A Simple Request

I realize it has been a long time since I have posted updates... Next Wednesday Ethan has his first soccer lesson and I will be sure to take some pics and video and post it here for everyone to enjoy!

But today, I have a heavy heart and a simple, but BIG request.  A little boy named Kai that used to be in Ethan's class at daycare was recently diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive form of brain cancer.  The journey this precious little boy and his family has endured over the past 2 weeks seems unreal.  If you are on Facebook, you have surely seen my posts asking for prayers and support for this family, but I know some of our dear friends/family follow this blog but are not on Facebook so I wanted to post it here as well.

This little boy is having his third surgery in a little over a week today at 10AM.  Please, please lift this little boy and his family up in prayer today and in the days and weeks to come.  They need it more than any of us can contemplate.

If you are interested in learning more about the struggles and strength of little Kai, please visit this website that his parents set up--> http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kaislockers

Much love & many thanks!
Troy & Autumn

BIG Fish

Last week Ethan "graduated" from the Parent-Tot 1 class at swimming school and he is now in the class with the 2 to 3 year olds.  He is doing so well and has such pride with his accomplishments.  He can float so well and does great kicking his feet!  They actually go completely under water in this class so we had to take him to the ENT to get fitted for some little ear plugs and Ear Band-It head band to keep the water out.  We really hope this will help reduce the number of ear infections he will get.  He is doing pretty well with the plugs/head-band and they are actually designed to keep water out but let sound in, so his hearing doesn't seem to be too affected. 

 Floating with Ms. Bonnie

 Ethan and all his fishy friends

 Daddy & Ethan

The swim school just got a giant slide/tunnel for the kids to play on and Ethan loves it!  He really loves to jump into the water, so this is probably the highlight of his whole week! :)

 

Work hard & Play harder

Rewind 3 months to Saturday, October 5th...

Okay, this weekend we had an outrageously fun construction party for our little 2 year old!  We had so many good friends and family come work (celebrate) with us, and that meant a lot.  Ethan had his very first bounce house (which we actually had almost a full week!), lots of friends to play with, and some very yummy cupcakes! The little guy is officially obsessed with birthday parties now, so perhaps I outdid myself :)

 Ethan "digs" turning 2!!!

Fuel for all our workers... big & small

The Foreman :)

 Ethan and his cousins: Anthony & Dominik

Some of our 2 & 4-legged party goers

Ethan and his daycare pal, Miss Olivia

Lots of yummy sweets for our sweet birthday boy

 It was THAT good!!!

Poor Micah wasn't as agile in the bounce house as Ethan ;)

Presents galore... He is spoiled rotten!

Reindeer Games

We made a second attempt to see Santa today.  Ethan likes the idea of Santa, he like to talk about Santa, mimic Santa saying "Ho, Ho, Ho!", but he doesn't actually want to get near Santa.  This Santa was great, he had a little reindeer which he made do all kinds of funny little stunts but to no avail.  There would be no cracking a smile from our little guy today. 

In all fairness though, he didn't cry (although he would've if I had pried him off my shirt and into the arms of Santa!)  Plus he has been sick, so I'm sure he just wasn't up for so much fun!  Here are a couple pics nonetheless :)

PS- I am aware that I still haven't posted pics from his birthday or Thanksgiving.  One day :)

Birthday Fun

For the little guy's birthday I thought I would prepare him chocolate chip pancakes and put a little face on it with a candle.  He was very happy about the fruit face and candle, but not a fan of the chocolate chip pancakes.  Couldn't believe any kid would snuff those!  So instead I made him the normal apple wheat pancakes, which he gobbled right up.

Here is a video of his birthday breakfast, every time he sees it he says "Ethan's birthday!"  I'm not sure he understands his birthday isn't every day. Such a sweet, sweet boy!!!

Then, since we weren't able to go to the zoo on Troy's birthday, we went for Ethan's birthday and he LOVED it!  We thought he would love the big cats and monkeys, but he was most fascinated with the giant turtles (and the rocks!)  The Austin Zoo is more of an animal rescue sanctuary so they don't have a big variety of zoo animals.  No elephants, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, etc... but he doesn't know any different yet.  He was super happy to see a tiger swimming, the giant turtles digging, and the goats eating.  Before leaving we got him a stuffed cheetah animal which is his new favorite.

