Happy Halloween!!

It's finally here...the big night! It seems like October FLEW by! The past couple of nights have been filled with lots of dress up and candy. Last night we went to our ward party! It was a lot of fun and of course we sported the same Halloween costume....but this time we tried to rock it a little harder. Ethan had fun running around the entire church with Kurt chasing after him (I was over Bingo with the Primary). So lets begin ...Let me introduce....Our little Vampire (I wanted to say he was Edward, but Kurt vetoed that very quick!).

We bought pumpkins a couple of weeks ago but just got around to carving them today! Lets just say I'm not doing it again. I remember it being much more fun in years past. Kurt got Ethan's done and we both started working on ours....it didn't last long. We both ended up not finishing them! Ethan had a fun time watching...we do everything we can to keep him entertained while he has his patch on.

and here is the finished product...

Next we headed over to my parents house to meet up with all the cousins and take pictures. We put Ethan down for a nap today but all he did was talk to himself and wouldn't go to sleep. This is what happens when he doesn't get a nap.

Well....things didn't go so much as planned. Evan, my brother's little boy, saw Jack and Paige's face all painted and went in to a panic. (He doesn't like masks at all.) So Alaina had to sit with him through the pictures but he wouldn't uncover his face. Poor guy!!!

Next it was on to Kurt's parents house to meet up with all the cousins on that side. Don't worry that Ethan fell asleep again on the short ride over to Russ & Lynette's.

He loved the witch but was trying to steal her broom. I don't know what his obsession is about brooms!!

Then it was back home to hand out all the candy! Once again the two minute ride home he was out! We took a million baths to get the black out, got him into his skull pj's, ate some dinner....and then the fun began. Ethan was in heaven when we pulled out the big bowl of candy. Kurt and I started eating and when I turned the corner to see what Mr. Chaos was up to I found him throwing candy all over the room.

Now it's all over....and the fun starts all over again 365 days from tonight!

And we couldn't forget about Kya!

Life OFF...Game ON

Hubby Tag

I was tagged a couple of days ago from my sister-in-law Kellie and am just getting around to doing it. Too much stuff with Ethan went on after so I'm just catching up. This was a fun tag!! I like to talk about my sexy lover!!

#1 Where did you meet?
Sophomore year at West Jordan High!! He would wave to my friend Angie in her drivers ed class....and I thought his friend was cute! We all eventually formed a huge group and hung out through high school.

#2 How long did you date before you were married?
Ok so we knew each other for forever, just had never dated!! When he got home from his mission there was no getting to know you, we already knew each other. We started hanging out and the next thing we knew we were engaged! We got engaged two months after he got home from his mission and were married three months later....so five months.

#3 How long have you been married

Four and a half wonderful years! They have flown by!

#4 What does he do that surprises you?
Every now and again I get flowers from him for no reason. I love it! He can fix anything....seriously ANYTHING! I used to throw things away when they would get broken...not anymore. Mr. Fix it lives with me.

#5 What is your favorite feature of his?
His eyes and his smile. Kurt has some crazy weird color of eyes....I love it! His smile is so cute...he has the wrinkles all around the corners of his eyes when he smiles and it makes his face light up.

#6 What is your favorite quality of his?
His patience. I'm not a patient person...as most of you know. I worry way too much. Kurt calms me and makes me patient. He is a very go with the flow person...I'm not. When he's around I feel so much more at ease and calm....and I'm working on the patience thing.

#7 What is his favorite sport
Well he wrestled in high school, and still likes to TRY and take his brothers down. I'm going with Kellie on this one...any one that knows any of the Jenkins know that they are fish!! Kurt is awesome at any water sport and makes it look like the easiest thing ever, it's pretty frustrating. He is awesome on slalom.

#8 What is his favorite color?
He told me that it changes....so today lets say it's red....for his Utes.

#9 What is his favorite food?
Pizza. The man can eat like five pizzas. That's all he ever eats. We always have pizza in our fridge.

#10 Does he have a nickname for you?
In high school he nicknamed me smalls for my height. That stuck through school, but now I'm more babe or hon.

#11 Do you have any children?
Sure do!! That would be Kurt's clone.....Ethan!

#12 What do you like to do together?
Oh...lots of things. We like going out to dinner together, boating, watch Jazz games, just being together, and of course vacationing!!

#13 When and where was your first kiss?
In his parents basement. He claims I wanted him to kiss me....which I did, but I wasn't making it obvious. He was nervous so it was a pretty funny first kiss.

#14 Does he have a hidden talent?
Like I said before he can fix anything, but he does have a special talent with cars. He can fix many things on cars. He completely restored his 66' mustang which he bought for $500 and when he sadly sold it last year made a lot more then that off of it.

#15 Who said I love you first?
My lover!

#16 What is his favorite type of music?
He pretty much likes everything. His favorite band is Creed and it's the only band I ever hear him sing to....well that and Chris Daughtry.

#17 What do you admire most about him?
He is such a great husband and father. He always takes care of Ethan and I. He is a hard worker and loves to accomplish things.

#18 Do you think he’ll read this?
Yup, and then make fun of some things!

I TAG:
Jill, Jocelyn, Anne, Allison, Jamie, Dallas, Janai, Kristin, Alaina...and whoever else wants to do it! Lots of tags going around lately!

MRI Results!!

Good news....the doctor called this morning (I've been anticipating his call all morning and trying to keep myself busy) and the results look completely fine. No tumor, no hydrocephalus, nothing to worry about. So the plan of actions is as I mention on the last post. We are now patching his right eye to make his left eye work hard and get stronger. The last two days have been quite the experience....when he was a baby patching was easy...now try patching on a 19 month old, NOT FUN! However, we have realized that if we keep him super busy with thing he loves, like being outside, then he doesn't even touch it and leaves it alone. If we are in the car or tell him it's time to go inside, the patch gets ripped off. Oh this is going to be a long eight weeks!! We've been able to do an hour for the last two days, which the doctor said was good, but I know we need to do the full two hours.

A couple of things the doctor said today on the phone was that he believes since birth Ethan has never learned to use both of his eyes together. The reason being is that from birth he had MED so he favored his left eye. As soon as surgery was done and his right eye became normal he started using that one, which has now caused the slight cross. So my doc thinks that he just doesn't know how to use both eyes together to focus on an image, he just uses one. The doctor also said that he can see him cross in both eyes, but he actually prefers to cross in his left eye. (my crazy little child). So for now we will be patching and then going back to the doctor in the middle of December. From there we will again check things out and then decide if surgery is needed. The doctor did tell me to prepare myself that it may take a couple of surgeries as he grows. It might correct itself with one, but it could also come back and require a few more surgeries. I'm ok with this. I'm so grateful that it can be corrected and fixed. I'm grateful that he has good vision and can still see. The surgery is just an outpatient surgery, so we get to go home the next day....and the other good thing is after that we have usually hit our deductible and out of pocket that most stuff is picked up 100%. ha ha ha!

As of now I feel a huge relief. Kurt and I both knew that everything would be fine. I said many many prayers and knew my Heavenly Father was listening to me. I was actually extremely calm on Friday ( I know some of you don't believe that, but it's true) and knew things would be ok. So for now when you see us outside playing, throwing rocks, and riding his bike, you can all tell him he looks super cool with his eye patch on!

Update on Ethan's crazy eyes!!!

I can't believe it's been a year since Ethan had his surgeries. My little guy was only seven months old and had to have a couple of surgeries done. I was going through pictures and found these to show you the difference. Thank goodness for technology and the amazing things that doctors can do. Ethan had monocular elevation deficiency (MED) in his right eye (so his left when you are looking at the picture)....meaning he couldn't look up with it. They thought that his muscle was probably just tight, so they were planning on going in, stretching it out, and then he would be good to go. When they actually got into his eye they found that he was born with the muscle shorter then normal, so they detached the muscle, moved it completely up, and then reattached. I thought he would come home with a super red eye, but it looked like nothing had happened. Just a tiny little red dot. It was so sad seeing him all hooked up to machines, and I hope we don't ever have to do it again! For those of you who know us and see us all the time know how little Ethan was. He weighed a good old 12 pounds at the time of the surgery...so he was 7 months old. He threw up CONSTANTLY. You couldn't hold him without being puked on. After surgery I had a completely different 7 month old. I don't think he threw up any more after that. It was night and day! He stared gaining weight immediately and reached a percent on the chart. My pediatrician was amazed and thinks that his equilibrium was off before the surgery, and now that he wasn't seeing all crazy was probably feeling a whole lot better. Thanks goodness for the good people who go to school to be doctors and can fix us all up! He won't ever be able to look WAY WAY up with that eye, but most of the time you can't even tell. Just one more thing to be grateful for!

Before...

After Surgery!

Now onto some not so fun news. On Thursday Kurt and I took Ethan to the eye doctor for an annual "year after surgery" check up. I've been noticing within the last couple of weeks that Ethan's other eye (the one that did not have surgery) was starting to go in a little bit, just slightly, not all the time. In fact most would probably not notice it. When we got to the doctors office he noticed it immediately since he stares at eyes all day long. He suggested that we dilate his eyes and that he would possibly need some glasses to fix what he thought was farsightedness. We waited while his eyes dilated and then went back in to the room. The doctor looked at him and then sat there for a minute and said, "this is unusual enough that he would have two different symptoms in two different eyes that I would really like him to have an MRI on the brain." Immediately my heart jumped and Kurt and I just sat there. The doctor is awesome and we have loved him so we want to do whatever he says. Anyways he went on to say that Ethan is actually favoring the eye that he had surgery on ....which means that the doctors did a dang good job.

For those of you who know me know that I am a pretty high stress person. Thanks to my loving and wonderful husband who is so strong and does not stress helped me get through the news. I asked the doctor to give me worse case scenario....brain tumor, hydrocephalus (pressure on the brain), etc. The best case scenario was that nothing would be wrong and we would patch his good eye so that the other eye would start getting stronger and then most likely some more surgery will be needed on his eye or both eyes. The doc also said that the possibilities of anything being wrong was 1% or less....but as a mom and the worrier that I am I worry about the worst possible outcome.

Dr. Larson highly recommended the MRI and told us if it was his son he would definitely do it. He as a doctor wanted to rule out everything (since the brain controls your eyes) and then go about doing surgery if that was what was needed. I'm so grateful to have such an aggressive doctor who wants to get to the bottom of this. We were lucky enough to get the MRI scheduled for the next day, which was yesterday.

So yesterday my little guy couldn't have anything but apple juice and clear jello to eat from 6:00 in the morning up until noon....then nothing from noon to 2:00. We headed up to Primary's and once again just sat and waited. They sedated Ethan about and hour or so after we checked in and then did the MRI. I waited in recovery with him while he came out of it. When they brought him in I asked if we could speak to the radiologist to see if they saw anything...the nurses and the girl that did the MRI told us that if the radiologist sees something big like a brain tumor the family would be told...so no news is good news. They told me to ask again when we were leaving though and he might be available. So when we were getting ready to leave we asked again...the nurse went back, he wasn't available, but she quickly asked and he said everything looks fine. That was the biggest relief. We will get the actual results from our eye doctor on Monday. We aren't out of the dark yet, there definitely could be something in his brain that is making his eyes do this, but we won't know until Monday. I'm just happy to know it's not a tumor or anything.

My emotions have been so crazy the last two days. I was physically and mentally exhausted last night. I'm so glad it's over, and hope that we get good news on Monday. We have to patch his eye for the next eight weeks for two hours a day and then go in again and see if we need to do more surgery. Thank you for all the prayers that went out in his behalf from family and friends...please keep him in your prayers as we wait to hear the results. I'm sure that he will be fine, but it's always the what if. I'm grateful for the power of Priesthood and for the power of prayer. I know Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. We will keep you all posted when we hear results!!

Tag - Tag- and more tags...

I was tagged a couple of times by a few of you...and I can admit that I'm lazy when it comes to the tags. So here are two that I was just recently tagged by cause I don't remember the other ones that I was supposed to do!!

What are the last three things you purchased?
-Lamp
-Crayola Marker no mess book.
-Two cute ties for Ethan.

What are the last three songs you downloaded onto your ipod?
-Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
-No One - Alicia Keys
-Time of My Life - David Cook

What are your three favorite movies?
-Count of Monte Cristo
-The Prestige
-Transformers

What are three things you have not done yet?
-Put Ethan down for a nap.
-Made dinner.
-Cleaned the house.

What are your three favorite TV shows?
-Prison Break - Best show ever!!
-The Amazing Race
- Cold Case or Medium

Three things you can't live without?
-Cell Phone
-I asked Kurt...his answer....HIM & ETHAN
-Music

What are your three favorite dishes?
-Pasta! Pasta! Pasta!
-Rumbi's chicken teriyaki rice bowl...no veggies, half white rice, half noodles.
-Toss & Turn Chicken Salad at Goodwood!

