Moving Day(s) in Atlanta

We decided to use ABF again to move from Georgia to Utah, and we took three days to load the truck and get out of there. Loading the truck is a little more involved when they are charging by linear foot.

Monday night we had wonderful friends come and help load most everything into or next to the truck.

Christian had a ball just running around and in and on the ramp of the truck. I hardly saw him the whole evening, and couldn't even get him to come inside to eat some dinner.
This was our number one guy, hard at work. Moving is his specialty. :) Thank you John for all you did for us! Not just the packing, but taking care of all the things after we left. You rock. He and Jake carefully arranged the packing in the truck and we managed to only use fourteen feet. We moved out there, without kids, in twelve feet, so I'd say that was pretty amazing! Thank you, thank you!Tuesday we packed some more, loaded a few more things in the truck, and got our car re-fixed, by someone who actually knew what he was doing this time.

Wednesday we were on our own to finish up loading the truck, emptying the house of odds and ends, cleaning and getting on our way. It was a little tricky to take care of two tired children, help Jake load the truck, and everything else. We were both feeling a little stressed because we needed to get on the road to start our trek and feeling a little discouraged by the progress we were not making. I had a wonderful friend who called me up to wish us well and ended up taking Christian to the playground for a couple hours and then feeding him lunch. What a blessing that was!! Thank you Kristy! I also ended up paying a friend to clean my house since there was no way we'd be able to and start our drive on Wednesday. Thank you Eliane!

(Can you spy me? Jake handed me boxes and items and I found the nooks and crannies to put them in. We made a great team!)

This is what Ethan did while we packed the truck. What a good boy!
And this is what he did while I packed inside. He was a little neglected. Maybe that's why our boys were so good in the car all the way across the country...they were thrilled to have our undivided attention all the time! :)

The finished product!!

Christian loved the ABF truck and it made a great game as we crossed the country--any time Christian spied an ABF truck on the road he would get an M&M! He was great at spying them!
At 4:00 we finally said goodbye to our home one last time, headed to the Salmon's to drop off the Harrison's car that we'd been driving for three months (which turned out to be a fatal mistake...), and then left Atlanta heading west on the I-20.

It was a relief to be done with the packing and know that my house would be cleaned. But still, as we left Atlanta tears were shed. It was hard to leave. I loved that place.

Catching Up

A few fun photos from our last week in Atlanta:

February 15, 2010
Brothers in the bath! (Yes, I was having way too much fun with Ethan's hair. Sorry Ethan, but you are just too cute!)
February 17, 2010
This wasn't moving day, but not too far from it. I took these pictures because I realized that Christian had been dressed in this identical outfit on the day we moved from Clemson to Atlanta.
Here is Christian on moving day in the same clothes. He was ten days from his first birthday, and Ethan was seventeen days from his first birthday in the above pictures. Not planned, but kind of fun! As you can see, Christian was much more mobile at that age, but Ethan has much more hair!


February 19, 2010
Ethan was in desperate need of a hair cut, so I decided to cut it just a few days before we moved. These were obviously the BEFORE pictures. Then, of course, after I cut it I was heart broken because I cut it too short and he looked all grown up like a little boy! (I always do that.) The AFTER pictures will be revealed with our family pictures we had taken just before we moved. :) Stay tuned.

O.N.E.

Dear Ethan,

When you turned one, you still loved bathtime. You always have, and I think you always will. You especially love to lay down, pick your legs up and kick them down as hard as you can. You soak me every time.When you turned one you still gave me the best smiles with those cute teeth of yours. Such a happy guy, with so many smiles to share. Those smiles brighten my day every time you give me one, or anyone else for that matter. Never stop giving your smiles away. I love them.

