Eric's 2 Year Photos

I decided to post these separate from the rest of March's post (which will be coming in the next week...) These are all 'posed' shots, I haven't gotten a chance to take the outside photos I want to do as well.
These are also the photos I love the most and have edited. They were ALL taken with a white sheet background and some have a '2' in the photos that was colored and cut out of paper.

These first two are the same, except one is black and white (well mostly).

He was looking at Daniel during this shot, I love it!

Fishy Face

This one above and below are the same photo as well, just one color and one black and white. You can tell he had been coloring in the one above as there is a mark on his arm. I tried to edit it out of the one below.

And yes, I did give him a sucker while I took his photos. It made it go so MUCH better!

I had him play with this ball with me for a while... this is the only shot where it wasn't blurry!

I adore this photo, that's all I can say.

Look at how small the green monkey is now!

Photo-shopped this background and loved it!

Yes, he was holding a sucker in his right hand when I took this picture. However, I think I did a great job getting rid of it!

Classic mildly upset Eric, he was yelling about something!

And this is one of my favorites. I Love the smile!

Which photos do you like best?

February

Daniel had another hiccup with his thesis but is pretty much past it, we've decided to have him push to get a draft of his thesis to his advisor by the middle of March. He spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out some statistical stuff (and as I HATED my statistics course I'm not going to go into any of it here.)

Daniel got to further his farming experience by helping feed the cows and was also involved in loading the calves the day they were sold. I actually got to go help feed the cows when Daniel wasn't feeling well about mid-month. Eric got to go with a couple of times (the days when I was able to go and take care of him while they did the work.) The cows were scared of Eric and the first time we went, Eric went running toward them, and almost spooked them enough to start a stampede. We caught him before they cows really started running! Eric loves the tractor, but didn't like getting too close to it. Pictures of feeding cows to follow.

My weight loss did not do as great this month, I lost 3 pounds. Then I gained one pound back at the end of the month (net loss: 2) - I got sick and had a drill drop on my foot (it hit where the drill inserts into the thing -luckily no drill bit was in it at the time. and it hit on the front of my ankle in between the bone. I had quite a nice bruise, and I couldn't point or flex my foot without it hurting. Or walk normally for about 3 days.) So I couldn't breathe and couldn't move my foot very well - didn't help me with my weight loss.

We were all on kind of an unlucky streak (the drill was just part of it!) Daniel cut his finger with a pocket knife the same day my aunt burnt her foot with boiling water while trying to thaw the calf water (calves were in the corral). If you want to read more about the things that happened to me, click here.

Eric learned to make faces. He also has been saying some great stuff - one thing is - Ready, Set, GO! He has also learned how to say, 'sorry'. Now we just have to help him learn how to be sincere and not do the same thing again right after saying sorry!

One thing Daniel loves to do with Eric is have him repeat our names (including Grandma, Grandpa and my siblings who live here). We were doing it at bath time and Daniel said, Uncle Dennis and Eric said: Uncle Desitin. We found this ironic because when my oldest nephew was younger and his parents were going to have another baby, they mentioned naming his soon to be brother Andy, and he said, AD, Ahhh. (He'd say that for the A&D ointment that made his bum feel better!)

Eric loves to jump, stomp and clap. He loves farm animals, actually animals in general, cars, trains, and trucks. He also loves playing with Tiny (the dog).

 

 Eric's started making faces.

 He's also started puckering his lips to give kisses. 

One night Eric was 'listening' to his foot. 

Feeding cows

Helping Papa push the bale of hay.

Standing on the bale of hay. He's having so much fun!

Look at that cute smile!

Petting a cow. This cow is one of a very few that actually have a name and is more people friendly.

Oh, this looks good! (Decorating cookies at a Primary activity)

Tasting the frosting...

Frosting the cookie.

Finished cookie.

Caught! Snitching the candy.

January 2011

I was looking over our posts in January and came across this post which I posted in January of 2010. At the bottom it said, "Hopefully 2010 will not be quite as eventful as 2009. We are hoping for a move and a full time job (as well as a Thesis being completed and Daniel getting his Masters)!"

Funny thing I could change the years and it would completely apply: Hopefully 2011 will not be quite as eventful as 2010. We are hoping for a move and a full time job (as well as a Thesis being completed and Daniel getting his Masters)!

Events in our lives in January: Snow/COLD. But besides the weather, Daniel finally has maps for his thesis and we can see an end in sight (sort of). Daniel also has been helping at my grandparent's ranch. They set up a trust naming my mom and aunt as trustees. Daniel gets to feed cows, break water in the canal and other such farm type stuff. He makes such a cute farmer boy! (We actually took Eric to see the cows in February which I will be posting about at a later date...)

I normally don't discuss money matters, but here goes another January event (and into part of February.) We applied for student loans so Daniel could enroll and filed our Federal taxes. Good thing as we can't get student loans for the number of credits Daniel is enrolled for and our tax return covered the cost of tuition (thank goodness for the EIC!) Daniel is enrolled for 2 credits so he can defend his thesis this semester.

I've discussed mostly Daniel so far... Eric is super cute! He likes to exercise with me - especially jumping. He LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine. He's talking a lot and says some super cute things. He also has his own words for things... We give him a pacifier at naptime and bedtime, which he calls "pashi". It sounds a bit like Golum saying Precious from Lord of the Rings.

Things with me - I'm trying to lose weight and actually lost 4 pounds in January. My goal is to lose at least 18 pounds from where I was at the start of the year, but really I'd love to lose in the neighborhood of 35-40 pounds. Eric and I spent some time in the kitchen in January making some easy food together. I posted about the Peanut Snackies we made.

This is a bath toy Eric got for Christmas (otherwise known as a colander), he realized he could use it as a hat!

We went sledding a few times when it was warm enough to take Eric outside. He loved going down the hill a few times.

Here's Eric going down with his Papa. If you zoom in, you can see their happy faces in the last two pictures!

And finally at the bottom of the hill. Daniel must have gotten snow in his boots, Brrr.

December

December 2010... What a month! It started out pretty good, but then got hectic. My grandfather fell and broke his hip, had surgery, was taken to a hospital in Salt Lake and then he passed away. All this happened in 7 days. The next day my little sister was put in the hospital with pnemonia and stayed there from Sunday to Saturday.  Needless to say Daniel really didn't work on his thesis after the first week and a half of December.

Daniel and I planned on visiting Logan for our anniversary, but due to a crazy snow storm we ended up just going to his parents for Christmas.  For those of you who don't know how crazy driving through mountains in the winter can be... let's just say that the main road out of our area to the west can be closed during these storms. The day we would have left they were suggesting using chains.

Christmas was fun, we spent it with Daniel's family. We got to spend time with his sister who we haven't seen since she got married while we were in Wisconsin. Eric also got to play with his cousin, Hannah (she's a month older than him.)  We headed home the day before another snow storm was coming through.

We played boardgames to welcome in the new year (probably doesn't surprise any of you!)

Now for pictures:

Eric loves climbing...

Eric loves eating anything chocolate... I think this was a chocolate silk pie. YUM!

Wearing Daniel's hat.

Getting into pillowcases.

I think he was a little tired after he got up. Such a cute photo! I'm sure his parents wish he would have slept longer. He usually gets us up in the mornings.

Playing with a towel. I just loved this shot!

Oh, and this one. HE looks like he's trying to be a shepherd in the Nativity!

Grandpa's funeral.

HUGE snowstorm... Eric enjoyed playing in the snow. He had to lift his whole leg to step!

Playing on an inside slide.

Christmas present opening!

Eric loved this little toy baby bottle at Daniel's parents. He was always sucking on it.

Christmas at my parents.

On the way back we stopped by a cheese factory and got cheese curds  (aka squeeky cheese)

Look at the size of those boots!  He was super cute trying to walk in them.

One day Eric was walking and decided to stick his chest out and stick his arms behind him... so funny but adorable!

November

At the start of November we helped my parents finish painting the outside of their house. Valerie went into the hospital for less than 48 hours - her heart was racing and they didn't really know why.

Daniel has data for his thesis (FINALLY!) We're shooting for a defense in March (February if everything goes well.) He just is doing some more work with the data and then will be able to analyze it and write about it (simplified, but we're still super excited about it!)

Another eventful day in our lives - we took our puppy to the vet and on the way he decided to jump out the window! (He hates car rides.) Luckily we weren't going that fast and he only got a few cuts - plus we were on our way to the vet so he got checked out ;).

Eric relearned how to climb out of his crib and so we invested in some sleep sacks (wearable blankets for infants-2 year olds) and they have worked like a charm to keep him in his crib, although he does complain when we put them on him occasionally.

Daniel and I had been substituting in the primary for a few weeks and then were called to teach the class we'd been subbing for. We get to teach the 3 and 4 year olds in our ward. It's been fun, but they can be a handful. One Sunday we had 10 kids in our class, luckily we usually only have about 6.

All my parent's family came out for Thanksgiving and it was nice to be able to see them. We had a great dinner. My sister had really bad morning sickness so it wasn't super fun for her, but she did find one dish that she could eat - twice baked potatoes!

My grandfather got an infection in his leg at the end of them month and had to get IV treatment every day for a week. My mom took him in every morning which took a good chunk of her time. Valerie has been doing well this month and we're super excited about that!

Photos:
Eric was making a 'stew' - he was placing potatoes in the colander and stirring them while I was cooking dinner one night.
He also likes 'talking' on the telephone. He steals it whenever he gets a chance, and has changed his Uncle's name in the directory.
Eric enjoyed his first ice-cream cone this month. YUM!
He enjoyed playing in the snow as well! It only snowed a bit and then it all melted. We're actually enjoying temperatures above freezing (and above normal!) It's great. I do miss snow, but I'm sure wel

October

At the beginning of October Daniel had a job interview. We were excited because it was in the area, only about 30 miles away from my parents house. Unfortunately the job went down hill after learning about it... Basically he would have been working in a person's basement, with security cameras on him, they weren't set up for taxes yet so he'd have been a consultant for who knows how long. Oh and did I mention that this guy wanted a 2 year minimum commitment? We ended up turning that one down.

Eric's been talking a lot and we finally made a list of words he's been saying (as of the beginning of October): Mama, Papa, Eyes, Nose, Grandma, Grandpa, No, Daniel, Dennis, Breathe, Cough, Baby, Happy, 'Aw man', Cow, Please, Moo, Neigh, Yes, Hi, Bye, What, Back, Uh-oh. Eric has also learned the ASL sign for Bear and growls when he does it!

My sister has been in the hospital at least once and to the ER a few times. She finally got off her IV antibiotics for her bone infection. Happy Day. She seems to be doing well on that front.

Here are some pictures from this month:
Eric dressed up as a farm boy for halloween. This picture was the least movement he had the whole night!
Decorating cookies...
Smelling the roses! Then he picked all the petals off them!

It's been a while...

Whew! I can't believe it's been since the beginning of October that I've updated this! Unfortunately tonight is not going to be the night I write about October or November... Really I'm just going to say that I haven't forgotten this site completely and I will be writing tomorrow! Until then I hope you have a great night!