Ethan at 9 months

I really tried to take pictures of Ethan...alone, but Addi loves the camera and had to put her new hat and purse on for the pictures. It was cute so we just rolled with it. Ethan went to the Dr. yesterday for his 9 month appt. and he weighs 28 pounds, yes it says 28 pounds. He is 100% in everything but his head circumference, but even that is in the 95%. He is such a charmer, he just loves people and loves to smile at anyone who will look his way. He is crawling and pulling up, and I'm hoping he will walk before he is one. Blaise and Addi did not walk until they were one, but I think Ethan may break the mold.
My dearest Addi...

Sweet Addi

Every time I take my camera out of the case Addi says, "Mommy take my picture." I still had my pink backdrop up in the garage so we went and had some fun. She loved posing and playing around on the pink paper. She is so sweet, I just want to squeeze her every time I look at her.
She had to wear her tutu that I made her. She would wear it 24/7 if I would let her. I'm going to try to get pictures of Ethan and Blaise during the next 2 days, we will see how that goes.

Wildwood Park

We went to Wildwood Park over the weekend. This has to be my favorite park to visit, it is so relaxing, but at the same time Blaise and Addi have a blast. We are trying to park and Addi and Blaise are already eyeing the creek. They love to shovel through the rocks and float items from one end of the creek to the other.
It has a great playground for all ages.
I love this wooden bridge that the creek flows under.
The park is very wooded and "green." I would love to have some photo shoots here but it is heavily shaded. I may try to practice with my flash next time.
This is a waterfall that is at the end of the creek. You can hear it the whole time you are there. There are tons of hiking trails in the park as well, we may try to go hiking next time. Nothing like the Northwest!

The Big Hit

This year the big hit was the Giant Slide. Blaise would not ride it last year, but I think he felt the pressure since Addi wanted to slide. Blaise and Addi were saying, "again," before we even made it to the bottom. This was so much fun, your bottom actually came off the slide at various times.

Do The Puyallup

We made our annual go to the Puyallup Fair. As always, it was so much fun. This was the first year that Addi was old enough to ride any rides. Blaise was so sweet and wanted to make sure she was OK, so he had to ride the kiddie rides with her. He is such a caretaker. We always have to ride the red train around "Sillyville." This was Addi's first official fair train ride, and I think it was a hit. Ethan and I watched... I don't think he would sit still long enough for the trip. He is such a busy baby.
Addi loved the cars. She had so much fun steering and driving. This was her first official ride. How cute!
Blaise making sure Addi is snug in the car. Of course, she is eyeing her Dad and making sure she has him in sight.
Then came the dump trucks...
Blaise's annual go-cart ride.
Ethan just enjoying himself and starting to smile everytime he sees the camera.

Vroom, Vroom

This was Addi's first time on Blaise's four wheeler. We thought she may a little shy about the whole issue, but we ended up having to pry her off of it. And yes, it is battery operated... what can you do when you live in an urban area.

Here a Quack, There a Quack

We decided to take a walk around the duck pond yesterday and here are the ducks that followed us the whole way. Good thing we brought bread for them.
Blaise wanted to feed the ducks that were not big enough to make it to the front of the line. He also wanted to see how far he could throw the bread if he balled it up.
We forget to put shoes on Addi when we left the house (if you have children, I'm sure you can relate), it was a good thing we had our larger backpack with us.
Here is Ethan just hanging out while the ducks were being fed. He is so content and peaceful. He is the only one with the big brown chestnut eyes. I just love them! If you look closely, you can see his two front teeth just below his gums....
I'm so glad Blaise is home, he starts school tomorrow and I still can't believe I have a second grader.

A Little Ambitious Are We..

Lets just say that we were a little ambitious in our vacation planning. The first night Ethan cried all night long and wanted to nurse constantly, we all woke up sleep deprived and wondering what the rest of the trip had in store for us. Needless to say, we cut our vacation short and headed back to our safe haven. Ethan was so excited to be back in his surroundings that he took a three hour nap. Three hour naps for Ethan are unheard of. So, we finished out our week as a "staycation." We went to a local beach, went swimming at a local pool, and spent lots of time at the local Middle School letting the kiddos ride their bike and tricycle. This was a great way to let everyone settle down. I think we may try a more kid friendly vacation next year!

Vacation, Here We Come!

We are leaving early in the morning for vacation, and we are all excited to get away and have some fun together. We are going to stay at a lodge located at the edge of the Olympic National Forest. I can't wait to go hiking, our last hiking excursion was before Addi was born. So, off we go with three kiddos in tow and a truck full of luggage to grab some much needed R & R!

