We all had a great Christmas

We had a blast. Do you see all those presents? It took us two hours to open all that. Of course Stephen had to play with each toy as he opened it. Ethan was really more interested in the wrapping still. Stephen did get a kick out of ripping the paper off of presents, but by the end just wanted his toys out of there. This huge penguin is Ethan's new best friend. What's really cool is it seems to be a great friend in the crib too. He isn't as fussy when I put him down. I thought it might be scarry to have a bird larger than him looking down at him, but he loves that thing.
Brian and I were totally spoiled too. Brian made a list this year and got every single thing on it. I got piles of stuff and some cool gift certificates. I got all new pots and pans too. I had them in time to cook up my Christmas dinner with.
I totally blew my diet on Christmas day, but what ya gonna do? I did ok at Thanksgiving so I feel good about that. I'll just have to be really good from here on out. (which means stay out of those leftovers!)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that those of you who couldn't be here with us know we had you in our hearts.

Oh I almost forgot. Ethan has his first tooth! I discovered it yesterday. He hardly fussed while teething at all, just drooled a bunch.

Holidays are in full force

And so is cold season. Stephen started with a cough last week and then it hit me and Ethan. Stephen just has the runny nose now, and not too bad, but Ethan and I are still pretty miserable. I'm not getting any sleep with it, but luckily the boys are both sleeping tons so that's good.

We went to a Christmas dinner last night in St. Augustine. Brian's Aunt and Uncles were there so we had it at Gram's house. It was super good. There were some presents and I think Stephen figured out from that what all those things under our tree are! Today he was much more interested in them than normal. Thank heavens for the baby gate keeping him out of the front room.

The stray cat is still around. We have decided it's a boy. Still not coming up to us too much or letting us pet it. I guess he's not worried about it getting too cold. Looks like it's just going to be an outside cat then. I still need to catch it and get it shots and fixed. I'm sure the Vet's office is going to love that; "Um, this cat is pretty much wild, but we'd like you to give it shots and surgery." But what ya gonna do?

Friday we went to Brian's work party. It was called "Snow in the Citi" and they did have snow. Stephen loved playing in it, even though all the big kids were throwing snowballs at us the whole time. I had flip flops on because it was a warm day and let me tell you they offer no traction on packed snow! I almost fell right on my butt a few times! We also saw Santa and decorated cookies. There was an ice skating show too which Stephen thought was great. Ethan just looked all pitiful and slept some. Poor sick baby.

Way behind, let's blame the holidays

Well things are busy as usual around here, but great news! Ethan has not been a good nap taker his whole life. (yea the entire 6 months he's been here hehe) So this week I started putting him in for a nap, turning off the light and trying to block out his fussing. Well the past two days it has worked! He's slept for hours. And he's still ready for bed at the normal time. And so much friendlier in the evening. The best part... It's the same time Stephen is taking a nap! So I have two babies napping for hours at the same time! I feel like I've recovered a whole new part of myself! I've been crafting and cleaning and talking on the phone with friends and I even took one nap! It's amazing what a few hours of free time will do for ya.

Ethan is still working on getting around, he doesn't quite crawl yet. He does eat now though, he seems to like sweet potatoe best. Oh he only likes peas if I actually smash up real peas, he doesn't care for the ones in the jars. So you know what I did right? I tasted the jar ones and they are NOT as good! So I'm going to just smash peas for him from now on. My mom got me a cool book about making your own baby food so I'm going to do some of those recipes. (Thanks to Julie who recomended it)

Well we are getting ready for Christmas. We will have 12 people here, counting Ethan, who doesn't eat Christmas food, so maybe shouldn't count. I'm doing a ham and all the regular sides. I also made 24 Christmas ornaments and of course I made all the Christmas cards again.

Speaking of Christmas my parents are spoiling the boys I think! There is a mountain of presents under the tree! I have no idea where I'm going to put all that stuff. But it will be fun for sure! (and I think some of that stuff is for me!)

Talk to you soon!

Naked Spagetti

Well it's spagetti night for us, which means Stephen is eating in the buff! He loves it but man oh man is it a mess! Tonight is a big night, Brian has tickets to the Jaguars game and Stephen, Ethan, Xander, Shara and I are all going to go to Chuck E Cheese for some fun play time.
This whole week will be packed, we hope to go to a movie tomorrow night, then Wednesday we leave for a visit to my Dad & Sue's house for a huge Thanksgiving dinner and a few days of visiting, then to my Mom and Jack's for more fun. We should get to see Jeffrey and Katie too this weekend so that's very exciting.
I just gave Stephen a haircut, it's shorter than I planned, but I really like it, you can see it in the pic!

