HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAVIN!!!

From this to..................................

.................................THIS!!!!!!!

Warning this is a long post but I want it for my scrapbook, sorry!

Gavin has brought such an extraordinary light into our lives and this Saturday he will turn 4. I have no clue how I ever understood what life was really about before he came along. Two weeks before Gavin was born I made and appointment for May 10th at 5pm. I have to say it was nice to know the exact day and time I would go to the hospital. I was not allowed to eat for nine hours before surgery so that morning my mother, sister, and I all went to Mimis Café to eat. I was nervous but I was still pregnant so eating until I could barley move was not too hard. Being pregnant I could barley move anyways. Then we ran some errands and all I could think about was tonight I am going to have a baby! Eventually the time came and we drove down to Banner Desert Hospital. They started to prep me for the c-section and all of the sudden I started to have contractions. Now I know they weren’t as bad a full blow out labor but still I was in some pain. They hooked me up to a monitor and sure enough I was having contractions. Although they did tell me since I hadn’t had anything to drink in 7 hours and was slightly dehydrated it added to the effect. I got up to walk to the OR and had to sit down about a million times because I swore the pain was so bad. At 5:30pm they took Gavin out and the first thing I said was is he cute?! I was a little delirious at the time but could see this perfect little baby and heard him cry, it was the sweetest sound.Gavin weighted 7lbs 10oz and I thought he was huge. He came out ready do eat and that is what he did for the next 2 hours. It was an experience I will never forget and am so grateful for my little Gavinos!! Oh and for the record the name Gavin did come from Gavin Rossdale I really liked the way it sounded. However I almost named him Staten or Austin. I am glad I vetoed Austin though.

I know that Gavin won’t be able to read this but one day he can read my scrapbook and read this letter to him so this is for you Gavin.
Gavin this Saturday you will turn 4!! Time has gone by so fast and seems to just past quicker and quicker every year. I want you to know how incredibly grateful I am that you are in my life. I can still remember the day you where born, I stuffed my face at Mimi’s Café early that morning so that I would be full until 5pm when I had to go to the hospital to have you. I was so nervous that day and could not sleep at all the night before. You were so strong from the moment you came into this world. The nurse walked over to you to check you grasping reflex, you held onto her fingers so tight that you lifted yourself off the table. Talk about strength!!! I am so happy that life turned out the way it did, and that I was able to be blessed with such and amazing little boy. Thank you so much Gavin, for teaching me humility, true happiness, love, fullfillment, and for allowing me to be your mother. I don’t feel I deserve you but thank you for hanging in there with me. I am forever indebted to be blessed with you, and don't know how I will every be good enough to be your mother. I love you more than words can describe and could write a novel on what you have brought to my life. I will save you the reading but just know how much I love and know that you are such a strong individual and have so much to offer. You are so amazing now I can’t even imagine what you will be like in the future. Slow down and stop growing up so fast! I love you and you are the GREATEST kid in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love your Mommy!!

Weekend with Teeagers!!

I am in this time period right now where I don’t want to post but I am going to drag through it for the sake of my beautiful scrapbook that will come from this blog. I really need one because I am not creative enough to make a really cute scrapbook and get board with it ever time I start. So to keep a long story short I went to Pinetop with my sister in law and her friend last weekend (Jennifer was asked to Pinetop prom.) Being that she is only 17 and tends to be a teenage girl all of the time, my MIL wanted me to take her. Well I did not want to go with two teenagers and myself so I brought my friend along for the ride. It was very interesting to say the least. I love my SIL but have decided I don’t want a teenage girl, or at least I will keep her alienated from most of modern technology. I had no idea how much teenagers these days TEXT!! I hate it, don’t get me wrong I use text messaging for short conversations or when I am in an environment where talking isn’t exactly smiled upon (aka doctors offices and waiting rooms). However I had no clue that cell phones are no longer used to talked, just to text your friends hundreds of times. I swear to you they must have texted at least 2-3 hours of the 4 hour ride home.
So on with my “short” story we got to Pinetop late Friday night and had to turn on the power, water, and gas. I am posting a picture of the water knob to prove to my father it was not as easy as he thinks it is. (Again scrapbook purposes my dad doesn’t read my blog.) It took Tricia and me a little while to open the door where the T-Bar was so we could use it to twist the knob. Then I had to dig through wonderful bugs and use my finger nails just to find the dumb knob. This really wouldn’t have been a problem but I kept telling my dad I couldn’t find the knob and he said “Marci, I can find with my eyes close”. Tricia can tell you it wasn’t as easy as it may look, also it was 9:30pm so the lack of light didn’t really help. Well eventually I found it and we were able to turn the water on.
So on Saturday Tricia and I went out “on the town”, while the girls went on their day date. FYI I really wish I could go to prom again, I forgot how fun it is to get all dressed up, I didn’t really get to enjoy me prom/high school days enough. When they got home from there date Jennifer’s dress wasn’t completely done so thank heavens Tricia can sew because she finished the dress while I did hair and make up. I feel like girls these days tend to go more casual dressing at prom so I wasn’t sure how my Barbie Doll SIL would look in her VERY pink dress. Apparently Pinetop is a different world because we saw a bunch of girls is very interesting dresses. We thought it would be fun to see what all the girls were wearing. It was pretty easy to watch them all too, we just had to sit in front of the movie theaters. That’s right the prom was in the concession part of the movie theaters. However they closed down all the shops along side of the theaters so that the kids could have free food along with the dance. Anyways we saw a neon green dress and a camouflaged dress; it’s the least I could expect.
My short story is dragging on to much so to wrap it up, it was fun. I have learned a lot about what I might have been like as a teenager. Although I have to say I thought I was a lot more mature at that age, may be I wasn’t I probably just thought I was? I was glad I had the chance to spend some time at my cabin. I love that it is always quite and peaceful there. Even thought there where some minor set back all in all it was a great trip. Thanks Tricia for helping me tame the wild ones and sewing Jennifer dress. G T G T!!!!!

