Not a very exciting week

This week wasn't too exciting and we struggled thinking of something to post for this week. Kyle started working a 4/10 work schedule. It seemed to go pretty well and it will be nice to have him off every Friday instead of every other Friday with his old schedule. Ethan however, has started waking up extra early (usually between 5:30 and 6:00 am) so Jen has been extra tired lately.

This weekend Grandma Taylor came to visit and help us bottle tomatoes. It was lots of fun having her come stay with us. Ethan loved all the extra attention. We were happy that we didn't have a tragedy like we usually do when she comes. It seems like every time she has come in the past, we get water in our basement. Ethan did wake up in the middle of the night crying after a loud thump. He had his first bloody nose. We aren't sure what caused it, but he may have fallen out of bed (even with his bed rail). Ethan loved to play with the boxes the quart jars came in.

For anyone who cares we found a new table and chairs on ksl.com and you can sort of see it in the picture below. It is vintage Drexel Heritage. We've been looking for the last year for a round table with leaves that wasn't oak to fit our bay window. Despite needing to replace the seat fabric, this set is in great condition.

Ethan climbed on the table the other day an I couldn't help but take a picture. Lately he has loved wearing his hat around the house. He loves to point at it and say "aat." He hated wearing anything on his head a few weeks ago, but now he loves to put on his hat.
This week our baby (soon we'll decide on a name...we hope) weighs 4.75 pounds like your average sized canteloupe, and is 18 inches long.

Day at the Zoo

On Friday we went to Hogle Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Morrey. We took most of the pictures with Grandpa's camera, so we don't many to share. This was Ethan's first time to the zoo and he really seemed to enjoy it.
We went on the train ride.
For anyone who hasn't experienced the bird show, you must make an effort to go. It was really neat. It is really worthwhile. Here, Ethan is giving this bird a dollar bill which the bird then dropped into the box.


Kyle tried to coax Ethan to go in this shell, but to no avail.

Ethan loved feeding the ducks, but seemed to like playing with the food dispenser even more.

Yesterday, we went to Walmart and Kyle couldn't resist doing this.*
Ethan loves to help pick produce from our garden. He picked the banana pepper and . . . well, you can tell what else he added to the bowl.This week our baby weighs a little more than 4 pounds (like a pineapple) and just over 17 inches long (and Jen often feels like a beached whale).


*NOTE: The appearance of certain presidential candidates in no way reflects the political view of blogspot or this family and in no way is meant as an endorsement of such candidates.

Big Boy Bed

Yesterday we set up a twin bed for Ethan to start the transition before baby comes. We don't want him to feel like she is kicking him out of his crib. We had dinner at a friend's house last night and unfortunately got him to bed when he was overly tired and loopy. We first tucked him in all happy, but he got really upset when we shut the door. Later, we tried to lay down with him but he kept giving kisses and jumping on the bed. By about 10:00 we gave up and put him in his crib.

Tonight we tried again and he instantly jumped out of bed and started crying. We just left him in his room to cry. He only cried for about 10 minutes before we found him fast asleep in his bed. We've been stressing about this transition for weeks now since Ethan doesn't always want to go sleep, and now we feel like celebrating. Hopefully we'll be just as successful at getting him to nap in his bed.
Ethan has been fascinated by Kyle's harmonica for months now. He used to hum into it to make noises on it, but this week he figured out how to play it. He has actually gotten really good at it too. Unfortunately we haven't been able to capture more than a few seconds on video. Here is what we have and a little bit of him playing in a box.

Spring 2007 we planted strawberries in our backyard and it has since been our dream to have enough to make a fresh strawberry pie. They are such yummy strawberries. We finally reached our goal. It isn't much to look at, but mmm...boy! We came upon the recipe last summer and love it. It doesn't use any Jell-o or junket or Koolaid. You make the filling out of strawberries, sugar, and cornstarch. If anyone wants the recipe let us know. Making, or rather eating this pie was a highlight of our week.
This week our little babe is just under 4 pounds (like a large jicama) and almost 17 inches long.

Our 1st Yard Sale

We've been wanting to hold a yard sale all summer, and finally got around to doing it Saturday morning. We spend all day on Friday cleaning two rooms in our basement and collecting items to sell. It was a lot of work, but really nice to get rid of stuff that just sits around anyway. We didn't sell as much as we would have liked, but still came out with quite a bit of cash.
We sold the swing set that came with our house. It wasn't in too bad of shape, but it has been a major wasp nest for the last two summers and we really didn't like Ethan going near it for that reason. We'd like to get a nicer one in the future, but for now, he'll have to settle for the swings at the park.
Probably the hardest thing to let go was this little cheap raft. Kyle and I have some fond memories of it from when we were dating. We haven't used it in the last two years are tired of storing it. We'll probably get another one in the future that is a little larger. It was a bit cramped for the two of us anyway.

We were putting price tags on all of our stuff, and decided to put a price on Ethan. We're not sure if it's legible, but the sticker says "priceless." Nobody made any offers... Ethan has been such a funny little helper lately. He loves to help pick produce from our garden. When he sees mom and dad pick tomatoes he likes to pick small green ones to add to the lot.

We have a small plum tree in our back yard and were pleased with its production this year. They are really tasty, but tiny! Last year we probably had about 5 on the tree , but this year we had about 20.
We had another good day in nursery for Ethan (except for the nasty diaper that got mom taken out of Sunday School). His teachers say that he is really good. He is quiet and loves to play with the cars (especially the large pink Barbie car). They also said he is a good listener. He was also super cute during Sacrament Meeting today. We wonder if the nursery lesson was about reverence today because he kept folding his arms and walking around with his eyes shut tight. It was so cute!! He has folded his arms for us during prayers, but not usually with his eyes shut. We've been so amazed at how much he has learned over the last few weeks. This week he also started saying his own name. He calls himself "E-E."

This week our little girl is over 16 inches long and weighs about 3.3 lbs (about the size of 4 navel oranges). That is also about the size that Jen's mom was when she was born. She was born very early, but it is comforting to know that we've reached this point without any problems and that if something happened her chances would be good.