New Year's Eve

This year for New Year's the Ebrom's hosted our get together out at the Ebrom house. In attendance were the Ebrom's, Chris and Ashley, the Harrison's, JD (who is one of Mike's brothers) and us...14 in all!! We had a wonderful dinner that the Ebrom's prepared and tried not to stuff our faces til our stomach hurt!

After dinner we sent the kids upstairs to the big playroom to play and watch a movie. This was awesome!! The kids were occupied for most of the night!! After cleaning up we all bundled up (because it was freezing!) and went outside to a campfire where we roasted marshmellows. The Ebrom's live in the country so the guys were able to pop some fireworks too. I didn't stay out too long because Isaiah was still recovering from RSV and plus I was cold! I put him to bed while they finished up outside...and came down right in time for dessert, hot chocolate, and GAMES!!!

Ellie, Ayden, Colby, and Ethan (in the big jacket and blue hat...I forgot both boy's jackets so we had to borrow)

Mike and Ellie fell asleep shortly after that but all the other adults stayed up and played GAMES! It was so much fun!! It was midnight before we knew it! The kids had been watching movies and we all thought they would fall asleep but no, they were up too! We were all staying the night so, after putting the kids to bed, I (and many others)had thought for sure I would be asleep by 12:15 but we started this new game called Mafia and we ended up playing til 2:30 in the morning!! I couldn't believe it! A night full of good food (including my new favorite, cake balls), fantastic company, and games...I couldn't have asked for a better night!

Dr. Bolyston's Diagnosis...

Following the sleepless night we had last night, Josh told me to take the boys to the doctor and figure out why and what they were sick with. So I was pretty sure Isaiah had an ear infection (even after having tubes put in!) which she confirmed, but didn't know that he was now on the downhill slope of RSV! I had her listen to Ethan (with his history of respiratory problems I wanted to make sure he didn't have it too) and turns out he has it too! So we will be doing breathing treatments for the next couple of days..or at least til his cough goes away! I am thankful that Isaiah is now over it but man was it a HARD and LONG week last week!! Hopefully we will be able to ring in the new year with two healthy boys!



Ethan is very patient and relaxed during his nebulizer treatments...as you can see! :)

Sick of Sick Boys

Josh and I are pretty exhausted from a week now of Isaiah being sick and Ethan begining this past weekend so I scheduled an appointment with Dr. B this afternoon to hopefully get a grasp on this madness!!

Christmas Morning

As we had anticipated, Isaiah woke up pretty early (I think right around 6am). Ethan followed shortly and came straight to our room which was good because daddy was in the living room preparing for the boys to come out.

Grammy and Papa joined us again this year and brought their gifts for the boys. They got Ethan this awesome race track and were busy putting it together so he could see it when he came out. Now that the coffee was going and the gifts were prepared, with camcorder in hand, we sent the boys down the hall. Ethan saw his racetrack and it was love at first sight! He went straight to playing with that and I think he actually forgot that Santa had come!



I had to remind him to open the other gifts Santa brought!! So after it clicked he made a dash for the tree and began looking for his name on the presents! I was so proud that he could distiguish between his and his brother's presents by reading the tag!! He ripped them open one at a time and loved everything.



Even though Isaiah was older this year he still wasn't all that interested in opening gifts.



Uncle Kyle came over around 6:30am to join in the festivities...baby Avery and mama were at the house still sleeping. After all the presents were opened we had breakfast and chilled out. I think the waking up at 5:30 was catching up already! After a bit, Grammy and Papa hit the road and Kyle went home to his family (we were hoping they were up by now!). Now it was time to get ready for Grammy and Papa's house!! It was a very good morning. Even though we went for "less is more" this year the boys were both still blessed with too much. We already can't wait til next year!!! Ethan is counting down the days already...

Christmas Eve Preperations

It has finally arrived! After the LONG 25 day countdown we were finally able to tell Ethan that Santa was coming tonight! We got home from my mom's house not too late and quickly got in our pajamas. We put Isaiah to sleep (he was not feeling well) and it was time to get ready for Santa. We put a plate of cookies and a glass of milk out by the tree for him to snack on while delivering the presents. Then we took our "reindeer food" out to the front yard for the reindeer to eat when they landed at our house. After much convincing, we tucked Ethan into bed and told him that Santa would only come if he was in his bed asleep. We kissed goodnight and he was off to dream of Santa and the reindeer flying in the sky...

Friend's Holiday Party

This year instead of doing a Thanksgiving and a Christmas party we thought it would be better to do just one holiday party. So we hosted 5 other couples and their kids, 18 in all, and had a wonderful meal and even better dessert (Jenny made these AWESOME cake balls and I think they might be my new favorite dessert)! You know me and dessert... Everything turned out great, guys relaxing and girls yappin' away, but since it was a weeknight some had to work the next day so it was a fairly early evening. The kids were being kids and it always makes Josh stressed to have that many people in our house at one time..so next year we might make it a kids free party. Don't get me wrong, we love spending time with our friends and their kids...we just really don't have enough of those date nights!! :) All in all, it was a very fun night!
On a side note: the Harrison's found out today that they are having another girl!! Miss Ainsley Parker will join the family on May 8th...or sometime around that date...whenever she chooses to come! :)

Sea World

This year we sprung for Sea World passes because the kids were getting old enough to finally enjoy alot of the attractions. It was a bit chilly still so we didn't want to stay too long, but Jennifer and I had been wanting to see the Shamu show so we got there early so we could get good seats for the kids. It ended up being a great show that the kids loved! Unfortunately, it was increadibly loud and Isaiah couldn't handle it so I had to take him out and watch from the top. Poor thing...he can hear so well now after his surgery!

The best of friends

After the Shamu show we went and stood in line for the Sesame Street show. I was already stressed out because we had lost Isaiah's paci during the Shamu show and now he was even more fussy. We got there early to get good seats again but under the circumstances it wasn't a very good decision. I was trying to keep Isaiah calm and Ethan and Colby from driving their cars into the people sitting next to us when....

Yep, that's pee on Ethan's jeans!! Before the show started Ethan had an accident, and OF COURSE I didn't have a change of clothes with me. What made it worse is Ethan has this weird thing where he cannot be wet...even the smallest drop of water (or other liquid) freaks him out and he has to change clothes. Well I had to explain to him that I didn't have any other clothes with me and he would have to stay in the wet ones til we got home. He threw a huge fit and I tried to keep my calm...even though I wanted to scream. I took him to the bathroom to soak his jeans up as much as I could but it didn't help that much. To my suprise Ethan didn't say much more about it...luckly we were leaving after the show.

Looking at the picture I feel bad for him...I wish I could have had that feeling during the crisis!

Making Ornaments

The guys were still hiking in Big Bend, and since Jenny stayed the night last night, I decided to go her way tonight. I wasn't ready to spend the night yet (especially by myself!) but I did stay late. (For those who don't know, the one time we spent the night with the boys was very close to one of our worst nights ever! I am waiting for Isaiah to get a little older before we give that one a try again!). Jenny had been wanting to make cinnamon ornaments for awhile now so we thought that would be a fun project for the kids.



The best part was when the kids did their own handprint. I love having those kinds of reminders to look at and see how much they have grown...

Ornament Exchange

Jennifer hosted our 2nd annual ornament exchange party this year and it was so much fun! Last year Isaiah was just 3 months old and I had to leave early because he wasn't taking the bottle well. But this year all the guys and the kids went to our house and the girls had a night out! We had great food and dessert and we played bunco, which was a great idea from Jenny and a nice way for people to talk with people they didn't know. Then we had the ornament exchange which is always alot of fun. I was sitting next to Allison, Kathryn, and Stef and we must have taken some silly pills because we could not stop laughing! Everything was so funny!! :) Good times! I can't wait til next year!

Christmas Portraits by Jennifer

We were scheduled to get the boys' Christmas pictures taken on Saturday but it was cold and rainy so we decided to check out this new spot, the Cibolo Nature Center, on Monday. Given the name you would think it would be just around the corner from us...think again: Boerne! So we made the drive and I am glad we did! The pictures turned out great! Jennifer was able to capture both boys seperately and together! Josh was very impressed with Isaiah's posing! HA! Of course there are too many good ones so it was very hard to pick just ONE for the Christmas card! I did go ahead and create a collage with many different pictures. Pretty soon my whole house will be a portrait studio for Synergy Photography! I love being the best friend of an amazing photographer!!

Breakfast with Santa

This morning we went to see Santa!! The boys went in their pajamas (Ethan didn't have his Christmas ones yet and Isaiah's were dirty) and we had yummy breakfast and did some crafts. When it was our turn to see Santa, Ethan jumped right up in his lap and when he was asked what he wanted for Christmas he told him very clearly, "Cars and Cars games." We weren't really sure what he ment by cars games but we definately got the cars part down! When it was time for Isaiah, well, not to my suprise he didn't care to be in Santa's lap! We didn't make him stay there for long, just long enough to get a picture. When Santa asked what Isaiah wanted for Christmas, Ethan answered for him "cars"...which was very funny because he definately wanted to make sure he would be getting cars...even if he had to steal his brother's!! Ethan got reindeer food from Santa to put out on Christmas Eve so when the reindeer stoped at our house they would have something to eat. Ethan thought that was cool! Hopefully next year Isaiah will have a better experience with Santa, but I'm not betting on it!