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!

it's a.............

GIRL!!!!!!

yep, ethan is having a little sister!!! caroline grace is her name, and she weighs 12 oz. that's pretty tiny. her face was smushed up against the placenta, so we weren't able to get super great shots of her... but you can see that her head is shaped just like ethan's! and in a few pictures, she looks like her cousin, karina, who is due in about 5 weeks! in the last picture, you can see her little legs and feet dangling... so sweet.





the dr. said everything looks good... so now the appointments just get boring... measuring my belly, "yep, you're getting bigger", blah blah blah.... BUT oh what fun we will have getting ready at home for sweet caroline!!!!!

quick update on lorelei

i've been meaning to post this update on lorelei... she is home from the hospital but is continuing to vomit and lose weight. as of last week, she was being given continual feeds through a feeding tube. hopefully, this will help alleviate the vomiting. her neurologist said that her shunt looks good, so this feeding issue is a separate problem. kim & josh are taking her to a GI specialist to try to figure out what is going on. the many tests thus far have not given any indication to what could be causing this. please continue to pray for lorelei and for the medical professionals that see her... kim & josh are worn out and so badly want to know what is wrong with their little girl. one praise is that the neurological issues seem to have been resolved for now. thank you for praying...

they're gone...

well, eric and kristi and the kiddos are gone. they are actually gone. they left town from my house about 30 minutes ago... and i miss them already. i was proud of myself for not bawling like a baby when they left... but i'm sure i'll make up for that later. i spent the morning watching lydia and steven so that eric & kristi could sign closing papers and take care of last minute packing, and then we had one last lunch together before the kids melted down and they drove away. i'm sure kristi will eventually blog about the frustration that has been thrown upon them by the woman who is supposed to be buying their house, but i'll just say that they could use your prayers today. we are all confident that God will work out the details (when does He not??), but this lady has been shoving these last-minute, greedy bargaining attempts at eric & kristi as they have literally been trying to load up their kids in the van and make an 8 hour drive to their new home! so anyway, just pray for their safety and sanity today. and eric doesn't have A/C in his jeep, so pray for some act of God to cool him off along the way.

i'll post more pictures of our last days together later, but here's some shots of our busy morning... and last minute good-byes.

ethan's gonna miss his partners in crime...

kristi wanted this picture taken before they headed out,
and i said, "wait, let me change out of my pjs"...
but she said this would depict real life with us...
and she's right!

last minute instructions from daddy...

wait! i'm coming with you!

now you see them....

now you don't...

i'm praying traveling mercies and good kids for them today...

busy!

well, i have so much to blog about... i hate getting behind on my posts... but usually the reason i get behind is due to all those things that i want to blog about! LIFE happens! when i have free time to blog, there's nothing to blog about... go figure. SO all of that to say that i have a stickie note of things to blog about when i get some free time. but with a teething child, best friends that are moving away in a week (sniff sniff), father's day, my birthday, dear friends that i miss so much coming to dinner friday, and a day trip to see family next saturday, things are only looking busier! and that just makes more to blog about! (see the vicious cycle??)

but hang in there--in like 2 weeks, i will have probably 10 posts to catch you up on life. :) ethan's first birthday is also just around the corner... gosh i can't believe it's been a year! oh, and next wednesday, the 28th, i have a sonogram to find out if baby #2 is a boy or girl!!!! that will most definitely be blog-worthy!

have a great week... maybe i'll find some time to get on here one night this week. don't be a stranger for long. i'll be back, i promise...with lots of fun pictures and stories. eventually. here's a commercial of fun things to come:

-pictures from kristie's baby shower for karina- beach theme- amazing sand castle cake!!!!
-shots of last days hanging out with eric, kristi, lydia, & steven
-blooper shots of TRYING to take ethan's 11 month pictures...oh dear.

so stay tuned for that and much much more...

(for you bird watchers, the eggs still haven't hatched...i'll keep you posted.)