Arlington, Texas

The holidays would not be complete without a trip to visit family...this year we went to Arlington, Texas to visit David's side of the family. It was also our first time to fly with a baby, and perhaps we chose the wrong time of day to fly because Ethan had just a bit of a rough time. He doesn't like to be held for very long, and 2 hours on a plane was definitely too long! But we're thankful for bottles and formula, and we're thankful that the flight was not delayed! We were also blessed that David's mom and sister were able to borrow a lot of the baby gear we needed, so all we brought with us was a stroller. Highlights of the trip...Dad Snyder's birthday and a trip to Whataburger...

Happy 2007!

To ring in the New Year we had an impromptu "soiree", complete with hors d'oeuvres. It really wasn't all that fancy, though!!! But we had a great time with friends as we munched on treats, listened to music, played games and watched our children play. It was a curious evening, looking around at all the kids and their parents. Just a year ago, our parties were very different. A lot of us were single, and there wasn't a baby in sight! But this evening, we had three babies sleeping in the upstairs bedrooms, two adolescent boys wrestling on the carpet, and a very sociable two year old girl trying to get into everyone's drinking cups! A lot can happen in one year... I wonder what 2007 will bring.

Here we are duking it out playing "Name that Tune: 80's Edition". It was the guys versus the girls.

Christmas celebrations

Christmas Eve was wrought with expectation, and a lot of fun! Dad is off of work so there is plenty of time for play. I particularly like this picture since I can see more of the resemblance between father and son. Especially in the hairline.

Other fun things we did was drive down to Peoria to look at the Winter Wonderland lights display. It would have been fantastic had it really snowed! But the displays were amazing nonetheless. They even built the Star Trek Enterprise...!

Ethan's new trick

A friend of ours let us borrow their "jumperoo" (I think they call it that) since Ethan does not yet have an exersaucer. Actually, neither mom nor dad want to add any more to the baby gear in the livingroom! But this little nifty thing allows Ethan to exercise his legs by jumping. The first time we put him in it, he didn't know what to do. I nearly returned the thing to my friend, but we kept trying and soon enough, he got the hang of it.

Movin' About

Ethan is moving all over the living room floor very well now. He is not yet crawling, but he rolls and rolls till he gets to his desired object or destination. In this case, our Christmas tree. He has nearly unwrapped several of the gifts already, and loves to grab the ornaments off the trees. Time to start childproofing our house I guess!

Thanksgiving Travels

This past turkey day we took a road trip cross country! Well, from the Midwest to the East coast. It was a 14 hour trip that we broke up into two days, spending the night at a bed and breakfast at the halfway point, somewhere near the border of Southern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

We arrived at our B&B at night, driving down the winding roads along the rolling hills (we forgot that Ohio can be hilly at times). The house was set on top of a hill, and the road to it was hard to find! It was a cool log cabin type place, someone's retirement home transformed into a B&B. It was a wonderful place, but even more beautiful when we woke up the next morning! There was farmland all around, and the grounds also held their own little petting zoo, it seemed. They had buffalo, deer, a camel, a llama, several miniature ponies, longhorns and probably much more that we didn't see. Here is Ethan taking his first look at a miniature pony.





But after two days of travel, we were glad to arrive at our destination! It was great for Ethan to meet his older cousins Andrew and Elena. They were so anxious to meet him that the whole family came over to see us the minute we arrived (even though it was past their bedtime). Cousins Andrew and Elena even gave Ethan a welcome gift--a new toy for him to play with. Here are all three posing before sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner.

Ouch!

A couple of days ago, Ethan has a little bit of an accident! Apparently he toppled over and fell on some pesky toy cups and got a busted lip!



According to Dad (who witnessed the mishap) it didn't bother Ethan too much. It at least didn't get in the way of shooting his latest Super Ethan episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OzrPyHhmU8

Happy Halloween!

Last minute I found the perfect costume for Ethan...Enjoy! :)

It's the most wonderful time of the year

The scent of burning leaves, the crisp, cool, October air, the red, orange, yellow and browns of the landscape. Autumn is by far our favorite time of year. It was high time for a scenic drive, so we packed up in the car and spent last Saturday afternoon driving through parts of central Illinois along the Illinois River.

We stopped off at a local marina, whose inactivity lent itself to a quiet stroll through the brush and woods. It was a nice moment for all three of us to breathe the fresh air and share a good laugh.

On our way back home we passed by a farm with all sorts of fall fun for sale...pumpkins, gourds of all shapes and sizes, mums, apple butter and arts and crafts. The owner's shop was inside an old barn with lots of hay. Very rustic, very much in the season!

Here is Ethan's first pumpkin patch experience!

Where does the time go?

Nearly a month has passed since our last update! Since then, I (Vicky) have been very busy finishing up a play here in town. We had a one night only performance October 7th to a very responsive audience of a few hundred. At our last rehearsal we had our local paper stop by to photograph us and interview some of the cast. These past few months of rehearsal have been very challenging, especially because Ethan would refuse a bottle. Our son has a sense of humor though. Two days after the play, he FINALLY accepted a bottle! I was taking my mom to the airport early in the morning and Ethan woke up. David decided to just try a bottle until I got back. Ethan took it and gulped down its contents. Go figure. Perhaps it's more of God's sense of humor...

Yes, mom was in town to help out that last week before the play. What a Godsend! We also celebrated her birthday on Oct 5th :)

Other milestones...Ethan is now sitting up almost completely unaided for several minutes at a time. He's still a bit wobbly, though, so you can't leave him completely unattended. And the best part...he could sit up long enough to take this picture.

We had formal portraits taken of the family last week...Aren't they cute?

The family invasion

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Last week, my brother, Fred, came for a visit, followed by David's parents for a long weekend. For them, it was the first time they set eyes on Ethan in the flesh. What a great time! Fred got the chance to check out our town and hit some hobby shops, and Mom and Dad Snyder got to see the annual pumpkin festival, followed by David's performance with the symphony.

Thanks for such a lovely visit!!! I was actually a little sad to see Fred and Mom and Dad Snyder go. But all good things must come to an end, eh? See you next time!!!

Happy Birthday, Vicky!

Yes, Happy Birthday to me! This year, we thought throwing a talent show might be fun, so we dubbed this year's celebration "America's Got Talent Birthday Bash". Here was the lineup:

AD-The "weed wacker" bit
The Schmidtgall Girls- ABC song, Jesus Love's Me
Alex H- tumbling
Tammy D and Mr. Goodwrench- My Guy
Erika- comedy bit
Dave and Em'ly O- dueling banjos
David S- French Horn (Japanese style)
Vicky S/Julie M/Julie P- "For Good" from Wicked

Thank you to our judges, Jeff, Marla and Kevin whose impersonations of Hasselhoff, Brandy and Nigel were quite entertaining. Ok, so they didn't really do impersonations, but their comments throughout the "competition" kept us laughing! Here they are tallying their marks...

If you're wondering about the pizza boxes, well, that's all the paper we had to write on! I thought the judges were quite resourceful, don't you think?

Here's David playing his French horn "Japanese" style. (You'll have to ask him about his bit, it was quite funny)

At last but not least, the cake! I LOVE cake!

Back online!

Well, with the new laptop that arrived this week, we are all back and reconnected! Lots has happened since we lost our old pc, so now it's time to play catch up.

David's sisters visited us last week. It was their first time to see Ethan live and in the flesh! We had a great time showing them around town, talking over breakfast, lunch and dinner, and sometimes well into the night. It is not often that all four siblings are all together in one place, so it was a special time.


A few days before that Ethan learned to roll over! He has now rolled from his back to his tummy, and from his tummy to his back. But he has yet to do them in sequence! Here he is after just rolling on to his tummy.

"Lightning Crashes"

Here we are at the university's computer lab. About a week ago our house (or our street or our electrical box) got struck by lightning. We lost power in the middle of the night, but luckily were able to restore it by resetting our fuse box. But alas! When we went to my (Vicky's) office the computer wouldn't turn on, nor would the printer. I'm sure all of you are saying, "But Vicky, what about your power surge protector?" HA! I didn't have one. My laptop got fried!!! Good thing I've been backing up my hard drive. The computer place confirmed my suspicions, too. Yep, your computer is fried.

No worries, friends, as we speak a new laptop is on the way thanks to Homeowner's Insurance. Don't own a home without one!

South Haven, MI

Oh, we are beach bums! As a "last hurrah" of the summer before David starts classes, we took a short trip to the lake front in South Haven, MI. We were surprised to find it very much seemed like a beach town, and the beach itself was gorgeous! We'll definitely be back next summer! By then we'll have a little boy on our hands who can walk on his own and sit on his own, and we imagine he'll have a great time.

Eat up! Ok, maybe later...

With his 4 month birthday we decided it was time to start introducing Ethan to solids. We figure by the time he gets the hang of it he'll be nearly 5 months. Here he is in his high chair for the first time. Needless to say, he didn't like his cereal very much!

Super Ethan

We recently saw "Superman" in the theaters and made the mistake of bringing Ethan! We quickly left the theater when it got too loud, and the next week managed to get a babysitter while we finished the movie. It seems that our children truly are sponges and pick up more than we think they do!

We did not pose him for this shot! Honest!

4 Month Check-Up

At 10 days shy of the 4 month mark Ethan weighed in at 17.5 lbs and 25.25 inches long. He'll be a big boy! To add to the fun, his first tooth has come in, and his second one is breaking the skin as we speak! Pretty soon, he'll start on solids and a whole new world of discoveries begin.

In the evening, Ethan is his most hyper. Often times he will lay on his back and kick to high heaven. Don't get too close he might knock you out! Sometimes, it's just fun to step back and watch him go...

"Growing like a weed"

Lately Ethan has been more fussy than usual! The afternoon and early evening before dinner is usually when he's most inconsolable! It seems his bouncy seat doesn't work the old magic like it used to. The only thing that seems to calm him is Daddy, to be quite honest! And usually we have to all go for a walk. We're wondering if Ethan is simply bored to death sometimes. When we go for a walk he's fascinated by the trees and the sky and he's so alert as he looks at his surroundings. Then he falls asleep about a half hour before his last feeding for the day. Oh, if only we could get his routine down! But despite the fussiness, he continues to grow. Maybe he doesn't like his bouncy seat anymore because his feet are hanging off it. Here he is petered out after one of our early evening walks...

He's also reluctant to take his naps at times. I (Vicky) came home from running errands one afternoon expecting Ethan to still be sleeping. I came home and found the guys hanging out on the bed! "Why aren't you sleeping, little boy?!"

A visit from Grandma Cuesta

Grandma Cuesta came to visit us for the Fourth of July holiday. She had lots of fun playing with Ethan and seeing how much he has grown. Us weary parents were grateful for the break and had the opportunity to go out on some dates while Grandma watched baby. Here they are at playtime.



Ethan was great...almost recognized her immediately! He smiled and cooed and they had extended conversations! Grandma even taught him how to make a clicking sound with his tongue :) Hopefully she'll come to visit soon and teach him more tricks!