Current Bedtime Routine

1. Play with Daddy (when we're lucky that he's home early enough)
2. Jammies
3. Brush Teeth and go potty
4. Story and Scriptures with Daddy, while laying three heads on the big baseball pillow.  Christian and Ethan also get to read their own "square" out of the illustrated Book of Mormon.  Christian is doing really well reading on his own!  And Ethan is great at repeating.
5. Climb in bed--Ethan with his maya and sippy cup filled up with water
6. Turn out the light
7. "Thing-a-ma-Bob" Story told by Daddy (when I had to fill in on this once, it was pretty pathetic--Daddy's stories are much funnier)
8.  Sleep tight my little monkeys!

Meanwhile, Mommy puts Owen to bed in peace.  Sometimes before the big boys, sometimes during.

Fresh out of the Bath!

Clean baby, huge cup, happiness--Aahhh.

Owen, 10 months

Owen turned ten months old this week!  He is growing up so fast!  I keep getting comments that "your baby is not a baby anymore" and "it seems like just yesterday he was born" and "he looks like a little boy!"  So I guess I must accept it, but I still like to snuggle and love him like the sweet baby that he is.  :)

This past month has been quite eventful for Owen!

1. He has learned to "scootch" and then about a week later figured out "real" crawling--the left hand, right knee thing.  Although when he wants to get somewhere fast, scootching is the method of choice
2. He has cut his first tooth! (Bottom right)  And I'm pretty sure there are three more just about to come through too.
3. He has had an ear infection, bronchitis, and pink eye.  It's been a little rough.  His sleeping through the night is all messed up. :(
4. He got his FIRST hair cut!  (and second too, a few days later when we decided it wasn't short enough--I always chicken out on that first one)  But the second cut was well worth it, because he looks so handsome! (see pictures above--those are after his second hair cut)

First hair cut

The weakness of the first cut--this is all I cut off :)

Do I really have to get another hair cut?!

Ha! I'm so cute!

5. He babbles lots--da, da is used for lots of things, including Daddy, ma ma is mostly for Mommy, and his newest sound is ba!  It's so fun to hear him babble
6. If you blow, he will blow too.  It's a great effort on his part, and takes lots of concentration, but maybe if he keeps practicing he'll be able to blow out his candle on his first birthday!
7. He has learned to give "kisses"--again, lots of concentration and he's very serious about it.  It's so stinkin' cute!

8. He LOVES balls and doors! Opening and closing them, opening and closing them.  Christian did the same thing when he was this age.  And as for the balls, Owen is so happy now that he can crawl after them. 

It's been quite a month, but he's still been so sweet!  Oh how we love this baby of ours!

Ethan's Eye Update

I think it's been awhile since I updated about Ethan's eye.  First, he's doing quite well.  It's not healed, but it seems pretty stable.  In the last month we have been to see the neuro-optho doctor as well as the pediatric opthomologist.  

We saw the pediatric optho at the end of December and now Ethan wears a patch on his right (strong) eye for an hour a day.  This keeps his left eye stimulated, preventing him from losing the vision in that eye.  It's quite amazing how the brain works--as soon as his good eye is covered, his left eye kicks into gear and works really well.  But when the good eye is uncovered, it falls out.  Crazy.  But the good news is that the two eyes DO fuse together often, which is a good sign.  

We saw the neuro-optho doctor a couple weeks ago, and she thought Ethan looked great.  She was really pleased with what she saw, in that nothing had changed.  She was also thrilled to Ethan again, I think.  :). Everyone in their office loves Ethan.  First, he's stinkin' cute and such a cooperative patient, and second, I don't think they see too many kids there.  I've never seen any when we've been there.  The doctor even said in a letter she'd written to the pediatric optho (that we were given a copy of), "thank you for giving me the opportunity to interact with such a delightful little boy.". We really like this doctor.  

And so the next thing we have scheduled is another MRI in February.  :(  Not because the doctor is worried, but because she wants to see him imaged every three months to keep a close eye.  I am hoping after this one, if nothing has changed, we can wait a little longer to the next one.  Hopefully this time they will the drugs right and it will go a little smoother.  

But overall, Ethan is doing really well.  He is a really good sport about wearing the patch, and rarely puts up any fight to put it on. It helps that I let him play Curious George on the computer or play on my iPad when he first puts it on.  :)  And the patch also seems to be working.  

My favorite part is when he takes off his patch and runs up to Owen and says, "Look Owen! I have two eyes now!".  Ethan, thank you for putting so many smiles on my face and being such a happy little guy!

28 Things for 28 Years

I turned 28 years old yesterday, and so I decided to write a list of 28 things that make my life so full.  I truly am so very blessed.
1. Jake
2. Christian
3. Ethan
4. Owen
5. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
6. My parents and family
7. Jake's parents and family
8. My friend who lives down the street that trades babysitting with me every week.  This is so nice for the kids to play together and it gives me a chance to go to appointments or just stay home and clean my house!
9. A house that we are on the verge of owning
10.  Our landlords who have been so wonderful to rent from
11. Our dear Atlanta friends who are currently on vacation in Utah and will be staying with us in a couple weeks.  Oh how I cannot wait to see them!  It's been two years!
12. Good health--we have had so much sickness at our house the past two weeks--I have filled presciptions for pink eye for Christian and Ethan, Ear infections for Ethan and Owen, and Bronchitis for Owen.  And now I'm starting to come down with a cold.  We are most often blessed with good health, and how grateful I am for that!
13. Sisters who live close by
14. Sisters who live far away, but are merely a phone call away
15. Sunshine, pouring through the windows lighting up my house
16. A clean house
17. Primary children and the time I spend with them each Sunday
18. Owen's snuggliness---lately he will just rest his head on me while I sing to him and tickle his neck.  And then he will just doze off when i put him in his bed.  So sweet!
19. When Christian turned to me last night at the dinner table and said, "I love you, Mom."  And then Ethan looked over at me and said, "I love you, Mom."  I love you too, my sweet little boys.
20. Occasional chances to get out of the house on an evening for some rejuvenation.
21. A snow storm on my birthday that gave me the chance to stop everything and pull my boys in their sleds outside.  Seeing their joy was a highlight of my day.
22. Chocolate.
23. The laughter of little boys running through the house.
24. Technology--oh how it makes my life so much easier.  I never would have been able to journal about my children if it weren't for the internet.  Thank you, Blogger.
25. The ability to laugh.  Sometimes I need to use this ability more often, but when I do, it reminds me that my two year old peeing in the garbage is not the end of the world.
26. Someone to snuggle with.  (See #1)
27. Commitment.
28. The beautiful world that I see every day.  Gorgeous mountains, blinding snow, blue skies, sunsets.

And here are a few pictures from my birthday, including the three most important men in my life.  :)

Crusty hair, bright blue eyes.  Breathtaking.

JOY

Christian got hit with a large puzzle piece, hence the purple bandaid.  Love Owen's face in this one!

Owen is Crawling!

Or rather, he is SCOOTCHING!  He can go about one or two strides on his knees, and then he flattens on his belly and pulls himself with his arms and pushes with his toes.  It's really quite funny to watch--looks kind of like a fish or marine animal of some sort.  :)  But he's getting pretty fast and Ethan even likes to join him on the floor and scootch right along side him.  That's an even funnier sight.  

I have no pictures of this crawling milestone, but I have videos that won't upload.  

So here's one of my cute little guy that will have to suffice.  

A Trouble-maker already?

Last week I let Owen play with the game closet door because he LOVES DOORS and they keep him entertained for long periods of time.  It didn't take him very long to figure out that there was much more fun INSIDE the closet!  And I found him in a pile of game pieces.  Boy was he pleased with himself!  :)

And then the next day I came downstairs to find this sight...Owen buried in the entire batch of clean clothes that  had previously been in the laundry basket.  ETHAN was pretty pleased with himself this time.  :)  

"Look Mommy, Owen wikes it!"

Christian's New Trick....

The first week of January was unusually warm, so much that the boys and I spent every afternoon at the park.  I was trying to give Christian extra long sidewalks to be able to practice his new trick...riding a bike without training wheels!  After crashing into a mailbox and a car, I decided the park was a better choice.  :)  He is still getting the hang of starting and stopping by himself, but he's doing great with his balance!  

Cousins were here!

From November through December we were lucky to have a couple extra cousins here in Utah!  Taylor and Kaitlin and their two girls, Eliza and Nora, stayed here for six weeks while Taylor flew around the country interviewing for residencies.  We were so glad to get to spend so much time with them!  Here are some highlights:

Family Pictures 

Owen and Eliza

A weekend together in Wallsburg...so much fun!

Fun in the big jetted tub!

Stories with Grammy

Going to the Children's Museum

Love Owen's face in this picture! 

And we even got to see Santa on our way out!!
 Good thing, because Christian and Ethan got to tell him they wanted "wemote chonchol chars" and they got them!  :)
Ethan didn't want to be in the picture.  He was a little nervous about it all. 

Christian's Work

Here is some of Christian's work from school and church from November:

I think this is our family and Daddy's fast Honda

A family tree that Christian drew and colored from primary

Christian came home with this from preschool.  I thought it was so sweet!  And he spelled it all by himself.  

Christmas Festivities

Through the month of December we had a lot of fun doing all kinds of Christmas activities and attending Christmas parties.  Here is the run down:

Making Christmas cookies for family night

Decorating gingerbread houses with Grandma and Grandpa

Klein family party

Making Pretzel Hugs for Christian's preschool treat

Christian singing with the primary at the ward Christmas breakfast

Froerer Family Christmas Party--Bowling!  

It was so fun to have our cousins from London here with us, Peggy, Evan, Sasha, and Luka--and we were even lucky enough to have them visit at our house one morning!

Merkley Extended Family Christmas Party

complete with Jack Horner Pie, Rice Cream and singing Christmas carols while the guitars accompanied

 Nora and Owen were so cute jammin' to the music!  

Free Day at the Zoo!  (after Christmas, but the decorations were still up)

 I can't get enough of Owen's beautiful blues!