Long time...

It's been over a week since I've blogged...sorry about that.  I have a few pictures to share to hopefully make up for it.  Last weekend we headed to Salem and had a great weekend.  Ethan and I spent all day Friday and Monday there while Jared was there for the weekend.  It is always nice to hang out with family.

Swinging with Pop

Aunt Abby taking advantage of my child :)

Pretend napping with Finley and Scout

Now for some story time

I also did some 'garage-saling' for baby girl.  We hit the jackpot!  Saturday morning was pretty successful with my mom and on Sunday, Karen (Grandma Karen) came over with 5 totes full of girls clothes to go through.  She knew someone who was trying to sell 3 girls worth of clothing.  We spent almost 2 hours going through all the pink and, again, came out pretty successful.  I didn't photograph our loot, but I will be sure to someday soon.  In Jared's words, "I'm not worried about her freezing..." 

Water Day!

Our church has an annual water day and Ethan was old enough this year to participate!  He had a great time, not that I was worried.  We were outside and there was water he was free to play, splash and jump in.  A few of his favorite things!  His friend from church and daycare, Noah, was there so they had a blast together.

Sliding down all by himself!

Just as much fun as sliding...jumping in the water at the end!

Noah and Ethan jumping

'Diving' into the pools

They even had an ice sculpter make ice blocks with little bowls carved in it for the kids to sit on, splash in and cool off around.  Pretty cool!

So much fun!  We stayed near the 'toddler' area and let the big kids play on those.  Oh, and that's Ethan running away from me in the far right of the picture.

Finally lunch time!  Noah and Ethan

Ethan...The Photographer

Ethan has really taken to my camera.  Not that I just hand it over, he usually climbs up on a chair or stool to get it off the counter.  Anyway, I thought I would share some of his better pictures.

His first few looked very similar to this one :)

Not too bad...

Flattering photo of a vacuuming Mama...or not.

 And now time for the self portraits!

So sweet! 

Our Latest DIY...

About a month or so ago, I took a look at our kitchen and thought 'It needs a face-lift'.  Jared loves it when I watch too much HGTV.  Haha.  Anyway, we weren't into spending mucho dinero, so replacing countertops, cabinets or floors were out.  I thought a tile backsplash would make a big impact without costing too much and Jared was on board.  He did an awesome job!

I forgot an actual 'before' so just imagine :)

Jared at work.  His first tiling attempt is a success!

Close-up of finished product

It's all back together!

 

Mini-Me

As we were getting ready for church this morning, Jared walked out in an orange shirt and Ethan had to match.  I had picked out a grey one, but he insisted on the orange one like Daddy.  I wouldn't let them change before taking a few pictures.  They matched pretty much down to the shoes :)!

Orange and White Stripes

Intense Swinging! He told us that this is how Jackson does it.  Jackson is Arika's (his sitter) 8 year old son. 

So handsome

Looking like such a big boy :(

 And I thought I should throw in a picture of me at 24 weeks...

Baby Girl is moving and growing like crazy!

July 4th Festivities!

We have been busy this weekend enjoying our time together and time with friends!  Saturday night, we invited the neighbors over for dinner/cookout.  It was a fun time and a great meal.  We all made different dishes to share and Jared grilled some steak, perfectly, I might add!  Miss Ruth brought a red icing cake and showed it to Ethan before dinner...needless to say, he was wanting to start with dessert.  He kept yelling 'I want cake!' 

Braden, Ethan and Zach having dinner.



They finally got their red cake!  Notice the big boys in the background with the Cardinal game on :)


Sunday, the Village of Mt. Zion, had their annual Blue Ribbon Day/Night.  They held it at a new park in town and doubled it up as a grand opening to the park.  We went to check it out after church and nap.  It was hot, but we had a nice time playing on the playground and walking around the nice new park.

Resting at the playground

Bouncy House!  He wasn't sure what to think at first...

Almost to the top...

Finally made it to slide down.

 The slide and Jared didn't agree very well,  it was more like bouncing down instead of sliding.  Haha.  But the 3 year old little girl after him didn't seem to have a problem :).

A view of the park and festivities from the playground

Photo op by the fountain.

We headed home for dinner and some cooling off before coming back out for the fireworks later that night.  Ethan is usually in bed around 8 or 8:30, but last night was a special occasion and he was up until after 10 (past my bedtime)!  We met up with Heather, Zach and Braden for the fireworks and the boys enjoyed every minute! 

Playing with the glow necklaces before the show started.

Braden

Daddy and Ethan





Grand Finale!

Happy Independence Day!!

Trip to the Zoo!

Since we had such beautiful weather this morning, I decided Ethan and I would go to the zoo.  Our zoo is the perfect size for Ethan to run around without holding a hand the whole time.  He loves looking at animals and we've been talking a lot about different animals and the zoo lately, so he was very excited to go. 

 

 The goat...attacking Ethan!

And...Ethan attacking the chickens!

Relaxing and cooling off with a train ride and some juice

We enjoyed watching these little guys.  Ethan called the meerkats, kittys :)



It's a...

We had our doctor's and ultrasound appointment this afternoon.  Ever since finding out we were expecting again, Jared and I discussed if we were going to find out the gender.  With Ethan, we wanted to know from the very beginning but this time around, we were on the fence.  With our appointment getting closer and closer, the more I wanted to know (Jared was still fine either way)...so we found out today that Ethan will have a...

For those who need a close up :)!

We are so excited to be having a little girl!  The ultrasound showed us that baby girl is growing right on schedule.  She has 10 fingers, 10 toes and all her other body parts and organs are healthy!  I am a few days past 22 weeks and she measured the same.  My 'belly', on the other hand, measuerd at 17 weeks, so I guess that means I don't look as big as I should...but I'm just fine with that!  I think we have a name picked out, but that will remain a mystery to everyone except Jared and I, at least until the end of October :)!

Salem Trip

Ethan and I headed to Salem this past weekend.  Jared didn't join us since he had some projects he was working on around the house (more on that later) and a golf scramble on Sunday afternoon.  Ethan spent Friday night and Saturday morning with Grandma and Grandpa Collier.  From the grandparent report, fun was had by all!  I'm hoping some pictures were taken and that I can get a hold of some...but we'll see :). 
Our main reason for coming to Salem was for a 'girls weekend' with a few of my best friends from high school.  It ended up only being Elizabeth and I, but we had a great time anyway.  We have known each other forever...since before kindergarten at least! 

We are both expecting again!  Elizabeth is due in August and I'm in October.  Ethan and her 2nd son, Andrew are only a few months apart as well. 
Satruday afternoon, Ethan enjoyed playing with Abby and Alex outside.

Baseball!

 Summer-saults with Abby...

Hanging out with Pop...

Monkey Ears