Ethan stole the show!

Chris's cousin Elle was voted homecoming queen for Clarksville High School. Elle asked Ethan, Nate and Claire Sosebee to be mascots for homecoming this year. I was really excited about how cute they would look in their little tuxedos, but I was a little concerned that Ethan would get nervous and not want to go out in front of all those people.

Nobody could even begin to prepare me for how Ethan handled being on stage. Lets just say he certainly wasn't nervous.

I'll let the video tell the story...

Ava's New Trick

Ava has had a little bit of a cold this past week and has been a little fussy so we decided to let her sleep with us so we could all get some much needed sleep. In the middle of the night I felt Ava moving around and turned over to see what she was doing. Much to my surprise she was sitting straight up between me and Chris! I woke Chris up and we just couldn't believe our little girl is getting so big so fast. She has been military crawling for a while now and has started to really crawl over the past couple of weeks. She is going to be off and running before we know it!

Ava's New Earrings

Well, I finally broke down this past weekend and got Ava's ear's pierced. I made Nana go with me for moral support. We went to several children's stores and asked everybody where to go to get baby's ears pierced and we finally settled on a lady from Merle Norman who had received glowing recommendations from several people. You would have thought I was interviewing someone to do brain surgery, but those perfect little ears deserve nothing but the best! I was a little nervous just because I didn't want it to hurt her, but Jennifer assured me that it was so much easier to do at her age than when she was older. And I told Ava she would thank me when she went to prom and got to wear gorgeous earrings! It turned out okay, she barely even cried. As soon as I picked her up she was completely fine and all was well in her world again. And, she has the most beautiful, cutest little ears in the whole world!

Ethan's Rabbits

Okay, this one is just too cute. Every time we go to the doctor for a checkup, Doctor Pilkington (no relation) checks Ethan's ears and makes a little sound. He tells Ethan that he is checking on his rabbits in his ears. Ethan completely believes he has rabbits in his ears and every time we clean his ears he looks at the q-tip and tells us his rabbits pooped!

Ava's Baptism

Today was Ava Claire's baptism at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. Nana and Poppy and Robert, Ella, and Lilly came to stay with us for the weekend. Having all of the kids together for the weekend was crazy to say the least. Once we finally got to the church everything went great. She looked so pretty and angelic in her christening gown. Her godparents were Uncle Michael and her cousin Monica. Ava thought Father William was funny and kept laughing at him during the ceremony! She did great and didn't even cry. Afterwards we all came back to our house and had lasagna and fettucini alfredo and lots of cake, cheesecake and ice cream. Ava got lots of presents that I'm sure she will treasure forever, especially her beautiful bracelet from Monica and her rosary from Uncle Michael. I did learn one thing once it was all over... I need to start preparing myself now for her wedding day!!!

4th of July

We had big plans for the 4th of July holiday this year, but the weather just didn't want to cooperate. Nana and Poppy came up to enjoy the festivities at Noni and Paw-paw's house. Chris cooked a huge feast of smoked pork, ribs, grilled veggies and fried potatoes. Grandpa Werner and Aunt Therese and her family came to enjoy the good food. We all thought the rain was going to ruin the fireworks spectacular that Uncle Michael brought, but the rain quit just in time. Little did we know the fog that followed the rain made the firework viewing next to impossible. We couldn't even see the fireworks put on by the church right down from the mountain! Chris and Michael did the best they could despite the lighter going out a few minutes into the show. Ethan was so excited all day about the fireworks, but when it finally came time he fell sound asleep! The fireworks may not have gone exactly as planned, but we had a great time with the whole family.

Ethan-isms

Ethan says the funniest things these days. The way he pronounces words, the stories he tells, there is never a dull moment. I thought I should blog some of his funniest moments so we will be able to remember them. It's already been 3 years since he was just learning to talk and I'm sure I've forgotten some of the cute words that he tried so hard to get right, like daughter instead of water. So here you go...Ethanisms.

• umbrella - rainbrella
• macaroni - macanomi
• squirrel - swirl
• february - ferrerrry (he always says "I can't say that one, Mommy"
• flashlight - fashfight
• wipie - lopie
• Ethan Michael Dickerson - Etan Mial Geerson

Ethan is quite the story teller. When he was in pre-school the teacher told me that they would all be sitting at the table coloring and Ethan would go off into a 15 minute story. All of the other kids would just listen while Ethan went on and on. One of his recent funny stories was about a deer he says he saw at Nana and Poppy's house. He said he was coming inside and looked out toward the woods. He saw a big deer and his eyes went big! When he said his eyes went big, he did his hands up by his eyes and made this crazy surprised face. It was so funny! We made him tell the story several times and everytime he made the face.

Yesterday Ethan, Ava and I were having dinner. Ethan was being a bear and going grrrr to Ava. I told him Ava was baby bear and I was momma bear. I asked him what his name was and he said "Ethan Michael Dickerson bear". Priceless.