Ethan Turns 6!!!

Ethan is now officially a 6 year old! He's been telling anyone who asks him how old he is for the past 6 months that he is 6 and in 2nd grade. He's in too big of a hurry to grow up!

For his bday, we followed the birthday tradition or letting him pick out his very own cereal box and he chose Cookie Crisp. He was even nice enough to share with the rest of us. 

We took him to see Despicable Me 2 at the local Spirit Lake theater. We were in Minnesota for his bday and it was fun to celebrate it with my parents. I feel bad that they always miss out on every other kids birthdays so it's always nice to celebrate Ethan's with them. 

 Later that evening we invited aunts, uncles, and cousins over for some punch bowl birthday cake. Ethan wanted a chocolate cake and this cake was filled with choc cake, pudding, crushed up mint oreos, Cool Whip, repeat! So yummy!

 Mason thought the cake was pretty yummy too :)

 My big 6 year old!!!

Every one is always so nice to bring a present for Ethan! Thank you family for making him feel special!

Ethan:

You are such a fun 6 year old boy with TONS of excitement for life. You ask loads of questions and are genuinely interested in the questions you ask. You are so athletic and love to play soccer. It's your favorite. You love your baby brother and love to make him laugh. You and your sister have your rough times and you like to tease her a lot, mostly because she give you a very dramatic reaction, but there are times when y'all play so good together, and that makes me so happy. You tell pretty awesome knock knock jokes. You help me out SO much around the house. You are amazing at doing your chores and can vacuum like no one's business! You are SO smart. You love to read and can read the scriptures like a pro. I love how you call yourself an author and illustrator and write your own books. They are really well done too! You are still very strong willed, but I think that characteristic will take you far in life. You are a leader in everything you do, and I hope you use that gift from Heavenly Father to be an amazing instrument in His hands. You love to be the center of attention and make your friends laugh :) You can be silly and you have the cutest little laugh I've ever heard. You yell "I'm so frustrated with you!" when you are mad at me. You love legos and love to build anything and everything with them.  You have a tender heart and talking about Mommy or Daddy dying makes you cry. One night you were asking me lots of questions about dying and you finally said, "Ok, ok. That's all my questions. Can we stop talking about this before I bust out in tears?!" We love you Ethan and hope that you will ALWAYS feel that from us. You are such a special little boy and have taught us a lot in the last 6 years. We are so grateful for you and will always be here for you. Always. 

Love, love, love,

Mom

Annual Minnesota Trip- July

 On the 5th of July, we flew out early in the morning from Phoenix to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was a long day of travel but we arrived there at the same time that my dad did flying in from Texas, so it worked out well! The kids did awesome on the flights but they were exhausted by the time we arrived to my parents house. 

It is always so nice to go up there and relax.

At my Uncle Mike's farm, he has a ton of kittens running around in one of his barns and the kids LOVED going over there to play with them. 

 There were 3 or 4 kittens who were pretty tamed for farm cats and Ethan and Ellie named them and loved on them every time we were over there, which was just about ever day. 

This is Katie the Kitten. who was really a boy but we weren't going to tell her otherwise :) Ellie fell in love with this kitty and carried her/him around like it was her baby. This is the most docile, loving cat I've ever seen!

 The kittens were so darn cute. I would've taken one home in a heartbeat!

 Everyday we would go see the cows, the hogs, and take the Ranger out in the pasture to see the baby calves.

My cousin, Brittney, was there with her little boy, Kellen, and it was so much fun to get to see her and chat with her again. She's a great mommy and has one cute little boy!! I'm so sad that this is the only picture I have of them!

 We love swinging out on the swings while watching the sunset out on the lake. Isn't it amazing that their backyard has this view?

If you look closely, the black dot on the lake is Justin and Ethan fishing out in the canoe. 

 My mom had been trying to catch the racoon for a few days and finally caught it!

 These animals are mean. We poked it with a wire stick and it grabbed the stick and started violently tearing it apart. My uncle took it and disposed of it. 

If the kids weren;t outside playing or "helping" Justin and dad downstairs in the basement, they were inside playing with the Bend-a-roos, playing with toys, and dress-up.

Mom has a ton of dress-up clothes, barbies, and dolls and Ellie was in heaven. 

Ethan joined in on the dress up clothes too!

Ellie found Grandpa's work glasses. I think she can pull them off :)

The boys worked hard in the basement putting up the ceiling and installing doors.

 Mason became obsessed with cars and trucks while we were there. Those are his favorite toys and pushes them all over the house all day long!

We took the kids swimming in a nearby lake a few times. Lakes are awesome for kids to swim in because they only go out as far as they can touch and we don't have to be so paranoid about them drowning. Ethan is an awesome swimmer though. I totally got bit by chiggers. Luckily I was the only one that did. 

 Mason could splash and play all day long!

It's not a trip to see my mom without her pulling the kids in a little red wagon. It's really cute. 

Ethan and Kellen even got to know each other in the wagon!

 My dad says that this tree will someday hold a tree house. How fun would that be?!

Fishing is always a must. We caught some good size fish!

 Eating smores is a tradition as well. The kids LOVE them!

 Ellie eventually had to say good-bye to her beloved Katie. 

 She was so sad. She still talks about that kitty and just how much she loves her/him. I really think that cat was made for Ellie. Seriously, what cat lets a 3 year old carry her around like this?! Hopefully Mom and Dad will bring Katie down to Texas so we can see her at Thanksgiving. :)

On the way home, our flight was delayed and so the kids were entertained by playing at the kids place there in Sioux Falls. Is it me or should play places be mandatory in airports?? Our kids most definitely have leader personalities. They would start doing something ,like bang on the sitting stools, and sure enough all the other kids would come and join them. 

It was really great when they had all the kids jumping off of or over the seats! I'm sure other parents just loved us:)

We had an awesome vacation and are so grateful for mom and dad always opening up their home to us! Until next year Minnesota!