This Week

This week, as always was a busy one. Tawny participated in her first dance competition. She was so excited and had so much fun. The students choreograph and perform their own dance. Since Tawny is only three I helped her a little with the choreography, but I tried really hard to let her have as much input as possible. She did so awesome and was insistent that she was going to win. I tried to explain that she was the very youngest girl competing and might not win, but she was so sure she would win. She ended up being the trophy winner for her age group (Ages 3-5)! That means she gets to perform her dance at the county fair and the year end dance recital. I sure hope she doesn't get stage fright when 200+ people are watching her. I'm guessing she won't. She's a natural born performer. We're so proud of her! Brayden has been playing t-ball for a few weeks now and is really loving it. His coaches are great and try to make sure that everyone get a chance to play every position. Since it's first year t-ball the rules are very basic. Each inning everyone gets a chance to bat, and everyone gets to run all the way to home, ever if they are thrown out (which doesn't have very often). They focus on learning the game, and having good sportsmanship, which I really appreciate.

Brayden really loves being a big brother. I can always count on him to step up and help when it's needed. Today I was super late getting ready for church. Greg as at early meetings, I had forgotten about the time change and found out I had to do singing time about 45 minutes before church started. Fun times. Brayden was so helpful. He fed Ethan his breakfast, got himself dressed, helped Tawny get dressed and packed the diaper bag books, crayons, paper, diapers, extra clothes...everything! (the clothes may not have matched, but oh-well) Then he played with Ethan until it was time to go. What an awesome little boy.

Greg got a new church calling this week. He is the Spanish Group Leader, which is like a branch president with a few less responsibilities. He nervous but very excited about his new calling. I know that he'll do great. He loves the people and I know he'll do everything he can to help the grow in the gospel. I'll get participate some too, which I'm excited about. I'll be the pianist for their sacrament. I guess I need to brush up on my Spanish!

Love in Her Heart

I had the cutest conversation with Tawny today as we were driving to pick up Brayden from school. I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed that she looked a little sad. Here is the conversation that followed

M: Tawny, is everything okay?
T: I feel a little sad in my heart. Right here. (pointing to her heart)
M: Why?
T: My heart is all empty of Daddy Love. I need to see him so I can fill it up with Daddy Love.
M: Should we see if you can visit him at work right now?
T: YES mommy YES! Can I stay with him a long long time so my heart can fill all the way to the top with Daddy Love?

Needless to say she got to spend the rest of the day at work with her Daddy. And when she got home her eyes were shining as she told me that her heart was full "all the way to the tippy-tippy top". Priceless.

6 months

My little baby is already six months! Where did the time go? He's definitely growing up so quickly. He's been sick for the last few weeks with a real nasty cold that turned out to be RSV. But he handled all like a champ and is doing great. I still can't get over how happy he is. Even when he was sick he was still so smiley and happy. He's cut his bottom two teeth and is working on his top. We started him on solids about two weeks ago and so far we haven't found anything he won't eat (no surprise there). And he finally rolled over yesterday! I was starting to wonder if he ever would. I think it took him so long because there's just so much of him to roll over. I took him to the dr. a few weeks ago and he was 27 inches and 22.5 pounds. That's a lot of weight for a 6 month old. We all love him so much. He's made our home a happier place.

Brayden

Brayden has had quite the busy month. A few weeks ago he played his first soccer game and loved every second of it. I'm officially a soccer mom! It was so exciting to see him come alive and fully commit to the game. I was really impressed with how quickly he picked it all up. It seemed like everytime I looked he was right in the middle of things. And most importantly, he loved it.

He missed his next soccer game because he was in the hospital because of his asthma. He didn't have a full attack, but we just weren't able to manage it at home, mostly because he needed oxygen. Everyone agreed that his was pretty sick, except for him. I guess he never got the memo. When they admitted him, his oxygen sats was at 81%, which is pretty low, and I could still hardly keep him in the bed. In fact, he pulled the oxygen tube right off the wall twice the first night. He kept trying to convince the dr. that he didn't need anymore breathing treatments, even though I could tell by watching/listening to him breathe that he did.

He was such a trooper through the whole thing. He hardly even got upset when they did a blood draw. For those of you who know Brayden, that is a HUGE deal. He won't even let me put bandaids on him because they hurt when they come off (such a tough guy). But before we took him to the hospital, Greg gave him a blessing. Among other things, he blessed him that he would be calm and able to handle everything. What a blessing it is to have the priesthood!

He stayed there from Friday to Monday. I kept him home from school for the rest of the week. For Tuesday and Wednesday he was doing breathing treatments every four hours, and he had a follow up with his pediatrician on Thursday. He 's doing great now. His oxygen sat on thursday was at 98%, which is great. I'm still a little nervous to send him back to school tomorrow, but I'm sure he'll be fine.

Ethan

We've had such a busy few weeks, but I want to document all the things happening with Ethan right now. He's officially outgrown his infant car seat and is definitely the biggest of all my kids. We're finally starting him on solids. I meant to a few weeks ago, but it just never happened. He isn't rolling over yet, but I think it's mostly because he's so big! There's just too much to get over. He's smiley and happy all the time. One the rare occasion he does cry, he's very easy to soothe. You can't tell from the picture below, but his hair sticks straight up all the time. He constantly has something in his mouth, whether it's a toy, his hand, or anything else within his reach. We'll have to keep an eye on him!

Phoenix Zoo

I am so hopelessly behind that I'm not even going to try to write a lot. We took the kids to the zoo that day after we flew back from Washington. The pictures are in reverse order thanks to Blogger, but here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Winter Break Part 2

We took one extra week off of school and went up to Washington to see Greg's family. They were able to finally meet Ethan and I'm pretty sure they loved him! I think he was held pretty much the entire week.


The kids were so excited to play in the snow with their uncles and cousins. They spent one day riding bikes on the bike path (after the snow was shoveled). Brayden and Tawny really liked using the big snow shovel. Another day when there was more snow they made snow angels and rode on the sled behind the 4-wheeler. Luckily Elaine still has tons of snow clothes for the kids to wear, so they were nice and warm.

They were both having so much fun...

...until Tawny got cold. She melted into a little pile of sad, crying, snot-nosed three-year old.

But after a little rest on the couch she went back out for round two and had so much fun.

It was great to see everyone again. As always, the trip didn't feel quite long enough. At least we didn't drive this time. We didn't think 24 hours in the car with 3 little kids sounded too great, so we decided to fly this time. I was a little nervous with Brayden's peanut allergies (okay, I was super nervous), but we were careful, and everything went fine. It was Brayden and Tawny's first time on an airplane and they loved the whole experience.