Christmas festivities from my phone...

December was a busy and fun month. Here are a few of the many things we did;

 

created Christmas crafts with friends,

welcomed in cold weather,

made some last minute decorations for the ward party,

sat on Santa's lap at the local library,

painted,

made and received lots of Christmas goodies,

attended the ward party,

looked at lights,

sat on Santa's lap at the Flint Hills Christmas party,

 

played in the bounce houses at the Flint Hills party,

fell asleep in the shopping cart from the Christmas shopping exhaustion,

attended a Christmas party with our friends at the local Methodist church,

looked at more lights,

ate all of mom's Lindor truffles from her friend while she wasn't watching,

 

 went to Sea World,

 

 

 

 rode on the train at Sea World,

 

and ate and ate and ate some more really great food. December was such a fun and busy month for us. Well minus the one week we were all deathly ill (besides Caleb who is never ill and has the most amazing immune system.)

Christmas morning

We had such a wonderful Christmas. My Dad came down to visit and spend the week with us. He spoiled these little boys and they loved it. Caleb decided to call him "papa" and constantly asked (and still does) " where is papa?".

Christmas morning the boys opened all of their gifts and they had a lot to open. They were spoiled by all our wonderful family and friends. I could hardly believe how many toys filled the living room after everything was opened. It was a good reminder of how blessed we are. I might have got caught up in all the excitement and forgot to take pictures so here are the few I have of the morning.

 

Caleb had the job of getting the presents from under the tree and bringing them to us to open. He did surprisingly well at this and only opened the ones we told him were for him. 

We also continued some of our favorite traditions which include; the lights on candy cane lane, picking out an angel tree name, Christmas caroling with friends, the Flint Hills Christmas party, picking out an ornament, unwrapping a Christmas book each night in December and opening up Christmas eve pajamas and a new movie.

About a week before Halloween Ethan busted his eye open on the side of the tub.  Nathan was at school and Caleb was almost in bed so I just cleaned it up and held him until it stopped bleeding. I knew the cut was pretty bad but I wasn't sure it was bad enough for stitches so I just used some liquid band aid and butterfly bandages to close up the gap. That worked really great for a few days.

Halloween night we took the boys out trick or treating and the loved it. After we came back we sat in the back of the truck and passed out candy. Ethan was playing around and hit his eye again on the side of the truck. this time it busted open and blood was pouring out everywhere. We debated for a few seconds on what to do and decided to take him over to Tia's (our doctor and good friend) house. When we got there she said it needed stitches so we could either go to her office and stitch him up or we could pin him down and she could use a liquid suture she has on hand that they use in the OR at the hospital. We opted for the liquid suture and pinned him down while she closed up the wound and while it dried. I won't lie all the crying and the pain really broke my heart. The liquid suture worked great and it didn't open again. He still has a pretty good and very noticeable scar from the two incidents but we are so happy we were able to avoid the emergency room. Thank you Tia!

 

joys of motherhood

 

I have an overwhelming sense of Gratitude for both Caleb and Ethan. They have brought a joy and happiness into our lives that could come no other way. Sometimes I wonder if other parents love and have as much fun with their kids as we do ours??? I sure hope so. We also have challenges, being a parent isn't ALWAYS easy. Yesterday brought a whole new challenge. Caleb was in his room crying hysterically and I ran in to check on him and discovered that he had tried to change his own diaper... only as he tried harder and harder the mess only grew and grew. His room was literally covered in poop, this picture is only a portion of the mess. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or vomit so I closed the door and revised a plan to get him and the mess cleaned up. There really is never a dull moment around here.

 

Halloween!

We did celebrate Halloween this year! Last year I bought Caleb a really cute dragon costume on clearance in hopes he would fit into it this year. Unfortunately he fit into it just fine but was deathly afraid of it. After a lot of crying I decided to just let him go to the ward party and around the neighborhood in his Batman pajamas. Both boys loved the trick or treating and had a great time.

 

The weather last week was a little a little chilly. It actually got down to about 45, and my little boys were freezing and refused to play outside so we busted out our winter gear. It was fun for a few days to have cold weather but we are happy to be back in the high 60's and low 70's.

