The Gerke Family

December Happenings

2011-12-21T07:45:00.000-08:00

Six months between posts isn't too bad, huh? Sorry. Haven't been in a bloggy mood.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures of our cute birthday girl turning 2. Love that dimple!

We had our ward Christmas Party last weekend. Emeree screamed again. The only year she didn't have a fit was when she was 2 weeks old - and that's because she was asleep. But I think it's cute that Ethan is covering his ears while she is screaming.

They made paper bag reindeer at the party too.

4th of July

2011-07-14T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some random pics of our 4th of July. We (actually, just Michael) spent the morning mixing and pouring cement for our back patio, then we headed to Ray and Carol's house for the afternoon and then over to Rick and Debbie's for the evening. A busy day.

And since I had to turn on the hose every 10 minutes for Michael, I technically helped with the cement too. :) We lost our nozzle, so we can't leave it on. He told me to turn it on for 13 seconds. So, I counted and only got to like 8 before he told me to turn it off. Here's the rest of the conversation...

Me: But I only got to 8; I was supposed to count to 13. (Yes, I do talk in semi-colon sentences - I'm just cool like that)
Michael: That was 13
Me: Nu-uh - how did you count
Michael: 1, 2, 3...
Me: "mississippi-lessly"?

**Bonus points to who can guess where that quote came from. I was proud that I thought of it on the fly. And it made Michael smile and laugh at me since he knew exactly where I got the quote.

Anyway, back to the pics...

Buddah belly baby is happy that daddy gave her a tootsie roll pop - mom wasn't so happy. It stained her jacket :(

Ethan was not at all interested in going down the slip-n-slide, but he did like the spraying water and watching the girls ride down the slide.

And once Emeree saw the water, she was all about trying to drink it.

Eating watermelon on the deck

Over to Grandma and Grandpa's . . . Ethan had fun pushing Emeree up and down the hill in the wagon.

Look at her go!

Ethan didn't like the "boom" of the fireworks, so Debbie went inside and found a solution. Fuzzy earmuffs! Grandma's are great like that!

Emeree's word list

2011-07-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

I made a list of the words Ethan was speaking when he was about 18 months, so I guess I should be a good documentor and list Emeree's at the same age.

She's speaking a lot more than Ethan was at this age, and I think it has to do with being the 2nd child...she copies him and us a lot. She'll copy almost any word we try to get her to say, but I'm only listing the words that she says on her own.

People
Mom
Dad
Dampa - that's for Grandma and Grandpa (Ethan says it that way so she copied the weird word from him)
Lorelai
Zach - Ethan's buddy from nursery and play dates
We've gotten her to say Emma and Ethan a couple times but she doesn't say them much on her own
Ehmo - Elmo
George - when she wants to watch Curious George

Food
Mik - for "milk" although I have a hard time between that and her word oak for "coat" they sound a lot the same sometimes and she gets mad if I give her the wrong one when she's asking for the other.
hot dog
chip
juice
ter - water
cheese
ceal - cereal
a-nah - banana
apple
ret - carrot

Animals
dog
woof - she usually just makes barking noises when she sees a dog instead of saying "dog"
meow - when she sees a cat

Body/clothes
head - usually pats her head and says the word over and over after she bonks it on the table since she refuses to accept that she is taller than the table and should be ducking when she walks under it
teef - when she wants to brush her teeth
hat
eye
nosh - her version of "nose"
ear
shoe
awk - sock
shirt
chin - I know, kindof a weird one for her age
boot
I-per - diaper

Random
heyo-o - this is "hello" when she carries around one of my old cell phones pressed to her ear
shovel
banka - "blanket"
right dere - saying "right there" and pointing when I ask where her pacifier went
book
a-yar - pacifier
star - i use a star cookie cutter to cut shapes out of her bread for breakfast. she won't eat toast and won't eat bread good if I don't use a cookie cutter
raw - straw
no
mine
hep - help
boo - likes to hide and scare daddy
up - when she wants out of her high chair
done - when she doesn't want her milk anymore and throws it on the floor at the same time with no warning - so she will be on sippy cups for a while to come

I know she says a few more, but I can't think of them right now.

Take me out to the ball game!

2011-07-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

We went to the Tacoma Rainiers Baseball game with family from the Otto side last night! It was so much fun. I figured we would stay as late as the kids were happy - since the game started just before bedtime would normally be. Surprisingly, they lasted till the game ended at 10:30 - we had our fussy moments with Emeree and a fat lip and skinned knee with Ethan running through the stands, but all in all, it was a wonderful night!

Ethan played musical chairs and moved between our row, to sitting with the girls, and sitting with Grandma and Grandpa Sanders.

Emeree had fun watching the game and got caught trying to sneak other people's water.

And right after the game, they turned out the stadium lights and put on a professional firework show! Emeree loved it, but Ethan looked worried the whole time and kept his ears covered and had his legs locked around my thigh tightly until they ended. But he never took his eyes off of them.

Catching Up - Easter Egg Hunts

2011-05-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

Ethan helped me dye Easter eggs... I thought I would regret having a 3 year old help, but he was actually really careful and we both had fun.

We did 2 Easter Egg hunts on the Saturday before Easter...

One at Edgemont Park - that one is crazy. They section off the areas of the park for different ages and then throw plastic eggs all over the ground. It's a free for all and lasts a couple minutes since the kids swoop them up as fast as possible. We didn't score too many since there were a lot of kids and mine are young and not really into the "race" concept yet.

Then we headed to my Grandma's house for the real egg hunt. It was nice weather this year so we got to do it outside for a change. This one is way more relaxing and fun than the crazy public one.

Wayyyy behind in posting!

2011-01-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

I realized I never even posted our Santa pictures from Christmas... better late than never. I love how Ethan is so uninterested and focused on his candy cane while Miss Emeree is having a hissy fit.

This smile of Ethan's is my favorite!!

And I tend to use Emeree's lap to hold things while I'm carrying her in the car seat and don't have enough hands to carry everything... like library books/movies, and even a big bowl of pasta. I love how she's peeking out from behind the bowl. It reminds me of that one cartoon comic strip guy.

Minute to Win it Activity

2011-01-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

Michael and I are both leaders in YM and YW at church. Our joint activity last night was a Minute to Win it competition. One of the games is called "Junk in the Trunk" where you strap a kleenex box on your back and jump and wiggle around to get all the ping pong balls out. . . here's a link to the game on the tv show.

After all the youth made it through this game, we strapped it on Ethan and let him try it. He kept it on and tried for about 30 minutes. After the first few minutes of not getting any out, he settled for running around and picking up the ones from other games and collecting them in the box.

Trying to Exercise

2011-01-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

Michael found this plan to be able to do 100 push-ups in a row and 200 sit-ups in a row. It's supposed to be a 6 week plan, but of course since he's Michael, he condensed it into a 3 week plan. And of course he printed out a spreadsheet for me too. (but my numbers are a lot lower than his - yesterday he had to do 4 sets of 45-50 sit ups each - I only had to to 4 sets of about 15 each).

And of course that means that the kids crawl all over us while trying to exercise. We mostly try to do these when it's nap time or bed time. It's a little easier that way :)

We don't use the "ab roller" thing normally, but it's impossible to do a sit up with a 2 year old on your chest, so we got this out of the garage so Ethan could participate.

She's ONE!

2010-12-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

Emeree turned one last week! Here are the photos from her party.

I woke up at 3:30 that morning with the realization that I hadn't made her a special birthday shirt yet!!! I know, the horror! So of course I had to whip one up instead of sleep. Here's her special shirt. Oh, and she started walking last week on her own! Exciting!

Becky made her this adorable hat - Max also got one for his birthday in blue. But she said this pom-pom yarn was horrible to work with. So these were probably the last she'll make.

Here is Ethan helping her open her presents

She got a rocking horse, and she actually rocks back and forth on it. I love that it's so close to the ground because she can get off it by herself safely!

This picture was literally seconds after sitting down the cupcake. She didn't waste a second and dug right in.

I made a cupcake cake - the picture is hard to tell how big they are, but the center cake took 1 1/2 cake mixes and the 8 cupcakes took the other box and a half. Even the small cupcakes were bigger than the standard ones - they are 2 piece (a top and a bottom).

Cupcakes!

2010-12-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

Michael took 186 pictures of Emeree's b-day party, so it will take me a while to sift through them to find a couple good ones to post. But in the meantime, here is a sneaky cupcake eater.

Letter to my Children

2010-11-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Ethan and Emeree,

I love being your mother and am lucky to be a stay at home mom. But . . .

Must we poop just minutes after getting a diaper change? Contrary to what you might think, I do not enjoy changing your diapers. And is there some rotation game this week that I'm not aware of? Is it a race to see who can do it fastest? You two seem to take turns so that I end up changing 4 diapers in less than an hour. Diapers don't grow on trees and the garbage man told us on Tuesday we have been over the garbage weight limit the last couple weeks - due to your many diapers.

Ethan, your little sister is not a nail. The toy hammers are not meant to hammer the baby's head. And when the toy hammers go in toy time out, we don't use the funnel as a hammer either.

Emeree, the measuring cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons are not pacifiers. And if you're going to empty out all the drawers in the kitchen, can you at least give me a timeline of when you'll be able to put them away too?

Despite the dirty diapers, time outs and days with no naps, I still love you.

P.S. you have my permission (and your dad's too) to scratch up, chew on, and destroy the Alvin and The Chipmunks DVD.

THE 'Stache

2010-11-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

This year, Ethan was a Pirate and Emeree was Raggedy Ann

We had fun at the Trunk-or-Treat at the Ward Party and Ethan was fabulous at saying "Thank you" to everyone. I had to prompt him for it the first set of cars, but he did it on his own after that. And he really got into it this year.

And Mom made the costumes! Thank you, Mom!

Neither of them were smiling or looking at the camera at the same time, so I don't have a great "group" shot of them. And in this one, Ethan had just finished eating a blue sucker, so his teeth are blue :)

Here's a great shot of Emeree!

And a cheesy pirate!

How do you keep your little sister out of your Halloween candy?

2010-10-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well, Ethan will show you how in case you weren't sure. If you want to protect your "Trunk-or-Treat" loot, you sit on it.

This used to be Ethan's felt pumpkin candy basket - now it's a squished basket, but it is well protected from Emeree.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

This ended up being a great day, but the trip there was another story. . .

We went to Portland to visit Nathan and Kari. After visiting for a while, we decided to go to a pumpkin patch. So we looked online and picked out one that looked okay - they are new to Portland, so they didn't have a favorite pumpkin patch yet. It should have taken 35 minutes to get there according to the directions we got online. It ended up taking about an hour and a half. The last 4 miles or so was stop and go (but mostly stop). It turned out this was one of the popular pumpkin patches and it was on a little island of sorts, so there was only one way there and no way to change your mind to turn around.

Anyway, after the unexpected, long drive, we finally got out of the car and had fun.

For some reason, neither of my children wanted to look at the camera at all that day. Grrr... We took over 250 pictures at the patch and only ended up with a couple of them smiling for the camera. Thank goodness for digital cameras :)

How to look cool in your uncle's aviator sunglasses . . . serious?

. . . or smiling?

All Ethan was focused on this trip was rolling pumpkins.

He looked at the camera just briefly and I caught it!!!

Little Miss Emeree didn't like posing in a pile of pumpkins.

We took a hay ride out to the pumpkin field . . . Kari got hay in her contacts and I looked bad, so you only get a picture of Nathan - he was the only camera ready person on the ride.

She looked! Just ignore my arm holding her steady.

Someone found a frog - can't remember if it was Michael or Nathan, but Kari was brave and held it.

Emeree even touched it . . .

But Ethan wanted nothing to do with it and kept backing away.

I thought the background of this picture looked cool - and of couse Michael does too. :) And another one of Ethan looking off in the distance.

Graham Cracker Cuteness

2010-10-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

While Ethan was still taking his nap, Emeree decided to be cute while eating a snack.

This is a face she makes when she copies me. I close my eyes and smile at her and this is what she does back . . .

Strange Children

2010-09-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

When Emeree drinks her water, she reminds me of a gerbil or hampster. . . since she holds the bottle straight up and doesn't tip her head back. Why should she have to work for it? I was on the computer checking my email and I heard Ethan digging through his room for something - and since the baby is taking her nap, I rushed into his room to help him before he woke her up. When I came into the living room, he had set up these wood blocks as a fence and had been looking for his horse to put in the fence. How does he know horses get fenced in? Smart boy.

Oh, and the boy knows how to count to 10 . . . he was outside helping Michael work on the back yard and he counted the nails on the ground. How did he learn to count? I haven't worked with him on numbers yet and all the shows he watches just do letters. If he lines his toys up, I count them for him, but that's really the only exposure he's had. He's a quick learner. And just now, he is playing with my phone and one of the apps is a puzzle and he ran over to me to show me and said "four, mommy, four" and sure enough . . . the puzzle he finished was the number four. I guess I breed smart children :)

I guess I raise criminals...

2010-09-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

So I guess I raised a couple of criminal children. Ethan ripped out the tag from the bottom of the chair in Sunday School when he was 10 months old...you know, the one that says it's illegal to remove. And today, Emeree (9 months) decided to join her brother in a life of crime and rip out a tag as well. I guess girls are more advanced than boys. I'll blame this mischievousness on their father.

Such Good Manners

2010-08-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

So Ethan is eating his breakfast slow today . . . this is our conversation a few minutes ago:

Me: Eat your kiwi
Ethan: No
Me: Yes, please
Ethan: No, please

How can I help but not smile when he's so politely declining my request?

Mt Rainier 2010

2010-08-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

We go to Mt. Rainier every summer - since I was a baby (except the 5 years we were in Nebraska). Part of the tradition is we've always taken a picture of us 4 siblings on this log bench. Our family has grown quite a bit since it was jus the 4 of us kids.
We put this child leash thing on Ethan so he doesn't run off the cliff when we are at the top of our hike. And Michael wrapped it around his head so it looks like a sweat band.Here's my little family of 4 . . .
Another tradition pose is this one at the top of our hike with Mt. Rainier in the background. This one has always had the whole family (with Mom and Dad).

The weather was beautiful that day. We got a great shot of Mt. Rainier.

Cousin Photos

2010-08-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

We had all 5 cousins in the same place . . . so we decided to take that opportunity to get photos of them. It was tricky getting all 5 of them to look/smile at the camera at the same time, but I think we got some good shots.

Here are all 5 . . . Emma, Lorelai, Max, Ethan, EmereeI absolutely love this one of my kids . . . Emeree has been in a "stick your tongue out" mood lately, so this was a fun face for her. She had a cold, so she was fussy and hard to get to smile. She smiles the best for Michael and Emma, so I credit any smiles she gave us to Emma that day. Here are the girls . . .

Here are the boys . . . we only got one shot of them cause Max kept trying to lay back and Ethan kept looking at the tv where the photos showed up, so we didn't get more than one shot of them. But we didn't need it since this one turned out so good.

Bummer Brownies

2010-08-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

So Michael tried to make brownies with black beans . . . inspiration from Kari :). She said it was good - you just substitue mashed black beans for the oil/eggs that the box says to add. It's healthier and you can't taste the difference.

But the problem was that it was Sunday, so we couldn't go to the store to get a brownie box. So Michael tried to make them from scratch (the brownies and the beans - we had dried beans but no canned beans). . . they were gross! And it took him almost all afternoon/evening to make since he had to soak and cook the beans for a few hours before mashing them.

He made frosting to help sweeten it up and that made it worse cause it was a weird frosting since we didn't have any powdered sugar. So I decided to let Michael suffer alone in eating them.

But he gave Ethan one a few minutes ago and Ethan came running to me making a gag noise and holding his mouth open for me to take the brownie out (he doesn't spit out food if he doesn't like it for some reason - he just tries to get me to take it out).

So you know it's bad when a 2 year old won't eat a brownie covered in frosting. Maybe we'll try it later with the box mix and canned beans instead of trying it all on our own.

Trip to the Zoo

2010-08-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

We went to the Pt. Deifance Zoo last week with Debbie . . . It was a beautiful day and both kids were excellent. Emeree was as perfect and happy as can be. Ethan was great until the last half hour or so when he was just getting restless and tired of walking. But he was still great - I just had to chase after him a bit.

Here Ethan is at the goat grooming area. We tried feeding the goats too - worked great last year, but this time Ethan just kept throwing the food in the pen instead of letting them eat out of his hand. Emeree seemed to like the Seals the best. She kept tracking them as they swam around their tank.

Ethan and I went to the underwater viewing area for the walrus' and this one kept doing the same thing over and over. He would swim toward the glass on his back then swim up the glass and head the other way - basically a U-turn but right along the glass.

Ethan went down the slides a few times at the kids zone, but once he got to this point in the picture below, he would stop because the slide was hot, so I had to slide down after him to get him off the slide so the other kids could go after him.

Here he is climbing the spider web.

He loved the Meerkats - you can tell from his huge smile in the reflection. The meerkats were staring straight up for a long time since there was a big bird flying overhead - I'm guessing they were waiting to see if they needed to dive back in their holes for safety.

The zoo has some 8 week old tiger cubs - it's hard to tell in this photo, but they are in the back along the wall with their mom.

Strollers weren't allowed in the Shark Feeding Tank area, so I had to stay outside with Emeree while Ethan and Debbie went in. So she just ate her cereal puffs and was happy as a clam.

I think my expectations are always high for the zoo and I come home a bit disappointed each time. Barely any of the animals were out and the monkeys weren't even out that day - just some goat looking thing that wasn't interesting. And this zoo doesn't even have giraffes, or bears, or lions (some of the basic animals). The water animals were the best ones this trip since they were swimming around. We're hoping to go to Woodland Park Zoo later - and hopefully their animals are more fun and actually out in their pens so we can see them. Anyway, Ethan and Emeree had fun, so that's what counts.

. . . oh, and they now charge a dollar to ride the carousel! It was free last year - what's up with that?

And we are in the process of fixing the bathroom. The previous owners had painted it all BLACK. And it was very tight and had no counter space, so we are fixing that. Michael cut a door in the drywall that we are tearing down, so here he is coming through the wall that is about to be demo'd. I had painted all the other walls so there wasn't anymore black - except for the wall that was coming down.

Ethan's 1st Somersault

2010-07-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the blurry video - came from our phone . . . but here is Ethan's first somersault! He skids on his head at the beginning.

Crawling and Standing and Swimming, oh my!

2010-07-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is how my little MacGyver turns on light switches. These tongs are quite useful to him. He uses them to eat pop-tarts and turn on lights so far.Emeree started crawling a week and a half ago . . . she started by going up on her toes and then putting one knee in front of the other, but now she just crawls normal. Then yesterday, I came into the room to find her standing up against Ethan's Tonka Dump Truck. Luckily he was down for his nap, otherwise I don't think he would have taken too kindly to her using it. This was the first time she pulled up to standing. She's been pulling up to her knees for about a week. As you can see, she likes to stand on her toes - with them folded in. LOVE that dimple!We got a little plastic swimming pool - Ethan loves it. He stands and scoops water out with a cop or funnel. But Emeree hated it. She screamed bloody murder when we dipped her toes in it. She has no problem with baths, but this water was a little colder. I do love her swimming suit, but since she won't touch the water, I don't think she'll get to wear it again.

