Christmas #1

Thanks Grandma, Don, and cousins for all of the great gifts! Eli couldn't wait to get home and tear into his new castle. He sat and played with it for an hour before he had to go to bed, and he loved it!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

We had Joel's birthday party and our Christmas celebration at Grandma Cathy's tonight. Notice Eli in the background by his toys. We told him that we weren't going to open anything until we got home, so he didn't really want to stick around for birthday cake.

pajama day

Since it's storming outside and everyone inside is still trying to get better, we pretty much just laid around in our pj's today. Noah did get dressed this morning, but he was pulling his pants off and asking for pajamas before noon.

more food pictures...

much better than pictures of what was coming OUT of him a few hours earlier. Yes, nothing like an ice cream sandwich at 10:30am after a night of puking. He had already eaten a banana, two pieces of toast and a little cereal (In the Christmas letter, I forgot to mention eating as something you can find Noah doing when he's not on my hip). I guess he was feeling a little better although that's pretty much all he ate all day. He took a 5 hour nap and went to bed at 6:45. It's been a fun week with strep and the flu at our house. Needless to say, I was cleaning and disinfecting today.

yummy...

squash and chicken noodle soup- what a combo. Out of the blue today, Eli decided he wanted squash. I already had to go to the grocery store to get a few things to make my sick husband some chicken noodle soup, so I picked up a squash too. What child requests squash?

As you can see, they both loved it!

peek a boo

Nevermind all the stuff he had to take out of there in order to fit. This poor little guy isn't feeling very well I'm afraid. He went to bed last night with a little fever at 6:30. It is 9:00am, and he is still sleeping. I guess it's a good day for a snow day. The roads are covered with ice, and MORE snow is on the way.

snow much fun!

These are the snowfalls I love (when I don't have to drive). It started around 11:00am and stopped around 6:00pm leaving a few inches of fluffy snow. It wasn't cold or windy, neighbor kids were out, and the boys were so excited to play in it! I think Noah could've walked up and down the sidewalks all night.

Christmas card pictures

Why oh why didn't I order Christmas cards when we had family pictures taken????? Oh I remember why. I had this great idea for a picture that of course Noah will not let me take. I have spent the last week trying to get one normal picture. Obviously, it is not working.

cream puffs

Eli was reading one of my recipe books on Friday night, and all of a sudden he decided that we needed to make cream puffs. I'm not sure why he picked cream puffs since he has never had them, but they are one of my favorites. We didn't have time to make them on Friday, and then Eli was sick all weekend. We finally made them tonight. What a treat!

just like big brother

Eli had the stomach flu on Sunday and has been laying on the couch for two days straight. Noah kept trying to crawl in with Eli today, so I had to get him his own blanket to lay with in the chair.

Eli wants a pet!

The first thing Eli told me after not seeing me for two days was that he wants a pet vole. I said, "what's a vole?" He told me it's a little animal that looks like a mouse. Maybe a puppy wouldn't be so bad.

Noah and the Christmas tree

I put this big gate around the tree hoping to keep Noah from destroying it. It took him all of 5 minutes to figure out how to get in there. I know how to fix it; I just haven't done it yet. He has been leaving it alone for the most part. He likes to stand on the other side and puts toys through the gate holes.

Christmas Tree

Well- it took two nights, but we finally got the Christmas tree up and decorated. Eli was in charge of reading the directions and telling me what color of branches came next. When we were done, he said he wanted to build the Christmas tree again. We took the boys to Target last night so Eli could pick out their ornaments. He got a glittery airplane for Noah and a huge glittery lizard for himself.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Two days later

The boys were sooooooo excited about the snow!

enjoying a beautiful day

Jake, Luke, and Eli spent 45 minutes throwing this toy in the trees. They were getting very creative about how to get it down when it would get stuck.

Noah doesn't seem to mind that he poured more sand on himself than in the bucket.

another sleepover

Joel was in charge of movie night last night while I helped Jennifer paint. What a good husband; he even remembered to take a picture. Eli and Grace sat in this chair the whole time and watched "Meet the Robinson's".

while my camera was broken

Eli found his new love...mazes. We went to an apple orchard that had a corn maze. I think Eli could've spent the whole day in there. I bought him a book of Halloween mazes and he went through every one of them over and over just tracing with his finger.

pumpkin patch

Grandpa Jim even got in on some corn maze action. It was so hot this day. Noah's face in the corn says it all. We weren't even there for more than 45 minutes, and I carried him most of the time in the maze.

our little artitst

Nothing like a little naked drawing! He is getting quite good at taking his clothes off!

naptime

So, Noah is in that terrible stage where he's down to one nap, but he could still use two. Today, he woke up early plus he hasn't been feeling that well, so I put him down for a morning nap. He only slept an hour, but he WOULD NOT sleep in the afternoon. He played in his crib for 2 hours before I gave up. This is how I found him (notice the nuks, blanket, and shirt on the floor). Needless to say, he was sleeping by 6:45 tonight.

drawing

Joel kept Chase and Noah busy while Erica and I took Jake, Eli, and Grace to the Bee Movie on Friday night. I don't think it was the best kids' movie ever, but we had fun anyway. Grace stayed over, and she and Eli played "bee" the rest of the night.

Thanks Grandma Cathy!

