Vacation Summary

We enjoyed a great vacation in the mountains of North Carolina with my family, my brother's family, and my parents. Here are the highlights of our trip. Of course playing cards, swimming, reading, napping, eating, shopping, painting nails, going to the park, and more eating were filled in between all that.


Sunday: Arrived before dinner, relaxed
Monday: Shopping at the Outlets
Tuesday: Linville Caves, Mini golf
Wednesday: Shopping and lazy day
Thursday: Tweetsie Railroad
Friday: Mast General Store and park, Men golfed
Saturday: Hiking at Hebron Rock Colony

I am having trouble uploading all my pictures, so here are just a few.

My little boy loving the mountains!

"CANDY!" Mast General Store, Boone NC
Mini-golf at the resort

Lovers at Tweetsie Railroad, Boone NC

Linville Caves- apparently Matt is holding a barracuda (that is for you, Amanda!)

Greeting from the mountains

Hey there! Do you miss me??? I have missed the internet world, although it has been nice being "away from it all"! We have had a blast in the mountains... putt putt golfing, shopping at the outlets, Tweetsie railroad, fishing, walking, lots of swimming, Linville caves, and so much more! Lots of pictures to come! We have missed our life back home, including our niece Hannah being born. We can't wait to snuggle with her! What a blessing! Sometimes it feels like the week is flying by, sometimes I feel like it is dragging by... like when our precious son throws fits because he is off his schedule, on vacation, and running wild with our 2 nieces. Ahh, to be back to "normal"!
Off to take advantage of our last few days...

Story hits home

Some of you may or may not know that my dad was bit by a pygmy rattlesnake here in NC when I was pregnant with Ethan. After a week in the hospital and a surgery to remove the end of his finger, he is now fine. Here is a news story that brought back memories.
Dog bit by rattlesnake

Who is ready for vacation?

ME!

Sunday afternoon we leave for a week of vacation in the mountains of NC! We are so excited and so ready! I might take a temporary blogging hiatus depending on if we have free Wi-Fi! Until next time...

"I do crack"

There is nothing like hearing your little boy say he wants to do crack! Thankfully mine wasn't referring to the illegal drug!
This past Friday Ethan stayed the night at his Granddaddy's house. A month or so when he stayed with them he and granddaddy were cracking pecans with a big nut cracker. Ethan was eating them one after the other. So this past Friday when he stayed with them he walked into their garage, saw the bucket of pecans, remembered the fun he had and said with excitement: "I do crack!" My father-in-law just laughed!

He said it all

I wanted to blog today about 2 things, but my hubby said it very well. So read about it here. www.myshowandtell.wordpress.com

Fun times with neighbors

Last night we grilled out with our neighbors, Lauren and Atticus. Lauren is getting ready to leave for 3 months to Panama to study the genetics of butterflies. She is getting her PhD in genetics. We grilled some burgers, hot dogs and bratwurst for them. We also enjoyed feeding the geese that live near us and playing with Lauren & Atticus' chinchillas. Ethan had a blast chasing them around trying to catch and pet them. He actually got to pet one of them and loved it. One day we'll get a dog. I know he will LOVE having a pet in the house!

The men setting up the grill- I seasoned the burgers for the first time ever and they actually tasted pretty good. We don't grill much, but we would love to do it more!
Ethan and I fed the geese old cereal...you may not be able to tell, but Ethan stole a few handfuls himself! There are 3 sets of babies that live in the pond behind us.

Ethan grabbed Lauren & Atticus' watering can and was walking around going "Eeerrrrrrr" really loud. At first I thought he was pretending it was a car. But then I asked him what he was doing and he said it was a "leaf blower". He amazes me sometimes with what he comes up with.

Ethan was able to pet one of their chinchilla's named Maya. Charlotte was too scared of him.

Ethan was having a blast, but the chinchillas needed an escape from him... notice Maya sitting on the top shelf out of reach from a hyper 2 year old!

Ethan's Mix

Here are the songs Ethan asks for every night before bed... ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Life is a Highway.

Does any song stand out to you??!

First swim of the season

I had a great Mother's Day! We enjoyed a nice cookout at my brother-in-law's house last night. We broke out the swim suit for the first time this year. I know this will be the first of many fun times in the pool. Ethan got his first submersed experience. He was going down the slide and it tipped over and he went completely under the water. Head and all. It doesn't look very deep but he managed to take a plunge. I grabbed him up while he was coughing and panicked. Thankfully Courtney started the "YAY!" cheering and we all joined. Once he saw our reaction, he laughed and ran back to the pool. It is amazing how their reaction to things all depends on your reaction.
p.s. I received an anonymous gift at church on Sunday and it completely shocked me and blessed me so much! I don't know who gave it or if they even read this, but I just want to say THANK YOU!

Ew.

Ethan tried to stick a goldfish up his nose today. (The bite size snack, not the animal.) Thankfully I caught him while it was only half way up. Wow. That could have done some damage to his nostril size.

Deeper Confession Time

I am not perfect. Not that I thought that you thought I was perfect. But sometimes I like to come across like I am perfect. That I have it all together. I don't. The past month I have gotten wrapped up in laziness. Ever since my surgery I am a napping queen. This in and of itself is not bad, but I used to use Ethan's nap time as a time where I would pray and spend some time reading my bible or doing a devotional. I would use his nap as a workout time as well. Now, Ethan's nap time is my nap time. I don't even have a good excuse like being pregnant. I have just shrugged off time management and priorities. The worst part of it all is that I desire that nap time now more than I desire working out and spending time in the Word. That is what draws me to this confession time. I have completely gotten out of the habit and have fallen out of love with taking care of myself spiritually and physically. Napping feels great, I feel rested and I love sleeping, but I feel that my body and my faith are suffering. Spending time in prayer and reading the bible doesn't need to be done out of obligation. I shouldn't feel like I need to do it and then check it off a list. Working out doesn't need to feel like torture. I should desire to take care of my body to prevent health issues that come with being over weight. My sweet husband tries to encourage me, but what wife wants to hear their husband tell them they should work out?! Ew. It just makes it worse. (I know you have good intentions honey, and I love you!) The problem is with me. I have walked away from these 2 very important aspects of my life. I do feel 100% like they go together for me as well. When i'm spending time with God I have more energy and my priorities are in sync. But when I get out of that very important habit, that is when things in my life start to shuffle and chaos develops. So my prayer right now is that I wouldn't care about being perfect. That I would desire this time with God and that my priorities will realign with Scripture. If that means I have to give up my nap time then so be it. It will all be worth it in the long run! Please pray for me and encourage me in this!

chomp chomp

So, yesterday at Ethan's "school" that we go to 3 mornings a week, his teacher came up to me and said those 3 words you hate to hear. "He got bit!" Apparently he and another girl were fighting over a car and the girl chomped down on his forearm. Thankfully it didn't break the skin, they washed his arm off and he was fine. He did cry hysterically but was fine in the long run. I was torn between the emotions of, "he's fine" and "my baby got hurt"! The mother bear in me won out and I had to go see him and snuggle him. You could see the red little teeth marks on his arm. The anger in me surged but then I quickly suppressed it when I realized that he was trying to take a car away from the girl and also, he very easily could have been the biter instead of the one being bitten. When I asked him about it he looked down and gave me a look i've never seen before... a look that said, "i'm sad, I know I did something wrong, and what the heck just happened?!" We talked the whole way home about sharing and how biting is not ok. I know this is the first of many confrontations my strong willed boy will have.
p.s. Here are some of the books I have on my summer reading list: "Bringing up Boys" and "The Strong Willed Child" both by Dr. Dobson, a Christian author.

Confession time...

...We had to eat lunch today on paper plates because there were no clean ones. Did I ever mention I loathe doing dishes?! And we own a dishwasher, Ha! So the only "doing" part of dishes is loading them in the stupid thing, adding soap and turning it on. Wow. That is sad.

My new eyes

Here are the new glasses. I sported them at church this morning. As much as I love them, I have to say I am a contacts girl!
P.s. It's always weird to take a picture of yourself... I did have to take like 5 to get a "good" one and even then i'm not loving it. But my cousin out in Colorado wanted to see the glasses. So this is for you, Erin!

Conversation I had with Ethan this morning...

Ethan: "Baby's crying."

Me: "Why is baby crying?"

Ethan: "Baby's time out."

Me: "Oh no, why is baby in time out?"

Ethan: "Baby's in trouble."

Me: "Why is the baby in trouble?"

Ethan: "Baby's get a pop."

Me: "Did baby get a pop? Oh no, does baby have a happy heart now?"

Ethan: "Yes."

Me: "Good, now tell baby you love him."

Ethan: "Yove you."

Can you tell where Ethan has been spending his time lately?? Ha ha! We are having a lot of "teachable moments" lately with him. But I am happy to say that they are paying off and i've noticed a slight change in behavior. I love the little booger and I just want to teach him and raise him up to be a nice, loving, respectable boy.

p.s. As I am typing this he is putting his bear in time out... yikes!