These Boots Were Made for Walking...

Here is Ethan...in his big brother's snow boots. Ethan continues on in his shoe fetish. He is very passionate about shoes. If I leave the door open to his room, he will go in there and get his favorite blue shoes and bring them out to play with. Or he will start lining up his different pairs of shoes in his room. And if I pick out shoes to put on him that he doesn't like, he gets mad about it. Who would've thought a little toddler boy would be this passionate about shoes? Makes me wonder what I'm in for when he gets to be a teenager.

Here's the bump...

Here are the pregnancy pics of me at 29 weeks. The baby is getting heavy, but life isn't too bad. I don't have too many aches and pains that can go along with pregnancy, or any horrible complications. I just have deal with the normal fatigue that goes along with pregnancy, and taking care of two active boys.

One of the cutest things about this pregnancy is watching Jaden respond to my growing tummy. When he feels the baby moving, his eyes get very big as he realizes there is really a moving human being in mommy's tummy. Sometimes he asks questions about it, and now always wants to feel the baby moving. Jaden even offered to give up his seat in the van. Although, it was a funny conversation. We were driving home one day, and Jaden asked me where the new baby was going to sit. He suggested the new baby could sit on the floor in the van, in the middle. I said no, he couldn't sit there. I asked him if he would be willing to give up his seat in the van, and sit in the back so the new baby could have his seat. I expected a big "no" in response to this. Instead Jaden responded "sure" and is now very excited to sit in the back. I was very proud of him for that.

Ethan on the other hand, has no idea that his world is about to be really rocked. But he is a pretty good little boy, I bet he will adapt fairly well. I think we might have a few jealousy issues, but we will see. I pray in time they will all grow to be very good friends.

And we are still working on the baby's name. I pray that God will show us what this baby's name is. God has a big plan for this little boy, and I know God has a special name picked out as well. I pray God reveals it to us soon.

A Million Pieces

Once we returned from traveling at Christmas, we still had some gifts to give the boys for Christmas. We decided it would be easier to save them for when we returned. The biggest gift was a new kitchen set. The boys love to pretend to make food for us, so I wanted to get them a kitchen set to help expand their culinary ideas.

Thanks to some friends scouting the internet, we found an awesome deal on a new kitchen set, complete with accessories. There was one catch...it had masses of little pieces to assemble it. Erick is so good at putting things together, so I wasn't worried. But when he opened the box, even he was a little overwhelmed. We thought we would suprise them by having it ready the next morning, but Erick's drill died, so it didn't happen. It was half way put together, so we just left it for the next day.

And then it became a family affair to put the kitchen together. Erick had lots of help! It was a fun time of Daddy working with the boys to assemble it all. And the boys now love their toy, preparing all kinds of imaginary cakes, hamburgers, lemonade, pizza, and other meals for us to enjoy.

Now if only it were that easy for me to get a new, updated kitchen...

"The Million Pieces"

Daddy and his assembling team...

Jaden and Ethan enjoying their new kitchen...

Christmas Revisited...

I realize that Christmas was a while back; however, being pregnant, I'm just really slow at getting everything done...including blogging. But I wanted to make a note about our special Christmas morning celebration. We were out of town this year, visiting Mema and Grandpa during Christmas, so I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. But it really was a very special time.

Jaden got up first, my early riser. He was very excited about Christmas morning and was ready to open presents at 6:30 am. However, I convinced him we had to wait for everyone else. So after we had breakfast, I got out a special natvitiy book that I had been saving. It had cut-outs of all the nativity characters...Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the animals, etc. So we punched them out and set it all up, telling the story at the same time. Then Jaden was able to tell me the story of Jesus' birth. He did such a good job!

At this point, everyone was still not up yet. So I came up with the idea that we could make pancakes. Luckily, Mema had the ingredients to make the pancakes. And of course, Jaden loved this idea. Then Grandpa woke up and came out to help us. It was a fun time of me and my dad arguing over which is the best way to cook bacon and pancakes. It was his kitchen...but I grew up arguing with my dad, especially about the little things, so it was just like old times.

Then it was all ready. Mema, Ethan and Daddy then woke up and joined us for a mid-morning pancake breakfast. Then we had Jaden tell everyone the story of Jesus birth, using the cutouts we set up. And THEN we finally opened presents in their stockings. Jaden tore into his presents, while Ethan took a while to open them, and needed help in the process. He definitely enjoyed the box more than the gift this year. But it was cute watching him play in the wrapping paper.

It was a such a blessed time. I got to spend time with Jaden, cook breakfast with my Dad and enjoy Christmas morning with everyone. God even gave us snow on the ground for a white Christmas. It was truely blessed Christmas from God!

Hope you enjoy the pix below from all of our celebrations...


Christmas morning -- opening stockings from Santa at Mema and Grandpa's House after the Pancake breakfast...

Opening gifts with the cousins, Grace and Sarah at Mema and Grandpa's House...

Christmas celebration with Granny...

Daddy helping Ethan at Christmas gift time with Meme and Popa...