Updates on the Family

Ethan James: 

-Ethan is currently still working at North Layton Junior High School as a history, geography, and current issues teacher for 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. He LOVES working with this age group, which I think most humans would struggle with. That shows how good of a guy he is.

-Along with working as a teacher, he is now the head basketball coach for the boys team. He loves coaching and helping the boys learn the game of Basketball. It is fun to watch him coach. This last year was there best year yet, the team made it to the semi-finals and lost to the team that took it all. Which is a huge improvement from his first year of coaching where I think the team only won one or two games. I am excited to see them play again in the fall.

-Ethan is currently serving in the Young Men's in our ward. He is the first counselor, so that means he is over the teachers. He enjoys his calling for the most part. It is fun to serve together in similar callings.

-This next year Ethan plans on starting the Master's of Education Administration at Utah State University. He hopes to become an administrator (ideally an athletic director) sometime in the future. This program is great for people working full time, it is mostly all online.

-I sort of love Ethan James and am so proud of everything he is doing for our family. I am glad I chose to marry the tall red headed guy! :)

Amanda Faye:

-I am currently loving life! I get to spend the majority of my time playing and hanging out with my Brooklyn girl. Being a mostly stay-at-home mom has had it's struggles, but for the most part I have LOVED it. It is amazing to watch your baby girl grow up and learn so many new things. She currently is just developing this fun personality that makes Ethan and I giggle almost everyday with the things she does.

-Our little family is growing! We have a new little girl expected to arrive the beginning of August! Woot woot! I am currently 26-27 weeks pregnant and am feeling great. The first few months were a little rough. I had a lot of nausea and vomiting, and working with bodily fluids did not help any! But for the most part this has been an okay pregnancy. I will talk a little more about this pregnancy under baby girls blurp.

-Along with being a full time mommy, I am currently working part time down at the University of Utah hospital as a Registered Nurse. I currently am in the resource pool for all the ICU's and ED. The University of Utah is a Level 1 hospital, which means we accept any and all patients, which is good for my nursing skills, but not so much for my heart. I currently work in the Medical ICU, Surgical ICU, Neuro ICU, Burn ICU, Huntsman ICU (cancer), and the Emergency Room. The only ICU I have chosen not to float to as of right now is the Cardiovascular ICU (It scares me!). I never have had the passion to be an ICU nurse, at least in this high of an acuity hospital. Almost every story is so sad, and sadly we see a lot of deaths and poor outcomes. I am grateful I have this job because it is teaching me so much and helping with my nursing skills, and it allows me to work nights so I can be home with my girl for almost all of her time she is awake, but I do look forward to looking for a new job after I take a few months off after baby girl arrives in August. I hope to find a job that does not have a commute, and hopefully is maybe a little more uplifting. But we will see what jobs are available when I look for a new job. For now I am just learning as much as I can and trying to enjoy the journey.

-My current calling in out ward is the Laurel Advisor. This has been a fun, yet challenging calling. I never realized how hard it is to relate to the youth. I also, unlike my husband,  am NOT a good teacher. I really struggle with coming up with lessons to help the girls participate and learn, but I am trying and hopefully the girls are learning something and hopefully feel the spirit. I have enjoyed this calling, it keeps me busy. We are in a great ward that we are loving. We feel very fortunate about where we live and the great ward we are in.

Brooklyn Sherie:

-Brooklyn is currently 2 years old and sooo full of energy. It is hard to keep up with her. She turned two this last March and we celebrated with a little minnie mouse party and bowling.

-Brooklyn loves animals, especially our dog Lila. She is always concerned about what Lila is doing. She asks all the time "where lila go". She also loves making animal sounds. I wish there was a zoo that was a little closer cause I have a feeling we would be going there almost everyday. Brooklyn is a quick learner and catches on to things fast. It amazes me how fast she learns things, and how observant she is. She is a smart little girl.

-Brooklyn loves watching "shows" as she calls them. She loves them so much we have to limit her shows to 1-2 times a day, even though she asks for shows almost constantly. Brooklyn currently loves watching Thomas the Train, Chuggingtion (train show), Minnie mouse, and Sofia.

-We have not started potty training yet, we hope to start in June. We just have had a busy few months and felt it would be best to do it when we have 4-5 days to dedicate to potty training. She is fascinated with going to the potty and asks to go and has already picked out her pretty under ware. We just need a little more time to dedicate to potty training. We are first timers, so hopefully we can figure this out!

-Brooklyn slept in her "big girl" bed for the first time yesterday and totally rocked it! We did not have that many issues at all. Hopefully tonight goes just as well. The only issue is that Brooklyn moves A LOT in her sleep, and she ended up on the floor twice last night from moving so much. Luckily it is just a toddler bed, so the floor is not that far from her bed.

-Brooklyn loves going to nursery until it is actually time to drop her off. She gets a little fussy when we drop her off, but then when we go pick her up she is loving it. She talks about nursery during the week, so I know she is liking it. She loves singing songs, so it is fun to see what songs she comes home singing.

Baby Girl Wilford:

-Due August 2015

-Currently am 26-27 weeks pregnant.

-Current cravings: WATERMELON (just so dang expensive), peanut butter, and salads.

-No other issues at this time with mommy or baby. Baby girl looked great at the anatomy scan. 10 fingers, 10 toes, heart and all other systems look good. Which helps mommy to relax a bit. Mommy sleeps pretty well, does not currently have any nausea, and overall feels pretty good, except for the fact that I feel fat, which is a good thing because baby is growing.

-Mommy is still running about 4-5 times a week anywhere from  4-5.5 miles at a time. Still at a 9:30 ish pace. (Which is slower than normal, but faster than when I was running with Brooklyn). I probably look like an idiot at the gym, but running makes my body feel better. So I really do enjoy running while pregnant. I do have to stop every 1.5 miles to drink, and occasionally I have to stop to pee. Other than that running is going great!

-We are excited to meet our little skittles!:)