Everyone Loves Ethan

Spring babies must have sweetness in common because Ethan is also very sweet and loves his family very much. As he gets older he has us all laughing with his sense of humor and the dry wit that he has. He would do anything for you and has more determination than anyone I know. I have learned so much from Ethan over the last couple of years and I am so proud of all he has accomplished.

Spring Babies

Only 11 days apart, Ethan and Erin are my spring babies. I have never had to combine their family party since that is often the only party they have. Erin's friend parties are new to just last year and this year. But this year was beyond crazy! Erin's schedule with dance competitions made a party impossible near her actual birthday. Ironic the dance lover has her birthday at the peak of dance season!
Ethan graciously let Erin choose the cake at the store, he's an awesome big brother! We had a great time with all of our family coming over for the evening.

Love my #3 calendar. It was on Kyle's cake when we turned 3 and it has been on everyone's cake since then. Looks like its going to melt away.

Puppy Camp Out

A couple of weeks ago Ethan wanted to sleep outside in his tent. It was a perfect night to do a camp out and he wanted Quincy to spend it with him. They sleep together every night so it was expected they would camp together too. Quincy was so excited. He loves to go outside so this was super fun for him. He had treats and his sleeping blanket to snuggle into and they had a great night. So cute but poor little Oliver was watching from the window and had to have a sleepover with mommy!

Heart to Heart

Ethan and his boys have a heart to heart!

Picture of the Day

Brotherly Love

Have Passport, Will Travel

Watch out Peru, Ethan is ready to visit! Passport arrived today.

Picture of the Day

Someone had a hard time getting started this morning!

Ethan is 12!

 Puppy life is finally calm, everyone is stable and healthy. Trying to get caught up on pictures which is so hard since I am so far behind. I thought about just moving ahead except that I use my blog to help me with my actual scrapbooking for journaling and page ideas...
In the chaos of "sick puppy" weekend, Ethan turned 12! I can hardly believe he's 12, where has the time gone? For the first time in his life he wanted a friend party and actually had one. He's always backed out right when it was time to invite people so I was very impressed he followed through. He wanted a mini Teen night with his good co-op friends, pizza, cake, video games, and just to hang out. It was a perfect night for it since it was a gross, rainy night (surprise!).
The kids all had a great time especially Ethan. He told me it was the best birthday ever! I know that furry four legged friend had something to do with it!

 Ethan's favorite orange cake!

 Casey and Adrienne (above) Chas and Cynthia (below)

 Party crashers!

Happy Birthday Ethan! We love you very much, especially Quincy! You will always have a best friend!

Meet Quincy

Ethan will be 12 in 11 days. He is such a great boy who has really shown us his strength in the last 2 years. He has an amazing spirit and ability to overcome anything. He has wanted a dog for years and specifically a Pug. He doesn't nag or beg but he definitely wants one.

Bill and I talked about getting one last spring for him and decided not to, it just wasn't the right time. But this year I started looking and found one Pug puppy. It was challenging to find, none were close, no one called me back etc. But one lady did. She lived in Aurora near Cleveland and had one boy left in her litter. They were born March 11th. March 11th was my Grandpa's birthday and it was also the day I had my surgery. It seemed meant to be.

We didn't tell anyone except our family (aunts and grandparents) we wanted it to be a surprise. So when Ethan asked where we were going when we were not heading home the usual way from downtown I explained.

"Open the glove compartment," there was a gift bag hidden with a collar and leash. "What is this?" I gave him a gift to open, a book on how to care for your Pug. "Am I getting a dog?" I gave him a note that Bill wrote to him from both of us telling him we loved him very much and were very proud of what a great boy he is. We hoped he would enjoy his new friend.

He was SO excited. I gave him a list of 100 top Pug names to help him start thinking of a name. He found a couple right away and decided on both for the first and middle name.

He wanted to surprise his sisters so we didn't tell them before we got home. They were so excited! Lindy almost cried she couldn't believe it.

So Quincy Paxton joined our family and is already very loved!

Formal is a Hit!

More pictures to come but I had to get Kyle and Cynthia's picture posted. All the kids had a great time and so did the adults who were helping, Bill and I included!
We started with everyone learning the Swing and Rumba basic steps. Everyone had time to practice with a partner and then we let them dance the rest of the night away. Even the reluctant boys had a great time which I was so happy about or I would have been in serious trouble.
We had a photographer get pictures of all the kids throughout the night so we will have plenty of great pictures in a couple of weeks so more to come!
The after party was a huge hit with video games, pizza, poker (?!), Just Dance, food, and all night fun. Not sure how much sleep everyone got but we didn't care since we went to bed!
Thanks to Owen and Jayme for providing a wonderful place to have our event, Owen for great enthusiasm and getting kids off to a great start, Kristi for helping kids create memories of the evening, Aimee for awesome food, and Cynthia, Kassi, Sam, Alyssa, Jenna, and Anna for planning a great night.
Thanks Lindy, Paige, Erin, and Grace for fixing my hair and getting me dressed up!

Cookie Marathon

 We have an awesome church with some of the best people I have met. Ethan really loves his Sunday School class and group of friends.  My friend Karen suggested we get our boys together along with a couple of other boys and take on baking most of the cookies needed for the Open Shelter Meal that our congregation is serving this week.
So last Sunday all of the moms brought batches of cookie dough and put our boys to work. Bake they did, a total of 16 dozen cookies in about an hour and a half! Pretty good if you ask me. They had a great time together and how awesome to provide such an important part of the meal, dessert!
After they popped the cookies in the freezer they headed out for a quick basketball game.
Thanks for a wonderful afternoon Peace Ladies! We need to do that again!

Partied Too Hard

Ethan talked me into having a sleep over with his best friends on Monday night. Yes, you heard that right, Monday night! Really I didn't mind a bit. I had a meeting Monday night, Bill had a meeting Monday night, and Tuesday would be pretty consumed by a Girl Scout Valentine Party. Not much school would be going on so really I was totally fine with it. Plus I was told, "we'll watch a movie around 11 and go to bed afterwards". Um, yea.
I went to bed about 1 and things were still pretty active and I don't think a movie had been started. I probably could have demanded that they get to sleep but really, they were behaving and being respectful of the sleeping people in the house.
Around 7am Ethan came into my room to get a band aid. Hmm? Kind of an odd thing to get first thing upon waking! But not such an odd thing to need if you haven't been to bed. At all. They pulled an all nighter!
By 9:30 Ethan was done. He fell sound asleep in the living room chair amidst cleaning and chaos. He woke about an hour later to relocate to his room. He didn't even close his bedroom door and slept through an entire Girl Scout party!
Around 3:30 he wandered down for waffles for "breakfast". He was ready for bed by 9 which for Ethan is a miracle!
Bill summed it up best in his response text he sent me when I sent him this picture, we are so glad that he is having fun. We want him to have the best childhood ever and always remember these good times. Its so cool to home school and give him this experience. Truly, if any of our kids deserve a fun and crazy night its Ethan, enough said.

Ethan's New Room

 This has been a LONG time coming. We have been trying to get this redo done for the last 2 years. We have had many false starts, with a boy who struggles with making decisions. But we finally turned a corner and over the last couple of months he successfully picked some things out.
We started with bedding that Ethan liked. Then over Christmas he found the paint color he liked and a new bed. For Christmas Santa brought him a bean bag chair, a new floor lamp he wanted, and his Grommy got him a new desk. Things were really shaping up. The big thing was the new bed we found over New Years along with the matching night stand.
So this weekend while the boys were all gone on a Father/Son Camp in for Boy Scouts the girls and I had a HUGE project in Ethan's Room Redo!
The girls were so very excited about doing this. Ethan knew we were repainting his room but that was all he thought we were doing. Being girls who all love watching HGTV we had more in mind, like accessories!
We painted everything, walls, bookshelves, and wall shelves. We hung pictures, put up a new map, organized books, added new picture frames and lamps, and added a crafty touch. They even decorated the door with a sign. Its always a big deal when the kids get to redo their room but for Ethan we all celebrated in his new space.
So we went from the picture above to this.....

 Amazing! Girl Power!

 Desk area, map compliments of Grommy along with the new desk and lamp from Christmas.

 E for Erin and also Ethan!

 My little contribution was the wall E which he loved.

 His newly painted wall shelves. There is still one more to hang at the top.

 Newly painted bookshelf along with new light and art work Ethan did in Art class. All organized and arranged by the girls.

 I love the new lamp and night stand with the family pictures.

 New desk accessories from the girls complete with his favorite candy and new picture. We even got his little piece of Disney ownership hung up.

 Girls hard at work on their door sign and getting ready for the reveal.

 The reveal!!!

 And he LOVES it! And we loved doing it for him!

We worked hard and very happily I might add. The girls were so excited they were willing to do anything including clean and the not fun parts of the project. We are tired and need to have a relaxing day but we would do anything for the best big brother in the world! We love you Ethan!