Christmas Break

We had a fabulous Christmas together here in Idaho. We stayed here waiting for the baby to come, but she hasn't come yet. We went to our ward Christmas party where Santa Clause made an appearance. Ethan really likes him, but he won't say Santa, he calls him "ho ho ho."

This is Ethan participating in one of our very exciting Christmas Eve activities... making jingle bells, and then singing along with the song.

Christmas morning was great because Ethan is still too young to wake us up at the crack of dawn. We got up at a leisurely 8:00am (it would have been later, but I got tired of waiting for Ethan to wake up). Ethan loves the horsey that Santa brought for him. He enjoys trying to feed his horse treats. We got a few pretty crazy snow storms over Christmas break and we spent a lot of time out in the snow trying to keep the driveways clear. This is just a really cute picture of Ethan, who is, by the way, shoveling the road. Gotta make it easier on the cars.Today we got snow that was a bit more wet so we were actually able to build a snowman.Steve wanted me to take this picture to show just how much snow he has shoveled over the break.This movie is Ethan sliding down a snow slide we made (before the last storm came through and buried the slide).

Snow

The snow has been coming and staying and then coming some more, and I LOVE IT! I am not the only one in our family who appreciates the change from winters of rain to winters of snow. Ethan loves to play in it, and help Dad shovel it. Instead of calling it snow he calls it snowman. One of the first things he says in the morning is "shovel snowman mama, shovel snowman!" This might have something to do with his obsession with the movie Frosty the Snowman, and the song that goes with it, the "thumpity thumpity thumpity" song. It might also have something to do with the fact that we have hot chocolate when he comes back inside. He also loves snow gear. He likes to wear "glubs" even if we're hanging out inside. He also enjoys putting on my boots, or Steve's boots and stomp around the house.There are just so many reasons to love snow! I think Steve appreciates it too, even though he spends a good deal of time shoveling snow (longer than it would take if he could just do it by himself).

Ethan it's your Birthday, Happy Birthday Ethan!

Ethan turned two on Monday. We started the day off by making his Robot Cake. We baked it, cut it out, added the Twinkies and candy decorations. Ethan loved his Robot Cake, but he did not love that he didn't get to eat it immediately after we made it.

After we made the cake, Steve came home early so we could go and have a fun birthday lunch. We went to the McDonald's and ate nuggets and let Ethan play in the play place. He got stuck the first time through, but after we sent a little boy in to help him he got the hang of it and went through it over and over again. After McDonald's we rented Kung Fu Panda from Red box and got some balloons for Ethan. We went home and watched the movie and then we had dinner and cake and opened presents. This is Ethan blowing out his candles.This is Ethan enjoying his yummy cake and ice cream. He sure did like that robot cake. He also enjoyed opening all of his presents. Toys and clothes galore. Thank you grandmas! All in all I think he had a pretty good birthday. He was definitely hyped up on sugar by the end of the day, so maybe that's a good enough indicator :) It is crazy to think that he is two now. Time sure does fly. I love having Ethan in my life to share my days with. He is so smart and so funny and so particular! He really does crack me up! We love you Ethan!

Home For Thanksgiving

We decided to go home for Thanksgiving. The drive was not bad, Ethan watched movies and sang songs and watched out the windows... pretty much everything but take a nap, even though we left at nap time so that he would. By about 2 hours into it he was done, but somehow we convinced him to go the rest of the way. When we got to my parents house we let him out into the yard to release all the wiggles. We raked up a big pile of leaves for him to play in. Steve got in on the action too.

For Thanksgiving dinner we went over to my uncle Paul's house with a bunch of extended family and friends. The food was wonderful, and so was the company. We spent the day bowling, playing games and gorging ourselves on the 17 pies that my mom made this year. Friday we decided to be brave and do a little shopping, but we waited until the afternoon so we could avoid some of the crazies that come out on Black Friday. Then we went down to Steve's parent's and played games and hung out with relatives and saw the lights on the pond. This picture is Ethan and Grandma playing Mr. Potato Head, but dressing up themselves!Saturday was Thanksgiving dinner number two... how lucky that we got the best meal of the year twice! We did some more game playing and some more bowling and a lot of fun with family. We went to the Ranch to throw rocks in the water and Grandpa took Ethan to check out some tractors.

Yes, that is Steve in the bucket... once again he decided to get in on the fun. And since the pictures don't do it justice, here's a video of the fun.

We spent the day Sunday visiting with family and eating leftovers, then we drove home that night so that Steve could get back to work on Monday. Ethan and I got to work on Monday too and put up all of the Christmas decorations and the tree. I also taught my first piano student and we've been trying to get all of the Christmas shopping out of the way so it is done when baby decides to come early :) Merry Christmas!