Baby Steps

Lately Ethan just likes to stand. He likes to bounce and play in an upright position. He walks holding onto furniture, the balance ball, his mom's step boxes and his parents fingers. and he runs when he is pushing his little walker. Last night he took his first unassisted steps (as seen in the top video)! We were so excited and he was pretty shocked.

Tonight he took even more back and forth between us. During the walking session Clark had to answer his phone so he went into the kitchen. Ethan took a few more steps and then just stared at the kitchen yelling...he wanted his daddy to see him go! He was pretty proud of himself.

As they say on "What About Bob," baby steps to a brighter future!

A Gala Affair!

On Saturday night Clark's school hosted a Winter Gala! It was downtown at one of the convention centers and was a fancy event with a live band, dancing and fabulous desserts (including a chocolate fountain)!

Clark and I felt like we were going to prom. Our friends came to stay with Ethan so that we could go. When they got here they were teasing Clark about how he should have bought me a corsage...unbeknownst to them and to me, Clark really had bought me a corsage and used that moment to give it to me. A red gerber daisy (my favorite!)

We went out to dinner with our friends to Texas Roadhouse and then to the dance. I loved the decorations. The live band was fun and I was so excited to be able to dance somewhere other than my kitchen. We had a blast! And it was so much fun to have something fancy to get ready for (I got my dress for $24 on clearance at Dillard's - love it even more).

Our group at the gala!

I definitely had the cutest date. It was a wonderful night!

A little Ethan for his fans! (namely his Grammy Tammy)
Ethan lately has a fake little grin that he gives people. Whenever someone gets in his face and tries to make him smile, he gives the funniest little grin where he crinkles up his eyes and nose - it is totally chessy and makes me laugh every time.
I really wanted to get a picture of his cheesy grin...the following pictures were taken probably in a 3 minute time frame while he was eating dinner in an attempt to catch his little grin on the camera...I think it is so funny to see his many faces!

And finally, not the best angle, but the funny cheesecake grin I was going for.

Are You My Mother?

Yesterday I was blow drying my hair before church in Ethan's room so that he could play and not destroy anything. He crawled right over to his book shelf and pulled out the book, "Are You My Mother." He picked it up, sat down, opened it up and started reading it. It was so cute because in a little sing-song voice he said, "Mama?" as he turned every page.

I thought it was so sweet, of course he knew exactly what he was reading...our little genius! And right this moment as I type this I'm watching our little genius try to eat the springy coiled door stopper off of the wall. Impressive.

No those aren't short he's wearing...just size 6 month pants...I really need to do laundry!

Valentine's Day was great. We pretty much celebrated all weekend. Rock Band with friends, a romantic dinner at Chick-Fil-A and chocolate covered strawberries. Ethan got the best Valentine for his Daddy, a Chuck Norris wall calendar. This month there is a lovely picture of Chuck in a karate outfit and it says, "Chuck Norris lost both of his legs in a car accident and still walked it off." It was a hit.
Last night we had some friends and the missionaries over for dinner. I was feeling festive so we celebrated with a Valentine themed dinner (minus the romance since the missionaries were here). It was a fabulous night!

My festive table waiting for the dinner guests...and even take home party favors! You can also notice the new calendar covering my cute Mary Engelbreit calendar in the background, this will not be a permanent location.

The best Valentine gift. As you can see Ethan really loves hugs and kisses!

The Jaws of Death

A few weeks ago I heard about the Des Moines Winter Games (2nd Annual). There were several events but the one I was the most excited about was the Cardboard Sled Derby. The rules were that you had to build a sled of all cardboard using only duct tape to hold it together.

I tried to recruit a huge group of sledders, but this Friday (the night before the race) it came down to the final four (me, Clark and our friends Bryce & Jessica). At about 9 o clock Friday night we got the whiteboard out and started coming up with ideas. After a little debating we decided on building a sled around a Jaws theme. We had ocean waves on the sides and a big shark fin in the middle. It looked awesome. I even attached tropical fish to the waves. I was so excited for the big race the night before I couldn't even sleep.

Ethan was very helpful with the sled construction on Sat. morning.

A picture of the hill.

The race took place at the Sleepy Hollow Sports Center. They call it a ski resort but the sledding hill is as big as the ski runs (I think it is the steepest hill in Iowa). We saw pictures online from last years race and it didn't look like many people showed up. So we were worried we had gone overboard, (especially with our costumes and theme music...we were wearing board shorts, swim caps, and goggles...we also downloaded the Jaws song, and Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid and had our speakers ready to blast our music) but there were about 10 entries and they were all awesome!

Ethan bundled up ready to watch his parents bomb down the hill!

