Ethan Michael Steele

Sorry I am so slow to post, but we have a new little member of our family!

Ethan Michael Steele was born on Dec. 18, 2011 at 2:26 pm. He weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces and was 21 3/4 inches long. He is cuddly, healthy, and adorable, and all of us are THRILLED to have him join our family!

The Man TV

Mike got a new toy.

When we bought our piano, Mike let me basically make the decision (since he doesn't know about pianos), and all he wanted to do was make sure he liked the way it looked. We had to wait a while and save some money, but the deal was that in return, Mike got to choose our new TV (since I don't know about electronics), and this time I was just the nodder. He wants me to say that it's a 50 inch plasma. I guess that's important.

Mike has been in man heaven.

The TV came, and both of my guys enjoyed setting it up. Mike spent another night assembling the TV stand (since the new TV is so heavy that we couldn't put it on our old stand).

He even trained Aidan to call it "The Man TV."

And now? Behold, the man toy in all its glory!

He Sees You When You're Sleeping...

Aidan was pretty shy with the big guy, but at least he didn't run away screaming! He wouldn't tell Santa, but he will tell me that he wants Santa to bring him some train underwear. This kid is potty training himself!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Recital

I have been teaching piano lessons for the past year and have just loved it. Not only are the kids amazing, but I have also enjoyed getting to know their parents, too. I have small recitals in my students' homes when they finish a book, but I wanted to make sure they also got a chance to do a more formal recital, too. So I got together with my friend Lacey, who also teaches piano, and our students put on a Christmas recital. It was so much fun to see them all dressed up and excited. And all of my students were able to play their songs by memory! I'm so proud of them!

Crafts

One of my goals this year was to make our family some cute Christmas stockings. The past few years, we have all had identical boring red ones. I finally finished the four we will need for this year!

Here's them all hanging:

And here's close up shots of the individual ones.

Mike's:

mine:

Aidan's:

baby's (thinking positively - hopefully he will be here by Christmas day and will need one!)

I also made another little crafty thing (a while ago, but I never got around to posting it). I made a cute little case to hold diapers and wipes in my purse. It has made them much easier to find and makes my purse seem more organized!

Yay for crafting!

Mayo Craft Fair

About 3 months ago, I heard about the Mayo Craft Fair. Only Mayo employees, retirees, and their spouses can be sellers. For $35, you reserve a table where you can display anything that you have made. Tons of people come looking, and if you're lucky, some of them even buy your stuff!

I waffled for a while... I kept thinking that it would be so fun to have an excuse to make cards. I thought that it would be much easier this year with only one kid (who still naps) than to try next year with 2 kids (and surely Aidan won't nap any more by this time next year). I kept thinking that it would be a good thing to do while we still have a spare room I can use for crafting (since it might need to be a kiddo's room by next year). But then I would think, "Am I crazy for taking on such a huge commitment?" "I will be 8 months pregnant at this fair! Will I have enough energy?" and "Do I really want to commit that much time, money, and energy to something I'm not sure will work?"

In the end, I decided to go for it. And I'm so glad I did!

I spent lots and lots of time over the last 2 months making cards: birthday, baby, Christmas, blank, thinking of you, fall-themed, graduation, wedding, etc. I also made and painted some stands on which to display my cards. I made labels for my cards and put each card in a plastic bag to protect it. Some of the final products looked like this:

About 3 weeks before the fair, I DID get a little tired. I got pregnant enough that I needed to nap during Aidan's nap instead of making cards. But for the most part, I was able to get the cards I wanted made. I think I had 150 cards ready by the time of the fair.

I got to go the night before to do the set up. Here's a shot of my booth. I had cards on the two racks, cards hanging on the clothesline across the top, and cards in themed piles all across the table.

I stayed from 8 to 4 (with a slight leave to take care of a Primary commitment, but I had a friend nice enough to cover my table during that). It was really fun! I loved seeing all the people come by, and most people who stopped to look at my table seemed to think my cards were pretty cute. In the end, I sold about 65 cards. I get to keep (or use, or gift! :) the leftover cards, and I might even sell more at the Rochester Mamas craft fair for people in our stake that's coming up in a few weeks. (We'll see if I'm pregnant by then!) I didn't make a ton of money, but I covered my costs and then some. Plus, I got to make cards! So overall, it was a great thing! I'm already thinking about if I can do it next year! :)

Holidays

Yeah, so it's been over a month since I posted. Oops... life has been pretty busy around here! We have had a few holidays since I posted last, like Halloween. (Yeah, I'm THAT far behind!) Little Man wanted to be Elmo, and he got TONS of candy. We did the church trunk-or-treat, I took him trick-or-treating at the mall, and Mike took him around the neighborhood that evening. It's a good thing he's still young enough that he doesn't know when Daddy is filching most of his candy! :)

We also had Thanksgiving. Although we have often spent the holiday at my in-law's house, Mike had to work on both Thursday and Friday, and I didn't want to drive 4 hours away only a month from my due date. So, we had a lovely dinner with our friends the Packs, whose back yard looks into ours. I don't have any pictures, but it was a fun day. Mike DID have to be at work for about 3 hours that morning and then again for another hour and a half in the afternoon, but he was able to take time off in the middle to enjoy feasting, games, and pie.

So now we are looking forward to Christmas. Partly due to my lovely nesting instincts (I want as much as possible done before this baby arrives!), but also partly due to a son who is in LOVE with Christmas, we have already put up our tree and some of our decorations. Many of the presents have already been bought, a few have been wrapped (and we are waiting for the rest to arrive so we can wrap them, too!) I'll try a video here, but I have little faith that it will work, so I will probably come back and delete it when it doesn't. *Hey, it actually worked! He had been begging for nearly a month to put up our Christmas tree, so we actually had to get it out on Thanksgiving morning!

Anyway, that's us lately! I hope your holidays have been happy, too!