Three

9-29-2011

Happy 3rd Birthday Joshua!

We thought about you all day today.

We visited your grave... and brought you flowers.

Beautiful. Pure. White Roses... just like you.

We bought a special birthday cupcake for you too.

Something that we can blow out every year on your special day.

And right next to it is an amazing frame that I found earlier.

We will pull these out every year to remember your special day.

We can't believe that you're 3 now.

We miss you. We love you.

Special Memories of you:

Holding you for the first time. How you were so tiny and light.

You were maybe 2 pounds.

I couldn't believe that something so small could be so complete as you.

Ten perfect fingers. Ten perfect toes.

Small lungs breathing in and out.

You were amazing.

...........

Collin feeding you for the first time.

That was the first time you ate from a bottle.

He held you so tenderly... and fed you so well.

You loved eating from a bottle.

You enjoyed it so much... they finally decided to let you eat on a regular basis.

That was a huge day for you.

..........

Seeing you bond with your nurses.

How you would throw a fit if you didn't get one that you liked.

You were never afraid to let us know what you thought.

And that's one of the reasons you were so strong.

You showed us real strength.

We can't wait to be with you again.

Thank you for being our constant guide,

and helping us remember that our goal is to be working

towards our Heavenly Home.

While at the cemetery, we took some photos of Eithan at the grave.

He decided to attack the roses.

It was really cute.

I'm so grateful that I can take Eithan to Joshua's grave.

I'm glad that we can build these family memories together.

saying goodbye

September 22 2011

to the pacifier. 

Since Eithan has been sick {for the last 2 weeks}... he does not like having his pacifier at all.

I thought that this might be a bad thing.

But it is turning out to be wonderful!

We don't have to wake up to put the pacifier back into his mouth...

and we won't have to 'wean' him off of it later.

So... we are saying goodbye to the pacifier.

Goodbye.

And may I never need want you back.

10 Months

Sept 18 2011

Crawling and climbing around really well.

{he likes to go over every obstacle he comes to, instead of going around}

Has 2 bottom teeth.

{is much happier now that these came through}

Learning to whistle.

{shapes his mouth like an 'o' and blows in and out}

Still sticks anything and everything he gets in his hands into his mouth.

Has started to do a 'I know I'm cute smile'

{scrunches up nose and smiles really wide while tilting head back}

Learning a lot each day.

{can open the oven drawer, turn the A/C on and off, open and close doors, pull plugs out of the socket, etc.}

All of a sudden does not like having his diaper changed.

{he will fight us tooth and nail the whole time} 

Loves being in any room as long as mommy and daddy are there.

{he is really starting to recognize when Collin leaves the apartment}

Will hit us on our legs to get our attention when we've spent too much time on our laptops.

{the same when we watch a movie}

This last month has now been the longest he's had a runny nose/been sick.

{we're going on 2 weeks}

Will randomly come up to us and give us hugs.

{no more cuddles, except when he's going to bed at night}

Loves all people.

{he will really go to almost anyone who is being friendly and "smile"y with him}

Growing like a weed and still our lovable, adorable boy.... 

I can't believe he's 10 months already.

P.S. The picture above was taken late... when I finally had time to do it... and the munchkin was not cooperating... he did not want to smile or sit still or do any of the things that I wanted him to. Just like any normal baby would. {smile. sigh.}

i {heart} you

Seattle Day 2 {evening}

Sept. 4 2011

Erin and Robbie were so kind as to invite us over for dinner this evening.

It was a fun, enjoyable meal.

Full of dipping French Dip sandwiches made with homemade bread {YUM},

and talking about jobs and what it is that Robbie actually does for a living. 

*****

The whole time, the boy cousins were getting re-aquainted.

They played so well together.

{Brody Lund and Eithan Winks}

I think part of it was because they haven't reached the "mine" stage.

They would take toys away from each other, and they would look worried for a minute,

but then another toy would be near by ... so they would go play with that one instead.

And... let's be honest.. they didn't really play together per se...

they more slightly interacted with one another.

But this involved following each other around the kitchen island, 

then going back to toys in the living room.

And lastly, and most cutely, giving each other baby cousin kisses.

It was so sweet. 

I know Eithan will hate me for telling you all this when he's older...

but he's not there yet... so I can tattle on all his sweet nothings all I want.

It was wonderful to be able to see family, and to have the boys play together.

Memories in the making... and hopefully more soon!

Seattle Day 2 {morning and afternoon}

September 4 2011

After that really rough night sleep,

we took it a little easy this morning.

We took a family nap about an hour after he woke up.

We then got ready for our day and headed out!

We were able to see Collin's sister and her husband for a bit this morning.

{And see their beautiful new home... I'm home jealous.}

Then we went to Woodland Park Zoo.

Part of the reason that we went to the zoo is because our friends were going.

The Asays.

I'm not going to bore you with a whole narrative of everything that happened.

And fortunately for you, I decided that taking pictures of animals was unnecessary.

I'm not going to look back at pictures someday and say,

"Wow, Look at that hippo! It's amazing!"

Let's be honest... we all won't.

Thus, the pictures are of us.

Our friend Aubrey Asay immediately wanted Eithan when we arrived. 

I was more than willing to oblige her.

 She carried him around for quite a while and tried to get him to look at all the animals.

{In these two it actually looks like he is looking at them...

you'll find out later that he doesn't really.}

They thought it would be funny to do a "family" photo.

They don't have any children yet, and we were distracted by other things at the moment.

So, they wanted to see if we would actually notice that they were taking a "family" photo.

*****

As we wandered around all the typical baby needs popped up.

He needed to be changed.

He needed a drink.

He needed to get out of his stroller.

But in all of this.

His little temperament certainly showed through a lot.

 We would go from this little tyke of curiousness.

{Don't you love the penguin swimming in the background.}

To this.

I love my face in this one. Priceless.

As we went around... we, of course, wanted to take pictures.

What we did not realize was that the Asay family has a "photo oping" craziness.

Every time we turned around they wanted to stop and take pictures.

I thought that I was a crazy picture taker.

I've got nothing on these folks.

Thus, we were able to get some of these family pictures.

 

I do love that we were able to get pictures of all of us.

That was one really nice part about going with friends.

*****

Now back to Eithan.

When we would get to an animal exhibit.

One of us would try and point out the animals to him.

He would smile and giggle at us.

Try to grab our hair or anything else that we had.

And then not look at the animals.

I wasn't really expecting him to get too excited about the animals. 

But a small part of me hoped that he would at least kinda recognize that this was 'cool'.

So, this is how it would go.

{1}

 Collin and Aubrey would try and get him to look at the animals.

{or whoever was holding him would try to}

{2}

 Eithan would get distracted.

Either by the other person or the hordes of people around us. 

He would be more interested in playing with them, than looking at what we were trying to point out.

{3}

 The actual animal we were looking at in this series.

{I had to throw in one picture of an animal... 

besides... anyone else know that flamingo's legs bend forward?}

{4}

We would get him to look for a second or two before getting distracted again by something else.

This time he actually did look at the flamingos for a little while.

And that's how it was for a lot of the zoo.

When we realized that it was a little fruitless to try and get him to enjoy the animals.

The zoo started going like this...

 Eithan was having more fun with this water bottle and sunglasses than he was with us carrying him around.

So, our happy little boy rode around, not strapped in, in his stroller.

It made me nervous not strapping him in.

But when he was strapped in... he would throw a hissy fit!

So we watched him carefully to make sure he didn't get hurt.

OK, I admit that one time he fell through that little opening in the front of the stroller.

It was one of those bent in half with the feet sticking out and the head smashed against the knees moments.

It was hilarious.

We pulled him out of it quickly, and he did just fine.

So, we watched a little closer after that.

*****

Eithan tried Dippin' Dots for the first time.

This little face makes it look like he may not have liked them.

But he wanted as much of that stuff as we would give him.

It was a nice cold treat for a hot afternoon.

*****
Ok, only one more note.

You know those kid's drinks that you can get at the zoo?

The ones that are in the shapes of animals... and filled with some kind of deliciousness?

I always remember that about zoos.

I remember also always getting one... because they are cool.

So...  I had to get the pink dinosaur.

And then I had to take a picture with my super cool drink.

Because what's the point of buying something neat without documenting it?

{Don't you love that the wind swept my hair away at just the right moment?}

*****

All in all, a wonderful trip to the zoo with a bunch of wonderful friends.

{Mike's parents also were with us on this excursion.}

Left to Right: Joy Winks, Eithan Winks, Collin Winks, Kevin Asay, Aubrey Asay, Marsha Asay, Mike Asay

Totals for this part of the day:
$35 for Zoo tickets
Free Parking 
{we lucked out and were able to park on the street}
$6 for Dippin' Dots
$3.50 for Pink Dinosaur
Free Water {we brought our own}
Free Breakfast and Lunch {we brought our own}
$5-$10 in gas
= $55 (ish)

Seattle Day 1

September 3 2011

Collin and I needed to leave our little town for a while.

So, we decided to go to Seattle for the weekend.

It was 3 days and 2 nights of adventure.

Early Saturday morning,

(because the munchkin woke us up)

we finished loading the car and took off.

We drove into Seattle and went straight to Pike's Place Market.

We didn't realize that there was a 'front' and 'back' to this place. 

