Summer Recap

Okay, so I have been a horrible blogger lately. Life has been so crazy that I decided that I needed to just do a summer recap to catch up on everything that has happened this summer, but now it's taken me so long that I need to give a fall/winter recap too, but this is what I've been able to get done so far.

Ethan's First Campout
June 25-27, 2009


Ethan had so much fun on his first family campout. We went to Ohanapecosh at Mt. Rainier, a favorite camping place of the Gifford family since my dad was young. Ethan has gone camping where he stayed one night in a cabin, but this was his first honest to goodness, sleep in a tent camping trip. The trip was a lot fun, but interesting in so many ways. First of all sleeping on the ground and being 35 weeks pregnant and having to hike through the woods 5 times a night to go to the bathroom was lovely! You could tell that we hadn't gone camping for quite awhile because we forgot some rather important things like a camp stove, salt, and some other things that would have made things easier. But, we just had to be a little more creative and I have to say I was very impressed with how well my dad cooked over the fire. We also hiked to Silver falls (my Grandma Gifford's favorite spot), grove of the patriarchs, and Steven's Canyon. It really was fun.

Grandma Gifford's Birthday
July 1, 2009




Zion's Camp
July 4, 2009

We went to Zion's Camp with Shawn's family for the fourth of July. Ethan and Shawn had a lot of fun taking a canoe out on the lake that is there.

A Great Big Toy


Shawn and my dad took build this bid toy for our kids. Ethan, of course, had a blast helping his dad and Grandpa and then even more fun playing with it when it was done.


Point Defiance Zoo
August 7, 2009


We went to the zoo on my birthday, so Jennifer bought tickets for the two of us to go on a camel ride. It was pretty fun.

Ethan had a lot of fun seeing all of the animals. I think his favorite was the fish; we could hardly get him to leave, so we could see the rest of the zoo.
Just Some Fun Pics

Ethan has some new friends to play with at What can I say, it was just too cute to not share.
Grandma & Grandpa's house. Glen & Diane
got two cats that wander next door frequently
and Ethan loves to play with them.

Ethan has learned to get up to the piano, I was packing for the hospital just before Julia
open it, and turn it on all by himself. He was born. Ethan had been sitting on the bed
loves to play around on it. while I packed, then once I went to my closet to
get something and when I turned back around, he
was inside the suitcase.

We picked lots of berries this summer and on this night we made smoothies after a long
day of canning. Ethan thought his smoothie was incredible and couldn't get enough of it.


Here Ethan is playing with Julia, making Ethan brought out our foot stool and sat on it
her laugh. next to Julia. He was playing with her laugh,
but by the time I got my camera, he just turned
around and smiled for his picture and Julia fell
asleep. Oh the life of a newborn!

This is one of the first times that Ethan held Big brother kisses, how sweet.
Julia nicely. At first we had to be really
careful about letting him even touch her,
because he was anything but gentle.


Puyallup Fair
September 12, 2009

Dad and Ethan looking cool in their shades. Great Grandma needed a break from her wheel
chair, so she gave Ethan a ride. Earlier, Ethan had
been pushing her, but I wasn't able to get a good
picture, but it was totally cute.

Ethan riding the toy truck at the John Grandpa spoiled Ethan with his very first
Deer tent. ice cream cone

Doesn't Julia just look so cute! Her shirt says "Miss Marvelous" which totally describes her. She's such a good baby.



First Day of Preschool
September 15, 2009

Ethan has been attending school in his Grandma Gifford's toddler class. He has been having lots of fun and learning so much. He's just growing up so fast!

Last Days with Uncle Lynn

Lynn decided to move to Utah, so we went to Belfair for one last weekend with him. Above: Ethan was "helping" Lynn pack and decided to try on his boot. Below: Julia and Lynn are taking a nap together.

Julia's Blessing

Last Sunday we blessed Julia. It was a wonderful day. She was all smiles. Shawn said that she had a big, opened mouth grin on her face the entire time that she was being given the blessing. It was almost like she knew what was going on and was so excited about it. Here are a few pictures of her in her blessing dress.

