Our little bruiser...

After celebrating Michigan's upset over Wisconsin, Ethan and Spencer were running in the dining room and had a collision. Unfortunately, Ethan received the brunt of the injuries. Either their heads hit, or it was Spencer's ball that hit Ethan right below the eye. Either way, it looks painful, doesn't it?

Owie! (sp?)
Poor baby!
He doesn't like ice on his face, who would? It's cold. So he had some that he put in his mouth...
...while Mommy tried to ice his eye.

The swelling has already gone down, and he is back to running around with Spencer again. So, I think he's going to be alright. And it's nice to know that he doesn't hold a grudge (against Spencer that is.)

Ethan's room phase 2...

Uncle Lance came up to help paint Ethan's room this weekend. He talked me into doing 2 different shades - one wall a darker shade, with the other 3 a lighter shade. We stayed with the neutral color to make it easier to decorate and accent other colors with. It looks real sharp! I really like it! I have a sports border that we're going to put up around the walls next.

Here he is cutting in the corners for the second coat.
Nana & Papa came up too. (I'm not sure what I was talking about at the time. :-) )
The new hutch we bought for Ethan's room.
Some play time with Uncle Lance this morning.
Sitting on my toy chest that Papa made me. (Ethan already looks pretty comfortable in his room.)
Thanks for your help, Uncle Lance! We REALLY appreciate it!

Dancing Games...

The other day, Ethan was doing some "dancing" in the living room with his music. See if you can picture these movements is one motion.

Pushing the button on the stacking stars toy that lights up and makes music.
Bopping to the music...
Spinning around in circles, with my arms out by my sides...
"falling down"...
Wasn't that fun?! Let's do it again.

Young Adult Cookout...

Last Sunday we had another Young Adult cookout. It was a potluck (bring your own meat to grill) and Wii games. We had about 10 young families present, with about 25-30 people in attendance. It was a fun afternoon of food and fellowship.

The guys grilling the meat.
The ladies visiting inside, and coraling the kids.
Wii games after dinner.
Cleaning up in the kitchen.
Who's winning? Looks like everyone's having fun. :-)

Third Trimester...

Well, I am finally beginning my third trimester of my pregnancy. This pregnancy has been so different in so many ways than my pregnancy with Ethan. Ethan's went so smoothly, except for a few spotting scares early on. I felt great and had great energy with his. I have been more tired, and sore this pregnancy than the first one. It could have something to do with chasing a 17 month old around the house all the time too. I am just hoping and praying that I can make it through without too many problems. Without trying to give too many gruesome details, I strained my pelvic bone with Ethan's delivery. So I could hardly walk for a good week after his delivery. After that, I didn't have any problems, so I didn't think anything about it. Well about a month or so ago, the pains resurfaced again, making it difficult to sleep comfortably, or even turn over at night. I finally went to see a Physical Therapist last week. He said that my pelvic bone was tilted out of place (not knowing the medical term). So after some stretches, he "realigned" my pelvic bone. I did not feel anything much at the time. However, that night, I was in such AGONY, that I was crying and could not sleep! The next day, I had pain all day but more in the back and down the side of my leg. That night I took some Tylenol PM, slept much better and had little pain. Last night I slept very well again (after Tylenol PM, my new "best friend") and was able to practically "jump" out of bed. (Bart was surprised at how quickly I got out of bed.) Today I have been pain free. So I don't know if being "realigned" is what cause the pain, since I had been out (for probably 17 months), or if I'm "out" again and just more used to it. Who knows?! I'll definitely be talking to my doctor more in depth this next week at my appointment. Weird, huh? I don't know any one else who has gone through this type of problem. If you do, any thoughts or suggestions would be welcomed!

"Littlefoot" is definitely growing.... overnight it seems at times.

Trip to GR...

Last weekend, Ethan and I went down to GR for a couple of days. I went down Friday and took Ethan to Nana's house for a visit. He stayed with her for a couple of hours, while I met my Mom at Babies R Us. I was looking for a crib to replace our current crib, since it has been recalled. After being at Babies R Us for almost 2 1/2 hours, we finally picked out a crib that we like. However, since there were 320,000 cribs recalled, their stock is quite low on cribs. So, since the one we picked out was not in the warehouse, we could not order it... quite yet. We are still waiting on that one to be restocked, so we can pick it up. Hopefully it will come in soon, as we're trying to get Ethan's room ready to move into, so he will be adjusted to his new room when the new baby comes. ([Deep breath]... sorry for the long explanation.) Here are some pictures from our visit at Nana's & Grandma's.

Walking down Nana's road, "all by myself." (He will have nothing to do with holding a hand.)
Checking out the big sunflower head from Nana's garden.
Look how tall her sunflowers are!
Is this a sunflower seed shower?
Friday night, we headed over to my parents house to celebrate my Dad's birthday. Here he's reading books with Grandma (& Bandit).
Then we made pies for the party (apple & cherry). Ethan wanted to help with the crust.
Eating dessert around the table.
Aunt Alisha, Ethan and Ellie. Ethan's checking out "baby Ellie".
Jeremy resting in Grandma's new chair.

Ethan handing Grandpa's gift to him.
A hunting shirt and some socks for Grandpa (from Ethan).
Wrestle time.
Ellie, trying to stand up like a big girl.
Ethan and Ellie making faces at each other. (Look at that tear on Ellie's right cheek.) :-(

Happy Birthday, Dad (Grandpa)! We love you!

Way Up High!

Look, Mom, No hands!

17+ months old...

Here are some more pictures of Ethan, our big 17 month old.

Ethan's favorite Lift-a-flap book.
Playing with Mega-blocks
Having missed a nap in the afternoon, getting some down-time in the early evening watching his Praise Baby Worship DVD.
Running down the hallway, another favorite pasttime!
Where's Ethan? Peek-a-boo!
Trying Daddy's Crocs on his hand.
Riding the lawn mower with Daddy.

Standing on my chair, like I should NOT be doing!
Running again, down the hallway!
Daddy catching him around the corner.
Reading books in Mommy's chair.
This is one of my favorite times of the day... watching Ethan sit down by himself and read books.

Ethan's room in progress...

This room used to be our den. However, we have been working to empty it, so we can move Ethan in here. We will use the nursery for the new baby. I have been working slowly at cleaning out and getting rid of a bunch of things. Then we worked down in our storage room, making room for the things from the den. To do that we had to clean out underneath the stairway, so we could move our Christmas bins under there. Finally tonight, John Pike came over tonight to help move the furniture downstairs. The desk is now in the guest room downstairs. The bookshelf and curio cabinet were moved into the "sitting room" at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. It was so nice to have a couple of evenings home finally (Friday & Saturday - afternoon & evening) to be able to get things done in here! Bart's been working hard on his "honey-do" list! :-) He even ran a phone line to the guest bedroom to hook up our wireless network tonight. What a guy!

The old den, Ethan's soon-to-be room.
The guest bedroom downstairs, with the computer desk in it now, and Bart hard at work.

Christmas bins now under the stairway.

The sitting room rearranged, with the bookshelf down here now.

And finally the curio cabinet in place in the "sitting" room.

Phew! That was the hard, not-so-fun part. Now comes the fun part - picking out the decor for Ethan's room, ie. border, paint colors, etc. We're thinking a sports theme, like balls, etc. When we decide on our border and colors, we'll have to see when Uncle Lance is available to come up and help paint. (I don't think he knows that he's going to help us yet, hopefully.) ;-)