1st tooth

12/28/12 - Just a couple days short of 5-1/2 years old and Ethan lost his first tooth this afternoon. 

Christmas Break

It has been a busy couple of weeks and we have made the most of all the time. 

Ethan had his Christmas party at school on December 18th and Nicole (Peyton's mom) and I were able to be the classroom helpers.  It was fun to see them both interact with their classmates.

Then later that same evening they had their Christmas program, which even included orchestra, bells, and a bagpiper and drummer. 

 The following afternoon Ethan began his Christmas break from school and will be off until January 3rd, so we made the most of day off on Thursday 12/20 and finished our last-minute Christmas errands and then made our way to the new Portland Aquarium in Milwaukie.  They had several different exhibits and also had a shark and stingray touch pond, which Ethan loved.

On Friday, December 21st, I finally gave in and had the plantar fascia released on my left foot.  It has been a complete opposite recovery from the surgery on my right foot, and I was even able to walk around, with crutches and in a walking boot mind you, the following day.  Jeff has been home several of the days, as his parents are here visiting us for Christmas, so I have had lots of help.  I went for my first post-op appointment this afternoon and all is looking and feeling well, and other than a few more days of anti-coagulation injections in my stomach (OUCH!) it has been a pretty good outcome. 

While taking it easy after surgery, the pain medication makes me really tired so Charlie and I had a lot of cuddle time (of course he thinks he is a lap dog). 

Ethan has also had a great time with G&G Hadley, talking their ears off as well as making a gingerbread house, paper snowflakes (need lots more practice), and felt ornaments.  We also drove through the Christmas lights at Portland International Raceway (after waiting nearly 2 hours and were really disappointing but we can at least say we have seen them), drove through Peacock Lane (much more impressive), and tomorrow will be checking out zoo lights.  We are always happy to have G&G Hadley with us every other year for Christmas and Ethan loves spending time with them. 

It was really fun to watch Ethan get so excited for Christmas and Santa this year.  He was so excited he has a really hard time getting to sleep on Christmas Eve and was wide awake just after 6 am when he crawled underneath his red-taped door and came running upstairs to tell us that Santa really did come to our house.  He received Legos, K'nex, a kindle (mommy's) in a new case, and lots of books.     

 Daddy spent many many hours putting together his K'nex rollercoaster and will probably now be a permanent fixture in the house since it took so long to put together. 

Every year Jeff's dad makes us all a beautiful hand-crafted wood ornament and this year it was an angle.  Ethan, however, thought that she needed to be dressed up and have a face so he "helped" Papa, unbeknownst to anyone including Papa, by adding his take on what the angel should look like.  Can't really blame him, and now Papa will know who to ask for art design, hahaha! 

Elf application and other school projects

They have made some cut projects at school so I thought I would share some that have come home.

 They have been learning the letters P, E, and F the last week or so.  Ethan has been doing a great job writing his letters and learning to sound out words, some of which he tries to spell phonetically but has given it a good effort.  

There was an incident at school last week and I made Ethan write a "I'm sorry" note to another student.  Before I was able to help him, Ethan decided to start it himself.  What he was meaning to write was Sorry Shae, however, this is his version of it...

Merry Christmas from the Hadley's

For anyone not on my Christmas card mailing list.....

Handyman

My love is a great handyman and will try to fix anything.  He also creates some beautiful things out of "logs" (as Ethan calls all wood) and made us some beautiful bookshelves for our spare bedroom. 

Pre-shelving

 Post-shelving

And we have more books then shelving so Ethan might get some shelves in his room also.

A 5yr tradition

Each year since Ethan was 5 months old, Amy and I have taken our boys to see Santa at Mall 205.  This year we waited for baby Watson to arrive so he could join us for this fun experience. 

Breaking a log

Ethan has been taking karate for the last several weeks and they finally got the chance to break a board (or a log as Ethan calls it), one with his hand and one with his foot....

Johnny the elf

A mischievous little elf friend arrived on our doorstep last weekend after Ethan wrote his letter to Santa.  He has been keeping Ethan on his toes with him moving around the house constantly and seems to be having quite a fun time....(click to make the pictures bigger)

Nothing like fall/spring cleaning...

I love things clean and organized, unfortunately with working outside of the house I haven't been able to keep my cleaning up to my own standards.  This past weekend, however, we got a good start by taking a massive load to goodwill: 29 garbage bags, 1 box, 2 bins and 1 bucket all full as well as a toddler bike, almost all of it baby stuff.  Yes, sad to say it, but Ethan won't get to have a brother or sister, so we are very thankful for great close friends and his cousins. 

 Our boy, love him to pieces and he drive me so crazy at times, but anyway i digressed...just before I started working out of the house and my mom came to take care of Ethan for the summer, we needed a bed for her to sleep on so we purchased Ethan a loft bed from IKEA.  The 1st day he loved it and since then has severely hated it.  He has never been a good sleeper so I am every hopeful that his nightly fighting to go to bed would pass, however, nearly 8 months later and still complaining, so Saturday we listed the bed on craigslist and went back to IKEA to see if we could find something better.  He also got a new dresser and desk to go with it.  Now if he can just keep his room clean, maybe one of the dogs will go cuddle with him...and not take his toys under the deck.

He wants to eat your blood...

Watch out for our vampire...

 

St. Therese Halloween Bash 2012

Ready for Trick-or-Treat.  We made our way to Lloyd center mall, where he got quite a bit of candy and we were able to stay dry, then went to a few houses on our street in which he banked quite a bit of candy as their aren't many kids in our neighborhood so all the old folks gave him handfuls.

This past weekend we joined Halls and Campbell's for Hyatt's annual pumpkin carving party.  I think Jeff came away as the creative winner (two headed pumpkin) of our family for sure but everyone did a great job and had as always had a good time.

 Aaron drying his Frankenstein pumpkin.

And one random picture....We went to the mall last weekend and while walking by Brookstone Ethan wanted to try the leg massager.  We couldn't get him to get out of it and he told us it was SOOOOOO Comfy!