Christmas Day!

Well, it's Christmas time. This is a year for a lot of "first's" for us. This is the first year we have done Christmas at our house. This is Brody's first Christmas. This is our first Christmas with Ethan. This is also Benny's first Christmas. Despite all of the firsts, there are a few commonalities this Christmas. The biggest being the fact that 1) Opening presents is only fun if you make a big mess and 2) You must consume a lot of food.

As you can see from the picture, we definitely did a good job of rule number 1. Here are a few more pictures from Christmas morn.



Heather opening her "post-partum uterus slimming device, aka a TruFit Waist Slimmer." Yep, that one earned me some brownie points.












Fayth opening one of Brody's presents. He made out quite well on Christmas.












Our own special delivery present from God. He's just so perfect and so darn cute. Heather is definitely going to have to be the disciplinarian.










Brody giving his little brother some love.










Here are the results of that kiss, lol!











Brody and all of his presents

Grandma Linda or Titto and Ethan



















Fayth and Benny.














The men preparing the feast. My neighbor and friend Jeff along with me and dad getting ready to deep fry the turkey. It actually turned out very well. And FYI, if it is 8:00 pm on Christmas Eve and you realize that you forgot to get Peanut Oil for frying the Turkey, even if Wal-Mart is closed, Albertson's Grocery store is open to 11:00 pm. What a life saver.















Well, there aren't very many pictures past these due to the fact that everyone was too busy eating themselves into a coma. After eating, no pictures could be taken, because like I said, we were all in a coma.

Tell next time. Enjoy.

Family + Lots of Food = Holiday Fun.

As most of you may, or may not know, we have the whole family out here for the Holidays. Gayle flew out to California on the 16th. Art and Linda flew in on the 21st, as did Fayth, Lacie, Mitchell, and baby Bennie. It is really great to have everyone here for Christmas. Even though everyone was pretty much 2000 miles away from "home", it felt like home here.

So just like at home, we consumed more food than should be eaten by any single person at any one time. Of course, that's part of the Holiday fun and excitement. Just make sure that there isn't too much excitement directly after eating. I tend to be pretty immobile for awhile after a meal.

Ethan and his cousin Benny hanging out.















Ethan's "big brother" Brody, making himself useful.














In addition to the South Carolina family in town, we also had my brother Art and his wife Chris over for dinner. We also had over Art and Chris' son Ian, their daughter Lauren and her husband Tito, along with Tito/Lauren's daughter Jaelyn. It was definitely a fun time and a great time for a Wolf family picture.



From Left to Right: Art (Sr), Linda, Chris, Ian, Tito (pronounced Tee Toe) holding Jaelyn, Lauren. The front row is Heather, Robert holding Ethan, and Art.

Incidentally, for those that are wondering, Tito's real name is Gustov.




This posting will be a little short due to the amount of pictures that will be put up for Christmas. With that said, let's start posting Christmas!

****Newsflash: Late Update***

This was supposed to be added on the 20th, but I didn't get it posted until know. Thanks to the editing features on blogger, I could backdate this post, but then I am afraid that you might miss the updated post. So with out further ado, here is Ethan's one-week old picture:


Until Tomorrow, enjoy.

Ethan meets Santa.

We went by the Mission Viejo mall to show off Ethan to the world and Heather's former co-workers at Pottery Barn Kid's. Well, low and behold, guess who else we found at the mall. None other than Santa Claus himself. And I mean this was the "Real Deal." Just look at these pictures.







Ethan and Santa just hit it of really well. Soon, Ethan was so relaxed with Santa that he just went to sleep. Fortunately for us all, Santa made sure everyone stayed nice and quite while little Ethan got some sleep.














So what did Ethan wish for for Christmas? Well, were not entirely sure just yet. We will find out in a few days. However, we do know what Mommy and Daddy wished for for Christmas and it looks like God definitely blessed them with the greatest gift of all. Just look and see for yourself.

