Daddy's new hat and pumpkin carving

Like I mentioned earlier Kevin coached women's golf this year, which he thoroughly enjoyed. We had the girls over for pizza a couple weeks ago and they gave him a gift card for a restaurant and a great golf hat. Ethan loves all of daddy's hats, especially this one. He was enjoying wearing it around the house the other day.

With Halloween just a couple days off, we decided to finally buy a pumpkin this weekend. We were inspired by our crafty friend John and found a fun pattern online and Kevin carved it. We had a hard time finding a pattern that we liked. The one we settled on we figured Ethan would like it and all the other little kids that come to our house for candy will hopefully like it too.

Ethan was a big help as always!

Lighting the candle.

The finished product, it's a dog in case you were unsure:) We tried to take a couple pictures of it with out the flash so you could see it lit up, but they didn't turn out too well.

Planting trees

On Saturday we found a great deal on some crepe myrtles we wanted to plant in our back yard. So, we bought 4 of them and planted them on Sunday afternoon. Ethan had a great time at the nursery, filling the pots with rocks and an even better time on Sunday "helping" daddy plant the trees. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon.






Ethan loves to pick up brooms, rakes, hoes and any other tool that is way too big for him.




Yes, he's following in Auntie Kara's footsteps and had to sample some of the dirt...he actually licked his lips instead of spitting it out!

Pumpkin Patch

On Friday Ethan and I went to a pumpkin patch with some friends. It is the end of October, but you wouldn't know it with the weather we've been having. We were all sweating as we walked around looking at the pumpkins, chickens, horses, goats, llamas, sheep, and cows.


Ethan thought these little pumpkins were balls and proceeded to throw them onto the ground.


Ethan LOVED looking at the cows and all the other animals.



My little pumpkin.



Ethan and mommy. We had a great afternoon enjoying fall!

Daddy's Little QB

Kevin went to the football game this past Saturday where Dordt College was having a tailgate party to promote their new football team. They were giving away mini footballs for kids, so he snagged one for Ethan. Here is a video of him thoroughly enjoying his new football. He appears to be ambidextrous for now:)

Trip to San Jose

Last Friday we headed over to San Jose to visit our friends John and Brenda. We left town around 3:30 and made it to San Jose by 5:30, hitting some traffic on the way. We were excited to see John and Brenda's new apartment. It's a great place and Ethan loved the stairs and their little patch of grass outside. It is always so good to see good friends. Friends who you can pick up with like you never left. There are always plenty of laughs to be had and some good chats about life as well. We also hung out with our friend Mindy and her husband Harry. It was good to see them again as well.

On Saturday morning Kevin and John went Frisbee golfing and Brenda and I had some good girl chats while Ethan slept. We then headed over the the walk-a-thon at SJCS. It was so great to see former collegues and the families of students we used to teach. We really got to know some people well the few years we were there so it was fun to catch up and introduce them to Ethan. Ethan did great and smiled at everyone.

Ethan is usually scared of loud, crazy guys....but for some reason he loves John. I think it's because John loves hanging out with him. John, you'll make a great dad some day!


John and Brenda have a deer head hanging over their stairs. Ethan was loving going up the stairs until he noticed the giant deer looking down at him. He wasn't too sure after that. He loves hanging out with Brenda though!



Thanks for a great visit John and Brenda. We're so thankful for your friendship and we miss hanging out on a regular basis.

Ethan is notorious for being a terrible sleeper in the car. So he of course didn't sleep on the way home from SJ even though it was his nap time. He was awesome in the car though, so I won't complain. We put him down as soon as we got home and he fought sleeping. It was eventually quiet, I opened the door to check on him and this is what I saw...(sorry it is a little dark)

Is it all about Ethan??

I realize that I may as well have titled this blog "Ethan", since that is who every post has been about. I guess our life is pretty much focused around him right now. At least mine is during the day, and once Kevin gets home Ethan insists on being the center of his attention as well. We do have other stuff going on in our life, Kevin is of course busy with school and right now he is coaching women's golf. He is loving that. He likes the relaxed attitude of the girls and he especially likes the 9 holes he gets to play twice a week. Not too bad of a job if you ask me. I joined Bible Study Fellowship on Monday nights. I wanted to be able to get out of the house and meet other women without Ethan along. It is a pretty intense study that requires work every day. I'm getting used to the different format and I think it will be a good way to challenge my Bible knowlege, as well as meet women from different backgrounds. I joined a Moms Club and I'm looking forward to meeting other women that way as well, this time with Ethan. I'm also hoping to get my tutoring up and running again. We are both excited about the work we are doing in our back yard. A dear friend of ours just drew up some plans for us so we look forward to choosing what we want to plant and then slowly purchasing the plants. We love to spend time in our backyard and with a few trees and plants it will be a nice extension of our home.

However, I know some of you only check this blog for pictures of Ethan, so I'll include a few here too:)

We headed to a park near our house for a while on Sunday. Here are a few pictures of Ethan playing and climbing.

After this picture Ethan took off head first down the slide, a big slide! This little boy has no fear!

Lizard and Gorilla

We have really been having fun teaching Ethan to make all sorts of animal gestures and sounds. He can make sounds for a dog, snake, sheep, duck, lion, bear, monkey, and tiger. He can make gestures for an elephant, lizard, and gorilla. Yes, there are some obscure animals in that list and we've yet to master the basics like a cow or cat. Here he is showing off a couple of his skills.