Ethan's First Christmas!

Our First Christmas!

We had so much fun celebrating our first Christmas with our sweet baby boy Ethan! I can't help but reflect back on a year ago at this time when we lived thousands of miles away and we didn't know we were pregnant (we found out 12/26/11)! This year, we got to share Christmas with both our families and do it with the cutest guy around!! =) I can't wait to start traditions with Ethan when he gets a little older and can understand the meaning of Christmas.

Ethan loves his Grandpa Joe!

The Christmas festivities started off with having Grandpa Joe, Uncle Jeffrey, Aunt Kristen, and cousin Jayden over to our house on Christmas Eve. I threw some chili in the crock pot and we spent the afternoon together full of eating and opening presents (this was the theme for the whole week!) Ethan got a nice IU onesie that I can't wait to dress him in for IU games, mommy got a beautiful necklace with a pendant of Ethan's birthstone, and daddy got an autographed IU basketball from all the players and Coach Crean! 

LOVE my family!

We headed out to Papaw and Ginka's house for Christmas Eve dinner where we met up with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins that were in town. To say it was a full house is an understatement! Christmas is one of the only times where my siblings and I are all together so it's always been one of my most favorite times of the year. Santa must've thought everyone was extra good this year because he left a lot of presents for everyone to open! Ethan got some new clothes, lots of developmental toys, and an adorable cushion chair with his name on it (cousin Jayden got a matching one)! Oh, our hearts just melted - I can just picture him sitting in it watching cartoons - or an IU game!

Merry Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning we had Mamaw and Papaw Graebe over for more presents!! They got him a really great 'activity seat' that sits on a tabletop and has a tray table that goes 360 degrees with entertaining toys on top. We've already put him in it a couple times while we've eaten dinner - definitely will come in handy! Then we headed back over to Papaw and Ginka's house for Christmas night dinner. We got so many great pictures with ALL our family (including some great Skype sessions with Grandpa and Gigi down in Tennessee and Uncle Chris and Aunt Jenni in Texas)!

We feel so lucky to be back in Indiana so we can share and create these memories with Ethan and our families. Christmas is one of my favorite times and I hope my son grows up to love it as much as I do!

My little Santa baby!

Look at these dimples!!

Melt Mommy's heart!!

Such a proud aunt of these cuties!!

Love my new chair!

Meeting Santa!

I've been a good boy so far this year! 

Ethan got to meet Santa Claus for the first time this past weekend! Eric and I took Ethan downtown so he could get his very first picture with good 'ol Saint Nick! We had him dressed in his cute "Santa's Little Helper" onesie - and I must say - Ethan was definitely the cutest baby Santa saw that day! =)

My diaper's almost as big as me!

Ethan went back to the doctor today for his weekly weight check and he finally made it to double digits!! He now weighs 10 lbs. 13 oz!! He gained 1 lb. 4 oz. in 11 days! He's doing such an amazing job! A couple weeks ago, we definitely felt a sense of urgency from the doctor that Ethan needed to gain weight quickly. Sure enough, because of her direction and Eric and I's hard work, he's gained over two pounds in three weeks alone. Is he still underweight? Yes, but certainly not to the degree he was before. I almost felt like Dr. Newby was saying we could take a breath of "relief" today. We are very excited because she said we could cut down his feedings from six a day to five. We were noticing that Ethan passes out in between his last two feedings - like, "I just want to sleep for the night" passes out. We were always having to wake him up for his last bottle at 8:30 - so now we can give him his last bottle at 7:30 and put him down a little earlier. Ethan's been sleeping about 10-10.5 hours a night so I'm anxious to see how he does going to bed earlier. Babies at this age can sleep anywhere from 10-12 hours so he may do just fine!

Best Christmas Gift!

We are gearing up for the start of a busy couple days with Christmas coming up! All the aunts, uncles, and cousins are coming into town Saturday so we can't wait to have a lot of family time! And LOTS of pictures!! We will be spending Christmas Eve day with Grandpa Joe, Christmas Eve night with Ginka, Papaw, and the aunts/uncles/cousins, and then Christmas morning with Grandma and Grandpa Graebe.

Little man turns four months on Christmas Eve so I'm sure I'll update the blog soon thereafter! Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL, VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Our New Home!

We are officially all moved into our new home thanks in major part to Eric, our friend Taylor, and all our parents! They were amazing and got everything moved on Saturday while I took care of Ethan. We've spent the week sifting through boxes, trying to find a place for everything, and making a huge donation pile! I try and donate stuff every time I move, but this is definitely the largest donation - it feels great! We had so much stuff stored at my parents house from my move from Tennessee to North Carolina - and we also had wedding gifts still stored - so it's been kinda fun unpacking! The nice thing about this house is the closet space! Each room has a walk-in closet, plus several more throughout the hallways. I don't take this for granted since we had NO space in North Carolina! Ethan and the kitties love their new house! Paisley and Max love all the room they have - and they especially love the couches they can sleep on! One of our favorite parts about the house is Ethan's room. We left it painted the way it was for our landlord's little son because it was so cute. Isn't it adorable? Now we just need to hang his name on the wall, get some pictures, etc.

One major thing we had to go buy was a washer/dryer which got delivered today. We've also got a round kitchen table coming our way that will help complete the kitchen. Other than that, we need to get some lamps, decorate, hang pictures, etc. I'm really happy though with everything we've been able to accomplish this week. Our first visitors were Papaw and Ginka to celebrate Ginka's birthday on Wednesday!

We are taking Christmas pictures on Sunday - can't wait to see how it goes! Ethan knows when a camera is on him and shuts off immediately  - haha - he'll be smiling one second to us and then it's gone in a jiffy as soon as we try and capture it! It's been so fun getting everyone's messages after the last blog post about how different he looks! We go back to the doctor next week and I can't wait to see his progress.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!