2010 ANNUAL HOLIDAY BAKING EXTRAVAGANZA

Friday Night....

Saturday morning into afternoon...

Mom...more please! Ethan was our helpful taste tester of each raw ingredient (he especially enjoyed oreos, chow mein noodles, pretzels, m&ms, and butterscotch chips). Ugh...this is going to be a rough couple of weeks - he LOVES "kiki's" (cookies). That and 'no' are his favorite words right now!

Daddy also had to taste test the ingredients to be sure they were consumable. In the end, he mixed all the leftover frosting together and made graham cracker sandwiches. It looks like brick and mortar (the frosting is a dark gray!).

Our variety arrangement of sugar cookies - Mike and Mo were the frosting pros, while I used my accessorizing skills to complete the masterpieces. For the record, each snowman has a different look on their faces to create different personalities! They wink, have their sunglasses on, eyes closed, etc.

These were a last minute fun decision - Spongebob and Patrick (no, Ethan hasn't seen them yet!). Each cookie must have their own personality, it makes them that much more fun to eat!

Saturday night - 20 containers of sugar cookies, porcupines, oreo truffles, peanut butter star cookies, peanut butter balls, pretzel wreaths, haystacks, cheesecake bars...what a day! We even survived the all day blizzard warning - oh, it's cold out!

And no post is complete without the real entertainer of the day...

RIP CAMERA

My deepest apologies are in order for not keeping the blog up to date this past month. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, my loving son decided to collect all sorts of goodies around the house, place them in a bag that he found, and the next morning mommy found wrappers, toys, my camera, and his milk sippy from supper the night before. Needless to say, the sippy leaked (gross) and my camera was sitting in a pool of sour milk. R.I.P 5 year old Canon Powershot - you were good to me! Luckily, this incident hit right before Black Friday, so my very loving husband found the brand new Canon Powershot on a hot deal at Best Buy. It even takes HD movies, so be watching for new and improved (that is, as long as the operator can handle it!). Enjoy the new postings, and I should be back next weekend! Happy Holidays!!!

HOLIDAY PARTY

More Holiday Fun - INVISION Family Christmas Party

Another visit with Santa. He actually gave Ethan a gift this time - a Buzz lightyear lego car thing - He loves it! The office also gave all the kids a gaming card, so Ethan got to play lots of fun things!

I'll throw this one in just cuz he's cute! 23 months old!

SANTA AND CY

Holiday Fun - at the Iowa State University Book Store!

Polar Express Story Time with Santa! Ethan has the Santa thing down - who is that Ethan? 'Tanta - HoHoHo" (usually whispers it). Definitely NOT afraid!

UBS Winter Open House - Mike and Ethan visited Mommy at work that night. Cy made a visit, and Ethan is also NOT afraid of Cy! Who is that Ethan? 'Guy - Go Co-cones!' (as he fist pumps in the air!). Lots of figh fives to Santa and Cy!

Holding Cy's hand along with his popcorn. Our good friend Rita (the director of UBS - my boss, and self-proclaimed 'Aunt' to Ethan) cut to the front of the line of people for Ethan to get a picture with Cy!

BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND

Mike takes black Friday pretty seriously....and so does his son.  Heather?  Nope, I will pay extra for stuff just to get my regular sleep.

Daddy purchased the 5lb paper for all the black Friday ads - Ethan helped in the hunt for good deals! Mike and Jon headed out shopping 12midnight-8AM around Ankeny. Ethan, Jess, and I stayed home and slept like normal people!

Ethan helped mommy with online shopping - she likes Cyber Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday much better than black Friday!

Christmas Decorating - Thanksgiving Weekend

Curious George helping Daddy get everything assembled!

Ethan was the big man in charge of putting the star on the tree. He still points at it to tell us 'star'! He also thinks the stocking are actual stockings, and tries to put them on his feet...we keep telling him that he doesn't have a clue of what is about to happen here in a couple weeks. Mom and Dad might be a little more excited for Christmas than Ethan!

Helping Daddy with the beaded garland...so pretty! We are still working on not touching the Christmas tree - he is doing pretty good, nothing is broken (yet). But, I did put Santa, Cy, Charlie Brown (with Sally and Snoopy), Dora and friends - all at Ethan's eye level to enjoy!

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS...

Our trip to Las Vegas

November 2010

We headed to Vegas for 5 days while Ethan spent time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Mike had a Healthcare Design Conference to attend, so between being in 'class' all day and experiencing the night life, it was quite exhausting! While Mike and his co-workers were in the conference, myself and another spouse spent a lot of our time playing Black Jack at Hooters (which was right across the street from our hotel). I never in a million years thought I would ever say that I enjoyed Hooters that much! We were so consumed, we didn't even get a picture! They had $3 Black Jack tables, and I discovered I'm pretty good at Black Jack! While we didn't come back to Iowa with the jackpot, we will call it as breaking even. We had a blast and we will probably go back again someday!

