Schwiesow Christmas Part 1

I am so late with this post but I really need to post about it.
This year for Christmas we did what we always do, we spend Christmas morning at my sister's and Christmas afternoon/evening at my parents house.
On Christmas morning Ken, Ethan and I got up and enjoyed some time together in front of the tree. Ethan got a CAT truck that we found at Costco. He loved it, but was still running around with his new lawnmower from the day before.


We headed over to my sister's house for brunch about 10am. There we munched on a french toast dish, an egg casserole, bagels, and drank mimosas. Christmas at my sister's this year was very nice. It was calm and the kids seemed to wait for each other to open gifts.
Here's Ken with our nephew Judah (8 months)


Ethan has been obsessed with Elmo lately and I'm not sure if my 3 1/2 year old niece knew it at the time but she decided to wrap up one of her own Elmo's and give it to Ethan to take home. The Elmo was probably one of his favorite gifts from the day.





My mom was happy to receive 3 coffee mugs with photos of her grandchildren on them.

We had a great morning together and soon headed off to our own houses for naps and met up later at my mom & dad's for dinner. More to come about that.

Just one more...

A topic that often comes up in our house is whether we should have another baby. With Ethan having Cystic Fibrosis and the odds being that another baby would have a one in four chance of having it as well we are cautious.

It's all how you look at it. We could say there's a 25% chance that our next baby would have CF. But, you could also look at it like there's a 75% chance that we would have a healthy baby with no CF. The baby would still have a 2 in 4 chance of being a carrier and a 1 in 4 chance of having nothing.

Is that a risk worth taking? To us, it is. That might sound awful to some people. Why would anyone want there to be a risk that their child would be born with a chronic illness?

Here's how we look at it. We were blessed to have Ethan even with his CF. I wouldn't trade him for a healthy child. The CF does not define who he is. He is an amazing child who loves to sing, dance, play and most of all talk. We love him no matter what and his life is just as precious as any other child's.

We also really want to give him a sibling. I grew up with a sister and although we weren't that close until high school & college she is one of my best friends today. I want Ethan to know what it's like to have someone who gets him because he or she was there and grew up beside him. If our next child did have CF, they would have each other for support and even if our next child didn't have CF, they still would have each other.

I realize that our decision will be met with much criticism. All I ask is that if you don't agree with us that you keep your words to yourself. We have put a lot of thought and time into our decision. It's been a very difficult decision to make and we worry about the outcome all the time. We pray for a healthy baby but know that God might very well give us another baby with CF and if that's His plan then we're at peace with that.

We don't intend to have any more children after the second. We feel that that's the right decision for our family.

We value your support as our friends and family and hope that you will embrace our family and our decision.

Christmas with the Dean's

This year we celebrated Christmas with Ken's family on Christmas Eve. Ken's parents, his brother and us met up at his Granner's house. We ate ham, potato salad, rolls and Ken's favorite homemade applesauce.
Here's Ethan eating his morning snack:

We decided to let Ethan start opening his gifts before his nap so we could open ours while he slept.
One of Ethan's gifts was a lawnmower which he immediately took off with and used all over the house. We had a hard time getting him back to open more presents after that.







My favorite gift of the day was getting my Kindle Fire! I've used it to read a few chapters of a book, but mostly have used it to play Angry Birds. I also loved the new desk that I got from Ken's parents. It fits perfectly between the pantry and the door to the garage. It's been so nice to not have to keep my laptop on the kitchen table.
Ken's favorite gifts of the day were a long sleeved 49er shirt and his workbench. It's not assembled yet, but hopefully it will be by tomorrow and installed in the next couple weeks.
Ethan's favorite toy was his lawnmower. He also received some books, movies and a parking garage to roll all his cars down. I was very happy for him to also get a picnic bench for our backyard.
We had a wonderful time and were excited to give Ken's parents and brother a custom calendar from Costco and his Granner a birdhouse.

I'll post more about the Schwiesow Christmas in the next couple days.

Our Christmas Tree

This year we had to move our small couch out of the living room to make room for the tree. When Ethan woke up from his nap and saw a tree there instead of the couch he looked like he thought that was strange. He kept looking behind the tree as if the couch was back there somewhere.

Before:


After:


Ethan's reaction:



Ethan & Daddy enjoying playing some xbox or playstation 3:

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Ken's family this year up in Cameron Park. It was a very relaxed day and we had a lot of fun. Ethan loved to run around their house and go up and down the one step going from the entryway to the living room. He mastered that skill that day and we no longer worry about him falling down that step.

Before we headed up the hill for Thanksgiving Ethan had a good time getting off and on the ottoman in the living room. This was the first time he'd figured out how to do that and he was very proud of himself. He does try to stand on it from time to time so we have to watch him, but he's mastered it.



Thanksgiving Day!


Posing with Grammy

Reading with Grammy

This year we are very thankful for Ethan's continued health. He has cultured anything that we need to be concerned about at clinics and he's stayed relatively healthy. He has a cold right now that is pretty nasty. We're hoping it is gone by the weekend. It's been 4 months since he was last sick!!!

November Pictures

I've been so bad about blogging lately. Here are some photos we took in November:

Ethan still loves sucking his thumb.

My sister, Kristin and her youngest, Judah spent the day together a few weeks ago. Ethan loved playing with all of his old toys that are now Judah's.




More photos from Thanksgiving to come...

Halloween...better late than never

Halloween this year was a lot of fun! Ethan dressed up as a pirate. We were able to get him to keep his hat on for awhile at home for some pictures with Nana & Papa. Ken's parents came by to see Ethan and to help us pass out candy. We trick or treated with our neighbors and Ethan held tightly onto his candy bucket.



And after a long night of trick or treating...