Eli was so excited about the books he and Grandma got from the attic tonight. He had to read me TWO before bed!!!

...or he's climbing IN

This cupboard did keep Noah entertained for a little bit while I was trying to cook supper tonight. He was pretty proud of himself when he carried the fry daddy out of there. I just want to know what he has against baby einstein movies.

My view

I finally got my camera back. YEAH!!! This is pretty much how it looks from where I stand during the day. I guess it's mostly just when he's hungry or tired, but I think he's always hungry or tired. If he isn't on my hip or trying to get there, he is usually either standing on or climbing on something else like the table, the back of the couches, the big lego container ...

Halloween pictures

Thanks for sending these to me Cathy! Noah actually kept the hood of his costume on the whole time we were trick or treating.

October 31st

It doesn't feel much like Halloween. We go trick or treating the night before Halloween (beggar's night), so we did all of the fun stuff last night. Eli was a dragon and Noah was a tiger. Someday you might get to see pictures. We started with a Halloween party at Grandma Cathy's, and then we went trick or treating with Erica, Jake, and Chase. Eli LOVED going trick or treating! Noah just wanted to go in the houses. Tonight, Eli got a flu shot and ate Long John Silvers with Joel afterwards, followed by an hour or so of PS2. Noah went to bed at 6:50, and I went to a weight watchers meeting. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Junkie???

It's official. Eli has discovered the Play Station 2, and he would be happy playing it ALL DAY! Do we invest in some kid friendly games or hope he forgets about it???

Austin's baptism

Yeah pictures!!! Even if I did have to steal them from Craig and Jen. Siriously, Austin may be the cutest baby ever, and he's so good. I don't think he cried once all weekend.

Our children

are the best car riders ever! Even our ornery little Noah sat in his car seat for 13 hours this weekend without fussing! We had a great time with my family. We pulled into Craig and Jen's around midnight on Friday. We didn't see Eli all of Saturday as he and Katelynn sat in the fort in Katelynn's closet and read books. It was Austin's baptism yesterday (I'll steal a picture from Jen's blog when she posts some). All of the cousins played great the rest of the afternoon. The kids liked Auntie Jen's idea of running in the rain the best!!! I think she was kidding when she suggested it, but everyone had a blast running around the house and finding hail. On the way back tonight, we were treated with a home-cooked meal at our friends John and Kelly's. Thanks Kel! We walked in the door at 9:00 and unpacked a few things. Luckily, Joel has tomorrow off. He will be busy ALL day! His honey-do list is getting pretty long.

Move over McDonalds

So, Mr. Eli doesn't eat much (He says he doesn't like lunch, and he doesn't like supper). I can usually get him to eat breakfast, and he likes any type of snack food. When it comes to meals, he'll eat the two bites we force him to take, and that's it. On his "will eat" list are: chicken nuggets, fries, some fruits, and peanut butter and jelly. If he's in the right mood, he might take a few bites of some other kid friendly foods here and there. Ironically, he LOVES Long John Silvers (gross!!). He eats chicken, fish, clams, shrimp, hush puppies, and hardly touches the french fries. GO FIGURE!

Dear Joel,

Are you still on board with getting a new camera? He was all ready to go buy one, and I was the one who decided not to do it. However, now that I finally got my charger back, I've realized that the charger is not the problem. It's the camera that doesn't work. One would think that the Olympus people could've figured out that the charger was fine during the two weeks they had it.

more shoes

Sure wish I could post a picture of Noah's newest pair of $50 shoes (they are a little cuter than the last pair)! I tried wide shoes at Payless, and they didn't even come close to fitting. We went back to Stride Rite and came home with 8xw. Size 8???? Eli just got out of eights. I understand that the shoes have to fit the biggest part of his foot, but they're so long. I'm just trusting that the nice man at the shoe store knows what he's doing!

sister visit

I loved having Krista, Zach, and Drew here for the weekend. They pulled in Friday afternoon and left today around 3:00. Yesterday we left Noah with Joel and took the other three boys to Adventureland (like Valleyfair). We had so much fun and had some VERY tired boys by the end of the afternoon. Eli's favorite things were the bumper cars, hot air ballooons, and the tea cups. Zach liked the ferris wheel the best, and I think Drew just liked everything. Sure wish I would've had a camera!! Thanks Sister for making the trip! Kris- maybe it was all that spinning that made Drew sick!

bummed!!!

So, I went to charge the dead battery on my less than 9 month old camera, and the charger is not working. I'll have to send it in to get fixed. I thought I had my husband convinced to get me a new camera last month, but he hasn't said anything lately. Maybe this will give him a little push. Anyway- no camera, no pictures. SAD!

Do girls do this???

All Chase and Noah want to do is play on the couch. Chase spent most of the morning yesterday perfecting his "walk off". He'd fall and just laugh. I don't know how many times Noah flipped off. He'd start to cry every time. Not because he was hurt; because he was mad that he wasn't on the couch any more.

Another first

Eli was probably 2 1/2 before he had his first juice box. Oh- it's good to be the second child!

Eli napping after his big day

Somebody was not ready to take his back pack off.

He took a big nap after preschool. As I am writing this, it is 9:30pm, and he is laying in his bed trying to read a Dick and Jane book with the light from his little Mater night light. It's so cute that I almost plugged in another night light. Almost.

First day of preschool

BEFORE
AFTER