Merry Christmas!

We spent our first Christmas as a family of four in town...a far cry from the three-state tour we did last year. On Christmas Eve, we watched a few classic TV specials. Ethan was excited about putting out milk and cookies. Luckily we remembered to take the child gate out of the fireplace. The next morning the first thing he yelled was "He drank all the milk!". With the kids in bed, I started putting together the Kidkraft kitchen that we got for Ethan at 8:40pm. I finished just before 11 o'clock. I will say that this thing was constructed better than a lot of IKEA furniture and I expect it to last forever. Ethan is very enthusiastic and Liz and I are wondering how long until Ethan stops making us eat pretend food before every meal. Ethan also got the spaceship (space shuttle) he wanted. Liz got me an CycleOps indoor cycling flywheel so I can do cardio in the house. I got her some new boots and gift certificate for a spa through SpaFinder.com.

Click here or the picture for more holiday photos!

Ethan's 2nd singing performance

OK, Ethan got a nice introduction to stage fright with his Thanksgiving performance (click here) but the Christmas performance was a big step up...at night and in front of four times as many people since the church was a full house. He figures out where we are in the crowd around the 1:10 mark.

NASCAR here I come!

Ethan's buddy Steven followed up on his previous birthday party (that had a firetruck) with one where racecars (pulled like a train) were available for the kids! We were pulled at a pretty decent clip as you can see Ethan's hair blowing as he had a blast 'turning'. It's always fun looking at the neighbors staring as we cruise around the neighborhood on these crazy things every year.

Click here or the photo to see photos from the past month.

Recent Ethan Quote

"...but Mommy is the best." --Ethan

(Uttered while sobbing after Liz left for a mom's night out while I tried to console him)

Santa visit

Yesterday Ethan and Anneliese saw Santa at the mall. Anneliese was very good. Ethan wasn't scared when he was talking to Santa either, saying "I want a rocket ship." Santa asked if he wanted one to fly around in or just a toy one. Ethan went with the latter surprisingly. When it came to pictures though it was difficult to get Ethan to act natural...he's developed a really bad forced smile.

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Leaves!

There's almost always something falling from our liquidamber tree out front, but plain old leaves are the most fun compared to the fruit (aka "stickerballs") or the spring blooms which turn the sidewalk and car yellow with 'dust'. Ethan helped Daddy rake them up and then we had some fun.

Click here or the album for photos from the past month!

Ethan's first stage performance

Ethan's preschool held a Thanksgiving performance and his age group performed "Five Little Turkeys", "Thank You", and "Jesus Loves Me". Keep an eye on the 1:40 timestamp where Ethan sees us in the crowd. Enjoy!