Up on the hilltop

The time for our annual summit has come once again. I don't think it was quite as exciting as last time. But still fun. It was quite windy. Half of the time my hair was in my face. I didn't really like those ones.

Birthday!

So, Ross's birthday was actually on the 5th of this month, but I'm a little slow. So here are some pictures of the festivities.

I actually had this whole elaborate scheme planned to surprise Ross on the Friday before his birthday to go camping. I had outsiders involved in the scheming, I packed up everything in secret, I had a babysitter planned for Ethan. Well. Ross came home from work early that day, (I had planned on picking him up and taking him to the campsite), and therefore saw more than enough clues on the living room floor (a tent, flashlights, marshmallows, etc.) to give it all away. Fortunately we had a good time anyway, and the outsiders involved became a part of the party.

This was a gift and I thought,
"what on earth are we going to use this for?"
well it turned out to be quite handy:

The next day we used the tickets my parents gave us to the K-State game! It was a lot of fun. But K-State lost pretty bad. Which is why we look so sad.


Then for his actual birthday I gave him some presents and we had dinner and cake with my family. The cake was Carrot and Ross's mom gave it to him a week prior so he could save it for his birthday. It was delicious.

Okay, about getting presents for Ross. He is the WORST!! I know pretty much all guys are hard to buy presents for, but Ross is among the top I think. He is way cheap, err... frugal. So he doesn't want me to spend any money on him, unless it's a good deal. Well, I NEVER find good deals, so that was basically out of the question. He wants something practical. Well, I guess that's not too hard, but then we go back to the 'only if it's a good deal!' thing... He doesn't really have any hobbies right now, because of work and school... it's pretty tough. But, I came up with something pretty good I think. He works at a bank, which means he must wear a shirt and tie every day. Well my poor Ross (bless his heart) can't really match a darn thing. He's always coming in and waking me up and asking if this tie goes with these pants, and do they both go with this shirt? So I made him a chart. This is one page of four.

He liked it!

Phew that was long! Sorry. My hubby is 25 years old! He doesn't look a day over 18 though, does he? I know, I know. I don't either.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested:
that is, some books are to be read only in parts,
others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read
wholly, and with diligence and attention.
~ Francis Bacon ~

So he does this a lot

It's only 24 seconds. And he's just so cute.

My little boy

Is almost 7 months old! Yikes! We had his 6 mo. check-up yesterday. Which means he got a bunch of shots. I timed the pacifier plug exactly right, so he only cried for a few seconds after them. Poor little guy. :(

The stats:

Ht: 27 1/4 inches (69th percentile)
Wt: 19 lbs 3 1/4 oz (63rd percentile)
Head: 44 cm (50th percentile)

He is super fun! He's getting quite wiggly! He loves jumping anywhere, anytime. He loves diving for objects-- which means I have to hold on to him extra tight. He loves being sung to. He is a champion fall-asleeper. I put him in his crib wide awake and he just lays there looking around content, and eventually drifts off. He loves being outdoors. LOVES it. If he's upset, that's one thing I know will calm him right down.





The following picture was not posed. My nephew Matthew loves doing everything 'baby' does. I was told that as they were driving to our house, the last twenty minutes of the drive were full of Matthew's "Baby? baby? baby? baby?! baby??!!! baby!!!" When Ethan gets on Ross' lap, so does Matthew. When Ethan plays with a toy, so does Matthew. When Ethan gets changed, Matthew insists too. He's so cute. And he calls Ross 'oss' and he calls me 'boren.' By the way... my name is really hard for little kids to say. An 'L' and an 'R'? That's just a little too much. When my brother Will was little he had the L down, but not the R. So he called me Lowen. Hence the nickname. However, the 'Laur' part of my name is actually pronounced like the name Lars, not like Loren. Which seems to be a Western thing, because NO-ONE in Kansas gets it. They just think I can't say it right. :( So I stopped correcting everybody. In fact, let me illustrate.

In Utah:
Other person: Is your name pronounced Lawren or Loren?
Me: Law-ren.
Other person: Law-ren. Okay.

Anywhere East of Colorado:
Other person: What's your name?
Me: Lawren
Other person: What?
Me: LAWren
Other person: OH, Loren?
Me: (deflated)....yeah.

Good thing I don't mind THAT much. But anyway. Enough about that.



And here's Ethan in his K-State sweat-suit that used to be his daddy's. So cute! He's getting too chubby for it already.



P.S. I do not wish to make anyone feel bad for calling me Loren. I will happily respond to that. Especially if I really like you. :)

A little project

Ross needed something to occupy his time in the two days he had off between his internship and school/work. This guy can't relax! But I'm glad because he made me these shelves for some of our food storage! It's in our stairwell to our basement, and it's completely custom made to fit the stuff we use most.

BEFORE:

WORKING:

AFTER:

Thanks sweetie poo!

Flashback...uh.. Thursday

So, who does Ethan look like? Well let's see here.

I don't see much resemblance between these two:



(I know, with the exception of the lovely velour couches in the first photograph that make it clear it's from another decade, you'd think they were the same baby.)

And here's one of me. I'm a couple of months older in this than Ethan is in the following one.


So apart from Ethan's ears, which I think he got from me, I think we're looking at a little mini- Ross.

And although the shape of Ethan's eyebrows are the same as Ross', they turn bright red like his mom's used to when he starts to cry.