Introducing....

I'm going to have to keep this really brief, but wanted to share the wonderful news that I am now officially an aunt.  This morning my sister and her husband welcomed their beautiful baby boy (two weeks early I might add) Brandon Leonard.  He was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long.  He is perfect!  We are thanking God for this beautiful miracle and for blessing our family with this sweet baby boy.  Pictures and the whole story to come soon.

Ethan's Second Christmas

Here a few pictures from Ethan's second Christmas (only a few weeks late...ha!)

My handsome boys before church on Christmas Eve

Playing at our neighbor's house with Ms. Lisa before Christmas Eve dinner (we had dinner with our neighbors who are like family on Christmas Eve before heading home to get ready for Santa's arrival)

Ethan putting out milk and cookies for Santa Claus, and a small milk and piece of cheese for Santa Mouse

Santa brought Ethan the fire truck he asked for!  He loved it so much it was hard to get him to focus on opening up his stocking!!

He would not stop pushing around his new favorite toy

A present from Aunt Susie, Anna and Suzanne...this was the only box he kept taking out from under the tree and he kept trying to get Aunt Jeannie to open it for him on Christmas Eve.  He was so excited when it was time to unwrap his favorite present from the Christmas tree!

Oh the concentration...

A balance bike from Aunt Jeannie that looks like a motorcycle...he will look so tough riding around the cul-de-sac on this in the spring (with a helmet on, of course!)

The ball from Aunt Susie, Anna and Suzanne that was in Ethan's favorite Christmas box from under the tree.  He loves this ball and carries it around with him ALL the time!

After opening a few presents at home, we headed to my in-laws house in the Greensboro area to meet up with the rest of the family (and my family joined us later in the day as well)

Ethan loved pushing this box around, and if you notice the angel figurines on the table, he kept taking them off the table and putting them on this box, and then back on the table, back on the box...he could have done that for hours!

My sister, Carolyn (due with my nephew in February!), her husband Brian, and Patrick, Ethan and I in front of the Christmas tree at my in-laws

My whole family (minus Bethany)...I wish we would have gotten one with Patrick's side of the family too!

Playing with all his new toys

Enjoying a play date with Graham (although Patrick told me that boys do not have play dates...whatever!)  The boys had a great time together, and Ethan took a 3 1/2 nap after Graham left even though he had slept in pretty late that morning.  I wish Graham could come over to play every day :)

So you can't see either of their faces here (a good photographer I am not!) but at least you can see how much fun they were having together

Ethan was too excited at our house on Christmas morning to finish opening his presents, so when we got back from Greensboro he finished up and loved his new toy phone from his Grandpa

Playing with his Panthers football...maybe one day he'll make it all the way to the NFL (but as a kicker, I don't want to see my baby taking those kinds of hits!)

Saying goodbye to his cousin Ben on Christmas...not sure why the pics are so out of order, but we're just going to roll with it

My nephews, Bailey, Bradley and Ben...They are growing up soooo fast (and Ethan is trying to join them!)

Say it isn't so....

I am taking a break from my December updating process to bring you the following announcement...today I called the preschool that (I hope!) Ethan will be attending next year to get all of the registration information sent to us and schedule his official tour.  NOOOOOOO!!!!  I am so not ready to think about my baby boy heading off to school yet (even if it will only be for two mornings a week starting with the next school year in September.)  I am tearing up right now just thinking about it, and will probably humiliate myself in the fall when I go to drop him off that very first morning and start bawling the moment he walks away.  I just want to squeeze him so tight and keep him my baby boy forever.  You may think I'm absolutely looney tunes, and should be celebrating at the thought of a little more free time for myself, but that is just not the case...yet!  This has been an important reminder to treasure each and every day I have with Ethan, because I'm going to blink and he's going to be off at real school and I'll be wondering where the time went.  Anyway, I hope to be adding some Christmas photos soon, and then hopefully I can get started on my January posts.  I have a fun project I've started that I can't wait to share!

Meeting Santa

The annual visit to meet Santa Claus at the mall.  Ethan asked Santa to bring him a fire truck, which was waiting for him right in front of the fireplace on Christmas morning!

