The Leprechaun Hunt

Last year our friend Nickie did a leprechaun hunt. The kids in the neighborhood found clues all around the neighborhood that the sneaky little leprechaun had left. We weren't able to be there last year but thanks to Dallas and Amanda the tradition was kept alive. Ethan was nothing but smiles for this. They ran the neighborhood and ended up at the Oliverson's where the leprechaun had left a whole lot of fun stuff all over the yard to collect!

Sadly baby girl had one of her crazy not breathing episodes that scared me pretty bad. Normally I can get her to calm down and start sucking her binki, but this time she wouldn't calm down and sounded like she couldn't get the gunk down her throat. She started breaking out in a rash around her face and her poor little eyes got all puffy! I'm still not quite sure what happened, but after about 15 minutes she finally calmed down and we were able to go for a walk while the hunt went on! Here she is looking almost 100% better, but those little eyes were so sensitive to the sun that we had to keep her hidden! I was hoping that we were past the not breathing thing, hopefully this was just a fluke! I don't want anymore ambulance rides to the hospital...way too scary!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

I have sucked at blogging lately...I promise to get better! But at least today is St. Patty's Day! And my attempt for a smile from Ethan didn't work.

I hope you are wearing GREEN!

She sits....

My little monkey is sitting! Yay! She is a squirmy baby and I'm surprised she can sit still for so long!! It started about two weeks ago with a lot of tipping, but last week she finally mastered it!

Obviously she thinks it's pretty cool too!

A Boys Day....

Kurt and all his brothers/brother in law headed to the Monster Truck show at the Energy Solutions Arena this past Saturday with all their little boys. It was a boys days out! Ethan has been talking about it for about a month now and couldn't wait to go. I sent Kurt with the camera, excited about the pictures I was going to see of Ethan, and this is ALL I got

along with ONLY 75 pictures of the this....

No I'm being serious! 75 freakin' pictures!

When I asked Kurt why he didn't get any other pictures of him or Ethan he said, "I thought he would love all these pictures of the trucks!" Awesome. I'm so glad I can have all these pictures of Grave Digger and all the other awesome trucks who did the same jump in my photo library! I love boys!

And since the boys headed off to the show, us girls headed for pedicures. It was tons of fun spending time with my sis in laws and mother in law.

Happy Valentines

Better late then never.....

Happy Valentines!

I love my little Valentines and how excited they get over everything! Especially if it's a holiday that included presents! Nothing says I love you more then heart shaped pancakes right? (at least in Ethan's eyes).

6 months

My sweet little Reese turned six months on February 1st! I forget how fun each different stage is! She continues to light up each room with her huge smile! She doesn't know how to smile without opening her mouth as wide as she can! She has almost mastered sitting, can roll where she wants to, loves her bouncer, has started to get a little stranger anxiety, LOVES her brother, is a very HAPPY baby until hungry, and still refuses to eat solids for me! No matter how hard I try, she puts anything in her mouth besides a bottle and she spits it right out. Hopefully in the next month we can get it down. I gave up the last two months so now I'm back at it.

Finally we have a fat chubby baby! She's still somewhat small, but she's definitely gaining weight due to her medicine! We love having her in our family; I can't imagine it without her! She brightens up any room and makes us all smile!! I'm excited for the next stage and to see what she starts to do!

Her six month stats:

Weight: 14.9 lbs (30%)

Height: 24.8 in. (20%)

Head: 16.8 in. (55%)

We love you baby girl!

JAPAN - (Friday, Saturday, & Sunday)

Sorry to picture overload....here are the last few days!!

FRIDAY

Friday we went to a place called Marine World. It was basically like Sea World. My parents had never been and we thought that Ethan would have fun! It turned out to b super fun. It had any type of marine animal, diving shows, dolphin shows, and tons of different exhibits.

My sweet little Reese was a trooper! She would just chill in the stroller for most of the days! I'm so grateful for such a happy little baby!

I had to take a picture of the vending machines. They are EVERYWHERE! Also their cars...they remind me of the movie "Cars." They look like little cartoon cars blown up! Every now and again you would see a full size car from the US but most of them are all smashed cartoon cars. In Japan tons of people walk or ride their bikes. Parking is super hard to find and when you do find it and park a little thing comes up underneath your car. If you take off with that up it will rip out the bottom of your car, so you have to pay most every time you park!

Later that night we went to Fukuoka Tower. It's a really tall tower that overlooks all of Fukuoka. We went at night so that we could see it all lit up! It was awesome! I can't believe how big the city is! After that we hit up Hard Rock one last time! Ethan was exhausted from the day and didn't even make it for his meal to come out.

SATURDAY

Saturday we got up and took the subway to a mall and market place called Tenjin. It was like a mall with one level all underground. We did some shopping and then headed back home. It was time to pack, do some last loads of laundry, and just hang out for our last night! We sat up late talking with my parents and were so sad that our trip was coming to an end.

SUNDAY

Sunday was a hard morning. We got up, got ready, and then headed for the airport! After getting everything checked in, we only had 30 minutes to get through security and get to our gate! We said our goodbyes, shed some tears, and then left!

It was such a refresher spending time with my parents. It was fun to feel like they were right back at home. I loved just being with them, eating out, watching tons of movies at night, and just being together! Now only eighteen more months and they will be home again! We can't wait!