Sand Dunes

Okay, I've been a little slow at updating lately, but here it is.

Last week, for the Memorial Day holiday, my cousin Kevin and his wife Jeanette (and their two boys) came to visit Don and Kathy. Bryan went to Youth Conference on Tuesday and we all went to the Sand Dunes in Snow Canyon State Park. It's a big area that is just filled with sand that you can hike to and play in. It was a ton of fun. Ethan and Don ran races from the top of one dune to another and then played ball. The other kids buried things and tried to find them and we all had a great time out there. The weather was great because we went first thing in the morning so it wasn't too hot. We stayed for a little over an hour (I think) and then we drove back home.

I tried to take the kids the other day again and it just wasn't the same with Ethan's friend Don to play with. But it's still a fun place to go to and play for a while. It's like the beach without the water. ;)

Courtney's New Room

Courtney has been after me to paint her room purple for a long time now. Finally, on Monday I decided it was time to do it for her. Bryan was home for Memorial Day so I had help. I ran to Home Depot with a pillow sham from her comforter set and they matched the purple color she wanted. I had decided that an accent wall in purple would be just the thing, so I bought a quart of paint and then some paint for the ceiling (I want white ceilings to go along with the nicely painted rooms). The kids helped Bryan and me paint the wall (actually, after about 5 spills and a bunch of drips, I sent them all out of the room and finished the wall myself). Then Bryan painted the ceiling for me. I did have to go back to Home Depot for some more paint. I bought a cheaper brand of paint that was on sale and it turned out to be junk. I took it back, got a refund and bought some Behr paint (what I usually use) instead and it worked great, but Bryan still had to do 2 coats on the ceiling, poor guy!

While Bryan painted the ceiling, Ethan and I refinished an old dresser a neighbor gave us. She was going to throw it out and called to see if I wanted it. Ethan sanded down the drawers while I sanded the dresser body. Then I stained the dresser while Ethan stained the drawers. After it was dry, I shellacked the whole thing and let it dry. I sanded it one more time just to give it a rough look and it was finished. I just have to buy knobs because they were mostly missing when we got it. But I think it turned out great.

We finally got Courtney out of a crib and into a "big girl bed" I bought from craigslist.com. The frame has been sitting downstairs for about 6 months and the mattresses have been there for about 3 months, so it's about time. The stain on the dresser almost matches the bed, so I'm pretty happy.

I still have to put pictures up on the walls, make curtains and clean out her closet. I need to do the closet when Bryan can take her to the park for an hour so she doesn't know how much I get rid of, so it will probably be next week. But I think it turned out really well. The only complaint from Courtney is that I didn't paint all the walls purple, oh well.

I forgot to take a "before" picture, but here is the after:

He's on the Chart!

Ethan had his 7 year old check-up today and things went great. He is actually on the chart now for the first time since he was a week old!!

For those of you who don't know what "the chart" is, let me enlighten you. When you go in to have your child checked, the doctor plots their height and weight on a growth chart for their age group and compare them to all other kids their age. Then the doctor tells you what "percentage" your child falls into. This is a great conversation starter at the park and give us moms just one more thing to be stressed about. I have a love/hate relationship with the growth chart. I love it because I get to see how my kids are growing but I hate it because of the comparisons with other children and how moms dwell on it.

Anyway, back to the story. When Ethan was one week old he was in something like the 40th percentile. But at all his other appointments he has been off the chart for both height and weight. This time he was actually on the chart! He has lost weight in the last year but has grown inches, so it makes him in the 98th percentile for height and the 94 percentile for weight. I was pretty darn happy! He is such a healthy kid that I'm really not worried, but it's fun to see how he has grown over the years.

Days of Camelot

Courtney had a dance performance at the Days of Camelot festival at the Washington County Fair Grounds on Saturday. Since it's Memorial Day weekend, only 4 little dancers in her group showed up but they had a fun time dancing. Here is a slide show and then some video of her performance. Ethan took the video of the "A you're adorable" dance and then Bryan took the rest. In the last song Courtney was a bit distracted by a dog that barked and was walking by (she is terrified of dogs). But she did a great job.

After her part in the dancing was over, we went and watched jousting and some sword fighting. The kids loved it. It was really overpriced, but we were given a free entry fee ticket by a woman in our ward so it wasn't too bad.

Our Slugger

Ethan's individual and team pictures came in yesterday so I thought I would post it. He's pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Bryan was really excited about how well he is holding the bat and his batting stance.

In the group picture, he is the far left on the front row kneeling down (they put him there because he was the tallest on the team and looked strange on the standing row).

Swim Parties and Last Baseball Game

Tuesday was swim day for the kids. Courtney had her swim party for the neighborhood preschool and Ethan's school got to go to the swimming pool for their end of year party.

Our neighbor's grandparents have a vacation home in St. George that has a swimming pool next to it. So all the kids in the preschool, along with all the other kids in the ward of preschool age, congregated on the pool for a party. It was quite a bit of fun and Courtney loved playing in the water with her friends.

