Thanksgiving!!!

 We had Thanksgiving at my parents new house in Idaho.  It isn't completely finished they finished their basement but the upstair levels aren't finished yet.  It is a beautiful home I can't wait until they are completely finished with it.  So we has our Thanksgiving in their basement kitchen.  It was the first time that they family has all been together for a very long time.  We all enjoyed it very much.

 While the parents were getting the gourmet dinner ready we put a movie on for the kids.  They were watching Carz.  That is Ethan's favorite movie.  It was just so cute that these three were sitting there watching it with Aunt Amy.  Ethan looks so tired I know he didn't really have a nap this day and it was getting late past his bedtime.  Poor little boy!

 This is what the guys were doing.  Playing Super Mario Bros. on the Wii.  They all loved playing that together.  It was entertaining watching them.  

 Here are the master chefs themselves.  My mom is making her amazing pies and my dad is working on the Turkey which was wonderful.  It had been way too long since I have had his turkey.  I loved it.  This is their kitchen downstairs.  It is absolutely beautiful there.  I almost want to move into just their basement.

 Here we are getting ready to sit down and enjoy the wonderful food that was prepared for us.

 Cute little McKenzie just woke up in time to chow down on the food.  Don't you just love those curls.  She really looks like her Daddy.

 Almost got everyone sitting down to eat the Turkey.  Ethan loved looking at all of the food.  But he is a picky eater so he didn't really eat that much food.  Which shocked me because who could resist this food?!

 Another view of our lovely Thanksgiving dinner.

 This is where the kids ate their dinner.  They are so cute!

 Ethan loves playing with his cousins.  It is fun to watch them interact!

This Thanksgiving was so much fun!  I loved spending time with my family.  We always just have a great time together and laugh and laugh and laugh some more.  

The time went way to fast and that Sunday when we drove home to Logan it was a blizzard we were grateful that we made it home safe.  

Now I can't wait for Christmas to be with family again.  It is going to be so much fun.  I love this time of year. Decorating my house is my favorite thing to do.  I know I probably go a little overboard but I just love filling up spaces with Christmas decorations.  

Life has been pretty good.  Just the same old same old.  Staying busy!  

Funny Boy!

He just looks so funny with his pants down like that.  It is even more entertaining to watch him try to walk around with them like that!

I'm sure he is wondering mom why aren't you coming over here to help me out you are just lauging at me.

Here he is walking back out into the living room after going into his bedroom to try to get them back on.  So funny.

Again he is trying to pull them up himself but he just can't quiet get it.  He is distracted watching his favorite movie too Cars.

He loves it when I take a picture of his face up close and then he likes to look at it and he laughs at himself.

This is is his attempt to get his pants back on.  Can't get it over his little diaper bum. 

Oops put the same picture up twice sorry about that!  I think he is trying to take them off and they won't come off around his foot.

So Eth is into this new thing now where he likes to take off his pajama pants.  It is so crazy.  He will just sit there and try to take off his pants.  Then he will get frustrated when he can't pull them back up and they get in the way when he tries to walk around.  It is hilarious to watch him though.  I just don't know why he thinks it is ok to take his pants off.  I always tell him no don't do that but he just looks at me and laughs when he does it.  Crazy boy.  I love it though he keeps my life entertaining that is for sure. 

Halloween!!!!!

We finally got him into his lion outfit and he just looked so cute! 

Had to get a picture of his tail

I loved Karina and Brian's costumes The BYU Angel and the U of U devil.  Love it

He is so cute.  I love this little boy!!

Family picture! 

Trying on his first costume which he wasn't to excited about!

