SOME BIG NEWS FOR THE NEW YEAR!!

Hello everyone!
As many of you know by now, I am going to be a big brother around the middle of July this year. Click the "play" button twice on the video to hear a few of my thoughts on this matter.

SANTA CLAUS, THE MALL PLAY AREA, AND SNOW

Hello, this is Kyle. Ethan has had a pretty exciting last few days. Saturday he got to go see Santa at the mall. He would not actually sit on his lap, but he did talk to him. He has wanted to go back and see him ever since.

After Ethan spoke to Santa, he wanted to do his favorite thing at the mall - play in the play area. He had a blast. We snapped a few pictures of all of these things...

As most of you are aware, we got hit with some snow Saturday night (9 1/2 inches is the official measure). After I got back from clearing some driveways and Ethan woke up from his nap, we went outside for about 6 minutes. It was entirely too cold to stay out any longer than that. We asked Ethan if he was cold. He said "yes." We asked him if he was ready to go inside. He, of course, emphatically said "NO!" I made the call when the snot-sicles started appearing (I knew if we stayed out any longer, Ethan would get them too...).

We went out to eat at Cheddar's for Mandy's birthday tonight. On the way there, Ethan kept saying "I WANNA EAT" because he knew that he might get to see Santa again when we were done. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer, so I said "I WANNA EAT" in the whiniest voice I could muster. Ethan, unphased, responded "I WANNA EAT TOO," to which I said "I WANNA EAT THREE." Now, I'm not sure where Ethan picked this up, but he replied, as plain as day, "I WANNA EAT FOUR!" Mandy and I just looked at each other and cracked up.

So, we stopped by the mall again to see Santa after we ate (the mall and Cheddar's are right next to each other). Ethan, although he would not stop saying he wanted to see Santa and ran towards the part of the mall where he was, would not get within ten feet of him at first. Santa was gracious enough to get off his seat and come over to the gate to talk to Ethan, then eventually bribed Ethan with a magnet to get him to give him a "five." As soon as we left, Ethan wanted to go back and see him again, which he was more than happy to tell us...many, many times. I had learned my lesson, however, and did not say "I WANNA SEE SANTA TOO!"

SNOW!

We got a few inches of snow last night. I helped Papa shovel it when he got home from work today!

HALLOWEEN

Tonight was Halloween. I got to wear my elephant outfit again and go trick-or-treating for a little while. After we got home, I got to hand out candy to lots of other kids.

TRUNK OR TREAT: ROUND 2

I got another chance to put on my elephant outfit and go trunk or treating the Saturday before Halloween at my church. A lot of my friends dressed up and we had a great time. All of the kids from my day care were there too, so papa took a picture of all of us with Miss Carrie (he wasn't the only one - there were a lot of flashes going off!).

RANDOM STUFF...

Here are a few random photos from the last few weeks. In the first one, I am pointing out to papa where the grubs are hurting his lawn. In the second one, I am showing off my Ronald McDonald block. In the third one, I am eating a gi-normous banana that was as big as my arm. In the last one, I am showing off the two Halloween cards that I got through the mail.

Mama and I recently visited my nana, grand-dad, aunt Megan and uncle Gary in Georgia for about 10 days. While we were there, we drove to Alabama to visit some other relatives, including my mamaw and papaw. There was a horse there named Busby and a small dog named Abby (who wasn't nearly as big as my dog Max is, but the horse was close!). I also got to help pick some peppers in grand-dad's garden. On the last night we were there, I got to take my elephant costume for a test drive at the Peach Tree City Church of Christ "Trunk or Treat."

Sleep-Eating?

Hello! Ethan is on vacation this week, so in order to not disappoint all of you who check this regularly, I am going to post a video from this past summer. One day Ethan was so tired, he would not eat his lunch. He literally fell asleep in his corn and chicken nuggets. However, I was determined to get him to eat something, so I got him to eat some yogurt. He caught his second wind near the end...

BOO!!

We were "Booed" today. One of our neighbors left some Halloween goodies on our front porch, and we are now supposed to "BOO" two more houses. Coincidentally, mama had dressed me in one of my Halloween outfits today, so I fit right in with my new blinking pumpkin necklace (designed for safety while trick-or-treating, not for formal wear) and the skeleton that hangs on the window.

Hanging With The College Crowd...

Several of papa's former students (who are now going to Millikin) came over for dinner Monday night. All of them are music majors of one type or another, so I busted out my drum and showed off a little bit for them. Then, I went and got my other instruments and gave each of them one to play. They were all nice enough to play along, especially since I was quite demanding with my "GO" and "STOP" commands. The only problem was that one of them (I'll call her "Larry" to protect her anonymity) was a little perturbed that the ladybug wasn't quite in tune.

GO ILLINOIS!

Even though we spent the day at the Great Pumpkin Patch last Saturday, papa taped the Illinois vs. Wisconsin football game for us to watch when we got home. I love to watch football, and I was really happy that Illinois beat the Badgers. As you can see, I decided to watch part of the game from my rocking horse!

THE GREAT PUMPKIN PATCH!

Papa and mama took me to the Great Pumpkin Patch outside of Arthur today. We were going to go today anyway, but, coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago another boy that was adopted from Russia (Guerin) invited us and some other families to meet there. We spent some time together and had a good time, although it was very, very hot. Is it supposed to be 90 degrees in October? I saw lots of animals, including a rooster that was as big as me. I laughed the first two times it went "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo," but I cried the third time because it looked like he was going to eat me. There was a straw maze for big kids that papa took me in, then a small one for little squirts like me that I went in all by myself. I got to ride in a wagon through pumpkin patches and saw all kinds of gourds. One of the best parts about the whole trip was all of the flies that bothered us at lunch. I laughed hysterically whenever they would land and I would swat at them and they would scatter all different directions!! That made mama and papa laugh too. There were also some punpkins that were as big as me. It was a fun day.