Oh, Christmas Tree!

We forgot to post this picture of Ethan from Thanksgiving at Grandma Smith's house. She pulled out her pipes and we all played Christmas music except for Ethan, who just ran around banging on his pipe chanting, "I love cars, I love cars..."
We put up our Christmas tree this week. The kids had a lot of fun "helping" put up the decorations. It's fun to see how magical Christmas is to children.

And now, another deep thought from Ethan Morrey:
Jen: "Ethan, would you like a kitty?"
Ethan: "No."
Jen: "Would you like a doggy?"
Ethan: "No. I have a sister."

Brooklyn is growing up so fast. Here is a list of some of the things she's been up to:

• She has recently mastered going down the stairs. She's been going up the stairs for quite a while now, but was always afraid of going down. Way to go, girl.
• She's also gaining confidence on her feet, but has yet to take more than a step or two.
• She still has no teeth.
• She has enough hair to pull all of it back into a set of pigtails. Jen is especially proud of her for this one.

Self-Esteem

One of Ethan's favorite cartoons is Toy Story. In this picture Ethan is so excited to be able to wear his grandpa Morrey's boots. He loves the fact that Grandpa has boots "like Woody's."

We are continually amazed at the things that come out of this boy's mouth. He has recently started asking lots of questions about what different things do (a precursor to the "why?" phase perhaps).

We just have to make a record of the following conversation:

A few weeks ago, Jen finished giving Ethan a bath and held him up in the mirror and said to him. "You're a handsome little man!" Ethan replied (including a quote from Toy Story), "No I'm not. I'm a sad, strange little man." He has since used this reply often when we call him any kind of "little man." Hopfully he really knows how great of a little man we think he his and how much we adore him!

Four Years Ago . . .

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

Brooklyn's Birthday

Brooklyn had her first birthday on Thursday, Nov. 12. We had a small family party on that day, but had a larger party on Saturday for her since we would be in Logan for the weekend anyway. She really loved her balloons. She went crazy around them, tugging on them, laughing, trying to eat them, etc. They made her so happy. She was a happy birthday girl and handled all the attention much better than Ethan did on his first birthday. She even liked tearing the wrapping paper on her presents, but really seemed to appreciate all of Ethan's help.

I kept her cake pretty simple since we were out of town. It was made out of cupcakes placed close together and frosted. This was my first time doing a cupcake-cake and I had a lot of fun putting it together.

Ethan helped blow out the candle as well.

It all began with a small taste of frosting . . .

Happy Birthday, darling Brooklyn! We're so blessed to have you in our family!

Happy Birthday Jen!

Last Monday was Jen's Birthday. Kyle took the day off from work and we took the kids to Salt Lake where we got a free Burger and fries from Red Robin and a free ice cream cone from Baskin-Robbins. Jen got to go shopping at some stores she likes (Tai Pan Trading, Rod Works, a fabric store, etc.) and Kyle looked after the kids and was very good about not complaining that we had been at a particular store for too long.
That night, we ate a delicious Boston Cream Pie. After she blew out her candles, Ethan exclaimed, "Mommy, you blowed your cupcake!"

Brooklyn is very cute with her hair done up in a vertical pony tail, as has been shown in previous blog posts. However, once the elastic comes out of her hair she turns punk-rocker.

We've been meaning to post this video of Brooklyn for the last few weeks, and now we're finally doing it. She started standing up without holding on to anything about two weeks ago, but we haven't managed to get her to do it on camera. We're so proud of her and expect that it won't be too long until she walking by herself. (Oh yeah, she also started crawling up the stairs this week!)

Here is a list of the latest Ethan-isms:

• Just after Jen finished blow-drying her hair, he proclaimed, "Mommy's hair is like a cloud!"
• While Jen was working on the vest for Kyle's Woody costume, she explained that Dad was going to be Woody for Halloween, Ethan got a little concerned and said, "Daddy has not got boots . . . maybe for his birthday!"
• After a delicious meal made by Jen, "Thanks for the yummy dinner, mommy." Jen smiled a this, and Ethan said, "Made Mommy happy!"
• "I want to go to Disneyland with my two grandma's, and Mommy and Daddy can go to Hawaii!" Sounds like a plan to us!
• "Oh, man!"
• After doing something wrong, Ethan says, "Make Mommy/Daddy happy! Oh Mommy, I love you. . . muh (blows a kiss) ." In his mind, this makes peeing on the bathroom floor (or whatever else he's done wrong) all better.
• After giving him a choice between going to the bathroom or going back to bed one night, he complained, "That's not a choice!"
  

Trick Or Treat!

The kids had so much fun on Halloween, and the parent's did too. It was fun to finally have a holiday that Ethan actually anticipated, and really got in to.
The festivities started with the annual Primary Halloween parade at the park near our home. Ethan was a little shy at first, but eventually warmed up and had a good time. He wanted to fly on the swings like Buzz Lightyear. Brooklyn had fun swinging in her ballerina costume.

Since Ethan had to go as Buzz Lightyear, he thought it would be cool if Dad dressed up as Woody. We think the Woody vest that Jen sewed looks pretty good. Kyle was showing his costume off to Jen, and laughed when she saw that he had attached canning lids to as the large buttons on the shirt. She didn't think they would add too much to the costume. When Ethan saw them, he got excited and promptly added Woody Buttons to his Christmas List. Kyle felt justified.
Jen is dressed up as Andy's mom. If we had more time to prepare, we wish Jen could have been Bo Peep and had Brooklyn dressed up as her sheep to complete the Toy Story theme.
After all the kids were gathered at the park, we had our (very short) parade.

Halloween night, we took the kids Trick-or-Treating. Ethan had a BLAST. Brooklyn had fun too, but was pretty tired and indifferent. The ENTIRE time, Ethan ran and chanted, "To infinity and beyond! To infinity and beyond! . . ."
Here's the video to prove it:

Ethan and his loot.

(By the way, Jen and I were wondering: Can you still consider yourself to be "honest with your fellow men" if you sneak a few pieces of your two-year-old's Halloween stash?)

Kyle had fun carving pumpkins this year. He entered the winking smiley at his work pumpkin carving contest, and did the "pumpkin pi" for the trick-or-treaters.

Halloween Preview

We took lots of pictures, more of which we will post tomorrow. Here is a sneak peek of our day. Stay tuned!