This past week

This past week was crazy. Ethan got a terrible diaper rash somehow (like I changed him at 4:00 and he wasn't red at all and then I changed him at 6:30 and it was red and swollen and has since become open sores...it is terrible). Lately, while he has been teething and now with this bad diaper rash, he has been super clingy to me. It makes me feel loved but it is ever so exhausting. I am used to him being so independent but when he doesn't feel well he wants me to carry him every where I go and I can't get anything done. It was really sweet though because this past Tuesday was the first time that Ethan has ever called me "Mama". I know he knew that I was Mama because Trent will say "go to Mama" and Ethan will look at me, but on Tuesday he was really upset and two different times he called out to me saying "Mama". He would call "Mamamamama" until he saw me and then crawl over to me to be picked up. It was seriously so adorable, it just melted my heart! Anyway, Trent and I had to go to Albuquerque to visit a company on Thursday and Friday and I was really worried about leaving him behind while we were gone because I didn't want him to cry because I wasn't there. We left him with Trent's aunt though, who I trust completely, and he did so well. Our visit was awesome and it was so good to know that Ethan was in good hands and doing so well. It was my first time being away from him for more than a few hours and I had withdrawals at first but knowing he was doing good I decided to take advantage of the nice break I had. I even went to the hotel for a little bit while Trent was out with a field supervisor and I went to the pool and read a book. When I got back to see him though I was so happy. Of course, he was more excited to see Daddy and didn't seem to care at all that I was there. Figures. Oh well. I am glad that he shows his love for me every once in a while.
Here are some pics.

Trent and Ethan working on something with the tool box.

My beautiful boy.

27 years old, 27 miles

On May 27 I turned 27 years old so I decided to run 27 miles. I couldn't go alone though, seeing as how I am a triplet, so I had to bring Nathan and Natalie with me! Natalie and I have been training for the last five months or so and Nathan, who wasn't going to run but ride his bike with us, took a few laps around his block the week before. We went really strong for the first 14 miles or so but then tragedy struck. Natalie had gotten in an ATV accident a few weeks before and she had been have some troubles with her knee. At about 14 miles her knee was really killing her. We went to 19 miles but she just couldn't go anymore but we didn't want to just give up in the middle! Especially as we had made T-shirts for the run. We decided that we would just make it a biathlon so we went home, Nat and I got our bikes, and we rode the last 8 miles. Natalie ended up riding using just her one good leg most of the time and it was really funny. Even though we didn't finish the whole thing in the way we had planned it felt really good to do as much as we did. And, to be honest, it just feels really good to be DONE. The time it takes to train for a marathon is so insane (especially because I am such a slow runner), so it is a relief to not have to put that much time into it any more. It was a fun experience and a good goal though. I will post some pics of our adventure soon!

We started at Vivian Park, up Provo Canyon.

Our shirts say 27 May, 27 years, 27 miles.

Pre-run fun.

Start.

The moose we saw 2 minutes into our run!

Nat's knee is really hurting her.

First Finish Line (we had stopped for water up the road aways and decided to run down to this curve to finish as it was the nineteen mile mark).

Feeling sore but happy.

Hugs for Mama!

Second Finish.

Nathan suggested that next year on the 27 of May, when we turn 28, we should bike 29 miles. Nat thinks he's crazy!

Natalie biked with just one leg most of the 8 miles because of her knee. She rested her left leg on the shaft of the bike like this. As we were riding someone yelled out from their car asking Nat if she was a flamingo...she didn't get it.

Ethan has a first word!

Ethan is starting to be super vocal now. He squeals and growls and is always talking to himself. He is finally starting to copy sounds that I make and it is so fun. He knows who Daddy is now and says it when he comes home so I guess that must mean that is his first word (Trent is very happy about this). He copies me when I say diaper (dapa) and tonight when I went to read him a bedtime story he said "bu" for book!! All on his own! It was pretty exciting. It could have been a coincidence but I don't think so because he always says "dada" as his go to word, because, let's face it, he's a daddy's boy. In the morning Ethan looks for Trent and says "dadadada" and whenever I put his new baseball hat on him he says it too (I think he realizes he has a hat just like Daddy). It is so precious.
Ethan also LOVES to "read"...which is probably why he is saying book. He let's me read to him but he loves to go into his room and just talk to himself as he flips through the pages. It melts my heart. Here are some pictures of him reading to himself and of him in his new baseball hat.

To my mother

     Happy Mother's Day. This is my second mother's day, but, considering that Ethan was only six days old on the last one, I feel like I have a little more experience being a mother this time.
     Today was our ward's fast and testimony meeting this month and a lot of people got up and talk about  their mothers. So of course I started thinking about what a wonderful mother I have and about how grateful I am for her example. I have always been grateful for her. When I was a teenager I heard people say countless times, "you will only be really grateful for your mother when you leave the house/go on a mission/have your own kids, etc" (any of those times where you suddenly have more responsibilities, I suppose). I used to think, "whatever, I am so grateful for her now!" And I really was. I knew a lot of kids that weren't grateful to their parents, so I could understand why people would say that, but I didn't think that it applied to me. When I left home and then when I went on a mission I was grateful for my mom but I wouldn't say I became that much more grateful. Now that I am a mother I wouldn't say that I am more grateful either. I would, however, say that now I understand why I am so grateful. This I did not really know before. I was always grateful because I knew that my mother has done countless things for me and sacrificed so much for me. I always realized that my mother gave up time, energy, her last bite of her favorite food, etc., so that she could make her children happy. I saw all that, but I knew there were countless other things that she had done like stay up late helping on a school assignment or letting me crawl into bed with her when I had a nightmare. Some I had heard about, like how my mother had got up countless times in the night to take care of triplets or how trapped she felt sometimes while nursing. Being a mother for the first year of a baby's life though has shown me all the things that I didn't know she had done.
     This past year I have learned about all the little things mom's do that no one really talks about. I suppose people don't talk about them because they are not really sacrifices. They aren't hard and they aren't big. They are just things mom's do because they love their baby. For example, every night before I go to bed I go in and look at Ethan. I think how beautiful he is. I put his blanket back over him. The other day when I put his blanket back on him I thought, "Wow. I bet my mother used to do this."
     Some days Ethan and I go out to run errands. We inevitably come home a little late for lunch. I feel so hungry. I know Ethan is hungry though too, because he is getting fussy. I ignore my growling stomach though and get Ethan's food ready, feed him, clean him up, play with him, and put him down for a nap. Then I eat my lunch. Guess what? I bet my mother used to do that too.
     During this past school year I would rush to get Ethan from the sitter's after class. Inevitably I would have to go pee. Go figure. I would get Ethan home and get him all settled with a toy before rushing to the bathroom. I would run the chance of peeing my pants so that Ethan would be comfortable and happy. You know what? I bet my mother used to do that too.
     Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night. My first thoughts are about Ethan. I assume he is okay, but just to make sure, I get up and go into his bedroom to make sure he is still breathing. I am sure my mother used to do that too.
     I can't resist kissing Ethan. When I am holding him I kiss his little head so much that he always starts to pull away from me. I always tease that he is saying, "Please mom! You are embarrassing me!" I just can't help it though! I bet my mother used to do that too.
     There are a million other things that no one but mothers, and maybe their husbands, know that they do. Tiny little things they do just as their way of saying "I love you." As I do these little things for Ethan I imagine my mother doing them for me. Thanks Mom. Thanks for doing all those little things for me. Thanks for caring about me. Thanks for putting me first.  Everyday I hope that I can be more like you. You are my hero.

Ethan is a ONE YEAR OLD!

So my little baby boy turned one. I cannot believe it. I cannot believe that a year ago we were in the hospital in shock that our little boy was born with gastroschisis. I remember each day dragging on and by the time he was a week old I was having my first Mother's Day. Wow. Maybe it was because we had spent so much time in the hospital, but looking back on it I cannot believe that he was only six days old, it seems like it had been much longer than six days. I remember how to that day we had only seen Ethan's eyes a handful of times. He was so sedated because of his condition and then recovering from surgery. He was so tiny and I couldn't believe that he was ours. Here are some pictures of us with him a year ago today. I love this little boy who made me a mother!

Anyway, so for his birthday we threw him a little party. We had it at the lounge at Natalie's apartment and we invited some friends. Ethan played with the other babies and played the piano there (which he LOVES). I made him some "healthy" cake (it had less sugar and no butter, just yogurt) with some low sugar frosting (which was actually really good-it was cream cheese frosting but not too rich). When he went to eat his cake he first just played with it in his hands, then started licking it off his fingers, then he slowly started leaning forward to eat it with his mouth. It was pretty cute. He had blue all over him.
I love my baby boy!

