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 built this big 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 Grandma & Grandpa's house. Glen & Diane got two cats that wander next door frequently and Ethan loves to play with them.

This next picture was just too cute to not share.

What can I say? This picture was too cute not to share. Ethan has learned to get up to the piano, open it, and turn it on all by himself. He loves to play around on it





I was packing for the hospital just before Julia was born. Ethan had been sitting on the bed 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.


Ethan loves to play with Julia and takes great delight in making her laugh.

Ethan brought out our foot stool and sat on it 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 Julia nicely. At first we had to be really careful about letting him even touch her, because he was anything but gentle.

Big brother kisses, how sweet.

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. I wasn't able to get a good picture, but it was really cute.

Ethan riding the toy truck at the John Deer Tent.

Grandpa spoiled Ethan with his very first 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.


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.