Trick o' Treat

I know this is late, but I just wanted to remember how fun our Halloween was.  Ariana dressed up like Tinkerbell and loved her wig.  Viggo was a little Ninja and he detested his head band.  The only way I got him to wear it was by distracting him.  I would place it on his head, and ask him if he wanted a fruit snack.  Yup fruit snacks made him forget that he had a headband on. 

 

I know this shot is blurry but I love it.  One of these days I am going to get an awesome camera and take beautiful pictures.  

My oh sooo tough boys

 

The girl pumpkin is suppose to represent Ariana's personality, and the big smiley one is suppose to represent Viggo.  Then David and I tried to do a bat symbol with the letter "E" for Ettinger.

 This is a pic of Irma and Raquel.  They are such good friends.  I have been so lucky in my life to have met and made such wonderful friends in my life.

 

I love this pic because one I think it's silly, andd two because you can almost tell that David actually is enjoying this pose.  Hmmmmmm......

 Another pic of my kids.  I can't help it.  I love what good little friends they are becoming.

 

She was soooo excited to go trick or treating :)

 

They just make my heart melt.  Don't get me wrong there are days they make me want to pull out my hair, but nothing brings me more joy than they do.

The two ninja's out trunk o' treating

 My David :0)

Thanksgiving

I don't know how I can describe in words how scared I was to ruin Thanksgiving.  The week before David helped me go through a mini trial run.  I roasted a turkey and made a few pie crusts to make sure that they would come out light and flaky.  Lets just say the trial run of the bird was not so good.  David and I cleaned out the turkey and we got a lot of stuff out, and we looked for the bag that everyone talks about but we could not find it so we assumed that it did not have one.  Well as I was cooking the bird I thought that it was cooking really fast.  The temperature on the thermometer said it was fully cooked a whole hour before it was suppose to be done.  Needless to say that as we cut the turkey we found the bag in the back, not in it's cavity!!! So I guess the steam from the bag was making it read a hire temperature than the actual bird really was.  So glad we trialed it a week before :/  Or else I would have presented a raw turkey.

David' sister Sara and her husband Kevin and their two "babies" Lucian and Gaia came up on Wednesday.  We decided that since David only got Thursday off that we would play all day Thursday and then have our Thanksgiving Friday night.   So we headed up to Sedona and went off roading.  It was fun......but was way too cold.  Seriously I never thought I would get feeling back in my hands.  We felt so bad that they trailed their off road vehicles behind them all the way from L.A.  It was sooo cold that it was fun but at the same time really uncomfortable.  Here are some pics from that.  

 

Getting the vehicles ready to go!!

  

I can't help it here are a few shots of my beautiful baby boy!!

 

He's been such a goof lately.  He likes to make us laugh by making funny faces :)

 

 

Viggo wouldn't look at the camera because he was too focused on Gaia who I didn't notice got cut out.

 Poor little Gaia got soooo cold

This is a good indicator showing how cold it was.  Ariana would have never buckled the hoodie if she weren't freezing cold for fear that it would make her outfit look funny.  She did not contest it once.
 

Yup we hit snow, and that's when we decided it was too cold to keep going.

After off roading we searched for a place to eat but it being Thanksgiving it was pretty hard.  We ended up eating at Dairy Queen, and yes even though we were all cold we all did eat ice cream.  If you know anything about the Ettinger's is that ice cream is always a must even when its cold. We got home just in time to meet David's other sister Leah who was coming into town with her adorable family.  It was so much fun having family in the home.  Ariana loves Ella and Maci, and they played so much that night, and then the next day they played non stop.  They were exhausted by the end of the night.  When family visits, it always makes David and I a little sad that we are not closer to everyone.  But Arizona has been good to us, so we can't complain too much.  I was so glad that David's sisters came up, they helped me cook all day.  Literally we cooked all day.  I think we started at 10:00 a.m and we cooked until about 6:00 p.m non-stop.

Seriously I have never cooked so much food in my life.  My feet hurt, and so did my back.  And then I was sore the next morning.  Sad but true :(   I am so sad that I didn't get more pics on Friday of the kids and everyone.  I just forgot to take pics with all the cooking we were doing.  But her are some that Sara took.  It was a fun Thanksgiving, but I am grateful that for Christmas my mom is doing the cooking :0)

Here are my nieces.  They are so adorable!! I love when Ariana gets cousin time.  Its wonderful!! And what I love most is how well they all get along.  They never fight,  they just play until they drop. 

My boy love's Sara and Kevin's dogs especially Lucian ( the big pitbull).  I wish I had video.  I feel so sad for him, because he still wakes up every morning asking for Lucian and walks around the house looking for him.  I don't know how much longer we are going to be able to avoid having a pet

Hosting Thanksgiving

Ahhhhh I am hosting Thanksgiving, and I am sooooo nervous.
I keep seeing myself like Chevy Chase taking out a gorgeous turkey only to see it deflate before my eyes. Will let you know how it all turned out. :0)

Primary Program Oct 2010

Ariana participated in her first primary program!!! She was wonderful. She had her part memorized and didn't need any help when she got up there to give her part. I loved that when she got up all you saw was her hand raise up to pull down the microphone, and you couldn't even see her as you heard her little voice say " yo se que vive mi salvador". I made all the girls these flowers for their hair and I made the boys little boutonnieres. It was such a fun day. I loved how Ariana would dance while she was singing. Seriously she would dance during all the songs. Luckily she just danced in her spot. Below are some pics that we took before. She is in a stage right now where she loves to be silly, and make silly faces. This is a really fun age.

I'm a Big Boy Now!!

Viggo has been announcing every time that he goes pee and poo poo's. And when he is bathing he asks to be taken out to go potty all the time. Can you tell how proud he is. I am not going to take his pampers away till he turns two. And then there is no going back. But for now I just want him to have fun thinking that the potty is fun, and come April we go into potty boot camp mode. No going out for a straight week until we get it down. Or two or three depending on how this method works with boys :/ I don't do the whole pull up thing. My relief society president from agua fria Lili Quintero taught me you just take the pampers away. For the first couple of days you run around cleaning up after their accidents but by day three they are almost as good as gold. At least Ariana was. And by the end of the week you got yourself a potty trained kid. This worked great with Ariana but she is a girl. We will find how long potty training boot camp goes for Viggo.

Project #1

We moved into our new home and realized that we were tired of our huge Ikea corner desk. It just took up way to much room. So we went to goodwill and looked for an old desk that we could fix up. And this is what we found. I loved it!!! All it needed was a fresh coat of paint and some new hardware. I loved the storage space on the side of it that had sliding drawers.

Here is my little helper. While Viggo sleeps we get to work.

Here is a fresh coat of paint, and it's new hardware.

It looks really purple here, but in my room it looks perfect. I wanted a pop of color to go against my light grey furniture. Project #1 is officially done.

What makes a home?

Nothing makes my home feel more happy than having my kids running around half naked, just being silly!! Nothing better than hearing laughter in the home :0)

Birthday Girl

Guess who is four now. I can't believe that I am blogging about her birthday, it feels like I was just blogging about her third. She was so proud about turning four years old. We had planned to throw her a friend birthday party this year, but with all the changes we weren't able to do it. But I don't think she minded at all that she just got to celebrate with just her family. That's what I love about kids and my Arianita. They find joy in anything.

This is really embarassing to blog about, but I did almost forget her birthday. Not that I forgot but with all the packing, moving, and unpacking I didn't realize that the next day would be Wednesday her BIRTHDAY. Lucky for me my daughter is brilliant. That night as I was putting her to bed, she said "mom when I wake up tomorrow I am going to find the whole house decorated, I am so excited, (giggle)." And I just smiled and said yup tomorrow is your birthday. Inside my head... " How could I have forgotten that tomorrow is my little girl's birthday.... Ahhhhh.... I am such a bad mom." Well at ten at night I took off to walmart to buy decorations. I think its so cute that she remembers that I decorate the house for her, where she finds her presents waiting for her. Anyways I got it done, and she had the biggest smile on her face that morning.

David and I bought her a little tink outfit, and we thought it would be fun to place her little tink slippers that we bought her at the foot of her door. We told her that tink had left her slippers like hers because she heard that it was her birthday. It was so cute when she came running into our room saying mom, look I think tinkerbell gave me her shoes. I love how kids can still believe in magic and fun. I feel so lucky to be this little girls mom.

This is Ariana waking up and posing with all her presents. She is so big now. She seriously was talking about her birthday six months before her birthday. She is just in this stage now where she looks forward to everything. Always asking about her birthday, and memorizing which holiday comes first, and which follow after. Right now she is so excited for Halloween. This is such a fun stage.

This is my little Arianaita. She wore her tink outfit all day!!

David serving the kids pizza. Can't go wrong with pizza and cupcakes. I love cooking for my family. It makes me so happy when I see how much they love to eat what I cook.

To my Arianita. I love you so much. You bring so much life and joy into my life. Never loose your ability to believe and dream. I love seeing how much joy you have for life. You go to bed, and I know you are already dreaming about what you will get to do tomorrow. You always look forward to the next, day before it even arrives. So much so that even when you have a late evening you never allow yourself to ever sleep in because once, the sun is up so are. "Se desperto el sol mama." Is how you enjoy to wake me and your dad up. I love you Ariana and I hope you never stop laughing and smiling, it is so contagious, you light up our home with your beautiful spirit everyday. And we thank Heavenly Father every night that we get to have you for another year. Happy fourth birthday Nanita. Te quiero mucho mucho mucho mas. And normally you would say no mama you te quiero mucho mucho mucho mas, and then I would say it back at you but I am glad I get to win this one, because I want you to know I will never stop loving you, my heart would break without you in my life. :0)

First Sleep Over

Ariana had her first sleep over the night before we moved back down to phoenix. I know that three is a little young, but her room was all packed up, and she was sleeping over at my good friend Audrey's house. Her daughter and my little girl have so much fun together. And I was so sad that they were not going to get to play together every week. So I let her sleep over. Can you tell that she had no problem with leaving us. She is so independent. She didn't even cry when it was time for bed or anything. I don't know where she gets all her confidence from, it must be from by husbands side of the family. Because, as a little girl I can remember not wanting to got to nursery, and my little girl was like "see ya mom". I am so lucky to have her. She is such a joy.

