Just For Fun Friday - Ethan's 10th Birthday Pictures

Ethan had a birthday party with some of his friends this past week. Steve took half a day off to take Ethan and four other boys, Jacob, Josh, Nick and Josh, to the see Surf's Up at the movie theatre and then took them to Ethan's place of choice, Whataburger.


When they came home we opened presents, and had Ethan's choice of birthday cake, brownies. Then the boys played with a Nerf gun set one of the boys gave Ethan. They were having a great time and I made them pose for a picture. This is the picture I took, when one of the boys, Ethan, thought it would be funny to shoot at Mom. And it would have been had it not hit me right in the eye. Talk about good aim and with a Nerf Gun.

Here is a picture of my eye a couple of days later, I was nervous that the red would never go away. Of course I'm fine, just know now to wear protective eye gear when taking pictures of boys with guns.
Thank you Steve for making this the easiest birthday ever.

We were sitting around the table later that week and talking about when the kids were going to be Aunts and Uncles. And we explained how it all worked, but Ethan said he was an Uncle already. Well, my cousin's daughter and family, Amber, Mike and Van, just moved to Sugarland and we had them over for the 4th of July and just to make it easy we told Ethan he could be Van's Uncle. And then he got all excited to invite them over for his birthday dinner. I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner, but it was cute to see them all get excited to have them come.

So we were able to celebrate Ethan's birthday with Amber, Mike, Van and Amber's brother Bryce, who was visiting. We greatly appreciate them daring to come back, since anytime anyone visits all four kids start to get more excited then normal. But they all loved taking care of little Van, their nephew.

Amber & Mike
Me & Van
Rachel & Van

We had Steve's famous BBQ pizza, salad, Rootbeer (that Rachel shook up - nothing like flat rootbeer), and brownies for Ethan's birthday cake. And again it was the easiet birthday ever. Steve did the cooking and even though I would have happily made Ethan a real birthday cake, he wanted brownies. Steve also did the gift shopping.

Football tickets to a Texas A&M game.
I am not sure who gave him this.
Ethan, Bryce & Matthew (Bryce totally reminds me of my brother, Ryan)
As you will notice in the pictures, after many discussions on what to get our 10 year old for his birthday; yes, we decided on a BB Gun. I am sure I will have lots to tell later about this.

Thankful Thursday - All About Ethan

We are so THANKFUL for Ethan because:

1. He is a Great Big Brother, you gotta love being the oldest child. 2. He is good at anything he wants to be good at. 3. He loves to tell jokes and making us laugh. 4. He knows how to CTR and we love his desire to do what's right. 5. He is a great debater, we love the discussions we have together with him. 6. He loves sports, and we love being his biggest fans.
7. He is good at saving money, probably because he can't decide what to spend it on.
8. He loves music and dancing, which happens alot around here and he has got some rythmn.
9. He loves spending time with his Dad Mountain Biking, even if we do live in Texas.
10. He has become quite the good cook, his favorites are Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Breakfast Burritos, and we love how he takes on his responsibilities.
11. He loves just about everything Cub Scout related, we like that he enjoys the outdoors so much. 12. We love that he is a part of our family.

Wordless Wednesday - Our Ethan

Top Ten Tuesday - Favorites of Ethan's Toddler Years

Memory Lane Monday-Ten Years Ago Today, Ethan Paul Spendlove Was Born!

Happy 10th Birthday Ethan!

Unbelievable, I'm a Winner Again!!!!!

I just found out that I am a Winner. After spending the whole month trying to win a Giveaway on TipJunkie's month long Birthday Celebration Giveaway, I was the last winner. It almost doesn't even matter what I won, I feel like I have worked hard for this, along with so many other blogger mom's, and then to barely make it by winning the last giveaway is so exciting. You can see me now by just picturing someone jumping up and down on the Price is Right just after they won a NEW CAR. Well, I actually won these very cute hair bows for Lauren from Annie's Bananies. Thank you so much. And Thank You TipJunkie.

These are the bows Lauren picked out but in pink, of course.

Spiritual Thought Sunday

My Relief Society lesson today was a message from our RS presidency. We have a brand new presidency with lots of new ideas and of course goals. Our lesson was mostly on Gossip. I have to admit at first I felt like I was back in Young Womens with the way this lesson was going. I feel like I do pretty good in that department. Especially when it comes to talking about other women, though I had to learn that lesson the hard way when I was younger. My weakness in this department is talking about my own children. I want them to be so "perfect" that I tend to talk about their faults a lot. I don't talk about them to my children but to other moms. I think I am just looking for sympathy or some advice. I realize that a little is okay, but after this lesson I have set a goal to also talk much more positively to others about my children. After all, just like any woman, they wouldn't want to hear bad things said about them.
Well, I came away with a good feeling and am thankful for inspiration that our new presidency has.

Happy Birthday Cousin Brad!

We all love Brad. He is the oldest Grandchild on the Spendlove side and is looked up to in more ways than one. Brad is something like 6'6". He is also getting ready to go on a mission to Lima, Peru in a couple of weeks and we are so excited to have a missionary from the family we can write to and can't wait to hear about all of his great experiences. We wish you the best and Hope you have a Wonderful Birthday!

Self-Portrait Saturday-Some Favorites of My House

I love for things in my house to have a purpose or a meaning. I usually don't just decorate with anything.


This red bench is one of my favorites. I grew up with this bench; however, it was many different colors in my parent's home. It used to be an old church pew and I was lucky enough to get it from my parents. My first intention was to sand it down and stain it. Well, once I sanded it down I realized it needed paint. So, I painted it red and I love it. The pillow on the bench means a lot and it is really cute. My sister-in-law made it for us for Christmas.

BEFORE


AFTER
This table is lucky to still be in our home. It is actually the table that Steve grew up eating on. So there are lots of great family memories there. But it was pretty rickety. I loved it and so made Steve help me sand it down and refinish it. Actually, I helped Steve. But it is beautiful. And I was able to save up enough of my cake money to buy new chairs, the chairs I wanted, for the table. The chairs that were with it were going to be way to much work for us amateurs to try to salvage.