Oh how he grows!

Today I took zero pictures. I KNOW! That really shouldn't be allowed when I have such a cute kid :) We had a fun day-Kristi and I went garage sale shopping this morning, and we went to see Toy Story 3 tonight. Eli LOVED the movie. I don't think he moved a muscle...well, I take that back...there were a couple of 'scary' parts, and he reached over and held my hand. It was cute :) We went to Dairy Queen afterwards where I ate way too much...

That was today.

The point of this post, however, is to share how much Eli's vocabulary has grown in the last week and a half that we've been here. It's kind of unbelievable-all of a sudden he seems to be learning new words every day. Since we've been here he has said for the first time: 'Aww, man!', 'cool', 'dude' (as in 'what's happenin' dude'...yeah...he said that...), 'cute', 'outside' (that was a new one just today), 'grandpa', 'tv', 'choo-choo', 'puppy', 'please', 'poop' (lovely...), 'pee-pee', 'water', 'baseball' and a few more that I can't think of right now. He also knows ALL of his letters. You can ask him any letter, and he knows it's sound. We pulled into Walmart the other day, and immediately said 'wuh-wuh'...ya know, the sound 'W' makes. I can go through the entire alphabet with him. When we drive down the road, any time he sees a letter he will say it's sound. Pretty cute. He also knows many animal sounds-dog, cat, duck, lion, tiger, monkey, owl, and says 'stinky-stinky' if he sees a picture of a skunk.

It's been very fun to watch. I love watching him learn new things. He's also really playing with cars more and more. He'll drive his little cars around and make the 'vroom' sound as he drives. He'll carry a little car around with him for a long time. He likes wheels :) Anything with wheels, he immediately says 'car!'...even if it's mom & dad's camper, or a tractor driving by :)

I'm quite convinced that when we get back home, he's going to get off the plane, see his daddy, and say 'Hello father, how are you today? We had a delightful flight. I am simply ecstatic to be home!'...well...we'll see about that...

A bunch 'o pictures

Not much to report...just thought you'd like to see some pictures :) Me & the kids :) Eli is having so much fun with his cousins!
Mommy & her boy...missing daddy :(

Eli & the boys

Just too cute!

A rare shot of Isaiah...he hates getting his picture taken. Pretty sure he didn't know I was taking it :)

This is Eli's 'mean face'.

Eli and Isaiah got on the trampoline. Isaiah bounced Eli around...he had a BLAST, as the next few pictures will show.

I think I was laughing about as hard as Eli was. He loved it.

Tonight we went up and saw Isaiah play baseball again. He only got to bat once, but he made contact again! Way to go!

Running hard!

We're still having lots of fun here. It's been warm, but we're makin' it :) Every time I complain about it being hot, though, I think of Edgar working in our house with no A/C. GROSS. SO, I really can't complain. Tomorrow is grocery shopping day-YAY! I love grocery shopping. No big plans other than that. It's a tough life when you're on vacation at grandpa & grandma's house...

Isaiah's Baseball Game

Today was a nice low-key day. Other than the fact that Eli got up at 6:30, it was a pretty relaxing day. I got to take a little nap this afternoon, so getting up that early wasn't so bad.

We went to Rick & Kristi's house for dinner and then went to watch Isaiah's baseball game. He played 'right center' field. They have an extra outfielder in his age division.
Eli had fun playing with Adriana & Julean.

Little monkey :)

Eli had a blast running around and playing during the game.

Isaiah got to bat twice. His fist time up he hit the ball! He was so excited he hit it. He got thrown out, but just hitting the ball is a big deal-that's the first time he hit the ball!

Nothing like an outfielder that is totally into the game...

Eli running on the track.

