Ethan loves Oreos!

Amber went out with her sisters and mom tonight, so I had the kids. Amber dropped them off at my office and then I took them over to the new Chipotle. Needless to say, that was my choice, not theirs - but they each ate a cheese Quesadilla and for $0.80 a piece - that's a lot cheaper than McD's. On our way home, we stopped at a pet store - just for fun - to let the kids look at the animals. Ethan is fascinated by birds. Kate wants a kitty or a puppy. Nicole likes the animals as long as they are locked up. When I finally dragged them away, all 3 kids were crying. Ethan was tired. Kate wanted to take a pet home, and Nicole was crying at the simple idea we might ever have a pet. I know I'm the idiot - it was a lose, lose, lose situation from the beginning. When we got home I did a little swamp cooler work (the stupid thing started leaking again and I'll be visiting Home Depot tomorrow, hopefully only once, to buy some supplies to attempt to fix it) Swamp coolers are the biggest pieces of shiz in the world. I hate my swamp cooler more than the devil himself. Anyway, Ethan didn't eat much of his quesadilla, so I started feeding him some mandarin oranges. Kate started crying because it was our last cup of mandarin oranges. So I gave her an Oreo to shut her up. Well, I had forgotten that Ethan LOVES Oreos. As soon as he saw it, he immediately wanted nothing else. Here is the video for you to enjoy...


Then, I'm not kidding - 30 seconds later, Kate has gone upstairs and put on a Cinderella costume:

Nicole put a dress on, and they started playing Trick-or-Treat by taking turns being inside the pantry and handing treats out to each other as they knocked on the pantry door.

Then I look over at Ethan and he is a mess from his Oreo.




Then he starts grunting and pooped what seems to me like a world record quantity. I've tried to train him to do this only when Mom is around, but I got stuck with it this time.

These are the joys of having kids!

Peruvian Kate

Well, My mom and dad just got back from Peru. They brought back some artifacts and Kate got dressed up. I can't see her wearing these anywhere, but they're not bad for dress-up I guess. These things remind me of when I would go to little centers in Chile where you think you should buy some souveniers and you think they are real cool at the time. Then you get the things home and you're like "What the h was I thinking - these are lame."

Well, once I saw a companion at the U wearing his Chile artifact coat, and I thought "He looks ridiculous."

I'll post some more stuff later.

Kiddie Kandids

Since Ethan and Kate both had Birthdays in the last couple of weeks, it was time for pictures to be taken at Kiddie Kandids. Here are the best of them...

Ethan's 1st Birthday Party!

Tonight was Ethan's 1st birthday party. His birthday was August 30, but we were in St. George, so tonight was the family party. Attendees are as follows: G&G Jo, Grandma Rosemary and Grandpa Russ, Grandma Nan, Aunt Ashley & cousin Ally, Mom, Dad, Nicole, Kate, and of course - the man of the hour - Ethan.

You might remember we always make a special cake for our kids when they turn 1 and let them do whatever they want to it. Ethan destroyed his after some help from his sisters. I gave him a bath afterwards which had plenty of cake floaties...but you should have seen the floor that Amber cleaned up!

We had a blast. The girls fought (what else is new) over who got to play with Ethan's toys first, while the only toy Ethan was interested in was Grandma Jo's cane. I've attempted to post a video of him playing with it (see further down).

Here's Ethan with his special "football" cake from Linda Gerlach.

In addition to playing with the cane, you might notice that Ethan is quite the walker now. Just yesterday he started gaining confidence in being able to take more than two steps at a time, and now, he's basically got it down. This can mean only 1 thing - we'll be in the emergency room some time this week getting stitches from him falling head first into some sharp corner. Somehow, Nicole never had stitches in her forehead, but Kate has had 3 sets. The last time Primary Children's was asking lots of accusatory questions as if I did it to her. I was this close to going off on them.

Anyway, here is hopefully a video of Ethan:

Enjoy!

PS - Quote from Kate on the way home from St. George:

Kate: "Daddy - remember the meatballs at Ikea?"

Daddy (bewildered):"Yes Kate, I remember them."

Kate: "Those are good, huh?"

(I don't know what her obsession with Ikea is. We've been there once or twice and she thinks it's the greatest place on earth for some reason... Like the time I was super mad at the girls and told them if they didn't start behaving and quit fighting that all of their privledges would be taken away. I then gave some examples like no more out to dinner, no more movies at bedtime, etc., etc. - then Kate pipes up and gives one more example, "and we won't get to go to Ikea anymore Daddy?")

Here are some random pictures:

Ethan having his birthday breakfast. Since we were in St. George, he got one of his favorite items, Hostess mini powdered donuts!

This is Kate and Nicole at Ethan's Party:

Kate on her birthday:

Kate at Pre-School:

And Kate on her first day of Preschool: