Christmas 2012

This year, we we're back to our tradition of Christmas in Bastrop.  Ethan was excited since GG and Paula's house is one of his favorite places on earth.

But first, here's a couple of pictures of our tree at home:

Decorating the tree

Finished product

And one of Ethan opening the last door of his Advent calendar on Christmas Eve before we left.  I bought this Advent house long before Ethan was even in the picture because I liked it so much (and also because it resembles the one on Christmas Vacation).  We fill it with little trinkets and candies, and Ethan just loves opening a door after dinner every night.

Candy Kiss!

So, off to Bastrop we drove.  We decorated the tree and ate some food with the whole family. 

Then, most of the family left, and it was just us, my mom, Paula, and grandma.  We listened to Christmas music, decorated their house, and made cookies.  It was such a peaceful, special time, and we enjoyed it very much.  Ethan set out a snack for Santa, got ready for bed, and read some Christmas books.

He loved helping make cookies

He saved a special one for Santa

Not-so-great photo of us in our jammies

Books with Paula

Goodnight, tree.

As per tradition, he got to open one present before bed.

And we read The Night Before Christmas

On Christmas morning, we opened stocking in the Airstream (where we slept), gave warning to the house that we were on our way, and headed up to see what surprises were left under the tree.

Opening his stocking

What he found when he walked in the house

A fire house/police station from Santa

Legos

Santa did indeed enjoy his snack

More Legos

The first thing he saw was the fire house, then he dug into a few more presents before declaring that it was time to put together some Legos.  Then, more family showed up and the tree got a little more crowded:

I'm pretty sure there were even more present than this.

The camera was apparently ignored for the rest of the day, but we opened presents, had dinner, and then there was a crazy game of ping pong.  I pretty much did this, though:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of assembly

It was a lovely Christmas, and I'm pretty sure Ethan enjoyed it.  We stayed for a few days, then headed home to fill our house with all our new goodies.  Ethan made it about five minutes, before the excitement caught up to him, and we looked back to see this:

I think it's safe to say he was exhausted.

Trail of Lights is back!

There hasn't been a Trail of Lights in a few years, so when they brought it back this year, we were excited to go.  Ethan went his first Christmas I think, and we've been to the Zilker Tree every year, but no Trail.  We met up with some friends, and had a blast.

A horrible picture at the beginning of the trail

a rainbow

Ethan enjoyed the Cat in the Hat/Dr. Seuss one

Austin skyline and the trail

under the Zilker tree

playing with his buddies under the tree

Ethan and I spinning under the tree

walking back to the car with one of his best buds, Audrey

A lot of the exhibits were the same from years past, but it was a lot of fun to share it with Ethan, and I'm sure we'll be back as long as they keep doing it.

Holiday Dance Demonstration

This year, Ethan's dance class put on a little Christmas routine before winter break.  Last year, they basically just let the parents in to watch class (we're usually outside the studio and can only see through the glass).  But this year, they actually learned a little routine and it was pretty neat to see that they could actually learn a bit of choreography.  Unfortunately, Ethan pretty much froze and didn't do it, but it was still cute.

His class

about to demonstrate his leaping ability

Stage fright.  The tongue thing is something he does when he's nervous.

Doing one of his favorite dances.  He's a sleeping lion, can't you tell?

Post-class snack with his buddy Dax.

Christmas Parade

There's a little Austin tradition that we decided to take Ethan to this year called the Chuy's Parade.  It's just a fun little parade and at the end, they collect toys for charity.  Ethan is still a little sensitive when it comes to loud noises, so he sported some headphones for some of the parade.  He still enjoyed all the marching bands and performers, and was especially happy to see Clifford the Big Red Dog.  It was a fun day, and could easily turn into a nice Christmas tradition.

Checking it all out

Some of his favorite Sesame Street characters.  Although he doesn't watch the show, just reads the books.

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Clifford

Up high to see all the action

Touch a Truck

Well, I'm still catching up on last year.  Back at the beginning of November, we heard about an event where kids could tour all different kinds of trucks.  Ethan loves emergency vehicles, which they were scheduled to have, so we thought it'd be a great idea.  We've toured a couple different fire stations, so he's seen firetrucks up close, but he's told us before that he wishes he could see the inside of an ambulance and a police car.  Since, this was called Touch a Truck, not Touch a Car, we we're out of luck in the police car department, but they did have a few other police related options for him to check out.

We ended up seeing all different kids of firetrucks, an ambulance, a SWAT truck, a mobile police unit, a UPS truck, an eighteen wheeler, and few other cool trucks.  Ethan's favorites were the ambulance and the firetrucks, but the UPS truck was up there too (a free lollipop may have had something to do with that).  He was not a fan of the all the horn honking.  Some genius thought up the idea to let kids honk the horn in a couple of trucks.  Let me tell you, we were all happy to avoid those trucks, and if there's a next time, we'll definitely take advantage of the "no horns" hour.

