Philadelphia

Early in the morning on Thursday September 25th, Ethan left for Philadelphia to attend the NShimba conference. Unfortunately the conference wasn't a huge success this year and so by Saturday he had kind of quit and decided to tour Philadelphia. I'm so glad he did too.  Ethan loves history and has always wanted to go to Philly so I am so glad that he was able to tour downtown a little bit. My only rule was that he try a philly cheese stake (which he did) and that he take pictures.

At first he was sending me selfies of him in front of things but I got so sick of pictures like this...

 and demanded that he do better! He got a friend to go around with him so after his first attempt at pictures, I started getting real photos.  Because we were going to have to live through his vacation, I didn't want to miss out.

Ethan at Liberty Hall

 City Hall

 The Liberty Bell. Ethan brought me home a mini liberty bell as a surprise! It is so cute! He also brought home Kelsey a box of Cheerios and she may have been more excited than I was.

 In front of Liberty Hall and Madison's house. The plaque represents where Lincoln stood to deliver a speech.

 The replica of the carriage Ben Franklin rode in when his gout was sever.

 The building where the first Continental Congress met and in front of Liberty Hall

Historic Philadelphia

So Ethan was gone for three full days and Kelsey and I did everything we could to try to forget that.
Our break down looked something like this
Thursday:
Played with Ralphie
Went to the library where I let Kelsey pick out her own books and she came back with these

(Apparently she's too little to know that books are shelved by author so therefore the books sitting by each other could possibly be the same one. That didn't stop her. She proceed to read the same book 4 times in a row)
No nap because she was waiting for Daddy to give her a hug even though she looked like this :(

Made cookies
Asked for Ethan about 11 times
Went on a Picnic to Cafe Rio where she  finally took her nap

Played at the BYU scenic trail
Went to the BYU volleyball game where we saw Cosmo and sang the BYU song
and finally bed!

Thursday was a great day but Thursday night was TERRIBLE!!!! Here's why.
I woke up at 12:15 to Kelsey pounding on her door SCREAMING!! Still in a fog I ran to her room thinking something terrible had happened. When I opened the door she ran out yelling "Holdchya Daddy!" That's Kelsey code for pick me up Daddy. I tried to explain that Daddy was still on his trip but it didn't work. She screamed harder.  I seriously tried everything: we slept on Daddy's pillow, we held daddy's pictures, we sang songs about daddy, we put daddy's blanket on her bed, and then we just read stories. She stopped screaming around 1 but she still was certain that she couldn't fall asleep without a hug from daddy. I was trying so hard to be kind and sympathetic but there was nothing I could do and I was exhausted. From 1-2 the screaming picked up again and she ran around the house looking for daddy. I decided that I would lay next to her bed and try to sleep. She then freaked out because she couldn't find me. When we finally found each other,she laid in her bed and I fell asleep on the floor all the while the tears were still coming but not hysterically. Unfortunately at 3 o'clock when the tears didn't stop, I threw in the towel. I told her I loved her, gave her a big hug, told her daddy loved her, shut the door and fell asleep. I fell asleep so quickly that I don't know when she stopped screaming but she must have because I didn't hear her in the morning. At 7:30 I poked my head in her room and saw her face down on her mattress with her feet hanging off the side of the bed. She must have gotten so exhausted from the screaming that she literally just fell into bed. I wish I had a picture but I was too tired. Luckily she slept until 9, but as soon as she woke up we called Daddy. She loves Ethan so much and this trip was especially hard on her. What I can't figure is that it wasn't the first night away from Ethan. I just don't know what made this one so different.

Friday
Went running
Talked to Ethan a few times
Went to Sadie's house while I attended the NAC luncheon
Took long naps!
Played at the Johnson's
Watched Tinkerbell the Pirate and ate popcorn
Early bed

Saturday
Cleaned the church
Visited Thanksgiving Point

        where we played with pumpkins and other ginormous vegetables

    played in a pumpkin house made of balloons

    played at the new Children's Museum

 and finished it all with a trip to In-n-Out

 

The evening was spent attending women's conference while Kelsey played at the Morris's

We got home and watched the same Tinkerbell pirate move but this time at mac and cheese! 

 Ethan got home Saturday night at 11:30

I hate it when Ethan has to leave, but to be perfectly honestly I am really glad that he left this time. Lately I hadn't been enjoying Kelsey's company. I was finding myself resenting the fact that she was around ALL THE TIME! I hate to say that out loud but its so true. With Ethan being home, I left the playing and loving of Kelsey to him while I just made sure she was fed and clothed. Not a bad mom but not a fun/loving/caring mom. When he left this trip, it was a perfect time for me to start fresh with Kelsey. Its amazing too! I actually wanted to be around her. I found myself excited to pick her up from friends houses. I WANTED to watch the Tinkerbell movie with her and wanted to dance to Shake it Off three times in a row. I found myself running around chasing her and not minding that she took extra long to get in the car because she found an ant. I was so blessed to really see the amazing, lovable, fun person that I get to be around every day and for that I am grateful. Kelsey is a wonderful person. So full of happiness and joy. And honestly, she's hilarious! The stories she tells me kill me! She is so observant and so hilarious. I just love Kelsey so much and am so grateful that I was blessed to be reminded of that again. Kelsey and I really had a great time. We are happy Ethan is home obviously, but we had a pretty great bonding experience! 

Spark Notes for September

September is officially the fastest month of the year in my opinion. Faster than December which means something. Every year it just flies by and here we are almost to the end of it yet again. Since its almost over, I just wanted to jot down the few things we did between getting back to Provo and adjusting to the start of school. It really is our last shout out to summer too since September was still so hot which we loved because we didn't really get summer weather this year. 

I went tubing down the Provo river with some MBASA friends. Maybe the most honest fun I have had in months. It was a rocky start to get on the river considering the tube guy was 45 minutes late, and then the bus wouldn't start, and then we all thought he was drunk, but eventually we got all the tubes tied together and we were off. Within 30 seconds Shellee fell in the river and from that point on we didn't stop laughing. At some point I ran into the side where all of the trees were and flipped over into the river and instead of standing up or swimming towards the floating people I freaked out and stood on a rock and screamed. It was embarrassing how fast my inner wuss came rushing out once I was in the water. That of course only sent everyone into greater hysterics which made them too weak to help me. Eventually I was forced to swim through seaweed and made it back to the raft. Side note, the water was maybe 2 feet deep, I am just that big of a wimp!!! 

 I think Heather fell in and Katie and Virginia jumped in to guide the tubes, but Shellee and I full blown flipped in pure panic. I love my MBASA ladies! What a great kick off to school.

Me, Stacey Morris, Kristina, Shellee Salmon, Katie Apker, Virgina, Heather Palmer

One of the 95+ days in September Kelsey and I were on a mission to find a pool or a splash pad, but because it was the middle of September and school had started, most of the pools and splash pads were shut down for the season. Kelsey and I thought we had discovered one about 2 miles from our house and when we got there I found this in the back seat...

Smooch! You are so cute, but you really should nap at home so we don't have to do this at parks...

Needless to say, we went swimming in the bathtub after a 30 minute nap on our towel at the park.

Kelsey loves her besty Ralphie and during the BYU/Virgina home game (where Katie Apker and I almost passed out and sat under the bleachers because it was so hot!!) Kelsey got to stay and play at Ralphie's house. Apparently they went swimming in bowls and it was the best thing ever!

Ralph lent Ethan his road bike and gear and before school started they went for a nice long bike ride up the canyon. I'm so glad that Ralph and Elisa moved to Provo. We have totally missed their friendship.

Ethan just taking time out of his schedule to read to Kelsey. He is an amazing man.

Texting Grandma. This might be my favorite 2 year old outfit that we own. When she puts the ears on, she sings "Mickey Mouse clubhouse" its as adorable as you can imagine.

Baby is hands down our favorite toys. We tuck baby in multiple times a day, baby goes potty (and uses a HALF a roll of toilet paper!!), baby eats dinner, baby reads books, and we always give baby a hug before we leave for anything. We love baby. My favorite thing about baby is that Kelsey always has me wrap her in her blanket. I also love how she talks to baby aka the things she hears me say to her such as 

"come mere" "Shh, its okay" "love you baby" "awe... you are SO cute" and so much more. I just love how she mothers baby. It really makes me proud that she shows so much love especially in a world that tires to say that little girls shouldn't want to be mothers. I love it Kelsey! 

I also love when she gets dressed up. She puts on her purse, her bracelets, her Punzel shoes, and anything else that she can find that is girly and walks around the house. I love that my little girl is so girly! 

Speaking of girly, this is what we do at the library. You don't? 

I set my glasses down after using the computer and realized I put them on the mouse pad like this. It made me laugh so much harder than it should have.

One morning I decided it was time to be done with a crib and switch to a big girl bed.  It was so spontaneous and it has worked perfectly. It was definitely time because Kelsey was so excited about it that she never once has tried to leave her bed. She loves it. She loves it A LOT!!! She always talks about her big girl bed and tells us about all the people she knows who sleep in one too: Skyler, Daddy, Gramma, Holden, Hannah, Jed, Ralphie and Sadie. I'm just so grateful that she transitioned so easily. I wish I could say that its because we are awesome parents and that all our kids will transition this smoothly, but I know better. Best part about it is that she has only fallen out of it once and still waits for us to let her out in the mornings. She will just sit and read in her bed until we open the door! It is so heavenly.

She may be "big" but she's still my adorable little baby. And yes, it is mandatory to sleep with that many books every time she sleeps! 

Andrea rented another puppy and let us come over and play with her. Her name was Anne and Kelsey almost died when she saw her. Between Anne, the neighbors bunny and Jed Kelsey thought she had died and gone to heaven.

One of Ethan's climbers had us over for authentic Chinese food. Her name is Wei-Wei and her husband's name is Walter. They were the sweetest couple and amazing cooks. 

At the end of the dinner they thanked US for coming by giving Kelsey a gift. Talk about kind! I can't wait to have them over for dinner and show them some American food. There were so many things that they hadn't tried before. The pressures on to make it taste heavenly so they have a good feel for American food.

This girl loves to do the dishes. I mean LOVES to do the dishes. One time I got home from a run and Kelsey was screaming so loudly that I could hear her on the street. I got in and asked what was going on. With a smile on his face Ethan said, "I did the dishes without her." I don't know how we lucked out, but she loves to do the dishes. I'm totally going to store this for when she's 11 and fights me about her turn to do the dishes.

We had the opportunity to go see Hannah's most recent Humor U show where she told a hilarious joke about Lehi's dream and her room mate Goldy. We didn't want to disrupt the performers and so during the parts that Hannah wasn't in Ethan took Kelsey to a class room and let her play with the chalk. I just can't get enough of this outfit and this picture. 

During adult session of stake conference we offered to babysit a few of the ward kids since 8 and older were invited to conference meaning all the babysitters were out. Ethan played soccer with Locke and Ethan and I fed the 4 two year olds popcorn while they watched Frozen. It was a pretty sweet set up. Kelsey kept trying to hug Locke and little Ethan kept following big Ethan around so the night was not missing any laughs. (apparently little Ethan prayed for big Ethan in his prayers that night. So cute!)

Kelsey was helping daddy with homework. She wanted to hold the laptop and I just couldn't resist.

Katie and I unintentionally wore the same outfit to church today. I will match Katie any day because she is an amazing dresser! She gives me all sorts of tips.

Kelsey wearing Ethan's glasses.

 

 My adorable fall model. This outfit just kills me! I love it so much.

  And here's what you get when you let a two year old play with the camera. A picture of Daddy, a picture of mommy, and a picture of Kelsey

Happy September!!!

Raspberry Picking

My favorite MBASA event of the year was another major hit. It wasn't quiet as amazing as last year....

but we still had a really good time. 

The fun thing about this year was the Kelsey actually wanted to pick the berries herself. I showed her how to only pick the red berries and she did pretty good at following the rules. We worked side by side and would go into the "jungle" and pick berries while looking for tigers (some of the bushes were really tall and got dubbed as the jungle. It was adorable). We had to be sneaky though to find the tigers but don't worry "tigers in their cage" so we were safe. 

Can't say we picked a ton but we definitely ate our fair share of berries especially the yellow raspberries: my personal favorite. I think this is my favorite event  because it reminds me of working in the garden with my dad. I miss my dad's garden and although I will never have one quite like his, I hope to have one of my own some day. I also love this day because it is so unique and so different from our normal boring routine. ALSO I love how much Kelsey totally gets into it. She even let us tie a bucket around her waste and everything. I love raspberry picking day.

I listed all my reason as to why I love raspberry picking day, but Kelsey has/had reason of her own why this was the" best day ever". She actually told me that too. We just love our Ralphie

Well, and she loves berries