Fire!! Or at least a Fire Station!

We had a super play group last week!  Our good friend from the ward set up a tour of the fire station!  What could be better for a little boy?  Ethan was so excited!  

Our play group in front of the fire engine at Fire Station 50 here in Jacksonville, FL.  

Stand back!  I'm putting out a dangerous fire!  

I'm off to the rescue again!  A little boy's work is never done!  

We're all off to save the day!

 

This was an awesome play group activity!  Thanks so much for putting this together for us all, Happy!  

Kids Say the Darnest Things!

Whenever Chris comes home from being gone for a couple of days, Ethan's new thing is to hug him and say "Love you much," and "Miss you much."  

Well, he has never yet said those words to me, but I just assumed that's because I never leave him (except for the 45 minutes at the gym every morning).

Here's the conversation that happened at dinner the other night---when it was just the two of us:

Ethan:  "Love you much."

Me:  "I love you very much too, Ethan."

Ethan pauses to think, then shakes his head.

Ethan: "No, Dada!  Love Dada much."

Me:  "I know you love Dada and Mommy, huh?"

Ethan: (very emphatically) "Dada!  Love Dada much!"  

I'm still waiting on the "love mommy much," but so glad he loves his dad!!

Now I found the perfect diaper bag....

Okay, as most of you know, I have diaper bag hunting since Ethan was born, and now that he's getting past that stage, I've found the perfect place for the cutest diaper bags and diaper bag backpacks! 

 www.diaperbagsinc.com. 

Right now, they're even having a diaper bag giveaway!  Seriously!  Guess I'll just have to sign up and have it ready for the next munchkin that comes along...no this does not mean one's on the way though!

Growing up so fast!

I woke up this morning and realized that in less than 2 months, Ethan will be 2 years old!  I'm not sure where all the time went...it seems that only a year could have passed! But then I watched him running around, talking up a storm, and climbing everywhere and realized that he really is almost 2!  He loves talking!  I think it's because then he knows I know what he wants.  (And therefore should always give it to him!)  When daddy's home, his favorite thing to ask for is "chocolate?" or "cookies?"  He also tells people everywhere we go that "dada at work" "boat" and "water," which translates roughly to daddy's at work on the boat on the water.  He also loves to run up to Inca and say "hug good girl" while he lays on her in a big bear hug.  

He is very active too!  His favorite places are Pump It Up an Tunnelz N Tumblez.  Both are indoor playgrounds of sorts with lots of climbing, jumping, and sliding!  What more could a kiddo ask for?     

The past 2 years have gone by so quickly, but he's definitely ready to be 2 years old!  (Even if I'm not!)  
  

Let's Try Again

Okay, so this year I made a resolution that once I "committed" to something, I would see it through.  That included keeping up on my blog.  So what did I do?  I procrastinated starting the blog again!  Oh well!  

Christmas (which was almost a month ago) was GREAT!  My family came down to stay with us.  Ethan absolutely loved having his two uncles here.  Every morning he woke up asking for "T" and "Vinent" (Tristin is impossible for him to say, so he become Uncle T.  Vincent is hard to say, so  he was renamed Vinent.) Ethan's highlight was his Powerwheels Jeep.  He upwrapped it just enough to see what it was, then sat it in and was ready to go.  He didn't really unwrap anything else the rest of the morning.  

We found a cute little place down in St. Augustine where they had an elf village for Christmas.  It was perfect for little munchkins.  They could go into the houses, run all around, and just have a blast! 

We a lot of fun this Holiday season!  

Summer Rewind!

Our summer seems to have flown by this year.  Ethan's able to do so much more everyday, and it's a lot of fun for Chris and I.  It's also keeping us very busy!  He has now mastered climbing on the table, kitchen counters, into the kitchen sink, and two days ago I found him inside the dryer!  (See pictures below.)  

Ethan has a blast popping bubbles with his buddy Dylan.  He absolutely loves to be outside, and requests "ou-side? ou-side?" several times a day. 

 

We loved going to parks with friends to feed ducks and turtles, and of course to climb on EVERYTHING!

Ethan still loves the beach.  We went with a small group of friends and he had a great day. 

Story time at the library.  What do I say about that?  Well, we're doing better...it's been about 4 weeks since we've last been kicked out for not sitting quiet enough.  So, we're making progress! 

Ethan loved taking Chris to the park and showing his daddy how he can blow bubbles all by himself!  

The highlight of our summer was going home to see my brother, Tristin come home from his mission in Puerto Rico.  He had never met Ethan before, so it was exciting for all.  Ethan and Tristin immediately bonded, and it was less than one day before Ethan followed him around the house calling "T! T!"

And here's our little monkey, very proud of himself for climbing in the dryer!  

Happy Halloween!

Picking out a Halloween costume this year has been quite an adventure!  We started out borrowing this absolutely adorable skunk costume from a friend here in Jacksonville.  Unfortunately, the costume didn't quite fit (at 18 months, my son wears 3-T clothes!).  So I put Chris in charge of finding the perfect costume and we began a nearly endless search for a costume that Chris liked.  

After searching at 3 different party stores, 2 halloween stores, Target, Old Navy, The Children's Place... (you get the idea), Chris found "the one."  Meet Captain Ethan, the Mighty Toddler Pirate King.   

As you can imagine, Ethan loves to yell "BOOM!  BOOM!" as he uses his sword to hit everything in sight.  Fortunately for Inca and my furniture, the sword is made of foam!

He and Chris had a lot of fun picking out the perfect pumpkin to make a Jack-o-Lantern too!  I think Ethan checked out nearly every pumpkin on the field and gave several the sword test to see how durable they were. Finally, he found one that met his expectations and strict standards.  
We went to a Trunk-or-Treat activity for our church this past weekend also.  Ethan had a lot of fun getting candy.  When Chris would prompt him to say "trick-or-treat", Ethan decided he'd rather get right down to business, and just ask "Treat?"  When the candy was put into his Thomas bucket, he'd immediately dig in it crying for "candy, candy, CANDY!"  I found it amazing, since he's never really had candy.  In fact, I don't think Chris or I had ever even said "candy" to him before the Halloween activities this week.  Amazing how quickly he can learn about candy, but how he still doesn't understand that "don't climb into the kitchen sink" means he should keep his feet on the floor! 

So, I know it's been about 2 months since the last post, and it's honestly because I think we've just been keeping so busy with play dates, library story times, and going home to visit my family and see my brother come home from his mission!  I did take lots of great pictures though, and I'll post them all soon!  

Five Fabulous Years!

This past weekend was our 5 year anniversary!  It's hard to believe that five years has gone by so quickly!  Since Chris was down in Miami with the Coast Guard, Ethan and I packed up in the car and headed down to see him!  We went out to the Everglades, since Chris had never seen them and has a fascination with alligators.  

We spent a lot of our time at the Everglades Holiday Park, and driving around the 50+ miles of roads going through the Everglades and Indian reservations. 

While I was all prepared to see alligators, wild hogs, snakes, and deer, I didn't expect to see peacocks, but we saw quite a few at the park!  

I am definitely very lucky to have such a great husband who loves Ethan and I so much!  

Batting Down the Hatches...didn't I do this a few years ago?

I don't know if it's just my luck or what, but right before we moved away from Jacksonville (3 1/2 years ago), we got hit by four hurricanes.  Actually, Chris was safe in Mississippi while I was stuck here alone for all four.  Now, after coming back to Jacksonville only 4 months ago, I am experiencing deja vu.  Chris is down in Miami, where Tropical Storm Fay barely brushed him with a few gusts of wind and about 3.8 inches of rain.  Ethan, Inca, and I are up here in Jacksonville, where the meteorologists predict Fay will hit as a category 1 hurricane on Thursday.  Now I am trying really, REALLY hard to remember why we thought it would be a good idea to move back here.  Did the previous four hurricanes not teach me that when Chris leaves, the hurricanes come?  

Chris has called several times to make sure we are okay.  Despite his insistence that I get plenty of sleep tonight to be able to handle everything the next two days, I find myself up at 12:30am completely glued to the weather channels to track the movement of the storm.  It's not that I'm worried, it's just this darn storm has changed course so often since this past Sunday that I'm curious to see where it will go next.  A category 1 usually just means a lot of rain and winds strong enough to knock down tree branches or power lines.  It's more of an annoyance than anything dangerous, especially if the power goes out.  

Fortunately, we are as prepared as I feel we can get with plenty of canned food, water, dog food, flashlights, candles, batteries, and a healthy supply of movies and books to outlast the bad weather.  We are also fortunate enough to have wonderful friends among the Coast Guard wives and in our church who have called or stopped by to make sure we will be okay or invite us to stay further inland with them.  (We are only 10-15 minutes from the beaches, but not in the evacuation areas for anything smaller than a category 4 hurricane.)  

Hopefully, I'll wake up in the morning and the storm will have changed direction or died down....we'll see!! 

Back to Reality

Okay, as many of you know I have become addicted to the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.  It all started about 8 months ago, thanks to a great friend (thanks, Joy!).  I was very excited to get the newest, and apparently last, book in the series that came out last Saturday.  I dove right into reading it and finished it early Sunday morning (thanks to my wonderful husband who put up with my nightlight in bed all night).  Without ruining it for those who haven't finished it yet, I won't say much.  But it wasn't quite what I was picturing, and felt ambivalent.  So, as with all of the Stephenie Meyer books I've read so far, I decided that I needed to reread it.   I just finished my second go-around.  I am pleased to say I now love the book, and am only sad I don't have a fifth book to wait for.  But.....there's always the movie coming out!!!  I wonder how many times I'll have to see that!  (Poor Chris....he's already sure I'll have to drag him to see it at least once.  He still doesn't get why I am in love with a series about vampires and werewolves....Oh dear...how do I explain?!)