Yikes!

my pictures won't load today for some reason! Cute Christmas pics and details on the way as soon as this little bug is fixed!

Santa Pictures!

Santa paid a visit to the International Association of Machinist Christmas Party! Ethan LOVED santa and didn't want to leave his side to let other people get pictures. You can't tell by his facial expressions though. It is like pulling teeth to get this child to smile in a picture! I think he must get this from his dad!

Ethan & Julia

Colby, Suzanne, and Julia were in town this last week for their Christmas visit. Ethan & Julia had a great time playing with each other. I think that they older they get, the more they'll enjoy each other! We had a fun time going shopping, visiting Santa Claus, riding the train, enjoying Christmas dinner, and presents, etc.

Ethan, Elmo, & Shrek

So, first, notice the stinkin' cute pajamas! Andy bought them, and we call them his incredible jammies, since they look a little superhero-ish! For quite some time, he REFUSED to wear them. Then one night when he was just about asleep, because we got home late, I put the jammies on him without him knowing, and when he woke up in the morning, he decided he LOVED them, and REFUSED to take them off!

I finally got the jammies off, but them he REFUSED to put his pants on! Needless to say, my boy is picky when it comes to his clothes! Excuse the unmade bed, but this is what he did as I got ready for the day. He gave elmo some "gasses" and some "shoes"! He was quite proud of himself, adn happy to sit in with Elmo for a picture!Shrek is also another of his "buddies"! He likes to play pretend with Shrek and Elmo, and cuddle them, and feed them! So, he insisted this day that Shrek was hungry and needed a ba-ba! Super adorable huh?

Ethan & Honey

Ethan loves his Grandpa! He lovingly refers to him as "honey"!

My Birthday

This year, Colby and Suzanne were in town for Christmas on my birthday, so we had a great Christmas dinner, a fantastic birthday cake, birthday presents, AND Christmas presents! It was a fun day!

Bye Bye!

The new phrase of the month from Ethan . . .

bye bye, see you in a minute! Oh my goodness it is adorable!! He says it to EVERYTHING! Now that I'm a mom, I realize that the bathroom is no longer a private place. Ethan has to be in there with me, and he makes sure that he waves at the toilet as it flushes and says bye bye pee pee, see you in a minute!

Beaded Bliss Design

Lately I've been trying my hand at making jewelry, and have really come to quite enjoy it! Several people have asked me to make them items, so I've started a jewelry blog. Beaded Bliss Design by Leslie!
www.beadedblissbyleslie.blogspot.com

I have watch bands, bracelets, earrings, necklaces, lanyards, bookmarks, baby bracelets, and more to come!

Eventually, I'm going to shoot for online payment/shipping options, but for now, if you see something you'd like, email me at lesallen916@gmail.com and we'll work something out! Here is a little preview . . .

Ward Halloween Party

I had to borrow these pics from Candace! Thanks!

Andy's Birthday

Happy Birthday babe! We LOVE you!

Notice sneaky McGee over there inching toward the cake! He kept saying yummy cake over and over again. I had to keep telling him that it was daddy's cake and we had to wait for him to come home to eat it. It's amazing that the cake actually lasted until dad came home!

Happy Halloween

Delicious and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

12 cups water

1 chicken boullion cube

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 packets of country gravy mix

5 carrots sliced

1 onion cubed

1/2 lb. chicken cubed and cooked

1/2 package of Country Past homemade style egg pasta noodles

Add all together, mix, and simmer for an hour!

Pumpkin Patch

Here is our little guy in his halloween costume! Andy picked it out for him this year! :)

Ethan loved driving the tractor at the pumpkin patch! In fact, he had to drive EVERY single tractor that there was!

Mr. GQ

Too Funny!

This weekend, Andy started decorating the house for Halloween. I should have taken some pictures of the decor, so I'll do that this week. Anyway, Ethan was outside with us, and found a nice chair in our hedge!
This cracks me up . . . he often puts on my shoes and walks around the house. He doesn't wear Andy's, just mine! Anyway, here is a nice shot with my high heels, and some LL Cool J pants! What a twit!

St. George Trip

We spent UEA break down in St. George, and had a great time just relaxing. Really we didn't do much but take Ethan swimming and shopping! I bought me a great black and white polka dot jacket. One of these days I'll have to take a picture of it, because it has Leslie written all over it! We also drove out to Mesquite to swim and go to the seafood buffet. Believe it or not, the St. George pool was nice and warm and the Mesquite pool was freezing! So cold even, that we only put our feet in even though we were decked out in our swimsuits! We didn't take hardly any pictures of this extravaganza, but here are a few at the St. G

eorge mall on the toys, and another of why you shouldn't let children eat licorice!

Too Cute!

Ethan doesn't like to wear pants, so often just sports a shirt and the diaper! This particular day he also had to sport the sunglasses, but he would ONLY wear them like this, not over his eyes! He got mad when we took them off of him, and made us put them back on!

The other part of the story is riding "the horse"! Whenever he sees Norma laying like this, he runs over, calls her a horsey, and starts making horse noises! Luckily Norma doesn't care too much!

This picture isn't great quality, because I took it on my phone on a bright sunny day, but it still captures my little man's attitude about any type of ball! Football's are his favorite, but he loves to throw and "play catch" anytime he sees a ball of any sort!

When We're Helping We're Happy!

Funny story . . . My mother-in-law calls my father-in-law "honey", so Ethan thinks that Grandpa and honey are the same! So, he often refers to my dad as "honey"! Too cute!

Anyway onto the real blog, Grandma and Grandpa T tended Ethan a few weeks ago. When we got to the house to drop him off, Grandpa was out working in the yard, and Ethan of course wanted to help! He's such a good boy!

Pedicure Anyone?

Ethan finds it VERY important to do whatever it is that I'm doing. So, I cut and painted my toe nails the other night, and he had to join right in. He even wanted polish, so I painted them clear just to satisfy him. :) Otherwise dad would have gotten a little upset I'm afraid!

Chicken Dance!

Ethan just cracks me up sometimes! Check out these great dance moves!

Newest Hobby

Well, in an effort to keep busy on nights when Andy works graveyards, and because I'm cheap . . . I found a new hobby! Jewelry making! I LOVE the chunky watch bands, but I couldn't bring myself to pay $30 for one, when I decided I could probably make them on my own. So, after several stops to Hobby Lobby, JoAnne's, Michael's, and my favorite . . .the Bead Fairy, I made me several bands for my watch!
I also started making lanyards for my ID badge! A lady that I work with makes them, and so I decided I would make some too. These are two of my creations. Both have a lobster claw that allows you to attach to your ID badge, and both have a very strong magnet so that they breakaway, which meets code! Anyway, one is clear and goes with everything, and the other is a really cute christmas one. You can't see it too well, but it has cute little Christmas trees, and then pink beads with snowflakes painted on them! If you know anyone who is interested, I am selling them for $10 a piece!

New Slippers!

I went to Target tonight to pick up a few things, and I passed by these adorable slippers, and just had to get them! Ethan LOVES Elmo! I put them on him in the store and he was very upset when I went to take them off for the cashier. I ended up just ripping off the tag for her, so he could keep them on! He walked around in them all night long, and they look ADORABLE on him!

Mr. Mischievous

My little man thinks that it is hilarious to chase me around and squirt me with the hose. Look at this face, just full of mischief! I'm soooo glad that he has such a cute sense of humor!

Playground Fun

Ethan loves to go to the playground and go down the slides. He calls it weeee! He climbs up all by himself, and goes down all by himself. I can't believe how big he's getting!

He is talking sooo much now, and is even putting together sentences. He enjoys coloring, playing outside, anything to do with water, football, his golf clubs, and chasing Norma around the house. He also LOVES cartoons lately! He really likes Wall-e. He has space ship jammies that he calls wall-e. Adorable huh? He also really likes Toy Story, especially Buz!

He's learning lots of great things too! He can count to 3, and sometimes he'll count up to 7 or 8. I'm also trying to teach him the alphabet, but to no avail! Guess it'll come with time! I'm worried about him being a good reader. For the last 2 weeks, my team has been out to all the elementary schools in our district (44), testing EVERY SINGLE K, 1st, and 2nd grader on their reading ability! The K's and 1st graders have to identify the names and sounds letters make and the 2nd graders actually do a reading fluency test. Anyway, now that I've seen SOOO many kids who are FAR behind standard, I'm paranoid about teaching Ethan how to read! I guess I just need to cross that bridge when we come to it, and in the mean time, I'll buy some alphabet flash cards to get him started! :)

Tub Painting

Andy bought Ethan some tub markers the other day, and they both are enjoying them a lot! Andy draws, and Ethan erases as quickly as he can!
Daddy also did a little drawing ON Ethan! Luckily it came off quite easily! :)

John Schmidt Concert & Park City

This weekend, I met up with mom, aunts, grandma, and a few cousins in Park City! They had been to Swiss days on Friday, and then shopped in Park City on Saturday! I had a great time with them, and am glad I got to visit with them all. I bought Ethan a super cute Cars lunchbox, and I got myself a great new outfit, and Andy some cool lounge pants!

