How Have We Been?

Good. Things are going pretty well at our house. Since I last posted my little boy turned four, he went in for his checkup for the year, Dan worked 63 hours in one week, we had a family reunion, and baby is still growing.

Ethan turned four on June 20. I can't believe he's already that old! He had a great time at his party. We invited all his little friends and I reserved the church, our house is not really built for parties, not a lot of room. Originally, we were going to have the party outside at the church because there is a lot of shade. Well, for the first time in four years, it poured on his birthday. I was so glad we had a backup plan of the cultural hall inside. When I was first looking at party locations, I wanted to get a pavilion at a park. As luck would have it, all pavilions in all of Salt Lake were booked for every weekend in June. At the time, I was disappointed, but the joke was on them. We were nice and dry and they were huddled under the pavilion with no backup plan.

Here are some pictures from the party:



Last week, Ethan went in for his checkup. All went well! This is the first time he hasn't been scared to go to the doctor. He talks about the doctor all the time and how they make you feel better. I didn't realize it at the time, but the broken toe incident really helped him understand that they're there to help you. Ethan is growing normally. He's still really big for his age, but at least he's proportional. It was funny, the doctor checked his ears. To get him to hold still, I told him the doctor had to see if there were any monsters in them. After the verdict of no monsters in his ears, he had to check the doctor's ears too to see if there were "monsters in there." I asked him if there were any in there and he said, "Yeah, scary ones." It was funny. He also had to look for his heartbeat using the stethoscope and wanted to know what all the doctors gadgets were. He even wanted to sit up on the exam table. It was really funny.

I'm SO glad last week is done and we are on to the nice holiday week. Dan worked a ton of hours last week. He was so tired. It was great for us to get the overtime though. He works so hard for everything to make our family secure. I really appreciate that. I know it's hard for him sometimes, but he always just does the most he can, which is usually way more than I would ever be able to do!

We also had a family reunion this past week. It was for the Perkins side of the family, which is Dan's grandmother's family on his mom's side. Since it was his mom's family's turn to plan and organize the reunion it was up to us to take over. Dan's sister, Lauri, spearheaded the operation. We all had a great time. A bunch of us made some things for the family raffle and I won a baby afghan that my sister-in-law, Lisa, crocheted. I crocheted some baby sweaters/hat sets and a place mat set. It was our first pink thing for the baby! I was excited. They had a cake walk, games, a playground for the kids, and food and visiting. It was a really great time. Ethan was so tired by the end of the day!

Here are some pics from the reunion:


Since we were all together, Dan's brothers and sisters and some of the nieces and nephews decided to go to a movie. We got a couple of sitters for the littlest ones and off we went to Transformers. I noticed about halfway through the movie that the baby was kicking a lot. I finally realized that she wasn't kicking...she was jumping, every time there was a huge crash or explosion. She may come out shell shocked. We shall see.

Anyway, there was a lot going on these past couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to a wonderful July 4 with family this weekend. It's one of my favorite holidays. We're going to the Kaysville parade in the morning, barbecue in the afternoon at my aunt's house, and then fireworks in Kaysville that night. Should be a great time!

Until next time...

My Project

So, I mentioned in my Twitters last week that I had finished a craft project and that it was a surprise for someone so I couldn't say more about it. I'm rather proud of it, so I thought I'd share some pictures. My cousin/friend, Rachel, is having a baby girl in December. Her baby shower was this past Saturday. I have crocheted for many years, but have never really made anything except scarves, afghans, you know the easy stuff that's just straight lines. Well, I decided to attempt to crochet a baby sweater. It turned out so cute that I had to do a hat to match!

To begin I had to have yarn. I have tons of yarn, but none of it seems to be in girlish colors...go figure. I tried a pattern in a book I had, but it was way too complicated for a first attempt at this so I searched online and found a pattern. I then added my own twist to it by finding a flower applique pattern and attaching flowers to it and doing edging. Then, the sweater turned out so cute I had to do a hat to match, so I found a simple hat pattern and added flowers to it also. All in all, I think it turned out pretty cute.