Sick mornings

This pregnancy was by far my sickest. With Ethan I only felt nauseous in the afternoons, of course I didn't really have anything else to do in those days, so it's not like I was getting out of bed real early either. With Olivia I was nauseated a lot but still not a lot of real sickness. This time I felt like I was constantly nauseated no matter hwat I did, and threw up probably at least once a day. Days like that led to a lot of mornings like this:

We would take Ethan to school and then spend an hour or so laying on the couch. I would drift in and out of sleep trying to avoid puking, and Olivia would watch some cartoons. I figured if they were educational it was ok, right? Luckily she didn't seem to mind at all. She loved the cuddle time with mommy, and she loved that I let her watch Super Why, Bubble Guppies, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all morning. Mommy didn't mind the extra cuddle time either ;) 

My Little Cuddlers

Warning: Probably no one will appreciate this post as much as I do.

What parent doesn't think that their kids are just the absolute cutest while sleeping? Mine are so cute that I just can't resist taking pictures of them. Not long after we moved Olivia from her crib to a toddler bed, Ethan decided that he didn't want to sleep upstairs by himself anymore so we moved the bunk bed downstairs. A few months later Ethan decided to sleep in the bottom bunk with Olivia for a night. He has spent almost every night down there since then. I don't know how long it will last, but at the moment I am loving. Usually they are pretty good about going to sleep but sometimes they stay up chatting and laughing and singing to each other. Mostly I don't mind but some nights it drives me crazy! I always go in and check on them before I go to bed and quite regularly find them like this

They love to snuggle!

I am just glad that they snuggle with each other instead of crawling into bed with us now. For some reason when they (mostly Ethan) crawl into bed with us they insist on smashing right up against me. Half the time Jake would wake up in the morning and not even know we had a kid in bed. Which is pretty bad considering we have a king size bed! 

 And this one just makes me laugh because they are sleeping the same. It seems like if they aren't cuddled up then they are usually sleeping in the same position.

 I love my little snuggle buddies!

Happy #6 Ethan!

I can't believe my little man is 6 already! I know I say that every year but man he is getting so old! Here's some pictures of him opening his birthday presents.

His story book from Grandma and Carol (the kids are still reading stories out of it almost every night)

 Lite Brite from Grandma Terrie and Grandpa Glen

Scooby Doo game for his Leapster Explorer

Monster Jam truck from Olivia

Giving his sister a big hug! 

 Probably his favorite present of the night. An imaginext dragon castle.

 They played with it all night until I finally made the kids go to bed.

Once There Was A Snowman

We haven't had a lot of snow this year (really only two good storms) but what we've had we have definitely taken advantage of. Since we moved here I have learned that the snow doesn't stick around long so as soon as there is enough snow to play in the snow clothes go on, and we head outside.

This is from our first real snow of the year. Olivia loved walking around in the snow and then stopping to sit down and eat it. Luckily our dog hadn't been out yet, or I might have been a little more worried.

 Ethan of course wanted to build a snowman and he rolled this ball all over the yard until he decided it was big enough for the bottom.

 The final product! Ethan was so excited to have enough snow to make a decent sized snowman and also glad to have grass so that it was mostly a snowman and not a mud man like it has been in past years. The kids even wandered around the edges of the yard trying to find any rocks/pebbles they could use for the face and buttons.

 A week or so later it snowed again so of course we had to play in it while it lasted. As you can see from the pictures, the sun was out and shining bright so we knew the snow wouldn't stick around. Olivia was loving the snow under the warm sunshine!

 We have a small dirt pile on the side of our house that is maybe four feet tall and Ethan used our toboggan to go down it until Jake got home to take him for a real ride behind the 4-wheeler.

Ethan built this little guy all by himself and was so proud of it. We made another one together, about the same size as this one, on the other side of the yard and it fell over long before this one he made alone. He thought that was pretty great.