Ethan's 1st birthday!!

I have a one year old--I can hardly believe it!! Ethan turned one on Monday, however we celebrated his birthday on Sunday, that is why he is in his sunday clothes. I can hardly believe where the last year has gone and how much Ethan has grown. I can also not imagine having him as a part of our family. He is just such a little source of laughter and happiness and we are so glad to be his parents!

His Grandma and Grandpa Tolman made him a great birthday banner and sent him some fun presents.

I made him chocolate oreo cake which he loved. He is a little chocoholic like his father.

We got him a little tricycle that Eric and I can push. It is great. We have been pushing him all over the house, because it is still too cold outside. Grandma and Grandpa Nelson sent Ethan some fun presents also, however, he liked the card the best. He looked at that for 10 minutes before we could get him to open his presents!

New Carseat!!

We finally got Ethan a new car seat yesterday and he has been testing it out today. He just loves it. It has a little snack compartment on one side and a drink holder on the other. He will sit in it and I put some snacks in the compartment and a drink in the other side and he will just sit there and eat and drink and hang out for a good 10 minutes, which for him is a long time to sit in just one place. Hopefully he will like it as much when we put it in the car!

Tumbling Class!!

Last week Ethan started a tumbling class and he absolutely loves it. There are about 10 kids in the class ages 11 months to 23 months and Ethan is probably the youngest. He also has 3 friends in class with him which is very nice. Everytime we go to tumbling, he gets so excited and the whole time he just goes from one piece of equipment to the next and the whole time he is oohing and aahing and just talking up a blue storm. He is by far the most animated, excited and talkative kid in the class. The class is 45 minutes and the first half we just play on the equipment, they have trampolines you can jump on, little slides, things to push, etc. Then the teacher brings out a garbage can full of balls and we throw the balls and kick the balls and then she brings out a bunch of cars that you can ride on or push. It is the most fun class and Ethan just has a blast everytime. The one picture below is his friend Matthew that is in class with us. Last week we got there a little early, so Matthew and Ethan played and I took some pictures! Also, doesn't he just look so cute in his little nike outfit--he really was dressed and ready to tumble.

Messy Ethan!!

One day, Ethan jumped in his toy bin and started playing. I thought it was so funny.


Eric and Ethan made us German chocolate cake last week. Ethan's job was to clean the spoon and he made sure every last bit of chocolate was licked off!

What a lucky little boy!

I just thought these pictures were so cute of Ethan with his grandpa and grandma. I am just so grateful that both Eric and I have such wonderful families that love us and Ethan so much! It was just so fun to watch how much fun my parents had with Ethan while we are at Christmas and how much fun Eric's parents have with him when we visit. Ethan is one lucky little boy and I am one lucky mom to have such a wonderful little boy!

Look what Tio did!

Lance, my brother, had so much fun with Ethan, in fact my whole family did--they were all so depressed when he left. Anyways, Lance was like a little kid with Ethan. One day, I heard a lot of laughing and in walked Lance and Ethan and my sweet innocent boy had a mustache drawn on his face--this actually happened twice. I just don't know how someone could draw a mustache on such a cute little kid. However, Ethan loved it, he would just stand there while his tio drew a mustache on him. We all thought it was pretty funny. So, here is Ethan with a mustache.

Ethan's early b-day party!

Ethan turns one the end of this month, however, while we were in St. Louis, we thought it would be nice to celebrate his birthday a little early. So on his 11-month birthday, we had a little party. We had cake and ice cream, he got a balloon, which he loved playing with and then tio and tia (that is what my brother Lance wants Ethan to call him and his wife--it is spanish for uncle and aunt) got him a spiderman ball.

The Man Dinner!!

One night while we were at my parents, we had a special dinner called the "Man Dinner." The men of the house cooked dinner that night. They cooked pheasant, dove, quail and we had venison sausage. My dad goes hunting a couple of times a year with business associates and usually he takes along one of the boys. All year long, my mom's freezer collects birds that they have shot, so the men decided to cook them. So they cooked dinner, the attire for dinner was camouflage, even Grandma wore camo, and we had a nice tool centerpiece. It was a lot of fun and the food was great! Here are some pictures!

Christmas 2007

This year we spent Christmas in St. Louis with my family. We had so much fun. The whole family was home except for my older brother and his wife. Here is a slide show of some of the fun things we did: