Audrey and Eric

Christmas 2011

2012-01-10T19:50:00.002-05:00

Halloween 2011

2012-01-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

Ava was supposed to me a butterfly, but she refused to wear her wings at the last minute. So she ended up being a ballerina

The twins did NOT like Ethan's Iron Man mask. It was pretty scary!

Crazy dress day

2011-10-25T17:10:00.001-04:00

Silly Kids

2011-09-10T17:18:00.001-04:00

Love it!

Zachy likes to drink hands free

Kids day at Lowes. The kids got to each make a police car.

Ava wants to go to school too.

Zach was so proud of himself. He made his own bubbles!

Ava comes in and says, "Wow! good job Zachy! You made bubbles!"

Kindergarten!

2011-08-25T16:56:00.001-04:00

Ethan was really excited to start school. It took him a while to warm up to the idea, but once he saw his classroom and met his teacher, (and got a Mario backpack) he felt a lot better.

Ethan looked really tired when I picked him up. All day Kindergarten is tough on little 5 year olds...

We love our Jax Beaches

2011-08-20T17:13:00.001-04:00

Ethan's Birthday

2011-08-17T16:04:00.001-04:00

Ethan Turned 5!

As a special treat, Ethan's Grandma Lund and Great Grandma Novakovich and Great Uncle Peter came to visit. They made it an extra special weekend for him.

Lots of fun Presents

Yummy orange and chocolate MARIO CAKE!!

This is my first attempt at making fondant. It was a lot of work, but Ethan loved it! It was worth it.

We went to the "Hands On Museum" here in Jax. They had a lot more fun than shows in the pictures :)

Here is Ethan's account of his birthday:

"Guess what was my favorite present that I wanted for a long time. It is Wii Play. And I got a board game called Quirkle. And some school clothes for school, and a school clothes organizer that has days I go to school. When you see a word that says weekend that means the days I don't go to school. Weekends on my school organizer means Sunday and Saturday. And Wii Play gave me batteries for this 1 new Wii remote. And I got a Cars Uno game, and a Cars 2 Leapster game. When Grandma came before my birthday when she got here, she gave me a book called "Mr. Happy" and a book called "Little Miss Sunshine". On my birthday, she gave me 13 "Mr." books called, Mr. Fussy, Mr. Noisy, Mr. Tickle, Mr. Greedy, Mr. Messy, Mr. Bounce, Mr. Strong, Mr. Bump, Mr. Funny, Mr. Tall, Mr. Daydream, Mr. Silly, and Mr. Worried. And I got a ton of Trio blocks because when I turned 4 I got one pack and when I turned 5 I got 2 Trio block boxes. And that adds up to a ton of Trio blocks. I got another Busytown book called "Peasant Pig and the Terrible Dragon".
I got a Mario cake. My mommy made it. We got cute cake toppers to put on. I got to choose the characters to put on top. I chose to put Mario and Luigi on top, but the computer picture Mommy was using just had Mario on top. We got awesome star candles. My Mario cake flavor was Chocolate and orange, and I got Orange ice cream.
I went to the Hands On Children's Museum. And for lunch we went to McDonanlds. We played 2 board games. The first board game is called Stratego. The second board game is called Market Day. I got broccoli and dinosaur chicken nuggets. Mommy put red and blue streamers up in the family room and blue and red balloons in the family room, and in the kitchen, mommy put yellow and orange balloons up. Today the red balloon in the family room is not up anymore. The reason why it isn't there is that it fell off by itself. The tape isn't sticky anymore."

Ellen's Visit

2011-05-12T15:46:00.001-04:00

Easter photo shoot

2011-04-27T00:11:00.000-04:00

Okay guys, lets snap a few pictures before church. Say "cheese"

Good job Zachy. Wait, Ava, give me that water bottle...

Okay, Ava, Smile!

A little better I guess... Lets try a kiss. Can you give kisses?

Good Zach. But I think I missed it. Do it again. Give kisses!

Good Kisses Ava. Can you give Zach a hug?

Okay. Okay. Ava let him go!

Okay, good enough.

After Church we went outside to see what the Easter Bunny had left

Happy Easter!

Sandcastle Fun

2011-04-26T23:51:00.000-04:00

We went to the beach this past weekend. The kids had a great time building this awesome castle. They loved to jump into the moat and splash all the water out. But we all agreed our favorite thing was destroying it at the end.

Happy Birthday Zach and Ava!

2011-03-11T15:52:00.000-05:00

Zach and Ava turned 2 yesterday. They are growing so fast.

This year I wasn't feeling up to making elaborate cakes, so I just made 2 little cakes: Mickey Mouse and pink flowers. They loved them.

(We got 2 cake platters for our wedding and now 7 years later I finally have an excuse to use them both.)

We went to chick fil-a for dinner

We are so happy to have these little guys in our home. They bring so much joy to our lives.

Happy Birthday Ava and Zach!

Fun at the Zoo

2011-03-11T14:00:00.000-05:00

The zoo has a new dinosaur exhibit. We went to check it out last week.

Ethan didn't like standing so close to them. They were growling a little to loudly for him.

This was taken last month when my mom came to visit/help while Eric was in D.C. for the month.

She took us on the Zoo train. It was so fun. Thanks Grandma.

Our Christmas Trip to Utah 2010

2010-12-31T18:29:00.001-05:00

These are a few of our Favorite Things

1. The Snow!

We got to build a snowman! We had such a fun time playing in the snow.

Ethan and Ava loved throwing snowballs.

Zach liked making them.

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2. The Airplanes!

This is only on Ethan's list of favorite things (which was a shock because he has been afraid of going on the airplane since we bought the tickets months ago). He loved it. Here he his feeling a little apprehensive as we checked in in Jacksonville.

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3. Temple Square Lights

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4. Wearing Snow boots all day every day

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5. In 'n Out Burger Yumm

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6. Getting to Skype with Uncle Sam on his Mission
He's been out a year now! (sorry no picture)
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7. Bowling with Grandma and the Cousins

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8. Everyone dressing up for our family Nativity

Ethan made a great Wise Man

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9. Great Seats a the BYU basketball game!

And We WON!

10. And, Oh yeah, the Presents!

Our most favorite part of the week was spending time with our family. We had a lot of fun and we miss you so much!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-12T17:41:00.004-05:00

Halloween 2010

2010-12-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

I'm a little behind, I know. But here's Halloween 2010

Eric's pumpkin this year

Pumkin Carving

Triceratops costume that my mom made for my little brother 16 years ago. Ethan loves it.

Zachy the Roaring T-Rex

(his "roars" were often just high pitched screams)

Ava's a cave girl. (with her two pet dinosaurs of course)

At the Church Trunk or Treat

Please look at the camera guys....

Yes, this is the best picture I got of the kids together. Thanks Ethan...

