My Baby is FOUR!

I really can't believe that my baby is turning four today.  In fact he turns four in just under two hours...at 10:25 this morning.  I remember his birth very well, mostly just how utterly exhausted I was from laboring all night and how much energy I felt the moment I gave birth to him.  He was definitely not the cutest baby immediately after birth, he looked pretty beat up and had the scrunchiest old man face but we loved him anyways.  Still do in fact.  I never knew just how special the mother son relationship could be before I gave birth to my son but I have to say that it's taken me by surprise.  I love this boy more than words can say!

It's not a post from me without a thousand pictures, and I tried my darndest to keep it to a minimum but I had a really hard time choosing my favorite photos of Ethan from the past year.  I tried to choose some of my favorites that show his personality and some that I haven't shared here before.  He's such a boy!

Things Ethan is totally into right now:

Golf

Basketball

Spiderman

Batman

Baseball

Football

Soccer

The Flash

Iron Man

Any sport

Any super hero

Preschool

Cubbies

Dress up

Coloring/Painting

Eating whole apples

Tools

Super Hero capes

Swords

Snuggling with Mommy and Daddy

Back to School!

Back to School season is in full swing at our house.  Last Tuesday Grace started first grade and today Ethan started preschool.  It's a big year of firsts for us, the first year Grace is in school all day and the first year Ethan is enrolled in preschool.  For Grace the big deal is eating lunch at school and for Ethan it's the fact that he has a can of crayons with his name on it in his classroom.  This year I got smart and took both kids' back to school pictures separately and before the big day.  Less stress for Mommy and allows for more creativity!  I didn't forget my camera for the actual first day of school either, but I just went with the flow and concentrated more on documenting the experience.

We did Grace's back to school photos the Friday before school started after we dropped off her school supplies in her classroom.  She picked out five apples in Safeway before our photo session, one for everybody in our family and one for her teacher.  On her first day of school we all walked to school together and got a few snaps of her in her new classroom.  She was so excited!

 

 

 Ethan and I met a few friends at his preschool the week before he started as well.  He mostly wanted to play on the playground but we did get a few good ones!  This morning we dropped Grace off at school and then Mommy, Daddy, and Ethan swung by Dutch Brothers for a hot drink treat before heading to preschool to play on the playground until it was time for Ethan's class to begin.  He was soooo excited and couldn't wait to hang his backpack on his hook.  When he got to his desk he found his crayon can with his name on it and was just over the moon happy.  He told us that we could go and happily waved goodbye.  Such a big boy!

 

 

Mommy and Ethan

I was challenged to take some photos of me with my kids after reading a blog post about the "missing mom" syndrome when mom is always behind the camera.  I'm actually not that camera shy, but taking a self portrait is NOT easy!  Especially when you try to do so with a 3 year old!

So tonight Daddy and Gracie went to their first Girl Scout meeting and Ethan and I were left home.  That's happened a lot lately since school started and Grace is gone all day.  I told Ethan we could make cookies together this evening as a treat and he also wanted to make tea together.  While I was steeping the tea and in between batches of shortbread cookies I remembered my camera.  So here we are, in the midst of baking cookies in our cluttered kitchen on our dirty floor using natural light from our sliding glass door after 7pm when there's not much to be had.  But this is us, and our real life and I love them even though they are far from perfect.  The focus is off on some because Ethan was more excited about running to check behind the camera with me then staying put for me to focus on.  The first photo is actually one of my favorites and I almost deleted it because it was a mistake.  Love it anyways!

Strawberries!

The kids and I went strawberry picking yesterday and picked 12 pounds of strawberries.  That might sound like a lot, but it really isn't.  I made a double batch of strawberry freezer jam (10 cups), put some in the freezer, made strawberry oven pancakes for dinner (my favorite!), and have a bunch leftover for more strawberry goodness.  Thinking about making some strawberry ice cream, and maybe freeze some more.

We didn't pick any strawberries last year because we picked so many the year before.  In fact we're just now finishing up the last bit of freezer jam from that batch!  This year Grace was actually a helper and managed to get more then one or two in the box instead of in her mouth.  Ethan took over the taste testing position and left Grace and I to the real work.

I'm excited that the berry farm we found also grows raspberries and marionberries...we'll be back!

Little Cowboy and Cowgirl

Last weekend we enjoyed the Sisters Rodeo as we do every year on the second weekend in June.  This year I brought my camera along but only took a few photos of the kids playing around and didn't even bring it to the rodeo.  Through the years I've discovered that it's pretty much impossible to do much with a camera at a rodeo when you're a mother of two small children.  I have at least one child on my lap at all times, get to make 15 trips from the stands to the portapotties and/or to buy more bottled water or treats.  I figure I have plenty of years to photograph rodeos to my heart's content once my children can sit in a seat by themselves and don't require me to take them to the potty constantly.  Instead I snuggled with my kids and even got Ethan to nap right as the last few bullriders finished the rodeo for us.  So instead of fast paced exciting rodeo action I am sharing sweet photos of my kids in their cowboy hats.  Notice Grace's is purple and Ethan refused to wear his cowboy boots (he did consent to wear them to the rodeo though...)