Week in Review...

We started the week with a trip to the zoo. Ethan loves the penguins!
Actually stopping and smiling in front of the pretty flowers before going to see the Panda bears
Checking out the picture of the FedEx plane that brought the Pandas to Memphis
Mommy and Ethan in front of one of the elephants
This man was great! He's there everyday at 1:30pm to answer questions and give a little history about the giraffe. What a neat animal! Anyways, he reminded both of us of Mark's Uncle Malcolm. He was full of knowledge and it was obvious how much he loves these animals! By the way, a couple times a day, the male giraffe prods the female giraffe in the backside and makes her tinkle...he then drinks it and the glands in his mouth break her urine down and tell him whether or not she's "ready to go"....like I said, this man was FULL of giraffe knowledge!Nina asleep with her panda bearNina and Mark enjoying the zoo!After the zoo, Mark took Ethan home for his nap and I ran to Sams, Wal-Mart and Target. Sams and Wal-Mart are right next to each other, so I put Nina in Ethan's seat in between stores and she thought that was great!Some pictures Wednesday night before church
I thought this was funny because they have the same distressed look on their faces!

Mark recently figured out that Ethan's Jeep has a screw in the gear shift and you can take the screw out and make the Jeep go faster. It goes from 3 miles and hour to 7 miles an hour. Basically I have to walk rather quickly to keep up with him! Ethan thinks it's great when he can go faster and has learned that it has enough power to take it off into the grown up lot next to us...and he can plow through without getting stuck! He was rather proud of his accomplishment!
Thursday night we drove to Collierville to watch Madeleine play soccer - we had a great time and afterwards had dinner at Booya's with Marion and Madeleine. She played well!
Nina chewing on the crust from some pizza....introducing her to more and more table foods since she'll be 1 this Thursday!

We ended our week with a trip to Chattanooga. My aunt Dodie passed away last week. She had cancer and had been battling it for 2 years. She was a great aunt...loved everyone, especially her family. She was always fun to be around and we already miss her! Steve, my uncle, and Ryan, my cousin, are both heartbroken! Ryan will be 14 this summer and really needs his Mom. She loved them both soooo much and they are going to have a tough time getting through this! Here are 2 pictures from 2005 at my parent's lake house. Please keep them in your prayers!!

Pew Packers Visit Fire Station

Every Sunday night right after church, the 5th graders and under meet down front for what is called Pew Packers. Mr. Jason sings songs with them and will have a little short devo. Once a quarter, or sometimes more often, they have a kids devo after church...and tonight they piled onto the church bus and drove to the fire station. Johnny is the Lieutenant at Station 56 - he goes to our church and his girls babysit for us occasionally. Anyways, Ethan was soooo excited about riding the church bus to Mr. Johnny's fire station!

We got to the station and went inside and into their break room and Johnny talked to the kids about fires and answered some of their funny questions. They were all so cute! Then we went into their big kitchen and they had pizza for dinner. After that he took the kids through the entire station showing them where they sleep and spend their time when they aren't fighting fires. It was quite interesting. Then we went into the garage and the kids got to go through the Ambulance and the Ladder Truck. They all loved it! After that, the driver pulled the Pump Truck outside and they hooked up the hose and let the kids shoot the hose (we aren't under any water restrictions) and they all loved it! It was such a fun evening - thank you Mr. Johnny for letting us come see your fire station!!!
Listening to Mr. Johnny tell us all about his very important job Ethan wondering when we get to see the big firetrucks???!!! In their nice big kitchen - Johnny cooks a lot here and is a very good cook!

This is where they sleep - behind each curtain they all have a bed and their space
Finally, we get to see the trucks!!!
Ethan walking through the Ambulance with Cate (Johnny's middle daughter)

Walking through the Ladder Truck
Michelle put on their gear to show the kids - Johnny said that with all their gear on they have an extra 70 lbs. The kids loved seeing Michelle dressed up in the gear!
Now for the fun part....I can't believe Ethan didn't try to squirt us!!! He thought this was really neat! Making growling faces with Mr. Ben
Johnny with Ethan and Will

Sunny Days and Rainy Days...

