Epilogue

Yesterday I wrote about the life of the intrigue. Here is the next chapter: on Monday, November 24th, a man named Jesus bought the intrigue. On Wednesday, November 26th, the Intrigue was hit head on and totaled (no one was injured). Jesus called today to tell us the news. RIP old friend!
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Ode to the Intrigue

Yesterday we sold the Intrigue! My parents bought us this car after our freshman year of college, and Lisa and I shared it until we got married, at which time, I took it. There are SO many big memories associated with this car, so I thought I'd share a bit of my reminiscing. For those of you who had not so flattering pictures taken in this car, sorry! :) In the summer of 03, shortly after purchasing the car, I drove to Nauvoo to meet two of my freshman FHE brothers for the day:

The same summer, my best friend from HS, Celine, and I drove to St. Louis to visit Chris, another one of my best friends from HS, at Washington University.

On the way back we got a flat tire. Some kinda scary guys stopped and put the spare on for us. We met Celine's dad at the state fair where he had just bought this new truck. We drove back to Harrisonville with me going slowly on the donut, Celine in this truck, her dad in their trailer, and her mom in their other truck. We were quite the caravan.

My mom and I drove the car out to BYU at the end of the summer. In Wyoming I got a speeding ticket, we had to sit on the freeway for awhile waiting for a shooter to be cleared, and we broke down when my fan belt broke.

At BYU, the Intrigue became our roadtrip car. It was roomy, reliable, and got 30 mpg! Here is a trip we took to Manti.

We also stopped in Orangeville, Cadence's home town.

This is actually in the car. Sorry it's not the best shot ladies, but I have worse. :)

Not pictured are a few trips to AZ. The Intrigue and I actually lived in AZ for a few months with the Leathams. For some reason I can't seem to find many pictures of that summer, but here is one random one. How many of you can say you've done that? : )

Back in UT that summer, Lisa and I drove to Bear Lake for our traditional family reunion. It was a very long drive as we got quite lost. Here are all my aunts and uncles and my grandma on my dad's side:

And a group of cousins (Lisa had just gotten back from Kenya, hence the braids).

Mike and I met that summer and in the fall started dating. Here are pictures of a road trip we took to San Fransisco. We got a flat tire and Mike had to change it in the dark and rain.

Conference with the roomies and Mike:

The Intrigue had a few months with just Lisa while I was in New Zealand. After getting back, Adam, Jessie, Leslie, Kassie, Mike, and I took a trip down to AZ:

Sorry again guys, but here is a picture in the car. :)

Later that summer Mike and I drove to CA to visit Grammy and Art (my grandparents). This is at Big Tree National Forest.

Which is where Mike proposed! A total surprise to me, but not many others. Actually, Lisa almost ruined the surprise when on the way out I called her and said, "Guess what?!?" She almost answered, "You're engaged," thought better of it, and just anwered, "what?" We had gotten a flat tire (seeing a pattern in the tire situation?) and I was just calling to tell her about it. Whew, that was a close one.

Grammy also took us to Columbia and got this picture taken of us.

The December after we got married we went on a cruise for our Honeymoon. We stayed with Mike's sister Rachelle before we left: The next summer the Intrigue made a last minute trip out to Mississippi so that I could interview for a job. I got a job, left the car there, and we flew back to Utah. A week later I flew back and started work in Mississippi. Not much of that year was chronicled, but those of you who know me know I won't be forgetting it anytime soon. :)

For Christmas that year we drove the Intrigue to my mom's in Missouri. There we got to see my brother and sister and adorable nephew James:

At the end of March we moved to AZ. Here is the house we bought a few weeks after that. That tree is HUGE now compared to that picture, and Mike keeps the grass much nicer. :)

Well, this is the end of the journey with the Intrigue. Farewell friend!

Built in pacifier

These are his car seat strap covers if you can't tell.
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6

Ethan shows what we are all feeling after BYU lost the Holy War by a matter of 6 turnovers.
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Advice

Next week Ethan will go on his first big trip! We're going to Detroit for Thanksgiving! We are SO excited to see my Dad and step-mom, Dianne, all my siblings, and my nephew and brand new niece--you can expect lots of pictures!

