November '09

Here's what we did in November. First part of December coming up!

Fall '09 Part Two

Here's the second installment of the video.

I loaded it a little differently this time, so you should be able to maximize the video. Enjoy!

P.S. Betty, we forgot to mention the music on the last video! The music for part one was "Wild Mountain Honey" from the Steve Miller Band (the same group and album as "Fly Like an Eagle") and this video is "All the Way Up to Heaven" by Guster.

Fall '09 Part One

I've decided not to write a really long blog entry, and will let the montage speak for itself. As you can see we've been enjoying our zoo pass, including going to Boo at the Zoo a week before Halloween. Ethan wanted to wear his "foggy suit" all week long. However, for actual Halloween pictures you will have to tune in to our next blog post montage.

Zoo, Richard's Birthday, and More Laughing

We thought that by doing these two posts so close together it wouldn't be so long, but we were mistaken. It's only been a few days, but we've got some good clips. Ethan has usually told me to stop anytime I try singing to him, but just recently he decided he likes singing and so this montage starts out with him singing along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as we watched conference this weekend. I love it! especially when he throws a "mommy and daddy" in there. We have a lot of time at home together these days with Richard's schedule being so full, but we manage to keep busy. Gabe was rather slap-happy the other night while Richard was at school and I got some good laughing out of him. We just had to include the clip of Ethan reading to his teddy bears in the make-shift tent we made out of his bed. And yes, we are terrible parents and let Gabe fall asleep in his Jumper. Actually, the terrible thing is that we had to take a video before getting him out. But it's so funny!

Anyway, for Richard's birthday we went out to eat at Big Jud's, and I'm sad that we didn't get a picture of it, but for those of you who don't know, Big Jud's is home of the 1 lb. burger. It was the size of a dinner plate! And together we ate the whole thing! Richard's brother and his wife came too and shared one as well. Then Saturday we all went to the Boise Zoo. Richard's mom bought us a year pass and now we can go whenever we want! Ethan really enjoyed it. I made Richard a cake, and when he got back from the Priesthood session of General Conference, we ate it. I was in such a hurry to get Ethan to bed, I had to rush the picture taking and only got one while Richard was enjoying a birthday phone call from his Brother in Alabama. I gave Ethan one of the candles to lick the frosting off of, but he misunderstood and took a bite out of the candle. I guess I should have explained that one better.

Boise Fun

So, it's been more than a month already? Wow! Time flies. It s crazy to see how Gabe changes in a month. He's gone through so many milestones, from lifting his head, to finding his toes, to jumping in his jumper, to eating solids, to rolling over! After all, this montage does cover a fifth of his entire life thus far. Ethan hasn't made as many changes, but he is getting a lot better at talking, and he has really started playing with Gabe. He loves making Gabe laugh at him. He loves copying Gabe as well, probably because we make such a fuss when Gabe does something cute, but I think he also likes being with Gabe. The other day I took him to the store and left Gabe with Richard, and all Ethan could say the whole time was,  "Dabe, buh-bye?" He often thinks of others when they are not there, and to express that he misses them he says that they're  buh-bye. He says this most often about Daddy, but coming in at a close second is his aunt Shawna who lives a few blocks away.

As far as recent activities go, we've been making a few friends and had a little get-together with some other couples in the ward a few weeks ago. We even got a babysitter for Ethan and we actually had to pay! We've been so spoiled living so close to family. She was a nice young woman from our ward, and though her name was Brenda, Ethan insisted on calling her Shawna. He had a lot of fun, and she did my dishes, so I guess it was worth it. We also met a guy there who had served his mission in Poland, and so we set up another dinner with him and some other people he knew to eat Polish food. I made Paczki, (pictured in the montage) which are pretty much jelly doughnuts, but probably have less sugar than their American counterparts. They were super good though.

Other than that, we haven't done much. We've just been getting used to Boise and trying to keep up with everything; Richard with his schoolwork, me with the housework, and both of us with bills. I might as well break the bad news now. We've had a few unexpected expenses come up, and finding out that Richard s work does not pay for health insurance has made us realize the necessity of finding a cheaper place to live. So yes, we are going to be moving once again, by January 1st if not sooner. Yuck! It has been a humbling experience for us, but we have learned a lot. We really like this place, but we've realized that we can do with less while the kids are small and hopefully we'll be able to save up some money to be able to buy our own house some day. Still, we'll probably still post the tour of the house that Richard took a movie of. Ugh, I hate moving, and I really don't know how I'll do it without all those wonderful helpers I had in Rexburg. Keep us in your prayers.

Anyway, some quick notes about things you'll see in the montage that I haven t really mentioned. Ethan getting musical: I love how deliberate he is about the timing. Lots of Ethan/Gabe interaction. Our resident flock of Quail going through the yard. Richard making a giant dice (die?) for his class just like his dad has. One of the last pictures that needs explaining is Ethan with white lips. Yeah, that was the day Ethan got a hold of the Desitin (diaper cream) and decided that that was where you put it.

Week after the move --trip to Utah

So we got moved in with the help of Richard's family who came over with us and then before we could really get settled in we were off to Utah. We were able to experience a little Boise weather though by going to the park with Richard's brother and his wife when it was 100 degrees out. There was some big "Soul Food Extravaganza" or something at the park with music and good food and, of course, a bounce house that we could hardly drag Ethan away from. (He loved the slide part more than the bouncing, but the buttons on his pants kept popping open). He was also pretty interested in the geese there and the giraffe that we could see over the fence to the little zoo. Gabe was pretty content with just chillin' in the tummy pack for the most part. We had a great cashew chicken dinner the night before we left and just had to take a picture of it in the new bowls that Richard's dad gave us as a housewarming gift.

The ride to Utah was pretty long --longer than to Rexburg by far, and stopping to feed the baby twice made it about an 8 hr trip. Ethan had fun in the parks that we stopped at though, and we let him watch a movie on the laptop to make it through the last two hours.

Once in Utah, we had a few days and then went on a camping trip up Hobble Creek Canyon. Ethan's favorite pastime was throwing rocks in the river, and so we spent a lot of time doing that. My brother and his wife and two kids were there too, and so Ethan was able to get to know his cousin, Asalyn, whom he's only met once when they were about 2-3 months old. They're only three weeks apart actually, and they got along pretty well considering. They also have another little girl (and somehow we didn't manage to get pictures of her) who is only three days older than Gabe, and it was fun seeing them all together. They were all great campers, and I think Gabe slept better in the tent trailer than at home.

Oh yeah, quick story: Ethan and Richard slept on one of the pull-out beds in the tent trailer and sometime during the second night, Richard was woken up by Ethan yelling. He was really disoriented especially since it was so dark, and as he felt for Ethan next to him all he felt was his legs. When he felt the legs sliding away, he grabbed them and found that Ethan was falling out of the tent trailer. You see, Ethan likes to sleep with his head up against something and no one had remembered to velcro up the wall on that side of the bed area. Richard was able to pull Ethan back to safety, and Ethan went right back to sleep without another sound. I don't know if he was even awake for it all. Richard on the other hand didn't sleep so well since he was paranoid about it the rest of the night.

Other than that, the trip went very well. Ethan even spotted a deer across the creek from our camp before anyone else did. I heard him say something, but didn't realize that he was saying "deer" until I looked up and saw it standing there only about 20 feet away. My sister Heather took him wading in the ice cold water of the creek, and it took him a while, but he got used to it.

Anyway, the real reason we went to Utah was to see my Brother's baby get blessed, and so a lot of my other siblings and their kids came for a visit on Sunday. Ethan had so much fun playing with his cousins. Richard also got to try out my brother Jared's compound bow and did pretty well. My grandmother was also there for most of the trip, and I'm so glad I was able to get a picture of her with my two kids even if it is a little fuzzy.

Well, enjoy the montage!

The Week Before Our Move

I think Richard wants to save all his family reunion montage making for the final DVD that he will distribute to the Samuelson family, so we just skipped on ahead to the move. The last few weeks have been really crazy. After we got home from the Samuelson Family Reunion and wedding in Boise, we only had a few weeks until school ended. We were still looking for a place to rent in Boise, and had only really had a chance to look at a few places. None of them looked very promising except one, but they wanted to rent that one right away, and we didn’t want to move until Aug 1^st. Well, we applied anyway, and lo and behold we got it! The only stipulation was that we move in as early as we could –meaning right after school ended which was about two weeks from that date. So, suddenly we found ourselves moving a lot sooner than we planned, leaving our little garden for someone else to enjoy and a full month’s rent which will go to waste. So sad.

The weeks before the move were additionally crazy because we decided to cram in all our final social activities (i.e. dinners) with all our friends and family that we wouldn’t be seeing for a long time as well as one last trip to Jackson, WY for the county fair and to see my sister take part in the pig wrestling competition. We also went to the pool there in Jackson, since it is our favorite place to go swimming, but when we got there they told us that the kiddie pool was closed. Luckily the big slide was still open, so we had fun on that. Ethan loved the pool, but Gabe wasn’t so sure about things. He did warm up to it after a while. At the fair they also had a little petting zoo type thing which Ethan enjoyed, and I wish we had been able to go on some rides, but oh well.

The pig wrestling was pretty fun, but took a lot longer than we had anticipated, and the babies weren’t very happy about it. In case you’re wondering about the Coors cup, that was the one some guy spilled on my shoe saying, "Oh man, that was the saddest thing that's happened all day --that was a five dollar beer!" and then he left. Before I realized he had just left the cup there Ethan had gotten ahold of it and was filling it with dirt and pouring it out. At least he wasn’t yelling anymore, so I just let him play with it. You can see the full video of the pig wrestling down below.

The next day we had a big pizza dinner with friends we had lived and worked with in Jackson as well, and Ethan and Ashlyn were able to see each other one last time. It’s amazing to see how they’ve grown!

Anyway, thanks to a LOT of help from various people, we made the move, and it went very smoothly. I am so grateful to those people who came and helped, or who watched Ethan and Gabe while we packed and cleaned, I would not have been able to do it on my own. What Christ-like examples they have shown me.

