Christmas in Florida

We had a great trip to Florida for an early Christmas celebration. Uncle Scott met us there. Ethan and I flew down for a little over a week and Mike came for a long 4-day weekend. We did a lot while we were there--went to the beach, rode the train at the mall (a highlight of the trip for Ethan), took golf cart rides to see the Christmas lights, went to the park, played on the golf course, went to Sun Harvest--(a tradition for our FL visits) and just enjoyed time at Nana and Pap's house. Ethan did so well on the plane--his last trip under the age of 2! We lucked out and got an empty row so he could sit in his own seat and have a "play" seat with all of his toys.

While we were there, we got to pick the first lemon from Nana and Pap's lemon tree. Ethan was in FL right after the tree was planted--now it's twice the size and bearing fruit!

Taking a walk to the pier with Uncle Scott and Pap

Here are some pictures from our time at the park, digging in the sand at the beach, and riding the train--all by himself! He didn't want to get off actually, and cried when the ride was done. The lady operating the train was nice enough to do one extra trip around for him for free! Also here are pics from our trip to Sun Harvest orchard--we go every time we are in FL. This time Ethan was big enough to reach the Orange outside! Of course, you have to get an orange/vanilla twist ice cream when you go and lots of free samples of fruit and fresh squeezed juice!

"Ethan...let's see how nervous we can make mommy. You wait here and I will jump over you!" I had to close my eyes while taking this picture. haha.


Hanging out at the park with Pap, the big lemon picking! and cool dude in the back of the car on the way to the park!



Our Christmas dinner and exchange


Here are some pics of Ethan making dinner with Nana, getting an "upside down ride" from Pap, running around with Nana on the golf course, digging with mommy at the park, reading with Pap and telling Pap all about the mower. Ethan LOVES when a mower or golf cart passes Nana and Pap's house--he can barely contain himself!



Here we are coming home on the plane. Each trip it gets harder to leave! This time Ethan was VERY sad to leave :(

No, no, no Santa!

This year Ethan wasn't a huge fan of Santa. Last year he was totally fine with sitting on Santa's lap--this year, however--not so much! We went to light up night in Shirlington--a quaint little town near us. They do such a nice job and Santa comes to visit all the boys and girls. We stood in line for a while this year--I think more people heard about how nice it is because it was packed this time. We rounded the corner and Ethan saw Santa. He started saying..."no, no, no..." before we even got close. Mike and I knew we were hosed before we got there. LOL. Here's a picture of Ethan "enjoying" his visit with Santa. Next year will be better, I can feel it!

Thanksgiving 2010 in Bethlehem!

We had such a nice time in Bethlehem for Thanksgiving. We were able to go for a long weekend and it was nice to spend time with the family. We arrived on Mike's 31st b-day--the day that we found out we were having a baby GIRL! We had dinner at Nanny's that night (Grams to Ethan). We had a lot of fun visiting with Matt & Niki, Noah and Adin at their house. And Jer and Rachelle came for a night to visit too. It was a great and safe trip.

Looking through my pictures from the weekend--I can NOT believe that I didn't get a shot of everyone sitting down at Thanksgiving dinner. Hopefully we can get one next time.

While we were in Bethlehem--in fact it was on Thanksgiving Day-- it snowed! This was the first snowfall that we had seen this year! Very fun. We took Ethan out in it and he was "sledding" on a boogie board. He loved it though

I think that Nanny and Pop-pop's dogs probably gained about 5 lbs during our visit. Ethan was very helpful in letting the dogs out and in and giving them a treat EACH time. haha. I think that the dogs have found a new best friend!

Ethan loves spending time with his cousins. He is completely and utterly amused by Noah, which is very sweet to watch. Noah sings to him and talks to him--it's very cute! And the first love of Ethan's life is his future Aunt! He literally gets gitty around Rachelle.



Pictured below...Nanny is helping Ethan put letters on the fridge, Grams and Ethan are talking all about the trucks outside.














Ethan got to help Pop-Pop with a VERY important job--the unveiling of their new trash can! Ethan loved taking the styrofoam in and out of the box. Also below--playing with Noah and Adin at Nanny & Pop-Pops Thanksgiving evening.












Ethan loved when Nanny sang to him--you can see how mesmerized he was! haha. Also shown here, playtime at Matt and Niki's, the boys helping me with a puzzle, and playing at Grams' house the first night.

Let's go STATE (in DC)!

This year PSU came to DC for a football game! We were so excited!! My parents flew in to babysit for us and we got to go and tailgate before the game just like the good ole' days! It was a lot of fun--definitely not like being up at State College--but still fun. Penn State played Indiana. FedEx Field has been trying to get college teams to come and play in the stadium and offered Indiana $3M if they would host the game there. So Indiana took it! Jer and Rachelle came for the weekend too which was really fun. Ethan wanted them to put him down to sleep that night after the game--very sweet. Here are some pics from the game.

Very fun to spend some time with Mike!

The men--Jer, Anthony, Mike, Eric and Pat









My girls :)

These guys come to every PSU game--they are always shown on TV. The guy on the right missed the memo to look down!

Jer, Rachelle, me and Mike

Family photo shoot in Old Town Alexandria

Today we had our family pictures taken in Old Town--right by the water. It was FREEZING! Much colder than we anticipated. We met our photographer at 8am. We really liked her! She just let us be us and took pictures of us interacting. There were only a couple posed photos and we didn't love those as much. She is also going to take our maternity photos. Here are some of our favorites from the session: