Merry, Merry to all!

Well Hello Family and Friends-
We hope that this blog finds you all well and happy this wonderful Christmas season. We are doing well. For those who do not reside in the state of Utah we have finally received snow and a lot of it. We have had to shovel our walks a couple of times and poor Aaron hurt his back shoveling the first snow of the season because there was so much of it.
We bought a tree the first Monday after Thanksgiving so that we could get as much use out of the $30 tree as we could. Poor thing is as dry as the Mojave desert and only has three needles left on it, oh well. Sammy has made the tree her new home, she is always under it and loves the water which is probably why the tree is in the state that it is.
So, another holiday has come and poor Ethan has been forced by his parents to put on cute outfits. He is so darling, we can't resist him in his Santa and Reindeer getups. Most of the pictures we took he was crying in so we won't show you those, but the good ones we did post on the blog for you to see.
Ethan and I went to Montana for Thanksgiving and when we returned our house was beautifully decorated by my father, brother and husband. I guess their original idea was to go overboard with the decorations and try to embarrass me in front of our neighbors but the house really turned out nicely.
Ethan continues to grow and amaze us. He is now holding things and switching the objects from hand to hand. He also rolls over all the way and then back. He loves to drink water from my water bottle and he is interested in adult food even though we haven't given him any yet. His first tooth is coming in which is the longest and worst process ever. We feel really sorry for him but there is not much that we can do other than rub his mouth and let him suck on ice chips.
Well, we love you all and hope that you know that you are always in our thoughts and prayers. We hope that you get to eat lots of sugar cookies, don't receive any fruit cakes, and find your self under the mistletoe at least once this season. Take care.

-Joelle, Aaron, & Ethan

Ethan's First Laugh

As promised, here is the video of Ethan's first laugh. We still haven't been able to get him to laugh like this since. He's gotten close, but not like this. Anyway, we're relieved we got it on video. Just to set the scene, Ethan is sitting on Joelle's lap and I am asking him if he wants to be a cow...for Halloween.

The Many Faces of Ethan

In lieu of the upcoming holiday, Joelle and I came up with a few costume ideas for Ethan. Frankly, we couldn't decided ourselves which one we liked best. So here's an image of the options; He can either be a cow, a pea, or his daddy for Halloween. I bet you can guess which one is scariest to us. People say he looks a lot like his dad...poor guy. Anyway, Let us know what you think.
Two Sundays ago, Ethan was blessed at church. Unfortunately we didn't take any of our own pictures of Ethan in his white suit, but when we get a hold of some we'll post them on the blog. We had a lot of friends and family come in to participate and we appreciate all the help and support we received with the blessing and the luncheon.
Ethan continues to grow quickly. We seem to constantly be pulling out new clothes for him because he's growing so fast. Anyway, he tries so hard to sit up, but he's already rolling over and holding on to things. Most excitingly, Ethan gave us his first laugh. It certainly made all the sacrifices worth it to here him giggle. Luckily we got it on video, but we need different equipment to get it on the blog. We'll get that on as soon as we can as well.

Wireless Ethan

Up until now Aaron has done a beautiful job writing our blogs but now it is my turn. Prepare to be amazed and blown away. So, it has been quite a week for the crazy Bangerters, we had Ethan's appointment on Monday. Our appointment was at 1:10 but they asked us to get there 30 minutes early so that we could check in which took 2 minutes and then we waited 28 more minutes until our appointment. They sent us down to get his x-rays taken, they held poor Ethan down naked on a cold metal table and took his pictures. We then went to see his cardiologist Docta Jou who tested his oxygen levels both on and off his tank and he stayed consistent at 95%. Jou listened to his heart which still had the murmur but had not changed since his last visit. He went over both the new and old x-rays showing me that the heart was now normal in size and looked really good. He gave us permission to take Ethan off his oxygen tank and said that we could fly to San Diego! It was a very good, relieving day. We've been able to dress him regular clothes now because there's no cord that might get in the way of us trying to put a shirt over his head.

On Friday I took Ethan to a Relief Society retreat up in Provo Canyon. All the ladies in our ward fussed more than Ethan wanting to hold him. Ethan was pretty shocked by all of the attention and the ever present giggling that went on between the sisters. He must have decided that he had had more than enough and cried for about 20 minutes on the way back up to Salt Lake. I was finally was able to calm him down by telling him about our upcoming trip to San Diego. Aaron stayed home that night and finally got the peace and quiet that he wanted. Then on Saturday I went to my monthly get-together with my friends and I took Ethan with me. He must have had enough from the previous day because he cried and just wanted to eat and sleep, which I told him was not a good way to win over the ladies.

Ethan has gotten really big he is now 26 inches long, 12lbs 13 oz and he wears 6 month old clothing. He's in the 93rd percentile for length, around the 70th percentile for weight, and the 55th percentile for head circumference

Aaron is doing well. He is working hard at his job where they love him. He is very excited about it being football season again but once again his Bills have disappointed him by how awful they are. Thank goodness he has two other teams to fall back on, BYU and U of U.

I am excited and challenged by being a mother. I love the fun quiet moments that I get to have with Ethan. He is a joy and it is so fun to see him change everyday and make new sounds and smile so fondly up and me and his dad.
We hope that all is well with all of you. Take care and we hope to hear from you soon.

Smiles and Coos

This week has been full of changing diapers, watching Ugly Betty on mute, and rocking Ethan to sleep. To our surprise, my diploma arrived early this week. So now I finally have proof that I finally finished. Just in case you are doubting it, the picture is right there. Notice how good at dusting Joelle is. Look at the reflection that shows up on the wood table.

