Ethan at 10 months

Ethan turned 10 months old last week. I'm a little late posting his monthly picture because we were all sick with a nasty stomach bug last week. It's no fun having two little ones sick at the same time! But thankfully we're all doing much better.

I actually got both kids to look at the camera at the same time! Now we just have to work on smiling :)

"Snow" Day

Most of the schools in middle TN, including Kaitlyn's preschool, were closed for a snow day today. Which would be fantastic if there were actually snow to go along with the snow day. The weather forecasters were calling for 1 - 2 inches of snow, but as it turns out, they overestimated by a bit. Around mid-morning, we finally got a few of the much-anticipated snow showers, and we wound up with a light dusting that was just enough for the kids to play in.

Kaitlyn eagerly bundled up to go outside. Fortunately, she thinks any amount of snow is great. The first thing she wanted to do was build a snowman. Kind of tough when there isn't much snow. But we managed to build a tiny one, and she was thrilled. Here she is showing off the work in progress. Sadly, the finished product wasn't much bigger!

And since this is officially Ethan's first snow, I had to snap a picture of him too. It was a little challenging managing two small ones outside in the cold, wet snow by myself...especially when one is a crawler. So Ethan wound up in the safe confines of the stroller so that I could keep him off of the ground and still have hands free to tend to Kaitlyn and take pictures. I did get him out later and let him touch the snow. He wasn't very impressed and kept pulling his hand away. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of him playing in the snow because I would have needed 4 more arms to manage all of that. Maybe next time!

Christmas Celebrations

For the first time in our married life, we were able to be at our house for the whole day on Christmas! No traveling! My mom and Jim were gracious enough to break with tradition and come to our house to celebrate this year so that we didn't have to travel with both kids. Kaitlyn was looking forward to Santa coming. She dutifully left out cookies and milk the night before. But when I went in her room the next morning and told her that Santa left her a lot of presents, she threw her face into her pillow and mumbled something about not wanting to see Santa. She thought he was still in the house! After finally convincing her that Santa was safely back home at the North Pole, she decided to come out of her room and investigate the presents. Eventually she warmed up to the whole thing and enthusiastically opened presents. It took a while to get through them all, though, because she wanted to stop and play with every toy that she opened.

Ethan didn't know quite what to make of everything, but he enjoyed playing with his new bus.

When mom and Jim came in with their presents, it was like Santa had come all over again. This helicopter was a big hit with Kaitlyn. In fact, her favorite toys were a train, a bus and a helicopter. Her fascination with transportation and vehicles continues! She's already commandeered Ethan's new Thomas the Train book and his Cars book.

Ethan will eventually like his new bath boat, but right now he's much more into eating wrapping paper!

Kaitlyn is showing Gran her new Dora book.

The next day, we went to Memphis to celebrate with Jeff's family. Everyone converged on Jess' house for a few days. 12 adults and 4 small kids all in the same house! But it was tons of fun!!

As always, Kaitlyn loves playing with Papa Greg. She's showing off her new blocks to him.

Noah got a new drum set for Christmas (Jess and Adam are much braver than I am!!). I really thought Kaitlyn would hate it since she's not a fan of loud noises, but I guess seeing Noah play it put her at ease. She eagerly took her turn at the drums and pounded to her heart's content!

One night, some friends came over for a jam session with Jeff and Andrew. Noah was eager to join in the fun with his drums. When he got finished, Kaitlyn took over and tried her hand and playing with the boys. I really hope she inherits some of Jeff's musical abilities. She's getting nothing musical from my side of the family!!

A family picture

Gigi and Bobby with Ethan

Kaitlyn and Ethan at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. One day, I'm going to get a picture where they are sitting beside each other and both are looking at the camera and smiling. One day.