 

Baby 3

Although everyone already knows Baby #3 is on her way! Did you get that? We found out a few weeks ago that baby #3 is a girl. We are thrilled and terrified. I like the land of boys and I am good at it. They are cheap and easy to buy for and please. Hopefully this little girl will be also.

This is my growing belly at 17 weeks (I hate these kind of photos, but I do want to document my pregnancy).

 

chicken update

Here is a little update on the chicken coop. The actually coop is done except being painted. It looks great and I really hope the little chickens love it. Now we have moved on to the garden areas. All 4 key hole gardens are done. Those are the big brick circles in the middle. They are basically a drought resistant garden that they use in Africa that Tia has been studying. They are some what of a trial so we really hope they work out. Last weekend Nathan and a friend trenched about a foot deep all around the garden areas so they can screen in the entire thing. The screen will go down about a foot so that nothing can get in or out of the chicken mansion. I am so excited because there is finally light at the end of this tunnel.

 

 

While Nathan was out working on the chicken mansion I thought it would be a good idea to pick up some Subway for lunch (if I don't feed Nathan while he works he doesn't eat, and gets very grumpy). Well needless to say it was a bad idea because I ran into a poll coming around the drive through corner. Luckily Nathan was able to get all the paint off with finger nail polish remover (who knew?) but the dents are going to have to stay for awhile. They are pretty small but it still breaks my heart a little bit every time I see them.

 

Houston Zoo

Last week we were in Houston for one of Nathan's work events and my sister Hana also happened to be in town. We took the kids to do a lot of fun things but I think the Houston Zoo was one of my favorites. We love this zoo! There are playgrounds, kid activities, interactive exhibits, and tons and tons of animals. The zoo is huge and very well shaded. All of the exhibits are really well done and very clean. Every time I am here I am impressed. The kids loved it and so did we. We were having so much fun though we forgot to take a lot of pictures so here are a few of the ones we have. I also forgot to take pictures of Caleb's favorite part, the train. I am sure we will be back because my animal loving boys had so much fun.

 

walking

Over the last two weeks this little man has really started taking off. He isn't all the way there yet with his walking but he will walk short distances. He can easily go from the little table to the couch or from the couch to the wall. We are loving it and so excited for him to be walking everywhere.

Ethan is 1!

I can hardly believe this little boy turned one September 18th. The time has flown by with two little boys running around. Ethan is really starting to shine through with his little personality, we were always concerned that Caleb was going to beat up on him or overtake him with his strong personality but Ethan has recently shown us not only is he as stubborn he can take Caleb down in a few tackles.

-Ethan weighs almost 20 pounds
-loves to watch baby Einstein
-is the worlds pickiest eater
-loves to wrestle and tackle Caleb
-loves when Nathan comes home from work
-loves his Mama more then anyone/anything
-is a really great climber and has recently started climbing on the table and chairs
-loves being outside and in the stroller
-loves to be held
-loves baths
-hates bedtime and naptime
-hates anything remotely healthy
-has 7 teeth
-unlike Caleb is not a huge fan of strangers
-still wearing 6-9 month clothing, he is a tiny little guy with a lot of fight

Chicken Mansion

Here is a little update on the chicken mansion. It has been a long  project but I finally feel like we are getting somewhere. When we started I had no idea it was going to take this long but now that I know how big of a project it is I will be surprised if we finish before Thanksgiving.

 

The roof goes up! This was a huge accomplishment. Now that the roof is up there is some really great shade for Nathan to work under.



 

The boys have spent a lot of time playing in the construction site. I will be honest and say it made me a little nervous at first when I saw Caleb dumping buckets of screws into his dump truck and was using a real hammer and nails but, I have now gotten used to it.

 

 

There has been a little more progress since these pictures but I haven't been over there in a few days. Those panels on the back have holes because there is going to be two solar powered doors for the chickens to come in and out of. The panels on the side are actually doors. They still need the rest of the molding and hinges but they will open so Tia can sweep out the coop easily. The design is really great and it is fun to finally see it coming along.