Ethan's 2 Year Old Birthday!!!

Wow the time sure flies... Ethan turned the big number 2 on Sunday May 4th, 2008. Since we are out in Oregon the party guests consisted of mostly guys that are working out here for the summer, but we were lucky enough to have our friends Doug, Brandy, Logan, Andrea and Cayden. I think all in all it was a great party, probably not one Ethan will remember other than in scrapbooks but oh well. We did a Disney Pixar Cars theme and invited everyone over for a BBQ followed by cake and ice cream. What a beautiful way to spend a gorgeous Sunday.

Ahh.. the beloved birthday party favor..THE BALLOON!!! Why did we even bother spending any money on presents.

Well at least Jojo was happy. Ethan had just woken up from his afternoon nap and well lets just say he wasn't the happiest birthday boy. After Dinner we decided to bust out the presents before all the kids got frosted.

What a patient boy waiting to play with his presents while the other kids are playing with them. It didn't last long so we decided to go to the Cake and Ice Cream. Here is my attempt at a Race Car Birthday Cake :)

And of Course in classic Ethan style the minute we start to sing it leads to .....

Well at least it was short lived and once we got some cake in front of his face he was super happy. It is really crazy to think that this tank of a kid was once a fragile little 4lbs 12ozs baby two years ago.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!!! We love you!!

Our Place in OREGON

Well after a great 12+ hour drive, our little family has arrived safe and sound in West Linn Oregon. It is absolutely beautiful here and other than a few days of major rain we have been adjusting well. Granted this place is nothing like our little home in Eagle Mountian, it will most definately work for the summer :) So here you go our little home away from home tour...

The Kitchen & View from Patio

Front Room & Dining Room

Jocelyn & Ethan's Rooms

Kids Bathroom

Master Bedroom & Bathroom

So its not much too look at as we only brought the essentials with us, but it is a great place to live for the summer. We are so blessed that Dave's Job put our family up in such a wonderful complex.

Easter Sunday Fun!!

Well as per the Yates family tradition the Easter Bunny hides the Easter egg baskets for the kids to find. So like any good mom, I tried to catch the whole event in pictures to share with you all.... here you go:

The Easter Bunny did a pretty good job of hiding it so she could find it right away :) I think she was pretty happy to see all that candy..what do you think?

Ethan's turn to find his basket!! Well sort of find his basket. Really that whole concept of finding things isn't quite there yet. So the Easter Bunny made it pretty easy on him and left in it plain sight and even then it was a little tough to get him to actually take it.

Once he did figure out what was in his basket the first thing he wanted was the twix.. although who can blame him it is a rockin candy. He brought it straight to me and grunted which translates to Mom open this for me please...well I can dream he has manners right :) After all the sugar overload, we got ready for a wonderful day at Church. It was a great chance to remind us of the true meaning of Easter..Our Savior Jesus Christ and his glorious gift to us through the Atonement and Resurrection. The children don't quite understand it all yet but I know they will someday. Dave and I really enjoyed the talks and lessons which all focused on the Atonement and the love that our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ have for us through this sacrifice.

After Church was out we went home and prepared to have the Sorensen clan over for a Yummy Turkey Dinner with all the fixin's. And as soon as dinner was over it was time for the Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard. we attempted to get Ethan involved in it but, I guess he is still a little young to understand the whole grab the egg and put it in the basket. So we let Jocelyn just go to town with all the eggs.

Well I think it is easy to say that the kids enjoyed their Easter Holiday with the family, and will be hyped up on sugar for the next couple months..thanks to mommy.

Easter Egg Coloring!!!

Well we thought it would be fun to try something different than

the traditional dip and color method. That may have been a big leap for this almost 4 year old to tackle and we didn't even attempt letting Ethan try, he will be just fine finding them tomorrow...Oh well we had fun and the eggs look cool.
Okay so the idea is to take and egg and put it in these plastic baggies. Then you take a couple drops of dye and drop it on the egg. Once its there you use the baggy to smoosh around the color. You keep doing this with the other colors until the entire egg is covered. And then you let it dry. Jocelyn had the right idea but I think the variety of colors proved to be a bit tempting as she kept mixing all the colors. Not to metion the fact that she got dye everywhere you can imagine.

Okay and the finish product after numerous baggies and several sprays of windex to get the dye off the countertop. Not to shabby if i do say so myself, Jocelyn did a great job and really enjoyed smooshing all the colors in the baggies..her's are the more colorful eggs. Yeah I know the mommy is boring.

Now for the best part, at least the part that Jocelyn loves the best...clean up time (ie an excuse to play in the water). Jocelyn was doing so good just washing her hands and then the bubbles came. When I cam back to check on her and see what she was up too she replied to me "that I need to shave like Daddy". Very very cute to say the least, she was putting all the suds on her chin. After a good oh I don't know 15 minutes of washing her hands I finally had to take her out of the bathroom and clean up the soap sud mess and toss the bottle of hand soap she had used completely. Oh the joys of an independent girl :)

Happy Easter!!!

Okay official Easter pics will be coming soon...

Happy Valentines Day!!

Jojo and Ethan's attempts at Valentine's Day Cards for Daddy. I think they did a very good job, eventhough it was one heck of a mess to clean up afterwards.

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