The plan!

Remember how Ethan decided he's in love with Kaymee and I talked about it in THIS POST ? Well he still does. He talks all the time about how pretty she is, and how nice, and how fun. (And it's all true, if she was about 20 years older she would totally be a keeper.) The only problem? She doesn't seem to have a lot of interest in him:( She's really nice to him, but she just doesn't seem to consider him anything more than a friend. That's fine with me because she's 5, so when Ethan complains about it I just suggest he be her friend. Several months ago he finally agreed with me. He had a plan and this is it: He would just be her friend. He would be the truest, nicest friend, and always be there for her, and then one day when they grew up a little she should realize what a good guy he was and fall in love with him. Sounded good to me. So that's what he's been doing. And he's done a pretty good job of it. He doesn't really pressure her, but he is a good friend to her. I have been really impressed that he not only has the patience to go through with the plan, but that he remembers that it is the plan day after day. With his short term memory issues, that's saying a lot, this must be pretty important to him. So on Saturday there was a benefit dinner in our community, and I was helping in the kitchen, so Ethan was walking around with my dad. Suddenly, Kaymee saw Ethan and ran over and gave him a huge hug. My dad said he seemed a little caught off guard at first, but as she left he got the biggest smile on his face, and seemed pretty pleased with the whole thing. On Sunday at dinner we were talking about it, and I asked him what he thought. He got the funniest little smirk on his face and said, "Well Mom, my plan is working perfectly." It was so funny.

Facing Fears

Ethan was dropped a lot as a baby.

It's not funny, it's true.

He was dropped and slammed, and abused.

When he first came to live with us he had a hard time not being in control of his body. If he would fall asleep on the couch and we picked him up to take him to bed he would come unglued and fight frantically to get away. He didn't like to play the game where you swing kids around and around until their feet come off the ground. He hated it if you would pick him up off the ground. He couldn't handle carnival rides. If I would try to rock him on my lap he couldn't lay back, he had to sit up. And worst of all, he wouldn't wrestle. My dad is big on wrestling. He loves it. That's how he shows his love, he would grab you wrestle you to the ground and tickle or torture depending on his mood. He couldn't do that with Ethan. It was too scary. If he would try it Ethan would have nightmares for the next few nights. Eventually Grandpa grew out of it, and doesn't wrestle anymore. Eventually Ethan started to grow out of it too. He still tenses up when he isn't in control of his own body, but he is much better now.

And then La Sal got a wrestling team.

All of his friends were doing it, so of course he wanted to as well. We talked about it and practiced and tried to get him ready for it. He is mostly excited, but pretty apprehensive as well. It lasts about two months, and consists of two practices every week and a tournament on the weekends. My dad is going to help coach so that he can keep an eye on how Ethan handles everything.

I am scared to death!

Not that he will get hurt or anything, I am pretty alright with the wrestling concept. I just hate to see him afraid. I know that this is going to be emotionally hard on him whether he shows it or not, and I hate to think of the hurt that will cause him. But he wants to give it a try. He wants to face his fears, even knowing what it all means so much more than anyone else understands. He wants to live life. He wants to be "normal". He wants to leave the pain behind and participate in real childhood like other boys his age.

He deserves that.

So I am taking some strength from him, and facing my fears as well.

We are being brave.

We are being normal.

We are asking for prayers and good thoughts to be send Ethan's way.

I'll let you know how it goes...

My New Favorite Thing To Do...

This Christmas I gave myself a gift. I deserved it. I bought a Silhouette Machine. Can I just say LOVE IT!!! I have found five hundred million uses for it. I can't get enough. But this is my favorite one right now. I love making tee shirts. My friend Stacy and I have been doing P90X for the last few months, so I made us some "X-tastic" shirts with "I {heart} swing kicks" on the butt. I don't have a picture of them though:( not sure why. But trust me, they are FABULOUS!

Our little friend Parker just had his ninth birthday, and has a thing for mustaches, so I made him this little gem
And then I made this for Ethan. He's really more of a lover than a fighter, which is kind of why it makes it so funny. I'm not sure why, but it seriously cracks me up. I giggle every time I see him in it. This is him showing off his massive (non-existant) muscles. He even said "are you here for the gun show?" I DIED! It was hilarious.

Do ya wanna mess with this? Do ya? Do ya?

(yes, that's his best super intimidating mean face. It's the best he's got. He is far more likely to hug you to the point that your head pops off than actually fight you. )

I'v also made some princess and ballerina shirts for Adia, and some fantastically hilarious St. Patricks day shirts for the kids, and have an "available" stamp in the works for Stacy's co worker, and my cousin, but no pictures yet. I just love doing it. It makes me happy, and I can't stop. Just thought I would share.

Why I love my life today...

Adia was showing me all the ways she knows how to kiss:

Regular, Butterfly, Fishy, Eskimo, Chubba-Bubba, etc.

Then she announced that she had just "invented" a brand new way, and wanted to try it out on me. She then preceded to demonstrate the

"disco butterfly".

It is kind of like a butterfly kiss having a seizure or something.

It literally almost made me wet my pants.

LOVE IT!

Adia

So tonight we went out to dinner with my whole family. (even Kalista, it was big) Adia was talking to my sister and she said "I'm part blood hound, part cheetah and part mouse. I spend most of my time chasing myself." What? Where does she get this stuff? Like really, is that from a movie or something? I would love to know.

Adventures in Medicine

Have you ever used a neti pot? (referred to by my kids as "booger tea pot") It looks like this and you basically fill it with saline solution and pour it in one nostril while it runs out the other nostril bringing all the boogers and guck along with it. (sometimes it makes my brain tickle - is that a bad sign?) I googled it for a picture, and there are a lot out there that show it in use, but I decided to spare you that delightful sight. You are welcome to do your own googling if you don't understand my description. Anyway, Back to the matter at hand... I use the neti pot, and I love it. I also use essential oils, and love them too. I really believe that they work. You might have your own opinion on those things, I am not trying to convert (not in this post anyway:), you just need to know that I love them. So I have been sick for a while. I have the sinus crud that has been going around. I got it two weeks ago, and I just can't kick it. I feel great, but I have a cough and a stuffy nose that just won't go away. (This is the first time I have been sick since I started using oils that lasted more than two days, so it is frustrating me a little.) One of my favorite oils is called breathe and it is a blend of all kinds of good stuff like peppermint and eucalyptus, and you rub it on your chest and feet. It works wonders on sinuses, but I have just felt like I couldn't get it through all the snot so that it could start working. And I have a kinda big date coming up this weekend, and I am hoping to not totally gross him out and be the hacking gaging seeping oozing girl that he tells his friends about later when in a "worst date EVER" contest. But that's another story, basically I just need to get better fast. Then I thought of the neti pot... One thing you should know about breathe is that it's a hot oil-meaning it needs to be mixed with a cooling or neutral oil or it can cause a bit of a tingle or a burning sensation to sensitive areas. It isn't really bad, and I usually rub it on without diluting it, so I didn't think much of it. My great idea was to put it in the neti pot with my saline and it would clear me all out, and I would be cured. So I did. But evidently the skin in my nose is a little more sensitive than the skin on my feet-who would have thought? I started feeling the burning sensation right away as the powerful oils did their job, but I had already started, so I didn't want to stop in the middle. I just wiped the tears out of my eyes pushed back the feeling of pain that my nose had been lit on FIRE, and kept pouring. And at the risk of grossing you TOTALLY out, I'm gonna say I got some guck out. Really, I thought I might clog the sink. We're talking big honkin' boogers here, and a lot of 'em. Okay, enough of that. But then, my eyes wouldn't stop watering, and my nose was burning with a pain so intense I could barely breathe, and then the sneezing started. And I sneezed over and over, and couldn't stop. And you know when you eat an Altoids or something, and then you take a deep breath and it freezes your mouth until it's so cold it hurts? Yeah, that is the sensation my nose got. Over and over. And after about five minutes I got worried that I was going to be like one of those people you see on Oprah who couldn't stop hiccuping for like three years straight. I was going to be the sneezing girl, and I could see myself being paraded around as a medical mystery being interviewed by Matt Lower and Regis and people like that, only sneezing is not nearly as cute as a little hiccup here and there. And I will never get married, or have a successful career, or go into public. This would be the end of life as I knew it, and while I was thinking about it, maybe I would die, and it would put me out of the indescribable pain that was coming from my nose. It was a disaster. But finally the sneezing lessened. And the burning stopped about an hour after that, and then my eyes stopped watering by the next morning. And now, I'm cured. No more snot, and the coughing is less too. The only problem is I can't smell anything anymore. Like really, even very strong smells right next to my nose - nothing. And usually I have a superhuman sense of smell that gets me into trouble all the time. No longer. I may have permanently damaged my nose, but it may be worth it, I'll let you know.

