I Am A Child Of God

Ethan's favorite song has always been "I am a child of God". He's actually been able to sing it since before he was 2 yrs old, but I have finally recorded him singing it. It's the cutest thing ever ( not at all biased here :) ). Anyway... Ladies and Gentlemen, the vocal stylings of Ethan Conn!!!

5 things I LOVE about my Husband!:
*I love how he is with our kids! He comes straight home from work and hardly stops to set his stuff down before he gets right down on the floor to play trains, cars, etc. with Ethan AND Avery.
*Before he leaves to go anywhere and as soon as he returns from anywhere he comes straight to me to give me a kiss (even before he plays with the kids) J
*He works so hard, and is great at his job! I love how determined he is, and his competitive spirit ( except when playing board games with him) J*He is always ready to give me a break from my daily duties when I need one. And doesn’t complain about it.
* He loves the Lord, and loves the gospel. (can’t stop at 4)

5 jobs I have had:
*Sales associate at Ross
*First Report Rep at Prudential Insurance
*Dental office assistant
*Sonic Drive-In Carhop
*Kindergarten teacher

4 movies I have watched more than twice:
*The Notebook
*How to lose a Guy in 10 days
*Sweet Home Alabama
*The Phantom of the Opera

4 tv shows I watch regularly:
*Friends (re-runs)
*Everybody Loves Raymond
*Jon and Kate plus 8
*Nanny 911

4 places I have been:
*Mexico
*Brazil
*Scotland
*England

3 of my favorite music artists:
*Barenaked Ladies
*Josh Groban
*Natasha Beddingfield and so many more...

4 of my favorite foods:(I'm gonna name restaurants cause I can't choose just one food item)
* Carrabas
* Shogun
* Chik fil a
* and yummy mexican

4 places I would like to go:
*Italy
*Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas
*Jamaica
*Hawaii-again

4 things I am looking forward to this coming year:
*Moving into a new home
*Visiting family we haven’t seen in a long time
*Finally reaching my post baby weight goal
*Jesse hopefully getting a promotion (aka-raise)

4 people I tag:
Anyone who wants to do it!

I Heart the Public Pool!

White Water Fun!

Last years Christmas present from Nana and Papa Fife was season passes to the 3 amusement parks in Branson, MO (about 2 hrs away)...Silver Dollar City, White Water (water park), and Celebration City. This was definitely a much appreciated and well used gift! This weekend we went to White Water for the last time this summer as it will be closing on Monday. I finally remembered to take pictures! This kids absolutely love it here and we have so much fun. Ethan's favorites are the "crazy" river ( lazy river), wave pool, and all the big slides that you go down on with tubes! Avery loves the splash area, and the lazy river in her special float. I didn't get any pictures of the kids in the lazy river because someone threw up in it and they closed it down (yuck), luckily we weren't in it at the time, but we were in the splash area and apparantly the water filters through there because they kicked us out. We had a great day!

Ethan and Jesse coming out of Ethan's favorite slide.

Ethan and Avery in the splash area.

The best part of the day (lol). Asleep before we even left the parking lot.

I knew she was tired!

I tried to feed her lunch quick because I knew she was tired, but it is very uncharacteristic for her to fall asleep anywhere...even as a newborn she wouldn't have done this? Anyway, it was too cute to pass up a picture.

Just as I was thinking...

I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner Sunday night, Ethan and Avery had been chasing each other and playing really nice together. This doesn't happen but once a day. I could hear them from the play room giggling, and just as I was thinking that I love to hear them so happy, playing together, this is what I find....(watch the video).

I love how Avery is so happy with the mischief that brother helped her create that she doesn't even care when he drags her by the feet back to him, she usually screams at him whenever he does this. These are classic moments. I guess I'm glad that it wasn't something harder to clean up.

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Today is our 7th anniversary. So, I just wanted to take a moment to say how grateful I am for my wonderful husband! He is more than I could ever ask for. Thank you for providing for us and for working so hard. Thank you so much for all you do for us, and for being such a great dad! I Love You! I wanted to post a wedding picture, but this one goes back just as far. It's our engagement pic. This weekend we celebrated by leaving the kids home with Nana Fife, and we went and stayed overnight in Branson, MO. We left Friday afternoon, and that night we enjoyed a dinner and a show at the Dixie Stampede, where we were even asked to participate, and we won our team (The South) two "gold medals". It was fun. Then after that we headed over to Celebration City and went on a few roller coaster rides, and the indy cars. I got to sleep in (sort of, some kids were being really loud in the hallway at the hotel at 6 AM). Saturday morning we did a little shopping at the outlets, then we went to Silver Dollar City and rode all the big roller coasters that we never get to do because we always have the kiddos. We got tired of Silver Dollar City, and so we left and spent the rest of the day at White Water, where we rode all the rides that we never get to do when we have the kids. It was a fun-filled weekend, not to have to think of anyone but ourselves and just play!

Thanks Nana for taking such good care of the kids!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Today is Ethan's birthday! I can't believe my little boy is already 3! He has grown so much, not just physically this year but I can't believe how much he has matured from 2-3. He is so much fun, always playing games, and loves to make us laugh. He is so sweet, and always wants to make me happy! He loves to give me hugs and kisses, and I am sooooo grateful that he still loves to cuddle. He has been so excited for his birthday to come, ever since Papa Fife's birthday back in February, and everyone's birthday came first (except mine). He was so good, and so happy for everyone elses birthday, I am so happy we finally get to celebrate his. Tonight we will have our family celebration by taking him to his favorite place to eat, Chuck E Cheeses, then we will come home for Ethan's fav cake and ice cream (lemon cake with a lemon glaze), open presents, and talk to Nana and Papa Conn on the web cam. We have a fun filled night! Here are some pics from over the years! We love you Ethan, Happy Birthday!

Ethan has always loved screwdrivers (ie. "turners"). He loves to fix things. Approx. 18 mo. old

Ethan has always had a case of "crazy hair". It grows faster than anything I've every seen, and gets so long. This is typically what he has always looked like after sleep. Approx. 20 mo. old

He has always loved reading books. Approx. 24 mo. old

At his first Father's and Son's about 2 1/2 years old.

His most recent pic, at his B-Day party.

Ethan's Birhday Party

Ethan's Birthday Party

Last Wednesday we celebrated Ethan's 3rd birthday party at JUMP ZONE!!!! A place with a bunch of inflatable bounce houses, and slides. He had such a great time, as did his friends! Thanks everyone for coming to celebrate with us! We celebrated a little early, his birthday is actually tomorrow, but that was when it worked the best for us. Here's a slideshow of pics from the fun party.

I Can Do It ALL Myself!!!!

Avery loves to wreak havoc! She is like that little tornado spoken about in the book "Love You Forever". She loves to pull all the books out of the bookshelf, she opens her dresser drawers and pulls all the clothes out, and if I happen to be folding laundry when she's around it mysteriously unfolds and gets strewn about the house. The other day I had pulled newly laundered clothes out of the dryer, and put them in the laundry basket where they should have waited to be folded, but Avery found them first and started unloading the basket for me. Pretty soon I looked over and she had managed to dress herself in a dress I had just washed. She actually got it over her head and was so proud of herself.

Tennis Tournament

Last weekend Jesse entered into a tennis tournament. Friday was just tennis and Saturday was golf and tennis. This was one of those tournaments that you pay to enter and the proceeds go to the orginization, in this case The Boys and Girls Club of Arkansas. Unilever is one of their sponsors, so they pay for their employees to participate in these tournaments. Jesse loves golf, and played tennis all through high school and at Ricks. He did very well. Saturday, the kids and I went to watch him play tennis for a while. Ethan really just wanted to play with Jesse, but was pretty good after I explained that he could only watched, he contentded himself with playing in the drinking fountain. Here are the best pics I could get.

Kermit!

We went to empty out the kids play pool and this cute little guy jumped out. He was really fast, and Ethan loved holding it and would scream and laugh whenever it jumped out of his hands. Ethan wanted to keep him but we told him that Kermit needed to go and find his family.

Wal-Mart ISD Annual Picnic

My dad works for the ISD department at Wal-Mart, it beats me what ISD actually stands for but it has to do with computers, and programming and stuff of that sort. Every year they have a huge picnic. This year it was catered by yummy Smokin' Joes Ribhouse. Everything is free which is great, and they have all the cotton candy, snowcones, funnel cakes, popcorn, candy apples etc... you want! We ended up getting snowcones, and cotton candy, it's too hot for anything else. It was a very HOT and HUMID 90+ degrees out so we didn't stay long, especially after Avery threw up due to the heat. Ethan had fun jumping in the bounce houses, playing at the baseball stand, and hitting golf balls onto a velcro board. We finally talked him out of leaving. Here are pics of Ethan and Avery enjoying cotton candy for the first time on the way home. Avery was so confused by the speed in which the cotton candy seemed to melt. I was laughing so hard watching her eat it, and then she would growl at me when she wanted more.

Splash Park

We are so used to having splash parks around every corner in AZ. But here in Arkansas we have ONE! It's about a 20 min drive, but it wasn't very crowded so it was nice. Every Thursday we rotate our play groups between the splash park and the community pools close to where we live. This week was the splash park. Avery didn't like it, and then she was knocked to the ground and had her face smashed on the pavement, then she really had a meltdown, poor girl! Ethan had a blast, and had a meltdown when it was time to go home. Anyway, here are pics of our fun day!

Ethan and his friend Ethan Hughes (ie. "The New Ethan"), sitting on one of the sprinklers.

Avery sporting her smashed face, she's a trooper!