What are your three favorite desserts?
-Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory
-Berry Cobbler at Goodwood
-Applesauce Cookies

What three things would you buy if money were not an issue?
-Any car I wanted at the moment.
-My dream house.
-Fabulous Furniture/Home Decor

If you could have three wishes what would they be?
-Skinny, Sexy, Never gain weight body.
-Having no one close to me ever die.
-Have a new wardrobe every day.

Three people I tag...
-Kristin
-Alaina
-The girls in the neighborhood....yup all of you.

NOW THE NEXT TAG......

6-6-5
So on this tag you apparently go to your sixth folder of pictures and then post your sixth picture and tell all about it. So here it goes...

This was Ethan eating his favorite morning breakfast CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES. Yum!! Technically if I went clear back through all my pictures I guess this wouldn't be my 6th folder and 6th picture, but all of my old stuff is on my other computer and I don't want to go get it. So for now this is the stuff that's on my computer since I've got my new camera. It will have to do! The five people I tag:
*Mindy
*Kellie
*Jess M.
*Angie
*Michelle

Hidden Peak

On Saturday afternoon we went with The Coon's up to Snowbird to ride the tram. Apparently it was "Guest Appreciation Day" up there...so by bringing a can of food for each person we got to ride up on the tram to Hidden Peak for free. Don't worry that we were all packed in like sardines on the ride up and right when we got there someone let a nasty you know what...I almost puked. I was breathing in the smell and when you breathe it...you eat it. SICK! It was an amazing view from up top, cold & windy...but beautiful. Ethan thought the snow was pretty fun and thought he was pretty cool walking around everywhere. Then once again we were packed in like sardines for the ride down...this time no nasty smells. I haven't been up Little Cottonwood Canyon many times and forgot how pretty it is. The granite is amazing. We ended the night we some tasty pizza at The Pie! Thanks to Dallas and Isaac for letting us tag along!

We got yelled at for taking this picture...but it was well worth it. Apparently you aren't supposed to sit on the chair lift...who would know that!? There wasn't any sign...idiot Snowbird workers!

It was so pretty up there. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it's all I've got.

The Monster Mash

Last night we were invited to our neighbors for a Halloween party! Lots of couples from our neighborhood were invited and it was a ton of fun...a big thanks to the Shypkowski's. The best part was seeing everyone dressed up in their costumes...it makes me laugh just thinking about it. We played some games, sang karaoke, and ate way too much food. It's always fun being with everyone and just chatting about nothing! Here is a preview of our night...

Kurt and I have decided to permanently change our looks...we feel this best describes us and our life....and apparently we don't rock out too hard because I'm doing the love sign (what the heck) and Kurt is doing hang loose! We are hard core baby!!!

The Madsen's and The Oliverson's

The Dabo's and The Shypkowski's

The Goodloe's and The Ceser's

The Votaw's and The Losers who wouldn't dress up...The Coon's

The Carter's

Yin and Yang....better known as The Gailey's

I've gotta say that I really do love Halloween. I love that the leaves are turning all sorts of colors, the air is so much crisper, all the Halloween decorations, and that you get to play a different character when you get all dressed up!! Thanks again everyone for a fun night!

The Pumpkin Patch...

Yesterday we took Ethan to the pumpkin patch off of 9000s. and 2200w. I figured it was a good tradition to start this year and figuring that Ethan would think they were all balls...I knew he would love it. It was super cold so we didn't stay too long, but made off with our little family of pumpkins. Ethan liked the pumpkins and yelled every time he saw a big pile of them, but he had more fun riding in the wheel barrow and pointing at the airplanes. He no longer cares when I yell his name to smile at the camera...he does everything but look at me. He also has figured how to pull my strings. You all may think I'm a little OCD and I guess I can admit it some of the time, but any time we leave the house I have to have Ethan's hair done. I don't care what it looks like at the house since he's a crazy nut who's running and crashing into everything, but when we go out, I like it to look nice. Well he's figured out that it bugs me....so the little poop looks at me in the car...after it looks so cute, and rubs his hand all across the top of his head. Then he looks at me with a really innocent look like, "What did I do?" So I guess what I'm saying is that he was a punk on the way to the pumpkin patch. We did have lots of fun though and he loved the little baby pumpkins he could hold...

...but the best part was that he got some smarties from the lady who rang us up!