February and more Ethan pics

We celebrated Jason's birthday quietly this year, just the way he likes it. I am not very good at gift-giving and Jason is probably just as bad at gift-receiving, so it makes birthdays and Christmas time difficult. Fortunately I found several small things that Jason likes, and uses constantly, that I was able to give him. It makes me really excited to give something that he'll actually like and doesn't expect, especially since it doesn't happen very often. All of them were inexpensive or free, just the way he likes it. :) Here are a couple of them.

I gave Jason this thin leather wallet to replace his thicker one that he never carries around with him. He's been wearing out his credit cards really fast in his pockets, so I ordered him a custom designed credit card with our wedding picture on it. I thought it would be good to have a picture of us on his card to potentially encourage missionary conversations about marriage and family.

This is one of the interesting things I learned about Jason when we were dating. He has excellent oral hygiene and I often saw his flosser in his car. After 10 years of daily use his flosser finally bit the dust. Fortunately, I found another one online to replace it since I haven't ever seen one like this in the stores.

I helped a lot with our New Beginnings this year again. I was in charge of it last year and volunteered to help put on a similar program this year. It was a lot of work on my part, and it got a little stressful at times, but I think it turned out pretty good considering the time and weather complications we had. We had it two days before Valentine's Day and it was heart-themed. The girl's wrote nice notes to each other and dropped them in cute bags sitting on a table. We also had the girls participate in short skits that illustrated each value. For refreshments we ate heart-shaped sugar cookies. It was a great evening and I am happy that it is over. :)

Valentine's Day was also pretty low key this year. I was able to make and frost sugar cookies in the afternoon--some of my favorite cookies. We also went to the Louisville Temple and out to dinner at Olive Garden on Saturday. While we were in the temple, a local member watched Ethan at the church nearby. She was really sweet, but apparently Ethan didn't like being left in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people and was sad most of the time. Hopefully now that the weather is warming up I can get him out and playing with other babies and people more.

Ethan is super cute and fun to have around. His little coos and giggles are so cute. He can mostly sit on his own now, although he still tips over occasionally. We have also started him on solid foods. He will eat pretty much anything except plain rice cereal. Unfortunately, that is what the doctor recommended that he start with, but he wouldn't eat any. After a couple of days of trying rice cereal and then some vegetables, I finally gave him a jar of bananas and he decided he liked solid foods after all. Once I switched over to plain oatmeal instead of plain rice he's been more happy at meal times. We're grateful for our neighbors who have been letting us borrow their baby things. Ethan has acquired a baby swing, bumbo, and jumperoo toy in the last month. He continues to be our sweet, happy baby.

He only uses a pacifier as a chew toy these days and prefers to use his thumb to calm himself down.

I don't know why, but this picture always makes me smile. :)

Sittin' pretty in the high chair Grandma and Grandpa B gave him for Christmas

Super baby!

Taken at almost 7 months

We made these gifts for the YW for their birthdays. They go along with this year's theme and say "Wash away your sins. Come unto Christ and be perfected in him."

A successful activity we had as a mia maids class--decorating cupcakes to look like Minions from Despicable Me.