For Our Memory Book- Farewell Minnesota

Yes we are excited to be on to another adventure, and definitely yes excited to be in Idaho for a little while as well, but I can't say that there aren't things, people, and places that I will miss here in Minnesota.

THINGS...
* this OLD house...with it's slanting floors, dark paneling, lamplit rooms, the clicking of the baseboard heat in the dead of night, the no tub or dishwasher, the giant fish mounted on the wall, the indoor plants that Ethan destroys....oh you old old house we will miss you! It's amazing how even something so different from your own particular style and liking can become such a place of sanctuary, your home. We may not have been here long, but we've made it ours and it will be missed!

* The beauty of the trees and the lake...I've already been missing them because we can't go swimming and the trees became barren weeks ago, but knowing that I won't see this beautiful scenery again for years, or forever is sad!
*The Town of Ranier's no leash law for dogs...yes there was constant fear of hitting dogs while driving as they own the place, but when you have a little boy who LOVES dogs it's nice to know there will rarely be an outing when he won't be able to find a dog to play with

PLACES
* The town of Ranier...such a quaint and quiet little place, except for the trains, so old fashioned- like something you see on a postcard. Wish I had time to take more pictures for memories, but for now they will stay with me. This is the place my son learned to walk, the place he learned his first couple words and where he bathed in a tote. Things become beautiful because of the people you are able to love there.

* The paper mill...oh wait it is exceptionally stinky, especially to my pregnancy "super-sniffer"  I don't think I'll miss that all too much actually. But the people David worked with were incredible. Wish we could take them with us!

* The little park in town...many a fun afternoon spent sliding, swinging, chasing down dogs, leaves, and sticks,  lots of laughs, snuggles, and all around fun had here.

* The BEAUTIFUL frozen Lake...we haven't been able to enjoy it for long, but it really is a breathtaking view to look out over the frozen water!

PEOPLE
* Our branch...thank you for loving our son. There is something that immediately draws you to people when they adore your child. Ethan has been doted on, laughed at, cooed at, and all around spoiled. It pays to be the only child below the age of 6, and one of only about 6 total at church. Thank you all for your love and friendship.

So there are probably a lot of things I am leaving out...and maybe as I remember them I'll add to this for the sake of keeping a record, but for now I guess here I am closing on another chapter of our life...Thank you Minnesota for not freezing us to death, and for letting us enjoy you for a short time. It certainly has been an adventure!

A Grateful Heart

David and I gave our final talks on Sunday in our little branch, and the topic of mine was "A Grateful Heart" and ever since then I can't help but be overwhelmed by the blessings that have been and are constantly continuing to flow into my life. We were so busy on Thanksgiving day that I only snapped a couple of quick pictures...but among many things, here are some of the things for which I am most grateful!

My Amazing, wonderful, goofy, spontaneous, extremely hott hubby... I have been so blessed to spend the last four years by his side...and so grateful for the 8 years...yes 8 that I have known him...so glad we picked "our chothers" ;) This is him preparing our very first Thanksgiving turkey

I am so blessed to have a sweet, mischievous, adorable, and smart little boy

Thank you for smiling, yes you may have your shower now!

Slobbery, open-mouthed baby kisses...ok toddler kisses, but he still seems like my little baby boy

Cardboard boxes, the indoor poor man's toy that may have saved our sanity this fall/winter

My two greatest joys at this point in my life are my two boys, if you can't tell. I don't know what I would do without them. 

I am resolving to become better at expressing my love and gratitude to those that matter most to me. I don't want to find myself down the road wishing I had made more of these moments count...they are priceless and can never be re-visited so let us enjoy each moment with those that we love to their very fullest!

Just for the Record...

It's funny, but when Ethan was newborn I remember that after every appointment I was so concerned about what percentile he was in, because I was sure that would tell how well I was doing as a mom. Am I feeding him enough, too much, is my milk pure fat, do I make skim? All of these things weighed heavily on my first-time-mother mind. Now every time we go I am always just anxious to see my boy grow and know that every child is different and they kind of do their own thing. I can always tell by the sparkle in his mischievous little eyes, that he is happy and healthy- so just for the records and future memories...here are the latest stats...and these are just downright funny. Just so you know, we are pretty limited in our medical care up here and in the nurse's defense, he WAS very wiggly and they didn't have his previous stats. to compare to so...

Weight- 25 lb.  70 something percentile...I was never told for sure
Height - 7' 4"....now that was originally an error in mental conversions from inches to meters, or something...needless to say when they plugged that number in Ethan became an instant child prodigy
Height round 2 - 30 in. - 15th percentile (the unfortunate thing about this measurement is that it is a quarter inch shorter than his one year measurement...so he SHRANK?)

Well I guess according to the records we either have an EXTREMELY tall and lanky oddity, or a VERY short, squat little ball of meat! Yes I found this whole thing very funny, so we attempted to measure him ourselves at home and figure he is somewhere around 31.5 inches...which puts him all around back in the big leagues again! Oh the joys! I love this little/big guy! So let me put up some pics...just for the record

We finally got enough snow to go out and play a little! 

"Ethan, Where's your head?"

Naturally Ethan wanted to touch the snow, but without his gloves...I told him it was a bad idea, but really since when does a one-year-old listen to reason...

So he used to be impossible to get pictures of, and now when I tell him to smile, this is what I get...so much like his father...yes it's cute, but way overboard! At least he hasn't figured out the retarded face yet that his father perfected and is so wonderfully documented in many of David's family snapshots!

"Smile Ethan"

He really is a very happy boy, you know minus the typical setbacks like teething, and tiredness, but his absolute favorite thing I am sure...besides wrestling with his Daddy, is being in the shower all by his big boy self!

Truly there is never a dull moment, and he keeps me on my toes. He is finally mimicking some words such as cheese and shoes...and he says the word train on his own whenever the trains go by, which is about every 30 minutes, then he runs to the window to watch...and he is so proud of his one word "train" that he is starting to say it more and more...it is the first thing he says when he wakes up, he says it when Dad comes in the door, apparently he really really likes the trains...well that makes one of us...yes only one...if I haven't mentioned it before, I HATE trains!

I can't believe this little guy will be a big brother before too long, it absolutely blows my mind, but I am grateful to be his Momma and look forward to his future developments. Every day is an adventure!

The Halloween That Wasn't

Well that title may be a little harsh...we did have some festivities spread out over a couple of weeks, and the silly thing is that Ethan didn't even notice the lack of Halloween Day activities, it was probably only that I felt let down that everything fell through. But all-in-all it was a fun "season" even if our branch party turned into a ten-minute trunk-or-treat, and the town party that was supposed to be for children either didn't happen or was in another town ;) Needless to say we made the most of it and even though we'd dressed Ethan up for a party and didn't get one, I still got pictures of him in costume and he got to show off for David and I.

Last weekend I made spider sandwiches to get us all in the mood for the holiday...

Sunday we carved Ethan's pumpkin...he was so serious about it that I couldn't get a smile out of him. I am not sure if he enjoyed it, or if it was like a duty to him to get it done, but whichever way it was it kept him entertained for an hour...all in all a success!

I'm working...leave me alone


Part of our Halloween dinner consisted of "Mummy Dogs"

When we showed up for the town trunk or treat and games, this is all we found...but Ethan seemed ok with it, he removed his coat and immediately took off down the hall! 

We were going to dress up as members of the Avengers...since I am the biggest comic book nerd...oh wait that's David...but  then life happened and we never got costumes put together other than Ethan's. So our one little dressed up family member was the cutest Captain America I've ever seen and no one will even notice we never dressed up since we had no where to show off costumes anyway!

Our little Captain America hamming it up as always!

And since he didn't get the party I was telling him about all day (I'm sure he'll remember ;) We stopped in at Dairy Queen and got him a Blizzard...ok who are we kidding? The ice cream was mostly for me and my pregnant hormones lol

And since I have jabbered too much already here is just a whole slew of pictures of the little Captain himself

Sucker from the Branch trunk-or-treat...he wouldn't let go of it for anything!

Momma's Boy...YEAH RIGHT!

From the moment I knew I was having a little boy, I just figured that he would be completely attached to me. That his world would revolve around me, and mine around his, and that he would love me more than anyone else in the whole world. It seems like that would be fair and right. Well i can't say he never had his moments, but lately I think he just tolerates me, but the person who makes his whole world complete is his Daddy. There is no one else in the world that can compete, sadly to say, now I'm not saying that it isn't sweet, it's just that I am the one that spends all my waking breathing moments doing everything I can to make him fed, healthy and happy, and what do I get in return- well lately he swings at me when I say no, he throws tantrums mostly for me, and when he hurts himself he goes ONLY to his father for comfort...to say the least it does hurt my feelings. So since I didn't get a momma's boy round one, maybe this little peanut in the oven will be my hip attachment, and for the moment I can just appreciate the little things, like the fact that only MY singing can tame the wild bean child down for bed. I'll take what I can get!

                                               Must have been a rough day all around!

                                                   Just like his Daddy...

Loves David's baseball hat only when he wears it he prefers it to be covering his face

Just an evening game of crawling tag

Everyone pitching in to get the kitchen cleaned up! lol

Oh and yes Ethan is obsessed with this box...if you couldn't already tell

Our Second Munchkin

Well due to an eventful weekend we had a slightly early ultrasound and were able to catch a glimpse at the little peanut inside me...we are excited to say that since we made such a beautiful little boy on our first go around, we have the opportunity to welcome a second baby boy into our family! We are so excited that Ethan and "little brother" will be so close in age- hopefully they'll be best buds! So here's a little first picture of our roughly 7 oz. 17.5 week old little guy.

Autumn Days

Well, it seems that autumn may have already come and gone...at least the autumn I am familiar with. It was beautiful and splendid for maybe a week, with crisp mornings and evenings, sunny days filled with leaf crunching and jacket wearing, and now it's like autumn "Tim Burton" style- and if you are unfamiliar with Tim Burton animations, then just picture autumn without the sun and with lots and lots of rain and there you go. A bit gloomy to say the least. But on a positive note, I have a new camera- and we managed to get some great autumn pictures before autumn died...

And yes...I am obsessed with every cute dimpled part of this little boy...

He was such a Hoot in this pile of leaves I went photo happy on him...can you tell?

Ethan and Dad out back getting ready to grill some salmon!!! Even chilly weather won't stop a man from using his grill...or his son from being his apprentice...they are attached at the hip when David is home

He just looks like a little boy...just strutting through the leaves all grown-up-like...it's bittersweet

He is obsessed with sitting on his pumpkin that he got at the pumpkin patch...he even tries to tote it around the house, but it is quite heavy for a little guy, but it's super funny to watch him huff and puff for the split second he can pick it up and take a step!

CHEESE! He knows he's being silly, that's the only way I get him to smile for me!

Now what little boy doesn't want to play with a stick? They are seriously the coolest toy and whenever we go to the park he is constantly picking them up and holding them until the next coolest one comes along...well on this particular afternoon he hit the jackpot!

It was hysterical to watch him tote this around as it was twice his size, but he was happy and so were my camera and I!

I just love this boy so much I can't fathom how it's possible to fall this much in love with another child! But I also didn't realize how much I would love this boy before he was born. I know this new addition to our family will be a great blessing and be loved beyond what I can now comprehend, we're just excited to find out what it is...any guesses as to girl or boy? We are open to name suggestions either way as well...just saying!