Ethan's First Day of School!

August 17, 2010:


I used to think of kindergartners as teeny little kids. But now that Ethan IS one, I feel like 5 years-old is pretty grown up!! He woke up extra early and had himself dressed all the way down to tennis shoes and socks before my alarm even went off. He was so excited to charge off into the unknown, new adventure!



We rode our bikes to school! ( He has a plastic attachment on the handlebar that makes a revving sound when he pulls back on it, so he pretends he's on a motorcycle.)

And dropped him off with his new teacher in his new classroom in his new school!


And then I rode away on my bike, with Jake in the trailer.

And I cried. :) I'm not sure how to describe it, but here were some of my thoughts:

"5 years. Just like that. Soon it will be another 5, and another 5, and another 5, and I'll be saying goodbye for a lot longer than a couple hours."

"It's so cool that he can do this, without me! That kite string will just keep getting longer and longer, and he will learn to fly...without me..."

"It is so beautiful here. A gorgeous bike trail, beautiful blue sky, we have a home and a job, and we live in Colorado. How did we get so many blessings??"

"Wow, I can only imagine multiplying this out times all the things Ethan will do, and all the children I will have, and how will I ever even have the capacity to FEEL all of that?!"

"I am so proud of him--in a way like it's my accomplishment because I have worked so hard as a mom for the last 5 years, but in another way, proud because it's not me at all, it's HIM."


"Oh, the places you'll go..."


"Life is a road and I wanna keep going

Love is a rive I wanna keep flowing

Life is a road now and forever, wonderful journey

I'll be there when your world stops turning

I'll be there when the storm is through

In the end I wanna be standing at the beginning with you..."

The tooth fairy is coming to our house tonight!

Ethan lost his first tooth today!!
What a fun, fun, time. All day yesterday Ethan was wiggling and wiggling his tooth and asking questions about how it would come out and what it would feel like and informing us how he was chewing differently to avoid it, or how his tongue felt up against it. It was hilarious. Every 5 minutes he would give us anew update about him and his tooth.

Remember when having a loose tooth consumed all your thoughts? Ah, the memories.

He was a little scared about the blood aspect, but Kyle had talked him through how we could get a wet rag and clean it all up, etc. Ethan prayed last night: "And please bless me not to lose my tooth at school, but to lose it while I'm home..."

So this morning, I wake up to my cute little kindergartner, tapping on my arm: "Mom, mom!! Look! My tooth! I wiggled and wiggled it and then it came out and there wasn't even any blood!! Can you believe it mom?" What a fun way to wake up. It was like a mini Christmas of excitement. And I'm sure tomorrow, when he finds quarters and magic dream dust under his pillow, it will be just as fun...


Pregnancy? Labor? Sleep deprivation? Terrible twos?
Who cares.
Motherhood is the best.

Some snapshots of our new life...

Well, we're here! We have successfully transitioned from studenthood in Indiana to jobhood in Colorado. Life is good!


Here's a picture of our new house:



Just kidding.




Here it is, really:




But it feels like a castle to us. It is so fun to have a yard and a garage and so much more space than we've ever had.



Here are some of the things we love:

** A family room/playroom!**
There's a little window in the wall over the kitchen sink so I can peek in over the dishes and watch the boys play. One of my wildest fantasies. :)

This is right when we moved in, and we had set up fortresses for beanbag wars. The rules were that you could venture out from behind your fortress to get more beanbags, but at you own risk. Ethan loved it.

The temple we built even had angel Moroni on top!

** A yard!!**

Especially great for soccer...





...and water fights with 2nd cousins!


This summer, Kyle lived with my Grandma in Colorado while he started work, and the boys and I lived with my parents in Utah. As soon as we decided to rent this house, (a month before we moved into it) Kyle started helping with yardwork and getting things in order for us to come.
He called me in early July and said,
"Guess what I did today?"
"What?"
"I planted a garden in our backyard."
"What?! OUR backyard? In July? How...?"

I must admit I was a little bit skeptical about several things.







But that Kyle Ricks has a green thumb, I tell you what. I repent of all skeptical or doubtful thoughts I ever had, because here's what we have now!!!




Awesome! We had our first zucchini for lunch today and Jake gobbled it up so quick I went out and picked another one and we ate that too. The boys have been picking beans themselves and eating them raw just as a snack. SOOOOOO fun!!!


Across from the garden is a big empty space. 2 boys+a huge spot of dirt to play in= hours of enjoyment. In the spring I want to get a little shed with little gardening tools and let them get some of their own projects going...


***A Desk in the kitchen!!***

This is the first time I've ever had coloring supplies and other crafty stuff available to the boys without them having to ask me to get it down. (a combination of not enough space mixed with a little bit of me having some control issues with messy stuff) I'm getting over both of those things. So now, while I'm cooking dinner, they can just walk right over and help themselves to this...


As long as they clean up and I still have my desk for calendaring and to do lists and grocery planning, everybody's happy. :)


Not enough time and not enough pictures to show and tell the whole house, but we feel really grateful and really content. We're in a pretty different stage of life right now. Kyle has a job, Ethan is in school, and we live in a house. Woah. Just like that. I guess we're not newlyweds anymore?!? (7 years later, right?)

We're reconnecting with lots of old friends and making some new ones. We're mostly "moved in" and now just plotting out long-term projects and finding the best ways to make our space work. We're thankful for all of the little miracles that have gotten us here.

I have a few pictures of Ethan's first day of school. I'll get those up soon.

K, the end.

Come Sit in My Living Room...

And I'll play you a song!!

This is so fun! The first video music project I've ever endeavored to do. I'm excited to be able to share this arrangement and to have been mindful of the pioneers and our connection to them in preparation to celebrate the 24th of July.

Happy Pioneer Day!


The first video is the arrangement itself, and the second one is me talking about some of the meaning in the music. (I did a blog post on my other blog about the background of shooting the video if you want to read about it...)

If you double click on the video it will take you straight to YouTube where you can get a wider view. Enjoy! (And share this with people who will too!)

Day to day life at Nana's house...

This is how we've been filling our days...


We went on a fun hike on Memorial Day Weekend--but we were totally unprepared to be hiking in the SNOW! You can see that Jake got used to to hiking through water during our time in Indiana, but the snow a little further up the mountain was FREEZING on their little toes. :)



And speaking of snow capped mountains, how's this for a view? We didn't even have to load the bikes in the car! We just zipped out of the garage and away we went. What a nice change!


I love memorial day. I love that all the cemeteries around are just brimming with love and remembrance. It is just such a beautiful idea.






And this is a flavor of our day to day life.


This is one of my favorite Jake looks: Just a teeny bit mischevious...


And the costume box downstairs has provided hours of entertainment--for me, as I crack up at what these kids come up with. This is Jake in some clown glasses, upside-down, and Captain Hook's hook. He was walking around hooking my arm and saying, "Iiiiiii CAPture you!!!!"





Creamies on the back patio in Batman pajamas. Once the gray set was a midriff shirt on Ethan I finally made him give them up, and Jake starting wearing them the next night. :)


Ethan loves to help Nana water and trim her flowers. Isn't their yard gorgeous?



And Jake has loved this old school Fisher Price train and all the other awesome OLD toys my mom saved.


Ethan and Jake are becoming great playmates and they have spent a lot of time this last month creating hide-outs and making up games together.


This one was two video chairs on their sides with a blanket over top. They love to stash toys in the hide-outs they make.


And of course we've been reading lots of stories...
(This is a Dr. Seuss book I just discovered at the library--"Hooray for Diffendoofer Day"--He died before he could finish it, so his editors and friends used his sketches and preliminary ideas to create a final product. They have a section at the back that tells how the book came to be. Ethan loves it!)


And of course the boys have spent some hot days cooling off in the sprinklers and the little pool...




Here's a little video I took for Kyle just to remind him how cute our kids are. I love how Jake repeats what I say at the end--"See you ladoh, Dad!"





We went on a bike ride up in Park City this weekend when Kyle was here--and found a cool climbing wall! Ethan is such a toughie!




King of the mountain!


This is hilarious. I love Kyle. He put the camera on a big rock, set the timer, and then scrambled up the wall quickly enough to crouch down for the picture. He's pretty amazing, huh?

Jake stayed with a rock a little more his size. He's quite adorable, though, if I do say so myself.





We also went to Gateway Mall and splashed around in the fountain. Every half hour they play music and orchestrate the fountains to match the song.





So, life is good. We found a house to rent and we will move in at the very end of July! Pictures of all that to come as we get settled... We feel blessed for the way things have gone so far this summer and excited to get going on the next phase soon!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Sam!

What a fun day! We had a neighborhood breakfast bright and early with the most enormous grills I have ever seen. These guys were cooking for 400 people. Seriously. Eggs, sausage, french toast, fresh fruit, and tons of chairs and tables set up in a cul-de-sac. Yum!

Then, all the kiddos marched in a parade.

Jake pushed his little stroller with "Puppy Brite" inside. (Actually this is my old stroller which I used to push my cabbage patch kids in. And did anyone else have Rainbow Brite stuff growing up? I love that my mom saved the best toys.)

And Ethan rode a decked out bike for the first time ever!

This cool red car led the parade, with a guy playing bagpipes at the front.


Before the parade started, Ethan tried out shotgun of his friend's Power Wheels Gator...

Which was pulling a wagon.

And, they're off!!

Woo hoo!!

There goes Jake and his little doggie!

In this video he's saying, "I'm runnin'!"






This is me and Ethan with my mom and our good friend, Sydney, from Colorado. She is headed to EFY today so she stayed with us last night just for fun. I remember the day she was born. I remember when she was Jake's age. I remember when she was Ethan's age. And in a few months, when we get settled in Colorado, we will have her babysit our kids. Am I that old?!



Kyle left after the festivities this morning to drive back to Colorado and get to work tomorrow. It was so so so fun have him here, and we'll get to see him next weekend in Vail!!

My mom and dad and Kyle and I sang the National Anthem to kick off the breakfast this morning (as I squinted, right into the rising sun the whole time...). We only sang the first verse, but the third one is my favorite. I love love love these words:


Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation
Blessed with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n resuced land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation
Then conquer me must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto "In God is our trust"
And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

Today, may we all praise the Power that has made us a nation.

Happy 4th of July!