Christmas at Home

So I missed my deadline yesterday to get my blog post done. Almost done with Twilight....it is consuming my life! Good thing there's only 3 more books to go (I think).

Anyhoo, after returning safely from Baton Rouge, we were hosting my family at our house for Christmas. Fortunately, we had everything pretty much done before we had left town, so other than grocery shopping there wasn't much prep work. Gommy, Poppa, and Laura (and their dog Rudy) showed up first, followed by Doug, Lynette, and Ada (and their dogs Brady and Jack) a few hours later. There wasn't room to park on the street (due to several feet of snow piled up in the street), so we played musical cars in the driveway and made room in the garage for the most important car...the "car with 2 seats", aka Jeep Hurricane, aka Santa's gift to the kids. Those things don't come pre-assembled, so good thing the guys started on it on the 23rd as it was quite the task. Meanwhile, the girls put together a whole house! Gommy and Poppa got Blythe a dollhouse that's practically life size. So we put together rooms and even some furniture.

So we were all set to open gifts on Christmas Eve (not Santa gifts though). There were LOTS of gifts opened and boy, can that be exhausting! Ethan loved all of his trucks...so much he had to sleep with one.

We all got my mom "Rock Band 2" for the Wii for Christmas, so we spent most of the day and night completely rockin it (on Easy level...sometimes Medium). Somewhere during that time, we also made it to church for the family service and then attempted to get photos of the kids all dressed up. But this is still almost impossible.

We read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the kids (regular version and Cajun version) and let the kids put out milk, cookies, and beer (hey, that's what Santa said he wanted).

The next morning, they were so surprised to find a car in the basement!

Unfortunately, the weather (freezing rain and ground already covered with icy snow) prevented them from driving it outside that day. We ventured out the next day and determined Blythe has a long way to go before driving it well. Ethan may actually catch on quicker. Until all this snow melts, we probably won't drive it much which is fine by me (because its freaking cold to stand out there!).

Overall, a great Christmas! It was so good to spend time with family, but it's also nice to almost be back to normal. If only the kids had school this week....

Christmas visit in Baton Rouge

Okay, so it's blog catch-up time. I'll only be able to post one tonight though because I'm now reading "Twilight" and it's consuming most of my free time.

So anyway, we'll go back in time to our visit to Baton Rouge. We really had a very nice visit after our struggle to get there. And it helped that it was in the 60's and beautiful while Blacksburg was digging out of 23 inches of snow.

One of highlights of our visit was a trip out to Global Wildlife Adventures (I think that's what it was called). It was about an hour drive to an area in the middle of nowhere. We turned in to the site and had to wait as some deer and zebra moved out of the way for us to get to the parking lot. So weird! We checked in and while we waited, we were able to pet a baby kangaroo named Skippy. So cute! Anyway, we had reserved a "Pinz", basically an off-roading jeep with all open windows so we could explore the land with our guide and feed the animals. We were able to get this close to the animals:

Seriously. That was a camel, by the way. We were able to feed the llamas, donkeys, and giraffes right out of our hands. We also fed the camels, deer, antelope, zebras, rhea (ostrich-like animals), buffalo, and cattle.

Blythe loved every second of it and loved feeding all of the animals. Ethan, however, was a bit scared and didn't feed any animals until the end when he finally warmed up to the giraffes.

Here we all are in our Pinz:

What a neat experience!

Besides our day out with the animals, we also had fun with the fireworks Peep bought and the hayride he set up. And I personally loved being able to sit outside in the sun for long periods of time without freezing my butt off!

Of course, we also had Christmas gift exchange and so the kids opened LOTS of presents. Most of them we had to ship back, so it'll be like opening them all over again when they get here!

The trip back was uneventful (thank goodness!) and other than Ethan being the extreme wiggle worm he is on an airplane, the kids were actually pretty good. We got home literally minutes before our company arrived for Christmas celebrations at our house, which will be my next post (hopefully tomorrow).

The snowstorm

Okay so we made it to Baton Rouge so I'll post about our activities here later when I can post some pics, but figured I'd start it off with our ordeal getting here.

Yes, we knew it was going to snow a lot and there was a chance our flight would get delayed or cancelled, but we never anticipated how the day would actually turn out. Up to the point when we left, weather reports said that it would snow 1-2 inches during the day on Friday and then 8-10 inches overnight in Blacksburg, so we figured if we just left a little bit early, we'd be able to last through the short delays a minor snowfall might cause. Thus, we left ill prepared to spend more than just a few hours in the car.

So we left the house at 2:30pm for our 8pm flight out of Charlotte (normally a 2 and a half hour drive). I saw the very first snowflakes at about 1:45pm, so we left shortly after it started snowing. Took us about 10 minutes to get about 1.5 miles away and saw 2 cars that had run off the road in that short distance. That should have been our indicator right there to turn around and go home. Add to that all of the people leaving the VT graduation that had occurred that morning, and we had ourselves a long trip down Hwy 460 (one that normally takes 10 minutes to get to the interstate). An hour later, we had made it to Christiansburg (5 miles) and decided to get off and get on the interstate another way. We only had to stop at a few lights, thank goodness, because getting going again was difficult (and we saw some cars that all together couldn't get the traction). Finally we made it to the interstate where we thought it seemed closed because there were no cars. Smooth sailing for all of 1 mile before stopped traffic. Took us another hour to go the next 5 miles, where we again decided to get off and bypass about 11 miles of the interstate. That way was faster, as we went those 11 miles in about 50 minutes, but also by then there was about 5 inches of snow on the ground and it was coming down fast, so we decided the interstate was the safest route. Again, at that point we were 20 minutes from our house, but it had taken use 3 hours to get there, so we should have turned back.

But we decided to forge ahead, thinking after we got down the mountain things would improve and we'll finally be able to go more than 20 mph. Unfortunately the conditions got worse and worse. About every mile, Braden would reach around and pull on the windshield wipers to remove the ice off of them. It was almost a complete white out and we couldn't see the road at all. After 5 hours on the road, we had made it off of the mountain and into North Carolina. We had stopped to get snacks and gas, but the stops were very quick as the snow was coming down hard. Just past the North Carolina border, COMPLETE standstill. Apparently a wreck, though we never found out for sure. But there we stayed for the next 6 HOURS! From 8pm to 2am. Ethan slept during that time and Blythe slept some of it. Braden and I did not.

Back at 5pm we had called the airline and rebooked on the next morning's flight, so at this point our goal was to make it for our 9:30am flight. Finally after 6 hours, we started moving. However, conditions were not much better. We drove in a forged out lane somewhere in the middle of the interstate in a single file going about 20 mph until we got just north of Charlotte. About 20 minutes from the airport, we were finally able to see the asphalt of the road and start to go at a normal speed. We made it to the airport at 5am....14 and a half hours after we started the journey. Our new flight was only a little bit late leaving, and after a terrible flight with 2 very tired kids (who had been awake since 2am) and 2 VERY tired parents, we were finally here.

My amazing husband drove the whole way eyes wide awake and hands gripped to the steering wheel. And yes, we drive a mini-van, but we weren't one of the 100 or so cars we saw that had run off the road. What an ordeal!

Watch out! The snow is falling!

Yikes! 12-18 inches of snow is what they are forecasting for Blacksburg Friday night and Saturday. Good thing we're getting outta here (and heading to Louisiana)! Hope we can make it outta here tomorrow! Maybe some of it will still be around when we get back and we can have some white on Christmas.

I'm keeping my optimistic hat on and praying we don't spend hours in an airport tomorrow night with 2 very tired children. Stay tuned...

Just another Big Box store

What could be more fun than a giant box?


Not only can you cut a door in it and make it a nice fort (capable of fitting an adult and 2 small children...uncomfortably at best), but you can also color it with markers and crayons and stab holes in it with child scissors and then have your kids argue over whose turn it is with the scissors so Blythe can stab more holes and Ethan can just "make holes" in the same spot that Blythe did and then push markers and other things through the holes. Great fun!!

Let's face it - I'm just procrastinating

So it's Monday and our 10 days of Christmas traveling/festivities start on Friday so there is SO much to do (namely cleaning, finish shopping, wrap ALL presents, give away these damn sugar cookies I made yesterday before I eat them all, and something else..can't remember...oh yeah, work...ugh - finish a very large project plan due by end of the week that I just started on Friday). So that seems like a lot of work, so instead I will blog.

Blythe and I started the weekend by going to the movies Friday evening to see "Princess and the Frog". Such a good movie! Blythe watched the whole thing. Part of the time in her seat and most of the time curled up in my lap. I think being in a dark theater just makes her tired. But she never falls asleep during a movie. Instead she fell asleep on the way home at 6:30! I was shocked actually. But anyway, we had a good time.

Saturday night the day care had a "Parents Night Out" where we could bring our kids there from 6:00-10:00 so Mommy and Daddy could have a date night. Or go to Target. And finish up shopping for Blythe's Christmas (Ethan is already done). And go to Walmart. To pick up the "Car with 2 seats" that Blythe has asked Santa for. Then go to our neighbor's to stash it in their garage. Then we did manage to make it to a restaurant for a fairly quick albeit nice dinner.

We have not gone to visit Santa at the mall this year. We did see him and wave to him one time at the mall, but Daddy wasn't with us, so we didn't have the "real" Santa visit. Instead we were waiting on "Brunch with Santa" at the Country Club that was scheduled for Sunday. Due to our beautiful icy weather, it was cancelled. Boo. So there may be no visits to Santa this year. Not that Blythe is asking. And not that Ethan is missing him (as I'm pretty sure he would freak out when we try to sit him on Santa's lap).

Newport News

After getting in town from Chicago last Thursday, we headed that night to Salem to see the Elmo Show (for our 3rd year in a row). Although the kids had a blast (Ethan obviously was at a much better age this year than last), I'd say the show itself was the worst of the last 3 years because the stage layout was different and the characters didn't come into the audience nearly as much. This was just fine with Ethan since he's afraid, but Blythe desperately wanted to hug them all (she did get to hug Telly Monster). Anyway, we all had a good time and the kids were exhausted afterwards.

On Friday we packed up and headed East. Clear across the state of Virginia over to Newport News (just a bit further than Williamsburg) to visit Ethan's godparents Tommy and Angie who just recently moved to a new house there. The house was beautiful and the kids loved playing with their dogs, a golden retriever named Goldie, and a chocolate lab mix that looked like a smaller version of our dog Juni. Doesn't matter what her real name is because our kids named her "mini Juni" for the weekend. Unfortunately the weather called for rain all day on Saturday (here in Blacksburg we missed the snow all day Saturday), so we were limited on our activities for the day. We decided to head to Virginia Beach to go to the Virginia Aquarium. Ethan LOVES aquariums and this one was no exception. Here he is in front of the seahorse exhibit.

Blythe loved it too because there were lots of big sea turtles (Marvin, Marvin's sister, Marvin's uncle, etc).

There is no Kohl's in our area, so after a trip to Kohl's in Newport News for some much needed Christmas shopping on Sunday, we packed up and headed home. Thanks to Tommy and Angie for a great weekend away!

The Thanksgiving Post

Okay, so Thanksgiving was almost 2 weeks ago, but hey, I'm barely keeping my head above the water here. The house is finally getting back to normal, Christmas decorations are slowly going up, we're still in process of Christmas shopping, and haven't wrapped a single thing. I did order Christmas cards yesterday. It'll be a miracle if we get them in and I get them all addressed and sent before Christmas.

So anyhoo, as for my Thanksgiving post. We headed to my parents on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, giving us almost a full day to just chill there before any holiday activities. While the others were cooking on Thanksgiving morning (Braden and I had cleanup duty instead), Poppa, Braden, and I took the kiddos to the local fire station. My dad used to volunteer there until recently but we were able to "sneak" in anyway and show the kids around. Ethan LOVED it (Blythe had been there once before, but still had a good time).

Ethan kissed the trucks all goodbye before we left and he wanted to watch my video clips of their trip to the fire station over and over and over again. He calls fire trucks "aba ducks", so he kept talking about the aba ducks for the rest of the trip.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. My pregnant self had lots of food. My very picky daughter had some sweet potatoes and rolls.

To get out of the house, we braved the largest mall in Charlotte (Concord Mills) on Black Friday. Thought the evening might be less crowded. Thought wrong. I bought not a single thing, except a train ride for the kids and dinner and a carousel ride for the kids. They also played in the Lego store and played on the mall playground. And then Ethan had a complete breakdown as we were leaving the mall (something that has now become very commonplace in the past couple of weeks). Terrible Two's...here we come.

Saturday we literally watched football all day long and were happy to do it. We took breaks only for eating, potty breaks, diaper changes, temper tantrums, and Miley Cyrus.

Then we headed home on Sunday feeling much more relaxed than we were a few days before! Ah, I love the holidays!

Still alive!

Okay - just a quick note to let you all know I am still alive. Just haven't been home. We headed to my parents for Thanksgiving, then a quick 12 hours I was home before heading to Chicago for 4 days for work. Home about 24 hours before Braden, the kids, and I drove to Newport News, VA to visit Ethan's godparents Tommy and Angie (oh, and we went to the Sesame Street Live Elmo Show during that 24 hour stint at home). And then got home yesterday evening. And now have SO much more work to do ("real" work and house work and getting-ready-for-Christmas work). I will blog more later starting with our Thanksgiving trip and then our Newport News trip.

Ethan goes pee on the potty!

Yesterday Ethan went pee pee on the potty (SUCH mom language, I know)! We've sat him on the little potty a couple of times after bath before and nothing happened. However, he's been very interested in other people going potty recently. Especially his friend Luke who was potty trained recently. When we were at their house on Friday, he followed Luke to the potty every time he had to go.

So anyway, yesterday morning was a lazy morning and Ethan had his jammies on for a while. He then started trying to take them off (which I helped him do). So then he was in just his diaper. And then he wanted to take off his diaper, which he never does, and fought me when I tried to get it back on him. Then he said something about potty, so I tried to put him on the potty downstairs, which he doesn't like (Blythe never liked that potty either...it's practically never been used). So, he was acting like he wanted to go on the potty upstairs. So I took him upstairs (all the while very concerned he was going to pee or poop all over the place). He got the potty out of the bathroom, picked it up, and acted like he wanted to bring it downstairs. I didn't let him and instead let him bring it to his room while I picked out clothes for him (hoping I could dress him and that would keep his diaper on). Next thing I know, he hops up from the potty and I look in there and he had gone! He was so happy with himself.

So a good accomplishment for Ethan! Not only that, but later before bed I got him undressed and he again acted like he needed to go. So he went and sat on his potty and again he went! Yay!

All that said, this does not mean we are starting to potty train. I do remember back when Blythe was about this age and we started putting her on the potty occasionally. She went every time we put her on it. So we thought potty training would be a breeze, which it was not (though she wasn't too terribly hard). But we are one small step in the right direction. There is hope of potty training before #3 gets here!

The Devil Wears Truck Jammies

Braden is currently out of town for a swim meet. On Wednesday, Blythe's daily sheet at school said she was "Grumpy" and "Tired". Then yesterday, Ethan's sheet said he was "Grumpy". Coincidence? I think not. I think they miss their Daddy.

As you can see from yesterday's post, Blythe continued being grumpy and tired after she got home. Ethan wasn't grumpy that day, but the second we walked through the door at home he became the devil child. Apparently this continued all the way through the school day yesterday, but ended when we were at Blythe's gymnastics class because he could play with his friend Luke. Unfortunately the second he got separated from Luke after class, he became the devil child again. Nothing a little McDonald's can't fix, right? Wrong. Screamed in McDonald's. Didn't want his chicken nuggets. Didn't want his apples. Only wanted Mommy's ice cream. So he screamed "ICE CREAM!" "IIIICCCCEEE CREEEAMMM!!!" "ICE CCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMM!" SO embarrassing. So I gave him some ice cream (Blythe too) thinking after that was out of sight, maybe he would eat his dinner. Nope. So basically Blythe and I both had to eat really fast so we could get out of there as quickly as possible.

Then he screamed in the car most of the way home.

I know what you're thinking. I was thinking it too. This would be the PERFECT night to switch him from the comforts and safety of his crib/toddler bed into his new big boy bed in his new big boy room. I mean, seriously, what was I smoking last night? But I moved over his monitor and his sound machine, and his books so he would be forced to sleep in that bed no matter what.

We sat in his new bed and read some stories, which he was fine with. And then I said, "now it's time to go to sleep". So he got out of his bed and went to the hall and started to walk to his old room. So I scooped him up and brought him back to his new room where I tried to force him to stay in his new bed, but he was screaming and crying. Finally I got up and left the room and closed the door with him screaming and crying at the door. I felt bad, but he was just going to have to wear himself out.

I went and tucked Blythe in and spent some time with her and once the crying stopped I went back into his room, hoping to find him asleep on the floor so I could just put him in bed. But I found him half asleep on the step stool up to his bed, so I tried to put him in bed again and again he fought, but this time he was much too tired. So finally he fell asleep on me and then after a while, I was able to move him off and leave the room.

But he did great. He did not fall out of bed and slept until normal time this morning. I had told Blythe last night to go into Ethan's room when she woke up this morning because he might not know where he is. She did exactly as I asked. Such a good big sister! And then when I went in there, I hyped it all up that he slept in his new big boy bed and he seemed very pleased with himself. SO - let's hope tonight goes a little smoother.

Oh, for the love...

Every now and then, I kind of second-guess our decision to have a 3rd.

Ethan's shoes

Ethan is quite particular about his shoes these days. Used to be that I would put him in his Nike tennis shoes almost every day. Sometimes the brown "church" shoes if he was wearing khakis or something nice.

But nowadays he refuses to wear the Nike shoes. I will ask him to go get his shoes and every time (if they are in the basket), he will bring back his brown sandles that were hand-me-downs from his friend Luke. He will hand them to me and say "Yook". When it's only 50 degrees out, sandals aren't quite practical, but if he finds them he MUST wear them, so socks and sandals it's been. They don't quite fit with socks though. So now I must hide them.

This means when he searches for shoes, he will then bring back the brown "church" shoes, also hand-me-downs from Luke. So again, he will bring them to me and say "Yook". Since he was wearing a football jersey and matching football sport pants this morning, brown church shoes really would look ridiculous. So I tried to force the Nikes. But he was NOT having it. He would grab them from me and throw them across the room.

Fortunately he had some tennis shoes in his closet that were a size bigger that were hand-me-down's from Frank (our next door neighbor). So these were perfectly fine to wear. And then he would point at his shoes and say "Fank".

Lesson learned - he only likes hand-me-downs. So if I do buy him new shoes, I just need to tell him they were someone else's.

12 weeks 5 days ultrasound

I had an ultrasound this morning as part of the "quad" test to test for down syndrome and other things. This was new for me - the last 2 pregnancies they only did ultrasounds at 7 weeks and at about 18 weeks, but I guess things continue to change and progress medically. So anyway, I'm 12 weeks and 5 days along. All looked good on the ultrasound. Baby is measuring at 13 weeks 1 day along, so appears I'm on my way to another large baby.

Confirmed baby has 2 legs and 2 arms (always good). Brain looks good, as does heart, bladder, blood flow, etc. We were even able to count all 10 fingers on the baby.

And I had more blood drawn for more tests (results in 7-10 days). Always fun to do that!

So, everything appears to be right on track. I'm almost at the end of my first trimester and unfortunately the nausea still has not gone away. 6 weeks of nausea is not fun. According to my very accurate bathroom scale, I have gained about 8 pounds. That's high for a "regular" person on the first trimester, but low for me (I think). Appears you can still gain weight even if nothing ever sounds good to eat.

Anyway, here are a couple of pics from the ultrasound. On the second one, you can see baby waving (and you can see all 5 fingers).

Sickly weekend

Ah, the joys of having a sick child. I got the daycare call on Friday that Ethan had a fever. I wasn't really surprised since he hadn't eaten much on Thursday night or Friday morning, so I had the sneaky suspicion he might be getting sick.

Once he got home and had some Tylenol, he started to feel much better and played and acted somewhat normal and even ate okay at dinner. But Saturday morning I went in his room and saw he had thrown up in his bed (and on the carpet) and on himself. And he had a fever again. And he was coughing. Poor guy. Again, after he had some Tylenol he acted almost normal. Throughout the day you could tell he didn't feel well, but still played outside and interacted pretty well. Then Sunday he woke up with a fever again. And I think he threw up a little, but it was mostly mucus. And he had the chills and looked downright miserable. Later in the day he started looking like he was feeling better, but by nightime the fever had returned. So there was no sending him to school today. Fortunately he slept much better last night and had no fever this morning or at all today, so looks like he is on the mend. He still has a very small appetite, which is unusual for him. So, based on all the symptoms, if I had to guess I'd say he has the flu. Whether it's H1N1, I don't know. He hasn't been vaccinated for seasonal or H1N1.

Anyway, I'm praying his sister doesn't get it since she spent the whole weekend with him, and it's impossible to keep them from putting things in their mouths and from switching drinks, etc. And of course hoping I don't get it (though I have been vaccinated for H1N1).

Nail clipping

Blythe actually asked me yesterday to cut her nails because they were getting too long. Apparently this means she has stopped biting her nails! Fingernails, that is. If only we could get her to stop biting her toenails.

And since Blythe was WANTING her nails cut, Ethan then wanted his cut too. Unfortunately I had just done his a few days ago (except Ethan wasn't exactly willing to at the time, so it was a typical torturous nail clipping session). Next time I want to cut his, now I know to get Blythe to ask to have hers done first.

Now, if only we could get Ethan to stop biting....his sister and his friends....then we might have a real breakthrough.

Grams visits

Grams (aka Braden's mom) came to visit us last Thursday and stayed until yesterday. We had asked her to come and help since my work and Braden's work both got pretty crazy at the same time, plus I had a baby shower to go to in Charlotte on Saturday (while Braden had a meet here in Blacksburg). She was a HUGE help while she was here. Currently all the kids clothes are washed AND put away and the kids rooms are actually clean. Wait, they trashed Ethan's room this morning. So - Blythe's room is actually clean.

I had 2 projects on Friday going live and Braden had a meet, so I was so glad she was here as I was trying to troubleshoot at 7:00pm. I would have been getting mad at the kids for not letting me work if that were not the case. Saturday, I drove down to Charlotte in the morning to attend a baby shower for my good friend Sue (Blythe's godmother), who is expecting her first in just a few weeks! The weather was great so we had a good time just hanging out after the shower and catching some rays before I drove back to Blacksburg that evening. Meanwhile, Grams was here with the kids and they went to the swim meet at the end so the kids could swim in a swim clinic. Ethan didn't really want to swim, but apparently Blythe did great. Then they headed over to a team dinner and it was back home and they were TIRED (Grams included!).

Sunday was gorgeous out, so we took the opportunity to clear out the garage so Braden can now park his car in there (and just in time for the 3 days of rain).

Thanks to Grams for coming to help out! We'll miss you!

Ethan's new room

After we found out we were expecting, we started working on Ethan's new room. Since we only wanted to decorate a nursery once, we originally decorated it in gender-neutral colors with farm animal theme. It's starting to grow a little old on me, but we sure aren't going to redecorate it, so we live with the farm animals. Also to make it "girly" we put a pink changing pad cover on and switched the lamp shade to pink. When Ethan was born, we switched them to blue cover and blue lampshade. And that's the extent of the redecorating for that room.

Ethan's new room used to be the guest room. We now moved the guest room to the basement where it is a guest room/exercise room. We also kicked the dogs out of that room in the basement. It's better to have the guest room down there anyway as that room has it's own bathroom, so guests no longer have to remove the 50+ toys from the tub and figure out how to get the bathtub in shower mode without removing the duck tub faucet cover. They also get real towels instead of duck towels.

So, after we cleared out the guest room upstairs, we painted the room blue. We already had the humongous headboard that we had made for the guest room up on the wall and it was way too big for a queen bed (because we never measured it when we made it), we thought we should keep it up and set up a bed against the wall kind of like a day bed. Turns out the headboard is even a little bigger than the long side of a twin bed. But not by too much. We didn't really want to get a day bed since we wanted the option to turn the bed later, so instead we opted for 2 headboards that we put on each side. We bought them unfinished, so 2 weeks of staining, drying, polyurethane, drying, sanding, etc and they were ready to attach.

In the meantime, Braden started hanging all the penants that he has gotten for Ethan. They are now out of the nursery, where they never belonged, and into the cool boy's room where they are much more fitting.

So here is the almost finished product:

I still need to get a couple of large baskets to hold toys and books and we're going to put more shelves in the closet. After that, he'll be ready to move in.

Halloween

This year's Halloween was a good one. We started the day with a neighborhood Halloween event at lunchtime that had food, games, face painting, and playing on the playground in our costumes so they could get dirty and Mom would have to clean them. It started to rain a little just at the end, actually while we were on our way home.

Ethan went down for a nap just as Gommy, Poppa, and Laura arrived. Blythe had no nap, so we were a little worried how she would hold up, but lots of candy seemed to do the trick (but made for a hard crash later in the night).

As the day wore on, we started to get prepped for the night. Braden carved 3 more pumpkins to say B-O-O and hung up a few more Halloween lights I forgot we had. He also made himself into Wolverine using foil-covered chopsticks and some face paint. Here's our finished product of our front porch (and of course, we also had scary music playing).

Gommy did Blythe's hair in a french twist and she got to wear a little bit of makeup. A crown and a dress, and whollah - Cinderella.

A far cry from last year's scary skeleton.

Ethan also got to wear makeup (face paint that is) to become a scary (okay, cute) tiger.

Here's another cute one of the 2 of them

Ethan was tired of taking pics and really wanted to start his trick or treating, so I think we were the first ones out in the neighborhood, but others soon followed. The rain held off for trick-or-treating and both kids made it all the way around the outer and inner circles of the neighborhood and gots lots of candy. We managed to get rid of all 3 large bags of candy we bought. Needless to say, both kids were quite tired!

As is typical of Fall Back (i.e. end of Daylight Savings), we had a great night of sleep on Saturday night. Then this morning Blythe was up at 6:15am. Just can't win.

No costume vote for Blythe

There will be no costume vote for Blythe this year. She was uncooperative last week when we tried to take pics in different costumes and this week I have not had time to retry. Oh well. She really only has one costume to wear anyway. She is going to be Cinderella. I'll be sure to take lots of pics on Saturday and post them.

And I made it to 10 weeks along before I had to break out the maternity clothes. Seriously? I thought only people having multiples had to wear maternity clothes at 10 weeks. I'm probably going to be huge this time around. I guess I could keep wearing my regular clothes and just unbutton (and unzip) them. I should invest in some Bella bands so maybe I actually can do that. Problem is that the other times I was pregnant, at this stage it was summer so I could wear stretchy skirts or athletic shorts. For winter, I swear all I own are jeans and those are quite unforgiving. Alas, I will be wearing maternity clothes for the next 7 months.

Saturday with Nana

Well, looks like Tiger was the winner on the costume vote for Ethan. Good thing, since that's what I was planning he be anyway. He's not old enough yet to really pick his costume (like Blythe did last year). Maybe we'll break out the face paint and paint a nose and whiskers on him. Anyway, I need to take another costume pic of Blythe and then I'll post her vote.

So, for today I'll talk about last weekend. We were supposed to go to Gommy and Poppa's house for a weekend visit because my Nana was in town visiting from Texas. She's 90, sharp as a tack, and clearly able to fly from Texas to North Carolina on her own. It had been 3 years I think since we'd seen her. She had met Blythe was Blythe was young, but not Ethan or Ada. Unfortunately my mom got sick (could have been H1N1) and we don't want my pregnant self or any of the young kids to get that, so we instead went to Doug and Lynette's house and my dad, Nana, and Laura met us there. We had a nice visit on Saturday hanging out at the house while the cousins played. We said goodbye on Saturday night and they drove home and we stayed the night. I didn't get any pics from Saturday as I relied on my dad and brother and sister-in-law (aka everyone else) to take pics.

Sunday we spent the morning carving our pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch earlier this month. We brought them so we could get it done. Here were are all at work as a family affair.

Here's what we carved (and I'm not good at taking jack-o-lantern pics):

Pretty scary, huh?

Afterwards, we tried to get some good pics of Ethan to replace the not-so-good ones from daycare, but he was a tough cookie to crack. He's not smiling, but this one still turned out pretty cute.

After some Mexican food for lunch (mmmm....mexican food....craving cheese enchiladas), we hit the road and drove home. We had a great weekend! Thanks for hosting last minute Doug and Lynette!

Vote on Ethan's costume

Here are the options on Ethan's Halloween costume this year. Blythe's poll will be next week. Please vote! See right hand side of blog page. It's completely anonymous, so even if you're afraid I might find out you're reading my blog, I won't. But I want lots of votes!!

Option #1: Skeleton

Option #2: Monkey

Option #3: Tiger

Crazy morning

Whew! This morning was a doozy. As is a typical morning, I went into Ethan's room and found him sitting in his chair looking at books. He's so cute doing that because he brings his blanket "bubba" with him and makes a stack of books next to him and goes through each one. So I sat with him a while and looked at books with him. Then I picked out his clothes and attempted to change him. But he had other ideas! He wanted SO bad to stay in his spiderman jammies. "Pidey...pidey" he kept yelling. I finally got him changed and then he kept going and getting the spiderman shirt and trying to put it back on himself. Finally I lured him away over to Blythe's room. Upon entering her room, I found her in her princess jammies, with Barbie princess dress over it, pink princess shoes, a sparkly headband, and a wand. Oh, and a necklace. She hadn't gone potty yet, so I made her go and she managed to get all of that off, go potty, put it all back on, and come back all within about 1.5 minutes. I picked out her clothes and then we were finally able to go downstairs to eat. Good thing...I was starving! Pregnant girl needs to eat! (though apparently not as much as I have been...gaining weight way to quickly).

