i love my bookshelf...and my husband. :)

i love our bedroom... it's small, peaceful, and just crisp and fresh looking. but magazines and books end up piled up beside our bed before we know it, and it just looks like a mess. so one day i was determined to find a small bookshelf to replace our nightstand (actually, a plant stand)...brian offered to make me one, but i didn't want to wait. i wanted a bookshelf that day! (yeah, you know the test with the kids and the marshmallows? i would have eaten the marshmallow the second they gave them to me!) i drove ethan to every store in town, and i came home at the end of the day with a typical, cheap black bookshelf from walmart. brian assembled it that evening, and i put all our books on it... and i hated it. it was too big for the space in our room, it didn't go with the other furniture, and it was the first thing i noticed everytime i walked into our room. so brian offered (again) to make me a bookshelf... and boy did he ever. it is beautiful! he worked so hard to make it exactly the size i wanted, and he crafted it perfectly. he had never made a bookshelf before, but that didn't stop him from laying our kitchen tile or installing beadboard in ethan's room... he loves projects and loves learning how to do something new! so all that to say that i'm very proud of brian's handiwork, and i just had to brag on him a little. here's some pictures of the finished product. thank you, honey!!

aren't you impressed?

before:
the nightstand with no room for books
(you can see a little bit of a pile in the left edge)

after:
a beautiful bookshelf with plenty of room
for books we like to read at night

a beautiful day for a wedding

well, all the family got dressed up for a wedding yesterday, and apparently we don't get dressed up enough, because i took pictures of all of us and none of the happy couple!! (sorry, mike and colleen!) i did actually get one of mike, the groom, talking to some of us... anyway, the reception was at the bride's parents' home on the water. it was beautiful. there was a nice breeze at the beginning, and the gelato station helped us forget that we were outside in FL in july! the food was wonderful, i loved seeing old friends, and if we would have stayed long enough, we could have enjoyed a fireworks show! but it was indeed july in FL... so we scooted after a while. here are some fun pictures from the wedding.

mike, the happy groom, and jeff served together in iraq.

mmmm... gelato! first things first!

it's melting fast!!

mama & papa d try out the gelato...
i think they need some napkins...

"brian, i really think we're adopted..."

just waiting for these baby girls!
karina should be making her entrance in the next couple of weeks!!

don't they look like great parents??

the guys...i love father & son pictures!

the whole fam... minus ethan

caroline is growing...and so am i!

i'm almost to 23 weeks in pregnancy talk, and i finally took my first belly picture yesterday... i could have taken one at 15 weeks this time around!!! so here's evidence that caroline is growing just fine...



17 weeks to go! i can't believe i'm already past the half way mark. i'm still getting used to saying "her" and "caroline" vs. "the baby"!

what a year!

we still can't believe ethan is a year old! everybody told me it would fly by, and it sure has. sorry i've been slack in keeping this updated lately.... our summer continues to stay as busy as ever, and a toddling one year old just adds to the busyness! in the midst of our crazy life, i want to take a minute to remember how tiny our little boy was this time last year... and to celebrate in God's blessing of wonderful health for the past 12 months. he has grown like a weed... and here's the pictures to prove it!

5 little days old

and the fun is just beginning!

the big ONE!

ethan's first birthday was today, and boy was it a busy day! i am exhausted, but not nearly as tired as i was this time last year! ha! i will take having 15 people over for lunch after church and & 7 more for cake outside on a (really) hot summer day ANYTIME over a c-section. :) (but ethan has definitely been worth the c-section!) :) anyway, i think ethan had a fun day. when he woke up this morning, i sang "happy birthday" to him, and he just grinned and grinned... as if he knew what i was singing! after a lunch of lasagna (thank you, stouffers!!), we crammed in the living room to watch ethan open presents... well, natalie and i opened presents. :) ethan loved his first gift so much that he didn't care about the other ones. (this afternoon, he played with all of them, though...and daddy did too!) he got some great little boy toys, like trucks and tools... and a fun radio flyer wagon from nana & pappy! we then headed outside for cake for no other reason than i really wanted some good pictures, and i figured outside would be the best place! (so everybody sweated due to my obsession with photography...) but i think it was worth it. thanks to our new camera's "continuous" feature, i was able to take 80+ pictures of ethan and his cake in a matter of 7 minutes! thank you, gram, for making the cake & cupcakes. i will be enjoying the leftovers for the next few days! here are a few of my favorite pictures from today...

where's waldo?
ethan has lots of people who love him!

ethan loved his presents!

ethan's "smash" cake...
i think i want one for my bday next year!

cupcakes for our friends & family

ethan and his cake...
before the damage was done

a star-spangled birthday!

mommy & daddy love the birthday boy!

"so you want me to just smear this all over my face?"

"this is kinda fun!"

"hmm...all this icing would look really good in my hair!"

"i'm the star today!"

william and joseph join ethan in his new ride...
joseph tells us all how old ethan is!

ethan with the bennett kiddos

lots of kisses for ethan!
watch out for icing, everybody!!

we actually kicked off ethan's birthday celebration on friday night at my dad's house. dad & joy had to go out of town this week, and they didn't want to leave without honoring our birthday boy... here's some pictures with the fun blocks they gave him.





what a blessing ethan has been to us this past year! God has been so gracious to us with a healthy boy full of laughter and smiles. he amazes us with new things that he can do everyday, and i know it just gets better from here. praise God for our growing family. we can't wait to watch ethan be a big brother to little caroline this fall... our children are a gift from God!