I really should be getting dinner ready, but both boys are sleeping (yes, still sleeping at 5pm) and I'm enjoying the peace and quiet on the couch with a warm blanket and hot tea!  What else have I been enjoying?  A week without sickness (well, people sickness at least... the dog is another matter I won't discuss)!  I didn't realize until it was over how tired and worn out I was until it was over and I'm praying we stay healthy for a long, long time... although with a toddler into everything I know that probably won't happen.  Thankfully Ethan has remained pretty healthy through all the colds that have been in our house.  Its Trey who gets them bad, poor little guy.  He's a trooper though!

Ethan had his 4 month checkup last week!  I can't believe how fast he is growing.  He's now over 16 lbs and 25 inches long!  Believe it or not, that's only 75th percentile on the growth chart though.  He looks huge however!  People think he looks like a linebacker and a Cabbage Patch doll:-)  He is still a really happy, mellow kid.  He loves watching Trey.  He just loves people watching in general.  He doesn't miss a thing, but he's still content to just sit in your lap and look around most of the time.  However he is starting to get really frustrated that he can't move on his own.  He also gets really frustrated when he can't get to his toys (or can't pull them down from his playmat).  He makes this boyish little yell that is so cute I always laugh.  It's adorable!  I'm also starting to see a hint of brown in the middle of his eyes I think, but we'll see.  They still look pretty blue!  I think the hair coming in is a light brown/dark blond (like me:-)).  He's still got alot of hair, which is nice... except for the back of his head where it gets rubbed off from always being on his back.  Tummy time is coming along!  I had a breakthrough the other day when I realized he actually doesn't mind it as much if he isn't wearing anything but a oneside... I guess he gets more of a grip on the carpet... who knows!  Whatever works;-)  He's trying to scoot.  I think he will start trying to crawl before long... this kid wants to move!!

Trey is changing so much right now as well!  He is speaking in pretty crazy long sentences these days... sometimes I feel like I'm holding a conversation with another adult (no, I exaggerate;-)).  He keeps me laughing all the time with the things he says and does.  His favorite toys right now are Mr. Potato Head, his choo choo train set (complete with train tracks and a tunnel), his puzzles, and playdough.  Favorite TV shows and movies are "Veggie Tales" (still), "Barney" (sigh, still), "Toy Story" movies, "Lion King"... however we are branching out into some other things.  Pj's parents bought him "Your Baby Can Read" set for Christmas which involves dvds, a word book and flash cards.  He loves them and I'm amazed at his memory!  The first step is word memorization and it is working so far.  My brother bought Trey Curious George matching cards for Christmas and he loves those as well... I can show him a card for one second and he'll remember it and find the other one right away.  His memory is far better than mine;-)  I feel bad for him because we've isolated him a bit this winter partly to keep him from getting sick and also when he WAS actually sick.  But now he is getting out once a week with Susie/Nana to go to library time for toddlers and get new books each week.  And on Tuesdays I take him and Ethan to Mainly Music at Mt. Airy PCA for dancing, music, snacks and playing with other kids his age.  He loves that!  I think Ethan does too.  Its fun for me to actually talk with other adults as well;-)  I can't wait till spring though... I miss walks outside and playing ball in the park with him.  And this summer I won't be pregnant, yay!!!!!

Lately I've been going a little crazy with organizing our home.  Its amazing how cluttered it can get with stuff we think we need but then don't use for years.  And I'm just as much to blame as anyone else.  I have a hard time letting go of those jeans I hope to wear again someday, or those cute shoes that hurt but are to cute to throw out, or the toys the boys aren't playing with that we don't need.  But I've made a goal to go through each room and starting getting rid/donating things we don't use in a year (unless its for good reason).  My closet was the biggest task, but cute bins from Bed, Bath, and Beyond fixed that problem and helped me organize the shelves in there.  I love how it looks in there now.  I also raised Trey's bed up with the held of bed stilts or whatever they are called and can now fit a bunch of things under there that I couldn't before.  We went through all the toys and I put Ethan's in a pretty good toy box out in the living room and all the rest are in Trey's "den".  And then to hide all of our DVD's and organize them, we bought some DVD boxes from IKEA.  I need to get a few more though!  Lastly, I organized our pantry the other day with some extra racks for cans and small items that kept falling over and some plastic containers to hold sugar, flour, etc.... oh its so much better.  I can actually see what we have in there now.  In all this, I've realized something about myself... I definitely feel alot calmer when I know everything is in its place.  In other words, I've turned into my mother who I always made fun of... which is perfectly fine to me now (she labeled and organized everything growing up).  My house may still look cluttered, but its getting to be a controlled clutter atleast now;-).

Another project I tackled this past week... I wrote out a bunch of recipes for my recipe book that have been for the longest time either on my computer in a file, or printed out and stuffed in their to "someday" be copied neatly onto a page and covered with plastic.  Yay for meeting goals! 

Pj had a nice little break this past weekend... we had him home for 4 days!  It was a nice relaxing weekend with not much going on.  He's got a busy few weeks coming up... a couple of school dances, his classes, etc.  But we're seeing him alot more than we did in the fall which I'm so thankful for!  Still... I can't wait until summer when school is out and we have him home with us all the more.

That's it for now!  This is all I've got so far for 2012 in terms of pics... Ethan sucks in his two fingers when he's sleepy:-)