Cali Trip

Overall, Easton and I had a great trip to Cali. I wish I could have documented the trip while I was in Cali because I know I am going to miss a lot of stuff, but unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to download the pictures off my camera onto my sisters computer, so basically this will be a small glimpse (probably a long post) of what we were up to the last three weeks. Easton got to experience a couple of fun and not so fun firsts.

Easton’s first Jamba. We also rode a trolley around Victoria Garden’s (first trolley ride for Easton).

Easton and Aaron playing at a park.

Aaron ice skating. He is only three and is already playing ice hockey.

Easton’s first Birthday Party (besides his own). Happy 3rd Birthday Aaron! I got to help prepare the week before for Aaron’s party. My sister, Jana, goes way out when it comes to birthday parties. It was cars theme. For the kids there were balloon animals, football toss (cardboard with lightning mcqueen drawn and painted on it- this took me several hours to make and only several minutes for the kids to play with. What you don’t do for your nephew. I wish I had a picture of it because I’m pretty proud of it and how it turned out.), races (race cars made from cardboard and painted different colors. Again took several hours but fortunately my sister helped out with these.), cars piñata full of goodie bags, and goodie bags for the kids to take home with them. Jana made two lightning mcqueen cakes that turned out great. She did all this a week before she was due. How crazy is that?

Easton’s first real train ride (he has been on the metro but I don’t really count that). Jana and I were going to take the boys to see Thomas train but because my sister had baby Aiden the day before we were scheduled to do this, my mom filled in for her. Overall, we had a great time. There were several fun activities for the kids to do along with riding Thomas. There were tattoos, imagination station (several Thomas tracks with trains to play with, Thomas stamps, Thomas coloring, etc.), petting zoo, jump houses, video and story house, trolley rides, etc. The boys really seemed to enjoy themselves minus the petting zoo-some of those animals were scary. They constantly thought you had food for them so they would run up to you (some of them were taller than Easton) and basically stock you.

Me, Easton, my Mom, and Aaron on the trolley.

Me and Aaron feeding the animals. Aaron very timid.

Grandma and Aaron

Easton and Aaron waiting for Thomas Train.

Easton very excited about the train ride.

We also took the boys to see Santa. At the Bass Pro shop they were offering free pictures with Santa. Lets just say the picture tells it all of how much Easton enjoyed sitting on Santa’s lap. Ms. Claus was also there reading stories to the kids and singing Christmas songs. If you can't tell Easton is definitely crying like he did last year on Santa's lap. I guess Easton hasn't figured it out yet that Santa is the one who brings toys and goodies. To him Santa is just a scary old man.

Ms. Claus reading stories to the children.

Easton’s first and hopefully last time getting stitches. Last Sunday we went to visit Jana’s dad (Nate). While we were there Easton ran into the other room and must have tripped over the rug where he ended up hitting his head on the coffee table. Needless to say, I heard crying and screaming and ran into the other room to find blood coming from his forehead. I rushed him to the kitchen to get a towel to apply pressure. Candy (Nate’s girlfriend) took one look at it and told me he needed stitches. Nate took us to the ER and Easton ended up with four internal stitches and seven external stitches. It was really sad and hard to see Easton go through this, but luckily I had Jana’s Dad there to guide me through the whole thing. They say it is harder on the mother than the patient which is probably true, but still it is hard to be just a couple of feet away watching your son strapped down crying and screaming in what you think is pain (the doctors claimed he couldn’t feel anything-but I’m not entirely sure that was the case) and you can’t do anything but watch. That has got to be the worst feeling in the world- to not be able to hold and comfort your child when they are in pain.

Here are a couple of pictures from when we were carving our pumpkin. I know it is about a month too late but I forgot to post before I left for Cali.

Nathan carving the pumpkin.

Easton eating baked pumpkin seeds.

Final product. Scooby-Doo (dracula style).

Baby Aiden

So a lot has happened since I left Maryland for California to help my sister out with the delivery of her cute little baby boy. I will have to post later all the fun things we have done while here in Cali., but in the mean time I will post the most important thing that brought me here. On Nov. 10th my sister woke up at about 1:00 in the morning in pain and by 2:00 she was having contractions and started keeping track of them. By about 4:00 we decided her contractions were pretty consistent and called a friend to watch both Aaron and Easton while I took Jana to the hospital. This was supposed to be my mom's job (to be the coach) but because she was still in Washington awaiting her flight I was the one designated to drive and be coach. We dropped the boys off around 4:40 and drove to the hospital. We pulled into emergency and had to basically take a tour of the entire hospital to find the labor and delivery area. When we finally got there I handed the lady my sister's medical card and ID (at about this time we believe my sister's water had just broke and her contractions were probably about 1 min or less apart). It was happening so fast. We actually didn't even have time to fill out the admittance slips. The lady realized that Jana was going so fast that they called someone who came and wheeled Jana quickly to the first room, told her to get up and take her pants off, and then lay down on the table. Once she was finally on the table the mid wife (no time to call the doctor) told her to push and after 1 1/2 pushes and 4 min after I handed the lady her medical card, baby Aiden Tong-Min was born. He was 6 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long. He is so adorable. I am just glad that I got my sister to the hospital just in time for the mid wife to deliver her baby and not me. I guess the day before a lady delivered in the parking lot. Thank goodness that wasn't me and my sister.

