Fall, Winter, and Ethan!

I've been a bit behind on blog posts, so I have a lot to share!  We had a great fall, full of pumpkin patch visits and playing in leaf piles.  The kids loved playing with leaves, and we had an abundance of them!  Our yard has 6 HUGE trees, and they shed leaves constantly from October through January, so needless to say, we have plenty of leaves here!

We visited a pumpkin farm north of Kansas City, and the kids had a blast picking their own pumpkins.

The kids had a great Halloween, and got to dress up as a kitty cat and puppy dog and go trick or treating with their cousin Jake.  It was really cold that night, so they only made it to a few houses, but they had a blast.

Fast forward to the holidays, we had a simple and wonderful holiday season.  It was so much fun teaching the kids about the true meaning of Christmas and seeing them get excited about it!  Noah and Hannah are growing up so fast!  They are such a joy (most days :)).  Noah is very active and loves going on adventures and using his imagination.  Hannah has such a little personality and loves princesses, baby dolls, and playing with her brother.  They keep each other busy and play together all day.  Its really fun seeing how much they love playing together.  They are quite the pair!

And of course, our little Ethan arrived on January 16th.  He is such a sweet little baby, very laid back and full of smiles.  Noah and Hannah are such good siblings, they always are bringing him toys and blankets, and they are the first to let me know if he starts getting fussy.  They sure do love their baby brother!  Ethan made quite the entrance into the world, we thought we were still a couple hours away from delivering, and I had gotten an epidural, and about 30 minutes after the epidural they decided to check me and Ethan was already halfway out!  Luke said his full head up to his chin was already out.  The midwife ran into the room just in time to pick him up off the bed and put him on my chest.  No time for gloves or anything!  It was quite a commotion, Ethan was totally fine and crying, but they were yelling for nurses to come help with all the things that normally get setup before the delivery.  The nurse and midwife said they had never had that happen before.  I guess Ethan was just in a hurry to get out of there!  He is a healthy little guy and is already a month old.  

We are all doing really well.  Luke and I both feel so blessed to have the family and friends that we do, and have met so many wonderful people since we've moved to Missouri.  We miss all of our California friends and family, but are so happy with our move to Missouri and thankful for all our new friends as well.  We are looking forward to seeing what the future brings!