Frisbee

George took Ethan outside to play one day and showed him how to play frisbee. He moves his body so funny when he throws it, it almost looks like he's pulling some fancy dance moves!
This one is by far my favorite picture! The frisbee blends into the shadow, so it just looks like he decided to randomly bust a move!




By the end he started to get pretty good. Some of the time the frisbee actually got semi close to the person he was aiming for. :)

Flower

A few Sunday's ago, a lady in my ward gave Ethan a flower at church. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, he climbed out of the car and headed straight for my flower bed. He started digging a hole and proceeded to plant his flower in the hole.





He was so proud of his flower that he had planted, he kept wanting to run outside and look at it. Needless to say, cut flowers don't do well in dry hot flower beds without water...or roots for that matter. By the end of the day, it was laying flat on the dirt looking sad as could be.

10 Months

I figured I should probably get this posted asap, because Lincoln turned 11 months today. :) Better late than never.

I don't have his height, weight or anything like that because he doesn't go to the doctor until next month, and I don't have a scale in my house.


Random 10 month facts:
*He's still just a tiny little thing!
*Still wearing 6-9 month clothes and select 3-6 month pajama shorts
*Still wearing a size 2 diaper ... but may possibly be out of that size by the time he's 1.
*He can stand up in the middle of a room without holding onto anything, and then lean over and grab whatever he wants, and then stand back up holding the item he chose. He's so close to walking!


*He still has 6 teeth
*He has crazy long skinny legs! (He definitely did NOT inherit that from me)
*He loves wrestling with his dad and Ethan at night before bedtime
*He's a good little eater and is a pro with table food
*He is a total sweetheart
*He is a total opposite of Ethan in lots of ways, but loves his brother like crazy!

We are so lucky to have such a sweet little boy and I can't believe that he's growing up so dang fast!

Love this boy!

Yep. This boy has me totally smitten. He's such a sweetheart. He has the most calm personality and is such a Mama's boy. He loves Ethan and Ethan loves having a friend around at all times. I'm so thankful to have him as part of my family.

Twins

Tyler and Lincoln wearing their matching outfits.



These two sweet boys are growing up so dang fast! Sometimes when they are together, I completely forget that Tyler is 2 months younger than Lincoln ... maybe it's because he weighs a full 5+ pounds more! :) He's such a sweet little thing! Tyler totally loves Ethan and laughs and grins as big as he can when Ethan is around.

I love that they are so close in age, they will grow up to be best friends.

Addicts

All three of these boys go crazy when there is ice cream in the house. Mart bought a shake and as soon as he sat down to eat it, he had two boys climbing all over him to get a bite.



Both of those little boys stayed in that same spot until the ice cream was gone, and even after it was gone they both didn't think they had had enough!

Boating

The end of July we took our boys boating for the first time. Ethan had never been on my moms boat yet for lots of reasons, but this summer it was time. The boat was fixed and running so there were no excuses. It was hot, Ty was willing to take us so we loaded up and headed out.

This photo is a little blurry, but it's the best we got of just the two of us.



Ethan was a little nervous once we got going on the boat, but once he realized that he could sit on the back and get his butt in the water while people switched out who was knee boarding/wake boarding, etc... he thought it was great! During one switch, Mart and George got Ethan up on the knee board and just let him sit there for a few minutes.



Lincoln on the other hand didn't like his life jacket and was a little grouchy. He was mad when his dad put his legs in the water, so he just sat on my lap the rest of the time.



He did really well until we hit some waves wrong and a huge amount of water came up and over the windshield and landed right on me and Lincoln! He was not happy. Unfortunately it got all of our towels pretty wet, so he just had to deal with the driest part of the towel I could find. He did pretty good though and ended up falling asleep and stayed that way until we were finished.

Ethan talked about the boat and water for like a week after we went. I think we will definitely have to take him again.

Who needs an air conditioner when you have ...

There are a few things that Ethan absolutely loves.

*One is cake/cupcakes/treats, etc. basically anything with sugar.
*The next is "cha-kett" (Also known as chocolate. I suppose this could fall in the first catagory)
*...and one is water. He LOVES water. He loves to go swimming, take baths, run through the sprinkler, splash in muddy water puddles left over in lawn chairs after a rain storm, playing in the dog dish, etc.

With the weather being so hot lately, and our house being over 100 years old with no air conditioning .. we needed to find a way to cool off.





Ethan liked this method way better than an air conditioner. He had a blast! He ran all over the yard chasing his dad. They were both pretty wet by the time they came in the house.

Rough life

It's hard being 9 months old and super cute.

Sweet little monkey must have been exhausted! He just leaned over and took a little snooze, and as soon as I finished taking a picture, I really did put him in his bed. :)

Swimming with Kace

I don't know what's going on, but Ethan has been really hard to handle some days now. I don't know if it's because he's 3, or because he just has high energy, maybe he's mad he's not the only child anymore so he doesn't get all the attention ... I'm just not sure. Some days it makes me totally insane and I turn into a crazy person. He throws way too many tantrums, says "no" like he doesn't know any other words, and doesn't listen at all! I think I repeat myself all day long and by the end of the day, I just want to strangle him. I just don't know what to do ...I've never done this before!

Some times when he behaves like this, I just need a break from him so I don't post him on the KSL classifieds and mark him as "Free!" ... but I don't know where to send him. My mom is really good to him, and will almost always watch him when I need to go somewhere, but she hasn't ever been one to just come over and take him to give me a break. That's just not how she is. The days when I am struggling the most and tell her I'm going to give him away, she just thinks it's funny and laughs at me like I am joking. I was stuck in the nursery right after we moved in and was there for so long that I don't really know very many people in my ward that well yet, so I wouldn't ever feel comfortable enough to just hand him over to them. He's so crazy, I would feel guilty pushing him on someone I barely know.

It's hard because although I have family around, I don't really feel like I do some of the time. We don't ever see Mart's parents. Ethan doesn't even know Dalina (Mart's step-mom) at all. He kind of knows Big Martin, but he never really goes out of the way to see Ethan. Sometimes I just feel a little ripped off in that part of my life. Ethan basically only has 1 grandparent and Debi (which I pretty much consider to be another grandparent now). It's totally a good thing he has Kace, Ber and George who love and adore him. His Aunt's and Uncle make up for the lack of grandparents to love and spoil him.

Anyway, I think Kace can tell when I'm at my wits end and she comes to the rescue as often as she can. She is totally busy with work and her own baby to take care of, but she comes and picks Ethan up and takes him swimming at the sports academy, just the two of them. He LOVES it! He's always so good for her and talks about nothing but "shwimming" with Kace for about a week. It's such a life saver some days and I am so grateful to have her in our lives! I'm so glad she moved back home from Oregon, because I really missed her while she was gone. I love her so much and she is totally my best friend. I tell her all the time, but I hope she always knows how much I love and appreciate her for all that she has ever done for me. It was a huge deal for me when she volunteered to watch Ethan every morning so I could go to school, and I don't think I can ever fully repay her for that...but I will try. :)

Ethan sure loves her and loves spending time with her. Thanks for taking him "shwimming!", he LOVES it!


Here is Ethan all ready to go swimming with Kace. We even packed him his own backpack with sunscreen and snacks.


He loved carrying that backpack around. He felt all grown up!


And... even though I feel like giving my child away some times, I do love him more than I think he will ever know. He's one of the lights in my life and I can't imagine life without him. (Although, it would be nice if it could be less stressful some times).