Bedtime

He must have all the trains AND his bottle as I put his jammies on! At least all I have to do is give him a ten second warning and count down and he will happily say "bye bye" to his trains and go to bed.
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Ethan's Perspective

Ethan has been having so much fun in Utah. He gets to see Daddy everyday! He also gets to play with lots of cousins! Ricky, Riley, and Josh have been especially great buds this trip! Ethan also loves his grandma. His words are currently very repetitive, so Daddy is: dad-dad-daddy and mom is: mom-mom-mommy (which he now calls when he wakes up instead of crying-adorable!). One night he even said "bye bye gra-mamama.". But mostly he just signs grandma.

Surprisingly, Ethan hasn't gotten in the way of all our work. He has been sleeping well at night and taking two long naps everyday. When he is awake he plays with Daddy's old train set and/or watches his train cartoon. Today while we were loading the truck he spent hours playing with his trucks and trains in one flower bed; it was awesome.

All this playing hasn't kept him from learning how to move though. Mike was moving drawers yesterday so Ethan went over and started moving them a few feet over. He'd pick each one up, grunt, and line it up with the others. Then Mike assembled a box, and while it was still empty, Ethan pulled it to the door and said "bye bye" as he tried to open the front door.

3 more days of beautiful weather and scenery (great for my half marathon training) and fun times with family and friends, and we'll be on our way back to AZ...

Since I'm posting from my phone, I couldn't rearrange the photos, sorry.
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Non-fiction

We have been in Utah since Friday packing, packing, and packing! Mike's mom is moving out of the house their family of 10 has been in for 35 years. After at least 7 tons of garbage, who knows how many truck loads to DI, the claims of all 8 children, one 26 ft. Uhaul, and a pick up bed full of stuff, I am laying in a pretty much empty, close to 4000 sq ft house all by myself. After all the recent chaos of moving, I'm trying to soak in the quiet.

I think rather than clean late into the night, I'm going to read. This makes me realize that I am behind on reporting my non fiction. I wanted to read a book about Al Capone, but the one I wanted wasn't at the library. I quickly chose another and placed it on hold not realizing it was a Juvenile book. So, it was short and not terribly detailed. So, it probably shouldn't count toward my one/month non fiction goal.

I think I will still call July a success though because I listened to a non fiction audio book. That is kind of cheating in my mind because I didn't actually read it, but two "if-y" books will combine to meet the goal of one I guess. Anyway, the book I listened to was called Man Hunt (I believe) and was about the 12 day manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. I love history, especially American history, so I really enjoyed it. It was told as a narrative and had quotes from a variety of original sources. Some of the most interesting things I learned were: the assassination of Lincoln was actually one part of a big scheme including the attempted/planned assassination of the Vice President and Secretary of State; originally Booth just wanted to kidnap Lincoln (he had been conspiring for quite some time); and Booth's escape was slowed quite a bit because the first time he finally reached the river that would take him to the South, he rowed the wrong way, back towards DC-smooth!

This month I will be making up for my shortcomings in July by reading The Great Bridge, a 562 page book about the Brooklyn Bridge. I've been looking forward to this one for months! I need to get reading now that I have some quiet time if I hope to get this done in a month.
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Soaking it In

We are having a great time packing and being with family in Utah this week. At the moment I am soaking in the cuddle time I am getting with Ethan. He is actually laying with me to watch a movie. I know cuddling time with him will continue decrease as he gets older, so I'm enjoying every minute of it.
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Photo Shoot

My sister has started her own photography business, so while she was out, Ethan had his first professional pictures taken! They were taken at the park at the base of South Mountain, so they will always be very reminiscent of our Arizona home. Check them out here, they're adorable! I think a change to my header is on its way once I get these files on CD!

3 Days

Ethan hasn't seen Mike in 3 days. I try not to say "daddy" because it makes him too sad, well excited and then disappointed. He's changed a lot in those three days already. He said "night night" Friday night, says "bye bye" instead of "dye dye" and will now answer questions with "no" instead of always "mmm-hmmm". He also has started using more than one word/sign together to say things like "bye bye Nana Papa" or "more milk". Lately we have been singing a song about opposites, so he signs "opposite" frequently to request it. Today I sang the chorus and then sang, "when I say hot, you say..." and he signed cold. I sang, "when I say happy..." And he signed sad. What a smarty!

We have so much to show Daddy when we all get home tomorrow!
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The Stars Aligned

Last Sunday I decided to come out to LA with my mom for my grandpa's memorial service (thanks to Lisa, Wendy, Jessica, and Careign for covering for me in Primary). Then I noticed my step mom's Facebook posts about being in CA, so I crossed my fingers and asked if they were going to be in LA. And somehow, we found a few hour window of availability when we would only be 40 minutes away! So Ethan and I got to have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Jeppson and Great Grandparents Ruth and Dave! These pictures are of Ethan playing with Dad and Dianne in the hotel lobby. Ethan climbed up and sat next to his Grandpa all by himself and really enjoyed some games of chase and peekaboo with Grandpa outside. I wish we could have made it tomorrow to see my cousin perform in a play and meet up with my aunt and uncle, but I am so excited I at least got to see Dad and Dianne. Thanks again for taking the time to hang out with me and crazy sleep-deprived Ethan!
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Turtle

We are at the Children's Museum with a few friends today. This backpack is awesome for such outings because (1) it's adorable-we get so many comments about it (2) he loves wearing it (3) he can carry his own diapers and snacks and (4) it has a leash if I feel the need to use it.

Thanks Joe and Lauren!
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In Memory of Grandpa Jack

Here's the slide show I put together this week for Grandpa's memorial service this weekend.

June

I think I may have missed blogging about quite a few things, so here are a few random pictures from June.

While my siblings were in town we drove out to LA to see my Grandpa who lost his fight with cancer about a week later.

This just might be my new favorite picture of Ethan, thanks Lisa!


Local splashpad:



Over Memorial Day we drove to St. George to look at houses with Mike's mom. We had a really fun time and are excited for her to live closer!

On the drive:



At the St. George temple:

This bridge is AMAZING! We waited for 2 hours to get by the dam, so it will be nice when the bridge is completed.

Equation for an Obsession

Learning to sign "train" from Baby Signing Time
+
Playing with a toy train at our friends' 4th of July BBQ
+
Learning to say "choo choo"
+
Finding the Geotrax dvd that came with one of his toys (during all that organizing)
=
Ethan is now in love with trains.

Today at the library he found a book with a train on the cover, but it was actually a book about toys, not trains. So, I found him this book about trains. He was very excited and didn't want to put it down. Instead of playing with toys at the end of story time, he wanted to read this book, and he listened intently to the whole thing. It makes me think we should go to the train park, and that I was right about how much he would have loved the train table I wanted to get him for Christmas. Oh well, he'll love it this year too.
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Satisfied

Even though I stay at home now, Sunday nights are still a bit of a downer as I lament the ending of the weekend. But last night I felt satisfied because we had taken full advantage of the weekend. I need to do that more often. Friday afternoon and late into the evening were spent with me cleaning and Mike working on the shed in the backyard (with the help of Gary). We got up at 5am on Saturday. I ran 8 miles before coming home to more cleaning and organizing and Mike and Gary got going on the shed. We worked until 10:30pm. I actually got every room of the house clean, including the piles of junk that had accumulated in various areas, aahh. I'm excited for the shed to be done so we can tackle the garage!

Sunday morning was busy, as usual, with Primary and Mike teaching our Gospel Doctrine class. After church the whole family got to nap. Ethan woke up at 5pm from his nap, right as we welcomed 3 families into our home for a fun night of eating and visiting. We are so blessed to live in a town full of young fun families. After last night, we're determined to start inviting people over more often. There are too many awesome people we could be hanging out with to just sit around on our own. And with paper plates and the awesome food/drinks everyone brought, it wasn't even a hassle to host.

