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:

Ethan's Tumbling Class

This fall I signed Ethan up for a Tumbling class through Arlington county. I didn't know what to expect but was SO pleasantly surprised! Ethan absolutely LOVED the class and did so well with it too--despite the fact that a lot of the activities were a little advanced for his age group. The class started each time with 5 or so minutes of "running time" to super fun music. The kids run in a circle and then we start our "stretching" activities. From there we go through 4 rotations--floor time activities, climbing, hanging & jumping and then the finale--the "pit". The pit is a huge hole in the floor filled with foam blocks about 6x6 inches in size.

Ethan learned to tumble in the class and does it at home now too. Plus, it really helped with his running and balance too. The challenging part was that there were 3 classes going on at once, each was at a different rotation. His class was the 2's but there was the 3's and the 4's there too. Ethan is very intrigued by older kids so it was a little difficult to keep him with our teacher Coach Kim. We are about mid-stream through the class now and he is really doing well with this! At the end of each class, the kids line up and sit down to get a stamp on their foot and a coloring page. Very cute! It's kinda hard to pick us out--Ethan has navy and sky blue stripes on and blue sweatpants and I have a pink shirt on.

Here are some pics of his time at the climbing & jumping rotation. There is a trampoline in the floor that the kids jump across. All the parents are sitting around that in the picture below.










Here's the pictures of our floor time at the beginning and stretching...










Here Ethan has just done his tumble--"TA DA!" and on the right--we are in the floor rotation. It changes each week--this week was hopscotch, balancing on the colored tape, climbing and jumping into the rings.

Fall playgroup party at our house

Today we hosted our 2009 babies playgroup at our house for a Thanksgiving Potluck. It was such a fun time. We had 11 kids and mom's there--so it was a lot of fun. I made Indian hats for the kids and we did a finger painting activity where the kids put their hands in paint and when it dries, you decorate it like a turkey. It was so warm out today that we went outside to play at the sand table and in our backyard and the kids didn't have to wear coats!

First trip to Chuck e Cheese!

Today we went to Chuck e Cheese for Ethan's friend's birthday. We had so much fun! Definitely not the Chuck e Cheese that I remember though, which was a bummer! Ethan's most favorite thing about the adventure was putting the tokens into slots for the games--he would put the token in and then walk away to the next game. It was hysterical! He had a great time though and we got a super cool plastic bug with our 64 tickets. haha. I think I figured it out to be a $10 bug!

Our new place!

We moved back in August of 2010. It wasn't a great time to move--I was very sick during the first trimester of this pregnancy--right at the time we moved! But it all worked out. We love our new place and are SO excited to have space to spread out! We aren't sure how long we will stay here, but we are content for now! Ethan loves his new house--especially that he can run around on one floor. Very fun. Now we have room for a family room and guest room too so we can have visitors stay with us! yay!!