Christmas 2006

Merry Christmas everyone. We hope that Santa found you this year. He certainly had no problem finding our house. Ethan was pretty excited for Santa to stop by our house. He worked really hard at being really good. He did a good job of staying out of trouble (for a 3 year old).

This first picture was taken first thing in the morning. As you can see Ethan was a little overwhelmed at first. His big Santa present was this Lego castle. It must have taken Santa a long time to put this thing together (2 hours). Funny how it only took Ethan minutes to tear it apart. :) Castles must be the "in" thing this year seeing how Conner also got a castle from Santa.

It didn't take Ethan long to realize that there were other presents besides his big castle. Once he figured that out, the fun began. Yes, most of the presents under the tree were for him. Between opening presents and taking breaks to play with his castle, he had a pretty busy day.

In keeping with what is starting to turn into a family tradition, Ethan got a couple of books this year. He loves the Backyardigans because there is a lot of dancing and singing on the show. He was really excited about his new Backyardigans book. We have read it every night so far. He has even started "reading" it to us.

Okay, so maybe Santa brought the castle for Ethan and dad. It is pretty cool. Dad enjoys playing "castle" with (and without) Ethan.




With just the three of us this year it seemed pretty quiet. Unfortuantely, it wasn't 10 degrees outside so we couldn't go Christmas Caroling. After all, you can't go caroling if there isn't a chance of getting frostbite. We were proactive this year and got our Christmas cards early. They are really nice. As a matter of fact, they are sitting right here on the desk. Don't be surprised if you get one in the next month or two.

We really miss being around the family and hope that we can all get together this summer. After seeing pictures of Stefani's family we realized how quickly everyone is growing.

That is the latest happening from us here in the Northwest. Once again, we hope you had a great Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year!

Welcome to our Blog

I saw Stefani's blog and decided that I had to have one. Hopefully, we will have a lot of fun things to share in the future. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. :)

The Wonderful World of Disney

We recently returned from our trip to Disneyworld. We had a lot of fun even though the trip didn't start out so well. Ethan picking up a stomach bug the day that we left. I won't bore you with the details of that little adventure. Unfortunately, the bug hung around with us for about six days. Ethan started feeling better two days before we had to return home. As with most kids his age he wasn't going to let a little problem like that slow him down. As you can see in this picture Ethan had a lot of fun riding the buses to the different parks.


One of the highlights of the trip was going to a character breakfast at Disney's MGM Studios. Ethan got to see Leo and June from Little Einsteins and JoJo and Goliath from JoJo's Circus. It wasn't very crowded so Ethan was able to get a lot of one on one time with the characters. He even got up the courage to go dance with them. It is probably safe to say that he gets his dancing skills from his dad. Poor kid. :)

We also had fun going to the Hoopty Doo Review at the Wilderness Lodge. This is a dinner theater where people put on a show while you eat really good food (ribs, chicken, corn on the cob, cornbread, baked beans, and strawberry shortcake). The actors do a lot of singing which Ethan really likes. One of the actors on the stage started flirting with Tana. Needless to say, Tana really liked the show too.

Tana, Nana, and I all rode on Mt. Everest in the Animal Kingdom. It is Disney's newest roller coaster. Wow! What a ride. We also rode the Barnstormer roller coaster in Toontown in the Magic Kingdom. We tried riding it back in June but he wasn't tall enough. He is definitely tall enough now. We where not sure how Ethan was going to handle his first roller coaster ride. Especially after listening to one grandma talk about how scary it was. It looked like the poor lady was going to have a heart attack. Turns out our fears where unfounded. I think this became one of his favorite rides in the park.

The day before we had to go home Ethan's cousins came up for a visit. Ethan had a lot of fun playing at the pool. This also gave mom and dad a chance to sneak away and do some last minute Christmas shopping. This was a great way to wrap up a really fun trip.

We made it home without any major problems. Our early morning flight had been canceled and one of our suitcases didn't make the connecting flight. However, Ethan slept the entire 5 hours from Altanta to Portland.

Here are some more pictures of our trip: