Food, Fun, and Fellowship

About two weeks ago, Josh's folks visited for a few days, and they had a terrific time playing with Ayden and meeting Kieran. We had a great time visitng Cleveland's West Side Market, one of the country's oldest indoor markets. If you ever want to get unusual meats, bakery, cheese, etc, this is the place to go!! The last night of their visit we had my folks over also. We enjoyed a pizza dinner that culminated in a luscious dessert centering around a chocolate fountain my folks gave Josh and me for our anniversary. We dipped graham crackers, pretzels, pringles, bananas, chocolate chip cookies, and marshmallows. It was a terrific treat!


Grammy Foote and Ayden reading


Grandpa Foote and Ayden

Our small group gets together twice a month, and at this particular meeting we enjoyed the leftovers from the chocolate fountain party we had with our families. The group enjoyed it tremendously, especially the kids:)



Ayden taking a break from the fountain.

Kieran is changing all the time and growing quickly. He's lengthening his awake periods, which is really fun. Last night, my mom was over for the evening, and Kieran was wide awake for about an hour! It was great to be able to see his eyes that whole time and, he even smiled and cooed a few times. To top it all off, he slept for three hours at a time last night instead of the two he had been doing! Three hours of straight sleep felt great!


Kieran and Grandma Trickel

Ayden loves his little brother and makes sure he has his pacifier whenever he might need it. He's very generous with his kisses and likes to join Kieran on the boppy whenever he can.

Life with four

Happy New Year! We've been settling into our new life now with two kids. Kieran is a good sleeper, so we get up about every three to four hours. Not bad. Ayden continues to love his little brother and often volunteers to help get him out of his bed if he's crying. I coninue to enjoy watching the two of them together, and it is truly very precious to see Ayden love his brother.

Here are some pictures of our latest "life moments."


Josh, Ayden and Kieran watching Veggie Tales.


Me and Kieran


Ayden holding Kieran.

A few months ago, we had a tree cut down in our yard. Ayden watched with great interest nearly the whole time, and since then, has spent much time pretending to cut things down with pretend saws or axes. Tpically, since he hasn't had a play saw or ax, he would use the remote controller to one of his cars. Today at Target, though, I spotted a Bob the Builder accessory set with a saw and few other tool items. Ayden has been in heaven the rest of today, cutting down some pieces of styrofoam. We have shreds throughout the house, but we also have a very happy two-year-old construction worker. Hope you enjoy the video--when Ayden talks about getting dirty, he's referring to the pieces of styrofoam he's getting on himself.

Kieran Isaac Foote

Friday, December 28th, we welcomed Kieran Isaac Foote into our family! He was born at 1:26 in the afternoon, weighed 7lbs, 9 oz and was 20 inches long. Everything went perfectly, and he's a beautiful baby boy!! For more pictures, visit our Foote photos page.




We came home from the hospital this afternoon, and so far have made a trip to the library and groccery store. I think it took us about an hour to get out of the house, but we made it and it felt good to get out. Ayden loves his new little brother. He spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Trickel and Aunt Carrie. He was always so excited to come to the hospital and see "Baby Kieran." He loves holding him and smothering him with kisses. It is truly a joy to watch the two of them together.


The new family of four!

Home for Christmas

This past weekend Josh successfully organized his first Christmas extravaganza. It was terrific, and I was so proud of him. The event was called Home for Christmas, and some of its features were a Southern Gospel choir, guitar/sax duet, children's choir, men's quartet, and traditional choir. The gala was followed by a very nice coffee house. Ironically, the evening opened with Josh singing a rendition of "Let It Snow" when we were hours away from our first blustery storm. The concert closed with a song Josh wrote specifically for the evening. It was wonderful, and I'm working on getting video of it posted. Josh did terrific work!

Josh and Dave playing their duet.

Southern Gospel ensemble

In other news, we've been blessed by a wonderful small group at our church. One of the women in the group threw me a diaper shower a few weeks ago, and we're set for diapers for quite a while! Any day now we should have a baby. Sooner, would be terrific. Personally, I think this was an ideal week (actually, today is ideal!) to have him since there would be some distance between his birthday and Christmas, but we'll see what he thinks. We're very excited. I'm still feeling okay and am having some contractions in the evening, but never anything productive enough for a baby:)

Me with Sue and Marla (the shower hostess), two women in our small group.

Family pic by our decorated tree.

Gymbo Class

Fridays are a highlight in our house as they bring the much-anticipated "Gymbo class." A perk from my job at Gymboree is a seventy-percent discount at Gymboree's Play and Music Classes. So, Ayden goes to Gymbo class once a week where he gets to play on toddler-sized gym equipment. Each class is centered around a theme that encourages the kids to utilize their imagination. Last week we were at the zoo, and the kids were lions in their cage, monkeys climbing around, and zoo keepers feeding alligators fish. Ayden loves it!!

Enjoying the mini-trampoline.

Playing basketball is a favorite activity each week.

There are bridges and various things to climb/jump/and slide down.

Probably one of Ayden's favorite parts is getting his Gymbo stamps at the end of class. When class is over, everyone leaves the gym area, sanitizes their hands, and gets the much-coveted gymbo stamp. (The stamp is one of Gymbo the clown. This one is upside-down.) The kids take these stamps very seriously. Usually, they get one on each hand and then pull up their shirts to get on one on their tummy. Where the tummy stamp started, I don't know, but just try not giving it to them!!

New Holiday Traditions

Ayden and I have started a new holiday tradition this year. Every week we're making a new Christmas cookie. As you can see, the process is quite fun and licking the beaters is a given. This week we made peanut butter cups, and next week we're doing cookie cutter cookies and decorating them with frosting. We'll see how many different types of cookies we end up having, as it all depends on when baby decides to be born:)

Ayden's taken to liking having his picture taken and then "seeing Ayden" on the camera when we're done. Here are two photos he specifically requested. Yes, he only sucks his thumb when he's got a finger in his belly button (or bee-bee, as he calls it). The diaper with slippers look was also specifically requested:)

Foote Family Blog Debut

In an effort to stay better connected, I've decided to join the world of bloggers. It seems many are staying in touch this way, and I've been feeling out of the loop. So, here goes our blog...

Yesterday Ayden had his first Trick-or-Treating experience. He loved it and went as Bob the Builder. Originally, he was slotted to go as a lion, but the costume wasn't very well received by him (i.e., tears at the sight of it sometimes). Fortunately, it was only borrowed and not purchased and the more familiar Bob the Builder accessories fit the bill. Ayden pushed his truck from house, using its bench as his bucket. (It doubles as a seat and storage container for his tools, so we removed the tools and replaced them with candy.) The evening was a huge success!

Ayden taking Bob the Builder very seriously

Ayden ready to go!

In more general family news, Ayden is now two and loving it. We continue to enjoy his emerging personality. He loves reading, pushing his trucks around with anyone who will join him, and going bye-bye. I hear during most outings, "no home, no home," but we typically end up going home eventually:)

Ayden's emerging wild side

Josh and I continue to plug away at our various jobs. Josh's church job is going well, and he's gearing up now for the Christmas season. This year, he's planning an outreach concert for December 14 and 15. He's got a good team of volunteers, and plans are starting to come together nicely. I'm working part-time at the church doing copy editing work and publicity. It's a very small job, about 15 hours/month. To supplement that, I work about 10 hours a week at Gymboree. Not my life goal, but it's working for this season in our lives. At Gymboree, I get to look at lots of pretty clothes for kids, that's for sure.