what three months can do

Yes, it's true. Eli is three months. We have now left the infant stage, and entered the baby stage. We commemorate each turning month with a little photo shoot in the same onsie. I put this size 12 months onsie on him in the hospital and have used each month since. Our big boy almost filled it out in the hospital and each month I wonder if it will fit.... or even look baggy. I'm thinking I should have done long sleeves, then we could see more of a progression. Oh well, maybe with the next babe.

At three months, Eli is very alert. LOVES to follow Will's ever move, and loves to smile at him. Giggles, is super ticklish, everywhere, and plays with his hair to no end. He wraps his little fingers all over in his hair and makes little knots, and then it goes all "fro-ey." Speaking of hair, I'm pretty sure it is about 3-4 inches long, and doesn't seem to be getting thinner, only thicker and longer.
Sorry for the lighting in these pictures. The pic above is E wearing one of Scott's baby hats. Isn't it fun? It fits him perfectly!! He's such a sweet baby. Takes great naps, goes to sleep like a champ, hardly ever cries, eat 8 oz. every 7-8 hours (yes, you read that correctly), rolls over from tummy to back, and has just started batting his hands at his toys on his little play thing.
Isn't he irresistible? I think so. Seriously, look at those legs, and those cheeks, and those dark eyes. Oh, I love this boy, more than I ever thought possible. My life has changed in a myriad of ways these past three months, and I am so blessed to have this gift in our family. I can't wait to see him grow up, but I don't want to wish the time away, it already goes so fast.

As for other family news, we're great. Will is amazing in all aspects of our life, and Scott is doing great as a dad, husband, and employee. Life really couldn't get any better.... okay, it would be nice if the the sun would shine a little more, I'm ready for Spring! But other than that, life is perfect.

my goal this week

"Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows.” - President Thomas S. Monson

get your bowling shoes on!

We had a GREAT weekend! Our weekend started off with Scott and I enjoying a date night. We went to the movie The Blindside. We LOVED it, naturally. It was so inspiring, if you haven't seen it, please go! It was great to have a night out with my hubby. We haven't had an official date night in a very long time. We even got popcorn, the biggest one possible so we could refill it on the way out! :) Yep, we're nerdy. Will loved it the next morning though!

On Saturday, per Will's request, we went bowling. We found a great, family friendly, bowling alley and had a great time. Will wasn't so sure about our cool shoes at first, but he was very excited to send his ball down the lane.

A lesson in bowling, from Dad beforehand. Will was pretty proud that he could carry his ball all by himself! What a big boy!
Great form Scott! :) Isn't he cute, even from behind.
This is what Eli looks like all smooshed into his carseat before we go anywhere! He's awesome.
And of course, no Saturday would be complete without a good wrestle before bed. Even Eli loves to join in on the fun! Being the only girl in the family has it's advantages, I'm not expected to wrestle, and when I do, they have to "be nice" to mom!
I sure love my little family! We have some great moments together and love to laugh with each other. On the way to church, we were laughing SO hard at Will that we both started crying. He was on a run of what my mom used to call "diarreah of the mouth." He was barely stopping his chatting, noises, expressions just to take a breath. He was seriously on one, it was reminding me of the movie Elf, when Buddy is talking to his little "brother" after school and it's one question or comment right after another.

I did have a little time to do some crafting this week. I've been seeing these all over the place and thought I could probably make one myself. It was fun to make, only took me a few minutes, and is very fun to wear..... even when little kids stare at my head and wonder why I have feathers in my hair. ;)

You can go HERE if you want to know how I made it. Pretty self-explanatory, but just in case....

dressed to impress

I love dressing the boys up on Sunday. Including Scott! :) They ALL, always looks so handsome. Usually we are rushing, late for church, running out the door too quick to grab a picture. But this was our first week of later church. Ah, it was such a nice morning. We relaxed, bathed the kids, and were able to get ready slowly without any fights.

Here's the finished product:

I couldn't help taking an extra shot of Eli. He's such a little man, looking all dressed up and so big. He's almost 3 months! What a cutie. Those cheeks get kissed a 1000 times a day......

"D" is for dinosaurs

We hosted preschool this week at our house. We talked about the letter "D" and Dinosaurs. Who do you guess was SO excited about talking about dinosaurs? Yes, Will was very animated, to say the least. We did some really fun activities, I meant to get pictures of a lot more, but when you've got kids running all over your house, you kind of forget the camera.

To start out, we had a mini dig. They each got to find a dinosaur hidden in their "pail" amongst sand and rocks. They loved using their popsicle stick shovels to find their dinosaur and they especially loved showing everyone when they found their dino.

