10 Months!!!

Ethan! You are 10 months old and soooo wonderful!

Dad picked out some awesome Space Robot pajamas for Ethan!

He really liked them!

We played in his pajamas all night!

Ethan really likes to squat these days!

Another pair of really fun pajamas! Shark/pirate pajamas!

Playing on Dad! Ethan's favorite thing!

 Bath time; my favorite thing!

 Ethan in Steve's guitar case! Silly boy!

Cute!

Ethan has been working on his basketball shot!

Pretty good little man, nice follow through!

Just happy!

Oh yes, and Ethan has a new ride too!

His sad face is still cute too!

One more picture of the awesome pajamas!

We love you so much Ethan!

Ethan is officially crawling now!! He started a few days ago; wobbly at first, and slow, but he is getting faster every day. He is walking alongside the coffee table, and pulling himself up on everything!

Time to reorganize the house!

Ethan, you are so much fun!

All In One Week...

Well, Ethan had a pretty monumental week after he turned 9 months old.

The doctor told him he can eat pretty much whatever he wants, even meat and even though he doesn't have teeth; weird! Obviously not steak! Sorry Ethan!

But, Ethan also did many new things for the first time last week, like:

Sitting up in his crib.

Then, he tried to break free!

Then stood up in his crib a couple of days later!

"Hi Mom!"

Then again, tried to break free.

"I bet I can eat my way through this!"

 Ethan is now an expert at clapping! We don't even have to show him, we just say 'clap' and he claps!

Babies are far smarter than you think, he understands basic commands!

And, he has an awesome new 'blowing lips face!"

For the full effect:

We are trying to teach him to crawl. Nothing yet!

He does, however, rock on all 4's and clap for ME when I crawl around trying to SHOW him how to crawl. Silly boy!

P.S. my knees are bruised and really sore!

I celebrated my 27th Birthday (thank you Steve for everything;especially a wonderful day), and Ethan ate his first birthday cake;

then bounced off the walls

Steve is teaching Ethan how to whistle with grass!

Again, Ethan is learning by example first!

Dad reading to Ethan on our patio.

Relaxing with Dad!

Cute close up!!!!!

Oh yes, and I have, on multiple occasions, caught Ethan red-handed trying to put a couple dozen cheerios in his mouth! Red-handed buddy!

Another Ethan and Dad reading moment!

Camouflage buddies!

"Hi everyone!"

Father and Son having fun!!

And, we'll just end with this!

NEW!

It's a new year!

2011 was such a wonderful year! Here is a recap of our 2011:

We lived with Steve's parents, in their basement, physically looked at 80+ houses to buy and hundreds more online, bought our first and moved into a new home 3 days before our wonderful baby boy was born, my 24/7 nausea and vomitting ended 3 glorious weeks early because on June 24th at 4:49pm ETHAN RILEY was born, named after the writer of Psalm 89.

Steve graduated from academy and is a police officer, I quit my nursing job, became a stay at home wife and mother, and my youngest brother got married- the day after Ethan was born.
Oh yes, and I also made a homemade, delicious, crumb top apple pie for Thanksgiving!

These were some of the biggest hi-lights of the year for us.

What an amazing year it was, full of trials and blessings!

Excited for 2012!

When I think of NEW, the first thing I think of is

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

^"17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation; the old has gone, the NEW has come! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave US the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ WE are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
and 2 Corinthians 5:15 says:
"He died for everyone so that those who receive his NEW life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them."

-Oh man, how our hearts beat for this wonderful wonderful truth!

For other news:
Ethan ate his first real food- thank you Baby Bullet:

Sweet potatoes!

Sweet Ethan, doesn't know what's coming!

The first bite!

 
Not so bad. Ethan looking at Steve, "Dad, what just happened?"

"Mom, NOOOO, not again."

"Stop stop stop. Don't make me!"

"I told you I wouldn't like it. Dad help."

I will have you know, day two of sweet potatoes left him begging for more.

No kidding, he loved them on day two!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!