Daddy's Home!

This is Ethan's (and Penny's) reaction every day when he realizes his Daddy is home.

And yes, all the blankets by the door is our means of avoiding putting on new weather-stripping.

1-11-10

The Coolest Book I've Ever Seen/Heard!!

12/21/09
Madeline and Ethan received a book in the mail from Mom-Mom...but not just any book, you can actually hear Mom-Mom read the book as you turn the pages!! Madeline loves it! She thinks it's so neat to listen to her read and then turn the page to hear some more. This is one of the neatest things I've seen in a long time!

She's almost 3!

"I Like to Dance"

More Ring Around the Rosey

He's such a boy...

...never too tired to eat

I thought about getting a maid...

...then I remembered we had kids:Never too young to start learning:

Some words from the wise:

Madeline getting prepared for some deep cleaning:

...but not too happy about it:

Taking off her "handana." She quit! She said the labor was too hard and the pay was awful. Well, I still have Ethan :) He'll just have to pick up the slack.

Almost 1

One week from today, our little man will be one year old!!! Wow, that was a fast year!
Here he was yesterday walking around with a pacifier and a dish towel. It cracks me up when he has a pacifier in his mouth because he really doesn't like them, but every once in a while he'll mosey around with one:This really had me laughing. He's carrying a red case that was a Crayola set, but I emptied out the case a while back and now it serves as a great toy:

A little video of Ethan carrying the case:

Dinnertime for Ethan 8-25-09

I think this is Ethan's third time eating "real" spaghetti but it's the first time I grabbed the camera.
Here he is getting started:
THIS is why our chairs get so dirty:

Do you think he's full??

Another video of Ethan

Luke's Wedding 6/13/09

My little cousin, Luke, was married on the 13th. I could not be happier for him and I am so thankful that we were able to share in his special day. Have you ever attended a wedding where you thought, "now there's a couple truly in love. A love so deep that nothing will uproot it." I was fortunate enough to have Luke visit us here in Ga a few times during his courtship with Lizzy. I think those opportunities allowed me to enjoy in the experience of his wedding so much more. Every time Luke spoke of Lizzy he lit up...I know it sounds cliche, but it is just so true. He would tell me such cute stories of things he had done for her. I could tell he loved to make her happy, something so important in a successful marriage. As a gift to her he took a favorite children's story and copied all of the pictures onto paper. Then he rewrote the story but making the characters that of Luke and Lizzy and changing the story to be about them. HOW CUTE! I remember a short time before his wedding I sent him a text message letting him know he had only 10 days left of bachelorhood. He said, "I know, so few yet so far away." A couple days before the wedding I sent him another reminder and again he responded with eagerness for the day to come. I love that Luke is not embarrassed or shy about his love for Lizzy.
Doug and I enjoyed this wedding so much. It had us talking a lot about our own wedding and how special it was...to know that from this day forward you will always be together. What an amzing gift.
We love you Luke and Lizzy! Congratulations!
Ethan was not as interested in the wedding as we were..but he sure loved standing on these chairs!
This is after the wedding while we were waiting for pictures. Doug just loves my little cousins! He gets so relaxed when he's around them, which is nice so that the family can see the real Doug! Here is a picture of Will holding Ethan. Yes, he has bandaid above his eye. Shortly before the wedding, he fell in our hotel room and hit the corner of the coffee table. It's healed up well now, but it looked pretty bad that day.

Doug with Jesse:

Ethan munching at the reception. We had to change his bandaid so we could put some Neosporine on it, but all we had with us was a Dora bandaid!!

Here is my mom with three of her brothers.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Grant!!!!

Madeline and my cousin Jesse had a good time dancing:

Still dancing...

They didn't like the next song:

We tried to get a picture of the cousins:

And I tried to get a picture of the siblings:

Cutting the cake:

Luke dancing with his mommy, Aunti Kris. She was grinning ear to ear the whole day! It must be an awesome feeling to see your son so happy.

Ethan zonked out. Thanks again Maggie for the helping hands!

Craziness at the Harkins': The SuperBaby video

5/12/09

We picked up another booster seat for Ethan and I had it set up in the kitchen for his snack, but Madeline wanted to check it out to make sure it was OK for him. So she sat down and started eating his snack, a blueberry muffin. Anyway, I don't know who was wound up more, but Madeline started saying/singing "SuperBaby." something she got from Max and Ruby, and Ethan got the biggest kick out of it.