Random December Fun

So I'm still trying to catch up from my blogging hiatus, so here are just a few shots of the many random adventures we had in the month of December (which I forgot to take pictures of for the most part...ugh!  Resolution for the new year:  take lots more pictures!)

 Ethan being ridiculously silly...he took a ball from our 3D wooden tic-tac-toe game to carry around in his overalls pocket (and insisted it stay there most of the day!) and was in love with his reindeer hat from his visit with Santa at the mall the day before

And he's off again!

 And playing with the hat again :)

 A new obsession...putting on shoes if they are left out.  He tries to walk around in them as well, but isn't quite coordinated enough for that just yet!

 Playing with his buddy Faith at our neighbor's house...these two have literally been friends since before they were born :)

 Crawling through thet tunnel Faith gave Ethan for Christmas.  I wasn't able to get a good picture (surprise, surprise - I am a terrible photographer!) of the two of them playing in it though since they were constantly on the move

 Our neighborhood does a "Breakfast with Santa" every year for the kids, and as you can see Ethan was having no part of this Santa.  He laughed with the Santa at the mall, and wailed the second we set him down here...we'll see what next year brings

 We took Ethan uptown to see the singing bear orchestra in Founders Hall.  He was mildly interested in the performance, but I think next year he'll love it.  I can definitely see this becoming an annual tradition complete with lunch and hot cocoa after the show :)

 Aunt Jeannie (Patrick's sister) flew in from Boston to spend the week with us.  Ethan loved having her with us!  (And excuse my overly tired face...this is what happens when you are working 40 hours a week in your "spare" time.  Hopefully things will be calming down a bit soon.)

 Enjoying world famous peanut butter milkshakes at Pike's Soda Shoppe...a must visit in Charlotte!!

 Having lunch with a new friend, Charlotte.  Charlotte's mommy Erin and I went to middle school together 20 (good grief, yes 20!) years ago, and Ethan and Charlotte are only a month or so apart in age.  She is such a sweetie, but Ethan was a bit of a bully when they played together before lunch.  Hopefully he will learn how to treat the ladies with a little more respect in the future :)

 I couldn't get a picture of both of them looking up

Having fun with a new friend :)



Carolyn's Baby Shower

So as most of you probably already know, my little sister and her husband are expecting their first child (a boy!) in February.  I helped host a shower for her in Raleigh back at the beginning of December, and here are a few pics from the event:

baby booties...awww

 Carolyn hates cake, so at her request dessert was a tower of donuts instead

 Bad pic, but the only one of us taken on my camera (ignore the pins on my necklace...they were from the "don't say baby" game)  And is just me, or do I look pregnant is this picture too?!  (I'm totally not, in case you were wondering)

Can't figure out to organize the order of these pics or fix the spacing...alas, top pic is of three friends all due with boys in the second week of February, bottom pic is of my aunt and cousin (more of our family of women that is being overtaken by boys now!)

Random room shot

Tower of donuts

Table centerpieces, party favors and games

Again with the spacing issue...ugh!  Some of the food out on the food table (why didn't I wait until it was all out...not sure!) and Carolyn with one of the gifts from me for "Little P"  We have to wait until he is born to find out his real name :)

Hello 2012!

So as you can see my blogging as of late as been, ahem, terrible at best.  I hate this!  I use this site as my own personal journal of sorts to keep up with everything that has been going on, and when I get this incredibly behind I feel terrible because there are so many fun everyday moments that are now just lost in time because I can never remember them all.  But since there is not much that can be done about it now, I want to take this opportunity to just put it out there that I am going to really strive to post at least once a week this year.  They don't all have to be long, they don't all have to include pictures, but I don't want to reach the end of this year and not be able to look back at all of the incredible moments that we shared together as a family.  I want to have a written record of things (type A much?!?!) so it will be your job to hold me accountable.  Are you up to the task?  I'm not sure that I am, but I give you my word that I am going to try.  I'm also going to try to go back and at least share pictures from everything that we've had going on in the past month and a half, but I'm not sure that I'll have tons of details to add since I'm so behind. Wish me luck!