Visit to East Pierce Fire and Rescue

Here is Addi and Ethan waiting for the Fireman to measure them for a helmet.
Blaise was so excited to see a "fireman," he wanted to ask a ton of questions about how to put out a fire.
Addi did not know what to think, she just wanted a helmet. The Fire Chief came in for a visit and gave them both a fire chief hat and a sticker badge, I don't think they took off their fireman hats for a couple of hours. It was fun time, and now we will be protected with our custom fitted helmets.

Back in the swing of things

Our house is back to normal with school age children coming and going. Blaise had some of his neighborhood friends over yesterday, they were all passing around their DS's and playing some sort of game. Addi was so excited to have all the loudness and chaos back; I don't think she stopped dancing the whole time everyone was here.

"Red Rob" Visits

We don't know why Addi pinned the nickname, "Red Rob," to Uncle Rob, but she did and we have never looked back. Red Rob came over yesterday to bring Blaise his birthday presents and ended up bringing the whole clan bags of gifts. They were so excited and it felt like Christmas at the Tibbetts household. Blaise was excited to get 2 Speed Racer Cars as well as the whole collection of Speed Racer Episodes on DVDs.
Addi was thanking Uncle Rob for her Spongebob and Sesame Street Collection. We hated to see him leave, we always have so much fun when he comes to visit.
Blaise and I always spend time together after Addi and Ethan go down at night. So tonight I took pictures of him holding his Lego Indian Jones, we folded clothes, made John pork chops for lunch, read through his word list for school, and then I laid with him for a little bit before he went to sleep. It is always nice to have some alone time with him, he is such a big helper and loves the individual attention. He always wants me to scratch his back right before he falls to sleep...spoiled rotten, but I love it!
He said this picture looks like he has lipstick on, his lips were chapped.

Today is the Day!

Addi found her favorite winter hat and insisted on wearing it for a couple of hours. It is in the 90's here today. That may be a record for Seattle.
I have fallen behind on the whole blogging.... Ethan is teething which means the constant crying and the need to be held all the time. I feel so sorry for him, as a parent you want to make them feel better in an instant. At the end of the day, all I want to do is crash. They are both sleeping now after a 30 minute screaming contest (WHEW). But, with all of that aside, Blaise comes home today. John flew to Memphis last night to pick him up, they will arrive in Seattle at 9 tonight. I am so excited, and can't wait to wrap my arms around him. Addi has been asking for him all week. I can only imagine how loud she will be in the airport when she sees him.

No, she is not rapping...

This is what happened when we told Addi to get in the wagon...
Stubborn to the end, she got in...sort of, she had to keep one leg out just to show us that she was the boss.
In the wagon or out of the wagon...decisions decisions.
What can you say that would add to this picture?

Playgroup Today!

Playgroup was at our house today, so Addi was in her comfort zone. She was so excited to see everyone, she danced, laughed and squealed the whole time. I caught her licking her plate in the first picture, she was trying to get every last piece of cupcake..ha!

Ethan not sure about the grass

Ethan is not really sure if he likes the grass or not. He did not want to move at first, but then he figured out it was just something else he could put in his mouth. I had to put these pictures in color to show how green our grass is! John has done an awesome job maintaining our yard, our neighbors have asked him what his secret is... we shall never tell!

Could not resist

After returning from the restaurant, we figured it would be good for all of us to take a walk to the park. So... that is what we did. I could not resist this picture of Ethan, this is right before he started the grunt fest in the stroller. I think he was still peeved about going to the Mexican Restaurant! Addi of course was just happy to have her Dad within arms reach. She wanted to climb on all of the "big kids," steps. Good thing Dad was there!

Mazatlan..Should We Stay Or Should We Go

Anyone with children knows the phrase, "It's been one of those days." Well, yesterday in the Tibbetts household, it was one of those days. Addi and Ethan were fairly crabby and John and I were both exhausted by the end of the day. We decided to head to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants to unwind. We sat down and ordered our drinks, appetizer and main course. With children in tow, you try to order everything as soon as possible, hoping to avoid melt downs during the meal. Well.... our drinks arrived and Ethan decided that this was not a good night to eat Mexican. We tried everything from holding, walking, etc..., you get the picture. So, we packed up our food in to go boxes and headed home. As soon as we sat down in the truck, Ethan immediately stopped crying and was fine the rest of the night. So much for a dinner out to unwind from a very long day.

A Walk to the Park

It was fairly nice outside today with temperatures in the mid 60's. We skipped playgroup b/c Addi is recovering from an illness and we did not want to share the love to others (especially 2 prego Moms in our group). So, we loaded up in the double stroller and walked to our neighborhood park. We were the only ones there so Addi had the playground all to herself. It did not take Ethan long to figure out that he was the only one strapped in the stroller while everyone else was out and about! I forgot the backpack carrier so I could only carry him around for so long (remember he is close to 27 pounds). We ended staying at the park for about 45 minutes and then strolled through the neighborhood looking at everyone's flowers. I always love to get new ideas for my yard! It was so nice to get fresh air after being inside for so long.