Slow Down Little Man!

Ethan will be 18 months in another week. Where has the time gone? It seems like every time I turn around he's learned something new. Here's a rundown of some of his recent milestones:

Favorite Toys: balls, cars, trucks and tractors. he'll even make appropriate sounds for each vehicle and they are each a little different

Favorite Foods: spaghetti, ribs, yogurt and bell peppers

Favorite games: peek-a-boo and mommy monster

Favorite routine: cuddling with mommy in her bed every morning. I lay next to him and tell him stories. If I don't put my arm over him (which I do on purpose sometimes) he'll grab it and put it over his belly and say "there". If we don't cuddle in the morning he is one cranky kid

Favorite animal: doggies, hands down.

Vocabulary: it's really started to expand recently. "pea" (please) "dan-do"(thank you), "go ou-ide" (go outside), bru-da (brother), "dri" (drink), "a-ma" (amen), car, "drut" (truck), "dac-dor" (tractor) and "wu-wou" (love you) are some of my favorites.

He's learned to fold his arms when we pray. There's is something so adorable about my little man when he folds his arms. Maybe it's because his arms are still so short they hardly even cross. Or the big grin he always gets because he's knows he's doing the right thing. Or maybe it's that moment of reverence coming from a crazy little boy, a little boy that was so recently with our Heavenly Father. In some moments I am absolutely certain he remembers and knows so much more that I could even imagine. On Sunday at church he saw a statue of Jesus and was very interested in it. I told him a few times it was Jesus. He smiled, laughed and said "wu-wou" (love you) speaking directly to the statue.

He loves music and loves to dance to it. Sometimes he'll grab my hand and lead to the piano because he wants me to play. I look for any excuse to spend a few minutes playing and that's a pretty good one!

He loves his siblings. If one of them is crying he'll curl up their lap or as close to it as he can get and cuddle with them until they stop.

He's learned most of his body parts- eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, nose, tongue, hands, head, feet, belly, arms and legs. I think we may start on colors pretty soon.

He can pick Greg's truck out from all the other diesel trucks on our street (and there's a lot). When he hears his truck he runs to the door and fusses until I let him outside to see his daddy.

Some things haven't changed. He still loves to eat everything. We tried gardening with him the other day and it was an epic fail. He ate tons of dirt and I'm pretty sure quite a few seeds. He still hates being left with adults other than family (it's getting better but I'm very concerned about nursery). He still throws his plate of food on the ground when he's done eating. He doesn't like to share and screams when he doesn't get his way. But I love every little thing about him.

Parent/Kid Date Night

We are trying to spend more time one on one with our kids this year so we've implemented a monthly parent/child date night. This month I had Tawny and Greg had Brayden and Ethan. Next month we'll switch. We figured for now Ethan is too young for his own night. We all had so much fun. Tawny and I started our date by going to Teddy' Donuts, her favorite place in the whole world, right behind Disneyland. She, of course, picked a frosted cake donut with sprinkles (her favorite).

After that we came back to the house and painted our toenails and fingernails. I let her pick all the colors. I'm glad I didn't end up with the blue nails! I could tell she had a really great time so I was happy.

Greg and Brayden decided to make dinner together for everyone. They made sloppy Joe's. On top of that they even made me chocolate covered strawberries and blackberries. I wasn't there but it sure looks like Brayden had a good time.

After dinner we made popcorn balls together. What a perfect way to end a great night.

Girls Day

I don't have any pictures, but I couldn't skip this. It was too much fun! Last Friday me and my good friend Erica got to go out of town for a fun day together. Without any kids! Our husbands had joined forces and got us both a spa package at a salon for Christmas. so we made a day of it. We got massages, facials, mani's and pedi's. It was so great to relax and not worry about anything. Afterwards we ate lunch/dinner at Kneaders. Then went shopping for awhile, watched a movie and pigged out on In N Out on the way home. It was great to get away for a day.