Neither of my kids have a solid belly laugh (Max has a great laugh - I'm so jealous of that). Emeree just lets out a heavy breath since she holds in her laughs, but now she has switched to a funny sound that sounds like she has a small air leak.

4th of July Weekend

2010-07-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

We had a busy weekend. We spent Saturday/Sunday morning at Ocean Shores with my family. Most of the time was spent at the park for Ethan and then at the beach. In the morning, Michael, Ethan, and I went out on the canoe in the canal that is in my parent's back yard. I thought Ethan would cry the whole time, but he just held onto my leg and was watching everything intently. It was fun.

I don't have many pictures of Emeree . . . she was mostly bundled up since it was chilly at the beach. She kept making the "stink face" the whole time. I think the wind was hitting her face and she didn't like that, so she responded with a sour "stink face" the whole night. But here is a picture of her cute outfit that I made her. I made it out of a men's t-shirt. It goes down past her knees, but you can't really tell from the picture - and there are 3 stars on the side.

At the North Bay Park, they had entertainment for kids. We got Ethan a balloon sword. He mostly chased me and Michael with the sword.

But then he found some other kids playing with swords too and he joined in. The kids were really good sports at playing with a 2 year old they didn't know for a minute or 2.

They also had a train ride. I went with Ethan on this one and he screamed when we first got on board, but then he calmed down. He didn't smile or react much. He just sat very still and was very serious.

Here is one of the few pictures we took of Emeree when she wasn't bundled up - and as she did the whole day, she made a weird face.

Here is Michael and Ethan at the water.
Nathan decided to skip along the water for about a minute, so Michael took several shots of the action - here's a very manly looking one.

After he was done playing in the sand, he got cold, so we wrapped him up and put him on a chair by the fire. He sat like this for a couple hours - and ate grapes out of his hat.

And then we drove home Sunday afternoon and ended the day at Michael's parent's house to have dinner and light off some fireworks.

Debbie found some giant marshmallows . . . Ethan is a sucker for marshmallows.

And of course Michael was trying to get some amazing shots of fireworks like we did 2 years ago. Here's one of the cool ones from last night.Ethan didn't really like the fireworks, but he was okay as long as he was sitting on my lap. Emeree cried for the first couple loud bangs, but then she fell asleep while Debbie was holding her. So I didn't get to light any off this year since I was holding Ethan, but Michael and Rick lit off all of them - including the sparklers because Ethan wanted nothing to do with them. And boy do I wish I had the camera for the sparkler finale. Michael and his Dad pranced and skipped around the yard with a sparkler in each hand. It was hilarious!

So even though it was super busy and we were all over the place, we had a great time and still felt like we got to relax and enjoy it all.

In the last 2 weeks . . .

2010-06-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

I brought out the toddler potty to try and get Ethan interested in it, but all he was interested in was wearing it as a hat. I came into the living room and he had even put the smaller bucket part on Emeree . . . so Ethan put the buckets on both of them himself. And somehow I even got both of them to look at the camera at the same time!!! Notice Emeree's WET shirt? That was her 3rd shirt for the day (and it was only 4pm). She's teething and drooling like crazy!
So how do you make playing with a doll house more "manly"? Well, you drive a car or motorcycle through it. We were babysitting Canden and they were both trying to drive through it. I didn't think it would happen this fast, but Emeree has fallen into the world of kissing. She kept kissing Ethan's Curious George. And through a couple weeks of the kids learning new things . . . I'm sad to report that Michael has digressed in his skills. He has forgotten how to open a can. So sad.
He claims it's the can opener's fault so he had to tear the lid back, but I'm not so sure.

Edgemont Park

2010-06-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

We went to Edgemont Park on Memorial Day - it was great weather and at about 5pm, there were no other people at the park. That seemed odd for a holiday with nice weather. After about 20 minutes a couple came with their pit bull - why on earth would someone come to a park where there are children and bring a pit bull? I don't like dogs as it is, but that seemed quite dumb to bring a dangerous breed to a park.

Oh well, here's Emeree licking her zipper . . . Here's another "stink face" shot . . . Ethan didn't really like the park at all. He whined and cried almost the whole time we were there. He loved the park last summer. And now that he's old enough to play on some of the toys without me holding his hand the whole time, he doesn't want to.

We tried the slide. No crying, but he looked concerned the whole time.He sobbed when we tried to put him in the children's bucket swing, so we tried putting him on a regular swing with Michael and he finally smiled for about 30 seconds. Emeree, on the other hand, loved the swing. We thought that if she was happy in it, that would help Ethan to try it . . . nope.

He did a little better when we turned Emeree to face him and pushed them both. No crying, and we got a couple smiles out of him.But, his highlight of the park was when I gave him a stick to let him hit the tree. He's an odd child. Last week, Emeree started lifting her belly off the floor and supported herself on her knees and hands. She's getting a step closer to crawling. She actually moves backwards - kind of a scooting more than anything else, but she's moving.

I gave Ethan a chocolate popsicle. When he was done, it looked like he had a mustache and a goatee . . .

Emeree's Baby Quilt

2010-06-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

In case anyone didn't get to see the finished product, here's Emeree's Baby Quilt that Grandma Larsen made. I got it last night!And know what's really cool? About 4 of the pink prints are the same fabric left over from the quilt she made me when I was 10 years old. How cool is that?

And whoever doesn't know, my Grandma hand sews all her quilts - no machine at all! That's dedication and love!

New Skill - Sitting alone

2010-05-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

Emeree sat up all by herself today for over a minute without falling over!! And she's a multi-tasker too. She can make her tradmark "stink face" at the same time.
She can also stick out her tounge and play with her feet while sitting alone. . .

She can also bite the ear off a stuffed lamb - not really angel-like traits.

Ethan wanted to sit with her - she gave him a big ole' slobbery kiss.

. . . then they fell over.

Here's a picture of Ethan sitting alone when he was 5 months - he beat Emeree by a month with that skill.

She loves sitting in Ethan's high chair to eat. But she's wondering "What is up with these nasty carrots?" I know she gets her dislike of carrots from me - thanks Dad :)

Stink Face and Beanie Boy

2010-05-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

. . . that post title sounds like 2 weird superhero names. :)

Emeree started making a "stink face" this week and she sniffs really loud and fast about 6 times while she makes the face, then she goes back to smiling. Not sure what started this. But it's hard to catch on camera since she does it randomly. I had to just sit there and wait for it. But it's a cute stink face.Ethan found one of my beanies in the laundry basket and said "hat" and wanted me to put it on him. He hated hats as a baby and up until recently. But after I put it on him, he pulled it down and started laughing and then kept it down while he walked around - looking down through the tiny slit below his eyes.

He pretty much kept it on all day - here he is eating cheerios and watching t.v. with it covering one eye.
And here he is the next day - eating a pop tart with the kitchen tongs. He wouldn't pick it up with his hands since the fudge filling got on his fingers. And he wouldn't use a fork, so I tried the tongs. Worked great. And he cried when I tried to take it off so we could go to the dentist. So on it stayed - most of that day too. He hasn't found it yet today.

How are you today sir?

2010-05-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

. . . very well I thank you . . .

"sir" is short for "serena" in case you didn't know :)

Well, my morning sucked - Ethan bit Emeree's hand, leaving deep teeth marks. She was in her walker next to me while I loaded the dishwasher and I didn't see him do it, but after she erupted in tears, I checked her to see what was wrong and I saw the teeth marks. He didn't mean to hurt her; he stood worried next to her while I checked her to see what was wrong. So hopefully since he was worried about her, this teaches him that biting hurts.

He's only bit once before - he bit my butt. That "hurt like a mother" like Michael would say. He just ran up to me and hugged the back of my legs (or so I thought he was) and then he bit - hard. I didn't cry, so I don't think he understood that biting hurts at that incident.

Needless to say, there was a 2 minute timeout this morning (since he's 2 years old - a minute for each year) followed by a cute "sorry" spoken by Ethan and a kiss to Emeree's hand where he bit.

So I wasn't too optimistic about the rest of my day, but they both took a 3 hour nap AT THE SAME TIME today. That's never happened before. Emeree usually just naps for maybe an hour. So I enjoyed some quiet time today! And now I'm ready to endure the next hour before Michael gets home and I have an assistant (who cooks the dinner too)

This week we . . .

2010-05-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

found our feet . . .learned to paint like mommy (but without paint) . . .

started saying individual letters and numbers (knows "O" "G" and "I" when mommy holds up the foam letter and can say most of the rest by repeating) . . .

also . . .

Ethan - learned how to kick in the tub which soaked mommy - making it more fun to do again.

Emeree - started baby food and decided she doesn't like sweet potatoes. Interestingly, that was Ethan's favorite one as a baby.

a few pics

2010-05-04T10:24:00.001-07:00

Happy in her walker Blowing on dandelions

Ethan reading with Emeree

Ethan didn't really enjoy his first haircut :)

These are my favorite pj's for Emeree . . . love the butt flap :)

She kept reaching for my spoon, so I let her play with it for a while

I have the BEST husband!

2010-03-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

He came home with a present for me yesterday! NEW MOON!!

Money has been tight with all the house repairs, so I was just waiting for my turn for this movie at the library. I never even saw it in the theaters, so that shows my dedication to not spending money on unnecessary things. Checking it out from the library is free . . . but I was #278 in line on the "hold" list.

Michael knew I wanted it but wouldn't buy it myself. I LOVE my husband.

And yes, I'm a Twilight Fan. But I didn't jump on the "bandwagon" late in the game like a lot of people. I found the book at the Deseret Book Store and loved it when the 1st one was out new and the rest weren't even written/finished yet. So I think it's okay to be a fan when I've been one from the release of Book #1. And I don't like to read, so the fact that I read these books in a span of a couple days says a lot for me. And I've liked Vampire books since highschool - I don't remember the series, but it was a female vampire and one of the books was purple :)

I stayed up past 1 am to watch it cause Emeree wouldn't go to sleep. And it was by far her worst night since she was born - but totally worth no sleep to be able to finally watch the movie I've been dying to see since November.

Cute Girl and Skinny Boy

2010-03-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

Here's Emeree on Sunday . . . She was smiling really cute for Michael, but when I grabbed the camera, she just slightly smiled. He started sticking his tongue out at her last week and she copies him now and smiles really big for him too. But it's a different story when she sees me. :(And I think Ethan is either losing weight or just growing taller and slimming down more because this is what his pants are doing today . . .

They keep sagging down below his bottom - they're 18 month size and he's been wearing this pair of pants for at least 6 months now and they never fell off him like this before.
He keeps hiding between our new bathroom cabinets (that are on our ever growing list of things to fix/finish in this house).

Ethan's B-day party

2010-03-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Ethan turned 2 on Saturday! We had family over to celebrate. We had a hectic morning before the party. We got our new kitchen cabinets in a few days before and we were trying to get them all installed before the party. And by "we," I mean "Michael". He's been working on demo-ing the old kitchen, moving plumbing and electricity since we wanted to swap sides of the kitchen for the oven/microwave and the sink/dishwasher. He got all the cabinets in by party time, but no counter tops or sink. It looked presentable enough for the party with the time crunch we had.

He got a lot of fun gifts - including a Tonka dump truck. He also got stuff from Cars and Curious George.

It took him a while to figure out how to blow out candles. I had to blow on the side of his face to get him to blow out the candle. He just sat there and stared at them for a little while.

As I was going through the camera to find pictures to post, here's what I found. . .

Apparently Allen was just as excited about the dump truck as Ethan was.

And there were about half a dozen more of Allen poses. I guess that's what happens when no one is paying attention to Michael and Allen.

Bed Head

2010-03-12T16:12:00.000-08:00

I went to bed with wet hair cause I was too tired to blow dry it. And when I woke up, I had a bump in my hair that was sticking up about 2-3 inches from the top of my head. I think it's the best "bed head" I've ever had. And no matter what I tried (besides taking another shower), I can't get it to lay flat.

So obviously I didn't leave the house today. Michael hasn't even seen it cause he left for work before I got up (I normally try to get up with him in the mornings, but Emeree didn't sleep well last night, so I was up every couple hours).

Even though I had bad bed head, I don't think it will ever come close to my sis-in-law Kari's bed head. She has the best bed head ever. Every time they spend the night here or we are at their house, she wakes up with crazy hair. But she evidently has better luck taming it the next day than I do.

Last Week's Fun

2010-03-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

Last week, I brought out the play-doh . . . Ethan was very, very serious with it. But it kept him entertained for over an hour while he was figuring out all the tool things.

This one made "sprinkles." It was tricky for Ethan to work on his own, but he still tries. It chops it all up and pushes it out in little star shapes.

I bought this bebe pod when Ethan was a baby and he did the same thing at first . . . leaned to one side. And they both drool/spit up a lot while in it so I have to keep a blanket under the chair so it doesn't soak the carpet. It's rated for 3 months and up, but neither of them seemed ready to sit straight up that early. I think she's used to the angle of the carseat or bouncer and isn't used to sitting straight up yet.

It also has a tray attachment where they could eat from (I used this as a "high chair" in the beginning with Ethan) and it has a toy that snaps in. Ethan loves to spin it while Emeree is looking surprised the whole time he does it.

Bummer

2010-02-26T14:45:00.001-08:00

So Emeree tricked me with sleeping through the night last weekend. The last few nights, she's been waking up to feed every 2 hours on the dot! How does she know it's exactly 2 hours each time? So I'm very, very tired. On a good note, she's going longer between feedings during the day time. But I think I would give that up for less middle of the night feedings.

Also, bummer cause I missed her rolling over. I had her on tummy time yesterday morning, and then Ethan decided to hit me (he's in a "let's hit mommy" phase). So he went in time out - but I have to sit in front of him or he just gets up. When his 1 minute of time out was done, we came back to the living room and Emeree had rolled over onto her back. I missed it! :( The up side is that she rolled over about a month ago and I saw that, but I think it was on accident and she hadn't done if for a few weeks. So I missed it cause I was sitting in time out with Ethan - bummer.

A double milestone weekend

2010-02-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

Emeree and I both hit a milestone this weekend . . . Emeree slept through the night for the first time! Of course I didn't sleep good cause I was used to waking up to feed her and had to check on her to make sure she was okay since she hadn't woken up to eat.

And then . . . I hit my pre-pregnancy weight. So I've lost all the weight I gained from being pregnant with Emeree! Yeah me. So I rewarded myself with a trip to the gym this morning. :)

New Siding and Dirt Soup

2010-02-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

The weather was nice today, so Michael was putting up new siding on the house. You can see the old stuff is an ugly brown stain (and with black trim). Not sure who chose those colors or why, but they're hideous - plus they used vertical siding, so that made the color seem worse.

Here's Michael and my Dad cutting a board to go up.
We are going to paint it a charcoal gray and then add white trim on the corners and around the windows. And I'm going to paint the garage door and the front door white as well.

While Dad and Michael worked on some siding, the kids played on the rock pile in the front. One of the rocks had a puddle in it, so they were making dirt soup. Ethan had a stick and was the stirer. Eventually, they put in enough dirt and sand that they soaked up all the water.

When it was time to come in and clean off, Dad decided to use the broom and sweep off Ethan before bringing him in. So Ethan decided to sweep off Grandpa too.
I didn't do much of anything but hold the baby and take pictures - man am I tired from all that work!

Headband fun

2010-02-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

I was trying to take a picture of these toddler girl hair clips I made, and Ethan wouldn't leave them alone - then he ran off with the headband and ... decided he wanted to wear it. Boys just don't know how to wear headbands. He looks like those people in old movies who have a tooth ache.

Short hair!!

2010-02-09T13:49:00.001-08:00

I was tired of the long hair and realized I was putting it in a ponytail everyday and just fixing it for church, so that meant it was time to chop it off.

Kari's mom cut it for me, and I love it. I haven't had a chance to style it my way yet since I just got home from having it cut. So tomorrow will be fun to get a chance to fix it. I haven't had it chopped since I was pregnant with Ethan, so I've had long hair for about 2 years.

Emeree's Baby Blessing

2010-02-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

Emeree had her baby blessing yesterday. Michael gave a beautiful blessing - and he didn't drop her on the way up there. He stepped on a nail the day before and was having a hard time walking. So I was worried about him being able to carry her up there okay. But despite his pain, he was a wonderful dad and gave a wonderful blessing. I'm so glad that he's mine for all eternity!

Thank you to our family members who came to our ward for the blessing - I appreciate the support and love you all!

Here's Emeree in her dress. She kept turning her head back and forth and the bow on her headband kept shifting to the center. I kept turning it back to the side, but didn't notice that in time for the picture. And of course she spit up all over it all day! My wonderful husband and Emeree!

Our little family of 4. Tomorrow my hair is getting chopped off, so I guess it was good to get a picture of it long - it's past my elbows and I'm tired of it being so long. Ethan is making a weird smile - and Emeree is grumpy. But it's our wonderful family.

**Men don't know how to hold a baby in a long dress so that it looks good in a picture - it's all bundled up and her collar is flipped up too. Oh well - she looks beautiful regardless. :)

How is that comfortable?

2010-02-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

Ethan was taking forever to fall asleep at nap today. He kept talking to himself or kicking the wall - that lasted for about an hour and a half. But he never cried or whined to get out, so I let him play quietly. Then, I noticed I hadn't heard anything from him for a while, so I snuck back there to peek in. He is sound asleep, but he has his legs through the bars and floating off the mattress and his blanket is arched over his head. How is that even comfortable? His legs are hoovering. Oh well. He's still sound asleep at this moment. I wonder if his legs will be all tingly numb when he wakes up . . .

Cute and Silly

2010-01-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

Emeree wasn't in a picture taking mood, but I think the pouty face is adorable. She's wearing her Valentine's Day sweater that my mom got her. And then, we have Mr. Silly. He's wearing Michael's white bow tie and a plastic fireman hat.

Becky gave us 2 of these hats and he kept whining until I would wear the 2nd one. It doesn't fit my head, so I have to walk around carefully with it. He found the bow tie and keeps trying to put it on himself. ***Please ignore the mess behind him - that's one of our box/pile of stuff walls while we are fixing up the rooms and find places to unpack everything. That's what I get when I ask Michael to take a picture - I would have moved Ethan to a prettier background that isn't embarassing. :)

Why you should never look away

2010-01-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

While I was nursing, I gave Ethan a pen and paper to draw with at his highchair. If I give him crayons, he eats them, but he has always been fine with a pen . . . until now. I was sitting right next to him, but focused on feeding the baby. When I turned to look at him, I have now realized that pens are off limits too.

Luckily, he didn't draw on his clothes at all. Just his arms.

Another attack of the post-it flags

2010-01-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

Remember this from August? Well, he found another pack of the post-it flags. With everything in boxes and repairs going on, I'm still not sure how he found these. But he once againg put them all over himself and the floor. It's about 2 weeks later now, and I'm still finding random ones on my socks from walking around.

2 weeks down . . .

2009-12-17T15:38:00.000-08:00

I forgot to rotate this first picture . . . but this was her dress for her first day of church last Sunday. The bldg was freezing, so she was wrapped in a blanket the whole time. So no one really got to see her darling dress. And as you can see, she is quite upset that no one saw it. :) Chubby little cheeks and a cute bow . . . that only lasted about 10 minutes before Ethan ripped it off her head. I guess he doesn't like bows.

Ethan likes to climb up in the bouncer with her to kiss her head - and in this picture, he climbed up and layed next to her to cuddle. He is not a cuddler himself. His first "kiss" that he gave anyone was to Emeree. And he will only really cuddle with me when he's sick. So I secretly enjoy when he's sick because he will cuddle with me.

Santa Photos

2009-12-13T17:38:00.001-08:00

Debbie and I went to the mall yesterday to get a Santa photo. The line was long, but it just seemed like adults and strollers were taking up all the space and we thought we would get through quite fast . . . boy were we wrong. Two and a half hours later, we were finally next in line. And when we pulled Ethan out of the stroller, he had wet his pants really bad! So we had him sit on Debbie's scarf so he didn't soil Santa's suit. Ethan and Emeree did really well waiting in line that long. We just had to take Ethan on a few walks around the food court in the stroller and I had to run out to the car to feed Emeree - but other than feeding and distracting them, they didn't seem to mind being in line that long.

Here's Ethan's picture from last year (2008) when he was 9 months old. He didn't like the experience that much.

*Our scanner is in storage at the moment, so I had to take a picture of the pictures. Here's the photo for this year. Ethan was acting a little scared and nervous. But that made for a cute picture where he is crossing his hands and ankles. Emeree just stared off to the side - oblivious to the fact that Santa was holding her. Her dress was adorable, but she blended in with Santa's suit too well.

Emeree Jane Gerke

2009-12-03T15:32:00.000-08:00

Emeree was born at 12:07am on Dec. 2nd. She decided to come earlier than her scheduled c-section that was supposed to be around noon instead. So she made me go into labor and experience the "joy" of contractions.

Here she is with the hat that Becky knit for her. And it's fun to see her in normal clothes instead of the boring white shirt that the hospital has her in. So we had a photo shoot in cute clothes today.

Becky and Emma came up yesterday to see us in the hospital - it was fun to see her excited and holding her hand.

Ethan liked to pet her face and the hat. He also "honked" her nose, but we didn't catch that in the pictures. He's wearing his "big brother" shirt that I made for him since he's a proud big brother. And we didn't even have to tell him the be gentle with her. On his own he was softly petting her and smiling at her.

Here's our new little family of 4. I'm normally the tannest one in the family, but I look like a pale, white ghost. Ethan looks a lot bigger; he just seems so much older now that we have a newborn too.

Here she was as they were pulling her out. We have a similar picture of Ethan when he was born as well, so it's kinda fun to have these pictures.

Wearing her Christmas hat from the hospital instead of the standard blue and pink hat.

List of Words

2009-11-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

Before I forget or become crazy busy with the baby on the way . . . I thought I would document Ethan's vocabulary so far.

Hi
No or uh-uh
Wow
Dad or Da
Mom
Go - I think he got this from me. When I'm trying to get him to leave a room with me, I say "let's go" and he runs out of the room. But now he says "go!" a lot. Today, he kept telling me to "go!!!" every time I stopped at a red light.
Shhhh - he actually puts his finger to his mouth to shhh us or the dog next door (he shh's the dog on his own, but he doesn't do it at home unless we do it first).
See ya - this one he used to only say when Michael was leaving for work in the mornings (followed by Ethan slamming the door shut on Daddy). Now he says it whenever he leaves the room - just to walk down the hall or going around the corner. He also waves while saying "see ya."
Shoe - he says this when he brings me one of his shoes or my shoes (right now it's my favorite one of his words) He says it about 4-5 times in a row and doesn't move his mouth from the pursed position so he stays frozen and says it several times.
Choo-choo - he says this when he's playing with his trains or if he sees a train on t.v.
Rrraaar - don't know how to spell that, but he growls when he sees a dinosaur or grabs one of his dino toys.
Quack - when he plays with his bath duck that's the temperature gauge thing.
Yeah - this one is rare, but we're trying to get him to say yeah when he wants something. He finally started shaking his head "yes" when I ask him questions like "do you want some milk." He used to always shake his head "no" for everything.
Cheese - he will only say this word if he is standing on the fireplace tiles because we took his picture there once and Michael said "cheese" right before he took the picture. Now Ethan runs to the fireplace, turns around, puts his hands behind his back and says "cheese," and he will keep saying it until I put my hands up like a fake camera and say "click, click" then he runs straight at me for a "hug" - Ethan's version of a hug is just leaning against us - he keeps his arms straight at his side.

Halloween

2009-11-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

For Halloween, Ethan was Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Lorelai was Dorothy, so they were a cousin pair from the movie. My Mom made the costumes for Ethan and both my nieces Emma and Lorelai. I don't think she'll keep that tradition when there are more than 3 grandkids.

Here's Ethan with Michael at our Ward's Trunk-or-Treat party the day before Halloween. Ethan never acted scared at the spooky trunks. But he never smiled either. He just sat in Michael's arms lifeless the whole time. But I guess that's better than fussy the whole time.
Here's Ethan eating his first apple whole. He decided to take a single bite about every 2 inches around the top . . .

I was surprised Ethan kept the hood and hat on the whole time without trying to rip them off, but I think the model train set that was at the activity helped. He kept staring at the trains and saying "choo choo". When we tried the costume on him at home the day before, he hated it and cried the whole time and kept waving his hands around. He mostly hated the fringe around the wrists. But he didn't seem to even notice it at the Halloween Party.

For Halloween, we had a get together at my Grandma's house. Here is Ethan and Lorelai (Scarecrow and Dorothy)

We couldn't get better pictures since Ethan kept trying to run away and wouldn't stay put for a single picture. Below is Charlie (my cousin's son) and Emma (my other niece) as characters from a cartoon called Avatar. I think their character names were Ang and Kitara (I've never seen the show, but that's what I remember them calling eachother all night.)

Nap Time Mischief

2009-10-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

Ethan has been fighting his nap the last couple days, and I heard a strange noise a few minutes ago, so I peeked in his room. This is what I found . . .

He threw his mattress and blankets out of the crib and was stomping on the wood base. His poor penguin was also a casualty.

Now I'm worried he'll figure out that he can bunch the mattress up in the crib and use it as a stool to get out. Maybe there's a way to tie the mattress down to the crib - there are holes in the base board, so that might work if he keeps doing this.

Walking in Daddy's Shoes

2009-10-29T20:01:00.001-07:00

Michael was getting dressed to go to a Priesthood Leadership Meeting tonight, and he sat his shoes on the chair while he put his socks on. Ethan ran up and put the shoes on his hands and then ran down the hall. It was cute, but . . .

then he put them down and put his feet in them. They are heavy, heavy shoes, so Ethan couldn't walk in them, but he looked adorable wearing them.

Pumpkin Carving

2009-10-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

I carved Ethan's pumpkin, and then I handed it to him to try and get pictures . . . he thought he was funny sticking the carving knife in the stem of the pumpkin. Don't worry - these knives are duller than a spoon.

After looking inside the pumpkin, Ethan tried to re-carve the areas I had already carved. It made for cute pictures.

Michael found an idea online that he was eager to try. But I don't think his mom will appreciate it. She bought us a tiny pumpkin for the "baby-to-be" . . . and this is what Michael did to it.

And that wasn't the end. After he drilled the eye holes and cut a frown, it's final resting place was inside the mouth of his giant pumpkin. Sorry Debbie. He's your son, so you're probably not surprised.
Mine was a white pumpkin with the bat. I carved the same face in Ethan's pumpkin as I did last year . . . I think it's cute, and it's fast - since I had to carve 2 pumpkins.

Next year, I may try something different for Ethan's. I found an idea online where someone spraypainted their kid's pumpkin with chalkboard paint so the kid could draw different faces on it and wipe it off and keep going. I think as a 2 year old (almost 3 year old), he may enjoy that.

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

We went to Spooner Farms this year to pick our pumpkins. It was raining all day, but luckily it stopped right when we pulled in the parking lot. So we didn't get rained on. But the ground was super muddy. The car almost got stuck trying to pull in and out of the parking spot, and there was mud everywhere.

Luckily, Becky and her family were just leaving when we were starting, so we switched shoes (she had rain boots on) we don't wear the same size, but it was close enough.

There are so many to choose from . . . which one should I get?
I was off looking for my perfect white pumpkin, and Ethan apparently picked out this pumpkin that looks like a bum - but I suspect that Michael had some influence in that pumpkin choice. But I had already found a good one that I was going to carve for Ethan, so I put the bum back.

Pushing the wheelbarrow

Holding the mini-pumpkin that is for the baby on the way . . .

Early start at gaming

2009-10-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

Last night, Michael was playing XBox online with my brothers, dad, and cousin. He usually starts after Ethan is in bed, but this time they started the game early. Of course, Ethan wanted the headphones. So I grabbed the camera quickly . . .

He's not normally "without shirt" (especially in this chilly weather we've been having), but I was in the middle of putting his pajamas on when he ran for the headphones. And since I'm monstrously pregnant, he can out run me . . . and he knows it too. He runs from me whenever I try to grab something from him that he shouldn't have or when I'm trying to get his jacket on to go out.

Trains, Trains and more Trains

2009-10-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

Ethan loves anything with wheels, but trains are definately his vehicle/toy of choice. We were over at the Gerke's house yesterday and came home with a wooden train set that was Michael's when he was a baby. They look like they are handmade and the person who made them wrote his name and "1978" on the bottom. They have dowels on the ends that connect them together, so Ethan is actually able to connect them on his own.
For some reason, this week he keeps laying on the floor to play with his toys, but he keeps putting his feet under the couch each time. It's a tight fit, so he has to squeeze his little ankles in there, but for some reason, he likes it.

Green Rocker

2009-09-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

We picked up Lorelai from school last week, so she got to play with Ethan for a while. They both kept climbing on this green rocker together - it was so cute!And then Ethan doesn't like it when someone goes in a room and closes the door without him in there too. My mom was in the bathroom and Ethan kept knocking and then when she didn't open the door, he decided to peep under the door to see what was going on.

"My Girls"

2009-09-11T07:42:00.001-07:00

Michael was in the kitchen the other day and I went to give him a hug and he said "how are my girls?" I thought that was cute! I still don't think it's really hit me that due in a couple months. I don't forget I'm pregnant - can't sleep, can't breathe, can't get comfortable . . . the list goes on. But it still doesn't feel real yet. I don't know why. Maybe because Ethan keeps me busy or because I'm scared to have a 2nd baby; who knows.

Anyway, I just thought it was cute that he said "my girls."

Ethan's First Trip to the Zoo

2009-09-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

We went with the Whaley's to the Point Defiance Zoo on Labor Day. This was Ethan's first trip to the zoo. He loved watching the animals. And we took a few rides on the carousel. He's never been on a ride before, but he held on to the pole tightly and didn't try to wiggle off the horse (or the pig on the 2nd ride). Emma and Lorelai rode on it too (same with Michael and Allen) but all the pictures of them turned out blurry.

Next, we went to the kid zone and let them play on the toys and look at the animals there. Ethan loved the goat petting zoo area. He wasn't shy of them at all. He actually laughed every time they poked forward at him. He even pet them.

This was the only picture I let Michael take of me (I love my Veto power over cameras :) so if he does take a pic I don't like of me, I get to delete it). We let Ethan out to plat at the water spout area. He was walking so cautiously since he saw water shooting up from the holes. And then he bent down to look closer. Too bad that spout wasn't working - other wise that would have made a great picture of him soaked.

Emma and Lorelai fed the Budgies a seed stick. They were both really serious the whole time. Emma was holding so still cause she didn't want the budgie to fly away. And Lorelai was a bit nervous about holding the seed stick, so Allen held it for her while she held his wrist - but wouldn't smile for the camera.

This is the way . . .

2009-08-28T14:34:00.000-07:00

. . . we eat a PB&J sandwich. For anything that's not bite-sized, Ethan holds the food in place with both hands while he chews/gums away at it. I think he's afraid of losing a single crumb, so he keeps it all close.

Little Helper

2009-08-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

I had Michael hammer in the wall hooks on the back of a wood board I was taking to someone, and when Ethan saw what Daddy was doing, he instantly ran to his toy bucket and pulled out his hammer. He was trying to hammer with him. Isn't that adorable!

Mt. Rainier '09

2009-08-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

We took our annual Family trip to Mt. Rainier this past weekend. We've gone every year since I was a baby (except when we lived in Nebraska during my high school years). Our group has grown from a family of 6 to a family of 12 (with 2 more on the way). And this year we had some other family members join us . . . Spenser (my cousin), and Zach (my cousin), his wife Alyson, and their son Jacen. So our group picture on the log was a big one this year. We've always sat in age order on the log (but the kids bounce around depending on whose lap their sitting on that year). Mom and Dad aren't usually in the picture, but they joined in this year (I think they were confused on where their place in the age order line went :) . . . click on the picture to see it larger.

We put Ethan in a leash thing so he wouldn't jump off the cliff at the top. It was also helpful since it was the most crowded I've ever seen it there. They waived the park entry fee of $15/vehicle this weekend, so I think that made a lot more people come. So the leash helped me not worry about Ethan darting in between other people and since I'm huge pregnant, I don't move very fast right now.
Once we get to the top of our baby hike (I think it's less than a mile), we always take a group picture on that log too. For some reason, we look like a smaller group bunched up this way instead of spread out in a line on the first log.

And here are the couple/family shots that we do . . .

1. Mom and Dad

2. The Whaley's (Lorelai was cold from the wind and wouldn't look up for their family shot)

3. The Gerke's

4. The Otto's (Alex & Jasmine)

5. The Otto's (Nathan & Kari)

A couple random pics . . .

Ethan loves post-it flags

2009-08-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

I use the post-it flags to mark pages in magazines or books that I want to come back to for scanning or something else. I happened to leave the pack of them on the back of the couch and my little helper found them.

The Tunnel

2009-08-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

My sister passed down some toys that her girls grew out of . . . Ethan loved them instantly. He chases Michael through the tunnel and rides on the green thing a lot.

Boy or Girl???

2009-07-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

So, my finger crossing worked!! We're having a GIRL. Ethan's going to have a little sister. So now all those crafts I've either already made or hoped to make and the boxes of girl clothes I already have (i know, i'm crazy) will get to be used now!! I don't have to settle for making things for other people's girls - I'll have one of my own.

My favorite ultrasound pictures are always of the spine - It's fun to see the spine and all the bones moving when it's being done, but the pics are cool. I didn't get a good body or face shot again. Why do they keep giving me men to do the ultrasounds. Women would know how important those pictures are to a mom. Here's a profile shot of the baby looking to the left.

These 3D or 4D pictures always freak me out. Ethan's looked like Yoda with a moustache. But this little girl doesn't look like Yoda!!

Pillow Fight

2009-07-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

Michael tossed a pillow at Ethan this weekend, and Ethan instantly grabbed the pillow and charged at Michael. It was fun to see Ethan finally do something to pick on his Dad after 16 months of Michael picking on him.

Ethan's style of pillow fighting is more like "smother Dad with the pillow" but it's still adorable!

While we were visiting Michael's parents this weekend, Michael got tricked into doing some yard work - he had to dig holes for 3 trees. While he was working on the hole, Ethan grabbed the shovel and tried to help.

And then we got home - which meant Ethan woke up while trying to get him out of the carseat. I sat him on the floor while I went into the kitchen, and when I came back not even 15 seconds later, he was out cold on the boppy. He never falls asleep anywhere besides his crib or his carseat - no matter how tired he is.

But if we let him keep sleeping, he wouldn't go to bed good at night, so we kept trying to wake him up . . . and this is how he laid for another 5 minutes before we could get him awake enough to move.

So we changed his diaper and he went out again . . .

My sanity

2009-07-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

My sanity is wearing thin this week. Ethan hasn't taken a nap since Sunday. And that's only because he fell asleep on the way home from church and we just transported him from carseat to crib while he was out like a rock.

I know he's tired because he closes his eyes while I sit outside his crib with my hand on his chest or arm, but he cries the second I leave the room - even if he was sound asleep when I crawled out. And I swear I don't make a noise when I leave.

Since I know he's tired, my only guesses are that he thinks he'll miss something if he takes a nap or he is going through an "attachement to mommy" phase and doesn't want me to leave his side.

I desperately need these 2 hours of my day back. That's when I work on craft projects and get my computer time. I still need to finish Lorelai and my Mom's birthday presents, but since he's gone about a week without taking an actual nap without me in the room, I'm not getting them done. Grrrr.

I'm not ready to be done with naps. And he's not even 18 months yet, so I refuse to think that he's done with naps!

July 4th at Ocean Shores

2009-07-10T13:31:00.001-07:00

We spent the 4th of July at Ocean Shores with some family. Since we live in an apartment, Ethan doesn't really get exposed to dirt or even getting dirty. So I didn't know how he would react to the sand. Well, he instantly plopped down with a shovel and bucket and began to dig.
Every few minutes he would get bored with his location and pick up and move. He headed toward the water where my dad and Emma were digging a moat. Ethan sat down in the middle of the moat, where my dad proceeded to cover his feet with sand. He tried brushing it off and then gave up.
I guess it's a boy thing to love getting dirty even when you've never been exposed to it before. Here are a bunch of pictures from the day. **You can click on the pictures to view them larger**

Utah Baby Guide Magazine

2009-07-08T12:35:00.001-07:00

So, I was contacted by an Editor at Utah Baby Guide to do a regular craft column in their free magazine last month!!

It will be centered around crafts for babies, but my pillowcase dress tutorial was the feature that is in the current issue. You can go to www.utahbabyguide.com to download the July issue. My tutorial is on page 35. And they put the picture of Ethan in a dress on the article! Hope he doesn't mind when he's older.

I can't turn around for even a minute

2009-06-28T18:45:00.001-07:00

I went to turn my curling iron on yesterday to do my hair, but I left the bathroom door open while I ran to the other bathroom to grab my brush. I was gone for maybe 30 seconds, and when I came back, this it what my little mischievous son had accomplished...So now, all our toilet paper for that bathroom is rolled into a ball and on the counter. That roll was more than halfway full still. Grrrr. But the look on his face when he was caught was priceless. He was so proud!

My Craft Blog

2009-06-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

I have another blog that I started a few weeks ago to post some of the crafts I do. Today I was featured on Ucreate - a fabulous craft blog! She posted one of the crafts/sewing projects I made and linked to my site. Since this morning, I already have 9 followers and over 150 hits to my site (all people I don't know). I'm hoping to get some loyal followers who will then want to buy things from me when I start a crafting business someday!

My site is Nap Time Crafts

For those who saw Ethan at church yesterday, I made his tie onesie and that will be a post on my craft blog today! But here's a picture of the finished product.

Counting

2009-06-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at church, my niece Lorelai (4 years old) was counting the page numbers on the hynm book and checking with Becky to see if she was saying the number right. I was half listening when she got to . . .

twenty eight

twenty nine

thirty zero

thirty one

Thirty Zero? Once I thought about it, that makes sense. You say "thirty" before each number like 31, 32, 33, etc. so why not "thirty zero?" It was adorable.

This reminded me of the time a couple months ago I was at Wal-Mart with Becky and Lorelai and they were picking out toothpaste for Lorelai. Becky was reading off the flavors so Lorelai could pick which one she wanted. When Becky got to the flavor "tuity fruity," Lorelai laughed and said, "that one tastes like a toot?" It was hilarious. Sometimes kid's logic makes more sense.

Random topics

2009-06-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Sunday was Emma's 9th birthday, so we all went over to their house for a fire pit dinner. It was fun roasting hot dogs over the fire, and then we had s'mores (but with reeses peanut butter cups instead of a hershey's bar). I actually liked the PB better than the old fashioned way.

Michael was shucking his corn on the cob to get it ready to go in the fire pit to cook, and I thought it would make a cute picture to have Ethan try to take a bite out of it. . . most people know Michael won't share food or drink out of a cup that someone else drank out of (unless it was me :) ), so when Ethan licked the corn, Michael was grossed out. I'm proud of him for just wiping it off and cooking it anyway. But it make a cute picture!

I also found a tutorial online of how to turn a plain t-shirt into a ruffled half-shirt jacket thing. It took me FOREVER to figure it all out and get it sewn up, but here's a picture of the finished project - I made it for Emma for her birthday. I also made her a couple headbands out of ribbon that turned out dang cute! It's hard to see what it looks like since it's black, but here's the link to the tutorial that has a good picture.

Also, since Ethan has moved to a big boy, front-facing carseat, his infant one is just in his closet now. The other day, he was playing in his room but it was really quiet, so I tip-toed in there to see what he was doing . . .

. . . he loves that carseat, and I think he misses it. When I found him, he was just sitting in it like normal, but he now poses for the camera instead of charging me to grab onto it.

13 week ultrasound

2009-06-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

So a guy did my ultrasound this time . . . didn't like him. He went really fast and pushed my stomach really hard. I felt like I had been punched in the gut for 20 minutes straight. And it kept hurting for the rest of the day. I know my stomach isn't as firm as when I was pregnant with Ethan but he was brutal.

But the worst part was that he printed out crappy pictures for us. There were tons he could have done, but he printed out the heart beat (which is wonderful to listen to, but a picture of squiggly lines isn't the same). The other picture was of a couple fingers - but not a single one of the whole baby. Mean guy!! Doesn't he know that the pictures are important to be able to show everyone.

Luckily we had a DVD made of the ultrasound, so Michael spent a while trying to download the sections of it on the computer (it took 3 hours to download a software that would let us do more than just watch it as a movie).

So I don't have any pictures, but here are a couple movie clips of the baby moving.

The baby is doing barrell rolls in this 2nd clip.

It's a ????

2009-05-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

We are pregnant again - and due Dec. 7th (same date as my brother (Alex) and his wife are due as well). I did get an ultrasound picture, but it just looks like a ball since it was from the top down of a view. Ethan's early ultrasound had a tummy view so we could see the shape of the baby. We get another ultrasound next week, so hopefully the pictures of that one will be good ones that we can post on the blog.

My mom is in Mexico on vacation in Cabo - cross your fingers she doesn't come home with swine flu :)

How does he do it?

2009-04-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

Ethan fell asleep in the car today when I was driving home. But what was interesting was that he closed his eyes, and then yawned - which made his pacifier fall out. So with his eyes still closed, he reached down to get the pacifier and he had it about half an inch from his mouth and then he fell asleep and his arm dropped.

How does he fall asleep so fast! And how did he fall asleep while he was in the middle of putting his pacifier back in? Weird baby!

Snowy hike

2009-04-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

While we were in Idaho visiting Nathan and Kari, we went on a hike with the group to Mesa Falls. But since there was a lot of snow and we didn't have the baby backpack to make it easier with Ethan, we only walked a little way (and Kari and I were wearing sandals - we weren't thinking to brightly. So our toes were frozen and hurting most of the time.

Here's one of my favorite pictures that we've ever taken of the 3 of us so far. Ethan tends to stand like a flamingo when he's unsure of the ground he's on. He did this the week before when I tried to put him in my parents grass barefoot. It takes a while before he will put both feet down. But I think it's a cute habit that probably won't last very long.

He looks so big here. He's only 13 months, but since he still has no hair, I think he's still a little baby. But he's walking like crazy now and even stands up by himself in the middle of a room without pulling up on something. He rarely crawls anymore.

This one goes out to my fabulous sis-in-law Kari

2009-03-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

Kari,

I remembered the post you did about not being able to find a modest swimsuit. Well, I found a site called Lime Ricki that has cute and totally modest one piece suits and cute tankinis too! http://www.limericki.com/ and if you want to enter a giveaway contest for a free suit, click on the button link on the right side of my blog that says "30 days." The drawing ends on Tuesday, so hurry!

Here's my favorite one piece!

Here's my favorite tankini

Emma's Concert

2009-03-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

My niece, Emma, had a choir concert last week . . . she's the one in the black, long-sleeved shirt with the camo jumper. I think she was an army ant. The other grades were bees or other kinds of bugs. She had a solo speaking part that she memorized perfectly (that's the 2nd picture).

Birthday Pictures

2009-03-20T17:58:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics from Ethan's birthday party last week! He was okay with the cake in the beginning, but he got mad when frosting got between his fingers.

Happy Birthday!

2009-03-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Today is Ethan's birthday!! My little boy is 1 year old now. This past year went super fast . . . We're having his birthday party tomorrow afternoon, so I'll post pics of the event in the next couple days. Let's hope he goes wild and digs into his cake!!! I'll cross my fingers that we get some good photo ops!

Fridge Helper

2009-03-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

We went grocery shopping yesterday, and I was putting all the refridgerated items away and turned around to grab the next bag to empty out and came to find Ethan taking all the refridgerator bisquits out that I had just put away. He did it really cute the 1st time, but of course we didn't have the camera going, so I put them away again to see if Ethan would repeat the action . . . and he did. He took them all out and then put them all away again. Almost all of them were put in standing position too, so he balanced them pretty good.

Also, I don't think I've posted on it yet, but Ethan started walking about 2 weeks ago. He's pretty stable and will walk about 4-5 feet distance before deciding to sit down again. He got a cold last week and since he's been sick, he hasn't wanted to do any walking . . . or eating for that matter. It's tricky trying to find out what foods he will eat. I think he has a sore throat cause he won't even eat the snack foods that he scarfs down on a normal day. His temp today got back up to 103 degrees again . . .

Little Daredevil

2009-02-17T11:44:00.001-08:00

So I think it's getting time to put the walker away . . .

He likes to climb up on the railing and hold on until Michael comes over and grabs the sides, holding Ethan's hands on there and rushing down the hallway.

A Crush on Flo

2009-02-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

Ethan loves the Progressive commericals with Flo in them. Whenever she's on t.v., he stops whatever he's doing and stares at the t.v. smiling at her. It bothers Michael cause he thinks she's annoying. So I think this would be dubbed as Ethan's first crush. I think she's a little old for him though.

He got fussy today, so I found their website with links to play the commericals. It did the trick instantly.

We'll be on the run now!

2009-02-01T18:41:00.000-08:00

So in Sunday School today, Ethan was playing at the chair from the row in front of us and ripped off the tag. He usually plays with them and tugs at them, but today he just pulled really hard one time and it ripped off. It's one of those plastic-like tags that says "under penalty of law . . ." so I'm afraid that Ethan will soon show up on next Friday's episode of Washington's Most Wanted . . . unless the tag pulling is a federal offense. :) I kept the tag for a momento to scan into my blog . . .

I just keep thinking of the Pee-Wee movie where that guy he meets who had ripped the tag off a mattress had broken out of jail. I don't really get why it's a crime unless you are the consumer. I know it's got the hazard warnings and material descriptions, but it seems silly for that to actually be against the law.

Sad Day

2009-01-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

Alex (my brother) and his wife, Jasmine, are moving to Sacramento. Alex is moving with his job since they shut down the plant up here in Washington. It's only 11 hours away, but now that leaves both Alex and Nathan who will live out of state.

I guess that means me and Becky are the devoted children, and should be rewarded with favoritism from our parents now. :)

I belong . . . to a gym!

2009-01-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

I joined the gym the last week of December with the goal of going every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and so far I'm in my 3rd week and haven't missed yet! Yeah me! I stay for about an hour and a half . . . and it helps that Becky is usually there and my Mom comes on Fridays.

The membership is only $9/month, so I would probably have tried to go 4-5 times a week, but they charge per hour for the kids center where I put Ethan. I was worried about how he would do there since he's never really been away from me, but it's a small gym so I can always see if anyone tries to walk away with him. But Ethan seems to love it in there. He's always excited to see me when I come to get him, so I know he misses me :), but I'm glad he has fun in there. I've peeked in on him each day about half way through the time and he's either playing contently in the corner or crawling after a little girl and following her.

Last week when I went to pick up Ethan, he was chewing on a plastic hamburger patty - it was kinda cute looking, but Lorelai came over and took it out of his mouth and said "No, baby Ethan, that's a choking hazard." It's funny to hear big, adult sentences come out of a 4 year old.

