In his own words.

Here's Ethan's latest haircut. It's a bit shorter then he's had had the 1st 2 times, but it's just as cute. I think it makes him look so much older though :( I thought it might be faster to cut, but it really wasn't. I don't know what it is, but he just HATES having anything cut! I have to pin him down and tuck one arm under my arm just to cut his fingernails and he screams and cries big crocodile tears like I'm trying to cut his fingers off and it's 10 times worse when he has his haircut! I'm telling you, I had my hands full! At one point he pulled off both of our capes and started slapping me in the face all while screaming at the top of his lungs! I felt so bad for Keri, but she did awesome! When it was finally done (not that Keri's slow by any means, but I'm sure it wasn't easy to make a moving target look even!), we were both dripping in sweat and covered in hair! I told Derek that he's taking next time! His 1st haircut went so well (thank goodness b/c I was able to get some super cute pictures), he sat by himself, hardly moved his head. Then last time I had to hold him and this time the screaming started when walked in the door already! Thankfully, the girl that cuts our hair has been a friend for many years and she cuts out of her home! Here he is making his favorite face!

Busted! Heading for the TV...if you look close you can see a ton of little finger-prints right as his level! It drives Daddy nuts!

Running around like crazy now!

So innocent...yeah right!

As promised a few blog posts ago, here's some video of Ethan saying a few of his words. Although, he wouldn't cooperate for my favorite - water -until I said it a million times! I hope you can hear him, he gets shy when I bring out the camera, the little stinker!

Bubbles!

Another one of Ethan's favorites are bubbles (along with most kids, I'm sure). I just love how excited he gets for "buh-buh", he just squeels with delight. I had to share a few pics from the other night when we were blowing a few some bubbles for him before he went to bed! (Notice the sexy legs in the corner! HA, HA)

Gardening

Last year was the first year that I didn't plant a garden since we've lived here (which is ever since we've been married). Ethan came at the end of March and it didn't even cross my mind until the end of May when I should have planted it! I was too busy learning how to be a mommy! Anyway, I really wanted one this year so I planted at the usual time, but I hadn't realized how much our trees had grown and my garden doesn't get NEAR the sun it used to! Of course all the rain we got 2 days after I planted didn't help either! Anyway, my garden is a little sad this year, but at least things that I planted are growing and still alive! Ethan LOVES to be outside, so on this day (a few weeks ago) I was weeding and he really wanted to help me. Although he didn't discriminate b/t a plant, flower, grass or weed! I think he just wanted to clear a spot for him to play with the dirt! He needed a bath before I could even feed him dinner, but he loved helping! Here's some pictures!

A few more pics from Ludington

First of all, our Pier Addiction guys are famous!!! Well....soon to be anyway! The new salmon tournament trail is being run by Great Lakes Salmon Series. So far it's been a big improvement, all the scoring is computerized and almost immediately available to view on their web-site. Also, they have a camera man aboard some of the boats during the tournaments and Pier Addiction was chosen to be taped during the Big Red Classic in Holland this year! We've been anxiously awaiting the posting of the video on their web-site and it finally posted this weekend! It's so fun to see them in action - especially if you've never been big lake fishing before! Anyway, here's the website to go check it out: www gl2s.com, (I put the link on the right with my blog lists) go to gl2s.TV 2008 coverage and click on "watch now", then a list of tournaments will pop up. Click on Huntington Big Red Classic, then click on the picture of Derek and you can watch our Pier Addiction boys in action! WARNING: the first part of the video is Team JJ and they're terrible sports and incredibly boring to watch, but it's only a few minutes (the camera crew must have been bored out their minds too!), then they jump right to us!

I found a few more pictures of fishing in Ludington on my other camera that I wanted to share. Before you go saying what a terrible mother I am for not having my son in a life-jacket in these pictures, we were on a 37' boat and when he didn't have it on we were trolling (which is very slow), and he can't even see the water without standing on his tippy toes. I know, I know, something freaky could still happen....but it didn't. Anyway, here he is in the morning, playing with a fly (without the hook!) that Daddy gave him (Daddy's little fisherman already!).

Here's Ethan, our little trooper who was up at 0530, around 12 or 1230 saying "I've had enough guys!" He was so cute, he just put his little head down on the seat - he was pooped!

Uncle Bri rested his head with Ethan too!

This is Pier Addiction on Sunday after the boys dropped their cooler full of fish off!

Here's the crew inside the tent listening to the results!

Derek and the big check!

The Tournament Season is Done.

Team Pier Addiction has wrapped up another year of Tournaments! Now we can all sit back, relax and get ready for "Harbor Patrol!" (right, honey?!) Derek is quite intense (we'll say) when it comes to preparing and fishing a Tournament. But, whatever he does, he does it well! As you recall, the Lady's finished 6th and the Men finished 13th in Ludington, our guys finished 5th in the Big Red Classic (Holland) - which we were VERY proud of! They finished 4th in the Steelheader's Men's tournament (with a little help from me! Ha!), which is a one day shoot out. They worked their butts off in Saugatuck's Tournament and came in 4th! And this past weekend was the Lady's Steelheader's Tournament (another one day shoot out). Ethan came along and brought us lots of luck! We caught our limit of 12 fish by 9:30am! We were really optimistic, but finished 4th and somehow my huge king salmon tied with another team with the exact same weight - 16.85 lbs! So, we ended up spitting the $$ for big fish! Over all another GREAT year and we can't wait for next year!


