Keepin' Busy

We've been super busy during the last few weeks and will continue to be so for the next month. Kyle has been preparing for a comprehensive exam that is required for his Masters degree he is pursuing. He has been trying to review material from classes he took when he was an undergrad, as a grad student, and classes that tend to have questions on the test but he never actually took.

To help him have more time to prepare we've spent some time apart. After the funeral last week, Kyle left us in Logan for the week. Kyle's mom and I are building and upholstering some chairs for our front room. We've been planning this for a year and we thought it would be a good time to do it. We will probably go back in a week or two work on them some more.

Besides all this, we are in the process of refinancing. We have an appraiser coming tomorrow to look at our house and we've been scrambling this weekend to make our basement look a bit better. We had some bare sheet rock that needed to be painted and we got a little carried away. The sad thing is that in a few months we plan on ripping out all of this sheet rock and replacing it to fix some things we don't like. Here are some pics.

BEFORE (Ethan was almost 1 year old in this shot):
AFTER (those of you who have seen our basement may notice the strategically placed bookshelf and basketball hoop that are hiding the random plugs in the wall):




We can't help but be amazed at the stage Ethan is at right now. His language abilities have improved dramatically. He can pretty much say whatever we say, so we have to be careful! :)
Some of our favorite new words are "Snotrod" and"Lizzy" (some of the lesser known characters in the movie Cars). He also loves to sing The BADGER song. "Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Snake ooh a snake". It's hilarious. He can put multiple words together which makes life a lot easier. He's such a funny kid.

'Til We Meet Again

Jen's Grandpa Taylor passed away around noon today. He would have celebrated his 93rd birthday next month. He was hospitalized with pneumonia last week and surprised us at how long he fought it. We feel comforted that he is having a happy reunion with Grandma Taylor right now. She passed away over a year ago. It was so hard to see her go and see Grandpa miss her so much. It will be so hard now to see their house empty.

Here is a picture from Thanksgiving of Grandpa holding Brooklyn.
This picture is one of Grandma holding Ethan when he was about Brooklyn's age.
I cannot imagine not being able to visit my grandparents. I grew up just up the street from them and visited them almost weekly throughout childhood and as often as possible after we moved away. One thing I never fully realized until now was how much they absolutely loved their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. On his deathbed, Grandpa said that more than anything it would be hard not to be with us (not that they didn't love their own children any less). I wish I would have taken more opportunities to visit them when I had the chance. I'm grateful they got to meet Ethan and Brooklyn in this life, but wish our children could have gotten to know them and how much Grandma and Grandpa adored them.

I will miss so many things about them. I've missed Grandma's creamies and date cookies, as well as Grandpa's wit and humor. Grandpa was such a great example of a hard worker. He farmed all his life and found much joy in it. I will forever remember our New Years Eve sleepovers, eating watermelon on their porch in the summer, and going fishing with Grandpa. It will be really hard to see how things will change now that he is gone.

I find much comfort in knowing that he is with so many loved ones gone before him, especially Grandma. I know that we will be with him (and Grandma) again someday.

I love you Grandpa!!

Our 2-Month Angel

Brooklyn is 2 months old today and had her well-child visit. I couldn't believe how many shots she had to get! I was told that the 2 month visit is the worst one; she was given 5 vaccines. It was no wonder that she didn't feel very well this afternoon. She hasn't ever been as fussy as she was this afternoon. I felt bad that there was little I could do to help. She seemed to feel a lot better when daddy got home. He had no trouble getting her to smile for him.She now weighs 10.5 lbs and is 23.24 inches long. The doctor said that puts her at the 50th percentile for weight and 90th for height. I wondered why her 3 month clothes seems like they will be short on her soon. Ethan was much the same way. He was in the 90th percentile for height for a while and usually in the 30th for weight. It has been fun seeing fat rolls on Brooklyn that Ethan never had.

Brooklyn has been really enjoying the play mat that she got for Christmas. She has started batting at the toys. She really lights up when she is on it. It is so fun to see her grow! We can't wait until she and Ethan will be able to play together.

"McQueen Juice"

The other day we caught Ethan playing with his cars, Lightning McQueen and Flo from the movie Cars, and the juice pitcher. He put his cars in the pitcher and kept saying "McQueen Juice" and "Flo Juice." He's such a funny kid.

Take note of his outfits in the following pictures . He likes to decide what to wear, and it usually involves layering his Mickey Mouse PJs on top of his other clothes.

The last few weeks, Ethan's been letting us know when that he wants to sit on the toilet. He hasn't actually done his business in the toilet yet, but his diaper is usually messy soon after he's done. Today we pulled out his potty that we bought a few months back (but quickly put away because he liked to play with his cars in it). He LOVES to sit on it. After we brought it up, he opened the lid, sat on it, stood up, and closed the lid. Then he did it again. He did this at least 20 - 30 times consecutively. Up and down, up and down. You get the idea.
We're excited that he's showing interest, but are not looking forward to the implications this has. We've heard horror stories of poop all over the bathroom and hours spent waiting for kids to do their business. If anyone has any advice on potty training (or any funny horror stories for that matter), post a comment. We would love to know.

