Royer Family of Three: 2011

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

New Adventures & Advent

Well, it has been way too long since I have updated my blog. To make a long story short - I went to try to update it and couldn't! I wasn't able to sign in and no longer have my email address that I used with that blog. So frustrating! So, in the meantime, I thought I would start a new blog with my new email. This blog is mostly for myself to update on Ethan and our family.

Now that we are in Florida we have had a lot of new adventures. Being a stay at home Mom has been an adventure in itself as I try to find ways to keep us busy! We are really missing family and friends (I am especially having a hard time being away from Grandma and Papa) but we are trying to make the best of it. We are happy to be back together as a family and Ethan is loving having his Dada back. We are also looking forward to our time with family at Christmas! Can't WAIT!

We have already had fun going to the Children's Museum, St. Petersburg beaches, Treasure Island, hockey games, Sesame Street Live, and lots of parks. I have met some Mom's through MOPS and a bible study I have been doing. They have been a God-send! I have been trying to keep busy everyday.

This was our Thanksgiving - it was my first Thanksgiving without extended family. Kind of sad - but still enjoyed making dinner for the three of us.

We have been on the search for a church that will meet our families needs and also a preschool. I am happy to say that we have found a preschool that seems great - Ethan is starting next week! The preschool is in a community called Fishhawk Ranch. Now that we are here and getting settled I am realizing that I wish we were living in that community! It is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. All within the community they have everything you could imagine - parks, parks, parks, hiking/biking trails, stores, fitness center, sprinker park, 2 preschools, 2 elementary schools, and tons more. It seems like it would be a fun place to live. As for now, we will drive 20 minutes to take Ethan to school there. It is worth the drive, though.

Now that I am a stay at home Mom I am enjoying doing some different things with Ethan. Since we are in the month of December we have been doing advent activities each day. I ordered a e-book called Truth in Tinsel and it has provided all the amazing ideas. Every morning Ethan looks forward to pulling out the clue card from his advent calendar. (Thanks Grandma Royer)

We then read a bible story that goes with the card. So, we have been taking about baby Jesus, Mary, Elizabeth, the angel, etc.

After the story Ethan has some sort of paper ornament to make that goes with the story. Ethan loves this part! He was lucky to have a special friend here the first two days to do his art project with!

Here they are working on their candle ornaments. "Jesus is the Light of the World!"

On day 2 we talked about Jesus being a King. So, they made crowns!

I thought I would treat this two like KINGS on this day...so we went to Burger King. :)

Day 3 we talked about how an angel came and told Zachariah his wife Elizabeth was going to have a baby. He didn't believe the angel so God made it so he couldn't talk! The button on his mouth shows us that his lips were buttoned! ;o)

Day 4 we made the angel - Gabriel

On this day we were making paper dolls of Mary and Elizabeth

I also took all of Ethan's Christmas books and wrapped them. Every morning we have been opening a book. So much fun! Ethan loves it and gets excited every morning!

Ethan sure has been spoiled by all of this fun!

I love spending my days with this sweet boy. He is so fun and full of joy! He makes us laugh all of the time. He wakes up happy and is always saying the funniest things. He also has his moments of total whining. Those times drive me crazy!

The other day James asked Ethan where milk came from and Ethan said Cows. Then James asked where Chocolate Milk comes from and he thought for a minute and said....McDonalds!? We thought that was pretty cute.

When Ethan talks his facial expressions and gestures are hilarious. He gets the funniest looks on his face while he is talking.

He has turned into a little artist. He loves to draw and color. He also surprised me one day and made a ETH all by himself! We bought him an easel at IKEA and he uses it every day.

He has finally mastered peeing standing up and is quite proud of himself. Sometimes this can get messy and a few times we had pee on all four walls of our bathroom! ha ha

He is also getting more coordinated. He is becoming good at his balance bike and can go pretty fast now. We have to speed walk to keep up with him. He has also been enjoying some more athletic things like kicking the ball and shooting his basketball.

That's it for now - I need to put the boy to bed! More updates to come!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

33 months!

I have not written an update on Ethan in a long time...life is so so busy!

This age is so much fun. Ethan is so interactive and full of life. He comes up with something new everyday. I read recently in one of my books that most Mom's and Dads of children around this age swears that their child is a genius! :) These young minds are like sponges! It is crazy how much they learn. So....yes.....I think Ethan is a genius. :) More importantly, he has a super sweet heart and James and I are very proud of him.

It is funny how little boys seem to naturally progress in their interests. When Ethan was little he was all about Elmo and Sesame Street. It then transitioned to Buzz and Woody and Cars. Now - he seems to be done with his Buzz and Woody and has moved on to Super Heros and even Darth Vader from Star Wars! He loves his Batman (from Grandma and Papa) and Joker...and he wants a Superman (He has a Superman from McDonalds). He is constantly talking about "Good Guys" and "Bad Guys." He assures us that he IS a good guy....but sometimes the looks on his face makes us wonder! ;o) He recently decided that he wants a cape like Batman - so he made a very important phone call to Grandma Royer to ask her to make him a black cape. ;o)

Ethan has a great imagination! His lead teacher at school always tell us how much she loves Ethan's pretend play and imagination. She also told me that at least once per day he will go to a certain spot of the room and just watch everything that is going on. :) He likes to take it all in.

One of the things that we hear all day long is "Who bought me this?" He wants to know who bought him everything! Once I tell him he says, "ohhhhhhhhhh."

His current favorite movie is "Despicable Me." The main character is a bad guy during most of the movie - but then turns good at the end. As Ethan is watching it we hear him say over and over again, "that's not very nice!" He enjoys the end of this movie where there is a dancing scene. Ethan stands up and dances along - he copies all of the moves they do - spits and all. It is hilarious!

Ethan enjoys hearing bible stories before bed. He has learned the stories of Jonah, Nehemiah, Moses, Paul, and Jesus. He can tell you most of these stories himself. We also pray each night. Lately he hasn't wanted to pray as much and has us say the prayer instead - but hearing him pray is pretty much the sweetest thing ever. He always prays for Mama, Dada, and sometimes says thank you for his puppy, and his room. Sometimes he adds in some other people and asks Jesus to "keep them safe." He has recently started praying for himself and his "owies." The next day he will check his owies and sometimes say, "Jesus made my owie all better!"

Ethan recently made his first trip to the barber shop. Papa took him! Ethan did great and got a super cute haircut from Mr. Jim. He got a huge Tootsie Pop for being such a good boy. I am sure he won't mind going to the barber shop with Papa again!

We also recently had a ton of fun over spring break! We did something fun everyday! On Sunday/Monday we had Ethan's cousin, Rece, spend the night. They had fun being Buzz together! They got to go see the movie, "Hop" and play at McDonalds. Ethan sure does love his cousins. The day after Rece left Ethan said, "I miss my brother." I had no idea what he was talking about - so I asked him who his brother was and he said, "Rece!" lol I reminded him that Rece was his COUSIN! Poor boy wishes he had a brother or sister!

On Tuesday we got to spend some time with Ethan's good friend Max and Max's brother Ben. They had so much fun together! It was nice for us Mama's to catch up, too!

Wednesday we had some more fun with Max and Ben at the Milford Kid's Clubhouse. It was our first time there and we loved it!

Thursday, James was able to take the day off - so we had a family trip to the Toledo Zoo. It was a bit cold, but that didn't stop us from having fun! Ethan got to go on the carousel for the first time! What fun!

We also had some family fun making some chocolate chip cookies. Ethan got a taste of some cookie dough! He is going to be just like his Dad when it comes to cookies.

On Friday and Saturday we got to have some fun with Grandma, Papa, and the rest of the family! We had an early Easter Egg hunt for the kiddos. Ethan was a little hesitant - but they had fun! The boys also got to go on a fun hike!