Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, and while it very different from last year, it was lots of fun!

On Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon with Charles' family; eating great food, opening gifts and playing with cousins. Then we headed to the Christmas Eve service at church. The music was great, the sermon was wonderful and the congregation singing Silent Night in the candlelight at the end was beautiful. From there, we headed home for a quick dinner and to get the boys in bed since they had gone all day without naps.

(My boys with their cousins, Phillip-Giles and Naomi)

Christmas morning was hectic but fun. Our boys are still to young to really "get" Christmas, although Caleb definitely knew it was baby Jesus' birthday. But there was no waking at the crack of dawn in this house. Ethan woke at his normal 7:30ish, and we finally had to wake Caleb at 8:00 so that he'd have time to open his presents before church. They both loved all their new toys!

We headed to church for more great fellowship and another great sermon and then to my parents house for lunch. After a delicious lunch and quick naps for the boys we opened gifts. And once again, the boys loved all their new stuff. We had a relaxing afternoon just hanging out with my family and headed home around dinner time.

On Monday we headed back out to my parents house to get together with all of my mom's family. It was great to see everyone, and Caleb loved being the center of attention. He kind of steals the show when we're around crowds of people. He definitely didn't inherit his Mama's shyness. He did some dancing, played some instruments, sang some Christmas tunes, and just generally strutted around the house like he owned the place. Sweet Ethan just enjoys watching his big brother, and being passed around for everyone to play with and hold, although he's quite a dancing machine too. I'll have to try and get a video of their moves to post on here at some point. After lunch and gifts, the Christmas festivities were finally over after a long weekend of fun, family and lots of food.

We've finally caught up on sleep and after celebrating Charles' birthday today are getting back into the swing of things around here.

I hope everyone had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends.

Merry Christmas!

I pray that everyone has a very blessed and Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Ethan

One year ago today, I got to meet my sweet Ethan for the first time. He was so little and absolutely adorable. And now I have this not so little but still very adorable little guy.

Ethan is my serious man. While Caleb loves attention and can be on the goofy side, Ethan is more subdued. He has this very serious look about him alot of the time, like he's thinking really hard about something...maybe he is. But boy does he have a smile, and he's not afraid to share it. If you can get him to drop the serious stare then you get to see a big ' ole smile...with 2 teeth. He got his first two teeth a couple of months ago and hasn't gotten any since. Not that it's slowed him down at all in the eating department.

I love the way he looks up to his big brother. Nothing could make him happier than going into Caleb's room to wake him up in the mornings. He gets so excited! And they love to play together. Caleb is so sweet to him and gets him toys to play with. I very often hear , " come on, e-e" as Caleb heads back to his room to play.

Now for a few facts about Ethan at 1 year old:

*He has 2 teeth.

*He weighs in at almost 22 lbs and is 29.25 inches long. Both of my boys are on the short side...which they get from me.

*He sleeps 12 hours at night but still occasionally wakes up around the 10 hour mark asking for a bottle...then he goes right back to sleep.

*He says Mama, Ba (bottle), bye bye, uh oh, and makes tons of other noises.

*While he is more serious than Caleb, he is also much louder than Caleb. I think it's because he has to compete for the attention around here.

*He's not walking yet unless you count maneuvering around all the furniture in our house.

*He's got straight, very light blonde hair. And he needs a haircut badly.

*The boy loves to dance, if you wanna call it that. He just kind of bobs his head and moves his body to the music.

*I know I've mentioned that he's loud but unless you've spent alot of time with him you probably wouldn't believe me. Very often in our car, you'll hear me or Charles, or even Caleb, saying "Ethan, hush!" You can't hear music or have a conversation when he's busy making noise, and it's not crying or fussing, it's just yelling, and it's loud!

Ethan,

I can't believe how big you've gotten. I remember bringing you home from the hospital thinking you were so tiny because you were alot smaller than your big brother was when he was born. But you've caught up. You are now bigger than he was when he was your age.

You are so happy and smile all the time. I love your smile, it just melts me, with those 2 little teeth and those big blue eyes. You love your big brother so much and he loves you too. I just know that y'all are going to be best buddies as you get older.

Your daddy and I are so proud of the sweet boy you are. You've got alot of personality and we love seeing it more and more every day. I'm so blessed to get to be your Mama.

Happy 1st Birthday Baby!

I love you,

Mama

Party Time!

We had Ethan's first birthday party today. He doesn't actually turn one until Tuesday, so you can expect a birthday post then, but for today I'm going to share some pictures from the party.

It was a low key, just family kind of party. But Charles and I have pretty big families so it was close to 20 people. We had pizza, salad and cupcakes and opened presents, Caleb got to play with his favorite cousin, and we just had a fun family day.

some of the decorations my sister and I made

my mom's handiwork

birthday boy and big brother

opening presents - Caleb was a big helper

Caleb and his daddy

not sure what to think of everyone singing to him

but decided in the end that it deserved an applause

tentatively tasting the cupcake

He likes it!

sweet blue eyed boy

enjoying his cupcake

"man, that was good!"

Yay for birthdays!

the birthday boy had a very fun day, followed by a very long nap

My next post will probably be all about my sweet (almost) one year old, so stay tuned...

sshhh... don't tell Caleb

This is one of Caleb's Christmas presents that I've been working on. It took alot longer than I anticipated, but I finished in time for Christmas!

He loves cars right now so I'm hoping he likes it.

So busy...

There are several reasons why I haven't blogged much lately. Things have been so busy around here. Christmas music at church takes up a huge part of my life in the month of December. We have our annual service of Lessons and Carols, children's choir programs, and special music throughout the month.

It was such a blessing to participate in the service of Lessons and Carols this year. We sang some beautiful music and it always gets me really thinking about why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. I know alot of people got the chance to attend, but if you missed it and you want to hear some great music, you can tune into WKNO - FM 91.1 on December 22 at noon and the catch the whole thing.

We've also all been sick around here. Thankfully after several days of just hanging out at home everyone is on the mend and feeling much better, and I'm so glad it was several weeks before Christmas that they whole family got sick and not the the week of.

Throw in decorating for Christmas, shopping for gifts and planning Ethan's first birthday party, and maybe you understand why my blog has been neglected for the past few weeks. But, Ethan's birthday party is this weekend and you can bet there will be a full post and pictures documenting the whole thing. I can't believe my baby is already turning one!!

PS- While you wouldn't be able to tell based on today's temperatures ( I think it was like 70 degrees), we did get some snow last week. Caleb had a blast playing in what little was left by the time we made it outside mid-morning.

Christmas time is here

Have you ever seen a cuter group of nativity participants? These are my sweet kindergarteners who come every Wednesday night so I can attempt to teach them not only how to sing but why we sing.

They've been practicing for months and Wednesday night was the big night. They sang with their sweet little voices for all their families to hear. And they did such a great job!

Its such a privilege to get to teach these little ones about worshipping our Lord and Savior.