Play time first...

 And on to the cake...

 

Happy anniversary to us!

Today is Trent and I's second anniversary. This second year has been better than the first and I hope that the third is better than the second! Having Ethan really makes us value and take advantage of our time together. Trent just got called as the Elder's Quorum President today too. The Stake President said that the Lord will make our time together "sweeter" because we have less of it. I thought that was a good way to put it.
It was also nice to celebrate Easter today. I don't know how we will end up celebrating Easter in the future, but today was great as we did not focus on Easter bunnies and eggs (just some Cadbury eggs, that was a must!) and we just focused on the Savior and His resurrection. I am so grateful to know that His sacrifice of the Atonement makes it possible for me to hope to return to live with Heavenly Father and my family for all of eternity. I know I do not understand it all yet, but I do believe it. A girl in our ward sang a song today that said something that rang true with me: "Though I did not see him calm the raging sea, He has calmed my troubled heart and I believe."
Edit: Trent and I went on our anniversary date on Monday, April 25. Trent told me he had to go into work really quick but he surprised me by coming home with two beautiful calla lilies, one for each year of our marriage. It was one of the most romantic things he has done for me. Partly because I always guess that he is up to something, but he COMPLETELY surprised me. I even started crying. Here is a few pictures of them.

11 months old and counting

Ethan turned 11 months old today. Wow. And weird. I can swallow the fact that I have a baby but it is a little harder to believe that he will soon be a whole year old.

I haven't written in a while because we have been SO busy. I am almost done with school (thank goodness, only two weeks left!) and we have SO much to do before the end of the semester. General Conference was this weekend and Jean A. Stevens, first counselor in the Primary General Presidency, said that we must choose to have faith and to trust in the Lord. I am so glad that she said that. These next few weeks are going to be hard but I have been working on being patient and not getting stressed out. Now, I guess, is the time for me to choose to have faith and to trust that if I put the Lord first He will help me to get it all done without getting stressed out and taking it ot on those around me. I know the principle is true. I just have to have faith to try.

So, lets start from where I left of last post. On the 16th Trent left early (3:00 AM early) for Chicago and Student Career Days put on by PLANET. He has been preparing for it all semester now and was a little nervous about how he would do. On Sunday I got a call after the awards ceremony telling me how they did. BYU took first overall. Trent took first in not only Small Engine Repair (the one we knew he would do well in) but he also took first in Plant and Pest ID (which he had told me he was going to do terribly in...ha)! He couldn't believe it himself. I am so happy for him. He works so hard and deserves to finally win something. Now he is a National Champion. Twice. Pretty cool.

While he was gone my mom came to visit. She came down to help me with Ethan during my last week of teaching and help Natalie get ready for her BFA Illustration Show Reception. It was so fun to have her here and to watch her with Ethan. Trent came home at midnight on Monday and then my dad came down on Tuesday for Nat's reception (on Thursday). It was crazy to have so much going on during my last week of teaching but I loved having them here. On Wednesday night we went to my parents hotel to take Ethan swimming for his first time. It was so fun. He never smiled once during his whole time in the pool, but he didn't cry either. He just stared and looked around, presumably trying to take it all in. I am so excited to take him to the pool and the ocean this summer. He loves bath time and I hope he loves to swim.

Thursday, March 24th was Natalie's art reception. I asked if I could make the food and she said yes! (My first catering experience! I have this secret desire to be a caterer). Anyway, I made red velvet mini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and almond cheese balls. It was my first time making either and I had a lot of help from Dad, Mom, and Nat. Luckily, they turned out good and were a success. I had a lot of people ask me for the cheese ball recipe and one lady wouldn't accept my offer to email it to her and had me give it to her off the top of my head! The best part about it all was that I had so much FUN. I LOVE cooking/baking. I just wish I had more people besides Trent and I to eat the food that I make. Here is a picture with Ethan, Nana, and Papa (my parents) at the reception.

Here is Papa reading to Ethan.

