Who wants cake?

I know Ethan does. This is Ethan's birthday cake -- my friend Mindy just delivered it. Ethan loves his tractors and Mindy did such a nice job to obliged my request. Thanks Mindy -- Ethan just went nuts when he saw this -- now if only I can keep him away until after dinner tonight.

Happy Birthday Ethan

I can't believe that my child is 4 years old today. WOW -- time really gets away from you. Here is his life in review. This picture is just minutes after he was born weighing just 7lbs. 8 oz. At 1 year - drooling and still crawling.
And now 2 years old - he is running, jumping, and being a crazy boy.
Wow - this is the biggest change -- 3 years old.
Now here he is. The birthday boy - 30 lbs later weighing in at 37lbs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN. I love you so much.

The Ethan Plant

My sister gave me this little plant the day Ethan was born. For those of you that know me -- I have - well I guess - a black thumb. Everything I plant dies but.... I have tried very hard to take care of the Ethan plant and much to my surprise it has now lived in my hands for 4 years. When Ethan turned 2 it was very very close to being completely dead but it was a good plant and gave me a second chance to keep it alive. It has made great strides this year as you can see in the picture I took of it last year and now this year. I I keep this plant alive just think how big it will be when Ethan turns 10.

The Ethan Plant at 3 years old.The Ethan Plant today at 4 years old.

Where were you 4 years ago?

This is where I was 4 years ago today. Starting the long journey of bringing my son into the world. Of course you will not see any pictures of Ethan on this day because he decided to make his arrival on the 24Th. So now 4 years later I am working on planning his 4 year birthday.

Kids PBS Day at the Park

I have been telling Ethan and Ella about this for a little over a month now and they were so excited to meet Clifford and Bob the Builder. It was a free kids day put on by PBS where kids were able to meet the characters, go down a huge slide, make crafts, ride a train.... The kids had a blast. The only bad thing was that we stood in line for Bob (who Ethan really wanted to meet and as we got to the front of the line, the switched Bob out for Curious George. Ethan handled it really well and just got his picture with George instead. Ella could not wait the whole time we were in line to see the characters and kept saying that she was going to hug them and give them 5 but as you can see - she made me hold her and was very, very shy.

We had to wait 1 hour and 25 minutes to ride the train but the kids really wanted to so that is what we did. Here are some pictures from the train.During the train ride Ethan was so busy just looking all around and taking everything in. He did not want to miss one thing.Little Miss Ella thought she was a beauty queen -- the whole train ride she was smiling and waiving at the people as we passed. It was so funny - I wish we had a picture of that but unfortunately we missed it.
And finally - the end of the day. Ethan loved every minute of it but here he is hot and thirsty. We are already marking our calenders for next year. The kids had a blast. I can't wait for the state fair this year because I know the kids will really enjoy it.

My little niece.

Here is my little niece taking her first bath and with her first little bow in her hair. Janel has quite a story - she went completely natural and almost had Julianna in the parking lot of the hospital. WOW is all I can say. My guess is that Julianna looks like Janel, well at least more than Faith did when she was born.

Julianna Ruth

Juliana Ruth is here. Altough I don't have the story or a picture my newest neice has made her arival at 2:56am. She was 8lbs 1oz and was born about 30 minutes after Janel got the hospital. I will post more info when I get more.

I told you she makes us laugh.

In my last post I told you Ella makes us laugh all the time. Of course the funniest picture I could not post but I can tell you about. Ella was back in her room and out she comes -- I hear a "clomp, clomp, clomp". I then look and see a very proud little girl. She has undressed herself to only weiring her underwear and then put on purple dress-up shoes and a fuzzy crown on her head. She was all smiles and thought she looked beautiful. Here are 2 more pictures where Ella really thought she was beautiful and one that...

I came around from the garage and found Ella "helping daddy" (although daddy did not need any help). She was just off on her won cutting down a tree. I could not help but laugh.This picture is a bitter sweet one. She looks sweet but boy is she being naughty. It is about 9:30 at this time. An hour and a half after she was first put to bed. Ella has the tendency to prolong her night time routine and comes out of her room over and over and over and over again. She always puts her little head on the hall floor, her bottom in the air, and her feet in her room. After she is finally asleep we laugh about her persistence. Boy are we in for it when she turns 13??!!

Random Ella Thoughts and Pictures

Ella is such a funny thing these days. Everything she says and does just cracks us up -- of course except for her of oh so fun terrific twos that she gives us at times. She is little miss thing as you can see in these photos. She loves to help Daddy outside mowing the grass. Ella got this adorable Tinker Bell outfit for Christmas but would not put it on until yesterday. As you can see she loves it now. She thought she was just beautiful -- and for good reason - I think she looks beautiful also but of course I think she is beautiful.


And Ethan got his glasses so of course Ella needed some -- here they are Mr and Miss Cool.

And Ella trying to put on her charm. What you can't see are those eyes flashing at you behind the glasses.

Random Ethan Thoughts and Pictures

While Blake and I were gone on our trip my parents (who took care of the for 9 days) bought Ethan a big boy bike. Here he is in action. I actually thought I was taking a video of him but... well I am a little technically challenged. Ethan has become a little social thing. He loves having friends over to play now and is getting pretty good about sharing his toys (except with Ella). Here is is with his friend Gavin. Gavin and his sister Nadia came over to play last week. While Gavin was over he hurt his foot and Ethan was very concerned about him -- he kept bringing him toys and snacks and just sat with him.
Ethan loves his trucks and tractors and trailers. Honestly I think he gets this from his daddy. He watches Blake with his truck and tractor and trailer. Yes - I guess you could call us the modern day Clampets! Anyway - Blake bought him some very little bungee cords to attach all his stuff. He loves it.
Ethan just got a new pair of sunglasses -- he is always saying how his eyes hurt in the sun so I thought it was about time to get some sunglasses for his sensitive little eyes.

And finally Ethan still loves his crafts!