Christmas Day 2010

We did Christmas Day a little differently this year and I think we've finally hit on a schedule that works well for our family. In the past, we have done Santa at our home and then rushed to my parent's home for breakfast and presents. This year, we took it slow and spent the morning at our house. It was nice to leisurely open presents, play with the new toys and get dressed for the day.

Ethan got up at around 6:00 a.m. and rushed to his stocking first. Inside the stocking, he found a coloring book, crayons, toothbrush, dinosaur and a lollipop.

After looking through his stocking, he finally noticed that Santa had eaten his cookies and left behind a present. Ethan got just what he had been asking for and telling everyone about, Transformers.

I was actually worried that Ethan wouldn't like the Transformers since he had been asking for them because he knew his older cousin liked them but he never really was interested in them himself. However, after much talking up of the toys and streaming the 80's Transformers cartoon on Youtube for him, he was thoroughly excited by the time Christmas came around and Santa came with the requested toys.

Hidden behind the tree, Santa also left behind a small shovel that Ethan had been wishing for every time we went to Alco. It's amazing how Santa knows exactly what a little boy's heart desires.

After finishing up the Santa gifts, Ethan opened up his gifts from Mommy and Daddy. This year, the main gifts were a Lite Brite, toy computer, Wii game and Legos.

The boys playing with their new laptops.

After spending the morning playing with new toys, we finally got dressed and headed out to spend time with our families.

Our first stop was lunch at Aunt Janet's home. We enjoyed a light snack, as we were going to have a big Christmas dinner at my parent's home immediately following.

After visiting with Jim's family at Aunt Janet's home, we headed to my paren't home at about 3:00 p.m. We enjoyed a wonderful, early dinner of Beef Wellington and all the trimmings.

Soon it was time to open even more presents. Austin started with opening a gift from Ethan that he had made for specifically for him. Ethan says that it's a K-State Football thing...you'll have to use your imagination.

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas holiday. We enjoyed spending time with our families and experiencing the amazement and magic of Christmas through a four year old's eyes.

Roar...Ethan is Four!

My baby turned four this month and we celebrated by having our family over for a dinosaur themed birthday bash. It was a dinoriffic time!

 I decorated the house in green and orange and, of course, dinosaurs.



My friends at Sign Solutions created this awesome banner, which is now hanging in Ethan's bedroom as a permanent decoration.

I made the dinosaur birthday cake and am really proud of how this stegosaurus cake turned out. It was my first attempt at doing a carved 3-D cake and it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. Plus it was really fun to try and figure out what candies that we have at our small town grocery store would work for the dinosaur details. (I'll try and do a post later on dedicated to the details on how I made this cake.)

All smiles as we sing "Happy Birthday"!

Ethan with his cousins, Alex & Hunter, enjoying the birthday cake. Ethan got the dinosaur head for his piece of cake.

The adult table. (For the birthday dinner we served some of Ethan's favorites: Pork tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, broccoli & cheese, gnocchi and crescent rolls.)

Pictures of some of the birthday presents.



Happy Birthday to my sweet, baby boy who constantly reminds me that he is no longer a baby now that he is four. And he's right, he's such a big boy now and amazes me at all the things he can do. Becoming a Mom four years ago was the best thing that has ever happened to me and I'm forever thankful to God for bestowing this great blessing upon me.

Three Little Birds

My sister-in-law, Gidget, added a new tattoo to her ankle a couple of weeks ago. She chose to have three little red birds perched on a branch to symbolize the song Three Little Birds by the legendary Bob Marley. She actually had her grandma draw the birds, which I think makes the tattoo even more special and meaningful.

Gidget told me that she use to sing Three Little Birds to her son, Alex, when he was little and it had become their theme song through life's ups and downs. Ever since hearing about the song and her new tattoo, I have been playing the song over and over again. I have fallen in love with the cheerful melody and optimistic lyrics.

The song came on my ipod last night while I was out jogging and I found myself actually singing along. How embarrassing! Luckily, I don't think there was anyone around to hear my off-pitch, out of breath, little solo performance.

If you haven't heard the song before, give it a listen below in this cute little video that accompanies the song.

Don't worry...'bout a thing.

Cause every little thing, gonna be all right!

I'm trying to not worry so much about things that I can not control and are in the past and instead look forward to the things that I can influence and change and try and determine what those changes need to be and hopefully, every little thing is gonna be all right.

Happy Birthday Mom Knowles

On Sunday, we went out to the farm to celebrate Jim's mom, Shirley's, birthday. It was a milestone birthday, but we'll keep it a secret on how old her birth certificate says she is. She still looks much younger than her age dictates she should.

All of her children were able to attend the birthday lunch celebration, as well as the grandkids. Shirley and Steve's moms were also there for the birthday party. (Ethan has three great-grandmothers. Isn't he lucky?)

We had a classic, Sunday lunch of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and lots of additional sides. The fried chicken was actually picked up at the local grocery store's deli and is the Chester Chicken brand. It was really good with lots of meat on the pieces of chicken. We were all impressed with the quality.

We were in charge of providing the birthday cake. We also had ice cream, with about fifteen different toppings to choose from, and brownies. I started with a piece of cake and then went back a little while later to make a brownie, ice cream sundae. I was stuffed by the time we left. Ethan and I took 2 hour naps when we got back home - we were full, happy and exhausted.

Ethan entertained himself by playing on this bouncing horse. It's been in the family for many generations and Ethan just loves it.

After a filling lunch, we took a few moments to capture some family photos. My camera's batteries were dying, so I missed a lot of the pictures and had to rush to capture the few that I did. Unfortunately, the quality is not very good.

Shirley with her grandsons - Alex, Ethan, Hunter and Zach

Four Generations - Jim, Ethan, Shirley and Eleanor

Sugar (cookie) Buzz

Ethan enjoyed having his cousin, Alex, over to the house the other afternoon. Alex is Jim's sister, Gidget's, 8 year old son.

When faced with two, energetic boys, I like to have activities ready to keep their fleeting attention.

Ethan and Alex are 5 years apart in age, so it also comes in handy to have some activities planned to help them in playing together. They are close enough in age to have a lot of fun playing together, but far enough apart that their interests and play styles are different and can use a little guidance now and then.

This afternoon's activity was decorating sugar cookies. Why save these only for Christmas? I love simple sugar cookies and what kid doesn't like frosting and sprinkles?

I gave each boy a rimmed sheet pan with their cookies to decorate. The rimmed pans help control the sprinkles and sugar from spreading all over the table and floor. The frosting covered fingers get things messy enough, so I try to control the chaos and mess in any possible areas.

The boys got into the decorating, Ethan showed off his coordination by decorating with a sprinkle shaker in each hand. Ethan's cookies were full of Phillipsburg Panther spirit with his blue and gold sprinkle combination that he choose for his decorating.

The boys had several different shapes and colors of sprinkles to choose from, along with colored sugars and mini chocolate chips. The cookies came out colorful and fun. I think my little chef's did a great job!

We wrapped up Alex's cookies for him to take home and share with his Mom. Ethan didn't have many cookies left, as he somehow managed to sneak 3 cookies while I was cleaning up. Ugh - the resulting sugar buzz from all those cookies in his little body kept him wired the rest of the evening.