Ethan is keeping us very busy these days! Since taking his 1st steps in Ludington, I thought he'd just take off once we got home. But, he really didn't. He was still quite cautious for a couple more weeks. He walked more, but didn't let go of things much. Then all of the sudden, he started letting go and there's no stopping him now! He loves to walk and we love to watch him! I think he's going to be a little perfectionist - he's not going to do it until he knows that he can do it! He's also saying a few more things. He says "bye-bye, ball (which sounds like baaaa) and water (which sounds like wa-wa-wa-wa, or sometimes sounds like wow), banana (na-na), and grandma (which sounds like ga-na), papa, and no. I'll have to try to get some video of him saying stuff and post it, b/c I certainly didn't do justice to how sweet it sounds!

Well, I guess you're caught up on what we're up to at the Eade house! Stay tuned for more pictures soon!

Oh, by the way....Ethan is 17 months old today!!! It's just flying by!

More fun in the sun!

Derek and I took Ethan to his parent's beach, he was a little stinker! He kept emptying his bucket of water and when I go fill it again, he'd have a fit! I think I need a bigger bucket!!! It was fun for a little while anyway..... The hike up the stairs with my 25lb wt wasn't though....as if I wasn't sure that I was REALLY out of shape - I know I am now!!!


This past week I spent a few days at my mom's (as I do a lot in the summer). Ethan really wanted to play in the pool, but didn't understand that he couldn't just sit in the water, so I brought a kiddie pool next to the big pool and he LOVES that! It's great, he gets own little pool and I can sit in the big pool right next to him and keep cool and get some sun too!

Beach Day

My friend's Denise & Max and Marcy & Drake invited Ethan and I to go to the beach with them a couple weeks ago. I hadn't taken Ethan to the beach yet and was excited to see what he would do. I knew it was going to be a lot of work and was a little nervous about tackling this by myself, but I was off without any hesitation....they wanted to go to Oval beach in Saugatuck, so it was a bit of hike for us, but we made it in about 30mins. Unfortunately, the weather didn't quite cooperate for us, but we made the best of it. At first Ethan just picked the sand up and poored it out, picked up and poored out - on me, the blanket, the cooler, then finally his toys! After a while Max decided to come play and he was really cute. Everything Ethan would do, he would do, we got some water in the bucket for him and they were pooring sand in it, well after a few mins Ethan didn't want Max to "help" him and got a little upset, but we got through it! I sat him near the shore for a while and let the waves crash on his legs and he just squealed in delight every time a wave would hit him. It was awesome! I left my camera in the car initially (rookie!) and didn't get any pictures of it - this time, I'm sure we'll catch it one of these times! Once we decided to go, I was completely unprepared. He was wet and full of sand, and I had a dry diaper, but no change of clothes. I don't know what I was thinking! The water was pretty cold and I didn't want to go in to rince him off so, thankfully my friends watched him while I halled everything to the car then came back with a towel and a diaper. My next challenge was to get him up the stairs and the bathrooms where I could use the shower to get the sand off....yeah, that went over like a lead balloon! Ethan flipped out and I ended up just doing the best I could getting the sand off with the towel, throwing his diaper on and wrapping him in another towel to ride home in! I, of course, was covered in sand as well at this point. I tried to pull myself together once I got him strapped in the car - my friends, who know what they're doing, were long gone by now, which was probably a good thing, b/c it would have just been a good laugh I'm sure!!! Anyway, I'm way better prepared for the beach now! I've even done it a couple times since....I look like a pro now too!

Here's when Ethan's attitude changed....can you tell??

Family Fun

As usual, I'm a little behind in my blog posts, but I'm trying to catch up tonight!

This July, as nearly every July, my Aunt Ruth (Mom's baby sister), Uncle Don, and usually their 4 kids (Samantha, Isaac, Hannah, and Zofia) make the trip from MN to MI for a week of family fun in the sun! This always involves "Aunt Sue's Pool" several times. This year, Samantha was out of state working for the summer, but the rest of the crew came. We got together for a BBQ and here's "Chef D" grilling for everyone (with my Uncle Don in the background)!
Family photo in the pool!

Here's Ethan having a blast with Grandma Sue!

Here's my super cute Grandma "Oma" and Grandpa "Papa"

Here's Zofie with all 3 of mom's dogs...you can hardly see Tika, she's a teacup, the blond one is Chico and the black one is Quincy. Last year they wouldn't come near her so she was excited to have them all on her lap!

This only lasted about 5mins, then he was ready to get out. It was fun while it lasted!