Big News!!!

We are moving to Virginia!

At the end of this week we are packing up for the trek across the country to the land of milk and honey...or just a job that requires significantly less travel for Craig! We are excited to have him home more often and though we will miss our pseudo vacations all around the country  with Craig's business trips, it will be nice to not fly so much--especially since we have to start paying for Ethan's tickets soon.

We are headed to Northern Virginia where Craig will work in Tyson's Corner for a company called Booz Allen Hamilton (a technology consulting firm). Still not sure where we will live...details, details....but we are working on that even as I type. We were able to visit D.C. last year around this time and it was a wonderful trip. We enjoyed the cooler weather and how beautiful it is. I am glad for the excellent school systems and wonderful historical sights. I love history and plan to visit as much as possible.

We are excited in many ways for the change but also sad to leave friends and familiarity behind. It's always hard to move (as a girl who never went to one school more than three years except BYU...I guess I am use to change) but we will learn and make it work. We had dinner last night with two other couples who moved to Houston from northern VA recently and wanted to tell us how wonderful it is there and how much they miss it.We have had amazing friends here and can't wait to make new friends in VA.

The Worlds Biggest Rodeo!

A big event for our family in March was the worlds largest rodeo. Held every year in Houston, the rodeo is a main attraction. Since we took the little man we decided to opt out of the official rodeo and concert enjoying instead the carnival, live stock show...and trust me, a ton of other events. Ethan especially enjoyed the petting zoo and birthing center. We saw baby deer, kangaroos, the cutest rabbits ever, and the famous Texas long horn among many others. Ethan even enjoyed riding on the back of a friendly alpaca. It was a blast and my animal loving husband and son were in heaven.

Ethan's first camping trip!

We love to camp. Unfortunately Ethan hasn't had a chance until recently but it was a blast! We went to a state park outside of Houston (about an hour out) with some friends from church. Ethan until this point had been crawling only. We knew he was capable of walking since he has been climbing all the furniture but just being his stubborn little self about getting off of all four. Until the great camping trip! He isn't the biggest fan of being dirty--I know, lucky mom:) and so he decided to start walking rather than crawling in the dirt. Since then the walking has definitely been on the up! Anyway, back to camping.....

Because the great state of Texas (that's the official name of the lone star state for those of you who don't know) has suffered a drought this year--funny since I remember several flooding incidents--we had a fire ban. Instead of roasting those delicious mallows over an open fire we used our "propane accessories". It was wonderful to see stars again. We must have heard every bird in the state bright and early which should please most campers but is sometimes annoying to those of us who are not morning people! We even heard a hoot owl and a rooster....not to mention a few car alarms and the boy scouts just down the road.

 

(Ethan learning to walk on Daddy and Daddy falling through his 3rd camp chair)

The next day we took Ethan on his first official hike....which hilariously wound it's way around a perfectly manicured golf course. It was still pretty though and the river and scent of the wild onions was refreshing. Ethan enjoyed watching the potato bugs crawl in the dirt and birds flying through the trees. I think he especially enjoyed the other baby who came with her parents. He loves to give her kisses and spent a good part of his morning following her around simply to kiss her and show off his cool belly button.

Finding a healthy balance for an unbalanced family

Lately I have been thinking about the food we eat. This is not very common for me because I have always been of the attitude that eating is a waste of time--other than the whole survival issue. Now as a mother to a 17 lb 1 and half year old lagging behind in the -6 percentile I find my own food issues hitting me harder. We have also discovered recently that Craig has fairly high cholesterol (a family trait I would wager since he eats pretty well and exercises often). I cannot be left out of this equation either. After nursing Ethan for a year I dropped quite a bit of weight without really realizing it. Down to the "freak out level" as the Dr. calls it--a battle I have fought my whole life.

 

So, with mom and baby working to gain weight and dad working to level out to a healthy cholesterol we are kind of stuck at evening dinners. Lunch is where we try to really divide. Craig has gone vegetarian for lunches while me and Ethan have ice cream and cookies for lunch--not really but we do always follow up with a treat which of course kills Craig, the one member of our family who actually enjoys eating. I just can't figure out how to do dinner other than make two dinners. Me and Ethan need all the butter and protein we can get, while Craig needs vegetables! If anybody has any ideas we would love to hear them!

Luckiest Girl in the World

I must be the luckiest girl in the world. I got to spend Valentines with two special boys. I know Valentines is kind of a cheesy holiday...and most men truthfully hate it, but I like the excuse to get treated a little extra special.

The smaller of the two boys especially enjoyed the stuffed animals and balloons at every store we went to:)

funny dreams and baby diapers

I have always had very vivid and sometimes telling dreams. My brother is always jealous of my action packed "save the world" dreams that last all night and often pick up where they left off the next night. A few days ago I had a dream that as usual seamed very real.

As a brief background to this dream--I was reading about the harm disposable diapers do to our environment. I read it takes over 500 years for one disposable diaper to decompose and then thought about all the hundreds of diapers we have already added. From that thought I began remembering the hippy movies I was forced to watch as a child in my Flagstaff, AZ elementary school where we learned in just a few short years the entire earth would be nothing but a landfill.

