My Beautiful Days

This past weekend we were all supposed to be heading up north to visit my mom and step-dad for the weekend.  We were looking forward to time spent fishing on the lake (well, the boys were, anyway), time spent relaxing and chatting with my parents and time seeing Kaylin, a dear friend from high school, on her wedding day.  It was going to be such a wonderful weekend. However, it all came crashing down when my mom called early on Friday morning to say that my step-dad was really sick.  She said that it would be just fine if we were still to come and stay, but she wanted to forewarn us in case he was contagious. Now, if you've followed my blog for awhile or if you know me, you are aware that Ethan has this awesome ability to get sick and to hang on to that sickness for a LONG time.  Colds attack him, sink into his chest and stay there for a month.  So, this decision was a really hard one for us, as we all REALLY wanted to go, but yet we knew that it wouldn't be...

I won't lie, I really really REALLY wanted my first post of 2012 to be something amazing and significant and huge; but in trying to figure out specifically WHAT that amazingly significantly huge thing is going to be, I have let too many days pass.  At this point, it's time just to get back on here and play the ever-so-common game of catch up!  So, without further adieu, this is what we've been up to: My boys held a fashion show with the most interesting fashions around ... Ethan played peek-a-boo with me and gave me his most gorgeous smile! We opened Christmas presents ...  ... and modeled Christmas presents, too! Monte and I got all dressed up and went to a Christmas party. We celebrated Claire's birthday!  We celebrated Colin's birthday, too ... ... with a cake that had trick candles! On top of all of that busyness, Ellis is currently in basketball and Claire is in speech, keeping us busy beyond the norm, but maybe I need to realize this is our new no...

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with my extended family.  We had lots of food, lots of people and lots of noise radiating through our home!  During our present exchange, I asked my amazing daughter, Claire, to capture some of the action on our camera.  The pictures that she took weren't necessarily what I had intended, but they make me smile, nonetheless!  I decided that I had to share our Christmas through my daughter's eyes:   Isn't it funny how the picture of her is the only one that's centered and the entire subject is captured? That's because my niece was operating the camera for that one!! :)   Not necessarily my best angle! :) So, she certainly had her own unique way of photographing the event!! :)  I just love that girl! I couldn't resist sharing a couple of photos of Ethan enjoying his new Buzz Lightyear car!  He just LOVES this gift - thanks Uncle Martin and Aunt Tanya! Have you ever seen the movi...

It feels like it has been a very long journey, but in reality it lasted only a mere month before we received our answer.  My darling baby boy is now fever free, and I'm still having a hard time believing the cause.  According to blood tests that were done, Ethan has a "very severe peanut allergy" (those words being a direct quote from his doctor).  I couldn't fathom how a peanut allergy could be causing his fevers, especially considering the fact that he isn't old enough to eat anything but baby food! Once we took extreme steps to contain the peanuts in our home (those steps being making sure that the counter is wiped down each and every time my kids make a peanut butter sandwich on them, making sure that the kids wash their hands and brush their teeth any time they eat peanut butter, making sure we only wipe Ethan with clean paper towels instead of a wash rag, etc), his fevers have gone away completely!  I found it really hard to believe, and really hard to gra...

But maybe it's more because of the fact that I had to see it with my own eyes.  Or maybe just because, for once, I wanted a different result - to prove myself sane as opposed to insane (you know the definition: someone who does the same thing over and over again expecting different results).  Regardless of my reasoning, I did it: I took an at-home pregnancy test.  You know what?  I'm pregnant!  If you've checked my blog in the last week, you obviously already knew this, but I decided to share the lovely news anyway :) Thank you so much to all of you who responded to my initial blog post with congratulations!  We are incredibly excited about the new addition to our family.  Life has been pretty crazy since we arrived home.  Ellis starts soccer tonight (well, official practices start tonight, though he's already been to an optional practice) and I am their team manager (honey, did I mention that I decided to accept this task?!  If not, I'm so...

Things have been extremely busy around here, which is why I've been absent from blogging for awhile now.  As many of you know, we're working on an addition on our home, which will hopefully be complete within the next month or so.  Well, along with building this addition, we are continually finding ourselves at Lowe's and Home Depot purchasing supplies (i.e. lighting, flooring, tile, etc.), which is a fabulously fun thing to do!  However, unlike most people, when we bring the supplies home, we don't have a garage that we can dump everything into.  So, that being said, we've been making due with whatever extra space we have.  While our master closet has already been invaded, we found ourselves having to take away space from the living room to store this stuff, too!  Remember the serenity I talked about in this fabulous chair back in this post ?  The chair I talked about is a great place to rest and relax.  It's this chair ... Unfortunately, the p...