Is A Nice Day Out, Mom!

Ethan got swim goggles in his Easter basket from GiGi. 

Ethan is obsessed with his muscles, especially since he has bigger muscles than a spider! (That was the only way Jared could convince him not to be scared of them.)

A semi-normal Easter photo

So the above pictures have nothing to do with what I'm posting about, but I figured a post without pictures would be boring! 

We have had some incredibly nice weather here lately and we have really been enjoying it. I have tried to get Ethan outside as much as I can. We have tried to go to a different park every day or go on a long walk. And no fail, every morning, Ethan wakes up and says "Is a nice day out, Mom."  I love it!

It's weather like this that really makes me forget about everything I have to do here at the house, which can be good and bad. I normally have a routine that I like to get done every day but the last few weeks, I have been a little less than motivated. So the other night when a glass 9x13 pan EXPLODED all over our house, I figured that was a sign I needed to start cleaning again. 

It took about 3 hours to clean up all the glass from the kitchen and the living room, but when I was done the kitchen was sparkling! And it even gave me a little more motivation the rest of the week! I guess sometimes I just need a little kick in the pants!

Photo Booth

So Ethan is only 2 but sometimes I think he is really a 4-year old in a smaller body. Like when he climbs onto the computer chair, wiggles the computer mouse around and his favorite "Letter Factory" movie comes on, to which he says, "Mom- I start". Or when he picks up my phone and begins taking pictures of the grocery store floor. Or when flips open his toy cell phone, says "He-yo" and paces through the house. Or when he recites his favorite books/songs all over the house from memory. (Right now it's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" and "This Old Man".) So today when he begged me to take pictures on Photo Booth by once again climbing onto the computer and opening the program, I couldn't resist. The following photos are what we ended up with!

SNOW!!

We finally got some snow a few days ago! And to celebrate, Ethan shoveled our driveway with his new snow shovel. See how happy he is!

He watched Jared closely to see how he shoveled the snow across the driveway to the grass and then how he threw the snow off the shovel. This is his greatest attempt to be like dad!

A Trip to Nashville

The end of October we went to Nashville to visit our family. My in-laws are there while my father-in-law serves as the mission president. They also brought their five youngest kids with them. (We sure have been missing our babysitters since they have been gone.) It was such a beautiful place to visit. The fall season is quickly becoming my favorite and I know it definitely would be if I lived there! We were there for a little over a week and did so many fun things. We took an evening trip to the park, went to the Opryland Hotel and walked around! It was such an amazing place! We had the opportunity to meet Elder Hymas, a general authority who came to stay overnight for a meeting. We also were able to attend parts of a Zone Leader conference for all the Zone Leaders in the Tennessee Nashville mission. I'm not sure how often they have them, but my mother-in-law serves them breakfast and lunch every time they have one, so I was able to help her a little while we were there. It was quite a bit of work. I'm not sure how she does it as often as she does. She's wonderful! 

Ethan really liked the horses with guitars so we had to get a picture.

Opryland Hotel fountain

 We walked around a lake that is really close to their house. There were several walking trails and we spent a couple of hours just walking around and enjoying the beautiful weather. It was in the high 60's most of the time we were there! We weren't very excited when we came back to cold weather and snow!

Ethan loved being outside

Family Picture-can you see the gorgeous colors on the trees?

 We were in Nashville for Halloween and went to a ward trunk-or-treat on Friday night. Thanks to the wonderfulness that is Pinterest, I made E's costume with lots of help from my sweet mom! He was Russell from the Disney movie "Up". (I tried to get J to dress up but couldn't make that happen.) I think it turned out really darling and it was even cuter that he let me put it all on and wore it both nights. I wish you could see the back! We turned a purse into a little backpack and even added straps for a blanket roll. He was pretty excited after he saw other kids dressed up too! While we were trunk-or-treating, one of the counselors in the Mission Presidency dressed up as Mi Mow as E would say (Mickey Mouse) and he was in heaven. He just wanted to stand by him all night.

E as Russell

 Ethan is so much fun to be around. He has such a cute, sweet, funny personality that I can't help but just stop and watch him. He takes a little while to warm up to people but as soon as he's comfortable, you will know it because he just starts acting like his funny self. He doesn't really like his picture taken, he just wants to see them so you have to catch him quick to get any shot at all! I will soon have another post about this fun little boy because he turns 2 in less than a week!

We hope everyone had a great Halloween and is enjoying this beautiful Fall season!

A Year and A Half (Plus 2 Months)

This post is long overdue but as I was looking through my posts, this one was saved as a draft. I loved the pictures and knew that I wanted to post them. I can't believe our little baby is now almost 2! At least once a day, I stop in amazement at how big he's gotten and how smart he is. He loves to learn new things and always wants to help me do whatever I am doing at the moment. He never sits still! He loves reading books and is really trying hard to talk. He knows a couple letters ("o" and "i" or "i-dot" as Jared taught him!) and will point them out any time he sees them. 

Today, I was mixing something in my Bosch and he was standing on his chair next to the counter. He kept touching the dial and making it mix faster and then would make the mixing noise. I would turn to him and tell him to leave the dial on the "2" so it wouldn't mix too fast. After about the 50th time of telling him to not touch the machine, I could feel myself getting a little impatient. I kept hearing him make noises and I turned to tell him to stop touching it. There he was looking at me with wide eyes, pointing to an "o". "O", he said. My frustration melted away as I saw his face and proud he looked at me that he had seen the "o". We talked for a minute and he pointed to all the other "o's" on the machine. (P.S. I love to see him move his chair over from the table and put it right next to me when I am cooking. He picks it up, says "ugh" a few times as he stumbles over to the counter. He pushes the buttons or picks something up and pretends to pour it into the bowl. He loves to be so involved and be at the same level to help me.)

It's moments like these and the many others I have on a daily basis that make me feel so blessed to be a mom! I can always count on Ethan to brighten my spirits if I'm feeling down or to make me laugh if I haven't laughed for a while. He has such a sweet spirit and as much as I try to "parent" him and teach him things that are important for him to know, he teaches me so much more. 

"For the natural man is an enemy to God...unless he...becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

-Mosiah 3:19

Can You Say "Cheese"?

Ethan has started giving us a very animated, squinty smile when we take his pictures. He loves to say "cheese" and as you can see from the pictures below, we just can't get enough.

He is also quite a fan of hats and sunglasses. The other night we were out doing a little shopping at the mall and he loved trying on these hats and "foldable" sunglasses at American Eagle. He is beginning to look (and act!) so grown up. I can't believe how fast time goes!

March's Top Ten

As I was checking a few blogs the other night, I noticed that I hadn't posted the whole month of March. We have done quite a bit this month so I decided to post the top 10 happenings. 

1.FAMILY: March means Spring Break!! So my family travelled out to Utah/Idaho for a little vacation. My sister also flew out from California with her little girl, Lily. It was great to see them and we had such a good time. I love having family visit and now that we have a house to actually have room for people to stay-it was so wonderful! 

Lily turned 1 a few days before they came so we threw her a little birthday party complete with yummy cupcakes and a few presents. She was pretty worn out from our activities so she didn't eat much-just poked at the cupcake a little. Isn't she darling? She was so sweet while she was here-trying to give hugs to Ethan and play with him. Although, he didn't warm up to her hugs until they were leaving!

I posted this pic in family because I sure love this little guy! He is so happy most of the time and is so fun to play with. We took this picture right after his first haircut. Now I know you are saying, "First haircut? He doesn't even have any hair!" Well, as he's gotten older, he's grown  a nice curly patch on the back of his head. Along with that came a rattail and it was hideous-so it needed to be cut off! Now he looks so handsome! (Don't mind my cheesy face.)

2. CREPES & CARAMEL SYRUP: Some of you may know that I L.O.V.E to cook! I am always looking for new recipes to try or different ways to switch up old ones! I have made crepes several times before but was never really in love with the recipe I had. And then I found this one on Our Best Bites! It's so easy and yummy, I made it three times in March. And along with that I found this caramel syrup recipe. Even though I was pretty much eating dessert for breakfast, it was delicious! And on another note, this sauce is incredible on vanilla ice cream!

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

3. STRAWBERRIES: Strawberries have been on sale here in Idaho so I stocked up! And because we love them makes that even better! Ethan has a new found love for strawberries, whether eaten whole or cut up. I love his "pucker" face in this picture! I think I love strawberries so much because they remind me of summer and I'm SOOO ready for summer!

4. CARNITAS: Just the mention of carnitas now and I get hungry! These were A.MAZ.ING! I love some me good mexican food and this recipe lives up to "good mexican food"-maybe even "great mexican food". The meat slowly cooks in a mixture of orange and lime juice and some yummy mexican spices and then is finished off with a quick fry in some olive oil to make it crispy and seal in the incredible flavor. The first time I made this I served this on tortillas with traditional toppings and they were so good. It made a ton, but don't worry, I didn't let it go to waste.  For the next week, I finished it off several different ways and it was excellent every way I tried it! Now you should try it too!

Photo Credit

5. SILHOUETTE SD: This is my new crafty best friend!! This machine can do so much and I have done some very fun projects with this. In March, I used this machine to cut out the invitations for my brother- & sister-in-law's  wedding, which is this coming weekend! We are very excited for Steven & Rachel. I have several more projects in mind to use this machine for and I may even post some of them on here.

6. PIONEER WOMAN SALSA: I don't like chunky salsa and so when I found this recipe I knew I wanted to try it. This salsa has become my new favorite! I don't think that I will ever buy salsa again! It has a little bit of spice to it and all the flavors blend perfectly. It does make a lot but it kept well in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Photo Credit

7. MENU PLANNING: I don't have a picture for this one but this one thing has helped tremendously. I have always hated the stress of 5pm and the question of "What am I going to make for dinner?" Since February, I have tried to plan a menu each week and it has saved me the stress of rushing to make dinner, has allowed me to make healthier meals, and has saved us money on our grocery bill. I'm hooked!!

 8. SUNSHINE: We have started to get a little bit of sunshine here and it makes me ready for some warmer weather. Living in Idaho you never know what you are going to get, even in the summertime but one can only hope right?!?!

9. SURVIVOR: There is not much to say about this one but I have always enjoyed watching this show.

10. HOLIDAYS: When I was growing up, my mom always did something fun for us for even the smallest holidays.Now that I have a family of my own, I am excited to follow my mom and celebrate holidays-even the little ones!

The Many Faces of.....

We are enjoying Ethan more and more every day. He has such a fun personality and makes some of the funniest faces. There are many nights we just sit on the couch and watch him try to figure things out or just watch him play around. He is amazingly entertaining! 

Modeling his sunglasses

On President's Day, Jared didn't have to work so we took a trip to Idaho Falls. At the mall, Ethan had a blast "driving" the coin-operated cars! Here is his "cheese" face!

Angie dressed Ethan up one evening. He loved it!

Ethan, the climber!

We found the cutest kid chairs at Big Lots!! Perfect size for him!

Our little Toad! This was part of his cousin's Halloween costume. 

Getting ready for a card game! :)

Enjoy!

I chose the title of this post for 2 reasons. The first being the fact that I am actually posting some pictures for those who read this to enjoy. The 2nd is more of a reminder to me to enjoy my life and to "live in the moment." I hope I'm not the only one who often gets consumed in my to-do list and forgets the importance of enjoying the time I have right now with my family.  

With that said, on to the pictures!

At the beginning of December, Ethan burned his hand on the oven. This is his battle wound!

This is Ethan showing his "cast". We had to keep it wrapped up like that for over a month (Of course we changed it every day!) Luckily Jared has had extensive training in wound care!!  :)

My two handsome boys at our Christmas photo shoot.

Ethan making a typical funny face. This happens to be when I am asking him where his eyes are. Notice the slight squint!  ha ha

Us on Christmas morning at my parent's house.

Our handsome vampire! Over Christmas break he got his 2 front teeth so now he looks less vampire-ish!

Ethan smiling for the camera. He loved trying on hats at the store and looking in the mirror. We said "Say cheese" and this was his response.