Even MORE Great News!!!

Our family has really had it rough lately! Talk about being kicked while we are down... BUT we are FINALLY having a few visible miracles and blessings headed in our direction. Not only do James and I have our great news, but JEFF AND JULIE ARE PREGNANT TOO!!! We are 3 weeks apart :). I think I was more excited about their news than I was my own (well, our first response about our news was utter SHOCK, excitement came later!). They are going to make the best parents. I am very very very very very happy for them! Congratulations guys!

New Addition

I thought we'd make it an "official" announcement. James & I are going to be welcoming a new little addition to the family in October! We are very excited now that we have had a bit of time for it to sink in! :) Aidan is convinced that it is a girl. I honestly can say that I don't care either way. A girl would be so much fun, then again I LOVE my boys and would love to have a third little man to add to the clan (plus the fact that we have clothes galore for a boy...). I am so excited!!!

Law School Widow's Field trips

So, I've been a law school widow the past couple of weeks until James finished his appellate brief. He has been living at the library until midnight every night. Monday, we decided to take dinner down to Daddy so that we could actually see him! We went to a local park and the boys played while James ate his dinner. It was wonderful seeing James, even if it was just for an hour. We decided to do it again on Wednesday night. We went out to eat at Pei Wei's this time. Aidan continued to tell us that he didn't like his chicken until it turned into ongoing whining. And after eating a few lo mein noodles, Ethan began to throw food and chopsticks on the floor. It was a bit of a disaster. No nice conversation with my hubby, just attempting to control our messy children. We must have amnesia when it comes to taking our kids to restaurants. It's a disaster about 90% of the time, we say that we are never doing it again, and then weeks or months later we unsuccessfully attempt it again.

Anyhow, on the way home from dinner that night, the boys had their windows down in the car. Aidan was playing with his Lightening McQueen car and it looked like he was tempted to toss it out the window. I gave him a warning, saying that I will roll up the window if he tried to throw his toy out the window. A few minutes later, I saw something fly out the window. I stopped the car, turned around and had a "little talk" with Aidan. The windows were rolled up and we silently drove home. Then I heard Ethan saying something under his breath. Aidan said, "Be quiet, Ethan!" I listened even harder to hear Ethan saying, "Aidan... time out... Aidan."!!!!! I was dying! I can just hear my brother and sister when we were younger saying to me, "You're in troooubblleee! I'm telling Moooom!" And now here was my two year old egging his older bro on! I was rolling!

Ethan Edward is 2!!!!!!!!!!

It makes me sad that time goes by so fast! My little baby is TWO!!!! Ethan definitely has style. He came into the world in full force. Just hours after I taught the Sunbeam (Sunday school for 3-4 yr olds) class at church, he was born! The labor was three hours total. You were a pretty laid back baby. You were so curious about your big bro. Even from the beginning, Ethan & Aidan have been best of friends. Ethan has always looked up to brother and loves having a built-in buddy.
Aidan never showed signs of jealousy, he loved Ethan unconditionally from the beginning.

6 weeks old
3 months old
First Birthday

What a handsome two-year old!!!

Ethan loves to play with the big boys. He knows all of his brother's friends' names! He is such a big talker and is always singing his favorite songs (Happy birthday, Once there was a Snowman, ABC's), he loves to play in the sand and jump on the trampoline, his favorite thing in the entire world (besides his mom :p) is BALLS, he can to count to 10 in order, and he loves his crib (I don't know if we can ever permanently get him in a big boy bed!). He says the sweetest prayers and loves his family so much. Again, I cannot believe Heavenly Father has entrusted me with such an amazing little spirit! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EE!

Happy Birthday Aidan James!!!

I cannot believe how time has flown! Just 4 years ago (on Feb 28th--I know, this is a late post!) I remember thinking, I cannot believe my doctor and the nurses are letting James and I take home this precious little man! And now he's mom's little helper and is still a James/David mini-me. He is such a good big brother (most of the time), always trying to keep Ethan out of harm's way. He has really started coming out of his shell this past year. Playing soccer, always wanting to play with his friends, and LOVING school. He's becoming so social and autonomous (my 4 yr old should NOT be autonomous!) :) But it's so fun to watch him reach more and more milestones. He always wants to be on the go. Every night before going to bed, he asks me, "Mom, what are we doing tomorrow?" And I better have a fun day planned or he will be greatly disappointed! I am so humbled that Heavenly Father would entrust us with such an amazing person to raise. Happy Birthday AJ!!!!!! Aidan really really really wanted a Pump-it-up birthday party this year. I'm glad I agreed because it was FREEZING that day; an outdoor party would have been a big mistake! He had soooo much fun with his family and soccer and church buddies. It was the perfect party for him. Notice how they spelled his name wrong (even after I emphasized AidAn to the baker at the bakery! ah well).

