Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas day! The kids were very excited with all of their and enjoyed the day playing and eating. Len and I are also loving our gift to each other, a new kitchen range! It has rekindled my love of cooking! I have spent many hours in the kitchen, hopefully creating some really yummy dishes for all to enjoy.

Audrey & Ethan singing around the Christmas tree!

Audrey and the plate of cookies for Santa.

Ethan was worn out from opening all those presents, he cuddled into his new football bena bag chair for a bottle.

Princess Snow White making a fabulous play-doh meal.

Ethan directing traffic, he got an entire fleet of Little People vehicles.

Filling up the bus

Audrey's pot of gold mosaic. This toy is very cool!

Ethan's new train set for his train table.

December pictures

Ethan can stand for minutes at time and take 2-4 steps, then he just gets too excited!

Already he is a TV junky!

Showing off his curls!

Our little performer after her holiday recital! She did a wonderful job!

This kid is always smiling!

Audrey & Ethan formed a band, they had so much fun playing all the instruments.

Ethan's Feast

We're trying to teach Ethan how to use a spoon for eating, but I think he's determined that it only gets in the way. Oh, and I guess the green beans love fest is officially over.

Audrey's Christmas Dance Recital

This year, Audrey's dance class traded in their ballet shoes for tap shoes. So in addition to the pitter-patter of Ethan's feet, we have heard the tippity-tappety of Audrey's shoes all around the house the past few months. Today was the big recital - enjoy...

Catching up

Wow, where did November go?! We visited family in Georgia for Thanksgiving this year and once again the kids did great on our flights! It seems that things were so busy though that we did not take any pictures of our family festivities. Which seems all too crazy since we usually take too many pictures! With Christmas approaching quickly, I am happy to report that most of the shopping has been completed. Audrey has asked Santa for a candy necklace and for the rest to be a surprise. She is anxious to go out shopping to pick out a gift for Ethan from her. I am excited to see what she decides to get!

As for Ethan is he cruising all over the place and can stand for about a minute. He then gets so excited, flaps his arms, and falls. He has not ventured to take any steps on his own. We are also practicing using a spoon. Which really means that he holds the spoon with one hand and scoops his yogurt out with the other hand. Very messy but fun to watch!


Breakfast with Santa this morning was a huge success! Kudos to Len for giving Ethan a candycane to distract him from the fact that he was on Santa's lap!

Curls

When Ethan's hair is wet he has the cutest curls! Then as it dries it just goes to wavy. Oh how I wish the curls would stay!!

Showing off his curls!

Dinner time, here he is just sporting his 'waves'.

Halloween and Tigger

The neighbors behind us set out a Halloween Tigger every year and we have taken Audrey's picture by it each Halloween night. She actually looks forward to standing by Tigger as do we! Look at how much our girl has grown!

Audrey at 18 months as Tigger

Audrey at 2 1/2 years as JoJo

Audrey at 3 1/2 years as a UGA cheerleader

Audrey at 4 1/2 as Annie

Halloween is in the air

We love Halloween!!! Audrey has been so excited this year. Over the summer she and Len saw a small scale production of "Annie" and Audrey was hooked immediately. We then bought the movie and the soundtrack. Since Audrey has learned the entire soundtrack and memorized the movie. Being Annie for Halloween was an obvious choice. And when deciding on Ethan, Audrey felt that Annie needed her dog, her best pal...Sandy!!! And Ethan plays the part perfectly!

Our little Annie

Look at me!

"Annie & Sandy" chatting

Ethan as "Sandy"...see he really does play the part so well!

Yum!

Ethan would much rather feed himself these days. I am not brave enough to hand over a spoon & bowl just yet but for now small pieces of food will suffice.

9 months and growing

Our little guy is growing up so fast. At his 9 month check-up today he weighed in at 22 pounds 9 ounces! The nurse called him our little "Buddha Baby". Ethan has two teeth, loves eating any kind of food, and absolutely loves playing with his sister and all of her toys. He is crawling everywhere he possibly can, pulling up toys & furniture and even trying to stand on his own from time to time. We have learned that nothing is unreachable! Ethan is still the happiest baby I know. He laughs and babbles to everyone around, his laughter and smiles are contagious.

Craziness

Ethan is now fully mobile and loves his new skill. However, he rarely finds toys to play with...he is more interested in tables, doors and Audrey. Oh the fun!

Ethan in his favorite spot under the table while Audrey plays at the table so that Ethan cannot reach her toys.

Ethan watching Audrey paint from under the table, again...his favorite spot.

Silly kid!

This time he was tugging at her skirt to get her attention, when it finally worked he did it over and over and over!

Meeting the Characters

A vacation to Disney World is truly magical, especially through the eyes of a child. Audrey's eyes were all aglow the entire week. And to our amazement she was speechless. Many of the princesses asked her if the "cat had gotten her tongue". She would hug them and just grin from ear to ear, while bouncing on her toes in excitement. She spoke very few words but her eyes and her smile told the story. She was in awe! It was wonderful to watch her light up. But also kinda funny to see her talk non-stop to us about everything and then clam up and just giggle when she met any of the characters. There are so many stories to tell from such a short week. And little Ethan was such a trooper. He also LOVED seeing the characters. But most of all he loved riding around in his stroller looking at all there was to see. He would scoot to the edge of his seat and just flap his arms and giggle as we walked around the parks. He laughed so much and out loud most of the time that he often drew his own crowd while waiting for his big sister to ride rides.

Magical

Gearing up for Halloween!

Our little "Annie"