Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope yours is great!

Wordless Wednesday

Some of E's new toys

Well, they're not necessarily new anymore, but Gramma reminded me she never saw pictures, so I thought I'd better oblige her.

We were kind of in a rut in the toy department since Ethan had outgrown all his "baby" toys that he received last Christmas and birthday, and he was getting a little bored in the playroom. Cory and I were at Costco picking up a few things and grabbed a Christmas present for Ethan from us, and picked up a play kitchen that was supposed to be a Christmas present from Nana. We got it home, and Nana decided Christmas was too far away, so we call it his half birthday present. He's a lucky kid.

He loves the thing. It has drawers and cabinets to open and empty, silverware to hide in the couch cushions, buttons to press, and a bunch of fake food to chew on. It also has a stove that knows if you're using the sauce pan or the frying pan and will boil or sizzle accordingly. How smart is that??

We had to hide the telephone for awhile because apparently it was always for me or Cory, and Ethan insisted that we talk to them right that very second or he might throw a fit.


Ethan also LOVES to be outside, so we picked up this baby for cheap on craigslist:

Yeah, I know he doesn't look too thrilled in this picture, but I swear he likes it.

He loves climbing and sliding, so we thought this would be a hit.

See, proof he likes the slide.

Oh, and it also has a steering wheel. He's a fan of steering wheels. We honestly thought he'd play with it a lot more than he does, but he'd much rather carry a stick around the backyard. What can you do?


Last new thing was as much a present for me as it was for Ethan. He absolutely hates when I go in the kitchen to cook and leave him in the gated living room, so we thought maybe he'd like to help. We found a good deal on a learning tower type thing, so we went ahead and got it. Plus, it's collapsible, which is a must in my teeny tiny kitchen.

His favorite thing to do so far is stir. He also likes to have his snack in the tower, which usually gives me time to throw dinner in the crockpot.

Ah, the things they make for kids these days. We'll have to see if we can control ourselves for Christmas because there are so many cool things I'd like to get him.

Happy (very late) Halloween

So, I never blogged about Halloween, huh? Whoops, I'm very sorry. Cory has been reminding me to for awhile now, so I figured I's better get to it so he'll leave me alone ;)

The actual day of Halloween was spent in a very scary place, our terribly unorganized, out of control garage. I spent a good 6 hours cleaning it out, and unfortunately, we never went trick-or-treating. I don't think Ethan really noticed since he had his fill of candy in the weeks before at all of the other Halloween celebrations. We'll definitely be going next year though, since he'll probably know what's going on by then.

He did have plenty of other chances to celebrate his dad's favorite holiday, and of course he got good use out of his costume. The first celebration was a party at a friends house with all his buddies.



He totally rocked his costume and left it on pretty much the whole time. When I was deciding what he should be this year, I first thought that he should carry some kind of stick. The kid really loves long over-sized things like branches, plungers (clean ones of course), and brooms. We settled on scarecrow, and the broom really made him happy.

Next up on our social calendar was a Fall Festival in Round Rock. It was extremely windy and very crowded, but there was a lot of open space to run around in, so E was content.

He played a few games and earned some candy.

He explored with his bud Audrey.

And enjoyed running around the park with his broom.

The day before Halloween, we went to show off his costume to Gramma and Aunt Paula and watched the game.

E and Daddy hanging out on the back deck.

That pretty much sums up our Halloween adventures. We'll have to start brainstorming costume ideas for next year soon. I'll leave you with one more picture of Ethan in his Halloween shirt. He was saying "Boo!"

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weekends ago, we met up with some friends and family at the pumpkin patch in Elgin. There are probably too many pictures for you, but I figured I've been lacking in the blog department, so I might as well post them all.

Here's E in his wagon going to the farm:

He immediately found the toddler play area:

Played some tether ball with his Aunt Paula:

Obsessed over the balance beam, which he is quite good at by the way:

Fished for ducks, and won a prize. However, he would have rather taken the fishing pole as his prize:

Played bean bag toss with the pumpkin:
He refused to appease his mama and take a good pumpkin patch picture. This is the best we could get:

Then we took a hayride out to the pumpkin hunt:



Ethan had no trouble finding a pumpkin:


The whole thing is located on a Christmas tree farm, so E played hide-and-seek with Aunt P in the trees:



Then he chilled out with some of his friends and had a snack:


Once he had pretty much explored the entire farm, he hitched a ride with his cousin David back to the car:

We had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to making it a family tradition. Hopefully, we'll find a better "patch" this year and get some pictures before October is over.

Austin Children's Museum

Every Monday morning, the children's museum has a program just for toddlers. We've never had the chance to make it because our little Ethan Bear really REALLY likes to sleep in. Yesterday, however, I made the decision to go no matter what. So as soon as E woke up (at the glorious hour of 9 a.m.), we hauled butt to get ready and make it down there and meet up with some of our friends. Thankfully, it wasn't one of his 10 a.m. wake-up days, because we wouldn't have had a chance. I'm really glad we did, and really sad we missed our chance to buy a discounted membership to the museum, because Ethan really liked it.

His favorite part was the ramp leading up to the slide. I'm pretty sure he would have gone up and down it all day if I would've let him.


He finally decided to actually use the slide as well.

And then he did some construction upstairs. He actually grabbed the hat himself, put it on, and got to work on some blocks.

He also spent quite a bit of time at the drop in a golf ball maze thingy.

We also enjoyed the sing-along time with the group. Ethan is not one to sit still for more than 1.4 seconds at a time, but when he gets shy, he'll apparently sit on my lap and listen to the songs for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Who knew. We'll definitely be going back.

Wordless Wednesday

Game Day

College football is upon us, and that means Saturdays are full of burnt orange and cheering for the next few months or so. Ethan is now the proud owner of a Longhorn jersey (from his wonderful Nana), and he actually loves to watch football. Last year there was a lot of crying because he'd get scared when we yelled at the t.v., but this year he'll clap right along with us. He's also working on throwing his hands in the air everytime we yell "touchdown!" which is pretty darn cute.

Here's Ethan this past Saturday:


And here he's meeting the inflatable Bevo we have:

Bevo has been around since college when a roommate and I were victims of impulse buying, but this is the first time we've introduced him to Ethan. I have a feeling he'll be making many more appearances this fall.

Hook 'Em.