February: visits and fun!

So, we're still not completely caught up on our montages, but this will take you through February, with some sparsely documented visits from family, and a bunch of Gabe's newest tricks.

First Richard's sister's family came for a short weekend with their 4 boys. Ethan loved playing with them and learning how to be a rough tough little boy, although in general when things get a little too crazy he's more prone to watch from the sidelines. Richard's parents came the weekend after Valentines day (by the way, the green tongue was from Gramma Sam's valentine which he very much enjoyed --Gabe loved it too and crawled all around with the little dip-it stick in his mouth getting my kitchen floor all slobbery). We had a wonderful time visiting with them. They even got to sit in on one of Richard's classes that he taught, and were very helpful participants. He loved it.

Other events of note: This Valentines day marked exactly 5 years since the day we met. We also celebrated our 4th anniversary on the 18th by going out to dinner (thanks Stephen and Shawna). Gabe turned 10 months old, and got his first tooth! (you can barely see it in one of the last stills of him on the montage). I got to attend a marriage seminar given by Richard's brother-in-law who works for the Church Family Services --which was fantastic. I've also been enjoying having little play-dates (if you can call them that) with my sister-in-law. I got called as the Activity Days leader in our ward, and Richard got a second calling (in addition to teaching Priesthood every Sunday) as the assistant ward clerk over membership. We've been keeping busy as you can see. Overall February was eventful, however I don't think I did it justice on the picture taking end of things. Oh well.

On to the kids.

Gabe's getting so much more independent. He's really getting a mind of his own now that he's more mobile. You can see his unique mode of transportation on the video --which I'll call scooting since he doesn't really crawl. It makes me laugh to watch him, and although he can really move fast, our little race with his cousin who does crawl didn't really work. Those two are so cute together though. They're only 10 days apart, in case you were wondering. As you can see, Gabe also wants to feed himself and lately he only wants to eat what we're eating. Where do we get these stubborn kids I wonder? He's made even more progress in his jumper, trying new things and incorporating different props, however I foresee that our Johnny Jump-up days are growing short. He has had no patience for it this past week, and I think he realizes the restricting nature of the thing. Rather, he would like to be cruising around the house getting into things and making messes.

Ethan is growing out of all his clothes, and is eating a ton. His verbal skills are getting much better, but he's still hard to understand sometimes. Favorite phrases of late: "Ethan funny huh," and "STOP Daby!" (the name he uses for gabe) "Oh yeah, of course," was one that, sadly, he has stopped saying as much. Another one we hear all the time is, "Ethan no want!" He still hasn't figured out personal pronouns, and usually refers to himself in the third person (probably because we that kind of thing all the time), or he'll beg us to "carry you," instead of carry me. I never really had to think about it before but it's a complicated concept to explain --especially to a two year old. It is also extremely hard to get a yes or no answer out of him because he repeats everything I say. It's actually quite frustrating -like today, when I made him a ham sandwich and didn't find out that he wanted peanut butter until I put it in front of him, simply because I asked, "Do you want a peanut butter sandwich or a ham sandwich?" and true to form he repeated the latter. Argh! Has anyone else had this problem with their kids? Hopefully it will all sort itself out.

Well, as usual, I have written way too much. Again, it's mostly just for preserving our family history, and everyone just skips to the montage anyway, right? Well, enjoy the video.

Side note* We decided to go with two pieces of music that are amazingly similar, but both really fun. The first is David Grisman, and the second is from the movie Chocolat.