Mail Truck

Ethan, like any little boy, LOVES trucks. We have a truck book and he can point to all the different trucks, excavators, backhoes, firetrucks....you name it, he can usually find it. We have to make sure that if we are home around 12:30 on Thursdays that we make it outside to wave to the garbage man and around 8:00 am on Mondays the recycling guy gets a wave. It is all very exciting to an 18 month old, better than Disneyland. A bonus for Ethan is that our neighbor and friend Rex is a mailman. Everyday he drives his truck home and has lunch. If we're outside playing we definitely have to walk down the street to check out the mail truck. When he sees a mail truck in his books he says "Reca" which, translated, means "Rex's truck." Yesterday, Ethan had the priviledge of sitting in the mail truck to have his picture taken, by himself and with Rex. Thanks Rex for making a little boy's day!

Stockton Thunder

I wanted to have a post that is Ethan free, to prove that we do, every once in a while, get out and have some fun without our little guy. Kevin received tickets to the Stockton Thunder for Christmas from one of his students. The Stockton Thunder is the Junior hockey team in Stockton. They are actually a farm team for the Edmonton Oilers, Kevin's favorite team. So last Saturday my parents watched Ethan and we went out to dinner, to a fabulous Chinese restaurant and then headed over to the game. Our friends Keith and Karrie also got tickets, Keith teaches 6th grade with Kevin. We were in the fifth row, between the blue line and the goal, they were great seats! It was also nice to have Karrie there to talk some non-hockey every now and then:) It was tons of fun though and made me remember all the Sharks games we got to go to when we lived in San Jose.

I forgot my camera, but I wanted some pictures of the evening so we took a couple with Kevin's camera phone. Not the best quality, but you get the idea.

It was teddy bear night, so when the Thunder finally scored their first goal the fans threw hundreds of teddy bears on the ice and they collected them and will give them away to a children's foundation, I can't remember what it is called. Since we were near the front we had a lot of bears fall by us so we got to throw them onto the ice. They had 4 or 5 pickup trucks on the ice and the beds were completely filled with bears. It was a success!

bathtub and afro

I just wanted to post a few pictures of Ethan. He has a great time in the bathtub each night.




Ethan being an elephant....

...and playing peek-a-boo. Whenever we say, "Where's Ethan?" he covers up his eyes to play peek-a-boo.

I had a lady at church ask me on Sunday if I've ever combed Ethan's hair into an afro just for fun. I can't say that we have done that before, so last night after dinner we decided to try it out. He is always such a good sport about me combing his hair (and putting gel in it, which we have to do daily now as his hair gets longer and longer) and last night was no exeption. Here is Ethan and his 'fro.

Monterey

I'm finally getting around to posting my pictures of Monterey. We got a new camera for Christmas and I had lots of fun playing around with it while we were in Monterey. I think we took about 300 pictures....I only chose a few to post here.

Kara, Eric, Ethan and I got to Monterey on Friday afternoon. We took a nice walk along the ocean and then Ethan attempted a nap, he wasn't successful, so I got him up and the 4 of us went to Spanish Bay Golf Resort. Every night at sunset there is a bagpiper who walks up one of the back fairways playing his bagpipe and then he stops and plays for about 20 minutes. They have huge fire pits and tables outside and it was packed with people waiting for the player to arrive and enjoying appetizers and cocktails. We were too late to get a seat by the fire, but we sat near some grass that Ethan loved running around on. It was such a fun atmosphere and a really cool thing to see. We liked it so much that we went back on Sunday night, but this time my parents and Kevin joined us.

A silhouette of the bagpiper.

On Saturday, Eric and Kara and my parents went golfing. Ethan and I hung out at the house and then went on a nice walk. I had lots of fun taking pictures of him. This is one of my favorites.


That night we had ribs for dinner. Ethan really wanted to try a bite, I was surprised, but he actually got the hang of it and got some meat off the bone!


Kevin arrived late Saturday night, after his team played in the championship in their holiday tournament. Sunday afternoon, after the guys played Poppy Hills, Ethan, Kevin and I went on a walk. Again we thoroughly enjoyed the scenery.




Ethan even attempted to climb the rocks by the water.


That night the kids were in charge of dinner, it was part of our gift to my dad for his 60th birthday, the other half was a round of golf at Poppy. It was a delicious dinner and the company was even better.


On Monday morning before we left Eric, Kara, Kevin, Ethan and I went on one more walk down to the beach. It is just so beautiful it's hard to leave!




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Here is Ethan enjoying a snack at his new table he got for Christmas from Papa and Nana. He's still working on getting on the chairs himself, but I know he will have years of fun at that table.

Christmas 2007

Another Christmas has come and gone. I can't believe how fast the holiday season passes by. We had a very fun Christmas. It is so fun to experience Christmas through the eyes of a child. Ethan had a great time looking at all the Christmas lights on our frequent evening walks. He also loved the Christmas trees everywhere and would say "no, no, no" while shaking his hand whenever he saw one. I guess he got our message pretty clearly that he couldn't touch the trees:) He really got the hang of opening presents too and by the last gift opening experience he was ready to open every one's gifts.

On Christmas Eve we had our own family Christmas. It was fun to see Ethan open his presents and play with them. We're looking forward to starting more Christmas traditions as a family. Ethan had to check his new cars out very closely.

Here is Ethan opening one of his presents from Opa and Oma Schenk.

The day after Christmas we had dinner and opened presents with my family. I gave my sister a photo album with engagement, pre wedding and wedding photos. She's not the picture collector type, so she really enjoyed it.

Ethan helped Papa and Nana open their present from the kids.

Ethan got a huge dump truck from Auntie Kara and Uncle Eric. He's signing "thank you" to them in this picture and getting a ride in the photo below.

We had a great Christmas and feel so blessed to have family and friends to celebrate with. This past weekend we went to Monterey with my family. I took pictures on our new camera (one of our Christmas presents) so as soon as I get what I need to upload the pictures on the computer I'll post those pictures.

Here are a few random pictures of what we've been up to lately. Nothing major....just life. It seems like every week is so full, but then I wonder what we were so busy doing. Ethan gets more fun every day. He is talking non-stop and laughing just as much. We have lots of fun together during the day.

Ethan helped daddy rake the last of our fallen leaves the other day.



Kevin put his tie on Ethan in the morning and he wore it for quite a while. This tie actually belonged to Kevin's Opa Bodewitz. Ethan loves his daddy so much and talks about him often during the day. With Kevin busy with basketball there are days they don't see each other and its hard on both of them.

















Since we aren't going to Canada for Christmas this year, Kevin's parents sent us a box of presents. After I opened and emptied the box I was doing something in another room. When I came out, this is what I saw. Ethan played with that box all day, he had a great time climbing in and out.









Ethan loves to carry around bags. He spent a good part of the morning carrying this shopping bag around. He would load a couple books inside and then put it on his arm, turn and wave at me and then walk to the door. It is amazing to me how early he has started to mimic what I do.



Last night we went to Christmas Tree Lane with our friends Eric and Kelly and their boys Caden and Trey. Everyone on the street decks their houses out for Christmas. I would say my favorite one was the one with Christmas music blaring and the lights blinking in time to the music. It was fun to see it all through the eyes of a child again. I think the last time I was there I was just a young girl and for some reason I remember the street being a lot longer. Its like that with a lot of things when you are younger, they often seem bigger and better.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

Our usual tradition is to set up our tree and put our Christmas lights up the day after Thanksgiving. However, since I was on a plane that day it didn't happen that way this year. Kevin put up our outside lights while we were gone, so when we came home we were greeted by beautiful Christmas lights. This last Saturday I put up the tree and a few more decorations. A couple years ago we bought a fake tree...I know, I know, some of you would never do such a thing. But I must say, after our last couple trees, it is sure nice to just take the tree out of the box and set it up whenever you want. One of our last real trees in San Jose was infested with spiders...gross. Our poor angel was covered in them. Between that and all the needles that drop, I'm loving our fake, pre-lit tree. Not quite the same smell...but beautiful none the less.

Here are a few pictures of Ethan helping me decorate, and the finished product. Ethan is doing a great job, for the most part, not touching the tree. I put a couple decorations out that he can play with, so I think that helps.