Bluff Fort

Have you ever heard about Bluff Fort? How about the Hole in the Rock group? Well Super long story made super short, A group of pioneers came from Cedar City to Bluff with their wagons. It was a really hard journey and through part of it they had to carve a road out of a near cliff and basically pull their wagons up by ropes. Oh, and you know that area where a little thing called LAKE POWELL is now? Yeah, they went through there before the lake. In WAGONS! And no one died! It really is an amazing fete. Well, when they got to this side of the state a bunch of them settled in Bluff and built a fort. A few years ago the church and the descendant families, and some local people stared restoring the fort. They have built little cabins, and a meeting house, and other things. It is really cool to go see it. Plus it's much warmer there than it is in La Sal, so a few weeks ago when school was out the kids and my mom and Grandma and I went to check it out. We had a blast. There is a visitor's center where you can go watch a movie and learn more about what happened. Then you can go look around at all of the cabins that are furnished with old things, most of which were donated by the descendants who's cabins they are. There are old wagons and hand carts and a tepee and benches and statues, and a million other cool things to see. And there is a beautiful cemetery there on the hill overlooking the valley. It is stunning. And I took some pictures. I love them, but when we got home and I showed them to my dad he was less than impressed. There evidently aren't any pictures of anything worthwhile. Just crap. So enjoy my crappy pictures, and if you want to see more you will just have to travel down and take a look for yourself.:)

Super Bowl.

If you ask Adia what her favorite holiday is, she will tell you, it's the Super Bowl. She loves it. So does Ethan. He even made a bed making bet with Grandma over it. My kids could barely make it through church because they were so anxious for the super bowl to start. To hear my kids talk you would think we are big football people. We aren't. The proof of that lies in a little conversation we had during pre-game. My parents and I were filling our plates at the table in the dining room. The kids were already filled up and seated in the living room waiting for the game to start. My dad asked Adia to turn on the tv and see when the game started. (that's how into football we are, we didn't even know when the game started) Adia turns it on and we can hear an announcer and cheering. My dad hollers in to ask if it's already started to which Adia responds "I have NO IDEA!" (It was actually basketball) she didn't even know what football looks like, that's how often we watch it. But the real reason for the love of "the game" is the party. We eat all kinds of fantastic treats, and we get to eat in the living room - never happens except during super bowl and general conference. The kids did enjoy the game, as did the adults, and Ethan has to make grandma's bed for a week, so he is learning the no gambling lesson early on in life. All in all it was the best holiday all year!

Happy, happy birthday Ethan and Adia dears!

Well, just like it does every year, it came. Yup. The BIG Birthday! No, not mine, Ethan's... AND Adia's... the same day. It's a big deal, around here, and this year was no exception.We started out the festivities of Friday night with a movie night theme for Ethan. (am I really old enough to have a NINE year old? ...well, unfortunately, yes. Yes I am.) I made a cake to resemble a bucket of popcorn. I'm not much of a cake decorator, but it turned out pretty cute anyway. The kids made pizza and had boxes of popcorn and candy, and cups of soda, while watching a movie. It went well, lasted a couple of hours, and then it was time to send everyone home. Perfect!


When it was time to take down the decorations, Ethan tied a bunch of balloons together and made a "balloon outfit" and ran around the house for a couple of hours, wearing it until he realized that he couldn't sit down without popping, and it wasn't fun anymore.

Then next morning we woke up bright and early to celebrate the actual birthday. The kids opened presents and ate the breakfast of their choice - Ice cream of course! Then we got ready for Adia's fancy formal tea party. It was a brunch with lots of yummy goodies, an impromptu make over, a rock concert, and lot's of other "fancy stuff" It only lasted an hour and a half (really three hours because one dad forgot to come pick up his fancy young partier) and then life quieted down a bit. The kids spent the afternoon playing with presents. Then Great Grandma and Grandpa Fuller came by and there were more presents and cake eating, then more playing, then more present opening, then bed. The next day we went to Great GM&GP Fuller's house for a Make-your-own-pizza-party and MORE presents and MORE cake with cousins (I love having so much family around to love my kids) and then it was home for a nap. Pretty much the best birthday EVER if you ask me.

Fancy party favors

The fancy finger foods

The makeovers

Striking a pose

Blowing out the candles because "every fancy lady needs a turn at a birthday wish!"

And these are just the most handsome, most adorable cupcake eater the world has ever seen.