HAPPY EASTER!

We hope that everyone had a happy Easter! We had a fun day of watching Ethan dig into his Easter basket, going to church, and eating a yummy dinner prepared by daddy! Ethan's Easter basket....as you can tell he LOVES balls and Sesame Street!! (Also thanks to Aunt Sandy,Uncle Mike, Tom and Dani for the Easter bunny, he loves it!)"Hmmm what is in here??"He loves "dookie":)I think that the grass was the biggest hit of all!All dressed up for church!

Terrible 2's have begun....

Eating his first Grow Sower (family recipe)!
Feeding the ducks at the park...Falling asleep in the car (life is good!)Trying to be like daddy and do stretches:)

The past few weeks have been a trying time in the Jastifer household. Not only is daddy working long hours this month, but Ethan and mommy have been under the weather and not sleeping well. Ethan used to go to sleep very easily and on his own, but now he is struggling to go to sleep at night and to stay asleep during the night. We are working out the bugs, but Ethan has yet to sleep through the night in over two weeks. Some nights he is only up twice while other nights he is up a dozen times. Only time will tell. We are staying consistent and he seems to be responding better each night. We will see......with me being 8 months preggo, tired, and sick, mommy and daddy have had a very hard time adjusting to this new routine, as well as Ethan, but I am also thankful that he is doing this now instead of in a month when the baby is here, so we can get a routine down and back on track before Ethan becomes a big brother.

My energy is now returning and Ethan is becoming his own independent person, which we welcome, but he is having a hard time with the limits that Jim and I have set for him, so many routine things around here have become daily battles, but nothing mom and dad can't handle! At the same time, he is so much fun, talking and doing new things every day. His favorite thing to do these days is play in the water outside. He always come in drenched with water from head to toe with a great big smile on his face...it is the cutest thing ever!! He also LOVES rubbing my belly, kissing it, and even reading the baby books. He already is a great big brother!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

Today Ethan went to the playgroup Easter Egg Hunt and had a fun time finding eggs and opening them up to find out what was inside of them:) His Easter basket he picked out all by himself, he is in love with balls!Finding EggsStopping to look at the baby :)

Time to play!

Wisconsin Dells

This past week Jim was on vacation and it was so nice! We hung around the house for a few days and Jim was able to get some house projects done and have a lot of quality time with Ethan. Ethan LOVED having his "daddy" around!! The last few days we headed to the Wisconsin Dells, a huge indoor water park with our great friends from medical school, the Ludwig's. We rented a little condo for three days and the kids played in the water, the adults were able to catch up on what has been going on in our hectic lives, and the children became friends very fast. Ethan would chase "ba-ba" around (Logan- 7 years old) and color and use the play dough with Maddie-Ann (2 years old). We ate some yummy food (thank guys!) and had an awesome time! Ethan jumped right in the water and was a little fish most of the time. He did not like going down any of the slides, but loved wading in the kiddo pool and the hot tub with daddy. We would wake up every morning to "pool" or "water" by the little ones:) They also had a fun activity center where the kids could burn off lots of energy - and that is exactly what they did! We had the best time and it went by way to fast!! The kiddos having a great time together!

Maddie-Ann and Jim snuggling:)

Ethan loved Ryan and Audrey!

Ethan could not wait to go in the pool!

Ethan got lots of daddy time!

Family Photos

The girls!Group Shot!

We had a great time - thanks guys!

The Baby's Room!

The baby's room is done!! Jim finished it during his vacation last week and I was able to set it all up! I just need some curtains and a baby and it is complete! I am so happy with the way it turned out!The baby is doing well. I had an appointment today and I am measuring right on and the heartbeat was 159.....what do we think, boy or girl?

Playing with my new camera.....:)

We finally got our new camera in the mail the other day and I have been having fun taking pictures of the thing I like best: my son! I am so glad that we got the camera in time for our vacation that we are going on this weekend!! We are heading to the Wisconsin Dells with a great family from medical school who we have not seen in forever, so it will be lots of fun. For those of you who do not know, it is a HUGE indoor water park. Ethan and I have been swimming every week to get geared up for the trip and he loves the pool and can't wait to jump in! Jim is relieved to have some time off. He is now on vacation until next Wednesday and it is so nice having him home! He has been busy with outdoor/indoor projects and has been very productive. I am trying to help out where I can. Now that the nursery is painted I can start decorating and getting that set up and I am finishing my scrapbooking and I am almost all caught up on Ethan's book! I am feeling good at 33 weeks pregnant and am so looking forward to having another baby and for Ethan to be a big brother. He loves rubbing my belly and kissing it and saying "baby". It is so cute! I am not sure if he really has any idea, but it is still cute. The other day he put tissue paper under his shirt and said , "baby", he hates being left out of anything! Grandpa Biener and Ethan playing soccer outside!Me - 33 weeks preggo!

It finally happened.....

I took too many pictures and broke our camera!! It just stopped working, so there might not be a lot of new pictures on our blog until we get a new one....whoops!

Build-a-Bear

The other day, our Wednesday playgroup got together and took the kids to build-a-bear in the mall. Ethan had fun picking out his own bear, stuffing it, and putting a heart in it. He held it from the time it was stuffed, until he had to go down for a nap that afternoon! He kept calling it his "new" bear :) I asked him what he wanted to name his bear for the birth certificate that you get to print out and he decided on the name "bus" so there ya go!Ethan holding the bear that he picked out.The bear getting stuffed!Picking out a heart to put in his bear!Giving "bus" a big kiss!

Happy Birthday Grandma Jastifer!

We hope that you have a wonderful birthday!!!

Spring is in the air!!

Today was such a nice day out! Ethan and I took full advantage of it. After his nap we played outside pretty much the rest of the day. He loves drawing with the sidewalk chalk, pushing his cozy coop car around, going for walks, and of course hitting up the park! Since dad had a well-deserved guys night out, Ethan and I had a fun time at the park. The biggest hits were the ducks, which he just stands, points and says , "quack, quack" and the slides. Lets just say that it was not an easy task to remove him from the park =:)

Checking out the ducks. 1-2-3 UNDERDOG! (He loves that!)

Z = Zipper

Ethan laughed all morning doing this, it was hilarious!!!

My morning....

So this morning, like always, Ethan was playing in his room while I was taking a shower. I am in and out so quick and he does a great job playing by himself. This particular morning when I got out of the shower Ethan came running to me and told me that he wanted to play. I told him just a sec that mommy had to get dressed and then she would play in a minute. A couple minutes later he came back into the room, but this time he had no pants or diaper on. I thought that he just took his diaper off for the fun of it because I had just changed it before I got in the shower. Well as I went to grab it and put it back on I noticed that it was "full" if you know what I mean. Before I could stop him, he was running through the house and I was trying in a very calm manner to stop him where he was and to not let him sit on anything. But before I could stop him up on his bed he jumps smearing it EVERYWHERE!!! I finally grabbed him and brought him straight to the tub. After cleaning him, I had to tackle the diaper and the mess that he made on his bed. I looked and did not find any other messes (cross my fingers). Lets hope that this was a one time occurrence!!! Oh the joys of parenting!!

A few stats

Last night I decided to "back up" Laurie's blog in the event that the blog company went bankrupt like everyone else. The file got bigger and bigger and bigger. The grand total:
1.03 Gigabites, with a 'G'

Wow, so I decided to look into a few other stats since we had ethan:
Pictures taken: 6,400
Memory taken by pictures: 42.2 Gigabites
Hours of video: 5

Jim

The "Meijer" Hat

The other day we took a trip to Meijer to pick up some stuff. It was under major construction inside the building and because of that, they were handing out kids construction hard hats with the Meijer logo on it. This was the best thing ever! It kept Ethan occupied the entire time playing peek-a-boo and taking it on and off and just thinking that it was the coolest toy ever!! He doesn't wear hats for long, but I did manage to get a picture. The hat is still around and is worn often:)

Big Brother in Training...

The other day I brought up the infant car seat to see if it would fit in a double stroller that I bought from someone. I put it down and went to go do something. When I came back Ethan had put his bear in the car seat and was rocking it back and forth saying, "Nah-night". It was the cutest thing ever! He is definitely going to be a great big brother here in a few months!!

Putting bear to sleep!:)

Grandma Jastifer Visits

Yesterday grandma Jastifer had the day off work so she came to hang out with us! Ethan and grandma played with his toys and read a lot of books! He has this fort that is in our living room and he loves it when people come in and read him books. I have a hard time getting in these days, but grandma had no problem!!:) Thanks for coming!

Reading in the fort!

1-2-3 TACKLE!!

Ethan LOVES it when people "rough house" or "wrestle" with him! He will say, "1-2-3 tackle!" and you better watch out because he coming right at you. Obviously he does this mostly with his daddy and Uncle Mark.....

Some Special Visitors

Ethan loves when people come to visit! He just plays, plays, plays!!! Grandma Sowerwine was in town for my brothers surgery and Ethan loved standing on her feet! He just could not get enough of it! Aunt Keri came to visit earlier this week! Ethan was in love with Aunt Keri and they played with every toy that Ethan had I think:) Thanks for coming!!

ABC's and 123's

Who you looking at???

Usually Ethan smiles when I take his picture, but on this day, he was not in the smiling mood

A Baby Shower!

This weekend my good friend Angie and I threw a baby shower for our other good friend Annie. She is due in about 5 weeks and is looking good! We played games, ate some great food, got to visit with high school friends that I have not seen in a very long time, and she was definitely showered with gifts:) We can not wait to meet her little boy!! Some John Deer socks!! (Her husband is a farmer) Playing games
Enjoying the party... Here are the three of us (Me- 6 months pregnant, Angie- 6 months pregnant (due one day before me) and Annie- ready to pop! We missed you Bethany!!