{ Ethan and Simon }

Ethan has this new fascination with our dog, Simon.

Simon has always been interested in Ethan. He loves to hang out around his highchair and wait for food to drop.

Sometimes he likes to try and lick off Ethan’s fingers.

Ethan thinks he’ll like it too, so he offers down his fingers.

He feels that slimy tongue and decides (like the rest of us) that that’s gross.

Then we all run to get to Ethan before he puts said fingers in his mouth.

Ethan’s love for Simon mainly centers around his crate. Whenever Simon is outside Ethan tries to crawl into it. It usually has hair and dirt surrounding it, so when I pick him up he feels a little like a human lint roller. I try to brush him off and carry him back to his toys, but within minutes he’s back again.

When Simon is in his crate, Ethan likes to come right up to him and “play” with him. Simon usually gives me this look…

“Really, I have to play with him. He can’t even walk. Or talk. Or get me a doggie treat.” I think he silently thinks about teaching Ethan how to unhook his crate so he will let him out, or teach him how to open his treat drawer so Simon can help himself to some snacks. I’m sure he’d be willing to share with Ethan too. And I’m sure Ethan would be a willing party to try them as well.

After a while, they both a get a little bored. Simon usually whines to be let out, and Ethan crawls off to find another adventure.

Stairs…those look good.

Thank goodness he hasn’t figured out how to climb them yet. I am not quite ready to haul my baby gate out of the attic. Until then, he likes to go and kneel by them. He bops up and down in his excitement.

Sometimes he checks if I am watching him…

…when I call his name, he smiles…and then goes back to trying to figure out how to actually get on those things. He hears the click of my camera and then makes a bee line to try and catch me.

There are usually some minor complications as he tries to get away. That chubby little tummy can be such an annoyance sometimes, especially when moving is involved.

And as always, one adventure leads to another, so off to bigger and better things for this guy. The kitchen bench is his newest thing.

Until, I suggest otherwise so he doesn’t hit him mouth on the edge.

He doesn’t like being told no.

He sticks out that little pouty lip for us and we try real hard to take him serious. But, we know better, and usually scoop him up to try and make him giggle. He digs his face into our shoulder and laughs as he wiggles his legs back and forth from all the tickling under his arms.

We set him down so he can get back to his exploring…

..but not before we get one last look from this little cutie. It usually results in a repeat of the tickle, giggle, wiggle game. We just can’t resist that face.

{ Seven For Sunday }

 

