Kimberly Mae

Today we welcomed another new member into our extended family! We have a new niece, Kimberly Mae (born to my sister,Karen, and her husband, Rod).


Kimberly was born at 10:01 this morning and weighs 8lbs 9oz. She has quite a bit of hair and is absolutely adorable!


She had her eyes wide open and kept sucking on her hands. Not at all interested in napping!


I loved her hat--maybe because there are no similar accessories around our house!

Happy Birthday, Micah!

Dear Micah,

Today is your fourth birthday. Once again, a wonderful year has quickly flown by! I asked you the other day if you really had to turn four--you told me "no", but then added that you could turn five instead. Thanks, but that's not what I had in mind!


Over the past year you have continued to blossom into an awesome boy. Many times you are incredibly silly, mostly because you love to make everyone laugh. You have a laugh that is absolutely contagious. If you're laughing, I can't help but start. You love to dance silly and tell jokes. If you can get someone to start laughing, your face lights up and you make sure to keep being silly!


You love to be a little helper. You help me bake and will do chores with me around the house. I think you understand that there are things I need to do around the house and you prefer to be with me and help me. Your favorite way to help is the baking. You taste most of the ingredients (though you stopped tasting the flour after a while!) and love to add things after I measure. Dad and I found you "Micah-sized" utensils--you search the drawer for your spatula or whisk so that it's easier for you to help. You also love to get your tools out so you can help dad on his projects. Any time you can offer your assistance you are more than willing to do so!


You talk almost non-stop now. Your dad says you get that from me! You still have trouble with certain consonants and blends of certain letters, but we love it because we think it's adorable. Sometimes we ask you to say certain words over and over again just because it's so cute. We most often ask you to say "scissors" because you can't--you call them "nizzers". You also used to say "milky" instead of "monkey". Unfortunately for us, you've finally learned to correctly say that word!


I can hardly believe it, but you'll start Preschool in the fall. You can't wait and often talk about going to "Ethan's school". Sometimes you put a backpack on and tell me you are ready for school. You may be ready to go, but it was hard for me to enroll in Preschool! You're doing well at writing your name. It's fun to see your writing randomly show up on papers. You are so proud when we praise you for your letters! You still love to read books. Sometimes you will flip carefully through them yourself, but you still love to bring us stacks of books to read. You ask me all the time to go to the library and ask what books I brought you from work whenever I get home.


Your imagination is incredible. You love to pretend with your Playmobil, Legos, trains, and race cars. Your dad and I can hardly convince you to take down your train track. Often within a day of it being dismantled you are asking us to put it together for you again. You'll also sit for a long time and play castle with your Playmobil people. Ethan can get you to immediately stop what you're doing if he asks you to play Legos. You also love to play games--you're an incredible Uno player and you love to play Sorry with us.


You love, love, love your big brother. You've turned into a wonderful playmate and you play together really well (at least most of the time). This past year you started sharing a room--bunk beds, with you on the top. The two of you will chat for quite a while if we let you. There is often lots of laughter coming out of your room when you should be sleeping. For the first few weeks that you were sharing a room, you woke Ethan up every morning when you woke up (because you are always the first one up!). He always cheerfully got up when you woke him! This past year we told you that you would be a big brother. You don't always seem to totally understand what that means, but you are excited when you talk about the new baby (which you refer to as a girl). Dad and I are looking forward to seeing you in your role as a big brother.


You've learned a lot this year about Jesus. Every Sunday you are excited to go to church because you get to go to "kids church". You love the class for your age group and are not happy with us if we have to miss a Sunday. Every night you love to pull out the Bible story book. Your favorite ones are the stories that Ethan reads the words and you get to help by reading the pictures. Dad and I can see that you understand more and more Bible stories and we love to hear you sing your favorite songs from church. You have a heart that praises God and it is amazing to see.

My Micah, we love you so much. Happy Birthday!

Love,

Mom

30 weeks

It's hard to believe I'm this far along already. This pregnancy seems to be flying by! I'm getting a little more uncomfortable each day, but I guess that's to be expected at this stage of a pregnancy! I decided I better make sure I have at least one pregnant belly shot--something for the baby book before I feel like I'm really huge! They are timer shots, so only slightly awkward!


All of my doctor's appointments have been quick and routine. Just what I like at this stage! Beginning in April, I'll switch to every two weeks and then every week in May.


This baby is a busy one--I don't remember either of the boys being this busy, so I don't know if that indicates a different gender this time around or a busy boy! I'm getting really excited to find out! Micah has started referring to the baby as "she" all the time. Ethan is still sure that the only possibility is another brother. I've had a few complete strangers tell me I'm having a girl. Again, I can't wait to find out the gender! Mostly, I'm just excited to meet this new little one!

