It's about time......

Ethan's 1st Birthday which happened to be on Thanksgiving.
He loved his puppy dog cake!

Aggie school spirit

Aaron and I found a monkey at the
Trunk or Treat!

We'll be seeing all ya Utah folks in 2 days!! We can't wait!

Yea for Visitors!!!

My parents and little brother came to visit us last weekend. It was great to see them and show them around College Station. We didn't have time to do a lot because they were only here for 2 1/2 days. However, we did do a few things like go on a tour of the Texas A&M campus and visit the George H. Bush Presidential Library. I had never been to a Presidential Library before last weekend and I thought it was great! I was hoping I'd run into Pres. Bush Sr. because he apparently hangs out around his library but unfortunately I didn't. Maybe next time!
Ethan was scared of my family at first but he warmed up quickly. He kept on looking at them funny and you could tell he was thinking what are they still doing here. And then....before we knew it it was time for them to go. :( But we just bought tickets to go home for Christmas on December 10th for a whole month so we will see them and more family in less than 2 months!

Politics Schmolitics? I think not!

Something very strange has happened recently!
Aaron has become interested in politics. This is very big for those of you who don't know him. He has never registered to vote and has never really cared to. I on the other hand have always liked to be up to date with happenings in the political world and I always vote. I'm certain my interest in it is because of my parents. I remember many a times my family having political discussions. Sometimes they were pretty heated considering one of my parents is a Democrat and the other Republican. From what Aaron tells me his family is quite the opposite of mine when it comes to politics.
So, you can imagine how surprised I was when Aaron watched the WHOLE Presidential debate a couple weeks ago and then again on Thursday when he watched the WHOLE VP debate. (Poopy that The Office wasn't on because of it. We were very disappointed!) I thought I couldn't be any more prouder of my hubby until he told me that he thinks he better vote this year! Aaron I love you and you will never stop surprising me!

Happy Baby!!!

I've been meaning to post this for awhile but our internet here hasn't been working too well. This is a video of Ethan giggling. He is such a happy baby most of the time. He has the funniest laugh! He gets especially punchy late at night which is when this video was taken.

Last night hurricane Ike arrived here in College Station. It has been raining a lot and really windy since then. Luckily our power only went out for an hour. Hopefully it won't go out again with all the flooding that is sure to occur. Today has been pretty boring because a lot of the stores are closed and boarded up. I had to get out so we went to the mall but it wasn't open either. Before the hurricane arrived the grocery stores were crazy. Everyone was stocking up on food and water and several shelves were empty. About 3,000 evacuees are here from Houston. Some are staying at our church. I'm just happy that the worst is over. Hmmmm.... Funny thing-Before we got the hurricane news I was actually thinking about visiting Houston and Galveston this weekend. Good thing we didn't!

Howdy

Well, we made it here safe and sound with a pretty uneventful trip. When we first walked into our apartment our first thoughts were, "Ghetto!" but now that we have everything set up it definitely feels like home. There are a lot of broken things and carpet stains but we don't really notice them anymore. The day after we got here Aaron ran into our next door neighbors. They are a young couple who are also LDS and he is a grad student at A&M too! They also have a little boy who is almost a year old! This discovery made me super happy and was an answer to my prayers. They told us that they were the only members in this area until we moved in.
And even more good news: We found out that Aaron got a full tuition scholarship!!!! We were planning on taking out student loans so this is a super great blessing for us.
Aaron found a little lizard in our apartment while he was shutting the window and he accidentally cut the lizard's tail off in the window. Luckily we were able to catch it quickly but the tail is still on our window sill and I'm trying to make Aaron dispose of it. In the past two weeks we have seen a lot of bugs we have never seen before. There are a lot of toads too. They just jump out at us when we go on walks.
It is super hot here. Temperature wise it's about the same as Utah but the humidity is deathly. Whenever we go outside we get super sweaty. Poor Ethan cries whenever we get in the car because it feels like an oven.
Well, that's all for today.

Next Stage

We have been enjoying our last bit of time living here in Utah. We will be moving a week from today! I am both excited and nervous. I am mostly anxious about the 22 hour drive down there. I'm sure it will be longer because we will have to drive slow with a trailer. :( Hopefully Ethan will be good on the drive. He's been good in the car lately and just watches out the window. We will be driving our car and truck down (the truck will be pulling a trailer with all our stuff). Aaron's brother, Nathan, is going to be driving down with us, which will be a huge help. I guess I better start packing now!

Hawaii

Last week and the week before we went to Hawaii with my family. We spent the first week on Maui and the second on Oahu. It was a nice to go on a relaxing vacation because our big trip to Europe last year was a lot of running around. The beach in Maui was awesome!! It was just half a block away from our condo. It is the second best beach I have ever been to- Cancun being the first. Ethan was scared of the water at first but soon became quite the beach baby. I unfortunately lost my sunnies twice in the ocean. The first time Aaron found them in the water 20 minutes later. You would have thought I learned my lesson not to wear my sunnies into the ocean but big waves kept on taking me down by surprise. I love to play in the waves!!!

It was nice to visit Oahu again. I can't believe it had been almost 10 years since I went last. We visited all the touristy places such as: the Polynesian Cultural Center, Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, Waimea, Hanauma Bay, and the Dole Pineapple Factory. The place we stayed at on Oahu had a bunch of man-made lagoons that we had fun playing in too. Oh, and not to forget shopping!! My family loves to shop. My favorite store we went to was a Japanese department store. It was just like being in Japan again.




Ethan with his Uncle Jacob and cousin Seth