Hondo's drama

Hondo is our first child, our only daughter. She's a 5 1/2 yr old blue heeler. She is sooo smart--she follows many commands, loves going on walks and ESPECIALLY loves playing frisbee. We take her to the cabin in Colorado whenever we go. She's our pride and joy!!! Well, James and I have argued for years about getting her spayed. I want her spayed and James doesn't. He would LOVE to breed her with another cattle dog and have a prodigy cattle pup. So, I have let him win that argument year after year, heat cycle after heat cycle.

PREGNANCY #1:

Low and behold, in '06 she got prego with Logan's (Scott's Siberian husky) pups. She was due around 4th of July and we were going to be at the cabin. We decided not to go since we didn't want to leave her behind. Everyone convinced us to go ahead and go, taking the VERY prego Hondo with us. Of course, she ended up delivering on the 4th, at the cabin. We had 6 live pups (#7 didn't make it) in a 24 hr period. So we drove home with 6 loud pups, a 17 mo old toddler, and a very tired Hondo...12 hours. The puppies ended up being really cute--they all looked a lot like Hondo, but 2 had Logan's blue eyes. We were able to give them all away, Logan got fixed, happy ending.

PREGNANCY #2:

That brings us to January of this year. We were eating Sunday dinner at Grams Melissa's house. Hondo comes inside looking all disheveled, we realize she's in heat and probably had just conceived. Blast! The spaying argument comes up again. We forget about the situation, a few weeks later she is showing big time! GREAT! I finally win the argument that after these pups, Hondo WILL get fixed. Here's where the drama enfolds:

Saturday, Feb. 28

4:30am: Hondo is panting and whimpering, I wake James and say she's probably in labor.

4:45am: Hondo goes into Ethan's room and wakes him, I go in to rock him back to sleep and see Hondo pushing, I yell for James to let her outside.

7:00am: We haven't seen Hondo since we let her out, James goes out to find her under a bush with a little nest she had made. James sets up a place for her in the garage because it is FREEZING outside.

Today is Aidan's birthday, so we head out to Aidan's birthday party.

1:15pm: We get back home to find Hondo with one delivered pup (who did not make it).

4:00pm: No pups yet, still contracting

7:00pm: No pups yet, still contracting

9:30pm: No pups yet, still contracting.

At this point, we are getting worried. She should have had more pups! Last time there was a 3-4 hr gap between pups. Not an EIGHT hour gap. I'm so frustrated b/c this is my area of expertise and yet I feel helpless. Of course it's Saturday night, so we can't call a vet's office and of all professions we do not know a vet who goes to our church (seems like all of our other health care providers go to church with us!). So we call the Emergency Animal Hospital, they say to come in IMMEDIATELY. Of course they're going to say that, how else will they get paid? But, my baby girl's health/life was in jeopardy so James took her to the animal ER.

10:45pm: James calls saying that there is a pup caught in the birth canal and the vet cannot extract it. Our options are: A) to put her under and try to remove the pup and then send us home to deliver the other pups (which would cost an arm and a leg), B) a C-section to deliver all pups (which would cost 2 arms, 2 legs, and a torso), or C) put Hondo to sleep (WHAT??!!). I was steaming mad. I couldn't believe he would throw the "put her to sleep" card into the mix. THAT's how vets make $$$$$$, they guilt us into procedures. My thought was if we chose option A, what if another pup is just as large as this pup and gets stuck again and we have to come back for a C/S anyway? Plus we go through the stress of waiting it out to see how many pups she was going to have. But it was cheaper... I figured we should go ahead with the C-section so that we could safely deliver all the puppies and, at the same time, get Hondo spayed.

11:00pm: Hondo gets her C-section. The stuck puppy was very difficult to remove and was dead, of course. And--the strange thing--there were NO OTHER PUPS. She only had twins! My poor baby not only had to endure a day of labor, a c-section and hysterectomy, but she had no pups to show for it! I was so sad for her. Don't get me wrong, it's nice that we won't have any to keep for 6 weeks then find homes for. But after all of this, she wandered around the house and outside sniffing and looking for her puppies. It was the saddest thing ever!!!

So now, I'm definitely backing Bob Barker! It has been so sad to see Hondo go through this!

Handsome Men

The boys got their pics taken a little over a week ago and I am just now getting around to posting them. Aidan was such a cooperative child (getting his pics taken the past 2 years was like pulling teeth) and Ethan wanted no part of the whole experience. The boys wore their cowboy boots & hats in memory of PapaDad, plus the fact that they LOVE any excuse to wear them!