Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family. Janel, Jason, and Faith came and stayed for 2 weeks. It was great to see them and Faith is just getting so big (even though she is a peanut for her age). Now first off - who is that bearded man?! Blake is doing No Shave November again. I guess there are only a few days left.

Janel and Ga (my grandma).Ethan, Ella, and Faith. What a great trio they make.

I have a baby in my belly.....

"I have a baby in my belly!!!" Those are Ethan's new famous words - along with WHY...? WHY...? WHY...? - Yes I now have a "Why" child. Back to the baby in the belly. So we have been talking a lot about Aunt Janel and how she is coming to visit us on Wednesday. As we talk about it I told Ethan that cousin Faith and Uncle Jason where also coming. We also told him that Faith was going to be a big sister because Janel had a baby in her belly. So this picture is what Ethan thinks Janel is going to look like when she comes to visit. He just came into my room yelling "I have a baby in my belly like Aunt Janel." He is going to be greatly surprised that since she is only 9 weeks - she will not be that big at all. He also is voting that it is a baby boy in her belly. Oh, I just realized that if you do not read this whole post you may think that I have a baby in my belly - which is indeed completely false.

New Rooms

Now that Ella is 22 months - we decided to get her a big girl bed. Thanks to Ethan she got his old bed and Ethan got a fun new bed. Ethan's bed was a hand-me-down from Uncle Isaac. Now we have plenty of space for friends to come spend the night. (OK that may be a little premature but Ethan has reserved his top bunk for a friend of his at school - I just think that is awful cute)

Morning time and....

As you can see, Ella is bright eyed and bushy tailed. She slept wonderful and did not wake up once in the middle of the night. Honestly, I thought she would wake up and get upset that she was not in her crib. See the post below to get a brief on what I am posting about.

I think we might be in trouble

So, tonight we put Ella in her big girl bed for the first time. She is getting a little to big for her round crib (since she is our giant child). And she is getting a little to "rough" with it. So we decided to give her a big girl bed. I took this picture just one hour after she fell asleep -- as you can see, it looks like we will be in trouble tonight. After just one hour she is already turned the wrong way. This reminds me of Tommy Boy a little, but instead of "fat guy in a little coat" - it is "little girl in a big bed". (OK I know Janel will laugh at that - you others just try with all your might to withstand the urge to make fun of my bad joke.) I am sure I will have more to post about after tonight is over.

Leaves and Lumberjack

This weekend was full of leaves, leaves, leaves. We were gone if Florida for a while and came back to a yard full of leaves. Since we live on 2.6 acres, full of trees - we had a lot of leaves to move this weekend. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the leaves but between me and you - I think Blake had the most fun. We also got some more fire wood chopped for our fireplace.We still have a lot of leaves left to rake -- all these need to fall off and this is only one tree.Ethan would get his car and drive as fast as he could and let the leaves stop him. What a blast for a 3 year old.
Where's Waldo?

Florida Trip

The end of October we went to Florida for the United Convention. Jennifer, Blake's sister, watched the kids while we went out in style at the convention in Hollywood, FL. Jennifer did such a great job taking care of the kids - if you want to see any pictures of that use the link on my blog to her blog. After the convention we stayed another 5 days in Florida. Here are some pictures of the kids swimming -- they loved it. This was the first time that Ella actually ventured off on her own. This whole summer she had to hold onto someone - but she now has a whole new confidence.

Ethan loves jumping into the pool and making big splashes.Although Ella has a new confidence in the water - she still lacks a little confidence when it comes to jumping in - Even when Daddy is right there.

FIRE

Our newest addition.