Ethan Rocks Our Faces Off

This is Mark by the way - this video is a little older but I thought I would put it up here.

So as an intro for it, in case anyone doesn't know, Ethan is deaf - but he has a cochlear implant so he can hear. One day I figured out how to plug an ipod into Ethan's implant and he LOVED it. Too bad we all can't plug ipods directly into our brain! Anyhow, turns out his favorite song was "Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World. He made us put it on repeat and he listened to it for over an hour straight... soooo we (me and Ethan) made a music video using him and the song.

Oh and the fish tank you can see in the background of the video - we hated those fish but never had the heart to flush them down the toilet. So we gave them away for free (and actually I would have paid someone to take them) on KSL.com. The point of all of this is that it's fine that we got rid of them because they will live on forever in this video - and of course our hearts.

Cousins

Here is Ryan and my sister's baby Starla. Ryan is almost 11 months and Starla is about 5, I think! They weigh about the same. It was so fun to watch them together. I have been having so much fun with Kellie here. I wish Erik could get a job here so they would be here for a while. I keep praying for it to happen, I think I am just being selfish. It would be so fun to live close. Yesterday Emily, Kellie, and I all went to a park and had a picnic during Emily's lunch break. It was so fun. The time just flew by. Kellie is only here for a couple of weeks I call her every morning and make sure we have something planned during the day or night. I just want to spend as much time with her as possible.

First day of Kindergarten

Here is Ethan this morning before Mark took him to school. Ethan is going to mainstream kindergarten AM and then the school for the deaf PM. I am packing his lunch every morning. He will usually take the bus. When Ernist, his bus driver, called and left a message he said he would pick Ethan up every morning at 7:20. I thought I am going to have to take him, that is way too early! Well it turns out that he actually meant 8:20 that is a little better. WE thought Mark would just take him this week since its the first week and Mark works in Orem. He is going that way anyway.

Mark called me after he dropped Ethan off. He said Ethan was excited to go to his class and barely even said good bye. As they were leaving the house Ethan kept asking Mark if he was going to leave him. He really wanted to go all by him self. I guess he is growing up.

My mom always ordered a bunch of balloons on the first day of school. They were red, yellow and blue. In fact my entire neighborhood did. Everyone would tie them outside their house for the first day. And us kids all got our pictures taken by the balloons. I just didn't get it together like my mom did. Hopefully next year. I would love for Ethan to have that same memory. Poor kid. He has the sun right in his eye. We had to take three pictures just to get one with his eyes open.

Going Green

Well I know I am nuts but I thought I would give it a try. Mark keeps telling me not to even bother. My grandma gave me all the fabric about a year ago. I didn't know what to do with what seemed like a million yards of flannel. So I made all these cloth diapers. I was planning on using them on Ryan when he was born but they were so big! They fit him now. Emily asked me if I was using them and I said no. She said you made all of those diapers you might as well use them. I thought she's right. So now I am trying them out. Honestly they really aren't that bad.

KOTM Party

Kids on the move had their annual swim party. We are alumni of KOTM so we were invited. It is so fun. We go every year. We swim at Scera pool and then afterwards they have carnival games and hot dogs. Ethan and Jake got their faces painted like incredible hulk. They were so excited. I just figured out how to get images off my phone onto my computer so I am pretty proud of myself. I am feeling really computer savvy. I forgot to take my camera as usual and so this picture is taken with my phone.

On the home stretch

Here Mark and I are on the last room of our basement. For those of you who don't know, we are finishing our basement. We have hired out everything. We decided to save a little $ and do the painting ourselves. It was a lot of work but we got it all finished last night around 10:30! Mark did most of the painting himself. Last night I decided to set the Olympics aside and help out! We are getting the tile in the bathroom and laundry room on Monday and carpet on Saturday. We can barely wait to double the size of our home!

Matching

When Ethan picked out his shirt today he noticed that we matched. So we had Jake take our picture. This is the best of his shots. The others all had at least one of our heads cut off.