My Big 6 Year Old!

How am I old enough to have a 6 year old?! Little Ethan Kyle turned 6 this week. I still remember how excited/scared to death I was when I saw two lines on that pregnancy test. And now here we are so many years later with a big boy full of energy and laughs. 5 was such a great year. I truely enjoyed it. He is the easiest kid ever. He loves to go out to eat, go to movies, and play with his friends. I love seeing the joy in his eyes when he is doing something fun.

He started kindergarten this year. It was a really rough first week full of tears and hugs. Now he loves school and gets bored when he is home. He has a good group of friends and gets in trouble for talking too much. He got the social butterfly gene from his daddy.

Here's his school picture. The color is distorted since I took a picture of a picture. Although, he was pretty tan since this was right after living outside all summer.

This is one of his drawings from school. It is him walking Gracie in the park. It says, "I love you Gracie. Do you want to go to the park?" He suddenly is obsessed with Gracie. He even has to hug her before he leaves. I need to get a picture of the two of them.

One of his first spelling tests. I can't believe he's already taking tests. It's like real school. :-)

This was from around Thanksgiving. It's amazing how quickly his writing has improved. It says, "I am thankful for the ocean." (Right now they are supposed to spell things the way they sound.)

I made this poster when Ethan was the "Star of the Week" at school. Each week features a different kid. It is now hanging on his wall in his room.

He was dressed up for Western Day at school. He still loves to dress up. He has an overflowing tub of superhero costumes in his closet.

So far, baseball is his sport. He wants to play all the time. He is about to start "coach pitch" in a month or two. He is nervous about not being able to hit the ball since it won't be on the tee. He is so my kid. Already stressing about something months away.

Hmm....his eating isn't much better than it was last year. He still likes his staples of bologna, hot dogs, pizza, pasta, and chicken nuggets. He did try a tiny piece of hamburger meat the last time we made burgers. He said he liked it but that he didn't want anymore. That's always what he says when he tries something new. He also has my texture issues. If something has a weird texture, he will gag and spit it out.

He loves to drink hot chocolate. It's so cute. This was from a few days ago. We had been playing football in the backyard. We came in to warm up and all had hot chocolate with marshmallows. Except for Caleb...he just ate the marshmallows. :-)

This is what I find after the camera goes missing. I can't tell you how many pictures of him I have like this. He takes pictures of himself and of the tv. Random.

He is so silly. This was at a tux/dress store. We were getting Caleb fitted for a tux and came around the corner to find Ethan like this. He said he was being Master Shifu (from Kung Fu Panda.)

He loves his brother...most days. Here he is giving Caleb a massage.

They are so cute together when they get along. The usually end up laughing until they can hardly breathe. I'm glad Caleb is finally at the age where they can play together. Ethan is very protective of him.

He is still obsessed with his "guys" and has passed that obsession on to Caleb. We end up dumping the tub of guys out frequently to find the one guy they are looking for. After we have been out running around all day, they will go straight to the playroom and play quietly with guys. It's great!

So, that wraps up Ethan's last year. I can't wait to see what the next year brings for him. But hopefully it goes by a little slower than year 5 did! We love you Ethan!!

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em!

I was having a really rough day with the kids a few days ago. They were not listening, running around like heithens, wrestling with each other till one cried, and I felt like I was screaming all day. They had both been in time out several times which did nothing but pause what they were doing. I was feeling like a terrible mother and was just feeling super frustrated and "done". I was so happy to see Mondo walk through that door.

While he made dinner I just gave up trying to clean and get things done and just sat and played with them. They dressed me in a Captain America mask and Iron Man gloves and we did some play fighting. They were in heaven and suddenly I wasn't feeling so stressed and was laughing with them.

That's when the guilt hit. The whole time I had been yelling at them and trying to get them to go play nicely so I could clean up, they just wanted attention from me. I replayed the day in my head of Caleb playing in the playroom or watching tv while I was washing the dogs, doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, picking up toys, etc. He was bored. He wanted me. Throwing fits was his way of trying to get my attention and all I was doing was yelling at him. I had hardly paid attention to Ethan after he got home from school. Yep, felt like mom of the year.

So, instead of wallowing in my guilt, I decided that I need to make sure I put the cleaning on the backburner and make sure I'm spending adequate time with my kids. The house work will always be there...my kids won't. And we will all be a lot happier.

Christmas!

Every year we have Christmas at my parent's house, which used to be my grandparent's house. It starts on Christmas Eve with a HUGE family gathering of all the extended family. It's a crazy day of chaos but I look forward to it every year. Then my siblings and their kids stay the night and wake up to see that Santa visited on Christmas morning then we have a huge breakfast. I have a million pictures so I'll get to those....

The happy family...well, three of us anyway.

The happy couple.

One of many group photos: my mom, sister-in-law Nicole, Aunt Nita, me, cousin Hilari.

You know you want to eat this. This technically wasn't made on Christmas but all of the grandkids made it one Sunday for Christmas. I wouldn't eat a thing off of that after all of those grubby paws touched it!

This isn't a full shot of Santa Land but it will do. Caleb loves playing in Santa Land. My dad has a train that drives around the track that hangs from the ceiling in there. Pretty cool for the kiddos.

Here are some of the tasty munchies. Mmmm...getting hungry just looking at them! We all fill up on the snacks before we even get to the big lunch!

The sweets table. See Caleb over there munching on some chex mix?

What pretzel? I didn't see a pretzel.

Prayer time before lunch. I was praying...with my eyes open...holding the camera.

Who needs turkey, dressing, and green bean cassarole when you have bologna and mac-e-cheese?

A bunch of the kids playing in the playroom.

We played a lot of "Apples to Apples". Fun game!

Caleb loved his Toy Story dumptruck with Buzz, Woody, and Lotso.

My neice Hailey was just a little excited!

Caleb checking out his pillow pet.

Ethan is a little obsessed with his. He still sleeps with it every night, it goes to and from the couch when he's on it, it goes in the car even on short trips. And it's not small!

My neice Caitlin...a little tired?

They were dropping like flies by the end of the night.

But they were up again for more food! *Note my dad passed out in his chair. Poor guy.

"Is this mine?" I heard that a lot!

Ethan sprinkled "reindeer food" that he made at school in my parent's front yard. It's made out of oats and glitter. Yummy.

I love this picture. Ethan and his buddy/cousin Blaine laying on their pillow pets watching TV.

Checking to see that Santa ate his chocolate milk and cookies!

Presents from Santa and us.

The baseball helmet was from us. Caleb was so excited about those little dollar store wash cloths that are tiny squares till you add water to them. It's the little things. ;-)

Baseball bases!

Checking out the loot in the stockings.

Making the famous Christmas breakfast.

Caleb needed "tubby toast". (Anyone still watch Teletubbies?)

Ethan needed his morning coffee after waiting all night for Santa.

My nephew Blaine wasn't happy to be awake in the daylight.

Ethan playing his new game while driving Caleb's rocket.