Dear Ethan...

Ethan is 7.
Ethan is 7???
How can this be.
It seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.
All 9lbs.7oz. With lots of dark hair. Skin so soft. Smelling so good.
Now he's 7?
Where have the years gone?

Last night, before I tucked the kids in, I begged Ethan to let me hold him on my lap like a baby.
He of course thought this was quite weird and silly.
The other boys thought this was hilarious.
I thought it was sad.
I rocked him and sang him the song I always sing to my kids when they are babies.
"You Are My Sunshine"
I cried.
I told him what he was like as a baby and how small he was.
How is it that he is so big now, and that I barely even noticed that he was growing so much?
How did I not pay attention?
I told him how I used to kiss his cheeks all the time.
I remember his baby cheeks were so soft.
I remember his fuzzy little head.
He had the biggest smile.
The brightest eyes.

So we cuddled for as long as he would let me.
I told him he had to let me hug him and kiss him even though he was growing up and when he was a man He still had to let me give him hugs and kisses.
He said o.k.
Then I told him I guess I would let him turn 7.
But I really just wanted to stop time and not let him get any bigger.

Dear Ethan,

Happy Birthday.

We love you so much.

You have brought so much happiness into our lives.

So much energy, so much excitement.

Everything you do, you do with so much joyfulness.

My heart is so happy that you love Jesus, and that you already want to know more about Him.

You have such a servant heart, always ready to help your brothers of sister or me and you dad. I hope you continue to have that heart. Such a big heart full of love.

So I guess I'll let you grow up, even though I don't want to let you to. I wish I could keep you my little boy forever. And soon you'll think you're too big and grown up to have your mom kiss and hug you....but I'll never stop loving you, never stop rooting for you, never stop praying for you. Because you'll always be my little boy, no matter what!

 

Always a song in his heart.

Ethan has always loved music and singing. You will usually notice that he is humming or singing. It sometimes gets annoying and his brothers are usually telling him to BE QUIET!

I found this video of him last week and just balled my eyes out! His little voice and little face are just to precious, it makes me want to rewind time so I can go back and just savor the moments when he was this little.  

Ethan is 3 1/2 in this video.

Tomorrow my Ethan will no longer be 6 and he is counting down the hours. I, on the otherhand wish he could stay 6 forever. 

Cousins!!!

19 cousins to be exact and there are more on the way too!

 ( Not from me though - don't go getting any ideas;)

We all got together today to take some cousin pictures. It was beautiful day for it too! My sister-in-law took the pictures (I took some too - but we will be using hers - she's the professional in the family. :) We tried to do some more shots in a different part of the farm but the littlest kids would have none of that! So hopefully she was able to get some good ones. Owen just kept glaring at me- I thought about using my own trick {wink,wink} to get him to smile but didn't think it would be appropriate for all the rest of the kids to see.
We had lunch together after that and the kids just had a blast playing with each other, like always! And us mama's enjoyed some coffee and some good talking time.

3 days....

until Ethan turns 7.

I was planning on writing a bunch of stories about Ethan. I was going to copy a bunch that I had written when he was smaller off of my old blog. But when I went to look for them, it looks like it doesn't exist anymore. I'm so bummed! I had hoped I could tranfer the whole thing over to my new one, but I guess I waited too long. So instead of entertaining you with tales of our anventurer, today I'm going to show you pictures of this sweet, funny little man. The pictures don't go too far back as most of my earlier pictures aren't on this computer. But I think you will agree that this is one adorable boy!

Only 5 more days....

...until this little boy turns 7.

 Time has flown way to fast for this Mama's heart.

Looking through all his pictures have made me want to cry.

Just look at that little face~ so full of innocence and mischief. When and where have the years gone? I wish I could just slow down time and remember every moment he's since he entered our lives. But I can't,  so I'll keep looking through all these precious photos and reflect on what an important and irreplaceable part of our lives he has been and will continue to be. Over the next few days, I'll be reflecting and regaling to you of all the fun and excitement he has brought into our lives.

"Bad Hair Day"

If you can't beat 'em.....

.....join 'em!

After fighting for some kind of attention from the hunters in my family ( they are A.WAY.S practicing their archery skills) I donned my pink "Real Tree" sweatshirt that my Hunting Loving husband bought be a couple years ago ( he also bought me another sweatshirt the same color but with a picture of a huge buck on it- he likes me in pink I guess. I don't really understand "why" he thinks I would like a sweatshirt with a massive buck plastered across the front of me?? Men!) I grabbed my dusty Bow ( another gift from Hunter Man ) and headed out to try to hit the target which happened to be a fake deer that has been decorating my lawn for the last few weeks.

 I tried really hard to show of my own skills, but as it happens I don't have any in the way of archery.

But at least I looked cute in my very pink sweatshirt!

Think I'll leave the hunting to the boys and just cheer them on.

Although it was kinda fun- I might do it again- Ben seemed to like it that I was interested in the bow and arrow thing.

To get a smile

The other day when we had our little "photo shoot" I had the toughest time trying to get Owen to smile much less even look at me.



 I tried everything.

I jumped.

I sang weird made up songs.

I made farting noises.

I pretended I was hurt ( he normally thinks this is hilarious)

I pretty much just made a fool of myself.

{thankfully the only people that could see me were my children- who already know how strange I am}

But I finally figured out how to get a smile from this little boy.

Are you ready?

I"m going to tell you a huge trick if you're trying to get your child to smile for those darling picture.

Tell your older children who are out there with you to MOON the unsmiling child.

O.K. Actually I did do that and yes, it did make him smile.

Next time I'm just going to start out with this.

But I'll try not to do it in public!