a few stories from lately

Yesterday one of our fish (that has been acting sick all week) finally died (or was so close to it that I called it and decided it needed to be flushed).  We came home from the mall of america around lunch time and saw it lying on the rocks and barely moving.  I let Ethan scoop it out of the tank and walk it to the toilet and flush it.  I thought that he'd think it was pretty cool.  He did.  And now he kind of wants our other fish to die so he can scoop them out and flush them as well.

The other day at lunch I noticed that Ethan was only eating bites out of each of his animal crackers, and not eating the whole thing.  I started trying to get him to finish the other halves, and he handed one to me and said "you eat his bum".  He's been really funny with snacks that have pictures on them.  He won't eat these graham crackers with spider man pictures on them because "I don't eat spiders, that's gross".  I can't convince him that they're just pictures of spider man.  If you ask him if he likes spider man, he totally does.  He just doesn't want to eat a graham cracker with a picture of him on it.  So funny.

We went to the fireworks in our town.  Ethan loved them, but it was just so late.  It was after 10 when they started, so after a few minutes he started to ask to go home and go to bed.  I'm guessing in future years he'll love them and appreciate the chance to stay up late more :)

We also had a wonderful trip to Steve's aunt and uncle's lake house just a couple hours away on Sunday.  A day filled with family and fun at the lake.  Ethan could have stayed out in the water all day. I can't imagine if we lived on the water, he'd never come inside.

One last funny one.  One afternoon while I was putting Ethan to bed he was chattering away, and then threw up his hands and said in true teenage fashion "whatever".  2 going on 22 :)

Time for some fireworks!

At the MOA aquarium with friends

Looking at the sharks

At the MOA arcade with Oliver and Keira

Enjoying daddy's day off.  Popsicle on the front porch

Family, water time and grandma's cookies. Not much better than that!

I got to snuggle with my new niece Kayla. Love the newborn sleep smiles!

Ahhhh summer

Summer reading program

So I enrolled Ethan in our library's summer reading program. Each time he reads 15 library books he gets a prize. The first prize was a bookmark. He was pretty proud to turn his sheet in and get his sticker and bookmark but when I went to get a picture of his prizes this was all I could get. Next prize is a pizza coupon. I'll probably be more excited about that one too. 😃

Strange choice

It took me a while to find Ethan last night when I went to tuck him in. He was underneath a table in his room, tucked against the wall with his arm around his monkey and my hairbrush tucked under him as well. Funny guy.

"mom, can you take a picture of me watering the driveway?"

Sure sweetie, but I'd prefer it if you'd water the flowers.

House projects continue

It's sure hard to get a picture, maybe I should have taken a video. But Steve's office is now on the main floor! He had been in our 3rd bedroom, but we knew that eventually we'd want to use all 3 bedrooms as bedrooms. We thought about putting his office in the basement, but he wasn't too thrilled with the idea of spending all of his time in a basement. So we ordered french doors for one of the main floor rooms, and moved him in there!

So nice to finally get use out of that room. Steve said it was kindof like we were moving in for real. We had a bunch of random furniture in there that didn't match and wasn't useful. It's nice to finally be using the space, and for now our 3rd bedroom is a tv room. So much cozier to watch movies in.


And while we were moving huge pieces of furniture around, we got rid of one of the huge dressers in our room (moved it into our new tv room) and put a chair in our bedroom. Love my new cozy spot.

amazing memory

Ethan (and probably all kids) has an amazing memory! I remember being able to quote huge chunks of movies and knowing all the lyrics off of a particular cd as a kid. Now I'm lucky if I can even remember if I've seen a particular movie, let alone what happened in it :)

We've tried to channel his memory into some useful areas, like Bible memorization. He loves it, and we've been blessed with some great resources through our church. He often asks to listen to his verses (we have a cd of scripture verses to songs for kids that we got at church along with flashcards!).

Here are a list of the verses that he's got memorized now:
Gen 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heaves and the earth
Proverbs 17:17 - A friend loves at all times
Phil 2:14 - Do all things without grumbling or questioning
Eph 6:1 - Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right
James 1:17 - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above
Rom 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Psalm 56:3 - When I am afraid I put my trust in you

Here's a video of me trying to get him to sit still and say a couple. Please excuse the nose-picking :)

And here are a few more fun pics from recent weeks

 Monorail at the zoo!

Tigers at the zoo!

Fun at the beach!

Worn out from the beach