The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love this time of year because of all the fun events that allow me to see my friends and family. Unfortunately, all of these fun events, paired with a busy work schedule, have resulted in me getting behind in my blogging. So, I need to do a little bit of catch up before I get anymore behind.

This year we were able to go to Detroit again for Thanksgiving to visit my dad and step mom. We love going out there every year and spending a long weekend with family.

I'm a slacker and didn't get my camera out once, so these are all from Lisa's blog. (Do you have any pictures Joe and Lauren?)

We went bowling one afternoon, and Ethan got a strike! He really liked getting to "carry" the ball and push it down the ramp. At one point he was squatting trying to lift a ball off the ground; it was hilarious.

Before the race:


The three grandkids:

Ethan finally learned to go down stairs. We don't have them here, so he doesn't get much practice. Now he can climb backwards down them, or lay on his stomach and push himself down (much funnier to watch). When we got home he began applying his new skill to things like going from our back patio to the gravel in the yard. There is no drop, but he will turn around and step "down" to the new surface.

Ethan loved walking behind the barstools and pulling them in front of him. He also spent a lot of time putting on tons and tons of beads! Grandma Dianne had a big bag of them and Ethan was in heaven!
While we were there we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law Lauren. She is expecting a baby in February. Lisa came up with the great idea of doing freezer paper stencils, and check out the awesome snacks Dianne provided! Now those are cupcakes!
We spent Saturday afternoon at the Ford Museum. Ethan had a great time and even developed a new style of dance. The video is on Mike's phone, so I don't have it now, but Ethan walked right over to a green screen set up for visitors to dance in MTV music videos and started bouncing in a squat position. I'm not sure how he knew what to do, but that was one entertaining music video (actually, he was too short to show up on camera).
In the Lego area, Ethan go to dress up like a knight, play with big Legos, and play on lots of fun play equipment.
More beads. He put these on by himself!
Killing time at the Detroit airport. Mike found this chair (on wheels) and was pushing Ethan around the baggage claim area. We learned here that Ethan is not afraid of the escalator and will walk right on to it...
Thanks for the great trip Dad and Dianne!

Turkey Trot

Instead of just doing a lot of sitting and eating on Thanksgiving this year (which we definitely did do), we also got up early and ran in the Detroit Turkey Trot. My brother Joe, sister Lisa, and I ran the 10K. My brother-in-law Dan ran the 5K, and my sister-in-law walked the 5K (really impressive since she is 7 months pregnant!).

It was freezing before the race, but once we got started it didn't feel too bad. It was in the low 40s and there was no precipitation, just wind, so it was pretty comparable to Phoenix mornings lately. Over 14,000 people registered for the race, and all of the runners started at the same time, so the beginning was VERY slow! We had computer chips on our shoes so that our time was exactly how long it took for us to get from start to finish, but in the middle we had to stop to walk a few times and zig zag a lot because of the crowd.

Overall, I struggled more than I usually do when I run similar distances on my own, but I think that may be because I was going faster than usual. My goal was to come in under 58 minutes and I came in at 56:59 (as you can see above)!

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, eating really yummy food, watching football, and playing games. We are loving Thanksgiving!

Catching Up

I have been terrible about keeping up on Ethan lately, so here is a little picture recap of what Ethan has been up to. (These are phone pics--I'm not really sure where my real camera is at the moment).

Getting ready for church in an adorable outfit from Aunt Lisa.
Ethan learned to drink from a straw!

Getting adventurous and curious. He gets in cupboards, climbs on his toy buckets to throw books out of his closet, etc.
This is a terrible picture, but Ethan climbed up these steps and started drinking out of the drinking fountain by himself (he had a helper to hold down the button).
Painting with water at the museum is a favorite activity.
He loves to get up on this chair all by himself, sit, and swing his legs.

Ethan's first tie! In the past we have not been able to get the top button fastened on a dress shirt because of Ethan's chubby neck, so this week was the first time Ethan got to wear a tie to church. He is in this bouncy chair so we could see how big he looked in it compared to when he used to sleep in it. It was leaning almost to the ground with all his weight! This was the only time all Sunday that Ethan held still long enough for me to get a clear picture of his big boy outfit. Thanks for the new pants and shoes Nana!
I let Ethan drink out of a cup by himself at breakfast today. He was doing well until he got distracted, missed his mouth, and poured cold water down his chest. It was funny to see him start gasping in reaction to the cold. I took the wet shirt off, and after breakfast he got to play without a shirt for awhile. Ethan loves putting on necklaces lately, so every time he finds a string of beads, he immediately puts them around his neck. Those two stories combined = this lovely outfit.
Today Ethan has been very into sitting on his toys. I found him like this, and then he started sitting on the front of a ball that is about the size of his head--it looked like he was ready to exercise on a "stability ball."
Also, today is my last day babysitting Sam. It made me sad today as I watched Ethan and Sam chase each other in and out of our closet, hiding behind our clothes, and then popping out to make each other laugh. They have so much fun together, and we'll miss getting to play with Sam every day! The worst part is Sam is moving all the way to Illinois, so this really is good bye--we'll miss you!

Why'd you wake me up Mom?

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Ethan 4, Mom 0

When Ethan woke up from his afternoon nap today, he was happily playing in his crib, so I decided to do something I rarely do: I let him play in his crib for awhile while I finished working. When I went in to get him I saw that he had pooped out the back of his diaper, something he very rarely does. Because I had left him in his crib, he had plenty of time to spread the mess all over the crib-point for Ethan. He also chewed the paint off the side of his crib-another point for Ethan. I undressed him in his crib to keep the mess contained, ran to throw away his diaper before taking him to the bathroom, and he peed in his crib-another point for Ethan. Now he is happily playing in the bathtub, one of his favorite things. Ethan 4, Mom 0
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Rye

Please note in these outside pictures how nice and green our grass is! If you've ever lived in the desert you've probably experienced Bermuda grass. It grows in the summer and goes dormant in the "winter." But even when it is green, it is kind of hard and scratchy and grows sideways all along the ground. Here in the desert, if we want grass in the winter, we have to seed it, every. year. We tried last year, and it didn't take. But this year Mike was successful in growing a beautiful, soft, rye grass lawn, and I am SO excited to play on it this winter with this cute little guy!
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Breakfast

We're enjoying breakfast outside in the beautiful, cool weather this morning.
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Born to be Wild

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Laundry Day

Monday is laundry day at our house, and Ethan loves it! He gets to ride in the laundry basket, remove and replace the lint trap, close the machine doors, hold the measuring cups, pour the soap, replace the lids (he can even screw the lids on), and his favorite, push the buttons on the machines. He is such a helper closing open doors and turning lights on and off. What a fun age!


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Picnic

Family picture from the Comtrans picnic. There was a raffle for the employees, but I didn't realize I had a ticket in it, so I missed my prize (we were off riding trains). My mom was nice enough to give me her prize-$20 to the Olive Garden! Wahoo-we get to go out to eat!

Halloween

After the pumpkin patch last week we went to our ward Halloween party. We never took a good picture of Ethan in his costume, but he was a "dare devil." His shirt says, "I do all my own stunts." He's too sweet to be a devil, but he has been a daredevil lately climbing to stand on top of his picnic table, push cart, etc. and getting into "trouble" everywhere we go. This is a costume my mom made for my brother when he was young.
He actually kept the costume on and played in it. It was hilarious watching him toddle around in it! After the ward party we went to our friends', the Palfreeman's, to watch the BYU-TCU game. Ugh, all I need to say is BYU is not ranked after that game.
Skip forward a week--the night before Halloween we went to a really fun Halloween/birthday party at a friend's house. The decorations and food were amazing and the Beatles Rock Band and karaoke were tons of fun! We stayed (and I sung-Mike wouldn't) until about 11:30. I had put Ethan to sleep in Sam's crib across the street before the party, and Becky (Sam's mom) was nice enough to let us pick Ethan up really late! I put Ethan in his crib and he went right back to sleep--it worked out perfectly!

On Halloween I got up at 5am and went to the Mesa temple with our ward Relief Society (always a great way to start the day).

That afternoon we went to the Comtrans company picnic (my mom and I work there). It was at a railroad park, and Nana was nice enough to buy us tickets for all the rides. Ethan really liked the trains!

Trying to get to the carousel.


It was a really fun day! Thanks to everyone at Comtrans for putting on a fun party!
After 5 hours of playing hard Ethan crashed on the way home!
Halloween night we got a pizza, watched Oregon soundly beat USC, and handed out candy! The perfect Halloween!

Fall Fun

The last few weeks have really felt like fall as the temperatures have dropped and we've gotten to take advantage of a few fall activities.

Last Friday we stayed the night at my mom's house (she broke her foot and needed some help). On Saturday morning we got up and went to a pumpkin patch.

Ethan got to feed the goats (which he actually wasn't all that interested in),
see some pumpkins (also not that interested until we showed him he could bang on them),
and play in a corn maze (here Mike is teaching Ethan to go off of the path and into the corn--I think I'm going to be the only rule keeper in the family).


He really like the corn maze and spent a lot of time chewing on an ear of corn Mike husked for him.

We spent a lot of time on the little playground. He like the melon hut and LOVED the slide! We were having too much fun watching him giggle and giggle as we put him down the slide to take pictures.
Baby chickens!

On Wednesday, we went to the Children's museum and played in the hay maze.

And the kitchen of course.