January 2013 - Here's to the beginnings of another great year!

On New Years Day since both Mike and I were home and not doing much of anything, we had the time to put Ethan's dinosaur decals on his bedroom walls.  They look pretty cool!

 

Although Ethan really loved his "guys" before, he plays with them pretty much constantly now.  He is really into pretend play and making them talk, fight, and go to jail.  Here he is doing his usual activity, lining everything up.

 

 They even participate in bath time!

This was one morning when my dad was over and helped him make his line up.  The funny part is if you look closely you will notice they are all facing the same direction.  My dad kept trying to trip him up and face one the "wrong" way when Ethan wasn't looking.  It took maybe a few seconds and Ethan would notice and turn it back around and yell at my dad for turning it the wrong way.  He sure is a detail oriented boy!

 Here are a few of our jails for the bad guys.

 Yet another jail, this one is "pillow jail."

 The boys continue to be buddies.  Ethan is Brady's favorite person to watch and Ethan loves helping and playing with Brady.  He even asks every night to give Brady a hug and a kiss goodnight and recently wants to snuggle with him too before bed.  I hope this continues...

 

Although I realize a lot happens every month when they are this little, January seemed like a huge month of achievements for Brady.  He found his voice, although it took a bit to figure out how to open his mouth to let it out.

 He is working on sitting all by himself!  It started more like folding in half but as the month progressed he got stronger and stronger!

 He continued to work on big smiles :)

 Found his tongue...

 Is learning to think tickles are kind of fun rather than annoying.

 

He still loves those little toes...

 

 He started eating food!  First we tried some oatmeal, which he surprisingly liked.

A few days later we tried out some sweet potatoes and a few days after that some pears.  He seemed to think the potatoes were just okay, but really liked the pears.  I think he liked rubbing the potatoes all over his face the best.

Lastly, and a bit early, he is working on crawling.  Five and a half months seems awfully early to be working on it but we don't have much of a choice :)  It started with just propping himself up really high on his arms.

 Even naked...

 Here he is on his new blanket from my co-worker.  It has his name and birthday on it and everything!

And suddenly, he started looking more like this!  He's like a little frog.  He pushes his arms up, gets up on his toes and launches himself forward.

 

Ethan has also had a few changes this month.  I'm not sure if I have posted about him yet, but Ethan has a little baby named Charlie that he plays with.  On this particular day Charlie was really hungry so Ethan decided to feed him.  Can't tell he watches me with Brady can ya?

 Snuggling with Charlie...

 Watching TV.  Mike and I always laugh about how he sits cross-legged when he is lounging in his chair.

Probably the biggest change was the arrival of fears.  He randomly started getting afraid of the dark at night and has started asking for a light on and his door to be left open.  I'm sure it is just part of his age but it makes me feel bad for the poor little guy.  He has also started to really figure out relationships.  He has started calling his grandmas "mom's mom" and "dad's mom" instead of calling them grandma and he calls my dad "mom's dad."  Although he is working on who Pam is to me, he still refers to her as "grandpa's grandma."

This month we have also had a few special activities.  On one weekend we went with Mike's family to the Whitewater Aquatic Center and had some swimming fun.  The kids had a good time playing in the water!

Ethan especially loved going down the slide with Mike!  He tried to go down alone one time and have Mike catch him at the bottom but that didn't go so well after he fell over going around one of the loops of the slide.  He decided going with dad was the better option.

Another fun event was going bowling with my dad!  The kids had a good time bowling and playing with their grandpa :)

 Action shot after a good turn!

 Double cheering!

 Dad and I were laughing, not at their scores, but at the ball speed in the lower right corner :)

 Cousinly love!

Although we do this fairly often, I finally brought my camera to get a picture.  This is story time at the local library with grandma.  The kids love all of the singing, dancing, and storytelling!

One night while Mike was walking around the house trying to get Brady back to sleep he looked out the window and saw something kind of odd!  He thought to himself, "Man, that is a big dog walking down the sidewalk."  Then he realized it was a deer!  He called me out into the living room and we watched as a total of six deer walked around our front yard!

At the end of the month we finally got some more snow!  Ethan and Mike had fun shoveling and playing in it for awhile, til he got too cold to be out there anymore.

