Picture Time!

Last Sunday we got all gussied up to head over to Portrait Innovations in Chesterfield to get Ethan's six month and Aidan's three year (yeah, three years, can you believe that!). This is the first time that we had used Portrait Innovations, and overall we were really pleased. The prices were great for how many sheets you got and they took 86 pictures with two outfit changes each of the boys. It was a little crazy with all the Christmas pictures going on, but overall a great experience. They were able to capture a few Ethan smiles, but I think he was getting pretty sleepy. Aidan, of course, after over 12,000 pictures (seriously) that have been taken of him over the year, was at home with the smiling.

So, without further a do, I present our family and our little men...

Funny guys!





Silly guy!

Looks like a little business man, ready to sit down with his morning joe and look through the Wall Street Journal from his Manhattan office trying to analyze the next big investment.



Love both of these, love love love them. What a blessing both of these guys are!

He's Three, Yes Indeed, He's Three!!

Christmas 2009, next year they'll look SOOO different I bet!

Have a wonderful night!
Ty, Emmy, Aidan, Ethan

Weekend of Santa!

Santa was definitely present this weekend, we saw him (or at least announced appearances of him)just about everywhere...and even Ethan got into the Jolly Old Elf's spirit wearing Aidan's 12 month (yes 12 month) Santa outfit!

First off, the boys received their Letter's from Santa again this year (Click on the picture to see the full letter) and Aidan did him proud by getting rid of his pacifier this past year (one thing Santa asked him to improve on). Santa knows that each boy has been quite good this year, so hopefully he'll bring them many a nice gift to play and share.

Saturday night was quite bizarre in St. Louis. We had a sustained thunderstorm for about 5 hours, 7:30 to 12:30. Really weird and rare to have a thunderstorm this time of year, but they actually were pretty intense, some put down some hail! In any case, we already had planned to spend the night with Auntie Elizabeth, going out to dinner and then driving down to Eureka, Missouri to see "Santa's Magical Kindgom", a place where they decorate in thousands and thousands of lights and Christmas decorations that you drive through. Even though it was raining, it was quite popular as we waited about 45 minutes to get in to the place for a half an hour car ride through all the lights. It was a really cool place, there were so many lights that you didn't need your headlights (in fact they had you turn them off). They had all sorts of moving characters and different arraingments of lights, I was impressed. We let Aid sit on the center console of the car, he was in heaven! Here's a few shots that are kinda washed out since I took them with my phone.

Have a great night everyone!
Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan

Ethan is 6 Months Old!!

All right! Tomorrow will be exactly 6 months for the Big Easy! Congratulations Ethan! You're doing so wonderful and we are so proud of you!

And in the tradition of the FFA, I present with great honor your first spotlight video!

There's something about Keith Urban and these six month videos! Great music and great message (did you catch the lyrics where they say that he has his brother's smile, awesome!)...Ethan you truly are our "Once in a Lifetime Love!"

We Love You Big Guy!
Daddy, Mommy, Aidan and Allie

Time for Some Real Food!!!!

Baby Ethan started his first real food last night, Sweet Peas!

We think he did pretty good with them, really didn't spit it out and honestly didn't have many funny faces after the initial shock (see phote below). Soooo, here we go! We're on our tour of baby foods from now until we have some teeth! Next up, Green Beans!

Here's the little man last night eatin' the good stuff!

Yum!!! Rice Cereal! I'll take this anyday!

Hmmmm...what's this stuff?

Alright, not bad...

.....well, if I just hold my nose it won't taste SO bad!!!

We had a nice weekend here in St. Louis, Aidan and Mommy both got haircuts on Saturday which was perfect timing for our annual tradition of taking Christmas pictures for our Christmas cards. I'll tell you, we got some good ones, so for those on our list, keep checkin' those mailboxes!!

Today we did church for the first time in awhile now that H1N1 is chillin' down (last time we went we were surrounded by coughers and sneezers and with E not being eligible for any flu vaccine, we didn't want to take a chance). But most importantly, we had not one but two people complement the boys for being so well behaved! Awesome!!!!

After a great nap (by all of us), we settled in for another fun holiday tradition, christmas cookies! Aidan and Mommy got out the cutters and started going to town on some cookies.....only to find out that for some reason the dough was too soft :( But it was fun at least cutting out the cookies for Aidan (Mommy went on later to bake some M&M's cookies, to which Aidan got more than his full share of M&Ms). Enjoy!

I AM a Little Chef!

Ethan sporting a wicked do tonight at dinner! I pity the fool!

That's all for tonight, have a great night! Snow's coming to STL on Tuesday!

Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan

Cereal Time!

Yes it is true! We have started Ethan on "real" food! And the little guy loved it! Usually they say go with rice cereal around 6 months and sure enough, we're getting pretty close, so last night we decided to go with it! We had been practicing around with E for the last couple weeks with a spoon just to see how he would do with it, and sure enough, it was like he'd been eating the cereal since day one. His brother tended to spit or dribble a lot of it out, but not this guy, he ate it all down!

Here's some pictures of his first "solid" food! Enjoy!

Mommy and Daddy feeding the little guy!

Even the Big Bro got into the Feeding Spirit!

And then he and his big bro got to wear some matching holiday jammies!

Well speaking of the big bro, he makes another big move tomorrow from the Lime Room to the Strawberry Room. He visited there today and yesterday and both times the teachers said he did great! He has a couple of friends that he's moving with so hopefully this transition will go well. The Strawberry Room is a cool room because (according to him) they have a goldfish, a railroad crossing, a Thomas the Train engine and a Johnny Tractor John Deere Tractor! So wish Aid luck tomorrow as he moves up again in school!

Have a great night,
Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan

Christmas Season is Here!

After a successful Thanksgiving with Papa Steve, we were ready today to move forward with our favorite time of the year....Christmastime! Putting up the tree and decorations has always been Emmy and my favorite tradition and this year we got ourselves a new helper...Mr. Aidan!

He helped us take out the boxes, test out the Christmas toys (that's a very important job) and even put a few ornaments on the tree! And Mr. Ethan helped out too by taking a fabulous nap this morning, yeah Ethan!

Aidan helping Mommy put up an ornament and Ethan posing with his stocking right before nap time.



And the mantle tonight, looking splendid with FIVE stockings. A funny too by Aidan, he chose the cow to lead Santa's sleigh...must be one special cow!



Daddy put up all the lights this year, including some new LEDs (Emmy says: "Better for the Environment", Tyler says, "Looks Cool")

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Later in the day we just hung out around the tree and watched the train....a very special moment for me, Mommy, and the boys...they were enchanted by the train, especially Ethan who watched it go round and round, the whole time while pushed up with his arms...such a strong little guy!

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Watchin' the train!

Here's a video!

And now a special moment that we were delighted with our guys this morning. As it goes, we're lying in bed asleep when I hear in Ethan's monitor. "Good Morning Ethan. How are you? Are you ready to wake up? Look at my Christmas Train. Good Morning!"

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I sat up and looked up in a stupor towards Ethan's room. His door was open and the lights were on dimly. Aidan had woken up, gone straight to his Christmas Little People train and drug it into Ethan's room to show him. All while we were sound asleep. I rolled over to Emmy and said, "And so it begins, the wonderful friendship between our boys." We both smiled and were greeted then by Mr. Aidan, smiling from ear to ear. He said, "I showed Ethan my train, he's waking up." Yes indeed, yes indeed.

Here's the guys tonight!

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Have a wonderful evening,

Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan