Clapping

Ethan has become quite the clapper this week. He is his own biggest fan - he will just randomly start clapping. I guess he's just proud of himself and he thinks he deserves some applause!

Excuse my annoying "Mommy" voice, as always...

Our new pet

I'm not exactly a dog lover, but we broke down and got one. Isn't he adorable?

Happy Halloween!!!!

Crawling Video

He may not be flying across the floor, but I want to remember how it all began...

Will Crawl for Paci

WE'VE GOT A CRAWLER! Barely, but we do! He crawled twice this afternoon, each about three "steps." We've had a hard time getting him motivated, but usually a pacifier will do the trick.
When he did it for the first time this afternoon, I clapped and cheered so loud that it scared him! He stuck out that pouty lip and almost cried. Nothing a few snuggles couldn't fix!

Hopefully we'll get a video of it soon. :)

Hangin' with Aunt Jo and Uncle Dustin

Dustin, Joanna, and Lexi came over Saturday night so Lonnie and I could go to the Razorback game (which we will not talk about). Joanna took some cute pictures from their evening. And Joanna, after you left, Ethan apologized for being Mr. Cranky Pants. He hopes you will consider watching him again!

Also, I have some cute videos of Ethan trying to crawl, I just haven't had time to upload them. Hopefully I'll get that done in the next day or two. Or even better, maybe he'll actually start crawling for real, and I'll upload that video instead!

Life Group

We have recently started a new Life Group at church. Several of our friends with babies were looking for something that would help us grow as new parents. We have 5 couples in our group with 5 babies. We've met twice already and it has been such a blessing! We're focusing on getting our priorities straight (God, spouse, baby, then job/hobbies/etc.), how to raise a Godly, caring, well-mannered child, how to maintain a healthy marriage, etc. And on top of all that, it is so awesome to watch our children play together. Granted, there's not a lot of playing going on yet, but that will come!

There's Peyton (6 months), Addison (15 months), Ethan (8 months), and Allyson (4 months). (Phoebe, 12 months, wasn't there) What fun they'll have in the coming months and years!

And by the way, our boy is about to crawl!! He is SOOOOO close. I'm predicting by Saturday.

CAMP'N

Every October we go to Devil's Den for camping with a group of our friends. It's of course a little different this year with babies involved! I was pretty nervous about the whole trip because the forecast was calling for some pretty cold weather at night. Luckily, Kenny's parents just bought a new camper and they were willing to let us share it for the weekend. So, how'd it go????

Great and miserable, all at the same time. Ethan did great during the daylight hours. He played, we took lots of walks, he talked a lot, he enjoyed watching the fire, he took great naps, etc. And then nightime comes. He went to bed at 7pm like normal, and slept great. I got him up around 9:30 for his bottle like normal, and he ate great. But then he would NOT go back to sleep. We had bunk beds, so I was going to sleep on the bottom with Ethan, and Lonnie was going to sleep up top. Well, since we have never let Ethan sleep in bed with us, he thought it must be party time to have us in his room at bedtime. He'd fall asleep in my arms, but when I'd go to lay him down, he'd scream. I'd pick him up, he'd fall asleep, lay him down, scream. Repeat about 10 times. Finally at 1am, we decided to go home. That was a LONG hour drive! Thank goodness Lonnie can drive without falling asleep. I can't say the same for myself.

Ethan slept fine at home, we got up in the morning and went back to the campsite around 10am. We had a great day, but then Ethan and I left around 7pm to head back home. I wasn't going to go through that again! Since Lonnie is the one that puts the trip together each year, he stayed at the campsite and should be back this afternoon. It was weird being at church without him this morning! I felt like half of me was missing! Anyway, here are WAY too many pictures:
(I particularly enjoy watching the change of bibs every few pictures - I think we went through at least 10 on Saturday. He is SOOOO drooly!)

Story time with Aunt Rachel...

The men doing really important things...


Look at that hat head!!!!

Okay, I knew they made hats for babies, but I didn't know you could buy mittens and scarves for babies too! Thank you JCPenny!!!! Too cute!

Eight Months

It's 2:45am and I'm blogging. What's wrong with this picture?
Ethan has decided he didn't want to sleep tonight. He's been up since about one. We tried everything we knew to get him back to sleep, but he's bright-eyed and ready to play. So, why fight it? Ethan and I are playing and blogging and Lonnie's in the kitchen making chili for our camping trip this weekend. (Have I mentioned how much I appreciate Lonnie? He's always been willing to be up with Ethan in the middle of the night, sometimes more than me!)
So, all that being said, here's Ethan's 8-month post...

Unofficial weight: 21ish pounds
Unofficial length: 29 inches

Not much new to report from last month. Still no teeth. Still not crawling. He's rocking back and forth on his hands and knees and will stay in that position longer than before, so maybe he'll be crawling soon. Although I'll admit, I'm okay with him not crawling - we haven't baby proofed yet and I'm not looking forward to it.

Still sleeping through the night, with an occasional wake-up, but he puts himself back to sleep most of the time.
Ethan's a lot more playful these days. He's laughing more, playing, snuggling, flirting, and just plain fun!

That's really about all!

Here are his pictures...

One month:
Eight months:

Patience

Believe it or not, our boy has patience! Of course, you'll see that he does reach a point of frustration eventually.

I love seeing him work on his fine motor skills, and seeing his curiosity and determination. Makes me proud!

Bed Head

This is what we see most days when we get Ethan up from his crib. (and unfortunately it stays that way most of the time - it's so unmanageable!)

(Dad, I bet this will be the new picture on your desktop wallpaper!)

Men!

Lonnie and I decided we needed to get out and go on a date. That, of course, requires a babysitter. Lonnie comes up with a great idea. This is apparently how men solve problems:

Lonnie calls Shad...
Lonnie: Hey Shad, you watching the game on Saturday?
Shad: Yeah.
Lonnie: You want to come over and watch it?
Shad: Sure.
Lonnie: Okay, and while you're here, you can watch Ethan while Margaret and I go out on a date.
Shad: Uh, okay.

Hey, I'm not complaining! We're going to Texas Land & Cattle for dinner, then shopping. Yea! Thanks Shad (and Amy!)

Way to Go, Lonnie!

Lonnie came home with some good news on Thursday...

He got a promotion!!!! He is now a Senior Operations Analyst. (yeah, I have no idea what that means either).

Good job, baby! I'm so proud of you! (I really do know what you do at work, I promise)

a NEW trick

That's right...something new!

And completely unrelated, but cute just the same...

Ethan was sleeping with his little booty up in the air a few nights ago, so I of course had to grab the camera.

He started to wake up after the first picture, so he's starting to stretch a little in this one.

Food for Thought

I know, I know...more of the same. But it's just too cute! The way he moves his mouth (well, the whole bottom half of his face) is just too funny.

Poor Baby

**Doctor update...
The doctor agreed that the rash is a reaction to the amoxicillin, but wasn't ready to say that he was allergic to the medicine. It may just be that it's his first time on any antibiotic and it was a little rough on him. So, we'll just wait til the next time he's sick and see what happens.


After being on amoxicillin for the past week, Ethan has developed a rash. Poor little guy! Although, I don't really think that it's bothering him at all; it just looks yucky. He has an appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning just to make sure everything's okay, so I'll post an update tomorrow.
Maybe this baby is unfortunate to have super sensitive skin like his mama!

Don't worry, this rash won't keep me from smiling!

I Pledge Allegiance

We were playing outside with the kiddos yesterday and Caden found the American flag. Keira decided to be patriotic:

So apparently there's a Pledge to the Christian Flag???? I tried googling it, but the one that kept coming up was different than the one Keira recited. Her's sounded like a mix of the Christian Pledge and the regular Pledge. Anyways, we got a good chuckle out of it.

Welcome Fall!

Okay, so it hardly feels like Fall when we go to the Pumpkin Patch and I'm dripping with sweat, but it's Fall, none the less! The Grubbs and us headed to the local pumpkin patch just down the road from our houses and took some great pictures! We're still working on getting Ethan to smile on demand for pictures, so he looks less than thrilled in some of them. Enjoy the blank stare look...