Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Ethan has been keeping us on our toes yet again. He recently mastered crawling and sitting up. It seems as soon as he masters one milestone, he's on to the next! So, during our Thanksgiving break he figured out standing. Needless to say, the break turned into a baby proofing frenzy!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving day at my mom's home with Joel, Jamie, & John. We also invited Jason's mom to join us so we had a group of 7 adults and baby Ethan. Jason hunted Thursday morning with Justin who got a doe. Jason is still waiting for his!

Friday morning I sacrificed sleep for deals. Jason stayed with Ethan until I got home and we traded off so Jason could get some more hunting time in. I managed to get to Meijer, Target, Staples, & Menards. The weather was wonderful for shopping so it was a fairly easy morning. I have about 80% of our Christmas shopping done.

Sunday we spent at Jason's dad's home for Thanksgiving with Justin & Sam. Ethan was very exploratory and quite the ham soaking up any attention he could get.

Despite our greatest efforts to keep a schedule Ethan still was an overtired, overstimulated, cranky baby by Sunday night. Monday was a welcomed day of normal schedule.

Most recently one of my major tasks has been to pack up all of the outgrown baby clothes and things into storage totes by size to be stored in the basement. Hooray I am almost done!

The Christmas tree went up this week as well and Ethan has a new fascination with it and the pokey wreath in the dining room. We made some changes to our Christmas decorating this year. We have a play area (baby jail) in the corner in the living room where the tree has gone in the past and the tree is now in the dining room. The tree has only scarce amounts of decorations just in case Ethan is drawn to it before I can catch him. We left all of the branches on at this point but time will tell how attracted he will be to it. Right now he is happy being held up to it and touching the needles.

Busy busy!

So I realized that I hadn't posted anything in the last month and a half! I knew we were busy but wow has time flown by!

First, the baby. Last night we had our 23 week appointment. All seems well and on track. I feel big but no one seems to agree with me. I guess that is okay. My doctor thinks my weight is on track so I guess I can't argue with that! Here are a few pictures of the progress...

Thirteen Weeks

Fourteen Weeks

Fifteen Weeks

Seventeen Weeks

Twenty Two Weeks

We found out at our ultrasound that we're having a boy! Here is his first baby picture. Hint, he's looking right at you with his face on the left. We are telling the gender but you will have to wait until his birthday to find out what his name will be :)

Twenty One Weeks

We did miss a few weeks of pictures but that was due to the fact that we've really stepped up the home improvements and it has been hunting season. Jason hasn't gotten a deer yet but the season isn't over either. For the home improvements we started with the laundry room exterior door. The cement had to be sanded down and part of the wall removed to accommodate a standard size door.
In addition to the new door in the back we changed out the front door as well. We also decided to take advantage of a very good deal at Lowes and purchased a house full of carpet. We had it installed professionally but saved some money by ripping out the old carpet first. In order to do all of that, we moved all of our furniture into a large enclosed trailer (can be seen in some of the pictures). There is a gap in the time frame for these pictures as the camera got lost in the shuffle for a couple of weeks.

Smokey seems to love having the couch back and makes herself right at home.

After all of that craziness with the house, we celebrated Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for! I think back to a year ago when we were devastated to have medical professionals inform us that children without medical intervention may not be possible. God is so good and proved them wrong. We've also had chances to build memories on trips with family and friends. Who knew God had so much in mind for us?! We celebrated the holiday by spending lunch with my mom and siblings. Then, that evening we spent with Jason's dad and the whole clan on that side. Friday I hit the stores at 5:30 and didn't have any problems getting the deals I set out for. Saturday we spent with Jason's mom. We are thankful to spend another year with his grandparents and pray that his grandma continues to do well. We found out this year that she has stage 3 breast cancer and she's coping well with the treatments so far.

Now, I can't believe it is December with Christmas knocking on our door already! December has arrived with much snowier weather than November. I have to be thankful that it held off as long as it did. I enjoy watching it snow and it really sets the mood for Christmas. However, I can't help feel as fall gives way to winter that I want March to be here that much faster.