Lets make a mess!!!!!

Ethan has had so much fun exploring his new home! He has especially had fun going through all the cupboards and baskets and anything that he can stand up on. He is starting to stand in his own for about 5 seconds at a time. He has taken no steps yet, but I am sure that will take place soon enough! With the standing milestone comes lots of bumps nad bruises, Ethan is taking them like a champ and is quickly learning what can and can't be stood up on! He has some "war wounds" as we call them. He is "roaring" all the time and is saying "ba" and "ma". Children are so much fun and he continues to amaze us everyday!

He is down and out with a cold right now, but is still his cheerful self most of the time. We are just taken it easy and hoping it will go away fast!

We had fun with our friends Jason and Carly Davis (med-school friends) and their adorable daugher Avery. Ethan and Avery ahd fun playing together:) Thanks for coming guys, we had a great time!

This is Ethan spot when he eats....he LOVES to look outside the window!

I found the cupboards!!

I help fold and eat the laundry!!

Grandma and Grandpa Jastifer came snowmobiling and hung out!

Dad and Ethan playing Peek-a-boo!

Ethan and Avery playing with their favorite toy...the booster seat:)

Spaghetti dinner......Ethan's face says it all!

This was my entertainment during the Super Bowl:)

Home in Marquette!!

Ethan, Jim and I are now home in Marquette. We arrived last night at about 8pm. We are currently baby proofing the home since Ethan is much more mobile then he was before we left:) We already miss everyone from home, it was so nice spending time with all of our family and friends.

Thanks so much to our parents who were so much help by letting us stay with you. We loved being able to spend time with you and to have Ethan spend some quality time with his grandparents....he really enjoyed it!! We love you and miss you!!

Happy Birthday Elise, our good friends adorable daughter from up here in Marquette!! She is turning TWO and I can't wait to see her and her family here soon!! Hope you have a wonderful Sesame Street birthday party!:)

Love/Hate Relationship

Jim and I have found out that toys are overrated. Ethan prefers dog bowls, coasters, TV remotes, spoons, pans, coffee tables, magazines, lamps, cords, rocking chairs, fish tanks, and any cabinet drawer over a toy any day! The first thing that Ethan does when he wakes up in the morning is grab a set of coasters on the coffee table and spill them out and play with them, not even paying attention to any of his toys. Don't get me wrong, he does play with his toys, he seems to have a love/hate relationship with them:)

One of his favorite things....playing under grandpa's table reading his aviation magazines.

Here is his newest entertainment, better quality video to come.

Feeding Myself :-)

Ethan is enjoying the fact that he can feed himself!! He loves all kinds of food but lately his favorite has been avocados:) As you can see...he really enjoyed that snack and mom had a big clean up job to do, but it was all worth it to see that smile on his face!!

My First Oreo Cookie!!!

"I think that I can fit the whole thing in my mouth at once?!?!?"

"Mmmmmmmm this is really good!!"

Ethan had is first Oreo Cookie today and the pictures say it all!! He LOVED it and ate it all up quite fast! He had it everywhere, but the mess was all worth the taste!

I Love My Grandparents!!!!

Ethan has had so much fun playing with his grandparents while we have been in Grand Rapids for four out the last five months! It has been great for Jim and I as well to be around them and watch them love him as much as we do. Thanks for everything guys, Ethan is blessed to have such wonderful grandparents!!

Ethan and Grandpa Jastifer reading the paper....one of their favorite things to do together.Ethan laughing with Grandpa Biener:) It took a little while but Ethan soon warmed up!!
Ethan loves playing with his Grandma Jastifer, they always have a good time!

Ethan and Grandma Helms being silly, he loves when they chase each other around!

Happy Ethan (Christmas is extended!!)

We spent Christmas with the Eggleston's the other day! Due to life being a little crazy, we had to do it a little late....but better late then never!!

Ethan has been a happy boy despite the TWO teeth that he has now! When we were over at the Eggleston's, Sharon realized why he was being such a pill....his second tooth had arrived! I love my new lawn mower the Eggleston's got me for Christmas!!

"This is so much fun....thank you Aunty Amy!" "This girl is pretty funny!" Amy and Ethan having fun:) Sharon and Ethan playing together! My "sisters" Amy and Nikki:)

Thanks, we appreciate everything!!!!

****Ethan Playing in the Snow*****

Ethan had fun playing in the snow today even though there was not a lot on the ground. It has been snowing but has been too warm to really stick. We decided that it would still be fun to get out sledding and playing in it though. He had a blast and was covered in snow and was rosy cheeked before we came back inside. It will be fun to get back to Marquette, where they have a lot of snow, maybe we can make a snowman!?!?

Ethan's New Jogging Stroller

Jim getting ready for a run with Ethan
Ethan all bundled up in his new jogging stroller!!

Due to the warm weather that melted all the snow, Ethan took his first ride in his new jogging stroller. He loved it so much that he was asleep before Jim even left the driveway!! This was a great buy off eBay (aren't you proud of us Audrey?!?!) and so far Ethan loves it!

Catching Up a Little More......

Since I have the Internet and some time (Ethan is sleeping:) I can update a little more. Ethan has another first besides his tooth.....he is saying "mom" and it is so cute! At first we weren't sure if he was really saying it, but now we know that he definitely is! We are now working on "da-da", but currently has no interest! We know he loves his daddy though, he LOVES playing "get my feet" with dad all the time. He anticipates dad coming and laughs way before Jim is even near him. Another new thing about Ethan that Jim and I find a little sad is that he does not like to cuddle anymore. When nap or bedtime come he wants to be fed and then put in his crib so he can put himself to sleep. I mean I know that sounds great, and it is, but we do miss that sweet cuddling time that we have had. There still are times that we sneak in cuddling though!

Ethan got his first professional portrait taken the other day (Thanks Ken, Tom, Bud, and Sharon!!) and he did fairly well. We walked away with a great photo! The photographer was like, "Does he sit still?" The answer we gave was, "No, not really." Even though he tried to get out of everything or crawl all around, he loves standing on things and that was the pose that ended up with and it was super cute! Loves standing on furniture and of course catching up on the latest news with Meradith Viera!!:)

I am so excited because a lot of my friends are going to have babies!! Congrates to JoLynn, John, and Maren who are expecting this July! Bethany I can't wait to hear the good news in March and then Angie is close behind in April!:) You all are or will be great mommies!

Also I big CONGRATULATIONS to Mindy and Aaron, some great friends of ours who are going to be married this August! I am so excited to be part of it and can't wait for August to get here:) Another big shout out to Stephanie and Bryan who will be married in September and Ashely and Matt who are also getting married next summer.....congrates everyone!!:)

Lastly, I have to thank my wonderful husband. He thought that I needed a safe place to showcase all of my scrapbooks ( I knew that he loved them!). So while he had some time he built me a beautiful scrapbook cabinet. It could not have turned out more perfect. I really appreciate it Jim!!

My beautiful cabinet!

Here are a few more pictures.....

This is HUGE! Ethan has been so afraid of Grandpa Biener for whatever reason and this was the first time that Ethan would let Grandpa Biener play with him!
Ethan is on love with this book....we read it like five times a day and mom and dad have it memorized we read it so much."Mmmmmmmm....mac 'n' cheese my favorite!""Hmmm everytime I go near this thing it blows air in my face??""I love when Aunt Kelly visits, I miss you!"Ethan and Avery (our friends adorable one year old) had fun playing together:)"FEED ME!" Great-grandma and "regular grandma" , as Jim would say as a kid, were feeding Ethan some yummy dinner.

First Tooth!

"Can you see it???"

(This is how Ethan looked for weeks.....fingers in the mouth!)

Ethan's first tooth popped a couple days ago...finally! The poor guy had been teething for awhile, but the tooth just did not want to make an appearance until yesterday!! Our little guy is growing up so fast!

We just got back today from our last interview road trip. We went to Flint and Fort Wayne. On the way we stopped and stayed with a couple friends from med school who are also in the interview process. It was great to see Jason, Carly, Christie, and Avery (the cutest 1 year old!). We have our very last interview Saturday in Grand Rapids and then it is out of our hands! We can not wait until March for Match Day! Jim is now studying for his boards that are at the end of the month and then we are back to Marquette!

Hope all is well!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

HELLO!!! So sorry about not updating sooner but I have not been able to get on the Internet on a regular basis right now. So I will try to catch you up in a nutshell....

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas with all of our families. Each family had a party on a different day so we were able to spend some quality time with everyone this year. We were thankful for that:) Ethan was not quite sure what "Christmas" meant but had fun eating the paper and playing with the ribbon and didn't really realize that there was a present under there until the paper was thrown away! He is blessed to have such a wonderful extended family and friends, thank you for everything!!

Ethan has totally mastered the crawling thing and pulling himself upon things and soon walking will be in store. I can hardly believe it! WE think some teeth are coming in and he is not sleeping like he normally does, but that will get back to normal here soon, we are taking it day by day:) He is just a happy boy who loves life, what more could you as for???

Jim spent some of his spare time away from interviewing building some miraculous things. He made book shelves for our house that we will be moving into in May and he is currently building me a cabinet to hold all of my scrapbooks. I am so excited and it wasn't even my idea!!!:) He also has been hanging out with Ethan and I and he just got back from a snowmobiling trip with his dad in the UP. They had a great time and got lots of snowmobiling in. His interviews start back up here in Thursday where he will travel to Dayton, OH and then to Detroit. After a handful of interviews he takes his boards on the 26th in Grand Rapids. After returning to the UP in the end of January things will start to slow down. He has two rotations left and then he is done until residency begins. WE are very excited about Match Day in March and are counting down the days!!

As for me..... I just love being a mom and Ethan makes that so much fun!

Here are some pictures from the last month.... Ethan with his new table!

YEAH..my sister is here and we took Ethan to Fredrick Meijer Gardens

Mr. Trouble is his middle name:)

First Christmas hand and foot ornaments.

He climbed into that himself....thought that it would be way more fun underneath for some reason???

My mommy is so silly!

Ethan's first pancake....I think he liked it:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Tricking Ethan!!

Today Grandpa Jastifer was shining his laser pen on the floor to see what Ethan would do....well see for yourself!:)

In this video he shows everyone a trick that he has perfected!

He is SO proud of himself!

RECORD!!!

Ethan beat one of his own records last night....our little guy slept 12.5 hours straight!!! Jim and I both woke up at 8am (2 hours later than we usually get up with Ethan) to find him just getting up from a long night sleep!! It is the best when both you and your kids sleep so well:) Way to go Ethan!

Catch Up

Hi Everyone!
Well we are home from our first road trip for residency interviews. They are going well and Jim has a list going and is trying to sort out what each program has to offer. He is done until after Christmas and then they will start up again in January. We are counting down the days until Match Day in March when we find out where we will be going. For the time being we are living in Lowell and are loving the time that we get to spend with our family and friends, especially around the holidays.

~~Swimming with daddy~~"OMG....that is me!!!""I HATE SANTA!!!!!!"Sleeping with dad:)"Ughh am I suppose to use this cup??""I see you!!"

Ethan is doing well and thriving! He is so inquisitive about EVERYTHING! He had a blast on our road trip and was such a good traveler. He is all over the place crawling and is grabbing onto things and pulling himself up all the time. He has a couple bumps to prove it:) Before we left for our road trip Ethan had his six month check up (and five shots!) and here are the measurements.... he is 28 inches tall (95%) and 17 pounds 10 ounces (50%). Long and lean!! He is growing well and is loving life! We are so proud of him!! We look forward to Ethan's first Christmas....I have a strong feeling that the wrapping paper will be the best present ever to him!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Our little climber: post from Jim

Ethan loves to crawl. He especially likes to open drawers and chase things across the room. The other day Laurie was brushing her teeth, leaving Ethan to play on the floor. She returned literally seconds later to find him inside his suitcase (we have been on the road for the last week). She was dumbfounded as to how he got himself inside. Yesterday, we found out how he might have managed, enjoy:

Traveling.....

Hi Everyone! The three of us are one the road for the interview trail and it is going great! Ethan has been a complete joy and has had no problem adjusting to hotel life. In fact, I think that he likes the change of scenery. We are in Erie, PA right now and will travel back to Akron, OH and then to Toledo as well before we come home for a couple of days. We are really enjoying the family time as well as a chance to look at prospective cities that we could be living in. I promise some pictures soon. Ethan is all over the place and is now pulling himself up to a standing position!! we took him in the pool and he LOVES it! A little scared at first but soon was splashing all over the place! For some reason he is completely fascinated by: Remotes of ANY kind, my belt, his suitcase, propel bottles, and mommy and daddy's shoes:) Love to all and we will post again soon!

He crawls....

At 6 months 2 weeks and 3 days (so says the bar at the top of the page), Ethan is crawling! He needs to be coaxed with toys but can get across the room in no time. No pictures now because we don't have internet for a while....