VIVA LAS VEGAS

The Fountains at the Bellagio

Bellagio Resort on the Strip

The fountain shows are every 15 minutes throughout the evening, and they are to different songs each time. We watched 4 or 5 different shows, and could've stayed for more!

VEGAS BABY!

Fremont Street (Downtown Vegas - Old Strip)

We found a $2 Black Jack table at the Las Vegas Club and played for 4-5 hours straight! There is NO sense of time when you are in Vegas! Once we decided to kick our gambling obsession, we grabbed a late supper and headed out to the street to watch the light show on the canopy above. There were also lots of street vendors - everything from selling random gifts, to a spray paint artist, and celebrity look-a-likes/characters in costume.

WELCOME TO LAS VEGAS!

Las Vegas - November 2010

Stratosphere - we didn't actually go to this hotel/casino, but it was cool looking from a distance!

Paris - yep, Mike took me to Europe!

Venetian - very pretty resort, also very expensive!

New York, New York - this was right across the street from where we stayed, so we ended up spending some time in the casino and shops area. They had a Ben and Jerry's! :)

MGM Grand - this was our resort. LOTS of walking to get from one place to another - just in the resort! Next time, we will be sure to bring our comfy walking shoes!

HANGIN' WITH THE GRAND 'RENTS

Hangin' at Grandma & Grandpa's House

Nap time with the "sock" family!

Drinking from a cup like a big boy!!! The highchair has been officially retired to the basement in the Dean house. A big-big boy bed is in the works. And potty training has been on mommy's brain...

What a life. Cereal? good. Milk? good. Front row seat for Dora? awesome. Not quite sure why Grandma Marie has him wearing a girl bib...

22 months

ETHAN'S FIRST TAILGATE

2010 Cyclone Football Season

Ethan's 1st Tailgate!

Playing throw the ball into the cup with Dad - this didn't last long, Daddy didn't like that he wasn't scoring any extra "points" for the team!

CHEEEEEEESSSE!

He was spoiled rotten with junk food at the tailgate. The cup is full of puppy chow - the cup was originally meant as a scooper for people so they didn't get powdered sugar everywhere, well, someone filled it up and gave it to Ethan so he would stay away from the bowl!

21 months

HALLOWEEN ZEBRA

TRICK OR TREAT!

We tried to teach him to say 'trick-or-treat' but at almost age 2, the only thing on your mind is the candy! Ethan was a pro for his first trick-or-treating experience! He was not shy to walk up to someone's door - he would take just 1 piece of candy - and gently put it in his bucket - and head to the next house! By the end he was so excited he was running all over the place (and touching everything on people's porches). We were out for about an hour, and then we headed back so we could hand out candy at our house for the rest of Beggar's Night.

A tired and thirsty zebra!

AUTUMN

Like Mother Like Son! Mommy and Ethan eating leftover popcorn from the night before for breakfast - that's right, snuggling in the snuggie!

Ethan almost 22 months

A new take on spaghetti - take handfuls and rub it all over your chest and belly and tuck the noodles into your diaper. Then for the finale - the whole tray falls on the floor with noodles and sauce everywhere!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

In lieu of carving or painting pumpkins, we decided to create Mr. "Pumpkin" Head! We found a kit at the store of Mr. Potato Head parts intended for pumpkins - we created a scary monster pumpkin! Ethan was NOT happy when we tried to tell him what parts went where...he really wanted the arm to go where the mouth goes (see above) and the mouth was not for the pumpkin - it was for Mommy (see below). We left the pumpkin on the table for a few days to see if he would keep interest in it - and he played with it each day. That left Mommy hunting for all the parts around the house! Saturday the 30th was our 'trick-or-treat' night, so we retired Mr. Pumpkin Head to the front step for everyone to enjoy!

END OF SUMMER

The Des Moines Farmers Market

For those that haven't had a chance to go to the DSM Farmer's Market...this gives you an idea of what it is like. Lots of people and local vendors for blocks and blocks!

October 2010

Ethan and Mom's favorite vendor is "Lotta-Pop" popcorn - Ethan is quite protective of his popcorn! Just like his mom...

21 months

More popcorn once we got home - I think all he ate that day was popcorn and french fries!

Posing with the new dishwasher - we are working on getting him to show us his big muscles!

Howdy partner! Yep, this is our son with his purple cowboy hat and purple phone - he has quite the imagination!

IMAGINATION

JABBER TIME

OH, JUST ANOTHER DAY...

We sat down after supper for some serious coloring time. Daddy printed out some SpongeBob pictures and we colored everything - the paper, the chair, the table, mommy....

Here we take coloring very serious...

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And here we think coloring is funny!

Ethan has a new love...licorice. He now actually says "no-no" to M&Ms to get licorice. He also discovered that if you bite off each end, you can blow through it - so then we play with it, drop it, and fight the dog for it. For a treat that is to be mess free...it's quite messy!

Ethan posing in front of the "new" fireplace. Mike re-faced the fireplace a few months ago, and I realized I never got a picture of it! This was as good as I could get with Ethan running around! Next time...a picture with our new dishwasher!

21 months