Mafioso Celebration

Last night was the CTS Mafioso Christmas Celebration. Here are our costumes (we won a fake tommy gun, so that will be in the costumes in the future):After a great dinner and really yummy desserts, we spent the night playing craps! I felt like I was in a movie. :)

Here you can see the whole outfit. Everything I am wearing came from Goodwill (I added the ribbon to the hat) and Mike's outfit he already had except the hat he found at Burlington Coat Factory.

My mom babysat, so we didn't worry at all, even though it was our first time leaving Ethan. When I got home I forgot all about my bright red lipstick and gave Ethan a kiss.

8 Weeks

Ethan is 8 weeks old today!!! He has become a very smiley baby! He is even laughing some now! This week he sat in his bouncer with the little teddy bear mobile hanging above him for the first time. He smiled and hit the bears quite a bit. I'm not sure if he was trying to hit the bears, or if in the excitement of seeing them, his flailing arms and legs did the trick on accident. We also put the batteries in this jungle toy. In the following pictures he is looking at some flashing lights and listening to the music as it plays. This also made him smile and pump his arms and legs.

On Saturday was our ward Christmas party. We started by eating dinner outside. This fall our activities committee organized a great project for the ward. A generous family let us use their land to raise a garden and pig. We irrigated the land, planted veggies, and raised a pig. For dinner we had pork, vegetables, and pumpkin desserts, all fruits of the ward's labor. I was very impressed!

After dinner we had a program of really fun musical numbers. Here is Mike performing in one. The cultural hall is packed--we really love being a part of this ward.

Ethan has pretty much mastered the art of getting his hand into his mouth. He spent most of the party sleeping or zoned out. There was a lot of noise and he was pretty overloaded, but he handled it very well.

And of course, what would be a Christmas party without a visit from Santa?!? Despite Mike's objections, we waited in line to get this adorable picture. After the party we bought a beautiful Christmas tree which is up, but not decorated. Hopefully after tonight I will have pictures of a decorated Christmas tree to post.

On Sunday Mom and Gary came to church with us, and then we went back to their house.

Mom got Ethan this cute singing giraffe which just so happens to match the giraffe pajamas we brought for Ethan to wear (thanks Heidi).

Mike and Gary made a very small dent in Mom's 20 or so boxes of Christmas decorations while Mom and I filled the kitchen with Christmas goodies!

Last night Mom and Gary came over to our place where Mom and I finished baking and Mike and Gary put our lights up. Mom and I made pumpkin cranberry bread, chocolate/peppermint pretzel cookies, miscottis (a family favorite passed down from an Italian grandma), sugar cookies (not yet frosted), rice krispie treats, and white trash mix (a yummy trail mix coated in white chocolate).

Look what we grew!

Last spring we planted a lemon and an orange tree. We have six lemons now! The orange tree still isn't on a drip line, so it hasn't produced yet. Next spring, a peach tree!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Barrage of Pictures: smiles and work

I am back to work now, or trying to be. This is where Ethan sits while I work. I pretty much just work while he is sleeping, and by putting him here I can rock him with my foot if he starts fussing. He goes back to sleep, and I keep working. So far it is going pretty well. Now I just need to work cleaning back into the mix because the house is a mess! Aww...

Ethan has a pattern now. He eats, spends half an hour to an hour alert and smiling at just about anything I do, and then he sleeps. I've been trying to get some good smiling shots, so here are some of the best I've gotten.

He has started doing this shy thing when he smiles. He covers his face and turns his head while smiling--pretty darn cute!

Dimples! I wonder who he gets those from?

Half smile:

Have I mentioned how much I love this little guy? He is so fun! I am SO grateful for every day I get to stay home and be his mom!

Barrage of Pictures: Thanksgiving

This year we went to Detroit for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to spend time with my Dad, step-mom Dianne, and siblings. We don't get to see each other nearly enough. Here are a bunch of pictures from the weekend.

Ethan is becoming much more alert.
Dads and babies:

My new niece Ruth. She is 18 days younger than Ethan.

Future friends:

Ruth, her brother James, Ethan (these are all of the grandkids on my dad's side):

Awesome beanie from Grammy and Art:

Bundled up for a trip to the park-"I can't put my arms down!"

At the park. Thank goodness we had warm clothes for the weekend! Thanks to Grammy and Nicole for this outfit and Grandma Abegg for the warm pj's.

Mike, my dad, James, Dan, digging in the dirt.

So much to be thankful for!

On the way to the park:

Grandma Dianne and Ethan at the bowling alley:

Aunt Lauren, Uncle Joe, and Ethan at the bowling alley. Ethan especially loved being held by Dianne and Lauren!

Lisa's family:

Time for bed:

Family shot (without Dianne or Stephanie):

Ethan was loving this photo shoot:

Hangin' out with Aunt Lauren:

After eating one night, Joe started trying to throw a candy wrapper across the table into my glass. This evolved into the three guys creating a game complete with rules and scoring system. They sat for hours probably trying to get the candy wrapper in each other's glasses and keeping score with different colored Hershey's Kisses.

What a great weekend! Oh, and I slacked off and didn't take any pictures of Ethan on the plane, but he did awesome! He slept pretty much the whole time both ways and when he was awake he was very happy!

Mafia

Next week is Mike's company Christmas party and this year it is mafia themed. If you have any ideas on how we can dress for the occasion, please share them!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed