4 Years of Ethan

Last weekend was Ethan's 4th birthday, and it's hard to believe how fast 4 years has flown by. My firstborn has changed my life probably more dramatically than anything else ever has... It's been so fun to watch his passions shift from sports to superheroes to Star Wars, his artistic talent grown, and his imagination run wild. He's guarded around new people and new situations, but he's super loyal and loves new experiences with a little prodding. He's not overly affectionate, but when he is, you know he means it! Oh, and he's a total sucker for blonds. I have watched in complete amazement my little, reserved son go completely goofy the minute he sees a cute blond girl. At one point he was even running in circles hitting himself on the head. Not something this mom is ready for! I'm so excited to see him continue to develop and see how the Lord uses and molds his character.
To celebrate Ethan's birthday, we kicked off the day with his choice of breakfast: biscuits and bacon. We then had family come for lunch. He requested everything-bagels with cream cheese and turkey, and salt and vinegar chips for lunch. (he's definitely my kid!) He had a blast playing with his grandparents and cousins before his party...
Since his 3 year birthday party was canceled due to the flu, we decided to "do it big" and have a super hero party at Jump Zone. It was hilarious watching three Spidermen walk in the door together and have no clue who the kid was underneath! I think all the kids had fun running around, and Ethan definitely enjoyed all his friends and family in one place showering him with gifts. I think we all left completely wiped out but with lots of good memories. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a special day!

January

It's been a fast and interesting month so far... With the cold weather, we've more time indoors than we normally do. It's been really good for me to get stuff done around the house, and the boys have really seemed to enjoy playing together. Well, most of the time!

We had an exciting first of the month as Ethan went to the ER for the first time. He was standing on a toilet to reach the sink when he fell and hit his head. He was with a sitter, so we weren't for sure how bad it was, but that night he woke up throwing up. His eyes were fine, and to confuse the matter, Owen had thrown up two days prior due to a stomach bug. He was fine the next morning, but I still called our pediatrician who asked us to go to the ER to have him checked out. So, we spent 3 hours as a family at the local hospital. Ethan thought it was great...he got to eat food from a vending machine, watch tv and hang out with his dad. The ER is a pretty cool place in his mind! After he was checked out, the results were "inconclusive"... And just yesterday, I was sure Owen was going to head to the ER for stitches. He and Ethan after playing in the snow were hugging each other by the door while I was grabbing the last of the toys outside. The hug turned into a tackle, and Ethan fell on his back with Owen on top. Owen's face hit a paint can and blood was EVERYWHERE. I know that head wounds bleed worse than they are, but it's a different story when your baby is bleeding all over the place. Luckily, our favorite nurse/next door neighbor was home and checked him out. No stitches were needed, and he now looks like Rocky. I am so not ready for more "boy" accidents that I know are coming in the future...
We've had a lot of sword fights around here this month too. Ethan's latest obsession is Star Wars, so he dresses up as Luke and Owen is Yoda. Other than sword fighting, Owen's passion is cooking again. He does not play with any toys...just my entire kitchen. He will get every pot, pan, lid, spatula, bowl, etc and make biscuits, burgers or smoothies. (those are his specialties) It drove me crazy to have everything spread out all over the floor, but since it makes him so happy, I have given up the battle!
We've also enjoyed the snow that showed up this week. I've decided it's A LOT of working making snow play happen, but I guess those 10 minutes of happiness are worth it! Owen was not a fan of stuff at first, but once he saw that you could eat it, he was content sitting and eating snow. Ethan had no qualms about it; he jumped right into the first pile and made a snow angel. It was also very entertaining watching the neighborhood kids have a snow ball fight.

Christmas Part 2...finally....

Nothing like almost a month after Christmas getting pictures posted! I think the first phase of nesting has hit me b/c I've been in a frenzy working around the house rather than doing things at the computer!
We headed down to Mulberry to celebrate Christmas with Greg and Kerri on the night of the 23rd. Kerri always has an amazing spread of food and a fun game of "white elephant" to play. Owen was more excited to hold the kitty than anything else. Christmas Eve was pretty low key... Paw Paw worked all afternoon on a fabulous dinner, and we enjoyed family over for games.
Christmas day was spent with Chris' mom. Things were a little different since Nanny wasn't with us this year, but we still had a great time eating wonderful food, playing Bingo and opening gifts.

We went to Stillwater the following weekend to celebrate a late Christmas with my family. The flu bug hit Jon and Katie's family this time (we had it Thanksgiving), so it was a really short trip. But we still managed to see everyone and enjoy the time together. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it!

Christmas Part 1

We celebrated four different times for Christmas, so it's taking awhile to get all the pictures from different cameras into one place. (pictures from the grandparents to come...) We kicked off the holiday with our family of four on the night of the 22nd... We had the grand plan of getting the boys in the matching "Christmas pajamas", making hot chocolate for us all, and driving around looking at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. The idea was a little better in our heads...the boys thought the hot chocolate was too hot and we heard about it the whole time while we were in the car. Owen couldn't get enough of Frosty the Snowman; every time we'd see one he'd start asking for more. I think by the end of the ride he was screaming "FROSTY" at the top of his lungs over and over. And Ethan was "bored" (I hate that word!) 10 minutes into our drive. It's up for debate if we'll ever do that again... The next morning went exceedingly better. The boys were so excited to see their gifts, and they loved everything they got. Ethan's favorite gift was not the Leapster video game that I was just sure he'd love though...his favorite was his Batman sticker book. Note to self... Owen, of course, loved all his Yoda stuff, but his car was the big hit. The morning took a Star Wars theme (much to Chris' delight)... It was really fun this year having both boys involved in opening gifts and helping make our traditions more memorable. It's hard to believe next year there will be another little personality in the mix!

21 and 22 Months

Poor Owen is getting months lumped together...I cannot imagine how it will look with Kid #3! Six months at a time?!

It's been a fun and somewhat challenging last two months with my beloved 2nd born. His vocabulary is expanding like crazy, and it's hilarious the words he's saying. My favorite being "Wuv woo!" when he's pretending to leave for work. Not so favorite is "Fight. Die!" I can't imagine where he's picked that one up. He's still very affectionate and I love cuddling with him after naps. He's really started exerting his will, and he's proving to be even more opinionated and stubborn than his big brother. We're convinced that once these traits are channeled in the right direction, they'll be strengths...right??! Some funny quirks of his:

- He LOVES carrying around his soon-to-be little sister's dress...he doesn't try to wear it (thankfully), he just wants to "hold it". I keep putting it back in the closet, but he knows where to find it and is not happy till it's in his hands.
- He now has a strong opinion on what shoes he wears. Rather than wear any of the new shoes I bought him, he wants to wear Ethan's old Nike tennis shoes. He calls them "Runnin' shoes".
- He's really become attached to Frosty the Snowman. He is constantly asking for the Frosty song to be played, and tears ensue when when it doesn't come on.
- He loves to dress up - just not as super heroes. Currently being a frog is his favorite.
- He likes to tell people to "COME!". When he's on the phone with my mom or dad, he'll very adamantly say, "Papi/Mimi, COME!". He can't understand why they don't suddenly show up at our door!
- He's constantly spanking his bunny rabbit and telling it to obey. Hmmm...

We're approaching 2 years old, and it's been so fun watching Owen become his own little person! I'm so thankful for my Owen Christopher!

December thus far...

It's been a busy month so far with parties and all the fun festivities that come with December. The boys kicked the month off with making a gingerbread train. It was a good exercise in self restraint for me letting them do all the work...my Type A personality started to show very quickly!
We also went to the annual Downtown Parade with our friends, the Crawfords and Miss Pattie. In spite of the FREEZING weather, the boys enjoyed watching the floats go by and getting candy thrown at them. Owen was pretty much done with the parade and his puffy jacket the minute we got there, but he managed to stay in one piece for the whole thing...
My mom came in town and watched the boys for us while Chris and I went to his Christmas party... I decided the beauty of being pregnant during Christmas parties is that I don't have to worry about "sucking in" while wearing a dress, but all in all, I'd much rather be wearing pajama pants!

This past Monday we had a "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party, and I have to say I was so very impressed with my amazing momma friends! It started out as a simple kid's Christmas party and it quickly evolved into a serious extravaganza!!! We have four "stations" of activities, a birthday cake for Jesus, food provided by the wonderful Miss Pattie, a Veggie Tale Christmas cartoon, and a gift exchange...
My friend Kari and I manned the cookie decorating table. I'm pretty sure more candy and icing went into mouths than did on the cookies, but the kids didn't seem to care! My favorite was watching Chaucer lick the table clean.
Two other moms worked the ornament making table, and all the kids had adorable ornaments to hang out the tree when they got home.
The third station was music and the story of Jesus' birth... I didn't get to hear much of the singing, but what I did hear was pretty cute. And the fourth station, of which I didn't get pictures, was a gift/box stacking game. I think the knocking down of the gifts was the best part.
After a wonderful lunch, we sang Jesus happy birthday, and the kids enjoyed some more sugar. We then opened gifts from the kids that drew each others names. All the kids seemed to love what they were given, and they were hilarious watching them show their friends their new toys.
I have to say that we are so very blessed to have such good friends. I could not survive momma-hood with the women that put this event on, and I am so glad that the boys are seeing what true friendship looks like at such an early age. We all joked that we're going to have to rent a place out next year because none of us have a place big enough to host the expanding group!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving went a little different that we'd planned this year. It all started the Friday BEFORE when Ethan woke up in middle of the night throwing up... Of course my parents were in town (this is the FOURTH time we've been with them at the start of a stomach bug...) As Ethan started to recover, Owen got it and was throwing up by Monday morning. Chris wrapped it up by getting sick Wednesday morning. It's the total grace of God I didn't get sick b/c I was immersed in bodily fluids for almost a week. (gross, I know) We didn't want to get my family sick, so we decided to enforce a self imposed quarantine till Friday morning. I was really sad knowing my whole family was together for Thanksgiving without us, but we made the best of it. Ethan watched all of the Thanksgiving Day Parade while Chris and Owen put up the Christmas tree. We had a turkey lunch at Mimi's Cafe (quite ironic since we were supposed to eat at the REAL Mimi's house!), and we were all in bed by 8 that night!
I was determined to see my family if even for a little bit, so we were out the door by 7:15 Friday morning heading to Stillwater. We managed to get about 30 minutes with Josh and Caylee before they had to head back to St Louis, and we even got a family picture to document our brief time together!
We managed to get several activities all crammed into Friday and Saturday. Papi helped the boys cut rifles out of wood, he took all the grandkids went out for donuts, and (Owen's favorite) they all went for a lawnmower around the yard.
Mimi of course had tons of great food, loved on us all, managed to get the Christmas tree put up in spite of the "help" from the grandkids, and took Katie and I for coffee and shopping.

Even though things turned out differently than planned, I was still thankful for such a fun, memorable time with the family. We are so incredibly blessed!

It's a Girl! We're pretty sure...

We had another ultrasound this past Friday, thanks to our favorite Dr Karns, and we basically got the same results as the week before. Sigh. I really wouldn't be concerned if I didn't know two people who had multiple ultrasounds and ended up having a baby of the opposite gender! I've been practicing saying, "We're having a girl", and I have received my first two girl clothing items. I even bought a cute dress online last night when I was ordering a gift for my new niece. So, I am taking baby steps into "pink waters" and praying that I really get to use the cute clothes and girly nursery! Since I cleaned out Owen's closet and moved him into Ethan's room, the nursery is really looking empty. The two lone girl items are just the beginning of some fun shopping!

Just like Daddy

Yesterday Chris' dad brought us a TON of Chris' clothes, toys, and memorabilia from when he was growing up. We've had a lot of fun going through it all and coming across some very exciting finds. Chris was thrilled beyond belief to find his missing box of baseball and basketball cards, while I was excited to get some very vintage clothes for the boys! There were some really fun shirts and jeans that looked like a lot of the clothes that are in style now. We had fun dressing up this morning seeing what would fit... Amazingly, I think Chris was skinnier than the boys are!

Bunkbeds!

I had truly expected this post to be much more entertaining...or to at least have a good story or two...but amazingly enough, it's been pretty uneventful around here with two boys sharing a bed room! We got the bunk beds a few weeks ago and went back and forth on when we were going to transition Owen from his crib to Ethan's room. We tried him in the bunk once, and he was totally for it until the light went off. Tears ensued along with cries of, "No bunk beds. Crib!". Last weekend, though, I got some sort of nesting bug and moved all of Owen's clothes over to Ethan's closet. I guess Owen decided that he needed to move too. He grabbed his plug, blanket, and animals, and climbed up on his bed. He hasn't gone back to the crib since. I was SO nervous that they would wake each other up. I hardly slept the first night listening for Ethan to yell out he had to go potty or something. But like my other friends had told me, they can sleep through anything! Owen has since thrown up in the middle of the night, Ethan has had nightmares, and the other one hasn't moved. Needless to say, I have been very encouraged. It's still a little weird walking by an empty nursery. I almost got a little sad the other night, but then I remembered that we will be filling it up in about three and a half months, and I wasn't sad anymore. Just thankful for a full night's rest!