Out and About

Last Wednesday we went to Kindergym, now named Little Friends Gym. We were supposed to go strawberry picking, but they were calling for rain so we just went here instead.
Ethan was playing with this toy for a while when all of a sudden he pulled himself up to a stand!
After playing inside for a while, we decided (well, Madeline decided for us) that we would go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather (it never rained!).

Video of Ethan crawling!!!!

He did it! Ethan iched a little yesterday, but today he really has it down!! Good job Ethan!!!

Madeline's 1st Tea Party

Shortly after we moved here we became friends with a guy Doug worked with, Jason, and his wife (Jasmine) and 2 kids (Robert,4 and Jenis, 3). Jason is currently overseas on a one year tour of duty. Madeline and Jenis are 6 moths apart in age, so they have made great playmates!
Jenis invited Madeline over the other day for a tea party!! I was SO excited!!! My little girl going to a tea party?!?!?! Too many dresses to pick from!
When we got there, they started by making cookies. Well, actually the cookie dough was already prepared. They just (attempted to) used cookie cutters to make shapes out of the dough. Here they are working together (or sharing germs...whatever you want to call it)
The hard part...waiting. Not sure what Madeline was saying here, but she was probably telling Jenis which one is "mine."

While the cookies were baking we went upstairs to put on some jewelry. Madeline found a beautiful necklace and bracelet. Of course all you probably see in this picture is our daughter playing the drums!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She loves the drums a little too much. My cousin Nathan says she's starting at the perfect age. I'm not sure what Nate is implying, but there will not be a drum set in our house! (unless she asks of course :) )

I'm sure when Ethan is older he won't want to be reminded that he attended a tea party, so we'll just tell him he was there as the bodyguard. Robert was at school while we were visiting, but my kids were quick to play with everything in his room, especially the drums and the trains. Ethan LOVED watching the electric train go around the track. Every time the train would get close he would grab it and put it right in his mouth. I would take it away, put it back on the tracks, then he would grab it again when it came around. He sure makes me laugh.

Posing for a picture. Notice the drum sticks in Madeline's hand!!

Choosing their plate and saucer. Guests first!

Madeline needed quite a bit of help pouring the (sweet iced) tea. She thought it was like a watering can where you just pour until it's empty.

Time for the delicious cookies!

She loved the tea! Madeline brought her purse from home and when it was time to drink the tea she wanted to wear her purse.
Not sure what she was doing here, but the picture cracks me up! Not sure where she gets her girliness from!

Poor Ethan, he just hung out in the bouncer, on the floor, or stood at the table to watch us eat and drink stuff and can't have yet. He had a great time though!

Madeline and Jenis were singing their ABC's together, but by the time I got the camera out, just Jenis was singing and Madeline was dancing. Madeline was too busy eating her lemon to sing.

Teamwork

I began trying to get Ethan to drink from a sippy cup recently, but he hasn't been all to interested. That is, unless it is Madeline's sippy cup. He could see one of her cups from a mile a way. It's not like she uses the same type of cup every time either. He just knows it's her...and he wants it! Fortunately, Madeline finds it a little funny. The other morning Ethan kept trying to get a hold of Madeline's cup, so finally she decided to help him drink from it. Does he look a little excited about this??? Notice Madeline is showing him how to open his mouth.
He was laughing so hard at her that it was hard for him to get a sip.

Through teamwork, he finally got it!

I asked Madeline if I could get a picture of the sippy cup and this is her reaction. She even put her arm around Ethan...too cute!

Good Eats

I was holding Ethan at the dinner table today and he reached over and grabbed Madeline's spoon that she had been using to eat her applesauce. He put it right into his mouth and enjoyed sucking the leftover applesauce from the spoon. I've given him spoons before, but this time he seemed to have real good hand-eye coordination so I decided to go ahead and strip him down and let him have at his own bowl of food. I let him keep Madeline's spoon and gave him another one to use because it had a softer end to it and I thought it'd be easier on his gums. My plan was to sneak the other one away, but he did so good with two spoons that I just let him use both...plus it kept his hands from going into the food too much. For those of you who are wondering, he is eating a vegetable and chicken combo. mmm mmm mmm

We went straight to the bathtub of course! Only one thing could have made him happier than making and being in that mess....a bath. Ethan has always enjoyed bathtime, but these days he LOVES a bath. Tonight he cried hysterically when I finally took him out. This isn't the greatest shot of him, but "something" kept showing up in all the other pics, so I just put this one on here :)
I took a video to really who how happy he was during this event.