New Years Fun

On New Years Day my family was in town staying with us and we decided to have some post new years eve fun. The idea was to take photo booth style photos using my new white backdrop, drink apple cider and play dominoes.

Well, we got the photo part done but apple cider and dominoes were not meant to be.

We were having so much fun being silly and taking photos. This was of course before the throwing up started. We hadn't even finished putting the backdrop away before I was hit with the stomach bug and about 30 minutes later Garrett was down with the bug as well. My parents got up with Ethan that night and tried to keep him separate from us but it was already too late for the little boy. In hindsight we think that he actually gave us the bug. I'm so grateful to my parents for taking care of Ethan and washing his poopy laundry that night/next day! I had hoped they would be able to avoid the bug but they got it as well. Thanks for being such troopers!

Christmas 2010

Ethan's first Christmas Ornament. Santa on a Sailboat

First stocking 

Ethan's special ornament.
























Looks like Ethan was a good boy this year!

Out of all these toys, the toy that Ethan went to first was the blue ball! And then he noticed that the barrier that I had kept in front of the tree all month was GONE!

I loved seeing the realization on his face and then the smile...

And then of course he made a beeline for the tree!

Thanks for the hand-me-down "kid resistant" ornaments! (We got the few that survived through Adam, Morgan, and Astrid's toddler hood)

Ethan had so much fun cruising/crawling around the living room and checking everything out.

Beau-cat made sure that he stayed safely out of reach

That ball was a favorite companion of his on Christmas morning. Santa sure knew what he was doing!

Ethan enjoyed opening his stocking and dumping everything out.

 Later after stockings we made a special brunch of orange rolls and bacon and then everyone could open presents! (I like to drag it out)

Ethan, baby, the presents are under the tree, not on it.

















Ethan did a pretty good job of opening his own presents. He played with his piano through the wrapping paper for a while until I helped him open it the rest of the way.

He wasn't in too much of a rush to open things. He preferred to crawl and sit on the packages first before he tried opening them. :-)
 

Thanks Adam, Hailey, Astrid and Morgan for the awesome play tent and tunnel! Ethan loves it!

The cats thought it was pretty neat too!

Ethan really enjoyed his first Christmas and had so much fun playing with his new toys.

In fact, he had so much fun playing that we had trouble getting him down that evening! We also had trouble keeping him down that night. He woke up and wanted to play with his new toys from 3 AM till 6 AM.

And here are a few other pictures from Christmas morning. Ethan may be in a lot (okay most) of my photos but we can't forget my #1 guy!

A little behind...

I know I have a New Years picture up but no Christmas photos yet. And truthfully I have a photoshoot I took of Ethan right before Thanksgiving that I haven't finished editing or posted yet, and a little boy is turning 1 soon and I may or may not have birthday photos up before Christmas photos. That is if the boy has a birthday party anytime soon. All three of us came down with a nasty stomach bug on Jan 1st and we are in various stages of recovery. G is well and I am well but poor little E isn't at 100% yet and is still contagious. We originally had a family birthday party planned for his this Saturday but we canceled it due to the stomach bug and E's contagiousness. Just as well that we did since Ethan gave it to half the people on the guest list and they are now currently sick. I have a feeling no one would feel like eating cake. We'll be postponing his birthday for sometime later this month. I'm not sure when but luckily he's too young to know or care that his birthday party has been pushed back.

Not only have we been sick but we have also been house hunting. The weekend before Christmas our house hunt became more serious and over the last couple of weeks we put a contract down on a house and then withdrew it (someone else had a contract on it before us and their contract was being worked) and then we put another contract on a house (it was accepted) and we just completed an inspection. We are excited and hopeful that everything will go smoothly as we get closer and closer to becoming homeowners. Having our little boy sick for the first time I REALLY want my own washer and dryer again. Not having one in the apartment has made this whole sickness experience much ickier than it had to be and since we haven't been getting out much (except for the inspection) we are out of quarters and out of clothes and i have a stack of icky baby clothes that I had to pre-wash in the sink but that are still pretty icky.

Anyways though, I AM at least getting a lot of cuddle time with my normally active cuddle-resistant almost toddler! Hopefully once he's better and our household is back to running normally I'll have some time to catch up on my posts. :-)