Smiles and the Farm

We finally captured some of Morgan's smiles on camera as Kevin and I talked to her. In between smiles she likes to try to talk and ends up sticking her tongue out a lot. She's quite the cutie (we think).

This morning Ethan, Morgan and I went out to my friend Erin's parents' house. They live on a few acres outside of town. They have a horse and a few cows, a barn and some tractors. Ethan loved it. He liked petting the horses and riding on the gator. It's so much fun to be outside! They also have a little battery powered kid sized tractor, complete with a gas pedal. Ethan loved driving that, although he needed a little help steering it.

Prayer

Ethan has been saying his own prayers before dinner for quite some time now. It is usually the same every time, "Dear Jesus, Thanks for food. Amen."

Tonight as we were sitting down for dinner, Kevin grabbed a beer out of the fridge to have with our Stromboli. We told Ethan it was time to pray, we held hands and offered our hands for him to hold. As usual he opted to fold his hands. He squeezed his eyes closed and proceeded to pray....

"Dear Jesus, Thanks for beer. Amen"

I guess we can be thankful for adult beverages too....

Life

Nothing too exciting happening over here. We continue to get adjusted to being a family of four. It is definitely a bigger adjustment than I anticipated. Morgan changes daily and is now awake more so we can interact with her a little. She is smiling at us now, but she is more reserved with her smiles than her big brother was. She is not as quick to interact with us, I think she knows her brother likes to be the center of attention.

Bath time! Morgan loves her bathtub. We give her a bath in the evening and she immediately calms down when she gets in the warm water.

Where's Ethan? We play this game a lot. Usually it just involves him covering his eyes. He thinks he's really hard to find and we play a long. What can I say, he's easily amused!

This morning we went down to Main Street Days. All the businesses in town set up booths down the middle of Main Street and they give out candy, pumpkins, coupons etc to entice people to spend money at their business. Ethan loved his free balloon, the cats waiting to be adopted and the petting zoo.

In the top picture he was trying to feed the pig the sawdust stuff on the ground. So in the next picture you can see the 4H guy trying to give him food to give to the pig instead of the wood shavings:)

Ethan's checking out an old fire truck. Daddy and Ethan talk about the engine in an old car. Sorry, I dont know what kind or what year, so old car is the only description you get from me!

It was fun to head outside, see people in the community, and get free junk!

Baptism

Morgan was baptized this past Sunday. Our Youth Pastor did the baptism and did a great job. It was a very meaningful time to present Morgan to God and to ask him to help us raise her as a child of him. He did a great job reminding us and the congregation that Kevin and I can't do it on our own, we will need the help of our family, friends and other church members. How great to belong to the body of Christ!

This dress was made by my Grandma's aunt and worn by my mom, my sister and me. It was pretty special to have Morgan wear it too.

Papa and Nana and the kids.

Opa and Oma and the kids.

One Month old!

Friends and Hockey

This Saturday our friends John and Brenda came to visit and to meet Morgan. She was very happy to meet them and Ethan was really excited to have John and Brenda play with all his trucks and cars. He talks about them them a lot, so it was fun for him to finally get to play with them. We had a great time catching up with them, playing and walking to the river. Our time together isn't quite like it used to be now that we have 2 kids to worry about, but it is always nice to chat and share a few laughs.

After his nap on Saturday Ethan and daddy played a little hockey. They just finished a roller hockey rink not far from our house. We drive by it often and have watched the "hockey building" take shape. We talked about it whenever we drove past, so Ethan knew where and what the building was. The hockey building is now finished and Ethan and Kevin walked through it a couple weeks ago. So now hockey is the sport of choice in our house. Kevin sawed of one of his old sticks for Ethan to use and he actually has a pretty good shot. Here are a few pictures of my boys playing hockey.

Ethan has begun his question asking phase. I answer the following questions several times a day, "What's that?" "What's that about?" He is definitely an inquisitive little boy. He has begun singing some of the songs we have been singing to him. He can almost sing the whole alphabet which is so fun to hear. Some other favorites include Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Zacheus, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Jesus Loves Me. He is quite the little sponge and will repeat most of what he hears, that keeps us on our toes!

Morgan is now one month old. She is still such a good baby. She is going through her "fussy in the evening" stage right now. I remember Ethan going through that too and not much calms her except mommy or daddy walking and rocking her. Hopefully it will be short lived. I have a few pictures of her "playing" and her 4 week picture.

Dress up

One of the fun things about having a little girl is the fun clothes out there for girls. Boy's wardrobes consist of pants, shorts, and shirts. Little girls have dresses, skirts, capris, shorts, pants, shirts, little white sweaters, hair bows and shoes. Morgan already has as many shoes as her brother and she doesn't even need them yet. This morning was my first morning to really dress Morgan up, hair bow and everything. I think she looked pretty cute, but I suppose I'm biased. The dress only lasted through church and should have been changed half way through church since she peed on it when I changed her diaper...ahh the joys of a newborn!

A little Sunday morning cuddling in their pjs. Ethan still LOVES Morgan and asks to hold her several times a day. He is getting much more gentle and gives great kisses. We still don't leave them alone together, but I'm sure that will come someday.

I think Ethan may get Morgan's first smile. She loves to watch him.

Week 3: We needed the binki for this one, she wasn't in the mood to pose with bear.

Last swim of the summer

This past week we had our last heat wave of the summer, I hope. It was 100+ for a few days in a row. We decided to head over to my parents on Saturday night for one more swim. It is amazing how much more courageous Ethan has gotten in the water. And how much more he can do nowcompared to June. He can hang out in the ring and kick himself where he wants to go. Hopefully he remembers everything next summer! We had lots of fun in the pool this summer, it will be a bummer say good bye to the pool for a few months, but I must say, I'm ready for the cooler weather fall will soon bring!