post... maybe tomorrow... with some pictures from our Utah trip and the past week. Hopefully things will slow down a little, though we have our work cut out for us with all these boxes!

Vacation?!

2008-09-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here they are! When it was finally over, here is what it looked like around Houston.

Eric's cousin was so nice to let him stay with them. Here is her daughter, dog and husband. Just like Jen, she is hardly ever in pictures because she is the one behind the camera.

After being wound up only once (compared to Abby's six or seven times) Eric felt sick. Is this what age does to a person?

Although Eric's office wasn't open, they were still encouraged to put in a few hours remotely. A neighbor removed his password so anyone could connect to his internet because most were still without internet service. What a sweet set-up!Now that Jen is back home from packing up our stuff (pictures from that trip are soon to come), we have another new development. One that we aren't too happy about. A few weeks ago when Eric's mom, Nancy, was here, we came home from looking at houses one day and she said we had forgotten to tell her about Ethan's new trick. We didn't know of any new trick and were very surprised to hear that he could now climb out of his crib. For the rest of her trip, however, there was no proof that he actually climbed out of his crib because he didn't attempt the escape again. So we were still doubting. We doubt no longer. Our routine for the past two nights has been: we put Ethan in his crib, we leave the room, a few seconds later he follows us and we put him back...about 20 times or more. It even happens in the middle of the night at 12:30 a.m.! For his nap yesterday we finally just shut the bedroom door and this is where he chose to sleep (pic below). Tonight we have had a break-through! We shut the closet door where he sleeps and listened to what he would do next. All while he was crying, he climbed out of his crib, stood at the door and then climbed back into his crib and went to sleep. Yes! Power to the parents!

Ike Update

2008-09-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

We've been getting lots of questions about how we are doing. Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers. We are all safe. Our house (that we are supposed sign the papers for this Friday) had only a few minor damages, so we were lucky. I am now in Utah packing up our stuff to move it to Texas and left the camera with our post hurricane pictures with Eric, so we'll post those later along with more details.
Everyone asks if it was scary, but really, the power went out about 1 a.m. on Saturday morning which is when the worst part of the hurricane was happening. It was really windy and raining hard, but it wasn't particularly scary. On the far side of our building a transformer blew and a very well-known restaurant caught on fire. The wind just fueled the flames and it took the firefighters more than four hours to put it out! We watched the flames from our building. I've never been that close to a fire like that. What was amazing was that it was pouring rain and the fire still kept burning. Here is a link if you want to read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/091308dntexbrennans.70098276.html
Even though the hurricane was almost exciting for us (probably because we didn't feel we were in any real danger); the fire, the flooding and thinking about the economic implications of the hurricane is quite sobering. It is nice to be off work, but I think about the people who work hourly jobs just to make ends meet and if they are out of work for a week because the power is out, the implications are just so much worse. We feel so blessed to have our family safe and be comfortable.
As far as our status, we still don't have power or water at our apartment and he hasn't been to work since they closed early on Thursday. Nice holiday, but it would be nicer if he had something to do or if we were together.
Eric's staying with a cousin in Sugar Land. They got power back on Saturday night. How amazing! We are so grateful he has a place to stay. Actually another family has been staying with them too, so there is a six-year-old and two eight-year-olds. Eric calls me and tells me all the games he is playing with the kids... I thought "stuffed animal olympics" would surely be his favorite. I'm sure they are loving him... I am so blessed to have a husband who is great with kids. We sure miss him! Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!

Hurricane Ike!

2008-09-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

Well, after one and a half months in Houston we are experiencing our first hurricane! First of all, thanks to everyone who has called and texted to find out how we are doing. Hurricane Ike is headed right for Houston. It is supposed to cause the most damage in Galveston, the place we went just two weeks ago on Labor Day (see previous post). Evacuations aren't mandatory for us and we feel our building is pretty safe, so we've decided to wait it out. We've parked our car on the second story parking just in case there is flooding.
I was supposed to be headed for Utah this weekend to get our stuff ready to come down. I was initially going to leave Saturday, I called Wednesday and changed the flight to Friday then was told yesterday that the airport would be closed Friday and Saturday. I am scheduled to leave Sunday morning, so we'll see how that goes.
We've filled our bathtubs with water, purchased extra water bottles and food and hoping the power outage doesn't last too long. They said it could last up to two weeks if the power does go out! I put everything I could in the freezer with the hopes that it will at least buy us a couple of days. We did one really silly thing... we went to a store and they were having sales on a lot of food. Eric saw his favorite thing on sale: frozen cinnamon and bought five bags... we forgot that if we have a power outage for more than a couple of days, they won't be any good!
Maybe we are just naive about what is coming, but it is sort of exciting... Is that bad? Don't get me wrong, I know that a lot will be destroyed and of course I think that will be awful, but it just sort of seems like an adventure right now.
We went on a walk this evening about 6:30. The streets were deserted:
We went to look out at the top of Eric's office garge. The wind really started blowing. The eye of the hurricane is supposed to travel right over downtown Houston which is where we are. It is supposed to get here in the early morning (like 2 or so).

If we have power tomorrow we'll keep everyone posted, but we feel we'll be OK here. Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.

Labor Days and Birthdays

2008-09-07T17:54:00.000-07:00

Labor Day brings back lots of memories since I went into labor on that day four years ago when Elia was born! This year, her birthday was on a Saturday, so it was fun to have a party on her actual birthday since that doesn't happen very often (...though maybe I thought it was cooler than everyone else did... who knows)!
Everyone we invited came! I thought this was neat because that doesn't happen very often either. I guess it isn't too hard when you only invite five families, but we had a great time. Here was Elia's announcements. I am including it because I love these pictures of her.Elia really wanted an "Ariel" cake... from "The Little Mermaid". I am usually up for a good cake challenge, but I didn't have any of my supplies and all the cakes I looked at on the Internet didn't really look like Ariel... plus, I bought this really cool "giant cupcake" mold before I left Utah. I went the easy route and bought figurines from The Disney Store. Elia loved helping me put the candies on top and we put the Prince Eric and Max (the dog) figurines on top of the white cake. Extra bonus, she now gets to play with the figurines! I have to admit, the 30 minute decorating time was sure a nice break from the three or so hours I spent on Ethan's cake (http://jenericpetty.blogspot.com/2008/04/par-teeeee.html)!

On Labor Day we went with our friends the Forbushes to the beach at Galveston. It was actually not bad... (we'd heard stories that it was). The waves were AWESOME... probably because of Hurricane Gustav. This beach bum loved the sandy muck!
Craig and Lynette watched the kids while Eric and I went body surfing! Thanks guys!