So I don't know if anyone reads our blog anymore but I honestly want to be better with updating it.  We are alive and doing well! 
These are a few pics from our Halloween adventure.  I can't believe how fast this year has gone.  I can't believe how halloween just crept up on us.  I didn't even have a chance to think about what we should do for halloween.  My dear sweet friends here let me borrow some costumes for Ethan because I didn't even have one ready for him the week of Halloween.  What a horrible mother I am!!!  Ryan and I didn't even dress up and i really wanted to dress up this year.  I hope next year I can be more on top of it and get costumes together for us.  We first tried to put him in the frog costume and He didn't really like it so I managed to get the lion costume on him and he looked adorable in it.  Then I thought that if i had really thought about it I could  have dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and ryan could have been the tin man.  Because Ethan was definitely the cowardly lion.  He got pretty scraed at one house when we went trick or treating.  it was pretty funny!!  Luckily my sister in law caught it on tape.  If I could figure out how to put it on the blog I would but still haven't quite figured out everything with the blog. 
Anyways, we are doing good.  And honestly I hope my life can calm down a little bit so i can take more time for things that I  want to do like updating this blog more often.  Ethan is doing well he is getting so big.  I can't believe how fast kids grow.  It is sad to me.  I cleaned out all of his baby clothes I couldn't believe how small he was when he was born.  He was tiny!!!! 
He is starting to say more and more things and I love listneing to him talk to me.  Even though I can't understand him he is telling me something interesting.  He has the best personality.  He is laid back and very easy going.  he doesn't mind doing anything.  As long as he is with mommy!  He is a big mommy's boy and I don't mind because I know that this won't last forever so i will enjoy as long as it lasts.  I can't imagine life without this little boy.  It is busy but I enjoy every minute that I get with him.  He makes me laugh every single day.  Just the other day I was not very patient and Ethan just came up to me and smiled at me and gave me a huge hug!!  it just melted my heart.  he knows just what to do for me.  I love him so much. 
He started nursery in September and he is doing ok but like I said he is a momma's boy so leaving me is hard to do for him but he settles down after a little bit.  It is nice though because now i can listen in Sunday school and not have to be fighting a little boy all of the time. 
I am doing good.  I started my afterschool job which isn't bad because it is only 2 hours a day and I get to bring Ethan with me which he loves to be around the kids and play in the gym with them.  I feel like life is just busy and busy.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  It is already the holiday season which is my favorite time of year.  And for people who know me they know that I am a Christmas freak.  I am already starting to do crafts with Ethan for Christmas decorations.  I love this time of year and I love to decorate my house for the holidays.  I just wish I had so much money to spend it on decorations.  Maybe someday.  I am still running and doing that crazy Insanity program.  I love it though if anyone is considering doing they should because it is awesome.  it kicks butt but you feel great after doing it. 
Ryan is doing good.  He started a new job and is still doing insurance so he is staying busy.  it is hard because we don't get to see each other that much but I just have to realize that hopefully life won't be crazy forever!  He threw out his back about a month ago and he is still trying to recover from it.  We were running and it just gave out on him I felt bad because he pretty much couldn't do anything for about 5 days. 
That is what has been happening with us and I konw that I have been saying this but I hope that i can keep this updated more and more so that I don't have to do marathon posts. 

Oh BOY!

Here is my attempts with catching up and posting some photos of my little man playing in the kitchen.

He was starting to get curious with what I was doing.  He wanted to hold the camera.

It is always hard for me to get a good picture of me and Ethan.  But these are a few attempts to get some but he never smiled!

He was pushing his chair around and Ry was walking by right when I took this picture it kind of looks cool!

Ok these are a few attempts of me trying to get pictures of him in his new fall clothes but he didn't want to do it at all! Can you tell?

He didn't want me to take his binki out at all or taking pictures.  he just wasnt' in the mood!

I finally got him to calm down but I couldn't get a smile at all!  He was mad at me!

Look at those sad little eyes he knows how to melt my heart with those eyes! 

He was distracted here watching the tv. I know I am a bad mom I turn the tv on for him to calm him down.

He was starting to get mad again because I was right in front of him trying to get some pictures again.  Man this little boy can be so stubborn.

Here is a pretty decent picture but still that binki wouldnt' come out!

I love this little outfit that we bought at Kohls!  Kohls is great they have the best sales and I love going there.  We got more for him but he just didn't want me to be dressing him up and taking pictures today so maybe I can try again another day.  I need to get professional pictures of him so that we can hang them on our wall.  He is almost 18 months and we don't have any pictures of hiim on the wall.  That is horrible.

Anyways to catch up on things:

ETHAN:  He is getting so big!  I actually love this stage because he is starting to talk more and understand things.  We weighed him the other day and he weighed 25.6 pounds.  We didn't measure him though we go to the dr. next month so we will find out then.  But he is getting so big.  It is getting hard for me to haul him around the place.  He knows where his nose, ears, mouth, eyes and spikey hair are.  He also knows what his hands and feet are.  He will point to them when you ask them.  He loves reading books with mommy and daddy.  He is starting to get more and more independent he always wants to feed himself. I try to let him but he just makes such a big mess, but that is ok.  His favorite movies are Meet the Robinsons and Cars.  he will sometimes sit through the whole movie.  But that is very rare.  He loves wrestling with his daddy and playing hide and seek. If he could he would live outside.  We dont' have a yard yet so he will go out there and sit down and throw the rocks around.  He usually screams when we have to bring him in. He sleeps great at night we put him to bed at 8 and he usually wakes up at 7:45.  he only takes one nap a day and it ranges from 2 to 3 hours.  He is just so much fun I love him so much!