In the afternoon, Ethan's school class walked from their school to Sand Hollow Pool (about a mile away) to go swimming. We go there every Friday (or try at least) and stay about 45 minutes. Ethan was there for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours and he was so tired and ready to come home. I went to pick him up at a little before 3 p.m. and watched him swim for a while. When he noticed me, he jumped out of the pool and was ready to go without a fight. But he said he had a lot of fun.

Last night was also Ethan's last little league game and the piano recital for my piano kids. I went to the recital (they all did a great job!) while Bryan, Courtney and Ethan went to the game. Ethan was crowned the Home Run King of their team. He loved playing and said he wants to play next year.

Here are photos of Courtney's preschool party!

Ethan's Birthday!!

Ethan was born on May 18th, 2002 at 4:22 p.m. He is now 7 years old!! I just can't believe how time flies and yet how I don't remember much of the time when we didn't have him in our family. He is such a great kid and he had an awesome 7th birthday.

Sunday during Primary he just couldn't wait for them to sing his happy birthday song to him and that just got him more and more excited for Monday! He had a really hard time falling asleep on Sunday night because he was so excited. He was more excited about his birthday than he had been about Christmas last year!

Ethan had put in his order for his birthday breakfast weeks ago so I had been prepared for a while. He loves bacon, sausage and eggs washed down with orange juice. Yeah, it's enough to make your arteries clog just thinking about it! Monday morning I woke up, started making the cupcakes to take to his school and then waited for him to wake up. When he did get up, he asked if I was going to start his breakfast and then went back to bed. So Courtney and I made his breakfast and then Courtney took it in to him so he could have breakfast in bed. He got up and, as a birthday treat (actually I just needed them occupied so I could get ready for the day), I let them watch TV which is a major no-no in the mornings in our house. Then he got to go to school.

Courtney had her grandma/grandpa/Aunt Leigh Ann date in the morning so I spent that time decorating Ethan's Army cake (he wanted an Army birthday party this year), shopping for last minute things, and cleaning the house for the party. When Courtney came home, I put her down for a nap, finished up frosting the cupcakes for school and then organized a bit more for the party. I woke Courtney up at 2:45 to take her to dance, loaded the cupcakes in the van, dropped her off, ran to the store to buy soda pop (I forgot on the first run), then took the cupcakes to Ethan's class. His teacher had her baby Sunday night so there was a substitute. She had the kids sing "Happy Birthday" to Ethan and then we handed out the cupcakes as they left for the day. Ethan then handed out the extra cupcakes to the school librarian, his bus driver, his old kindergarten teacher and then saved the last one for his dad.

Ethan and I drove home and Ethan and I waited for his friends to show up. We didn't want to mess with FHE night, so the party was scheduled from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. His friends started showing up the the fun began. First, we made them a dogtag with their choosen code name on it. Ethan was Tank, some others were Army, Gunner, Skips (Courtney), Cookie, Knight, 2-4-6-8 and Chocolate Chip. It was funny to listen to them decide on names. Then I put a head band on them and they were ready to go. When everyone had arrived, Bryan (General Pack) taught them how to salute, address the General, and other things. He taught them a cadance and it was really cute. Then they went through an obstacle course, threw water bombs at a target in the street (although most of the balloons didn't pop on impact so it was kind of frustrating), then chased Bryan around the house throwing water balloons at him. When the fun outside was finished (it was 100 degrees by that time) we brought them all in and gave them pizza and pop for dinner. Then we had cake and ice cream. The cake was an Army one with army guys on it and decorated with camo. The inside of the cake was even marbleized so it was camo too! Then Ethan opened his presents, played with all the gifts and everyone went home. The favorite and most exciting gift he received from a friend was a couple of glitter balls, which are all the rage down here! One of them even glows! It was a hit.

(Ethan's friend, Carter, from down the street was born on the same day as Ethan, so we took him a gift earlier in the day and when Bryan had the boys sing the cadence they included Carter in it so he wouldn't feel bad. Out of the 9 kids at the party, 6 of them had birthdays this month, so I think we should just have a huge birthday party at the beginning of the month and cover everyone!)

After we had relaxed a bit from the friend party, we let him have his family party and he got to open all his gifts from his family. He got a bike from Bryan and me, a robot duck to put together from Courtney, a card game with a ring saucer from Grandma and Grandpa Pack (along with Star Wars legos he opened last month when they were here), some money from Aunt Leigh Ann (along with his National Geographic for Kids subscription), and some more money and legos from Grandma and Grandpa Oman. I think that was it. He was in 7 year old heaven!

Last night he said he had the best day ever in his life! I'm glad because he is a great kid and deserves the best. I've already had 3 phone calls from moms telling me their kids had a great time at Ethan's party. So it was a good day for everyone!

Here are some photos of the day: