The Holidays 2010

So, I feel absolutely AWFUL that I haven't blogged in almost a full two months!!!  The holidays were just crazy busy for us and I let blogging fall to the "back burner".  Anyway, I am just going to jump right in and try to catch you up to speed....our Thanksgiving was wonderful!  More of my family was able to get together than usual and some family who had never laid eyes on Landen got to meet him.  Both of my boys tried some new foods at their Thanksgiving meal.....dressed eggs and turkey.  Ethan is very picky about his food and really surprised me by trying these foods!  I honestly thought I was going to have to take the plate of eggs away to keep him from making himself sick!  It was no surprise that Landen tried them though, he will eat ANYTHING! He now eats 2 containers of baby food twice a day and usually cries for more.  He loves table food of any kind and every time he sees you eating he thinks he should have some.  That's not even mentioning his snacks such as yogurt melts, vege sticks, etc.  He is now taking mostly whole milk.  We still put formula in 1/4 of his bottle but will stop doing that soon. 

We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas!  It was Landen's first Christmas and we got a lot of snow!  On Christmas Eve we go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast with my dad's side of the family.  Ethan was so excited for the Christmas festivities to begin that he could barely sleep.  Landen was a little more laid back about the whole thing but still really enjoyed tearing the paper off of his gifts.  After breakfast we went back to my grandparents house and spent time with cousins that we don't get to see very often.  On Christmas Eve night we go to my mom's parent's house and spend time with more cousins.  By the end of Christmas Eve both boys were exhausted and it didn't take long for them to go down so that Santa could come.  My parents and Josh's grandmother came over to stay the night so that they would be here when the boys found their gifts from Santa.  Santa brought Ethan a kitchen (it was a blue kitchen at Josh's request), a snowball gun (Ethan's odd request), a telescope, a Nintendo DSi, and a remote control Lego train.  Ethan cooked us food on the kitchen all day and really enjoyed going out and playing in the snow with his new snowball gun!  Santa brought Landen a rocking horse, a dinosaur, a bat and wobble penguin, and a few other small things.  He loves his horse as long as someone else will sit in front of him and rock him on it, lol!  I can tell you this much, finding places to store Christmas toys after Christmas for one child is MUCH easier than finding room to store toys for two!!!  I still have a few things that just don't have a home! 

My Monkey

Three days after Christmas, Landen turned one!  It seemed surreal because it seems like he was born just a few months ago.  We could NOT imagine our lives without him!  He is such a joy to each of us.  Landen is such a wonderful little boy.  He smiles constantly and subsequently keeps us smiling constantly :)  He is crawling and cruising like a pro but hasn't yet took that first step.  He loves to waive bye bye, say "uh oh", and give fives.  He dances anytime he hears anything resembling music.  Our sweet boy loves to be read to and he loves to take puzzles apart......we are working on the putting them back together part.  He adores his big brother and thinks that Ethan should play with him at all times.  He is wearing 18-24 months clothes and size 4 in shoes.  We went for his one year checkup last week and he weighed 27 pounds and was 32 inches long.  Everyone is amazed by what a "great eater" he is.  We will be celebrating his 1st birthday with a party here at home this Saturday and I will do a post on it soon. 

We had a pretty quiet New Years Eve here at home.  My parents came over and a friend of mine came over with her two kiddos.  The kids all had a blast playing and Landen was right in there with all the bigger kids.  He was so excited that he stayed up until 12:30am!!!  We are so blessed with wonderful friends and family who made the holidays wonderful for us!  We are so thankful to God for a new year in which we are all healthy and happy.  We can't wait to see what 2011 holds for us and to spend another wonderful year growing, laughing, and learning with our two precious boys!!!! 

Ethan, Landen, and Alera bringing in the New Year

He was SO sleepy you can tell he is forcing his eyes to stay open, LOL!

A Very Eventful End to October

*Note: I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks because our laptop stopped working this past week.  We just needed a new charger and hopefully it will be in soon (I am using Josh's company laptop that he brought home for the weekend). 

Well, we ended October with tons of excitement!  Some good excitement and some not so good.  The not so good happened on Tuesday, Oct. 26th.  Franklin had bad storms and tornado watches and I truly believe a "mini tornado" touched down in our backyard!  It tore our fence up and wiped all of my furniture off of the front porch!  It also tore our neighbor's storage shed down and then picked it up and threw it over the fence, damaged their fence, and split a big maple tree in their backyard!  The craziest thing is that it picked up a patio chair from the backyard of a house that is atleast 2 football fields away and blew it to the back of our backyard!!!  Thank God it wasn't any worse and no one was hurt.

This is the part of our fence that attaches to our neighbors.

This was where the drive through gate was.

This is my chair from the front porch...look how bent the legs are!

This was a table on our front porch.  The glass was shattered not far away.

The rest of our "end of October events" were much happier happenings.  On Thursday, October 28th Ethan turned 6 years old!  But we didn't celebrate until Friday because Franklin Elementary's fall festival was Thursday night.  Since I am an officer of their pto I helped set up for the festival from lunch until it started at 5pm.  Josh was going to bring Ethan but he got stuck in Nashville traffic so my good friend Amanda picked him up from Mom's and brought him with her kids.  Josh came a little late and they had a blast going on a hayride, playing carnival games, and bouncing on the inflatables.  I had to work the booths throughout most of it but also got to watch Ethan from a distance and all of our hard work was well justified by the smiles on the kid's faces. 

On Friday, October 29th Ethan's class had their fall party.  As a homeroom mother I was able to help plan this event and I must say it was a success!  We decorated the room super cute and the kids made bookmarks, played "Pass the Hot Pumpkin" and Jack O'Lantern Jump, and had a plateful of snacks.  It is so rewarding to see the joy on their little faces when they see what you have prepared for them!    Then, Friday night we celebrated Ethan's 6th birthday at Monkey Joe's in Rivergate. He ended up having 20 of his little buddies not counting all of the adults attend and he was in heaven!  His party was Hot Wheels themed and the cake turned out super cute.  Ethan got tons of presents and loved all of them but most of all he enjoyed running, jumping, and playing with his friends.  I cannot believe that my baby boy is 6 years old but I am so very proud of the wonderful little boy that he has become. 

The table decked out in Hot Wheels decor

The cake made by Shelby Simmons

Landen saying "Yay"

The Birthday Boy

The great grandmothers feeding Landen cake

Ready to blow out his candles

My very sleepy lil' man

On Saturday (the 30th) we went Trick or Treating.  Ethan had a homemade John Deere tractor costume (per his request) and Landen was a cute little spider.  Landen only trick or treated family to make it easier on both him and us but Ethan and I walked an entire neighborhood with our good friends Amanda, Alera, and Ty.  Ethan had his picture taken for the Franklin Favorite and he loved all of the attention and comments that he got on his costume :)

 


October was so full of excitement that we haven't known what to do with all of our free time so far in November.  I spent some time with my best friend Jennifer this weekend and she was suprised to see Landen crawling which reminded me that I hadn't posted that on my blog.  He is army crawling all over the place!  He can even pull himself up from sitting to standing now.  Needless to say, he is into EVERYTHING these days but that is just part of this stage.  He is growing so quickly but it is such a joy to watch.  The other day while Ethan was at school Landen decided to crawl into his room and dump out a bucket of trains.  When I walked in he looked up at me as if to ask if he was in trouble and when I smiled he dove right back into them.  He had a ball and I picked them all up when he was done so Ethan never even knew....hehehe!       

Today before church the boys played with a cardboard box and then after church we went to the square and took a few pictures of the boys and I just have to share those and then I will hush until next time :)

       

Fun Fall Festivities



Ethan selecting just the right one ;)



He was quite happy with his selection.

So, we have been very busy this past week with Fall festivities!  Last Wednesday, Landen and I went with Ethan's kindergarten class to the pumpkin patch at the methodist church on the square.  Ethan had a great time with his buddies and he was very proud to show off his little brother.  They ate a snack and watched a cute video.  Landen behaved very nicely as usual and he is now very fond of Ethan's teacher.  He kept reaching out to her when she talked to him.  It was sweet. 

Ethan's class + Landen

Landen just hanging out at the pumpkin patch.

So,then this past Saturday we headed up to Jackson's Orchard with my grandmother and Ethan's cousin, Zoe, to meet up with my cousin, Jenna, whom we usually only get to see on holidays. The only one of us who had ever been to Jackson's was Jenna so she was kind of our tour guide.  The kids had a blast sliding on the cider slide, riding ponies, picking pumpkins, and of course bouncing in the fun house.  The weather was perfect and the apples with caramel dip were wonderful!  I think we may just have to make a trip to Jackson's Orchard part of our annual fall festivities.

Coming down the cider slide at Jackson's

I have a goofy look on my face from excitement & Landen looks totally not enthused!

On Sunday, after church and a pto meeting we carved and painted our pumpkins.  I have been trying to figure out how to involve Landen in the pumpkin decorating process and a friend of mine had a great idea on her blog.  Her little girl is a little younger than Landen and she let her finger/hand paint a pumpkin and put a cute little bow on top and her initial on the front.  It was adorable and I commented on her blog that I was going to steal her great idea ;)  So, we decorated the evening away and this is what we came up with....



But, it took this to get there.....





Now, this week we have a fall festival at Ethan's school along with his fall class party!  And at the very end of the week.....Ethan's birthday party!!!!  Fun, fun, fun :)                         



Our Wonderful Week of Wedding

Ethan ready to go to the wedding rehearsal.

Ethan was the ring bearer in Jennifer & Ben's wedding this weekend.  He adores both of them and did a wonderful job at taking directions throughout the whole process.  I was one proud momma!  It really made me realize that my baby boy is now a little man. 



This is my little cutie here with the flower girls. 

Landen was at the ceremony too.  It wasn't that cold out but he has had a runny nose (hence the toboggan).




I love this picture! It is priceless ;)


Ethan and the flower girl getting down!

We had SO much fun at the reception.  Ethan boogied all night long and well, let's just say I tried.  Jennifer was the most gorgeous bride that I have ever seen and she & Ben had a permanent smile on their face the entire nigh.  Jennifer & Ben, thanks for letting us be party of your special day.  We love you & hope you are having a blast on your honeymoon.





Echo playing with Landen. 







North Carolina Trip - Part 2

 

As you can see, we had tons of fun on the rest of our trip to North Carolina.  These boys were full of giggles!  They really enjoyed the indoor pool and this really cool library that we found called Imaginon.  We also went to an aviation museum and a Discovery Place museum that Ethan loved, but my camera went dead so the pictures are on Josh's phone and I am still waiting on him to send them to me.  Once he does I will post them.  We headed home on Saturday (10/9) later than we wanted to and it was after 1 am on Sunday when we got in.  The boys traveled well but were glad to be back home in their own bed.  It turned out to be a really awesome trip filled with fun-filled family time!

Ethan found this telescope at the library and loved it!

Of course he found the train table and wouldn't seperate from it.

Landen found a toy that he really like too.