Happy President's Day!

Here's Ethan and Brandon out enjoying the sunshine, though still chilly, on President's Day!  I call this their "Patriotic Photo Opp!" We put Ethan in his baby bjorn and Brandon carried him as we took a little walk.  This kid hasn't been able to get out a lot since it's been so cold! He mostly goes from the house to the car and back.  We can't wait for the warm weather to arrive so we can let him enjoy it on more walks together!

Daddy loves his snuggle bear! 

Don't you love his cheeks! They got all rosy in the cold, poor guy!  This was the last time he wore this polar bear outfit as he has grown out of it!  Sad.

 Ethan recently had his two month check up and shots (ouch!).  We knew he'd grown a lot since his two week visit, but we had no idea by how much!  At two weeks he weighed 7 pounds.  At two months he's at 13.5 pounds!  Nearly doubled his size!  We went from the 25 percentile for weight to the 95th!
He's been smiling a lot and I'm pretty sure I heard him laugh in his sleep the other night after I fed him.  He's just a happy baby and we love him so much!  I'm not looking forward to returning to work tomorrow! 

This is how big he was when we took him home from the hospital, so you can see just how much he's grown!

Camera Shy

So for a couple of weeks now Ethan has been giving Annie and I fleeting smiles on a regular basis. It is one of the funnest things to see as a parent. At times he has almost been laughing. The funny thing is that each time he is smiling and having fun we reach for the camera, and each time we reach for the camera he has stopped smiling immediately. So Annie and I decided he was just camera shy. Luckily he is coming around and we finally have a smile for you all to see.

Some additional pictures

Mother and Son

By Christmas Ethan had only two emotions- sleepy....

and hungry!

Going to the store

the bliss of food

I'm a polar bear!

Welcome Baby Ethan Pack!

On December 15th, 2010 at 12:15pm, Ethan Ward Pack was born! 18 1/2 inches and 6 lbs 2 oz. We thought it was pretty cool that he was born on 12/15 at 12:15! The morning he was born I woke up at 3:15am and felt a little weird. I wondered if I was having contractions, they were very mild, but were coming at about 15 minutes apart. That lasted for a couple of hours and I slept here and there till 5:30am when I decided maybe I had better call in a substitute for school just in-case. While I was typing up my lesson plans, the contractions seemed to go away, so I sent back to bed for a couple more hours.

When I woke up I still felt a little off and decided to call my doctors office. I told them what I had been feeling and the nurse asked me if I had felt the baby moving at all, and now that she mentioned it, I hadn't felt the baby move for a while. So the nurse told me to eat some food and lie down and see if I could feel anything, and if I couldn't then go ahead and go to the hospital, and also if my contractions started coming 5 minutes apart, also go to the hospital. So while I was lying down trying to feel the baby move, my contractions started coming 5-6 minutes apart and were pretty mild, not painful, just uncomfortable for about 30-45 seconds. For some reason my expectations were that they would be much more painful. I guess they do once they go on for awhile. (I wouldn't get to experience that as you'll soon discover!) I told Brandon that we better head out to the hospital.

We arrived to Salt Lake Regional at 10:45am, and after checking-in, and getting hooked up to the monitors in Labor and Delivery it was just after a couple cycles of contractions that our nurse came in concerned about Ethan's heart rate. After each contraction, as mild as they were, his heart rate would drop slightly. The nurse said that if this continued that I could possibly have to have a Cesarean section to get Ethan out quickly as he appeared distressed. Shortly after that Ethan's heart rate started really falling. She quickly hooked me up to an IV and gave me oxygen. That appeared to help some, but his heart rate still wasn't where it should be, so when my doctor arrived a few minutes later, she told me that we had better get Ethan out quickly as something was really distressing him.

Brandon and I were both like deer caught in the headlights, not knowing what to think or what to say. We did not expect this! I thought we'd be sitting around for hours in labor and here I was about to be wheeled into the operating room!

It took much longer to get prepped with the anesthetic then how long the surgery took, it felt like forever! But once they got started, before I knew it I could hear Ethan's first breath and cry. It was sort of garbled as he had taken in some of the amniotic fluid, but he was okay, just a little greenish because he had pooped in the womb, something babies do when they are under stress during labor. My doctor said that he had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, but it didn't appear to be cutting off his oxygen, because his levels looked good, so she wasn't sure why his heart rate kept dropping. After the surgery she told me that she was glad we had come in when we had, because Ethan would've perhaps not made it if we had waited. That put things into perspective, a scary perspective. Brandon and I were so relieved that Ethan was delivered to us, a healthy baby boy.

We stayed at the hospital for a few days then came home with our little guy. When we got home the feeling finally set in knowing that he was ours to keep forever! That we were now his parents and that we were responsible for caring for this helpless little person. I also had a hard time realizing that this baby used to be inside my belly! Ethan was a small baby, but I still couldn't figure out how he fit in there.

We are in love with our little guy and are just amazed by the miracle that he is! Every day he looks a little different, a little bigger, makes a different face or sound. He's the center of our universe right now and we're still trying to adjust to him being a part of our family. Brandon is so helpful with him, and can burp him and put him to sleep better than I can. He calls him his "Little bug," I think that's because when they'd wheel him to our room at the hospital, they had him wrapped so tightly in his blanket that he looked like a little catapiller. His daddy is very much the proud papa and Ethan is the apple of his eye. We're so happy to have him!

We thought this was pretty funny. We looked over and Ethan had fallen asleep holding onto his ear! So silly!

This was Christmas day, and our friends Melissa and Kelly had given us this Santa outfit for Ethan. Luckily he came before his due date of December 28th. He only got to wear it for this one day, but he was super cute in it!

Ethan can go from zero to sixty in less than five seconds as you can see here. He fell back to sleep just moments later.Here's Brandon putting Ethan to sleep. Ethan likes to hang out with his daddy.

He's definitely a cutie!

Highlight #3

Best Friends Get Married!

A little over a year ago Brandon's best friend Kelly told us that he'd like to ask out my best friend Betsy on a date. They've both hung out with us in the past and I sort of knew that Betsy thought Kelly was cute. So we were excited but didn't want to act too excited in case we jinxed it!
It was on our way back from a camping trip that Kelly called Brandon to get Betsy's phone number. Betsy just happened to be in the car with us so we just passed the phone over to her. He asked her out on a date, which was followed by many more dates and after just 3 1/2 months of dating, the two got engaged! Man, if Brandon and I had moved that quickly maybe we'd be onto our 2nd kid instead of our first!
We were thrilled! Betsy and I always talked about marrying best friends when we were in high school and all these years later, it was really happening. Here's us last year celebrating my birthday in Park City.
Racing down the Alpine Slide! I had never done that before! It was really fun, but way too pricey!

Here's Brandon getting a little silly with the statue at Park City Mountain Resort.

Wedding Day! Betsy and Kelly married at the Timpanogos Temple! We were anxiously awaiting their big entrance or exit as it were.
The first dance! The reception was beautiful and we couldn't be happier for our best friends!

Highlight #3

Caribbean Vacation!

Thanks to Brandon's hard work with his company, we got to go to beautiful St. Maarten for an all expense paid vacation! We went for the last week in January, escaping the frigid snowy winter for the sunshine and surf!
Ahhh! Sand between the toes! The hotel we were put up in had it's own beach that had some great snorkeling! The best part was getting to sip frozen drinks while relaxing to the sounds of the ocean and getting warmed by the sunshine!


My eyes!!! So one morning Brandon woke up with his eyes all puffy! Alergies??? That's what we thought and found some benadryl for him. They didn't seem to help and his eyes got puffier and puffier. So the next day we decided we needed professional help and were able to find a local doctor who was able to see Brandon.

The doctor knew it couldn't have been anything he ate as the swelling was just around his eyes, so she thought it could've been the pillows of the hotel or something that may have come in contact with his face. Ohhhhh! It dawned on me then! The day before the swelling started we had purchased some souvenir towels in-town from a street vendor. It was a hot day and Brandon used one of the towels to wipe his face with. That was it!! We've sinced washed the towels and they are fine now, they must've just had some sort of factory residue on them that did not agree with Brandon's face! With the right medication, the swelling quickly subsided and we were able to continue having a good time!

Exploring a quiet, picturesque beach on the French side of the island. The island actually has a French side and a Dutch side. St. Maarten is the Dutch side, and St. Martin is the French side. Everyone says that the Dutch side is the place to shop and the French side is the place to eat.
Here's another view of the beach! Just gorgeous!

Brandon being the strong man as usual! This was the fateful day of the towel encounter!

Even though Brandon's company were treating us to a vacation, that didn't mean there wasn't work to be done! He had some team building activities and meetings to attend. Here's his team's sand sculpture to represent that his company is "On the go!"

St. Maarten is an awesome place to visit! We highly recommend it! The food was great, the weather was perfect, and we had the most memorable time there! We were lucky enough to have all the guys in Brandon's office also make Chairman's Club, so we had a good time hanging out with them and their spouses and friends. Brandon's company certainly knew how to take care of us with gifts each day, fun activities, and great parties. We hope that we'll be able to go again in the future!

Highlight #2

2) Vacation to the Pacific Northwest in July!

We decided to escape the heat of Utah for the cooler climate of Seattle and Vancouver. We flew into Seattle, rented a car and drove north to Blaine, WA, which is right on the border of Canada. We stayed there 2 1/2 days and explored this cute coastal town.

We were able to take a Whale Watching cruise that took us through the San Juan Islands, where we found a pod of Orcas and followed these 20+ whales as they leapt, "spy hopped," and hunted Salmon to eat. It was awesome to see these animals in the wild and really a huge highlight of our whole trip!The Peace Arch in Blaine, WA. It sits on the border with Canada representing an open gate between our two countries.
They call these "Tall Ships," there were two of these old sailing boats that were docked in Blaine for the weekend. They travel up and down the West Coast, giving tours and cruises. The sailors on it all dress in pirate type costumes!

Then we drove up to Vancouver, British Colombia. It was quite the change from the sleepy Washington coast. Vancouver is a pretty big city with lots going on. We went to China Town and visited one of few genuine Chinese Gardens that exists outside of China.

Walked around "Gas Town" the old part of Vancouver, that has a steam powered clock.

Walked, though we wished we would've rented bikes, around Stanley Park, a huge park on a penisula on the edge of Vancouver that is popular with cyclists, roller bladers, and joggers, that gives you great views of the sea!
I really enjoyed visiting Granville Island which is home to an awesome Farmer's Market that has pretty much whatever your heart and tummy desires! I became reaqquainted with my favorite french pastry, a "Mille Feuille" or "Napoleon."

We stayed in Vancouver for 2 days and then drove south and back to Seattle. We really enjoyed Seattle. It's got it's own sort of charm. We went to the top of the Space Needle, which had some great views of the city.

We took a fun one hour cruise around the Puget Sound and got to see Seattle from the water.

Here's Pike's Market, where they are famous for their fish throwing.
The Aquarium was pretty neat. Here's Brandon getting hands on with some Star Fish. There was actually several different types of star fish in this area and the weird thing was, is that some were spiny and hard while others were squishy!

All-in-all it was a fun vacation for us. We loved spending time together and making new memories.