Sharing their spoils

Disney 2010

2010-11-22T16:20:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago, we took the kids down to Orlando. We are very lucky to have Eric's mom there who will watch the twins and coordinate free Disney tickets for us. We were hoping that this year Ethan would be braver about going on some of the rides, but we still had to talk him into a lot of them.

That's him under those Mickey ears.

He loved the race track. We should have just gone on this all day.

Here he is trying to golf the Epcot "golf ball"

Ethan's 4th Birthday

2010-11-22T15:40:00.004-05:00

Ethan's birthday was in August. We went to "Pump it Up" with some friends, made balloon animals and a lion cake. And had a party when Daddy got home. It was a fun day!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Lots of fun loud toys!
His much loved lion cake

(We like to run the kids around the house in circles. It helps get some of the energy out.)
Ethan got this awesome shirt from my dad. It has Ethan's favorite knock knock joke on it.
Knock Knock
Who's there?
Interrupting Cow
Interrupting Co...
MOO!

Ethan's first bike

Eric showing us how it's done

What we've been up to

2010-08-17T22:18:00.005-04:00

When kids dress themselves:

When kids are left alone for 5 minutes:

When kids finally play nice:
(this is a rare one)

Summer Vacation

2010-08-17T22:01:00.002-04:00

Last month we got together with most of Eric's family at Palm Coast. We stayed for a few days of swimming and playing in the sand. I have no pictures of this, but here are some shots from our hotel rooms.

Ethan with his cousins
Ethan , Austin, Rexford, Ian

Ava, ready to get in her swimsuit. For the 3rd time that day.

And here's Zach. Running away from something...

We had a great time, Hopefully we can do it again soon.

We love when cousins come to play!

2010-08-17T22:00:00.000-04:00

My sister's family drove down from Chicago to play with us for a week. We had so much fun!

We went to the zoo,

the Bounce House (always a hit),

the backyard,

the beach,

and of course Publix.

Thanks for coming guys! And thanks for these pictures. They were mostly all taken by Scott.

First Year Photo Shoot

2010-04-08T13:45:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter

2010-04-08T13:36:00.004-04:00

We had a little Easter egg hunt on Monday. My friends were so nice to postpone it because Ethan was sick on Saturday. My friend took these pictures. Thanks Karen!

Zachy's having a great time

It's not an egg, but I found it on the ground... can I keep it?

What a good big brother!

The Best Part

Happy Birthday Zach and Ava!

2010-03-11T16:17:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday Babies!

I can't believe we made it a year. It has gone really fast for me. Well, the last 6 months have gone really fast. Zach and Ava are doing all the typical toddler things. Walking around, trying to say sounds, getting into everything, and just being really cute. For instance, at the moment Ava is rocking so hard in her highchair that she is scooting it across the floor and Zach is laughing histerically and trying to copy her. I need to try to catch that on video one of these days.

It's a lot of work, but they are fun.

We went to the doctor today. So here is an update for anyone keeping track.

Zach is in the 90th percentile for height, 50th for weight

Ava is 90th for height and 90th for weight. So she's still got Zach beat in the chunk department.

Here are a few pictures from their birthday party. My parents were in town last week, so we had a party a few days early.

I made a Soccer ball for Zach because he LOVES to play with any sort of ball. And a butterfly for Ava

I did it!

2010-02-24T11:08:00.003-05:00

I have accomplished three big feats this month. All shown in the picture. Can you guess what they are?
1. I have successfully transitioned to whole milk. So much easier! (except Zach now has a rash on his face so I'm trying soy to see if that's the problem... so lets say semi-successfully transitioned to whole milk)
2. I have successfully transitioned them to sippy cups!! I've been working on this one for months now. They just weren't having it. But after trying 4 different kinds I finally found one they'd use. I want to have a bottle burning ceremony, but Eric thinks we're going to have more kids?? :)
3. I got three forward facing seats in the car! I was worried I'd have to buy a new thinner seat, but I got our three in there. Yea!
My big worry about this: How are they both going to sit in the grocery cart if I don't have a carrier anymore? I used to keep one baby in the carrier inside the cart and buckle the other one in the front of the cart. Now what? Any ideas? Maybe I'll bring my own belt and strap Zach inside cart and pack food around him so he won't move.

Ava likes that idea...

In Our Humble Ways

2010-01-24T22:02:00.006-05:00

Uncle Sam is leaving the MTC this week. Ethan has been talking a lot about missionaries and wanted to dress up like one today. Eric pulled out his old stuff for him and Ethan proceeded to teach us an impromptu discussion entitled:

Jesus Looks Like This Sometimes

10 Months

2010-01-16T15:28:00.004-05:00

Ava started walking this week. Zach is soon to follow. He'll stand alone for minutes at a time, and he took a couple steps a few days ago too.

The videos don't do her justice. She kept getting distracted by a certain three year old who will remain nameless. It's his favorite thing to knock the babies down. I think he does it with love...

Santa, Songs, and One Spoiled Kid

2009-12-26T21:27:00.008-05:00

Christmas was fun this year. It was the first time that Ethan was aware of the season. It was so much more exciting to see Christmas through the eyes of a child again. Eric and I made him watch all the old Christmas cartoons and movies we used to love as kids and tried to shove all the traditions that we love down his throat :) . This was also the first year where he actually wanted stuff for Christmas. Which means we totally spoiled him. Hopefully we can tone it down a bit next year.

This has been Ethan's favorite Hymn this season:

(He breaks into Portuguese on the last line because that's how Daddy sings it)

We opened presents in three different waves. The first wave:
Christmas morning at Grandma's house in Orlando.

Ava looked like this the whole trip. She was and is still feeling sick. She has had to be in my arms at all times this week

The Second Wave:
Christmas evening with all the family
Grandma Ursic sure knows how to spoil kids too. We all made out really well!

The Third Wave:
The day after Christmas at home.

Did I mention we spoiled him? All I can say is Santa shops on Craigslist.

Christmas Time

2009-12-13T22:35:00.003-05:00

We got to see Santa at the Christmas party Saturday night. Ethan has been a little apprehensive about the whole concept of Santa. He's even asked if Santa can just leave the presents on the doorstep instead of coming in the house. Knowing this, I had been preparing Ethan all day for the dreaded event of sitting on Santa's lap. We talked about what was going to happen and that he could tell Santa that he's been a good boy. He even decided that he was going to tell him he wanted a big dinosaur with batteries for Christmas. (the first I'd heard of that present by the way-- back to Walmart I guess) I even pulled out the great parenting technique of "if you sit nicely on Santa's lap and smile, you can get a candy cane"... because, let's face it, I wanted a cute picture. But when we walked in the room I said lets go sit on Santa's lap. Ethan yelled "no". People started to laugh. Ethan started to cry. People laughed more. Ethan cried more. Finally, after a few minutes (and a cupcake from the Primary president) he agreed to help me put the babies on Santa's lap. So here's what we got:

It doesn't look like the babies want to be here

This one's a little better

9 Months

2009-12-10T00:42:00.006-05:00

The babies hit their 39 week milestone. They have now been on the outside as long as they were on the inside... so to speak. For some reason, I feel like that's an occasion to mark. So here are a few pictures.

Here's Zach getting excited for the monkey bread in the oven. It smelled really good.

He got baby food instead. Sorry buddy.

We all had a rather messy dinner.

Ava... I don't know how she does it--I promise I don't have clothes strewn about the house all the time-- but somehow she always finds a sock to crawl around with. Any sock. Usually a kid's sock, but any one will do. I've seen her steal them when I'm folding laundry, but she must have a secret stash somewhere. It's the funniest thing. She'll be playing in the other room, and then come crawling around the corner with a new sock in her hand. She'll hang on to it all day too. Don't worry, they are always clean socks. I don't know what she loves about them. It's a mystery.
Zach loves his bottle. If Ava has a bottle and he doesn't, he'll crawl right over to her and snatch it out of her mouth. Sometimes he does this even when he has his own. They both steal pacifiers from each other all the time too. It's pretty funny.

The Kiddos

2009-11-11T19:48:00.002-05:00

Finally Some Halloween Pics

2009-11-11T18:49:00.006-05:00

Ethan really wanted to be a lion this year. So we decided to do a jungle theme. Zacky is a monkey if you can't tell.

Yes, I think this is the cutest elephant ever.

Ready to fill his pumpkin
We went around the neighborhood with some friends from Church.

Happy Halloween!

Ethan at work

2009-10-27T19:00:00.005-04:00

Daddy often works at the computer with a book nearby. The other day Ethan grabbed his baby Elmo book and announced he had work to do. Later that day I got on the computer and found this typed out:

The / equals a ? because they are on the same key and i means l because the i key looks like a l.

Also, today we made a Mickey Jack-o'-lantern in honor of our Disney trip

Disney World

2009-10-22T21:26:00.004-04:00

With Eric on vacation we finally made it down to Orlando for the first time in 10 months. Eric’s mother watched the babies and we took Ethan to Disney World. The weather was beautiful (mid 70s) and we had a really fun time. Ethan probably liked the racing cars the most. He also liked Soarin at Epcot, but will not admit it.

He doesn't seem to mind

2009-09-23T16:04:00.004-04:00

She was laying like this for a good 5 minutes so she could reach her toy. Zach never complained. Which is surprising, because she weighed in at a whopping 20 pounds at their six month appt.

There are some things money can't buy.

2009-09-18T16:42:00.005-04:00

And no, I'm not talking about the sweet innocence of childhood.
I'm talking about a kid that falls asleep willingly. It's a beautiful thing.

That's right... You know what this means.

2009-09-06T00:05:00.001-04:00

25 Weeks

2009-09-01T19:34:00.003-04:00

Baby Update...

Ava's made her first crawling motions today. She's practicing every chance she gets. Zach is getting up on his knees and forearms once in a while, but he's not as interested in moving as Ava is. And that's just fine with me. I think Zach is working on a tooth, but I have no evidence of it except that he is not sleeping like his usual self.Ava can't handle the flash, but Zach looks happy

Workout Baby

2009-08-19T16:49:00.003-04:00

Ever since Ava saw this picture she's been working on her push up.
She's almost there. She's so competitive...

2009-08-19T15:22:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday Ethan!

He's been dressing up like daddy a lot lately, so he loved his new doctor kit.
Here he is checking the blood pressure on his new race car.

He was so excited about his "Lellow" Firetruck cake, it made my dye stained fingers and mess of a kitchen totally worth it.

More snapshots for Grandma

2009-08-08T20:57:00.005-04:00

Ava will not be ignored!

Zach's been practicing his drooling.
Ava's been practicing touching her tongue to her nose.

Here's Ethan at this age. I think he looks like a cross between the two of them.

Ethan all grown up with his cousin Rexford

4 months already!

2009-07-21T21:18:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it's been a month since I blogged last. The babies are growing fast and are becoming so much fun. We had their 4month check up today. Ava is above the 95th percentile in weight and is 90th in everything else. Zach is above the 95th for height and 90th for weight and head. So Zach is extra tall and Ava is extra chunk.

Here are a few pictures I've taken this month that I find amusing.
Our air conditioning went out a few weeks ago and we had to wait in the 88 degree house for the guy to come fix it. So, we all hung out in the front room with the fans blowing on us and played with play dough. I made a Mickey Mouse head for Ethan and he finished the rest. The pink dot at the bottom is a toe of course. I love it!
My sister Andrea came to visit/help for a week and we got to go to the museum to see the dinosaur exhibit. The dinosaurs were robotic and moved and growled very realistically. Ethan was not very comfortable. It was a little unnerving even for me if I stood too close.
We thought he'd like the baby triceratops, but I guess a baby triceratops is still a little freaky to a 3 year old.

Ava was in a particularly cranky mood after church, but I wanted a picture of her in her dress. This is the best shot.

1st Real Photo Shoot

2009-06-20T13:27:00.005-04:00

My mom was in town this week, so we took the kids to get some pictures taken. Turns out it's kind of difficult to get two babies and a toddler to smile at the same time.

Ava the Human Pin Cushion

2009-06-11T18:18:00.003-04:00

After we'd been home from the hospital a few days, I got a call from the doctor that treated Ava. He said that her blood work grew some E. Coli and they wanted her back in the hospital for 7-14 more days of IV antibiotics. Ahh! My heart just sank. We were just getting back to normal and now she was going to have to do it all over again!
So... again, I got a babysitter for the boys and off we went to the hospital. We got there around 4:00pm and by 10:00, she had had 6 different nurses try to find a vein for her IV and from what I could count, 17 needle pokes. Finally they gave up and called the doctor. He said "stop torturing that poor baby!" and he gave the okay to just give the anitbiotics through shots. By the next morning, they had her preliminary blood work back, which looked like she was getting significantly better. And since there really was no reason to keep us in the hospital, and because Eric had been brokering deals with her doctors since day one, we were able to go home Friday if we promised to be back every day for her antibiotics shot. That's what we did. Yesterday was her last shot. The poor poor baby. Thank heaven for Eric, or we'd have had to stay there for a week.

Here's Ava sporting her hospital gown.
She never wore it in the hospital, but I accidentally brought it home.
This is one article of clothing I wish didn't have to exist. So sad...

I feel a draft

Waiting to get discharged.

Our beautiful hospital room. She slept in the carseat next to me.
That cage of a crib, didn't look appealing.

