A New Post!

Whew. I made it back to the blog before 2 months have passed. I hate that I was not able to update for a while, but I'm hoping that now that I am done with my second job (well, almost), I will have more time, at least until the baby comes! There is always plenty of material to blog about, which is part of the problem. Ethan says and does funny things daily, but I just cannot always find the time or energy to record them. One day soon, I want to write down all the goofy things Ethan says and make that a blog post. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's what we've been up to, besides what is shown in pictures. We had a very nice Thanksgiving celebrated over two days. We didn't take pictures at either side's celebration, but, trust me, it was all lovely. We had a lot to be thankful for this year, as always. A week after Thanksgiving, we travelled to see Will's Grandbob near Indianapolis. We spent the night, sadly sleepless, in a gorgeous guest apartment where Grandbob lives. Ethan swam in the pool, enjoyed riding the elevator over and over, and behaved well at a big family dinner with Will's grandfather, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We left the second night after dinner to go home and get some sleep! Now, here we are getting ready for Christmas. I'm really doing well with my Christmas shopping and have very little left to get. I've even wrapped quite a bit. Will is home from school next week, and I didn't want to have to spend that time with shopping/wrapping. We plan to do some fun family things like maybe a museum or trip to the zoo.

That's all for now. We've been in the house for 3 days straight as Ethan battles his second bought with croup in about a month. I love my playgroup but it seems the only thing the kids share are their germs!

And here's a picture tour of our pre-Thanksgiving whereabouts:

Taken on a rare day with his bed made, here is a picture of Ethan's "new" room.

Same bed, different view.

Bookshelf number 1
#2 This is our Dinner Club, a group of great friends from high school/college. We get together every 3 months for dinner all together.
Three of the four ladies are pregnant, due between early February and mid-March. We did not plan this!

These next pictures come from a photo shoot with my friend Anna. She is a teacher at LT but also has a side photography business. She is kind enough to take our pictures, free of charge, which has been amazing when it comes time for Ethan's photo. He does so much better for her than a stranger at Target! None of these made it to our Christmas card, so I thought I could share them.

My absolute favorite!

Family pic on the porch.

He had such great smiles this day.

FYI: Anna's website is www.annamariesphotography.com for those interested. Ethan's picture, from a previous shoot, is featured on the site.

This is from a day when Ethan's congested nose was stopping him from a nap. Finally, I put him on the couch with me and popped in Frosty the Snowman. He fell asleep shortly thereafter.

Stretching with Dadda.
A new favorite, Ethan and his vacuum. This session allowed me to start dinner!

Ethan enjoying our first snow.

This snowsuit belonged to Will when he was Ethan's age. His parents kept it and gave it to us this year. Very cute, but not as warm as his newer one. Couldn't resist getting some pictures of him in it. Here, he is eating snow, which is pretty much what he did our whole time outside while I shovelled the driveway.

My kitchen helper. We made gravy (meat sauce) for Will's birthday dinner. Ethan insists on holding the top since he has watched me do that.
On Friday, December 11, my side of the family came over to celebrate Will's birthday. My mom made this garbage can cake (too cute) that said Reduce, Reuse, Recycle on it.

The next night, Will's side came over (curse of a small house is that having everyone together would have been too crowded). We had a big dinner of baked manicotti, meatballs, sausage, Ceasar salad, and yummy appetizers. My mouth is watering thinking about it!