December Part Two - Merry Christmas!

This year we spent Christmas pretty much like we do every year. We woke up early on Christmas Eve, Ethan ate a quick breakfast and we headed over to my mom's house.
Everyone was up and waiting for us to arrive. Kileigh was ready to open some presents!Before opening presents, every year we eat sausage breakfast pizza and fruit and drink coffee, apple cider, or hot cocoa with peppermint and Hershey kisses. This year, Kileigh got to help make the pizza!

Ethan loved the hot cocoa, YUM!
After everyone finished eating, we moved on to opening presents! Much like Ethan's birthday, he really only cared about playing with the paper.

Can you tell what Ethan is into these days??
Anything with wheels!! He also loves music, things he can bang on and bath time stuff!

Look at the mess we made!
After we were finished up at my mom's house, we went over to our house. This year we hosted Christmas Eve at our house so we could put Ethan to bed whenever he was ready. Here he is playing with his kitchen (Christmas gift from grandma Peg and great grandpa this year). He loves stirring things and throwing random objects in the oven and microwave.
After everyone came over, we ate a big dinner then spent some time chatting. Finally, after we were done eating, the kids were ready for present opening. Here are all of the little cousins waiting patiently for their gifts!
After they were done opening presents, the girls spent a good amount of time looking for Santa and his reindeer!
Everyone left around 9pm and we headed off to church. Every year we go to a candlelight service with Mike's family. It's a really nice and relaxing way to celebrate Christmas. Although Ethan was pretty sleepy, he did enjoy the music everyone was singing.

The next morning, we stayed at home for a few hours and Ethan had a chance to open up the presents from us and Santa. He got some outdoor toys for next summer, fake food and dishes for his kitchen, clothes, and more! After finishing up our present opening, we went over to my dad's house for the Christmas celebration with them. Ethan was in a great mood! We started off the day there with present opening. Ethan was loving all of the toys with wheels!
He especially got a kick out of the talking and moving Chuck truck! Every time it would talk or move he would laugh. Thanks Pam for the great toy!
Although the present opening went about the same as it had before (only liking the paper), on the very last present of this year's Christmas season, he actually wanted to open the present on his own. Here he is being a big boy opening the present all by himself.
After we finished opening presents, we were on our way out to start making lunch when we noticed a big group of turkeys in my dad's back yard. Although it is hard to see, there were about ten turkeys just strolling around in his yard!
Thanks everyone for all of the great Christmas memories and fun!

Finally, to close out the year, we went out on the town with Kelly, Chad, Nick (Chad's brother) and his fiancee Heather. We went out for a nice dinner at The Speakeasy then out to the bar in Milton. At The Speakeasy we had some really good martinis!


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

December Part One

Now that Ethan has turned one, I swear his personality grows each and every day. He is really starting to test out Mike and I and tries to figure out what he can get away with. He, of course, has figured out that I am the sucker for his whining and crying and Mike is the fun one. The morning after his birthday, we snapped this picture of him playing, we thought it looked like a cheesy posed picture :)Here is a perfect example of him and his testing. He has known for forever not to go into the entertainment center. So, now when he walks over to the cabinet (saying no no no as he gets closer) he turns and gives us one of these looks to see if he will get yelled at...
As a late birthday present, we decided to buy Ethan a bookshelf for the basement. He is starting to really love the peek-a-boo books and those with animals he can feel. Every day he empties out the entire bookshelf then sits among the books and "reads" them.
Can you guess what Ethan's favorite food is these days??
NOODLES!!!

In mid-December Mike's family decided to spend the family Christmas at the water park in the Clock Tower in Rockford. The kids had a great time splashing around in the water and going down the slides. Although Ethan was too little for the slides, there were a bunch of stairs for him to climb and little mini fountains for him to play in. He loved all of the exploring!



