Much needed warm weather and beautiful spring color

Today I realized how much this long winter affected me. I went for a drive with Ethan and Kambree today, and as I was driving I was noticing all the trees that are finally starting to get green on them, the flowers that are finally coming up, and the pretty flowering trees that are blooming, and I realized that this last winter seemed like it was longer than normal. Yesterday we had near 80 degree weather, and it seems just as warm today, but it is expected that it will drop down 30-40 degrees today and tomorrow and we might get snow. Winter really does seem to affect my mood, and now that it is warming up outside and everything is getting beautiful color again I feel a lot happier. There are 4 peonie bushes coming up in front of my house, and almost all of my pots and planters have things growing in them, so I'm excited for them all to bloom out.

Fun Stuff

We had a really good weekend. Saturday we went to a birthday part for my friend Charity's son Caleb, who turned one. It was a fairly nice day, and it was nice to be outside. Charity and her husband Andy asked us to go hiking later that evening on a trail they had found that went under the bridge, so we all went hiking. I love hiking, fishing, camping, etc. and it was so nice to get out of the house and do something like that. Ethan hates being strapped down, so he cried for the first third of the trip, but eventually he stopped crying and actually sounded like he was enjoying himself. Both Ryan and I want to do more hiking, camping, etc. this summer, and now that we know about this trail, which is fairly close to our house, we can just go out in the evening for an hour or so. Here is a picture of us on our hike, I really hate having my picture taken, but it's not terrible.

Ethan started Nursery on sunday and loved it. I tried to take a picture of him in his sunday outfit but he wouldn't hold still, even with Ryan holding him, so this picture is going to have to do.

Today I decided to buy Ethan some new clothes, since he is growing out of most of his pants, or they are still too big around the waist. I'm so proud of myself because I found three really cute pairs of overalls at DI, and then bought a cute onsie shirt from Target. I decided to take a picture of Ethan in one of his new outfits, and decided it was just easier to take it when he was asleep. This pair of ovearlls he is wearing in the picture is a cute green courderoy pair. They are all a little baggy, but he will grow into them, plus i don't have to worry much about them falling down or him pulling them off. Today he pulled his pants and diaper off, went into the kitchen and wet on the floor. :) I'm happy he at least chose to do it on the lenoleum and not the carpet in the living room. He makes me laugh. He's so cute, you really can't be mad at him, as he's running around naked waving his sippy cup and giggling.

First Hair cut

Last night I gave Ethan his first haircut. I didn't really know what would be the best way to go about it, so I ended up having Ryan hold him while I used the electric clippers to cut it. He's definately scared of the clippers now, when I turned them on, he got this weird look on his face like "what are you going to do?" It looks kind of short and thin right now, but I think it's cute. I figured it would be a good time to cut his hair since it was 2 inches long in places, and he was gtting a curl on the back of his head. I think he looks so handsome, no longer like a baby but like a little boy.

Today I packed away Ethan's bottles, and I'm happy that he is finally done with drinking from a bottle. He's been doing so well lately with going to bed at the same time each night, and drinking from a sippy cup. I love watching him grow up, and learn new things. Sometimes I will walk into the living room and find him staring at a DVD cover, pointing to the different pictures or words, like I do with his books. It's really cute. He has also been very cuddly lately. He's always been a cuddly boy, but lately he wraps his arms around my neck and holds onto me very tight. He's so cute. :) The picture I attatched to this post is one that I took last spring when we were living in Centerville UT. It's one of my favorites of Ethan because of his bright eyes and big smile.

I've begun babysitting a little 13 month old girl named Kambry three times a week. At first I was worried that it would be too much taking care of two children close to the same age, but it's turned out o be a lot easier than I thought it would be. Yesterday when Ryan got home we decided to take the two kids out in the back yard to play on the slide in our back yard. It was a really nice day, and really warm compared to waht it has been lately. It was really fun to see Ethan slide down the slide, he's just now starting to like it. Kambry really wanted to climb the ramp/"rock" wall thing, it was pretty cute. Ethan loves being outside. I don't take him out a lot, because he takes off running. He ants to go in the street or other places he's not supposed to, but with Ryan there to help fence him in it was fun being outside. I wish Ethan like being in the stroller, because then we could go on walks more. I'm so excited for summer and warm weather so we can get outside more.

my little butter flinger

My smart little boy has grown taller.... yay... meaning he can reach into more drawers and also reach more stuff on the counters or stove. The other day I left the kitchen for a moment, and came back to find that Ethan had pulled the tub of butter, which I had just taken out of the fridge, off the counter and was flinging butter everywhere. Later I was making biscuits, and so I had the container of flour on the kitchen table. Apparently it wasn't far enough back on the table and he was able to pull it down and get it on himself and a little on the floor before I got to him. Today he opened one of my top drawers in the kitchen and pulled out the plastic wrap and started pulling it out of the box, and when I took that away from him, he proceeded to the silverware drawer... oh, and he's also learned to climb. So, I've decided I want to buy two child gates to keep him out of the kitchen and dining room. I'm running out of places to move the stuff to in the kitchen so he can't reach it, and I don't like that he can reach the top of stove. I've looked at baby gates before, online, but I don't really know what gate to get. the gates would have to be from 28" for one door way, to 36-39" for the other (expanding gates would be best I think). I would love it if someone knew something about baby gates and had any advice as to which kind to get. I want the gate to be sturdy enough that Ethan won't be able to get past it (he's a determined boy). Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.