Pencils, books, and Throw Up oh my!!

Ariana's Second year of preschool. So I think I have mentioned it before but I was in a group of mom's where we each took turns teaching our kids preschool material. This is the picture for her second day of preschool, because I hosted the first day of preschool, and with getting everything ready, I did not have time to get a pic of her.

Her second day of preschool is a memorable one for me. About a week before this I found out that my family and I had to move back down to phoenix, and we had to do it in two weeks. I usually handle stress pretty well but did not expect how difficult it would be to pack with two kids running around. While getting everything ready for the move, Ariana had preschool and I didn't notice that she wasn't feeling well. All week she had been asking me if she was going to make new friends, and if her new primary teacher would like her. So this morning when she was acting funny I thought it was because she was dealing with the move.

Now that I look back at these pictures I can't believe that I couldn't tell that she physically was not feeling well. When we got to Alicia's house as soon as she stepped into her home, Ariana threw up all over her floor :/ Oh I felt so bad. I felt bad because my little girl didn't even cry. She is such a good girl. And then I felt bad for Alicia because well my girl just threw up on her floor. I got her home and within the next hours she was running around again. So I thought maybe she just got car sick. Well, then two day later Viggo was throwing up. Then I felt sick a day later. I didn't throw up but felt nauseous, and one of those days my body ached so bad that I had to stay in bed for a couple of hours. Great time to get sick right? When I only had two weeks to find a house, and get my house all packed and ready to go.

Anyways I just wanted to blog about Ariana's preschool group. We had such a great group of kids and mom's. I am really going to miss it. I think I may try and start one up here in phoenix. I guess we will see :0)

How do I walk in these?

Yup that's my baby. I can't believe how he is starting to not look so babyish anymore. I had to take a picture of him on Sunday, because it was his first Sunday with real church shoes on. I usually had him in roobeez or in soft soled stride rites. You should have seen his face when I put these shoes on. He was not having it. He was afraid to walk in them lol. It wasn't until he saw that his dad had them too, that he decided that it was okay. We call him happy feet around the home, because he literally walks like the penguin from happy feet when he is excited. But this Sunday he was so confused with the shoes, that he stomped around all day, because I think he thought that if he didn't pick his feet up high that he would trip. It looked hilarious. And just so that I remember whenever Viggo doesn't want to do something I just need to show him that his dad does it too, and then he dosen't mind doing what I ask him to do. Like put on a tie on Sunday. I know it seems likes it too early for him to have an opinion but he already does.

Stars

Every time my family gets ready to move I try and take everything in. I will be driving and I try to remember all the beautiful trees on the two lane rd. into town. I try and remember how the trees begin to change color. I roll down the windows on my way to the gym, so that I can smell the clean fresh crisp smell of the breeze as the sun begins to rise. I try and remember how excited we were to move up to cottonwood. When I went to church on Sunday I try to imprint permanently the faces of all the little ones I have been teaching for the last year. I look at the teachers and go one by one, and try to make sure to remember what I have learned from each and every one of them. Driving back home today I noticed that the sound of the locusts were getting louder. My friend Cindy who happens to be the best Primary President ever told me that when the locusts come out it is a sign that cooler weather is on its way. And sure enough it has been cooler, and I noticed that the tree by my house is looking a little less leafy. So many things to take in.

And then tonight I stepped outside looked up at the sky and was left in awe as I always am, when I looked at the vast array of stars. What I love about where I live is that the city is so small that not a lot of light is reflected into the sky and in my neighborhood there are hardly any street lamps, and people don't bother to turn on their outside home lights. This allows one to truly appreciate the brilliance of the stars. I don't have to go camping to really see the stars shine. I just have to step outside. But tonight was different. As I looked up, I realized I have been living here for about a year and a half, and there have been countless nights when I have ignored their beauty which is just a few steps out my door. Every night I am presented with their beauty yet, somehow I fail to recognize them most nights. Just like I am now trying to take everything in, right before I leave. This just made me realize how important it is to live in the present. I believe we should have goals, and be excited about the future, but to live in the present is like no other experience. It has made me realize that I don't want to take in and appreciate every second of my kids, right before they take off for college, mission, or get married. And the same with family, and my husband. You never know what is in store tomorrow, but today..... we know that we have today and we should make the most of it. So here is to not only living in the present, but learning to recognize and appreciate the present that presents itself to us each and everyday.