CADEN

Content.
He is happy! All.the.time.

Angelic.

He has a sweet disposition and such an easy going temperament, he truly is an angel.

Drooler.

We're thinking he's working on a few new cute teeth to join his bottom two.

Explorer.

Now that he is mobile he is into everything, it amazes me how he can find the tiniest little crumbs on the floor to put right in his mouth.

Nuzzler.

He still loves to snuggle and cuddle. We love it too!

ETHAN

Energetic.
This kid seriously has one speed; ramming speed! Either he is on the go or asleep, there is no in between.

Talkative.
A two year old's take on the world is quite refreshing. I love his sweet voice and his mispronounced words.

Handsome.
Everytime he gets his hair combed he says, "I'm handsome now." He also got into wearing Papa's cologne in Boise so he could "smell handsome."

Action-oriented.
Every morning he wakes up and asks, "what are we doing today Mommy?" His life is one big party and adventure!

Nightowl.
As of late he will stay awake for hours in his bed, he used to fall right to sleep so easily. Just doesn't want to miss any excitement.

Flying Solo

A few observations from my 13 hours of traveling home yesterday with my 2 boys:

Two cuties peeking out the airplane window.

When you show up at the airport with a giant double stroller, an active toddler, and a cute baby you get quite a variety of reactions from people. Some give you a look of pity, some give you a look of disgust when they find out you will be on their flight, some give you a look of awe and tell you that you are crazy to fly alone with two youngsters, and a few lovely people give you a look of sympathy and offer to help get your carry-on bag on to the plane! (I love those people).

Considering that we had to take 3 different flights to finally make it back to Des Moines I think my boys did a great job! Several people as they were leaving the planes gave me a few words of congratulations for having such well behaved little travelers...what these people didn't see were the moments that made me laugh, and the moments where my blood pressure raised the roof!

Ethan's little antics kept everyone around him entertained. When we boarded the first plane the flight attendant said, "hello." He (his name was Ran) was a little taken aback when Ethan replied with, "I'm just getting on the airplane to go home to pick my Daddy up at the airport." Ran checked on Ethan pretty regularly during the flight and got quite an earful each time he stopped by (including Ethan speaking in gibberish, is it normal that he has begun speaking in a made up tongue? Are we reading him too much Dr. Seuss?). Ran was nice enough to give Ethan a second apple juice when he told him, "my Brown Dog needs an apple juice now."

I'm sure everyone on the long flight from Seattle to Minneapolis appreciated when he yelled, "I'm pooping mom!" By the way, changing a rather tall two year old in those tiny airplane bathrooms is pretty much impossible.

Ethan also had a few moments of defiance. As we were getting off the plane I had gathered up our coats, bags and Caden, all Ethan was asked to do was carry Brown Dog and follow me. Right as I started down the aisle he chose to sit down and put his seat belt back on, refusing to follow. I went up ahead a few rows and got out of the way so everyone could pass, Ethan couldn't see me and went hysterical crying and yelling, "mommy, mommy!" Everyone glared at me like I was a huge jerk that forgot my son. I had to put everything down and go rescue him. Then as soon as we got off the plane while we were waiting for our stroller he took off running down the jetway and disappeared into the airport. By the time we got it all together I was so mad, he got a little talking to and I think he got the message...when he talked to Clark shortly after that he said, "we listen to mommy and we don't run away Daddy, that is very naughty."

My favorite moment was during slightly rough landing in Minneapolis. There was a sweet boy with Downs Syndrome sitting behind us. When the tires hit the runway he yelled, "yahoo," and Ethan yelled, "yay." They went back and forth cheering. I started giggling until I heard Ethan yell "help." When I looked over at him the abrupt stopping had made him slide right out of his seat, the seat belt had caught him just under the chin and he was basically hanging by his head. I quickly unbuckled him and he fell to the floor. The whole scene probably lasted less than a minute but it was hilarious!

Hurray for airports with kids play places!

We were sure excited to see Clark when we finally made it to Des Moines! Clark has never looked more beautiful to me than he did at the airport!

An Extra Week in Boise

Our original plan was to fly home January 5th...but lucky us, a blizzard in December changed our flight plans so we got an extra week in Boise!

The best part was that the extra week gave my Grandma Peterson a chance to fly out to Boise. We loved visiting with her! She is a great lady and a wonderful example to her 30 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren. She has always been a big influence and very involved in all of our lives.

She has the magic touch! I handed her Caden while she and my Dad were watching a loud BYU vs. Air Force basketball game, within minutes he fell sound asleep.

We had a fun time bowling with Grammy, Papa and Great Grandma.

Ethan loved using the dinosaur and the pink bubble gum ball.

We had a great post holiday week which of course included plenty of ice cream cake,

and a motorcycle ride!

When we visited in October my Dad let Ethan play at the playground at the school during their ride, he hoped that by going a different direction Ethan wouldn't remember the playground. No such luck, about 2 mins. into the ride Ethan asked Papa where the park was...so they had to stop and play.

We also learned that we can survive a night without Brown Dog. He was accidentally left at a friend's house one night. Oh my. The tears and the sobbing lasted through the night. Thankfully Grammy had quite a collection of stuffed animals to fill in that night. When Brown Dog came home the next day the reunion was marvelous! He was reintroduced to all of the Christmas decorations, etc. Even that day Ethan would tear up remembering how he had been gone.

We had a great time! Today Ethan asked me if we could go to Grammy's house. We wish we were just a little closer. Even though the good-byes are always hard it was worth it for the fun times we had together and memories we made!

It's the end of the world as we knew it...

Our lives have changed...Caden is on the move!!!

He crawls everywhere quite quickly! But his favorite thing to do is pull himself up to stand on everything!

We found him under the kitchen table.

Our second to last night in Boise he conquered the stairs. He climbed up the entire flight of stairs without help (Ethan learned to climb up stairs at my parents house during the Christmas holiday 2 years ago).

Almost there...

Great Grandma Peterson and Ethan were at the top to cheer him on!

My favorite part about him being a crawler is that when he wants to be held, or just wants my attention he crawls up so fast and just starts climbing on me. It melts my heart everytime. It is nice to be so loved.

Now on to baby proofing our house!

Tubing!

Today we headed up to Bogus Basin for a ride on the tubing hill! It was a beautiful sunny day and so much fun!

Ethan was just barely tall enough to go, I thought he would be a little scared but he just hunkered down in the middle of his tube and loved it! We went down holding on to each other's tubes in different formations until the last run, then we all went individually, Ethan loved spinning down the hill all by himself.

The best part is the rope tow back to the top!

This little guy wasn't big enough to go down the hill, but big enough to get pulled around a little.

Such a fun, fun day!

Our Rockin' New Year's Eve

To ring in the New Year we went to the cheer on the Idaho Steelheads!

It was a good game that ended with a shoot-out after overtime. Ethan cracked me up. He cheers so loud! This little video is just a clip of his serious cheering skills.

When we got home we built mini pizzas and watched the ball drop in New York on TV. Right before midnight we realized Ethan was still awake in his bed so we brought him down to ring in the New Year. He was so excited to be brought down from his bed for the big countdown, it was like Christmas all over again. Caden on the other hand did not appreciate the poppers and exploding confetti at all!

After giving everyone a New Year's kiss Ethan informed us it was time for his nap and went and put himself back to bed.

Happy 2011 to all!