January 11, 2010: Family Home Evening

This week for FHE Matt gave us a great lesson about families. For our treat, he had prepared some gingerbread dough and Ethan got to roll it out and make a gingerbread family. This was a big hit.

Ethan getting excited to help.

Rolling the dough.


Cutting out the gingerbread girls and boys.


Our family.

January 7, 2010: Pastries

On Matt's day off we went out and about and decided to stop at a pastry shop close to our house, Schmidt's Pastry Cottage. They have the most wonderful chocolate covered chocolate doughnuts that I was craving, yum. Ethan got very excited when he saw the cookies and picked one out. Matt took the cute picture of Ethan below enjoying his cookie.

I got my chocolate covered chocolate doughnut, Matt got his baklava and Ethan got his heart (haught, as he says it) cookie.

Christmas 2009

This year we spent Christmas at my parent house. We had a big party on Christmas Eve. Everyone was able to make it, so the house was a little packed, but we all seemed to manage. We had a wonderful dinner and the grand kids burned off some energy afterwards by running up and down the hallway chasing each other until the Nativity began. The end of the game was a little abrupt for Ethan. He was still running up and down the hallway and hiding in my parents closet waiting for someone to find him while everyone else was watching the Nativity.

We were finally able to get him to join in. He didn't want to wear a costume, but still did a great job as a shepherd going to check out the baby Jesus.

Mary (Ava), an Angel (Jacie), Joseph (Curt Ryan) and a donkey (Seth). Joseph is always the one that rides the donkey in our Nativity.

Ethan checking out the baby in the manger.

After the Nativity we opened presents from the family names we drew, grandma and grandpa and the grand kids name drawing. The family presents were so fun this year. It had to be a home made gift. My mom and dad had our name. Ethan received a marble ramp made by my dad. I don't know who was more excited, me or Ethan. My parents also started a new tradition this year where they gave us money, including the grand kids, to use to help others in need. We then wrote a note about what we used the money for and put it in a box. My mom then read the notes and we were able to hear all the great things that were able to be done for others. was such a great blessing to have been able to help others. Thanks mom and dad for giving us this opportunity.

After all the presents were opened and the massive amount of paper was cleared away, everyone went home and we put Ethan to bed. My sister Krista and her husband Taylor also stayed the night at my parents and celebrated Christmas morning with us.

The next morning Ethan was the last one up at about 7:00 a.m. to open presents. Santa definitely found our little one. Ethan did pretty good opening presents. He tuckered out with about two left. He got a Thomas train track and some accessories, a hippo flashlight, a book and a shopping cart to go with the kitchen he received from Matt's parents.

We had breakfast at my parents, let Ethan nap then headed to Matt's parents for dinner before heading home. We had such a wonderful Christmas. I love being able to go up to Cache Valley to spend Christmas with family. Hopefully, we'll be able to continue to do so.

Ethan waiting for everyone to come and open presents. He was much more interested in the new Magnadoodle my parents had gotten the night before then the wrapped gifts.

Ethan with his new hippo flashlight. I didn't realize it made a lovely giggling sound every time you turned it on until we put batteries in it.

Ethan checking out his new shopping cart.

My little guy giving me a great smile in front of our little tree. Merry Christmas everyone!!

December 19, 2009: Brown Family Christmas Party

Ethan and I went up to the Brown Family Christmas Party this year. We haven't been for a few years since its so close to Christmas its hard to make two trips so close together, but I've been missing it so we went.

I thought Ethan would have a great time this year since his cousins, Curt Ryan and Ava would be there to play with. Unfortunately we had a bad start to the evening. Ethan fell asleep on the way over to the party. Since that was the only nap he had that day, my dad and I decided to drive around a bit more to give him some more sleep before the party. I think he must have had a bad dream/night terror since he woke up in the car screaming and crying. We headed back to my aunt's house and I was hoping that seeing everyone would distract him and calm him down. No luck. He was inconsolable for about an hour. After Ethan finally calmed down, he was a little touchy the rest of the evening.

Though we had a bad start, it was still a fun party. My Aunt Karma had made some fabulous candies, Krista brought some cute cherry chocolate mice. We had a great dinner of alfredo and lasagna along with various jellos and salads.

After dinner we played some reindeer games. We split up into three teams. Each team had a pair of nylons and balloons. We had to blow up the balloons and fit four balloons into each legs of the stocking. Then, someone from the team had to but the nylons on their head to become a lovely reindeer.

We also had some Christmas trivia and pictionary games. Even though Ethan had a rough time at the start, sorry everyone, we had fun at the party. I'm glad we came up.

Our fabulous gingerbread house we made while up at grandma's.

Maple Canyon

Matt had a few days off in a row the first week of November, so we decided to get out of town for a quick road trip. We couldn't go very far, Ethan doesn't last that long in a car, besides we only had two days, so our options were limited.

We decided to head to the big ole town of Ephraim and to check out Maple Canyon. I've heard about Maple Canyon and how gorgeous it is, but neither Matt or I have ever been there. We left one night after Matt got home from work and at Ethan's bedtime. It's much easier to travel when he's asleep. Ephraim is only about two hours away so it wasn't a bad drive.

The next morning we woke up and headed to Maple Canyon about 30 minutes away by Moroni. It was a bit chilly since we were exploring in November, but is indeed a beautiful cobblestone canyon. They have quite a bit of climbing and bouldering routes, which of course no one was on since it was so cold.