Jana, Aaron, and Aiden

Proud big brother

Flashback Friday

It was this time 5 years ago that my friends decided that they wanted to go to this haunted house. I kind of wanted to go but at the same time I had a really bad headache and needed to catch up on some homework. I decided to be the responsible one and stay behind to catch up. My best friend and roommate, Shannah, wouldn’t take no for an answer. “You have to go, pleeeese.” I just didn’t understand why she wouldn’t let me stay behind. I mean I thought I had good reasons why I couldn’t go and besides one of our other friends were staying behind for homework reasons (no headache involved) and no one was giving him grief for it. Finally it came out that she had invited Nathan (without my knowledge) to come along and told him I would be there. I was ticked.

Side note/very long tangent: Don’t get me wrong I thought Nathan was cute and he seemed nice (I really didn’t know him. I just knew one thing about him and that was enough to turn me off…He was an RM!!!!!) As many of you know or think to be true RM stands for Returned Missionary. My brother on the other hand warned me of these so called RM’s. He told me that they want you to think that the RM stands for Returned Missionary but in reality it stands for Ready to be Married. My brother, Wade, also warned me to stay far, far, away from the RM’s. As a freshman in college and promising myself that I wouldn’t be one of those lame people that get married after their freshman year I was determined to stay away from all RM’s.

It was bad enough that I already agreed (to make Shannah happy of course) to go on a double date with Nathan (Shannah and Bryce) that would happen a few days after this haunted house thing. This whole thing seemed like a lose/lose situation. If I didn’t have a good time with Nathan, then I would have a date with him in a few days and that would be awkward. But if I had a good time with him (which wasn’t going to happen) I would have a date with him in a few days and it might be a little harder to stick to the plan. Anyways, after much persuasion I decided (or maybe forced is the better word) to go. I ended up having a great time and at some point in the haunted house Nathan and I ended up holding hands. To this day we still disagree on who held whose hand first. I’m always right though so he held my hand. I mean there is no way that I would initiate holding a scary RM’s hand….NO WAY!

Happy five years of dating Handsome! I love you (even if you were a scary RM!)

Frosted Graham Crackers

Nathan and I were talking the other day and found out that both of us used to have graham crackers with frosting when we were kids. My mom would use the left over frosting from birthday cakes to frost graham crackers where as Nathan's mom would buy the frosting from the can and frost graham crackers. We both remembered how much we enjoyed this little treat and so the other day at the store we had a coupon to get a $1.00 off the frosting in the can. We decided to pick it up along with some graham crackers to let Easton in on this wonderful treat! I finally brought out the graham crackers and frosting today and gave Easton a little taste of what he has been missing. He loved it as you can tell from the picture. I only gave him 2 little sandwiches (crackers cut in fourths with frosting in the middle with not that much frosting). From the looks of it I'm a little sceptical that he even got any frosting in his mouth. Oh well, he still seemed to enjoy the treat as much as I remember I did when I was a kid.

Flashback Friday

The first Halloween I ever remember was back when I was 3 or 4 (I think). Anyways, I remember how excited I was to go trick or treating because after all what kid doesn’t like free candy. I remember going with my siblings and my dad. We hit all the houses on my street and then started going up the street next to ours. It was the second house on that street that seemed a little scary. I wanted my dad to come with me but he told me that I could do it with my siblings and he would wait right there for me. It had a lot of steps up to the front door and my siblings had already started the ascent up to the front door. I quickly (as quick as I could) tried to catch up to them and right when they had reached the door (I was about ¾ of the way up) this black figure reached out the window and grabbed me. Of course this scared the crap out of me and I began screaming and crying hysterically and then ran down the stairs to my daddy. I wanted to go home. I was done with this whole Halloween thing. The owners of the house felt horrible for what they had done and came down the stairs to apologize. Apparently they thought that a couple of handfuls of candy would help the situation. As my siblings can attest to I loved food and would do anything for it so naturally candy could solve all problems right? For the moment it did, I mean I was in heaven. This house alone tripled (at least) the amount of candy that was already in my bag. However, to this day, anytime I walk past that house, I still shiver as I remember that awful Halloween night. It will forever be the scary house.

Halloween Party

Yesterday we went to Nathan’s school for the Halloween Party. It was really fun. There were lots of kids, lots of cute costumes, lot of food, and lots of candy. It doesn’t get any better than that! I actually took pictures of Easton at home in his costume the day before and I am glad I did because for some reason he was not happy to be in his costume at the party and all he wanted was for me to hold him. This makes it really difficult to take pictures and as it turns out I only took one picture of Easton and a friend of mine took two of me and Easton. As you can probably tell I made Easton’s costume (He’s a smore if you couldn’t figure it out). It was a hit. Everyone seemed to like it and thought it was the cutest thing ever. That made me feel better since I was a little worried that people would think it was a stupid idea (just like my brother did-thanks Wade). Anyways, there were a few categories for the costume judging contest and Easton won “Most creative costume”. He got a box of sidewalk chalk for his prize. Maybe we will go outside sometime today and play with his new chalk. Hopefully this time he will get more on the sidewalk and less in his mouth. We shall see.

Easton all dressed up in his smore costume.

Easton with his sidewalk chalk.