In front of a firetruck with Daddy

Checking out the SWAT truck

Making friends with the UPS guy.  He actually loves when they stop by our house and give us packages.

Driving a firetruck

So excited to be driving.

Halloween

Our Halloween festivities this year began with a little party with some of Ethan's friends.  We happened to host this time, and the kids really seemed to enjoy all the fun things Ethan's backyard has to offer.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of the day, but I dropped the ball.  We were also lucky to have a great friend take pictures of everyone in their costumes, and I think they're pretty adorable. 

Getting ready for the party, waiting for his guests.

My green dinosaur

Roaring.  He really enjoyed that aspect of being a dinosaur.

This is the second year Ethan's picked out what he wanted to be for Halloween, and this year he was really specific.  His favorite color at the moment is green, so he definitely wanted to be green.  He toyed with a few ideas, but he ultimately decided on "green dinosaur with sharp teeth."  He was very adamant about the color and the teeth, and he even helped me pick out the pattern and the fabric.  It was probably the hardest costume I've made yet, and I was definitely frustrated a few times, but I just kept reminding myself that this may be the last time I get to make his costume.  I really loved how it turned out.

On Halloween, my mom came over and we went trick-or-treating.  Ethan wanted us to dress up too, hence the mouse and pumpkin get-ups.  He had a lot of fun and was really excited about the possibility of getting a lollipop.  When our next door neighbor gave him a Snickers bar, he looked into his bucket, then looked back at her and said, "You happen to have any lollipops instead?"  Good thing we know her well.  He made it down a couple of streets before he was overcome with the urge to go home and dig into his bucket, and he was pleased to find several lollipops when we got home.  That definitely counts as a success in his book.

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating

Enjoying his haul

Our jack-o-lantern

State Fair

In October, we had to be in the Dallas area for a birthday party, so we decided we should go a day early and check out the State Fair.  It also happened to be TX-OU weekend, but since we went on a Friday, it wasn't too crazy.

Cory was excited about trying all the food, so we did a little of that.  There were also a few shows that we decided to check out, one was a dog show and the other was a bird show.  Both were interesting to Ethan for the first five minutes or so, and since we had so much we wanted to do, we didn't argue about leaving them early.  We all agree that the bird show was much more entertaining than the dogs.

Ethan had his first taste of a Fletcher's Corn Dog (so did Cory)

We met Big Tex, just a week before he burnt down

We finally found the kid section of the fair after a couple of hours, so we loaded up on tickets so we could try out a few.  Ethan picked one, but he wouldn't go alone, so I had the pleasure of joining him.  After one ride, he declared that he wanted to go on the ferris wheel that he had seen.  We were a little surprised, but after talking to him about it, we decided to give it a try knowing that it was highly possible that he could change his mind and scream the entire time.  He actually loved it though.  It was by far his favorite thing about the day and he told everyone about it for weeks.  The only other ride he wanted to try was the carousel, and he loved that one as well.

Riding one of the kiddie rides

About to board the ferris wheeel

So excited to go up

Loving every minute of it

riding the carousel

Being a butterfly

The last thing we (Cory) just had to do was to check out the car show.  Both of the boys had a blast checking out the cars.

Trying out Daddy's favorite

Going for a drive

I'm so glad we decided to go up early so we could do this.  I'm sure we'll be going again in the years to come. 

Hook 'Em

The start of football season is always something to look forward to in this house, but this year it was extra exciting.  Cory's friend offered us tickets to the season opener this year, and they were really great seats, so we knew it was about time to introduce Ethan to one of our favorite pastimes. 

He was a little apprehensive at first.  We had warned him it was going to be loud and that there would be a ton of people.  Thankfully, the security guy let me sneak in some jelly beans, and we bought a few snacks from concessions, so that kept him happy.

A friend also lent us some noise cancelling head phones for him, so he wore those during exciting parts when the crowd would get loud, or when I knew they would shoot of the cannon.  He really got comfortable after the stands cleared out a bit in the second half and we had a little more room.  On the walk back to the car, a woman gifted him a balloon Longhorn hat, and he absolutely loved it. 

I was so glad he made it through the whole game, and we had a lot of fun.  We hadn't been to a game since I was pregnant with E, and after going to every game for four years, I was having withdrawals.  Now only if the tickets weren't so darn expensive, we could go more often.

Ready to go it, doesn't he look thrilled?

Enjoying the stadium food

Warming up to this whole football game thing

He found the band pretty interesting

Awesome seats

Fourth quarter, and still happy

We made it through the whole game

In front of the tower, orange of course from the win