the sweetest and the best

I've been posting all my pictures straight to facebook since I joined up a week or so ago.  It's so easy to upload photos from my phone camera to facebook and it takes so long to post them to the blog.  When I get the big camera out, I'll post those photos here. For now, I'll just post all the funny/fun things the kids are doing.

Ethan - Something's hurting me. I need some medicine!
Me - Where is it hurting?
Ethan - Um...I'm sick! I need some medicine!

Ethan - (calling down the stairs) Are you doing ok?
Me - Yep, I'm just taking stuff down to the basement to clean up the house.
Ethan - Oh...so that Amy and Jamison can come in the house!

Ethan - Ow! Something's hurting me in my tummy! Maybe it's a hiccup.

Ethan (after a loud high pitched shriek) - What was that!? It was me?

Ethan -  My ears itch! I need Ear-tips!

Recently Brett and I were talking about something.  We weren't arguing, but the conversation was a bit excited.  Ethan ran up between us with a picture of Jesus and yelled, "I LOVE JESUS!"

(I've been noticing Ethan's reaction to other people more often lately.  He is very sensitive to what is going on around him.  I'm realizing that I need to be so careful with my emotions and what I say around him, because it affects him so much.)

Whenever Ethan sees his reflection or his shadow lately, he comments "My hair looks funny like Daddy's!"

He's grown several inches taller in the last month or so.  It's funny to see him running around in his too short pants.

I sing songs to the babies before bed at night.  It feels like neither of them are listening, because they both like to read books while I sing.  But recently I wasn't paying attention to the songs and I sang one wrong word.  Ethan was labeling pictures in his animal book but surprised me by correcting me, without taking his eyes off his book and barely missing a beat in his naming of the animals.  Sweet little bossy multitasker.

Rayen pushes out her tummy when I put a clean diaper on her.  She reminds me of a horse puffing out it's stomach before one tightens the saddle straps. She doesn't want a too tight diaper, I guess!

Rayen has wanted to cuddle sleep the last few nights again.  She cries piteously when I put her in her bed, but as soon as I pick her up she snuggles down on my shoulder and falls asleep instantly.  I notice she tends to be more clingy when I have plans for after she's in bed.  She senses that I'm not focused on bedtime, I'm thinking about what I'm going to do next.  She senses it even if she's asleep, as well.  Once I was nursing her for a nap.  She was done eating and had fallen asleep.  I was shifting my weight to stand up and put her in her bed and she reached up her little hand and grabbed onto my shirt in a death grip. 

I close the gate at the top of the stairs after the bath, so that Rayen won't fall down the stairs.  Recently she was standing next to the gate, banging on it.  Ethan was at the sink brushing his teeth.  He turned out to her and yelled, "Rayen, NO!"  She turned around to look at him and giggled, rattling the gate again. 

Rayen came over to Ethan and sat right next to him, leaning on him to look at his toys.  He said, "I love you too, Rayen. And I love Amy. And I love Johhun and Colette and Rob!"

Happy Birthday to me!

I turned 30 on Sunday.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet Rob and Johnathan for a birthday picnic in the park. Sunday we went to the Kocherhans' for a dual party for me and Anabelle. Last Friday night we went down to Mom's house and had a party with Amy, Jamison, and Grandma Gene.




I'm excited about this new chapter in my life. Brett and I have both worked really hard to get to the place we are today. We're a good team. I am happy.

make-up photos

You can take the momma out of the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out of her genetics, right? (He dressed himself that day.)
I came home from work one morning and noticed that Ethan had gotten a tattoo just like Daddy's. Hmmm.



She loves dirt. I sat her down for just one minute and she looked like this.


Aunt Christine got Rayen these cute sunglasses.


We had a bbq with the Sinners and the Burkharts on Sunday.
The 3 "big" kids: Lucas (16 months), Blythe (almost 3), and Ethan (2 and a half).
Ethan had been playing in the same dirt Rayen got into (see earlier photos). I think I'm going to get one of those covered sandboxes. So they will at least look clean after they play (I'm sure there's all kinds of nastiness in that dirt that I'm trying not to think about, too.)


As we were eating dessert, the wind started up and knocked a giant branch out of our trees. It landed right on top of us! The pictures show the branch after we rolled it off of the blankets (and people). Thankfully no one was hurt, just a few scrapes. And my delicious chocolate cake was ruined. But we're grateful the cake was the only casualty. Especially with the little babies around! Rayen was inside napping, and little Norah (Jackie's new baby was born Sept 1) was inside her carseat behind Jackie. Blythe was the only kid under the branch and she got a few scrapes, but nothing serious.