That night mom and I, Chelsee, Cayman, and Camee went to the Jon Schmidt concert! We have been fans of Jon for a long time and have been to MANY of his concerts, and have ALL his albums. I do have to say that this was BY FAR his GREATEST PERFORMANCE EVER!!! I enjoyed every minute of it. His music was more complex, more energetic, and his banter with his cellist Steve was super funny! He and Steve do an amazing mix of Vida La Vida and Love Story! Apparantly they can't get a hold of Cold Play to get the okay though, so they've had to take that part out, which unfortunately was the best part. Anyway, his version of Love Story is great too, and is posted on his website. If you haven't seen it, check it out at www.jonschmidt.com

Thanks to my dad who babysat Ethan ALL day long so that I could go have some time with the girls! You are the greatest!

Want some!

Ethan has come along way in his conversing!! His new words . . . Want some! It doesn't matter what we're up to, he "wants some." So, when Andy is putting on his cologne, when I am putting on my deodorant, when I spray some hairspray, etc. You name it, he wants some! It is adorable!

He also loves to blow kisses, give kisses on the lips, and give great big bear hugs! There is nothing better than coming home from a long day at work and getting a big bear hug and kiss from my little guy! What a perfect moment!

The new job is good . . . challenging . . . but good! It is really difficult to change my perspective from a classroom/school perspective to a district wide perspective. This will be my greatest challenge. I have been running like a mad woman, and I hope that I'll be able to slow down a little when I get the hang of things! I certainly needed something different though!

Blanket Wrangler!

Ethan has always been fond of his blankets, but a new favorite has emerged! All the other blankets in the house are called blankie, but this one in particular, he calls duckie! (thanks to Missy for the blanket!) The other day he took the blanket outside with him, and drug it all through the dirt, and it was filthy by the time we got back inside. You would have thought it was the end of the world when I took duckie away to put him in the washing machine! The poor boy was traumatized! He just kept saying "wash" over and over again. I reassured him a number of times that he would get duckie back, but it was quite the experience! Well, duckie has since been returned, and Ethan loves to hold onto the edge of duckie while sucking his thumb! It's actually extremely adorable, and here is the picture to prove it! PS, don't you love the duck slippers! :)

BUGS!!!!

Ethan seems to be fascinated with bugs when he is outside. He follows ants around like they are the most amazing creatures on the planet. Now, add wings to the ant, a carseat, and a car on the freeway, and it spells disaster for our little Ethan! Explanation . . .

I was driving down the freeway the other day when Ethan started screaming bug, bug, bug! He was more upset than I've ever seen him and was screaming to the point of hysterics! I turned around and there was a fly in the car, and it had landed on the edge of his car seat! I rolled down all the windows in hopes of the fly escaping, however, it just kept swarming Ethan which led to even more panic! So, I finally had to get off the freeway, pull over, and get the fly out of the car. The entire rest of the trip he said bug? I told him the bug had gone by by, but to no avail! He was still quite concerned!

I thought this was hilareous, and laughed about it for quite sometime with Andy! To my surprise, the SAME EXACT EXPERIENCE happened the very next day! So, watch out for flies in the car!

Going to the beach!

The city has put its tax dollars to a very good use. In fact, a use that I totally support 100%! They built a reservoir/beach! How much more fun can it get. Thanks to Gary, Rachel, and kids, who let us come and hang out with them all day at the beach, and for letting us use all their beach toys! We have had a ball!

Summer, fast and furious!

Well, summer vacation, came and went! I had a great time just being a stay at home mom, and playing with Ethan every minute of the day! I enjoyed every minute of it! Wednesday was back to work, and I have to admit, I had a MUCH harder time leaving him this year, than I did last year. At the beginning of last school year he was only 6 months old, and wasn't doing too much, but now he is SOOOO much fun! It's really hard to leave my little guy, knowing what fun I'll be missing out on!
He's talking so much now, here are a few of his words . . . mama, dada, dog, roof, meow, moo, oink, pig, juice, milk, water, wait, this, please, treat, out, down, elmo, cookie, toy, ball, noni, nana, apple, car, vroom, sleep, no, roni, and many, many more!!

My favorite things . . .

We have foam blocks, and I build them up for him to knock over, so while I build I say wait, wait, wait, okay, tip them over, so he says it all the time now too!! Too Cute!!!

When he points to what he wants, I grab things and say this? So, now he points to things he wants and says "this"!

I also love that he makes sound effects for everything. When he pretends to drive the cars around the house he says vroom, and when he pretends to play the wii he makes a whooshing sound.

In the mornings, he likes to sit at his little TV tray in the living room and eat his breakfast and watch super why!

He LOVES to be outside, and he especially loves water. He likes to run through the sprinklers, and play in his splash pool!

My little guy certainly makes me happy!

Vegas Wax Museum

Along time ago, in a galaxy without kids, when life was carefree and we could go on short vacations when ever we pleased, we went to Las Vegas with Gary and Rachel! We stopped at the wax museum, and today I stumbled upon these funny pics!

Here is Andy and Gary in great celebration after a victory!

This is me telling Pres. Bush that his speech sucks and he needs to change some of his points of view! :)