Ava and Mommy's Weekend Getaway

2009-06-02T21:05:00.004-04:00

So, on Friday night Ava decided that she was tired of all the stinky boys in the house and wanted some girl time. So Ava and I spent a few days away-- just the two of us. We got waited on hand and foot. I got breakfast, lunch, and dinner in bed, and we sat around watching TV all day. Sounds pretty nice huh? Unfortunately, it also came with a 104 degree temp, IVs, thermometers up her rear every few hours, 2 x-rays, an ultrasound, blood work, catheters and a spinal tap. The last of which made her so mad she burst blood vessels all over her face from the screaming and has a bruise on her tongue from biting it during the procedure I presume.
After scaring us with a Viral Meningitis diagnosis because of her "confusing labs", it was determined that it was probably just a UTI. They promptly sent us home with some antibiotics.

She got to wear this the whole time to keep her IV in (she loved that).

She was a trooper the whole time. She stayed smiley and pleasant when they weren't poking her.

It was an exahusting weekend. Eric got to spend his first weekend in weeks in the ER, and I got two sleepless nights in the hospital. We are so glad to be home.... but now we need a real vacation.

A bunch of fuzzy pictures... and spit up on my couch

2009-05-17T11:52:00.003-04:00

I know there are some out there who think that having twin babies is wasted on me. I'm not the type to have them in matching outfits and take cute pictures all the time. I wish I was the type, but I just can't seem to pull it off-- even when I try really hard.
Today I got the babies all dressed and packed in the car only to turn the key and hear "click"... dead battery. Eric was already at church with Ethan, so I had no choice but to get everyone back in the house and take some pictures to prove that we actually got dressed today.

You'd think out of a million pictures, I'd get one clear shot of them smiling.

Ethan playing sports

2009-05-13T20:25:00.004-04:00

Recently Ethan and Daddy started playing Wii sports and miniature golf on the weekends. Ethan is constantly improving. In this game Ethan got 7 strikes! The other score shall remain nameless. Ethan got a couple lucky hole in ones, but unfortunately Daddy did not get them on tape.

All Smiles at the Ursic House!

2009-05-11T17:04:00.005-04:00

When I was struggling through my first year with Ethan, not getting any sleep at all, I would get so mad at everything sleep related-- Sleeping pill commercials, NyQuil ads, pictures of sleeping babies in magazines... the list goes on. But the worst were the mothers who would eagerly tell me about their 2 month old who's been sleeping for 8 hour chunks every night since they came home from the hospital. It made it that much worse knowing there were babies out there who were not screaming every hour and a half.
Well, I'm happy to report that last night both of my babies slept from 11:00-6:00. That's right, 7 hours straight. Then they both went right back to sleep after I fed them and slept till 9:30 (Ava slept till 10:30). And if that wasn't enough, Ethan decided to play in his room until 9:45 instead of waking me up. Yes, I'm feeling pretty good today.

Here's my Ava trying to squeeze a smile between those huge cheeks:

After a few minutes of trying to make Ava smile, Ethan wanted to show me how good HE is at smiling. I do love his smile.

It takes a little more effort to get Zach to smile, but it's worth it.
Unfortunately, they're all fuzzy...

7 weeks

2009-05-02T14:28:00.006-04:00

5 Weeks

2009-04-17T20:03:00.003-04:00

The babies had their 1 month check up today. We did okay and were only 10 minutes late. Not bad if I do say so myself. It is always fun to have the babies poop and pee and spit up all over the nurses instead of me for a change. They both are in the 75th percentile for height and weight. They both were brave for their shots (note the bandaid) It's hard with two though, you can't calm the first one down because you have to get the second one ready.
We did pretty well getting in and out of the doctor's office. I'm getting pretty good at juggling. Yesterday I changed a poopy diaper one handed. I was pretty impressed with myself. (I did use my leg to help though)

Easter Photo Shoot

2009-04-12T16:23:00.005-04:00

I didn't make it to church today. Eric had to work and I just don't know how I'm ever going to get two babies and Ethan fed and out the door on time by myself. The mornings are crazy for me.
Things settled down this afternoon and I made Ava dress up for some Easter pictures. She did a good job, but got a little tired by the end. (Zach was not in the mood for pictures. I'll try to get more of him the next time around.)

Getting tired of thisAnd... She's done.This is Ethan's first time holding the babies. He's very hesitant to touch them, like they're going to bite his finger off or something. I promised him he could take a picture of the babies if he held them for a minute. He liked that idea and did very well. It didn't seem to phase him that they both were screaming the whole time.
Here's the picture Ethan took.Here are a few random shots:
Ava having tummy time
Ava and Zach hanging out in their diapers.
Zach

Is indecisiveness an inherited trait?

2009-03-13T17:06:00.005-04:00

So after much debate, we finally decided on Zachary and Autumn for our names. I like the name Autumn a lot, but it just didn't feel right when I called our little girl that. I let it go, knowing that "Ethan" didn't feel right either until we got used to it. Then about 4 hours after we told the Birth Certificate Lady our name choices, Eric said "maybe we should go with Ava". I said YES!

I was leaning away from Ava because it's gotten very popular, but it just feels right to me. So now I have to go down to the Birth Certificate office and change it. But I'm happy. Thanks Eric.A little confused, but still cute
Ava India Ursic

Zach doesn't seem to care

Zach and Ava home from the hospital yesterday

ONE BOY AND ONE GIRL

2009-03-11T14:19:00.011-04:00

So we got there at 8:00am and they had incorrectly scheduled us for April 10^th instead of March 10^th. Obviously we didn’t want to wait until 43 weeks, so we opted to stay and work us into the schedule. Consequently everything went slowly and we didn’t even start the trial of induction until 2:00pm. Around 7:30 we started pushing and pushed for almost two hours. Audrey was a real trooper. I really thought we where going to have to go to c-section (in which case Audrey would have been eternally angry with me for persuading her to try induction). But ultimately the boy was born around 9:30ish at 7 lbs 9 oz. After starting to push the second baby, the baby's heart rate dipped and the OB used the suction to just pull her out, 7 lbs 2 oz. Both babies are healthy and doing fine (except one sleep deprived husband that has to work tomorrow). Audrey is doing great, considering what she went through.

Same as last time with Ethan Magnus, I lost the naming battle and was demote to middle names. Names are Boy: Zachary Ozzie and Girl: Autumn India.

Not Here Yet...

2009-03-09T09:39:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the big day. I have a c-section scheduled at 10:00 Tuesday (my 39 week mark). We might still try an induction, but the last we saw, the babies are around 7.5 to 8 lbs. I'm a little nervous. Delivering almost 16 lbs of baby doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
We'll post pictures as soon as we can (or as soon as Eric feels like it).
It is weird knowing exactly when you're going in. I think I like the surprise better. It's very emotional when you have days to think about all the "lasts" you're doing. The last time I'm going to get to sleep in. The last time Ethan and I will have our daily routine together. The last time I'm going to have a quiet morning like this while Ethan is still asleep. The last time I'm going to be alone with my husband for a long long time.
I'm excited for all the firsts that are to come too. Hopefully the first time the twins sleep through the night will come quickly. :)
Thanks for all the well wishes I've been getting. I love you all, and I'll see you on the flip side!

I make biscuits all by myself!

2009-02-06T10:35:00.003-05:00

I asked Ethan what he wanted for breakfast this morning, and then went to get dressed. When I came back, I found this. He smiled at me and exclaimed "I make biscuits all by myself!" He was pretty proud of himself.
(Somehow we ended up just having cereal though. I'm a pretty lame mom sometimes.)

The Twins' Names

2009-02-01T14:15:00.005-05:00

We are looking for input on the twins’ names; please take a second to vote and write a comment.

These are the names from favorite to least favorite.

Girl: India (nickname Indy), Aurora, Ava, Eva, Autumn, Isabella (nickname bella), Indra, Sophie, Giselle.

Boy: Kent, Paul (although I think Lisa has dibs), Clark, any suggestions?

Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

2009-01-03T16:12:00.003-05:00

Most of you already know that Ethan loves music and dance. Since we got Rock Band he asks to play incessantly. We decided to take a few clips from our OK Go jam session last night and make Ethan’s 1st music video.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas???

2008-12-21T22:32:00.003-05:00

The past few months have been chilly, but it looks like it's going to warm up to 80 degrees by Christmas. So, on Saturday, we dug out our swim suits that were packed away and headed to the beach.

Ethan will sit for hours digging in the sand.Daddy came over to help him build a castle. Merry Christmas From Florida!

Things that brighten my day...

2008-12-17T12:26:00.003-05:00

This morning I walked through the living room and saw this. What can I say... it made me smile.
Luckily there is no milk in the bowl. I've been trying to get it through Ethan's head that stuffed animals don't like to get their fur wet.

You will never take..... My FRRREEDOM!!

2008-11-14T17:24:00.007-05:00

Ethan has not been napping well lately. He has figured out that if he's quiet, he can sneak out of his bed and play (get into trouble) until Mommy catches him. This one particular day, Eric walked in to check on him and he found this.

Diaper cream "war paint".

Yesterday, after lunch I went to the computer to check my email while Ethan played. I was only gone 5 minutes, but that was enough. I guess he was still hungry because he made himself another sandwich. The honey bear in the background can give you an idea of how much honey was on this bread. It was completely full that morning.

2008-11-03T10:20:00.005-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I was so excited for this Halloween. We haven't had a single trick-or-treater in 5 years of marriage, but we are now in a neighborhood where they actually do it! Most of the people handing out candy were sitting outside enjoying the nice weather, so Ethan didn't have to knock on too many doors. He really got a kick out of saying "Chicka Cheeeet" and getting candy in his "punk". He only got scared once at a really decked out house. He wasn't put off by the decorations or music so we went up the drive way, but the vampire guy in the garage was not willing to loose the scary Transylvanian accent for a scared little dinosaur. I was a little annoyed at that. Ethan got close enough to get the candy, then he wanted out!
All in all, he had a great time and doesn't quite understand why we can't do it every night.

Time to get down to business and check out this candy.

Eric's parents came up for the weekend. Ethan loved having them here. He cried for a long time after they left.

Pumpkin Carving

2008-10-30T21:20:00.004-04:00

Sorry, I haven't felt like blogging in a while. I guess we just haven't done anything blog worthy.

We carved our pumpkin yesterday. Ethan was a little hesitant at first to touch the seeds, but soon got over it. He helped me bake the seeds and loved watching Eric carve.

He kept eating the inside of the pumpkin lid.

It's a Boy!....and a Girl!

2008-10-07T14:45:00.003-04:00

I had the ultrasound this morning. Everything looks good so far. Baby A was being pretty difficult and wouldn't move around so the tech looked at Baby B first. He is always moving a lot, and we could tell right away that he's a boy. She still couldn't get a great shot of Baby A so I had to move around a lot to get her to start kicking. She tried for a long time, then finally Eric said "oh Audrey I think you're going to get your wish" the tech had finally gotten a good shot and she agreed that it is a girl. whew! I am so excited. I got a little nervous when the first one was a boy. The thought of having 3 little Ethan's running around kind of makes my blood pressure rise. I really wanted one of each. I don't know a lot about child psychology, but I figure Ethan won't feel left out because he'll have the boy thing in common with Baby B. And Baby A will have the twin thing in common with Baby B. So they can all bond and be happy, well adjusted children. (one could hope)

So congrats to all who guessed right. Go out and buy yourself a prize. I know my parents are going out tonight to celebrate the news. (any excuse, right?)

Baby Guess

2008-10-06T09:11:00.003-04:00

We are supposed to find out the sexes of the babies tomorrow (Tuesday). I know this is short notice, as many of you don't check our blog every day, but I want everyone's guesses. I put up a poll on the side, but you have to comment here too if you want credit for being right.

Hopefully they will be cooperative and show off for the camera. I'll let you know tomorrow!

Um... Nevermind

2008-10-01T21:18:00.006-04:00

So, this morning Ethan and I went out to feed the bunny. He had escaped from his box again and was sitting by the fence. We went over with some food and water, but he did not seem interested at all. I could tell something was not right. He wouldn't move much and barely drank any water. We left him alone hoping he was just sleepy or something. I went out during Ethan's nap to see what was up and this time the bunny was laying down in the grass not moving... or breathing...
Yep, he didn't last a week with us. I hope it wasn't anything we did or could have prevented. Maybe we have some poisonous plants in our yard? Or maybe he was sick?

I didn't think I was that sad about it, but when Eric came home and I told him about it I started crying (I am pregnant though, I'll cry at an ice cream commercial). So I guess I liked the little guy. He was pretty cute.

I told Ethan that the bunny had to go home. I don't think he understood. I'll see tomorrow when he wakes up and wants to go play with it.

I just hope its few days with us were happy and that it enjoys bunny heaven.

So it seems we have a pet now...

2008-09-30T20:14:00.004-04:00

The other day we were on a walk around the neighborhood. I stopped to talk to the lady across the street and Eric and Ethan went on. A few minutes later, I see Eric bolting across the street after a rabbit. The poor thing was being chased by a cat. Eric picked it up, so now we are responsible for the thing. We went to the houses we thought it might have come from, but we haven't found the owner.
It is a very tame friendly bunny and Ethan loves it. It's the first thing he talks about in the morning. We'll see how long it will stay at our house. It escaped from its box today, but it stayed in the yard all day hiding in a bush and eating grass.

Here is a video of Ethan and the bunny. It stops abruptly because I ran out of memory.

All Grown Up

2008-08-29T16:09:00.003-04:00

I took a picture of Ethan on Sunday and I couldn't believe how grown up he looked. Maybe it's because he's finally growing some hair.

They're still there!

2008-08-26T17:05:00.003-04:00

Here are my latest pictures. There are still two. Baby "B" was moving around a lot. It was nice to see them and reasure myself that I am indeed still pregnant.

A few more birthday pictures

2008-08-18T11:18:00.000-04:00

Here is Ethan waiting to blow out the candles. We had to hold his little friend back. He was determined to beat Ethan to it.

