Another Obsession!

Well it is official, Ethan's second most favorite place in the world (of course right after Disneyland) is the zoo. You'll notice on here, that most of our posts take place after his trips to the zoo, to which he has been 4 times in the past two months (Thank goodness for that Zoo pass, best investment we ever made!)

He is in love with looking at all the animals, but mostly, he's in love with running around all over the place, while we yell for him to slow down and stay with us. But here's some pictures of our most recent trip.

Look how big he's gotten! What a fun family day!

We finally got a picture of him with the goat in the background.

He's almost as tall as that bear! I can't believe how tall he's gotten.

Running back and forth across the bridge. This kid as so much energy. I have no idea where he gets it from.

Having some fun in the log tunnel. What a great kid!


that is one big fish!

Ethan loves John Deere Tractors. Something he comes by honestly since his grandpa Doug also likes them too! The zoo was SO great because there was next to no one there, so all the pictures we're always wanting to take, but can't because the areas are so crowded, were finally accessible to us! It was awesome! A good day for the Porter Family!

My Baby Sister and Me!

Ethan has definitely taken quite the shine to his baby sister! He's enjoyed being as much of a help as he can possibly be, in addition to learning how to play games with her, and help her when she's upset. He likes to help dad make her bottles, he is our official "bottle shaker". And he loves playing "Peek a Boo" with her on a nightly basis. When she cries, he will, as quietly as he can say it of course, state, "It's okay baby Maddie, don't cry" - - which usually makes her cry even more because Ethan can't speak in a calming tone! But he has good intentions!

He also is quite fond of giving her kisses and hugs. He's just turned out to be an amazingly great big brother to his sister Maddie!

Big brother love after bath time! They look similar, but very different! But they are both SO cute and precious to me! Don't ask me what happened to the second picture. But it's so cute, I have to share it!

One afternoon, while Ethan was sporting his "I'm the Big Brother" t-shirt, he had told me he wanted to hold baby Maddie. So he sat down like a big boy in his chair, and let me put Maddie on top of him. What a cute bunch of kiddos I have!

It's a Wonderful Wumpers!

Well Ethan had a wonderful Christmas this year. What with the arrival of his newest baby sister, he's still managed to be so very spoiled for holidays! His greatest addiction is still Disney Cars, and Mickey Mouse, and he got so very many things for both passions. From a singing and dancing lightning McQueen car, to a Hotwheels Racing track, which amazingly enough I was surprised to have seen him master it! He played gift hander outer at his grama and grampa Christopherson's house. He did so well at giving everyone their gifts!

He even LOVED his Froggie pajamas... I wish I had a video of his reaction when opening these, because it was the most fun we had that Christmas eve, and the pictures just don't do it justice. He's worn them most every night since getting them for Christmas, and is still so very excited that grama Christopherson bought them for him.

He also liked what uncle Dain and Aunt Angie bought him from the Adidas store. He was excited for uncle Dain to help him open it, mostly because Angie tapes all of her boxes before wrapping them! haha... But he waited patiently while Dain made his way through the cardboard.

Sadly we didn't get hardly any photos from grandma and grandpa Porter's, but he got some wonderful things from them too, the biggest hit being the AWESOME fleece blanket that aunt Katie and grandma Sue made for him. It has Wall E on one side (whom he also loves) and Mater and Lightning on the other side, which makes him so very happy. He also sleeps with that nightly!

But the most fun was watching him help baby Maddie open her Christmas Stocking gifts. He would go, "that's okay baby Maddie, I'll help you" as he was opening them one after the other for her. It was a wonderful Christmas for our family!

IT'S SNOWING!

What a wonderful Winter miracle! People had been talking about snow for a week now, and I just didn't believe it was going to happen. Mostly because the weatherman was predicting it!

But we welcomed a white miracle in to our lazy Sunday day! Giving us an excuse to stay inside the house, drink hot chocolate, and look out the windows. It's not often that we really take the time to relax during this month.

So as the snow started to calm down in the afternoon, we decided to take Ethan out in the backyard, to allow him the opportunity to see the snow all over his outside toys. The previous years that we've seen snow, Ethan either was too young to understand it, and therefore didn't really care which way or the other, or he was afraid of it, and wouldn't go outside, because it was too cold for his taste. But finally, our little boy has found his outdoor instincts! He was having a blast, running in the snow, kicking it, and having a "mock" snowball fight with his dad, which really in the end was just Allan throwing snow at Ethan to make him laugh! He was less than thrilled when we headed back inside, because all of our noses were as bright as Rudolph's!

We're excited to see what the rest of the days have in store for us, with this wonderful winter storm, but we're hoping that won't make us feel trapped and cabin feverish! We like to keep on the move!

I'm a BIG Brother!

There isn't anything more precious in the world than our wonderful children!!!

It's official! On November 18, 2008 at 10:45 pm, Ethan became big brother to baby Madelyn! So far he's done WONDERFUL with his new job description! We're excited to share his exciting news with everyone!

Trick or Treat... Smell my feet...!