(It may be hard to tell in this picture, but he is wearing a hooded sweatshirt under his sweater. )

It was time for a haircut this weekend. Ethan HATES haircuts. This picture doesn't capture the trauma, the screaming, the weeping and wailing, that we endured to get his hair to look half decent. Notice the hair stuck to his face with his tears. (Jen just noticed that this picture makes it look like we cut his hair holding him sideways, but we were more humane than that...but maybe next time we'll have to try it this way.)

We still love Brooklyn. We're just saving a dedicated post for her to celebrate her two month birthday tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Brooklyn's Blessing Day

Today was Brooklyn's blessing day in our ward. Kyle gave a beautiful blessing. It was a special day for our family. It was so fun to have so many people in our family join us. Ethan was probably the most excited about all the visitors. He was so happy all day (except for the part of Sacrament Meeting where he was tired of sitting).

Here she is in her dress. Jen's Aunt Kaye crocheted the dress and gave it to her as a gift. She also made Jen's dress when she was a baby. It was absolutely beautiful. These pictures don't quite do it justice.


Here is a video we took of Ethan when we told him that Grandma and Grandpa and others were going to visit him the next morning. He was pretty excited. Also, thanks Ryan and Michelle for the Lightning McQueen shirt. To say he loves it is an understatement.

While we were typing up this post, we caught a few smiles from our favorite little lady.

For those of you who were interested in the recipe for the Baked Potato Soup that was served at our house following church today, here is a link to it:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Potato-Soup-I/Detail.aspx

I only used about half of the bacon (two strips of bacon per serving sounds good, but not necessary), replaced some of the margarine with bacon drippings, and cut the salt down to about 3/4 tsp.

Bon Appetite!!

100th Post

We just happened to notice that this is also our 100th post. Hurray!!

Here are a few pictures we took over Christmas. We spent Christmas in Logan with our families. Unfortunately, Ethan stayed up late every night and took no naps (not that we didn't try...we just couldn't get him to settle down because he loved seeing his grandparents and aunts and uncles so much). As a result, he didn't give us the reaction we expected on Christmas morning. When we opened presents at Grandma Morrey's, Ethan didn't want anything to do with it. He wanted all of us to go downstairs with him and watch him play with his cars. After struggling with him, he compromised and remained upstairs to play with his cars while the rest of us opened presents. He was a little better at Grandma Taylor's house and actually opened a present or two.

When Ethan saw Uncle John shoveling snow one morning of our visit, he rushed outside to join him while still in his jammies.

We also took Ethan sledding for the first time. He liked it, but we made the mistake of taking him to the sledding hill in Grandpa's truck. He seemed to enjoy the first time down and asked for more, but changed his mind and kept saying, "no...truck!" He absolutely loves riding in trucks and simply sitting in the front seat to explore the dials and buttons.

Fortunately, when we returned home from Logan Ethan was willing to open his presents, and he liked it! It was funny when he opened them because whenever he ripped off a piece of paper, no matter the size, he would hand it to Mom before he continued opening it.

Ethan has been getting really good at putting two words together lately. In the last few days he has also been obsessed with cereal. It is almost all he wants to eat. He often will say, "eat cereal," or "more cereal," or "cereal please." He must think about cereal a lot. The other night Kyle checked on him in his room before we went to bed and he stirred and mumbled "cereal" in his sleep. The good thing that has come of this is that Ethan has finished off all of the not-quite-empty boxes of cereal taking up too much space in our pantry.

We do still love Brooklyn, but she never does anything exciting. Just kidding. Actually, yesterday she started smiling at us when we talked to her. She especially got excited this afternoon when her mama was interacting with her. It is so much fun to see her grow. It is amazing how fast it is happening and we really look forward to getting to know her personality better.

Being New Year's Eve, we were planning on staying up to watch a movie once our kids were both asleep, but as tired as we feel now at 10:21 PM we will ring in the new year with our eyes shut.

Happy New Year!! (and good night)

Ward Christmas Party

We've had quite the week. We attended four Christmas parties together as a family this week. Jen got food poisoning from a RS activity this week and almost had to miss our ward Christmas party. Fortunately she felt just well enough to attend (though she only ate bread and water) so that she could help persuade Ethan to sit on Santa's lap after last year's fright. It was a little less traumatic, we think.Brooklyn took to Santa much better.
Although she had been in bed all day, Jen didn't want to miss the Christmas party because she was asked to portray Mary. The woman who asked Jen also had a costume made specifically for her to wear. Besides, it would be Brooklyn's acting debut. Not only would she be able to stretch herself by playing a boy, but what an opportunity to play the part of the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Lastly, here is a picture we took a few weeks back of Brooklyn in the Santa dress her Grandma Taylor got for her.
We spent the weekend in Logan for family Christmas parties. The drive there was a bit of a pain since they closed I-15 just north of Ogden due to a 33-car pile up. We hate winter driving! Our drive home was fine, but Kyle was sick today with the flu, I've had a sore throat (and still waiting for my stomach to feel 100% again), and Ethan seems to be getting a cold. We sure hope we all feel well again for Christmas.