Gotta clean this up

Ethan likes to vacuum. He was telling Ava that she makes too many messes and that we gotta clean this house up. Oh yeah, I'm definitely going to take advantage of this!

All Dressed Up

I took these pictures after church. I could hardly get William to sit still for me; he's a fast crawler and getting very good at climbing. He climbed three flights of stairs today. He must have his dad's genes. Soon enough he'll be climbing in the Alps with daddy!

Ava loves it when someone tells her she looks beautiful. She models and twirls around after I dress her and tell her she's so pretty. She loves accessories, hats, and shoes. I often catch her trying on my high heels and even Jason's military boots. The other day she got so upset when she couldn't fit her foot in one of William's cowboy boots.

Eventually I'll get a good picture of Ethan dressed up, but this will have to do for now. He was so mad about wearing his tie to church, he couldn't wait for me to take it off. He was also upset that he couldn't take the pictures of William and Ava. I'll have to post some of Ethan's recent photo shoots of Ava and William. I really need to buy him a camera.

Our Hero

We had a hard time saying goodbye, but we made sure to throw Jason a little surprise going away party the night before he left. The kids made quite an interesting finger paint and helped with the balloons and cake. The cake looked alright until Ava helped herself to part of the bottom (mostly frosting of course). We threw airplanes and talked more about where their daddy was going.

We were as ready as you can be to say goodbye at the terminal, when Jason came back with all his bags saying, "I'm not leaving yet, the plane is delayed". Not a surprise at all- the military flights are rarely on time (so why do they make us show up about 3 hours early?). So, I was way too excited about having Jason for one more night; he left on a shuttle for the Frankfurt airport at 3:30 am. The following morning I saw a plane flying overhead, as I was driving to the base. I completely lied to the kids and told them daddy was on that plane and to wave bye-bye. Ava looked out the window and kept waving until it was out of sight saying, "Bye bye daddy!"

Jason, I LOVE YOU! You are our Hero!

Colds

Can I just say I can't wait for my kids to feel better. It's no fun staying up all night with three whining, clingy, crying, coughing, sniffling, snotty-nosed little ones. Poor little William can hardly nurse, Ethan is saying "oh no, boogies" as he runs up and downstairs for kleenexes, and Ava wants to be held all day.

Happy New Year

Yes, I agree sometimes life is crap, especially the week before your husband deploys! It really hit me the other day that Jason is leaving soon. We have prepared so much for this, yet I think I've been in denial the last few weeks. The pre-deployment 'to-do list' is nearly complete, and we're gearing up for goodbyes and the kids' reactions for at least the first month. Jason was supposed to leave in March, but his deployment location changed and the date moved up to next week. So, about 7 months of 2009 will be difficult, but it could be worse. I hope to be more positive in '09!

I guess crap is not always a bad thing, in fact most of the time it helps us appreciate the good. In most of the world, 'crap' is used to help plants grow...(yes, I learned too much about this while living in Turkey; when buying produce on the economy there, you're encouraged to soak it in bleach water before eating it). Ha, ha, LOL.

On a more serious note-

With God's hand, I hope this deployment will be a growing experience for us all.

Ethanisms

Quotes from Ethan

1. "Let's turn on moomix."

Translation- moomix=music. Ethan loves classical music, Raffi, Greg & Steve, and especially Enya. His favorite song is Enya's Only If... He sings along but instead of singing "Only if you want to" he sings "Only if one, two". He loves numbers!

2. "129 quidgets" Or some random number "quidgets"

How do I explain this? Well, as I said Ethan loves numbers. He counts backwards from 100 and counts perfectly up to 100 or so. Then, the counting by singles gets old so he counts by 100's. He has a movie that teaches addition and subtraction and they use quidgets, or little blocks, to show the math. He also refers to our house as 16 home.

3. "Mommy you tired, you need a nap?"

Yes would be my answer, but Ethan takes a good nap maybe once a week and then stays up until midnight. A nap sounds nice indeed.

4. "Good job daddy, you're so great! You did it!"

We just adore his praise!

5. "Ava, get back here. Ava, you have to hold hands. Ava don't make a mess. Ava, be quiet. Ava, go to time-out. Ava, get in bed, now! One, two, three..."

Ethan really watches out for his little sister, or should I say he annoyingly bosses his sister.

6. "Ava, you're sweet sister. Willum you my brother. Give me hugs."

He loves his siblings. He's especially cute when he apologizes to them and gives them hugs and kisses. He grabs their head and plants a big one on the forehead.

7. "Where's Bawoo?"

Bawoo is Ethan's blue minky blanket. He is concerned about Bawoo on laundry day (Bawoo's bath time), and very worried about him getting too hot in the dryer.

8. "Ethan needs chocolate!"

He usually says this over and over at the store. He must have my genes. The german chocolate here only exacerbates the addiction.

Ethan just goes and goes and goes, and is often a challenge to say the least, but we wouldn't have him any other way. He certainly keeps our lives interesting.