Our beautiful boy!

Well, we are runnying a little behind as Ethan is now over a month old and we are just BARELY showing pics of this little guy! We are SOOOOO excited he is here and absolutely LOVE him! Kaitlynn COMPLETELY adores him and can't get enough of his hugs and kissess! He was born on October 8th, spent two days in the NICU because he decided he wanted to be the "boss" about when we were leaving, when he wanted to breathe, etc. He is doing great now though, eating and growing like a champ! We are doing great adjusting from family of 3 to family of four. We know we are truly blessed to have such an amazing spirit brought into our home. TJ and I are so thankful for our beautiful children and have been so blessed by so much service in the past month as well from friends, church members, family members etc. Life is so wonderful and we are so thankful for all that we have!
We hope you are all doing great and enjoying the change in weather! I'd like to say go Utes, but we all know what happened to them on Saturday, the poor little tykes! Oh well! We will stick with Go DUKE!
Since our last post we have been quite busy as well! I can't believe I haven't updated since July! I'm totally pathetic! Here is what we have been up too:
Spent the weekend at Myrtle Beach eating WAY too much food and soaking up the sun!
TJ and family went deep sea fishing, but he ended up TOTALLy sea sick for 80% of the trip!
Took Kaitlynn to Seaworld, our new FAVORITE place, she still sleeps with "Shamu" every single night!
Went to a "Boat Show" came home with a boat. (TOTALLY NOT PLANNED, but LOVE IT)
Kaitlynn celebrated her 2nd birthday with Elmo as the theme, SHE LOVES HIM!
TJ dressed up like BIG BIRD for Halloween, Kaitlynn was a butterfly and Ethan was a pumpkin!

Hope everyone is great, I will try to update a little more frequently!

More pics

July, oh what fun!

What a fun summer so far and yet there is still so much to do! TJ and I have had a very busy and very fun summer. From trips to the zoo, trips to the beach, and trips home we have tried to cram as much as we could into the last few months. Kaitlynn is loving every minute of is and growing like a weed.
She is hilarious and keeps us on our toes. She is little miss copy cat and repeats almost everything we say. She is now 90% potty trained YEAH, and I am totally stoked. She thinks she is such a big girl and wants to do everything everyone else is doing.
I am getting bigger EVERY day, but so far no complaints. I'm feeling great but getting a little more stressed about this little guy getting here and me not being quite ready. We still haven't agreed on a name yet, but I think we are getting a little closer. Now we move onto rearranging some rooms and storage bins so this new bundle of joy will have a place in our house.
Tj still LOVES his job, and he is looking forward to a deep sea fishing trip he is taking in August. He loves playing with Kaitlynn, washing his truck and working in the yard. He enjoys his time off and even plays golf once in a while! =)

We do exist!

So, although we did take a small hiatus from the blogging sphere, we are back. With some great news! First we are expecting number two in October and, yep, it's a little BOY! We are totally excited and scared about two little ones running around, but we shall survive, I hope!
We have also been having fun doing some great family activities including:
1- Having family come out and visit over Easter with our very own Easter hunt.
And Yes, Kaitlynn was SCARED TO DEATH of the Easter bunny!
2- Going to the Zoo and the Aquarium together on Thursdays as a family date.
3- Flying home to go to my little sister's wedding.
4- Creating our own red neck yacht club in our front yard with blow up pools
and sprinklers!
5- Doing Yard work and playing in the rain.
6- Picking strawberries and making strawberry jam, YUM!
Kaitlynn is now almost 20 months old and running our household. She is talking up a storm and LOVES to copy EVERYTHING we do and say. She thinks she is hilarious and cracks herself up ALL the time. She is a ball full of energy and keeps us busy, busy, busy!
We also had to say goodbye to one of our family members, the Ford Explorer. It is the first car we bought together as a married couple. It gave us a great 7 1/2 years, but it was time to let it go, out on it's own and live it's life to the fullest. Alright, so we sold it to a family in our ward and it is a little creepy to see it parked at church each Sunday, but none the less, it looks happy! =)
Hope you enjoy the pics and have a GREAT day!

Fun Memories!

