WINTER BUCKET LIST - PART 3

Christmas cards. I love Christmas cards. They are happy, cute, and it balances out the bills and junk in the mail. I also love getting our Christmas cards together to spread some joy to others. But, when you are married to creative talent, it not as easy as just going out to the Shutterfly or Walgreens site and using a template - nope, we do it from scratch. It involves lots of questions, attitude, yelling, debates, and cookies. Ah, perfect Christmas spirit, eh? We made it through and produced a pretty adorable card! Maybe we should consider starting 2012's card now.....

Here are the 'outtakes' from our photography session, located in the heart of our home - the dining room.

WINTER BUCKET LIST - PART 2

Gingerbread Houses. A holiday must! When you give an architect (and a potential future architect) some graham crackers, frosting, dots, Mike & Ikes, and M&Ms - you have another bucket list item checked off - a "Christmas" House!

WINTER BUCKET LIST - PART 1

We developed a 'Winter Bucket List' of things to do. Most were holiday related, we have some snow adventures to go on once we have some snow and daylight to tackle! Here are a few things we did in December that we crossed off our list......

Driving through Jolly Holiday Lights @ Water Works Park in Des Moines - Iowa's largest holiday light display! We let Ethan sit up front so he could see (it was safe and legal, so no worries there) - he insisted on "driving" through part of the ride. He was quite attentive, but we should probably tackle potty training before driver's ed....

Visit Santa. Yeah....not a fan of Santa. (Do you see Santa's death grip on Ethan?? Hahaha)

Decorate the house for Christmas. YAY!

Give. Give generously. I have always donated to Toys for Tots over the years - just randomly buying a toy and putting it in the bin. This year, Mike's office had a bin dropped off at their office. Many of his coworkers just wanted to donate cash rather than go out and do the hustle and bustle of the toy stores. We volunteered to take their cash, and give some of our own, and head to the department store to buy a variety of toys - including the ultimate Christmas present - BIKES! We took Ethan with us and tried to explain what we were doing - he just had a blast picking out toys, and didn't really care that they weren't for him. This is one bucket list item that will always be on the list!

CYCLONE FOOTBALL SEASON

Well, in December we wrapped up a great ISU football season. It was a very exciting season with BIG wins against Iowa, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State - the absolute best football games we have ever seen. It's always amazing to beat Iowa, especially on your home turf. Texas Tech was ranked and quite a good team - until we beat them on their home turf. OSU was ranked #2 when we beat them in the 'House that Jack Built' - Mike attended that late November game (a true fan) where he even stormed the field, but I opted to stay home (a so-called-fair-weather fan)..but it was on TV, so I didn't miss it. Trust me, when you jump up and down, scream, and yell in your living room...all by yourself...with your child asleep in the middle of the floor..with your phone blowing up from all the text messages...and you might pee your pants because you are not leaving in case you miss something - I think I can call myself a true fan. :)

We are already excited for next season - 2012 marks are 10th year of season tickets! And we still have 3 years before we hit the increased pricing for being the big 3-0! For once, my late summer birthday is actually beneficial!

My Tailgating Masterpiece of the Season....Bacon and Eggs! Melted white chocolate chips dabbed on wax paper, with yellow (or green!) M&M as the yolk and broken pretzel sticks as bacon. They taste just like almond bark covered pretzels, but they are a clever treat for a morning tailgate! It's still a goal to get a Tailgating recipe book put together with our whole tailgating family's recipes! It would blow Paula Deen out of the water :)

SLACKERS

Ok, I promise...SOON! I have lots of pictures to update! Here are some spoiler alerts: Christmas, Ethan turns 3, Ethan is 40lbs & 40" at his 3-year checkup, and witness the consumption of 30+ dum-dum suckers in a matter of 4 days. Stay tuned all this week.....................

TRICK OR TREAT

Happy Halloween! Our little Spiderman was quite the trick or treating expert this year. He would rattle off a cute 'trick or treat' at each door, sometimes even yelling it over and over again as he is running up the driveway! He was even good about saying 'thank you' too. However, we had some issues....like, if people wouldn't open the door fast enough, he would try to open it and just go inside. Oh, and he would dig his little hands into the candy bowls - which didn't go over well with people who are protective of their candy and prefer to hand it to the kids rather than having them dig in. Oh, and did I mention, he even took candy out of an older girl's bucket - hey she was tall, so the bucket was right at eye level for him. He had an absolute blast - and we did too. Our first 'holiday' that he was able to fully enjoy!

We even made a special trip to Spencer to trick or treat with cousins - Matayah and Kendra. Grandpa Rick turned 30 (times 2!) on October 31st, so we dropped in as a surprise and grabbed some extra candy while we were in town!

OCTOBER FUN

Halloween cupcakes for Grandpa Rick's birthday. Ethan looked 'cheeto-stained' after we cleaned him all up! Yep, that's Mommy in the background saying, "NOT IT!"

Ethan - Ewww...gucky puppet (pumpkin). Wait, no, it's scary in there (the jack-o-lantern Daddy marked out).

FALL OR SUMMER?

We continue to experience strange weather patterns - pretty much all of September was hot and dry, but painful for allergies! Then we hit October where it's cold at night and warm during the day - a nightmare for your wardrobe. And now we are nearing the end of October and it finally feels like fall, although, the local news reported tiny little snowflakes in Central Iowa today.

We are just cruisin' on with life - so perfect, organized, well kept - just like a young child playing among the pollen-filled weeds in the front yard....

...and creating a perfect environment for peaceful slumber.

And, well, whatever tomorrow brings.......

RAGWEED, GRASSES, AND HORSES...OH MY!

We went in for another round of allergy testing today. Ethan suffers from severe environmental allergies, for his age. They typically don't start testing until age 5, but we had to get him tested at age 1, and then again here at age 2. We were hoping for some improvement, but no dice. He is allergic to dogs, cats, horses, most trees, all types of grass, certain molds, and especially ragweed. BUT - he is not allergic to dust - thank goodness! We have a medicine plan to keep him comfortable, and hope to hold off on weekly allergy shots until he goes to kindergarten.

Ethan did awesome - not a single cry or whine, just some 'ouch!' and 'no way!'. Also, we got a good weight and height reading today - 38lbs and 39 1/4" tall! Still a big boy!

Some have asked what an allergy test looks like - below is a picture of Ethan's back after the nurse pricked him with the testing pads. It just looks like perfect lines of bug bites. The really red/big ones are his allergies and the tiny ones are just minute or normal. Then we have to let it sit for 10 minutes - which equals f-o-r-e-v-e-r with a 2 year old that wants to itch his back! Thankfully the nurse brought in stickers - and mommy had pens in her purse!

The nurse had to put markings on Ethan's back with a pen, so when I handed Ethan a pen to color with - he went right for his belly! Might as well have pictures on both sides, I even drew a little smiley face above his belly button :)

KLINGE'S VISIT

Our great, awesome friends - Nate, Kelly, Miles - came to visit us in early September. We had an 'architecture' wedding to attend in Ames, so Aunt Jessi came to watch the boys while we re-lived our college days for an evening.

Miles and Ethan are the same age, so they are quite the entertainment. We started the weekend with Ethan being a bit protective of his stuff - anything Miles had, Ethan would throw a fit - acting like he specifically had intentions of playing with that toy even though he hasn't played with it for 2 months. Then he warmed up and they became partners in crime. Ethan would copy everything Miles was doing, and then eventually the tables would turn and Miles would copy everything Ethan was doing.

We hope to soon get to Chicago to visit the Klinge's on their turf and have some city fun!

FALL IS NEAR!

I'll admit, I am pretty picky about when I want to be outside. I need it to be the right temperature - and now that fall is approaching, the weather is PERFECT. We have been eating many meals on the deck and fresh air has been the best ingredient. I really do not want fall to end...ugh, and winter to begin.

Oh, and we still have some sparklers left over from July :)

FAMILY TIME

With August being my super busy time at work (this year has been the worst thus far) - we did some winding down and focused on some just-the-3-of-us family time. We are on the onset of football season, so we had some excitement and preparations for the upcoming season!

Daddy made a bean bag toss game for our ISU tailgate. The complete artist in him traced and hand painted Cy right onto the board. Of course, Ethan wanted to paint too - just like Dad. So I gave him a little paintbrush and some "paint" (water - shhh, don't tell), and he painted on paper. Oooh, was that fun, or what! We may be getting close to watercolor painting! Yikes - I just hate messes that have disaster written all over them!

Now, stickers - harmless and mess free (except when they get super stuck to the floor or get run through the wash on a shirt, but no big deal).

And, Mike thought it was fun and creative to expose Ethan to the world of Mario Kart. Sorry to say, you get quite dizzy watching Ethan play, but it is cute how he reacts to the 'CARS!'. Now, I have never been a fan of kids playing video games - really anyone playing video games. I think I still have a complex because my parents never let me have that beloved Nintendo that I always wanted. But, it's an ok complex to have! I much prefer sleeping or pretend driving around the house.

NEW FAVORITE RECIPE

We really like Breakfast food at our house - any time of the day (well, except mornings...unless its the weekend)! So, we were getting a bit bored with our regular food routine - so I decided to try and make up our own breakfast pizza. Those who know me well know that cooking isn't quite my thing. But, I try, and when I succeed, I am ALL OVER IT! So, I thought I would share in my glory...

Homemade Breakfast Pizza

1 Mama Mary's Thin Crust

4oz. Velveeta cheese

4-6 Sausage links

6-8 Bacon slices

5 eggs

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Milk

Prep the toppings - scramble the eggs, cook the bacon and crumble, cook the sausage and slice. Then prep the cheese sauce - melt the Velveeta with a splash of milk (about 2 min. or so in the microwave) - stir, stir, stir! Spread sauce over the crust before it thickens too much, sprinkle scrambled eggs, sprinkle mozzarella cheese (to your liking!), add the bacon and sausage, then a bit more mozzarella. Voila - Breakfast pizza! Cook for about 10 minutes at 350 - really until the shredded cheese is melted.

Now, it's not going to win any health food awards, but it sure is good! Mike made these for his office breakfast a couple weeks ago - many said it was better than Casey's Breakfast pizza! Heck ya!

ICE CREAM TRUCK

The old fashioned ice cream truck made a surprise visit to our neighborhood over Labor Day weekend, music and all! It was a beautiful day, so we had the windows open in the house - we heard the music and went running! Ethan opted for "Piderman i-keen-cone", which was a lot more fun to look at than actually eat. And, sharing? Yeah right....

ADVENTURES AT THE DINNER TABLE

The ever infamous spaghetti face. I plan to continue taking pictures of him eating spaghetti - even when he is a teenager!

Sooooo sleeeepy. Our first official nap at the table. Either my food is too boring or just too comforting!

Sick baby....we battled a bit of a flu bug at the end of August. I finally got him to agree to eat "sghetti and eatballs", but this is the look he gave me. He did end up eating a good portion and was chipper as could be for the rest of the night!