Then we moved on to decorating our own dinos. We used cereal. Most of the kids just wanted to eat their cereal, but Will was pretty excited about making his chocolate chips into spikes.

Can you believe it, that is all the pictures I have. Here's some of the other fun things we did this week to discover dinosaurs:

-we made a volcano and watched the hot lava explode

-we made our own "Shoeasaurus" using a tracing of our feet

-we made dinosaur nests and put eggs in it

-we marched around and sang the Laurie Berkner dinosaur song

-we ate breadstick dinosaur bones, and pretended to be paleontologists while we dug out chocolate chips from chocolate pudding

-we read lots of dinosaur books

We had a great time. Will loves when preschool is at our house and we have a lot of fun planning fun activities.

words to live by

Last night I spent ten minutes reading. I picked up my Ensign before bed and started to read an article. I am SO glad that I did, it was one of those times where the words and the message just speaks to you... you know what I mean? I've been debating over new year's resolutions, and if I wanted to make them or not. I think goals are great, and everybody should have them, but I have issues with resolutions. Mostly because I'm always changing, rearranging and doing things over throughout the year. Then I feel bad or guilty because I changed my original goal. So this year, I opted out. The only "goal" I've made for myself is to do a complete 30 day workout with my new video The 30 Day Shred. It's awesome. Anyways, onto this article. I really enjoyed reading it, it was the best 10 minutes of my day. One part really stuck out to me.... these are my new words to live by:

"As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you no to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future (I love that). Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives."

Love it. If you want the whole scoop, go HERE. This is an article called The Best is Yet To Be, by Jeffrey R. Holland

What an inspiration. Truly, we must live in the moment and look forward to the future. I often contemplate about the "good 'ol days" and I think that is okay. But I need to remember that those were good days, and there are many more wonderful amazing days yet to come!

Happy 2010!

have you ever....

Have you ever watched a baby fall asleep? I just did, it was amazing. I have been blessed with babies who are chubby, content, and who fall asleep mostly unassisted. Tonight, I put Will in bed, sang him songs until he was breathing heavily, while cradling my little E. Then I went downstairs, sat by my fire and watched Eli fall asleep. I swaddled him, smiled at him, and got several smiles and endless "coos" from him. Then I laid him on the couch to fall asleep (I'm hoping he just takes a little cat nap... that is why he's not being put in his bed, we want him to eat in an hour or so). He's so snug in his blanket, and he just laid here for about 10 minutes "talking" to me. Smiling every time I glanced at him. Then, the talking stopped, he whimpered a little, I gave him the binki, and his eyes started getting heavy. Now, he's blissfully sleeping, like a little burrito. So sweet and innocent, I just love it. Now I get to enjoy a few moments of quiet before I really start my 2010. This is a great way to start though.....

oh will, how we love you

Have I mentioned how much we LOVE Will? Well, we do. He has some wonderful qualities, even as a three year old. Will is always up for a good time, is so loving and genuinely cares and thinks of others before himself, loves chocolate as much as his mom, has the capacity to have adult-like conversations on a daily basis, and makes anyone who knows him laugh.

He is growing up before my eyes, and I only wish I could make time go a little slower. He is so independent and seems older and older each day. My favorite thing about Will are the things he says these days. Let me share:

• Whenever Eli wakes up, Will runs over and says "Oh, he's just right awake!" Instead of "wide" awake. He even says it in a sweet little high pitched voice.
• When we were delivering our Christmas gifts to neighbors, he was walking out of neighbors house and said "I saw you out walking your dog the other day, and your dog looks like a cow!" Then, out the door he goes! They have a very large, very chubby Bassett hound. Scott and I were left speechless, and then rolling with laughter.
• Will makes up words he thinks he's heard. The other day, he came up with a "Hydrator" a machine that delivers presents for Santa.
• Ever since Christmas he's said to me multiple times "Mom, I sure hope you had a VERY Merry Christmas!"
• Instead of saying "startle" he says "starkle" and best of all, he says "That starkles my tummy!"
• Lovingly looking at his gingerbread house before we threw it out he said "Mom, next year we should build a gingerbread house and put a hose on it!"

• He's been watching Night at the Museum, the Smithsonian, and said to me "I really like Emelia Airhart, I like her hair, it's curly, and beautiful!"
• And my favorite. His little friend was over playing, his friend's mom had a baby just 4 days after Eli was born, so they are both very into babies. While they were playing, Eliza, Will's friend said "Um, Will? Your baby brother has dark skin, and you have white skin." Will responded very straight forward and said "I know, Eliza. It's because Eli is adopted, and his mom Keona couldn't take care of him, so now we get to have a baby!" Then he just went right on playing like nothing had even happened. I was so proud. He knows exactly what's going on, and I'm glad he had something to say because this is only the beginning of the questions he might get asked! Good job Will!