Ethans time home.

Here are just some pictures of Ethan, enjoying being home. Along with Mommy, Daddy, and Brody enjoying their new joy in life.

Ethan enjoying his boppy swing.




















He absolutely loves his fingers. That is, when he can successfully put them in his mouth; which is a much more difficult skill then one might imagine.




















And if you had any doubt, here is the proof that Ethan is thrilled to be here with us!



















Tune in next time for pictures of when Ethan meets Santa!

Ethan's trip home.

The next day, everyone was doing well, so we were able to get discharged from the Hospital. After completing the Newborn to Home class at the Hospital, it was time to gather our things and prepare Ethan for his journey home.

Interestingly enough, the majority of Southern Californians do not believe in having dressing their baby up for his coming home. Of course Heather had already had a coming home outfit for Ethan for several months.


So we quickly dressed Ethan in his homecoming outfit and got him fitted in his stylish car seat. Ethan was very calm during this process; however, we did learn that he absolutely hates to have clothes put on over his head. I guess it reminds him too much of his birth, lol.

So into his car seat Ethan went and got ready for the trip out of the Hospital.

But before Ethan got to start his trek home, we had to stop for a second and get a quick picture by the Christmas Tree at the Hospital. Isn't he just angelic!


Finally, mommy and daddy stop harassing Ethan with pictures and we load him into the car and get him set for the trip home.


So what's next in the Ethan saga. Well tune in tomorrow to find out.

Ethan Jay is Here!

Well, this is a little late in getting posted, but the news is not any less joyous. As many of you already now, Ethan Jay Wolf was born at 8:09 a.m. on December 13, 2008. He was 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. He's a little long, skinny guy. And, of course, absolutely adorable. So how did this all come about? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's the summary.

At about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning (Dec 13th), Heather woke up saying that she thought her water had broken. We were not entirely sure if her water had broken, so she continued to monitor her condition. At the time, she had not had any labor contractions. The day prior, she had a non-stress test done and her contractions were approximately 7-8 minutes apart.

As she monitored her progress, I did what all supportive dads do in a time such as this. I went back to sleep! Heather then woke me up a little after 3:30 a.m. to inform me 1) That yes that was her water that broke and 2) She is having contractions. I started timing the contractions and they were already coming about 3-4 minutes apart.

We then started getting everything ready to head to the hospital. We had our bags packed, but Heather just had to take a shower before we left, get her lesson plans together, etc. We finally left for the hospital at 4:50 a.m.

We got to the hospital about 5:15 a.m. Of course, she stopped for a quick picture outside the emergency room entrance. That is the picture to the right.

By the time she got admitted and up to her room it was 5:30 a.m. She didn't get checked until 6:30 a.m. She was at 3 cm and fully effaced. With this being the first birth, we, along with the hospital staff, thought that we would have a some time to wait until Heather was ready to push. Little did we know that Ethan had already decided that he wanted to be in this world very soon.

Around this time, Heather decided that she wanted to have an epidural. Well, the epidural requires bloodwork to be performed, which takes 15-30 minutes. Then, the Anesthesiologist won't even begin to show his face until he gets the results of the lab back. So it was nearly 7:00 a.m. before he showed up to give her the epidural. He completed the epidural and started the drip. In the interim, Heather got checked again and was now at 8 cm!

Heather got checked a few minutes later and was sitting at 9 cm and hitting 10 cm during contractions. A nurse told Heather to give a "Test" push and Ethan took that as the green light. The nurse promptly told Heather to "Wait, don't push anymore." Heather quickly replied, "I can't stop, this baby is coming!"

So less than 15 minutes after the epidural was started, Heather started pushing. A short while later, at 8:09 a.m. to be precise, Ethan Jay Wolf entered this world. He was absolutely beautiful and healthy.









He weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long!

Of course Mom and Dad were ecstatic. Here are some more pictures of mom and dad with baby Ethan.