Anyway, we are flying and will be there Wednesday through Sunday. For any of you who have done this before--please give me ideas of what to bring and how to be prepared so that I don't make too many first-timer mistakes!

Stop Growing!

Ethan is growing quite a bit, and I'm not ready for him to not be a newborn yet! His sleeping has been the same the past few weeks, so really the only benefits of him getting older and bigger are that he smiles more and holds his head up by himself. I wish he could stay so little and cuddly, although I look forward to so many things about him getting bigger too! The first two weeks of Ethan's life I wondered how anyone ever had a second baby because it was so hard having a newborn, but now I understand--he is SO fun!

Here are some more pictures of our little cutey! He is wearing pretty much the same thing in every picture--once I get the camera out, I just can't stop taking pictures of him. Plus, this onesie from my "sister-in-law" Nicole is adorable!




Check out this chin!


Aww...he falls asleep like this on his own. (like the spit up down my shirt?)

You can see that Ethan has been struggling with baby acne.
I LOVE this face! At Fry's (grocery store) they have a sidewalk thick strip of concrete running parallel to the front of the store that is red and textured like the top of a Lego. Going over it in the cart always startles Ethan. Yesterday, as I went over it, he just cracked me up, so I got the camera out and we went back over it again so I could get this shot:
My mom's birthday was yesterday, so we picked her up at work and took her to lunch. I know these two are going to be good buds! He is lucky to have such a loving grandma so close by! Happy birthday again Mom; we love you!
Look how much room he takes up in it now!
Note: I have no idea why two of these pictures are turned sideways...but I don't want to spend the time to figure out how to fix them.

Catch up

There are quite a few things I've been wanting to write about and just haven't gotten around to, so this post will be somewhat random to catch most of them.

First, we have passed Ethan's 1 month birthday! He was 5 weeks yesterday! He now stays straight in his car seat and even went on a walk sitting up in the stroller. He is getting very good at lifting his head! He is also very good at sleeping at night! He typically sleeps for 5 hours, gets up to eat for about an hour and a half and then sleeps for another 3-4 hours. He is also very good at loudly passing gas from both ends. : ). He is very good at making us laugh and does an awesome impression of Count Count from Sesame Street when he sucks on his pacifier. He can also lift his weight with his legs as you can see in the picture of him on my lap-my hand is under him, but I'm not actually holding him.

Ethan thinks his dad is very entertaining and is starting to smile at us! It is totally worth making fools of ourselves when he flashes one of his big dimpled smiles! We have also decided he is going to be a little dare devil because he already loves being tossed around (more like bounced cause Mike doesn't actually let go).
We love having this new little member of our family!
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Mad face

I thought I should post a picture of Ethan's sad face too. Actually, this is when he is REALLY upset (hungry). He is also capble of the little pouty adorable face already too. I will try to capture that later.
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Muffins!

When Mike's mom was here she made me some yummy muffins. I loved having a quick snack when I would get up at night to feed Ethan (I was always hungry too). Today I got a package in the mail and was thrilled to find a bag full of homemade muffins! Who could ask for a better mother-in-law?
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Picture Highlights

I finally put the pictures from my camera on the computer. There were 113, so here are the highlights.

Isn't he adorable? This is the quilt my mom made for him. I love that it is cold enough to snuggle up in warm blankets and outfits.

I love his little feet!

Ethan went to church for the first time yesterday. I love this little outfit my mom found for church.

Sitting in Mom's lap:

He always tries to get his arms up while he is swaddled, which often results in his arms coming up out of his sleeves.

Ethan wore his cousin James' Halloween costume. It was quite a bit too big, but still cute. We went to a friend's house to hang out for the evening. It was great to get out and see other adults and talk about babies with other new parents.

So many cute poses as he sleeps.

I love this little outfit!

Aww! Mike is an awesome daddy!!!

Like I said, so many funny poses while he sleeps.

And again...

He loves his hands!

I haven't figured out what this face means yet, but it cracks me up!

Kiwi found the container we use to dry all of our bottle stuff--now we have two little guys to make us laugh all day. Kiwi is like twice as big as Ethan though!