Different Names for the Same Thing

I saw this on my friend's blog and thought it was pretty funny, so I'm filling one out on my blog. I haven't had many nicknames, now I have 14 new ones. My Favorite is the Soap Opera Name. You should give it a try and find out what your favorite new nickname is. Also, you should listen to the song "Different Names for the Same Thing" by Death Cab For Cutie, while you're filling it out, it adds the right atmosphere :)

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: Smokey Wonderboy (first pet & current car)
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: Cookies 'n Cream Snickerdoodle (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: C-Davi (first initial of first name, first three (or four) letters of your last name)
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: Green Marmoset (favorite color, favorite animal)
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: Taylor Evanston (middle name, city where you were born)6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: DavCl (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
7. SUPERHERO NAME: The Blue Rootbeer (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
8. NASCAR NAME: Stephen Harold (the first names of your grandfathers)
9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: Chloe Gregory (mother’s & father’s middle names )
10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: Lines Lanchester (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
11. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: Winter Lily (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
12. CARTOON NAME: Raspberry Jeanie (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
13. HIPPY NAME: Honey Nut Scooters Maple (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)14. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: The Rollerblading Snow Tour (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)

Listen Very Carefully

Ethan has recently taken up whistling, which I can't even do. It's really hard to hear in this video, so listen close!

All Decorated

For those of you who don't get to have a tree this year, you can just look at my blog, maybe it will help you feel like you have your very own. Anyway, I finished decorating it and just thought I'd share what it looks like. I'm definately no craft queen, and we had a budget of about $10 so I had to work with what I could... here are the final results.
Merry Christmas everyone! We can't wait to see you all for the Holidays!

O Christmas Tree

We had a wonderful thanksgiving break. Thursday we drove up to Olympia to celebrate with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. It was a wonderful meal and a fun-filled day. Ethan was very tired by the end and slept the whole way home. Friday was Steve's favorite day because he loves a good bargain. I tried to convince him that just because it was a great deal didn't mean that we needed whatever item he wanted to buy. We did go to Walmart and get some great DVDs for $3, including Dumb and Dumber... (according to Steve, this one IS a necessity). Saturday we went and cut down our Christmas tree. It smells so yummy in our apartment, I wish I could attach a scratch-and-sniff for you (maybe one day computers will be that advanced). We only have it part of the way decorated, but with a tree as beautiful as ours, you don't need many decorations. We had a lot of fun with our second year of our tradition, and will be sad when we aren't in Oregon and have to get something other than a Nobel Fir. Anyway, here are some of the pictures of our tree.

Red Sunset Park

We decided to go and check out a new park today. We want to go find a new one every Sunday, but since it's getting into the rainy season, it'll just have to depend on the weather. Anyway, today we went to Red Sunset park, it has a nice path that goes all around it (could work for rollerblading :) and it has a duck pond and a swing and slide and bridges and gazebos. Ethan really enjoyed the ducks and the swings... I'm still trying to decide if Ethan had more fun, or Steve. They spent most of their time chasing the ducks around to make them fly. It was probably really annoying to the people trying to feed the ducks, but we were having a good time. Ethan also loved the swings, he thinks they're hilarious... so does Steve :)

I'm a Big Kid Now!

Ethan has been turning into quite the little boy lately. I get the feeling that he is trying to repeat words that I say, like "yucky" and "Hi", of course it really doesn't sound anything like that, but you get the idea. He has also started putting things together instead of just tearing things apart, and he has kind of figured out how to wave goodbye. Also, he has three teeth now! Anyway, he's adorable and getting to be such a big boy! Here's a video to show what a little boy he's becoming.

Suprise from the Coat Closet

Whenever Ethan is being held he holds his arm out and points the direction that he wants to go so that he can get the up high things that he can't normally reach. Today he wanted the knob that opens the coat closet. He managed to open it and inside he found my long board. He thinks my long board is great! He threw a fit when I stopped pushing him around on it... He's probably already better at it than I am :)

Ethan Loves the Bongos!

Ethan just wanted to let Grandma Davis know that he loves the new toys she gave him!

Halloween

This year we didn't celebrate Halloween very much. We carved pumpkins and Ethan went to playgroup Halloween party to show off his costume. I was going to take him to the Young Women's Halloween party but since Steve was going to be home I decided to put him to bed instead. We didn't take him trick-or-treating because he doesn't have teeth to eat the candy yet. We didn't have any trick-or-treaters because you had to put up a sign on your door to let them know they could trick-or-treat and I didn't want to... I have to explain why though. I wanted the little kids to come, but last year we mostly got older kids and teenagers and I didn't want to give them my candy since I am of the opinion that they were the ones who stole our license plates and scratched our car up.... and they think I'm going to give them candy to reward their behavior?? I don't think so. So now we have a big bowl of candy sitting on our counter that is being eaten by yours truly. Oh dear.

Groovin' to the Tunes

Ethan is dancing to music, even though you can't really hear the music in the video. It's just background music at the restaurant and he loved it.

More from the Family Pictures

Ethan was being hilarious during the family pictures... and probably a little bit frustrating for the photographer, but he was such a good boy for most of the time. I enlarged my favorite picture of him from the bunch so you could enjoy it too. I also added one of my favs of the whole family.

Where Did October Go??

I am finally Posting! I don't know what happened to October, it just disapeared without anything in particular happening and so there were no posts... because nothing really happened. You should all be greatful that I wasn't updating you on what Regis and Kelly talked about on their show for that day. :) We went back to Utah for a whirlwind 36 hour trip. Steve's brother had his Farewell and so we went home for that and some family pictures before he leaves for two years. Here are some of the pictures...

Tomatoe Farmer

Fun in a Tub

It was tricky to set up camp while Ethan was up because he wanted nothing more than to get down and crawl after being in the car all day... our solution was to let him play in this bin, which worked for a little bit... I think the video is 30 seconds? That's probably about how long it worked.

My Name is Claire and as far as you remember this is attempt #1

If you guys watch heroes, our vacation attempt felt a little bit like the cheerleaders attempts... only probably without the tissue regeneration. Our plan was to go down to Redwood National Park in Northern California and camp there for a few days, and then drive up the coast camping a few nights on our way home. I had the whole thing figured out, everything we were going to see, where we were going to camp, what we were going to eat, the roads we were going to take... you get the point. (In my Dad's words, there is nothing obsessive compulsive about being organized :) Anyway, I have to go back to before the trip... our car had been shifting hard in the mornings before it warmed up. Steve thought it needed a transmission oil change, so he went and got the oil and changed it. He says there there is a magnet involved in the process and that it was covered with shards of metal, which is not good. But we thought that the oil change would fix the problem and decided to go on our vacation anyway. The drive down to the Redwoods was pretty uneventful, we pulled into our campsite at about 5:00 and set up camp and made dinner and started a campfire and put Ethan to bed. Ethan didn't want to go to sleep, but he finally fell asleep, and stayed asleep for about three hours, about when we went to bed. After that he woke up about every hour. We tried everything we could think of, changing what he was sleeping in (we tried the car seat, the bin rigged out to be a crib, the diaper changing pad, and finally ended up with him just sleeping in our sleeping bags) we tried feeding him (Steve had to get out and make a bottle every hour because you can't keep bottles in your tent because it's bear country and you have to keep all food or scented items in the bear box or in your car) we tried rocking and humming... you name it, we tried it. I felt so bad for our fellow campers, and I was totally frustrated with the whole "camping experience" by the time morning came. In the morning Steve checked the oil and it was all the way gone... also not a good thing. So I suggested that the only thing we could do in our situation was drive to the nearest town, buy some oil and fill it up. We google texted a walmart and went there and filled the car with oil. Since we had driven so far, and were there, we decided to see somethings and then drive home. We went down hwy 101 and stopped at some of the State parks and we did a pretty little hike called fern canyon and we saw elk, and drove through a tree, all the while stopping to check and fill the oil every hour or so. This continued as we made the 6 hour drive back home, stopping about every hour, finding it almost empty, and adding more oil... needless to say, it was much longer than a six hour drive on the way back. But we made it home in one piece, took the car into the shop early the next morning and waited to hear what the problem was. Our transmission needed to be replaced, which, as an answer to many prayers, was covered under our warranty, even though it was two months past the warranty date. We were sure blessed that whole vacation, even though it didn't turn out quite like we had hoped or planned. We got our car back 2 days later and everything is working out just great. I don't know when we'll attempt camping again... it will probably be a very long time. This is the Northern California Coast, we stopped to put Ethan's feet in the water.

This is our car driving through a tree... how cool is that. I realized after that I wasn't in the car because I was taking the picture, so I didn't actually get to drive through the tree, and we didn't have time to go back once I realized that. I will just have to pretend that I did, since you can't actually see who is in the car.

This tree is called Big Tree... it's a very original name. If you look closely you can see Steve and Ethan at the bottom of the tree on the left edge of it. This helps to put into perspective how big Big Tree really is :)

Driving down 101 we came across a huge herd of Elk just hanging out, it almost felt like we were at Yellowstone.

This is Fern Canyon, it was a really pretty hike that we did during our short stay at the Redwoods, and also the last thing that we did at our stay at the Redwoods, we finished this hike and drove on home.

Family Fun

Steve's family came to visit us for a weekend so that his brother could go through the temple here in Oregon. Friday we went for a hike to Elowah Falls and McCord Creek Falls. It was a really beautiful hike, and it was nice to get out and do something in nature before the rainy season started (blasted rain). We also went to the outlet mall and played Nintendo and just hung out.

Saturday morning we went to the temple, it was so wonderful to be there all together. I look forward to the day when all of my siblings have gone through the temple and we can be there together, and also for the day (very very far away) when my own children will get that opportunity. What a wonderful thing that we get to have eternal families, and that we know how important families are in Heavenly Father's plan. It was too bad that Steve's family didn't get to stay longer, they left bright and early Sunday morning, but we do get to see them again soon for Michael's farewell.

Ethan's New Walker

We bought a cooler for our trip, and Ethan decided that he had other uses in mind... he is getting so close to walking I just can't believe it! He isn't my little tiny baby anymore. In other news, we went to Ikea today, Steve and Ethan were being so funny. I was going around looking at their displays and Steve and Ethan would follow behind, Steve putting Ethan on or in anything that he could find, and Ethan screaming as loud as he could out of excitement. There were some beds that had tents over them that he really liked. Steve would also put him on the highest shelves that he could find and Ethan would love it up there! He sure isn't afraid of heights yet, probably because he doesn't know he can fall. He also really liked being on this bunk bed that had a rail all around it, he would hold on to the rail, stand up and start bouncing up and down like he was trying to jump on the bed... so cute.

To the Zoo

So we went to the zoo as one of our "Steve is on break, hang out as much as possible" activities. We also went because they cleaned our carpets and we needed to let them dry, but mostly it was just because we wanted some good family fun. Ethan was much more interested in the zoo this time, last time he just sat in the stroller and stared straight ahead. He really liked the black bear that was pacing in front of the glass. He liked the bunny rabbit and the chicken and the sheep and goat that were at the petting zoo. He liked the huge fish, and the ducks, and the waterfall (he freaks out when he hears running water). He also liked the Orangutan, who was sitting up against the glass soaking up the love. He also enjoyed eating little pieces of the elephant ear that we bought... who doesn't love scones covered in cinnamon and sugar. He defiantly got tired of the zoo at the end, Steve would try to get him to look at the hippo, but Ethan would have none of it. He is definitely an independent thinker... Steve just calls it stubborn, but I have to put a better name to it because he gets it from me. Steve went a little picture crazy towards the end (because Ethan was bored so he had to have something to do), so we have about 20 picture of a bear's behind. Steve's favorite animal was probably the skunk monkeys... I don't know what their real name is, but they look like skunks in trees. Mine was the hippo, it would have been the marmosets, but I couldn't find them. Going to the zoo for me is like a real live game of where's waldo. I like to try and find all the animals that they have posted as being in the exhibit... trust me, it's very exciting. What a great trip to the zoo!

Ethan Loves the Toilet!

The Washing Machine

The Johnny Jumper

Ethan Meets Electric Toothbrush

Grandpa Taylor Progeny

Ethan occasionally wakes up with his ear folded over and suctioned closed. This has long been a favorite trait of mine. We can all thank Ethan's Great Grandpa Taylor for passing on down his ears.

The Wedding and the Sickness...

