Is it over already?

The wonderful, long Thanksgiving weekend began with Isaac and Lily coming over to play with Ethan on Wednesday evening. The three kiddos had a blast together! It was so fun to hang out with the twins and their mommy!

Here's Lily entertaining us with a trick . . .
Ethan and Isaac played pretty well together. All three of the kids were very interested in Ethan's books, as well as his toys. I guess that's what you get when both moms are teachers!

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with daddy's family at the nursing home. Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jason brought pumpkin pie, which was super yummy! Ethan had a blast playing with his cousins, Andrew and Camryn. Of course it was impossible to get a pic with the 3 of them together, but here's the two older cousins . . .Today we just hung out and played at home. Ethan thought it would be fun to try on mommy's shoes and walk around the house. . .
So, that brings us to the close of the weekend - On the bright side, I have the day off tomorrow for some appointments, including an ultrasound, so that will be fun to see baby girl again!

Black Friday!

I LOVE the Friday after Thanksgiving!!! It is a long-standing tradition (we figured about 20 years - since I was about 10 years old) that my mom, Aunt Cathi, Cousin Lizzy, Grandma Betty, and I would get up super early and hit the sales. This year was no different . . .I was up at 4:30 and at Younkers by 5:30. Daddy took a vacation day and spent some quality time with Ethan while mom was shopping.

I now have most of my shopping done, which is a great feeling. Here's evidence of our spending . . .

We all met for lunch at Panera. Here is Cousin Lizzy and Aunt Cathi . . .

Me and Luke . . .
And then we went to a movie together - 4 Christmases. It was pretty funny. Sticking with tradition, Grandma Betty smuggled in baggies of snacks for each of us to enjoy during the movie. How thoughtful :)

After the movie, I picked up Ethan and headed back out to mom and Mike's. The family gathered again for leftovers. Uncle Bill had fun playing with Ethan . . .
And so did Grandma Mary! Ethan, Victor, and Grandma were all chasing each other around the house, laughing, and playing peek-a-boo. She is such a wonderful grandma.

Ethan would run into her arms for a hug and squeal with delight!

The night ended with Ethan going down for the night, and mom playing Balderdash with the adults. Very fun! And we still have the whole weekend ahead of us! We are going to spend some time with Trav's family at the nursing home this afternoon . . .

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday - or at least it is a very close second to Christmas. I just love getting together with my family. We laugh so much and it is just good bonding time!

We all went over to Grandma and Grandpa Mike and Mary's house, and my mom's family came up from the Milwaukee area. We had a delicious meal - probably the best we've ever had!

Ethan loved playing with - and in - grandma's big toy bin.

Here is Grandma with Ethan and Victor.

A rare picture of mom and dad together looking somewhat put together.

Aunt Michelle and Cousin Victor . . .

Great - Great Aunt Geri, and Great Grandpa Bob . . .

Above is Grandma Mary with Great Grandma Betty, and Ethan's Great Uncle Bob, Great Aunt Carol, and Great Aunt Cathi . . .

We are so blessed with a wonderful family!

Grandma Mary has worked all week painting the baby's room! She did an awesome job! We worked today on getting the crib together and putting the finishing touches on the room. It's pretty much done, except for the rug . . .now all we need is a baby girl to put in it!!! I'm really excited about how it turned out :)

Nothing super exciting going on this weekend . . . just relaxing . . .

and playing. Ethan has been into his Mega Blocks lately. He was very particular about loading his dump truck properly this morning, with only these yellow blocks, and they all had to be standing up the right way . . .

He made pumpkin spice play dough at daycare on Friday, so we got that out yesterday and today. He loves it! I supposed Play Doh will have to be added to his Christmas list!!

Oh, by the way, the high chair is back again. . . . it was way too stressful having Ethan eat on our new table without a proper place mat - also he didn't have anywhere to do play dough, color, paint, etc. So, the high chair will be in use again, at least until Christmas when he will get his own little table and chairs.

Mommy and Daddy (mostly daddy) are working on getting the crib together and the baby's room more ready. I think we'll go shopping for an area rug today to complete the basics of the room . . .

Bookworm

Thank goodness Ethan can read his own books now - it gives mommy and daddy a little break :) He has been so into reading, and loves to cuddle while we read with him (something new!). His current favorite book is "Barney and BJ go to the Fire Station." He loves the page where the fire truck is getting washed (?). I think we have a future Firefighter on our hands!

Christmas came early for mom this year! I finally got the dining room table I have been wishing for!
On Saturday, mom and dad worked very hard to get the house organized and ready for baby to come. That meant cleaning out closets, moving furniture around, and putting lots of stuff up in the attic.

Ethan spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa's where he got to play with the Llamas, see the chickens, and chase the kitties! He definitely had much more fun than daddy and I!

Thank goodness on Sunday he was a big help with the laundry . . .
Today, Kyra and baby Evan came over for a visit! What a cute, cuddly little guy! Ethan didn't seem to mind mom holding the baby, which was a good sign for things to come . . .

It's nice to pop in a good sing-along movie and relax with Mr. Bear after a long day at daycare.
Thursday . . .

Friday . . .

Ethan is totally cracking up because mom is fake sneezing . . .If you want a good belly laugh, I'd be happy to share my hilarious talent with you, too.

Well, this is Ethan's official last picture in his high chair from this morning, because . . . he has moved to a big boy booster seat! He kept banging his feet on his high chair which was about to send us to the crazy house, so we thought it was time for this switch. Does anyone know where I can get a place mat that suctions to the table?

We also spent some time in the very cold outdoors today,

and spent time playing Ethan's "video game" which is a Little Leaps game we got him for Christmas last year. He was really into it!

Children's Museum

It was a cold and blustery day here today, so the family decided to take a little trip to the local Children's Museum. Ethan had a blast, and he was especially interested in the pretend cobs of corn. In fact, he had at least 1 in his hand most of the time we were there.

Here he is laughing at a little boy who is shaking his head back and forth. What could be funnier??

An action shot going down the slide. Notice, he didn't forget the corn!

When we were not at the museum, we spent the day looking through photo albums, Ethan's latest favorite pass time. He makes mommy and daddy name anyone he points to. I think we've looked through this particular album about 3 million times in the past month.

Haircut

Ethan got a super cute (professional!) haircut this week. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but trust me, it's cute :)

In other news, daddy came to mommy's school today to give a special lesson on Sound to all of the 3rd graders. Mommy teaches science to all the 3rd grade students, and our unit this month is sound, so Trav was a wonderful guest speaker! Who knew he is an expert on sound?!

I had the kids write thank you letters to him and one of my favorites was, "I want to know where you live so I can come and steal your nose flute." (This is funny on many levels - and yes, he did bring a hot pink nose flute to play for the kids . . . . ). When Trav read it he said, "We'll just save this for the FBI."

Halloween!

Ethan was a good little monkey for Halloween!

We did lots of visiting to show off his costume! Candace, his babysitter, brought him to school to watch the big parade, so he got to come to my classroom to meet my kids. He did good in his costume, which I was a little worried about.

After school we visited Great Grandpa Glenn,

and Great Grandma Lue! Grandma gave him his first sucker and he LOVED it! Here he is eating it with Great Grandma at the nursing home, and he would not take it out of his mouth until it was all gone.

We also visited Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Les, just down the hall from Grandma Lue in the nursing home (Grandma Sandy is recovering from a broken leg). They gave him a nice goody bag which included an apple! His favorite!

At night, we went trick-or-treating with Cousin Victor, Aunt Michelle, and Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike. It was really fun! Ethan got ANOTHER sucker to keep him pacified in his wagon. Here are the two ferocious jungle animals ready to go out and get some candy!