Rugby in the Blood

What a busy week! Eric's mom and dad came down from Utah for a visit last Saturday. We started their visit with a cultural night at Thunderbird, celebrating the cultures of North, South and Central America. Our big fun came later in the week. We went camping with three other couples on Friday night before Eric's rugby game on Saturday. Elia was sooooo excited about going camping that she carried all of her stuff around the house for 45 minutes before we left... well, her stuff and Ethan's breathing machine.We forgot to get a picture before leaving the campsite, so we staged one after the Rugby game: Here are some pictures from the game:

Eric plays the one and only fullback on the team. He is the last person the offense has to go through. He does a great job back there as this guy learned:

Eric took a couple of the extra point kicks for the team:After the game, they had a moment of silence for a rugby player who died. I guess the first one in 10 years.
Elia didn't watch much of the game. She mostly played with Danger, our friends' dog and her friend Sofia:
So Eric's whole body has bruises on it, but here is one of his more significant ones on his arm:He returns home after each practice with a few new ones. He now has bruised arms, legs and even one on his right eyebrow. No blood from him yet, though after each game at least one person is bleeding so I think it is just a matter of time.
Ethan had a great time crawling around the grass too. He didn't care much for the game either.

While Eric's parents were here we hit several milestones:

1) Ethan's third tooth broke through

2) I claim that Ethan can now say "duck". He repeated it after me several times as I showed him a rubber duck. When I took the camera out, he was more interested in it than in talking, but I still captured a recording: (the laugh is the best part!)

Eric is still not convinced.

3) Elia has upped her demands. She used to request three of everything: three almonds, three stories, three etc. NOW she asks for four! (except she never asks for four minutes in time-out)

4) Elia's new favorite saying is, "Ohhhh Yeaaahhhh!"

Sweet Bubble Dreams

Well, this week went much better. Eric came up with the blog title this week, so I'm covered there, and there was no crazy forgetting things and we actually even planned ahead enough that we weren't wondering what to do about the kids when we both had things planned for the same night! Hip, hip, hooray!
Here is a sweep through the week:
Monday: As Eric was leaving for his Mandarin test, I said to him, "Say I love you in Chinese, Papa". Elia jumped right in and said, "I love you in Chinese, Papa!"
Tuesday: Jen taught preschool and even planned the night before for the lesson so she wasn't so crazy in the morning. Tuesday's bubble bath shoot:













Wednesday: I got called out of my exercise class to the kids club, thinking Ethan was crying, but when I got there, they had called because the girls bathroom was out of order and Elia didn't want to go in the little boys room. I finally talked her into it.
Thursday: Preschool again, then cooking club. Jen taught 6 other girls how to cook "Grampa Ken's Pork Stew". It was a hit! Sorry Ken, the secret is out. When can we expect your book? :) Thursday afternoon, I did a picture shoot and was fortunate enough to have Elia play with one friend and Ethan go to another friend's house. Thanks guys! It was great. Thursday night was basketball for Eric and a baby shower for Jen.
Friday: We skipped soccer to make sure we would have time to apply for jobs. We put five more applications in for Eric! Keep praying for us!
Saturday: RUGBY! Eric played the whole game in the current t-bird vs. alumni game. The game was so close and Eric even got the "assist" for the first "try" (that's a touchdown in rugby). I don't think they do assists, but it was because of what Eric did that his teammate was able to take the ball into the end.
Sunday: Today, while playing in the room, Elia found the tall cylindrical cover for Jen's CD stack. She thought it would make a great hat and put it on Eric's head. When she had it carefully balanced, she slowly moved her arms away and said, "perrrrfect!". We got the kids ready quickly and left the house about 12 (an hour before church). We drove for a while talking about our future plans while the kids slept. Elia was a lot better in church today because she got a nap (unlike most Sundays). After church, Eric went to choir and I took the kids for a walk. Ethan was so tired, I found him like this when we got home:

Getting in Together

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oceans of Fun

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

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

The Beginning of the End

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who is Ethan's Papa?

OK, so I am done with long posts! The last two have been exceptionally long and I know it is hard to read ones that are so long! So for now, I want to post this little incident, the topic of which, comes up almost every day:

Elia: Who is Ethan's Papa?
Jen: Your Papa is Ethan's Papa.
Elia: No he's not.
Jen: Yes, you and Ethan have the same Papa.
Elia: I don't want to share Papa.
Jen: Well, who is Ethan's Papa?
Elia (while on a walk): That tree is Ethan's Papa.
Jen: Trees make baby trees, not baby people. People have to make baby people. Papa is Ethan's Papa.
Elia: No he's not.
Jen: admits defeat in arguing with a three-year-old by not continuing the conversation

I'm beginning to learn that grown-ups do not win logical arguments with small children. From what I've heard, I think it is rare for a grown-up to win an argument with a teenager too. Time will tell!

Farewell to our prophet

Last night, the prophet of our church passed away at age 97. President Gordon B. Hinckley was such an amazing man and leader for the church. He is especially remembered for his humor and zeal for life.


After I heard the news and as I was thinking about it, I thought about Elia who, when she is shown a picture of him and when we ask her who it is, she says, "President Hinckley!" When we ask her who he is, she says, "He's the prophet!".
She only knows these things because we've told her, but as I reflect today on my own beliefs, I can say that I know he is a prophet of God. I have felt it as I've heard him speak and direct the church. I have felt power when I've been in a stadium filled with people who stand in silence as he enters the room.
I am so grateful that the Lord sees fit to give direction to us today through his prophet. It doesn't make sense that he would leave men without guidance, especially in a time that is as difficult and turbulent as this one and though we will miss him, it is comforting to know that the church will continue to be directed by the Lord as the leadership and revelation from God passes on to our next prophet.
Here is a link to the news story from the church website (lds.org): http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97
And here is an article from the Deseret News: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695247765,00.html

I have really felt inspired by his words and everytime I hear him or read what he has said, I want to be better. One of my favorite teachings of his are the "be's": Be Grateful, Be Smart, Be Clean, Be True, Be Humble, Be Prayerful. What an amazing man. I know that I have been inspired to be a better person because of him and I hope I can be as bold a witness of Christ as he has been.

After reading this on my friend Mauri Winder's blog, I am adding this to my post:

Testimony of President Gordon B. Hinckley
"I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you heard me bear my witness that this is God's holy work. The vision given the Prophet Joseph in the grove of Palmyra was not an imaginary thing. It was real. It occurred in the broad light of day. Both the Father and the Son spoke to the boy. He saw Them standing in the air above him. He heard Their voices. He gave heed to Their instruction."It was the resurrected Lord who was introduced by His Father, the great God of the universe. For the first time in recorded history, both the Father and the Son appeared together to part the curtains and open this, the last and final dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of times."The Book of Mormon is all that it purports to be—a work recorded by prophets who lived anciently and whose words have come forth "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations" (Book of Mormon title page)."The priesthood has been restored under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. All the keys and authority pertaining to eternal life are exercised in this Church."Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the great Prophet of this dispensation. This Church, which carries the name of the Redeemer, is true."I leave you my testimony, my witness, and my love for each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
President Gordon B. HinckleyApril 1, 2006, Sunday morning session of the 176th Annual World General Conference