Say cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese

 

 

 

"Hey Ethan, smile for the camera and show me that key you just got."

 

"OK, now do it again and open your eyes."

 

"OK, one more time, open those eyes."
 

"Here we go, one more time.  Open your eyes really wide."
(Isaac got the point.)
 

I really think he as a disorder, or a disease or a tick. 

He has something because this happens every time we take a picture of this kid.

Thank goodness he's cute.
Thank goodness I'm patient.

And thank goodness for digital cameras.

I'm going to invest in some toothpicks.

here we go again

After seven straight years of Pack Meetings, we had a little 2 year break.

 But now we are back.

 And we are excited.

Excited to watch this new little scout get branded and welcomed into the Pack.

Excited to start earning pins and belt loops and badges.  

Excited to make cars and rockets and regattas.

Excited to sit, once again as a family, and do silly cheers and eat cold pizza and play crazy games.

This is our last cub scout.  

And, I have to admit,   I'm a little excited about that.

His big day

It really is great to be eight! 

 Just ask this adorable soon to be perfect boy.

Ethan's baptism day was so wonderful. 

How grateful I am for this family of mine, for Ethan who is on the right path, for his choices and for his enthusiasm and for his desire to do what is right and make his earthly parents and his Heavenly parents proud.

 (I am grateful for Tyler too, who was missing from the picture because he was frantically finishing up the ACT.  He made it just in time for the baptism)



I was proud of him today and so were his cousins who look up to him, who  came to watch and witness this special event.

Ethan was surrounded by his family who love him and support him and who will always be there for him.

(Is wearing a Santa hat appropriate for a baptism picture?)

Ethan is a blessing to me.  

What a privilege it was to watch him today, to feel the spirit so strongly and to see the happiness in his sweet shining face.

It may have been a cold December day, but inside we were warmed by the spirit of this great day and by the spirit of this great boy.
This great boy who is now the newest and probably cutest member of the true church!

Down Set Hike

 

 

Ethan's birthday party this year was seriously one of the easiest ones I have ever done.  He wanted a football party.  And so, on the last day of November, the greatest month for football, we gathered a group of rough and tumble boys, and we had ourselves a party.

 

 

 

A good old fashioned football party.

I didn't have to plan much really.  After they arrived we played one game.  Racing helmets.  They each had a card with their name on it and they placed their card on the helmet they thought would win.  I then rolled the dice and moved the helmets according to the dice roll.  They cheered and clapped for their teams and we played it over and over again.  I had to make them stop, because we had other, more important things to do.

 

Like scarf down some cake and ice cream. 

I think they were done in less than 3 minutes.

 

 

These boys couldn't wait to get outside.

These boys were ready for some football.

I really don't remember how I used to do parties without my older kids.  I sent the boys outside and my older boys totally took over.  They lined everybody up, divided them into teams, passed out the flags and of coarse, explained the rules for safe play.  And I just turned around, walked into the house, and sat on the couch and visited with my sister.  It was the best party ever.

And then they played football.

 

And despite the rules and the refs, I have to admit there were some injuries, but, these were boys and this was football and they were tough so they played right through the pain and the tears. 

And wouldn't you if you had cute cheerleaders, like these, cheering you on?

They played football until the sun went down, literally.  They were having so much fun.  When their moms came to pick them up they were red faced, sweaty, dirty and smiling ear to ear.  And I hopped up from my comfortable position on the couch to hand them their goody bag and thank them for coming. 

 

 Like I said, best party ever. 

 

 I think the boys would agree.

 

 

 

eto is eight

  There is someone or something that doesn't want me to blog.  Every day I say I am going to blog and then a million other things come up and it is always the thing to get pushed aside.  But, I am determined.  And I am not going to let this someone or something stand in my way.  This is the story of my family. These are the things I will forget if I don't write them down.  This is for my posterity.  These stories need to be told, for me and for my kids.  And so I will tell them.  Even if it takes me forever and a day.  I will tell them.  And so I am going to skip right over June-November, start with Ethan's birthday and then go back and catch up. 

 

I really will.

 

Watch me.

 

 

This is the first time in history (OK, at least the short 8 years of Ethan's history) that he got to go to school on his birthday.  Every year since he has been born his birthday has fallen somewhere over the Thanksgiving break.  But, since Thanksgiving was so early this year, Ethan found himself at school for his big day.  Luckily, he is only in second grade so to him this was very exciting. 

 

Something else that was very exciting (besides those great Phineas and Ferb dolls that I found at a garage sale for $1, thank you very much) was that Ethan had his very first Wolf scout meeting on his birthday.  He could hardly contain his excitement after school, and went running out the door with that little yellow bandanna flapping wildly in the wind behind him to his Den Leaders house. 

 

He came home from Scouts to his requested homemade chicken noodle soup, "you know mom, the one with the little balls in it" (acini de pepe) and some fresh out of the oven rolls with honey butter. 

 After he gobbled that down, he went straight to his presents.  There is nothing quite like the look of excitement on a birthday boys face as he carefully opens each present.  It wasn't really much this year, but he didn't care.

I love this boy. 

 He is a good boy.  He loves his family.  He has good friends.  He is a good friend.  And he tries so hard to do what is right.  He is so excited for what the very near future holds for him.  And he is ready.  My baby boy is growing up, right before my very eyes.  And I really like what I see.

 

Happy Birthday sweet Eto!

 I sure do love you!

 

 

 

 

 

a little pigskin

This was Ethan's first year playing flag football.  He had been watching his brothers play for years and he could hardly wait to get out there and show them what he was made of.  

He had so much fun and you should have seen his twisty jump move.  It was awesome.  And so is Ethan.  I absolutely loved watching him run and jump and pull and score.  He is already counting down the days until next season.

And then there is this kid.  He had another great season playing tackle football.  He is so talented in any sport he tries.  A real athlete.  I loved watching him this year, cheering him on, ringing my cow bell and covering my eyes every time he got tackled.  

Luckily he survived another season, and so did I.  It is a huge time commitment.  Huge.  

But, for this boy it was all worth it.

And I guess it is for me too, to see my boys so happy, doing what they love, running in the wind, listening and learning from coaches, supporting their teammates, and experiencing the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. 

 You gotta love football. 

 And around here, we really do!

grass house

A neighbor dumped some left over sod into the back corner of the empty lot on our street one day.

My kids had it sniffed out in about 5 minutes.

They put their little heads together and made a plan.

They recruited some cheap labor.

And a new adventure began.

They were going to make a fort.

 (Does this sound familiar?)

 

They heaved and tugged.

They stacked and laid.

They were serious about this fort.

Serious enough that it took them a couple of hours to complete this masterpiece.

They had grand plans to water it each day. 

 To have picnics on it. 

To even mow it if necessary.

But none of that ever happened.

I think some big kids messed it up the next day and the fort was abandoned, forgotten, left to dry out in the sun.

But, it won't take long for them to find another treasure in that good ole empty lot to create with, I'm sure.

And they better get going because I  heard that the lot has finally sold.

I don't have the heart to tell them just yet.
Maybe tomorrow.

cooties

There are certain parts of my kids' lives that I just don't have a lot of pictures of. School is one of those things. Oh, we have pictures of programs and things, and, of course, the traditional first day, but not of the everyday nitty gritty stuff. The classroom, the teachers, the art work, the halls. So this year when SEP's rolled around I grabbed my camera in hopes of capturing some of the magic of elementary school.

After about 7 tries, Ethan finally had his eyes open enough to OK this picture. He is pointing to his snow globe creation.

Alyssa and some art.

Bryson and all the patriotic things he is learning this year in 5th grade.

And I had to snap a few shots of the Book Fair.

The dreaded book fair.

It is not dreaded to the kids, only to me. I hate the book fair. Now, I love books, I just hate how they parade the kids through the book fair all week tempting them and encouraging them to buy buy buy.

We deposit the kids here while we are in the teacher conferences, and with 3 kids at the school, they have plenty of time to browse. After many years of tears and dragging them out of the book fair bookless, they have learned to not even ask anymore

(I can get the same books for a fraction of the cost on amazon).

But occasionally they bring in their own money and blow it on giant pencils or invisible ink, like Ethan is here.

And so, we survived another parent teacher conference and another book fair with glowing reports for each of our brilliant children, a giant pencil and a picture of the elementary school bathroom.

Now that's the nitty gritty of elementary school.

And I don't know why I even took a picture of this because none of my children have ever used the school bathroom before. They absolutely refuse.

Cooties, I guess!

And cooties now documented!

Eto

Seven years ago, while most of the world was out frantically shopping on Black Friday, I was sitting in a quiet hospital room holding the greatest gift. A gift that couldn't be bought in any of those overcrowded stores.

I was holding my perfect little boy.

I was holding my Ethan.

How do you celebrate seven years? How do you let your child know how much you love him and how grateful you are that he is yours?

Well, actually, for our seven year old it was pretty easy this year. We slipped away from the after Thanksgiving bustle at our house for a quiet lunch buffet at Pizza Pie Cafe. It was just the 3 of us, Mom, Dad and the man of honor, Ethan. He loved the attention and chattered the whole time. And he almost broke his record of eating 8 pieces of pizza.

Almost.

He could not wait to open his presents. He just couldn't. So, he ripped into them in the early afternoon. And then we quickly headed off to Walmart because that birthday money was already burning a hole in his pocket. We returned with a big Lego set, a ninjago, mini figures and 2 bionicles. These kept him and his siblings busy for the rest of the day.

I am so thankful for this one.
He is such a good boy. He is happy and friendly and easy going. He is so smart and does so well in school. He loves to play board games and read big huge chapter books. He loves to play baseball, soccer and football with anyone who is willing to play with him. He is a good friend and is well liked.
He is my son, my thanksgiving treat, my little turkey.




He is a sweet one, that's for sure.
Sweeter than any pie Thanksgiving could ever offer.

Happy Birthday Eto!
I love the stuffing out of you!

1 little, 2 little, 3 little turkeys

Is there anything more nostalgic,

more precious,

than the first grade Thanksgiving program?

Nope, there is not.

I could just gobble this one right up myself.


I was taking a million pictures of Ethan, the same pose over and over again.
Trevor leaned over and said, "Why do you take so many pictures of him?
Isn't one enough?"



All I had to do was show him this.

That's why.

Sure do still love my little cock eyed turkey!

(look how hard he is trying to smile and look cute)

Precious, I tell ya.