January Recap

Sometimes I forget how long I've been writing on this blog... That Ethan was just under a year old... And then I look back and realize that this is my FOURTH January Recap post.

FOURTH!

Crazy.

The very first monthly recap post I ever did was for January 2009! Ethan was 21 months old. We were still living in Oregon - our last January there.
January 2010 - Ethan was almost 3 years old. An animal chewed through the spark plug wires in the Explorer, causing a couple hundred dollars in damage. And... We moved. Hard to believe we're going on three years up here.
January 2011 - Ethan was almost 4 years old. We had just returned from our seven-state-mega-road-trip for Christmas break. Ethan and I made a visit down to Oregon and it was the last time we saw Grandpa Ken.
But, moving on to this year... January 2012.

* ROSE BOWL!!!:

[http://www.madeinoregon.com/Oregon-Ducks-Rose-Bowl-Champions-2012-T-Shirt-6188.html]

We were so excited and so happy to see the Oregon Ducks go to the Rose Bowl this year! My family drove up on the day of the Rose Bowl to watch the game with us and drop Christine off at the airport {so she could fly back to Provo}. Of course, we had awesome game-day food: spinach/chicken stromboli, pepperoni/olive stromboli, veggies w/ dip, chips, spicy/cheesy bean dip and leftover Christmas candy. GREAT game and a Rose Bowl WIN for the Ducks!! Woot woot!!

* Family Movie Night: Captain America

[http://www.recipeapart.com/captain-america-first-avenger/]

Both Sean AND Ethan had already seen this movie - Sean at a guys movie night and Ethan at the Colemans' house one night while we were playing games with other couples at another friend's house. So, really, we rented and watched this movie for my benefit. Most Friday nights we end up out doing something with other families or couples and it was nice to stay in, get some pizza and watch this together. Of course, Ethan had to play with his Captain American tank toy {thank you, Nana and Papa!} while we watched the movie. I loved it! Much better than I expected. In fact, Target had it on sale last week and I bought us a copy. Now, I just need to rent Thor and I'll be all set for when The Avengers comes out in May!

* Oregon Zoo: Ethan and I braved the cold weather and met up with some friends for the $4 Tuesday at the Zoo. It was pretty cold, but stayed sunny all day. Ethan and I, knock on wood, always manage to get sun when we go to the Zoo - even during the non-summer months! Ethan and his buddy, Sam, were so fun to watch together. Sam's little brother, Austin, stayed bundled up in the stroller.Thanks for coming with us, Walkers!

* Playdate w/ Sarah: Ethan and Sarah are such good friends and play well together. Sarah came over for a play-date and they painted birdhouses. See, at a previous play-date, Sarah had spied a birdhouse that Ethan painted for me some time last year and she wanted to paint one too. So the next time Ethan and I were at JoAnn's, we got two and kept them stashed until Sarah came to play again. $1 crafts that keep toddlers entertained for at least 1/2 hour are OK in my book! * Sean's OT and Extra Shifts: Sean has been working hard to provide for our family. He already works full-time, plus has 13 piano/voice lessons to give each week but, when the opportunity for over-time and some extra shifts came up, he took them! First up was a very rare chance for over-time with his current job - Seattle area was hit with a lot more snow than Vancouver, so it wasn't safe for kids to travel home Friday afternoon and they had to stay for the weekend. OT almost never happens and Sean worked a full Saturday shift at time-and-a-half. The next weekend, Sean signed up to work TWO graveyard shifts for a special college-prep thing the Commission for the Blind did over in Sandy, OR. We are very, very grateful for all of the hard work he does to provide for our family!!

* Stuff already covered: Pretty much the only exciting thing from the month that was already covered was our snow day. Oh, and our Brazilian cultural night!

* Random Ethan Sleeping Pictures: I can't help it, I have to take a picture when I find Ethan in a funny position. Well, I guess the first one isn't that funny, it was more that I found him crashed out on my side of the bed! The other two he had done a complete 180 turn.
Woo-hoo!! I am officially caught up on my monthly recaps!!