President Hinckley

I've been meaning to post this for a week and now that I've heard the news of President Hinckley's passing I find there isn't a better time. Last Sunday Garden Park Ward (my home ward in SLC) was re-dedicated after a lengthy restoration. I was fortunate enough to be in town and attended with my family. It was an amazing event but very subtle at the same time. President Hinckley attended along with Elder Oaks, and Elder Wirthlin. Garden Park Ward has a great deal of history being the home ward to President Joseph F. Smith, Mirium G. Romney, and Bruce R. McConkie. We were all very pleased to hear that President Hinckley would be attending to re-dedicate the building. I was surprised to see him being pushed in a wheel chair and he looked very frail. His son (our stake President) Clark Hinckley spoke as well as Elder Wirthlin and Oaks. President Hinckley re-dedicated the building with a prayer. He had a difficult time speaking and often paused to catch his breath. There wasn't a dry eye in the building as I heard sniffles all around me. I think a lot of us knew he was giving one of his last public prayers. A week later at around the the same time as the re-dedication (6 p.m.) he passed away. I thought about him passing away last week and it made me very sad. However, now that the news has reached me, I am happy knowing that he is reunited with his sweet Marjorie (probably the cutest little lady that ever lived). I love knowing that he is in a glorious place and happier than we can all possibly imagine.

Here are a few more

I thought these were pretty cute. I can't decide which ones I want to enlarge. Let me know what you think. Personally I think the one of her on the chair in the sweater is the cutest.

Photo shoot

The Children's Hour needed some models for a couple of adds so we decided to make a photo shoot out of it. Sadie needed her 18 month pictures taken and even though she is 20 months now, we decided it was just as well. I love the photographer. Her name is Angie and she is from Simplicity Photography. I think she did a great job. If you want to check out the rest of the pictures they are at: simplcityphotography.com/diane
These are the ones she posted on her website.

Snow Days

We went to Sugarhouse park and went sledding for the first time with Sadie. We thought she was going to laugh her head off but she was pretty indifferent to the whole experience. She kept saying "car, car...go." I think she didn't like being so bundled up that it was hard to move. We had fun watching her. Her arms were permanently raised because the bulk wouldn't let her lower them. Pretty hilarious.


We also built a very sad looking little snow man. Sadie thought it was so fun putting berries on it for eyes and buttons. Every time she sees a snow man she says "mi ma." I have no idea where that came from but we love it!!!

Christmas 2007

Here's some photos of our Christmas at the Etherington home. We ended up eating breakfast first this year (a new thing for us sticky fingered children) and opened presents afterwards. Sadie thought everything was pretty cool. She enjoyed hanging out with Ruby and Walter the cat..of course. She walks around the house saying "Wally, where are you." And if she can't find him she says, "where kitty go?"
Listening to her talk is so much fun. This morning she said "Bye bye daddy, he went up stairs." It's amazing to finally have her speaking in sentences. Afterwards we went to the Cannon's and opened presents. My favorite gift of the year is definitely a gift certificate to Piper's Quilts. I am officially a knitter!! I am taking classes there three times a week so I can read patterns by myself by the time I get back to D.C. Thanks CC for the great gift!!

Second time's not the charm

We keep hoping that one day Sadie will want to sit on Santa's lap or even want to be with in ten feet of the guy. Here's a picture of last year's Santa attempt and below is this year's. We had Santa come to the Children's Hour which made it a lot more convenient for us. However, Sadie wouldn't have a thing to do with him even when I gave him gummy bears (her favorite) to give to her. She couldn't be bribed. She couldn't even be persuaded to have me hold her and stand by Santa for a photo. Pretty hilarious actually. I'm just glad I didn't wait in line at the mall. That would have really ticked me off!!

Here's a close up of that lovely face. The sheer terror is similar to the first years, don't you think? Maybe next year she'll be more interested. You know what they say...third time's the charm.

Gingerbread Houses

After our lease was up at our apartment we moved in with the Todd's for a week until we flew to Utah for the holidays. Staying with them was a blast and always entertaining. Sadie loved all the attention she received from her cousins and there were many new toys to share and play with.
We made gingerbread houses with them and their friends one night. Chase and I decided to have a competition to see who could make a better one. We stayed up until midnight putting on the final touches. The test was the next morning when we asked Nathan (an unbiased 7 year old) to judge. He chose mine and I did a very annoying victory dance. What do you think? Which one is better?

Congratulations Chase!!!

For those of you that we haven't already told, Chase has been accepted into the JD/LLM program at the University of Georgetown!!! He applied and we hoped but weren't too optimistic at the possibility of getting in. Then we received the acceptance letter and freaked out!! I am so proud of Chase. We all know how sweet, patient and fun he is but who knew he was a genius too:-) So this means we will have to leave our beloved San Diego and stay in our other beloved Washington D.C. for another year. However, we aren't giving California beaches up with out a fight. All of our belongings are still there so when this next spring semester is over in May we plan on heading out there to gather everything up and play for three months seeing it's Chase's last summer as a student. We plan on going to the beach every day, Disneyland every week, the zoo all the time, and sea world almost as much. Sadie won't know what hit her she'll be having so much fun. San Diego is a much better place to have fun with a toddler so if any of you have advice for me on how to entertain a toddler indoors, please pass it along. I'm a little worried about being cooped up for the next four months with Sadie saying "outside please" every second.

Merry Christmas everyone

For those of you I didn't have addresses for, I thought I would post our Christmas card picture for you. We had some family pictures taken and ended up using a picture that Jonathon Linton casually took of us before we made tinfoil dinners in Shenandoah Valley. It was the only picture we had of Sadie smiling so we used this one instead of all the other ones we posed for. Silly Sadie. I miss our friends a ton in San Diego but I missed Tommi even more this year because she takes such great pictures and chooses the best scenery. Luckily we had Jonathon around to save the day.

Check out this tree

Have you ever seen leaves this bright before? Absolutely gorgeous!!

Harper's Ferry

We traveled up to Harper's Ferry with the Mechams to see the last of the beautiful fall leaves that we covet so much in San Diego. We weren't expecting it to be so cold and I ended up having to wear Chase's coat and he wore my little puffy vest. Very "metro." Doesn't he look just fabulous? Sadie had fun running all over the place and ended up with a very red nose. What a beautiful place!! I love all the little towns on the East coast. They have a great deal of "old town" charm and everyone is so friendly.

Post office problems

We have heard from some of you that your Christmas cards have been sent back due to a faulty address. We have left a forwarding address with the post office but are still having problems. If you are planning on sending us a card, please send it to my parents home in SLC. We will be there for the next month and will be able to receive it much better there. We look forward to hearing from you.
1016 Douglas Street
Salt Lake City, Utah
84105

My new favorite movie

I just watched this movie and loved every minute of it. It could be that my college hero "Felicity" (Keri Russel) is the main character but even if she wasn't I still would have devoured it. I am not a film critic but I must say that the combination of delicious pies and excellent directing was just what my taste buds needed. I really enjoyed this film and had to dedicate a blog post to it.

Sadie's first ponytail

I was experimenting after her bath and discovered that I can finally scrape together a ponytail. Although a momentous occasion, Sadie was oblivious to the whole ordeal. Still not enough for her first piggies but I'll keep you updated.

Missing the sun in San Diego

Wow!! It's cold here and we haven't even hit December yet!! I don't know how I grew up in Utah. I am such a wimp and probably a little over protective. Sadie wears her fuzzy pajamas under nearly everything these days. I of course have to get out of the house so we go against the icy winds and endure. It's no picnic on the beach but it's still pretty beautiful. I love walking around here. The leaves are still so vibrant and I am drinking it all in since it's my first fall in about three years.

Oh Shenandoah!!

We hooked up in Shenandoah Valley with our old pals from San Diego (the McNairs) who have the cutest little boy named Jack. Seriously, you gotta see this guy. He's adorable!! We also got together with the Gardners, Lintons, and the Mechams for the caravan ride out there. It was beautiful. I was surprised how late the fall has come.

We drove out there the first week in November and there were still a lot of green leaves. It was fun hanging out with everyone and building a fire for the tin foil dinners. I think the last time had one of those was on a date in high school. I forgot how good those little meals are. I also forgot how good Cheetos are. Erin Mecham brought some along and we inhaled them.
She and I both agree those are things we never buy (she's prego and was craving)but when we do, or if someone else does, it's always fun to partake. Sadie loved looking at the fire but kept calling it "flower." Good enough I'd say. I am so proud of her and all of the words she is learning. I hate to brag (what am I saying...I have a blog) but she's a bright little thing.

She's been combining words these days like saying "bye bye Dadda" or "see ya Reindeer" (our neighbor has one on his door). She's still very healthy and growing like a weed. We have her in a temporary pack n play and she is almost too big for it!! Time is flying by.

Cox Farm

The day after Halloween our little trio (Jess, Erin and I) and daughters went to Cox Farm and had SO much fun. Sadie ran all over the place and explored so many new things. We went on a hay ride which was hilarious. At one point they had an alien run out to greet us and random pictures along the road to keep Sadie entertained. Jess was 9 months pregnant and still rode the rocky hay ride. She wanted that baby out (and he came just the other day...hooray for hay rides.) I think the last time I went on a hay ride was..um...never..so it was really fun for both Sadie and me.

The farm was surrounded by a ton of large slides that Sadie and I could go down on together. I even sent her down on her tummy a couple of times and then followed. At the end she would say over and over again..."gain" (again) so that's what we did. I think we went down a number of slides about ten times each. Sadie had a ball!!

Check out the smile on Sadie's face. She had so much fun. Also check out Jess (severely prego) walking Lizzie up the hill so she can go down the slide. Nothing can keep that girl from having fun. I was amazed at how much energy she had. Lizzie wanted to go down the slide as much as Sadie did and Jess just kept climbing that hill. Poor prego lady.
What's a farm with out animals? There were pigs, cows, ducks, goats and all sorts of other farm animals for the girls to look at. In one area you can feed the goats yourself. For those of you reading this, don't buy the goat food. There were many crying children who got bitten by the goats because they wanted the food so badly.
We just watched everyone else feed them and Sadie ran all over the place trying to chase them. She kept calling them "bahhh"s. It was pretty cute. She loves animals.

Of course us moms had to have a little fun. I still don't know how Jess got up in that chair in her state. All we needed were our billy bob teeth to complete the moment.
At the end of the farm there are a bunch of little kid trains that they can play on. Sadie of course thought this was the coolest thing ever. We were allowed to choose an apple and a pumpkin before we went home. These are now some of Sadie's favorite words except they come out a little like this...."ahhole and pumpin." I think Cox Farms should pay me for this great review I just gave them.

Quack quack waddle waddle

Sadie is pretty shy on camera so hopefully you can hear her. Also, Chase thought I was taking a picture and that's why he's holding his smile so still...I think it's pretty funny.

Halloween pictures...finally

We had such an amazing Halloween. It was extended over a two week period with all the "trunk or treats" and festivities going on in our neighborhood. Sadie was able to wear her costume 4 times (2 trunk or treats, Whole Foods costume party, and of course, Halloween.) I don't know if you get the same urge to squeeze her when you look at these pictures but I simply couldn't resist most of the time as she "waddled" around. She just looked so chubby and I couldn't stand it!! She had an absolute blast!! Chase zoomed her around like an airplane running from house to house as she picked her own candy (really our candy...yum) to put in her bucket.

We went out to the Todd's house where Pop's and CC were visiting for the week and all went "trick or treating" together. I had so much fun watching Chase with Sadie. You would have thought it was his first Halloween he was having so much fun. He even mentioned to me "Can you believe we are trick or treating with our little girl...this is awesome!!"

We even let her have her very first sucker. I was freaking out the whole time because I am way against that stuff but I decided to chill out this one day out of the 365 this year. She LOVED it!! I think we may have a sweet tooth on our hands. Now every time we are in a store and she sees a sucker she goes ballistic.

I just wish there was another occasion to get her into that outfit again. I guess I can dress her up for Easter as a little chick. Wow...I just thought of how much fun Easter is going to be. We get to experience everything all over again with Sadie and we're loving every minute of it.