Gone for 2 Years

On Monday we all went to celebrate Trevor’s last dinner with the family for two years. I have only really been attached two missionaries that I have seen off. My cousin Chase left in November and that was extremely hard because I finally realized that my little cousin had grown up. It is a bit of a shock when you realized how fast life passes you by. Well, now it is my second time around and it is still hard. I can’t really grasp the fact that they can’t talk to you on the phone or we can’t just call to see how he is doing. Nor can I grasp that he won’t be back for another two years. I kept telling him when he gets back Gavin will almost be 6! That is crazy within itself for me. I am really still fascinated by the concept of being gone for such a long time, it’s not like they went away to college and you can go and visit them, there gone. I don’t know why it is so interesting / difficult to sink in.
Now on to the more uplifting reason for this post, on Monday we all had Mexican food and sat around talked and stuffed our faces. It was really nice to have one last big dinner before he left. I am very happy for him and I know he will do well. I myself have obviously never been on a Mission but I can imaged it would be really difficult at first. Especially those Ethington boys who are such home bodies, according to Troy he along with the rest of the brothers on some level all got home sick. I am sure Trevor will have to endure some of those feeling but they will quickly diminish when he doesn’t have any time to dwell. I will be completing this post in another two years when he returns :) ! (I will also make a post for my cousin Chase, I never took any pictures due to the fact I didn’t carry my camera around like I try to now. I wasn’t really into the blogging world as much then either. Needless to say I am very upset that I don’t have pictures, so I will post something later so that it will be in my future scrapbook. I love you Chase and miss you!)

Ironman Weekend

This past weekend was so much fun, Scott did the Ironman and Lynn and Jake came down form California to show support. But, before the Ironman on Sunday I had a few friends over for a BBQ. I am so glad to have such amazing friends that I am able to be myself around and laugh until I pee my pants. I had everyone bring something and they all did, which was a great help. I gave the assignment to Jared to bring a dessert, holy cow it was amazing. Everyone at the party loved this chocolate cheesecake and it looked so pretty. I am really big on the way foods looks only because I enjoy the presentation so much.
Well, we ate and they played games after. We played this gamed called Buzz and did boys against girls. When it came time for Regan’s turn she was laughing so hard she was crying so she lost us a good turn. In Regan’s defense she loves cats and that was the buzz word, and so for some reason we all thought that was hilarious. I had a blast and was glad that everyone was able to stay late.
On Sunday I went to support Scott in the Ironman, which is an amazing sight. I really am so proud of Scott and everyone else who did it. Last year when I went I missed the swimming portion of the race and Kristen told me that was one of the best parts. So this year we all went early to see the race start. It is amazing footage to see all these people in the water preparing themselves for the day of endurance. The energy is overwhelming and it really was a sight to see. The most humbling part of the race is at the very end when you watch the racers cross the finish line and collapse right after. Everyone was emotional at the sight and a very emotional ending. I was so glad that I was able to be there and was in complete awe of the determination of the racers. GO SCOTTIE!!!

Sand Dunes

This past weekend I had a weekend to myself because Gavin and Troy went to the Sand Dunes with a few of his friends and their kids. I was so excited to have a weekend with myself, although I didn’t spend one moment by myself. Unfortunately this post will be short because I gave Troy the camera to take pictures and they took 4! Oh well, I expected that to happen.

Gavin has been talking about the Dunes for about a month now and I used his excitement as leverage when he would miss behave (too bad it doesn’t work anymore). Friday morning came and at 4am I got Gavin up to get ready and load up. I just want to inform every one that Thursday night I didn’t go to sleep until 1:30am, I don’t know why. Well when I went to Gavin’s room his light was on and he wasn’t in his bed. I was freaking out and thought that someone kidnapped him. I know I over reacted a little. Well I ran in our room to find that Gavin had came in early that morning, I didn’t remember hearing him. That is most likely because he knows that if he comes to my side of the bed I will put him back to in his room. Well he was so tired and didn’t want to get up so Troy pretended he was going to leave that without him. I guess he must have been really tired because he said okay. Eventually he got excited and realized where he was headed. When they all finally left it was about 5:30 and I was so excited to go back to bed and sleep in for a little while. Much to my surprise I couldn’t fall back asleep. I was so tired and knew that I had to leave the house by 10. I finally went back to sleep at 9 and woke up an hour later.

Troy rented a rhino because we thought that the kids would get sick of riding their 4-wheelers. Well they did and they all loved to ride around in the rhino. Gavin came home one Saturday evening and Sunday morning told me how much fun he had. He also mentioned that he loved to watch the bikers jump the hill (his words) “Mom the motorcycles jumped over the mountains and they went vroom vroom just like that.” He has so much fun, I am sure he is looking forward to next time.

Ed and the girls in the rhino at the dunesGavin in the morning just before leaving... it was 4 in the morning that is why this pic is so dark

I thought this was so CUTE!

I know I just posted yesterday but, on the way to school this morning Gavin started singing and I wanted to record it so I did. I also had forgotten about a video I recorded earlier on my phone of him dancing in my bedroom so I am putting that up too. For those of you who know Gavin, know how much he loves to dance and sing. I really have no clue where he gets it from. He also loves break dancing and I really have no idea how he learned to do that?!