So Ethan is exploring and into everything but he is learning so much. Just a few stories to illustrate how fast his little brain must be working. About a week and a half ago I went to go to the bathroom and I shut the door most of the way but I left it open just a crack. My parents were in the living room but I heard Ethan crawling in to find me. I heard him crossing the little bit of linoleum and saw him peek through the crack in the door. I smiled because I thought it was so cute that he came to find me. Then, though, he reached up with his right had and pulled the door towards him, opening it. I was shocked. How did he know that to open the door he had to pull it towards him? I have seen him push doors closed but never pull them towards him. He was too much in the way of the door to open it very much so he scooted himself backwards and to the side so that he was out of the way and then opened the door, crawled in to the bathroom and pulled himself up to standing using my leg, and gave me a huge smile. I am amazed. I just can't believe that he knew to pull the door towards himself or even how to move out of the way so it could get by him. Second story. We have a couch and a chair that sit at almost a 90 degree angle to one another. In between them is an end table with computer and TV cords underneath. I was cleaning up and decided to put our little ottoman in between the couch and the chair so that Ethan couldn't get to the cords in the corner. Later, Ethan was walking along the couch and decided that he wanted to play with the little handle that hangs from the table (it is like a fake drawer handle that he likes to pull on). He couldn't reach it though because the ottoman was in the way. He leaned over the ottoman, reaching for the handle, but he just couldn't get it. He turned around and walked back down the couch. He went about a foot away from the ottoman before sitting down and rolling around a little bit. I wondered what he was doing because it just seemed kind of strange. Then I saw. From his position he reached out, grabbed a hold of a little rung on the ottoman and pulled it towards him. When he had pulled it as far as he could he rolled and scooted about another foot away, reached out and pulled the ottoman towards him again. I started laughing. I knew exactly what he was doing. He looked up at me and started to crawl to me but then he remembered the mission that he had started on, and he turned, crawled around the ottoman to the newly vacant spot, and pulled himself up the table so that he could grab onto the handle. I could hardly believe it. What must be going through his little mind to think: I want X. If I do Y, then I will get X!? Not only that, he is getting less sidetracked. He stayed focused on that handle the whole time. His brain must be learning so much about cause and effect right now. It is a pretty amazing process to watch.

Change of topic now.
This past Thursday was the Elder's Quorum Activity which was a Pinewood Derby. The wives were invited so Trent and I made a car together. Before we started we kind of had a lazy afternoon playing tennis (Trent barely won) and just kind of hanging out together. The activity was going to start at 6:30 so at about 4:00 we decided that we should probably start on our car. We knew people who had been working on their cars all week and we didn't want to be shown up too badly! We pulled out the table saw and started designing our car. When Trent went to cut it it splintered to the axle and ruined the block, making us realize that a table saw really isn't that great for making pinewood derby cars. Luckily we had an extra block. The second one survived the table saw but didn't look much better as you can see below. We tried to do one thing and messed up (hence the weird cuts in the front and up the sides) and then we just cut at an angle up the front and back to try to make it look a little better. We didn't have paint so we just colored it with markers. We also didn't have a scale so we had to wait until 6:30 to go to the church and use the scale there. Trent figured out how many fishing sinkers he could use and took his drill to the car, gutted it out, and hot glued the sinkers in! It was the ugliest car there! We were just laughing, we knew we weren't going to win. There were guys there who had some sweet looking cars and knew all about physics and where exactly to put the weight to get the most potential energy (in the back). Anyway, Trent named out car Trent & Cait, which is super romantic for him so I thought it was really sweet ;). When it went for its first run we beat the other three cars by a whole car length! We were shocked to say the least. It ended up winning all the other races and took first at the Derby. Wow. We laughed the whole way home in disbelief. Here are some pictures of the Trent & Cait.

Saturday was General Conference but Trent had to change the fuel pump in the truck.  I stayed inside watching Conference with Ethan while Trent worked on the truck and listened to the radio. He was getting pretty frustrated because he had to drop the gas tank to get the fuel pump, which means he had to crawl around on his back under the truck. After the first session and Trent had dropped the tank I went out to help him switch out the fuel pump. Ethan hung out at some friends house for a bit and then in the cab for a few minutes until it was time for his nap. He had fun pushing buttons and exploring. When he went down for his nap I went back out to help Trent. I ran the jack while Trent tried to balance the gas tank on top and then we rolled around underneath trying to screw all the nuts and bolts back in place and hook tubes/wires back up. Trent was so sore from being on the hard asphalt for four hours but we had fun working on it together. I love working as a team. I think that is what marriage it all about. I can't believe how cute it was to watch him work on the truck though! I was so proud to be married to such a man!