1. Tonight we were all sitting in the front room and Ryan came in from the bathroom and asked for me to button his jeans. I asked “"Did you go poop or pee in the potty?”- a little surprised because he still officially wears diapers. He looked at me and said, “No, it didn’t work out”. Poor kid, bless his heart for trying so hard with the deadbeat potty training mom he has.
2. A few weeks ago we were at church and Erika was on one side of me and Scott was sitting on the other, both with their hands on my belly just waiting for the baby to move. I felt the baby move and looked at Scott and said, “Did you feel that?” He got excited and said, “Yes” A few minutes later the baby kicked again and Scott got really excited. He said,” Last time I just said I felt it, but this time I REALLY did.”
3. Aaron is such a good dad and husband. He and the kids are up to some surprise they are doing. There is lots of whispering and planning and lots of happy helping out. I don’t know what it is, and at this point I am too tired to be sneaky and find out.  I am just so grateful for a loving husband and loving kids who love me so much. I feel very taken care of.
4. Yesterday Aaron took it upon himself to be in charge of Saturday work. He is just SO patient. He made out the lists for the kids and helped the little boys clean. He is just so fun. They would clean up a few things and then they would get to play a cleaning “game” and he would use one of their light saber swords and point to something and they would have to pick it up. This guy is definitely the better half of us when it comes to fun. I wish I would take better notes from him sometimes-I need a little help in the fun department.
5. Ryan is still in love with saying the prayer. He insists on saying it every time, and I love to see how in the last few months it has grown from “thank you for the food” to a whole list of things. Since my brother and sister in-law stayed with us for a few weeks back in September he always says, “Thank you that Mitch and Michelli came to our house.” For awhile he would just say Michelli (I think he has a secret crush on her) and then say, “..and what’s his name? Oh, Mitch” Now he has both of their names down good, but since around Thanksgiving his prayers have gotten even longer. We talked about trying to say three things in his prayers so now he says he loves Jesus, thanks for the food, and thanks for Mitch and Michelli. When my parents left after Christmas he has added in a new part, it goes something like this, “Dear Heavenly Father, I love Jesus, I love Mitch and Michelli, I’m thankful that Grandpa and Grandma came to our house, and for Granddad and that other Granny, bless the food, Jesus Christ, Amen. Most times there are some giggles after the “other granny” part from other people, so he occasionally says, “those two other granny’s” and then breaks out in giggles.
6. Austin thought it would be fun to try and sleep with our dog Simon tonight instead of Simon being in his crate.. Since there is a no dog in the bedroom rule, he asked if he could sleep in the front room on the floor and put on Simon’s leash so he wouldn’t wander around in the night. I agreed and by the time that bedtime rituals were finished we ended up with Austin, Brooke, Erika, and Abby all on the floor getting cozy. I went upstairs to get Ryan put to bed, and then went out into the hallway to sit for awhile to make sure he wouldn’t wander out until he was fully asleep. I could hear the kids downstairs begging Simon to lay down and go to sleep. After about twenty more minutes I heard the crate down shut and Austin come up stairs. I asked how it was going? He smiled and said kind of exasperated, “He wouldn’t just lay down and go to sleep. He kept wanting to wander around and play.” “Kind of like a little 3 year old?” I asked smiling. Yes, he agreed. The three girls soon followed up the stairs telling of their trying to get the dog to go to sleep stories as well. At the end Erika, said, “I’m tired, I gotta get some sleep” . Sometimes this dog teaches some good lessons to my kids I don’t even ask him to teach.
7. Brianna has her driving permit now, and so is always begging us to take her driving. A few weeks ago Aaron asked who wanted to come with them, and everyone was super excited and yelling and scrambling to get on their shoes and get in the van to go with them. Aaron looked at me and said, “I’ve never seen kids so excited to go 25 mph.” It made me laugh.

{ Random Summer Happenings }

Just some random things from this summer…

I found this picture on my camera. I guess according to Austin and Brooke it was this really cool slushy that she made. Right after she took the picture, it fell on the floor and she didn’t even get to enjoy it. Maybe that’s why I never heard about how cool it was.

I finally got around to painting the front room. When we built I really felt like I wanted it to be the really light blue that the kitchen and some other areas on the main floor are. I chickened out and went “safe” with a neutral-which really is a great neutral just not for me. I wish I would have gone with my gut on that one-it would have saved a couple nights of painting. I do love it blue now.

Erika decided that she was going to make a horse stable mansion for her small horses that she earned with her summer points. Within a few days Abby and Brooke had joined in as well. They made homemade bridles out of ribbon, and used about 100 glue sticks in the glue gun. That pack of popsicle sticks was well loved! Fun to see their creativity. A few bad iPhone pictures to remember them by. Unfortunately, the little boys destroyed part of the stables, and the paper from the paper shredder that was the hay was scattered over the whole upstairs. It was fun to make and kept three girls quite busy this summer, but in the end found a home in the trash=(

I order some caterpillars and this butterfly home so the kids could watch them turn into butterflies. It was pretty cool to see. We barely missed seeing them before we left for our family reunion-good thing they were quick bloomers.

The kids took Simon swimming a few times, and joined him a few times too until our housing association called us out o it. Dog-yes,Kids-no. Looking at that water I would say no too-I think that’s why Aaron took them without me.

    

{ Erika’s 8th Birthday }

If there ever was a planner, I tell you, Erika is that girl. She had the details of her birthday planned out for weeks ahead of time. She had made a list of ever single thing she wanted that had to do with her birthday-the decorations, theme, friends, gifts, cakes-everything!, to make her 8th birthday a special day for her. She appropriately titled her master list:

MY BIRTHDAY STUFF

• Chocolate cake (which later got crossed off the list and changed to a cookie cake with chocolate icing)!
• Puppy decorations!
• Animal book!
• Pinyota (piñata)!
• Pockadot balloons!
• Blue wrapping paper!
• Friends over-Danielle,Katrina,Brantley,Nysia,Alex,Halle,Lilly,Arrianna,Melanie!
• Sprite!
• Art Set
• Barbie Hair
• 8 Stuff (scriptures, white dress, anything special that had to do with her baptism)
• Leapad
• Leapad games
• Dollars
• Pet Shop Toys
• Dog

Her list was so cute with the list color coordinated and drawings next to everything. That girl loves a list for sure! We tried our best to measure up to her grand planning, and as far as the decorations go, I think we did great!

