It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We have been getting in the mood for Christmas this last week.

We made sugar cookies. Ethan and I have so much fun baking together. He loved cutting out tiny mitten, boot, and tree shaped cookies.

Watched A Christmas Story. Bob loves this movie...I lost my best cookie maker to watching it this year.


Shoveled snow. I'm not sure how much help Ethan is, but he loves to go out and play in the snow while Bob shovels.


Visited Santa. Ethan was still a little nervous this year, but warmed up to the Jolly Old Fellow and told him exactly what he wanted for Christmas. It may have helped that Santa was at Cabela's...one of Ethan's favorite places to visit.


And dressed for the occasion. I made Avery a new Christmas dress. I think she's a real cutie!


We also shopped, shopped, shopped...if this doesn't get us in the mood nothing will!

Our MVP Turns 3!

Ethan had a great birthday week...the finale was the party with family and friends this weekend. We were excited to welcome 32 family and friends over to see our new house and celebrate Ethan's birthday. We were so happy to have the room to gather in...what a blessing it is to be in our new home.

Ethan loves baseball so naturally that was the theme for our party. We decorated with lots of baseball stuff, had baseball cupcakes, baseball party favors, concession style foods and a few baseball gifts along with many other wonderful presents.

This is one lucky kid...

A big glove, batting gloves and a helmet!
Finally, he's been waiting so long!





A real baseball hat, just like Dad's.





A drill set, much like Dad's.






A great big gun, like Nathan has.








Another Handy Manny Fix It Right Project to build...Why use the tiny screwdriver it came with when you have a power tool? What a guy!



These are just a few of the fabulous things Ethan received. Thanks everyone for making his birthday so great!!!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Wow, where did the time go? Our little guy turned 3. He's grown up so much in the last month. He has the best personality. It's fun to see what makes him laugh, what he learns by observing and to hear of his grand plans. He loves being a big brother, watching TV and movies, baseball, airplanes, tools and helping mom and dad.

Ethan got to open a few gifts and was thrilled with the Handy Manny stuff Aunt Emily, Aunt Nancy and kids sent.
He loves to play with his tools and pretend to fix things. I was amazed to watch him work for about a half hour building the little race car by himself before asking for help. What a grown up boy!



Ethan and I had so much fun building the race car. He's a very handy guy!



We had our friends come over for a special lunch (Sponge Bob Soup, Ethan's Choice) and cupcakes. We've missed seeing our buddies every day and are so glad they came to celebrate with us.

The kids loved playing together and even tried out the back yard a little. It makes a great T-ball field!

For dinner we had another special meal-hot dogs (again Ethan's choice, Bob and I had a hamburger) and a few more presents. Avery gave Ethan a game. One day they will have a ball playing it together!

Bob and I gave Ethan part of his gift tonight...his very own baseball shirt and pants. He looks so cute in them! They will be perfect for the party!





Ethan loved all the phone calls and birthday wishes. He was very gracious and is excited to have people over for his party...he was a little disappointed it was just the 4 of us singing Happy Birthday when he blew out the candles. The kid loves a good party!

Happy Birthday Ethan! We love you!!!

On The Move

Thanksgiving is a wonderful day...to move!
Yep, we loaded up the Uhaul on Wednesday afternoon and unloaded it Thursday morning...We had a great crew of helpers. Mary and her 4 kids were amazing, they saved us so many trips in and out of the moving van! Thanks to Bob's brothers I didn't have to try to move any of the heavy stuff!

We started by loading up our storage unit... Avery didn't want to be left out of the fun so I bundled her up and let her watch each trip in and out of the truck!


Ethan was so happy to be reunited with some of his toys. He rode his bike in, out and around the truck while we loaded up the other things.

Unfortunately, the moving van broke down in front of our old apartment so we had to unload everything we had just loaded and move it to a new truck...we were so grateful it was only the storage unit stuff! After loading up all of our belongings we ran to the annual Pie Party. It was loads of fun to spend time with family and then drive 5 minutes home.

We spent Wednesday night in our new house...on the floor! We were going to have a slumber party in the master bedroom, but Ethan wanted to sleep in his own room so he and Avery slept in one room and Bob and I in the other.
Thursday morning we had lots of help unloading. We were amazed at all we had crammed into our little apartment. We are all very excited to have more room!

We are grateful for family and the big help they were in the move and for the fact that we had a fabulous Thanksgiving feast without having to cook a thing!

Thanks to Amy, Bekah and Ava the old apartment is empty and clean...good bye Cracker Jack Box...you were a good home!

Progress

It has taken lots of hours and lots of helpers, but our new house is ready to move in to and our old house is packed and ready to be hauled out in the morning...Thanks to all our family and friends who have helped us and will help us...Many hands make light work (or lighter work at least)!

New locks on the front door.


Ethan's favorite job-painting.


Avery even gets in on the work.


All packed up!


Hip Hooray for Moving Day!

Mayhem

What on Earth would inspire our little family to live like this for over a week?

Well, how about this!
After a year and a half search and looking at hundreds of houses we are the proud owners of this one. We are thrilled! There's a lot to be packed and cleaned, but we'll spend the night before Thanksgiving in our new home.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

It was one of the hardest things he's ever done, but Ethan kept Bob's birthday gift a secret! I waited until Thursday to take him shopping, he only had to wait a couple days, but he really wanted to spill the beans a few times. With gentle reminders we made it all the way to the big reveal!

Ethan was thrilled to pick out and give Daddy a train car to add to his collection. Ethan loved the hobby shop...tons of trains in boxes and on display...He loved the running circus train. So did Avery, she was crying until the shop owner turned the engine and music on.

We had a few days of celebration for Bob this year. He and I went out to eat...without kids! It was really nice to have a little time to eat and peacefully talk about life...then we were off to Cousins' house to watch UP with them. It was great! Ethan had seen it in the theater and remembered lots of fun parts he liked!

On Saturday we had our little family party which turned out to be just a few games on the Wii. We were too cold from the snow for the delicious Hot Fudge Sundaes we had planned!

Finally on Sunday we had a huge party at Bob's parent's house. All 25 of us were there. It was super. We had dinner, cake and ice cream, then presents. Ethan helped Bob unwrap the train car and added a new drill to HIS birthday wish list...Daddy's drill looked way too fun not to have one.

We hope you had a great birthday Daddy! We love you!