happy birthday ethan!

today ethan turns 2 years old! he is such a ball full of curiosity, amazement, laughter, and heart. i can't believe he's 2 already. (i know that's a running theme on my blog these days, but he just does new things every day, and i am trying so hard to get used to this growing up stuff!) i wish i had time in my day to jot down the things ethan is saying or doing these days. i fear that he will be 10, and i will try to remember what he was like as this two year old, and i won't be able to remember much. so here is an "ethan is 2" list.... at least the things i haven't already forgotten.

-his favorite things to play with right now are anything with wheels... dump trucks and cars, especially. he loves to climb up on the couch and drive them on the arms and back of the couch.

-ethan is a "thinker" like his daddy. you can just see the wheels turning! when we're outside, he squats down, puts his hands on his knees, and just analyzes bug and leaves.

-he can spot the tiniest airplane in the sky or hear the faintest sound of a jet flying over our house. there have been several times that i've said, "ethan, mommy doesn't see the airplane" only to be wrong! maybe he has a future in an air traffic control tower!

-he loves "eeeee beeeee" (itty bitty) bugs, and when a roly poly ("ro-pee-oh-eee-oh") desides to visit us inside, he gets a thrill out of taking it back outside.

-he is not real into climbing onto things, getting under the table, or just running around all over the backyard. don't get me wrong: he's a busy little boy, but it's more along the lines of fine motor busy-ness, like stacking blocks, putting them in and out of a bucket, giving his animals a ride in the sailboat, things like that. he really doesn't stop all day!

-ethan loves his sister more than i could ever have prayed for! he honestly loves playing with her, although she is doing little more than sitting and watching him. lately, he has gotten upset if we've taken her from the living room to be fed or changed because he wants to play with her. he'll say "keh-yine pay v-v-vroom gint?" (caroline play living room again) he also gets so excited to see her every morning. though sibling rivalry will probably soon rear its ugly, sinful head, i am really enjoying watching the 2 of them together right now.

-his favorite song right now is "indescribable" (which he calls "amazing God" because that's in the chorus). he can hear 3 notes of it, and he will exclaim, "amazing God!" with the biggest smile on his face. he asks for this song many times throughout the day. move over, wheels on the bus! ethan also loves my fernando ortega cd that might as well be stuck in our van's cd player b/c it's all i play in there.... his favorites are "power blood" (power in the blood-- he echos the "power" in the chorus as if he were in a gospel choir), "crown him" (crown him w/ many crowns), and "Jesus Christ" ("grace and peace"- i think it's romans 1:7). he loves this whole cd, but he especially favors these songs. he knows where they are in the lineup on the cd and will exclaim the name of the song right before it comes on.

-ethan loves "hammer time" with daddy... anytime brian is hanging a picture or using any tool inside the house, ethan goes and gets his plastic hammer and screwdriver. the other night, we were hanging some portraits in the hallway, and ethan dragged his tool bench from his room to where we were working. he sat down, opened it up, got out his hammer, and stood up as if he was ready to work! he then found a small picture frame on the ground and tried to "hang it" like daddy, sliding it up the wall as far up as he could reach.

-if you're laying on the floor, he'll pull on your arm and GRUNT to try to pick you up. this gets a huge laugh out of daddy almost every night.

-he loves "ABCD"s and gets completely excited when he sees letters around town, around our house, or even on our t-shirts. he doesn't get all the letters right all the time, but he definitely can tell you it's an "ABCD!" he is so cute when he sings the alphabet song. it's hit or miss for about half the letters, but you know when he gets to the end b/c he sings, "next time...sing...ME!"

-thunder and rain really amaze him right now. if it has rained during his nap or in the middle of the night, you can betcha that the first thing he'll say when he wakes up is "funder boom boom!" or "rain aaaaaaallll gone".

-when we're at target or leaving a restaurant or something, he waves and says "hey" to every stranger we pass with a huge grin on his face, as if he's running for office. it cracks the people up. but then if we run into someone that i know or we're at church, ethan sometimes does this fake shy thing that drives me absolutely crazy.

-sometimes he walks like he owns the world. he takes these huge steps with his little bitty legs and swings one arm, and it cracks me and brian up.

-my mom and i were in joann's fabrics with the kids a couple of weeks ago. apparently, ethan had had enough of this girls' stuff, because he shouted, "home depot!" in the middle of the store. that really made his daddy proud!

