Exhibitionism Anyone?

One of the weird quirks that Ethan has recently exhibited is his need to remove his clothing at will. Thankfully, he hasn't done this in a store yet, but he has done it at my mom's house, at a friend's house, and at my grandmother's house. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. I never thought I'd have to utter the words, "Big boys keep their pants on." I swear sometimes we say the weirdest things as mothers. I find myself taken aback at times thinking, "Did I seriously just say that to my kid?"

We went to my Grandma Page's house on Friday for the big Pioneer Day barbecue and Ethan decided that his pants needed to come off while playing in the dirt. Thankfully, he left his underwear on! Earlier in the week he decided he was done swimming while we were at a friend's house and proceeded to come in the house naked. It's interesting. I guess it's his way of showing that he's a big boy and he can take off his clothes by himself. I would just rather he not do it in public.

Neglecting My Blog

July is always a busy month for us. Two holidays, plus my birthday, plus preparing or going on vacations that usually happen during this time takes up a lot of time. I realized it has been almost a month since I posted, so I decided I had better get on that!

The Fourth was great, as usual. We had a great time the night before at the Granite High fireworks in South Salt Lake with my parents and Josh and Elisa. Dan was working so he wasn't able to go. They also had an open house at the school that night for all alumni of Granite. The school is closing and 2009 was the last graduating class. I got to walk around in the halls a bit and say goodbye to my school. I'll always be a Mighty Farmer though! It was really weird to be in those halls again. It brought back so many memories. After the walk through the school, we had some yummy food at the little fair they hold before the fireworks. Ethan got to get up inside a real fire truck. He was really excited about that! We really enjoyed the fireworks.

On the actual Fourth, we did the usual things. Ethan and I went to the Kaysville parade with family. I had to hike all the way to the porta potties twice, but at least Ethan didn't have any accidents! I think he kind of thought it was cool to go in them. After the parade, we had lunch at my Aunt Sharlene's house and the kids swam in the kiddie pool in her backyard for like three hours. They loved the water. Ethan really enjoyed all the kids his age to play with. The night ended with the time honored tradition of going to the Davis High fireworks in Kaysville. It was really fun. I was kind of sad Dan couldn't be there due to a screw up with his schedule, but we made the best of it.


Things were pretty uneventful after the holiday, until my birthday. I really had a great day. Dan cleaned the house for me and he took Ethan shopping to get me something special they could give to me together. This year, it was a card that played music, which Ethan had to show me about 50 times throughout the day, and The Office seasons 1 through 4 on DVD. I loved it. I also went in the afternoon for a bit of pampering and got a pedicure. It was so relaxing. We topped the night off with dinner at the Olive Garden. It really was a great day, probably one of the best birthdays I've had.

As for the pregnancy, things are still going really well. I've actually lost 2-in. off my hips since the beginning of the pregnancy. I'm not trying to lose weight, but it's happening anyway. What a weird problem to have. The doctor says everything is good though. The baby is still growing and she's the right size and everything. Her heartbeat is really good as well, so that's definitely a good thing.

Now...on to today. Some people in the family went to the parade in downtown Salt Lake, but I'm pregnant, Dan worked last night so he wouldn't be going, and Ethan is 4, so I decided to opt out on that. We did go to Grandma Page's for some great barbecue though! Ethan had a great time watering her flowers and playing in the dirt. He also got to play with Dion, one of my cousin's foster kids, for a little while. They're the same age and they get along really well. He had a really great time. It was nice to sit and visit.

I'm sitting her now waiting for it to rain so it won't be so humid and I'm working in my office, a nice relaxing end to a fun day. I'll try not to let it be so long before I post again!

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...

Ethan's George

We went out to Debi's today and took advantage of the face painting being offered at Kraver's, a little ice cream/diner type place by her house. Ethan was so excited to get his "George.". He even sat still for it.

So It's A...

GIRL! Dan and I went in for the sonogram today and everything looks great. Baby is developing healthy and everything. Also, we found out that we will be having a little girl!

It's so amazing seeing that little person up there on the ultrasound screen. I mean, I've been feeling her move around some, but to know that she's really, really there is just beyond belief. It's such a miraculous event that pregnancy and birth are even possible in this world. Looking up at that screen as the sonographer went through explaining everything just left me in utter amazement. I feel so blessed.

I'm not going to bore you with a ton of sonogram photos, because most people don't know what they're looking at anyway. ;) But, here are a couple of the good ones.

This first one is a straight on look at the face.

This second one is the obligatory boy or girl picture. For a boy, his parts are fairly obvious in the sonogram. For a girl, they look for three white dots/lines grouped together. I've circled them there. This view is from the bottom of the pelvis.

Dan and I are so incredibly excited to be welcoming a new member to our family. We're so happy!