After the zoo, we came home and had lunch and after nap time he opened a few of his presents from Mom & Dad.  He got some tractors and the Elefun game which blows little "butterflies" out of its snout to be caught in some nets!  :)  The birthday boy had his favorite food- PIZZA for dinner and then his buddy Micah came over to play in the bounce house which was delivered early for his birthday party.  A super fun day indeed.

The BIG 3-0!!!

In September I celebrated my 30th birthday in Cali!  Such a fabulous vacation it was and I am so fortunate to have been able to celebrate this big milestone birthday in such a memorable and relaxing way!  I did miss the little guy, and was a bit sad not to have his sweet kisses on my birthday, but we were able to Skype and received several sweet recorded video messages from him, so it was alright!

On our vacation, we visited San Francisco, Monterey, and Carmel... the weather was perfect, the sites were beautiful, and we thoroughly enjoyed the time together!  Here are a few pictures summarizing the highlights of our trip :)

 Wine & Cheese HH at the hotel on our first day

 The Inn at the Presidio!  We only stayed here our first night but it was our trip favorite.  If we make it back to SF, we will definitely stay here again!

 Our first day in Monterey: Our hotel is in the background... right on the water!

Saw so many of these sweet little sea otters + babies while kayaking

 Kayaking in Monterey- so much FUN!!!

An enormous colony of sea lions! What a bunch of funny (& noisy) creatures :)

My BIRTHDAY picture!  On the beach in Carmel By The Sea

 Troy climbing the rocky coastline of 17-mile drive.  The views along this stretch of road were just absolutely stunning!

We got a sweet rental car upgrade for my birthday :)

Lunch with amazing views at Nepenthe along Big Sur

One of the stops along the Big Sur- Bixby Bridge

Cable Car ride in San Fran

A blog post wouldn't be complete without at least one picture of sweet Ethan, so here it is!  After we got back from our trip we had a little garage sale in Dallas.  Ethan had fun rummaging through stuff, got some "new" toys from the neighboring garage sale, and enjoyed walking his dog!

Later this week, I hope to tackle his birthday, birthday party, and pumpkin patch festivities!  October was SO BUSY!!!  XOXO

August...

Seems funny posting about August in November... I knew I hadn't posted anything in a while, but WOW, when I realized it had been since July... it hit me how busy we have been!  Things will be slowing down for me a bit at work and I hope to have time now (at least for the next few months) to catch up and stay current on what we are up to around here.

So, going all the way back to AUGUST:
Troy took a vacation day for his birthday and were planning to go to the zoo, but it turned out to be a really yucky day with lots of rain, so we ended up at the Austin Children's Museum.  Yes, this probably seems strange since it was Troy's birthday and not Ethan's, but Troy and I celebrated the weekend before at Top Golf which was a blast.  So, since his birthday was on a day I was home with Ethan anyways, we just made it a super fun family day :)

The Austin Children's Museum has since closed as they are building a new and improved facility which we definitely plan to check it.  You could tell this place was old, but it was absolutely enriching and educational, and provided hours of fun for all of us.  I have just a couple of pictures of a little ramp thing, where you build something with wheels out of tinker toy type things and then test on the ramp at different angles.  That was fun!  Then there was a little work shop with various nuts and bolts and a vacuum tube (like the bank) where you can send the bolts up to the "workers" and then they match the shapes/colors to the holes (like a shape sorter) and they fall down to the first floor!  Ethan's favorite thing there was sending lots and lots of nuts/bolts up the pipe!  A close second would be the ball room which I don't have any pictures of... but it was full of different ramps, roller coasters, buckets, etc for golf balls to roll on and bounce into.  A true way to test physics, and an easy way to get knocked in the head with a golf ball if you aren't paying attention (hence no pictures!)

 Tinker Toy Ramp

 Help from Dad!

 Busy "working"

 Playing in a honeycomb :)

Then, my step-sister, Amber was married at the end of August so we of course went to that.  Ethan was so good and almost made it through the entire ceremony.  He had fun at the reception playing with my Aunt Sherrie's phone, hanging out with Pop, climbing up and down the staircase, and trying to figure out how to get to the DJ's disco ball.  He was certainly a handsome little fellow in his new suit!!!

 Ethan & Pop

 This is the best pic we could get of our family... someone was very squirmy!