Iowa Oasis!

We woke up Thursday and the temperature was -7, since Clark didn't have a class in the morning we decided to take a trip to Hawaii! We enjoyed the warm humid sunshine, the free flying birds, the exotic foilage, bright orange fish, waterfall and fragrant flowers! It was refreshing for the soul to see things alive and growing!

Alright, so it wasn't quite Hawaii, but the Botanical Center downtown was still a really nice escape for a couple hours!

Ethan literally frolicked through the gardens! At one point he went into a group of people, started spinning circles all the while giggling and shrieking with glee! Apparently he is sick of being couped up indoors as much as I am.

Clark got a pretty good workout keeping up with Ethan!

I loved seeing the icicles and snow out the window, but at the same time being warm and still feeling like I was outside.

The Story of Redlocks and the 5 Bears

It was Teddy Bear day at our library Wee-Read this past Wednesday. Ethan was loving the big bear puppet, dancing with his teddy bear, listening to the story and singing the songs.
Then the teacher pulled out a giant furry glove that had 5 little felt bears attached to each finger with velcro. She started singing, "there were 5 in the bed and little one said roll over...they all rolled over and one fell out, 4 bears in the bed...etc." Everytime a bear fell out of the bed she would take the bear off her finger and smash it onto the floor and yell, "boom!"
I noticed Ethan wasn't doing the actions he was just staring at the bears and at the teacher. When we got down to one bear left I looked over at him and his little lip was quivering and his eyes were filling with tears. I tried to quickly reassure him that the bears were okay and he just burst into tears saying, "oh no, oh no."
All the other moms started giggling and the teacher felt so bad, she kept saying, "Ethan, look, the bears are okay," and she put them all back on the glove. Who would have thought that song could be so traumatizing!
Our sensitive little guy that never cries or cares when we leave had a soft spot in his heart for the poor little smashed bears!

I just love my sensitive little bear!

Happy International Pancake Day!

We celebrated with free pancakes for dinner from IHOP!

Ethan was pretty happy to handle his own short stack this year with strawberry syrup! I was pretty happy not to have to cook dinner! Thanks IHOP!

Breaking Records in Iowa!

Tonight I joined thousands of other volunteers in Des Moines to help package meals for Haiti. There is an organization here called "Meals from the Heartland," they use products that are farmed here in Iowa to feed the hungry in many nations. Right now the focus is on Haiti. This week long project originally had enough donations to package 300,000 meal kits (each one feeds a family of 6) but after donations came in this week they now have enough for 2 million kits!
As a volunteer I worked with my group in an assembly line to assemble the meal kits that include rice, soy protein, dried vegetables, and a powdered vitamin supplement. Then we sealed the bags and packaged them into boxes ready to be sent to Haiti. It was really neat to see so many people coming together to help.

Iowa has also moved up to number 4 for the snowiest winters on record beating the 1981 record of 52.9 inches. We are so glad we are here for the record breaking...if only we get 20 more inches this winter we will set the new record...keeping our fingers crossed. We also broke the record for having 75 consecutive days with at least a 4 inch snow depth this year.
And the amazing thing about Iowans is that recently they were ranked the number 5 state with happy satisfied people...I bet they drop down a couple of spots after this winter!

Bitter Beer Face?

Ethan's newest expression that cracks us up!

We just can't get enough of this little guy -

We are loving all of the new words he uses, my current favorite is mehack (music). I love that he is trying to put words together to make sentences like "Eee-eee momma kees" (Give me a kiss mom).

I love how he lights up when his Dad gets home from school and runs screaming to the door to greet him. I love how after nursery today he came to find me in the primary room and yelled, "momma," as he gave my leg a big bear hug!

We love how he yells "I did it, I did it" in a high pitched voice when he accomplishes something.

I love how he snuggles in the morning and at night drinking his milk.

We love watching him get situated and comfy on his giant fleece pillows so we can read him stories.

I love how he gets little projects going with his toys, I usually don't know what exactly he is trying to accomplish but he sticks to it until the job is done.

I love how he shares his food with his stuffed animals and makes eating noises for them.

I think every age and stage has been the BEST, but this one really is so great!

Gala la la la!

Every year Clark's school hosts a Winter Gala! It is such a fun night with a live band, fancy decorations, yummy desserts, and everyone dressed up. My dilemma this year was finding something suitable to wear being 6 months pregnant!
Luckily I had a trip to Boise in Jan. and my mom took me shopping! She reminded me that although I currently feel like a frumpster I am still young and can still be hip to the jive! I loved the sassy dress and the shoes that made me almost as tall as Clark. Really, how can a person feel frumpy while wearing leopard skin?

(Don't you love our coordinating outfits?)

We had so much fun going to dinner with our friends, eating way too much at the chocolate fountain, dancing to the rockin' live band, and losing our voices trying to carrying on conversations with our friends while the live band was playing!

(A serious conversation during the band's break).

Most of our group!

Great Friends!

Such a fun date! I loved it!

A Big Red Guest at Family Home Evening

For F.H.E. tonight we took Ethan to the library to meet Clifford the big red dog (or Wiward) as Ethan calls him.

The random Iowa Public Television guy in a purple T-shirt and yellow cape entertained the kids with some Clifford books and then the big red dog made his big appearance!

Ethan watching for Clifford.

Ethan couldn't wait to meet him, he escaped from us and ran up to see the dog, stepping on all of the other patient children sitting nicely on the floor! Yes, that is his little red head by Clifford's belly.

After another story the kids got to line up to meet Clifford. The line was pretty long so we did a few puzzles with Ethan waiting for our turn. All of a sudden Ethan yelled, "Wiward," sure enough a very wobbly Clifford was being led away from the kids and being held up by 2 librarians. Poor Clifford overheated and about passed out! After getting a drink of water, taking a little break, and moving to a less claustrophobic area of the library - he was ready to meet and greet again. When the librarian informed all of us that Clifford just needed a drink, Clark and I wondered exactly what kind of drink poor Clifford needed!

Ethan literally running up to meet Clifford!

Giving him a big hug. The funniest part was that Ethan just stood there with his arms open wide waiting for Clifford to pick him up for a hug. So Clifford just sat there with his arms open wide, after a long akward moment Clark helped Ethan give a hug.

Ethan was told to stand by Clifford for the picture, and he did...poor Clifford about fell off his stool! We decided Clifford probably doesn't get paid enough!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Weekend has been full of LOVEly fun! Friday - a trip to Omaha, the temple and catching up with one of Clark's old mission buddies. Saturday - Ethan had fun playing with Daddy all day, and I had fun going to see Avatar in 3D with Clark. Sunday - church canceled because of snow, making and delivering sugar cookies, and the best time spending time together!

The Stages of Cookie Decorating

Waiting so patiently...

Decorating the cookie...

A "cute" smile enjoying the cookie...

Frosting the highchair...

Ethan's Valentine

It doesn't take much to make this little boy's day!

Hope you all had a LOVEly day too!

A Child's Prayer

This picture was taken by one of Ethan's nursery teachers at church. They were taking pictures of every kid for the board and this is the face you get if you pull out a camera and ask Ethan to smile! We love it!

On Sunday night after Ethan's stories we were kneeling down for prayers and I asked Ethan, "is it Mama or Daddy's turn to say the prayer tonight?" He said, "Eee-ee." (That is how he says Ethan). So his Dad helped him and he said the whole prayer. If he couldn't say the words he would just imitate Clark's voice inflections. It was so sweet! He was really good at asking for blessings for mama, dada, baby, Eee-eee, Bampa, and Grama! At the end he opened his arms wide and yelled, "amen."

Mr. Sensitive

One of the main words I would use to describe Ethan is sweet, he really is a sweet little boy! Lately he has been showing a lot of empathy to people. When we are in a public place (the store, church, etc.) if he hears a baby or another toddler crying he will immediately start fake crying right along with them. (This will probably get very old come May with a new baby in the house).

The other morning when he woke up I heard him moaning, "oh no, oh no." When I went in to his room I found him holding his Thomas blankie, he was so distressed that the edge of the fabric cut one of the Thomas engines in half. I kept trying to tell him it was okay, there are about 90 other Thomas' on the blanket, but he was so stressed that one of his buddies was in half!

I think the "David" series children's books are hilarious and so true, but I think we will be waiting a little while longer before Ethan can appreciate them. The other day we read him "No David,"

a story about all the funny little things that little kids do and his mom is always saying, "No David." He was so distressed that David was getting in trouble he looked like he was going to cry and kept saying, "oh no."

Our little Mr. Sensitive has also learned the pout. He is pretty good at it too! He puts his little head down and makes his big blue eyes even bigger. He is so cute I usually have to cover my face or turn around so he can't see me smiling.

This sensitive little boy keeps us on our toes and keeps us happy even on these crazy snow days that never seem to end this winter!

January Escape to Boise

Last night Ethan and I returned to the land of ice and snow drifts after 10 wonderful days visitng my parents in Boise.
I love living in Des Moines and we are grateful for the schooling Clark is getting here, but it STINKS to be so far from family! This trip was especially hard saying goodbye because Ethan is old enough to LOVE his grandparents! He is a lucky little boy to have wonderful grandparents on both sides, and I just want him to be near all of them all the time! But we were grateful for the days we had!
Here are some of the highlights from the fun we had!

Meeting Mary and her family (my mom's new friend who is a refugee from Rwanda).

Dinner with the Vaterlaus'. Ethan loves being in the action!

My Grandma P. was there for the first part of the trip, and it was so nice to see her!
Visiting McCall and the annual Winter Carnival.

This sculpture was a slide for the kids. Ethan loved it, he started out on his behind facing forward but the slide flipped him to his belly backwards every time.

The king and his throne.

Ethan got carsick on the ride up and threw up all over his clothes, luckily we had his snow pants! We found a thrift shop and bought him a very stylish outfit, it looked especially good with his boots!

James giving Ethan his first water ski lesson!

A definite highlight was my brother and sister in law James and Erica coming for the weekend. Ethan loved playing with those two. Today he has wandered around the house asking for Grandpa and Erica. It was so nice of them to drive to Boise to see us especially since James has 3 tests this week and is starting a new job!

Ethan had his first experience bowling. For a while there he was ahead of a few of us (I won't mention any names). When his mama helped him he bowled his first strike, and then was ticked his turn was over and that he didn't get to go twice!

Reading stories with Grandpa.

Two buddies! Everyone at my parent's church thinks that Ethan is a little mini me of my Dad!

A highlight for Ethan was a trip to the "zoo" also known as Cabelas with Grandpa while the girls had a Miss America party Saturday night!

Love the cheesy grins!

My Dad set up the tee-pee for Ethan and filled it with animals while he was napping. He was pretty excited to wake up to this in the living room.

The best part of coming home last night was when Ethan saw Clark in the baggage claim clear across the room. He started screaming "Dada, Dada," he jumped out of his stroller and sprinted in his footed pajamas as fast as he could giggling and shrieking the whole way to his Daddy.

Thanks Mom and Dad for flying us home. We had a great time and are missing you guys already! We love you!