We want more!

Here are some pictures of Brooke making the whip cream and the kids licking the mixers.  They absolutely loved this and couldn't get enough.  So eventually (after 3-4 redips into the bowl) we had to put a scoop on a plate and move them to the table to continue eating whip cream.  As you can see from the photos they loved it!

Thanksgiving in Boston

This Thanksgiving we went to Boston to visit Eric, Brooke, Sydney and Carson.  We also picked Court and RJ up in Philadelphia on the way down.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and the kids had a blast.  We have only been back a day and all Ethan talks about is Cousin Sydney.  Ethan and Sydney's favorite activity was running in circles around the house - they may have put in a good couple of miles a day just chasing each other around and around.  We spent most of our time shopping, hanging out and playing games.  It was the perfect vacation and we were all sad for it to end!  We are hoping to live closer to cousin Sydney in the near future (hint, hint!).  

Playing in the Leaves!

The best thing about fall is playing in the leaves!  On this day, I took Ethan to the park and just made big piles of leaves.  He had so much fun running through them and throwing them up in the air.  It was one of my favorite days ever.  I just love his enthusiasm and pure joy over such a simple thing.  I couldn't help but get excited and laugh along with him.  We had a great day.

Picasso in the Making?

So I got the idea from my great friend Jill, who is the craftiest person I know, to make Ethan a cute little art smock/apron.  So here it is, being put to great use.  Ethan has a great time painting, though I have come to realize I have a touch of OCD - Ethan's favorite thing to do is to mix the colors and I am trying to encourage him to use a different brush for each color and keep it clean.  I suppose you know who wins that struggle.  So I am learning to loosen up and let him follow his creative aspirations!  And look what became of it - when I asked Ethan was this picture was, he said "Bug and Spiders", so it is appropriately titled.  The funny thing is that we now have the picture hanging on our refrigerator and every time he sees it, he says "Bugs and Spiders" mom!  So apparently he really knew what he was painting.  Kids are amazing!

Utah Trip

Here are a few more pics from Utah.  Ethan had a great time playing with his Uncle Tanner and showed him who the tough one was.  We had such a great weekend!  I wish we all lived closer.

This was a fun little indoor carnival place we took Ethan and Addie to - they had a blast and all the rides were definitely their size.  It was so cute watching them run from ride to ride and seeing their cute little faces lit up.  It is so funny how becoming a mom changes your idea of the ideal day.  Now my favorite activities are things that make Ethan happy.  I just love watching him explore the world around him and get excited about doing things.  

At the beginning of November, Ethan and I made a trip to Utah to visit Auntie Misty and Uncle Tanner and Ethan got to spend time with his cousin Addie.  They had so much fun playing together.  Ethan just loves having cousins his age.  He and Addie got along really well and ran, jumped and played their little hearts out.  The favorite activity was probably the air mattress trampoline.  

The Balitmore Aquarium

Baltimore has an awesome aquarium and we hadn't been there since Ethan was only a few months old. We are excited to have nana here visiting and we made a trip to the aquarium. For a week straight Ethan has been so excited to go and everyday he says "Mom I wanna see fish and sharks and seahorses and turtles". It is always those 4. So we made it a point to find these 4 sea creatures and Ethan had a blast. He loves animals - I think the zoo and the aquarium are his top activities.

Halloween Party #3

This was party #3.  We had a great time at our play group decorating cookies and playing with some of Ethan's favorite friends.  Ethan made a disaster out of the cookies, but loved it.  In the end though, he had the most fun playing outside on his friend's tricycle.  

Halloween Party #2

This was our Ward Halloween Party, which was a ton of fun but a little sad this year because Jay couldn't be there.  We definitely missed him.  There were fun games and Ethan especially liked the fishing game and even cast the fishing pole over the sheet all by himself.  I was impressed.  

Halloween Parties, Parties and more Parties....

Halloween this year meant a bunch of great parties and Ethan had fun at all of them. Here are some pictures from party #1, our new playgroup in our new ward. Ethan's costume choice has a story behind it. Initially he was meant to be a pirate. In fact, I bought the cutest pirate costume last year after Halloween in what I thought was an ingenious plan to save a bundle on his halloween costume. If you look back to last year's halloween post you will see a picture of Ethan actually modeling the pirate get-up. Well, what I didn't account for last year was that somewhere between the ages of 1 and 2 kids tend to develop an opinion. And Ethan has a strong opinion. So my attempts to get him into the pirate costume met with some resistance, to say the least. (He may have thrown it at me once or twice while yelling "NO PIRATE!"). Well, the morning of our party it became clear to me that the pirate was a no-go. So I made a desperate last minute run to the costume store down the street and searched for a costume that would be the closest to everyday clothes I could find. So Football Player it is!  Here are some fun pictures of Ethan, one with his favorite part of Halloween - sweets.  And another with him giving Jane a big hug.  He just loves her!

The Story of a Pumpkin...

Here are some pictures from the pumpkin carving process.  First we went to a local pumpkin patch and had a great time running up and down the aisles of pumpkins until we found the perfect pumpkin.  Ethan loved his pumpkin and insisted and giving it lots of hugs and kisses before we started the carving process. Once he realized the cool stuff inside the pumpkin he had even more fun.  That night after carving the pumpkin I had to leave it on the kitchen floor so Ethan could come by often and give it hugs.  Very cute!

Pumpkin Festival

This day we went to a Pumpkin Festival at Butler Farms - the same orchard we went raspberry picking a few months ago

.  They had the coolest slide I have e

ver seen - it was a tractor that they turned into a slide.  Here are some pictures of Ethan playing on it and some pictures of Ethan trying to throw a ball through one of those carnival things with holes in it.  Initially he was throwing from the standing on the ground - like you are supposed to.  However, our little cheater climbed up and just walked up the ramp to drop the balls through the holes.  It was really cute.  The last picture is Ethan with one of his favorite friends, Jane.