Turkey Creek

The other day Matt and I decided that we wanted to go on a hike.  The temperatures were in the upper 90's and hit one hundred the day before so when we saw it was going to be in the high 80's we decided this was our chance.  Jenny had let us borrow one of her baby backpacks and it had this great canopy you could attach so Ethan would be completely shaded.  We tried him out in it at home and he was laughing and just having the best time in it so we thought why not?  Kyle came over with his new dog Griz so we threw the dogs in the back and set out on our way to a place called Turkey Creek.  This place has a great meaning since it was the place Matt asked me to marry him.  We had hiked up to the very top and he dropped on one knee right there and asked, so I was excited to go back.  Not to mention its just a really nice fun hike.  The trail is mostly shaded except one tiny part so it wasn't so bad.  Both dogs kept taking every opportunity they could to jump in the water and cool off.  Tuck had a blast chasing lizards which at first we couldn't figure out why he kept sprinting through the bushes, we figured he was just seeing things.   Ethan did great, he looked so cute in the backpack with his tiny shades on.  At one point I saw his little head bouncing around and so we stopped and sure enough he had fallen asleep.  How I will never know because it was not a smooth ride by any means.  The backpack had a little mirror on a rope and when we first pulled it out Matt said "look babe a signaling mirror how cool" to which I replied "I think you actually use that to look at the baby."  I had to laugh he is always in survivor man mode.  But it came in handy and was fun to take a peek and see that cute little face.  Griz had run off so Matt gave me the backpack and him and Kyle went searching.  Ethan is a heavy boy but looking back in the mirror and seeing that cute face helped me truck that last mile to the car.  They found Griz so all ended well it was a great trip!

Ready for our hike!

Adventure baby in style

Passed out

Since we have a crawler now some adjustments had to be made to baby proof the place.  At first he was scared to venture off the carpet, but quickly he figured out how to crawl on the hard wood and then it was over.  His favorite is to open the entertainment cabinet doors and pull all of Matt's place station cords out.  So we now have ties so he can't pull them open.  Then he decided well I can move the end tables around and almost knocked a lamp off.  So the tables are on the carpet now, he has yet to figure out how to move them thankfully.  Then the other day he saw Tuckers bowl in the kitchen and that was it he started going for it.  I let out a Ethan James warning and the little bugger giggled and bee lined it for the bowl as fast as he could.  I barely caught it before he flipped it over.  After repeating that twice the baby gate went up.   It was funny when he first realized he couldn't get past it, he just sat up and started to cry.    He is so curious about EVERYTHING that anything he can get his hands on he will.  So we were excited when a surprise gift came in the mail.  My aunt Kathy had sent him a happy crawling present and it is this cute little sesame street car.  It helps them to walk or they can ride on it.  It keeps him semi distracted for at least a few minutes before he figures out how to get in more mischief!

Naughty cord puller

My new toy!

Houston we have a crawler!

The question that we have been asked a lot lately is "is Ethan crawling yet?" and most the time the answer would go something like this "not all the way he rolls or scoots backwards he can turn 360 but not  forward."  The day he turned 9 months old we thought it would happen.  Before he would never use his arms and that was his main problem but that day he started picking them up and moving forward.  He would get maybe a hand and a knee moved before he would collapse on the floor.  The next day Jenny and the girls came over to go play at Old Settlers park near our house.  We had lots of fun as the girls raced Tucker played on the play structure and swung.  Ethan even went down the slide with the help of Aunt Jenny and Matt.  So after a full day at the park on the ride home he started to dose off.  Normally we wouldn't care but we were so close to home sometimes he just gets that five minutes of sleep and then refuses to nap.  You should have seen Matt and I singing and making funny noises just to keep him awake.  He had the funniest delirious laugh as he tried to fight sleep all the while pathetically trying to laugh at us.  Of course we hit every red light home but we made it without him fully falling asleep.  As soon as we walked in the door he was asleep on Matt's shoulder so we put him down for a much needed nap.

When he woke up later he was in a great mood and wanting to play with his toys.  He has a huge area on our rug in the living room to play on since we don't have much furniture in it yet.  Matt and I were sitting on the couch and made the comment "oh look how cute he is crawling to Tucker!" followed by "OMG he is crawling."  Sure enough our little man decided that he was going to crawl and just like that he did.  The funny thing was the thing that was driving him to get to Tuck was not Tuck himself but a bone he was chewing on.  Go figure he has all these cool toys and a bone is what gets him up and going.  We caught it on video afterwards so everyone can see.  We had to use my phone as bait because obviously we don't want him playing with Tuckers yucky bone.  It was a great victory and he looked at us clueless as to what he had exactly done that was cause for such a commotion!

Sliding with Auntie Jenny

Everyone slide!

This is not the video I talked about earlier in the blog.. it was too big and wouldn't download so this is Ethan crawling before bed!  He was going for my keys :) well he took a slight detour for his A's hat. 

Splish Splash

It has been so hot here lately that the other day while I was at the store I decided to buy Ethan a little baby pool to cool off in.  It was this really cute one with a frog head over half of it so it provided shade for him.  When I brought it home Matt said I don't know if he is going to like this or not, and I agreed with him.  But while he was napping the two of us proceeded to blow it up.  At first we tried with our mouths but it was so difficult so we had to go to the only other option we had which was a cheap bike pump Matt had picked up for our jogging stroller.  We had to switch off because the frog head was huge and the nozzle from the pump was too big to fit in the rubber part so we just held it there.  When you see this thing you will think piece of cake but believe me it took us a little while to get this baby up and full.  After we got it filled with water it was like it was meant to be Ethan woke up from his nap.  We immediately started to strip him down and put him in his little bathing suit he had yet to wear and a sun hat.  And to our surprise...... HE LOVED IT! 

You should have seen him splashing around.  He just kept looking up at us with a huge smile and then would go back to splashing.  We threw in some rubber duckies and he had a blast.  In fact he was splashing so much he got me soaked because I was sitting next to him on the grass.  Matt couldn't help himself and he joined him in his little pool.  It was a tight squeeze but they made it work.  Tucker kept walking over and drinking out of it and Ethan would look at him like "what exactly are you doing to my pool."  He tried to crawl out so we figured he was done.  So we took off his swim trunks and diaper and wrapped him in a towel, but he started trying to wiggle his way out of it and get back in so we just put him back in naked.  He had a ball in his pool in his birthday suit. By the end of all of this he was so tired he passed out early and slept through the night until & 7:30 the next morning.

This is fun!

Me and Dad in the pool 

Your so silly being in my pool

Im climbing out

Naked boy!

Too cute!

Texas the lonestar state our new home

So we made it to Texas!  It was smooth sailing on my part to get here, not so much on Matt's lets just say that Penske was a nightmare from the minute we tried to pick up the truck to the minute Matt got to Texas. But everyone made it including Tuck, and only minor cosmetic damage to a few pieces of furniture.  While Ethan and I were waiting for Matt and Tuck to arrive we went one day strawberry picking with Jenny, Larkin, and Willa.  It was a beautiful day but really hot (I think when we were done Jenny's car said 91).  The girls went down each row looking for perfect strawberries.  Ethan even four wheeled it through the rows in his stroller.  After awhile I ended up grabbing him and carrying him because the stroller kept getting stuck!  After picking we grabbed homemade strawberry popsicles and the girls pet the goats.  It was a lot of fun and we had enough at the end of the day so Jenny could make strawberry jam (even though the girls were snacking along the way Jenny told them we had to pay they would just say "this one is so perfect can I please eat it").   We had better pictures on Jenny's camera but I did snap this one of Ethan in the fields on my phone.

I love this photo because he is holding his chin and his leg is propped up on his tray with elmo

Saturday was move in day and Matt and a friend knocked it out in an hour which I would say is record timing considering it was a 26 foot truck.  We didn't get much packing done until after the weekend though because Sunday was Easter!  We went to Bill and Gerry's for an early dinner.  It was so much fun to have little kids around for Easter.  The holidays lately have been missing something in past years and I know now exactly what it was kids!  The girls had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard and were so delighted they said "hide them again" so Matt hid them for them and they hunted all over again for them.  We even hid a few around Ethan who was sitting on a blanket in the middle of the grass.  But he kept grabbing them and sticking them in his mouth so we ended up having to put them in a tree near by.  Great Aunt Mary came over for the occasion too, she was so funny, Willa was sitting on a chair upside down and so Matt put Ethan upside down and she said " oh don't do that it makes me nervous"  and I snapped the best photo of her expression it says it all.

Great aunt marry horror struck

Group shot 

So glad he has cousins to share his first easter with

So you are probably wondering about our new house.  I have been meaning to take some photos to share but just haven't had the time with all the unpacking, job searching, school registering for Matt we have had a full load.  Not to mention Ethan at first had a horrible time with the time change (you think one hour would not matter oh it did), and being in a new surrounding he was confused and scared.  Lets just say only a few nights ago were we getting a full nights sleep and he doesn't cry as much if you leave the room for a second. But we love it I will tell you that.  I will explain more in detail in another blog. We owe Bill and Gerry a major thank you because its perfect!  I myself am adjusting to the ways of Texas so far I have come to this conclusion, they are horrible drivers who will not let anyone in if you are trying to merge, they are extremely friendly a perfect stranger will strike up a conversation in the grocery store Ethan was a huge hit at HEB the local store, people are very picky about their lawns and they have amazing food here.  We will see how it progresses I am only a few weeks in but so far so good!  I will leave you with this funny video of Ethan we were at a restaurant called Chuys and for some reason I guess he thought the table was not clean enough.  This went on the majority of lunch!