On October 26, 2011, our little man turned four years old. On his actual birthday we celebrated at home by having Ethan's birthday meal of his choice, chicken nuggets and french fries, and of course, a cake.

For his party, we invited family and friends to the Pavilion to eat cake and swim. And guess what the theme for the party was? Of course, Thomas the Tank Engine for the second year running.

Every birthday, I always think back on the day that Ethan was born.  So here's a brief synopsis.

October 24, 2007: I went to the doctor because I was getting so close to due date. He looked at my massively swollen cankles and told me I couldn't go back to work, but I begged for one more day to wrap things up with my first grade class.

October 25, 7:15 AM: Sitting in chair at school at my desk talking to another teacher, and suddenly feeling like I peed my pants a little. Comment on how I'm loosing bladder control. Stand up and realize that my water has broken at school when students will be arriving in 10 minutes.

7:30 AM:  Call Chad and tell him I'm on my way home because my water has broken. When I pull in the garage, he runs in, panicked, saying "What do we do?"

8:00 AM Arrive at the hospital, my doctor is on call (thankfully) and checks dialation. Only 2 centimeters. Starts pitocin.

12:00PM: Chad calls everyone he knows, telling them we're in the hospital.

8:00PM: Lots of people visiting, in LOTS of pain because contractions are INTENSE from pitocin.

October 26, 12:00AM: Finally time to start pushing.

1:00AM: Still pushing.

1:30AM: Still pushing.

2:00AM I remember looking at the clock and thinking, how much longer will I push?!!! Doctor finally decides that the baby is getting hung up on my pelvis.

2:15 AM: Preparing for c-section. I don't remember much about this, it went by quickly, and they gave me lots of pain medication.

October 26, 2007, 3:45 AM: Ethan Scott Wallace was born.

1 week old

three months old

Don't remember how old, but always makes me laugh.

How can you NOT laugh at this one?

Ethan's 3rd Halloween

I remember looking at him for the first time and thinking about how absolutely beautiful he was. From that moment, our lives changed. Our priorities and thoughts were different. 

Happy birthday, Boo Bear.

Been a long time...

The Wallace home has been busy in the past 6 months. We have moved, renovated/destroyed losts of things in our new house, celebrated 3 birthdays and Christmas, and probably some other things that I've forgotten but hope to remember. So I'm going to try to catch up.


We closed on our new house on July 29th. Ethan went on a camping trip with Mamaw, Papaw, cousins, and aunts while Callie stayed with Nanny and Grandaddy.  I tried to count the boxes as we loaded them into the moving van, but I lost count around 147.

Just the beginning of the boxes...

When the kiddos came home from camping and Nanny's, we tried to have their bedrooms ready, but that was a harder than we thought.

All of the bedrooms needed to be painted, needed new carpet, then the furniture could be moved in.

Ethan's room before removing curtains (circa 1970), fresh paint, and new carpet.

Callie's room with 1970s curtains removed (see them on the floor?), but no new paint

We had only about 4 days to get semi-settled before we had to start back to school. The kids were great through the whole process. They adjusted well and really enjoyed the open space to run.

This house is a major work-in-progress, but we love it. It's what we have dreamed of having for our kids- space to run and play, wooded area to explore, fruit trees, plenty of room for a big garden, and even a pool (which wasn't in the original plan, but I'll take it!). We are blessed to be here.