TROUBLE!

I think we're in for a world of trouble...

The funny thing is, even though he just learned how to open doors, his FAVORITE thing is to CLOSE doors! No matter where we are in the house, he will find a door to shut, then pound on it. (Although Daddy is teaching him how nice and chivalrous it is to OPEN doors for Mommy when we're out! One of the many, many reasons I love that guy!)

Shoveling in the Birthday Cake

Ethan started off slow, but he finally got the hang of it!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ethan!!!

My sweet little Valentine turned one year old today!!!! I can't believe it! I'll save the sappiness for another post. Here's how our birthday boy spent his day:

Giving Mommy a Valentine balloon:
A special birthday breakfast - 1st time to try scrambled eggs

And PANCAKES!!! The boy can put away some serious pancakes - he LOVES them!!!

Then after a nap, it was party time! We started with some bubbles:

And just general playing:

Then present time! We got Ethan a remote control Jeep.

Carl, Crystal, and Camden got Ethan two really cool animal puzzles:

The Grubbs got Ethan the COOLEST TRICYCLE EVER! It has a speedometer, turn signals, a horn, and a song button. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it! He rode circles around the living room all afternoon. THANK YOU SO MUCH, GRUBBS!!!!!!

Of course, I can't let a birthday or holiday go by without buying Ethan a new book!

We also got Ethan a fun new swing. It's for a swing set that we have our eye on, but haven't bought just yet. We plan on getting that and putting it together in the next few weeks.

Finally, it was cake time!!! I have some fun videos to post later on that. He started slow, but finally dug right in.

Here's his official birthday cake. (FYI for all my friends with upcoming 1 year birthdays - Walmart will give you a free personal cake when your order a regular cake for your baby's first birthday. Yea Walmart!)

I had to capture all the kiddos in birthday hats. Sorry you didn't like it, Camden!

After all the cake fun, we enjoyed just hanging out with our friends and playing with new toys!

Check out the speedometer, turn signals, and fun buttons - too cool!

The boys chasing around the Jeep:

Now that Ethan's a year old, he finally got to turn around in the car!!! Here he is in his new big boy car seat, on our way to Marketplace for a birthday/Valentine dinner:
And the official 12 month football picture. We've decided to just have him sit up from now on.

Happy birthday, sweet boy! We love you SO, SO, SO much!!!!!!!!!!

5 steps

That's right! Ethan walked 5 whole steps!!! We're making progress!

Uh-oh!

The video speaks for itself!

American Idol, Here I Come!

(And YES, Ethan is standing alone in all these pictures!!! He's a standing fool now. Not much progress on walking today - just a few single steps here and there.)

Two Steps

Ethan took two whole steps tonight!!!!! He was standing next to a chair and eyeing the exersaucer that was about two feet away from him, and instead of getting down and crawling to it like he normally would, he took two pretty steady, confident steps and got there! Woohoo Ethan!!!! He's also been standing on his own a lot today. That boy's going to be walking before the end of the week!