Some more. Just for fun.

I just have a few more cute pictures that I want to put on here. These are from before the break.

 Here is Ethan in his Sunday clothes. I know I am biased, but I think he is pretty adorable.

Ethan's poor cheeks. Combination cold and dry weather and loads of drool. And here they are studying. Lots of studying. And it looks like Ethan is following right along. I don't know why he would want to read about Business Strategies. He only looked up because I called his name.

 Trent is such a good dad. He does pretty much everything with Ethan.

Ethan fell asleep like this. Grabbing the side of the pack 'n play. Interesting.

The holidays are over...

Well, the break is officially over and we have been back at school for one week. At the beginning of last semester I cried every day at the thought of having to go to school AND take care of a baby. I know that this semester is going to be even harder, but for some reason it doesn't seem as scary. Maybe its because I have a whole line of people who I know will babysit Ethan for me. Or maybe it is that the end is in site. Four more months and I am done with school. Forever. Well, I can hope at least ;).

Ethan is getting so big I can hardly believe it. He turned 8 months old this past Monday. Wow. At the doctor's on Tuesday they measured him at 29 inches. That means he has grown a foot since he was born! Minha nossa. He had surgery this past Tuesday, but he is doing great. He was pretty out of it for the whole day, but on the up side he was super cuddly ;). By Wednesday morning he was laughing and squirmy again. Back to normal. We were very happy to see him recover so fast. We know that he had lots of prayers on his behalf.

 Ethan is not crawling yet. Nana taught him how to "rock" on his hands and knees over the break, so he does that pretty well, but he seems to like doing push-ups better. Or maybe he is doing downward facing dog? I wish I could ask him.

Here is Trent wresting with Ethan. Ethan is laughing hysterically. 

It must be a boy thing.

 This is their new trick. Ethan's leans forward as far as he can without falling forward. I was pretty impressed.

Christmas!!

I love Christmas. I love the singing, the lights, even the air seems different. I even accept snow during the month of December because then I have an excuse to stay inside. Makes for a pretty cozy break ;).

This Christmas was great. It was Ethan's first one. He pretty much got spoiled because he was carried and/or held the entire time ;). We spent Christmas with Trent's family in Sugar City and then traveled to Helena to see my grandma and my parents, who came down to meet us there. It was my first Christmas at BYU that actually felt long enough to count as a break. We played games, watched movies, pulled each other on tubes behind the snowmobiles, cross-country skied, ate sweets like crazy, and, of course, had some great spiritual conversations talking about our Savior, His birth, and the reason we celebrate His birth, the Atonement. We each shared a scripture about the Savior on Christmas Eve and it was a good way to think about and remember the Savior.

Here are some pictures from those few weeks:

 

This is the Christmas gift from Nana (my mom) that really motivated Ethan to sit up. Within a few days of playing with this he was a sitting up champ. He learned very quickly that when he pressed down on the red button the monkey in the tree would pop up and the toy would play music. He pressed the button over, and over, and over again. I am amazed at how smart little kids are. They must take in much more than we give them credit for.

 

I just thought this was a cute shot of Ethan wearing Daddy's hat.

 

 Three Spratling men. No real smiles from any of them. Hmmm.

 This is the adorable sleeper that Grandma Spratling bought for Ethan for Christmas. It says "Santa's Helper" on the front. It was pretty adorable. That basketball was one of Sierra's gifts. I guess she had to share with Ethan.

 Trent and Shelly (Trent's mom) bought me new stainless steel pots and pans for Christmas. They are beautiful. I am in heaven. Trent is such a boy; he wanted to see if Ethan would fit in the stock pot. Sorry Ethan, but it was pretty funny.

 We don't have a tub for Ethan at our apartment in Provo, so we this was a real treat for Ethan. He had so much fun splashing around, grabbing at the streams of water we poured in front of him. We had some good laughs. I feel bad that now we have to go back to that baby tub in Provo. Poor kid.

This is a four-generation photo with my dad and grandma. It was so nice to get to visit with her. She just thought Ethan was such a happy baby-probably because we make him nap so much! She kept saying, "he's going to sleep again?", but she was amazed that he never cried. I guess naps are the secret ;).

Thanksgiving

So, this is a leettle late, but I figure "better late than never", right? This Thanksgiving was so fun because we were able to spend time with both of our families. My parents came down and stayed at our apartment (I know, it was super crammed, but super fun-I don't let them stay at a hotel because my favorite time to talk to my mom is at night, right before bed and that's just so much easier when she is in the next room over!), but we spent the actual day of Thanksgiving with Trent's parents and family in Spanish Fork. So, not only did we not have to travel (which was AMAZING), but we got to spend a lot of time with both families. It was so fun and relaxing. I vote we make both families travel to us every year ;).

Here are some pictures of our wonderful week:

Here is the new, updated, Spratling Family picture. It turned out so good, I love it.

 

One of the first things Trent did when we got to the chapel, where we were having the family dinner, was to take Ethan and show him how to shoot some hoops. Ethan was watching intently. Very cute.

 

Grandpa and Grandma Spratling. 

I think they are pretty smitten with their favorite grandson.

He's the only one, so he pretty much has to be the favorite ;).

 My mom pretty much spent all of her time on the floor playing with Ethan and they practiced sitting up a lot. Before that Ethan's sitting up consisted mainly of the forward fold, but by the end of the week he was sitting up straight for a good amount of seconds before falling over, it was pretty exciting!

Learning so much!

My little Ethan is learning so much I can hardly believe it. Last week he was laying on his back and Trent was leaning over him playing with him. Ethan reached up to feel his ear, then reached back and started feeling his own ear. Haha, ever since then I see him hitting his ears (it's like he doesn't know how to stroke or feel things, he has to hit things repeatedly to feel them). I know he doesn't have an ear infection because we went to the pediatrician for something else in the midst of all this hitting and when he checked his ears the doctor said they looked perfect. I love seeing him learn!

Studying, eating...

The other day I came home from class to this:

Trent had to study for a test but he had to feed Ethan. Ethan just sat there watching Dad and eating away. Those are my boys.

Halloween

I haven't got around to posting pictures of Ethan in his cute Halloween costume that Ally and Orrin gave him. We went to our ward's Halloween party where Ethan and Jack were definitely two of the cutest kids ;). Here are some of the pictures Ally took.

Isn't Jack's little cow costume adorable?      Ethan's face in the above picture is priceless.

I am sure they were not too impressed...but at this stage, it's all for the parents anyway ;)

Here are some more pics of Ethan that I took the week before while I was making sure the costume would fit.

Cutest little boy ever!