Indoor Picnic

We had a little stormy weather for Blythe last week, which is pretty rare for us. The kids loved watching the rain, for the 5 minutes it lasted. There was the most beautiful full rainbow. I tried to get a picture of it, but it doesn't look anything like the real thing. The kids thought it was pretty awesome.

We're redoing our kitchen and were in the process on replacing our counter tops (more on that later) so we had no way to cook or run water in the kitchen. So for FHE that night we decided to have an indoor picnic. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in our fireplace and ate on a blanket on the floor. We all had a lot of fun. Ethan especially loved sharing food with his daddy

Craft Projects

I did quite a few craft projects over the holidays that I think turned out pretty cute. For friends and family this year I made personalized kitchen towels. Most had the family's name and the couples anniversary or kids' names on them. All packaged up they looked like this.

This one was done for Grandma Idris. I used Citrasolv to transfer an image printed on a laser machine onto fabric. It was super easy and they turned out pretty cute.

For other family and friends I did brownies in a jar, which I thought also turned out really cute. And most importantly, super tasty.

I made a few art books for Christmas gifts this year. Brayden got one, as well as a few cousins (Tyler, Auger and Jordan). The applique of the names was a bit challenging for me, but turned out okay.

I also made super cute pettiskirts for the girls (Ackleigh and Jordan). They're pretty easy, but time consuming. But so cute I think they're worth it. The one below is Ackleigh's. I didn't get a picture of Jordan's but she loved it. As soon as she opened it she wore it the rest of Christmas day and quite a few times in the days that followed. I'm so glad she loves it!

Finally a few quick birthday gifts for a friend's daughter that just turned one. A little ruffled skirt that I intentionally made short enough for her to crawl in. My mom said it looks like a miniskirt, but I meant for it to be paired with leggings. It's adorable on her.

An A-line dress. I made it in my head without a pattern so I had to try it on Ethan to make sure the proportions were right. He didn't seem to mind!

Farm Fun

We've spent a lot of time out at my dad's farm this month. Brayden and Tawny got to ride with daddy for a while on a new tractor. Notice Tawny's outfit and matching bear outfit. I told them to go upstairs and put farm play clothes on. Tawny came down in that dress and said ,"I know it's a dress, but farmers don't have to wear dirty icky clothes all the time. I can be a farmer and be cute too. Oh, and Lizzie wanted to come too." Lizzie is her bear. So they went to work in cute farm clothes. She's just so funny.

Lizzie even had a special seat in the tractor

Our two mama cows had babies a few weeks ago and Tawny wanted to pet them. So what did Papa do? He went and caught it of course. He's such an awesome papa and my kids love him so much. I'm so grateful that they live close enough to have a good relationship with him. He's such an influential part of my life and I want my kids to have that same experience.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It captures so much of my dad, especially when you know that context of why he's doing it.

Ethan loved the little cow until the mama cow started mooing. He completely freaked out and wouldn't go back in the corral.

Brayden actually did pet the calf, but was so quick I didn't get a picture of it. I think it's mostly because of his allergies, but he's very wary around animals. I think he just hasn't had enough experience. Hopefully now that he's older and his allergies aren't so bad we can start to work on that.

Another random picture of Ethan. This is his first ice cream sundae complete with sprinkles and whipped cream. I'm pretty sure he was in heaven. He loved every last bit of it.

Soccer

Both Brayden and Tawny are playing soccer this year and having so much fun! They are in separate leagues so their games and practices are all at different times in different places. It's made it pretty interesting to fit it all into our schedule, but we've made it work with the helps of some friends.

Ready for their first game

Brayden is really getting into it this year. It's definitely a lot more physical than last year. Last game he jammed his thumb pretty bad. But is loving it and doing really well.

Tawny is pretty clueless but is so cute to watch. Once she steps on the field she starts smiling and it pretty much never leaves. At least she always kicks the ball the right way. Her main concern before her first game was that she didn't have a green hair thing to match her uniform. Luckily I know my little girl and had made a quick hair bow the night before. So she was super happy.
Ethan's pretty good at the games and he loves to play in the goals afterwards. Such a cutie!