4 months

So my baby is now four months old. 16 weeks. 112 days. Wow, where did the time go? He is growing so fast and becoming SO much fun. I LOVED him as an infant, but being a "baby" now is so much fun. His laugh and smile just melts our hearts! I can hardly stand not "eating" him sometimes! I just want to take a big bite of his cute chunky legs or cheeks, or his sweet little ear and his adorable nose. (Aunt Celeen - it's for mom's to bite only! :)
Two weeks ago when we took him to Dr. Adair because we thought he had an ear infection, he weighed 13lbs .8 oz. I'll update his stats at his 4 month check up (which will happen at 4.5 months since Dr. Adair is out of town).
What is Ethan doing lately?

Rolls over front to back and SOMETIMES back to front

Scoots all over the place in his bed. I often find him upside down at the other end when I go in to
get him in the morning.

Sleeps most of the night. Sometimes wakes up to eat at 3:30, but mostly sleeps until about 5:30 and then goes back to sleep until 8:30 after eating.

Laughs and smiles constantly, especially when Daddy makes a funny face.

Loves the "farting" sound. What a boy.

Likes to jump in his jumper - but sometimes forgets how to work it and gets mad.

LOVES LOVES LOVES to suck/chew his hand. As you can see from his face, he gets real upset if you remove it before he is done. LOL

Loves to eat. (as you can see from his cheeks!)

Still won't take the bottle or pacifier, (unless you count mommy as the human pacifier!)

Loves music - especially when daddy plays guitar

Likes TV (especially Sesame Street - I know this because he'll watch it longer, usually the whole time I'm in the shower and getting dressed. Woo HOo for Elmo!)

COMMANDS my undivided attention, 24/7. He loves to be held, and won't have it any other way - even in the jumper or swing, I have to pay attention to him or I hear about it. :)

Yeah for swimming! I love to swim, always have. I think it's because my mom started me out swimming when I was younger than Ethan. The older I got, the more I loved it. I prefer swimming over most activities. Even in-door swimming. While living in Germany, they had a ton of wonderful indoor pools that were amazing. They were huge- with different slides, different kinds of pools all over the building, hot tubs, kiddie pools etc. Their indoor pools were 10 times better than White Water or any pool I've been to.
Anyway-when Ethan was born, I knew I wanted him to grow up swimming so he wasn't afraid of the water. So we bought a pool for the back yard. He liked it even though it was much colder than Pelican Bay. He fell asleep hanging out in his floaty. He looks so stinkin cute!

Possum

The other night the dogs just wouldn't stop barking when they were outside. So Jeff went to look and found this huge possum on our fence. It wouldn't leave. He said it was huge! He took a couple of pictures and it still wouldn't leave. Here is a picture he took. They didn't come out real good, but you can sort of see how big and freaky he looks!

Pelican Bay

Last week we went to Pelican Bay. I was so worried about going all the way there and Ethan hating it, but he ended up loving it! He slept through most of it, in my arms while I sat in the pool. So he was half in the water. When he was awake, he loved it! Yeah for swimming! :-) I didn't want him to burn and the only long sleeved onsie was the one I had that they gave us in the hospital when he was born. So didn't fit! But we made it work. It looked like a straight jacket! But his Dr. said no sunscreen until he was 6 months, so I was worried about his skin. (I went and bought some onsies that would fit!!)



- Jaycie, Nathan and Grandma Brown

Food Storage -Awesome site!

http://www.shelfreliance.com/

This is a very cool website my friend Carrie stumbled on from Deseret Book News. (THANKS CARRIE!!!!) On the website you can personalize your family's food storage play. You type in your family members and whether they are M/F and their age. Then you can put in however many months you want to calculate for your food storage. This is sooo AWESOME!! Also the 72 hour kits! This website offers more than the food at the cannery. Some of the stuff is cheaper to buy at the cannery... Right now there is free shipping on orders over $299 We could do a group order if anyone is interested who lives by me!!

It's pretty cool! Thanks again Carrie!

Held

Here are some random pictures of my cute boy. He was passed around to everyone... Everyone (even people we don't know) had to hold him. He is just so darn cute!!!

Cousin Silas and Ethan

Cousin Corrienne - it looks like she's about to drop him on his head! LOL (She wasn't but it sure looks that way!)
Aunt Racheel - she realized about 2am that she was Ethan's great aunt. So Jeff started calling her "old" aunt Racheel.

This is the groom's mom. I have no idea what her name is, but she just adored Ethan. She was such a sweet lady!

My cute boy with his Nana

Ethan and Nana spent quite a bit of time together this trip. It was so cute to watch them get to know each other!



- Ethan doesn't look so happy, but his shirt is soaking wet from his drool and we thought it was pretty funny.

Sisters

A tribute to my aunts and mother... Only one sister was missing. Whenever they are together it is so much fun! They laugh non-stop. They all have funny but LOUD laughs. It is so hilarious to watch them. What a great bunch of aunts and mother I have. I absolutely adore and love my aunts and mom. Granny produced the best daughters!!!! They each have so much to share with this world, with me. They have each helped me so much in their own way - at different times in my life. I just can't say enough how much I love those 5 women!!!

Racheel, Janeel and Laurie
ATTEMPTING to be serious. Yeah right!
My mom is claiming she is "the ONE", while Racheel telling us how someone pooted and stinks. LOL!
The only picture in which someone wasn't crying from laughing so hard. I can't promise that they don't have wet pants though! :)
This is the typical picture. - Laurie, Janeel, Celeen, Racheel and Their mom, my wonderful granny.

Fun in Missouri

This past weekend we were in Missouri for my cousin Jerrica's wedding. What a great time we had. But it was SO busy. Uncle Terrance designed (with blue prints) every detail of the decorations. He did SUCH A GREAT job!!! It pretty much took two and a half days to set up but it was so worth it. Jeff, mom and I stayed behind on Thursday night while everyone was in St. Louis at the temple so we could finish everything. It took all of Friday to do and we ran into the reception time finishing the food, but it turned out great. It was so much fun to see everyone and be together! But we were so exhausted when we got home! :)

They had to get a lift to attach the ring. This is Ethan bossing everyone around. :) This is the Reception before the food and the flowers. It was so beautiful when it was done. The dance floor was covered in balloons too.

- Jerrica toward the end of the night. She looked so beautiful! We love you Jerrica and are so happy for you!!!

Evidence of a good father

I posted on Father's Day about my husband being a good father. He is such a kid magnet. All of my little cousins always flock to him. Here he is, helping Corrienne tune her guitar, but in the process, the little boys (those that were there) couldn't help but hanging all over him while he played for them. He doesnt' ever mind - he just goes on playing while Brigham pulls his ears. (This was after the wedding when everyone was exhausted!!!)
They just love him. No matter where we are, they always want to be with Jeff. If he is this patient with other people's kids, I can only imagine how he is with his own son. :)

Great Deal!

I have had 3 different girlfriends from different places recommend this make-up. Basic make-up is just $1. Yes, i said $1. The mineral make-up is $3. I have been buying Bare Essentials, but it is $17 for an eyeshadow! This is $3!!! So after the third recommendation (THANKS CARRIE!!!) I went ahead and ordered some. I'll let you know how it is. I'm kind of excited. Even make-up brushes are $1.... Yeah! It is a company called E.L.F. Here's a link if you want to check it out. http://www.eyeslipsface.com/default.asp

Father's Day

Today was Jeff's first Father's Day as Ethan's Daddy. How exciting! Poor Jeff has been working non stop on a project for a client. He worked all day Saturday on the server and then had to go set it up at their office. He worked all night and didn't get home until 4am. I told him to sleep, not go to conference. But he was awake when we got home. Cute little Ethan was so adorable and happy to see his Daddy. He was all smiles. We had a nice lunch together and then all took a nap together.





Here are some things that make Jeff a great dad!

• Never ending patience!


• Always willing to play with any kids


• Wants to teach rather than give orders or direct. He always takes the time to teach, even when it isn't a great time. He was so great with Trevver teaching him!


• So loving, so tender and sweet (yes, he's tender!)


• Forever loyal


• Wants only the best for his family


• Works so hard to provide for us!

This is just the beginning. Anyone that knows Jeff knows how much he is loved by kids. They flock to him, climb all over him and want to be with him constantly. He wrestles with them whenever they find the need to do so. He was so cute to teach Corrienne how to play the guitar. He is just a wonderful man. He will be a great example to our children (I guess the ren implies we may have more ;-). He is a wonderful husband, I know he'll be a wonderful father!!

Stake Conference

What a great stake conference we had today. It was so nice to listen to our sweet stake president speak; along with our temple president, mission president and the stake patriarch. We also listened to a member of the 70 - Pres. Anderson, which I enjoyed a lot. Of course Ethan had to eat right at the beginning of his talk so I wasn't able to hear the beginning, but what I heard, I loved. I love the peaceful spirit that conference brings. I never want to miss it! Ethan was such a good boy. President Anderson spoke to us in the beginning and went on about how cute he was. He was such a nice guy. Very genuine. Of course Pres. Jacobson is always a pleasure to talk to. HE reminds me so much of Uncle Terrance...

I love stake conference!

Here's Ethan right before Conference. Such a cutie!

New Addition

Welcome to the family Ben! My cute cousin Jerrica is getting married in a couple of weeks. We finally met Ben when he came to Ethan's blessing. He and Jerrica are just darling together.

Granny's Balloon

So after Jerrica's shower and Sterling's farewell, there were quite a few balloons left over. The younger boys were playing keep away and "volleyball" with the balloons. After a while, everyone was playing, even Granny. It was so cute to watch her reach up and hit the ball! We love you Granny!!!