My little man is 3

Happy Birthday Ethan! You are my little handsome boy. Ethan is my little fish that lives in the water and at the beach. My little bleach blonde surfer boy.

i still the remember the night/morning that ethan arrived. he came quick and i was not even in the room when he was born. he has his moments like all of us but all of those are quickly forgotten when he takes care of his older and younger sister, looks out for them and those around him. he has quickly picked up on those things that his older sister is doing or done.

watch and listen

heard
during a trip in the car, driving by the cow farms.
me - "hey makenzie what do you like better, cows or pigs?"
makenzie - "horses!"
me - "but pigs give us bacon, pork chops, pork rinds, and curly tails. cows give us lots of stuff like cheese, milk, ice cream, butter, and hamburgers."
makenzie - "cows don't give us hamburgers. they don't poop out hamburgers out their bum bums."

seen
tessa rolling off of the couch and landing on here feet. the look of amazement on her face and she realized what she had just done.

heard
during our drive home
kenzie - hey dad can we wrestle when we get home, me and ethan?
austin - yea...what about mom and tessa can they wrestle too?
kenzie - no, they will get hurt.

seen and heard

heard

the other night we stopped by dairy queen to reward the kids for being good. inside they had 3 stools that were the perfect size for the kids to sit on, ethan was on one, makenzie was in the middle and i was holding tessa on the other side. when makenzie and ethan got their cones i asked makenzie to share with tessa, to overt some sort of banshee scream from tessa. makenzie obliged and then:

me - "ethan can you share you ice cream with tessa?"
ethan - "uh, no i too far away!"

heard
later on while there i asked if i could have some of his cone and here is what i got after taking a small bit:
ethan - "no daddy, only a lick. like this (he then lightly touches his tongue to the ice cream). not a bite."

heard
while getting ready for church yesterday i told makenzie that she needed to go and find cherisse to get her hair done. ethan trying to stick up for his sister.

ethan - sternley saying, "kenzie's not going to do her hair."
makenzie - "ethan if i don't do my hair, i will have crazy hair. do you want me to go to church with crazy hair?"
ethan nodding to concur that no one needs to go to church with crazy hair.

seen
on the way home from church yesterday afternoon tessa and ethan fell asleep. makenzie reached over and held ethans hand after she realized that he was asleep.

heard
yesterday before makenzie and ethan came back down stairs i interrupted this little reunion.
makenzie standing in front of ethan holding a blue and a brown dress.

makenzie - "ethan, which one should i wear."
ethan - "da blue one." (his only choice for his own attire is blue)

makenzie - "thanks ethan."

Ethans first day of Preschool

Ethan FINALLY got to go to preschool for the first time. He goes to the same preschool as kenzie went to and was great since he is used to going there for kenzie. Mrs. Edwards his preschool teacher said he was really good (and lets be honest, ethan is not the easiest kid!) Apparently he is way better for other people than he is for me most of the time. Ethan likes to inform me that he is a "Big Boy" now.

seen and heard

the other night in the bathtub while ethan and makenzie were playing with car
makenzie - while holding a blue Porsche from the movie Cars, "hi i am sally, what's your name?"
ethan - "i'm ethan."
makenzie - "no i am sally who are you? what is your name?" referring to the light blue vw bug that ethan was holding in his hand, that he calls herbie.
ethan - "ethan!"
makenzie - "my name is sally what is your name"
ethan - now getting frustrated, "i am ethan."

while riding in the car down to pick up makenzie from school
ethan - "mom look a herbie!" (any version of the vw bug)
ethan - talking to himself in the backseat, "no it's not. it's a fast car."

after pushing/squeezing tessa's cheeks together in the car
cherisse - "ethan you can't do that!"
ethan - "tessa looks like a puffer fish."

makenzie this morning did not want to get up for school and she kept saying she was cold but then everytime I would put a blanket on her she would throw it off. So I continued to ask her what the problem was about five times, she finally answered and said,
"its not a Grandma Blanket!"
O gosh HELLO your right Kenzie what was I thinking...so yes I had to hunt down a blanket that her Grandma had made for her.

sea legs

last night we took the inaugural trip out on our yellow kayak. there was some hesitation from the crew and a near mutiny when we were just about to set sail but after that it was smooth sailing. the wind was not in our favor that evening and the lone paddler had to work hard not to end up at the other end of the lake. after coming back in from that first trip tessa wanted to go on the next voyage. she enjoyed playing in the beached boat. makenzie and ethan soon realized that the shore was full of rocks that could be thrown back into the lake and that is what they spent the rest of the time doing. looking forward to many more adventures in our unnamed boat.

swim suit fling

the other night makenzie and ethan were playing around in their usual evening attire, nothing. ethan grabbed makenzie's swim suit and for the next couple of minutes they were throwing it around, which consists of a large wound up underhand toss. with these wild gyrations the possibility of the flying object going forward are as possible as it going behind them. at one point ethan let is looses and it flew up near the fridge. after pulling out the fridge, looking above the cabinets, it was discovered in a open pocket next to the cabinets. we eventually got it out but not before makenzie and ethan took their chances with trying to recover the suit.

Storrs Family Reunion San Diego

This last weekend we went down to my parents house for a family reunion. We had a great time and the kids had a blast. We each got our own welcome bag of goodies and fun toys. Thursday night we hung out and chatted. Went swimming and watched a movie on a projection screen out by the pool.
Friday we went to Mission beach and played there all afternoon. Then we went to the Padres game all 43 of us and let the kids play in the sandbox behind center field.
Then Saturday we got up early and did a 5k at the park and yes I did finish it! Then we hung out at mom and dads and went swimming, kids had a blast in the art room, older kids had fun in the pool room out back with all the video games, played games and hit balls in the newly finished sport court. There was of course a ton of food everywhere to graze all day. Then we had a surprise luau for my moms birthday with a lot of her old friends. Even her old friend all growing up from Idaho Falls flew in from out of town, Gladys. We had L&L Hawaiian Barbecue cater it and yum I haven't had L&L's since I moved back from Hawaii. Anyway the girls all did a couple of hula dances for grandma and we had a picture slide show for mom. Then we had a fun dance party after that to finish off the party.
Sunday we went down to Sea Port Village to take family pictures...which is always super fun! Then walked around for a bit and then went back to the house to hang out.
I am super tired but the kids had a great time playing with cousins all day long for four days.