Christmas Week

We were in Greenville from the Friday before Christmas until the Saturday after. We had a whole week of fun with family. Here are some of the highlights.

Aunt Valerie and Ethan had fun playing with Uncle Neal's Christmas present.

Ethan was putting his last minute touches on some Christmas presents.

Ethan and his cousins. (L to R) Nathan, Jake, Emma, Ethan, Tyler, and Sean


Christmas morning breakfast at Memaw and Pepaw's.

The guitar was one of Ethan's favorite gifts. It was from Mommy and Daddy and hardly put down all day.

Other toys included a work bench with tools from mommy and daddy and in the background a tent with attachable tunnel from granma and granpa.

Memaw and Pepaw gave Ethan this adorable Chef hat and apron for him to wear when cooking in his kitchen. As you can tell by the picture, it was a hit.

Our family on Christmas.

Go, Ethan, Go!

Ethan got this tricycle for his birthday from "Aunt" Kelly. He has been working hard this week trying to learn to ride it and doing pretty well. Before long he will be all over the place and we will never be able to catch him.

After a while, Ethan had to take a rest from his tricycle and joined Kamdin on the floor. He actually sat down beside him and said "Mommy, camera, cheese!"

Ethan's 2nd Birthday

We cannot believe our little boy has turned 2, but it has happened! On Saturday, December 15th we started our morning with gifts from us, pancakes for breakfast with Aunt Valerie, Uncle Neal, Micah, and of course us. Then of course Micah and Ethan had to try out all the new toys.

Memaw and Pepaw arrived shortly thereafter with their presents. They, along with Aunt Valerie and Uncle Neal, gave Ethan a swing set. We got almost half of it put together when the torrential downpour started.

We celebrated Ethan's birthday party at FunZone with family and friends. Ethan's grandparents, Aunt Lindsay and 3 of his cousins were able to come from Greenville. We had a few friends from here and one of my oldest and dearest friends from high school, Kelly Stone, drove up from Charleston. Below are pictures from throughout the entire day. Enjoy!

Yes, his shirt says I'm the birthday boy made especially for him by his Memaw.




Cousin Emma and Cousin Nathan enjoyed the inflatable basketball court while Grandma and Aunt Lindsay watched.



(L to R) Cousin Tyler, Ethan, and Pepaw enjoying the slide.



Our friends from church: Mike, Arlyn and Nick



Aunt Val, Micah, Pepaw, Uncle Neal and Ethan



Kelly Stone, Alicia, Ethan, and Aunt Valerie


Kelly Perry (a friend from high school who lives here in Cola) and her son Peyton

Cousin Emma, Grandma, Grandpa, and Cousin Nathan


After trying several times, Ethan needed some help blowing out the candle on the awesome Lion Cake that Memaw made for him.

Lights, Animals, and Marshmallows

We have had an exciting last couple of weeks. My parents came to visit December 7th and 8th and we all went to the zoo. Ethan had a great time showing Memaw and Pepaw the lights and the animals.

Ethan thought the goat licking his jacket was funny. Although, he did not want to pet the goat.

Ethan's favorite thing about the zoo lights (other than the sea lions) is the marshmallows. Yes, he had to have his own stick with 4 marshmallows and ate every last bite.

Aunt Valerie, Uncle Neal, and Micah (Neal's nephew) came to visit this past Friday, Dec. 14th and took Ethan with them to the zoo while Brian and I went to a Christmas Party. That made Ethan's 3rd trip to the zoo lights, yet he stilled loved every minute of it.

A Visit to Charleston

We went to Charleston on Saturday to visit friends and attend a birthday party. We all had a great time, but the best of all was Ethan got to see and play with his friends.

My friend from college, Stephanie and her husband Jason, just had their 3rd boy on Nov. 19th. They have Noah, 5, Owen, 2, and newest addition Sean. Ethan, Noah, and Owen were so excited to see each other and had a blast playing. Here are some pics.



The calm before the storm. (L to R: Noah, Ethan, Owen)

"The Storm"

After they got all of their energy out, we actually got them to stand still for a quick picture. How cute!

And of course we had to have a picture of the newest addition, Sean.

Lights at Riverbanks Zoo

Last week we went to Lights at the Zoo. They have over a million lights throughout the zoo. Some of the animals are left out (zebras, elephants, barnyard animals), but most are put away. Ethan loved the lights, but the highlight was the snow machine.

Ethan chasing the snow.


Ethan trying to eat the snow.

Our little boy

Ethan's new favorite "hang out" is FunZone. It has an indoor playground and inflatable bounce houses and slides. As you can see here, we built him a house of blocks and of course he wanted to play in it.

I remember when he was small enough for us to measure how long he was with a tape measure. Now he is big enough to do it himself.

This chair was a Christmas present last year from Memaw and Pepaw. Ethan sits in it to watch his videos and has become one of his favorite toys. He also uses it to climb on, in, and around.

Christmas Decorating

Well, Thanksgiving is over and it is time to pull out the Christmas decorations. Ethan had a blast helping put up the tree. Before we put the lights and decorations on he crawled in and out of the tree calling it a tunnel.

Ethan and Brian had a great time playing in the empty containers after the tree was decorated.

In the end, everyone had fun and the tree is decorated!

In lieu of Halloween, we attended a fall harvest festival at a church. Ethan went as a pumpkin and had an absolute blast.




Ethan was very excited to see Aunt Valerie and Uncle Neal.

We are continuing to learn our way around Lexington, have found a church we really like, and have even made a few friends.

This past week we received the most exciting news ever...Brian's dad's cancer is now in remission!! He is still having some health problems which they are still trying to figure out, but the cancer is gone!

This past weekend friends from Charleston were here for a visit which was really fun. Ethan enjoyed having a playmate around all the time.

Ethan also (for the first time) caught a football on Saturday! Brian has never been more proud! Of course, now all he wants to do is play catch with the football.

A Day at the Zoo

A Day At the Zoo


We went to the Riverbanks Zoo on Saturday and Ethan absolutely loved it. He showed the animals how to pose for the camera.

He loved the "elpants" and was very upset that he could not ride on a real one. Eventually, we convinced him to sit on the pretend one, but by the look on his face you can tell he was not happy.

The Roars or better known as Lions are Ethan's favorite animals. He was stunned and did not want to leave them. We walked past them several times. They were very active which was even more fun.

Ethan insisted that his cars had to go to the zoo too. However, the dilemma was that he has 3 colors (blue, green, and purple) and he had to pick 2 of them. As you can see on his fingers, he chose blue and green.

He also decided to talk to all the animals from our side of the fence which was fun to watch.




In the Bird Conservatory, there is a small play area which Ethan called the tunnels. I think he had more fun climbing on these then seeing the animals. I guess it is a boy thing!

We are settled!

Hey everyone. We are finally all in the same city and under one roof. We moved into the house on October 10th and all is going well. Ethan loves his new house and has adjusted remarkably well. We are enjoying Lexington and discovering new things every day. We will post pictures of the house soon.

Our new address is:
107 Bruin Drive
Lexington, SC 29073

Ethan was excited to see the truck we had all been talking about for so long. He thought the ramp was the best part.