Lunch with Daddy

Today Eli and I went to see Daddy at work today and go to lunch with him. Tim's coworkers haven't seen Eli since I was on maternity leave with him so they were excited to see how big he had gotten. He had fun running around Tim's office and checking out the shop.

I can drive this forklift

Hanging at the picnic tables with the guys - he climbed up there and sat down all by himself.

Sitting in Daddy's chair - he then tried to climb on the desk and bang the computer keys.

Christmas at the Farm

Warning: this post contains LOTS of pictures

This past weekend, we went down to Grandpa & Grandma C's farm to celebrate Christmas with Evia's family. It was such a great weekend. We drove down Friday night at Eli's bedtime and he did much better making the transition from car to bed. Saturday he slept until 7am so we were very happy with that. He, once again, was our little "doodle doo" echoing the rooster. We had a yummy breakfast (pancakes and fresh sausage) and then Eli was let loose outside to play. Boy was he happy with that. He explored everything with Grandpa and oved running around. He got all muddy just as a little boy should. After nap time, we headed to Evia's grandparents to have big dinner and enjoy family time. There was food a plenty, let me tell you! Mom cooked country style steak and rice, Uncle Mike grilled a turkey and pork butts, Aunt Brenda brought chicken. If you went home hungry it was your own fault!! After dinner, we took the requisite family pictures in front of the tree and Eli opened some presents. He really got the hang of ripping paper so Christmas Day should be fun. His Great Aunt Val and family got him a See and Say and some farm tractors. He loved all of them. (Today he's been pushing the tractors around A LOT.) When we got back to my parents house, we did our Christmas with them. Again, Eli had fun tearing into the paper. The first gift he opened was three nerf balls - a football, basketball and a soccer ball. He didn't care about much after that. He's all boy and loves balls and wheeled things. We had a great time playing Christmas before Eli went to bed.

Sunday morning we went to my parents' church. Eli did pretty well to start and loved the children's message provided by puppets. Then he went to children's church with Grandma where they read, colored and made a Christmas ornament. We then went out to eat with my other Grandmother (Huggy Grandma as we lovingly call her) and celebrated with her. Eli was an eating machine at lunch (again) and sampled everything on his place. Grandma even got him an ice cream cone for dessert and he had fun exploring it. It rained all night so once we got back to the farm, Eli didn't get to really run around but Grandma made sure he got to see the animals some more before he left.

We drove home at his bedtime on Sunday and had an easy drive home. We're very fortunate to have family a reasonable drive away and be able to see them on holidays. Although we won't be with them on actual Christmas Day, we will be talking to them and thinking of them all day.

Exploring with Grandpa

In Eli-style, showing off his belly. Notice the resemblance to Grandpa's belly!

Such a sweet boy

Our little tornado - running around happy as can be

One of my favorite pictures - I took this from the kitchen window without them knowing. Eli just sat there with Grandma and Grandpa. I can only imagine their conversation.

Saturday night dinner - eating it up

Pictures with Evia's Grandma & Grandpa

Family photo in front of the tree

Ripping into his Tonka truck (Thanks Uncle Billy & Miss Laura!)

Eli & Uncle Billy - they just happened to be dressed alike

Chasing Daddy - this was pretty funny to see

Hmmmm, this ice cream isn't bad

And the cone is pretty good too

Once he learned how to rip open presents, Eli wanted to help everyone. Here he's helping Huggy Grandma open her gift.

School Christmas party

(a little catch up)

Friday afternoon was Eli's Christmas party at school. Santa came to visit them that morning. Apparently Eli did pretty well with Santa - I'm looking forward to seeing the picture! He even learned to say "ho ho ho". The Christmas party was at snack time and it was fun for the parents to hang out in the room. Eli got some yummy treats that he normally doesn't get - a juice box and cheese puffs specifically. He couldn't get enough of the cheese puffs! He was trying to take them off the other kids' plates as they left the table. It was funny because each kid seemed to have their favorite snack and go looking for more when someone got up. After snack time, we all went outside to play. It is so much fun to watch the kids interact. It also reinforces our appreciation of Eli's teachers who do such a great job teaching them, caring for them and watching them all day. Pictures of the fun.

A table of cute little boys (there are no girls in Eli's class right now)
Hanging with Mommy

Kinda windy out here Mom!!

Climbing up to slide

Hanging with my dinosaur pal

Baby 2 update

Real quick - 2 appointments this week. Tuesday was bloodwork and meet with prenatal nurse. Today met with my doctor. Did all the normal stuff - weight, blood pressure, etc - and then got to hear baby's heartbeat. It was a very strong and fast heartbeat. Good news! Now I'm all set for another month and at that appointment, we'll schedule the ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or girl. Anyone want to start guessing?

Now I'm off to Eli's school Christmas party. I missed his Santa visit this morning because of the doctor but am looking forward to the party. Tonight we're off to the farm for our Christmas celebration down there.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We'll have lots of pictures when we get back!

We got a package....

Eli had lots of fun tonight. We got a box from the cousins in Florida and it had packing peanuts. Eli has never seen them before so we let him play with them. He had a great time ripping them apart, dumping them out and stomping all over them to make noise.

Oooooh, what is this?
They feel kinda funny

Getting the hang of it - I can make a mess!!

The end result - peanuts all over the kitchen and one very happy little boy!

Coudn't resist this messy face tonight. We think Eli is growing right now because he has turned into an eating machine. He had fun eating his spaghetti tonight.

Eli the Red Nosed Reindeer

An absolutely adorable picture they took at school of our sweet little reindeer.

Photo fun

Eli has taken an interest in the digital camera. He likes to look at the display and tell me who is in the picture. We took our own series of photo-booth style self portraits and he kept showing me where Mommy was. We also took pictures of Daddy and Belle. Fun being silly!

Where have we been?

I've been kinda slack this past week or so updating the blog - sorry family! My Grandpa was in the hospital and gave us all a scare. Eli had a tummy bug mid week and dealing with that kind of wiped us out mentally. Plus I seem to be very tired most evenings when Eli goes to bed - I guess between Eli running everywhere and being pregnant I have a good excuse! My brain also seems to be in dead mode sometimes and I forget / mix up stuff. I remember pregnancy brain being bad enough but now combined with Mommy brain, I may forget how to get home tomorrow!

Hopefully we'll have more fun stuff to share soon. This is our last week of work and Eli's last week of school before Christmas. Santa comes to school on Friday and Eli also has his Christmas party. I've got two appts for Baby #2 this week - one for bloodwork and one with the doctor.

Oh yeah, we've also been meeting with a contractor to raise the roof over our attic and add a bonus room. That has been kinda stressful. Right now we're hoping to start the renovation mid to late January and finish mid to late March. Our house will be in even more chaos for two months but it will all be worth it in the end. Maybe Tim & I will find a way to re-stake our claim to some area of the house and not have it overrun with toys....nah, who am I kidding?!

Hope everyone is doing great and that you also have a good last full week before Christmas.

Oh Christmas tree.....

Although it took us a while, we finally got our Christmas tree completely up and decorated. For those of you unfamiliar with our tree, it's rather large - a 12' tall artificial prelit tree. Our lights almost flicker when we turn it on! We managed to get most of the tree up (3 sections) on one day, took a few days to fluff the branches, then added the top two sections. I think we finally finished decorating it last week. Sorry I haven't updated the blog sooner.

Eli came home from school and said "tree" - we didn't even know he knew that word. He was a little surprised by the big tree in the house!

Eli playing under the tree - how funny is it that exactly two years ago Christmas Day, I gave Tim a positive pregnancy test as his last gift and now here's the result!

Such a sweet boy!

Hanging Eli's barn ornament from Grandma C

The finished product - notice there are no glass balls or breakable stuff anywhere down low! Eli has done pretty well with it so far.

Thanksgiving Memories 2008

Thanksgiving was very memorable this year. It's fun to think about a week later (been so busy haven't had time to post). Let's start with "the turkey shirt". Thanksgiving this year was all about Eli's special Turkey shirt. Here are some pictures of it:

Front says "Hey Listen Up, this li'l turkey has something to say"

The back - "I'm going to be a big brother"

Yes, that's right. Eli is going to be a big brother next summer!! We decided to tell our families at Thanksgiving and thought this shirt would be the perfect way to let Eli announce it.

Wednesday night, we drove down to the farm at Eli's bedtime. That worked great except when we got there at 10:30pm, he didn't want to go back to sleep. He was super cranky pants and wore Tim & I down - a LOT! Earlier that day, he had gotten his 15 month vaccines and I forgot to give him some tylenol. We think they threw him for a loop - he got the chicken pox vaccine which he's never gotten before. We finally got to sleep around 2:30am with him and our eyes had barely closed before we heard "doodle doo....doodle doo". Eli heard the rooster outside and was crowing back to it. It was so darn cute. It made the rough night go away! After breakfast, we decided to get Eli out of his pj's and put on his "turkey shirt". I was so excited - I had been about to bust to tell my Mom. We took him downstairs and let Grandma & Grandpa C read it for themselves.

Grandma C - happy with the message!

Of course, they were happy as could be. I didn't see my Dad's reaction right away but Tim said he just sat in the chair, eyes and mouth wide open. They love being Grandparents and are excited that another one is on the way. We let Eli keep his shirt on to announce it to my extended family. It was so fun having them all read it when they came over. We did Thanksgiving lunch at my Mom's house and, as usual, there was plenty of good food. I almost put myself into a carb coma! Eli took a nap right during lunch so I was able to actually eat with both hands. After lunch, everyone retreated outside to shoot targets, ride the 4-wheeler, see the animals and enjoy the beautiful day.

Family photo

Eli in the barn loft with Grandpa

Petting goats with Grandma

I LOVE this picture - Eli wasn't sure what to make of his shadow

Climbing the stairs at Grandma's house - Hi Eli!

Giggle Giggle - Eli has the most wonderful laugh

Late in the afternoon, we went to visit Great Grandma C - affectionately known as Huggie Grandma. She loved hearing our news and we talked with her for a while. Eli was trying to get into everything, of course. After that, we headed back to the farm for dinner before driving home. Eli did great driving home and slept like a champ. That was much needed for us!

On Friday, we spent the day as a family. We did go to the mall to get out of the house but just enjoyed hanging out. Grandma & Grandpa N arrived Saturday and spent the weekend with us.

Grandma N reading Eli's shirt

Grandpa N getting the news

Tim's parents were very excited and happy to hear the news as well. They have been trying to plan a family vacation for Tim's side of the family and we have been very elusive for the past month about it. It was a relief to finally tell them why!!

We spent Saturday afternoon just hanging out and then had a wonderful steak dinner that night. We tried to watch a movie after Eli went to bed but we all ended up falling asleep on the couch! Sunday morning we had a leisurely start to the day and enjoyed a big family breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day! Eli's friend Ryan then came over to run around a bit and boom, it was lunch time. After lunch, Tim's parents watched Eli while Tim & I went to the movies. I can not remember the last time we went to the movies. We went to see 'Four Christmases'. It was entertaining and a nice break. We very much enjoyed having Tim's parents here to visit and appreciate them giving us a few hours off!

Reading to Grandma & Grandpa N

So as you can see, it was a very memorable Thanksgiving. Everything it should have been - family, food, friends, time spent together....and of course, our big news! We'll keep you posted on how #2 is coming along. We hope that everyone else had a wonderful holiday as well.