Forever Family!

Ethan is now officially and eternally ours! We were sealed in the Provo Temple on December 11, 2010. We had so much fun with our family. Here are some cute pictures of our weekend.

Ethan did so great while flying this weekend. He especially liked the turbulence on the plane. Go figure. While in Utah, he decided to show off. He got his first tooth and learned how to roll over from his tummy to his back. Watch out world!

See what moms will do to get their babies to smile at the camera.

  Playing in a box is fun to do, especially since your toys can't escape from you.

Here is a picture of the cousins and then a shot of the parents trying to get everyone to smile. Priceless.

More cousins

Our little family forever at last.

Ethan's smile is courtesy of Aunt Lara. He really thought that she was his mom. Well almost.

The whole crew at the Temple.

Six Months of Joy!

Ethan is 6 months old. He has decided that he is big enough to do things now. He can sit up on the floor all by himself. And yesterday he finally rolled over, from his back to his stomach. I am debating counting it since I wasn't there to see it. I had an all important spa day appointment with some friends. Ethan is 24lbs and 29 1/4inches long per his doctor visit. He is HUGE, but I have HUGE biceps because of it. I know you all are jealous.

The sitting up cutie pie.

November 19th was National Adoption Day. We decided to celebrate it since

Our Adoption was FINALIZED that day!

YAHOO!

This is a horrible picture because I had just stopped crying, so I have that lovely flush that accompanies tears. We have been so anxious for our adoption to be complete that once the guardian ad litem (Ethan's lawyer) recommended that we be given permanent custody I lost it. Such relief and joy. He is ours. Next step the Temple. Don't worry, we will post pictures when that all happens. Thanks for all of your prayers.

They served cake and punch to celebrate. Ethan got a bag full of free things like this t-shirt and hat. He even got a teddy bear and bunny.

Monkeys Are Scary, Right?

As you might have guessed Ethan was a monkey for Halloween. We got this cute costume at Costco. I love how the middle is stuffed. No, that is not my baby's tummy. It made him even more squishy than normal. He was such a trooper this week. He got that special surgery that only boys get. Not very fun. He is finally himself and kicking and playing like normal.

Uncle Dan also visited us this week. We had lots of fun. Ethan warmed up to him really quick. It was fun to see Dan feed Ethan solids and interact with him. Sorry I forgot to take any pictures of them together.

I was a sparkly witch. Mostly because it was easy and only required wearing a hat, which was all I could handle.

Jim was a zoo keeper. Someone has to take care of our monkey.

The fam all together.

Crafts for Ethan's Room

I was having a couple of rough weeks this last month and realized that while I love being Ethan's mommy and taking care of my home, it was not enough. I needed to do something to fulfill me. Something that challenges me or causes me to think. Anyway I was inspired to do little projects for Ethan's room. I know I posted pictures of the nursery earlier, but half of the room was baby and the rest was leftover from when it was a guest room. Now it is all baby. My first project was hanging his cute quilt that matches the crib set.

 I got 2 clips from the flower section at my local grocery store. They are the best clips because one side has a hole in it for a nail. Then 2 wooded suns from the craft store. To glue together, I cut up little strips of cardboard and folded in thirds. Then glued the cardboard to the clip to give more surface area. Then glued the suns to the cardboard and clip. See pic below.

 You can't see the cardboard, but it is glued right above the silver ring.

 I also bought 2 wooden shelves and painted them green. I even painted the frame of this picture. It was black and I wanted it to be more of a barn yard color.

And lastly I bought wooden letters for Ethan. I painted them red and then put white dots around for a border. Now his room looks so cute. It makes me happy to see it everyday and to realize that I made these things. Simple but effective.

Grandma, This Smile is for You!

Happy Birthday Mom! I stole this idea from Lara. Anyway here is a partial smile from Ethan. This took a lot of work since he loses his smile the second the flash goes off. He is a really smiley and happy baby. He has started to fake cough. It is funny. Here are some pictures for you. I am going to add another post in a few days because I have been doing some craft projects.

You can almost see his dimple.

He is finally able to balance in his exer-saucer. He loves jumping up and down in it while drooling. Don't forget all that drool.

This is how Ethan likes to bundle up. No pants, but a warm sweater. Jim said he looked like one of those girls who is wearing a swimsuit but then adds a sweater. Cute anyway.

Super Baby!

Nothing new with Ethan. He is a cute as ever and as heavy as ever. Jim got a new calling, Young Men's President. I am trying to be excited and supportive. Is it just me or is it hard when you know your husband will be gone a lot and you need a break? I can do this, I keep telling myself.

Anyway on to the fun stuff. Since Ethan is the hugest baby on record (in my mind), he grows out of his clothes awfully fast. He is now in 12 months clothes.

The other morning I woke up to hearing the Superman theme song. Jim then brings in Ethan to really wake me up and TADA . . .

Super Baby is alive and kicking. I laughed so hard when Jim ripped open his pj's. We found this adorable shirt while shopping the other night. Don't you love his muscles.

Here he is with his signature pose. I think he is going to go save someone maybe from taking a nap.

This cute outfit says "Worth the Wait", so true. We love you little cutie.

First Haircut

Ethan had a very exciting week this week. He went to the doctor and got his first haircut. The doctor was amazed with his growth (so are my back and arms). Here are his stats:

Height: 27 3/4 inches = 99th percentile
Weight 21lbs 2oz = 100th percentile
Head Circumference 17 3/4 inches = 97th percentile

The doctor said not to worry about how huge he is since he is proportional. She also told me to cut back on how much we are feeding him, so I did and he woke up at 1am starving. So we are experimenting still.

 He was so good for the haircut. He moved around a lot especially when the clippers were near his ear. We had a trained professional cut it because I was too chicken to do it myself.  

Below are the pics of his haircut.The Before and After. I am not naming any names (Lara and Jessica), but in defense of my little guy, I have never, nor will ever give him a comb over. Previous pics looked like a comb over, but were due to the camera and shadows. 

Before

During or maybe after

After

This is from last week. We were given a jumper that he is really enjoying. We also got an exer-saucer which he is learning to play with. Toys are a great thing.

4 Months Old Already!

I can't believe that 4 months have gone by with Ethan. He is so much fun, except when he won't nap during the day, but we are working on that. He is still gaining weight and is 20lbs. He is pretty sneaky when it comes to showing off his new skills. I put him on tummy time the other day in hopes that he might someday lift his head up. He mostly just lays there and sucks his fingers. Anyway I was reading (gasp!) and just randomly looked over and his head was 3 inches off the ground. He quickly put it back down, but I saw it. He can't fool me any longer. Just because he has lots of rolls does not mean there is not muscle on this boy.

One of his favorite songs to sing right now is I Love to See the Temple. He cannot stop smiling through the whole thing. He knows he is going there some day soon to be sealed together. What a darling.

These are the fingers he prefers to suck on.

Ethan ate rice cereal for the first time last night. He gave us the funniest look when he first tried it, but got over it and ate a good amount. He is a pro at swallowing. This could be due to his disgusting habit of swallowing the spit up in his mouth. Yuck!

Happy Birthday Jess!

This post is all for my adorable sister Jessica. It is her birthday today and I wanted to celebrate her. There are 6 years between us, but that doesn't change the bond that we share. She is such an amazing person. I remember when she was young that she always stood her ground. Some might call this stubborn, but she always did what was right. I look up to her so much. She is so talented. She is a wonderful mother and is so full of life and joy. I can't imagine our family without her. I love you tons little sis. Hope you have a great day! I wanted to share some pictures of her from the past.

Senior Year in High School

Another blast from the past. This was taken in 2001, when Jess was only 14 or 15. Isn't she cute! She is the blond in the middle. I always wished I could be blond and beautiful like her. Oh well.

Summer Fun with Family!

We are done with our last reunion of the summer. We had so much fun with Jim's immediate family. Ethan especially loved all of his cousins. They could get him to smile so easily. He is getting so big. He started to laugh a week ago. He laughs when you tickle him. He is also getting to be a pro at sitting up when you help him.


We did lots of fun things when the family was in town. We had lots of family dinners and the adults even got to go out on the town one night. We were treated to a dinner at Ruth's Chris. Yum. Thanks for all of the fun grandpa and grandma. Here are some pics from the reunion.

Some of his cute cousins

Grandma and another cute cousin

We went bowling,

We visited a local farm. Ethan is sitting on a tracker seat.Yes our boy can smile!

Me and da boy. I love his hat, but it is getting too small.

One day we played in the kiddy pool at my sister-in-law's house. Ethan loves his bath, but wasn't so sure about this cold pool. His pout is so cute.

But then mommy convinced him that this is the best thing ever. That's my boy!

The kiddy pool was good practice for the next day, when we went to a water park. It was indoors which was so nice. Our family shot.

He really wasn't scared even though he looks it in this pic. He was kicking and splashing and having a grand time.

SIDE NOTE: Ethan is becoming quite bald in many places. Interestingly enough, he also has really long hair at the sides and back of his head. What is a girl to do but experiment with different styles. Jim did not approve, but I think he looks adorable.

3 Months Old

This is what our little cutie looks like at 3 months. Happy 3 months old, Ethan. We are having another family reunion in a week, so I will have lots more pictures and things to share then.

 

Family Reunions are our Favorite Thing!

We are back from our trip to Yellowstone. We actually stayed in cabins 45 minutes from Yellowstone, but we did visit Yellowstone for a day. The reunion was on Jim's side. It was great. Everyone was so excited to meet Ethan. He charmed everyone by smiling as soon as he meet them. He was great on the airplane. No crying, but we did make sure that he was eating or sucking for take-off and landing. Ethan started to coo during our last flight home. It is so cute. He loves to coo and is so serious when telling us things.

Jim got to help out with a shooting activity at the reunion. We had a camp fire night with skits and sing-a-long. We went on a walk and just enjoyed chatting with family that we haven't seen for 3 years. It is nice to be back home though.

My mom and grandma found out that we were going to be near each other and decided to drive over and visit for the day. It was so nice to spend time with them.

Our little family in front of Old Faithful right before it went off.

Old Faithful erupting. It isn't so faithful anymore. We waited at least 20 minutes for the eruption. It was impressive though.

The mud pots were neat to look at, but boy do they stink.

This is some water near Old Faithful. Everything was so pretty that it was hard to imagine that it is caused by a volcano that could erupt at any moment.

This is a picture near the place called Firehole at Yellowstone. Ethan was in the car snoozing, so we jumped out quick to take pictures (Grandma Carlson was in the car with him).

Bath time is his favorite time. Today I could barely keep him in his bath sling because he was kicking and splashing so much. He even got water on his face and didn't seem to mind at all.

Jim likes to make different head pieces for Ethan with his burp cloths. Here he is going for Egyptian. What do you think?

Here is another pic of his Sunday attire. Everyone just goes crazy about how cute his is with his little tie. I really can't blame them either. I go crazy too.