After the game we went back to Rick & Kristi's house and dad threw the ball with Isaiah.
Here's a video of the second time Isaiah got up to bat. He didn't get a hit this time, but it's fun to watch him bat :)

We got home and Eli & I got to talk to Edgar on Skype. He showed us all the work he's been doing on the kitchen-it looks AWESOME! I'm SO proud of all the hard work he's been doing. I can't believe how hard he's working and how much he's gotten done. The kitchen is going to look amazing when it's all done!

Randee's Shower

Sunday was Randee's shower. We had worked on a few things here and there during the week, so it really all came together quite well. (To clarify, when I say 'we' I mean mostly mom and Randee...I think I just made cookies all week...) Randee wanted to have a picnic theme for the shower. Mom got daisies and put them in mason jars for the centerpieces.
Mom got these little ants for the tables. They were so cute! It was all outdoors. The tables had red checkered tablecloths. Everything looked really nice.

Mom made the bedding for Parker's room. You can see the pillow, quilt and the bed skirt. The other quilt was made by Randee's mother-in-law. All of it was so cute. You can see the colors Randee has in Parker's room. I still need to get up there and see the room for myself.

Here are the tables on mom & dad's back porch.

Johnny's step mom made the cake & cupcakes. She did such a great job! That is all made out of frosting-even the bear!

She made a TON of cupcakes!

Most of the gifts came unwrapped, but Randee got to open a few. Isn't she adorable?!

The party planner extraordinaire...

The happy mommy!

Mom had a clothes line out to put all of the clothes on. Randee got a lot of really nice gifts!

Eli had fun playing with all the kids that were there. There were better pictures of him, but this one made me laugh for some reason...he walked around with that bus and car for most of the afternoon...

The kids had fun playing on all of mom & dad's 'toys'...the girls were all climbing the tree in mom & dad's backyard. Soon Eli will be joining them!

It was a beautiful day for a 'picnic shower'. The weather was gorgeous. It was a little warm, but there was a nice breeze.

After the shower we had a bonfire and were able to just relax around the fire.

I can't believe Randee only has a few weeks left to go!

Thursday & Friday

I didn't quite get around to posting any pictures from yesterday, so I've got 2 days worth today :) Yesterday was spent working on cookies for Randee's shower, but we did take a break to go play outside. We went over and saw the kitties. Eli loves playing with them...we're still working on being gentle...The kittens were living in my grandparent's trailer-it was actually a pretty good place for them-they were safe from Sam :)

They did get moved yesterday, though. Here they are in their 'travel box'.

I think Sam is Eli's favorite, though. Eli likes just following him everywhere.

He's enjoying playing with 'outdoor toys'.

Ya know...rocks and dirt and stuff...

He does keep trying to touch Sam's tongue...not good. It's a good thing Sam is so good with kids...
Today we got out early (cuz it was gonna be hot...ya know...85...sorry all you Floridians...) and were going to go over and see the kittens. As soon as Sam realized what we were doing, he went CRAZY. He was trying so hard to get to the kittens-he actually tore 2 boards off the chicken coup (where the kittens were moved) trying to get inside. I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. As soon as my grandpa came out and told him to cut it out, he stopped right away...apparently I don't have the same authority as my grandpa does...

Eli got to love on the kittens. Today there were only 3 kittens, though...hopefully the 4th was just hiding...

Eli helped great grandpa feed the cats & Sam.
He had so much fun playing outside. We came back inside and had some lunch, then Eli went down for a nap, and I continued working on the cookies...they are FINALLY done!

I decorated 75 of them. If I get really ambitious, I might finish decorating the 'extras' tomorrow. I'm pretty sure 75 cookies will be enough, though...I am putting a couple pictures of them here...there were a lot of different 'designs', and I didn't feel like putting a picture of each design on :)

I think these were my favorite :)

I'm really glad I got them done. I felt like they took forever.

After I finished we had Chicken and Rice for dinner (ya know...because that's what you eat on Fridays...) and went swimming. Eli actually didn't get to bed until after 9 tonight...maybe he'll sleep in tomorrow...not likely...