Par-Tee!

We had Ethan's Birthday Party in our backyard yesterday afternoon.  We had a great group of people there to celebrate with and, I think, everyone had a great time. I could never settle on a theme, so I decided the 'theme' would just be birthday...until last Monday.  I was cruising Pinterest (very dangerous) and came across these adorable cupcakes.  I was planning on making cupcakes anyway, and this didn't add too much work/decorating to my original plan. So, golf, became our new theme.  My parents got Ethan a golf game that he opened early and we borrowed a putting green from our church, so we had party themed games!  It was a great day (despite some warm temperatures), all the kids played so well together and Jared and I were wiped out last night...so we must have had a successful 3rd birthday party :)!  Enjoy some pictures from the 'par-tee'.

Waiting patiently for his cupcake!

"Happy Birthday to Ethan!"

This is how our 3 year old eats his cupcakes...icing first!

Enjoying his party games

Most of the family party-goers

Josiah in the treehouse!  Jim and family made it all the way from Kentucky!

Josiah, Ethan and Sydney

Ethan opening some presents with some helpful onlookers...Brennan and Camden

Snack time with Austin and Robert

View of the party from the treehouse

Searching for a missing ball.  Uncle Dustin found it!

Nora and Aunt Doss.  Nora was well taken care of by all the family.  Thanks!

And 1 HAPPY 3 year old!  

Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate.  We are so lucky to have such great friends and family!

Summertime In The Backyard!

Abby and Alex came up to hang out work/help us prepare for Ethan's birthday party.  They were awesome help and I don't think we could have gotten everything done without them!  Thanks SOOOO much guys!  We did find some time to play too though.  At the end of the summer last year, I got a octopus thingy to put on a hose for some sprinkler fun.  We got it out on Saturday night to give it a try...it failed!  It sprayed barely 2 feet in the air, but that didn't stop us.  We decided to get out the blow-up pool and have some fun.

"It's Cold!"

Ethan and Alex

Water Slide!!

Splash!

This is in no way photoshopped or posed!  it's just a great action shot of Alex and the water slide :).

Aunt Abby and Nora just swinging

7 Months

Nora D was 7 months old yesterday.  She is growing like crazy and so much fun.  She really is a great baby and such a joy to be with everyday!

She has 2 teeth on the bottom.
She sits great, but not moving yet.  She would like to, and leans over to reach things.
She's pretty much ticklish everywhere.
She LOVES to watch her brother.  He can make her smile and laugh almost every time he looks at her.
She nurses 4 times a day, has cereal and smashed bananas for breakfast and a vegetable for dinner.  Her favorite snack are mum mums.  She gets really excited about those things!
She weighs 17.5 lbs.

Fun Day With Abby

Abby came up on Thursday to hang out and to let us meet her adorable puppy, Moose.  We had a fun day that included a MickeyD's picnic lunch, a trip to the zoo, golf in the backyard and we topped it off with a tropical snow snack!

Abby and Nora ready for a train ride

Ethan was ready too!

The train didn't work :(...so we opted for a carousel ride instead!

Ethan and the baby goat

Checking out the goats

Moose and Max playing in the backyard!

Fun and Games

We got out the dominoes the other day and Ethan has fun making trains and matching the colors/numbers.  But this time he decided to build something.  I looked over at him, and this was what he was doing...all by himself.  I have to say, I was pretty impressed.  I think we may have an engineer on our hands.  

Here are a few of my favorite people, just hanging out in the front yard!

Practicing with the BIG club

Golfing with Daddy

I LOVE this one!

Grads & Moms

Happy Graduation to my lovely sister, Abby!  She graduated yesterday from SIU-C with her bachelors degree in dental hygiene.  I know from experience that this is not an easy program and I'm so proud of her!  We went to Salem this morning to celebrate with a graduation cook-out.  Good food, good company and a good time!

Officially a college graduate!

Some party-goers

Jared & Dustin playing some Bocce Ball and a happy Abby

2 SIU DH Grads!  (7 years apart)

Along with the graduation party, it was nice to be with our moms on Mother's Day.  Happy Mother's Day!  We are, both, so lucky to have these women in our lives.  Thanks for all you do, we love you!

My Mama with 50% of her children

Jared and his brother, Dustin with their Mom

Me and my babies on Mother's Day!  I'm so blessed!!

Seattle

As seen in the previous post, we arrived in Seattle on Monday afternoon. Across the street from our hotel was the Seattle art museum with a very large metal man swinging a hammer (or something). We could see it from our balcony and Ethan thought it was pretty cool.

Trying to get a picture of them both.

The view out our balcony. The harbor steps and giant metal hammer guy.

Tuesday we spent the day out and seeing what Seattle had to offer (keeping in mind a 3 year old and 6 mo old). We first headed to the Space Needle. We looked around the gift shop and decided to make lunch reservations at the revolving restaurant at the top. We had a couple hours before lunch and we were very close to the children's museum, so over we walked. It was really nice and a good size for Ethan and Nora.

Ethan made clouds during arts and crafts time at the museum.

Firefighter and Pop

Working hard

Nora appreciated some time out of the stroller.

After we were finished at the museum, we walked back to the Space Needle and went up for lunch. The food was good, the view was amazing and we all had a great time. And after we finished eating, we went up to the observation area.
















We didn't stop after that...we got back in the car and headed to the Seattle Aquarium. Where Ethan even touched a star fish!




















What a busy and wonderful trip! Thanks Grandma Terri and Pop for a great time. Ethan will be talking about things we did for a long time, I'm sure.