My Little Helper

Raking leaves with Ethan is definitely more fun that doing it by myself!

Notice I did not say more efficient!

The FUN stuff!

* One lost cell phone under a large pile of leaves.

* Many piles jumped in and scattered.

* One yard bag full of leaves tipped over and dumped back onto the lawn.

* Ethan's favorite tool was a golf club, he really made those leaves fly!

* Waving to every car as it went by.

* Getting lots of extra exercise preventing Ethan from venturing into the street.

The Family is of God

Today in our Sacrament Meeting the primary children ages 3-12 put on the program. I love having a calling to serve in the primary. I love being with the kids every Sunday. They worked so hard on their speaking parts and their songs. The theme this year is Eternal Families, so the program was centered on that theme.

I loved all of the songs, but one was really touching to me today. It is called "The Family is of God." In our program we had a family sing it, both parents and their five children. It was beautiful, my heart was full of gratitude for my own family and for my opportunity to be a mother. It is an overwhelming blessing and responsibility!

Here are the lyrics if you have never heard it.


1. Our Father has a family. It’s me!
It’s you, all others too: we are His children.
He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,
To live and learn here in fam’lies.

[Chorus] God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—
This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.

2. A father’s place is to preside, provide,
To love and teach the gospel to his children.
A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share
Their love for Father in Heaven.
[Chorus]

3. A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,
To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the fam’ly.
[Chorus]

4. I’ll love and serve my family and be
A good example to each fam’ly member.
And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,
I’ll help my fam’ly remember:
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—
This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.


Click here if you want to listen to it!

As soon as the dad in the family started singing the verse about the father's role in the family I got really emotional. I'm so grateful for the Dad that Clark is to Ethan. Last night when we put Ethan to bed he had a fever and a really awful cough that came on suddenly. He would fall asleep for a couple of minutes and then wake up crying. Clark got up with him and helped comfort him back to sleep. At 3 am I woke up and Clark wasn't in the bed. I went to check on Ethan and found Ethan snoring in his crib and Clark lying on the floor next to Ethan's crib, half way covered with a baby quilt fast asleep. He got up with him every time he cried, sometimes Ethan just needed to hold his hand through the crib to go back to sleep.
Since I had responsibilities at church today, Clark stayed home with Ethan and took care of him all day. When I got home Ethan barely even noticed, he just wanted his Dada all day! I'm grateful that Clark shares his love for God by leading us in prayer and scripture study, and that Ethan already knows those things are important and participates.

I'm grateful to know that regardless of what is going on in the world our families can be our safe havens, because the family truly is of God.

Pumpkin Night

Last night was pumpkin themed! Jessica and I had fun making dinner in a pumpkin (thanks to the recipe on Kelly's blog last year). Cooked pumpkin is surprisingly good! Jessica also made delicious pumpkin bars.

We also had fun carving our pumpkins.

Mine (on the right) is Mr. Meowkins - a cute, but a little bit scary cat. Clark's is a full graveyard scene with a ghost.

The finished products. No one wanted to carve the tumor covered pumpkin in the middle that my mom picked out at the pumpkin patch. It's scary enough!

My Brother - The Artist

At the beginning of the month my parents, brothers, and sister in laws were all able to go to General Conference together. During the session of conference I got a picture texted to me from my brother Weston of something he had drawn during conference.
If you can't read it - it is labeled "E Mon (his nickname for Ethan) Precut."

As you can see it is a lovely picture of Ethan's mulle before we cut it.

Tonight after Ethan's bath I noticed that he is back to looking a whole lot like Weston's artistic portrait of him.

Weston's art skills are impressive. When he was little he felt that his art was a success, and one time even informed an artistic wood carver, that he was just "half an artist." After his rather realistic drawing of Ethan I would now consider him at least 3/4 an artist!

I Like Me!

This is Ethan's FAVORITE book right now! He chooses it several times a day when we read stories. He loves hearing about the pig's wonderful self-esteem.

Today at Wee-Read (the little class we go to at the library once a week) I realized that Ethan has a healthy dose of self-esteem himself. All of the kids got a flannel apple, as the instructor said a poem, one by one she would call a child by name to put their apple on the tree. Ethan had a hard time waiting for his turn, but finally made it. As soon as she said, "Ethan" he ran straight to the flannel board and hung his apple on the tree. Then he proceeded to turn around, face everyone and clap for himself, then with a huge grin on his face he made 3 victory laps stopping in front of all of the parents to clap for himself. When he finally returned to me he was ecstatic!

Then the instructor passed out scarves and turned on a song about an apple tree. The kids were supposed to follow her using their scarves to represent the process of a seed growing into a tree. Well, when Ethan hears music he knows it is just for one thing - dance party! While all of the kids stood around fluttering their scarves in the air, Ethan danced like a maniac wildly waving his scarf and crashing into other kids. He never stopped smiling the whole time.

I don't know what the other parents think about my very confident son, but I just think he is too cute. I love that he has no fear and no inhibitions. I love that he has a healthy dose of self-esteem. I just want to lock him up and protect him from the world so no one can ever put him down!

Who wouldn't like me?

Grammy Tammy's October Visit

This morning was a sad morning. My mom has been here since last Monday night. She has been sleeping in our lovely guest room (the living room on an air mattress). Every morning Ethan would wake up, slide down the stairs like a seal and run for Grammy's bed. He would enjoy his morning milk snuggling with her on the air matress. This morning she had to leave before Ethan woke up. He slid down the stairs and found the bed, but no Grammy. He was crushed! So was I! We had so much fun with my mom here we miss her already! Here are a few highlights from the trip!

WICKED!!!
This summer I stood in line for Wicked tickets and it was totally worth it. The traveling show was just as good as the one I saw in L.A. Clark, my mom and I went with my friend Jessica and her mom. It was fabulous - the music, the costumes, the lights!

We watched the Wizard of Oz the night before we went to get in the mood. Then a friend of mine loaned Ethan a cowardly lion Halloween costume that is so cute...we are going all "OZ" this Halloween.

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

The hayride on the way to the patch.

We brought home some funky pumpkins, I think Clark referred to one as the cancer pumpkin.

Playing in the Kiddie Koral!

This slide was the best. Ethan's first time down he had a look of terror on his face, but loved flying down in his slippery fleece pants. We couldn't get him to stop.

Love my little pumpkin!

A new stuffed animal.

Clark did Ethan's smile just as soon as Ethan stopped. At the World Food Festival.

This little boy absolutely adores his Grammy! We are feeling the distance a little too much after being spoiled to have her with us for so many days.

Thanks for coming and spoiling us! We love you! Only 3 more months!

Yikes Stripes!

Question: What can make me happy on this cold, blustery, rainy day?

Answer 1: Ethan's striped sweater suit still fits from last winter! There is just something about this outfit that makes me laugh - he looks like a Dr. Seuss character when he wears it.

Answer 2: The look of death he gave me when I dressed him in the striped sweater suit!

Answer 3: Ethan dancing in the striped sweater suit! (I messed up on the filming so you will have to turn your computer sideways to watch the video).