**Warning, Don't Read if you Don't like to Read about Dirty Diapers**

So we had a fairly adventurous week this past week (from the standpoint of a stay-at-home mom, don't get too excited). My family came into town late on Thursday night and spent the night in our apartment, sleeping on the floor has never been so exciting. Then Friday my two brothers flew into town. We picked them up from the airport and then went and ate lunch. When Steve was done with class we picked him up and finally headed on our way to Seattle for my cousin Becca's wedding. The drive up there went better than I thought, Ethan was a good little boy and slept most of the way, which he never does in the car anymore... this probably should have been a premonition for me, but mostly I was just excited that he was asleep. That night we went to a Barbecue for the families of the bride and groom at the most gorgeous park, it was right on the sound and covered with really huge pine trees (as is most of the NW). Anyway, we got back to the hotel and Ethan had a horrible mess in his diaper, along with a VERY red bottom. The poor boy, he really didn't like that diaper change. Now, of course the mess was Diarrhea, and I really hate the word because I don't ever remember how it's spelled and also, it's disgusting, so I'm going to call it a D diaper. So I thought that this was fairly normal for a baby who is probably getting some teeth in. No big deal. Saturday... the wedding was beautiful, the luncheon had great food. We get back to the hotel and, out of the blue, Steve starts feeling crummy. He has a miserable case of the D diapers and is all achy and weak. So he lies in bed all of the rest of Saturday trying to feel better. Meanwhile, Ethan is continuing with his D Diapers. Sunday Morning Steve starts feeling better and we go to breakfast at my Aunt and Uncle's and then drive back to Portland. Once again, to my astonishment, Ethan sleeps almost the whole way... I, however, am still not catching on. I am really quite dense. That afternoon after we're all settled back in our tiny apartment, we decided to go and check out Multhnoma Falls for those who haven't seen it, and then spent the rest of the day just hanging out. Sunday night, Steve is miserable again, so he lies down. I start getting Ethan ready for bed and then, the vomiting starts... along with D Diapers. I would put Ethan down for bed and he would vomit, so I'd get him out, clean him up, clean up the bed, put him back down, and then there would be a D diaper (the blow out kind)... so I'd clean him up, clean up the bed, put him back down... then the vomit. You get the idea. We were pretty worried about him so we called the doctor and they said to give him pedialyte to keep him hydrated and feed him half strength bottles. If he got dehydrated then we were to take him to the ER. So the night passes, very slowly, but it does, and Ethan seems to be doing better because the vomiting has stopped. Then Monday seemed to be progressively better and so did Tuesday, and by then Steve was feeling better too, but that night the projectile vomiting started (if anyone knows a good way to get vomit smell out of the carpet and couches, please let me know). So we did that for a while, and called the doctor again and they pretty much told us the same thing they did before, which is really very UNhelpful for two inexperienced hydration deciphers. Anyway, this morning I took Ethan to the doctor and he said that he'll be fine, but they sometimes have the D diapers for up to two weeks. There's really nothing as exciting as doing batches of sheets and clothes once or twice a day for two weeks. Ethan is really doing a lot better today though, so we look forward to the end of all these fun problems. I am just really grateful that I didn't get sick through all of this so that there was someone to take care of my boys, and of course, we are very excited that Ethan is finally starting to get better. Now aren't you glad you didn't read this if you didn't like stories about diapers?

New Tricks

Ethan has decided that he wants to be "like mike" I guess that he will be the next air Jordan with his tongue sticking out abilities. Of course, he has yet to master basketball, but that will come in time :) There's also a new picture of an old trick... Ethan and his pacifier stunts. The last picture is of Ethan and his cousin Carter, they are four days apart. It was definitely a difficult moment to capture on camera, they are both just too busy to hold still.

Blackberry Battle Wounds

Yesterday we decided to go for a walk and see if there were any blackberries that we could pick. We went down to the field by our house and there were loads of blackberries that were ripe, so we decided to pick a few. Steve had Ethan on his back in the backpack and was picking right along when Ethan started to make choking sounds. It turned out that he had grabbed a bunch of leaves and shoved them in his mouth (typical Ethan) and was choking on them. Steve had to quickly jump out of the bushes to get to me so that I could get the leaves out of Ethan's mouth. For those of you who don't know, blackberry bushes are ridiculously thorny... I would say they're worse than a rose bush, but I like to exaggerate. So he jumped out and got all cut up from the thorns. At least Ethan didn't end up getting the leaves down, we got them out in time.

Oneonta Gorge Hike

Today we went with our friends Paul and Aliisa to hike the Oneonta Gorge. It is a water hike up a slot canyon to a waterfall, and it was so much fun! We had to do some creative hiking to get Ethan over all the logs and debris that blocked the path, but it was very worth it in the end. After we hiked up the gorge we followed it back down and under the highway to a slough that we swam in for a little bit. Ethan did his first skinny dipping and he had an especially good time. Then we kept going even further and went through some tunnels that went under the freeway and came to the Columbia river. It was a very fun trip, and we got to pick and eat blackberries all along the way.

Getting Ready to Camp

Steve and I are preparing for our trip down the coast in September. There are a lot of things to think about when you are camping with a little one. We have no idea what we are going to do for his sleeping arrangements. So I thought I'd set up the tent and see if his pack 'n play fit in it with room for me and Steve... it doesn't. But while the tent was up Ethan sure loved playing in it. He is just so cute when he comes across something new. We also made a little sleeping bag for him, his first one! It's just a flannel blanket that I sewed together, but it will work for our trip.