Balloons-CHECK

Dog decorations-CHECK

Blue wrapping paper-CHECK

Animal Book-CHECK

One Happy Girl-DOUBLE CHECK!

As her birthday neared, she would come to me a couple times a day, and ask when exactly we were going to get all of her,”You know,..birthday things!”. I brushed it off that we would get them in time, but had been secretly squirrelling away all of her birthday requests for quite some time. When she came home from school, she was pleasantly surprised and super excited that all her birthday dreams were coming true.

We had opted out of the friends birthday party, which she assured us was okay, but we had quite a surprise up our sleeve for our birthday girl, that we knew in the end she would be so thrilled with her surprise, it would more than make up for any friends being here. We set up a fun treasure hunt for her, hiding all her 8 presents around the house, each with a clue to the next one. We had them all strategically planned so she would get her BIG surprise before some of the other presents.

She has been begging for an “official” art set for some time now, and was super excited with this one. She loves that she can tote it around with her from place to place or in the car. She is quite an amazing artist, and has been artist of the month twice now at school. I need to remember to scan in some of her art work-it really is so cute. She also got some watercolor paper and a sketch pad to use.

Her special “8 Stuff” as she called in on her list, was her own set of scriptures-in blue of course, her favorite color. And…I am not exactly sure why Austin has a festive brown ribbon/headband/Indian headpiece on his head? Birthday party hat-Austin version I am guessing?

Even though Erika had her list all written out weeks in advance, and I had been gathering decorations and some presents, her main present was throwing me for a loop. She was pretty insistent that she wanted a Leap pad-which is a kid version of a iPad, but with games you have to buy. She would look it up on Amazon and update me daily on the going price for it. She was pretty positive that she would be finding it wrapped up in one of her gifts. I am hesitant when it comes to any new electronics on my house, and this one was no different. I am sure it is a great little toy, but it seemed a bit much for how long she would be able to use it. I was sure those games would get old fast, and I didn’t want to see it forgotten in two weeks. Aaron and I stressed over her gift for a LONG time, and in the end we decided on…..

…A DOG.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am NOT a dog person, and pretty much swore up and down I would never get one. The truth is though, it has been a long time in coming, and this just happened to be the right time. I will have to write a whole separate post for the whole dog issue because it deserved a post all it’s own…or two or three really. Long story short, the kids have been saving up their money for the last six months, and Aaron and I chipped in the rest. We let the three oldest in on the secret because we really wanted them to help us pick out and buy some of the stuff, it was their money after all. In a few short days, we had reserved out puppy, which couldn’t come home for three more weeks, bought some essentials, and made a horrible embarrassing, but touching video that we showed to her to tell her about her new little playmate.

Austin and Brianna knew what was coming and were so excited for her…

She was stunned…and then speechless…and then the tears started coming…and coming…and coming. We were pretty much all in tears after the video. She had been dreaming of this day for a long time, and I think had maybe convinced herself that it wasn’t ever going to happen. That night as she was getting ready for bed, I asked her if she said her prayers.

She said,”Yes, and I just couldn’t stop crying when I was praying!”

Why? (already thinking I knew the answer)

“Because, I was just so..grateful.”

I had expected happy or excited or something along those lines. But gratitude was all that was in her little girl’s heart. I was pretty grateful at that moment too. Grateful that I had a new 8 year old, that had about a pure a heart as any. After she had been tucked in, she came back down into my room, her eyes all red, and said she just couldn’t fall asleep because she just kept crying! A heart of gold for sure!

Here’s a little preview of our little guy! He was just 4 weeks old at the time of her birthday. These great pictures were from our breeder Tammy Boleman at Horizon Labradors. She is so great, and I was so happy she loved to take pictures as much as me. She captured a bunch of cute ones to send to us every week.

We love you Erika! Happy 8th Birthday!!