Countdown to Walking

Let the countdown begin, this morning Ethan got up the nerve to start letting go of the furniture while he was cruising. He'd cruise along, pause, let go, and continue his couch cruising. He's also figured out not only how to make his walker go but how to steer it to where he wants to go. This boy wants to be mobile something fierce! I've seen him take one step last week but nothing since.

I think Grace will like having him steady on his feet since she's been wanting to dance with him for awhile now. Last week they danced their first dance together while the three of us were rocking out in the kitchen making dinner. I thought it was so sweet of her to want to dance with her brother. Almost makes up for her hitting/kicking/ramming/and otherwise harming her brother throughout the day. Almost.

Lovely Anniversary

Kellie and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary, lucky number
7. We went to see Mamma Mia! and had a great dinner in Salem. I am a
pretty lucky man.

Lucky #7

Today marks the seventh year that David has made me the happiest woman on earth. It's our anniversary today (and David's grandparents...Happy 62nd Anniversary to you!) and that always inspires me to look back on our years together. Sorry for the long post to follow, but I just felt the need to share our love story!

The two of us as a dating couple.




We've come a long ways from when we first started dating two weeks into my freshman year in college. He totally impressed me when he asked if he could pursue a relationship with me rather then ask me out right off the bat. Of course it didn't take very long for me to be very open to that idea and by September 3rd, 1999 we began our dating adventure right after watching The Godfather (his favorite movie of all time by the way). At the time we were both living in The Scholars Residence at the University of Idaho which was a co-ed residence hall housed in an old fraternity building. I think our relationship progressed as quickly as it did because we were living in such close proximity to each other. That and we just couldn't get enough of each other!

The two of us as an engaged couple




David asked my father for permission to marry me that next summer on a sweltering hot night after a cigar. Needless to say he felt a little sick to his stomach that night! All those nerves and the humidity just didn't agree with him. He told my parents he was planning to propose on our one year dating anniversary or on Thanksgiving. If you know David at all you know that patience is not generally one of his virtues. He was acting completely weird the first few weeks of school and on September 2nd it became apparent as to the why. He took me to the nearby baseball field to go star gazing and got down on one knee to propose in the dark.

Wedding Photos




We debated between waiting one year or two before getting married and in the end David won out and we decided to get married in August 2001. As luck would have it we were able to get married on David's grandparent's 55th wedding anniversary which was really special. Neither of us cried during the wedding, mostly because we were goading each other not to! After our wedding we took a short honeymoon down to Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and up to Cannon Beach before we headed to Nampa, Idaho for a second reception and up to Moscow to start school.

Early Days of Marriage


Our first two years of marriage were spent in Moscow, Idaho where we finished up our bachelors degrees. David graduated in December of 2002 and I finished in May of 2003. While it was difficult to be so far from our families it was good to have those first few years to be on our own and establish ourselves as a couple. It was in our tiny 450 sq ft married student housing apartment that we sorted out who does what chores and I tried my hand at cooking for the first time.

Fifth Wedding Anniversary


We moved to Salem, Oregon for David to attend Willamette University's MBA program in May 2003. We knew nobody in town, had no internet, and no jobs. It was a long three months. We did discover that we will make an excellent retired couple someday. We learned to play Bocce and Jeopardy was part of our daily routine. The best part of the move to Salem was that the 2 bedroom apartment we lived in came with a Marriage Saving Device we like to call the dishwasher. It was a long two years in Idaho without one! By the time school started for David in August I found a fantastically rewarding job at The Bon that paid barely enough to make ends meet. Before David graduated in May 2005 I had worked three jobs in order to pay the bills, one of which was the quintessential Office Space job where I didn't really seem to be doing anything. I also worked for the State of Oregon for about a year in a clerical job which was definitely the best of the three despite the 6:30am start time.

Super Hero Family of Three


Our daughter Grace was born July 30, 2005 right after David graduated and thankfully found full time employment! It was a big adjustment in our lives but has added even more love to our marriage as we started the parenting journey together. Grace was 8 months old when we bought and moved in to our first home in Dallas in April 2006. My brother Brian lived with us for a year from June 2006 through June 2007. It was a challenge but wound up being a blessing since I became pregnant with our second child during that time frame and couldn't grocery shop or cook and Brian was able to help out in that department. Our son Ethan was born October 7, 2007 and completed our family. I'm pretty sure that David is glad he won't need to deal with a pregnant wife again!

Family of Four


Fun David & Kellie Trivia:

We can share some shoes since our feet are the same length. David's feet are wide and mine are narrow so only shoes like flip flops or Crocs are good for sharing.

We have attended the Oregon Shakespeare every year we have been married. Even the years we were dirt poor students, twice when I was hugely pregnant, and once (and soon to be twice!) with a nursing baby.

Our first "date" was to walk down to the video store to rent Shakespeare In Love. We've watched a bazillion movies together ever since.

We've held an Oscar Party every year we've been married...next year will be the 8th Annual!

We're both 5'8" tall.

Food Fun

This self feeding business is a lot of hard work and takes a lot of patience, fortitude, and endurance. Ethan has been grabbing for the spoon for awhile now and loves to eat finger foods so I've handed him the spoon a few times to let him practice. The sooner he learns how to self feed the sooner I'll be able to eat my Honey Nut Cheerios in peace without him squawking at me every 30 seconds as he eats the half jar of Puffs I dump on the high chair tray. That kid can eat!









Here he is feeding himself some yogurt for breakfast yesterday morning. He quite enjoyed himself and got very messy in the process!


This spoon business is rather hard to figure out.


I think I'll just dip my fingers in the bowl instead.


Yeah that's better. Much easier then this foreign spoon thing.


Yeah that's the ticket. Why limit myself to a finger if I can use my whole fist to get the food in?


This is pretty fun! I don't know why Mommy doesn't let me feed myself ALL the time!


Have I mentioned how much fun this is? And tasty?


The yogurt is gone but the spoon tastes good as an after meal dessert.

While I was snapping the pictures Grace decided to get in on the action and snap some pictures of Ethan with her Fisher Price camera.



Here's my budding photographer!

I don't want to nap!

A few days ago Grace refused to even consider laying down in her bed for a nap. No way no how was she going to do that. Nope. Instead she passed out on the edge of the ottoman in this adorable but uncomfortable looking position and proceeded to stay there for over an hour. And then she only woke up because Ethan woke up from his nap and she was just too irresistible a target to leave alone!



Here's Ethan asleep in the high chair last week. I was trying to make Grace's birthday cake so I left him in his high chair with plenty of food to keep him happy and he eventually slumped over and fell asleep. I was able to move him to his crib to finish his nap in comfort as opposed to Miss Grace.



My theory for why the kids are so sleepy? Because Grace won't stay in her bed! She's discovered how to open doors in the last few weeks and it's just too hard to stay put in her room at bedtime. Instead she escapes and pilfers through the bathroom drawers looking for hair brushes to take to bed with her. And then she comes and asks for some water. Or the Care Bears. Or the bug blanket. Or for a story. The list goes on and on. If she doesn't leave the room she empties entire drawers of clothes into the crib on poor Ethan. She used to have a nice bedtime of 8pm. These days we're lucky if she's asleep by 11pm!

Photo Shoot Mayhem

Have you ever tried to take photos of wiggly babies and whirlwind preschoolers? It's chaos. At least it is whenever I try and set up a photo shoot. This morning I attempted to get some pictures of Ethan for his 10 month birthday today (as I have every month) and Grace wanted in on the action as well. Since I haven't got her 3 year pics done yet I was more then happy to oblige! The lighting is poor today (where's the sun?) and Ethan wasn't really in the mood. After a lot of disastrous shots I finally gave up on the basket idea and brought Ethan outside. It's sooooo much easier to get pictures of him outside where I don't have a messy house as a background and the lighting is so much better. Big improvement. Unfortunately Ethan is getting closer to toddling each day and I know my time for good pictures of him are coming to an end. At least that's how it worked with Grace. As soon as she could walk it became an impossible task to get a picture of her A) Facing or Looking in my direction and B) Smiling. So I hope you have enjoyed the nice photos of Ethan thus far since I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of pictures of the back of his head or him running out of the frame shortly.

Grace jumped in the basket first so Ethan was sitting (topless...trying to keep his shirt dry until his turn!) next to me and grabbed my lens cap and kept trying to eat it.



Whenever I ask Grace to smile I get weird facial expressions that are nowhere near actual smiles. Here's what I got this time.



After trying to get pictures of Grace in the basket I had Ethan jump in with her. I got a few funny ones!





It didn't take long for Ethan to decide he didn't like being smooshed in the empty toy basket with Grace. Grace did her best to comfort him with her usual "It's ok Ethan" and kept trying to kiss him.



When it was finally Ethan's turn to be in the basket he either wanted to eat it or stand up in it. Neither of which worked out so well. Thus we ended the session and went outside. Problem solved.

Happy Ten Months Ethan!

Our little guy is 10 months old today! My how time flies! This past month has been a busy one and he's done his best to keep up with the rest of us. He helped celebrate Mommy, Daddy, and Gracie's birthday in the last month and spent a week in Idaho.

Here's what Ethan is up to this month:

He loves to eat food. Anything and everything really, but is utterly and completely addicted to Gerber Puffs.



He has his two bottom teeth, the second one popped through yesterday!

He is a super happy baby and smiles and claps a lot. He even dances with Grace and I when we're dancing by bouncing up and down. He's so much fun!

He takes two naps a day most of the time, though I'm not sure how long that will last. I kind of foresee him moving to one longer nap instead of two short ones which would be nice.



He is getting close to walking and I wouldn't be surprised if he is walking by his 11 month update! He can stand unassisted when he doesn't realize he's doing so, but if he realizes he's standing by himself he immediately sits down or grabs on to something.

He really loves to play with balls! He is really good at throwing balls and any other object within his reach as well.

He can use a sippy cup all by himself. I'm a big fan of this achievement since Grace didn't figure that out for a long time. I even bought him some Sesame Street cups of his own so he doesn't have to use Grace's pink princess cups. For some reason David thought that wasn't appropriate.



He went on his first plane ride in July and flew from Portland to Boise. He did pretty good both ways though he didn't want to nurse on the way home so he mainlined Puffs the whole time. Whatever kept him quiet and not throwing things in the aisle.

His sleeping is all over the map due to teething. When he's teething he's up 1-2 times a night to nurse but some nights (like last night!) he'll sleep until after 6am before waking to nurse.

He loves to blow raspberries which is just loads of fun during meal times. He loves to make noises and play with his tongue. Oh, and he still drools like there's no tomorrow.