Sushi--what a domestic man!

Amazingly, Craig has never actually made his own sushi before--tons of other Japanese food but never the one thing Americans think of when they think of Japanese cuisine. He buys it all the time but never attempted to make it until recently.

Didn't it turn out pretty? He even made some special sushi for me (since I am pregnant and I hate sea weed). My sushi was the yellow wrapped rolls made out of soy wrappers with cream cheese, avocado, and cucumber--so good! I have one sweet husband. One night out of the blue a pregnancy craving hit for cold sushi and he got to work.

Here is Ethan trying to make the most of his chopsticks. We are still working on the idea of utensils but he sure enjoyed these fun toys.

Wal-Mart fun

Ethan got sick of Mommy looking at makeup the other night at Wal-Mart (fancy right?), so Daddy let him have some fun in the luffa bin. I love this picture. Everybody who walked by had to laugh and he was in heaven! We thought about posting it on Peopleofwalmart.com. but after further investigation of the website, and a good eye washing we decided the family blog was a more appropriate location. 

Cute, Cute, Cute!

Ethan loves to help in the kitchen. The other day he wanted me to put his chef hat on and get some pots and pans out. Then he went to his room and collected all his balls, measured them in a measuring cup, and one by one added it to his pot while stirring with a wooden spoon. What a yummy soup!

Yesterday morning I was making his instant breakfast when I needed to grab something from the back room. I came back to him standing on the stool pouring another pouch into his milk (double the powder!) and stirring it! The amazing thing is he didn't spill any! I can't even do that! I about died of laughter and he enjoyed SUPER SUPER milk that day. 

Train at Burke Lake Park

Ethan LOVES trains, cars, helicopters, trucks...anything that "goes" really. But trains have a special place in his heart these days. Saturday we took him to ride the train at a nearby park. Truthfully we all enjoyed it!
 

30 weeks and counting

30 weeks pregnant. For some reason it sounds so much farther along than 29 weeks. Who ever thought of counting a nine month pregnancy by weeks anyway? talk about tedious.

Well, I am 30 weeks pregnant....no more...no less. We still don't know the gender but I have a hunch it's girl. Ethan often points at my tummy and then pretends to rock a baby in his arms. I am not sure he really realizes what's going on (if any of us do) but he loves to kiss my tummy which is too cute. I have learned to be careful about telling him when the baby is kicking because the first few times I did he started kicking me in the stomach! In his mind he is the baby. Half the time we ask him where the baby is he points to himself with a big grin, but we are getting there. No doubt it will hit him most assuredly when our bundle of joy comes home!

My pregnancy has been healthy and I don't feel like I can really complain. I have so many pregnant friends right now on bed rest, or constantly medicated--so for a pregnant lady I am doing amazingly well. After a little scare when Ethan was born with my confused blood type we were thrilled to learn this time around that Craig is a B- blood type! Which mixes nicely with my AB- blood. I guess we were made for each other:) So things have been good, and we have been blessed.

When I was near the end with Ethan I really missed the agility that a smaller body offers....that is probably the hardest thing for me. Soon I will be able to run again--without looking like a penguin:) Until then I will enjoy my large feminine body the best I can, and thank Heavenly Father every day for the beautiful little boy already in our lives and our second blessing on it's way.

Happy Fourth of July!

This year we visited Craig's family in North Carolina for the fourth. The six hour drive was much nicer than the 17 hours we use to have from Texas! Although sitting for even that long as a big pregnant lady is not the easiest thing--we survived the drive and enjoyed the weekend. We spent a lot of time just hanging out and enjoying family and the yard.

The fourth was spent at Uncle Barney's with the annual fish fry. It was a great party! The torrential down pour made things a little more interesting but we all had a fun time. Also, important to note: the food was amazing! (A wonderful part about this stage of pregnancy is food is soooo good and you just can't get enough!!!)

Here is Ethan and Grammy at Nanny's for Sunday dinner. Nanny gave him a big stuffed frog that he is "riding". He LOVES it.
















Ethan climbed on top of the car all by himself! I was just getting to him when we took this picture! He couldn't ride in it, he had to ride on top. Wild little man!

A fun Saturday morning

On Saturday we went to Great Falls National Park. We enjoyed hiking and seeing the falls early in the morning before it got too hot. It was great to be outside.

And here is a picture of Ethan just being his usual cute self trying on Dad's shoes.

Happy Father's Day!

We sure love our Dad's and are grateful for their wonderful examples to us. Craig and I are very blessed to both have Fathers who raised us well and taught us what is truly important.

I am also grateful for the great Dad Craig is to Ethan and will be to our new baby. Since Craig has been working from home so much more Ethan has been in heaven. At least 100 times a day Ethan runs to Daddy to give him a big sloppy (usually very drooly) kiss. We had a fun Father's day enjoying pork chops, mashed potatoes and cinnamon apples for dinner. I think every-bodies favorite part though was the cookies at the end. We caught Ethan eating Craig's "cookie bouquet" while we were skyping with our dads--so I think he enjoyed himself!

Ethan and his garden

Ethan has LOVED our garden this year. He spends at least an hour on the patio every day watering (or pretending to water) the plants. We got him a little camp chair his size so he can sit out there. You can't see it in this picture but he even has his own little squash plant. We gave him his own since he insisted on pulling the plants up by the roots. His squash has endured many a baby assault but is surprisingly still blooming regularly! It is is however less than half the size of all our other plants but the beauty of it is that it is his plant and he loves it. If you ask him how his squash is doing he will run over and check for you every time. Here is a picture of us about to enjoy our first garden fresh pea--it was amazing!

National Air and Space Museum

This memorial day we had a chance to go to the National Air and Space Museum with Wendy (Craig's sister) and her kids. It was great. Ethan loved it to say the least. He slept for the drive over and woke to see his favorite cousin Callan smiling over his stroller. That was enough to make his afternoon but when he realized we were going to see hundreds of airplanes he couldn't contain himself. He laughed and pointed up at all the airplanes the entire visit.  We thought he would enjoy the museum but we had no idea how much!