A Party!

I know you have all been waiting on the edge of your seat for me to finally post pictures of Carly's party :) Actually, if you read my blog, then you probably read Jennifer's, so you already know the gritty details.

We met up at The Olive Garden (YUM!) for a fun evening of overeating (again) and celebrating Caroline's big day. Eli came along. He enjoyed his bread stick. It was cute-he kept looking around me trying to get a look at Carly. He loves his cousin!

Mommy forgot Eli's sippy cup, so we ordered Eli a drink from a restaurant for the first time. He actually did really good with it! He held right onto it and drank from the straw with no problem. The only problem came when he threw the cup on the floor. Fortunately, that lid stayed on tight!

Carly's cake. I make no claims to decorating cakes well. That's Krista's specialty :) I DO like to bake 'em, though!

The birthday girl gets to put her own candles on-FUN!

Grinnin' while we're singin'

A kiss from mommy

Blow 'em out!

And then enjoy your cake :)

I thought this cake looked SO COOL on the inside!

It was pretty fun to make. And yes, Ben had red dye free cupcakes to enjoy :) I didn't snap any pictures of those...I tried to do the 'layer thing' with those too...(yellow, green & blue) but they looked...well...not so good...but they tasted good!

Carly got sung to by the staff as well. Ben was laughing pretty hard the whole time. Carly was thrilled, I'm sure.

Eli enjoyed his Chicken Parmesan. He would scream if we stopped feeding him. Apparently he was hungry.

We had a super fun night celebrating with Caroline. She's getting to be quite the little lady! Can you believe she's already 8?!

Peek-a-boo!

I know, I KNOW, I said I would post about Carly's birthday (and her cake :) ) next, but tonight at dinner, out of nowhere, Eli started playing peek-a-boo with us. It was super cute-he's never done peek-a-boo like that (he's only ever put a blanket over his head and then pulled it off). In fact...I don't really ever do peek-a-boo with my hands like that very often, so I'm not sure where he picked it up, but he's good at it :) It was so cute I thought I'd load both videos I took. One is longer than the other. Watch one, or both. They're pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

I'll work on the other post tomorrow...I have to teach Sunday School tomorrow, and I need to finish getting ready.

Our very happy Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving this year was wonderful. We got up early (well...Edgar did. I didn't get up until 7:30...) and Edgar started working on the office. (There is a LOT of work to do in there! There are several very large holes in the wall that need to be filled, and the textured ceiling is dirty...not easy to clean. I think he's just about ready to paint today...) I spent the morning cleaning (it never seems to get done...) and playing with Eli. We didn't watch the parade, but we did watch this: Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving video...actually, the video on the screen is the 'Bonus feature' on the DVD...something about the Mayflower...actually quite educational. Eli watched some of it, but it's not Baby Beethoven, so he wasn't quite as captivated, but he did enjoy the music :)

I started working on Carly's birthday cake...and some cupcakes to go along with it :)

This is the cake before it's iced...the final product is coming in the next post.
Then Eli and I went for a 45-min. walk around our neighborhood. Eli could ride in his wagon all day! (I think I've mentioned that before...)

We went to the park, and Eli rode the worm...
...and went in the swing. I think he just wanted to get back in his wagon, though.
When we got back Eli took a nap (trying to move him to just one nap a day...it's going...okay...) and I got ready to go. We headed over to Eliott & Krista's at 4 (Okay...let's be honest...it was 4:30. We were a little later than we wanted to be)
We got the rest of the food ready, and went outside to take a few pictures. Most of the pictures are on Krista's camera...I need to get those from her! I'm hoping she'll post some on her blog soon!
We did get a couple cute ones of the kids with their Abuela :)

It really wasn't this dark out...blasted flash...

Krista had the table set up beautifully-she used her china. It was really nice.

At each place setting was a turkey made out of cut-outs of Katie's hand. On the back they each had verses that we read after dinner, about being thankful. It was a super cute idea!

Edgar cut the Turkey (and mom stirred the rice...and Eliott looked for the Crystal Light...)

Abuelo played with Eli

And then we ate! Eli enjoyed his Thanksgiving meal. He loved the stuffing, and dark meat...but I still think the Cranberry sauce (made from scratch by mom!) was his favorite :)

Edgar & his mom

The whole family! Isaac is trying to get out to show himself...but I think he's staying put for a couple more days!

We spent some time as a family talking about how richly God has blessed us. We really are so thankful that God continues to pour His blessings on us. Sometimes I wonder why God has chosen us to give such amazing gifts to. I have TWO amazing, wonderful families that love the Lord. I know I am truly blessed. We sang a few songs together-which was really neat. For as musical as both sides of my family is, we rarely sing together. It was beautiful.

After dinner the boys played the Wii and talked about time travel. The girls talked about babies, and timed Leilani's contractions :)

We went home around 1:00 am-we hardly ever stay out that late any more! It was such a fun day, though, and we didn't want it to end. The next morning getting up wasn't nearly as fun...

I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours was!

Awwww...how cute!

I have a couple of posts to do...that will have to wait until tomorrow (Including our wonderful Thanksgiving), but I couldn't resist showing these pictures. Mom came over today and hung out for a while. She took Katie to the park while Eli took a nap, and when he got up she took both kids for a ride. This is what I saw as they were heading out the door: Katie was helping Eli! It was super cute! I didn't catch any pictures that weren't blurry, but you get the idea :)

I think Eli likes holding his cousin's hand!

Getting strapped into the wagon!

And off they go!

It was so nice to have a little break today while they were gone-thanks mom!

Cruisin'

Just a quick video tonight of Eli 'cruisin' using the coffee table. It's amazing what he'll do for the remote...

He's also getting closer to walking-he'll walk a decent distance while only holding ONE of my hands. Then I think he realizes what he's doing, and quickly grabs my other one :) Tonight we spent 15 minutes walking up and down and up and down and up and down the 2 steps in our house...fun times...for Eli :)

Enjoy my baby-I sure do!

Thanksgiving a little early

Today Eli and I went to a Thanksgiving party.I made some 'Pilgrim hat' cookies for the event. (These are SUPER easy to make...just get Fudge Stripe cookies, vanilla icing, & Reese's mini peanut butter cups. Flip the cookies upside down, dip the pb cup in icing (or you can pipe it in like I did...) and then either add a drop of another color, or you can use mini chicklet gum. The hardest part about making these was finding a package of cookies that wasn't broken. I bought 2 pks (60 cookies) and only 20 of them were whole. Pretty frustrating. Okay...that was a very long parenthesis...)

We arrived at 10:30-what I thought was 30 min. late, and no one was there. I called a friend, and she informed me it didn't start until 11...Eli was sleeping in his stroller, so I had 1/2 hour to play tetris on my phone...

Eli had a good time. He enjoyed his turkey and mashed potatoes, but LOVED the cranberry sauce. I think he could have eaten a whole can!
After we finished eating we went over to the park area to play.

This little boy is about 5 months old, and he was SO cute on the swing! He was giggling so hard (not in this picture...) I think he could have hung out in that swing all day.

We got home and Eli took a nap. When he got up we played and read some books together. He loves looking at books. I can put a pile of books next to him and he will 'read' them for a good 30 minutes without complaint.

Below is a little video of where Eli is 'at' in the crawling game. He's workin' on it...

The house is quite, and I have a bunch 'o stuff to do on the computer tonight. I might give Edgar a hair cut too...who knows :)

A day without mommy...

Check out what Eli did today...without me :) Ryan and Jennifer asked if they could take Eli to Bush Gardens today, so while I took wallpaper off Eli's room and the office (ya...I did BOTH in less that 2 hours...it peeled RIGHT off!) Eli was having fun being a McGregor for the day. Click HERE to see his adventure!

What to do when mommy and daddy are unpacking boxes...

Hey. It's me-Eli. I thought I'd give you some ideas of what to do when your mommy and daddy are super busy unpacking boxes for a new home. (In case you were worried, my mommy and daddy do still play with me. They aren't unpacking boxes ALL of the time. In fact, mommy just said she only has one more room to unpack!) 1) Explore hard wood floor (I like it WAY better than tile. It's not nearly as hard when I clunk my head on it...)

2) Perfect the art of rolling

3) Help mommy clean the floor

5) Do toe touches

6) Take care of the only family pets mommy and daddy will let me have...

7) Play with empty boxes (Peek-a-boo is SO fun with an empty box!)

8) Pick up after myself (Okay, so that never happens...)

9) Look at mommy with crazy expressions (Hey mom! Put the camera down and get back to work!)

10) Practice crawling (I'm getting closer all the time!)

11) Work on my standing skills

12) and just generally look cute.

SO, when YOUR mommy and daddy move, now you know what to do.

Other things I do that have not been photographed...I like to walk in my walker (I could do that ALL DAY), go for rides in my wagon, pull everything off the entertainment center that is in my reach, drink lots of milk (whole milk is the BEST), play the piano, and play with all my cool toys I got for my birthday.

I hope that gives you some good ideas!

And he's up!

I know you might think this is a not so great quality (but Eli's still cute) picture of my big boy...but it marks an accomplishment that has been a long time coming... Eli can finally get from a laying position to a sitting position on his own! He has done it about 5 times now completely on his own-without the use of crib bars, coffee table, etc. SO, when I caught him sitting this morning after I had laid him down on the floor, I had to snap a picture :) I've actually seen him do it. I don't think he does it quite the 'conventional' way-he uses his ab muscles quite a bit to get him up. He's on his way to a six-pack.

Anyway, we've had a busy day of unpacking and organizing, and I am completely pooped. I have a bunch of pictures I want to post, but that will have to wait for another day.

Oh...by the way...my NEXT post will be my 200th! I'm gonna have to post something really spectacular... :)

Eli Update

I'm sitting here waiting for some pictures to upload to Shutterfly so I can go to bed...15 minutes 11 seconds...and counting...

SO, I thought I'd give a little Eli update. Sorry...no pictures. I'm going to have to dust off my camera and shoot some pictures one of these days, but I've been...you guessed it...busy :)

We went to Eli's one-year check-up today. I've been so anxious to go and talk to the doctor about a few things. We were suppose to go last week, but because he was running a fever we had to reschedule.

Eli weighed in at 23 lbs 15 oz. (okay...I'm just looking at the sheet the nurse gave me and it says 22 lb 13 oz...but I KNOW the scale said 23 lb 15 oz...) He is 30.5 inches tall (71 percentile) and his head is 18" (29 percentile) (This is all assuming I have the right info...a little questionable seeing as his weight is off on the paper...oh well)

The doctor said Eli is doing very well. I talked to him about the fact that Eli isn't getting into a sitting position on his own, has only pulled up once, and is not crawling. The dr. stood Eli up and held his hands and started laughing. He said that Eli is completely capable of doing all those things...he is just choosing not to. He said it's not an ability thing, it's a temperament thing...hmmmm...I wonder where he gets that from? Basically, my kid loves to let people do things for him :) It was so reassuring to hear that he is fine.

On a side note, Eli has gotten himself into a sitting position twice...though he used something to pull him into that position. (Crib, coffee table) AND, he is starting to 'army crawl' a bit...well, his version of army crawl. Fairly certain he's going to get rug burn on his forehead...

The doctor also looked at some bug bites-apparently a mosquito (or two...) attacked Eli and tried to eat him for dinner. The bites are like welts. Poor kid...his ear swelled up pretty bad from it yesterday :( I gave him some Benadryl, and the swelling seems to be going down.

Side note again...Benadryl does NOT make Eli sleepy...or hyper. I was secretly hoping for a long nap after his first dose, and I was a little surprised that he woke up 45 min. later...

We came home from the doctor (after getting McDonald's. Eli likes French Fries...and chicken nuggets...) and we both took a nap. We went for a walk after that-to the park near our house, and had a nice evening playing. Once Eli went to bed I FINALLY got my closet organized. I think my bedroom is pretty much done...until we renovate it... :)

Good news-46 seconds remaining on my upload :) SO, I think I'll go brush my teeth and head to bed.

I make no promises...but I will TRY and post some pictures of my baby tomorrow :)

'Before' Pictures...Can't wait to see the AFTER!

So here are the oft promised pictures :) These are actually pictures taken on closing day...so there isn't any furniture in the pictures. You may have already seen some of these...sorry :) There will be many 'after' pictures, I am sure...we have plans to renovate/redo every room in the house...and that is probably going to take a while!

Anyway, here's our front door:

Don't ya love the brick? I really do. I love living in a neighborhood that doesn't have 'cookie cutter homes'. This neighborhood is an older one, and is super nice. We love how quiet it is, and the general 'feel' of it.

Our fireplace. When we first decided that 'this was the home for us' I really thought we would get rid of the fireplace. (Not sure HOW we would do that..) BUT, the longer we're in the home (ya know...goin' on night 4...) the more I like it. I can't wait to hang our stockings! I think it will be really nice, and who knows? Maybe we just might have a fire on a cold winter evening :)

The back porch. This is really what made me fall in love with this house. I absolutely LOVE this back porch! It's so nice and big, and the wood rafters in the ceiling make me feel like I'm in a cabin up north. I loveitloveitloveit. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll go out and drink my coffee and read my bible for a bit before Eli gets up...ahhhh...sounds WONDERFUL.

When we first looked at this house, I said I couldn't wait to trash this chandelier...come to find out it might be worth a little something...I washed it last night, and it looks pretty good. Don't get me wrong, we ARE getting rid of it (It's WAY too big for the dining room) but I wouldn't mind makin' a little money on it... :)

The master bath...a little small (understatement) but really, who needs room in the bathroom anyway?! :)

The kitchen. This is going to be our first big project. We have plans to completely gut the kitchen. We had to get a new refrigerator (have I mentioned that before?...) and a range, so that has already changed from this picture. HOWEVER, getting the pictured refrigerator out was no small task (some of the counter top had to be removed...) and getting the new refrigerator in was impossible...so we don't have a refrigerator in the kitchen right now. It's currently in the dining room...or as I lovingly call it, 'the refrigerator room'. That refrigerator is so wonderful it gets a room all to itself...I think I might have to devote an entire post to my refrigerator...Okay...now I'm being ridiculous. (Though I HAVE hugged my refrigerator already...actually, more than once...) ANYWAY, when we gut the kitchen we have plans for removing walls, so the refrigerator will be able to get into the new kitchen. I CAN'T WAIT to see what my new kitchen is going to look like!!!

Our garage is wonderfully huge. It's an over sized 2-car garage. I would say this is the only room with no 'renovations' needed, but I'm pretty sure Edgar has big plans for this room...

So far things are going really well in our new place. It's a LOT of work to get unpacked. It's also hard, because everything I put away I keep thinking 'When we redo this room, I'm going to have to get this all back out...' but most of the rooms won't be done for a while. The kitchen is pretty much set for now, and the living & dining room are settled. The bedrooms are, well...chaos. If I don't get my closet organized soon, I just might go crazy. I can't find ANYTHING to wear...hmmm...maybe that means I need to go shopping...or unpack that suitcase that's sitting on the closet floor...

As we finish rooms, you will see more pictures. And I really just might have to put a picture of my refrigerator up. I would take a picture now and post it, but it's evening, and the lighting isn't good...Okay...I'm truly a dork. But at least I know it, right?!