Anyway, 4 or 5 threats to change the channel off of cartoons since Blythe wasn't eating her breakfast and I finally did have to change the channel. Ethan was finished and busy playing with the dishwasher while I was then trying to get Blythe to change into her school clothes. And of course, these days Blythe cries about EVERYTHING. So she's crying. Ethan then starts crying because he's trying to close the dishwasher (liked I asked him to do), but he got it off track so it won't close. Finally I had to scream. And I know you're not supposed to because then you just raise kids who scream, but I think it's already too late for that. So then they both were REALLY crying. We got shoes on, coats on, and finally got in the car. Where it was dead silent for most of the way to school. Ahhh....

Long weekend

This past weekend was one LONG weekend. Seeing as how I'm at the peak of my yuckiness feeling right now and the weather was cold and gross and Braden was out of town on Saturday, I knew Saturday would be a difficult day. We didn't have anything planned and so actually Blythe stayed in her jammies most of the day. You'd think that would be a pretty easy day but nowadays my patience is like zero and the 2 of them fight all the time. The #1 thing to fight over - me. And I'm with them all.day.long. So there's a lot of fighting. We did manage to make it over to Chick-fil-a for dinner (just so the kids would have some play time on some form of play equipment). Ethan can now climb up there. Takes him a long time, unless he's assisted by his sister. When Blythe was around his age and able to climb up there by herself, she wouldn't come down and I'd have to either go get her or ask another kid to. So I was a little afraid. But he did good and followed his sister down the slide.

Braden got home Saturday night so finally I was relieved to have some help! Unfortunately, it was short lived as he came down with something on Saturday night. I thought it was swine flu since many of his athletes have gotten it, but it doesn't appear to be as he never developed most of the flu symptoms. But he was still quarantined to the basement for all of yesterday. Today he is feeling better.

So other than church, we again had no plans for yesterday. Another long day and so I was relieved to have it be Monday and I could take my kids to school today.

Picture Day

Ethan and Blythe had picture day at school this week. It's been quite a while since they had pictures made, so I was hoping they'd turn out good. Blythe said, "I was beautiful in mine because I smiled pretty". And she was right. Her pictures turned out very nice. See proofs:

Ethan on the other hand did not take very good pictures. Pretty bad when one of the "best" ones they picked out is him looking at a fake pumpkin. So, I think I might need to take him into the portrait studio to give it another shot. Here's his proofs:

Blah

I've never actually thrown up during the first trimester of any of my pregnancies. I've always just felt like I would most of the time for weeks on end. During my first pregnancy I thought maybe I'd feel better if I did (like when you're hung over), but I quickly realized that even if I pulled the trigger, it wouldn't make the feeling go away.

This morning was the closest I got to actually doing the deed. It was only because my stomach was empty that I didn't. So instead, it was dry heaving over the toilet. Awful. I haven't even had morning sickness so far. It's been "night sickness", meaning I feel progressively worse throughout the day and then I usually wake up fine in the morning. If only I actually liked the taste of ginger ale, maybe I might actually drink it. Oh, these first trimester weeks go by so slowly...

Back by popular demand....

...another pumpkin patch post! Sinkland Farms has gotten enough of my money for this year! I went back today for Blythe's school field trip. First there was an attempt to take a class photo.

Hey, if they don't have someone right there to greet us as soon as we get there, we can't guarantee the pumpkins and hay that were set up nicely for a group photo will still be that way after Blythe's class is through with them.

Nor can we guarantee all of the kids (or even most of the kids) will actually look at the camera.

Anyhoo, afterwards we took our hayride out to the pumpkin patch. This time there were no potty issues, so Blythe took her time searching for the right pumpkin. She ran to the farthest end you could go to and selected a pumpkin. Then she said, "here Mom, you carry it". To which my reply was, "Nope - it's you're pumpkin. You carry it.". So she decided she didn't want that pumpkin and instead picked out one much closer to the tractor hay ride.

After the hayride it was time to pet the animals. Unlike her brother, Blythe has no fear of the animals and tried to encourage her classmates to pet them as well.

She pet Maude, the 2289 lb horse (THAT'S a big horse!), pet the donkeys, and harrassed the girl holding the bunny to pet. She also fed the goats.

Another fun trip to the pumpkin patch, but I am DONE for this year! Until next year pumpkin patch!

Ethan's pumpkin patch field trip

2 pumpkin patch trips down, 1 to go. Today Ethan had his pumpkin patch field trip and what's more fun than 11 toddlers picking out pumpkins? Actually, there were more adults than kids, so it was a really nice trip for the little guys. We loaded into the hayride to head to the kids pumpkin patch (where they grow little pumpkins) and of course, really enjoyed seeing the tractor at work pulling us all. Once there, Ethan wandered around looking for the perfect pumpkin (which he seemed to think were the small green ones). Walking through all those vines makes it a bit difficult on the little ones. I tried to shoot some video but was worried he might fall into the thorny vines, so I only got a short one.

Afterwards I found it a bit difficult to handle Ethan and 2 pumpkins (yes, I got a pumpkin too...we're working on creating our own pumpkin patch at home). So, I headed towards the car. Ethan was kind of following me, but on the way, the hayride driver asked Ethan if he wanted to drive the tractor. Apparently he was the first kid to get to drive a tractor at the pumpkin patch so far this year. So they drove to the parking lot while I walked there.

We visited the animals, which Ethan loves to see. He pretends he wants to pet the horse, but when you bring him close, he shies away. He got a little too close to the turkeys and one tried to bite him. Anyway, after a quick lunch they were headed back to the daycare for nap time. Fun trip and I'll be going back again tomorrow with Blythe's class!

One Day...

One day...I will no longer be able to blog about Blythe. She will be too "cool" for that and will not be happy with me if I write things online about her that her friends might be able to read and make her look less cool than she actually perceives herself to be. So what will I do?

I will blog about Ethan.

But one day....he too will be trying to impress some girls at school and will not want me writing to the world about how cute he is and about those awkward moments. What's a blogger to do?

Well, blog readers, I will write about #3.

Yes indeedy, we are expecting number 3 around May 28 next year. I am 7 weeks along and feeling fabulous. Okay, actually nauseous, bloated, and generally crappy, but you know...fabulous.

Actually, I'll be blunt. I do not like being pregnant. So a warning now that for the next 7.5 months my blogs might be filled with "minor" complaints about how yucky I feel. Sorry.

But my goal this time is not to gain more than 40 pounds. I'm off to a not so great start as I have already gained 3 pounds. I'm thinking of continuing this "exercise" thing during at least some of this pregnancy instead of sitting around on my ass like I did with the other 2. So maybe that will help.

But anyway, we went to the doctor yesterday and everything looks good so far. Only 1 baby, so that's a relief!

Well, time to get back to thinking about food working.

A day at the pumpkin patch

On Saturday we headed over to Sinkland Farms for our annual visit to the pumpkin patch. Actually, it's my first of 3 visits this year (both kids have field trips there scheduled). As soon as we got there, we went right over to the pony rides since we figured there'd be a line there later. So Blythe got to ride "Moon" the pony.

Moon was a little anxious while she was riding him because in the fenced area of the farm, the biggest horse we'd ever seen was quite unhappy about being tied up temporarily to the fence and so he broke the fence, which caused quite a commotion. But Moon did okay and Blythe had herself a nice pony ride that she can talk about until next year.

Afterwards we headed over to the petting zoo to pet the cow, sheep, goats, donkeys, turkeys, bunnies, and chickens. Oh, and pigs. Except you're not supposed to pet or feed them. They bite. Ethan loves seeing the animals, but he's a little on edge around them. The sheep got him jumping pretty good.

Then it was time for the hayride down to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. As expected, Ethan loved the tractor ride. We should have asked Blythe if she had to potty BEFORE we got out there, as she said she needed to go only a few minutes into our search for the perfect pumpkin. So she and I flagged down the next tractor back and headed to the port-o-john. Which left Braden out in the pumpkin patch carrying Ethan in his arms and 1 large pumpkin. Except when then came back he actually had 2 pumpkins. I still can't figure out how he managed to carry Ethan and 2 pumpkins. We played around on some other tractors. Accidentally hit a button on the camera and this one came out black and white, but seems kind of appropriate.

Blythe was the picture of white trash in this photo:

And we didn't get Ethan to look in this photo, but it turned out nice of me with my new haircut, so I'm posting it anyway.

After a super cheap lunch of BBQ, hot dogs, chips, and dessert, we called it a day and headed home. Ethan was exhausted. Clearly Blythe was not as this is how she woke up from her "nap":

A day out with Thomas

Last Friday, the kids and I drove to Gommy and Poppa's for the weekend (Braden had recruits in, so had to stay in town). On Saturday my mom and sister along with the kids and I headed to Spencer, NC to the transportation museum to see Thomas the Train (the REAL one!). We had bought tickets before the event and it's a "rain or shine" event, so even though it was misting we still went and it was still fun. Could have been worse, here in Blacksburg it dumped rain for 4 straight hours during the VT/Miami football game.

Anyway, first up was the train ride on the big train with Thomas as the steam engine.

It was about a 25 minute train ride, which I wasn't sure how Ethan would do, but he was glued to the window the whole time, waving to the passersby and having a great time.

After the train ride, we followed the signs to see Bob the Builder, which Blythe was very excited about. Before getting there, we stopped for some temporary tattoos and Blythe got one of Bob the Builder so she could be his #1 fan. Ethan got one of Thomas the train, which is apparently not so temporary as he still has it on his arm with no fading whatsoever.

We got to the Bob the Builder show just as it had started and Blythe had a great time right at the front wishing so badly she could get right up on stage.

Afterwards, we skipped out on the magic show and Blythe and Laura colored and did stamps while Ethan played with the Brio train set for a good 30 minutes (and I still had to pry him away).

On the way out we stopped to see a band that the kids could participate in. We got there after the tamborine song, but just in time for the bongo song. We were bummed Blythe didn't win a prize for her superb bongo playing skills, so we left before the maraca song.

A stop into the gift shop for some overpriced stickers and toys and then we were done with our day out with Thomas. Despite the weather, it was a lot of fun and something we'll definitely do again. Thanks Gommy and Laura for going with us!

No broken toes

Well, after spending 3 hours at the after hours clinic, the results are in and Ethan does not have any broken toes. Though he continues to limp around as if he did.

It all started yesterday at Gommy's house when Ethan wanted to jump off the short window ledge. He landed wrong and instantly would not walk on it. He crawled around for a while and eventually (after we wrapped it in an ACE bandage), he would walk on his heel, but not his toes. It was the same this morning and then at lunch at daycare today he fell off his chair (a whopping 6 inches off the ground) and then wouldn't walk on his foot again. Eventually he did, but we still wanted to get it checked out just in case.

So no permanent damage, just a hurt foot. Phew!

At our house, all we can do is pretend

Making cookies

For some reason on Sunday I decided it would be good idea to make sugar cookies from scratch and the kids could help me. What this means is that both kids have to sit on the counter and watch me make the cookies. I have to make sure I have all ingredients out ahead of time or Ethan might fall on the floor while I head over to get one I forgot.

I only made half the recipe because my crappy food processor doesn't hold much, and quite frankly, I'm the one home all day stopping every time I'm in the kitchen to grab yet another cookie. To make the cookies, I mix all of the ingredients together and add half of the flour. At this point, that means all of the butter and sugar is in there, so it tastes pretty good. Which Ethan found out quickly by sticking his hand in there. And then he kept wanting to do that. Even after I added the second half of flour and hadn't mixed it yet. Then he was eating a handful of flour. Yuck! So, he succeeded in "helping" me by making a really big mess.

And then I wouldn't let him have any more cookie dough, so he transformed into evil child and cried all the way through lunch and didn't stop until he went down for a nap. Nice.

Blythe's gymnastics class

Blythe started gymnastics again last week. But this time it's a class with no parent participation. Yay! And it's an hour long instead of 30 minutes. Actually parents aren't even allowed in there - we have to watch through windows upstairs. And all of that means...she might actually learn something!