Love,
Ma-ma-ma-ma

Freckles

Dear Christian,

The other day I noticed that you have freckles on your nose! They are tiny and faint, but they are oh so cute! I am thrilled. And every time I am close enough to see them, I tell you how cute they are and how much I love them. I have freckles and I didn't think you would, as it didn't appear to be so until now. But I'm so happy to see I have passed on this trait. I guess freckles develop as a child gets older. Whatever the reason, they are there, they are SO cute, and I love them. Someone once told me that a face without freckles is like a heaven without stars. So my little Christian, your heaven is aglow.

I love you! And your freckles too!

Love,
Mommy

My Little Crawler

Ethan is improving his crawling skills a little too quickly. This afternoon I found him sitting in the middle of a cereal box pile and caught him in the act, just as he reached his hand into the Cheerios box, got a fistful, and stuffed as many as he could in his mouth. Realizing I was right there, he looked up at me, with the cutest look on his face and said, "Mmmm."

Later, he figured out the fun of throwing things down the stairs and therefore wanted to keep crawling over the stairs. I would say, "Ethan" to distract him from crawling further and when he looked at me I'd say, "Uh, uh, uh!" and shake my finger. Christian, of course, repeated it anytime Ethan tried to crawl over to the stairs. That's when Ethan turned around to us, shook his little pointer finger (another new skill this week) and said, "uh, uh, uh!" Christian and I laughed hard. :)

(I keep trying and failing to upload more crawling videos. There will be more to come soon, hopefully!)

He's a crawler!

At one year, two weeks, Ethan has finally figured out how to crawl. We are so excited! And he seems to be enjoying himself as well.

Ethan's 1st Birthday Party

First things first...make the cupcakes!
Christian and I made monkey cupcakes for our little monkey.
Next, get the birthday boy ready. He was excited, can you tell? Little did he know what was in store....
Opening presents: This scene lasted only a short moment before the big brother and big cousins "assissted" in the present opening. Ethan decided it would be safer to observe his present opening, rather than participate. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this, as Ethan was sitting safely on my lap.
And the moment that is really the culminating event of a first birthday, is it not? ...the eating of the cake! Or in this case, the monkey cupcake!
Ethan thoroughly enjoyed every bite! Ethan gave us a much more exciting show than Christian did on his first birthday, who didn't even want to touch the cake, so we were quite pleased with this result. I would say the monkey cupcakes were a smashing success. Quite literally. :)

Christian also enjoyed every bite of his monkey, and managed to sneak a second since Mommy was preoccupied with the birthday boy. He thoroughly enjoyed that one too. Despite his first birthday cake eating (or not-eating) Christian has really turned out to be quite the cake-lover!
All that cake eating makes a birthday boy thirsty!!
Happy 1st Birthday to our little Monkey!!
Oh, how we love you!

P.S. I failed to get pictures of all in attendance, but Ethan, you had lots of your fans there to celebrate with you! Attendees included: Grandma and Grandpa, Grammy and Papa, Uncle Connor, Aunt Melissa, Aunt Rosanna, cousins Megan, Simon, Rachel and Dylan, Mommy, Daddy, Christian, and of course Ethan.

Ethan's Birthday

On Ethan's real birthday (the day after his party)....

We put together his presents that were opened at his party but never enjoyed.
Ethan was entertained by the Busy Ball Popper (and so was Christian)
And he seemed to be a little perplexed as well!
It was Sunday, but we tried to at least have a little fun.
Christian made a train in honor of Ethan's birthday and even let Ethan's new car be a part of it.
But the best part was that Christian let Ethan RIDE on his car in the train.

What a fun train ride!


What handsomeness! Happy Birthday, to our handsome little guy!

Christian's Sick

I thought I would expound on Christian's sickness that added a little excitement to our cross-country trip. Mostly for our own remembrance and to give us a good laugh in the future.

We were checked into our last hotel for the last night of our trip. It happened to be the worst hotel we stayed in, but we were in Cortez, Colorado, so there wasn't much else to choose from. We arrived at the hotel just before 10:00 p.m. and took our sleeping boys into the room to get them back to sleep. Christian went right back to sleep and Ethan didn't take too much effort either. We were all exhausted.

Just before midnight Ethan woke up and I was sitting in a chair feeding him when Christian started crying. Fortunately Ethan was just finishing, so I laid him in his bed, he went right to sleep, and I switched gears to the next child in need. Christian had sat up and was coughing and before I could even pick him up he turned and threw up across the bed. And then he threw up again. I rushed him into the bathroom, Jake joined me, and then we spent the next half hour giving Christian a bath, cleaning up the mess, and getting back to bed.

The blessings of the whole situation: 1. Ethan never woke up, which was quite a miracle. We were all sleeping in the same small hotel room, remember? And he hadn't been sleeping real deep the whole trip. Grateful for that blessing. 2. Christian managed to throw up across the half of the bed he wasn't sleeping on. It was a queen sized bed, so he still had plenty of clean sheets left. 3. Christian didn't even get a speck of puke on his jammies or his pillow. No washer and dryer, middle of the night, indeed a blessing. 4. I didn't even have to wash the sheets or clean the carpet. (Yes, I did wipe it up the best I could.) Being sick in a hotel room isn't so bad, you know? Although I do apologize to the ones who had to remove the soiled sheets.

Christian woke up another time in the night complaining of a tummy ache, so we rushed into the bathroom, but no more throw up. The next day was our last day of travel and he didn't eat much after throwing up his apple juice for breakfast. Luckily Christian is old enough to know he's going to throw up (only he calls it spit up) and can throw up in a bag. Since we were eating breakfast in the car, this was yet another blessing. :) When we stopped in Price for lunch at Subway he again threw up some gatorade he'd drank. Then we all sat down to eat our sandwiches and Christian asked, "Where's my wunch?" I told him, "Sorry sweetie, you don't get anything. We don't want you to have another tummy ache." He seemed content with my answer, but it broke my heart. Have you ever had to deprive your child of a meal when they are asking for it? Anyway, our last day of travel went very smoothly since Christian was sick and therefore out of energy, and Ethan was tired as well. The boys slept a good part of the day and we only had to stop once for some emergency Sprite, once for lunch and once for gas and then we were home!

So although it might seem completely awful that Christian ended up with a stomach bug on our trek to Utah, it really wasn't too bad. The worst part was being up all night because of it and missing my sleep. But that's nothing too out of the ordinary. :)

Now Ethan seems to have started the bug, although nine days later. He was up all night Sunday night and then finally threw up at 5 am. That was the only throw up, but now he's having blowouts twice a day. Gross. I'm not sure if it's a bug or something he's eating. Hopefully we can figure it out soon so he won't keep having to have two baths a day. Poor little guy! (Although he thoroughly enjoys being in the tub!)

Ethan is ONE!!

I can't believe it's been one year since Ethan joined our family. I cannot imagine our family without him and yet it seems like just yesterday he made his exciting entrance into this world. He is the sweetest little boy and has brought so much joy to us in a very short year.

I was hoping for his first birthday present he would give me a full night's sleep, but instead I got quite the contrary. He was up multiple times through the night and at five o'clock I'd decided maybe it was his teeth or a possible ear infection and was heading for some tylenol. That's when he threw up a couple times. And being half asleep and way over-tired, I couldn't think of anything else to do except catch it with my hand....gross, and very ineffective. Thanks for gift, Ethan. :)

At ONE Ethan is:
-Still not crawling. :) Although he's getting closer everyday.
-Can pull up to his knees
-Not sleeping through the night. I blame our three day trip across the country and new surroundings and routines for that. But pretty soon those won't count...
-Still nursing.
-Mama's and Daddy's boy, and reaches out for Daddy the second he walks in the door, insisting that he hold him. I love seeing that relationship.
-Content almost all the time.
-says Mama, Dada, uh-oh, hi
-so cute when he waves! He does two kinds of waves: one is the open-close fist and the other is the palm-up, back and forth wave. That's my favorite. :)
-still amused by himself. He is a silly little boy, loves to be silly, and laughs at his silliness.
-very ticklish!
-growing his six tooth. He currently has two top, and three bottom and working on his fourth bottom tooth.
-not so sure about milk. And I'm not so sure he is able to have it. Maybe it's the cause for his tummy ache.
-content to sit and play with toys. He is getting really good at reaching for things and is getting along just fine without crawling. But when he does crawl, I know he'll be thrilled, and he'll be into everything!
-able to get back onto his bum after falling onto his tummy. This used to frustrate him so much but now he doesn't mind if he falls on his tummy because he can get right back up.
-so good at giving kisses! Mouth wide open, and sometimes he even gives us a lick. He's always so willing to offer us kisses.
-good at giving "ohs." a.k.a. laying his head on us and saying, 'ohhh.'

I have no stats for Ethan yet because I have not found a pediatrician here yet, and therefore have not taken him for his one-year check up.

I also have no pictures yet because our computer is in storage, but they will be coming shortly!


Dear Ethan,

We love you beyond words! I don't think you will ever know how much Daddy and I love you and how much joy you bring into our lives. You give us the best smiles, the best kisses, and the best "ohs." You are such a good baby, and have been since the day you entered this world. Sometimes I wonder how we were so blessed. I also love how silly you are and love to call you my little monkey. The other day I asked Christian how we got a monkey in our family, and where you had come from? He told me you came from Heavenly Father. He is absolutely right. We are so blessed that Heavenly Father sent you down to live in our family. I can't believe it has been a whole year since that day, but I have enjoyed every moment of you. I just wish you wouldn't grow up so fast! You already seem so much older now that you're one. Oh how I love you so much! Happy first birthday, little guy!

love, Mommy

We Made It!

We made it! We left Georgia at 4:00 P.M. on Wednesday and arrived in Utah at 2:30 P.M. on Saturday. It ended up being just under three full days of travel, and about a thirty six hour drive. We drove through ten states and covered just over 2000 miles. We were so blessed the whole trip with no major problems, only a tiny bit of rain in Texas (and a flurry of snow), and two very good boys in the back seat. When we left Georgia, we had a couple reasons to be worried:

First, we were having car problems. To make a long story short, a dishonest mechanic tried to fix an oil leak for us and ended up practically ruining our engine, transmission, and everything in between. Fortunately we had a connection who know exactly what he was doing and he fixed our car for us. In his words, "he'd seen some bad jobs on cars, but this one takes the cake....It was a miracle your engine didn't just fall out." We picked it up from him Tuesday night, just in time to leave Wednesday. Needless to say, each of our prayers included a special blessing that our car would run smoothly. Thank you to those who prayed for that as well! Our prayers were answered and our car ran like a champ the whole way! We even hit the 197,000 mile mark on our drive here. What a great car!

Second, we hadn't been on a long car trip since we went to the beach when Ethan was only six weeks old, and even that was only six hours. I figured Ethan would eventually revolt and just scream to get out of his car seat, or throw a fit when we tried to put him back in, but hoped that Christian would be able to be entertained by activities and such. With a thirty six hour trip ahead of us, I collected a few new travel activities, lots of snacks, bought a DVD player and hoped for the best. Well, the boys did amazing! Really, we couldn't believe how good they were. They napped at the same time, Ethan rarely cried, and we never even had to break out the DVD player! (And Christian even spent the last night and day with the stomach flu...but that's another story.) Both boys were such troopers! We really had a lot of fun and I definitely foresee many more road trips in our future!

I just feel so blessed. Christian got a stomach bug, bot no one else got it, Ethan and I got a cold and I lost my voice, but it's coming back already. We're excited to be here and are still praying that our home will sell soon! We have already had two showings since we left, so that's great news. Thank you to all our amazing friends who helped us pack up and are still helping watch over our house. I cannot express how truly grateful we are to you. We miss you already. :)