Quick Jaunt South

My wonderful sister, Abby, scheduled me for a dental cleaning with her as my hygienist.  So, Friday morning Ethan and I headed south.  We stopped in Salem, where I left Ethan to play/work with Grandma and Pop and I continued down to Carbondale.  It was really good to go back to my alma mater, see some old teachers and go to Quatros and QQ Bubble Tea (amazing slushes)!!  Oh, and the cleaning was good too...Abby will be a great dental hygienist.  I didn't have my camera, so all of these pictures are from phones.

Abby in action

Apparently Pop and Ethan were inseparable for the whole day.  My dad was working in the yard, planting and moving things.  And I was told he may not have gotten as much done as he would have without a shadow, since they 'had to take a break' every now and then.  Either way, I think they all had a great day, and I came back that evening to a naked, clean kid running around the house :).

Helping 'move' the dirt

I said inseparable, didn't I??

Little Helper

I know I've said this in the past...but Ethan likes to help out, or try to help out when we're working on things.  Last week, Jared was mowing the lawn and Ethan stood at the window for a long time watching and wanting to help.  And then yesterday, I was washing some windows (dog nose/tongue and toddler mouth/hands make for some dirty windows) and Ethan kept saying 'my do it, my do it'.  Pictures to prove it!

Watching Daddy...

Longing to go out and help

Cute little window washer

Happy Easter!

The Easter 'festivities' started on Saturday morning.  Our church in Salem always has a huge Easter Egg Hunt for the little ones and Ethan ended up with a basket full!  After the hunt they watched the Veggie Tales Easter movie.  It was very cute!  Here are some pictures from our Egg hunting morning.

Not too sure...

Figuring it out with some help from Pop

Watching some Veggie Tales (like a big boy)

After an exhausting hunt

And our Easter Sunday started off with a great church service.  After church Ethan found his Easter basket.  He was excited to find it and more excited to see what was inside!

"Mn's!!" (M&Ms)

Sitting on a soccer ball, hanging out with Uncle Dustin

 For lunch we headed to Jared's Aunt Doss' house.  Everything was wonderful, as usual.  We weren't able to stay too long due to a very tired little boy and needing to head home.  Grandma Karen had a Easter basket for Ethan and he loved checking it all out.

Mowing with Grandma Karen

 It was a great weekend with family!  Easter is a great time to remember the sacrifice Jesus made and celebrate His Resurrection!  I hope that you all had a blessed day!   

Happy Easter!

Cousin time and Birthdays!

We spent the Easter weekend in Salem.  It seems like that weekend is a good one for family to come in and get all the kids together.  We also had a few birthdays to celebrate.  Haley (my cousin, Libby's daughter) will be 3 next week and we celebrated with a cousin party on Friday afternoon.  Even if the birthday girl showed up late (she was napping), we had a good time decorating cookies and just playing.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!

Eating only the icing...smart boy!

 Pretty much directly after the 3 year old party, we had a surprise party for my cousin, Micah.  He turned the big 3-0 last week!  We had dinner and played 'Pin the Nose on the Clown' (haha) and had a great evening.

Finley, helping her Daddy blow out his candles

Timm and Mike getting in on the 'Nose' action!

After we ate dinner, we headed up to the church for another surprise birthday party.  This time it was for Jared's cousin Logan, as he turned 17.  I forgot to take my camera and we were not there for the actual surprise, but I'm told he was surprised!  He had a good turnout of friends and Ethan got some basketball and volleyball time with his Grandma and Grandpa.
I'll leave you with a few other cousin pictures from the weekend...

Jared and Micah with the boys

Callum, he's so cute!!

Ethan and Scout...playing with bracelets and necklaces. (Their fathers are proud)

Haley and Finley

Our Latest Family Picture!

Yep! It's true! We are expecting Baby Collier #2!

I had my first ultrasound today.  Jared met us and we got to see our baby for the first time!  Baby is healthy and measuring right on track at 12 weeks (the size of a lime!)  Ethan was very quiet during the appointment.  I think he was a little confused, but I'm sure he will be excited when the time comes...or not : ).

Coming soon...around October 28!

Cinnamon Rolls...Yum!!

I recently found a recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls. A few months ago I did the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, very good...but very time consuming and messy!  Apparently Richard Gere has a B&B in New York and this recipe is from his menu!  Instead of making the dough, this recipe calls for frozen biscuits that are thawed and smushed together to make a rectangle of dough. 

Much quicker and easier!

Here's the recipe!

1 (25-oz.) pkg. frozen biscuits

All-purpose flour
1/4 cup (I stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water

In the oven!

• Arrange the frozen biscuits, sides touching, in three rows of 4 biscuits on a lightly floured surface. Let stand 40 to 50 minutes or until biscuits are thawed but still cool to the touch.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Sprinkle thawed biscuits lightly with flour. Smush biscuits together to form a 10x12-in. rectangle of dough (I think I might try using a rolling pin and a little water to make the dough more uniform).
• Brush with melted butter.
• Combine sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle mixture over dough.
• Roll up tightly, starting at one long end. Pinch seam to seal. (Do not seal ends.) Cut roll into 6 (2-in.) slices (I made 12, 1in rolls and they were plenty big); place slices cut-side down, in lightly greased muffin pan (or any pan, I used round).
• Brush tops with melted butter. Using a fork, gently lift centers of rolls to form peaks.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly; 
•  Stir together powdered sugar and water, brush over rolls. (The icing is more of a glaze, but still delicious and plenty sweet)  Serve warm.

.

Delish!  I couldn't get a picture before Jared took 2!

O-R-E-O!

Yum!

Pizza Party

Saturday night we got together with some good friends for some pizza.  These good friends just happen to include Ethan's beloved Arika (babysitter) and her family and the other families who send their kids to Arika.  We decided meeting at someones house would be better than a restaurant with 3 toddler boys, so we went to Arika's house.  The weather was great and the boys had a wonderful time playing in the backyard while the adults visited and watched the kiddos.  I didn't take too many pictures, but I'll share what I have.

Jackson and Zach...the 'Big Boys' getting hosed off after playing in the creek

Braden and Ethan enjoying an evening swing

Ethan's new friend, Noah, finally geting his turn on the roller coaster

Braden and Ethan wresteling, a usual occurance I hear

It's a Dirty Job...

We (Jared) worked in the yard yesterday and, of course, Ethan was right there ready to help.  Jared split and moved several hostas.  I think we had 6 hostas when we bought the house almost 5 years ago and now we have 20 (never bought 1)!  Anyway it rained quite a bit yesterday morning, but the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day.  Even though the sun was out, you couldn't forget that it had rained, due to all the mud.  Ethan doesn't care if it's muddy, or wet, or gross.  I tried to keep him on the deck and then gave up.  He wanted in the mud, like Daddy!  After the whole day outside, we washed his crocs 4 or 5 times and changed pants 3 times.  Oh, life with a little boy!

I couldn't get him to look up

Hard work!

This is what his shoes looked like all day!

It's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!!

Ethan had such a good time seeing all the animals at the zoo yesterday, we decided to go to the local Rural King on our way home from church to check out the bunnies, chicks and ducks.  He just ran from bin to bin looking at all the little chirping  chicks and ducks and wanted to pet the bunnies.  The only way I was able to get him away from them and back to the cart was the popcorn...also a Rural King favorite.



This completely captures his excitement!


P.S.  The title is a quote from Despicable Me...such a cute movie!

Oh Saturday...what a great day!

Yesterday was a great day around here.  The weather was finally nice enough to be outside, the sun was out, and it is the weekend!  We started our day doing a little yard work in the backyard.  And Ethan had a blast helping.

Just raking...

Before lunch our neighbors, Heather and Braden came over and the boys ran like crazy around the yard playing with everything from golf clubs to sticks.  Then we all went to Krekles for some lunch and ice cream!  They even have 'baby cones' so Ethan got his very first ice cream cone all to himself, and he loved it!

Yum!

Then....after nap, we headed to the zoo!  It was the opening day and we met the Maxey's (our neighbors) there for a walk through the zoo, a train ride and a carousel ride.  The boys had a great time, especially in the petting zoo with all the goats.

Not getting too close to the baby goat

Ethan and the goat

Checking out the peacock

Ethan and Braden as a goat caretaker and a cow...

Our ride on the manatee

After a fun filled afternoon at the zoo we all went out for dinner and then home for bathtime and bed!  What a great day!