Just a few pictures of our week with my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces. They flew in from Raleigh on Wednesday, and left last night. We had a great time hanging out with them, and Addi and Ethan had a blast entertaining each other. We went to visit family in Brownsboro (East Texas), and other family came to visit us from Tyler. Hope to get more pictures up soon.

Now that the boys are a little older, it’s so much fun to get together with the Davis’ so Jack and Ethan can play together. Last weekend we were over at Cara & Will’s for dinner, and we were going through everyone having Jack name them: Mama, Dada, JoJo, Jack. When Cara pointed to Ethan and asked who that was, Jack clearly said, “Bucky!” Hilarious! He normally calls Ethan “E” or some variation of Ethan, but apparently his friend is now Bucky.

Bucky went to Jack’s 2nd birthday party Saturday and had a great time. We had a little trouble with Bucky understanding that this was Jack’s party, which therefore gave him first rights on the new toys. But all was well. Thanks, Jack, for inviting us over. Happy #2!

Just a few more days until we are official homeowners again, and we can’t wait! After many prayers and almost 6 months of looking, we will be closing on a house in Arlington in less than 2 weeks. We can’t wait to get moved in and start having people over. The house is so different and so … US! It’s a 2 story house built in 1977 and it is incredible. I don’t want to spoil all the fun before you see it, but it even has a little scrapbook room! Here are a couple of pictures, but I’ll post more after we’re the official owners.

At 16 months old, Ethan has finally become a good daytime sleeper…maybe a little too good. My mom keeps Ethan during during the day, and she has reported a new daytime nap routine. Sometimes he takes 1 nap a day, and sometimes it’s 2, but it usually goes something like this:
Ethan finds Nana and grabs her finger to take her to the kitchen. He points to the cabinet where his cups are and says some variation of more or milk. He picks out the cup he wants, and then opens the refrigerator to point to his milk. He holds the cup while Nana pours the milk in, and then he shakes it (thoroughly) before drinking. While drinking the milk, he walks to Nana and Poppa’s room and points to the bed so Nana can lay him down (if you saw this bed you’d know why he wants to sleep on it – it’s VERY comfortable). He then drinks some milk and falls asleep for an hour or two.

The other variation of this includes the same process as above, except that he – for whatever reason – chooses the recliner instead of the bed. At least he knows what he wants!

And Thursday night we had our first high chair sleeping experience. For whatever reason, Ethan did not have napping on his agenda Thursday afternoon. So, around 6:00, we all sit down to eat dinner. He had been rubbing his eyes a little, but he always rubs his eyes because of allergies so no big deal. In the middle of a bite of chicken, his little eyes just rolled back and he was out – just like that. He head was hanging down, chicken still in his mouth, sound asleep. So, I got some dish towels for him to put his head on and he slept for about 35 minutes. I’ve seen pictures of other kids doing this, but I never thought Ethan would be that sleepy to crash during dinner. Poor little sleepy head!

Our new preacher started today at New York Avenue Church of Christ. Everyone is very excited about Dr. Keele and his family being here, and he gave two great lessons today. But one thing in particular stands out. I can’t get it out of my head so I thought I would share it with everyone. He was talking about loving God and loving the church and what it meant to live for God, and he posed this question:

When your kids are 10 or 12, if someone asked them what was the most important thing to their mom or their dad, would they say God?

I looked over at Ethan and honestly thought to myself, I’m so glad that he’s not old enough for someone to ask him that because I don’t know what he would say. He might say that he was the most important thing, or that house hunting was most important, or that Clay was most important – I really don’t know. And that made me mad at myself for not making it so obvious to everyone around me – especially my own child – that God and living a Christian life is the most important thing to me. So, just food for thought, and something to help us keep our priorities straight.

My dad and I took Ethan to the park yesterday to feed the horses, and I was lucky enough to catch this picture of him. He is definitely not a baby anymore.

Yesterday Ethan’s friend Caden came over during the day to play and he was so excited. Any time he is able to hang out with a person his own size is a good day for Ethan. This is the report I received:

• Thankfully Caden is as fascinated with being outside as Ethan is
• Ethan has some bully tendencies
• If Nana gave Caden a toy, Ethan let out a, “No, no, no, no, no, Nana!”
• Caden was very interested in riding the tricycle, so Ethan just pushed him – all over the driveway, yard, etc. (yes, the child is freakishly strong)
• Ethan was completely worn out by having someone here to entertain, so he excused himself from the party for a good long nap (thanks, Caden, for wearing him out!)