Snowmen

Now that it's March, Spring seems so close! Especially with all of the sunny days we've had lately. Even though the last thing on my mind is snow, I wanted to make sure that I posted pictures of the snowmen that the boys created this year.

Ethan made his snowman one evening all by himself. He was so proud of it! He collected rocks from around the yard for most of his decorating.


I had to make sure I took a close up picture of the snowman because he pointed out to me that the snowman was missing a tooth just like he was! He cracks me up with the details that he thinks about!


After the last big snowfall both boys played outside and worked together to make what may be the last snowman of the season. I was at work that day, but Jason sent me a picture so I could see what the boys had been up to (they would literally play outside together for hours!).


I'm not 100% sure of what they used to decorate it this time, but it looks to me like they found sidewalk chalk and went to town. :) They were very proud of their creation!

Teeth

Although this happened way back at the end of December, I wanted to make sure I still posted about it. Ethan lost his first tooth! He had two teeth that were VERY loose--they were so ready to come out that the two new teeth were already growing in behind them! We tried to convince him that we should just pull it out (well, Jason did more than me--loose teeth gross me out!) but he wanted nothing to do with that. He wiggled that tooth until it was practically dangling in his mouth. Thankfully, one evening he decided to just pop it out!

Here's the "toothless" grin!


His second loose tooth stayed in his mouth only a little while after he pulled the first one out. He actually popped the second one out in school. He was so proud, and he really enjoyed his visits from the tooth fairy!

Ethan's birthday celebrations

Once again this year we had the opportunity to spread Ethan's birthday celebrations out over a couple of days. It's nice because it's not as crazy that way...and it's a good excuse to eat sweet treats over and over again. :)

On his birthday we had grandparents come over for cake and presents. He was thrilled with his gifts and was excited to start playing!


He was excited about his new scooter (and the knee and elbow pads he received later) and because of some "warmer" weather and a spell with no snow he was able to try it out on the driveway the next morning.


He was also excited about his new Luge sled. It's perfect for him because it's lightweight enough for him to carry around--and it's fast! He was also able to use this gift the very next day. He and Micah spent a few hours sledding in the backyard.


He also received a new ball glove. Thankfully he's grown to a size so we didn't need to special order a left-handed glove online again! He ran around with his new elbow and knee pads on pretending he was playing baseball in the house. This will get a lot of use when Spring comes!


After gifts we sang "Happy Birthday" and enjoyed the cake. It was yummy. I ate enough so the baby could enjoy it, too!


Blowing out the candles...he told me I spaced them out too much!

On Saturday we used Ethan's birthday ice cream coupon and we all enjoyed Coldstone treats.


He stayed true to his previous tastes and once again ordered cotton candy ice cream with gummy bears in it. Micah also thought that looked good to him, so nasty...I mean yummy ice cream for them both!



Jason and I also ordered our own treats, I just didn't take pictures of those.

We had a great time celebrating Ethan and his special day!

Ethan's birthday cake

This year Ethan requested a football birthday cake. A friend of mine gave me a bunch of cake pans and I was happy to discover a football shaped pan. I was excited to give it a try so I mixed up the cake the day before. Unfortunately, because of the shape of the pan (no user error of course!), the edges of the football burned and the center of the cake did not bake through all the way. So, I thought I'd try it again and try and bake it differently in the oven. Second time around: also a flop. So, I scrapped the whole plan and went with a new one. I baked a 9x13 cake and frosted it:


I drew lines all over it so I had an idea of how to space out a football field on it (I didn't even try to do 100 yards!). Then I started with the green grass:


I took a break to take a picture because I had a hand cramp. :) Once I regained the use of my hand I finished the grass and added green "grass" along the sides.


Next I mixed up a little purple (I was excited to finally have a reason to use purple frosting on a cake!) and made the end fields up in the team colors of Ethan's favorite team (at least it's his favorite team this year!).


Then it was time for the football. I played around a little bit with a tip and had fun making it. I looked at pictures of footballs to make sure I added the lines on it correctly!



After that it needed the yard lines to look like a real football field. Like I said earlier, I didn't even attempt to make it 100 yards.


To finish it off I added the words--Vikings and Happy Birthday to my boy. In hindsight I wish I had switched colors for the happy birthday part, but I was happy with how it turned out.


When Ethan came home from school and saw the cake he announced "that's just what I wanted!". Just what I needed to hear!