Farewell

We've had a great holiday season and you'll see lots of blogging about it soon, but for now, enjoy a picture of Ethan kissing all of his trains before going down for his nap.

We had our last guest leave today and I am SO sad! How badly I wish we lived near more family!

Christmas Sweets

I've been trying to fill our days with festive activities.  Yesterday we made miscotes, a favorite family cookie.  I used Lauren's idea to have Ethan paint the frosting on with paint brushes, and then Ethan got to use sprinkles, which he loves, so it was fun for him.  Today was the most successful activity so far.  We were going to make gingerbread houses, but I saw that Stacy made a gingerbread train, and knew Ethan would prefer that.  We used graham crackers and homemade frosting.  He LOVED it!  He made sure it had a number, a face, and a tender for coal, just like his Thomas engines.  It has many real parts of an engine (boiler, tender, wheels, steam whistle, driver, etc), not that you can really tell.

Benton getting in on the sprinkle fun.

Getting big!

Benton's Blessing

Success!

Following the trend of teaching Ethan about the holidays this year (largely through library books), we've been talking a lot about Christmas. He just walked over to play with this nativity and said "these are the three kings that followed the magic star.". Then they started talking to each other "do you see the star?" "Uh, yeah!" "Let's go!" "Aaaaah!" As they run down the bench towards the manger. "Where's Mary? Oh there you are.".

Instead of saying Jesus Christ Amen at the end of his prayers now he says "baby Jesus Christ, Amen."

Big smiles from Mom-it's sinking in!

Brothers

 I've been meaning to get pictures of the boys in these adorable shirts Grammy and Art got them, so before naps today, we did a quick photo shoot.  Enjoy some more pictures of my cuties!

 Reality:

More Wonderful

A few more wonderful things about 3 months:

-I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight! I'm glad I kept my weight under control before Benton because a broken down stroller and difficult scheduling with Benton means I haven't been exercising much (and am not back to my pre-pregnancy shape).

-Benton is now old enough to attend the gym. I don't think we'll do that yet though. Cold season and a horrendous children to adult ratio in the day care make me think it is not a good idea, as much as I miss the gym!
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Wonderful 3 Months

Lots of wonderful things in this post.  First of all, a wonderfully cute baby!  And a wonderful fast camera to get lots of personality shots.  And, wonderful technology that allows me to save lots of pictures, because all though MANY were eliminated, I want to save the many faces of Benton, so here are a bunch.  

Click on a picture and it will enlarge in a slideshow format so you can see his cute little face even better; believe me, he's worth it!

He loves chewing on his fists.

He likes standing up, so I was trying to take pictures of him while he was standing.  By myself, this meant a wobbly, fuzzy, Benton.  Eventually I called Mike in to help.

Staring right at the camera...

 

Here you can see hs most prominent facial scars.

It's crazy to think I was worried I wouldn't enjoy the baby stage as much the second time around.  I love taking care of this baby!  I'm a little sad, because 3 months seems like a milestone, leaving the newborn age, but we have lots of fun times ahead still, hopefully ones that include sleeping more than 3.5 hours in a row!

I was feeding Benton today while putting Ethan down for his nap, and he kept stopping to crane his neck and look at the book I was reading.  Eventually, I sat him up so he could see it better, and he watched it intently.  So starting tonight, we will be having much more reading to Benton time (poor second child has not gotten as much book time as Ethan did/does).

Snow Retreat

Friday afternoon:  I picked Mike up at work and we drove to Show Low.  Mike took Ethan out to play in the snow outside our hotel and then went and picked up a pizza while Benton and I napped in the hotel.

Friday night: Mike's client volunteered to meet him so that he could have all Saturday to play.  Mike worked from 8:30-12:00pm and I put the boys to bed (it went amazingly well for sharing a room!).

Saturday morning: Mike and Ethan played in the snow; we all went swimming for quite awhile, we got packed up, and then Ethan and I played in the snow before leaving.  It was great snow weather!  Cold enough to not melt the snow, but warm enough that we didn't need to be bundled.  My friend loaned me some clothes on my way out and had the great idea of sending these toys up with me.  Ethan loved it!  I made a small snow man and made towers out of bucket fulls of snow, and of course Ethan loved knocking them down.

 From the hotel, we drove by the building Mike was inspecting to take a few exterior shots it was too dark to photograph the night before, grabbed lunch at Walmart, and then stopped at a good sledding hill behind the Pizza Hut.  By this point Ethan was asleep in the car, but we decided it was worth it to wake him up.  Here are Daddy and Ethan sledding.

 Family shot about a minute before Benton crashed.

 

Benton and I went back to the car where he napped and I ate. 

Look in his sleeve and notice how far away his fingers are.  He was swimming, but warm in this suit.

We stopped to use the bathroom before heading home in time for bedtime. I was playing my flute in church the next day, so we figured there wasn't much of a point in staying another night just to hurry and leave in the morning.

It was so nice to get out, enjoy winter, and then go back to warm(er) Phoenix!