A Pretty Nice Little Weekend...

We had a fun filled weekend full of friends, hot dogs, fireworks, and summer heat. (and it's not even the 4th of July yet!) Friday night we went to a Naturals baseball game with some friends. Ethan was so excited to see the baseball players and the field. However, the petting zoo, blow up jump things, and the play ground managed to distract him for quite awhile. He wasn't overly fond of the fireworks before the game, and his friend Jack was terrified of the team mascot. But both of them managed to get over their fears to have some fun.

Sunday night Bentonville First Baptist put on a huge "freedom celebration", and I don't think we've ever seen so many people in the square. They were serving free hot dogs, drinks, ice cream and popsicles. They even had Twila Paris (a blast from my Christian-music-filled childhood past) there to sing. We didn't manage to stay for the whole thing due to bedtimes, but we all managed to thoroughly enjoy the people watching and free food eating. I am not sure how we're going to top this for next weekend!

Wine Tasting

We had some friends over last week for our first ever wine tasting party. It was a blast. Everyone brought two bottles of one wine. We sat one bottle aside and then had a taste test with the other. We all ranked them and the winner got to choose what bottle from the stash they wanted, then the 2nd place chose, and so on. Most of us had no clue what we were doing, but we still enjoyed every wine and the food that went with it. I am ready for the next party!

4 Months Old

It's hard to believe that our "Big Top" has been with us for four months now. He's really starting to carve out his own place in the family as he becomes so much more social and chatty. He hates being laid on the floor b/c he can't see what going on, and his whole body seems to light up when someone starts talking to him too. We had his 4 month check up this week, and he's starting to even out in his height and weight (40th percentile for both), but his head is staying strong in the 90th percentile! Our doctor attributes his not rolling over yet to the size of his head...if he could just get some momentum behind it... Owen's latest tricks are sticking his tongue out (ALL the time), grabbing at objects, finding his feet, chewing on his hands, and making crazy squeeling sounds. And his favorite toy is the bouncer.

Down South

We headed South this weekend to see the Hoyle clan. It was Chris' dad's birthday AND Father's Day, so we had a lot of celebrating to do. The guys also had cattle to work, so the Ethan, Owen and I played with Kerri and the cousins. Ethan, as always, loved getting to see all the animals. Between the horses, the donkey, cows, goats, sheep, dogs, cats, ducks, and who knows what else, he has no need for any farm books! He gets to see them all first hand.

He also loves being the center of attention with his big cousins...although that's changing now with Owen in the picture. Alyssa took on the role of taking care of Owen, and she did an awesome job watching him. And I think Adam is glad to finally have someone younger than him so he can be in charge! Alex is the cool oldest cousin that can play the guitar, so Ethan is crazy about him too.

Actually...

Ethan is getting more and more entertaining. His vocabulary continues to expand like crazy, and it's been hilarious watching his personality continue to develop. Apparently I say "actually" quite a bit because Ethan has started incorporating it in almost EVERY sentence. You'd actually be amazed at how many times it's been said lately. :) He's also started asking the standard two year old question, "Why?". Oh, Lord, please give me patience! He's also started saying, "Momma, I love you lots" which completely melts my heart. Of course he's learning that after saying that he can usually get what he wants. I'm pretty okay with being charmed by him...so far...

The Lake

Last weekend we went to Lake of the Ozarks with our friends that Harris'. We stayed at Amy's parent's amazing condo that looked out over the lake. We were able to take a couple boat rides, ride a jet ski, enjoy some sun at the pool, and we even managed to stay up late both nights after the kids went to bed to enjoy some grown up time.

Ethan was a little hesitant about all the new things at first, but it didn't take long for him to fall in love with driving the boat and swimming with his dad. He also loved playing with Drew and Ellie. He and Ellie have a weird sort of love/hate relationship. They were either loving on each other or taking turns pushing each other. (Ellie is a year younger but she more than holds her own!) Drew, being smart, stayed out of most of their spats and worked on learning how to walk. We were able to see his first several steps at the pool!

Sweet Owen didn't make it in a lot of the pictures, but I am sure he had a good time observing all the craziness.

It's taken me a full week to recover from all the excitement, but I am ready to go back!

Whirlwind of a Weekend

Last weekend we went to Oklahoma, and I think we crammed about a months worth of weekend events into one weekend. We left Friday for Tulsa so that Owen and I could see our favorite Dr Asher there. My mom met us there and took Ethan on to Stillwater so that Chris and I could get lunch and do some shopping. It was amazing how just having Owen with us seemed like a vacation!That night we left both boys with my parents and celebrated our 5 year anniversary at the Atherton Hotel in Stillwater. We had a fabulous dinner at the Rancher's Club there. Owen took a bottle that night and the next morning, so we got a whole 15 hours with just the two of us. It was amazing.

On Saturday, we picked up Owen and headed to Norman to see Chris' mom. Ethan stayed with my parents and had the time of his life. My dad took him for donuts for breakfast, to Lowe's, to the OSU basketball stadium, the football stadium, for tractor rides, and who knows what else! I think my dad slept really well after the weekend!

That night, Chris, Owen and I headed to my friend, Brandi's, wedding. It was so good to see Kristin, Kobie, and Rachelle there too. We were able to all go out after the wedding and do a little catching up. It made me really ready for our annual Labor Day trip together.

On Sunday we were back in Stillwater for Owen's baby shower thrown by some family friends. It was great to see everyone there, and Owen got some really cute things. Now he actually has some clothes that his big brother didn't wear first!

It was such a fun weekend, and everything went so smoothly. We loved every minute of it, but we were definitely ready to get home.