We made it!

We've moved thanks to the incredible help from our family and friends. Mike and I have been so helpless due to his crutches and my pregnancy. Moving would not have been possible without all the help and it's so humbling. A GIGANTIC THANK YOU to all those who've given their time, food, backs, sweat and trucks to make this happen! We are so loved and we are looking forward to giving back to you all.

We like our new house (rental for the next 12 months) in Laguna Niguel. Sam misses our Rancho house a lot but even he is slowly adjusting. We have quite a few boxes left to unpack but please feel free to stop by any time. We would love to have some visitors.

I have been terrible about taking pictures the past few months but my sister does photo shoots with Ethan every time she's here. Here's a few for you:
peek a boo continues to be a favorite

Ethan's new game is ping pong. Aunt Kim taught him to say "Game On!"Kim and I took a break from unpacking to visit Salt Creek Beach. Ethan absolutely loves the big grassy hill and absolutely hates the sand and the waves!

Two News Worthy Items

Hold on, I've had this in my draft folder long enough that there are now three news worthy items.

First, Mike and I have the joy of expecting baby #2! We are so excited and looking forward to #2's arrival sometime around Nov 29th. I'm 16 weeks and it's flying by. The number one question we get asked is if we are going to find out the gender of the baby...ABSOLUTELY! 4 weeks to go. :)

Second, we've decided we want more space for our growing family and we put our house on the market. We went into escrow in 1.5 weeks and escrow should close today or tomorrow. It's been a whirlwind the past month and a half but God has blessed us with a smooth process. No, we don't know where we are going to live because we haven't found any houses we really like (at least not in our price range) but we are renting back for 30 days and then probably rent somewhere else for a little while.

Third, Mike tore his achilles tendon while he was on a business trip in MA a week ago last Sat. He had surgery last Tue to reconnect it and is recovering in bed as I type. It is unfortunately a very painful recovery but he is improving a little every day. He injured his right foot so he can't drive for another 5 weeks let alone do any heavy lifting. I'm not sure how the next couple of months are going to work out, and truthfully I get a little overwhelmed when I think about it. However, if I take one day or one task at a time God has shown me over and over again that He will provide.

High from Tahoe!

Mike, Ethan and I joined my parents for a little vacation at Lake Tahoe last week. Ethan was a good traveler and we had a pretty smooth drive up. We stayed in a condo a short walk from the lake through the beautiful, fragrant forest. I love the mountains! The picture above is at the beach at the end of the short walk. Ethan is all about Dad right now. He loves to play rough and he definitely loves to be thrown in the air. The higher the better. In fact, if he has a choice between me or Mike he will choose Mike and he is so sad when Dad leaves in the morning. Back to Tahoe...the weather was beautiful in the high 60's to low 70's and the mountains were all packed with melting snow. We went on a little hike up the hill behind our condo.
What a view.

Just a wee bit of update...

Ethan is such a busy boy these days. Now that he's walking everywhere he doesn't stop. (He's been going strong since beginning of 13 months and I promise to give you a video) He loves stairs and seeks them out wherever we go. He is talking up a storm and sometimes we actually can understand what he says. The grandparents are all on a mission to get him to say their names. Last week we taught him to say "ahh nuts!" which is melt-your-heart adorable. We got a video of that too and I promise to post it. Ethan has this strange love of brooms and dust pans and plays with them all the time.

Here's a shot from when we were up at Arrowhead a few weeks ago.

Ethan got to try out my old rocking chair when we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa last week. He thought he was such a big boy sitting in his own chair next to Grandpa. My parents are redoing their floors and Ethan loved having a furniture-less room.

Ethan's Buddies

Ethan got to hang out with his buddies, Laekin and Micah, last Friday. Ethan is so impressed with how much Laekin can do and follows her around the house. Jen and I had a nice visit and it was a lovely afternoon all around (especially since the kiddos all took their naps!). Here are some cute shots of the kids rocking on the glider.

Kisses!

Ethan was fascinated by Micah in a totally different way. It was if he was trying to figure what this guy was all about.

This is suburbia Orange County?

Every spring there is a field a few blocks away from our house that erupts in wild flowers. It's a limited time only type of thing because, unlike the rest of Rancho, this is not a carefully maintain and groomed field. My friend Kathy and I took our kiddos over to take some pictures. It was quite a bright day so there weren't as many smiles as I was hoping for but the flowers definitely did not disappoint.

Here's and adorable one of Kathy and Savannah:

Little Explorer

I've been meaning to post this for a while...

I was sitting on our kitchen floor cleaning cupboards while my son was roaming. I heard some frustrated grunts coming from behind me and I turned to see Ethan sitting inside a cupboard! I had taken the recycle bin out of the cabinet and he thought it was the perfect place to explore.