Clark putting the finishing touches on the sled.

Clark & Bryce carrying our sled, named the "Jaws of Life" up the hill.

Once we got to the top of the hill I started to get nervous. Especially when most of the sleds in front of us rolled and the people were thrown out doing somersaults down the hill. One of the sleds was a giant pizza box, probably bigger than our living room. About 12 adults dressed in pizza slice costumes jumped in...unfortunately for them it was really bad engineering and they went about one foot and became completely stuck. Everyone tried to help push them down the hill, but that thing wouldn't budge. It was hilarious. We went towards the end and pretty much all of the sleds in front of us either wrecked really bad or didn't make it at all.

Our sled was pretty good. We started really fast and made it about half-way down before we went crooked and sledded onto the snow barrier separating the sledding runs. At this point the waves had been ripped off and there was a trail of tropical fish down the hill. We pulled our sled back to the middle and made it the rest of the way down. Aparently, the time I spent Sat. morning covering the entire bottom of the sled with duct tape was a good move.

This beer bottle did pretty well...it went fast, and then rolled about 4 times!

The John Deere tractor held up (this was taken after the race)

The National Guard had the coolest sled. They built a life-size tank. It went pretty fast. Unfortunately at the end it started to come straight for the spectators.

Unfortunately, when it hit the snow bank, it rolled!

Everyone survived!

The mighty sledders and what was left of our sled after the run. (Yes, that is a ruffled swim cap on my head from the 1950's - got it at a thrift shop for Girl's Camp years ago - it has come in handy over the years).

All in all an awesome day! We are already scheming for next year. We love Iowa! (And it was 50 degrees yesterday...MIRACLE!!!)

Calf Roping

I knew that when becoming a mom I would take on many other titles as well, such as cook, chauffeur, teacher, maid, etc. However, I never once thought that calf roper would be added to my repertoire. Giving Ethan a bath is a lot like roping a calf.

When we go into the bathroom and he hears the tub filling up, he gets so excited his whole little body just vibrates with energy, I can barely get the pajamas and diaper off before he dives in with his clothes on.

Once he is in he frantically crawls from one side of the tub to the next, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth - the tub gets churning like a whirlpool he goes so fast. Once he has been back and forth about 90 times he settles down and finds the toys.

He then shrieks and plays and splashes until both of us and the tiny bathroom are thoroughly wet. When he gets bored with his toys he trys to climb everything in sight...and with his slippery little body he's hard to catch.

When I finally get my little calf out of the tub I wrap him up tight in a towel, and he finally gives up because his little teeth are chattering and he is shivering. Then since I'm already soaked anyway we cuddle for awhile until he warms up.

I think we both burn about 500 calories at every bath!

So clean and cute after his bath this morning.

Happy Trees!

There is a street here in Des Moines that is my favorite to drive down. It is lined with big trees and big, older houses that have interesting architecture. It was beautiful in the summer, and especially in the fall. Clark drives down this street daily on his way to school.


A couple of weeks ago someone made smiley faces out of snow balls on 23 of the trees that span a 3 block distance. It has been so cold none of the smiles have melted. It makes my day everytime I drive by, and I always wish I had my camera.


Today the sun is really shining and when I drove by I realized part of the faces are starting to melt. When I met Clark at the school for lunch I told him I was sad the smiling trees were melting, he had no idea what I was talking about - I seriously don't know how he hasn't noticed for the past 3 weeks of his daily commute. So we got in the car and went on a little field trip to see, as the late Bob Ross would say, "the happy little trees."


So thank you to the snowball tree artist whoever you are for brightening my cold winter days.





On an additional note, the economy must be really bad in Iowa. Last night I went to the movie with 2 of my friends, on Tues. they give free popcorn if you bring your own container. We learned though that the price for the popcorn is that they turn the heat off in the theater. It was so cold by the end of the movie we could see our breath, my glasses had fogged up, and we couldn't feel our toes. We were wrapped up in scarves, coats, and even blankets that Margaret had in her car! It was hilarious! Remind me again why we didn't we go to the school in Miami?

Elder Vaterlaus

Here are a few pictures for the Vaterlaus family!

Tonight we had Elder Vaterlaus, Elder Johnson, and our friends Bryce & Jessica over for a dinner of Cafe Rio pork salads. Elder Vaterlaus is from Boise too. We aren't officially related, but pretty much our families have been tight enough through the years we definitely are at least cousins. He is serving in a Spanish speaking branch that meets in our building, so I get to see him on Sundays. You never know who you might run into 1,000 miles from home. We had a really fun night.
He is a great teacher and a wonderful missionary...you can all be proud of him!