Reminiscing on a great weekend makes Monday seem less painful. :)

To Summarize

This picture is a pretty good summary of Ethan's week. The only toy he's been wanting to play with is ball popper. This would mean a pretty clean house (only one toy out) except he also has spent the week taking cereal out of the pantry and pouring it on the carpet. Pictured here is a pile of rice krispies. Off to Ethan's left are the remains of the Shredded Wheat he dumped. At least he wasn't able to open the big bag of chocolate chips he pulled out of the pantry. I love his face as he is explaining to me what is going on, not that I can understand a "word" of what he is babbling.


In other news, after A LOT of experimenting, Ethan has found two toys that work in his ball popper! A foam Comtrans antenna tooper my boss have him, and his little plastic chicken.
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Founding Fathers

I have finally finished Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood. It took me 1.5-2 months to finish, but I actually really enjoyed this book. It took focus to read if I really wanted to learn from it, but I learned a ton about our Founding Fathers and the creation of our nation. So, in that way, it was very appropriate to stretch the reading of it through the beginning of July.

The premise of this book was to examine why we still so frequently say things like, "this wasn't what the Founding Fathers intended." It is very rare for a nation to care so much about what a handful of historical figures thought. Why do we still care? What made them so special that we would still look to them as individuals?

I thought it was fascinating to read about each of their ideas on how the country should be created and why they thought so. It was also interesting to see how popular images of some of these men are so wrong. For example, even thought Thomas Jefferson, was the "great minimal government president" he has been used to "support" the campaigns of presidents like FDR and Obama (because of how much he valued the individual).

I want to share two quotes from the book. They are both from the epliogue: The Founders and the Creation of Modern Public Opinion. The last few sentences of the book say:

It was not a world the founders wanted or expected; indeed, those who lived long enough into the nineteenth century to experience its full democratic force were deeply disillusioned by what they had wrought. Still, they had helped create this popular world, for it was rooted in the vital principle that none of them, Federalists included, ever could deny: the people. In the end nothing illustrates better the transforming power of the American Revolution than the way its intellectual and political leaders, that remarkable group of men, contributed to their own demise.

The Founding Fathers had so much faith in the people to create the country they (the Founding Fathers) had in mind, that they were shocked when the common people so quickly led the country away from what the Founding Fathers had intended. Fascinating. How many of those unintended outcomes are of great benefit to our nation? Would it be better if we really were the country they foresaw? But then again, the country which one foresaw--they all had such differing opinions.

Another quote discussing the spread of newspapers and the expanding group of people writing in them:

Others, however, dozens of writers and speakers, common, ordinary, obscure men, men without breeding, without learning, without character--in short, persons who were not gentlemen--were now presuming "without scruple, to undertake the high task of enlightening the public mind."

These new authors were like the bloggers of the 18th century. The so-called common, unqualified men who were having such a huge affect on the media and public opinion. I thought it was very interesting to see how this media/public opinion phenomenon is not a new issue at all.

This was a great read for anyone interested in America's history; I'd definitely recommend it!

Grandpa Jack

My Grandpa Jack passed away last Wednesday. He had been fighting lung cancer for over a year. I'm just glad I got to see him a few more times before he passed away.

I am currently working on a slide show for his memorial; you can see the pictures by clicking on the portrait above. Of course the pile of pictures my mom brought back for me to scan included quite a few of me in my younger days so, please, try to stifle the laughs.

I miss you Grandpa, your smile, your voice, and your laugh; it's been fun looking back on so many fun memories with you!

No Haircut

Mike has been delaying getting a hair cut too...

It's actually been years since someone besides me or Mike has tamed this mop.
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Haircut

I've been putting off getting a haircut because the cheap places haven't been willing to give me layers in the past and I wasn't ready to spend $45 on a haircut. But when Mike found a coupon for an $8.99 haircut at our Great Clips, I decided to give them one more try.

I didn't end up with anything particularly stylish, but the stylist actually gave me some layers. It feels way shorter to me, but I like it and it feels much healthier!

I wish I had gotten this done before all our family came and out and all those pictures were taken!
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Catching Up

This week has been busy busy busy, especially with all the Primary catch up after two weeks of fun family time.

I took almost no pictures of all the festivities, but Lisa and Lauren did. Make sure you go all the way back to the June 22nd post on Lisa's blog.

I miss you guys already!