Well, our Halloween started off kinda fun! Macie decided to come over in her costume for the day! The cutest little bug I've ever seen. We had fun eating candy out of the Trick or Treat bowl, and watching Monster's Inc., which has quickly become one of Ethan's favorite Disney movies! All week long Dylan, another of my daycare kids had been teaching them the songs he'd been learning at school, and so it was a delight to hear both of my two year olds running around singing "Mr. Pumpkin, Mr. Pumpkin, eyes so round, eyes so round - -" and it goes on from there, but I tell you, that was the cutest thing I had ever experienced! Ethan wasn't quite sure what was going on with Macie, since he himself had not donned his costume just yet. For good reason!


That's right folks... He was "Bond, James Bond" - - we felt it was perfect for him, with his blond hair and blue eyes. Plus, we had that Tux from his uncle Dain's wedding, that we felt we needed at least ONE more good use out of. We found him the perfect little pistol, and combed his hair just right, and before we knew it, he was 007 himself! It was so precious to hear him say his key phrases. We worked with him all week on saying, "Bond, James Bond" - - to which he said very well at a few houses while out Trick or Treating. We also taught him to say, "Shaken, not stirred" - - but for some reason he wouldn't say anything past shaken. Crazy kid. He was SO cute though. We took him to Grandpa and Grandma Porter's early in the evening to start off his trick or treating, and he had a great deal of fun. Then we headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Christopherson's, and ended up doing our evening Trick or Treating in the neighborhood around their house, since we felt it to be more trick or treat friendly than the neighborhoods around our house. Ethan was precious every step of the way. He'd run up to the door, ring the door bell, shout, "HELLO!", and then try to open everyone's doors. We must work on knowing our boundaries of door opening I suppose! Then, once the people would come to the door, he'd say, "Trick or Treat!!!" and open his candy bag. It's like he was born to do it! Then he'd graciously thank the people for their wonderful treats, and move to the next house, eager to say his new phrases! He was so full of energy and had such a good time, that it really was a joy to be out and about with him on that night. We stopped by Uncle Dain and Aunt Angie's house TWICE, because of all the houses, they had the best candy (which they stole from our mom and dad's house! haha). Then we spent the evening eating pizza and watching kiddie movies. It wasn't the most EVENTFUL night, but it was a night well spent! We really did have a lot of fun.

Here is Ethan "Trick or Treating" his first house, Grandma and Grandpa Porter's. "Will someone open the door already?!?"

Pumpkins, Pumpkins... EVERYWHERE!!!

Well in the midst of Halloween arriving, we decided that the pumpkin patch was going to be an annual tradition. Though after the rising costs, we might have to rethink this idea. But It was a BEAUTIFULLY sunny day, and I had three two year olds sitting around, and a husband who got off work early, so needless to say, it was time to head out to the pumpkin farms! There are so many to choose from, and even though most will waste time going out to the Roloff's farm, we decided to give our business to Lakeview instead. There were boat rides, train rides, and a hay maze to boot. And even though we weren't there for hours, we had a wonderfully glorious day!

Well it's no lie that our little monster is growing like a weed. Just back in August he had hit the 3 foot mark, for going on the "big kid" rides, and it looks like he's continuing to sprout. Though you wouldn't be able to tell because he of course wouldn't stand straight up against the board. But here's an idea of how big these two year olds are getting, this fall!

The petting zoo was a lot of fun. There were some traditional animals you'd normally find, and some not so traditional ones as well. Each animal on display was for sale, and I found that interesting. Those bunny rabbits looked mighty tempting to purchase at $15, however, I would have no clue how to raise or keep one alive! There were also kittens for sale, a rooster, a couple of goats, and a pig of all things. Most all of the kids were fascinated by the pig, all accept Ethan. He was more scared of it than anything.
For the life of me, I could not get these kids to look at me!

The kids enjoyed being out on the open water while riding the boat to the pumpkin patch. The pumpkins sure are becoming scarce out at Lakeview, probably due to the season and all, but it was fun to let them run around and enjoy the sunshine!

Thankfully they were cooperative enough to allow me the opportunity to get some cute shots of them just sitting on the pumpkins. You know, they really are some cute kids!

More moments where they JUST wouldn't all look at me at the same time. These kids were SUCH stinkers about letting me get pictures of them. Oh well...

This was the best I could get of them... What cuties!
Ethan found his pumpkin... he was ready to go!

They make a good team don't they? The two of them worked SO hard to try to pick up the PESKY pumpkin. Leaving no room for failure! Can't blame them. It was so cute though, Ethan would stand up saying, "oooh, that's really heavy" every time he wasn't able to successfully lift it off the ground.

What can we say? He definately eats his Wheaties!!!

Finally, a moment where we could have some fun with these kids! They had some nice cut outs for the kids to play around in. Hopefully next year they'll be tall enough to stand in there with no assistance. I was attempting to hold them up while Allan took the pictures. But it was a nice and quiet moment where we would FINALLY get some fun shots of the kids, without being totally overpowered by the MILLIONS of field tripping kiddos that were running a muck!

Follow the leader!!! The kids had fun trying to find their way through the maze. The perfect ending to a perfect pumpkin patch day!

Ethan made sure to give his coins for the cause! He loves to support Breast Cancer Research.