Baby Topeka

I know a lot of you have probably already heard the news. But for those who haven't, we are expecting our third child. I am due August 30. I am now officially in my second trimester and feeling great. We are all very excited. Blake tells me about 10 times a day that my tummy is getting big and asks when the baby is going to come out. (It's going to be a long 6 months.) When I told the kids about it, they immediately started firing off a million questions, including "What are we going to name it?" After a few minutes of going through names, Ethan concluded that the name was going to be Topeka. Now, as I believe I have mentioned before, Ethan is really into maps these days and has memorized all the capitals of the United States. We have a neighbor who has a baby named Lincoln, so since his name is the capital of Nebraska, Ethan thought that we needed to name our baby Topeka, the capital of Kansas. I don't know what the significance of Kansas is, but he was very adamant that that was the name. So for now, we refer to it as "Baby Topeka".

Ethan's baptism

It is hard to believe that this little squirt is old enough to be baptized. Saturday was such a wonderful day as we had family and friends here to support Ethan on his special day. Thanks to everybody who came. Way to go, Ethan. We are so very proud of you.

Ethan and his proud papa.

Ethan has also been able to join cub scouts. He has had a lot of fun with this and is looking forward to earning his bobcat badge at the next pack meeting.

8-year-old in the house

On January 11, 2002, we became proud parents to an adorable baby boy, Ethan. I can hardly believe 8 years have flown by and he is so grown up now.
For his birthday party, we invited a few of his friends over and they had fun eating pizza, playing the wii, and laughing at their own silly jokes. They had a blast!!
We also had Grandma and Grandpa come up for dinner, presents, and cake. Ethan has really been into studying maps lately, so he got a lot of map related stuff, like a map of the United States, a globe, and a game about the states. He has already memorized all the capitals of all the states. What a smarty pants!!
Now that he is 8, he is very excited for his upcoming baptism, and has really enjoyed being in cub scouts. We love you ETHAN!!!