Christmas Brunch!

Today our family hosted a Christmas brunch. It was so much fun to spend some more time with family!

Auntie Michelle and Victor were there, and we even got a special visit from Santa!
Great Grandpa Glenn spent some time with the grandkids!

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning we awoke to find that Santa had come! Macie and Ethan had let mom and dad sleep in until about 7:00, so that was a great present for us!

Later in the day, we journeyed to Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Les's house where the kids had a blast playing with their cousins and getting lots of toys from Grandma and Grandpa, and Uncle Jason and Aunt Shelley. Ethan got lots of trucks and insisted on holding all of them on the drive home. Macie especially loved the ornament cousin Andrew made for her at school! So thoughtful!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike's house. It was a fun, relaxing night with a delicious meal of spinach lasagna.

Here are the kids enjoying their presents . . .
It's always a challenge to get Ethan to sit down and eat!
Auntie Jen, Ben, and Oliver were there . . .
Macie is showing off her pretty Christmas dress!

Preparing . . .

Wednesday was spent preparing for Christmas by making Christmas cookies!
We also worked on potty training, which went quite well! Don't worry, there was lots of hand washing going on that day :)

"Are you sick?"

Poor Ethan has been really sick with strep throat and an ear infection. Since he still talks in questions much of the time, here are some that we've been hearing frequently. (When he asks a question, it's like that's what he wants you to ask him so he can say, "yes." I know - very tricky - it's like he speaks in code ;)

"Do you want to lay on the couch?"
"Does your face hurt?" (Referring to his throat)
"Mama lay with you?"
"Are you getting sick?"
"Are you OK?"
"Do you want some medicine?"
And . . . my personal favorite . . . "Do you want a bucket?"

OK, that's a quick update. As for Macie, it appears that her cradle cap may be resurfacing, but we are unsure . . . . more on that later . . . It's an exciting place around here!

Sorry I've been ignoring my blog for the past week. I really have nothing too exciting to report . . . Let's see . . . Macie isn't feeling well - she was up late last night and the only thing that made her happy was sitting in my lap, so I let her watch my Sunday night shows with me. Who knew she was such a big fan of Extreme Home Makeover!? She keeps cracking us up with her funny antics and is soooo determined to get whatever it is she has on her mind.

Ethan is really into spelling words. He loves to ask us what words (especially animals) start with. He usually knows some simple words if we spell them out for him (hot, cold, snow, truck) but the other day I asked him, "What does T-R-U-C-K spell?" and he replied, very seriously, "diapers!" So . . . of course Trav and I cracked up and he said everything spelled "diapers" for awhile . . .very funny. Also, he has asked to go on the potty a few times recently. Might we be seeing a glimmer of hope in the are of potty training? One can only hope.

St. Nick's Day!

St. Nicholas came and filled our stockings last night!
Macie is getting acquainted with her new kitty.

Ethan's ABCs

A couple clarifications:
1.) For "I" he says, "lizzard." He's thinking of Iguana. Ooops.
2.) For "W" he says, "fish." Not sure where that came from. Ooops.
3.) A couple that are hard to understand: "N" is for "newt" and "U" is for "unicorn."

Macie learned how to walk using her little lion push toy this week.
"Look out, big brother! Here I come!"

Well, the results of the pole indicated that our readers think Macie and Ethan look as much alike as any other set of siblings out there. Kind of anti-climactic. Sorry :) It's funny- Most people have a very strong opinion that Ethan looks EXACTLY like either dad or mom. I think the consensus is that Macie looks like daddy.

We are heading to Target on Sat. AM to get pics taken for Christmas cards. Should be interesting. Wish us luck. I'll consider it a success if we get ONE decent picture of both of them that is Christmas-card-worthy. I feel sorry for our poor photographer. We always request her and she probably dreads seeing my face come in to make an appointment, and even more so dreads the day my two little monkeys come in for pics!