Water, Bugs and Bubbles

Last week was Cory's last week working so we took advantage of having daddy around and in between job hunting, interviews and a career fair we all got to swim, go to the Tempe Beach water park and enjoy some family time.


A few Sundays ago we sat down in the chapel and immediately Ethan said "nursery, nursery," and through out the week he shows us his picture that he colored in nursery and asks to go. Apparently nursery is hard work because after church one Sunday Ethan fell asleep cuddling with mommy on the bed.

Ethan loves bugs, if he finds them in the house he crawls around on the ground after them and points them out to us. One night we found a ladybug and Ethan loved to have it crawl around on his arm. He is such a boy!

Ethan is also quite the little helper, not only does he like to vacuum but here he is helping daddy unloasd the dish washer, and besides the one time he threw a mug on the kitchen floor and broke it he actually does a good job pulling out the dishes and handing them to us to put away.
What could be more exciting than mopping the floor? Lets hope this lasts.

Along with cleaning Ethan is also very innovative, here he is demonstrating how to keep yourself in the squirt gun fight and stay hydrated at the same time. (we're trying to get a patent on this idea before someone else does)
For some reason the best place to put stickers is over ones eyes, no lue where that idea came from. One day when Cory got home from an interview Ethan grabbed Cory's shirt as he took if off and said "cute," he then proudly struck a pose for the camera.

Several of the city parks around the Phoenix area have little water areas for the kids to play in, the Tempe Beach Park has the best water play area and best of all its free. Some friends invited us to go the other day and Ethan absolutely loved it.

Much to his mothers dislike Ethan loves to drink whatever water he happens to be in or around, here he is demonstrating ow to drink from water that shoots up. . .

and this is how you drink it when it pours out of a spout.

One night after taking a bath we got Ethan dressed in his "mission" jammies (thats what he calls Little Einsteins because they go on missions) and then he ran back into the bathroom and climbed back in the tub to play with the bubbles that were still sitting there. He was very proud of himself.

We can't leave the house without Ethan putting on his glasses, unfortunately he can be a little hard on them and brake the lenses out, at least he doesn't seem to care.

One of Ethans new favorite things to do is color on our little patio, anytime he looks out and sees the sidewalk chalk sitting there he says "color, color, outside" it usually takes a bribe such as a popsicle, juice or a much needed bath to get him to come inside.

I asked Ethan to smile for the camera and this is what we got, he really was happy though.

VIDEOS

Monday morning Ethan walked into our bedroom and said "Hi mommy," Dad had not got him out of bed before going to work. Ethan was quite proud to show us how he had gotten out. Due to limited storage space in our new apartment we have to store some of our bigger containers in Ethan's room, he has figured out that it provides for a welcome escape. We even decided to get rid of the smaller container and he still gets out, we figure that as long as he doesn't get out in the middle of the night its probably a better alternative than falling out bed and hurting himself.

After getting Kristen's Cabbage Patch (from when she was a child) out of the closet and giving it to Ethan, and after he gave it many hugs and kisses, he sat down and proceeded to try to change it's clothes and change it's diaper.  It was quiet funny to watch.  He has now taken to carrying it with him everywhere, and saying "oooo baby."  We even had to take it to the grocery store today! I think he is going to be a great big brother one day.  I'm sure he will want to "help" with everything.

Animals and Messes

One morning after making a PB&J Kristen had forgot to put the jam back in the freezer and apparently left it within reach of Ethans hands. He was scooping it out in handfuls and filling up his little frying pan and also his mouth and then proclaiming "mmmm yummy, its good."
Ethan loves to go to the park and play in the sand with his new bucket and shovel

A boy and his bucket
This was the excitement of a plane flying overhead
There are two things that can get Ethan out of the sand slides and, you probably guessed it, the swings.

SCORE
One day Cory and Ethan were kicking the soccer ball back and forth after one especially good kick Ethan raised both arms above his head and said "SCORE" We still have no idea where he picked that one up.

The Wildlife World Zoo

For Cory's birthday we went to the Wildlife World Zoo (its about an hour away) and we had a great time, despite the 100+ degree temps. They have all sorts of amazing animals and aquarium there. We saw tons of monkeys, white tigers, lion, leopards, sharks, octopus, snakes and a whole lot more.
One of the highlights of the day was feeding the giraffes, they are just close enough that you can reach out and feed them some pellets from the dispenser, their tongues feel just like a cats tongue (except that the tongue itself is bigger than most cats.) Ethan thought it was really cool and scary all at the same time.
The giraffe was very uncooperative for the photo
Another highlight was being able to get right below this jaguar. It was slleping on the fence that goes over a walkway and then there was another fence seperating us from him. We could have reached up and pet him from the side if we would have felt so inclined. He was beautiful and in this picture he was hissing at us for pulling on the fence and waking him up.

Just to give you an idea of what there claws look like up close and safely behind a fence.

Ethan enjoyed the petting zoo with deer and goats, most amusing to him were the "grapes" poop all on the ground. Luckily mom and dad were vigilant and all of the "grapes" were kept on the ground and out of hands and mouths.
The penguins were probably the highlight of the day for Ethan, he watched them for a long time and when they started swimming back and forth he would run back and forth with them.
Whenever we took a picture of an animal Ethan always told the animals to "say cheese." Here he is saying cheese with the white alligator.
Ethan loved everythng about the zoo, he especially liked to lie down next to the aquariums and watch whatever hapened to be swimming about, in this picture it was the sharks.

Saturday night Kristen and the girls headed to the Cheesecake factory and to the movies in celebration of Kristen's and Whitney's Birthday, thanks to everyone for a fun time! 

Disneyland, Easter, Makeup, Water and Vacuums

Its been a little while, so we decided to post a whole lot of pics in an effort to catch up. Hopefully you'll be able to see the many sides of Ethan (mostly his goofy side) and get a glimpse into what we get to enjoy everyday.
Ethan got these glasses at a friends birthday party and he loves to wear them all day, and he enjoys screaming into our mouths.

Ethan loves to go "night-night" and he got his friend Noah to join him sleeping in his play pool. This pool has never actually had water in it, but Ethan loves it just the same.

We got Ethan this cute little soccer outfit and I asked him to pose and show off his outfit and this is what we got. This outfit is appropriate for him, because he loves to get Cory's soccer ball out and kick it for long periods of time.

Much to Ethan's delight we got a new vacuum and he had to be the first to use it, hopefully this cleaning nature sticks around for at least the next 15-20 years.

The X-Men: Wolverine world premiere was held at Cory's mall last Monday and they passed out Wolverine claws to everyone at the mall, here's Ethan demonstrating his Wolverine nature, red eyes and all.

Make-up and Lotion are two of Ethan's favorite things to get into as evidenced by the following pictures.

If you look above his right eye you can see that he applied eye-liner on himself.
In addition to make-up and lotion Ethan loves to straighten his hair.

If you ever tell Ethan you're tired he will help you out by rubbing your eyes for you.

Blackmail picture for the ladies that will be coming around.

SUCKERS!!!

One morning we were having a hard time getting out of bed and we heard Ethan rummaging around in the diaper bag saying "pick one" apparently it was too difficult to pick just one so he had all three.

This is one of those big suckers you get in Disneyland, the kid was in heaven (at least for the 2 minutes it took him to eat it.)

DISNEYLAND

Kristen's sister Kelly came down for her Spring Break so the three of them took a couple of days to go to Disneyland and Ethan loved every minute of it. He had to be a part of the entire day from 9:30am to 10:30pm, without even taking a nap.

He tried and tried, I guess he's not the next Arthur, by the look on his face you can tell he really wanted that sword though.

Ethan loves to go on anything that spins around in circles, as soon as the merry-go-round stopped he pointed to a different horse and said "that one, again" Unlike his Uncle Parker Ethan was not in the least bit afraid of the characters in the park, he was so excited to see "Mickeys" and "Goofys" he was even brave enough to give Mickey a kiss.

Chillin' on Plutos bed in Toontown.

"Hello, Hello"

Ethan loved Toontown and seeing all of the houses and being able to drive the cars and push all of the buttons.

Ethan loves his sunglasses, here he is showing off his cool look, if you look closely you can see his mohawk to complete the look.

The day was drawing to a close, you can see how tired out little Peter Pan was.
On the way out of the park he finally gave in and crashed, to give you an idea of how tired he was he hasn't fallen asleep out of his crib or in the car in almost a year.


A rare moment of Ethan sleeping and cuddling

Cory was taking a before picture for his workout program and Ethan wanted in on the action, however hes demonstrating the "before I eat my crackers" look.

EASTER

Despite the lack of excitement, he was pretty stylin" in this years Easter outfit.

A demonstration of the sticker from his new Seaseme Street coloring book

The Easter (bucket) basket

The new "Tigger and Pooh Musical" was a big hit, way to go Easter Bunny!

Jello is much better to play with than actually eat.

We tried out a water cooler for a weekend and because of what you see right here we decided not to keep it. Ethan loved to fill up water bottles, or cups or frying pans with water and then drink from them.
Yes, there is water in that pan that he filled up and carefully carried out to the living room and then drank from. We're not sure where he gets these ideas from.

Apparently Tigger needs to be a soccer player

One day we noticed that Ethan wasn't making any noise, not usually a good sign, when we went into his room we found him in the rocking chair reading his scrippers (scriptures for those of you that don't speak Ethan), he stayed in the rocking chair for 15 minutes reading his scrippers and other books.

There are few things more fun than rolling up the rug and practicing your balance-beam skills.



Never too young to start texting your peeps