Merry Christmas!

We had a fabulous Christmas, filled with the joy and wonder that little ones bring to the holiday. Santa was very good to Ethan, and Ethan was very good to Santa (and Rudolph), leaving out a plate of (hand-decorated by Ethan) cookies and a stalk of celery (we were out of carrots). Adam slept through most of the holiday, but he enjoyed sitting under the tree and watching his big brother open presents. A few highlights from this very special weekend...

Ethan and Adam help Mom bake cookies on Christmas Eve morning:
(just in case you were wondering, trying to make this type of cookies with two boys under two is quite a challenge)

The Stockwells head to church on Christmas Eve:
Ethan compares his new tools to Dad's:
Adam meets Great-Grandpa Howie, and the four generations of Stockwell men pose for a photo:
Ethan plays/flirts with his gorgeous cousins:
Ethan decides sledding is actually a blast (he was undecided last winter):

Winter Begins

So I guess this is what it's going to be like living in Maine. We had 8 or 9 inches of snow on the ground this morning from Friday's storm, and that base is rapidly building as we get hit by this second, even bigger storm. The forecasters are predicting up to 18 inches tonight, so that means we could be looking at more than two feet of snow in our backyard tomorrow morning! Ethan and Ben got out to play in the snow a bit between the two storms. They had a ton of fun for about 12 minutes, and then Ethan got cold and decided it was more fun to watch Dad shovel from the warmth of the indoors.

Moving into the 21st Century

We finally figured out how to transfer and upload videos (yes, we're a little slow), so here are a couple. We haven't mastered the editing piece yet, so sorry if they're a little long. The first one is of Adam rolling over (as promised in the last post). This was taken about a month ago - you can see how much hair he has lost since then.

Ethan and I spent most of this morning baking Christmas cookies - he was a perfect little helper. He couldn't figure out why we weren't making chocolate chip cookies though - he kept going to the cabinet and pulling out chocolate chips, eventually deciding to just make his own cookies instead...

Getting Stronger and Balder

At 7 1/2 weeks, Adam is growing bigger and becoming more alert. He seems to be emerging from that newborn stage, smiling and cooing between snoozes instead of just waking up to eat. Unlike Ethan at this age, Adam doesn't seem to mind "tummy time" and is already rolling over from front to back. He has actually been doing it sporadically since he was just 3 weeks old, but now he does it regularly enough to consider it intentional and not just accidental. We have video but are technically challenged, so here are some still photos of his rollover in the meantime...

I'm not sure you can tell from these pictures, but Adam is also sporting a new hairdo these days - half monk/half mullet. Just in time for Christmas pictures!

Ice Ice Baby

Well we survived our first Maine ice storm. The ice hit us hard Thursday night, leaving us without power (and heat and water) starting in the early morning hours on Friday. It came back on sometime Saturday afternoon, but not before Ben had spent several hours in line at a Home Depot in New Hampshire, waiting for a generator that was allegedly due to arrive sometime that afternoon. Once we heard that power was restored, he abandoned ship, so we're still in the market for a generator...

Special thanks to Katie and Davis for taking us in Friday night and to Grandpa (Tom) for checking on our house Saturday and getting it warm and toasty before we returned home!

Tractors and Tree Trimming

Ethan had a big day today. It started with Daddy surprising him with a new (to us) tractor and letting him drive it. As you know, Ethan loves all things with engines and wheels, so you can imagine his shock and awe when this hunk of metal came cruising out of our garage.

After the tractor ride, it was off to pick out our Christmas tree. We didn't get a tree last year, so this was a first for Ethan. He had some opinions about which trees he preferred, and obviously loved watching the tree man use his chainsaw.

After his nap, Ethan helped us trim the tree. We think it turned out pretty well.Although Adam didn't really get into the tractor or the tree trimming, he has been smiling lots lately. We finally caught a little one camera...Ironically, the first smile of Ethan's that we caught on camera was also in this carseat.

December

The first day of December brought us our the first taste of that white fluffy stuff - just a dusting, but a sure sign of more to come. We had fun reintroducing Ethan to snow - he's very much looking forward to his first Maine winter!