So in preparation, I needed to buy her a gymnastics outfit. Thank you Target!

And her friends Ginsey and Ashley are also taking the class. Ginsey got the same outfit.

So just because you LOOK like a gymnast, doesn't mean you actually are one. BUT - take a look at this video...watch carefully and I'm sure you will be amazed at the split second Blythe actually balances on the balance beam with only one leg.

Seriously, people. She's not even 4 yet. What do you expect?

Okay, so that's just ridiculous.

Ethan's toddler bed

We changed over Ethan's crib to a toddler bed.

Yesterday was the third morning in a row that he climbed out of his crib. I actually opened his door just in time to see him do it. Took him all of maybe 1 second to climb out of his crib, like he'd been doing it for years. So even though he is now a seasoned professional, he could still get hurt, so toddler bed it is.

He did quite well in his new bed last night. We put him down and he stayed in his bed for a while. Then he got out and wandered around and Braden went in there, put him back in his bed and told him it was bedtime and he needed to go to sleep. And there he stayed until about 7 this morning. When he got up, he just sat in his bed for a while. I saw him on the monitor get out of bed, but then he went back and just sat some more until I came and got him. Hopefully he stays that easy. Naptime on the weekend could be a challenge, but napping at day care has prepared him since he just sleeps on a mat on the floor.

one more surprise

I did have one more trick up my sleeve for Braden's birthday. Ethan's godparents Tommy and Angie were unable to make it out for the weekend so I had also secretly arranged for them to come see Braden on his actual birthday (Monday) and we could all go out to eat. Again, Braden suspected nothing, and when someone came through our front door suddenly about 30 minutes BEFORE the babysitter was supposed to be here, Braden was like, "What? Who's walking into our front door?" He hadn't seen Tommy in a while, so he was very happily surprised. We had an awesome dinner at Poor Billy's (where I ate "pretend" sushi and it was delicious) and then called it a night.

So thanks also to Tommy and Angie for helping make Braden's 30th so special. All that planning was quite exhausting. I think I bought myself at least 10 or so years before I have to give it that much effort again. Phew!

And then the monkeys attacked

I was in a deep sleep this morning (deep enough to not hear the monitor that I have turned down to very low volume), dreaming I was in the woods on a nice stroll when I suddenly heard a commotion. In my dream it sounded like monkeys. They sounded far away though. Then out of nowhere the monkeys attacked me! And turned on the lights! And sat on my face with a poopy diaper! What?? Oh, these monkeys are my children. What a way to wake up...a light shining right in my face and the oh, so fresh smell of smooshed poop 6 millimeters from my face.

Then reality sunk in. How did Ethan get into my bed? Braden had left for morning practice hours earlier and was not home. Apparently, this is how the little monkey broke loose:

• He somehow climbed out of his crib (quietly and covertly)
• He went to his door and did the secret knock to alert his sister down the hall that it was go time for his planned escape
• Blythe heard the secret knock and came to his aide opening the door to his bedroom
• According to what Blythe said, Ethan then told her he wanted to go into my room (either he suddenly can speak in sentences, or he said, "mommy" and she interpreted the rest).
• Blythe then opened my door, they both bombarded the place and Ethan climbed into the bed and sat on my face

Crap. Gone are the days when I would wake up and take my sweet time in the bathroom, brushing my teeth, putting on makeup, brushing my hair, getting dressed, all while listening to Ethan on the monitor talking in his crib and playing with his stuffed animals because he is confined to his crib and can't get out. My life will never be the same (queue the violin music now...)

Braden's 30th birthday weekend

Finally I can blog about Braden's 30th birthday surprise weekend I had planned! The secrets were killing me (I'm a terrible secret keeper). I started planned a couple of months ago I think. I wanted to get several of Braden's friends to come for the weekend and also wanted Doug, Lynette, and Ada to join us. And as an extra special bonus, my cousin Sarah and her husband Derek had been trying to make it up here (from Dallas) for a visit for quite some time, so we coordinated it all together. There was a home football game, so the next big hurdle was finding enough tickets for most of us to go. That was quite a task, that took well over a month to finalize. Another issue was parking and tailgating for the game. We have one parking pass, but had way too many people for only 1 car. So eventually I ended up with 3 passes, so we got to choose (and ended up with a GREAT tailgate spot...thanks Amy!!). Then there was the food issue (where to put it all so Braden doesn't know what's going on...thanks again Amy!). And lastly, the issue of Braden coming home from practice at 10:15am to get ready to tailgate, meaning I have to get everyone here before then (and they all drove from Raleigh - 3-3.5 hours away!).

Anyway, it turned out to be a SUPER AWESOME weekend. Braden was completely surprised, and the weather turned out amazing. We got to tailgate for a couple of hours and then head to the game (Blythe got to go and Braden's friend Magnus's son went too). Despite it not being a very competitive game, they all had a blast. We grilled out on Saturday and hung at the house, then rested up for an eventful Sunday. Here's a few pics from Saturday.

Sunday was another beautiful day, so we called over to Claytor Lake to see if they had any pontoon boats to rent for a couple of hours. They did, so we reserved one, then packed up our picnic lunch and headed over to Claytor Lake to cruise the lake and get some rays. On the way over there, they called and said some other group wanted the boat we had reserved, so they'd give us the bigger one for the same price. This pontoon had a sink, table and chairs, and even a bathroom! We toured almost the whole lake, and despite Ethan crying most of the time because he didn't want to wear his life jacket, we all had a really nice time. Afterwards we hung out at the playground and beach area before our Raleigh and Dallas visitors had to say goodbye and drive home. Here are some pics from Clayor Lake:

Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a special weekend! Doug, Lynette, Ada, Sarah, Derek, Magnus, Christian, Greg, Grant (wish you could have stayed through the whole weekend!), Amy (for parking and food storage!), B'easy (for football tickets and parking pass), Jayme (for football tickets), Nick (for tickets), Braden's boss Ned (for freeing up Braden's schedule as much as possible...they had lots of recruits in!), and my mom and sister (for cooking and cleaning almost my whole house!). I'm sure I left out some, but it was definitely a group effort and was all well worth it!