Blessings

Wow... Where to begin... I must note that since I don't get around to keeping a journal and a blog, this kinda counts for both. So, beware for my ramblings! Since Ethan was born, we went from both of us working full time jobs, to Sean still working full time and me just working Saturdays for 4 hours and staying on the ATM team which pretty much entails 5 hours or so every third week. Needless to say that's an extremely scary transition when the budget just doesn't seem to work out on paper. We were and are still trying to have faith that things will work out. Daycare is too expensive and quite frankly I couldn't bring myself to drop Ethan off some where for 9+ hours everyday.

It's amazing how things seem to happen just when you need them to. I think Heavenly father does that on purpose. If things happened before you really needed them to, it wouldn't require as much faith to trust him that things will be taken care of.

I am amazed at people's generosity. When we found out we were having a boy, one of my co-workers gave us lots of hand me downs from her son including tons of clothes, and a bouncer seat. Shortly after Ethan was born, we were running low on diapers and hadn't gone to the store for more yet when I got a text from my old boss asking me if we could use some diapers. When I said "yes!" she had them in her trunk for me to come pick up, and low and behold, there were about 150 diapers the same size and brand that we needed! I also wasn't producing enough milk so we were having to supplement with formula. We were on our last scoop and once again hadn't gone to the store to get more. We hadn't checked the mail in a couple days which is rare and when I went out to get it, there was a box shoved in there with 2 cans of formula in it. Some ward members stopped by with meals when we came home from the hospital and others dropped off extra diapers or wipes that they didn't need anymore. I really hope we can be the lifesavers for someone else some day and return the favor.

Last Arpil, I was in a minor car accident but it was my fault and we thought for sure our car insurance was going to go up in the fall when our policy was renewed. Nope! It went down... We still can't figure it out. We both had several errors in our paychecks where they shorted us previously but we didn't catch it then so when money was extremely tight, the mistakes were found and we were reimbursed and ended up having enough to make ends meet! Thank goodness for answered prayers!!!


I have been job hunting lately and haven't had any results yet with my weird schedule but so far things are going ok. We know if we are obedient and do the best that we can, the Lord will provide!

Blessing Day

Ethan was blessed on Sunday August 15th in sacrament meeting by his dad. What?! No picture? Why isn't there a picture of Ethan in his blessing outfit? Well, that would be because he had a MAJOR blowout while my mom was holding him during one of the sacrament meeting talks... At least he made it through the blessing ok. That in and of itself is a miracle! There may be WAY too much information in this post but seeing as how this counts as Ethan's journal pretty much, that's why. Standing in the circle was Bishop Hennefer, Sean, Sean's dad, my dad, Fred, and Robby. Ethan was blessed with the knowledge and strength to go on a mission and get married in the temple.

We had LOTS of family there. Both sets of parents and Cam and Rach made a special trip from Washington. Tiffany, Fred, Kevin, and Madaleine came. Aunt Debbie, Tammy, and Lockley were there from Mom's side of the family. From Dad's side Uncle Bruce, Aunt Tracy, Nalani, David, Kelly, Wesley, Michael, Chelsea, Uncle Daryl, Uncle Gordon, Brooke and Mckenna, Dot, and Robby. Hopefully we didn't forget anyone!

After church we went to the 4th street park and had sandwiches. Here are some pictures from later on in the day.

Some of our favorites...

He's Here...

And has been for two months! I'm just too much of a procrastinator to have updated the blog sooner... Big surprise but you have to spend as much time enjoying the moments when they're this young because they go by too fast, right?!

So, the doctor gave us the option of being induced a few days early and to Sean's disappointment, I gladly obliged. We went to the hospital at 12:00pm Thursday, June 17th. My parents arrived earlier that week on Tuesday and so we were MUCH relieved. They were able to house sit and watch the dogs for us. My dad took a picture of us right before we left the hospital and it is the only pregnancy photo that I have.

Labor and delivery went REALLY well. I wasn't dialating well at all for the first seven hours so my doctor about "threw the towel in" and did a C-section because of Ethan's heart rate and things, but at the last minute things changed and everything went smooth! I must say that I am SO grateful for a wonderful doctor and modern medicine. I have one of the best doctors there is! He's amazing. The first doctor I tried when we found out we were expecting was not my favorite so we were really glad to find one that we loved! He is the the smiliest (is that a word?) doctor you will ever meet. Take a look... It won't make as much sense unless you have heard of Wallace & Gromit... If this picture ever makes it back to him, we don't mean to offend! You are the best of the best! And about epidurals? Well, there aren't words... That's all I have to say... About a couple hours after my epidural I turned to Sean and said, "I like epidurals more that I like Thai food!" And, if you know me, you will know how big of a deal that is!

I was extremely nervous to say the least about the hospital visit and all the procedures. They kept checking my blood pressure and every time they were about to do something to me, and I knew it, my blood pressure would sky rocket. Then after they were finished and it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be, they would check it again and it was back down so I was informed that I have "white coat syndrome."

Ethan was born at 10:45pm after a half hour of pushing... Talk about exhausting! Just kidding! I was amazed how easy it was! Ethan doesn't have to be an only child! Yea!! Despite Sean's previous reservations about cutting the umbilical cord, he was easily up for the challenge and was anxious to meet his new son. The nurses were AMAZING! I heart them... Sean and I were both overall VERY pleased with everything!

Introducing... Ethan Robert Phelps 7lbs. 1 oz. 20 inches long!

Odds & Ends

It's been so long since I have contributed to our blog so I'd better get with it... And I don't even have any pictures but I couldn't keep finding excuses. So, here's the exciting happenings of our life over the last few months....

- This last week we found out we are having a boy and we are way excited about that. (Although, I would've been happy either way and Sean would too, he still has a special glow knowing that our first is a son... Yes, that sounds VERY weird.)

-For Christmas Sean got me (us) a Nintendo Wii. The best part is that he got it for free... What could be better? Anyone wanna come play with us?

-We have had the last couple days off of work because we were going to try and sell our house but decided against it so we have had lots of fun catching up on things that we have been behind on and spending some relaxing time together. Sean is quite the handy man on fixing up things around the house and I'm SO grateful for that.

- Sean has come down with some type of flu bug the last few hours and him and the bathroom have been a little too close for comfort. Let's hope it is short lived and that it's not passed on.

- Phoebe has been enjoying the snow and her toys. Her recent favorite is her "Ger" (her stuffed Tiger) she finally succeeded in tearing of its tail as of tonight.

- Leah has been enjoying hunting for any possible treats or crumbs left behind, and trying to avoid the cold and snow as much as possible. She's developed a "howling" habit when the big husky dogs that live behind us start howling along with emergency sirens. We find it pretty amusing.

- And last but not least... Ethan... Or at least that is what we are referring to him as for right now. He seems to be a healthy kid according to the doctor. Very active but with the location of the placenta, I probably won't be able to feel much for a couple more weeks.

I think that's about it... Hope everyone had a great holiday season!

A Sad Story

Background: My dad is about as right-wing as you get. A big Glenn Beck fan, reads books about liberal conspiracies... pretty intense.

Story: My parents came to visit and we went out to eat. While waiting for our food, my dad made the announcement that he got a birthday for my mom (it was her birthday). He pulled out and iPod and I almost cried. I'm not sure my parents understand or even know about my deep loathing for Apple, but I made sure to inform them.

I can't remember exactly how my dad worded it, but he asked why I couldn't just be happy about it because my mom has wanted one for a while. I thought about it and said, "Imagine I just bought a book for my wife that was written by Al Gore." He suddenly became very understanding.

The end.

It's a Baby!

Most of you have already heard the news. Well here's proof!

Baby's Heartbeat

Baby