So, here's Richard's documentation of everything, and just to explain a few random pictures you'll see: A while ago Ethan got ahold of some of my squash plant seeds and one got into the sandbox and grew there, so we had to document that. Also while playing in the sandbox ethan dropped his PB and J sandwich but before I could stop him he had taken a bite and got to taste his first real SAND-wich. We also found this half-eaten caramel and thought it was funny. Then at last we took some pictures of the produce we were able to salvage from our little garden the night before we left.

Ethan's Second Birthday

Here we are, finally getting around to posting Ethan's birthday montage. It's only about a month late--Still, we did have a family reunion soon after, if that's any kind of excuse (that post will come probably after we move). Anyway, Ethan's birthday turned out to be a very rainy day this year, so some of my plans got moved to the day after--like the carousel and the splash park, but I'm sure Ethan didn't mind. On his birthday, we still celebrated by letting him open a few presents, and then going over to Richard's sister's house to eat homemade pizza and watch Curious George. Oh yeah, and to eat cake. One word about the cake --hideous. A good idea turned into a bad one and then just kept getting worse. I am so embarrassed about it, and feel that it should be submitted to cake wrecks.

The next day was a very fun one for Ethan. Richard's parents watched Gabe so that Ethan could have our complete attention. We rode the carousel--which Ethan wasn't too keen on at first, but had to be dragged away kicking and screaming when we left. He also enjoyed most of the splash park, but I had to go save him and ended up getting soaked myself. After getting changed, we went over to Arctic Circle and ate dinner while Ethan played on the play zone equipment.

Maybe it was a little over-the-top, but why not? We love you Ethan!!

More Towers, Galoshes, Gabriel, and a Water Slide

We've been quite busy around here and haven't been able to blog much. I'm sure you can all understand, with a two year old, and a two month old... yeah. So we've still been trying to be active, even with Gabe, to let Ethan burn off some energy. We still like to go to the parks, but recently it's been in the mornings with just me and the two babies, one in the baby carrier on my tummy and the other in the stroller. I'm not sure who gets tired out more. It's good for Ethan because then he goes down for his nap really easily, but since the baby sleeps in the tummy pack the whole time we are at the park he stays awake once we're home and I don't get to nap while Ethan's sleeping. Luckily, sometimes Richard comes home and take the baby so I can lay down for a little bit. I'm so spoiled these days with him coming home by 1:00 every day. It'll probably never be like this again. He also doesn't leave the house until around 9:00 so he plays with Ethan in the mornings and feeds him breakfast. Most of the towers are built then. Ethan loves being outside, but it's been really rainy lately. We are glad for the rain, but we tend to get a little cabin fever when we're cooped up inside. Thanks Mom and Heather for the galoshes, they've been a life saver! The part in the montage where he is wearing his overalls with his galoshes was on a sunny day where we had to make a puddle because he wanted to run through it with his galoshes. I dumped a couple buckets of water on the sidewalk and Ethan kept asking for more water. One rainy day, Ethan pulled his boots on over his pajamas first thing in the morning in anticipation for the puddle jumping. I talked him into helping me make muffins and do dishes instead, but he refused to take off his boots. He's so full of it. He's also pretty good at getting into trouble. A few Sundays ago, he somehow got ahold of my cold cream and decided that the best place to put it would be on his head. It was all over in his hair, on the swivel chair, the carpet, and his hands. I put him straight in the tub and washed his hair three times with three kinds of soap, but the greasy stuff wouldn't come out. He went to church with his hair all greasy and stringy and plastered to his head. Oh, and he smelled like an old lady, all rosy and stuff. What a mess.

On the 14th, we blessed Gabriel. My parents came up and we had family over for a breakfast before church. It was great. Exhausting, but great. The blessing was so beautiful. Gabriel is officially 2 months and 8 days old today, and as you can see he loves "talking" and smiling to people. He is such a sweet baby. He still lets us know when his needs aren't being met, but he sure puts up with a lot.

We're still having a lot of fun with the good weather --when it is good weather and isn't hailing or something. The other day, I was at the DI and found some inflatable pool mattress type things and thought they would make a good slip'n'slide on the hill in our backyard. I got them and used tent stakes to pin them down, overlapping one another with our little blow-up pool at the bottom. I set the hose going at the top and it made a great little water slide for Ethan. He loved it and by the end was throwing himself down the slide on his stomach. Such fun for only two dollars. Success!

Well, sorry this post is so long. That's what happens when you only do it once a month. We'll be doing a new one soon all about Ethan's 2nd birthday! In the meantime, you can enjoy this montage.

Summer!

Spring took it's time coming, but then it completely passed me by it seems. I can't believe Gabe is already 5 weeks old! The day he was born, it seemed, was the day the daffodils bloomed. To me, that is when spring really begins. It took me a few weeks before I really ventured outside, and by that time the tulips were also in full bloom. However, within a week, the daffodils started dying and I felt I had missed something. Luckily I got to enjoy the apple blossoms in our backyard a little. What a heavenly fragrance! I should have taken some pictures before they died too. Now it is officially Summer (--school's out at least) and lilacs are everywhere. I decided to take advantage of the space we have in the back yard and plant a garden. We could only plant stuff that will be ready to harvest before we leave in August, and even then I'm not sure we'll get to taste any of it. The growing season is short enough here in Rexburg, and we got a late start on top of that. Still, my peas are looking good, and I'm sure we'll get to harvest them before we leave. Ethan had fun trying to help. The garden was a mess, and Richard was able to clear just enough space for our meager garden by hand. He got a few blisters I'm afraid.
We've really been enjoying the weather. Often in the evenings we walk to the park or elementary school playground and let Ethan wear himself out while we play some Kubb. We take Gabe in the sling and it puts him right to sleep. Ethan has been doing pretty well with the new addition, but he does feel the decreased attention and starts whining and hitting when he is not getting enough. When Gabe cries, Ethan sits there and yells "No" at him. Probably because we tell Ethan to stop crying and use his words all the time. Still, Ethan likes to come and give Gabe a kiss every night before he goes to bed, and he sometimes laughs at Gabe. I hope they'll become good friends.
With the good weather comes the dilemma of Ethan always wanting to be outside (I don't blame him one bit), and me having to feed the baby every other hour (Gabe's feedings start every two hours apart but they each last an hour. Ugh!) Needless to say, Ethan has been watching way too many movies lately. What a horrible mom I am. It's really the only way to keep him out of trouble, or away from me and the baby.
I have been able to get out a little more though lately, and we've had some really great barbecue dinners. Memorial day we got together with family and had a great time with great food. Besides that, we celebrated memorial day by watching The Majestic. It's one of our favorites, and we highly recommend it.
We've been celebrating Summer by putting up the hammock (which Gabe loves), letting Ethan play with the hose in the backyard, and yesterday Ethan and I flagged down the Ice Cream man and bought Ethan a orangecicle. It doesn't get much better than that.
Well, here's a montage Richard made for you. It starts in the hospital--where Ethan got my mascara again, and amazingly knew what to do with it--and shows Gabe from when he was first born to now where he's just starting to smile. Of course, we also had to throw in some of Richard's towers --or "towies" as Ethan calls them. As I watch these videos I'm constantly reminded what a disaster our house is. Oh well, I do what I can. Anyway, enjoy!

Trailing Clouds of Glory

There is no doubt that these little guys come with a special spirit straight from heaven. Sometimes he looks at me in such a way... I'd love to know what he'd say if he could talk.

It's a Boy!!

Gabriel Emerick Samuelson was born today (Sunday-4/19/09) at 3:27 p.m. He is completely healthy and handsome, even with a little bruising. He weighed in at 8lb. 6oz. and was 20 in. tall. Here are some more details though:

Last night while we were making home-made pizza Laura started having contractions pretty regularly. We were planning on having the baby later in the week, so this was the first time we actually considered having the baby very soon. After we finished eating the pizza (we weren't going to go to the hospital on an empty stomach!) Laura lay down and the contractions went away. "Whew, just false labor," we thought, and foolishly stayed up way later than we should have.

A little after 5:00 this morning Laura woke me up and told me the contractions were back--3 to 4 minutes apart, this time while she was lying down. We had procrastinated putting together a hospital bag for Laura, but the contractions didn't hurt too bad, so I threw one together and Laura even had enough time to have a shower like she wanted...for whatever reason. I personally could barely even eat breakfast. Anyway, my parents agreed to watch Ethan all day, so as soon as they arrived we gave Laura a blessing, then went to the hospital.

The contractions were getting pretty serious a while after we got to the hospital and Laura progressed from being dilated 3cm to 5cm within the first hour. They had a hard time finding Laura's veins when they wanted to put an IV in her. That's never fun, but after they got a liter of IV fluid in her, Laura was able to get an epidural. The doctor and the anesthesiologists that were on call this weekend came from home in their normal clothes, or from church in their church clothes--we kind of felt bad, but not really. Laura felt awesome after the epidural and we were able to get a short nap.

A couple hours later Laura wasn't progressing very fast, and the epidural meds weren't potent enough to completely kill the pain. Another anesthesiologist had to come in and reconfigure the amount of medicine. From 8cm to 10cm was the longest wait. We were both hoping that it would progress really quickly, but it seemed to take forever. The nurse tried shifting Laura's position to see if that would help, but all that did was lose Gabriel's heartbeat--he really wanted to play hide-and-seek there for a while.

Eventually Laura was ready to push. She pushed for 2 hours when Ethan was born, so we were surprised when after only 15 minutes the nurse told Laura to stop pushing or the baby was going to pop out. The nurse hurried and called the doctor, but she almost had to deliver the baby herself because it took him 15-2o minutes to get there. It seemed to go pretty quickly after the doctor got there, although there was a hold-up while the doctor made sure Gabriel didn't inhale any "bad fluid" let's call it. You can see how mean they were to Gabriel in the video and how bruised he got. Laura got torn up a little, but not nearly as bad as with Ethan, so we're very thankful about that.

Laura says they gave her "the royal treatment" with a big custom-ordered dinner, heated blankets, and a bunch of gifts for us to take home. I'm so proud of her--the doctor commented on how good of an attitude she had.

A shower, a new room, and visitors, but I need to go to bed because I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow. I'm going to take Ethan to go visit Laura and Gabriel, but I also have to prepare a bunch of stuff for the classes I'm going to teach tomorrow. My syllabus is still a mess; I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to make tomorrow work. Oh well. Here's a little visual about how the day went:

Easter and Semester Break

We keep surprising ourselves when it comes to blog posts. I guess we've been taking a lot more videos lately (probably because things are more exciting now that the weather is warming up). Anyway, here's another montage for your enjoyment.





Our Easter was pretty non-existent, and consisted of just 8 plastic eggs filled with candy, some Cadbury eggs (Richard's only request), some Dove truffle eggs (my choice), some Capri Suns and a can of Pringles (which happened to be Ethan's favorite thing). No baskets, no bunnies, just odd things that we picked up at the store on Saturday and ate that night after dinner. We did Easter dinner with Richard's family the next day, even making them some of our famous Huckleberry ice cream though, and the easter program at church was cool.
Ethan did get some early Easter trinkets from his Grandma Z and aunt Heather. You see them in the film --the biker bunny and the light up egg wand. He really enjoyed those, in fact, he got rather possessive once he realized there were jelly beans inside the first toy as you can see. The one other thing we got Ethan for Easter was a sandbox. We just bought a large under-the-bed storage container with a lid (to keep out neighborhood cats) and filled it with sand from the nearby sand dunes. Of course, this was easier said than done --as soon as we got to the sand dunes we found ourselves in the middle of a downpour, and luckily some nice guy helped us get the full sandbox into the trunk of our car (I'm sure that when he saw a nine-month pregnant lady considering lifting something like that he couldn't help but stop). However, when we got home and Richard tried getting the thing out of the trunk, it collapsed, shattering into peices. He took the sand out, and puzzle-pieced the thing together with packing tape (we weren't about to waste the 13 dollars we spent on this thing). It actually works fine --and will probably last for a while, maybe even until we move. Ethan loves the sand, and will sit for a long time out there playing with it right in front of the big windows where I can watch him --which is why we got it in the first place. He's really enjoyed the warmer weather lately, and always wants to be outside rain or shine. My sister Heather got him the little blue galoshes and he loves the fact that he can put them on himself. He really enjoys the puddle out front, and I just love how cute he looks in them --with his pants sticking out of the top he looks like he's got little knickers on.
Another thing you'll see a lot of in the montage is Ethan knocking down towers that Richard has made. Since Richard has been between semesters and had a break from work this week, he's been getting up every morning with Ethan and this is one of their favorite things to do while I sleep in. I have a sneaking suspicion that there's so many videos of this because Richard likes to show off his amazing creations. The only "blocks" we have are Jenga pieces and Dominoes, but he comes up with some pretty impressive stuff. I think it's funny how many different ways Ethan has of knocking them down.
This week we decided to get in a lot of socializing before the baby comes, so Monday we did dinner and tennis with Richard's brother Ian and family. Thursday we did a barbecue with the Andersons --whom you may recognize from last Summer in Jackson, and then Friday we did a Pierogi dinner with Richard's sister's family, where we played some rockband, and enjoyed the backyard with their boys. It was a great week. Now we're all set to have our baby! Um... yeah. Well, at least it won't interfere with all those plans now, but there's always more I could do to prepare (I still wanted to get some peas planted this weekend, but I guess that will have to wait). Either way, we're only 4 days away from my due date! Who knows though, he could come any time. We'll keep you posted.
Speaking of keeping you posted, It looks like our final decision for Graduate School in the Fall is Boise State University! Yay, now I can see a little bit into our future! So come mid August, we will be moving to Boise. Wish us luck!

Colors, Hiding, and Being Cute

Well, here's yet another one of our montages. As far as life goes, we're doing great. Richard just finished his first semester of teaching, and he feels really good about it. I'm so proud of him! I think the students really liked him, some even telling him that he was their favorite teacher. This job has really been so good for us in more ways than I can name. I'm especially loving the fact that he has so much free time right now, and I really want to make the most of it, but it's hard when I don't really have the energy to go out and do anything. Still, it's been so nice to have his help around the house and with Ethan. I'm really getting spoiled. This summer it will be so nice to have his help with the new baby. Aren't I so lucky? As for the baby, we have less than two weeks til my due date! Ahhh! Today I have really been in preparation mode, wanting to get everything organized and such in time for the baby, but I've already worn myself out. Of course, I also spent all morning making a large batch of oatmeal cookies as well as some chocolate butterscotch rice krispy treats for Richard's students (no wonder they like him so much). Ethan spent most of the morning watching a movie and "helping" me with dishes --meaning he played for more nearly an hour with soap bubbles in the sink. He's such a funny kid. Anyway, we're still waiting to hear from WSU in Pullman before we make a decision on grad school, but right now it's looking more and more like we might end up in Boise. I'd be perfectly fine with that. We'll let you know when we make our final decision. We'll also let you know when the baby comes --which will most likely be our next post, but who knows? Till then, enjoy these clips of Ethan.

Pregnancy Update

Many people have been asking how this pregnancy is going so I thought I'd write a quick update. As you can see on the baby ticker widget, we're about a week away from full term. YAY! The only due date I've been given is April 22nd, but the doctor has said that I'm measuring a little ahead of schedule. I'm not getting my hopes up still. I must say that this pregnancy is going a lot better than the last though. By this time with Ethan I was already on bed rest for high blood pressure. With this pregnancy, I haven't even had any swelling in my feet (knock on wood)! I have had a lot more practice contractions that often stop me in my tracks, but I'm hoping that it just means I won't have to be induced this time around. This baby is very active, and seems impatient to get out. As there's less and less room inside me, things are getting a lot more uncomfortable. Even just sitting up straight can be difficult. Sleeping is getting harder, and I suppose it's just getting me geared up for all those sleepless nights after the baby comes. Actually, I'm excited to finally see this baby and hold him in my arms.
We've finally decided on a name for this baby, but we're not telling... unless you really don't want to figure out the anagram. Just email us or wait til he's born.
Here's some anagrams though:
"Eligible Merman Sues a Rock." Richard made that one up. And though having two doesn't really help much, the one I came up with is, "Meek American Gerbil Souls."
Yes, I know it's a long name, the poor kid, but it'll be shortened (*hint*). Let us know if you want any other hints.
Well, now I just have to attach some pregnant pictures so you can see me in all my glory. I call the shirt I'm wearing my Easter Egg Shirt, because I think it makes my tummy look like a big easter egg.

Do the Ethan Flop!

Richard decided to put this on here tonight. I know, these last two are a break from our usual montage blogs, but we didn't want to wait until we got enough material for a montage, plus we needed variety.




Before bath time, Ethan was a little wound up so to tire him out we got him dancing. However, this time he had a new move . . . we call it the Ethan flop! I could hardly play for laughing at him. I don't know where he came up with this, but apparently being close to the ground has it's advantages.

Curly Locks

I don't really know where Ethan's curly hair came from; he had such perfectly straight hair the first year or more of his life, and now this. It's usually just kinda wavy, and this picture doesn't really do it justice, but sometimes when he wakes up from his afternoon naps he has such curly hair. I love it!

Anniversary, President's Day, and Family Update

Sorry we haven't added for a while. I blame it on the fact that Richard always has his computer with him on campus. By the time he gets home at night it's dinner, bath time for Ethan, bed time for Ethan, a few minutes to enjoy each others' company and then we go to sleep. Anyway, we haven't been up to much lately. We had our third year wedding anniversary on the 18th, and just went out to dinner. Nothing too fancy --we even took Ethan with us. We went to the temple the next day while Ethan stayed with his Grandma Sam, and that was nice.
As for our daily lives . . . Richard loves his work. I'm grateful for that. I think his students really like him too. He's learning so much, and I'm hoping that the graduate schools will realize this when they make decisions about our applications. We're still waiting to hear from most of them. So far we've been accepted to Boise State, but no offer for a Teaching Assistant-ship yet (which will be the ultimate deciding factor). The other schools might not let us know anything til mid April and the suspense is killing me!
As for me . . . I'm just as pregnant as ever. I liked the second trimester much better than the third --It's too hard to bend over these days, and even just sitting here the baby is pushing on my ribs trying to make me sit up straighter so I don't squish him so much. He's always getting squished by Ethan, and I guess he'll just have to get used to it. He'll be a human speed bump for the first 6 months of life anyway.
Ethan is growing and getting smarter every day. He's getting a few more words down, especially the ones that are important to him like "show" or "bubbles" (he won't have a bath without them) but he mostly just depends on pointing and grunting. I'm afraid I cater to him too much by being a good guesser at what he wants. He's also very helpful as you can see in the video. I hope no one turns us in for breaking child labor laws, but he just loves vacuuming and sweeping (if you can call it that) and he helps me empty the dishwasher and the clothes dryer all the time (which is nice so I don't have to bend down as much. He just wants to do whatever we are doing. 'Monkey see monkey do'. If I get out a tissue to blow my nose, he gets one out, rubs his nose with it and blows a little, crumples it up and throws it away. If we get out a screw driver, he has to use it too, finding all the screws under the chairs and on the back of the futon to try and tighten them. He also is always wanting to help me cook. As soon as I put something on the stove he's right there with a wooden spoon or spatula to help me stir it. He's such a funny kid. You've already seen how he "shovels" the snow with his spatulas. I'm wondering how many we'll find out there when the snow finally melts. . . Which it's finally starting to do! We'll probably have another storm or two, but it's been pretty warm lately and we can actually see our sidewalk! In fact, the other night I woke up at 2:30 in the morning to hear rain against the window. Weird huh? Still, there is a good foot of snow on the ground, and 4 foot piles outside our front windows. It's hard to have hope that spring will ever come.
Anyway, here's a few fun videos of Ethan and how he spends his time inside. We did get out on President's Day and used our free coupons to rent some snow shoes and x-country skis. It was fun, and the weather was beautiful. We went to the nature park here in town, and got to see the ducks. I wish we had brought bread to feed them; all we had were a few of Ethan's crackers. He loved watching them swim in the little pond down below. Well, hope you enjoy this. Hopefully we'll get in another post before the baby comes, but who knows?

Valentines!

I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day. Our celebrations actually started Thursday with the baking and decorating of cute Valentines Day cookies.

We didn't have a heart-shaped cookie cutter so we made one out of an old quart jar ring. Then we stayed up late decorating them. We were having too much fun, but we eventually ran out of frosting, and room on the cookie sheet. We still had a lot more cookies, so the next day Richard decided that he wanted to give them to his students. I had to make more frosting and frost them all myself (nothing fancy, just solid colors). It was a good reward for those students who didn't miss class to take off or the long weekend, plus they got to meet me and Ethan.

The students were very appreciative. We stayed on campus between his classes to have lunch, and then I took some of the fancy cookies to my sister. Of course, she had about five plates of the same kind of cookies that she had made on her kitchen counter, but it's the thought that counts right?

Today, Richard surprised me with another one of his strawberry and whipped cream waffle breakfasts. He let me sleep in this morning, while he took Ethan in his pajamas to the store. I had no idea they were even gone. Don't I have a great husband?

It was yummy! He also decided that breakfast wasn't enough, so he cooked all our meals today. Turkey sandwiches for lunch, (although Ethan decided he only wanted a hotdog, cheese, a sweet pickle, and some OJ for lunch. Appetizing eh?) and spaghetti dinner. What a guy!

Sunday talk

Hello all,

Last week Laura did a special musical number in church (which went extremely well--she got compliments from lots of people) and, to make sure I didn't feel left out, I was asked to give a talk in church today. Mom and Dad were able to make it to hear me, and they recommended that I email a copy to everyone in the family, but instead I thought I'd post it on the blog. So here it is:



Christian Courage


Introduce us (from, Ethan 19 months this week, we’re both graduated, teaching/grad. School, how we met, we had only been off our missions for . . .), ending with Laura and my missions→

. . . which is where I would like to start my talk.
This actually isn’t a mission story, but about the construction of the Stockholm Sweden temple. But first some background: Sweden has very strong ties to the Lutheran church, with traditions going back to the early sixteenth century. When missionaries first came to Sweden they met with success, but also with plenty of persecution. My own great great great great grandpa, the son of the jail keeper in a small Swedish town, was converted by Mormon missionaries that were in jail for preaching. So, in this country with such a strong Lutheran heritage, when President Monson conducted the groundbreaking and site dedication for the Stockholm temple in March of 1984, it was no surprise that there was a vocal group of Swedes that opposed the construction of the temple. This was a very trying time for members in Sweden, in some ways. Many members showed courage by standing up for the church, but as I progress with this story I would like to explore the example of Christian courage provided by a Lutheran. Krister Stendahl was the Lutheran Bishop of Stockholm during this time. Krister was born, raised, and educated in Sweden, then after working in the United States as a Professor and even Dean at the Harvard Divinity School, was called back to Sweden in 1984, the same year this “Mormon temple controversy” was broiling. While Swedes are possessive of their Lutheran heritage, few Swedes actually attend church more than a few times a year. It’s kind of a strange situation, but Lutheran leaders are also trying to become more popular with the people. It would make sense for the newly elected leader of the Lutheran church in Stockholm to unite with the people in condemning the “bizarre” Mormon religion in an effort to gain popularity. However, this isn’t what happened. In a press conference Krister publicly defended the Church and the temple, advocating religious understanding rather than intolerance and prejudice. This couldn’t have been a very popular thing for him to do. There must have been some Swedes who were disappointed with a Bishop who was sympathetic to a religion that many in Sweden consider a cult. I’m not saying that the temple wouldn’t have been built without Krister’s positive words; I’m not sure if anyone knows exactly what kind of influence he had on Swedes. All I know is that I met many Swedes whose only contact with the church had been the temple open house, and it had been a very positive experience for them. I’m sure that Kristers’ kind words and Christian courage has made it easier for many to join the church.

Many people consider speaking positively of those with other beliefs to be a weakness. Elder Hales said in his talk last conference entitled “Christian Courage,” which I’ve actually based the theme of this talk on, “Some people mistakenly think responses such as silence, meekness, forgiveness, and bearing humble testimony are passive or weak. But, to “love [our] enemies, bless them that curse [us], do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]” (Matthew 5:44) takes faith, strength, and, most of all, Christian courage.”

For any of you who have seen the church film about temples entitled Between Heaven and Earth, you have actually heard Krister Stendahl share his positive feelings about the our church and his admiration of our temples. In this film he even gives his three rules of religious understanding. He actually first publicly shared these rules in the press conference in 1985 when defending our church and the construction of the temple in Stockholm. I would like to share these rules because they are extremely helpful in keeping the spirit when discussing our religion with those not of our faith. Elder Hales underscores the importance of keeping the spirit when we discuss with those of differing beliefs. He says that because our power in preaching is through the spirit, “we must never become contentious when we are discussing our faith . . . More regrettable than the Church being accused of not being Christian is when Church members react to such accusations in an un-Christlike way!” Later he even says, “Surely our Heavenly Father is saddened—and the devil laughs—when we contentiously debate doctrinal differences with our Christian neighbors.” Krister not only shows a great example in standing up for the Church, but also shows us a Christ like was of interacting with other religions:

His first rule is, “if you want to know about another religion, ask its believers, not its detractors. Second, compare your “bests” with their “bests.” Don’t compare your “bests” with their “worsts.” Third, cultivate “holy envy.” Identify things in their faith which are virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, and seek after them.” Imagine that you have a workmate or schoolmate who you discover is a Jehovah’s Witness. Krister Stendahl’s rules say that if you want to find out more about their religion, don’t ask people who don’t know, or who have negative opinions about their beliefs. Ask someone who believes in it. Also don’t scoff at perceived weaknesses because you compare them with strengths in our faith. Thirdly, you would look for things that are admirable that they do. Along these same lines is Brother David Peck’s Golden Rule of Interfaith Dialogue: “howsoever you would that others speak of your religion, speak you even so of theirs. If you would like to have others speak respectfully of Mormonism, encourage an atmosphere of mutual respect by first speaking respectfully of their religions. This means taking the other’s religion seriously, or an undertone of condescension or contempt may make its way into the conversation and undermine the spirit of affirmative gratitude.”

Elder Hales answers those who wonder how we should respond to the antagonists of our religion when he said, to those who wonder “ how we should respond to our accusers, I reply, we love them. Whatever their race, creed, religion, or political persuasion, if we follow Christ and show forth His courage, we must love them. We do not feel we are better than they are. Rather, we desire with our love to show them a better way—the way of Jesus Christ. His way leads to the gate of baptism, the strait and narrow path of righteous living, and the temple of God.” Krister Stendahl died last year having never accepted the gospel, but he did lead others to a greater belief in the temple. We who are members show follow his example by also leading others to the temple.

Speaking with Christian courage has greater application than just when speaking with those of other religions. We should seek to cultivate a respectful relationship with anyone who has different beliefs or ideas than us. Standing up for others may require doing something unpopular, like when Krister Stendahl defended our Church when not many did. But when we make these righteous decisions, we show the Savior that we too have Christian Courage.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

New Year Vacation

(This was actually posted by Laura, not Richard.)
Our new year was spent in Utah with my family. We had an enjoyable time once again, with good food and good company. Ethan enjoyed his cousins, and playing in the snow. Richard and I were able to make ourselves a Kubb game set out of some extra lumber my dad had around, using his workshop again of course. Kubb is a Scandinavian lawn game played with wooden blocks as you can see in the videos. It is a lot of fun, but probably better played on grass or sand or something. Richard and my sister Heather also built a huge snow slide in the backyard and the kids had fun on that. You don't see the final version, but it was quite nice once they were finished with railings at the top and everything. Richard also got to go snow-shoeing with Heather and my brother Matthew and his six year old son, Isaac. Other than those activities, we mostly just visited, ate food, watched a few movies, played marble works with the boys (a favorite), and played games late at night after the kids had gone to bed. The day before we came home, I went with my sister, sister-in-law, and my mother to the Park City outlets, and got some great deals on clothes for Ethan as well as some maternity clothes for me. It was very tiring, but it was worth it. The guys stayed home with the kids, so it was kind of a nice break for us. We came home Saturday, after getting a late start because our car wouldn't start, but it was surprisingly good weather the whole way.

Christmas!

Sorry we took so long posting this. It's been a crazy holiday. We spent the first few free days finishing up our Christmas shopping (or present making in some cases) and working on grad school applications (which I can now say are done!!! Maybe a few weeks after our goal, but hey we only missed one deadline --I'm afraid Seattle is out of the runnings.) We got a little carried away with other fun activities such as snow shoveling, sledding, more snow shoveling . . . man we had quite the white Christmas this year . . . oh, and playing racquetball with Richard's dad. Ethan and I went one of the days while Richard and his dad played. Ethan just ran around one of the empty courts with a bunch of balls, and played with his grandpa when I played against Richard. His dad won all the games, including ping-pong, but Richard was a good sport about it.



It was all a fun break from school, and Ethan enjoyed having his dad around so much. I especially enjoyed it because it meant that most days I got to sleep in. Christmas dawned slowly with a foot of snow on the ground --including the roads, and fierce winds and snow. The snow removal crews must have taken the day off, because there was no plowing going on at all. This made it impossible for us to join with our extended family (who only lived three or four blocks away might I add) for Christmas festivities, so we just had a quiet Christmas at home just the three of us. It only took Ethan until about 4 pm to open all his presents since he would play with each one for a while before opening another, but hey, why rush? Afterwards, we all went out and played in the snow since the wind had mostly stopped. Ethan realized for the first time that falling into the snow did not hurt, and so, losing all inhibition, would hurl himself into the snow every chance he got. He did however learn that it was not fun to get snow in your face,under your shirt, or to lose gloves and boots. The day after Christmas, we were finally able to gather with Richard's family and celebrate with a yummy lasagne lunch, gift exchanging, music, and family pictures.