My Little Ladybug

Halloween didn't go quite as planned this year. This was the first year Ethan knew what he wanted to be and wow was he adamant. There was no persuading him. I always like to stick with the classics like indian, fighter pilot, pirate. So we went to the costume shop to pick out what my sweet little baby boy wanted to be for Halloween and what does he see as soon as we walk in the door? The most plastic looking transformer costume I have ever seen. I tried hard for a policeman costume but Ethan was having none of it. So, Optimus Prime it is.

Nana and Poppy came up to go trick or treating with us and to see Ava in her first Halloween costume. Everything was going great until about 10:00 Halloween morning. Ethan started telling us he didn't feel good and then by about 1:00 he was down for the count. My little transformer came down with the H1N1 flu. Poppy was ready to run for the hills, but there was no way Nana was going to be leaving her little man in his time of need. Needless to say, Halloween was cancelled at the Dickerson house.

Chris managed to get in contact with our good doctor friend who called in life saving tamiflu. Poppy went on a mission to find an open pharmacy and saved the day. That night was rough, but Nana never left Ethan's side and by the next morning he was already on his way to recovery.

Even though we missed out on trick or treating, we couldn't let Ava's first Halloween go by without at least a picture of the cutest little ladybug ever!

Our Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins today with Nate and Ethan. They each had big plans to make their own. Ethan wanted to carve a batman and Nate wanted a spider. They did pretty good getting all the seeds out. They thought all that goo was lots of fun. When it came time to actually carve the pumpkins they both lost interest so they left it to me and Uncle Michael. Considering I haven't carved a pumpkin in about 20 years, I think wedid a pretty good job.

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!!!