The weather has been so nice here lately, so we've been outside a lot! Yesterday, Ethan got his first little pink neck of the season - so we told him last night from now on we have to put sunscreen on. Now he thinks we're going to the beach because we talked about sunscreen! Nina is almost a year old and is so cute and sweet and really just a joy to be around (of course, that's her Mommy talking). It's funny how quickly they pick up on things and how they work. She knows how to turn the stereo on and is quite proud of herself when that happens. She knows what to do with a phone (surprise, surprise). She waves and says "hi" when she sees someone, blows kisses, and lately folds her hands to pray when we say prayers before meal time. How sweet is that?!

Sunday night after church, we had our Lads to Leaders kickoff - Hawaiian theme this year - the food was really good and the gym was decorated and there were games, etc....for the kids. It was a lot of fun. Anyways, we were heading down to the gym and Jen, one of Ethan's Wednesday night teachers, stopped me and said she had an Ethan story. Oh no, I thought! Because lately with this big boy underwear thing....the stories have been amusing to say the least. They start class (Sunday and Wednesday) with the teacher pulling out these big music notes that have been cut out of poster board - and they have the names of the songs that they sing on them. So the kids go around the table and pick out which song they want to sing. However, Mrs. Roberta (his Sunday am teacher) had taken the music notes home because she's making the kids their own song books....so they were without the notes this particular evening. Macey and Ivy both picked out their songs and then it was Ethan's turn. Jen said he kind of looked at her funny and then all of a sudden said he wanted to sing "are you washed in the blood of the lamb". Jen said she looked at Erica and they both just started laughing and wondered if either one of them knew how to start that song. Well, they did, and Ethan sang it with them! Then at the end he said he wanted to sing it super fast - Ivy's song choice was one that they sing regular and then super fast. Never a dull moment!!!

Ethan with his Nashville guitar we brought him - he was so happy! But he was a little upset because it didn't have a strap on it so he could wear it...

Oh, and Mark got him this lovely harmonica that he loves to play - the Elvis sunglasses are for Uncle Carl
One morning Mark and I were getting ready in the bathroom and we heard Ethan pushing around one of the stools I keep at the counter in the kitchen....a few minutes later, we walk into the living room to find this...Ethan had pushed the stool in front of the cabinet where I keep all the sippy cups and had gotten the pappy cup, but had taken all of Nina's out and left them in the cabinet but brought all of his to the couch. He still has it at nap and bedtime and we're trying so hard to just get rid of it. I just love pictures of sleeping babies - especially with their little bottom in the air!

Ethan chasing the soccer ball

Taking a break talking to Aunt Courtney. He kept saying, "Courtney, are you kidding me?" I don't know what she was saying to him, but that's what he kept saying to her.Ethan got my camera and started taking all kinds of pictures - they were so funny...some of his feet, the stereo....he had the best time walking around taking pictures with my cameraMy rainy day project - shower curtain for the kid's bathroom. Thanks to many fabric shopping trips with Randi and my mom, I'm hooked....I love going to look at fabric and I walked out with this fun one. I also got a red gingham and a pattern and am going to attempt to make some shorts for Ethan. Ok, Randi and Mom, why didn't you tell me that seam rippers are less than $2? I bought one! Nina yelling into Ethan's microphone I was trying to get a cute picture of the kids to send to my Mema for her birthday
Nina crawled into this box and thought it was so funny! Notice her red knees from crawling around so much! Kisses from Nina!

So as I'm sitting here posting this...our doorbell rings and Mark looks outside and notices that the "witnesses" are out in the neighborhood. We're all 4 in the office, right by the front door, so I'm sure they have heard us. Mark answers the door and there are 2 sweet ladies standing there and before they can even get ONE word out, Ethan starts with, "Hey, hey the Easter Bunny left me a trailer...wait, wait, Daddy, what's that called? Oh, a trail. The Easter Bunny left me a trail from my bed to my Easter basket. See this boo boo? I was running and fell and my truck hit my chin, but it doesn't hurt anymore. That man took his trailer and put it on a truck and put a cool car on it and they left." All of this was within like 30 seconds and I'm sitting here at the computer trying not to laugh out loud and Mark is trying to shut Ethan up and the ladies are just standing there laughing. I don't think they'll be coming around here again!