We just love our Will. He such a happy child. I told him to do something goofy for the camera, and this is what I got. I felt like a good Will post was needed, we've been bombarding the blog with our little E man. I really feel so blessed to have these two sweet boys in my life. I love spending everyday with them, watching them grow, and seeing what a fun little boy Will is growing up to be.

alert the media!

We've done it.... we've found the "world's cutest baby!" I guess I'm slightly biased, or obsessed. However you want to put it, I'm pretty sure I have THE cutest boys I could ever have. Not only are they cute, they are such good boys, I can't wait for the day they can run and play together.

Will is such a charmer, and he loves his little bro, more and more everyday. Eli is trying to talk, and is growing like a weed. I just love these little boys, I am so lucky.
Now, you can stop looking, World's Cutest Baby has been found.....

a christmas to remember

This Christmas was so fantastic. It was a Christmas I will always remember. We were going, going, going, and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Above all, I was so happy and grateful for my sweet little family. I felt so content this Christmas, like everyone who was supposed to be here, was. It was a wonderful feeling, and our little Christmas was magical.

Warning: this is a long post with a lot of pictures... sorry!

To begin our festivities, we ventured to the "Christmas Story House." In case you were wondering, this movie was filmed right here in Cleveland.... if you listen closely, you can here them talk about "Cleveland Street." Well, it wasn't exactly ON Cleveland street, but very near downtown Cleveland itself.... a little bit of a shady neighborhood, but still very fun to see it. They also have a museum and gift shop across the street from the house, so that was fun also. It's open year round, in case you want to come visit me and go see it!!

Here's the house, with us in front.... They have restored it to look just as it was in the movie. Leg lamp in all it's glory shines bright.

Oh fuuudddddggge...... remember when they get a flat tire? This is the very car from the movie. Classic. We also saw lots of the other "classics" like the really LONG wool hats, the leather cap with googles that Flick wears. We even saw little miniatures of Skut Farkus, Flick sticking his tongue to the flag pole, and Randy in the red snow suit.
Several of these classic items were for purchase. We were REALLY tempted to purchase something, but the eye popping price tag of $109.00 for the pink bunny suit made us think twice. We were a little shocked to see all the leg lamp parafanelia, you can get one in every size!
I forgot to mention that we went to the Christmas Story house with our friends. Afterward, we came back here to do some warming up. We had yummy tortilla soup and let our kids play. This is Eli and his new friend Anderson. Aren't they cute? They are only a couple weeks apart, and are already great friends, I can just tell. The other night, Anderson was stroking Eli's hair.... EVERYBODY loves to touch "E's" hair!
Christmas Eve morning was really great. I woke up before everybody, went downstairs in the dark, turned on the Christmas lights, had some hot chocolate while I listened to Christmas music and planned out my day. Our house has been cozy during Christmas, I love the glow of the Christmas lights. I've been debating on leaving some up on my mantel all year just because I love it.... we'll see.

Eli had his 2 mo. check up on Christmas eve morning. Yes, I know kind of weird, but it was the soonest available. So, we got up and got ready to head out the door. He looked so handsome in his button down shirt, I couldn't resist a picture. He is getting so big! He's in the 80% for weight, 50% for height. He's a sweetie, and we have loved watching him grow. He's even been sleeping in his bed!
Christmas Eve was so much fun. It was a very relaxing day. We had two families/friends over. We had the meal all planned, the table set, and everything ready to go. I even got to take a nap! That's what preparation and organization does! ;)

I'm wishing I would have taken a picture with all the food out, but I didn't get time to do that. I did take a picture of our name cards though. I thought they turned out cute. You probably can't see them very good, but they were all cute and glittery. I made white chocolate popcorn, and put everyone's name on their own bag, then on their plate. We LOVED using our Christmas dishes to entertain this year, it is such a fun tradition, I'm glad we started it. These are my yellow bird plates, they are out everyday (on my wall) but we got to use them as part of our Christmas stuff to make enough place settings. This was our fourth year of our Christmas dishes tradition, it's growing!! Now at least we have one place setting for each of us!
After our wonderful meal of ham, potatoes, raspberry jello salad, spinach salad with strawberries, wild rice and corn salad, we were stuffed. So we sat around and let our kids open presents, read the scripture story, sang some songs, and read the Night Before Christmas. The kids loved their PJ's and of course put them on right away.

Here's the cute kiddos. All these boys are really close in age and have a great time together. In fact, I thought it was funny because between all of us there are only boys! Six to be exact, and they are all almost the same ages!
This is Myrtle. Myrtle is a sweet little lady in our ward. She doesn't have family, so we decided to have her over for our Christmas Eve. I think she enjoyed herself, and all the noise. We got her some PJ's to open too!! I think she really liked that. Isn't she sweet?


And here's a picture of all of us, minus a couple babies that were sleeping. It was a blast to have everyone over. After PJ's, we put on a movie for the kids and we played some games, ate even more food, had hot chocolate, and laughed a lot.
The kids decorated sugar cookies for Santa, and were having a great time!

Here's Will posing by his creations for Santa. I bet Santa thought these were the best cookies he got all night!! wink wink.
Here's my boys. Eli looked like a little Elf in his "Baby's First Christmas" PJ's, I loved them.
CHRISTMAS MORNING!!

Our Christmas Eve didn't end until about midnight. Will didn't go to bed until 12:30am. That is the latest he has ever stayed up, I couldn't believe he was still going strong. He was so excited about Christmas. Since he went to bed so late, he didn't get up until 8am, which I was quite happy with. Eli gave us a great Christmas present by eating at 11pm, going to bed IN HIS CRIB, and sleeping until 5:30am, then getting in bed with us, and not waking or eating again until 8am when Will came in to get us. I was quite happy with that, he is learning to sleep in his bed!!

When Will started opening presents, he would take each little thing, and line it up behind the couch by the tree, it was so funny. He kept saying "I'm SO lucky!" "This is SO fun!" He was having a great time, and it was a lot of fun to see him so excited about such little things. Christmas is so fun with kids.

Here's little E Christmas morning, bright eyed and not a clue to what was going on.

Will's BIG gift was a pirate ship with a million little pieces and parts (half of which are already lost). He LOVED it. Has been playing with it a lot and was so excited to open it. It was his final present to open and ended Christmas on a good note!

Our Christmas festivities didn't stop after un-opening gifts. We layed around, took naps, and then headed to our friends house for fondue. Will played and enjoyed himself. When we got home, Will and Scott put up the air-matress, got out the sleeping bags and had a "Daddy's night." They watched a movie, ate candy, and slept by the tree. Eli and I went to bed.... and Eli slept again in his bed for almost 5 hours!!

The day after Christmas, we did some shopping with some gift cards, and relaxed some more. I used Scott's time off work to PUT him to work on taking down the tree. I know, bit sudden, but I wanted his help and it is back to work on Monday. So, we took down the Christmas stuff, to which Will was saddened to tears. Crying and crying saying "I'm NOT ready for Christmas to be over!!" It was cute. He sure enjoyed himself. That night, we called some friends to see if they wanted to get in the hot tub. We were hoping to do it Christmas Eve, but ran out of time. So, they came over, we ordered pizza, and the boys enjoyed the hot tub while Stacey and I stayed inside with Anderson and Eli.
The boys had a blast and Will is talking about doing it again real soon!

It has been such a fun holiday, one of our best as a married couple. We look forward to many more Christmases in our home, and making more memories as a family. Life is great. I love Christmas and I love the strength it gives us to go on and start another year. We are looking forward to another year, getting back on our "routine" and see what the year has in store for us. It is always a little sad to take down the tree, but we are looking forward to a visit from Grandpa and Grandma in February, and Will is excited to get back to pre-school and our regular library visits.

I hope you all had a great holiday! We missed our family and are grateful for them more than ever during Holidays. Love to you all~

the elf on our shelf

A few days ago, we received an exciting visitor. His name is Toolsmidknob, we just call him Tooly. He is an Elf sent straight from Santa himself. He came with very precise instructions and detailed information about himself and why he was at our house. He is here to remind us to do good deeds during Christmas, to serve others in remembrance of Christ, and of course to record all of our doings to pass along to Kris Kringle himself. The best part about Tooly is that he is quiet during the day, just observing our home, and then at night, he bounces off the walls, runs through our halls, steals our holiday treats and leaves crumbs everywhere, and has gotten himself into some predicaments. When we wake up, we never know where he'll be hiding or what trouble he may have caused in the night time. One morning we found him swinging from our chandelier, that was the same night he ate a chocolate kiss and left crumbs and wrappers everywhere.

This morning we found Tooly hiding behind our bench in the kitchen, he was holding one of Will's squishy snakes! Yikes! I think he likes it at our house and we will be sad when he leaves on Christmas Eve. We hope he is putting good notes in that book of his, and we hope he comes back next year!
PS - Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for adding a bit more magic into our Christmas holiday!

PSS - If anyone would like more info regarding the Elf on our shelf, write me an e-mail! :)