The Patten Family

March Madness!

2010-04-01T01:52:00.000-07:00

March was all over the place for us. The first part of the month we battled sicknesses and hospital visits! Adam had pneumonia and had to be hospitalized! He was in for 4 days! Cory stayed over night and part of the mornings and I took the afternoon to late evenings. It was hard having to leave Kaitlyn at home and not being able to nurse her. Somehow we survived... and then, when we were home again, Adam had a fever and hard time breathing again! Another ambulance ride from the ER to the hospital in Stockton with RSV! This trip only lasted 3 days. I think Adam was finally getting used to the nurses and doctors coming by every 10 minutes to pester him. It was all for his good but he just didn't understand what was going on. When we got home we had to break him of his eating and drinking everything in bed! He was very demanding at the hospital and tried to continue it when we got home, so we had to break him of that too. This picture is Adam getting his breathing treatments at home. The second time around he actually let us put his "puppy" mask on him and give him his medicine. (He's watching SpongeBob)Kaitlyn is a cutie-pie!

Kaitlyn on St. Patrick's Day

Cory and the kids decide to make a giant loopty track to race the cars down the stairs!

Spring is here!! Funny that Adam was 6 months old when we first moved here and I put him in the same swing! Kaitlyn is too young to care about the swing.

Jonny spends his "Mommy Money" and gets this cool Lego set!

Megan turns 9 years old!

Jonny becomes a robot bunny!

Adam is too cool for breakfast!

Ethan is always giving us thumbs up and telling us that we are his best friends!

I get a new haircut!

Megan, the new fashion diva!

Jonny becomes the Snuggie monster!

Kaitlyn learns how to use a cell phone but is still working on texting

Megan turns 9 years old!

2010-03-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

Megan celebrated her 9th Birthday today!

She celebrated by having a few of her friends come to her Birthday Party.
Megan and her friends doing a painting craft!

Cake time!

Megan sporting her new outfit and sunglasses.

Opening presents!

Cory is telling her that the character in her new book is named Meggie!

Happy Birthday miss Megan!! We love you!!!!

February's post

2010-03-06T01:13:00.000-08:00

So yeah I've been busy and I kinda forget to post to my blog. So this may be a large post for February. Kaitlyn was blessed on Valentine's Day! We had Grandma, Grandpa, Jimmy, Christy, Maiya, and Papa celebrating with us!

Adam falls asleep everywhere except for his bed!

My Children, all 5 of them!

Well I'm frustrated with Blogger right now so that is all I am posting! Maybe I'll add more but probably not!

Ethan turns 4!

2010-01-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

A few pictures of Ethan opening his presents...

Kaitlyn Velouria Patten

2010-01-08T23:10:00.000-08:00

My baby girl is here!!!

December 19, 2009
Saturday 5:48 am
Modesta, California
Kaiser Permanente Hospital

Kaitlyn Velouria Patten
weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces
21 inches long

I went in on Friday the 18th around 8pm. I got admitted this time, unlike two weeks ago when I was sent home. This time being at 5 cm they had to let me stay! However I was stuck at 5 for a very long time even after they gave me Petocin. About 5am in the morning they broke my water in hopes that that would bring baby. About 48 minutes later Kaitlyn was born! She was out after two pushes, after all she is my smallest baby. Cory and I are so happy she is here... our family is complete! Kaitlyn's first bathProud Daddy!

Kaitlyn's first car ride home

Kaitlyn at home and surrounded by family

What's New?

2009-12-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

Well November went by in a flash! We went to Cory's parents' house for Thanksgiving this year. We played tons of games, ate lots of good food, and did some shopping too. I guess I only took this one picture while we were there... Adam and Ethan really wanted to help Grandpa peel the potatoes for the Thanksgiving dinner!

Wednesday, December 2nd, I threw a birthday party for Jonathan. He requested a Transformers party this year. We played pin the head on Optimus Prime and Transformer Bingo! Jonny designed his own cake this year. He asked for chocolate cake with green frosting and skittles on top. So he helped me decorate his cake before the party. Jonny had so much fun with his friends, at the end of the party, they didn't want to have to go home. I was happy to get this party in before our baby girl arrives later this month!

Here are the pictures I took of Baby Girl's room all put together!(click on pictures to enlarge) I had painted her room back in October and made all the bedding for her crib, including the matching curtains! The quilt draping over the crib is the project I most recently finished for the baby, I am quite pleased how it turned out. I also made cordinating paintings and framed them. I still want to make a cover for the rocking chair, but I'm feeling pretty tired lately and will most likely spend my energy on making her some cute burp cloths. I'm almost all the way packed for the hospital and am very anxious to meet this cutie pie!

On Thursday December 3rd I went to the doctors for a check up. She said the baby looked like she was measuring big and ordered an ultrasound for that same day. The ultrasound tech said that she was estimated to be 7 pounds and 3 ounces already. He also said my due date looked like it should be December 24th instead of January 2nd! So we will see when she comes just how big she turns out to be! I took a picture of the ultrasound picture, sorry I didn't want to get the scanner out.

Saturday December 5th... Christmas Party!!
So we ventured to the church Christmas party. They provided lunch and had a ton of games the kids could play. Megan got her face painted, Jonny won a giant cupcake in the cupcake walk, Ethan liked fishing for candy and toys and Adam enjoyed eating all his candy before we even left for home. Before the party was over we headed over to get our picture taken with Santa Claus!! Ethan was nervous and didn't want to stand more than a foot closer to Santa and Adam liked going up to Santa but was very nervous sitting on his lap. Adam calmed down after Santa presented a goodie bag to him. Ohh the power of candy! When we were leaving Adam kept saying "Gangkoo Ho Ho!" and "Bye Ho Ho!".

The Procedure

2009-10-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

On Monday October 5th we took Adam in for his endoscopy biopsy. He wasn't allowed to eat any breakfast and was asking about it a little on the car ride to the hospital. He was otherwise happy and pointing out every cool car he saw as we drove past them.
When we got there we had to wait around for a little while. He was weighed, which he doesn't like and then they put a hospital band on his wrist which he really didn't like!

Then we brought him in to the operating room. Cory sat on the bed with Adam in his lap and held his arms down so they could put the mask on him to make him fall asleep for the procedure. Adam screamed and cried so loud, it made me so sad to see him so scared and upset. Finally he fell asleep. The part that really made me choked up was when I was leaving I kissed him and saw him breathing peacefully but he still had a tear in the corner of his eye.

The whole procedure only took about 15 minutes. They rolled him into the recovery room where we waited patiently for him to wake up.

When he finally woke up, he was quite upset. And when he woke up he woke up fast and suddenly. The nurse went to get a popsicle, in case his throat was a little sore. At first he rejected it but then realized he was hungry and took it.

On the way home he kept shouting "Daddy... uh food!!" We kept trying to ask him what kind of food and such things and he would yell NO! He was beyond hungry. We drove through the drive-thru at Burger King and got him chicken nuggets and french fries. He was very happy and scarfed every bit of it down. Those were probably the last BK chicken nuggets he'll ever have again. Now he is on a Gluten-Free diet for the rest of his life. We are glad that he is going to be okay and that he will heal.

Summer Fun

2009-08-06T12:55:00.001-07:00

Here are a few snapshots of the fun things we've been up to this summer.

SWIMMING

BIKING

AND HANGING OUT

So tired...

2009-07-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

We had Matt and Brenda and their 3 children come and spend the night on Friday night. Of course no child fell asleep before midnight! They had a ton of fun running around and playing together. Saturday morning we left to go to the beach with our friends. We stayed at the beach from noon until 7pm! I didn't get any pictures because Cory left the camera in the car and there was no way I was going to trudge all the way back up and get it. Brenda took a few pictures so hopefully I will be able to get my hands on a few of them. The kids had so much fun digging in the sand and playing in the water. It started out overcast but ended up being sunny and beautiful! We even took Lucy to the beach for her first time! I was very nervous that she was going to freak out from the noise the waves make or not liking the sand. This was not the case at all... she loved everything about the beach! She loved meeting new people and dogs and actually loved going in the water!! The only one who still doesn't like the water is Adam. Hopefully he grows out of this sometime soon, preferably while we are in San Diego for vacation!
By the time we got home it was late, we fed the kids and quickly put them to bed. The next morning the kids did not sleep in, we have afternoon church. So on Sundays Ethan and Adam do not get a nap because church is right when they are supposed to be napping. When dinner was ready at 6pm Ethan could not stay awake, even Jonny said he was really sleepy.

Fireworks and Birthdays

2009-07-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

This is a massive post...

July 12th
We celebrated Adam's Birthday with Grandma, Grandpa, Jimmy and Christy. We had a wonderful meal... grilled teriyaki chicken and grilled vegetable kabobs, with rice and a pasta salad. Then we sang to Adam. I made him a cute bannana/monkey cake. He wouldn't blow out the candles this time. He sort of blew the candles and then would get shy and just stare at everyone. Eventually I helped him and he blew the candles out. The cake was yummy and I think Adam really liked it, especially when he asked for more! Adam was excited to open his presents, I think he liked that Grandma wrapped them in Spongebob wrapping paper. He got a cool car ramp set and extra cars to play with it! All the kids were crowded around trying to play with it. We had a great time and love when they come to visit us!

July 8th
Adam's Birthday!! We started the day off by driving Cory into work. Right across from where he works is the theatre. We watched "Igor" for free! After the movie got out we picked Cory up and went to Red Robins for lunch. They sang to Adam and gave him a free ice cream sunday! After lunch we dropped Cory back off at work and we headed home to let Adam and Ethan take naps. Later we picked Cory up from the train station and came home to have Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner. After dinner we let Adam open his presents. Cory spent some time putting his new bike together. He was very happy to get his bike and couldn't wait for Daddy to finish putting it together! Then we sang Happy Birthday to Adam. Part way through the song he blew out his candles! So we re-lit them and finished singing to him. I made, from a box, Oreo pie!

July 2nd - July 6th
On July 2nd we packed up our van and drove to Utah. First we dropped off Lucy in Modesto at the C&R Ranch Pet-o-tel. I was a little sad to have to say goodbye and leave her with complete strangers. The drive to Utah was much more pleasant than I had imagined. We had the dvd player hooked up, with two screens: one for Jonny and Adam and one in the back for Megan and Ethan. So we pretty much had that playing the entire trip. I thought I was clever this trip when I packed ziplock baggies to pass snacks out. I could zip it shut and just through the bag all the way to Megan in the back row! I also packed plenty of water bottles and froze half of them and used them as ice in the cooler. One of our favorite snacks, when going on a road trip, is crackers with sliced cheese, salami, and pickles... so yummy!! Cory had planned out our entire driving portion of the trip, where we would stop for gas, where we would eat and how long each activity would take us. Of course we didn't follow it exactly but it did help us stay close to our schedule. We got to Shawn's house late and ordered the world's best PIZZA!! Pizza Pie is so filling you could be done after your first slice, but who wants to stop there when it tastes so awesome?!!
On Friday we eventually made it to Thanksgiving Point and went to the Dinosaur Museum, but not until after we made a quick visit to Cabella's sporting outfitters store. We met my sister Rhianna there and toured the store admiring all the cool animals that were stuffed.

Later in the evening Rhianna and Brad came over and, as tradition is held, the boys drove to Wyoming to buy some big fireworks! Unfortunately I did not get a picture with our camera of their loot but Shawn and Jimmy did. I will get a copy someday.

On Saturday we went to the Floyd and Fanny Patten family reunion. I only knew a few people there, but it was cool to see so many people who are related to each other. Lunch was yummy but the cinnamon roll I had for dessert was even better (Sorry I'm always talking about food, it's the pregnancy talking)! After awhile we headed out toward home and stopped by Bridal Falls. The water was quite cold but it felt so nice in the hot sun.

After the falls, we went to Grandpa Patten's house to have a BBQ with the aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was funny cause it was very much like when we came 3 years ago except my sister Rhianna and her Fiance came instead of Jada and her husband. After dinner they brought out a yummy cake and we all sang Happy Birthday to Shawn. When night fell the boys began to light off their many fireworks. It was a little more of a challenge this time since the backyard was flooded for their irrigation day. Also many of the trees in the backyard had grown since we had last been there and were more in the way. This fireworks display seemed a little more dangerous but just as beautiful. Neither Shawn nor Cory came close to even lighting half their own stashes of fireworks!

On Sunday we went over to Kim's parents house for lunch. It was nice to meet Kim's parents, they were very nice and lunch was very delicious. Kim had made a cake for Shawn and put sparklers in it as candles. Apparently some of the ashes from the sparklers fell onto the cake and a few people said the frosting tasted like gun powder! The kids had fun playing on the huge playground they had in their backyard. Adam was twirling on the swing on his stomach and then his pants started falling down! Cute diaper butt! Not so cute the night before when his leaky diaper got Grandma again. Sorry Grandma! Later that night Cory, Shawn and Jimmy lit a few fireworks while I sat a couple yards back watching. There were a few duds mixed in with the good ones but the craziest was when Cory went to light one of those strobing ones and it didn't quite do what it was supposed to. Almost instantly after he lit it, it exploded with an extremely loud bang!! Chunks of it went flying in every which direction including a giant flaming piece that whizzed right past where I was sitting! A few neighbors heard the explosion and came out to see if everything was alright, luckily everyone was. I think we were pretty much done after that one!

On Monday morning we packed up and headed back home. I was ready to sleep in my own bed again! The kids were well behaved except a little crying from Adam who was just trying to get comfortable enough to fall asleep and take a nap. Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

Deconstruction

2009-06-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well Cory spent this weekend taking down a few things. First he took down 5 bushes that lined the kennel, in the back corner of the backyard. Then he took down the dead tree next to it and the posts that were there for the tree. Then he disassembled the kennel. He took down the tin roof and then the fabric sidings and finally the fencing. It was a large kennel, about 12 feet long and about 7 or 8 feet wide and 6 ft tall! He did this all by himself as I sat in a patio chair and watched! Next Cory pulled up all the flag stones, over 60 of them. Then he tried to level the space out as much as possible. Jonny was there every step of the way to help his dad in any way he could. Finally after all that, Cory set the pool up! Last year the pool was smack-dab in the middle of the yard. So it's nice to have it set up off to the side. The kids are very anxious to swim even though it has been rather cool here the past couple of weeks. And by cool I mean in the mid-seventies! Here are a few pictures...

Cory triumphantly removes the dead tree stump!!

The kids like to help out. Megan is hiding.

Adam is a cutie and Ethan hangs out with Lucy.

Megan and Jonny try out the pool... Brrr!

May Pictures

2009-05-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Patten's Kindergarten Graduation May 19th

At 10 am in the school library, Jonathan graduated from Kindergarten! He was among three other kindergarteners that graduated this year. They first had them come into the room while Pomp and Circumstance was being played on a tape player and were all wearing cute little felt graduation caps. After a few opening words from the school's principal, each child came up one at a time to talk about their "All About Me" poster and to share a talent with the group of parents. Jonathan was first up. He shared a poem that he wrote about Dinosaurs. "Dinosaurs stomp and kick and punch with their sharp claws. Dinosaurs like to eat stores and houses. I like Dinosaurs!" He drew a pteradactyl attacking a tall building. Then he got to talk about his poster. He told about how we had an open house and he got to share his school work with his Dad and Grandparents, and Uncle Jimmy. The teacher asked him what his favorite part of school was and Jonathan said "The Computer". While Jonathan was waiting for the other kids to present theirs, he kept shaking his head and watching the tassle on his cap wiggle back and forth. He told us later that when he was looking at the tassle it made two of everything!! After each child had gone up and shared their posters and talents, it was time to hand out their certificates. Jonathan looked so cute getting his certificate and a green Lei and then shaking his P.E. teacher's hand. Congratulations Jonny, we are so proud of you and all your hard work this year! Keep up the great work!

Father/Son Campout May 16th

This was Ethan's first year that he was allowed to go on the annual Father/Son Campout!! He was so excited to be able to go this time! Jonny of course looks forward to this camping trip every year. They love spending time with their dad especially when it's in a tent! Here are a few pictures that Cory took while at the campout.
The boys are ready to help Daddy set up the tent. They had hot dogs for dinner. Back at home, I took Megan and Adam to Rubio's for dinner!

The boys watching TMNT (Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles) on Cory's PSP. I guess Cory and Ethan fell asleep before it was over, but Jonny stayed up and watched the whole movie. Meanwhile Megan and I stayed up late learning how to cross-stitch.

Thumbs up for Camping!!

Mother's Day May 10th

I had a really great Mother's day! I woke up that morning to the smell of something yummy cooking. Cory had shopped the night before in preparation to the breakfast he was going to make me for Mother's day. He made delicious sausage and egg burritos with bell pepper, cheese and cilantro. There was also ripe cantaloupe, grapes and orange juice! He also did a large load of dishes, I hate dishes. I then received a potted flower plant with flowers as yellow as the sunshiny sun! Later when we went to celebrate over at Cory's Mom's house, I got some yummy peanut butter Whoppers and an awesome CD, Panic at the Disco! We had a delicious dinner over there and had a ton of fun visiting.

A few pictures of my wonderful breakfast!

Planes, planes and more planes!

2009-04-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

So we have been keeping an eye on the cool planes that have been practicing their tricks, for some time now. Today we got to see them right here in town, not too far from our house! The kids were very excited to see them. There were so many planes, mostly small ones. There were one-person planes, bi-planes, ones with double propellers and even some from the Navy and Marines.

My favorite would have to be this one! We got to see it land and taxi right in front of us!

Second runner up, for my favorite, would be this yellow bi-plane, it just looks cool!

Adam was very nervous when the planes would start up and then taxi right in front of us.

Cory thought this was funny!

This was one of the bigger ones that had a jet engine instead of a propeller. The kids had fun ducking underneath the wings of some of the smaller planes.

Easter time

2009-04-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well we had a wonderful Easter this year. Megan was baptized the day before and we had family all around us! My parents came to visit us on Friday the 10th and stayed until Easter Day, around noon. Maiya and Papa gave the kids fun buckets of Easter goodness! Megan also got a bunch of cool presents for her birthday from them. We all had such a great time, even Adam warmed up to them really fast!

The kids got their Easter buckets on Saturday morning from Maiya and Papa and then on Sunday morning they got even more yummies from the Easter Bunny!

Megan and Jonny play "Littlest Pet Shop" game with Maiya and Papa. I think Papa came in first!

Later, after church, we drove over to Cory's parents house and had a wonderful ham dinner!! Thank you Pam for the delicious food! And of course afterward we had to play one of our favorite games... Hoopla!

Megan's Baptism

2009-04-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

April 11th, 2009 1:00pm at the Chester Road building in Tracy, California...
Megan Nicole Patten was baptized by her father Cory Michael Patten. Megan's Grandpa (Papa) gave the opening prayer, her Grandma (Maiya) was the chorister and her Aunt Christy gave the talk on baptism. Cory's dad and mine were both witnesses to her baptism and were there to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. We are all so very pleased with Megan and her choice to be baptized!

Those who were able to make it were: Grandma and Grandpa Patten, Aunt Christy, Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Kathy, Papa and Maiya Thelin. We had a wonderful luncheon afterwards at our house.

Megan got a set of new scriptures from Cory and me and a beautiful necklace from Grandpa's cousin Doug Patten.

Ethan is "Amish"

2009-04-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

We were driving in the car to go pick the older two kids up from school. We drove onto an overpass that was high up and Ethan exclaimed "Amish"! I figured out that he was trying to say Awesome! So when anything is awesome, we all yell Amish!Another thing that is "Amish" is Ethan trying to potty train today! Last night he kept taking his diaper off and trying to pee in his little potty. So this morning I dug out some old undies of Jonny's (sorry if this grosses anyone out) and put a pair on him. We had more accidents in his undies than we had pee pee in the potty, although he did go pooh in the potty this morning. After I had started, there was no turning back, and I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I hope he is as easy as Megan and Jonny was when they potty trained. Jonny was the easiest, to my surprise, he didn't really even need to be trained, he was totally ready. Megan was the best at not wetting at night. I am a little worried tonight because Ethan kept trying to get his hands on more water to drink. I kept telling him that it was enough, I turned around and found him drinking more water from a cup that was in his room on top of the dresser! I'm gonna go and get some more underwear from the store in a few minutes so we'll have a ton on hand. Fingers crossed that this whole potty training thing takes on with Ethan, after all he is "Amish".

Ethan trying to pee last night and Ethan wearing big boy underwear today!

Happy 8th Birthday!

2009-03-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Megan!! We have enjoyed our princess over these past 8 years! Here she is through the years...

Hard Good-Byes

2009-03-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

Megan was very upset today because she had to say goodbye to her best friend Sydney. She lived down the street from us. We all got a long with her whole family, she even had a brother Jonny's age, named Thomas. We had them come play at our house one last time. After dinner we went over to a friend's house to say goodbye for the last time to Sydney and her family. Not only are they moving, but they are moving basically to the other side of the world! Hopefully Megan will be able to keep in contact with her friend. Both girls cried a lot when it was time to part...

TinkerBell Party

2009-03-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we quickly drove home from Fremont so I could get Megan's birthday party ready for when her friends came at 3:30 pm. In my rush to get home I left some things for the party at my in-law's house. No worries cause I popped into Wal-mart and bought more frosting and a poster board after dropping Cory off at work. I was able to make the cake, decorate, finish making the games and clean up. Everything went awesome! Megan had 4 of her friends come and they all had such a good time together! First they watched a little of the Tinkerbell movie while we waited for the rest of the girls to arrive. Next they played Tinkerbell Bingo with jellybeans as the markers. Then they played pin the star on Tinkerbell's wand. Next they played Fairy freeze tag outside. After that, they came in and sang Happy Birthday (CHA-CHA-CHA) to her and ate chocolate Tinkerbell cake! Finally they gave her some presents and then they all ran upstairs to play with her new toys in her room. When it was all over, I finally was able to relax.

Good Times

2009-03-24T23:54:00.001-07:00

Hurray! Christy came home from her Mission! We are so happy to have her back and to see her again! Her sister, Stacy and little Cailin, flew out to see her too. Shawn and his friend Kim also flew out from Utah to spend a couple of days with the family. We went on Friday and brought Butters with us. Everyone had so much fun hanging out and playing games, even the puppies had a blast! Here are a few pictures...

Jim and the crazy shivering baby and Cory fixes a late night snack

Adam plays Rock Band and Cailin and Stacy play trains

Visiting with Doug, Martha, and Sarah Patten
Sorry I didn't take many photos, I'll have to snag some from the others

Puppy Paradise

2009-03-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well we are watching Butters for a couple of days and Lucy couldn't be happier. These two could not wait to play together. When Lucy and Butters play, they can keep on playing for hours. Luckily it's been sunny so their tumble play can take place out back instead of my family room. I've taken them for walks and have enjoyed it quite a bit. I was a little worried that they would both be crazy and all over the place, but Lucy already does well on walks and Butters was happy to follow along.

The February Post

2009-02-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well I have very few pictures for February. I guess it's been a little busier around here with a puppy always wanting to cuddle up in my lap. I don't get much done in the evening after the kids go to bed. I am either playing Rock Band with Cory or I am sitting on the floor with Lucy laying in my lap and snoozing while I watch American Idol.

The kids enjoying Rock Band. I don't normally play like this, I cheesed it up for the camera of course!

Lucy keeps growing and the kids like to snuggle her!

The kids acting like Gorilla/monkeys!

Adam likes to do the "Superman Swing" and Ethan falling asleep in unusual places.

January Sillies

2009-01-31T10:50:00.000-08:00

Just a bunch of random silly pictures, enjoy!

Maiya and Papa

2009-01-25T17:19:00.000-08:00

On Friday my parents came to visit!! We actually got to see them on Tuesday night, on their way up to Sacramento. We went out to dinner Tuesday night to Chile's. We had to say good bye until Friday. So when my parents came Friday we went to Rubio's for lunch and then came back to hang out and play with Maiya and Papa.

When Cory came home we ordered pizza for Ethan's birthday party and after dinner we had a cake that Ethan was able to decorate himself. After cake and ice cream we let Ethan open presents. First he opened Maiya and Papa's presents. When he opened the clothes, he took one look at it, closed the box, shoved it away and reached for a big one they had brought him. It was so cute to see his reactions. He gave Maiya and Papa big hugs and said thank you.

After that he opened the ones from Cory and me. He loved getting some more Thomas Train sets and engines. Maiya and Papa had given him some Thomas squirty toys (Ethan and Adam fight over them) and some cute Thomas pj's. Maiya and Papa had to leave on Saturday afternoon to drive back to their house in Arizona. We will miss them and can't wait until we get to see them again!! I think we will have to go take a trip and visit them next!