Happy Halloween!

I had planned on Ethan having a new costume this year. But when it came down to putting his costume on, he really wanted to wear his giraffe costume again. So, for the 3rd year in a row, Ethan wore the same costume. It barely fits, but that didn't stop him from wearing it for most of the day. 

Here is 2010 giraffe Ethan. And 2011 giraffe Ethan.

And introducing 2012 giraffe Ethan. Or, more accurately, "Mr. Giraffe from the island of Sodor from Thomas". Everything comes back to Thomas...

We went around to a few of our neighbors, and when he was done we went home. So I hadn't anticipated how scary Ethan would find sitting at home passing out candy. A very tall kid (maybe in jr high?) came by dressed as a gorilla and Ethan retreated to the couch, his sippy and my phone, and sat there for the rest of the night. I would have just stopped passing out candy, but I definitely wanted to get rid of the candy that we had.

And another funny story from this morning. Since I was wearing orange and black, I got Ethan's orange and black shirt out and told him that we could match today. He said (in his most whiney voice) "Mom, I don't want to be matching you!" and told me he wanted to wear a different shirt. I guess it's not cool anymore to match your mom. Sad day :)

Camping

Several weeks ago we took Ethan camping for the first time. He LOVED it... Up until the sleeping part. We ended up coming home before midnight but made some great memories :)

painting

Ethan loves projects!

Cracks me up

After putting Ethan to bed tonight he screamed his head off for several minutes. The all of the sudden it got super quiet so I turned the monitor on since I figured he was done screaming and had decided to go to sleep. I hear him sweetly singing his Sunday school verse for the month, Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Oh, all I can do is laugh. Thank you son for the reminder that we are all sinners in need of Gods grace :)

This picture is of Ethan "helping" mom putty the walls of his new big boy room. I bought some Thomas decals for the room for whenever we get around to setting it up as a bedroom. When he heard what the decorations were for he couldn't wait to start in on the project. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut until I was ready to start the project too :) Also, he's showing off his "I'm not going to smile for the camera no matter what you say" face!

2.5

Lately when you ask Ethan how old he is, he's started saying "two and a half". He's getting so big, truly losing any baby left in him. He had a quick check-up at the doctor yesterday and he weighed in at 32.5lbs! That means he's up 4lbs since March. I measured him at home and he was around 38.5" tall. It's tricky to get him to stand still for long, so that measurement might not be the most accurate :)

Some of his favorites at 2.5 are Thomas and anything train related. He's even started setting up scenes from the tv show and acting out things that happen on the show, complete with the dialog. He loves to sing "holy, holy, holy" and also "as the deer". His favorite bible story (this week anyway) is of Moses and the plagues, his favorite plague is the "owies all over them", and he is very quick to point out that Pharaoh did not listen to God. He can also now say all 12 of his Bible verses from Sunday school.

If you can pull him away from his train set for a minute, he loves spending time outdoors, especially if daddy is willing to take him out in the back yard (our back yard is pretty rugged and overgrown). Mommy more likes to go on walks on trails, which is fine also with Ethan. He still loves to go down to the lake and throw rocks and sticks in, although it will soon be too cold to spend much time out there. He absolutely loves daddy time, and sometimes un-invites me places, or asks me to go to Bible study (I go to a mentor group once a month on Monday nights) so that he can be left alone with dad.

grandpa's birthday!

Of course, mostly the pics I got were of the grandkids, tho :)

Saige's wonderful candle placement skills~

And now for a series of Ethan intentionally not smiling!

One year later

Last year's pumpkins:

This year's pumpkins:

My pumpkin is getting so big :)


Here are a few other shots we got that day