Love Letter #1 Ethan

Dear Ethan, You were born and you changed me forever. The minute I became your mother I wanted nothing else than to care for you. I knew what I was supposed to do. I was happy doing it. I was more than happy, for the first time I felt like I was doing something with myself. You gave me purpose. The momma bear instinct kicked in with full force. I love how you are so active. You definitely keep us on our toes. Ever since you learned to crawl you have been on the move. You love to run, bike, walk, swim, explore and I love that part of you. I crack up when I see you walking around the house with all your pads and helmet on. I remember that you used to run back and forth between the couch and the sliding door, like you were doing sprints or something. You have always loved the beach, running right into the water no matter the time of year. Last summer I watched you swim in the pool with your arm floaties and you were so proud. I wish I had your energy. I love your imagination. You do a good monster face. You have walked up to kids at the park and growled at them because you wanted to play monster with them. I had to talk to you about how that might not be the best first impression you could make. You love to play pirate in the backyard or wear your Superman cape and run around pretending you are saving the world from the next evil doer. You have always loved to paint. I love hearing you tell me what your pictures mean. Now that you are in preschool you bring home so many art pieces, they are my favorite. I can see your mind at work. You are so intelligent.

I love your smile. I love your gentle nature. When you were a baby you used to rub my arm when I was holding you and I loved that. You are my first child which means you have had to be the pioneer and experience things first. Sometimes you jump right in and do it. Other times you cling to my leg and need a little push. I know what its like being the oldest. Sometimes I wish I could take that away from you so you wouldn't have to experience everything first. But I've seen that you are the best suited for it. I can see how your younger brother looks up to you and you are a good example. Your dad and I can explain something to you then let you choose and you, generally, choose the best option. You are even tempered. When Luke is upset you like to cheer him up. You are full of compliments lately.

When you were a baby I loved that you loved your pacifier. I thought it was so cute. You would walk around with one in your mouth and one in each hand. You would suck on it upside down or sideways. If you were upset we could just give you your "peta" and you would be happy. Then when you were three you gave it up happily. I was afraid of the fight we were going to have to endure but you didn't put up much of one.

I love how curious you are. Sometimes it drives me crazy but I love it. You love to ask where things come from. If I know the answer I will tell you. If I don't then I tell you I don't know and most of the time you are ok with that. I thought you would inundate me with whys but you don't, or maybe you haven't yet. One of the best parts of being a mom is watching you discover the world around you. I want to keep you from the ugly and hurtful but I hope to give you a strong sense of self that you can face it and see the good in everything. You make the world around you a better place.

I love that you like to eat. Not only eat but you are pretty good at trying new things. A couple nights ago I gave you some steamed green beans with your dinner. As soon as I tasted my own green beans I wanted to remove them from your plate because they were gross but I didn't and you finished them. You have always been a good eater. You have complimented me a couple times at dinnertime and its adorable. I aim to please and its great to be appreciated. I love you for that.

You are my favorite Ethan. I love to hug you and kiss you. I love being your mom. Thank you for being my son. Thank you for teaching me about true love and charity. I'll love you forever.

Your Mom

Our little beauty

My sister Mae snapped these photos of my darling baby girl. Isn't she adorable? Look at those blue eyes - they sparkle just like her brothers'. And those cheeks, now can you see why I just love kissing those cheeks? They are so yummy. She's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks, Mae, for the wonderful pictures. I just can't stop looking at them.

Tag from Sherrie

Happy Tag!

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who has tagged you.
2. Write down six things that make you happy.
3. Post the rules, tag six others and let them know you did it.
4. Then tell the person when your entry is complete.

Six things that make me happy:

1. Jogging

2. Reading

3. Date night or Girls Night Out

4. Happy kids

5. Blogging

6. Eating (lately its the eating of gelato or cupcakes that does the trick)

I tag Wendy, Evelyn, Mae, Diana, Emily, Sherrill and Jennie

While the cats away, the mice will play.

While we were off in St. Martin the boys had the good fortune of staying with Vovo and Cookie (thats her nickname, her real name is Lillian. Don't ask me where she got it from because I don't know. Its been her nickname ever since I've known her.) My mom booked a timeshare in Oceanside and took the boys down after school on Thursday and stayed through Friday. Saturday Cookie was on her own with the two kiddos because my mom was at Landmark. Cookie surprised me with tons of pictures! Luke woke up on Sunday morning asking for Cookie.

Here is Vovo (grandma) walking the boys down the pier to get some treats.

Luke jumping over some waves on Oceanside beach.

Ethan loves to dig. Cookie took the boys to TeWinkle park on Saturday. This is such a cute picture she took!

There is the famous Cookie and the boys. Come back soon, Cookie!

Thank you Mom and Cookie for taking such good care of our little hooligans! I know they had sooooooooooooooooo much fun.

St. Martin and Three months

So we had a great trip to St. Martin. It was too short but fun, at least for me anyway. Steve was in meetings every day from about 9-2pm. Sadie and I had fun hanging out by the pool. I got to get a massage that I am still dreaming about. And we ate some delicious food that I didn't have to cook!! The only bummer is the long plane ride. I can't wait for the day when we can blink and be there.

This is a picture of Steve's favorite dinner of Chilean Sea Bass. He said it was the best fish he's ever eaten. Yum!

Our hotel, the Radisson, was situated in between three mountains. This a picture from the top that James took in the cab as we were heading for the airport to come back home. Beautiful view!

Sadie and I hanging out in the cabana. We got this cabana because the staff noticed we had a baby and offered it to us! So glad Sadie was with us.

This is my favorite meal of the trip, grilled lobster in garlic butter! It was delicious.

We took Sadie for a dip in the jacuzzi, which was more like a warm bath, not really jacuzzi temperatures but with the heat of St. Martin we didn't want it to be.

Striking a pose on the beach...haha.

Steve and I getting ready to go out for the M&L (the name of the group the men were there to meet with) dinner. I don't like this picture of me but oh well.

This picture has nothing to do with St. Martin but I thought I'd stick it in thise post too. Sadie is three months old now. She is growing like a weed! She was the best baby to fly with. She literally slept the ENTIRE time on all the flights to and from. Everyone kept commenting on how they never heard a peep from her. That's how happy she is. My arms were killing me (and maybe thats why my back is killing me now) but it was so cute to look at her cute little face while she was sleeping. Ev got a turn holding her on the flight home too. I think I've said this before but I feel like she's older than three months. Maybe its because she's my third and time just flies now but I do. She loves to suck on her pacifier or her hands, if she finds them. She's pretty tolerant of her brothers constant poking and prodding, kissing and hugging. She smiles a lot and will even giggle every once in a while. We love this little girl.

List

1. It was one of those days. Denying Luke some gum set him off and this is what we ended up with. (sigh) Makes me wonder if this was one of those battles worth fighting. So I said no to gum and he hits me. Then I have to fight it, its just not acceptable. I tell him to go to time out and he starts running from me screaming "noooo!!!" like I'm about to inflict mortal pain or something. He finally hides under our desk and I have to pull him out and carry him, which is not easy because he weighs like 50 lbs.! He is kicking me while I'm carrying him to his room and screaming at the top of his lungs. I plunk him down on his bed and walk out of the room and close the door. He proceeds to open the door. Repeat three times and finally does it so hard that he puts a hole in the wall. (looooong sigh) I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to shake some sense into him. I wanted to....I won't say. Thankfully I was able to keep my calm. Luke needs yoga or something. He needs to harness his chi. I love this kid, hot temper and all.....

2. We blessed Sadie this weekend. My parents in law and sister and brother in law came down. My SIL made this adorable bow hanger for me. I LOOOOOOOVE it. She also made these precious (did I just say that?) bracelets for Sadie and bows. Oh. My. Goodness. I am in love. Thank you Sherrie for such cuteness. We are so glad you all could make it. We had fun going to the beach and playing with you guys.

Its January and warm enough for these boys to jump in the ocean but these showers were too cold!!

The Whittaker family with Sadie

Jaxon loved holding baby Sadie. Here they are before church.

Sadie in the car seat at the beach.

