Oh, by the way...

ETHAN TURNED 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 7th was Ethan's 3rd birthday. Our Georgia-born son has given us 3 blessed, full, exciting, exhausting, hysterical, baffling, exhausting, wonderful years. We love that boy and can't help to mimic his huge grin at just the sound of his name.

Here's a re-cap of his day's events:
The night before, we got Marmie and Pop on Skype and let Ethan open his present from them...a new (big boy) bike!!!!! He loves it but has another inch to grow before it's not so troubling to pedal those pedals!
The morning of his birthday, we went to a park nearby where a few friends met us for some play time.

We played, but stopped for a little lunch, before some more play time :)

Our love:

Ethan was happy that his friends, Riley and Kyle, enjoy playing with mulch as much as he does!

Home for nap, but as soon as he was up and Daddy was home from work, it was time to open a few presents from us:

Madeline got him a Superhero Seek and Find Book that she picked out and we got him a Lego set. Oh, and very importantly...a superhero is not a superhero without superhero gum!!

Daddy helped put the new Toy Story Lego set together:

We had a couple of our closest friends over for play and dinner. We kept it smaller this year, but it was still important for us to have some sort of celebartion which included our "extended family" :)

Thanks Janette for taking a family picture:

Our boy's THREE!!!

Ethan's really into Superheroes right now, and although I enjoy making our kids birthday cakes with them, when we saw this one at Kroger a few weeks prior...it was settled...this was the cake!

Another year older:

That day a packge was delivered from some friends. Right before bed, Ethan opened it and got some quick play time with sister before heading to bed :) Thanks Emily and Grace! Mommy even enjoys playing this one!!

The next day Ethan recieved not just one, but TWO boxes in the mail!! He got a Ravens hat from Marmie and Pop...

And some cool new trains from MomMom and Poppy!!! WOOHOO!! We had to build a special "bridge" and "tunnel" just for those trains!

He is such a loved little boy! His birthday celebration seemed to continue for a week!! I have some pictures on the itouch I grabbed from it and home to have uploaded on here soon :)

Love you Ethan Selby!!!!

Another Day at the Park

Feb. 11, 2011
Doug was in Ft. Lauderdale for the week so we made several late trips to the park to help fill up our evenings. I lugged my camera on Friday to take a few pics of the kids progress on their bikes.

OK, so the endurance isn't quite there, but we're working on it. He hasn't figured out how to pedal, so he just uses his feet to push himself, and that's a lot of work:

Checking out his friend, Aidan's Strider bike! These things are so cool...may be getting Ethan one when his 3rd b-day comes around :)

He loves that he's figured out the rock wall:

I love how much time we've been able to spend outdoors this month!!

Out Back

January 30, 2011

Daddy attempting to play football with the kids, while holding a full cup of coffee: Future Raven:

I wanted to mess with my camera a bit on this beautiful day, so I asked Madeline to pose for me:

And then she just went into model mode:

Nice:

that's my girl!!!!

Mad:

Silly:

Happy:

Beautiful:

Shy:

...and during all this, Ethan:

The kids playing with a new hand-me-down toy from the DeAngelos :)While I was getting Ethan down for a nap, apparently this was how Madeline chose to enjoy the beautiful day:

Then she and I went for a stroll:

Another girl was at the playground that had the same Amiercan Girl doll as Madeline. They took turns swinging the girls:

Then we rode back home:

Skates and Bikes

January 13, 2010
Ethan got roller skates for Christmas from his GreatGram. Madeline wanted to ride her bike one day, so we decided to go ahead and let Ethan try out his skates. He was very excited about getting the helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads on and very patient during the process:
...but when we went to put the skates on, he wanted nothing to do with them, and wanted everything taken back off. Guess we'll try again one day...

But it didn't stop Madeline from going on her bike ride:

She is getting so good at bike riding!