Samaritan's Purse

Samaritan's Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Opperation Christmas Child is just one of the amazing things Samaritan's Purse does. People fill shoe boxes with candy, toys, clothing, toothbrushes, etc. for kids and they are then delivered to children in need all over the world. Our family has donated shoe boxes filled with goodies for a couple of years now. This year we had the priviledge to go to one of the regional processing centers and help get all the shoe boxes ready for shipping. It was so much fun and we all can't wait to go back next year.

This is only a few of the shoe boxes in this huge warehouse

(click on the photo for a better view)

Inspecting the boxes
The assembly line: Travis, Jenn, and me
Jenn and me
Jenn, my mom, and Travis hard at work
Our four hour shift is complete

Making Muffins with Grandma

Our little Ethan is obsessed with muffins. He calls them "mumi" which sounds almost the exact same as "mommy." All this time I have been thinking that he walks around saying my name all day when in reality he is begging for a muffin. Today Grandma June made muffins with Ethan. He was a huge help!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

Fun with Grandpa

Today Ethan pulled all the hand towels out of the kitchen drawer including the oven mits. He brought them over to Grandpa Tom and of course he made something fun out of them.

Griffith Park

Ethan had his first audition today!!! It was for a Huggies print ad. When we got to the audition a lady took Ethan into a room without me, played with him, and took his picture. She said he did really well so we'll see. Afterwards I took Ethan to Griffith Park. This was my favorite place to go as a kid. Ethan got to ride the little train and look at all the horses. I felt that he was a little bit too young to ride the horses just yet. Maybe next time. We had a lovely morning together.

He's so little!

Firemen Everywhere

My mom, Ethan, and I went for a walk after Ethan's nap today and discovered that the firemen were still watching over our neighborhood. Ethan got out of his little car to play football with them. He had so much fun and they were all so great with him! These poor guys were bored out of their minds from sitting on our street for 3 days. They finally left last night to go home to their families. Thanks Stations 108 and 124 for protecting us!

A helicoptor about to make a drop

Making the drop
Ethan being invited to play football Ethan made these guys work for him!

Ethan in the firetruck

Fires, Fires, and More Fires!!!

This weekend was quite stressful not knowing if we were going to have to evacuate or not. Actually, it's Monday now and we still don't know! All these photos were taken on Saturday. We hiked up to the top of the mountain right in front of our house and had a great view of what was going on. Last night 3 firetrucks were assigned the night on our street. Today there has been about 3 or 4 huge planes dropping foscheck and about 2 or 3 helicoptors dropping water. They have been flying over our house all day. I am determined to get a good photo of a plane dropping foscheck so check back soon.

This photo was taken from our upstairs window

Saturday morning. Kind of scary!

Ethan on top of Grandpa Tom's shoulders, ready for

our hike up the mountain. View of the Santa Clarita Valley from

the top of the mountain. View of our house. It is the one closest to you.
A helicoptor just dropped water on the fire.

Playdate with Julia Taylor

Today Ethan and I got to watch Julia while her mom went to a doctors appointment. We blew up the bounce house inside our house which was a lot of fun!!!

Here it is set up in the living room/dining room.

A perfect fit!

Ethan of course had to bring Elmo in to bounce with him. Here he is giving him a hug. Although I would call it smothering him! He now gives things in his books hugs by laying on top of the book. So cute!
Julia and Ethan still had tons of fun jumping on the bounce house when I deflated it.

My Little Man is SO Smart!

Ethan and I went to our new Babies R Us store last week to check it out. We ended up playing with all the toys in the toy section. The one toy he couldn't get enough of was Elmo Live! This Elmo sang and blew kisses. Ethan loved him! Well today Ethan and I went back there to return something. The second we walked into the store he started saying "mymo" = Elmo. I was looking around and didn't see any photos of Elmo anywhere. I brushed it off and went to the clothing section to look around. He kept saying "mymo mymo" so I set him down to see if he would show me what he was talking about. Well he walked all the way across the store to the toy section right to where that Elmo Live was on the shelf. This was only our second time in that store! I was so impressed and busted out my camera to take pictures! Enjoy our smart little man!

He was so proud of himself!

Blowing Elmo kisses

The Best Day of Ethan's Life

Today we took Ethan to My Gym's open house. Elmo was the special guest. It was so amazing seeing Ethan's face when Elmo came out to play with all the kids. Ethan is obsessed with Elmo at the moment so this day was probably the greatest day of Ethan's life. He was starstruck.

Doing circle time before the big reveal.

Ethan seeing Elmo for the first time.
Singing and dancing with Elmo.
Sitting with Elmo.

Round two. We waited in line twice to sit with Elmo.

Ethan couldn't get enough.

Playing in the clean ball pit.

Striking a pose.

Doing pull-ups.

Back in the ball pit with his Elmo shirt on.

Walking across the balance beam.

Dinner Party at The Klawers

Tonight we had our friends the Taylors, the Bobbitts, and 1/2 the Besches over for dinner and some Guitar Hero. Ethan and Julia had a blast watching them play from the pack n play. They were laughing and dancing. Occasionally they would take turns hugging each other. It was so cute! Lindsay you were missed!

Having fun dancing!

Don't rip her clothes off Ethan!

Julia got tons of hugs tonight!

Scooter's Jungle is our new favorite place!!!

Tonight we went to Scooter's Jungle AGAIN! We love it there. Ethan loves it and all the adults get to act like kids. Ethan found this lawn mower while we were there and kept trying to sit on it. In this photo it looks like he is asleep on the mower. The next Family Fun night is November 26th from 5:30-8:30. It is the day before Thanksgiving but we will be there. We hope you all will join us.

Ethan had fun with Daddy's hat today. He wouldn't let Dan keep it on his head.