We found a slot canyon not far up and decided to explore a bit. The ground was mostly rock and there were birds flying everywhere overhead. We started to hear a noise, which at first I just assumed was another bird. However, it was so consistent and then I realized it was more of a growl, from a very large animal!! We decided to quickly end our exploring there and get out of the slot canyon and back to the car. We never did decide if it was a bear or a mountain lion. Either way, we didn't want to keep going to find out. Ethan kept saying "bear" the rest of the time we were in the canyon.

Ethan and I starting up the slot canyon. Before the unidentifiable sound scare.

Once back at the car safe and sound, we headed further up the canyon to find a hike we had seen on a map. It was about a 1.5 mile hike up to a lookout point, passing some more climbing routes. We thought it shouldn't be too bad, only 1.5 miles. What we didn't know it was about 1.5 miles of straight incline, with hundreds of steep steps at the end to get to the lookout point. We were thoroughly exhausted by the top. Ethan was such a trooper though, we sat great in his pack for the whole 2+ hour hike.

Matt and Ethan on the way up.


Me and Ethan taking a break and having water and snacks once we finally reached to top.

Matt and Ethan at the look out. You could see the whole valley.

After Ethan's nap, we headed over to Manti that evening and checked out the Temple at night. It is a beautiful temple. We ate at a cute local pizzeria then back to Ephraim. Since the night was still young and there is not much to do in a hotel room, we hit the local bowling alley/arcade/grill/tanning salon for a round of bowling. The arcade, grill and tanning salon were hopping, but luckily for us, no one else was bowling. Ethan did great for the first few rounds then lost interest. He found the racing game over in the arcade more appealing. Can't compete with a steering wheel.

Bowling at the local Ephraim hangout.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and made a makeshift bath for Ethan in the shower. He had a great time splashing and crawling around.

The next morning we bummed around trying to find more sites to see; not very successful, grabbed some lunch and a malt and headed for home around nap time. Ethan couldn't get enough of the malt. He had to eat it all by himself. The kid was covered with malt. At least he enjoyed it.

Ethan enjoying his malt.

Hopefully we'll be able to get out of town for a quick trip again sometime. We'll definitely have to try Maple Canyon again when its warmer... and there are more people in the slot canyon to scare away any large, lurking animals.

Bird Halloween Party

My mom held her Halloween/Birthday party again this year. I love this new tradition. We all get to dress up and have a fun Halloween dinner and play games. This year Matt and I (okay, I made Matt agree) decided to be Ghostbusters and Ethan was Slimer. Let me just give a big "Thanks" to my mom who made the body of the Slimer costume and helped me figure out his hat. Though he ended up looking more like a green pepper from "Veggie Tales," I think everyone got who he was supposed to be.

My brother Kirk dressed up using tattoo sleeves, his wife Heather was a nurse, Seth was a rapper, Dakota a groovy gal and Hannah and Jacie were witches. Justin, Shelly and Ava were the Scooby Doo gang. Justin was Shaggy, Shelly Velma and Ava was a course a cute Scooby Doo.

Jaime came as a fabulous Cruella Deville, Phil a cowboy, Curt Ryan a pumpkin and little Caycee a pink leopard.

Krista, Taylor and Trigger were Little Bo-Peep, Little Boy Blue and a sheep. Check out Krista's blog, House of Payne if you want to see costume pictures.

For dinner we had wonderful onion rings, monster toes (homemade corn dogs), a barf salad (pistachio salad), a graveyard dip and ghoulish punch.

After dinner my parents gave each family a big pumpkin they had grown in their patch to carve. Then the carnival games began. We had bobbing for apples, bean bag toss, a straw blowing contest, and my favorite, the donut eating contest. Ethan was so cute he loved the doughnut contest. I was surprised he got it. He would lay down on the ground with Curt Ryan and Ava to eat his doughnut. He quickly figured out that wasn't going to work then got up and grabbed his doughnut.




Afterwards, my parents had set up a spook alley in the basement for the little kids. Complete with strobe lights, scary sounds, skeletons, spiders, mist and black lights. Ethan loved it and wanted to keep going through again and again.


Thanks Krista and Mom for taking pictures. Our camera is not working.

September 2009: Laura's Visit

The last week of September, Matt's sister Laura and her family came to Utah for a visit. They stayed in Salt Lake for a few days before heading up to Logan so Ethan got to hang out with his cousins from Arizona.

The first day we hung out with Laura and her family, we went to the zoo. It was so fun to go again and see all the baby animals, the giraffe, tigers and snow leopards. Unfortunately the baby elephant wasn't out yet.


The next day we went to the Discovery Gateway children's museum. Out of all the exhibits Ethan loved the beehive ball center and of course the cars.

This car is especially cool since it has two wheels to turn.

The last day we hung out Brian, Laura and the girls were on their way up to Logan and stopped at the Dinosaur park in Ogden. Matt and I have been meaning to check it out, but had never gotten around to it yet. Ethan was still a little young to full enjoy it, but he still had a great time. I thought it was a great museum. Especially the outside dinosaur displays. It was great to just let the kids run around and not have to worry about them breaking them. The museum was decorating for their October spook alley, so there were little skeleton men and Halloween figure everywhere. It looks like it would be a cool haunted forest to check out.


It was so great to see Laura and her family and for Ethan to play with Bailee and Eli. I think he was only 9 months old the last time we saw them. Thanks Laura for letting us tag along.