Change is in the Wind

The end of 2010 is going to be very busy in the Russell household! We are opening a bowling pro shop and it is going to take some work to get it ready to open in mid-January. Randy is also starting school on Jan. 11. We are really excited about the changes that are coming and looking forward to what the future holds. And, in case you can't tell, Jake LOVES the Christmas tree and makes this face when he sees that it's still there in the morning.

Christmas is Here

We have been decorating and getting ready for Christmas and the kids are really excited! We can't wait to see their faces on Christmas morning.

P.S. Check out the awesome hat Aunt Annie made for Ethan!

Videos

I have a few videos that I have been wanting to post on here and since I have a minute, here they are!
Ethan and Jake like to play ring around the rosie together. Jake doesn't quite get the "we all fall down" part, but don't worry, Ethan will take care of it.




Ethan is really into singing along to his "3-D" which is what he calls a CD.




I took the boys to a playground inside the mall and Ethan has started climbing up onto things like the bigger kids. Jake loves to just run in circles and back and forth. Here is Ethan climbing the caterpillar with a not so graceful dismount.

Ethan's Halloween Party

Sandbox

Ethan loves playing in a sandbox, but Jake doesn't like how the sand feels.

Our Anniversary

Our 6th anniversary was Saturday so we celebrated by going out to lunch. Randy's Mom watched the boys and they had a blast with her.













On another note, Ethan loves taking pictures with my camera and he's actually getting pretty good at it. Here is one he took of Randy the other day:

The zoo

We have a season pass to the zoo and took the boys there last Sunday. Ethan had a lot of fun watching the elephants and giraffes, but he was afraid of the silverback gorillas. Or "ganillas," as he called them. Jake loved watching the smaller monkeys play and eat. We had just arrived to the monkey area when they were feeding them oranges. Jake was standing on a curb against the window and I turned to see Ethan and as I did Jake stepped back off the curb and fell hitting his chin on it and then his head on the floor. Doh! I hate it when things like that happen! At least he was ok and recovered quickly.

First haircut & 15 Months old!

Jake is becoming a little boy so quickly. He is losing the "baby" look and is also acting like he is older. He listens and understands, says a few words: love you, meow, mama, dada, wow, dog, banana (or nana). He does the sign language symbol for "milk" and if you ask him if he wants something he shakes his head yes or no. He loves to watch "Little Einsteins" with Ethan and pats his legs and raises his arms when he is supposed to with the music. We gave him his first haircut last week and it only made him look older. I have to say that I was pretty sad to see him as a big boy. But, he's still my baby! Here are before and after pictures:

Race cars

Randy and his Mom took Ethan to the Nascar race last weekend and they had a blast! Ethan was a little apprehensive at first because it was so loud, but after a few short minutes he got over it and loved it. He keeps talking about race cars and wants to go back :)

1st Day of School!

Ethan had his first day of preschool today and he had an awesome time. As soon as he got in the car he said "I want to go back!" I think he is going to have a blast this year.

Entertain us

Ethan was playing with John's microphone that came with the Rock Band game and this is a video of it. Randy was dancing so Ethan went over and smacked him. Geez, Dad. How embarrassing. Unfortunately, I didn't get the dancing on tape.

But Mommy said I can!

As a three year old, I am surprised that Ethan is already using the line "Mommy (or Daddy) said I can!" So then the other one of us has to go ask if they really said that. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Either way, we laugh a little on the inside every time he says it. It reminds me of a certain memory that our family has quoted many, many times over the years. LOL. You know ;-)

I went to register Ethan for pre-school today at a local church, just down the road. There was a few pages of paperwork to fill out and (like a fool) I didn't bring the stroller for Jake. So I had him in one arm, filling out papers in another, while keeping one eye on Ethan. Meanwhile, the Pastor and two other men where hanging out nearby. Ethan comes over and the conversation goes like this:

Ethan: "I need new pants, Mommy."
(I think to myself "SERIOUSLY?")
Me: "Why do you need new pants?"
Ethan: Because I went poopy in my pants"
Me: "Shhhhh, just wait a minute so I can finish this paperwork"
Ethan: "Ok, Mommy"

I look over and he is standing with his pants and undies around his ankles, patiently waiting. Yes, in front of the men and Pastor. I haven't moved that fast in a while. So, that's two "pants down in public" for Ethan!
Never a dull moment.

Dance Machines

Jake's favorite activity

He loves to push toys around, especially the alligator toy. He goes back and forth, up and down the hall, around and around. :)

Jake can walk!

Jake is starting to walk! He will walk while we hold one hand and sometimes takes a few steps by himself.

Toilet adventures

The toilet exploration and advantures have begun! We have caught Ethan "hanging out" in the bathroom recently only to find that he has begun to experiment with the toilet. He put a brand new roll of toilet paper in the toilet and found that it absorbed quite a lot of water, as well as any other yellow liquids that were present at the time. Jake is following in Ethan's footsteps because he crawled as fast as his little butt could carry him to the open bathroom and stuck his hands in the bowl. Slosh! splash! Time to change clothes. . .

I'm a little slow. . .

We had a great vacation in Virginia! We fished, boated, picked strawberries, visited baby Ivy, and rested. Here are some pics. . .

Ethan is 3!

We can't believe our little boy is already three. Ethan's birthday was May 18th and we celebrated with 3 parties. The first party was at Chick-Fil-A with some of our friends. He had an absolute blast playing with his friends and being the center of attention.



On his actual birthday he had to go to the Doctor for his 3-year check-up. We met Randy at McDonald's for lunch and had dinner and cake at home that night. I tried to make a train car cake but the frosting was melting and was impossible to work with so he ended up with solid colored train cars. He loved it either way, and it still tasted good! This is a video of Ethan opening one of his presents.



His 3rd party was with family in Virginia. Stay tuned for more. . .

It's a busy month

We welcomed out first niece, Ivy, on May 3rd! I drove up to VA with the boys to meet her and surprisingly, it was an easy trip. Ivy is so sweet and we look forward to watching her grow.
Mother's Day was the 9th and we had a great day. My Mom was here and Randy's Mom came over. It was nice to spend the time with everyone. Randy made breakfast for everyone and we spent the day just being together. I love being a Mom :)

On the 10th John graduated from Emory. We left the house at 6am to get to the 8am ceremony but as always something happens to throw a wrench in things. Jake decided to wait to poop until we were in the car and this one closely resembled the incident we had a few posts back. Outfit destroyed. Luckily, I did have an extra set of clothes for him, but the clean-up took about 20 minutes putting us behind schedule (as usual). We finally made it to Emory and Randy dropped Ethan and I off to go meet the Folks, Grandpa, & Aline at our seats.
Traffic was so bad that Randy didn't make it to the ceremony until about 45 minutes in. The key speaker was Arnold Schwarzenegger and he was really entertaining. We all enjoyed his speech. With graduation under John's belt, he has taken a job in Rome, GA and will begin his professional career as John Goodrich, DPT. He has worked so hard for this and is an inspiration. It is easy to say we are very proud of him!
We had such a fun weekend having everyone around. We did miss Dan, Stephanie, and Ivy, but at least we will get to spend lots of time with them while we are on vacation next week. It was really cute watching Great Grandpa play with the boys and it's awesome that they are able to get to know all of their family, as family is the most important thing to me.
Tomorrow is Ethan's 3rd birthday party as Chick-Fil-A, and then his actual birthday is on Tuesday. We are looking forward to watching him have fun with friends!

Jake's 1st boo-boo

Jake LOVES to pet/smack the animals, especially Bogie. Unfortuanately, she is the only one who doens't like him to pet her. This was the result.
Amazingly, he has healed so quickly and is once again after the cat.

Oh, Poop.

I took the boys out to eat for lunch yesterday and while eating, Jake needed to take care of some business. Once we were done eating I snatched him up and we went to the bathroom to clean up shop. Before I even got to the bathroom I could tell it wasn't going to be a one wipe clean-up. I layed him down on the changing table only to find that poop had escaped the diaper and was all over his shorts, legs, feet, and ME. I was planning to go shopping after lunch but not with a poop covered shirt on. So Jake rides home in just a diaper and I breath through my mouth (since I stink) the whole way. Now, this is NOT the first time this has happened to him. At least once a week he has an poop explosion. Another time was at Randy's Dad's house where we had to hose him down in the sink. At least this was the first time he did it in public, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Never a dull moment :)

Birthday guests

I went ahead and scheduled Ethan's 3rd birthday party so that I could get the invitations made with plenty of time to spare. At dinner tonight I asked Ethan who he wants to invite. His reply "Santa Claus and Brian." (Brittany's husband). LOL

Busy weekend

We left Friday night to go to Jacksonville and visit Randy's family for the weekend. What is normally a 5.5 hour drive turns into about 6.5 hours with two little kids, but we got there with very little trouble

On Saturday, the boys all went golfing while I went to visit with Malinah and our new nephew, Brayden. He is so tiny and such a sweet little boy! I took some pictures on him while I was there. On Sunday, we went to the beach for a little while and had a great time. Ethan LOVED playing in the sand but refused to put his feet in the water. It was very cold and the water was choppy so we think he was just afraid of the waves coming. It was Jake's first time at the beach and he hated sitting on the dry sand, but when we put him on the wet sand he was happy. He felt the sand in his hands and feet and tasted a little. Not too bad, a little gritty.
Randy's brother, Matt, played in a baseball game in the afternoon so we watched him play the second half. We decided to leave at 8:30 on Sunday so that the kids could sleep in the car like they did on the way down. We realized that the drive back is not a good idea at night because we are tired from the weekend and it makes it a long drive back. It doesn't help to get pulled over 10 minutes from the finish line. Ugh. Just a warning at least :)

Jake - Baby Idol 2010

Jake - Baby Idol 2010

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Let me do it!

Ethan has had the "let me do it myself" mentality for the past 6 months or so, but I never thought that Jake would already be doing the same. I was trying to feed him some ravioli for lunch, but he wouldn't let me put it in his mouth or feed it to him with the fork. I finally set the fork down and what do you know, Jake picked it up and fed himself. So, then I had to keep reloading the fork so he could eat. Sheesh. . .

Easter

We had a nice Easter weekend! On Saturday we went to an egg hunt in Loganville and had a great time. We got there about 2 minutes before Ethan and Jake's age group started. After the hunt Ethan played on a few of the inflatable slides and bouncers before heading home. We colored eggs for the bunny to hide and crashed for the night. Ethan had a lot of fun hunting for the eggs in the morning and especially liked smashing them and saying "Christ is risen." He did not, however, enjoy eating the eggs that he cracked. Jake also did not like trying the egg yolks and he made a seriously awful face. Randy's Mom and roommate, Liz, brought over Easter dinner and played with the boys most of the afternoon.