There was so much food coloring in the black and red frosting, his hands and face will be stained for a long time.

His clothes too...
Here he is opening a present from my mom. He loves the Thomas set. Thanks Grandma!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

2008-08-16T21:12:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it was two years ago that Ethan joined our little family. It seems like it's gone so fast, but on the other hand I can't remember what it was like without him. Eric and I made a Thomas cake for him. Eric did most of the carving, I made the face and did most of the frosting (which was a lot harder than I thought it would be) It was all worth it when Ethan saw it and said with giddy excitement "Choo Choo!"

In the morning we took him to Toys R Us and let him run around and play. If you let him, he can run around for hours going from toy to toy pushing buttons and dancing. For dinner we ended up going to a friends house for a barbecue, so we turned it into a mini birthday party. Then we went home and opened a few more presents. I think he had a pretty good day. Here are a few pictures for the family.

God exists and He has a twisted sense of humor

2008-07-29T20:23:00.000-04:00

Inexorable proof that God exists and that He has a twisted sense of humor. After our first year with Ethan I said "well it could never be harder then this." God heard my axiom, laughed, and decided to take His game to a whole new level. A level that I never even considered. Props for anyone who guesses what this picture means...

Our new little Niece-- Natalia

2008-07-26T22:17:00.000-04:00

My sister Ellen just had her second adorable little girl. This is Natalia. Congratulations Ellen and Scott. She's beautiful!

Movie Challenge

2008-07-17T15:30:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone. I know we haven't posted in a while, but we've been having a headache with our computer the past week. I will upload some pictures soon. In the mean time, here is a little challenge to waste some of your time. Eric and I got 45/60. Let's see who can beat us....

Download Movie Challenge

Just type the name of the movie into the box and it will show underneath if you are right. Feel free to guess, you can erase wrong answers and try again.
A tip: If it asks "which one" only put the secondary part of the title in.

Going Going Back Back to Florida Florida...

2008-06-27T14:52:00.000-04:00

Here we are in Jacksonville. We finally got our Internet set up. Yea!! It took a lot longer than necessary,but we're back online. We were really lost without Google for a week. Especially while trying to set up our lives in a new city. We each had a quite a long list of things we wanted to look up as soon as we got it turned on. Last night we were fighting each other for the computer chair. I won because my things involved paying bills and managing bank accounts (and checking blogs of course).
We are getting settled in here. We love our house. Ethan is especially fond of our shower. I've found him sitting in it a couple times now. He seems to like it here. He has trouble finding me sometimes. It was easier in our tiny Spokane apt. There are more places to hide here.
Eric had orientation this week, but has had time in the afternoons and evenings to play with us. We have been to the beach every evening and we have been to the zoo twice already thanks to our zoo pass. The zoo is right down the street.

The beach is further, more like 25 min, but they are lovely beaches. Warm water and beautiful clean white sand. We have only been in the evenings so far, but each time we've gone, we've had the whole thing to ourselves. Ethan loves playing in the sand and helping Eric catch crabs.

Here he is helping... from afar. Yesterday we took turns watching Ethan while the other went on a run down the beach. Eric thought it was great, I (who hates to run) didn't have as much fun, but it did feel a bit like Chariots of Fire.

Do do do da do do choo choo choo choo choo da do do da doooo choo choo choo choo choo

(that's supposed to be the chariots of fire song)

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa

2008-06-15T01:33:00.000-04:00

Ethan and I are in Utah for the weekend while Eric and his brother drive across the country. Ethan is loving it here, and is sleeping amazingly well (which is rare for him).

He loves his uncle Sam and watches everything he does. Today I walked into the room and saw Ethan sitting on the couch by himself waving the Wii remotes around. Which is basically what Sam does all day. Kudos to Ethan for putting the wrist strap on... safety first. (too bad the TV was off)

Spokane is supposed to have similar weather to Utah, but it is so much warmer here. I hope it warms up for you guys up in Spokane soon.

Yea for Sprinklers!

Graduation Day

2008-06-14T01:51:00.000-04:00

Radiology here we come! No more pelvic exams, No more manually disimpacting old ladies, No more patients dirty looks!

The road to Doctorhood is a never ending one. When you finish Med School you are called doctor, but you can't practice on your own until you finish your intern year and pass your boards. Then you have the rest of residency and dare I say it... fellowship. It's hard to see that far ahead. We've had a lot of graduations, so it seemed silly to me to have a graduation from his intern year, My sister joked that it's kind of like a Kindergarten graduation. We still have a long way to go, but it is a milestone that is worth celebrating.

These are Eric's fellow Transitional Year Interns:Eric getting his diploma. It was nice to see him get recognized. He has worked really hard this year. I'm so proud of him.

My friends Carly and Carrie that I'm going to miss so much. It is so nice to have friends that are going through the exact same thing.

Congratulations Eric!

Almost Summer Time in Spokane

2008-06-05T21:49:00.000-04:00

Fountain in the park
Time to go home Ethan.

Bonjour Paris!

2008-05-14T19:06:00.000-04:00

What a month it's been! We've been so busy with Eric taking his boards, trying to sell our condo, trying to find a place to live in Florida, and planning a trip. I haven't had the time to blog.

We got back in town yesterday after spending a good 38 hours traveling home (at least).
I have been doing laundry for 2 days straight. As I am waiting on another load to dry, I thought it would be a good time to post some pictures of our trip.

Eric and I took a little trip to Paris last week. Leaving our little guy with Grandma in Utah. I was a little worried that he would be okay, but I took him down a few days early to acclimate him to the new surroundings. By the time I left, I was pretty sure he wouldn't notice if I was around. My mom had so many fun things planned for him he didn't have time to notice if I was around. She did a great job and I'm sure she needs a vacation herself now.

Here we are on the Champs Elysee in front of the Arch d'triumph.

I was a little hesitant to stand in the middle of the street to take pictures. Luckily we didn't get hit. After we crossed the street, we walked over to a bench to rest. A few minutes later we heard a huge thump and Eric saw a lady flying through the air with her feet above her head. She had been hit by a car. Eric ran out to her in the middle of the street. She was amazingly still conscious and talking with only a very broken finger and a huge bruise on her head. Eric checked her out and when the police arrived they told him he could go. It was the craziest thing!

I must say that I am always filled with pride when I see Eric go into doctor mode. I don't see that side of him very often at home and I love that he is cool in a crisis and knows exactly what to do to help. I always feel safe when he's around. I'm so proud of him! (okay cheesiness over)

After that fiasco, we walked over to Angelina's for some hot chocolate. It is supposed to be one of the finest cups of hot chocolate in Paris. It was like drinking a candy bar. Delicious! Eric makes a better one though. :) **And thanks to Andrea for teaching me how to order water in a restaurant without getting an 8 dollar Evian bottle**

Paris is full of amazing buildings everywhere you turn. -Hotel De Ville Notre DameVersailles-- Hall of Mirrors
Versailles has acres of gardens that we walked through. Here is one of the fountains.

We saw some great art at the Pompidou Center like Jackson Pollock and Kandinsky

And some not so great art... I think this one is called three white squares.

We went to a ballet at the Paris Opera House. It was beautiful.

A fuzzy picture, but it was such an amazing room

At the Louvre

They don't know who carved this center statue but they think it must have been a kindergarten teacher. :)
Eric's best Easter Island impression

Rodin Museum

As you can see Eric was very into posing like the artwork. He really wanted to do "the Kiss" too, but unfortunately we didn't know the French for "will you take a picture of us while we make out like this statue" otherwise I totally would have done it....

We loved the Metro. Especially when our feet hurt from all the walking. Here we are about to get on our last train ride to the airport. Doesn't Eric look sad to be leaving?

When we saw Ethan after being gone for a week, he wasn't mad at us or super excited either, he just had this sweet content smile plastered on his face the entire day. It was quite heart warming.
We are glad to be home, Thank you Eric for taking me to Paris. I guess this means the next trip is Tibet.

I turn my head for two seconds

2008-04-08T02:14:00.000-04:00

Ethan has become a very quick climber. Every time I turn around, I find him

getting into something new. I was impressed that he got this tower so high. And very thankful that he didn't think to open the spices... that could have been a disasterous (not to mention expensive) mess.

Rapper Snoop Dogg converts to Mormonism

2008-04-03T17:48:00.000-04:00

Is Snoop getting his BOM on?

Click here to read at CNN

The link doesn’t work sometimes but if you keep trying it should eventually put you through to the article.

This is just an April fool’s joke, but the article is pretty funny. I am not sure but the article might be belittling towards Mormonism as well, unless it was written by a Mormon.

Oh Walmart....

2008-03-29T14:46:00.000-04:00

I was searching for a cake picture on Google Images the other day and I came across this cake. I stared at it for a long time trying to figure out what it said. I clicked on the link to see it bigger, and I still couldn't figure out what it meant. Until I read the caption:

Some people that work here had a going away party the other day for a woman
that is leaving.
One of the supervisors called a Walmart and ordered the cake. He told them to write: “best wishes Suzanne” and underneath that write “we
will miss you”.

Easter baskets are inherently girly

2008-03-23T23:59:00.000-04:00

We had an egg filled month this March. I have plastic eggs coming out of my ears. Ethan loves to find small things to hide in them, like raisins and coins he finds in my wallet. I'm surprised how good he is at closing the plastic eggs. He's very persistent.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our play group egg hunt. We had a huge turn out (we missed you beckee) and there were tons of eggs to find with lots of yummy candy for me... I mean Ethan... to eat.

After 3 egg hunts, Ethan has developed a new found love for jelly beans. That one molar he has really helps I guess.

After picking up egg after egg after egg, Ethan figured out a much more efficient way to gather them. He finished early and was able to check out the buffet table and make a phone call while everyone else finished up:

Heading off to church. (While Eric headed off to bed... only one more week of nights!)

Class Clown

2008-03-20T02:38:00.000-04:00

I've been feeling the pressure from family members to put up more videos, so here they are. They're not great in quality, but I think the subject matter is pretty cute nonetheless.

The other day Ethan started running back and forth across the room, just giggling like crazy. When he saw how much it was making Eric and I laugh, he kept doing it. He ran back and forth for probably 10 minutes before we got the camera out. You can see he's getting tired. The whole thing ended abruptly when he dizzily ran smack into the wall at full speed. Unfortunately we didn't get that moment on tape. He hasn't really mastered the whole "watch where you're going" aspect of running.

Every kid has meals like this, but Ethan doesn't do it very often. I think it's because he has his shirt off this time that he decided to go town. He loves to rub things on his tummy e.g. lotion, diaper rash cream, mommy's face cream and evidently baby food.

Sorry it's so dark, we had a lightbulb out....

or should I say "STILL HAVE a light bulb out"... aHem... Eric.

A few videos for the Fam

2008-03-11T22:26:00.000-04:00

It cracks us up to watch Ethan do his stacking cups. He's really been into them lately. We've had them for a year, but he's just recently noticed them again and they've become his favorite toy. He takes them very seriously and he is very proud of himself when he completes the stack.

Can we go outside yet??

2008-03-11T00:37:00.000-04:00

We are so excited for all the snow to melt so we can play at the park again. It's been so long since Ethan's been able to run free outside. Every once in a while Ethan will get ready to go on his own and make me feel really guilty for keeping him cooped up in the house for so long. Just a few more weeks of warmth should do it. Our apartment manager was optimistically planting flowers today. Hopefully he's right and the cold is over.

Okay... I've been tagged

2008-02-27T23:17:00.000-05:00

I don't usually do these things, but because it was from my sister... I guess I'll do it. The tag is to name the first 10 songs that come up on your iPod when it's on shuffle. I have to admit that Eric and I are still in the dark ages and don't own a portable MP3 player. So I did it on our computer.
About a year ago we got a week free on Napster and we downloaded anyone and everyone we've ever heard of. It's left us with an array of artists on our computer. Some good... A lot BAD. So I put all these songs on shuffle and here's what came up:

Matisyahu-- King With Out a Crown

This guy is a Hasidic reggae rapper. Pretty groovin'

The Killers-- Smile like you mean it

Whitney Houston--I will Always Love You

you've gotta love some classic Whitney

Enya--One by One

Jewel--Who will Save your Soul

Cat Stevens--Peace Train
This song will forever remind me of Eric studying for Step 2.
He listened to it over and over and over...

Police--De Do Do Do De Da Da Da

Barry Manilow--I Write the Songs
(yeah... I'm as surprised as you are...)

Veggie Tales-- Love My Lips

Erykah Badu--On and On

Interesting mix of Eric's and my taste with a few very random ones (Barry?) thrown in. Thanks Ellen, that was fun.

Playing in the Snow

2008-02-17T18:31:00.000-05:00

Last week we went to Coeur d'Alene with some friends. It was pretty cold out, but the kids had fun making snowballs. Ethan has only played in the snow a few times. Mostly because of a lack of snow clothes for him. I haven't been in a rush to buy them, because of his obvious indifference to the snow. Lovely lake Coeur d'Alene. This was shockingly our first trip to the lake. I'm sure we'll go back more in the spring time. I hear it's beautiful.
Ethan all bundled up with some friends.
Trying to make a snowball

A few Christmas pictures

2008-01-28T17:55:00.000-05:00

Here is our little Christmas morning on the Saturday before we left for Utah. We opened all of the gifts from Eric's side of the family. Ethan got a great video game from Grandma Ursic. Just like his father, he loves his video games. Here are a few pictures of our trip. I was not very good at having my camera ready this vacation, so all the pictures from Utah were taken by my brother-in-law Scott. Hopefully he doesn't sue me for copyright infringements (I stole them off flickr).

"Here Sonja, YOU take this piece of paper, I'LL take your present."

Grandma's glasses

I promise he doesn't always have that pacifier in...Feed me Grandma!
Playing Wii with Sonja

Here are a few pics from our visit to BYU.
Ellen (my sister), Scott, and I took over the new alumni center. The alumni ballroom must be for alumni dancing right?

Here is my sister and her darling little Sonja. Aren't they beautiful?

ManaMana

2008-01-13T23:08:00.000-05:00

Ethan loves You Tube! He has a few favorites that he asks for every day. His favorite right now is the Muppet's ManaMana song. He'll run over to me saying "ManaManaMaYeah?!? ManaManaMaYeah?!" as he nods his head in excitement. Which translates to "I want to watch the ManaMana video Mommy."
You can see the original Muppet video in the top right.
See Ethan's own ManaMana Video Here:

Vitamin E Deficiency

2007-12-21T18:40:00.000-05:00

I have discovered that I have a major vitamin 'E' deficiency. Well, more like an imbalance. I am getting plenty, if not an overdose, of vitamin E1, but hardly any of the equally important vitamin E29. Have I seen a doctor about this you ask? No, actually that's the problem... Don't worry, I'll be okay. It just makes me pretty tired and irritable. And when I do get any vitamin E29 it seems like I don't take advantage of it, because I am distracted by all the vitamin E1 in my system. I'm really looking forward to this next week of vacation where I'll be able to dilute some of my E1 and concentrate on E29 a bit.

(I guess an overdose of E1 can't be too bad a thing... he's pretty charming.)

P.S.Thanks for the Christmas clothes Grandma Ursic!

Reading Time

2007-12-15T12:27:00.000-05:00

Ethan got some blankets and snuggled himself in the chair yesterday. He was being pretty funny, so I tried to catch a minute on video. I need an invisible camera so he doesn't get distracted. I love how he gives the book a hug and then pretends to read it. So cute! if I do say so myself... :)

Ethan Tree

2007-12-10T23:02:00.000-05:00

Ethan looks so excited every time he goes for our Christmas tree. I feel bad every time I have to tell him "don't touch". So last night I pulled out our little tree (courtesy of Grandma Ursic) and Ethan and I decorated it with his toys. He got such a kick out of it I think he forgot about the big one. We'll see how long that lasts.

That's why we had him!

2007-12-03T21:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday after church Eric found Ethan finally doing something productive. Ethan found the mop in the laundry room and dragged it over to the entryway to clean. This is quite impressive considering that I hardly ever clean the floors when he's awake. I didn't think he even knew what that mop was for.

Go Cougars!

2007-11-29T01:52:00.000-05:00

I was surprised to find out just how many of my friends here in Spokane are Ute fans. So I feel kind of bad posting about how GREAT the game was! And I just want you to know that it is all Eric's doing. He single handedly (or footedly) won the game for BYU with his awesomely loud bleacher stomping during the Utah plays.

Thanks Uncle Steve for the great tickets!

This is a bad picture, but it's the best angle we could get with the cougar. It was super crowded.Eric wanted to rush the field, but we were trapped in by the old folks surrounding our seats.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-29T01:25:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I've fallen behind with the blogging. I just haven't been feeling it lately. Ethan's sick... again. And when he's not happy... nobody gets any computer time.

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving. Ethan and I were there a week, but Eric just flew down for the weekend.

My brother-in-law Ryan had the great idea of making festive hats to get us in the Thanksgiving mood. They turned out really cute.

"why'd you steal my land mommy?"

I think Ryan was a little surpriesd at how willing we were to wear silly hats for dinner.

Ethan loves spending time with Uncy Sam. He cried when Sam left the room and followed him everywhere. Sam was great with him.

It was freezing, but we had a lot of fun playing at the park across the street.

It was fun strewing Grandma's kitchen utensils around the house for a change.

A peek into my day

2007-11-13T23:09:00.000-05:00

Ethan opened a few boxes from the cabinet and decided to reorganize. I captured a few minutes on my camera and I thought I'd post it for those of you who don't get to see him very often.

Please excuse the diaper, he took his pants off earlier.

Gettin' my play on...

2007-11-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the children's museum downtown. It was a lot like the one we went to in Seattle, only a lot smaller. However, there were plenty of buttons to push to keep Ethan happy for hours.
[Notice the brand new jeans. Ethan's on antibiotics still which caused him to have a little accident (well, more like a BIG accident) on the way to the museum. I lifted him out of his carseat and squish... his pant leg was full... Not wanting to turn around and go home, I ran inside and cleaned him up in the bathroom. Unfortunately, I am not the mother who has extra everything in her diaper bag, so he emerged from the bathroom pantless (which becomes less and less cute the older he gets). Luckily, the museum is located IN the downtown mall, so after cleaning up I ran into the nearest department store and bought some way too expensive new jeans. Victory!]

We then enjoyed the rest of our stay... They had a little doctor's office that I couldn't resist.
These are for Eric--

Ethan loved playing with the boats in the water, but he didn't like having his hand wet.

Not feeling so hot

2007-10-31T14:55:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have spent any time with Ethan know that he sits still for no man... ever. That's why my pictures are always blurry, my hair is always frazzled, and why it has already taken me 10 minutes to write these two sentences (he's "sitting" on my lap right now). So, when he is calm and wants to snuggle with me on the couch, I know he's not feeling well.

No, he's not watching TV. He's just sitting there. I don't think he's ever been this lethargic.

I took him to the doctor on Monday, and the second we stepped into the waiting room, he smiled for the first time in days, and ran around the room giggling and babbling and playing for the first time in days. He also suddenly redeveloped the appetite he had lost, eating the entire food contents of my diaper bag all before the doctor entered the room. Another mother even asked me "are you sure he's sick?" Luckily, the doctor believed me that he's been nothing but sad and pathetic for days, and she checked him out and found his ear infection.
He's doing much better today having experienced the magical healing powers of the pediatrician's waiting room. (the antibiotics probably have helped a bit too)

2007-10-27T23:32:00.000-04:00

So, we finally made it to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. Going on the last Saturday before Halloween was not the best idea. The pumpkins were pretty sparse. We got a few to carve though.

Super Baby!

2007-10-27T01:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, Ethan started lifting his arms and running around the room when you said either "super-baby" or "up up and away!" (a little something Eric taught him). So, naturally he had to be Superman for Halloween. We had a little Halloween party with our 'resident's wives' play group on Friday. Ethan was pretty tired at this party, so he didn't really show off this talent. We'll try again on Wednesday at the "Trunk-or-Treat". The cute doctor next to him is his friend Armour.

Appba

2007-10-20T17:44:00.000-04:00

So, he used to say something like banana, and something like bread, but finally I think we can say for sure that he can say a word. As you can see, he only speaks when he feels like it.