Toys Toys Toys

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone. I finally got around to posting some pictures of our Christmas: Part 1. Since Will's parents and sister were out of town at Christmas this year, we were with my family only on the 24th and 25th. Tomorrow, New Year's Day, we celebrate with Will's family. It is kind of nice because Christmas went so quickly but I thought, Well, we still have another celebration to look forward to. It was definitely fun this year now that Ethan's bigger and can enjoy his toys more. We didn't spoil him too much, but we did get him a few fun things. Here are some of the highlights:

This is Christmas Eve day when we gave Ethan our big item, a tool bench I found on Craigslist. We love that it is a recycled item, and it's in great shape. There is a power drill he especially likes.

This is the annual cousin picture that we started doing a few years ago. It's really amazing to look at it from year to year and see how we've grown and changed. I can't believe how grown up my young cousins are. Charlie is 15 today! They are all close, too, which is fun to see, and we have a lot of fun together.

Here was a cute scene where Ethan crawled up on the couch to sit next to Will.

Here is part of the family in Aunty Laura's living room while we did our present exchange.

More of the family...we can't really all fit in the one room, so many of us are spilled into the hallway and kitchen.

Lisa and family came over to my mom's Christmas morning to exchange gifts. Matthew's wearing the Santa outfit that Ben, Drew, and Ethan have all worn as well.

Ben and Drew pose with Aunt Malia (Moe) with their new Indiana Jones whips. I think Will and Brian wanted to play with them more than the kids.

Ethan plays with his Melissa and Doug tool kit.

Another shot with the tool kit. Hopefully, he'll be more like his Great Uncle Johnny the carpenter and less like his non-handy parents.

Will really wanted to get Ethan his front loader truck, which is pretty neat. There's a lever to pull that opens a door on the bottom for things to fall out.

One of his favorite gifts is his ball popper from Aunt Moe.

Here he is mastering the lever and filling his truck with the Mega Blocks from Aunt Lisa, Uncle Brian, and the boys.

He's so talented he can play with his eyes closed!

This was when we were getting Ethan ready for bed on Christmas day. I'm not sure if this is before or after he peed on the tile floor on the other side of the room, something we only discovered because he later slipped in his puddle...yikes!

Ethan has a new thing for trying on Will's boots. It's really funny.

Poor Ethan in his sled after most of the snow melted from the random 60 degree day. He doesn't understand that we can't pull him in it now. Will resorted to pulling him around in the grass yesterday because he wouldn't get out of the sled.

We caught Ethan reading to himself the other day, which we think is so adorable. He looks a bit confused here. Not a good sign since he's reading the book Praying to God.

I will post more pictures after our festivities tomorrow, I am sure, including a family picture, hopefully, since we forgot to take one on Christmas.

Happy New Year!!!