I do the treadmill and a bunch of the weights. I feel like a wuss when it comes to the arm machines, but I can do a lot of weight on the leg ones. I've found that there aren't a lot of machines for the abs and that's what I want to focus on the most and get rid of this pregnancy belly that is still hanging on.

The machine that I hate is the one where you sit and try to pull down with your arms and up with your legs to work on the abs. I seriously can't make it even move. But I watch this 60 year-old lady do it with no problems . . . so what's wrong with me. I'll blame it on the baby belly - I still don't really have any feeling left on the skin around my belly button, so I'll just tell myself that my muscles are numb and don't know to work yet. One day maybe my stomach will be a flat as the lady in the picture (only if that day is in the past).

Look what I made!!

2008-12-30T19:23:00.000-08:00

So I love the magazine Family Fun . . . it has tons of craft ideas to do with kids. But I also find some that I like doing. I made these reindeer cookies for Christmas Eve - we always go to my Grandma's house with the rest of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids, so I thought this would be a fun dessert there.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T16:30:00.001-08:00

Here are a few Chritmas pictures - Ethan wasn't too into opening his presents :( We got a couple pictures of him grabbing the first piece to rip off then he would crawl away.

Ethan would rather eat the ribbon . . .

His first present turned into breakfast . . .

Climbing on top of his box.

We bought Ethan a Tonka truck that he can ride like this when he's older, but for now, the seat flips up and he can push it in front of him as he walks. Right now he pushes it farther than needed and then does a frankenstien walk to catch up - hopefully soon he learns to bend his knees when walking.

My lime green super hero mom .. .

Me and Becky bought our husbands the same sweater for Christmas and then my parents gave them and Alex all hiking pants (I think Nathan got some too, but he is in Idaho, so I don't have a picture of him with them on) cause they all wear jeans when hiking and that's not hiking protocol, so they all have 'Kuhle' pants that zip off at the knee.

Snow Day!

2008-12-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing the past few days here and since the roads weren't that great, Michael stayed home from work a couple days. Once there was a good deal of snow built up, we drove over to my parent's house to make a snowman and let Ethan play in the snow for his first time.

We had him bundled up pretty good; he looked like a puffy marshmallow. He wasn't really fond of me trying to make a snow angel with his arms and legs . . .

He beat his mini snowman to death . . .

And then we put him down for a nap in the house with Grandpa and made our own snowman . . . it was quite ugly. My ball picked up tons of leaves - someone should tell the landscaping guys to rake the leaves before it snows or you get ugly snowmen!

Cutting down the Christmas Tree

2008-12-18T17:21:00.001-08:00

**NOTE - you can click on the pictures in the blog to see them larger if they're too small to really view on your screen**

We went to cut down our tree with Alex and Jasmine (it was fun with a group, plus we needed Alex's truck to get the tree home. Our car has the antenna on the top of the car above the rear window, so we found out the hard way last year and had to lay down the seats and shove the tree through the trunk . . . luckily I was still pregnant then, so we didn't have to worry about what to do with the baby car seat and the tree at the same time.)

I wore Ethan in the infant carrier and a lady told me that he was just about as big as me. I like the thought that someone thinks I'm the same size as my 20 pound son, but sadly it's not true. Trying to explain to Jasmine what a Charlie Brown Christmas tree was, and listening to her and Alex try to pick out a tree was funny. Alex said it had to be at least as tall as her, but she kept picking out ones that were about 3 feet high. It was funny watching Alex carry it out since he could hold it over his head and walk. We went for about an 8 footer which was harder to carry (not that I would know cause I carried the baby and didn't have to touch the wet and dirty tree.)

Ethan is still sorta grumpy that we have a tree in our living room - it takes away some of his play area, but he still won't really go near it. He keeps pulling out my tree skirt, so I've resigned to the fact that it won't stay pretty and only fix it every couple days or when someone comes over. We rushed to get the tree up and decorated Sunday before Church because Rick and Debbie (my in-laws) were supposed to come over for dinner, but then cancelled on us - so I rushed for nothing but on the up side, I had a really clean apartment. But since we did it so fast, Ethan was mad the rest of the day. I laid on the ground and from his angle of the floor, it really is quite daunting since it's up to the ceiling and has prickly pine needles on it.

Santa Clause came to town!

2008-12-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

We had our Christmas party at churh this morning. Ethan didn't really know what to think of Santa. He was kinda grumpy to begin with and then seemed mad that we sat him in the lap of some white bearded stranger. We took the pictures quick before he belted out a scream.

Then we added him in the picture with Emma and Lorelai (his cousins). Lorelai isn't too fond of Santa either . . . she never really has liked him.

Now, if I could have everyone's attention - take a look at Ethan's cute sweater. It is my favorite piece of clothing I have for him and this will be the only month he can wear it, so he may just end up wearing it several days in a row so that more people can enjoy it. I bought it when I was still pregnant with him last Christmas at Old Navy and I just had to buy it cause they never have the same thing there the next year/season.

Dorodango

2008-11-13T15:37:00.000-08:00

We were watching MythBusters last night and they were trying to see if you could polish animal poo (gross, I know) without adding wax or polish stuff. So they had a guest come on who makes Dorodango - a shiny, Japanese dirt ball. Just adding water to make it muddy, they squeeze it to a ball and after a long, long amount of time, the water is all squeezed and evaporated or something and you have a shiny dirt ball. Michael really wants to try this, so we are going to steal some dirt from my parents back yard tonight when we go over for dinner (since we live in an apartment, we don't have dirt).

But until we succeed and get pictures of it, here is the link to go to and see what I'm talking about. http://www.dorodango.com/

1st Tooth

2008-11-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

Ethan's first tooth didn't seem to bother him as it was surfacing. But he now has a 2nd tooth coming in next to the 1st one, and this tooth is making him cranky. He is calm if I'm holding him while I'm standing. But if I sit down or put him down to do something, more than half the time he screams at me.

He's lucky he's so cute and smiles all the time or he would be making me cranky. I don't have anyone to hold me 24/7 when I'm grumpy . . . life's not fair.

Double the Trick-or-Treat!

2008-11-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

My mom made a lion costume for my niece Emma for her first Halloween and then Lorelai used it next, so it's getting passed down to each of her grandchildren. But we had a church "trunk-or-treat" on the 30th; since most of that party would be indoors, I decided to have a different costume for Ethan at the church party and use the lion costume on Halloween.

So for the church party, he was Charlie Brown. I figured I would embrace the fact that my child has pretty much no hair. There is some of it there, but it's bright blonde right now, so you can't see it. It was so hard to find a yellow shirt for him to use, so I ended up cutting the bottom off one of his 0-3 month size yellow onesies and hemmed it and then sewed on the black zig-zag stripe. I didn't want to buy such a small amount of black fabric, so since I'm so short, I cut off a few inches from one of my black pajama pants (and there are still several inches to spare).

All of the pictures I could find of Charlie Brown had him wearing brown shoes with the black shorts -- which sooooo doesn't match -- but we did it anyway. I used my black eyeliner to draw the swirl on top of his head.

For Halloween, we went to my Grandma's house as we've done for as long as I can remember (except when we were old enough to trick-or-treat on our own and wanted to hit a ton more houses (plus we lived in Nebraska then :) so that would have been quite the drive to Grandma's. Michael carried Ethan around to the houses with the other kids. I didn't want to carry him up there cause I knew people would say "I know who this candy is really for" and I didn't want to feel embarrassed. But Michael doesn't embarrass easily, so he didn't mind.

Ethan was quite the trick-or-treater. He never cried and stayed alert and was interested in everything around him the whole time. But it was another story once we were done and got him in his car seat. It was past his bedtime and he let us know it!

Tagged by Jen

2008-11-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

So Jen tagged me to answer this questionnaire-thingy . . .

8 favorite TV shows:
1. 90210 (the new one - and don't make fun of me . . . i know it's a teenager show, but i like it)
2. Chuck
3. America's Next Top Model
4. Amazing Race
5. So You Think You Can Dance
6. Desperate Housewives (just started watching this one - i'm on season 3 from the library)
7. Survivor
8. CSI (all 3, but mostly the original series)

8 things I did yesterday:
1. finished preparing the craft supplies for Super Saturday for the class i was teaching
2. took my son trick-or-treating
3. RAN ERRANDS (this one was big cause Michael's motorcycle is in the shop, so he's been using my car for 2 weeks, and I've been stranded at home and couldn't do any of my errands . . . so i made him skip work to let me use the car - he's his own boss, so no worries)
4. took Ethan to visit my mother-in-law at her work so she could see his costume
5. fixed my hair (more than just the quick straightening)
6. wore something other than sweats or jeans and a sweatshirt
7. got to leave the house
8. didn't clean

8 things i look forward to:
1. buying a house
2. having a yard
3. buying a house
4. having a yard
5. having another baby . . . don't know when, but i liked being pregnant - a baby is fun too :)
6. staying perpetually 22 years old for a few more years, then moving it to 24 for a while
7. getting skinny again
8. fitting into my skinny clothes from before i got pregnant

8 favorite restaurants:
1. Desert Fire
2. Fat Burger
3. Subway
4. Chili's
5. the mongolion grill by my Grandma's house
6. New York Burrito
7. The pizza place i went to yesterday with my hubby
8. Red Robin

8 people i tag:
1. Kari
2. Tami
3. Minnette
4. Alex
5. Jasmine
6. Nathan (probably won't happen cause he hasn't updated his blog since about June . . . )
7. You :)
8. Them :)