Bathtime fun

Ethan has officially outgrown our baby bathtub. He LOVES taking a bath with Caleb now. Caleb is pretty good about not splashing him, although he does like to help wash his hair. Here are a few pics of the rare times Ethan is actually sitting in the tub. We fight every bath time to get him to sit. He insists on standing, and now more recently is determined to stand without holding on....definitely not the safest thing for a 9 month old to do in the tub! But he's just so darn cute and he is so proud of himself. Enjoy the pics:

Caleb cracks us up

We LOVE having a funny kid. He makes us laugh everyday. His latest catch phrase: "You Rock". If you tell him "Caleb you rock", he'll say "no YOU rock mommy"....and he'll go back and forth for as long as you'll play along.

Some things are super funny to him, but Jon and I are getting tired of them. For instance all the potty talk. He is ALWAYS talking about poop, penis, bobbins (bottoms)....ok so Jon and I still think it's funny, but we have to at least TRY to teach him that it's not ok.

And he's has a new favorite movie - He keeps saying "Can I watch Koo Koo Panda one more time?" (kungfu panda) I just love two year old "accents".

He is also becoming quite a good big brother. Lately when Ethan cries, Caleb will go to him and rub his back or head and say "don't cry Ethan, it's ok...it's ok, don't cry". Love, love, love it when he is sweet like that.

Can't sleep

I can't sleep so I figured I'd blog since it's too late to call anyone to chat. I'm about to write a novel, so prepare yourself. This has been by far the toughest week I've had as a mom. Sunday I got the nastiest stomach bug ever (I'll spare you the details). Seriously I can't remember ever being that sick before. Jon had a denomination conference M-W that he couldn't miss, so he could not stay home to help with the kids while I puked. Praise God!! for our friend Shay who came to the rescue 3 days in a row and took Caleb to her house to play with her son Gavin. So that left just me and Ethan, which was ok.

Then Tuesday night Jon starts puking....now he's got the same thing as me. Then Ethan decided he wanted to be sick too and was up half the night screaming bloody murder and refusing to nurse. 24 hours without nursing!! So obviously a very unhappy camper for all of today. That was the hardest thing for me. I felt so crappy from being completely emptied out for the past 2 days with a high fever and zero energy from the zero sleep I'd gotten. Then trying to take care of an infant who is screaming because he hurts too. What to do??

I cried hard this morning and asked God not to test me like this...that I wasn't strong enough...oh yes, I did. I was finally able to take Ethan to the doctor tonight who said he looked perfectly healthy, of course, and sent us home (this after just finishing antibiotics for an ear infection - so luckily it wasn't another one). I was finally able to spoon feed Ethan some milk, and he drank a few sips out of a cup, but that was it. I gave him one of Caleb's Otter Pops, just so he could get some fluids. Then I had the brightest idea of my life (may be a slight exaggeration). I washed out the Otter Pop sleeve, filled it with breastmilk and froze it. Ethan downed it like it was candy!! Finally I was able to get him to nurse tonight before bed, so fingers crossed he'll sleep ok. So tomorrow looks promising.

So after I gave this whole story to my friend Jenny this morning, she gave me an update on friends of hers that totally put me in my place, and made me ashamed that I had asked God not to test me like this. For those of you prayer warriors, please keep this family in your prayers. Jared and Shannon have a little boy named Kyle who is Caleb's age (about 2 and a half). I don't know the whole story but basically his head/brain is growing too fast or in the wrong spots or too much fluid or something. They elected to have a pretty risky surgery last week (I think) to try to help the problem. Well things did not go well and the docs say he now has permanent brain damage and may not be able to sustain life on his own. WOW!! This absolutely BROKE my heart - especially being that our kids are the same age (he was actually at Caleb and Allie's bday party). And here's the kicker, the mom Shannon is 7 1/2 mo. pregnant with twins. She's been put on bedrest because all the stress is causing premature labor. Can you even imagine?!?! So please lift their family up in prayer. I will post an update when I hear one.

That made me think about all the others I know that are going through much more difficult times that I, with my silly stomach bug. Friends who just lost a pregnancy at 5 months (while the husband was out of the country!), friends who's 6 month old sweet baby girl has been in the hospital for more days than she's been at home (seems like), 2 deaths this past week of church members....and then there's me....poor little me, pleading with God to not be sick with a bug that I know will only last a few days. Pathetic. God please forgive me for being such a moron!!

Well, thanks blogger.com, for giving me a place to clear my head. It's now 1:45am and I should probably try to go to sleep again. I'll post something cheery and fun next time, I promise :)

Halloween in Montana

Halloween was pretty fun. A local church did a trunk or treat and each of the cars had a theme that tied into a Bible story or principle. This first one was Prince Charming and his princess:

Here's the Wizard of Oz:
Here's Jonah and the whale:
Here's mobster Caleb showing off his tommy gun:
Cowboy Ethan:


More of Caleb the mobster:


Daddy and his boys:


stick 'em up: