Life in the Idaho Mountains...
We are in Minnesota visiting some friends and Ethan cannot get enough of the dogs. He calls them "Da" and pets them on the head. Ethan also loves to play with frogs. It took him a bit to figure out what they were and that they don't taste very good, but now he can catch them no problem. He even shares one with dad at the end of the video. There are more pictures to come once we get back home.
Jim
The Airplane Cake that daddy made for Ethan....isn't it beautiful?!?!
Last Saturday Ethan had a small birthday party to celebrate turning one! He had such a good time with his family, some that he has not seen for a very long time. It was such a nice day that we did everything outside, which Ethan loved! Thanks everyone for making this little boy's day so special!! He has been playing with his new toys non-stop!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!!:)
Hahaha....I got a picture of you without your tongue sticking out!!:) 
Happy Birthday Aunt Keri.....miss you!
May 13, 2008 
We had a wonderful day with Ethan. The three of us went to Binder Park Zoo and Ethan LOVED the animals, he had a permanent smile on his face! He also got to ride in a train to see the African Safari Animals! After the park, we had a picnic lunch and Ethan was able to run around and smell the flowers:) Ethan had a fun first birthday with mom and dad!
Feel free to visit anytime!! We love company:)
On Friday May 2, Jim officially graduated from a medical student to a medical doctor! We were so blessed to have all of our family there for this special occasion. Thanks for coming you guys.....we could not have done the last four years without you and your support. It was bitter sweet as we leave a city and friends that we love and get to start a whole new life in Kalamazoo in our very own home, which we are very excited about! 
Congratulations Jim, we are all so very proud of you and all of your accomplishments!
On Tuesday we closed on our house and we are proud home owners! Jim was able to sneak a peek at the house before closing and snapped some pictures for me:) Here is our home and it feels so good to say that!! We are picking the truck up today, Jim is graduating Friday (yeah Jim!!), loading Saturday, moving out of Marquette Sunday, and into our home in Kalamazoo Monday....whew! We are excited for both of our families to join us this weekend for Jim's graduation, it should be a great time! 
We finally had some nice weather in Marquette (not for long though, it is suppose to snow again in the next couple of days), so the other day I took Ethan to the park in the lower harbor. It is this huge play area for children with everything that you can think of to play on. Ethan had a blast and especially loved the slide! I am excited to say that there is a park a quarter mile down the road from our new house in Kalamazoo, Ethan will be in heaven!
"Look at this silly fish mom."
Taking a rest after playing hard.
"I see you!"
"OMG, this park is huge!"
"I LOVE PARKS!"
"Lets go down the slide again!"
Sweet Ethan
"My favorite thing to do at the park.....eat wood chips of course!"
We are getting the packing underway for the big move in two weeks and are so excited about our new home in Kalamazoo, but are enjoying the time that we have left in Marquette. Finally yesterday was a nice day and Ethan was able to get out and run around and he LOVED it! He was eating dirt dipped animal crackers and enjoyed every bit of it. He enjoyed jumping on and off the deck. He is saying so many new words lately such as "Andy" (his stuffed toy raggedy Andy doll that my good friends mom made him.....thanks Connie!) He loves dogs and every time he sees one he gets this high voice and even calls them "Andy" sometimes. He says "mama" and "dada" all the time and he even said "tongue" yesterday when someone stuck their tongue out. He is doing new things everyday and Jim and I are enjoying this period of his life. Ethan and Jim have been able to spend a lot of time together now that Jim is done with school and they both are eating it up! They love to chase each other around and having that "guy" relationship:) Another thing that Ethan is doing is bringing books to us all the time to read. He would read books all day long if he could! There are several times throughout the day that either Jim or I will read for 45 minutes straight and read the same book ten times over, but it makes Ethan so happy!! 
Ethan will read on his own if we are not around sometimes:) 
Ethan got some new "kicks" for playing outside!! 
Jim and I put together a 1500 piece puzzle and it took us an entire week! I know we are dorks!
I turned around the other day and saw that Ethan was following me up the stairs, monkey see monkey do. He even tries to close it behind him. Now we make sure the gate is "locked"
Here is our family.....for some reason the mom snowman and the baby snowman are the same size??? I built one and Jim built the other....apparently we had different ideas!
Ethan warming up to the snow and loving to watch the cars go by!
My masterpiece!
A look from our front porch on Saturday.
The waves were amazing!
If you look real close that black spot in the waves in a surfer...only in Marquette can you ski and surf on the same day!!:)