Utah, Here we Come!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!