Pomp and Circumstance

Well, it is official! We have a new MBA grad in our midst. Here are a few pictures from the event:
Eric at the grad reception with the school's president, Dr. Angel Cabrera. The medals around his neck show his participation in student government and campus ambassadors. Some of Eric's pals (left to right): Kendrick Hanney, Ben Stull, Eric, Tyson Leavitt
After three hours of ceremony it is amazing we could get our kids to cooperate at all! They actually did a great job. There was room on the sides of the room so they didn't have to sit still the whole time. It worked out really well.
Elia with Corbin and Owen Winward, some of her friends from Thunderkids. They will be moving to Puerto Rico next month! After much confusion, we were able to round up most of the LDS students for a picture after graduation.
So, as Eric graduated on Friday, I began to think about what pomp and circumstance meant, so I looked up the definitions:
Pomp: "Dignified or magnificent display; splendor"
Circumstance: "Formal display; ceremony"
I liked this other definition of circumstance. I think it fits our current "circumstance" better :)
"The sum of determining factors beyond willful control"
That's how it seems sometimes anyway.

Eric is looking forward to the break and is excited to not have to study anymore, though we are a little anxious about finding a job. In any case, we're keeping positive and continuing our search. We're not sure what the future holds for us, but we're sure it will be great! Thanks for all your encouragement and support.

Trains and Sugar what could be better

Well, a lot has happened since Ethan's birthday last weekend. Eric finished his classes on Thursday, we went to a get together to celebrate a friend's birthday on Sunday, had pizza with the soccer team on Wednesday and went to the closing family club social for dinner on Friday. (Yeah for not cooking!!) Then on Saturday we went to the temple in the morning and celebrated another friend's birthday at P.F. Changs that night. It seems that everyone is trying to see each other as much as possible before the big split after the trimester.
Also last week we went to the train park with the the Smiths, Websters and Prices (minus the Papas who were very busy finishing school stuff up). The kids got to ride the train around, go through the small museum that is inside the NORAD Presidential train, and play in BOTH playgrounds. They loved it. Kaleb, Xander and Elia loved playing together and were like three peas in a pod.
Ethan and Katelyn hung out during the train ride...
but Ethan was more interested in playing in the sand. Unlike Elia, he really isn't that interested in eating it... Thank goodness!

In other news, we've been working with Ethan to teach him signs because he has the worst habit of squawking loudly for things he wants. Here is my video project (the first time I've put together bits of more than one video: (Turn off the side bar music before you turn it on). Of course Ethan, like most children, seem to be very good at avoiding performance when parents want them too. We've tried about five times to capture his cute head shake (he shakes his head no as he crawls towards things he knows he shouldn't be near (e.g. Watson's water) or when he's doing something he shouldn't be, but when we pull out the camera he refuses! The nerve! Anyway, here are the "more" and "drink" signs.

Well, the end is nigh. Eric graduates officially on Friday! ... Then what? We're not quite sure yet, so if any of you hear of potential jobs, keep us posted. We know something will come, but aparently, we're not done learning to be patient. :)

AND... for the most exciting news of all, our no-sugar "diet", which began January 1st is over!!!!!! We have had several sugar-laden items since we ended it on Friday and honestly, they don't taste as good as they should... or used to anyway. We bought some Honey Bunches of Oats (I think it has like 6 or 7 grams of sugar) and I thought they were gross! We also broke into our post-Easter purchases of Reeses peanut butter eggs and they aren't as spectacular as they used to be. Eric seems to be getting back into sugar better than I am (though I'm sure I'm not far behind). The best example of this is his recent purchase of Reeses Peanut Butter cereal. Sick! He knows that is a one-time purchase though (so ENJOY it now Honey!!). Seriously though, we've both agreed we want to be more moderate in our sugar consumption. We split a cookie at the latest event where refreshments were served! Thanks Greg and Cyndee for undertaking this with us! It has definitely been an eye-opener.

Stay tuned next week to see the new graduate!

PAR-TEEEEE!

We celebrated Ethan's birthday today. We invited our friends over to swim and eat cake and ice cream. I worked in the morning on the cake (plus I had done some preparations (some of the stars) on Thursday night). I invited my friend Paola over to help with some of it. She is the creative and crafty type and I thought she would enjoy it, plus with the two kids and Eric gone to two group meetings all morning I knew I would need the help (thanks Paola)! We had a great time and I think the cake turned out looking great: The gang sang "Happy Birthday",
Then Elia helped Ethan blow out the candle:
Ethan didn't know what to do with the cake and, with a very serious face, just squished and played with it. I think he loved the feel of it between his fingers. I guess we need to play more with texture stuff:
I finally put a little taste in his mouth and he got the idea. He ate some, but still was serious the whole time! What a funny kid. After eating a little, and squishing a lot, he wanted to go back swimming. He loved being in the water, being passed back and forth between Eric and me. He had a huge grin on his face the whole time.
We had a great turnout. We collected canned food instead of presents and were going to take it to a local food bank, but we've decided to take it to church tomorrow and ask the bishop if there is anyone in the ward who could use it. Thanks everyone for coming! In a few weeks everyone will be leaving. It was great to see everyone again!

Happy First Birthday, Ethan!!!

I know it's cruel, but we went this morning to the doctor for Ethan's check-up and shots.
He was 28" long and weighed 18 pounds 12 ounces. He is in the 5th percentile for both of these. Dr. Michael said he's not concerned because they are both the same, but after we see the pulmonologist in 1 week, they might talk about doing some blood tests just to be sure everything is fine. He said Ethan seems to be developing fine, so he's probably just smaller than average, but those percentiles change all the time. Dr. Michael also treated Ethan for a sinus infection since he has had a runny nose for a while.
I just can't even believe it's been a year! When we moved to Glendale I was almost exactly halfway through my pregnancy and now he turns 1 today! Ethan has been so fun. He is almost always smiling! Unlike Elia when she was a baby, Ethan is a pretty good cuddler. He loves to be held and often puts his head down to rest on your shoulder. He loves to eat and will eat anything! He has eaten chicken curry, vegetarian pizza and salsa chicken (just to name a few). He always seems to know if you are eating something better than what you've given him. As of now he has four teeth, is crawling and walks by holding on to furniture. He does the sign for "drink", but he signs "more" by pointing at what he wants. He will smile most readily for Elia and even when we think she is being too rough, he giggles and laughs at her.
Here is a look back at growing up:
1 year:


One of his rare sad moments (they usually only come because he thinks he needs to be picked up): 8 months:
4 months:
One day:
I hope I didn't forget to e-mail anyone, but we're celebrating by inviting everyone to the pool for cake and swimming on Saturday:

Happy Birthday little e!!!!

Utah, North Carolina and Yuma... All in Two Weeks!

OK, so I'm forcing myself to make a post today. I've been avoiding it for a long time because I haven't felt like there was anything to write about and I haven't had a lot of pictures, but then as I thought about everything that has happened these past two weeks, I realize we've done a ton!
On the 2nd, we drove over to Quartzsite, AZ where we met my mom (who came from Yuma) and dropped the kids off. Eric and I then completed the 11.5 hour trip to Utah where he attended a conference put on through the BYU Marriot School of Business. The conference was fantastic. He heard from great speakers like Steven Covey, David Ulrich (one of the world's top five business coaches), and Bronco Mendenhall (the BYU football coach). I hung out with Tiffany while her husband Dave went to the conference with Eric. Without kids I was successfully able to go back to sleep until about 8:00 every morning. I say back to sleep because I would still wake up at about 6:30, as my body is conditioned to doing, then tell myself I didn't have kids so I could go back to sleep. Tiffany and I visited with her family and took a trip to Temple Square. I can't even believe I did this, but I brought my camera equipment without my charger or extra battery and as luck would have it (and maybe because of the temperature difference) my battery was completely dead! Some photographer I am! Luckily, Tiffany's sister had her camera and took a picture for us:

On Saturday, Eric and I began the long trip home, reclaimed our kids, and passed out back at home, uneager to unpack and begin "normal life again." However, we successfully transitioned and Eric went back to classes on Monday.

This week, I guess has felt so crazy because I've done three photography sessions! Wow! That was a little much, but we pulled it off. Elia came with me to one of the sessions and actually volunteered to have her picture taken! That NEVER happens... usually she runs away. It's been a while since I've gotten a cute picture of her and I couldn't decide if I liked the b&w or color, so I posted both. Which is your favorite?
So we don't leave "little e" out, (and since his birthday is fast approaching (on Friday!!!!)), I found this picture from last month. Poor kid. He has to put up with sister dragging him and carrying him around the house and parents sticking balloons with static to his hair.... nope, that's not some strange growth to add to his list of health problems. Thanks goodness! Of course, he can't read the hymn book yet, but he does love to "sing"... probably his second favorite thing... next to eating!

This weekend, Eric went off to Duke University for a rugby tournament. His team took 9th! I drove down to my mom's with my two sick kids, who thankfully are much better now. I made 5 flower hair/headband clips, two headbands and a tutu! It was a lot of fun and much easier than you would think. I'll try to get pictures up of my "project".

Next week, we're off to the races again. Eric flies to Minneapolis then Kalamazoo, Michigan for interviews. Of course, it would be too convenient for them to be back to back, so one is on Tuesday and the other is on Friday... still, we are grateful he is having the interviews. Pray for us, cross your fingers, or do whatever you think will help us get a job!

OK, I feel better now that I've made a post... and actually it wasn't so bad considering I have a car full of stuff to unpack before I pick Eric up at the airport at 11:30 tonight! Cheers!

One last day at the Zoo

Well, my season pass for the zoo that my Dad bought for us a year ago expires tomorrow. As one last hurrah, I went with some friends to the zoo for the last time on Friday. Elia loved running with Tristan, a four-year-old who, unlike Elia's younger friends, loves to hold hands and run. We had to drag the two of them out of a photo booth they found by the side of the walkway. Of course, I took pictures with my own camera and they didn't quite get the point of looking at the camera instead of the big blinking screen in front of them. Oh well!Of course, the tiger and lion are favorite hits with everyone.

As is our custom, we rode the carousel at the end of the day. For a change, (from the horse and dolphin -- two of Elia's previous favorites), I talked to her about the other animals and she selected the lion... well, as fate would have it, both lions were taken. After a few tears, she chose the leopard and forgot all her cares as the carousel started to move.

I also wanted to visit Stingray Bay one last time... a pool with stingrays and sharks that you can pet. I took Rachel in with Elia. Elia loved to feel the rays when they would come close to the edge. Rachel wasn't as sure, but she felt one too. I'd never felt a live shark before. The stingray's skin was smooth and slimy, but the shark's really was rough like sandpaper. I'd heard that it was used for that purpose way back when... it was just neat to feel it. Thanks Dad for many happy zoo memories!

Tonight, as is our custom, we took a walk over to school. It's hard to believe that we will be done in about a month!!!! I've been meaning to take a few pictures of the campus before we leave and I finally took my camera so I could. I loved this patch of flowers:
Thunderbird and Thunderkid... maybe we should call her a Thunderchick:
Oh, in other big news, we found a fixer-upper. It is really the only one we thought we could afford seeing how Eric doesn't have a job yet (though our hopes are still high). Don't you think it looks cozy? It just needs a new coat of paint. I think it really has potential. We're excited to call ourselves home-owners!

OK, so it is actually a fancy bird-house on campus, but I think it is charming... maybe we'll design our next house after it. Scott S. ... did you get that?
Happy week!

Hoppy Easter and Beyond

The only reason I'm posting this picture is that I think for the first time in our marriage, we dressed the whole family in green for St. Patrick's Day. It's really not a very good picture. Eric and I are trying to get the kids to smile at the self-timing camera sitting on our counter. They end up looking great and we end up looking crazy! C'est la vie (which I learned while doing this post is not spelled "se la vi" as I would have spelled it)! After St. Patty's Day. I was in charge of the Thunderkids activity. We made Easter baskets out of milk jugs. This is the one Elia and I had made a few weeks ago. For the Thunderkids we just used crayons instead of cotton balls. That was me trying to simplify. It actually really worked out well. The crayons did a great job making the bunny features and I brought cotton balls for the tails. I've decided that there is no reason to store Easter baskets. We'll just make a new one each year!

Ethan got his ear tubes in last Thursday. The poor kid wasn't allowed to eat until after surgery. Luckily it was at 8:00 a.m., but by the time 9:00 rolled around and he was finished, he was quite upset at me. He seemed to feel better after he nursed and then threw up all he had eaten (which the nurse said was normal because of the air in his stomach from the anesthesia). So, now my little boy has ear tubes. He is doing great. The doctor said not to worry about getting water in his ear --like at the pool. So he doesn't even have to wear ear plugs! From studies, it seems there is no difference in the amount of infections if a kid wears ear plugs or not. I guess time will tell.
My mom came up for Easter weekend and we kindly dragged her to all of our social events. On Saturday, we took her to a Sprouts grocery store Egg hunt, our church Easter picnic and then an LDS network school social. On Sunday we had a fun Easter dinner with our friends: Thanks to Tiffany for these cute kiddy pictures of Ethan, Katelyn and Andrew:
I'm sad (well, not really) to say that the Easter Bunny didn't come to our house this year. After three egg hunts for Elia, he didn't think she needed more candy... plus we know he didn't want to make us non-sugar eaters feel bad. We made up for it by going on Monday to Target and buying two bags of Reeses peanut butter eggs that will be consumed following graduation. Only 5 more weeks to go!
This week has been pretty smooth sailing so far. Eric pretty much spent the whole day with us on Monday because he didn't have classes. The week is flying by. I love these kind of weeks!! Last night we took the kids out to the field at the school to try out these airplanes my mom bought for Eric. It was an excercise in patience because (sorry, Mom) they didn't fly too well and we were supposed to "adjust" them with little stick-on dots. We did our best and at least it got us outside.Ethan didn't seem to feel left out: he was more concerned with climbing around in the stroller:For a change, Elia actually wanted me to take her picture (probably because I was taking Ethan's so much):
What fun kids!