Tis the Season

Now that my first semester as a doctoral student is officially over, I can finally get around to all the other things that have been put on the back burner for the past few weeks...like our blog!

We've been very busy with yuletide fun lately. We put up our tree right after Thanksgiving. If we're going to spend all that time and effort decorating the house, I want to enjoy it for a nice long time :) The kids were excited to see all the shiny, glittery stuff coming down from the attic and were all too eager to help decorate.

Although Ethan looks a little bah-humbug in the picture below, I assure you that he was actually having fun overall. By our fifteenth (futile) attempt to get both kids looking and smiling at the same time, he was all done with the merriment.

Kaitlyn was really into decorating the tree this year. I had a hard time convincing her, though, not to put four ornaments on the same branch. So I finally just gave up on that one and did some stealth redistribution after she went to bed. Ethan was bored after the first two ornaments and left us to go play. Probably just as well.

Our first big event of the season was our church's annual Family Breakfast. It's a time of food, crafts, singing and, of course, pictures with Santa. We did the pictures first to get them out of the way while moods were still good. And the picture below says it all about our time with the big guy this year.

Kaitlyn sweetly smiling and Ethan making his unhappiness well known to all. Every kid needs a good screaming-on-Santa's-lap picture though. I personally think the picture is adorable :)

After quick crafts and breakfast, we headed back to the auditorium to take pictures with the festive backdrop. Again, Kaitlyn smiling sweetly...

Ethan, of course, is not interested in (1) smiling, (2) looking at the camera or (3) staying in one spot. I was tempted to post a series of photos showing just how squirmy he was, but I'm sure I would be the only one who would find that amusing.

Here's a nice look at his snowman sweater, though. Maybe that's why he was so uncooperative for pictures...payback for having to wear the cute sweater.

Next was Opryland Hotel, which was oozing with Christmas cheer and lights. One of our favorites is this enormous Christmas tree. As Kaitlyn would say, "It's the biggest tree EVER!"

And we got a little Winter Wonderland as an early Christmas present this year. It rarely snows in December here, but this year we were "treated" to an inch or two of snow. I say "treated" because it was SO cold outside that the kids couldn't really play outside for more than a few minutes. Ethan wasn't quite sure what to make of it all. He was perplexed by his mittens and baffled by the feel of the snow under his feet. But he was happy to walk around and explore for a bit.

Kaitlyn, on the other hand, is an old pro at this now. She immediately started on a snowman. She obviously didn't get very far before it was time to go in, but it was good enough for her. He hung around for a couple of days, too.

Personally, I hope that we fulfilled our snow quota for several weeks!! I don't like being outside in the cold!!

The Zoo

Last Saturday was such a gorgeous day that Jeff and I wanted to do something fun outside. So we took the kids to the zoo! The last time we went was 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Ethan (and not thrilled with all the walking), it was blazing hot, and Kaitlyn had a total meltdown when she got sunscreen in her eyes. A lot of the animals were not very visible and we decided to leave after seeing less than half of the exhibits. Did I mention that I was pregnant and miserable?? Yeah, not such a fun time for me.

But THIS time was much different. The weather was perfect, the animals were happy to be out and close to the viewing areas, the kids were having a blast, and I was most definitely not pregnant :) We got an awesome view of the giraffe (can you see its tongue sticking out?) and the monkeys decided to show off by swinging through the trees and calling out to each other. It was the coolest thing to watch--I had no idea monkeys could be so loud! We walked around the entire zoo and ended up on the really awesome playground. Now that we've had such a great experience there, maybe we won't wait 2 years until our next visit!

Here are some other pictures from our trip.

At the new flamingo exhibit

At the petting zoo

Jumping in the play area

Halloween Fun

Halloween is so much fun when you have cute little kiddos to dress up. This year, Kaitlyn was a cat (because she loves cats and it was a really simple costume to put together) and Ethan was a monkey. We went to our church's annual Trunk-or-Treat on Sunday and the kids got loads of candy.

Ethan wasn't too sure about the monkey costume. He cried when we first put it on him, but he finally decided to tolerate it...although I don't think he ever smiled while it was on.

Is he not the cutest little monkey? Of course it was 75 degrees out and the costume was fleece, so that may have had something to do with his dislike of the costume!

We didn't want him to overheat, so we let him take a break while Kaitlyn finished her rounds. He was quite content to empty out the contents of his pumpkin one by one and then put them all back in one at a time.

Here's Kaitlyn in her cat costume before her preschool party. She loved the face paint.

And no Halloween festivities would be complete without the carving of the jack-o-lantern! Kaitlyn helped me scoop out all the seeds and goop. Then the kids watched with fascination as Jeff carved the pumpkin.

What is it about candles that are so mesmerizing to little kids?

One last noteworthy event. Jeff and I spent most of Halloween weekend in the mountains of North Carolina by ourselves...no kids! Thanks, mom, for letting us enjoy some much-needed adult time!

Touch a Truck

Yep, this is my 5th post tonight. But after this one, I will finally be caught up. Whew!

On Saturday, we took the kids to Touch a Truck. Last year, it was freezing cold and Kaitlyn screamed every time we got too close to the "scary" trucks. This time, she was (mostly) fine with everything. Except when one of the trucks unexpectedly blew a loud horn right next to us. But, hey, it scared me too, so what can you expect from a 3 year old?

I wasn't sure if Kaitlyn would accept this as a legitimate school bus since it wasn't yellow. But I guess it was close enough for her. She still loves school buses and loves pointing them out on our drives. Needless to say, she climbed aboard this one with no hesitation at all.

And this fire truck was on the smaller side, so it was perfect for the two of them to climb on. Ethan didn't really care one way or the other about the trucks this year, but I predict that will change soon. He's almost as fascinated with modes of transportation as Kaitlyn is.

Walden Farm 2010

On Friday, we met up with some friends and went to Walden Farms for an afternoon of pumpkin fun.

This is little Virginia--she's so cute, she gets a picture by herself on my blog!

These pictures speak for themselves...no commentary needed!

Random Cuteness

When we got back from Memphis, we discovered that a large limb from one of our trees had fallen onto our deck. You can't see Jeff in this picture, but he's out there cutting the limb up with the chainsaw. The kids were riveted to their seats...who needs TV when Daddy is using a power tool in the back yard??

This is how I found Ethan one morning. He had apparently been up earlier playing with his stuffed animals. Then he got tired and went back to sleep in the middle of them all. He was in such a deep sleep that he didn't flinch when the flash on the camera went off.

He had his 18 month checkup recently. 97th percentile in everything (no surprise there!). Still no consistent words yet. He will say a few words if prompted (mama, dada, moo, uh-oh, car), but he's still very much content to just point and say "Eehh!" And we respond, so I guess that means that he has us trained pretty well :) He's just like his Daddy was at this age. But he understands everything and can correctly identify all his letters, numbers, shapes and colors. When this boy finally decides to talk, watch out! I'm halfway expecting him to just start out with full sentences!

Our trip to Memphis

At the end of September, we went to Memphis to visit Jess, Adam and the kids. We rode the monorail over to Mud Island. Kaitlyn was thrilled to be riding a "train" that went through the air. It's amazing what joy kids get out of such simple things. (By the way, thanks to Jess for most of these pictures!)

Mud Island has a scaled replica of the entire Mississippi River, culminating in a large wading pool that represents the delta. As you can see below, it's very shallow, so we had no problem at all with Kaitlyn and Noah wading around and splashing a bit...

...until they got the bright idea to lay down and roll around in the wading pool!! Both kids were soaked from head to toe and not a change of clothes or a towel in sight! We never dreamed that the kids would get so wet. Silly us! Since there's nothing we could do about it at that point, we just let them have their fun. Below is a picture of Kaitlyn, Eli and Ethan. Noah was a little camera shy at that moment.

We came home, got the kids cleaned up and had some more playtime in the backyard. There's an awesome tire swing in the back yard that just begs you to swing on it.

And slides...

And plenty of room to just roam around and be a kid.

Eli and Ethan are going to be good buddies growing up.

And Kaitlyn thinks Noah is pretty cool, especially since he was willing to share his train set! I love how both sets of kids are so close in age. I see lots of fun family gatherings in our future!

Finally a picture with all four cousins and no one is crying! A pretty miraculous feat!

The Lincoln County Fair

Time to catch up on the blog! I've been so busy with grad school that I haven't had time for "leisure" activities such as blogging. So I'll attempt to catch up on the past six weeks...for the three of you out there that still read :)

Last month, we trekked down to my hometown of Fayetteville for the annual Lincoln County Fair. Rides, games, prizes, food, farm animals and tractors. What more could a kid ask for?? Ethan rode his very first carnival ride and wasn't quite sure what to make of it all. I don't think he cracked a smile during the whole ride. Kaitlyn on the other hand was gleefully cackling the whole time.

Ethan didn't hesitate to getup close and personal with the animals.

Kaitlyn was big enough to ride all by herself!