Little Ethan - GO, GO, GO!

Well after a couple weeks of rocking back and forth on his knees...last night Ethan started crawling! The video didn't turn out that great because the lighting in our living room is not the greatest! Now that he has figured this thing out he is on the go. Today has been a lot of fun watching him move about the house. We have experienced a whole new thing between our two boys today. Ethan goes from one of Noah's toys to the next and Noah goes from one toy to the next picking them up! I guess now Noah will be more motivated to keep his toys picked up since he doesn't want Ethan to get them. Fun times!

It's all FREE!!!

Today we went to the Healthy Living Expo in Knoxville. It was so much fun and the entire event is free. Free admission, free parking, free samples, free food, free drinks, free health screenings, free activities, and free demonstrations! They also had alot of drawings. We won a 3 day 2 night stay at a resort, a week to Curves, a month pass to the Rush fitness center for two (includes childcare), and a introductory class for Noah at a martial arts place. (I think that's it!) We saw a Karate demonstration, walked through a giant colon (gross - Noah loved it), got a 5 minutes massage for me (heaven), face painting, and moon jump. They also had a rock wall but none of us had the spunk to do it! They were giving out tea, smoothies, ice cream, pizza, burritoes, soup, fruit and more! I am just amazed that they did all this for free. We had so much fun. I ate the best pizza I've ever had (http://www.papamurphys.com/). You buy it and take it home to cook. The toppings tasted real - not that I've been eating fake ones but you know what I mean! Noah's favorite was the jumping thing and getting his face painted. He told the lady to paint an orange dog on his face not brown! For some reason orange is his favorite color and has been so for awhile now! He and I also got in an Ambulance and pretended to work on someone. That was fun! The lady said it was a new one and it cost about $200,000. That's like driving a house down the road! My favorite was the eating & the massage!! Little Ethan liked the karate demonstration! I am not kidding. Everytime they would yell - he would. He even tried to do his arms out like them. Jason enjoyed all the unsual fitness equipment they had setup for you to try out! He's also ready to sign the family up for Karate!

We ran out of time before I got to see the cooking demonstration and the nutrional label class. I really would like to learn how to cook healthy and what to cook! It gets hard trying to come up with meals that are inexpensive, quick, healthy, and everyone will enjoy. We did learn about something interesting for cooking purposes, check it out at http://www.creatingdinner.com/.

Noah Practicing Writing

Several months ago Jason's mom bought Noah a book that you can write your ABC's on and then wipe it off to do all over again. I think she got it for him when Ethan was born so it's been about 8 months ago. Anyway enough rambling! Well with the move and the packing the book got misplaced. Noah found the book yesterday and wanted to play with it today. I expected him just to doodle like he did back when he got the book. But he actually tried to trace the letters. It's funny cause sometimes I'll work with him on stuff and he just doesn't have any interest. If he's not interested then he doesn't try at all! Then when he gets interested in it, he just picks it up or at least tries to do it. It's easy as a parent to get caugt up in comparing your kids abilities to others but it's important to remember that they will get it in their own time! Check out his work...we're really proud of him!

So, Mom!

The other day we (Noah, Ethan & Myself) had sit down to eat lunch. Since Jason has been working a whole lot I try to ask questions to get Noah to talking and not asking where's daddy! I'm not a real big fan of silence either!!! Anyway I ask him questions like, "so whats your plans for today" or "how's life treating you". You know questions just to provoke some thought and providing interesting responses! Well the other day he said, "So, mom tell me about yourself". I laughed and said okay. I have two boys. He said what's their names. I said Noah and Ethan. He said right. Then I said I'm married to Jason. He said oooooh I'm gonna tell on you. I said what are you going to tell? He said I'm going to tell Daddy you called him Jason. Then he looked at me and said that's daddy to you mister! He gets that from Jason! Whenever Noah calls him Jason that's always his answer. I think kids are amazing and you NEVER know what they are going to say. They bring so much joy and work to our lives!

Look What I Found!

This morning I heard a lot of noise coming from Ethan's room. So, I went to check it out! I found Ethan & Noah playing together in Ethan's bed. How Noah got in there is unknown, but he figured it out somehow! They have so much energy...maybe they could share just a little with me!

Look Whose Holding His Bottle!

Yesterday Ethan started holding his bottle by hisself. So tonight while I was cooking supper Ethan was screaming ready to eat. Ethan is always ready to eat and when he smells food he is even more ready to eat. So tonight I put him in the high chair and he fed hisself a bottle while I cooked. Do you have any idea how nice it was to cook supper without a baby crying in the background! I will be really glad when Jason gets a better job and is at home at night. Then all this craziness will be finished. It has been so hard with him working these crazy hours and me having the kids all the time by myself. There is a definite reason why God intended for there to be a Mom and a Dad.

Anyway, congrats little Ethan on the bottle-holding thing - very proud of you :)

Strike A Pose!

Here's my little superstar! Noah asked me to take this photo of him striking a pose with his hair all a mess! He is getting so Mr. Independant. Sometimes when I brush his hair he tells me I messed it up and then he messes it up. I guess he has his own style! Anyway, He's a cutie!

Just a Thought!!

Last night I took one of those silly quizes on a web-site it was about how much do you know of the Bible. In the comments section different people had wrote how they didn't believe in God and had given up on religion. This made me really sad because these people think they really have a choice to just not believe and then he doesn't exist. The fact is whether they believe or not He DOES exist. Also, whether they believe or not there is a Heaven & a Hell. The thing is people think that they can just not make a choice and suffer no consequences. The fact is when you don't make a choice you are making a choice not to choose God. You are either for Him or against Him there is no in-between. Anyway it's just been on my mind since I saw that. This song really sums it up that we were made to love Him. I just can't imagine how it makes God feel to hear people say He doesn't exist when He sent His son to die for us. How much more could He have done to prove His love to us? Anyway listen to this...

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Just a Playin!

Somedays kids get along great without fussing and sometimes they don't! Today was a great day! It's funny cause for a 7 month old you wouldn't think he can fuss at Noah already, but he does! It goes without saying that Noah often returns the favor. But today...Noah & Ethan played very sweetly together so I thought I'd share some pictures of this event.

Finally got some snow!

It didn't snow here in Maryville but it did snow right down the road. So we got all bundled up and went to check it out. It was the first time Noah got to see snow. He couldn't believe that it was everywhere like that. He absolutely loved it. It was very cold - the high was 25 Wednesday with really frigid windchills from -7 to 10. So needless to say we didn't stay out in it for long! Ethan fell asleep on the way there and stayed in the car sleeping. So he was nice and warm!

We went to Cades Cove (around 25 minutes away) they didn't have a whole lot of snow but they did have enough to play in a little. There were some people there from Florida sledding down a hill. It was beautiful. No matter how many times we go to Cades Cove that place always amazes me. It is just incredible. It's so untouched by man...it just looks the way God made it. Little Ethan missed this one but maybe next time it won't be so frigid and he'll be awake.