Julia Louise Sharp

We have a new addition to our family! Julia Louise Sharp arrived on Monday July 27th at 5:21pm. She was 6 lbs. 7.7oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. She is a healthy and absolutely beautiful (no bias there) baby girl. She is tall, but very skinny. So skinny, in fact, that the new born diapers kept slipping off of her little rear, so we had to put her in preemies. She has really long fingers and toes, black hair, and her daddy's nose.

The delivery went really well. Actually, we had one scare. I had a really big contraction at exactly the same time that my water broke, which I guess tripped out the uterus because the contraction just would stop. Julia's heart beat dropped to 35 beats per minute, which is about a third of what it should be. They had to give me a shot of medicine to stop the contractions. Her heart beat came back up, but it took her a little while to stabilize. The doctor decided to give me an epidural right away in case she didn't stabilize and they had to do an emergency c-section. It was really strange to be getting an epidural when I wasn't even having any contractions. Anyway, they watched her for about an hour and a half and then decided she was stable enough and started me on pitocin to get the contractions to start up again. Labor was pretty easy after that since I couldn't feel any contractions. I did have feeling in my legs still so they actually let me use different labor positions to help the baby drop faster. When it came time to push, the doctor told me I was actually pushing too hard and was going to tear. He told me to just laugh really hard and what do you know, I laughed her right out. Through it all I only ended up having to get two stitches, which is way better than last time. The epidural was mostly worn off by the time Julia was born so I could feel everything as she was born. It was a very interesting experience. With Ethan I never really got the urge to push or anything else for that matter. This time I could feel everything, although I suspect that I had enough of the medicine still left in my system that I still didn't feel the full amount of pain that I would have without anything. They gave the baby to me right away so she was able to nurse within 15 minutes of being born and she ate for nearly an hour that first feeding. Overall it was a really great experience.

Working in the Yard

We had a big hole in our backyard where the previous owners had a big pool. Shawn and my Dad (with a little "help" from Ethan, filled it in with dirt (It took 17 yards, which is a lot. It took them 5 trailer loads full, with each load carrying an average of about 3-4 tons of dirt.) Ethan thought it was a lot of fun playing in the dirt, especially since Grandma and Grandpa brought a wheel barrow and a rake that was just his size. After all the dirt was in, they planted grass seed and it it really coming in nicely now. Shawn will even be able to mow the new grass soon; probably this weekend.

Taking a break with Grandma

Ethan helping Dad and Grandpa level the dirt before they could plant the grass.

Aren't these tools just the perfect size! Ethan had so much fun with them.

Our little boy is such a boy! He loves to play in the dirt and tries to eat it.

Memorial Day Picnic

We went to Mt. Rainier on Memorial Day. Here are just a few of the pictures we took.

Ethan had a lot of fun when Shawn started throwing him up in the air.

Here is Grandma, goofing off with Ethan.

Ethan found this great little walking stick along our little hike and used it as he walked along. Doesn't he just look so cute!!

Here is a fun chair that we found while we were on our hike. Seeing Ethan in this big chair makes me thing of Goldilocks in Papa bear's chair.

Father's & Sons Outing

Here are some cute pictures from Ethan's first Father's and Son's outing. Sorry about the one picture that is sideways and the underlined text. I'm not sure how it happened, but I can't figure out how to rotate the picture or get rid of the underline. If anyone is more blog savy than me and knows how to fix it, please, let me know.

Another Ultrasound

Here are the pictures from our latest ultrasound, taken on May 18th.

Top Left: profile

Top Right: Face (I think that it is easier to see if you tip your head to the right and look at it from a distance. It looks a little ghostly to me.)

Bottom Left: It's still a girl! There are the two legs and then the three lines that the arrow is pointing to is what they say indicates that it is a girl.

Bottom Right: Another profile, but with her up to her forehead as if to say, "life is so hard". Looks like she's a drama queen already.