I was proud to watch the Utes crush #11 UCLA yesterday, 44-6. It's the only thing that was exciting in sports this weekend. BYU's defense couldn't stop Tulsa and the Bills got whooped by the Steelers. Can't say that I was surprised about that though.

We've looked forward to this weekend for a while now. Well actually, we've looked forward to tomorrow. We find out from the doctor how Ethan's heart is doing and whether or not he'll need to keep the oxygen. We appreciate all your support, fasting, and prayers. We are optimistic that he is doing well. But we know that no matter what, everything will be fine.

Ethan had some more visitors today. His grandparents and Aunt Amber showed up to see how the little guy is getting along. After eating for the first 30 minutes or so, he came out to greet everyone. It started out fun, with Ethan smiling and cooing at Grandpa, but quickly turned into a full out cry by the time they all left. It was nice having them over to see us.

We enjoy him so much. He's been a lot of fun lately, smiling and cooing. Sometimes, we'll set his boppy up at the end of the couch and sit him up like an adult. He likes that especially after a nap. He'll smile and coo and act like he's telling us his dreams. We get such a kick out of it. We're falling more and more in love with him, he's got such a wonderful personality. We hope as you all get to know him, you'll agree. We're sure you will. We see so many of the family in him from time to time.

A Comment on Comments

Visitors of this site are encouraged to leave their comments. We mistakenly thought we had allowed anonymous users to leave comments, but somehow the setting didn't change. Well, we fixed it and now anyone that wants to leave a comment can do so by clicking "comments" at the end of the post. Thanks.

Ethan Might Have Eaten a Dinosaur

Gentian violet is like the ink used for tatoos. It's a medication that's supposed to help with Ethan's thrush. So, we take a q-tip and swab the inside of his mouth with it, but through feeding, it ends up all over his face. It looks like he just ate Barney, the big purple dinosaur. But it's really like ink and will stay on his face for a while--it's been on there since Friday.

Joelle is very busy. She takes care of Ethan of course, which takes constant care. But she's also got the cat Sammy to worry about. I came home from work and saw both laying in her lap. She's definitely able to multi-task.

On labor day, we took Ethan to the Bountiful Cemetery to see some of his ancestor's grave sites on both sides of the family. It was a great time to think about the two sides of Ethan's ancestry. We spent about 2 hours there and Ethan was awake almost the entire time--he was just chillin' in his stroller.

Thank you Marla for making the first comment on our blog. Your words were very thoughtful. We are so grateful for all you did for us and Ethan. You were incredible to us up here in Utah.

Special Visitors...and a fly

Rachel and Joey made it into Salt Lake last night and stayed with us. It was nice to see them and have Ethan see his Aunt Rachel again and meet his Uncle Joey for the first time. They arrived at about 8:30 p.m. last night. We ate dinner from Cafe Rio and watched USC sloppily beat Idaho 38-10 before we all went off to bed. Well, some of us went to bed. Joelle and I spent the next few hours calming Ethan in his crib so he could sleep the night. He finally fell asleep at about 2 a.m. and except for a few feedings, he slept until 10 a.m. Joey and Rachel had already left for California by this time, hopefully well-rested.

While Joelle went off to sacrament meeting, I stayed home with Ethan. After waking up, he and I hung out while he sat in his chair. He smiled and then got bored. But suddenly a new playmate arrived--a fly. Watch the video and see Ethan's reaction when the fly lands on his forehead. Then I try to keep his attention by shaking his butterfly toy, which he follows with his eyes. Then my hand creepily enters the frame to try to get another smile, but it was a failed attempt.

Ethan Lately

Ethan is starting to do a lot of new things. He's able to focus on faces and follow objects with his eyes. His hair is turning more red each day. He's smiling a lot more and every time we try to get a picture of it, the smile passes. But, we caught a glimpse or two with the camera. He tends to smile a lot if we shake what has become his first favorite toy. It's a butterfly that has so many distracting things on it, that it'd keep a kid with severe ADD occupied for hours. Joelle dubbed this toy "Butters," and Ethan loves staring at it.

We took him to visit his Grandma Bangerter last night. Ethan accomplished a lot while there. He managed to watch the news, pee on his mom, and fall asleep just before waking up again to his parents strapping him in the car seat. All this in about an hour. He sure loved meeting his Grandma again as he calmed right down once we handed him over to her.

Tonight will be another big night as he gets to meet his Uncle Joey and see his Aunt Rachel again. But amidst all this socializing, we're working real hard to use techniques to get him to sleep better. This comes from The Baby Whisperer, a book by Tracy Hogg, where she instructs parents to follow E.A.S.Y., or steps to recognize and help him through his eating, playing, and sleeping cycles. So far it's been good for everyone in the house.

Ethan and His Two Roommates

So we don't watch TV anymore, we read it by closed caption. Actually, a lot of things have changed for us recently. We never go to the movies on a whim anymore. We take naps even if it's at 8p because we have chronic sleep deprivation. We look forward to the next time we'll have a moment to go pee. We've noticed how much the hardwood floors make noise, so we step lightly around the house like ballerinas. We eat out more and actually have forgotten what "homemade" tastes like. All this because of our new roommate.

Well he's a baby and naturally things are going to change. This might seem cliche, but the changes don't seem so difficult when our baby Ethan smiles. He's doing a lot more of that lately and we both have fallen head over heals for this kid. So for now, we'll read our episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond, prance around the house as if we were performing Swan Lake, and become bobble-heads from lack of sleep.

Welcome to our first blog. We want to offer a place for people to go if they're bored, surfing the net, or just want to see pictures of Ethan and find out what's new with him--and his two roommates of course. We hope you come back often.


Love,

Aaron, Joelle, & Ethan