Brenna's Baptism

We are thankful to our family for being so organized to have Brenna's baptism and confirmation, Riley's Aaronic Priesthood ordination (and passing the Sacrament for the first time) as well as Amelie's and Maya's baby blessings all in one weekend. All are events we wouldn't want to miss, but driving over to Spokane that many times would sure wear us out! We are so happy for all of you. These pictures are from Brenna's baptism. Also, I would like to publicly thank Pete, for helping me to keep Ethan under control during the baptism. Ethan generally ignores me, but listens well to 'big guys'.

Par-tay!

So we've been to a few little toddler parties recently - which are always a blast. I enjoy visiting with other moms while giving Ethan a chance to get out and practice his caveman-like social skills.The first two pictures are from a community Easter Egg Hunt that also had giant inflatable toys. Jeff and I have come to love anything that helps Ethan wear out all his energy. Do they sell giant gerbil wheels for toddlers? Anyway, here are a few pics.

























At this birthday party for a nursery friend, one of the main events was an Elmo Pinata. A few of the kids were hesitant at first to hit Elmo; they stood around looking confused. Ethan warmed up to the idea quickly, though, and gave a few good blows to the good ol' Sesame Street friend. He even fled the scene, and came back with a garden stake and attempted to spear Elmo. That's my boy.

The Fire Station

For a friend's birthday party, Ethan got to take a tour of a fire station and of, course, a fire engine. The firemen who gave the tour were probably a little more used to giving tours to school aged children, not two-year-olds who try to lick the tires and push buttons. Ethan loved climbing in a real fire truck. While we were there, an emergency call came in and we saw the firemen put on their gear, hop on the fire truck and take off, sirens and all. When I took the group picture, I said, "Smile!" The funny part was, Ethan was so excited about wearing a fireman hat and standing next to a fireman, Ethan couldn't take his eyes off him and just smiled at him - up close! The fireman obviously thought it was pretty funny, so when I snapped the next picture, he was looking at Ethan smiling at me. Finally I got everyone to look at me in the third picture. Incidentally, we didn't get to see firemen slide down a fire pole; they didn't have one. If they did, I'm sure all of the moms would have asked if we could slide down it.

Space Needle Pictures

Jeff and I met on 02/02/02, so every year, we do something fun on Feb 2nd. This year, we went to the Space Needle and afterwards had lunch at a Greek restaurant. Ethan had a lot of fun at the "pace needle" and continues to talk about it. I had plenty of warm snuggle time with Sienna in the carrier.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Well, here's the explanation in less than 1,000 words. We had already taken quite a few pictures and Sienna was getting squirmy. Ethan already sat through two hours of our LDS Stake Conference, and wanted to expend all of his couped up energy. Jeff had been chasing him around trying to get him to be still for only a few seconds to take a picture, but Ethan has having way too much fun throwing rocks. Jeff finally caught him, and the camera took the picture, Ethan still clutching his rock and Jeff looking somewhat frustrated. Well, another realistic family photo.

Sienna's Photoshoot

So, I realized the past three posts are only pictures of Ethan - we do take pictures of Sienna too - we promise! Here are a few of our little angel.

This picture made Jeff and I laugh because we first thought it was a perfect picture until we saw Sienna's scrunched up face and a big blob of spit running down my arm. Well, it was realistic anyway.

She is such a dream of a baby. She is so content and has such a peaceful, happy disposition. She is such a blessing in our family. I can't seem to get enough of her. I can't even seem to get frustrated with her, even when she wakes up in the middle of the night (which she often does). I'm just so happy to hold her in my arms and just love her. I look at Ethan and realize how fast these kids grow up and I just want to soak up Sienna's time as a baby and enjoy them while they are here.
This is a picture of Ethan singing "I am a Child of God" to Sienna - she is obviously enjoying big brother's attention.























Peaches? Not so much.

Ethan goes GQ

One Sunday morning, Ethan was dressed up and acting strangely cooperative, so we took a few pictures of our handsome little dude. By the way, yes, that is gift wrapping ribbon around his neck. He really wanted to wear a tie (just like daddy) and that was the best we could do. He seemed to like it, although in case you're wondering, we didn't let him wear it to church.

Incidentally, he's become quite a little flirt. I think he enjoys my calling with the YW more than I do. Every week he's surrounded by a bunch of teenage girls who shower him with hugs, kisses and candy. He recently kissed a little 3 year old girl in our ward right on the lips.

Bubble Bath

What kid doesn't love a bubble bath? Ethan's no exception. Here are a few snap shots from Ethan's fun in the suds.

Christmas Morning

This was such a fun Christmas with Ethan. He's 2 and a half, so he is old enough to look forward to opening presents and some of the other things that make Christmas special. We had so much fun picking out a few presents for him. We bought him a mat that rolls out on the floor that is a big picture of a city which he can drive his cars on. We also got him a basketball hoop for his room. We try to stay away from huge toys, but we broke our own rule when we imagined how much fun Ethan would have with it. As you can tell from the picture, he was pretty happy about it.

What made us even happier, was how much he enjoyed playing with a nativity set my parents got for him last year. He carefully set it up and brought each of the figurines forward to see "baby Jesus in the manger." We read the scriptures with him on Christmas Day and helped him act out the Nativity story. He continued playing with it everyday until we packed it up with the Christmas stuff. I honestly believe that there are few greater joys in life than seeing your children learn the gospel. A few months ago, Ethan and I were playing and looked up at me and clearly said, "Jesus loves me." Surprised, I said "That's right, Ethan! Jesus loves you!" We have a few gospel related books for young children which we read to him often and I sometimes wonder how much of it sinks in. I guess more than I realize. He sometimes sings "I am a Child of God" and other Primary hymns to Sienna, and he can pray on his own. In one prayer, he asked Heavenly Father to bless his stuffed animal "snake". Okay, I realize I could go on and on about how wonderful I think Ethan is. Anyway, all of us had a great Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We spent a wonderful Christmas Eve with the Horsley's. We always love getting together with them and Ethan especially did this time. He particularly chased Issac around a lot, and Issac, in turn tickled him! It's so much fun seeing the cousins enjoy each other. We also we able to show off our darling Sienna. All of the boys enjoyed holding her (except for Austin - but he certainly made a really cute scrunched up face while he was sitting next to her). We think she liked her first Christmas (I gave her some fudge - don't tell!).

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas - Toddler Style

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. This was very special for us for a number of reasons. First, Ethan is old enough to understand a little more about Christmas, baby Jesus in a manger, opening presents on Christmas morning, and of course, Santa. Second, this is Sienna's first Christmas, and she is truly an angel. Third, Jeff had a wonderful two weeks off work - I was in heaven!

Ethan was very excited to help decorate the tree, so we opened up the box of tree trimmings and let him have at it (supervised of course). He carefully and painstakingly grouped a majority of the red balls on one spot on the tree (we later redistributed them). I love how his little mind works.

Sienna Starts Solid Foods

Well, we have some catching up to do...we admit it, we've been lame bloggers, but we have some really great pictures to make up for it! We started Sienna on solid foods on December 3rd, 2007, her 4 month birthday. She was one hungry little lady. Ethan was eager to help (as if feeding a baby wasn't already messy enough). He is balancing the lens cap on her head. In case you're wondering what is on the high chair tray, it's Play-Doh. But don't worry, we weren't feeding it to Sienna; Ethan is the Play-Doh eater in the house.

FeedReader

I'm going to go out on a limb here and deviate a bit from the usual posting of kiddy pictures and talk of kisses, etc. I'm going to do something even more manly than this...yes, I'm going to comment on a handy piece of technology.

So, I've been using FeedReader to keep track of all some of my favorite blogs. I realize this (or similar apps) may not be news to you. But, if you're saying, "huh...reader what?", then read on. Here's a screenprint:


It's basically a little application that allows you to put links to all your favorite blogs in one place (see the left pane in the screenprint), and to organize them into folders (I have my business news blogs in a separate folder from my family and friends blogs). When a blog title is bolded, that means there's a new post. The FeedReader will show all the posts for the blog (see top center). Clicking on the posting title will bring up the blog in the lower window.

If you want to visit the blog in your web browser, you just click on the button. But, here's the best feature of all in my opinion. . .when there's a new blog post available for any of the blogs you subscribe to, you have a little cube in the bottom right of your desktop screen that turns yellow! It's amazing...I don't have to spend time clicking around different blogs to see if there is a new post. You might do that for a month to catch a post on our blog. I just wait for the little cube to light up, and I can instantly go see what's new with friends and family.


Now, a question: FeedReader is pretty plain and simple, and free. Does anyone use a different reader that you really like. If so, comment on this blog and let me know...

Alright, back to the fluffy stuff...

Hello again! Sorry for the delay...

Our last post was a month ago...I think we can all pretty much agree: Jeff and Julie are lame bloggers! Or, is the lack of posts simply because "we're too busy kissing?" (when we were first married, this was our answering machine message).

Well, you know. When we were first married, we really were too busy kissing. Now though, our blog time is down simply due to work and keeping the kids happy. OK, I'll come clean -- some kissing too.

Anyway, on to the good stuff:

NEW NIKON D80:
Yesterday, we finally received our new digital SLR camera, and we're very excited to figure out what we're doing with it -- no clue at the moment. We both think we'll enjoy learning about photography together, so we made the jump (i.e., fairly large investment) and got some decent equipment. Hoping it sticks as a hobby.

We think it's a good thing (here I go, justifying this purchase -- minor guilt complex) that we always have a hobby of some kind together, or that we're building a skill, or learning a subject that we both find useful and/or interesting. When we were back at BYU, we signed up for pistol shooting instructions at a local gun range. Our instructor, Ken, helped us understand the ins and outs of handgun safety, maintenance, and shooting. We had the opportunity to shoot several calibers and many types of pistols. After this, we went through an NRA-sponsored marksmanship course, and we both attained a level of proficiency in shooting that we're really proud of.

That experience taught us that it's good to have something that we can accomplish together; something that neither of us was really familiar with. So, now we're trying out photography (a different kind of "shooting" activity).


Here are a few shots we took today -- nothing fancy, just "Auto" mode at this point:

That is one happy girl...both of them!

Sienna looks somewhat happy here, but really
she does not like being on her tummy.



...she does like to be on her back though...
...as long as you're in her face.



Ethan being a good big brother... giving a kiss. Sienna
was just crying before this picture, so we gave her a
pacifier, and Ethan said, "You just need calm down." It was awesome!

SNOW IN SEATTLE:
Last night, it snowed several inches where we live. Ethan and I (Jeff) wasted no time -- the snow comes and goes very fast in Seattle. We put daddy's snow hat on him, and mommy's gloves (we haven't bought him snow gear yet), and out we went. Ethan was really captivated by all the little branches and bushes being covered in snow.

Here's Ethan's first 'snowman' -- not quite large enough to give Ethan bad dreams at night:

And now, it's nigh-nigh time...