The Big 3!

Well my baby Ethan is no longer a baby. Ethan turned 3 on Aug. 16th. I can't believe it has been that long. Man where has the time gone. Ethan wanted a "kachow" cake which is what he calls Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars. So luckily my friend Kat had the cake pan already so I didn't have to buy it. (thanks again) I had the vision of making the lightning mcqueen cake look like it was driving down a road, since there were going to be about 18 people there I wanted to make sure I had enough cake. However, my brain was not functioning right and I could not figure out how to make the cake look like what I was invisioning. Sooooooooo I enlisted the help of our creative friend Paul Henderson. He helped me cut the cake to make it look like the pics below while still using as much cake as possible. (I know Paul you dont think you helped that much but you did). Same goes for Adam, he helped me move the cake and flip the cake and keep my sanity while doing it. A BIG THANKS TO THE BOTH OF YOU!! I REALLY APPRECIATED IT AND THE CAKE TURNED OUT PRETTY AWESOME IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF.

Ethan blowing out his candles

Thank for all the presents. Ethan is definately very loved.

DISCLAIMER: I promise Ili'Kea was not hurt in any way. :) She was laughing in the beginning but by the time we got the camera this is what was left. (such a little firecracker)

Grandma Jan & Grandpa Tedd

My parents came and visited us in July. Ethan was in heaven! He got to help papa Tedd with all the projects he was doing for me and Adam while we were at work. Ethan had a sinus infection and a horrible cough so we kept him home from daycare. Thank heaven for my mom cause she watched him all week so i could still go to work. My parents got Ethan a toolbelt and wheelbarrow for his birthday but my mom couldn't wait to give it to him. They came in handy with helping Papa Tedd, or so I am told. Apparently he was a perfect child for my parents. (hmmm) Anyway here are some pics of the work and the after pictures:

This is what happens when you leave an art major to entertain a 3 yr old. (kept him busy for days)

Ethan helping mommy paint the wall where my dad took out a built in shelf and patched the wall.

Thanks dad it looks so nice without that shelf!!!

We had my dad take out the chain link fence that just went across the front of the lawn and didn't connect to anything. The yard looks so much bigger now.

Ethan swinging on the fence before it was all taken out. Is it too early for gymnastics?

The 3 boys playing mario kart, (sorry grandpa didn't mean to cut you out.)

My wonderful parents! Then after my parents left Paul came and put in recessed lighting in our living room. Our house was built in the 1950's and apparently back then they didn't believe in putting lights in the living rooms. All the houses in our neighborhood are that way. Silly builders!

You should have seen the amount of insulation falling from the ceiling. I thought Adam was going to have an attack because of how dirty the floor was getting. Quite funny!

WE CAN SEE FINALLY!!!!

4th & 24th of July

We had a good 4th and 24th of July, which here in Utah are both holidays. So we get to do fireworks twice in one month. on the 4th we had Jeremy, Connie, Ashton and Cade Warath, Marlene & Shirley and Aunt Jody over for fireworks. The kids loved watching Adam & Jeremy light the fireworks. Here are some pics:

The mature adults in charge of lighting the fireworks.

Sand Dunes!!

Sand Dunes, when I hear sand dunes I immediately think the beach!!! Being from CA when you go to the beach you play in the sand dunes as well, but there is the ocean a few feet away to wash off all the sand once you have completely covered yourself in it. Not the case in UT people. Now the camping trip was pretty fun. And Ethan couldn't get enough dirt. I am pretty sure that we brought home enough sand to make our own sand castle. Ethan, well Ethan and mommy got to ride a 4 wheeler for the first time. Pretty fun and Ethan was in heaven!!!! Thank you to the Waraths for letting us crash their family camping trip.

Ethan ready to go camping.

Daddy & ethan on the 4 wheeler!
Ethan and his little friend Cade
Cade loved the 3 wheelers.he would throw a fit if he couldn't ride on one.
No the kids are not on fire.

this was Ethan about 5 minutes after we left the sand dunes. He didn't nap the whole time we were there.

Injuries ala Ethan

Ok so one morning I am getting ready for work and Ethan is playing in our bedroom which is across the hall from the bathroom. He is swinging the door back and forth and I tell him to be careful so he doesn't get hurt. He is also looking through the door jam at me and laughing. Then he starts slaming the door shut. Again i tell him to stop doing that so he doesn't get hurt. Next thing I know I hear the door shut and him scream. So I am thinking he shut his finger in the door. WRONG!! He somehow managed to shut his mouth in the door jam. That takes talent my friends. Thus the end result.....


Then while we are in california picking up my mom, Ethan gets a rug burn. I think the funniest part about this is he said it never hurt, so he got the joy of surprising 3 different sets of people by just lifting up his shirt and saying "look" and then laughing when they gasp.

What a boy!!!

May-Mowing the lawn

One of Ethan's favorite things is to help Adam mow the lawn(or as ethan says it "mauny mow), luckily for Ethan he actually gets to help. Adam could get it done so much faster but he always lets him help some. Thanks for being such a good dad!!

Mowing the lawn...

Ethan playing soccer.

Ok. here we go!

I know I am way behind, so to keep things in order I am going to be doing several blogs so hang on tight !!

Like Father like Son!

Adam is always saying how he should have been a rock star. Unfortunately, if you have ever seen him at a concert you would have to agree with him. He should have been a Rock Star!! Well the other day Ethan proved he was more like his dad than his mom. I couldn't resist, and I promise my eyes were on the road!!

MAN ARE WE BEHIND

Ok so we are way behind on our blogging. I promise to try to be better. Here are some pictures from the last few months with some brief descriptions. Hope you don't mind that I am not writing a book for each one. :) Enjoy....

Ethan got new bedding for.....

His new big boy bed. We have had it for probably a year, just in a box. Ethan got way to heavy to lift in and out of a crib and he has slept in his big bed ever since march. He doesn't get out unless he has just woken up from a nap or in the morning. Mom LOVES IT!!!

Daddy had to get a pic of him sleeping. I do admit he sure is cute!!

The goofball is awake!

soaking up some rays while the warm weather was here.

All I have to say is thank heavens for Camie at the daycare Ethan now goes to. She potty trained him within the first week he was there. He is pretty much potty trained. No more diapers. Wait is my little boy big enough to be doing this??? (incase you couldn't tell by now, he is obsessed with Cars)

Ok so this was absolutely disgusting. Ethan had a horrible night and litterally threw up everything he had eaten at dinner. There was a TON of food. It was so bad that poor Adam had to clean up the actual throw up because I started dry heaving. Good thing I am not pregnant cause it would have been over!! Luckily it was only for that night. He was up all night throwing up any little drinks of water he had. Poor little guy. I need to stop typing about it before I start dry heaving again. :( (Oh and it made me really mad that Adam took this picture.)

Ethan on Easter morning. Had to pry him away from the candy to go to church.

Here is a video of Ethan showing what he learned at daycare.

Privacy anyone?

Ok I know every parent goes through this, but I haven't till now because we have our bathroom gated off from Ethan. We were over at our friends Paul & Janet's and this is what I got while trying to go to the bathroom quickly. Ethan thought he was so hilarious!!

Think he is around mommy too much??

Ethan sure loves his daddy!

Light at the end of the tunnel!

Well we haven't posted in a while and things have been kind of stressfull. We had to reformat our main computer and then when it didn't work found out the harddrive was toast. Stupid thing. Also we lost everything that was saved on it because I didn't transfer the files over correctly to the external hard drive that Paul Henderson was so nice to let us borrow. Can we say stupid again! I think I even cried a little bit when I found that out. All I can say is thank heaven for our blog. I was able to get pictures from it for the last 6 months that I hadn't saved to a cd yet. Although I am really excited about our new computer (it is awesome) i would have much rather not had to buy one.
After Adam's 45 day vacation, as he puts it, Adam has finally got a new job!!! yyyiipppeeee!!! He is working for his old boss at Shaw. This has been a great blessing, he will have normal work hours again, a great boss that he gets along with, and he already knows the company and what they do. He started on Monday and seems to be enjoying it so far. (The insurance thing didn't happen) I do kind of miss not having him home all day though. :) and so does Ethan, which has of course brought on some more defiance.

As for me I FINALLY was able to take my nail tech tests. I passed my school tests on Monday (2/16) and then took my state written test on tuesday (2/17) and the practical on wednesday (2/18). Now I am just waiting for my nail technician license to come in the mail. (hopefully soon) I have been working on getting my business license so I can do nails out of my home and get the tax benefit as well. What a pain in the butt. Some dumb code about the fumes of the nail products stating i have to have an exhaust fan at my nail table. BLAH I am also hoping to get into a salon either part time or full time to hopefully build up my clientele faster. Plus to help bring in some extra money. :( Why does everything cost so much money?!
Ethan is still 2 1/2 and man he sure is good at it. He is an expert at ignoring!!! You would think he would learn by now that it doesn't work, it just gets him in trouble and in the corner, which he still hates luckily. Although I sometimes wonder if it is really working. Well not much else has been going on, thank heavens, our lives have seemed to be stressful enough. Here are some cute pictures that are recent....

Ethan being a dinosaur with my socks on his hands. crazy kid

Ethan and his friend Ashton.

This is what you have to resort to when you don't have a cool tool belt like Papa Tedd does. :)

What happens when the gate is left open. ethan goes exploring in daddy's closet.

Watch out ladies, he is coming to kiss ya. j/k

So cute!

i know it has been a while since we posted anything, but i finally got this video to download from our camera. this is ethan talking to Papa Tedd on the phone and then he realizes daddy is watching him at the end. enjoy......

Up and Up

The last few months have probably been the most trying times for Cristina and I in our almost 5 years of marriage. Our marriage has always been fine, but we never felt the crunch that so many young married couples feel with falling on hard times. Not that times were hard, just trying. Anyway, things are on the Up and Up now.

I have been studying for just over a month now to get my state insurance license. Well I took my exam on Tuesday and passed, first try. I have talked to few people about the exam and apparently passing on the first attempt is sometimes difficult. It's a 150 question test, and you are given 2 1/2 hours to take it, that's a lot of information to recall. With that, I will be starting my new job pretty quick.

As for Cristina, she has completed her nail school. A big thank you to all of those friends that were able and willing to go in and let Cristina finish up her required services on you. You did more than you might think. Now that she has finished school, all she needs to do is take her state exam, which will happen the first part of February. She is so excited about this. She has always enjoyed doing nails and I know that she is going to be amazing at it.

One thing which we forgot to do was announce the winning business name. After many votes and a finish that ended in a tie between two of them, we had to make a decision on the name we wanted between the two. Cristina has chosen "The NailSmith" as the name of her business. Again, thank you to everyone who submitted names and also all those that voted.

Cristina and I are pleased with the direction things are going for us and are thankful for such great friends and an amazing family that are looking out for us.

I blame the ECONOMY

There are a lot of things that I could blame on the economy. Like maybe the fact that I am a little over weight, or maybe my love for really stupid jokes. What about how Bob barely won Survivor over Susie and Sugar didn't get any votes. But that wouldn't make much sense. Something that might be more reasonable, maybe that people aren't going to get their nails done at the school which is causing Cristina to extend her time at school a week or two to get in the services required. But the thing that the economy is effecting most of all right now is my employment. In these times the general public just isn't spending money unless they need to. Which brings me to my purpose here. You may or may not know but as of yesterday (Dec. 31, 2008) I am no longer employed with MRM. I was told on Sept. 15th that I was being put on part time as of Oct. 15th, until "times" get better. From that day on I have been searching for a new job. However in this economy not a lot of companies are hiring, in fact if you watch the news, a lot of companies are laying off, so obviously nothing came along. Apparently "times" didn't get any better in the furniture business. When the consumer doesn't buy furniture then furniture stores don't by furniture from the manufacturer, ergo Adam loses his job as office manager. On Dec. 1st I received a phone call at home letting me know that my last day of work would be Dec. 31st. It must take a lot of courage to call someone to lay them off instead doing it in person. Then avoid at all costs talking about it while at work. After looking for a job for a month and half with no success I was starting to get pretty discouraged. However I know that as long as I do the things I know are right and live the way my Heavenly Father wants me to I will be blessed.

Because of this I decided that I wanted to do something that I had more control over. I want to be in charge of my own career, so I am moving into a new field, sales. An opportunity came my way to get my insurance license and sell life insurance. This is something that I have toyed around with doing for a while now and... well it looks like it's time to do it. This comes at a time that it finally feels right for me to do (plus there is a lot of money to be made in this industry if done right).

So wish me luck as I take on something new and move in a new direction. No need to fret though, I still have the furniture connection if you need furniture at a good price, I can still get it for you.