Well to those of you who I will be seeing this week I can't wait! The rest of you need to come visit us! We are having Christmas dinner here and it's not too late for me to set another plate!
loveyou,
Erin

Random updates

Here's a pic of that cat that adopted us. I go back and forth daily as to whether I want to let it in the house.

I've been sick this week, fever on Monday and run down sense then. I'm feeling much better today.

Ethan is still working on his crawling. He's just stinking cute, I took some pics of him moving around. Oh and I put him in the pack and play thing when I was sick and he loves it in there! I think because it has toys and they can't get away from him, he can definately move all over that small area. Stephen likes him to be in there too, he talkes to Ethan through the mesh stuff on the side.

Stephen is too funny, he's addicted to orange juice and frosted miniwheats all the sudden. He also loves icecubes. I've heard some stories about kids choking on them so I keep a close eye on him when he has one. We are trying to work on his speach, he hasn't really learned any new words in a while, I think maybe I need to challange him to speak more. I'm not worried or anything yet, just want to see him learning fast again.

We are all getting pretty excited about Thanksgiving next week. Stephen just brought me a pic of my Grandparents and said, "grams" I don't know how he knew, we didn't really teach that. Still no "mommy".

Oh and we are super busy, it's good I'm feeling better, Tomorrow I have a The Angel Company party. It's a stamp company that uses home parties like tupperware parties. I'm a demonstrator for them. Friday is MovieNight at Brian's work, where they show family movies and have piles of snacks and stuff and it's all free, the movie is Cars. We think Stephen will like it. Saturday Brian is going to try to go to Tallahassee for the FSU game. Sunday Marcia is coming to visit and have dinner, then next week we leave to go down south! I think we have plans almost every day until Christmas actually! Wow!

Well I need to go, I've got a house to clean before my stamping party tomorrow! Wish me luck, I want to sell tons and tons of stuff so I have Christmas money! :)

Mobility for Ethan (and a new cat)

We've been suspecting it for a while but I finally witnessed it today. We would put Ethan down somewhere and go do something like get a drink and we'd come back and he'd be somewhere else. Brian and I wern't sure if he was just wiggling all over, which we've been seeing for a while, or if he really crawls when no one is looking. Well today I was getting Stephen out of the bath and I turned and Ethan was up on his hands and knees, belly off the ground and he crawled one "step"! He then went back down and then rolled over, but I'm counting it! :) Ethan crawled today. Hurray Ethan!

In other news Brian took Stephen to a basket ball game last night, apparently they loved it, Stephen danced and made friends with the mascots. Ethan went to a crop with me. Well when Brian got home with the boys (after picking Ethan up from my crop) guess who was sleeping in our couch? A stray cat! It's this cat that's been coming around for a month now. We've been feeding it, it's all our fault! Anyhow it was just sleeping there and our other two cats were within sight and didn't mind at tall. Brian said for Monday I need to call around about where to get this new cat some shots and a checkup. It's just a kitten. I'll try to get pictures soon, it's still scared of us. After Brian came in and said hello to it it ran back out. It used a spot where the screen for the window is pushed out. Thanks to Stephen for that!

Candle Fart (A Stephen update)

Stephen says some of the strangest things. Once in a parking lot with my Dad and Sue he just looked up at me and said, "Candle Fart" then went back to being a wide eyed quiet little boy. Where does he get this stuff? If he doesn't feel good he puts his hand on his head and says, "woah".

I was keeping a list of all his words for a while, but I didn't keep up with it. It's strange to me the things he decides to learn, he's said "Daddy" and "Kitty" for ages but only vary rarely says "mom" and never "mommy". And we never refer to me as mom, just mommy... Course Brian calls me "Babe" so maybe Stephen will too? He sometimes calls Ethan "Eathy" but usually just "Baby". I wish he called me "mommy". Why should Brian and Ethan get all the credit? hehe Thank heavens he doesn't call anyone else anything, my poor heart would break!

Welcome to The Kellogg Show

Hi to friends and family! I'm setting up this blog so everyone can keep up to date with the boys and also Brian and I. (but mostly the boys, I know what you are all here for!) Now I've never done this before so you have to bear with me as I get it going and make it all cute.