We're still kickin'

We've been busy.

Birthday parties for friends.

Work.

Play.

Fun.

SMILES!

And when we are busy, we get tired and fall asleep.

Our own little storyteller

Things have been going crazy for us lately. I have quite a few things that need to be posted, but will get to them eventually...

The most exciting thing to report is Eli has moved up to telling us stories from his day! The other day we were eating dinner and we had asked him how his day was, a typical dinner question at our house. His typical reply is something to the effect of, "good. I want to do that again." Meaning he wants to go back to Mary, his babysitter's house. He did start out with the good on this occassion, but the next thing was "Colby cried." We then proceeded to ask why. After a little deliberation (so cute, his little eyes look up at the celing with a tipped head) his reply was "he hit Christoper." When we asked why he cried instead of Christopher, he told us because Mary yelled at him. LOL I can't remember what we asked next, but there was something that totally confused him and he quit the story telling. We did ask if he hit his friends and he got this shocked expression and said "Nooooooooo, it's not niiiiiice" while shaking his head. What a sweet little boy!

Will post more later on the most recent events.

Weekend? What weekend?

What a whirlwind of a weekend! We were kept on our toes but had a great visit with friends and family.

On Thursday, our good friends came for dinner while they spent some time in the Pacific Northwest. We got to meet their little girl, Avery, for the first time. Eli enjoyed having someone to play with although she wasn't quite as mobile as he would have liked. The next time we all get together that will be another story!

Sweet Avery

Jess, Christel, Eli, Shannon, Avery, Rob

Shortly before they left, we welcomed Jess's brother and his family to the crowd. We got to spend the weekend with Ryan, Sarah and Brooklynn. On Thursday, Ryan and Jess played had fun competing on the Wii (yes, I participated too). Friday we went to the Seattle Aquarium and had fun looking at the fish. Eli and Brooklynn had fun getting to know each other a little more, too.

Brooklynn and Eli playing in the yard

Ryan and Jess dueling in sword fighting

Brooklynn loving Eli's bike

Eli and the otter bench

Jess, Eli, Brooklynn, and Ryn

(I love how Brooklynn is leaning into Eli)

Saturday found us at Woodland Park Zoo. We all had so much fun, couldn't believe we spent 4 1/2 hours there when we finally left. Eli has asked several times if we can do that again. Tonight as I was putting him to bed he was listing off the animals that he wants to see again (ok, probably just the ones that he could remember at the time). For the most part, they were they farm animals...and penguins! I was picture happy (is this a shocker? No, not really), and got a LOT of really good pictures so it's hard to pick just a few to post. I really need to send Ryan and Sarah a copy of what I got, there are some adorable pictures of them and Brooklynn.

Daddies and their kiddos

Eli LOVED it!

Sarah and Booklynn

Eli and those beautiful big brown eyes

The Petting Zoo!

Brooklynn has the cutest little curls!

We also had our other good friends stay with us this weekend! (I told you we were busy!) Friday through Sunday found Brandon, Lindsay and baby Jayden staying with us, too. Jayden is coming up on 12 weeks in a hurry and is as cute as a button. Auntie Christel got her to smile quite a bit and giggle a few times. What a cutie! Unfortunately, I haven't downloaded those pictures to the computer yet. Soon! And when I do, I'll post a few of her and her cute little mommy and daddy!

Splish Splashin'

As our summer break is winding down, Eli and I have been staying busy with play dates and just having fun together. Monday found us playing at the park with one of my coworkers and her little guy who is 3 months older than Eli. That was great! The boys hadn't ever played together, so it was good catching up with her and watching them interact - and do their own things!

Today we spent about 3 hours swimming with our good friends, Sandy and Drew. Drew is a lot older than Eli, but he is such a good sport and seems to really enjoy playing with him. They play cars together when they can. Today, Drew did a great job of humoring Eli as he continued to drop water toys into the pool for Drew to dive down and recover. It took Eli a while to actually want to go in the water though. He was content dropping toys in the pool and playing with his cars. I was finally able to get him into the hot tub (it was only 85 degrees) then after a few minutes got him into the pool. