Summer Happenings

 

We've been going to the lake quite a bit. Eli loves watching his Dad on the "b-board."

For 4th of July, we had a few people over for a BBQ. Eli played basketball with Jesse and football with his uncles before watching the fireworks. The fireworks we watched were awesome and Eli loved them!


We've also done lots of swimming and splashing at home and with friends.

Last , but not least, we hang out at home. One day we fed breakfast to the stuffed animals and then Eli decided to walk around the house in his play shoes. Another day, all he could think about for like half and hour was sticking ear plugs in his ears. He tried to do it himself, but was having trouble, so he kept saying, "Mommy, Mommy, ears, ears." I would put them in and then they would fall out two seconds later and the whole thing would start over. He is such a good talker. He tells me what he wants to eat and what he wants to do. This morning he told his grandparents happy anniversary and the other night when Derek was wiping his hands and face after dinner, he told him, "Nope, stop." Another funny one, the other day we layed down together cause I was tired, so he offered me his paci. I told him no thanks he could keep it, so he said, "Try it."

Pics from our trip, finally

For those of you who don’t know, we went to visit Derek’s family in Australia & New Zealand the last part of May.  When we got back we moved right into our house, and have been a little busy, so I’m just now getting around to updating the blog.

Eli sitting in the luggage cart at the airport.  He was such a great traveler!  He pushed his stroller all around the airports, made friends with random strangers, slept well on the long flights in his basinet, and watched DVDs when he was awake.

 

Sylvie playing with slime

Bros and kiddos

Sylvie and Conor are both great big cousins and Eli watched everything they did.

The Milo twins

Eli feeding the kangaroos

Derek with the two cutest boys ever

Cool kids at the park

Derek’s parents live right by the beach, so it was nice to walk and jog on the beach in the mornings.

Eli and Conor eating ice cream.  They both have a major sweet tooth.

Sunday dinner

Nana helping Eli with his swimming togs and Greg with the boys at the pool.

Whangarei waterfall

 

Eli checking out Nemo

 

Eli chillin’ with Poppy and a butterfly on his head

The guys at the petting farm

Conor & Eli driving a tractor and Eli petting a sheep.  He now knows that they say ba-a.

Eli playing with Uncle Ryan and bowling with Dad

More bowling pics (doesn’t Conor look tough)

Last morning walk on the beach.

 

Family pic

Nana & Poppy with the boys

news from the pacific

Just thought I would do a quick update. We had fun in Australia (despite the torrential rain) and now we are enjoying NZ. Here is a link to a pic of us "cuddling" a koala. http://photo.koala.net/2105003663en.htm


It was actually kinda scary, but feeding the kangaroos was really fun, Eli and Sylvie both loved it. Here is one pic of that, but I'll add more pics later.









In other news, Eli is finally walking!! He just really started yesterday and he has taken up to ten or 12 steps. He thinks he is big stuff now. And, of course he continues to add to his vocab. Some recent additions are Horse, toys, thirsty, please, and Wallaby, but he can pretty much repeat anything we say.

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday we had a successful garage sale and then spent the evening together. On Sunday we spoke at church and we got to spend lots of time playing with Eli, who has finally started taking some steps. We also got to talk to Doug in Argentina, which was lots of fun. He's doing great and getting lots of bullseyes, ha ha. My boys were very good to me as you can see. Eli picked the little purple flowers himself.







This is Eli eating some of the pie my Dad made us. He did the cooking last night and it was yummy!

Love & Sanding

This is when we were in the middle of sanding, which took us 2 1/2 days. Derek did most of the work, but I did help quite a bit on this project, unlike the shower, which was all him. He is a stud and I love him! It was hard work, but fun to work together. Thanks to Mom, Heather, and Joey for helping with Eli.







This is the finished product (I think). We think it looks really good.


I better give a shout out to Derek's awesome shower too or I'll get in trouble.



Before and After

Easter

We had a great Easter. Eli loved hunting for eggs as long as they had sweets in them (raisinets & fruit snacks). He would find an egg, open it, and eat everything inside before going on to the next. So, it didn't take long before all the goodies were gone. I think he gets that from his Dad. He even kept his Easter hat on quite a bit, which was a suprise. Thanks to grandma for the cute outfit. We also tried to explain to him the reason for celebrating. Of course he doesn't get it yet, but he did say Jesus several times and he points to the painting of Christ on the wall.

On Saturday, Eli and Jesse hunted eggs at the farm. They were soo cute! On Sunday, Marcus hunted eggs and Eli dumped out his basket. Eli wouldn't hunt them because there were no sweets inside.