Forgot to mention Ethan's newest talent, drawing!  We asked him to draw a monster and were surprised with what we got!  He even drew the pupils!

On the last day of the month we finally got a sitter (Thanks Steph) for the two little ones and went to a wine party with a group of my friends/co-workers!  It was fun seeing everyone outside of work and even more fun because we got to taste lots of different wines and snacks :)

December - Christmas, Christmas, Christmas

Almost every year our Christmas season starts out with going to the place where Mike and I started our relationship, Milton High School.  Now, we go to Breakfast with Santa!  Check out Ethan thinking about what he wants for Christmas :)

Since Ethan is also three now, he gets to start going to Sunday School at church!  With his social personality I think he is going to love it!  We were even just in time to get him in the Christmas program.  Here he is sitting at the table with his teacher on his first day.

Since his third birthday he has been working pretty hard at mastering all of his new puzzles.  He has picked it up SUPER fast and can easily do this puzzle pictured below all by himself!

 Christmas program practice :)

Although my dad got this exersaucer to give to Brady at Christmas, he was ready to have it in early December.  He was CONSTANTLY wanting to stand and jump!  My dad decided after hanging out with us one day to give it to him early, thanks Dad, Brady loves it!

Another yearly event is our cookie baking day at Mike's mom's house.  We spend the day cooking and decorating cookies, order some Chinese food for dinner, and hang out.  Here's our end product this year, YUM!

Ethan is not the easiest person in the world to get pictures of lately.  Here is the best one I got of his cookie decorating ability.

After baking and decorating cookies, the kids changed into their matching pajamas from Grandma for a quick photo session with me and Kel.  Don't mind Ethan's smile in the first pic.

 Church the day of Ethan's Christmas program!  He did a GREAT job.  He sang, "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and one other song.  During "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" Ethan kept singing (quite loudly) after the song was finished which received a little chuckle from the crowd. My mom and dad even came to watch our little Ethan's first public performance.  Lainey was also in the program and did an excellent job with the singing and dance moves.

 That same weekend we decorated our Christmas trees.  Ethan helped with putting the ornaments on and even got to help put the big star on top!

Another Christmas tradition that remained in place this year was the return of our Elf on the Shelf.  He was pretty creative this year with his hiding places.  Ethan loved looking for him every morning and was pretty quick to find him, even in his trickier hiding spots.  Here are just a few from this year.

Our little Brady sure is getting big (well kind of)!  We had his four month check up this month and although we think he looks bigger and bigger every day, he is apparently on the small side.  Here are his stats:
Weight: 13 lbs even (8th percentile)
Length: 24.5 inches (22nd percentile)
Head: 41.5 cm (20th percentile)

From what the doc says, apparently babies find their place in the percentile curve between two and four months old.  So, if that holds true, it looks like we might have one long and lean kid and our other might be a bit smaller all around!  Everything else at his appointment went well.  He is smiling like crazy, wanting to stand, can hold his head up pretty steady now, and is much more social!

He even found his toes!  He especially likes chewing on them, eww!

On the 21st we met up with Kel, Chad, Lainey, Andrew and Peg at Rotary Gardens to check out the holiday lights.  Even though it was FREEZING cold, Ethan loved looking at all of the lights.  He really liked these little gingerbread men in the pic below.

 Brady of course didn't care much, he passed out almost immediately.  I'm sure he was pretty warm and cozy in all of his layers!

We had to stop and take a picture here in the Sunken Garden.  How perfect that these two reindeer appear to be kissing, this is the place that Mike and I were married :)

 Group shot!

 After finishing up looking at the lights we all went inside to warm up.  While Lainey stood in line to go see Santa (Ethan was not interested), Mike and Ethan cuddled up and watched the train go around and around. 

 That Sunday we had an amazing spread of appetizers, snacks, and soups at Mike's mom's house for Christmas.  Although all of the gifts were amazing and time spent with family is always fun, this picture shows probably the funniest moment of the day.  Mike's Uncle Tom was pretty excited about a "naughty" gift he got for Lainey and Ethan.  The present was an "unbreakable" eyeball for Ethan and a bunny for Lainey that splatted on the window when you throw them.  I think this picture shows Lainey's bursting in her hands.  She immediately started crying.  Ethan played with his for about two more seconds and his too burst in his hands.  He also started crying and all of the adults of course were laughing like crazy!

Here's the crew! (Thanks for the pic, Kel!)

 

The next morning we had our little family's present opening.  The boys and I opened gifts and even had some time to set up some of their new toys.  Then we had my mom, Courtney, Kileigh, and Aaron over for breakfast, gift opening, and hanging out just as a family.  Here are the two crazy kids early in the morning.

  

All of the kids had fun opening gifts, or eating them...

 The boys of the family...

The kids by the tree before gift opening.

  

Ahhhh...Brady loves to "fly" and pretend fall now.  He isn't freaked out by the quick motion anymore...well not as much any way.

 

After cleaning up the mess, Mike, Aaron, and the two older kids suited up and went out for some sledding fun.  Although I wasn't out there I hear there was a pretty good snowball fight.  In the week leading up to Christmas Ethan was looking forward to hitting Uncle Aaron in the head with a snowball!

After finishing up with the eating, cleaning, and a bit of playing, we got the food ready for our big Christmas Eve dinner!  Co just found out that Kileigh is lactose intolerant so she brought some special vegan cheese for her.  Here is Mike and Brady reading the packaging :)  (P.S. Vegan cheese is absolutely disgusting!)

 Since we have two main living areas, half of the family hung out downstairs watching the movie "Elf"...

 and the other half hung out upstairs getting dinner ready or just chatting.

 

I am very thankful that during all of the holiday bustle, my mom was able to catch such a special moment; my grandpa and Brady "talking."  Brady took to him instantly and every time my grandpa would say anything Brady was all smiles.

After dinner and a quick white elephant gift exchange, the family gathered around the kitchen table (new!) and played Apples to Apples!

Later that night, after everyone left, we set out a plate for Santa and the reindeer with lots of cookies and some "special coffee" or hot chocolate.  Stinker Ethan even stole one of the cookies for himself!

  

The next morning the boys woke up, I arrived home from work, and we checked out the stockings Santa left for us.  After a quick breakfast, we went to my dad's house.  It was a relaxing, snuggling kind of day for everyone!  We all curled up on the couch and watched Home Alone that Ethan got for Christmas this year!

 

After a relaxing morning we had an amazing prime rib dinner and some more family time.  After a few hours it was apparent that we were all getting a bit run down from the three days of holidays (and no naps for Ethan) so we headed home.  Thanks everyone for the amazing Christmas this year, we are truly blessed!

Another fun part of Brady getting older is that he loves bath time now!  He kicks and kicks and kicks through the whole thing which makes it a little tough to wash him up but at least he doesn't scream through it anymore!

 

That same bath time we tried out Ethan's new big boy undies from grandpa.  Doesn't he look cute in his little boxer briefs?  I didn't even know they made them for little guys.

That weekend Kileigh and my dad had their hotel/swimming play date that we take advantage of.  So we headed off to the hotel for some swimming.  When we got there they said the pool was FREEZING!  So, we hung out in the hotel room instead and the kids got to have some play time.  Here is Kileigh playing doctor to Ethan who is "sick."

 Watch out when you get home mom, there's a line up of all the "guys" at the top of the stairs.  Apparently Zurg (from Toy Story) and his army were waiting for me to get home from work :)

Happy New Year!!!  This year we had a bit more laid back approach to New Years.  I was planning on having to work but wasn't scheduled.  That combined with having little babies in our houses, we went to Kel and Chad's house for some stir fry and sushi and the kids had a karaoke night followed up by some Cinderella.  Thanks for hosting Kel and Chad :)

 Here's to a happy and healthy 2013, hip hip hooray!

One last funny story: Ethan is really starting to pick up on what we say.  He has been repeating things a lot lately.  During our nice little dinner at Olive Garden a waitress walked by and I think some water dripped on Ethan's head.  He turns to me and says, "What the hell was that?"  Thinking I heard him wrong I made the mistake of asking what he said and he promptly repeated the same thing back to me.  Guess I need to watch my mouth a bit more because that definitely came from me!