Anyway, all that said....I had a dream that we decided to go to cloth diapers. It was genius. The diapers were soft, cute, and we were saving the earth. In my dream I changed the first yucky diaper only to find the mess was worse than usual. As soon as I got the diaper off, our one cloth diaper multiplied into 15 more that I was then responsible for washing. The mess was out of control. My hands were suddenly covered with nastiness and I decided in my dream at that moment our new cloth diapers were about to be turned into disposable.

As much as we would like to save the earth...it may not be happening.

Favorite pass times in the Marshall house

We have had some uncomfortably cold weather here in the "great state of Texas" recently. As a result we have had to seek refuge and entertainment inside (an unfortunate and highly unusual course in the winter here).

When we did have power last week we all enjoyed playing the Wii. The family favorite seems to be the obstacle course because Ethan can participate. We hold him while dodging balls and jumping over moving platforms. He really gets into it especially when Mommy is beating Daddy.

Another activity that Ethan and Craig have enjoyed since Christmas is the remote control helicopter that Santa brought. Ethan loves it when it crashes--he crawls as fast as his little booty can get him there, snatches it up, and insists on giving it to Mommy rather than Daddy. Not really sure why--because Mommy then gives it to Daddy who controls take off. It has been fun and Ethan enjoys the rainbow lights it makes as it flies just out of reach of his sticky little fingers.

A new toy added to Ethan's growing collection this weekend is a walker toy. We are hoping to inspire him to start walking soon--Mommy's back needs this child to walk--and it seems to be fun. He laughs and laughs as he runs pushing this little thing into the wall. Then he gets really mad because he can't turn around, so one of us turns him around and he continues running and laughing into the opposite wall. We all enjoy it and hope that soon it will equal walking.

We are not the most exciting family on earth by any stretch of the imagination, but we manage to have a good time.

The Bayou City

Guess what month this was taken? Yes. January. We enjoyed our morning stroll through piles of orange leaves and inhaling the sweet scent of fresh roses blooming all around us. Even the magnolias are in bloom at the church. No doubt about it, the Bayou City is to die for in the winter--if only we could figure out what season it is!

Our Favorite Ethanisms

Here is a collection of funny little "Ethanisms" we enjoy watching. He has a unique little personality we are getting to know better every day and boy do we love him!

One thing Ethan has done since before I can remember is he crosses his feet. When he sits, reads books, sleeps, and eats his feet are usually crossed.

If you haven't noticed from other pictures, his thumb is a permanent installation. When he was first born it was the back of his hand or first two fingers. At around two or three months he discovered the thumb and it rarely comes out for even a laugh.

Ethan loves to pull faces at us. Sometimes we catch him pull these hilarious faces aimed in our direction when we are not looking. He does this flexing-scary face thing that just sends us rolling. This picture is the end of a funny face--I am still working on catching the actual 'look'.

Books. Ethan loves to read. His favorites include Hop on Pop (64 pages of rhyming nonsense which I am now dreaming about I have read so many times), Brown Bear Brown Bear, and anything with a flap he gets to turn. Past favorites were Elmo's Counting and Numbers. The week pushed 6 teeth--yes, 6 teeth in one week--the only thing that helped him calm down was reading books in bed. (He must be my son)

This is probably not so unusual but just an interesting fact about Ethan--he crawls faster than lightening. He is still not walking (14 months) but his crawling proficiency works for him. The other night I took him visiting teaching and I sat him on the floor. He looked at each of us in the room and when he realized we were not paying attention to him, he laughed loudly and took off crawling so fast he was almost a blur to the human eye. Of course he went straight to the mirror my visiting teachee had on the floor leaning up against the wall--you know, something highly breakable.

Some of his favorite foods include bread with peanut butter, green beans, hummus--just straight, ice cream of course, and freeze dried yogurt treats. We have had a difficult time getting him to eat and I started clapping and cheering after each bite. He now claps for himself after each bite he takes. He is just so proud of himself!

Ethan's favorite toys are his dog tent, any blocks, anything that makes noise, and puzzles. Although he almost always would prefer a book to a toy.  

 
One toy Ethan has plays a symphony after after he pushes all the buttons. I think once I pretended to conduct the music when it came on and ever since then he ALWAYS conducts music now. It's pretty cute.

Ethan also loves girls. He has a little girlfriend in the ward who when she came over once he showered with kisses--literally from head to toy. He is very affectionate and loves to snuggle, especially with  mommy and daddy and his stuffed animals.

A funny love of Ethan's is string. I can always tell when he is getting tired because he will find a string--no matter where we are--and suck on it while also sucking on his thumb. He loves strings on blankets--tied quilts are his favorite because of this. Sometimes when he is upset I will give him a ball of yarn or spool of thread and the string makes him happy.

Our Little Artist

Here is a good shot of those shiny new teeth we worked so hard to get. It's too bad they will only fall out one day.

This is Ethan creating his first piece of art.
We are so proud. 

I think one of the cutest things on earth is a little boy in overalls.