How precious is this???

Some quality time with daddy!!

My newest thing to do...

Putting on mommy's shoes!! Whenever I see them I love trying to put them on, I am finally getting the hang of it!:)Just my size!

Deer Camp

It wasn't a 30 pointer but it was Jim's biggest so far.

The heart, tenderloins and a beer can for size reference

Pickled heart

The crew: Jim, Mark, Grandpa Biener, and Wilbur

Wellness Check

Today Ethan had his 18 month check up and did great (minus the crying whenever a Dr. came near him!!) He thankfully had to get no shots this time!! The numbers are in:

Weight: 28.8 lbs - 75th percentile
Height: 34.4 inches - 83rd percentile

He is our growing boy!!!

We are so excited because daddy comes home from hunting today!!

18 Months Old

Our little boy is 18 months old today, where does the time go?!?! Then....

and today! =-)

Ethan the Elephant!!

Ethan was an elephant for Halloween and had so much fun!! We only hit about five houses, but somehow acquired a lot of candy because he would take two or three pieces at each place we stopped! Both grandma's went trick-or-treating with us and it was nice to have them along. Grandpa and dad stayed behind to hand out candy and most of it was gone by the end of the night. Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!The best group shot we could get!Ethan with is grandma's trick-or-treating"Hmmm which ones should I take??"Aunt Keri also came to visit!!

Yup! Jim, Ethan, and I are expecting the newest addition to our family this May and we are so excited!! I am currently a little over 12 weeks pregnant and I am feeling great. Just had to share the news!!

Happy Birthday "Gram-pa" Jastifer!

We hope that you have a great birthday Grandpa!! Ethan loves saying his new word:)

Big Boy Bed

Ethan learned a few days ago how to climb out of his crib, so we took the crib down and put him in his big boy bed!!! Last night was his first night and let me tell you how it went. After his bath he was acting really tired and wanting to snuggle, so unlike him, so I thought that I would put him down. It was around 7:30pm and he went into this bed without a problem, stayed there, and was asleep in minutes!! I was so excited and happy that it was not a struggle. Then at about 10pm I went into check on him before bed and right away I recognized the smell of vomit, yup he threw up all over himself and his bed, ahhhhhh now what do I do??? He is sleeping so soundly in his puke and I could not let that continue all night. So I woke him up, changed his sheets and then layed with him until he fell asleep, which took an hour, then I snuck out. He woke right back up and we just kept bringing him back to bed without saying anything or making eye contact and after the second time of getting out of bed, he stayed there all night and even slept in!!!! Whoo hoo!! Nap time today went well too, even though he is sleeping at the wrong end of the bed:) We are very proud of our big boy!!!

From one Lowell fan to another.....

GO ARROWS!!!!

"bu-bu" translation: "bunk bed"

The "bu-bu" will soon be Ethan's new digs as soon as dad can modify it so Ethan can't climb up it in the middle of the night or fall out when he rolls around in his sleep.

I knew this day would come.....

I have been waiting for months and today it finally happened....

It was Ethan's nap time and I do the same routine every afternoon before nap. Today I think that he was over-tired when nap time came. I put him in his crib awake and shut the door behind me. He usually talks himself to sleep, which is nothing new. Then all of a sudden, he starting crying yelling "uh-oh" over and over. I gave it a few minutes and then it became louder so I decided to go in and check things out. As I was walking in, I noticed his bear on the floor, which he is attached to, and him crawling down the side of his crib. Before I knew it, his feet had hit the floor. He climbed out of his crib and he was not going back in if he had anything to say about it. Hmm I thought, how am I going to make him stay in his crib?? After three attempts and his successfully escaping, I did the only thing I could think of...hold him down. After an hour after he was suppose to be asleep, I had succeeded!! Then I silently left the room, sat on the couch. A minute later the dryer buzzer went off and guess who started screaming??? Neadless to say I have a very tired toddler!!

Ahhh the joys of motherhood!!!! :)

Gull Meadow Farms

On Saturday we took a family trip to Gull Meadow Farms with the rest of the residents and their families. We had a great time and Ethan just had a blast! He has been noticing all the "balls" (pumpkins) in our neighborhood and at the store and was in his glory when he could play in the pumpkin patch!:) There was lots of activities for children of all ages and of course home made doughnuts, cider, and apples.

Isn't the middle pumpkin the cutest!?!

Uncle Mark came too!

A pumpkin just Ethan's size.

Playing in the hay watching the train go by. (He was too scared to ride the train).

First time down the slide with daddy, the next hundred were by himself laughing the entire time! (But he wouldn't ride the train???)

17 Months Old!

Our little man is now 17 months old and is so much fun!! His newest things are having conversations with himself that make no sense to us, balancing on all of his toys, saying night-night, and blowing his nose and throwing the tissue in the garbage! Of course, new things arise each day:) He is going to be an independent boy, that is for sure!Ethan loves balancing in his car.....but he still needs to work on his balance!Playing in the leaves...this was the best picture that I could get, he would not stand still he was having so much fun!


Ethan loves to read books, especially about animals:)

Mom got him laughing really hard with the pig sound!!

Birthday's All Around....

There are several birthdays this week of my friends and family (I love birthdays!) So I am sending a shout out to..........

Andrea Long - October 8th

Glad that you had a good birthday! The cheesecake sure did look yummy!
Angie - Today, October 12th!

Happy birthday Ang! I hope that you had a great day with your family:)

Ryan - October 13th

Hope you have a great birthday - glad that you had the weekend off to celebrate it with your family! Sounds like you had a good time:)

Logan - October 14th

7 YEARS OLD!

Logan! I hope you have the best birthday ever! I heard that you are making cupcakes for your class, spent the weekend golfing and motorcycle riding, what could be better then that?!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Today is my mom's birthday and we hope she has a good one!! We were able to celebrate this weekend when she came over to hang out with us:) Ethan loved all of his grandma time! Enjoy your day mom!

Fall is in the air...

Today felt like the first day of fall. Ethan and I went to the park on this crisp morning and you could just smell that fall in the air, the leaves in my yard also gave a good indication as well. That is not going to be such a fun job this year. Anyway, Ethan is growing like crazy and is so much fun these days. He is saying so many words now and has learned some new body parts. I have been trying to teach Ethan where is nose is for the longest time (he knows pretty much every other body part except his nose and his eyes), I ask him all the time and he always points to his hair or ear, but I keep showing him and it just wasn't clicking yet. Coming home from church on Sunday I asked Ethan again where his nose was and I turned around to see what he was going to point to and he had his finger up his nose!!! I was so excited and thought, well maybe that was just an accident so I asked him again and this time he put the other finger up his nose! Well at least he knows where his nose is, right??:) He also can tell you what a cat, dog, and tiger say. He is really cute and gets in this high voice when he sees a pictures of a cat, makes me laugh every time!I am not going to lie and say that Ethan is a perfect angel because the fact is a naughty streak has begun to arise. I knew that this day would come and that he was not going to listen to everything that I said all the time. Adventures of motherhood! His favorite naughty thing to do, is take daddy's books off the shelves and tear the pages if he can get to it before mom catches him! He also likes to throw his food on the floor, but we are being consistent with him and slowly he is doing those behaviors less and less. Sometime though, you just can't help but laugh because you can predict his every move!

This month Ethan will be 17 months old and that is hard to believe! He is so curious and is just a little sponge soaking up everything! He definitely makes being a mom the best job in the world!

Jim and I are doing well. Jim just finished his plastic surgery rotation and started his rheumatology rotation today. I am excited that he will have another laid back month with no call because after this month, it goes back to those nasty 30 hours shifts every three days. I have joined a mom's group and have fun with that and I am excited to be going on a 24 hour scrapbooking marathon weekend this month. I need that time to devote to Ethan's book or it will never get done! Ethan and I have several play dates a week and we loves going to the library, parks, and anything else there is to do around Kalamazoo. We are going to have a fun month picking and carving pumpkins with Ethan who thinks every pumpkin is a huge ball! I don't know if you remember but last year we put Ethan inside a pumpkin for Halloween and it was so cute, this year I am afraid that there is no pumpkin big enough to do that:)

HAPPY FALL EVERYONE!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Biener

Last Sunday Grandpa Biener came over to celebrate his birthday with us. Ethan enjoyed reading books and playing "boo" with grandpa. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Fun with Forts!

Ethan and daddy have been having fun building forts together when Jim gets home from work at night. At first Ethan was scared of them, but soon learned that they were fun to go in and out of and play "boo" with :) He is our silly little boy!"This is fun!"