HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY

January 3rd marks Ethan's 3rd birthday this year. His GOLDEN birthday! We ventured out for a special birthday outing a couple days before his actual birthday - out to the mall to visit the 'Build-A-Bear Workshop'! Ethan picked out a brown puppy named 'Fudge Pup' - but at the Build-A Bear Workshop, you have to pick out a special name for your new friend. After trying to get Ethan to say 'Fudge Pup', he would say 'Pudge'. A-ha - a puppy named Pudge is born! We had him stuffed, picked out a satin heart and gave it a kiss before we put it inside, had him stitched up, gave him a 'bath', picked out some clothes (and a football), and filled out his birth certificate! Ethan is very proud of Pudge and has become his #2 go-to stuffed animal (hippo is still #1!).

Ethan's birthday was on a Tuesday, and unfortunately, it was not a day that mom & dad could take off of work. So, I whipped up some Dirt & Worms for him to take to his friends at daycare. He was so excited for the gummy worms, in fact, I thought I was going to run out because he kept stealing them from the counter as I was putting these fun treats together.

Presents!!! After successfully mastering Christmas, opening more presents just a week later was a real treat for Ethan. He got a soccer ball, baseball glove & ball, and a football helmet & uniform from mom and dad. And, the official card, $2, and stickers from Great Grandma Hoyt. After opening everything, he puts the helmet on and the glove on his hand and says "Ok, Dad! Time to play ace-ball" (translated - baseball). Mike tried to explain that the helmet & uniform was for football, but Ethan just loves wearing that baseball glove. So, we just play "ball" in our house!  We then headed to Spencer for a party with the whole family later in January for round 2.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

SNAPSHOTS

At almost age 3, Ethan is consumed with dinosaurs and his favorite stuffed animal, Hippo!

He is finally into coloring - on paper, not the walls and everything else in sight!

Watching a movie - Finding Nemo, Megamind, Toy Story, and Despicable Me are his favorites!

Maggie and Ethan are good buds - Ethan points and says "Gee-Gee, sit, sit, Gee-Gee, sit, sit". He likes to play fetch with her and sometimes pretend to ride her like a horsey (she doesn't really allow this!). His favorite is taking her for a walk on her leash - in the house. Again, she isn't a fan, but is a good sport for him!

DEAN CHRISTMAS

Continued fun times, fun presents, and fun play time with family!

JOHNSON CHRISTMAS

Fun times, fun presents, fun play time with family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE-EVE MORNING

Ah, Christmas Morning! Well, we cheated a little bit...we asked Santa to stop the on 23rd before we headed out of town for our family Christmas'. Mike and I were so excited for Christmas this year - we figured Ethan would finally be old enough to understand how everything works and also be really excited about presents. News flash, Ethan is not a morning person. It's definitely genetics because Mike and I are NOT morning people either. But, Christmas morning is different....the whole 'I'm-too-excited-to-sleep' thing. Not with Ethan...he was deep asleep and Mike is bouncing off the walls because 'IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!' We forced Ethan up, so he was a bit sluggish and shy about opening presents, and certainly was not interested in pictures. Regardless, it was a wonderful morning with our cute little family! Can't wait until next year!

WINTER BUCKET LIST - PART 4

Cookies. We love cookies. We especially love Christmas cookies. Another bucket list item crossed off - baking cookies for Santa. When it came time to set out goodies for Santa, I decided to let Ethan do it. So, I set out the container of cookies and let him choose what he wanted. Clearly, we wanted to give Santa ALL the cookies. Then I set out the container of carrots for the reindeer. My intention was to keep them on the small plate separate from the cookies, but Ethan had other plans. And, finally, I failed Santa and didn't have any milk (we were leaving for the long weekend anyhow, so I didn't want to buy more). Rest assured, we had Pepsi and Santa finished it off!

BUSTED!!!

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 :)