Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.

I am so excited it is snowing! I think I am one of the few people that LOVE the snow. It actually has cheered me right up this week. I have been sick for the last week and I don't remember when I have felt so crappy. I just found out that part of the reason that I felt so bad is that I have/had strep throat. I have bugged the doctor a ton and finally they have decided to give me some good drugs so I can sleep. Anyway, I have been cooped up and so it has been nice to sit and watch the snow fall with hot cocoa in hand. Even though I have been feeling crappy I have tried not to totally abandon my family. Luckily Evan is so good to entertain Ethan. Here are a few things we did this week. ( my boys did, I watched.)

1. Played in the snow. Evan tried to teach Ethan how to make a snow Angel. It was really cute. To bad Ethan didn't really get it. I stood at the back door to take a few pictures. This is the boys trying to throw snow balls at me. Luckily Ethan doesn't have a very strong arm yet. 2. Gingerbread house. This has been great I have been using this as new potty prizes. So When he goes he gets to pick a candy off the house. I have also busted Ethan pushing the kitchen chair over to the bar to eat the candy off the gingerbread house. He is definitely my kid, he LOVES candy.

Ethan a candy eating contest.( or so he thinks)

"O Christmas Tree"

This Year Evan had some extra vacation time he needed to use. He decided to take off a few days this week to spend some time with Ethan and myself. Yesterday we decided to go and get our Christmas Tree. This is one of my favorite things to do. It reminds me of growing up and spending time together with family, especially my dad. We didn't go into the mountains or chop our own tree down, we drove to the local Costco and bought the first tree we saw. I actually would recommend it. Our tree is so pretty and smells fantastic. It is 8 1/2 feet is great for the price. Plus Ethan and I are sick with colds and this was so convenient and easy since I didn't really feel up to doing very much. Anyway, these are some pictures I was able to take in the process of decorating the tree and setting up the traditional train set. I think , no I KNOW this is Evans favorite part of getting tree. He loves his train set and is so cute to build tunnels and bridges with Ethan.

Ethan thought it was really funny to stand by the tree so I could take his picture. He would giggle and then run over to me to see how his picture turned out. Then he would run back to do it all over again.

Ethan's other favorite thing was to go through all the ornaments. He loved the nativity set that grandma waters made for our family. There are donkeys and camels which he called horses. This kid makes me smile every day all day.

I hope you are all having a good week. Hopefully ours will get better with our colds. I love this time of year and just want to be able to enjoy it.

I love to Vacuum

I am in Love with this vacuum. We had a huge sale at work on Dyson vacuums, I was able to purchase one for 50% off. It was a steal of a deal. It just so happens we actually have been needing a new vacuum for a while. Ours is slowly dieing. You know it is bad when you have to feed the vacuum the dirt by hand. So I talked to my hubby and I used some b-day money and I bought it. I thought I would have buyers remorse, like I always do but I don't I love it! I have been vacuuming all afternoon and I can't stop. I am addicted. For any of you who want to come and try it you are more than welcome. :) You are more than welcome to come over and check out my floors. It is truely amazing.

Where's The Snow?

Our good friends Erik & Marcie came to visit this last week. They gave Ethan this adorable hat and scarf. (Bronco Colors GO BRONCOS!) He loves hats and he loves Evans church ties, he has never had a scarf before. He was being silly the other night and decided to show them of. He is ready for the snow so we can go outside and play in it. ( his mom is too)

Potty Training

So I decided to finally start the whole potty training process. It has been 2 weeks but I think Ethan finally has it. I really chose a horrible time to start, I have been crazy with hair appointments, errands and working at Kohls, oh and did I mention we all have colds. So yeah not the best timing on my part, but throughout it all it has been worth it.

I had to share a story about our pottey training experience, although gross, it is also very funny.

I am sure many of you saw our post of Ethan in the flour, well the next week a.k.a. week 1 potty training. I was doing hair and decided to try to let Ethan stay in his big boy underwear. While I was just finishing up and I hear Ethan get in the pantry ( I know I still don't have a lock) I heard a bag and then I heard him coughing... I told him to come in to the salon. He had orange all over his hands and face. I assumed it was cheetos. Once I was done I realized it was not cheetos it was the pretzel bag that I heard. Pretzels were everywhere, but worse was he had the tang canister open and deja vu, just like the flour. This time I was not laughing nor did I take pictures. I also realized that Ethan had an accident and his pants were wet. I went through the house trying to find the location of this occurrence, I never did.. I started cleaning up the tang and discovered it was wet and sticky. GROSS. Ethan had spilled the tang and then peed all over it. What a boy. After I realized what had happened I noticed Ethans feet for sticky with pee tang and he had been walking all over the house like this. Luckily it all cleaned up, but this boy is full of surprises I only hope there is nothing worse to come. The good news is today is his first official day as a BIG BOY. No diapers, no pull-ups, just unders. The best thing of all is no accidents! The picture above is his proud potty smile!

Surprise! 5 months and it's a .....

I can't believe I am going on my 5th month really it is only half way through but I am excited that we will have a new one in our home this next year. Ethan really needs someone to play with. He is so cute with little babies and has such a sweetness about him whenever he is around them. I know he will be a wonderful big brother.

So I am sure you all are looking at our blog because you want to find out what we are having but first, I want to let you know that I am writing this before my appointment so I don't know at this moment. Evan and I would like a boy so Ethan can have a brother to wrestle with and be close with but I also really want a girl. I NEED a girl. Poor Ethan I always try to play with his hair and dress him 3 times a day. I think I am just needing a little girl sometimes to do her hair and play dress up. So really number 2 is great because either way we are going to be SO excited!! I can't wait I will let you all know. Any guesses? and.........

It's A....................

Girl!

What a Mess.... Where to Begin Cleaning

This morning I had a hair appointment. I was cutting my clients hair and I noticed Ethan was very VERY quiet. He is always so good when I work but today was an exception. He had a new bag of flour open and about 3/4 of it on the flour and on him. I didn't even know what to do. He was covered and every time I moved him the flour followed us through out the kitchen. of course he thought he was so smart and had created this wonderful world of play time in the flour. Still enjoying it as I tried to figure out my first move.

throwing his last handful before I made him get out of the pantry to sit in time out. It is really hard to be mad when he is so cute and funny. I had to try really hard not to have him see me laugh. That is all you can do. I was either going to laugh or cry(hormones) so I decided to laugh it is the best form of medicine.

Why I love Halloween

1. The dressing up!I have had so much fun dressing up Ethan. He loves horses so I thought this was the perfect costume.

2.My birthday is on Halloween. I love it! I use to think as a kid that everyone dressed up for my birthday. (Can you say self-centered) It is such a fun time to have your birthday. All the parties, pumpkins, and don't forget the candy! Oh yeah and the presents :) This year Evan bought me a strawberry shortcake ice cream cake from Baskin and Robbins. Yummy!

3. Trick or Treating. I love the adventure. This year we went to a trunk or treat and then hit some houses. The first house we went to Ethan walked right in and tried to make himself at home. He is such a friendly guy. He had a lot of fun with his cousins.

4. The Candy!! need I say more.

5. It is the start of the fall and winter Holidays. I love the feeling in crisp air. Something about his time of year makes me happy. I love Halloween.

Silver City

This last Saturday we went to Silver City, Idaho. It is a little old mining town about 1 1/2 out of Boise. We have been camping there before but decided to just take a day trip with Evans brother and his family. It was perfect fall weather. My only complaint is I wish there were more trees, the mountains are beautiful this time of the year. Silver City is more sage brush and a few trees. It is however interesting. It almost feels like it is an abandoned city, except all the hunters up there. We looked at the old buildings, one of which the stream runs under it. We also took a drive to the cemetery. It is so sad to see how young a lot of the people were when they died, a lot of children. We then took a hike up to this rock were we looked for crystals. We found a ton! my only issue now is what to do with them all and I have no idea... Oh and I almost forgot I won't be posting pictures for a while. While we were hiking my camera fell and broke.bummer.

Cousins

Rilynn, Paxton, Ethan, and Evan... Little Evan is not shown. A few weeks a go we watched my niece and nephews so Jeff and Bree could go out for her birthday. The kids had so much fun in our back yard. Our house backs up to church property and there are empty lots around us, therefore we have gophers. I had never seen one of these ugly creatures before living here, but they are pretty nasty looking. They look like a huge rat with long sharp teeth for any one who has never seen one. This doesn't really show it that well but you can see its sharp teeth good. Eww. Evan took the kids through our gate onto the church field and set our gopher trap in one of the holes. The whole time they were here they would go back and check on it. They were really trying to catch the "KING GOPHER." I didn't get any pictures of this but I thought it was really cute how excited they were. While they waited and waited Evan started a fire in our fire pit he put in a month or so ago. Our garden was done so the kids decided to throw the squash and cucumbers in the fire, until we realized the weren't burning. Then it was just wood going in the fire pit. ( to burn those veggies ) Rilynn and Ethan love to play in the dirt if you can't tell... They would stay there all day I think. You will have to zoom in on these pictures and look at Ethan. I thought it was so cute how he would take his gun every where with him and would not let it leave his sight. We had so much fun watching these guys and Ethan loves playing with his cousins. Happy late birthday Bree!

My TWO kids

We had a wonderful weekend. We spent a lot of time together just our little family. Here are a few things my boys did. (I rode my bike.)

Evan is such a fun dad! He is so creative and always has a fun activity for us to do. Ethan saw Evan on his rollerblades and wanted to try them on. It was really funny to see him try to rollerblade.

Evan really wanted to take Ethan for a ride on his bike. Ethan did not want any part of it. He was afraid of the noise from the motorcycle. Evan convinced him and then they were history. After that Ethan would not get off that bike.

Evan is such a kid at heart. This is one of things I love about him. It keeps ME young. I love my two kids!

What a Colorful Little Boy

The other morning I went upstairs to change out some laundry. While I was up there I could hear Ethan Get into the drawer where all of his coloring supplies are. I only let him color with the color wonder markers and paper so I wasn't worried when I heard what he was up to. After about 5 minutes of doing my laundry I came downstairs. First I saw Ethan in the family room with his markers. ( which is a no no) I told him he needed to sit at the table. Then I took a double take and it was like my eyes were playing a trick on me. I was dumb founded. How could he have marker on him. These markers are only to work on the color wonder paper, this is why I love them. Well apparently there was another set of markers tucked somewhere in the same drawer that he found. As you can see he was very proud of his art work all over his body. I was upset for a second until I realized all my walls and furniture were marker free. Thank heavens. Then I grabbed my camera and had to laugh at this creative little kid. Looking at his arms as I ask him "what did you do."

He was the most proud of his new colorful feet.

This one says it all.

One proud colorful little boy.

Routine

Ethan

Watching Home on the Range

Our new morning routine.

Ethan comes down the stairs every morning. He use to say train over and over. He loves Thomas the Train and enjoys the DVDs. Lately, He has been into horses, just like daddy. We were watching The Man From Snowy River the other day and I also put on Home on the Range for some variety... The train songs are so catchy and get stuck in my head. Well now he comes down every morning saying horse. Now this is not a cute please horse. It is a frantic plead like

I have never let him watch the dang movie. Yes this continues until the horse movie starts...and continues throughout the day. I am glad he enjoys something. He use to hate watching anything on t.v. so I am glad I can entertain him for a few minutes while I get something done.

He also loves to jump off everything! Today it was our stairs. He also loves to slide down them. This other picture of him on his head is his coolest trick. He puts his head on the ground and then goes up on his toes and lets go. He started this when the Olympics were on t.v. and does it all the time. Evey time it cracks me up.

The Idaho Fair

Ethan loved the fair this year. He didn't even notice or care about the rides all he wanted to do was feed the animals. He especially loved the goats. He went through a cup of animal food in what seemed like 30 seconds. Then he wanted more. As much fun as he had I had to make sure he washed his hands and used plenty of hand sanitizer.

Evan looks forward to seeing the horses. That is by far his favorite thing to do. We were bummed out to find that there really weren't any horses in the stalls. Hopefully next year they will be there. Ethan also takes after his dad and loves the horses. He was a little unsure when it came to getting on one but he did not want to get off once the pony ride stopped.

I'm going to be a big brother!

• Yes it is true, Ethan is going to be a big brother. We are very excited. I am 9 weeks a long and feeling okay at this very moment, who knows it could change in the next 5 minutes, pregnancy. I really do think you have to forget how crappy it is so you will want to do this all over again. Ethan will be a very good brother. He has this baby doll that he loves to take care of. I also think he gets bored with me. He loves kids and is especially sweet with little babies. I think he will handle it all very well.

Yes, I have started a blog. I am officially a blogger. I have been wanting to have one for a long time but I always seem to find something else to do instead. I can't believe the summer is gone. It went by so fast this year. We had a lot going on this summer with building our house. It seems like we were always working on it. Then comes the moving in and that is still in the works. It seems like you are always unpacking boxes. Ethan turned 2 this summer and is so much fun. He sure is a busy body as you will see from my pictures but he is So much fun.