Christmas 2010

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas full of relaxing, eating, family and lots and lots of presents, for Ethan of course. It was just Chris, Ethan and I on Christmas Eve and it was so nice. We went to the Christmas Eve service at church, had dinner at Olive Garden then came home to watch Polar Express before putting cookies and a carrot out for Santa and his reindeer.

Then Christmas morning came ... we were not sure if Ethan was going to run right by his presents from Santa or see them before coming to our room. He did the first. I think he doesn't quite realize that Santa brings presents and leaves them. He thought Santa was going to actually be in the living room waiting on him. It was dark while he tip toed out into the living room while saying "Santa ... are you there?" We were laughing and telling him that Santa was here last night and left him presents. Once the lights were flipped on he flipped out!

He got a race car track, just like he asked for ...

... Toy Story 3 and a Woody doll that knows when his hat falls off... Ethan got a kick out of that ...

... a stocking full of Smarties, which he LOVES, more DVD's and drum sticks ...

... and Lego Duplo's from mom and dad!

That's one happy boy!

Then after family came later that afternoon, we sung Happy Birthday to him while he got to eat a yummy birthday cupcake! I can't believe our little munchkin is 3 years old!!

He certainly got some lovin' from Aunt Liv

Even PawPaw loved Woody

Then we headed upstairs for some silly time watching Ethan dance to "Stuck Like Glue" and sing "Muffin Man" on the guitar.

More presents from the family!

10 Things I Learned This Week

1. When life gets busy, it's hard to make the time to blog. I apologize.
2. I sure do love the holidays but boy am I glad when they are over! I see people on FB posting that they are depressed to take down the Christmas decorations. I"m like "BRING IT ON!"
3. The woes of third trimester are settling in early. I've had a few bouts of heartburn at night and my feet and hands are starting to feel tingly and swollen too. Great! I had no swelling with Ethan so I was lucky in that department, so I'm trying to drink LOTS of water and not eat so much salt but that's easier said than done.
4. I found a recipe for Olive Garden's Chicken Scampi and made it tonight. It was awesome and it is going down in the cookbook of dinners to make again and again! Yum! All I need now is some OG salad and bread sticks.
5. I am itching to scrapbook all these adorable pictures we captured from Christmas and the day after snowfall. I need a scrap night ASAP!
6. I don't like making New Year's resolutions.
7. I've been having bad dreams a lot lately of me gaining a whole mess of weight during this pregnancy. I even had a bad dream last night that the doctor had a little discussion with me that I was gaining too much weight! Ahhh! I've only gained 11 pounds to date which doesn't sound like a lot but to me I look like I've gained so much more.
8. I'm excited to get started on the nursery. It's going to be different and alot of fun!
9. I have a prayer request - Ethan has been blinking a lot recently, off and on, but more so the past two weeks. It's more when he's watching TV or reading a book and it's a hard blink like he's trying to refocus. I watch him all the time with different activities and he doesn't do it while playing or riding in the car or anything else, but just when it comes to things that are close up. I've made an appointment for his 3 year check up with the pediatrician next Wednesday as well as a pediatric optometrist for January 31st. This particular doctor is part of Charlotte Ear Nose and Throat and apparently books out 2 to 3 months in advance. Since Ethan is an "established" patient from his ear infection days, we were able to get in for that date. A week after I made the appointment, I got a letter in the mail telling me of things to prepare for the appointment. Like to plan for a 2 1/2 to 3 hour appointment and that they will dilate his eyes. Great! This is going to be loads of fun! I'm gonna need a Valium for this kid. Of course it is natural for a mom to worry, and me being a world class worry wart doesn't help at all. Please pray for these appointments to go well and that if there is a problem that it's easily resolved and won't require anything extensive. Pray for me to have a peace about it and for the appointment to go smoothly as well.
10. I also have another prayer request - our follow up ultrasound for baby #2 is next Tuesday, January 4th. I really have felt at peace and felt God with me since we've received the news. Some days I just plain forget about it. Just pray that this cyst has resolved and that we will find a 100% healthy baby boy in there.

Cookies With Mama

Last weekend Ethan and I made Christmas cookies .... and had a blast! I attempted this last year with a disaster at hand. He wasn't into it and I was left cleaning up a huge mess. This year, I had the dough already premade and ready to go. To get the ball rolling, I showed him we needed to put flour on the surface. Then I dabbed him on the nose with the flour. He got such a kick out of that, he decided to shower me with flour.

We just giggled and had a good time. I then showed him how to roll the dough out and then cut it with the cookie cutters. He was really focused and had a good time doing it.

As much as he loves sprinkles, he wanted to put the sprinkes on before they were cooked. That was fine - it was his show and I was just observing!

We then put the cookies in the oven and every now and then he'd come to check on them.

After they cooled we then decorated them with chocolate icing and TONS of sprinkles (which you will see on my Christmas post). We had a great time!

Ethan's 3rd Birthday Party

We had Ethan's 3 year old birthday party two weeks ago on December 11th just to separate the whole birthday on Christmas day thing. He had an absolute blast! Seeing that he has a winter birthday, I knew I had to do something indoors. Bummer. I really wanted to have it at a petting zoo or farm but it's just too cold. Anyways - we had it at Thomas Gymnastics in Rock Hill. It was for an hour and a half and basically the kids had free reign to run from the foam pit to a blow up whale named Winston to the trampolines. There were about four kids from his class at school as well as some good friends with their kids, ranging in ages 3 months to 4 years old. I think Ethan had a good time as did even the grown ups!

First things first ... time to play!

Then it was time for some cake and goodies ...

The baby bump at 24 weeks - even baby brother joined in on the fun!

Of course we had to make time for some family pics...

The day winded down with opening of presents at home - this was his one of his favorites by far! "Rock out dude" - is what he said as he serenaded us with Muffin Man. Silly little man!