I'm sure everyone's seen this, but Ethan and I had fun watching it and pointing out the different instruments.

Congrats to Justin!

Justin is starting a new position at Campbell Scientific in January. He will be an application engineer in a new alternative energy group that they are creating, specializing in solar energy. Way to go hon!

Messiah

I took Ethan to a community concert of Messiah highlights this evening. He really enjoyed it and sat still and watched quietly for most of it. He started waving his hands around with purpose and I realized he was imitating the conductor. I also looked over to see a girl near us pretending to sing dramatically with her mouth wide open. Funny kids. I was suprised to hear the concert dedicated to my friend Dan Pack. I was fortunate enough to have Dan as a stand partner while I played with the Cache Chamber Orchestra. He taught violin and viola and I learned a lot sitting next to him. I also really enjoyed his company. So, I wanted to write in his memory.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

My dear grandpa playing with us as kids.

It is DUMPING out there! We've played until frozen. Time to put some wood in the stove.

We woke up to snow the other morning...

Ethan, Collin and Ryan, who live down the street.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Ciabatta Made Easy

I'm making Ciabatta for Thanksgiving and found this video to help with the process.

We Found Snow at Tony Grove

Yummy cream top chocolate yogurt

I just love how Ethan says 'yogurt'. Marie, who is Ethans lovely daycare provider while I'm at school, is British and Ethan picks up on some of her accent. He'll sometimes say 'tomato' with a british accent. I love it.

What we've been up to...

I've been happy the past few days. Heaviness has been replaced with hope. It's not that I think the new president elect will fix everything, but the possibility of a new direction is like a breath of fresh air. I'm happy that so many turned out in opposition to the Bush regime and demanded change. I'm looking forward to seeing what is next. I hope I haven't offended anyone with my political views. Thanks for reading friends.



Playing in the leaves

Playing in soil pits

As for Justin, lots of travel for work and no pictures to show for it.

Goodbye to Summer

Happy Halloween

Paradise Orchard

We visited the Paradise Apple Orchard this year for our friend Julie's birthday. Ethan and Sam got to pick apples and a pumpkin and, as usual held hands on the drive there. They also got to play with Gavin and Laik, Hope and Maisy. We got some fresh cider, which was wonderful. I was thankful to have it, especially after reading that 75% of the apple juice sold in the US is imported (mostly from China),though I can't remember the source of that info. I also got modivated to call the local Rosehill dairy and sign up for milk and egg delivery. That's two more items to knock off of my grocery store list in my attempts to buy locally first.

I'm gonna sing about....

Ethan loves to make up songs. The other evening we were reading BABY ANIMAL, which comes in the mail, and he saw a picture of a baby baboon riding on his mothers back. Ethan decided to sing a song about it.
Then he saw that his diaper wipe box was empty and decided to sing about the wipes being all gone.

Ethan this October and Last

Today is Ethan's 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday!

Ethan doesn't turn 2 until the 15th but we celebrated last weekend at Bear Lake with his Grandma, aunts and uncles and cousin Reid. His friends Sam, Matt and Angie Thompson, and David and Marie (Ethans daycare provider), who take special care of Ethan also came to celebrate. I can't believe our baby is 2!

More Fun at Bear Lake

At the dinner table

Ethan 1 week old

I was going through Ethans baby pictures to put a book together and found this one. It's one of my favorites.

More Summer Fun

A brief update: Ethan's new favorite thing is the frisby. His favorite is when it lands equal distance between us and he squeals as he races me to get it. We were in swimming lessons but he doesn't really like them so we're not going to finish. It's gotten cool in the mornings here (yeah!!!)and he gets cold. We went on a seed collecting walk with some of his friends for a 'learning about seeds' day with the Nature Center. There is nothing more entertaining than watching a group of toddlers learn and interact. Hilarious. We've been looking at houses and Ethan's starting pointing to houses saying "like this house" when we're out and about.

ABC's

I've been trying to get some good video of Ethan singing a favorite song or the ABC's. He doesn't like to perform (I don't blame him) so I've got to have the camera out more often to catch his cuteness. I so love watching the video clips of when he was younger so much. I've got to take more.

Summer Fun

Camping on Lopez Island, WA

Ethan and I went on another trip to see the Bandaragoda family in Seattle. We had a great time visiting Sanjaya, Christina, Satya, Rose and Bindu (the cat) who Ethan called 'dude' or 'bindude'. We went camping on Lopez Island, saw some old growth forest and picked blackberries. In Seattle, Ethan got to take his first carousel ride. Unfortunately, Justin couldn't join us since he had been planning to be working in AK for a couple of weeks.

Happy 33rd Dad

Ethan Last July

Here is a picture of Ethan from last year at this time.

New Haircut

I finally took Ethan to the barber. He's always liked watching the spinning barber pole when we walk by so he was excited to go in and sat very still. I didn't take the camera. He sat on my lap anyway. Here are some pics we took this evening.

Strawberries

Ethan checks the strawberry patch daily for new ripe berries. The white ones are ripe- a different variety. He's in charge of watering the raspberries which he calls 'auberies.' It's funny. He can say s words like strawberry, but if a w comes after the s, the s becomes a f. For example: fwing for swing and fweep for sweep.