Yesterday we woke up to a beautiful covering of snow! And it kept coming all day long. We went outside long enough to build a snowman and came in because Lucas had had enough!!! It was fun and definitely beautiful!

The snow even makes our over grown trees look good.

Please notice the guy on the tractor/snowblower in the background!  Our neighbor has this snowblower that attaches to his lawn mower and he was kind enough to snow blow our entire driveway. :)  We were very thankful!!

Lucas discovered the joy of eating snow.

Our snowman!… missing some arms, a nose and mouth.

Categories: General
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I think we’re finally settling into a decent routine around the Vile household. I’ve always struggled with having a solid routine and although I doubt we’ll ever have a perfectly solid routine, at least we have a decent one right now. I’m finding that Ethan does better when he knows whats coming next in his day. Of course throughout the week we always have a few days that throw us off, but we’re getting a lot better at sticking to what should come next. For my own personal “scrapbooking” and desire to remember what’s going on in our lives right now…here’s our daily routine as of Winter 2008.

7:00 AM wake up … Ethan reads in his room till 7:20ish

7:30 breakfast

8:00 Lucas wakes up / Seaseme Street

9:00 Super Why (Ethan’s favorite PBS show)

(I love this time as I can get some morning chores done… like blog. hehe)

9:30 get dressed / brush teeth and play trains in Ethan’s room

10:00 run errands if necessary or have art time, play time or outside time (depending on weather), or story time at the library (depending on the day)
11:30 lunch

1:00 nap time… yay!

3:00 puzzles and games

3:30 more play time

4:00 help get dinner ready

5:00 dad comes home… yay!

5:30 dinner

6:30 play time with dad

7:00 tubby’s (we picked that term up from Helen’s kids … aka bath time)

7:30 storytime

8:00 bed time!

Here’s some pictures of life around the Vile household:

Lucas loves to listen to Ethan’s headphones he got for Christmas

Ethan LOVES his GeoTracks train set he got for Christmas

This is how Ethan greets Lucas when he wakes up from his nap!

After nap… a little snack and a Veggie Tales video

Thanks to my friends suggestion to make a reading corner for Ethan to go to in the morning after he wakes up… here he is cuddling up with a few good books… although he doesn’t always want to read in the morning… it’s cute when I find him like this.

Uncle Joel came to visit this past weekend… Ethan was soooo excited to play with “Untle Doel”! He gave Ethan a video for his birthday “My Neighbor Totoro” (it’s a Japanense film) and it’s become his new favorite movie!!! Thanks Joel!

Categories: Family, General
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Ethan had the amazing privilege to be born on my grandpa’s birthday… February 18th. When I was pregnant with Ethan, Grandpa would always say to me… “you need to have that baby on my birthday”. I really didn’t think it would happen since Ethan was due a week later and I just figured he would come late since he was my first. But to our delight, Ethan came one week early and fulfilled my grandpa’s request. When we were headed to the hospital on February 18, 2005, all I could think of was … “today is grandpa’s birthday and we’re not going to be able to go out to dinner with him… but I’m sure he won’t mind”. He came to the hospital that day and was overjoyed to meet his “birthday present”, Ethan. Everytime we would visit him he would always introduce Ethan… “this is my birthday present, Ethan”. He was so proud his great grandson was born on his birthday! And we are too… what a special man to share a birthday with.

Grandpa would have been 95 this year.

What a good looking pair.

Categories: Ethan, Family
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Our Ethan turned 3 last Monday! Hard to believe he’s getting so big. We had a party for him on Saturday to celebrate with family. He had all but one great grandma come to spend the day with him. He had a blast and was soooo…. tired by the time everyone left.

I love to see this little guy develop right before our eyes. Even though toddler syndrome make him frustrating to deal with sometimes, he is truely a joy to be around. He make us laugh all the time! He is constantly reminding us how much of a boy he is…. and I love how he finds new ways to jump around and make funny faces or crashing noises with anything. And at the same time, this dear boy has such a sweet spirit and tender heart. I look forward to seeing his little personality develop even more in the days and years to come. We love you Ethan… Happy 3rd Birthday!

My attempt at a choo choo train cake!  My cousin does cakes for a living… I can really respect cake decorators after this one…

Ethan spent lots of concentrated time opening cards

Grandpa showing Ethan how to cook a hamburger

The birthday boy!… he loves to sing, so after we sang happy birthday to him he wanted us all to sing Away in a Manger!

The Vile clan

Ethan loves is new play hut!

Categories: Ethan, Family
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About a week ago Ethan discovered that he can get out of his crib by himself. … Yes, he is almost 3 and yes, he is still in a crib. It’s just been easier to keep him in the crib since he’s never tried to get out even though he’s been able to get out, he never knew it… until recently. The first time he climbed out of his crib was one morning about 8:00am. I was doing my devotions before the boys woke up and I hear this creek from his door (all our doors creek when you open them… quite annoying). He comes toddling out with a big smile and says “I got out myself”. Oh yay. I could hardly contain my excitment… but I did actually laugh b/c it was so funny to me that he was so proud of himself. Well, every morning he wakes up a little earlier… this morning walking into our room at 6:30 “HI!” Luckily he’s pretty obiedient and I put him back in bed and said it was too early and he at least stayed in his room for another 30 mins. Nap time is getting a little more challenging too… today he comes out of his room after 45 mins… I knew he didn’t sleep… our conversation:

Me: Ethan, did you sleep?

Ethan: shaking his head with a sad look on his face he slowly says “no”

Me: can you try to sleep a little longer?

Ethan: a snack will feel me better

Haha… how do I deal with that cuteness?

Since blogs are sometimes boring without pictures here’s a picture of a few weeks ago when we had a family movie night. Complete with Ethan’s favorite snack, popcorn and Lucas’ favorite toy, the remote.

Categories: General
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Like I really have time for a new hobby… but this is something I’ve always wanted to do and I’m so excited about it I just want to keep going. My mom came to me one day with an idea to make bags out of all the scraps of material she has from her interior design business. Well as we talked and researched bag designs and other things we could make, her idea kept getting bigger and bigger. We found some super cute patterns of bags online as well as some great fabric by Amy Butler … and we were inspired. We purchased a bunch of patterns and I went to the fabric store for some cheap fabric just so I could start practicing … since our idea had turned into building a business!

Well, here’s the first one… my first ever sewing project. I didn’t think it was too bad for my first one. I still need lots of practice but it’s a start. Now I need to find a sewing machine (since I’ve been traveling to Perrysburg, my mom’s house, to use hers). If you have one that you want to sell, I’d be happy to take it off your hands.

Categories: General, Sewing Projects
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Kevin had the day off work on Friday so what did he do???… He worked. He worked all day putting up wainscot paneling in our sunroom. He’s done a lot of “carpentry” jobs since we moved into this house and he does a great job! Yay for a husband who’s pretty handy.

Anyway, while he was busy working Ethan and I hung out playing, coloring, watching movies, etc. Then we all went out for pizza at Pizza Hut to celebrate a bonus Kevin got at work. What a fun night as a family. And we are so proud of Kevin… he not only works crazy hard at work but he works hard at school and is a wonderful father and husband. We love you Babe!

I’ll post “before” and “after” pictures later

Our lego doggie

Such a cheese

Categories: Family
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