September 14

These are pictures that we had made Saturday morning. We went for Ethan's 3rd birthday but Mommy wanted a picture with all 3 kiddos. Ethan did so good. Mommy was solo this weekend because Daddy was off with the other men from church doing a mission project. We are still trying to figure out why Mommy scheduled pictures for all three kids while Daddy would be gone!?!
The photographer that we got was awesome. He kept up with Ethan, and Mommy!

He is big now. By the way, today is one week and still no binkie!
Daddy built Ethan a swingset for his birthday. Here is Ethan helping with his drill, just like Daddy.
Friday night, Mommy also decided that it would be a good idea to take the kids to a ball game without Daddy. Mommy's friend Amy and Ethan's friends Julia and Kat came with us. The staff had tailgating before the game and the kids had a really good time. They got really messy though. Mommy had to clean the bathroom after she cleaned the kids.
Here is Chelsea cheering at the game. Ethan and Julia thought that the cheerleaders were really cool. Ethan said that they danced.

Here they are trying to dance like the cheerleaders.
Emma in her Sunday dress playing, what else but, cars. If Mommy wants to keep her the girlie girl then we need to not let her play with cars quite so much.
And of course Ethan also playing with the cars. Those are his favorite. We stayed inside most of the day today because we had some really bad wind storms. In fact, Mommy doesn't have to go to work tomorrow because of it!!!

BINKIE FREE

Isn't she a Cardinal Cutie. That is why they lost last week. She didn't have her cheerleader outfit. Mommy bought this for her Saturday.
Benjamin and Ethan at the Redneck, um Fairdale, Fair. They got to sit up in a real police helicopter. Since the police sold one of their 2 helicopters, I sure hope nothing really bad happened while there was a 2 year old and a 4 year old behind that controls of this one.
Ethan and Benjamin on the train.

Ethan handing them over. He even told them bye bye. Thanks so the good sport of a cashier, although she did make Joey fork over the debit card behind Ethan.
Mommy was distracting Ethan from the fact that Daddy was really paying for the car.
Ethan with his new big boy toy, because he is a big boy now.

Yes, you heard it right. Ethan has given up the binkie. This is actually quite an interesting story as to how this happened. Mommy has been thinking for a long time that we wanted it gone on his birthday. Well, that didn't sound like a very good birthday present and we really want him to have a good birthday, which is now 10 days away. On the way home from church, after talking to Scottie during extended session, Mommy decided now was as good a time as any. Ethan was excited because we told him that he could go to Toys R Us (which he is all too familiar with) and pick out any toy he wanted and pay for it with his binkies. It was binkie special day at Toys R Us. He picked out this huge remote control dune buggy thing (money well spent!) It is now 11:20 and he has been asleep for about an hour. He went to sleep easier than he has been a few nights this past week. Our strategy involves sleep deprivation. He is not allowed to take a nap all week this week and that way he will be very tired and hopefully go to sleep without too much fuss. Mommy is going to bed now because it could be a long night. Hopefully not though. Will let you guys know tomorrow. Just goes to show you that we should have a little more faith in the little booger.

September 5

Well, again it is the weekend before we are updating. Things are just so crazy around here right now. The picture above is of Emma eating her first green beans. They seems to be her favorite so far. She has tried squash, sweet potatoes, and now green beans. She does pretty good eating. Not a whole lot of spraying yet.
These next few pictures are of Friday at work. Mommy has never taught chemistry before so this was the first lab. It was an eventful day. We even had a fire. Mommy put it out quickly and they didn't set off the alarms. We also had a few hydrochloric acid spills but no one got really hurt so that was good. Close call!
Another non-chemistry teacher teaching in the chem lab.

And the real chemistry teacher. We have to turn to him for help when we think we may have just done something really bad.
Ethan playing with Lightning McQueen.
Ethan must have been starving because he had a huge plate of spaghetti for dinner last night and he ate every last bite. He was in the clean your plate club. I don't believe he has ever done this.
Benjamin stayed at our house until around 11 something last night while his Mommy went to his brother's HS football game. They had a pajama party and loved it. Neither of them did any sleeping until Benjamin went home. Ethan has been wanting to stay up really late this week. One night he didn't go to sleep until after midnight. He was in bed at 9:30 but never fell asleep. That was due in part to Daddy giving him a nap from 3:00 until 6:00. Lesson learned.

Ethan and Emma also had Dr. appointments Thursday.

Ethan is 31 lbs. and 37.25 inches. Both are 50%. He used to be 25% and 75%.

Emma is 15 lbs 12 oz. which is 50% and 16.5 inches which is 75-90%. She is really getting big.

August 31

These are the pictures that Emma had made on Friday for her half birthday. It is so hard to believe that she is 6 months old already. Time sure flies.

Yes, it is Sunday night and Mommy is just now getting around to updating the blog and it hasn't been done in about a week. We have really had a trying week. Ever since school started back, we have had something, at least one thing going on everyday. Even school days we have something every evening. I am ready for things to slow down a little. Monday Mommy stayed home from work but had to go to the doctor with Trystan. Tuesday night Mommy had to go to the funeral home. Wednesday we had church, Thursday night was a game, and then Friday, Emma had a picture appointment. After Emma's pictures, Mommy went out for some much needed adult time. Saturday, Trystan had another game and it was an hour and a half away. Sunday we went to church and then went to Papaw Butch's to watch that awful UK game. We are U of L fans but your really can't call that a U of L game because unfortunately, it was UK's game, we just watched. Hopefully this week will be a little easier. The videos are of Ethan and Emma both laughing. Emma loves watching him and thinks that he is the greatest thing ever. The one of Ethan was him playing with a balloon.

August 19-23

This week was busy as usual but hopefully things are starting to slow down a little. Monday was Trystan's birthday and we went out to eat. Tuesday night Trystan had a soccer game. He is playing for his school this year. Wednesday we went to the fair. Thursday we had a Sunday School meeting, Friday Trystan had another game and then we went to the drive in movie at church, Saturday Trystan had 2 games (They won their first game of the season!), and Sunday we had church and then went to Nana's for lunch for Uncle Griffin's birthday.

The above picture is of Trystan showing off his new lap top.

Wednesday night we went to the fair with Tracy and Benjamin. Ethan liked driving the police car.
Benjamin and Ethan driving the tractor.

The boys had fun doing the tricycle safety city course. They even got driver's licenses.
Daddy and Ethan going down the big slide.
Ethan and Benjamin driving the "race cars." Ethan will make anything a race car in his mind.
Trystan riding the hang glider ride.

Ethan on the kiddie bumper cars.
Benjamin's favorite ride was the motorcycles. He and Ethan rode that one twice.
Emma had her first pineapple whip ice cream. It was really her first ice cream. We had to start her off with the best.
Emma ready for bed with her "exit." How appropriate.

Mommy will try to do better this week at updating this. Going back to work is just hard and we haven't had a free night since before we left for vacation which was a month ago now. I think we may have a least one free night this week.

August 18

These pictures are actually from last night at Benjamin's birthday party. I know, today is Trystan's birthday and I will have more pictures later. We had not been to Chuck E Cheese for a few months, literally just a few, and there has been a lot of changes. Many new things there, including this Ken Chuck E Derby. This was a big hit.
Another new addition which was Ethan's favorite was this jet pack thing. I heard that they also have this at Incredible Dave's but we have never been there.
Ethan posing with Chuck E. This is the best pose he will do now. He is too busy for pictures.

Benjamin opening his presents.
Here is Ethan crying because he can't figure out how to get down. This climber is easy to get lost in. He always gets to the outside circle and then can't get back to the middle, which is the only way down. He just cries and sits and waits for someone to come get him. Daddy and Trystan were at Best Buy getting his lap top and Mommy had Emma so Tracy, Benjamin's Mommy, climbed up to save him.
She is really just a kid at heart. Thanks Tracy for saving Ethan.

Ethan and Benjamin playing air hockey. This seemed to be Benjamin's favorite thing.
Here is Tyler, Benjamin's oldest (16 years to be exact) brother also enjoying the Ken Chuck E Derby.
And as always, Ethan will spot out the race cars and stay with that for as long as you will let him.