What We've Been Up To: Erik from 12/12 through 3/13

Here's a look at what Erik's been up to over the last couple of months. A picture is supposed to be worth 1000 words, so I'll try to let them do most of the talking. 

December was beautiful, warm and sunny a good chunk of the time. We were able to spend a lot of time playing (and snacking) outside in the sunshine.

We had an incident that necessitated the washing of everything in Erik's crib, included his favorite blanket and stuffed animal. When all his things came out of the laundry he was sure excited to see them!

I forgot to mention in my previous post what Ethan and I gave Erik for Christmas. He sure loves it! His favorite thing to do is hide in the cupboard and then try to surprise me when I'm cooking.   

Erik is really good at helping around the house. He wants to be involved in anything we're doing. 

How does anyone put away their own silverware without a helper like Erik?!

We woke up one morning in January to a sheet of white outside. We rushed Erik out there as soon as he woke up (notice the bed head and PJ pants), but we were disappointed. He was SO not
interested in the snow. Once it stopped coming down and started melting off we went back outside to play and he enjoyed that a bit more.

Erik picked up this snowball and carried it all over the place. When one hand would get too cold and go numb, he's switch to the other hand, and so on. It was pretty cute. He was sure sad when it finally disappeared. 

More helping around the house. Note the Mardi Gras beads. You know you live too close to New Orleans when restaurants give those out with their kid's meals. 

 Sometime in February Erik learned how to open the fridge. He'd been trying for a while, but I guess just never had anything good enough to really motivate him. Once he saw me put that pan of cupcakes in there though, that was it. He was in there in a flash and there wasn't anything we could do to stop him (except install a child lock *insert evil chuckle here*)

This kid never stops moving, and climbing around on things is his first pick of activities. In a case like this, do you save the child first or grab the camera first? I guess I already answered that one! 

Just got his hair cut! Not real excited about it. He's pretty particular about his hair, it messes up his whole day if his hair doesn't look right, so something this drastic made the next week a little rough. 

Just chillin'. I'm in my secret hideout, you can't see me!

Why work so hard to push the thing when you can bum a ride off of someone else? I wish I could vacuum like this! (See video here)

What We've Been Up To: Thanksgiving and Christmas Break

Having not posted since Halloween, I have a bit of catching up to do. It would take me forever to write up all that has been going on, so I hope to use mostly pictures to update you on our latest adventures. I was going to just do one big huge post, but as I'm looking through pictures and remember the good times we've had it's looking like it's going to take more than that.

After Halloween was Thanksgiving, which was nice. We spent the day (which was a beautiful one!) outdoors enjoying the weather and all the beautiful world around us. That evening, we celebrated with several families from church and had a really nice time. There was lots of food and good company, what more could one ask for!

 

 Christmastime was really nice. We stayed here in MS and did our own thing this year. We decided to keep things pretty simple, so we started with an Erik-proof Christmas tree...

 and an Erik-proof nativity scene or two.

 We went with some friends on a drive to see the Christmas lights in Woodland, MS. The whole town was lit up and it was really fun to see all the lights!

 Remember I said we were going simple this year? Well, thanks to our friends and family we had enough presents to bury our little tree. It barely poked out above the pile. Most of them were for Erik, but it was so fun to watch him enjoy them.

 Christmas morning was a lot of fun. We skyped with Erik's Grandpa and Grandma Richins while we opened presents. He especially loved the dog from Great Grandma Mower and the shape sorter from Aunt Kate.

 One of our other favorite things to do when school is not in session is to hit the playground at the nearby elementary school. It's close enough to walk to and they have a whole area designed specially for toddlers and young children. Erik loves it!

 Just as we were finishing at the playground, Erik sat right in a mud puddle. I decided to let him walk for a few minutes to dry off before sticking him in the stroller. He noticed these two on the road ahead of us and took off to try to catch them.

"Hey guy with the dog, wait for me!!!!!!!"