Ethan has been learning his letters like crazy! There are only a few he doesn't recognize now. And, he's started figuring out what sounds the letters make. We play a "what words start with..." game. When ever he sees a letter, we list off all the words we can think of that start with that letter. And he's starting to come up with his own! Normally he just recites the words that I've already told him, but yesterday he said "dinner" and "Duke" start with D.

storytime

Ethan: I want to go to the kitty store! (Petsmart)
Brett: We're going home to our house, where our kitties are.
Ethan: No, they're not at home! They're at the kitty store.
Brett: Oh? What are they doing there?
Ethan: Looking at the frogs. And looking at the fish. They drove there in our van.

brett's new band's video

Brett's playing in a new band called What You Destroy. They are having a CD release this Friday at 5 Monkeys (4800 S, between State and Main St in Murray). Here's their facebook page.

beautiful girl (and Daddy)

An update: They still aren't "guaranteeing" me any hours, but they now say that during the summer when there isn't enough interpreting work, I will be paid for going to professional development workshops, mentoring educational interpreters, etc. That's guaranteed enough for me! I was talking to Brett about it today after I got this news and he said, "Those other interpreters are lucky to have you on their side. When your job did this whole thing, I thought, 'oh they've gotten her started!'" Ha.

wordy updates

I had some videos to share, but it seems that blogger won't accept them because they are from my phone. So we'll just do an update.

I feel like I've been working a lot lately. It's been really hard to be away from my babies. But, we do what we have to, right? At least I enjoy what I do. The Powers That Be decided to cut my pay and my guaranteed hours as a staff interpreter, so Brett and I have been trying to decide what to do now. The other staff interpreter and I wrote a memo back to negotiate a reasonable compromise. If they accept our proposal, it will actually be better for me. But we'll see what happens. We have a meeting on Wednesday, hopefully they will have decided what to do by then.

Brett has been doing a lot of music lately. He's joined a couple more bands and is out a lot jamming and bringing the awesome to everything he touches. Now, if only we could figure out how he can earn money doing that. -sigh- He's still mostly staying home with the babes, being the Best Dad Ever. But, because of my tenuous job situation, he's looking for work also.

Ethan is talking talking talking! He's starting to use "I" and "me" about half the time now, instead of only talking in the 3rd person. He's always telling stories about the things he's done or would like to do. He's sweet to Ellie and is learning how to gently put her binkie in her mouth and hand her toys when she drops them. He's running and jumping and swimming and getting so dirty every day!

Rayen is a mover! She's rolled over once, but mostly she scoots around kicking and rolling. She's using her hands a lot now, trying to shove everything she can reach into her giant mouth. She laughs and smiles all the time.

I love my sweet little family.

We spent a weekend in October down at Brett's parents' St George house. It was a lot of fun. (I do realize it's December now. I just haven't been taking pictures!)

We got Ethan some cute new jammies. He's so handsome! And big!
I asked him to smile for the camera and I got this. Funny boy. His camera smile has gotten more interesting over the past couple months. I'll have to post one of the latest ones.
They have cable at the house, including the Speed Channel, so we all watched the MotoGP races that weekend. If you look closely, you can see that they each have a little toy motorcycle clutched in their hands. Ethan is eating cereal, hence the funny face. But he sat there and watched the whole race!

birthday racing

Brett's birthday, Memorial weekend, and World Superbike all happened at the same time again this year. Ethan and I got to participate a bit more this time. Ethan was a little more interested in the parade (notice the miniature Ducati in his hands)...
...than he was last year. (So tiny and so cute!)
Friday night we went to the festivities at Gateway. Here is Max Biaggi (the racer that ended up winning the weekend) telling Brett to make sure Ethan has earplugs when we bring him to the track.



Brett was at the racetrack Saturday and Sunday, but Ethan and I only went out for race day on Monday. He's learned to love sitting on motorcycles this week. Can you see his race face? It's serious business.




We had tons of moto-fun! And although Brett and I got quite sunburned, I am proud to say Ethan didn't at all!

how we rock

We had a super cool jam session while Jackie, Joel, and Blythe were here.



This one features the babies. Blythe has a little stage accident at the end, but don't mention it to her...she's still pretty embarrassed.



I love this one because Ethan totally gets into it with a rockin' vocal solo.

a video and some pictures!

I've been procrastinating posting any pictures, because I've felt like I need to put up everything since I last posted. Ha. I'm just going to post a few recent pictures now and then one day when I'm feeling very productive I'll post the very cutest pictures taken during my blogging break.

I'm promising pictures in return for a favor. Please go to this website and watch Brett being famous in his band's new video release! It is so very awesome. Each time I watch it, I like it better! So please go watch the video and then tell all your friends to go watch it too!

And now that you have done that, here is my beautiful baby!




I can't believe I'm such a slacker. I haven't really taken many pictures since Christmas! Yikes, it's time to start snapping again.

a growler and 2 rockers

massive photo overload!