A couple pictures from his bath

Ethan enjoying his bathtime!

He loves to splash!

Almost in the tub

Splashing

Birthday Party

Ethan had a great birthday party on Friday night!

We waited until my parents were here to celebrate. My Grandma Frayer wanted to FaceTime with us for a little while during the celebration so we were happy to share the excitement with her too!

Ethan opened a few presents first with his mommy's help. Then we moved on to the cake. Kristen and Mom teamed up to make a great yellow cake with chocolate frosting. At first, Ethan was very unsure about the cake. He stuck his hands in the frosting and was upset that his hands were dirty. Soon he flipped over the cake and Kristen put some of the cake in his mouth so he would try some. Once he tasted it, he really liked it and started grabbing handfuls and sticking it in his mouth! Of course, the cake and frosting ended up everywhere. But that makes for the best pictures!

After cleaning him up, we went back to the pile of presents and he finished opening presents. He got lots of great toys, DVDs, and clothes to last him for the next few years! It was definitely a big success and we had lots of fun helping him celebrate.

Here are a few pictures

The big pile of presents!

We sang happy birthday

He was unsure of what to do with his slice of cake!

I think he's trying to dump frosting onto the ground

Eating cake

Partway through

"Yup, got some frosting on my elbow. Mission accomplished!"

Cake and frosting all over-- including in his ear!

Playing with his new blocks. Looks like he knows how to spell his name already!

Fun with Mimi and Grandpa

My parents got to Lubbock on Thursday. We had a great time with them!

On Thursday, we played around with Ethan and went out to dinner at Pei Wei.

On Friday, after my class, we went over to the Texas Tech Museum of Art to check out the exhibits. We went to a local BBQ restaurant for some yummy pulled pork sandwiches. Afterward, we had Ethan's First Birthday party! I'll make a separate post for that.

On Saturday, we headed over to the Lubbock Lake Landmark, an archeological dig site for Texas Tech where they have found quite a few Native American artifacts. We went on a walk there. Next, we had lunch then went shopping. Apparently, Ethan didn't get enough stuff on his birthday so his mommy and Mimi filled up another cart full of stuff for him! That night, my parents watched Ethan so Kristen and I could finally enjoy Kristen's birthday dinner that I still owed her from a couple weeks ago (Ethan was sick on her actual birthday so our plans were canceled). We went to an Italian restaurant called Carino's.

Sunday, we had a stake conference in the morning then we spent lots of time playing with Ethan. We went to a park so he could swing on the swing and play on some toys.

It was a great visit and we're sad that Mom and Dad had to leave so soon!

Cuddling up next to Mimi's leg

Great picture except for the ghost hand of Ethan's!

Swinging

One of his new tricks is to clap his hands

High five with mommy while swinging

Going down the slide with Grandpa

On the car toy at the park

Ethan with Mimi and Grandpa

Ethan's First Birthday

Well it has been an eventful week! Ethan turned 1 year old on Wednesday.

We went to the park and he opened a present on his birthday to celebrate. We held off on the rest of the celebration until my parents arrived.

At the park playing in the dirt

Going down the slide with mommy

Opening a present

Helping with the laundry

Here are a few pictures of Ethan "helping out" with the laundry

Crawling into the laundry basket

Giving me a big smile

There's a little button on the dryer that makes a fun noise if you push it! (It's the sensor so the dryer knows if the door is shut or not)

Very proud of his accomplishments

Ethan enjoying his show!

Kristen got Ethan one of those Baby Einstein videos a little while ago, but unfortunately, our old DVD player (that I found at a bank-owned house while working at WSR!) wouldn't play the DVD for some reason. Kristen figured out that she could play it on her computer, so Ethan would watch it on there and he loved it!

We finally broke down and ordered a fancy new Bluray player as we discovered more and more movies that our DVD player wouldn't play. I hooked it up today and put on Ethan's show. I was eating lunch and Ethan was just sitting in front of the TV having a good old time watching it! Here's the video

Spring Break

We got to enjoy our Spring Break together over the past few days. I had a final exam on Wednesday then I had Thursday and Friday off from school. It has been a good time to relax and spend time together.

On Wednesday night, we went out to dinner at a restaurant to celebrate the end of my physiology class. We didn't know that the restaurant has a popular Wednesday deal so it was actually quite busy for a weeknight! It was very good food.

On Thursday, we went shopping to the mall. We didn't really find much but I think Kristen was going through shopping withdrawals so we needed to go. On Friday, we organized stuff in our apartment, went out to dinner again at a local sandwich shop, and went over to a friend's house for dessert and games (they're in our ward and the husband is a classmate at med school). On Saturday, we headed to a local park for a walk and to play on the playground with Ethan. We capped it off with a movie and a trip to the ice cream shop.


Enjoy a few pictures from our trip the park yesterday! (For those of you with snow on the ground still, it's been in the 70s and 80s here and sunny!)

Having fun on the swing

Mommy pushing Ethan

Still has very light hair!

Daddy pushing Ethan