-ethan loves to pretend he's on the phone. i know that's common for kids, but i had to mention that one. he uses just about anything for a phone if he can't find one of the 100 cell phones that his nana has supplied for his pleasure!! lately, he's been picking up the phone, saying "mmmhhmm.. k.... bye." and slamming the phone shut.

-since we've been talking up his birthday lately, he thinks any candle or anything sticking up out of anything LIKE a candle on a cake is a "happy birthday cake"....like brian's lunch yesterday-- a hamburger w/ a toothpick sticking out of it! "happy birthday cake!" "happy birthday cake!" so hopefully he'll be pretty excited about his actual cake tonite!

-he does not forget anything! this is a good thing and a bad thing....

i could go on all day, but i've got a two year old on my hands now!! :) if you have any memories of ethan that stick out in your mind, i'd love for you to share them. we are absolutely blessed to be his parents. he is a daily reminder of God's goodness in our life...as well as our need for a Savior!

happy birthday baby boy! we love you!

beachy babies!

the kids and i enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach last weekend with kristie, karina, rhema, cindy, and her sweet friend bethany. the extra hands were such a blessing... this was my first excursion to the beach with both kids for an actual day at the beach (instead of just taking pictures or having a picnic), and it was really a great day! we also took the wagon, which was SO NICE to have for the babies when we'd moved them back on the blanket for the 100th time! so yes, you can enjoy the beach with two little kids. just bring along 3 adults with no children and a wagon. (oh, and it helps when your 2 year old doesn't like to walk in the sand, so you know he won't go far!) the worst thing that happened was that caroline kept tipping over face first into the sand while i was trying to get some pictures of her. i'm sure it was a funny sight to see me with my camera in one hand, holding it as high as i could away from the sand, and then my other hand trying to pull caroline's face out of the sand without hurting her or getting sand in the camera. (i did say the extra hands were helpful, but i guess at this moment, they were all actually getting a moment to themselves!) anyway, both caroline and the camera survived, and it looks like caroline will be making sand cupcakes in the future. i estimate she probably ate about 1/4 cup of sand, and of course, i was taking pictures instead of stopping her. but if you're a faithful reader of my blog, you'll know how glad i was that one of my kids loves the sand! :) actually, i was pretty proud of ethan this day. he willingly walked in the sand, played in the sand for a long long time, and not to be outdone by his baby sister, he even tasted it once! ethan and caroline also both enjoyed their first time in the waves, so it looks like ethan may turn out to be a beach kid after all! now if i can just get them to keep their hats on...

enjoy the pictures from our fun day... especially you, hope!!

our cool little pool

at the recommendation of a friend of a friend, we bought ethan this great baby pool from walmart. it's pretty big, and it has a cute little slide built in. after 2 trips to pick it up (duh, it wouldn't fit in our van!), we finally made it home with the pool one night. my mom took ethan outside while she was watching the kids the next day... she said ethan stopped, looked at the empty pool in the backyard and said, "hmmm.....pool....right." such the contemplater!! mom said he then stopped from playing several times and just kept going back to the pool to stare in it! he was probably wondering where all the water was! since then, we've played in the pool several times, but he has YET to brave the daunting slide. he will roll his balls down it, but it might be next year before he goes down it himself. maybe when he's 12. he's doing well to just sit in the pool at this point!!! but as you can see, he loves playing basketball in it. oh well. at least he's staying cool while he's shooting hoops. ha.


caroline has yet to play in the pool (usually we go out during her nap since i only have so many hands!).... but she LOVES the swing! this picture makes me smile so big, even though it's actually a blurry one. caroline seems to enjoy any little adventure, so maybe she'll be down that slide before ethan! :)

down by the bay...

we joined kristie, tammy, and danny's family for a fun day in the bay a couple of weekends ago. (we are actually technically family... brian's brother married kristie... but they treated us like family long before then.) anyway, we love spending time with their family, and this day was no exception. the kids had fun in the bay, and natalie even went on her first tube ride behind pappy's boat! ethan and joseph loved playing "bumper floats", and caroline refused to take a nap while we were in the water because she knew we were all having fun without her! (at least that's what i'm guessing.... and she gets that from her momma!) as you can see by the last pictures, the fun in the sun finally wore everybody out! i especially love the one of karina completely zonked in the swing! what a fun day we had with family and friends.

our family- summer 2007

i love how happy we all are in this picture, especially the kids! anyone with more than 1 child will attest to the fact that it is down right difficult to get everybody LOOKING at the camera for a decent picture, much less smiling all at the same time! i guess i give my kids plenty of practice at this, though. :)