recent pics

Just a fun little collage of recent pics of the fam and the boys.

*a disclaimer. I look WAY more tan in this pic than I am. Wait. What's that I hear? Oh, I don't look tan. Ok, maybe I should say "less white." I had just spent two days at the beach with my sister-in-law and the kids. Trust me, any "less whiteness" I acquired quickly disappeared and I am back to my pasty self you all know and love.

Ok so it turned out really small. Oh well. Enjoy anyway!

Eli....21 months

Some words to describe our Eli:

*sweet

*stinker

*resourceful

*charming

*inventive

*daring

*adventurous

*stinker (yes it deserves two mentions)

*determined

*focused

*meticulous

*smart

Those are just a handful. This kid keeps us on our toes, let's just say that. Back when he was a tiny infant, Stephanie said, "You know, he never looks confused. All babies look confused. He doesn't. I think he's a genius." She was right then about both things. He really never did look confused and seems to be VERY smart. And I know that all parents THINK their kids are the smartest. Hence the reason I shared what Stephanie said. Not a parent of Eli's, thinks he's smart. :) Hee hee.

Eli is into all sorts of things these days. He loves to climb, loves to run, loves to get dirty, loves water, loves trashcans and trash trucks. The kid is constantly on the go. However, he is interesting because I could also include "mellow" as one of my words up there. He happily plays by himself, is happy to be in the yard by himself (although this isn't the safest venture in the world). When we go out to eat, he sits and eats happily and calmly. We went to Red Robin for Oma's birthday and he sat and methodically took the crayons out the crayon box and then put them back in. Not a peep out of him as he did it over and over again. He still loves his mommy (whom he calls MA-MA) quite a bit and gives great snuggles. He also loves Daddy and loves it when Daddy gives him showers. He loves Stephanie, Papa (grandpa) and Mama (grandma). He adores his big brother and wants to be just like him. He is a happy wonderful kid. But he has a mind of his own and if you cross him, watch out. He can throw quite the fit. We are interested to see what the "2s" bring.

Eli, we are loving watching you grow into a little boy right before our eyes. You are charming and strong and adorable. Your cute smiles and chubby thighs make our hearts happy. We look forward to watching you grow more and are so thankful God gave you to us to raise! You are a delight, our son!

And what was he so intent on, you ask? Why, this, of course!

randomness

Some funny things going on here, partially for you all (are there really any people reading this blog anymore?) to enjoy, and partially so I don't forget them. I don't get much rest these days and am sure there are things leaking out of my brain daily.

Jayden:

*he insists on doing things "my byself." not a typo. that's what he says. its too adorable to correct

*he LOVES his brother. when I go in to get him up from his naps, he always asks, "Where's Eli?" or "What's Eli doin'?" his love for his brother still gets too rough but I love that he wants to be with him all the time.

*he also stutters quite a bit. this goes in phases and seems to be connected to big language explosions. so many sentences start with, "I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I...."

*he loves to play the air guitar. today in church he stood there, strumming away on his belly, big grin on his face. love that boy's enthusiasm for music!!!

*we went to have our taxes done by our friend Dave. my uncle is also named Dave so when we were almost there, he said, "We go see Uncle Dave!" we tried to correct him. so he then called this Dave "friend Uncle Dave" or "the other Uncle Dave." pretty cute.

Eli:

*he is OBSESSED with trashcans. and I mean OBSESSED. he wants to touch them, sit on them, see them, talk about them. he has learned their colors and now will say, "See! Trashcan! Blue! Green! Black!"

*we often holler up the stairs when there's a phone call for someone who lives up there. the other day, Eli walked over to the stairs and yelled, "PHIL!!! PHONE!!!"

*Eli also LOVES Jayden and gets quite impatient if Jayden is still asleep in the morning or afternoon when he's awake. but he will also say, "Jayden (sounds more like JAY-DE)! Sssshhh...sleeping."

*he loves water. loves to play in it, loves to drink it, loves to talk about it. loves water bottles.

*he is slowly learning his colors. if he says the wrong color for something and we correct him, he will argue with us. "No, YELLOW." Pretty funny.

ok, hope you enjoyed that. :)

a massive update...Easter, outside play, etc.

Well I have been HORRIBLE about blogging lately. Just horrible. I won't take time to complain about how crazy our life is or bore you with lame excuses. I'll just blog.

So...where to start? EASTER!!! We had a pretty good one. Enjoyed, of course, celebrating the resurrection of our Savior! He is risen indeed! Although things could have been better on the health front. Jayden came down with double ear infections and the stomach flu all at once. And he passed along a more tame version of his stomach flu to his brother. So we had to opt out of church on Sunday but still had our gathering at our house, which was great fun! I got to get up super early and go to the sunrise service on the beach with my mom and Steph and that was BEAUTIFUL. Had a great time praising the Lord and ran into lots of friends. Woo-hoo!

The boys managed to recover enough to enjoy the party and do some egg hunting. So with further ado, here are some pics of the boys Easter egg hunting and all that jazz.

And here are some other fun shots from the week.

We are in the big push towards the end of Dan's semester which means lots of schoolwork for Daddy and extra work for Mommy on the home front. To say I am anxious for Dan to be done with school would be an understatement. It has been a marathon two years. Once we finish up this semester, then there's summer school and then we're off to Scotland for the entire fall for "Global Learning Term." YIKES. Prep is in full swing for that, too.

So while we're crazy busy, I still want to get better about updating the blog. So here's hoping...

Watch for 21 month post for Eli coming up. Oh and did I mention that Jayden will be THREE next month? Sniff, sniff.

iPad giveaway on MckMama's blog!

Check out this awesome giveaway, with a good cause!!

http://www.mycharmingkids.net/2010/04/little-ipad-with-big-purpose.html

Big Bear

We took a short family trip to Big Bear for a couple days this past weekend. The road to Dan's family cabin was still all snowy so thankfully Oma and Opa were gracious enough to rent us all a condo for a couple nights. The boys had a great time! They loved the snow (there was some left on the ground by our condo), hanging with Oma and Opa, and going to the zoo (although, silly me, I forgot the camera so we have no photos of that outing!)!!

Thanks, Oma and Opa! We had a great time!

Here are some pics of our time.

As you can see in a few of these, Jayden has taken to giving quite the "ham it up" smile when asked to smile for pictures. We think its hilarious, though!

Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog. Things are just crazy busy! I am going to try, though...for real! :)