3. Our Primary presidency is handing out this really cool FHE manual. I'm burning it to cd's to pass out on Sunday (a few weeks late...better late than never right?) as I type this. Check it out here (click on here). 4. Have I blogged about this onesie yet? My sister Mae made this for me after I showed her some etsy sites with some cute stuff. She is so talented. I love this onesie. Its adorable and Sadie is adorable in it. I think I might cry when she outgrows it. Thank you, Mae for your hard work. Sadie and her hippo onesie...soooo adorable. 5. We leave for St. Martin tomorrow morning. Worst case scenarios are running through my head. I can't stop thinking about all the horrible things that could happen during my seperation from my two boys. I keep trying to tell myself that I'm overreacting, everything will be fine, I'll be eating yummy food, relaxing in the sun, having a spa treatment etc. etc. but my mind wanders back to the extreme. Its my worst fear, something happening to my children and I can't get back to them....or being seperated from them during crisis. Which makes me wonder, why don't we have a living will or a plain will yet? Ugh. 6. Luke moved into Primary. He's only been one week but he did great that week. I was so surprised. I thought he would have a hard transition but he did great! Way to go Luke! We love our little Sunbeam. 7. My family came back from Brazil last week. My sisters have posted some awesome pictures of their trip on their blogs here and here. I look forward to going back down there one day. I want to take Steve and the kids and let them see where I spent so much time. Its such a beautiful country. I have so many great memories there. I want my kids to have a few there too. We'll shoot for being there for the World Cup. 8. So the pain when I run isn't going to go away any time soon. The doctor said I have a pulled groin muscle from giving birth. Its kind of like a twisted ankle. You have to stay off of it to let it heal. He said I could keep training unless it gets worse, which it hasn't. It just doesn't get better. Advil and I are going to be close friends.

Templers Flare

Things are getting ugly around here. Ethan and Luke have learned some different fighting styles. Thankfully the hitting tactic is reserved for REALLY ugly times. It starts with screaming and if that doesn't work then it escalates. The screaming is what has changed. When they get angry we commonly hear "Don't talk to me!!!" Or "I'm going away!!!" or "I'm not your brother anymore!!!!" Doors are being slammed, toys being thrown, harsh words spoken. Yikes. Sometimes I don't interfere. I figure, let them work it out. But, on occasion, I have to step in. Like when the "I'm not your brother anymore" gets thrown out. Or, this hasn't happened as often, when "I hate you" is uttered. That one is not acceptable, I just can't tolerate it. Its completely acceptable to not like someone in the heat of the moment, even REALLY not like them. There were plenty of times I didn't like my sisters. If you ask them they will happily tell you of all the times I pinched them (that was my defense mechanism of choice). But I just can't tolerate the I hate yous or the I'm not your brothers. We are family, darn it, and that just doesn't change....no matter what ugliness we display to each other. Some times I just have to laugh when they fight with each other because I can tell its not about the item they are fighting over but the power struggle. Fun times around the Rasmussen household.....never a dull moment...actually, I could use one of those right now. :)

List

1. Our feet. One day Sadie is going to pass me up, I just know it.

2. I was holding Sadie on my lap and decided to try to take picutes of us on my iphone. The quality leaves something to be desired but I still think its cute. I just love her little face. I want to kiss is all day long, aren't those cheeks yummy?

3. Sometimes, after I pick the boys up from preschool we go visit Steve at work. We love to visit Dad at work. Ethan and Luke have fun hitting up the girls for treats and getting all their attention. The boys like to sit on the file cabinet that sits against the big window Steve has in his office and look outside, especially since the office is on the fourth floor. There is a gap between the cabinet and the window is just big enough that they squeeze between in and sit right up against the window.

4. I'm wondering, why did I register for the half marathon again? Why did I register for the training group? What was I thinking? Oh yeah, I was pregnant and delirious...that explains it.

5. Jess, I wish I had a million dollars too. Whoever said you can't buy happiness was crazy. Hehe.

6. I got my new bathing suit in the mail yesterday. I want to send it back. Its cute and it fits but I scared myself when I put it on...pass the donuts please.

7. I need to put Christmas away, that makes me sad. Maybe I'll procrastinate it another day.

I gotta gooooo!!!

Last Wednesday Steve evaded a catastrophe once again. I was lying in bed trying to get more sleep when I heard Ethan and Luke go into the bathroom (the bathroom is next to the bedroom Steve and I are in) and tell their Dad they needed to go poo. Apparently their father was also using the bathroom. In my half-awake state I could hear the boys saying, I have to go!!! Hurry, I have to go!!! First Ethan got his turn then Luke followed and, surprisingly enough, there weren't any accidents. Phew. If only we had a second bathroom. I mean, we do have a second bathroom...on paper. This is what our second bathroom looks like at the moment.

We tore down the bathroom a few years ago. The plan was to extend the bathroom...until we ran out of money. Now it is used as a storage room. This is actually the master bathroom. I have dreams of moving into our master "suite" one day. One day we'll be grown ups and have our own living quarters apart from our children.

The finished product

I finally finished Sadie's stocking this morning. Here it is in all its splendor and glory...hehe. I think my mother-in-law did a wonderful job. Thank you so much, Elaine!

Here's a picture of all of our stockings hanging "by the chimney with care."