Thus, we ended up coming at it from the back.

That is we came at the market from down by the waterfront.

Again... little did we know that we would have to go up 6 stories to actually get to the market!

This whole area is built on a couple of big hills.

So, when we came in from the 'back'... 

we had to go all the way back up to actually get where we wanted to go.

This is the view from above once we reached Pike's Market.

We were able to go out on a little walkway and see down to where the bottom of the market begins.

{Kinda... this is a skewed perspective because you're not seeing out to the ocean.}

Then the real adventure began.

The market was CRAZY. There were soo many people there it was ridiculous.

I'll admit it was Labor Day weekend and all... but W.O.W.

We wandered around and I had to get the 'classic' shots of the market.

The main sign that everyone knows.

{It really is a cool sign in person.}

 

Collin by this point is done with the crowd and chaos-ness of the place.

Eithan is being his usual self and looking around.

There's my happy, handsome man!

And Eithan was trying to pull off his sunglasses once again.

It became a game for Eithan to try and get them off of Collin's head.

{Anyone notice the time change between the pictures??}

The one thing that really stood out to me while looking around were these beautiful flowers.

 And they were only $5 or $10 a bunch!

I have never seen such quality flowers for so cheap ever in my life!

{It made me wish I could do my wedding reception over again 

so that I could have beautiful flowers on my tables... ya know what I mean?}

I thought that by the flowers would be a perfect little spot to take a family picture.

 Our first shot with me holding the camera.

{Eithan was pulling my hair all weekend long. It was torture for me. Fun for him. Thus I had to include this picture}

 

This second one a sweet lady took for us. 

(I think she was from Australia or somewhere around there. Adorable accent.)

She actually took two..

but this was the best one because I was actually looking at the camera instead of trying to get Eithan to look at the camera. But... as you can tell I am still trying to get Eithan to look at the camera... thus the array of arms all over the place.

At least we are all smiling.

*************

As we wandered around the market... our time for our parking was running out.

BUT... I still wanted to look around. 

So I sent Collin to go move the car and find another spot.

Simple enough, right?

No.

It took Collin about 30 minutes to find another parking spot and come back to us.

In that time frame... Eithan decided that he was done and started screaming bloody murder at me.

I mean screaming.

People started staring at me as they walked past.

I was given some dirty looks, some sympathetic looks, and some looks of complete shock.

I was SO embarrassed. 

Collin finally came back... and we decided we should just get our dessert and go.

Well... our dessert was sold out. 

Go. Figure.

So I went to find a new dessert. And it was only OK.

Then we started to head back to the car.

On the way we passed the original starbucks {which had a ridiculously long line},

and a little grass park.

By this time Eithan really needed to get down and crawl around.

Thus, to the park we went.

{When I say park... I really mean some grass in the middle of a big concrete surrounding.}

And that's when this little guy decided to be his adorable self again and pull this cute stunt.

Eithan didn't want to crawl on the prickly grass.

So he stuck his little bum in the air and waddled/crawled around in the grass.

He's been doing this a little more in grass.

Something about it just doesn't feel right on his 'wee little knees'.

While Collin and Eithan played for a little bit...

I shopped some more.

It was fun... but I was exhausted, and the boys were too.

So we headed back to the car.

Eithan slept all the way to the hotel.

Then decided he was ready to go again.

We were not.

But what do you do with a little one in a hotel room with lots of outlets, cords and other things?

So we went to a mall nearby.

Collin was really excited because we went to REI.

He shopped. I walked around.

Then I was excited because I was able to go the best store ever!

Pottery Barn.

I shopped. He walked around.

{Who knew it could be so fun to see those beautiful items in person?}

Then... it was time to call it quits.

We went back to the hotel and crashed.

Well... Collin and I crashed but Eithan didn't.

He slept really fitfully that night.

So much so that he was up every 2 hours.

It was like having a newborn all over again.

So he slept... we didn't.. and that ended our adventurous day 'numero uno' in the city.

Total for the day:

$20 in parking fees.

$20 in food from the market.

$15-$20 in gas.

$65 for a room.

= $120 {ish}

Everything we did was free... so not to shabby.

April 2011 General Conference Talk

September 1 2011

I am working on Christmas presents.

Because some of them have become time intensive,

I decided to listen to General Conference talks while working.

Today, one of the talks I listened to was

Waiting on the Road to Damascus by Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

My dear brothers and sisters, let us strive to be among those whom the Lord can rely on to hear His whisperings and respond, as Saul did on hisroad to Damascus, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

I have been really touched by thought that it is

my hands that can help do HIS work.

This talk confirmed that idea with me yet again.

It is through service and losing ourselves in His work....

that we will find ourselves.