Home improvement.

Thanks my love.

Walking!

Happy Birthday!

Hiking the hills behind our house...

Ethan's adventures...

Ethan's First Birthday

So the park has been reserved and we're getting ready for the party. Start watching for an invite, if you haven't already gotten one.... (or send me an email and I'll make sure to get you one).

Personal swimming pool

Hiking

Crazy about those graham crackers

It's been a while!

Wow... so I always love it when friends & family update their blogs so I can see how they're doing and here I am neglecting my own! Sorry! I can't believe it's been a month....

Well Ethan is 11 months old. I am now planning his 1st birthday party (and it's going to be a big one). I can't wait to send out invitations (I guess I need to make them first). Ethan is doing well... his little tooth now has a friend (2 bottom front teeth!). He's also crawling all over the place- he's got a turbo speed so he can get into the things he's not supposed to that much faster. I think our dog might be starving because we keep putting her food out of Ethan's reach, which is also out of her reach. oops! Ethan is also really good at standing up. He can balance on his own for a few seconds at a time but prefers to hold on to something. And he just loves walking in the grass (again, attached to someone). I could just write on and on and on about how wonderful Ethan is. :) I need to get some pictures up but I don't have my camera close by.

Dave and I are doing well... enjoying the summer. Next week Dave's best friend is getting married so we are preparing for that. It will be a fun day to go celebrate. It makes me think of how Dave and I are getting that much closer to getting sealed. :)

Anyway... I'll try to be better and I'll see about getting some photos up.

High Chair

So Ethan has moved beyond his baby food- he has no interest in anything in a jar. He just wants what mommy & daddy are eating. And he wants to feed himself. It's fun to watch- Ethan really enjoys it. So in the past week we got a high chair so that Ethan could really go to town with his own food (before we had a booster seat so he could sit at the table with us).

It has been fun watching Ethan discover foods- right now he seems to love Strawberries.

We had strawberry crepes for breakfast- Ethan wanted to feed himself.

Ethan is just so pleased.

Loving the High Chair & the crepes

This is my favorite picture. :)

Eating in Action.

I know it's been way too long

Man, it's amazing how quickly time can pass. I have been meaning to update the blog for a while now but time just slips away. I have been really busy with work and with Ethan. And amazingly I haven't been taking that many pictures lately (that will change now that it is summer and Ethan is going to be 1 here in a few months).

So how about some updates? Ethan is crawling... for real crawling, no scooching. It's awesome. :) Sometimes he gets crawling too fast for his little arms to keep up with him and he does a face plant (it makes me laugh). Ethan has a tooth as well! He wa

s pretty fussy one night and the next morning- a tooth! :)

As for me and Dave- we're doing well... more of the same. Dave is doing outdoor soccer on Mondays- it will probably be his last year of outdoor soccer. He also plays indoor soccer on a game by game basis. So he's definitely keeping healthy. I have been working a lot lately- we're getting ready for a new fiscal year so there is a lot of prep to go with that. My mom & dad finally moved to Utah. We are all so excited about that. :) I have so many plans for the fun things we'll be doing this summer and beyond. Now we just need the weather to start agreeing with us... it's still been pretty cold and rainy. Unusual for this time of the year- we had snow (!) last week!

And now we're trying to decide if we want to remodel our kitchen (new cabinets & counter). We'll see.

Anyway- here are some pictures! :)

Look at that beautiful face!

Just try to resist that smile. :)

On the move...

Daddy & Son (One of the Mother's Day Pictures)

What a good looking duo!

Walk in the park

Surfer Boy

Okay so I have been wanting to get some pictures of Ethan in his little board shorts for a while now and I finally did! Dave, Ethan, and I went to the Rec Center on Monday for Family Home Evening... and it was so much fun! :) Ethan just loved having Daddy with him, and like always, loved the lazy river and the fountains. And Mommy had the chance to sit in the Hot Tub & the Steam Room while Daddy & Ethan played.

Ethan was getting a lot more adventurous this time... he kept putting his face in the water. Of course, every time he'd get a mouth full of water. Anyway, I just think that Ethan is the cutest little man in his board shorts (Thanks Heather & Myka!).

That's a smile you just can't resist. It makes me smile just to see this picture.

Swimming

So we (Grandma and myself) took Ethan swimming at the Rec Center (South Davis Rec Center to be exact). One thing I love about Utah is that they do Rec Centers right... I love ours. There's an indoor track, 4 pools, lots of space and equipment, etc. As for the pools- even the pools are awesome! The "Leisure" pool has a lazy river, a slide, and a climbing structure for kids. In the summer there's an outdoor pirate ship for kids to play on. I love it! :)

Anyway... back to the point. We went to the pool on Monday afternoon. It was actually the saving grace of our Monday (we were supposed to have a fun & fancy free day but nothing we tried worked out- until swimming). Ethan loved the water! I thought that we'd spend maybe 15 minutes in the water before we had to leave, but instead after an hour we were leaving only because we needed to get dinner- Ethan would have been fine to hang out a little longer. :) Ethan loved the various fountains and the lazy river. After just a few minutes Ethan was one relaxed baby! :)

We went again this afternoon. Both times I have wanted to take a picture of Ethan in his cute little board shorts (thanks Heather!). He is seriously so cute in his little trunks. But I left my camera in the car and I don't think the other ladies in the locker room would appreciate that. One of these days I'll get some pix of him. But it is so much fun to have one more excuse to go to the Rec Center! :)

Scooching, Teething & Waving...

Well the big action is finally hitting. Ethan has figured out how to get (almost) mobile. He's not crawling yet. But he's right on the verge. I have a feeling that one day, out of the blue, he's going to lean over and just start crawling. The past few days we've been placing objects just out of Ethan's reach (or sometimes what we think should be well out of his reach). And in the past few days Ethan has learned how to get himself to those objects (unfortunately for us, sometimes). It's quite cute. Although Dave might be rethinking his excitement in Ethan learning to crawl. :)

Ethan has also spent the past few days (weeks?) teething. He's not eating and sleeping as well, and this is really taking its toll on me. And on his grandmas as well... Ethan has been pretty grumpy because he is both hungry & tired. That translates to wanting to be held all the time. Yikes. I'm not sure how long it's going to take for those teeth to finally show up, but it can't be too soon.

And the cutest thing... Ethan has started waving. It kind of looks more like a salute, but I love it. If we wave at him he'll hold up his hand to wave back. And if we smile at him from across the room he'll wave at us as well. I love it.

Sorry no pictures this time, but I'll get there.

Family

Okay, so I finally got my camera back from Portland. And my brother is in town. So what does this mean? A whole bunch of pictures of Ethan to make up for lost time. Below you'll see Ethan on his own, with Grandma and Grandpa, and with his Auntie and Uncles.

Uncle Louie and Ethan (tired baby)

Sizing each other up.

Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma

Grandpa

Uncle Doss

Uncle Doss & Auntie McKenzie

Henry

Auntie McKenzie

Auntie McKenzie & Henry

Happy Baby (standing on his own)

Happy Baby, sitting at the big table.

Things I'm supposed to be doing...

It's so funny the way I can be so productive, when I am trying to avoid doing something I really should be doing. Take for example today... I am supposed to be working on my lesson for tomorrow's primary class and, more importantly, I am supposed to be writing my talk for church tomorrow. So far I've got zip on either of those. But man, my house sure is clean. And I love the new paint in the bathroom.

Tomorrow Dave and I are giving a talk on the Plan of Salvation. A nice wide subject. Dave already has his talk prepared and nicely printed out. I made him read it to me in hopes that there was something in there I could steal. :) Dave makes things look easy- like when it's his turn to teach our primary class. The kids actually pay attention and things go great. When it's my turn, it's crickets and/or barely controlled chaos. Same goes for this talk- his was done within 24 hours of getting a phone call about it- and it's really good. I love him, but man, I am a little bit jealous.

Wish us luck!