Prayer Request

In just about a week and a half we will be taking our youth group to a winter retreat. This will be the third trip we have done with this group and it is such a great time everytime. The kids love it, they go snowboarding , sledding, hear God's word, and generally just enjoying being a teen.
When we started our group was very young and they are slowly getting older. We have been seeing God do so great things in the group and He is raising some of them up in His name.

Being raised in the church, I experienced a time in my life where this religion became my faith. I was raised in it, I always believed in God. But one day I realized it was more than hanging out with friends, more than my parents religion, more than my pastors speakings, it was MY relationship with Christ. I was around their age when I realized this.

It has been on my heart to pray for these kids that they will begin to have this experience. If you feel lead please pray for this up coming trip for our kids, that God's will would be done and that he would continue to raise up these kids and they would answer the call and make this religion, a personal relationship with God.

Thanks

Success

For those who were curious and don't check out our family-photo blog, the blue football cake was a huge success. The one draw back is now whenever Ethan hears the phrase happy birthday or just birthday he comes up to me inquiring "Cake." he has been disappointed a few times, that there is no more cake.

Changes

Big changes have been occurring here in the DuFour house. The most noteable change is that Ethan is now attending preschool. For the past two years, when I am working, he has been going to a friends house. After a lot of thought and prayer, Chris and I felt that with me working and not able to stay home with him full time, the next best thing would be to put him in a structured learning environment. We were so excited.

He started last week and boy was it a week. The preschool does not allow pacifiers and Ethan was still using a pacifier to sleep with. I had been wanting to kick that habit, but I am sometimes hesitant to change things when I am working (I think it is a working mom things, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it). I am always so afraid that something will go wrong with the change and it will be hard to deal with when working, so I usually wait until a weekend or a break in work to make a change. I know that is bad, and everytime we have made a change he has proven to cope fantastic with it (it is me that does not do so great with change I guess). So a week ago, this past Sunday night, was Ethan's last encounter with a pacifier. We decided that if he had to nap at school without it than he would have to do it at home also (plus we did not want to have it confusing him). Ethan was off Monday morning, not knowing that while he was gone all the pacifiers would disappear from the house. He has done great! The first two nights were pretty rough, but now he is back to sleeping in his big boy bed like a champ and he only occasionally asks for his "baby" (a while back I tried to break the paci habit by telling him it was for babies, not big boys. That only resulted in him tell us he was a baby when asked if he was a big boy and then calling the paci a baby. Smart kid) and does not question when I say we don't have any here anymore.

The structure has been another big change for E and has, again, proven to a huge hit. Previously E's day varied from day to day. Naptime, lunchtime, snacktime, was different everyday. Now he has a set time for everything. We have even noticed that he is eating more at dinner (dinner has always been a huge struggle for us, with E sometimes eating only one bite).

It has only been a week, but already we have seen growth in Ethan. He is talking so much more and starting to make two to three word sentences to us. He has always been content to sit back and let others do stuff and speak for him. It has been so neat to see him open up more and be a bit more vocal and show us how much he knows.

The bummer about him starting school last week, was that I have this week off. I usually love our weeks off together, but we decided that since he has only been in school a week, it would probably confuse him to take him out this week and then go back again. He is afterall still getting used to all the changes. I love to watch him learning so much, but I will miss him this week. What will I do to fill my time while he is at school?

CAKE

Ethan has become obsessed with cake since his birthday last Wednesday. He has only had one other small (very small) piece since then, but everytime you mention food or eating he ask for "my cake?" I think not.
Until tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be celebrating Ethan's birthday with family and friends. Ethan loves sports and all things "ball" so the theme is sports. Since he was born during the superbowl and tomorrow is the superbowl, I decided to make a football cake! I love baking and decorating cakes and I hope to one day have time to take a cake decorating class. I think he is going to love it when he see his "ft-ball" cake tomorrow. He will be so excited.

The batter-I decided it would be fun if I made it blue. Don't know why, I just did.

Fresh out of the oven.
A teeny bit got stuck in the pan.
Frosting
Laces

The finished product

Thanks to Samantha Michelle Photography for the lovely photoshoot of my cake! I can't wait to see E's face when he sees it. I let you all know how it goes over.

Ethan is 2

February 3, 2008. Superbowl Sunday was the day Ethan arrived. It was such a fantastic day and we love Ethan more and more everyday!

Happy Birthday Ethan.

_________________________________________________________________
A letter to my son:

Ethan,

On this night 2 years ago, about this time (at the exact moment that the New York Giants won the superbowl) you were born. Maybe being born on superbowl is the reason for your love of all things sports. That night was the great moment in my life. You were a month early. We had no idea how long you would hold on, I was so excited that we made it that far. You were born healthy with no complications. You were so tiny and precious. The last two years mommy and daddy have been so blessed by you and your life.
You have really grown into your personality. You have a fantastic sense of humor and love to laugh and make us laugh. You love exploring and being outdoors. You love playing with your hot wheels track and have recently tried to bring it into bed with you at nap time. You are talking so much more now, although you are very shy and don't like to talk in front of people you are not familiar with or in large groups. You are learning more of your colors and letters as well as animals. You learned how to say your dogs name, Chatzski (Cha-hee). You crave adventure and can often be found trying to climb or fall (on purpose) on the couch or pillows. Needless to say your second year of life has brought a few medical/hemophilia related injuries. You amaze mom and dad with how strong you are and the high pain tolerance you have. God does miracles in your life everyday. You love to give hugs and kisses and often ask and sign for "more" kisses. You are not the biggest fan of food, unless it is a fruit or a carb. Meat is not your thing, but you LOVE oranges. You have a favorite blanket and are not so happy when I try to get you to sleep with a new one. You like your routines and the order in which you learned things. You love to throw and still think it is funny to throw in the house. You would sit and watch golf, if we let you. You love our nightly reading of your children's bible and point out all the pictures on each page. You have the sweetest disposition. I love you so much and thank God for the miracle of your life everyday. Your life has taught me so much, how to be a better person, how to love God more and how to trust and depend on Him, among others.
Happy birthday my Ethan. Mommy and Daddy love you more than words could ever attempt to express.

Love mommy

Ethan at Birth

Ethan at one
Ethan at two