Silver Dollar City 2010

We took our traditional family trip to SDC last weekend to see the Christmas lights and do some Christmas shopping. The weather could not have been nicer on Friday when we went to the park. (last year it was barely 30 degrees...this year is was a balmy 75)
Ethan is finally tall enough to ride the kid rides; unfortunately, Owen is not, and he was not happy about it. Chris and Ethan went on a few rides while Owen and I waited.
We spent most of our time in the "tree house" area where the boys climbed, went down slides, and play in the ball area. I kept wishing we had something like that closer to our house...we'd have a good nap time everyday!
We also took the traditional Christmas train ride and heard the Christmas story. Owen was so excited about the "choo choo". We stayed long enough to eat dinner, drink some wassail and catch the parade with the Christmas tree lighting. The boys were more than exhausted at that point...Owen was asleep before we left the parking lot!

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast with our buddies, the Harris', and then we all went for a swim in the indoor pool. We attempted the outlet mall briefly, but it was INSANE. All in all, it was the perfect little family trip!

It's a...

...a healthy baby! Yes, that's right, we still do not know the gender of Baby #3. We had our ultrasound this past Friday, complete with grandparents in attendance, but this baby decided to be either shy or stubborn (or both). As we kept looking for some clear indicators, I kept thinking, "This has to be a girl. She's already giving me grief!". The doctor worked for about 30 minutes trying to get a clear shot, and from what we could see there were no "boy parts"...but there were no super clear "girl parts" either. We were told we could go out and start buying pink things but to leave the tags on. Not the answer I was looking for! Thankfully, our dear friend Dr Karns has agreed to do an ultrasound this coming week when we're in Stillwater for Thanksgiving. Hopefully then Baby will be a little more cooperative. I seriously have some shopping to do if this is a girl!

Even though we didn't find out the gender as soon as we'd planned, we do feel VERY blessed to have a healthy baby. It is truly a miracle that I am able to grow life inside of me, and it never gets old seeing that baby move around in there. We found out that baby measured exactly one day off from my expected due date, which was encouraging, and we told the doctor that we were planning on doing a home birth if he didn't see any "red flags". He was able to give us the go ahead saying he saw absolutely nothing to be concerned about. So, Lord willing, we're going to move forward meeting with our midwife, Jennifer, and meeting this little one around the first of April!

Fall, Fun, and Friends

It's that time of year again when our trees dump loads and loads of leaves into our backyard. In the past it's just been a pain, but as the boys are getting older, seeing them get so excited to jump in piles of leaves has given me a little more incentive to rake them up. Last week the boys and I spent a full morning outside raking (done by me) and jumping (done by them). It was so fun watching them take such joy obliterating my piles that it made the blisters worth it! (yes, blisters...I am a city girl.)
Later that afternoon we had our buddies, the Crawford boys, over to enjoy the leaf jumping. Owen and Sawyer could have cared less when they saw pop corn for snacks. It was so cute watching them eat and interact together. I think we may have another set of buds forming.

19 and 20 months...

Oh, my sweet little Owen is growing up! It seems like lately when I look at him, he's less and less my little baby and is becoming a little boy. I know that's really going to be the case when Baby #3 gets here...

He's still my little cuddle bug...he loves to give hugs and make an "awwww" sound when he does it. Every night he asks to "rock" before I put him in his bed, so I happily oblige. (I'm really not used to having a kid that likes cuddling!) He's more of a "momma's boy" than his big brother ever was, but as he's getting older I see him really enjoying rough housing and playing with Chris more and more. He and Chris have bonded over Yoda from Star Wars. After Owen got over being scared of Chris dressed up as Yoda for Halloween, he's started requesting to watch Yoda on YouTube with Chris. Owen's impersonation of Yoda is hilarious.

Owen's little personality is definitely developing more and more. He's really laid back when he's laid back...and then when he's unhappy, he's really unhappy. I have watched in shock as he's thrown some of the biggest fits I have seen! In fact, I ended up on the phone with my mom yesterday asking what in the world do I do with him!!! But when he is happy, he's hilarious. He's really into dancing and singing (very loudly). He still loves lawn mowers and weed eaters. He's really gotten into praying at dinner or when he's in trouble (very convenient). His meal time prayers consists of him saying "Paw Paw", "Papi" and "Daddy" over and over again. Those guys are definitely covered in prayer every day. And my favorite "new thing" is him singing and talking to the baby my belly. He's quite sweet - giving it hugs, kisses, and talking sweetly. I pray that continues when the baby is out in the world...

Halloween Weekend

We celebrated Halloween over several days this past weekend. It was kicked off by a party at Chris' work where the boys broke in their Batman costumes. Then on Saturday Grandma Debbie and Lynn came in town to help us celebrate some more. The boys enjoyed getting spoiled with some fun gifts and candy, and of course getting some quality time with them. Saturday night we went to a park near our house where a church was putting on a Halloween event. The boys were able to walk around in their costumes, get a little candy, play a few games, and still get home for a relatively early bedtime. Both boys were Batman that night, and they were amazed at how many other Batman there were around!
Sunday afternoon we had a neighborhood party in our driveway complete with friends, wonderful food, games, and a bounce house. Ethan started out as Batman but ended up as Ironman (and I think was Superman at one point in there...). Owen started out dressed as our neighbor, Bob, complete with khaki shorts, plain t-shirt, yellow hat and a lawn mower (all-Bob uniform). As the night got cooler, though, Owen reverted back to Batman with more layers. I was Bat Momma, and Chris was Yoda - till he made Owen and two other neighbor kids cry.
We closed the night off by some trick or treating all the way to the downtown square where another church had some festivities planned. At that point, all the kids (and parents) were pretty wiped out and ready to wrap up Halloween 2010. As my mom likes to say, "We made some memories!" Now on to Thanksgiving!

Homecoming 2010

We made a quick trip to Stillwater last weekend for OSU's Homecoming. Half of the family that had planned on coming didn't end up making the trip, sadly, but we thoroughly enjoyed the family that did make it. Friday night the boys got to experience "walk arounds" (looking at all the house decs done by the fraternities and sororities). I was able to see a few dear friends in the middle of all the chaos, which was a fun surprise, and the weather ended up being perfect. OSU may not hold the football game excitement as say another Oklahoma school might, but at least maybe the boys seeing one of the largest homecomings in the US might entice them a bit..
The following day, after the traditional guy's donut breakfast, we went to tailgate with the Stow side of the family. Owen was in heaven with hot dogs for lunch, and Ethan loved playing with cousin Hillary. We didn't make it to the game, but we listened to the heart breaker on the radio driving home. There's always next year, right?!

How to Train Your Dragon Party

Our neighbors, the Crawfords, had an impromptu How to Train Your Dragon watch party two weeks ago- complete with "dragon eggs" (green dyed eggs), "dragon claws" (Bugels), and a few other dragon type foods. Of course the kids LOVED it, and Owen even makes a nice dragon sound now as he crawls around on all fours. We were a little concerned how the two little girls would take the movie since they've never seen any movie with fire/fighting and have been pretty much immersed the world of princesses, but it turns out that Gracie is the biggest Toothless the Dragon fan of all. She's traded in her princess dresses and runs around making dragon noises and pretending to blow fire. I hope her parents don't think we're being a bad influences...

Brothers

The boys are starting to play more and more together, and I LOVE it. Of course they fight...I have watched Owen head butt and punch Ethan recently, and it took everything I had not to laugh. We are working on resolving conflict; some days it works better than others. I pray that they're good friends as they grow up...

Catching up

I've done a horrible job of carrying my camera around with me lately (just getting me and the boys out the door has proven to be enough work), but thankfully I've captured some moments with my phone camera. It's been a fun beginning to fall as we have spent as much time outdoors as possible. Ethan has enjoyed exploring with his friend, Kate. (she always manages to get to the really crazy places Ethan can never reach!) We've spent lots of time in front of our house playing with neighbors, and we've met a new addition to our playgroup, Baby Timmy, as well as telling goodbye to one of the original members of the group, Davy (he moved...the millions of kids on top of the rock was at his going away party).
This past weekend was also a lot of fun as we spend Saturday in Mulberry. We got to see Chris' mom briefly, and sadly I didn't get any pictures. I did manage ONE picture at Chris' dad's of Owen watching the OU football game. I missed the 4-wheeler ride that Owen hasn't stopped talking about, and the good food and time with cousins... We also hit a pumpkin patch on Sunday with our friends, and we all had a blast picking pumpkins out, taking a hayride, and playing in hay mounds. Luckily, I am going to steal some pictures that the other families took.

Batman

Since I am not a scrap-booker, and this has turned into my sort of digital scrap book, you'll have to bear with me as I brag on Ethan. He's started becoming interested in drawing again (much to my delight). Of course he's only wanting to draw super heroes, but hey, it's drawing! This is the Batman he drew on our back porch yesterday. If you'll notice, it's complete with Batman's utility belt (a very key part of Batman's defense).