As he got more adventurous, he climbed up a set of stairs and across this bridge. What I didn't realize was that there was a bucket that would fill up with water and when it was full, it would dump over. Well, Ethan went running across the bridge and before I could react, the big bucket of water landed right on his head. Mike somehow caught the action shot! (Notice me running to catch him - a little too late!)
The week before Christmas, Mike, his mom, Kelly and Lainey all went to Breakfast with Santa in Milton. Although Ethan didn't mind sitting with Santa last year, this year was a bit scarier.

November Part 3 - Ethan's First Birthday

For Ethan's birthday, we took him to a local photographer to have his first birthday and Christmas pictures taken. We thought they turned out pretty nice!

By the time Ethan's birthday came around, he was walking instead of crawling, most of the time.

For Ethan's birthday, Mike and I bought him an electric train that runs on a track. So, before he went downstairs in the morning, Mike set it up for him to see. I have to say, he was pretty excited, although mostly because it does play music. He still is an absolute lover of music and dancing!

We even added some decals to the back of the train to make it officially Ethan's train! He liked riding it, but only for about two minutes at a time.
His birthday ended up being quite a large party. Between 20 and 30 family members and close friends came to celebrate Ethan turning one! We had a nice lunch followed by cake. Ethan got the first piece, of course. At first he was a little apprehensive, but after a few tastes, he shoveled the cake in!


Then looked at me like, "Mom, I want some more!"
I'm sure you can't tell by the following picture what came next...
BATH TIME!! As much as he loves baths, it's only right for him to get a bath on his birthday.
After a quick scrub down, the party was waiting downstairs for present opening. He was much more interested in the paper than the actual gifts, but we were very fortunate to get all of the toys and clothes we will need for a really long time! Thanks everyone who came!

After everyone left, we had some quiet time with the grandparents. Here is Ethan with his grandma.
Whew! What a great first birthday! I can't believe it has already been a year since our little man joined our little family. We can't imagine life without you Ethan, you mean the world to us and you have definitely filled parts of our hearts we didn't even know existed. Your smile, giggle, and growing personality make our day! We love you Little man/Peanut/E-man/Bud/Big guy!

Ethan's 1 year stats:
Height: 30.25 inches - 63rd percentile
Weight: 20 lb 8 oz - 16th percentile
Head: 49 cm - 98th percentile

So...we are still long and lean with a big head (and big brains to go with it) :)

November Part 2

While he was sleeping, I snapped this pic of his first tooth!

After we got home from Arizona, we did a lot of work on Ethan's walking. He started out taking just a few steps and within days he was taking 10-20 at a time.


Of course on his way to walking, there were also a lot of falls. Here is an action shot of one of his tumbles.

November was also a time of a ton of exploration. He is into EVERYTHING now and especially loves seeing how well he or his hands can fit into small places. Along with this, he loves the word "no." He will even say "no no no" as he is about to go do something he knows is naughty. Here are some pics of him exploring his environment.
He has also come to LOVE bath time even more than he did before. He likes to splash, drink his bath water, and throw things out of the tub. On one special night at grandma's, Ethan and Lainey took a bath together. They had lots of fun splashing around.
As I'm sure you can tell from the pics above, Ethan's hair got to be quite crazy. Our plan was to wait until he turned one to cut his hair but I decided I wanted it to look nice for the holidays. So, on November 24th, Ethan got his first hair cut. We decided to take him to my hairdresser who does my whole family's hair. Here she is showing Ethan the scissors and comb they will be using. He wasn't the biggest fan of getting his hair cut so hopefully that will improve over time!
Here is his after shot..obviously not too happy here!
Although he hated the haircut, he sure did look cute for Thanksgiving! This year was a little different than usual. We spent the holiday morning at my grandma Leeder's house in Beloit. We had a very nice lunch and even better company. It was great to see parts of the family that we don't see very often.
After my grandma's house, we spent the rest of the evening at my dad and Pam's. Although the picture quality isn't the greatest, I thought this pic of the kids with my dad was just too cute.