RYAN:  He is still working for AFLAC.  It is a little stressful but I am hoping if he sticks with it that will turn out amazing in a year or so.  We will just have to see.  He is looking for another job to work part time until AFLAC can fully support us.  He is a great daddy to Ethan, whenever Ethan hears the garage door open he runs to the door to wait for his daddy to come in.  Ryan is in the Sunday School Presidency he is going to be teaching a temple prep class starting this Sunday.  He will do great.

ASHLEY:  I have been lucky to be able to be at home with Ethan this whole summer!  It has been nice it is a lot of work and sometimes really hard but I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I like being a little homemaker.  it is fun for me to be able to have time to cook new things and try to keep the house clean which is hard when you have a one year old running all over the place.  I have been training for the half marathon but I wasn't able to get into it this year which was a bummer.  But there are other ones I am going to do!  I just got put into the Young Womens Presidency as teh 2nd counselor and I love this calling.  I couldn't have asked for a better calling and it came at the right time.  I love the girls in there they are all so great. 

That is a little bit of a catch up on what we have been doing this summer.  Summer has flown by and I can't believe that August is almost over.  I am ready for the weather to cool down a bit but I am not ready for the COLD!!! 

We are doing great and just trying to enjoy life.  I know I promise this everytime but I do want to keep in touch better on my blog so I will try It just takes so much time and it is hard to get time to do it.  But I will try!!

THE BIG RUN!!!!

I hope Mandi doesn't mind I borrowed this pictures from her facebook page because Ry and I forgot our camera!  Thanks Mandi!  These are the pictures from the Bone and Back Race!!  It was so much fun I love running in this race.  This is a picture of me and my gorgeous sister in law Mandi!!!  She is BEAUTIFUL!!!!  Our family did awesome this year we finished the 40 mile relay in 5 hours 9 minutes!  We got first place in the family division.  It was amazing.  All of us ran great and got the times that we wanted.

I think this is Ryan before his run.  I'm not sure though.  He ran great.  He is just an amazing runner, he ran leg 4 which is probably the second hardest leg in 32 min.  He also ran leg 8 and ran that one in 32 min as well.  I love watching him run because he is so good at it.  I love you sweetie!!!

This is how we support our runners we ride on the tail gate cheering them on.  I look forward to this race every year.  We all wear our orange t shirts and we are called the Orange Crush!!!

This is right after I ran leg 1.  Ryan and his Dad were just warming up running on this dirt road so I decided to follow them but I have no idea what I am doing in this picture!  They are walking casually and I am running I guess.

Here is Orange Crush after the race.  Don't we all look great!!!  I love my family!  And I love that we do this every year together.

The next day after the race we went to American Fork to see the blessing of our newest nephew William!  He is adorable and I love holding him.  He is starting to smile and I love seeing him smile so big.  Here are Ryan and Ethan after we had eaten lunch.  It was such a great day!

Then on Monday we went to Salt Lake and hikes Ensign Peak.  I loved doing it.  I had never done it before but once you get to the top the view is amazing.  You can tell that Ethan loved the sucker that Grandma had given him.  He screamed when I took it away from him.  He is so funny he cracks me up all of the time!

Here is the whole family on top of Ensign Peak. The reason we did this is because my in laws gave us a challenge to read the Book of Mormon by June and have daily prayer and scripture study and by the end of the challenge we would get a reward.  I am so glad that they gave us this challenge I know that it has really helped my little family do better we are definitely not perfect but I can tell when we are doing the right things that everything seems to run smoother even if you are going through trials. 

After we hiked we went to the Hoogle Zoo.  It was so much fun to take Ethan there.  The animal that I could tell the he was the most interested in was the elephant and her baby.  The baby was so cute.  I think that was my favorite animal too.  We also road the little train ride that they offer and Ethan loved that as well.  He didn't want to get off of it when it was over.  His eyes were so wide watching everything iy was so cute!

We have  been very busy this past month but it has all been worth it!  I have loved every minute of it!

Thanks family for such a great time!!!