Aubrey Jane

When went to Salem yesterday to visit my sister-in-law Aimee and her girls Chandra & Aubrey. It was also the first time we had been to their new house. First of all the house is amazing, Jube designed everything and I am in love (with the house not him :) you can tell he took his time and thought of it all. And lets not forget the view! I would die to have a home with a view like this! Next time I go back I will have to take pictures of the house because this time I was a little too busy taking pictures of their new baby girl Aubrey. She is eight days old in these pictures and just a wonderful baby. She was so good all day even with all the extra noise her cousins were making. Ethan too thought she was something special! He wanted to hold her and would kiss her head. Gracie liked her too but more in a new dolly kind of way. With all of the fun we had I know we will be back again soon!!!

Gracie really does love Aubrey, she was just tired and wanted me to hold her.

she makes me want another one so bad

a little kiss for his cousin

all four cousins

Gracie liked to watch Aimee feed Aubrey

they are trying to get Aubrey to stop crying

just the girls

the proud big sister!!

Chandra hurt her foot

looking out at the kids

you know how much Gracie loves to swing

feeding the dog a carrot

look at this view!!!

another kiss while she sleeps

The kids are trying to get Aubrey to stop crying while Aimee makes a bottle.

helping Uncle Erich

Just another day hard at work for Ethan. Ethan loves to wash cars so he jumped at the chance to help his Uncle Erich wash his truck. Erich would wash and Ethan "washed the soap away" as he would say. Gracie had to get in on the action as well but she didn't want to work she just wanted to sit in the back of the truck.

the man in charge

Jake went out of town this weekend but before he left he told Ethan that he would now be the man of the house and to take good care of his girls. Well.......Ethan took this to heart. He got up early this morning to make breakfast. He poured 3 bowls of cereal and had them all set up at the table when he woke us up. Throughout the day when Gracie would act up he would say "Now Gracie I'm in charge so don't make me come over there"and "Gracie Lane Marie do you want me to put you in your room......cause I will". He also made dinner. It was his famous "shrimp with butter and season ingredients" First he put butter in a pan-waited for it to melt-added the shrimp-mixed it up a little-added the Mrs Dash-spooned it into bowls. All done! Next time I will get it on video, it's the cutest thing ever. After dinner he told me that I had been very good all day so he was going to take me to get ice cream and then to the park. So of course we did! Back at home he gave Gracie a bath and cleaned up her room, read her a story and tucked her into bed. When I kissed him goodnight I told him thank you for all his hard work today and he replied with "It was really a lot of work so if it's ok I will just be a kid tomorrow"

"don't bother me I'm cooking"

after I told him I would eat his ice cream

Gracie didn't think it was funny either

I think Gracie would live on the swings if I would let her......

Ethan's tree house-part 2

Here is a little update on "the boys new home" as Ethan calls it.

the king of his castle

the walls are all up
hanging from the second floor (yes it is 2 floors)

trying to get Daddy's headlamp to work

it works!

Jake makes him do all the heavy lifting

Gracie supervises

the roof going up

what a handy man!

Jake is out of town this weekend but hopefully this will get done next week before we leave on vacation!

the big harvest

Today was the day we harvested our first strawberry! This little berry has "been growing so red and juicy and big" as Ethan would say. He has waited for weeks now to pick and eat this little "red goodness" (again I'm not sure where he comes up with these words). I left it up to him for the right day and today was it. He came to me and said "Mom today is the day I will eat my strawberry". So I went to get my camera to take a picture of this joyful occasion and little Miss Gracie went to get her camera as well. He picked it, licked it, ate it and then pulled out the stem attached to a tiny piece of berry to let Gracie try it as well.