Passover

Wednesday was an eventful day for us. In addition to going to the mall, we had the opportunity to go to Eric & Leilani's house to celebrate the start of Passover. This was the second year we were able to join them, but each time is very interesting, and such a great learning experience. It is amazing to recount the great lengths our Father goes to show us his love.
(I apologize now for any mistakes in my descriptions of any of this. I missed a lot of it, so if any of this is completely wrong, feel free to correct me :) )

This is a special plate that holds the elements for the Passover Seder. I missed a lot of it because I was feeding Eli and putting him to bed, so I don't remember what each element stands for, but I did make it for the 'bitter herbs'. I will forever remember the tears that rolled down my face-yes, literal tears. We had horseradish for the bitter herbs, and it was SO strong I thought my head was going to explode :) Everyone started coughing and many had tears. That was kind of the point, though. It was suppose to remind you of the bitter years that the Israelites spent in Egypt and how they wept in their suffering.

This was the table set up. Everyone had a booklet to follow along with. The leader would read, and we would read and sing songs.

This plate was for the matza crackers (No leaven at Passover!) The plates that held all of these things were Eric & Leilani's. They bought them while they were in Israel.

The matza crackers on the plate :)

This is the place setting for Elijah. It is set, and no one sits there. At the end of the Seder the children open the door to see if Elijah has come.

Eli's first Seder :) He slept through most of it...

Eric & mom

Eric was the leader of the Seder. He did a really good job with the whole thing.

This is the whole group singing a song at the end.

The whole celebration was really neat. Eric & Leilani did a great job hosting it. Next year in Jerusalem! (That's what you say at the end of a Seder ;) )

Hangin' out at the mall with friends

On Wednesday some of the new moms at church went to the mall to hang out. We had a great time of talking and shopping together. This is Eli, all ready to go. I just realized he fits into his size 2 shoes...oh boy...the fun begins ;) I have a TON of size two shoes that are SO cute, and I have been just itching to put them on him...unfortunately, he's not a big fan of shoes-but he'll put up with them long enough for a picture.

Isn't my baby BEAUTIFUL!!!

We met at the mall and got coffee and lunch. Here's Christine and Olivia. Olivia is getting so big! She's adorable. Unfortunately, I can never seem to take pictures of her that show just HOW CUTE she really is!

And here is Debbie and Levi-I don't know if you can read his shirt or not, but Debbie made sure to put him in 'Levi's' clothing. Adorable...isn't it nice to have an entire name brand named after you?! Levi is really cute too. He's just getting over RSV and Debbie says he's feeling much better.

Levi couldn't even get changed without someone snappin' his picture :)

All snuggled and ready to go.

Jane was also there with us. She had her two boys and Elizabeth with her. I was so determined to take lots of pictures, but I failed miserably, and really only got the camera out after Jane left, so I don't have any pictures of Elizabeth, but she is really cute too. She and Eli are having a contest to see who can be the biggest...I think Elizabeth might just be edging Eli out :)

Poor Eli was ready to go after a couple of hours. He did really good right up until the last few minutes, and then gave the saddest, most pathetic cry :( So we headed right home.

We all had a really good time. I am sure there will be many more posts of this group of kids through the years!

Childhood memories...

Today I sorted through Eli's clothes. We've been so blessed with many hand-me-downs. However, this does mean I must sort through them and organize them by size. Anyway, I spent last night and Eli's nap time today sorting through it all (because yes, he is moving up to 12 month clothes, and I gotta make room!)
Anyway, as I was sitting in the midst of the mess, all I could think about was how my room always looked like this...well...actually, my room was much, much worse. I very distinctly remember clearing a path from my bed to the light switch each night so I wouldn't kill myself after I turned the lights off.
Sadly, this didn't change for me (Ryan & Jennifer can attest to this fact) until I married my wonderful, fabulous, neat freak of a husband. And now, I can honestly say, that the mess in Eli's room drove me crazy, and it HAD TO BE CLEANED UP!!! It's amazing what marriage can do for you...

Fun at Eliud & Krista's house

On Saturday we spent the day over at Eliud and Krista's house. Scott, Trish & their daughter Jessie joined us, and we had a great time hanging out...and eating...a lot...I'm not kidding. So much I felt completely sick by the time I got home...
The boys played darts for a while. Apparently Edgar got a bulls eye, but the dart fell out...likely story...

Eli and Katie watched Sesame Street...for a couple of minutes. Katie was more interested in playing with Eli :) and THAT'S even better than Sesame Street!

Katie was touching Eli's face, and the whole time she was she kept saying 'be nice'...as if she was reminding herself to be gentle.

She was playing 'peek-a-boo', but kept forgetting the 'peek-a' part. It was pretty cute.

Eli...just making sure mom's still nearby...

Katie showered Eli with stickers. She kept putting more and more on him. It was pretty funny.

We ended up eating pizza and playing Sequence, and then headed home. Edgar and I did finally put Eli to bed somewhere other than home. We put him in Krista's pack-n-play, and then moved him to his car seat when it was time to go, and to his crib when we got home. We were a little nervous, because we didn't want him to be up all night, but he did GREAT. He sleeps nice and soundly...like I used to sleep...

Spa day!

On Friday my mother-in-law treated me to a facial. It was so much fun. Jennifer watched Eli while I went off to the spa. (It's hard being a mom...) I met Ruth there and we went in and got our complimentary robe and slippers, and hung out at the pool and hot tub for a while. Then I went for an hour long facial. It was SO relaxing. Although, the first thing the lady said to me was 'It looks like you have some blemishes'...tell me something I don't know :) Mom went in after me for her facial, and I left to go pick up Eli.
The really nice thing about hte day was that mom and dad came over and spent the afternoon and had dinner with us. Abuela played with Eli for a long time. Somehow his book ended up on his head... He had a GRAND time playing. At one point he was giggling so hard. I've decided Abuela needs to come over every day and make him laugh like that :)

A fun update!

Eli rolled over tonight! He's been so close for so long :) He was on the bed with Edgar, and I was making dinner. Edgar called me and told me he had rolled over...so I missed it, but daddy saw it! Now granted, it was on the bed, and he rolled towards Edgar, so he may have had a little help, but he still did it on his own. He rolled from his back to his belly...and then wasn't too sure what to do when he got to his belly-not his favorite position. We'll see if he does it again any time soon.

A new deck and a 'cook-out'

Our newest 'adventure'? We've decided to put our house on the market to see if it will sell. We really hope that we can get a good price for our house, but we will see. Before we can actually list it, though, we have a few minor repairs and 'updates' to do to the house. The first big project was replacing a small deck in our back yard. I didn't get a 'before' picture, but this is the original deck all 'piled up'.

Edgar took a day off of work to get the deck done. he did a really good job, and only has a few blisters from all the hammering (why don't we have a nail gun?!). Here he is hammering in the last board. He just has to seal it, and it is completely finished. He also painted the front door this weekend. It looks really nice-he painted it blue to match all of the trim.

On Sunday evening Edgar went riding with his friend Tim, so Eli and I decided to have a 'cook-out'. This was our little set-up on our new deck.

Eli had a BLAST! He loves being outside! He talked and giggled the entire time we were out there. I think he liked seeing the shadows and looking at the trees. I could hardly eat, because I kept laughing at him laughing. We had a great time. I put a couple of videos on so you could see just how much our little boy enjoys the great outdoors!