March

Another recap post, I'm slowly catching up.  Here's another picture dump to show you what we were up to in March.

We started our by celebrating a couple of birthdays, my grandma/E's G.G. (for great-grandma) and my aunt Paula's.  Ethan is very into birthdays, and he was especially excited about these because it meant his was next.

Grandma's 88th Birthday

We also enjoyed the warmer weather and re-discovered our backyard.  Ethan's really into playing "sky ball" with Daddy and burying his feet in his sandbox.  I also built a frame for our new raised bed garden and Ethan and I have taken up gardening.  He loves checking on it everyday.  He also loves picking things before their ripe, which is not so awesome.

Being silly in the backyard

Ethan mastered the potty.  He's a pretty awesome kid and got it right away, a few weeks before his birthday.  We're proud.

Potty time

We also added a new member to our family.  We've wanted to get Ethan a dog for awhile and we finally found one at the local shelter that we loved.  His name is Harvey, and while he is definitely trouble, he's been a great addition.

Picking up Harvey to bring him home

We also went to the Austin rodeo.  Well, not really the rodeo so much, but the fair.  We checked out the petting zoo, which kinda scared Ethan.  I don't really blame him, the goats were all up my skirt and the sheep was quite aggressive and kept trying to eat my shoe.  We did find a couple nice animals to feed, though, and then we got out of there as fast as we could.

Feeding the goat.  Or a deer, I can't remember.

At the carnival, we let Ethan ride a few rides.  I didn't think he'd be up for them because he's usually reluctant to try things like this, especially without me, but he had a blast.  He had his buddy, Dax, with him, so I'm sure that helped a lot.

Riding the carousel.

Train ride.

Driving the cars.

 

After getting our fill of rides and fair food, Cory and Ethan tried a few games.  Ethan really liked the one where you try and throw balls into the bowls.

Concentrating

What do you win when you make one in?  A fish.  Not a cute stuffed animal, a live goldfish that I get to take care of.  If you ask Ethan, he won the fish, but his father might disagree.

Carrying his prize

He's been named Fishy Fish, and thankfully he's still alive.

bluebonnets

March is one of my favorite times in Texas, and that is largely because of wildflower season.  I love them, especially now that I can take Ethan out and snap a ton of pictures of him in them.  He is not very cooperative, however.  He refuses to look at the camera most of the time, and real smiles are hard to come by.  I actually took him out to a field near our house twice this year to maximize my chances of getting a few good pictures.

The first trip out didn't provide much.  Here's a couple of sort of cute ones that I got.  The rest were just him running away from me or falling into the flowers.

The second time, we took along one of Ethan's good friends, Dax, and it was much more productive.  The boys had a lot of fun chasing each other around and they were pretty good little models. 

Running out to play

Not quite a smile, but pretty darn cute

His version of posing I guess.

Finally some smiles

And more smiles

Just thinking...

Being silly

I added this one just because I like the zoomed out view of all the bluebonnets.

One of his buddy, Dax.

Exploring together.

So that was our bluebonnet adventure for the year.  Picture overload, I know, but I just couldn't decide. 

January

Behind again, what's new.

So, January.  I didn't take many pictures (plus, my computer crashed and I lost a bunch), but here's what we did.  We wrapped up the holiday season in Southlake with the Whitsetts.  Ethan had a blast playing with his cousins and seeing all his aunts and uncles.  We also celebrated Cory's birthday and New Year's Eve while we were there, which reminds me I had an adorable picture of E in his NYE hat, but I lost that too....very sad.

cousins playing in the leaves

Where's Ethan? (one of his favorite games)

Opening presents

Back home, admiring the tree one last time.

Then, a few weeks later we had the idea to meet some of our favorite friends at the San Antonio Zoo.  Ethan loved it when we went last August, so I thought it'd be great to go back when it was a little cooler.  We took off after dance class one Thursday, and E was great on the road.  When we got there, we took a stroll in Brackenridge Park and had a picnic while we waited for our friends.  We also had a nice time on the playground and enjoyed the lovely warm weather.

Playing

Afterward, we hit the zoo and stayed pretty much until closing time.  It was a lot nicer than last time since we knew what we wanted to see and could skip a lot of the other things.

Checking out the lions

Looking at some animals with his buddies.

Elephants

I'm thinking Ethan's a little spoiled with these zoo visits, because he was a little less interested in the animals this time.  He still had a lot of fun running around with his friends and climbing on rocks.  He also fed the fish again and had his own fill of snacks.

I'm so glad I finally started to catch up.  I have much more to share, so I hope to stay on track for once.

Christmas

Well, late again, but let's talk about Christmas.  We had the privilege of hosting this year, and I was super excited.  It's a lot of work, but definitely worth it to have a good old fashioned family Christmas. 

Quick back story that you can feel free to skip:  We used to host Christmas at my house growing up every year and I have such fond memories of all the traditions we used to have.  We moved out of that house when I went to college, and my mom and aunt moved to separate places (I grew up living with both of them).  We had been storing all of the family Christmas decorations at our house as well, so when we moved, we transferred them all to my grandparents house in Bastrop.  And then it caught on fire.  So this year, we pretty much had nothing.  All of our stockings, my aunts and uncles lost all of the ornaments that had been around since they were kids, and mom and I lost all the ornaments from my childhood as well.  Not to mention, our very special tree topper, a ton of various decorations, lights, dishes, etc. 

So my goal this year was to try my best to make it as close to how it used to be as possible.  With my aunt living with us right now, it made it even better since we used to do it together anyway, along with my mother of course.  We did all of our traditional recipes and activities, and I had a blast.  Hopefully everyone else did too.

Here it is by the numbers, just for fun:
51 presents purchased and wrapped (just ours, not from the whole family)
17 stockings restored/sewed to replace the ones we lost in the fire
2 Christmas trees
3 ornaments re-made for mom to replace a few that I made in elementary school for her
19 strands of lights on the house
99 items on the Christmas grocery list
14 people at Christmas dinner

My mom and aunt making popcorn balls.  Just how I remember it, them frantically scrambling to get them formed before the caramel cools while screaming "ouch, ouch, hot, hot, hot."  I may have done this recipe purely for the entertainment.

Everyone decorating the tree Christmas Eve

Ethan and Nana decorating the tree

Ethan had the honor of putting our new special Erin angel on the tree

Presents.  This wasn't even all of them yet.

All new ornaments, but still beautiful.

My aunt found the stockings from the siblings' childhood.  They were in bad shape, so we restored/replicated them as a surprise.

And also made 10 more new ones for the rest of the family

 Christmas morning was wonderful.  It was so great to see Ethan really get it for the first time.  He was so excited, he kept gasping as he opened presents and saying "what is it, what is it?!?" He loved his wire maze from Santa, which was actually the exact one he asked for, and he also got books, balls, trains, and a bike from Santa too.  The rest of us spoiled him rotten as well with a new train table, more books, clothes, an easel, a microphone, and a million other cool things.

Opening his stocking

His wire maze

Christmas morning chaos

Unfortunately, that was the extent of my picture taking, but the rest of the day was lovely as well.  We had a lot of snacks, played games, tinkered with our new gifts, and had a lovely ham dinner. 

Cory and I gave each other Kindles (we had no idea), and my mom spoiled me with my very first Le Creuset (in purple!), and I loved every other gift I received as well. 

It was a great Christmas.  Next year, we'll hopefully be back at my grandma's in her brand new house. 

Tree and Lights

This year, I had the honor of hosting my side of the family's Christmas, and in my family we decorate a tree together on Christmas Eve.  We decided we might as well get a smaller tree to hold us over until then, and who doesn't like having two Christmas trees anyway?

Ethan really loved decorating the tree and didn't want to stop ever.  He kept exclaiming, "Isn't it AMAZING, Mommy/Daddy?!?" and, "It's AMAZING!!"  Oh, and the way he says "ornament?"  So cute. We literally had to drag him upstairs for bedtime because he did not want to quit.

Ethan and Daddy decorating the tree (taken with our back-up camera, so excuse the less than stellar quality).

Finished product

Ethan admiring the ornaments.

Me trying to be artistic.

And because we got a small family tree this year and I usually have about 10 or 12 white lights on our tree (yes, I'm a little light crazy), I had plenty of lights left over to do this:

I love lights.

 I absolutely love it and I'm considering leaving them up forever.  Cory has finally gotten on board with my Christmas lights idea and he executed my vision perfectly.  Very Griswold, no?

Christmas Festivities 2011

Things have been mighty busy this month, so I'm using that as the reason the blog has yet again been neglected.  So here's a nice round up of all the things we've been up to this season.

The first Christmas activity we attended was a party with all of Ethan's buddies complete with a secret Santa gift exchange.  Ethan has really started to like interacting with his friends and he enjoyed getting together with everyone, and of course getting his first present of the season.

E and a few of his buddies enjoying brunch at the party

That evening we headed down to the capital for their tree lighting and holiday sing-a-long.  We've never done this before, and while it was no Rockefeller Center, it was okay.  It was pretty uneventful, though.  We heard a few Christmas carols, saw the tree, and then took a stroll down Congress Avenue admiring the lights.

Me and Ethan

Our attempt at a family photo.  Again, nothing like last year.

Daddy and Ethan

Nana and Ethan

Another activity we did this year was a Christmas Cookie exchange.  Well, I did it actually, and it was my first ever.  I'm not really a sweets person, but I knew two guys who would be all over getting six dozen cookies.  Their faces when I came home with my stash was totally worth it, and then they got right to work.

Examining their goodies.

We also had a house guest the week before Christmas, my good friend Kathy, so we had to drag her along to a timeless Austin tradition.  She was sad to find out the Trail of Lights was no more, but we enjoyed a bit of the Zilker Tree.  Ethan LOVED the spinning part.  I'm just glad we decided to eat dinner after visiting the tree, things could have gotten ugly.

The tree.  Gotta have a picture every year I suppose.

Spinning.  Blurry, but I still love it.

Nana bought him a sussie.

So that's a little bit of what we've been up to.  More Christmas posts to come.

A quick catch up... Halloween

Just a quick back track so we can get on to the Christmas fun.

Halloween was lovely.  Ethan has only done trick-or-treating once as a baby Bevo, and it was only to a couple of houses on our street.  This year, we had him all ready for the big night.  I was a little nervous he would be too shy to go up to stranger's houses and ask for candy, but he was a pro.  He even remembered his manners and said thank you and "bye' to everyone.

When he got home, he was all about digging into the candy, and he told us all about how he saw some scary things.  He never really got scared and we explained it was all pretend, but he continued to tell everyone who asked for the next few days that he went "twick or tweet and saw some sca-wee fings."  It was pretty adorable.

Getting ready to go

walking with Nana

He immediately stripped down because he was hot, and then discovered his love for Tootsie Rolls.  And of course, had some of his favorties, M&Ms.

Better late than never, Happy Halloween.

wordless Wednesday

because we haven't had one in awhile: