Ethan's Lunch with Eric

Last weekend, Ethan and Eric spent the afternoon together and Hannah and I spent the afternoon together. Hannah and I went shopping with Gaga and Eric took Ethan to a baseball card show and then to grab a bite to eat. Ethan came home with a new matchbox card from the show and an orange balloon, which happened to be the hot commodity at the Rass house! He was so excited with his balloon and to tell me that he went to "Hookers" for lunch. Which ironically enough was "Hooters".....that's my boy!!!!

Crabby German

One morning a few weeks ago, we were in the midst of our morning routine when Hannah got extremely crabby, as she wasn't getting her way. Ethan turned to me and said, "Mama, Hannah is a crabby German!" We have no idea where he got this from or how he put crabby and German together, but we both thought it was pretty funny. So now when someone is crabby at the rass house, they aren't just crabby, they are a "Crabby German!"

Merry Christmas...1 1/2 months late!!

I can't believe how far behind I am in updating this blog! We made it through the holidays with so much fun and excitement. I tried to document the 25 days of Christmas, taking pictures or writing down things each day to scrapbook....good intentions, indeed. However, it is mid-February and all of my photos, scraps of paper, etc are sitting in a file...some day!! Just to recap...we had a wonderful holiday with family and friends! We adopted a child again this year from Opearation Good Cheer, something that Eric and I have done for the past four years now, so I am hoping we can continue this tradition with Ethan and Hannah. We introduced Ethan to the advent calendar and all of the traditional Christmas classics, Ruldolf, Frosty and Chalie Brown's Christmas. We made three treks to the mall to see Santa Claus, finally being able to see him on our third visit! Two other exciting things happened during the 25 days....Hannah slept all night for the first time...EVER and our new nanny Lisa started. She has been an absolute blessing and we are so lucky to have found her and have the kids bond with her the way that they have. All in all, we had a great 25 days of Christmas...however the following week, weren't so great with all of us having the flu in some form or another. Not the best way to end 2009, but we survived!!

Ethan's Bad Word

Eric and I decided to take the kids into Boone, North Carolina to shop and hang out for a while, when we were down in Tennessee visiting my Dad. Thankfully, we had a few days of being out of the car, before we took the hour journey to the other side of the mountain to go to Boone. We arrived at the outlet mall and were excited to shop in 50+ degree weather. After all, it was in the 30's at home. Eric was getting the double stoller out of the car...(it seriously weighs at least 50 pounds), while he was getting it out, he got his finger caught in it and said, "Damnit". Fast forward 24 hours....we were packing up the car to begin our journey home and Ethan was in the kitchen at my Dad's house playing with his cars. He was racing them on the floor and crashed them into the wall, we heard him talking to them and didn't think anything of it, until Eric looked at me and said, "I think he just said Damnit." We called him into the family room and asked him what he just said, with a sheepish smile he said, "I said damnit, dada." I couldn't believe it and had to walk away from laughing, as I know it truly isn't funny, but to hear those words so crystal clear out of the mouth of our two year old son, it shocked me. Eric explained that wasn't a nice word and that he isn't to say it anymore. He has uttered the word a few more times and each time, we try to not make it a big deal, so he won't say it again. Out of the mouths of babes, that is for sure!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are two pictures of our two little pilgrams! They made the trek all the way down to Tennessee to celebrate Thanksgiving with Papa Ken and Grandma Charlotte. They enjoyed their visit and playing with Prissy!!

Making Brownies....

I asked Ethan last weekend if he wanted to help me make some brownies. I wasn't even sure if he knew what a brownie was, but nonetheless, he was able to sit up on the counter, so he was intrigued. After I mixed it all and put it in the pan to bake, I let him taste the batter....that was it, he was gone.....I believe his exact words were, "MMMM Mama, dat good." and of course his ever so famous, "Mere". A picture truly is worth a thousand words....

And She Stands....

We are big stuff at our house...Hannah has been standing for a few weeks now, a little wobbly at first and now she is a pro. The thing that cracks me up is she will be crusing with the little crawl she does, she will stop and sit up in mid-crawl and then put her two hands on the floor lift her butt up and just stand. She gives herself quite the workout and I am convinced is already doing some sort of yoga poses in her whole standing routine. My mom thinks she will be walking by Christmas...we shall see.