We have had such a great time the past few weeks! We took Kaitlynn to her first circus the other night. She did GREAT! Although, I still have not decided who the circus was for, us or her. She tolerated everything, sat quietly and listened as TJ and I enjoyed all the cheesy entertainment that brought us back to our childhood years! Kaitlynn is such a trooper, she goes with the flow and whatever other crazy idea her parents may have.
Speaking of crazy ideas, we also headed to Florida last week for SPRING TRAINING! Can you say, giddy school boy? TJ did not know what to do with himself, he was SOOO excited! We headed down for some up close and personal action with some of the best Yankee players there are. We had a great time at the games, the sun was warm, weather was FABULOUS, got sun burnt, a few autographs, made some great memories and enjoyed the beach! Life could not get much better then that! Kaitlynn was a total star of the show as well. She made it on the mega tron every day we were there. My favorite part, is her sunglasses. She had to have them on anytime TJ and I had ours on! She is just so super cute!
Kaitlynn is now 17 months old going on 2 1/2 I think. She is talking ALL the time, but you can only understand about half of what she says. She is climbing on EVERYTHING, reading books like crazy, hugging and laughing ALL the time and LOVES stacking cups, blocks, etc. She is our little firecracker and we love her to death!

Some great times........

Messy Yogurt Face! I LOVE YOGURT!

Dad did my hair! Can you say Mo-Hawk!

What was he thinking?

Our Ice storm

Total Ice, EVERYWHERE!

Wow, what a wonderful few weeks! We have had a great time! So much has happened, people have grown up, love has bloomed, and snow has fallen! All in a good month! In North Carolina, we don't get much winter weather, so when we had our first ice storm, and our first snow storm in consecutive weeks, we were pretty excited! We were stuck at home, because EVERYTHING was canceled, including church AND stake conference. We had a great time though!
When it wasn't snowing, we were celebrating some Valentine's day, which I have to say, WAS GREAT! TJ went all out, including home made coconut shrimp, pina colada's, chocolate dipped strawberries, rose pedals, and a warm bath! GREAT! Kaitlynn even got a little kiss! =)
Besides V-day we have been going for walks, decorating our house, playing with Kaitlynn, doing some spring cleaning, and watching the Olympics! Life is good! =)
Kaitlynn is the highlight of our life right now and we can't get enough of her. She is SOOOO fun. She is saying SO many words now and her personality is so fun. She is very smart, a little too smart sometimes, and so fun and loving! She loves to stack ANYTHING and play with her balls! She loves to run and play at the park. We just can't get enough of her! =)
We hope you are all doing well, and we hope you enjoy the pics!

Quick Update (Warning... LOTS OF PICS)

All banged up, I met the front porch steps up close and personal.

All of us at the Salt lake City Aquarium

Great Grandma, Grandma and Kaitlynn

Us at the zoo lights in Salt Lake

Grandma and Kaitlynn Christmas morning

Sledding with cousins

Kaitlynn with Grandpa

Kaitlynn with Grandma

Kaitlynn with Mom on Christmas morning

Kaitlynn eating snow for the first time

So, we have not fallen off the earth, but we have been VERY busy lately! We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and we HAVE to tell our families THANK YOU for everything you did for us while we were home! We had a wonderful, but not quite long enough, trip home to visit for Christmas. Since then, we have been trying to adjust back to normalcy (if there is such a thing) and this last week we had a WONDERFUL surprise visit from my brother and his wife!
Some of the fun memories we have had over the past few weeks include:
Kaitlynn went sledding for the first time, LOVED eating snow, her face got cold, then she HATED eating snow! =)
We saw the Christmas lights at the Zoo in Salt Lake City.
Spent WONDERFUL time with family.
We got a NEW camera, YEAH!
Kaitlynn turned 15 months old and is OFF the charts for height!
Kaitlynn got a new Wagon for Christmas and LOVES it!
We went the Ranch with Trey and Kaitlynn to feed the animals.
Kaitlynn took her first "REAL" fall, resulting in bruising and scratches.
Enjoyed the warm weather outside by going for walks, with the wagon of course.
I am now the first counselor in the Primary Presidency.
TJ and I took a weekend and visited Charleston, NC
We went on a train ride to look at Christmas lights
Took a bus ride to look at Christmas lights
Kaitlynn met Santa Clause and CRIED, and CRIED and CRIED!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that 2010 is going well for you. We have enjoyed it thus far, although we have all been somewhat sick with either the stomach flu, colds, ear infections or pharyngitis. What can ya do, I hope this is not a sign of what is to come throughout the next year! I will work on updating a little more frequently of the next few months!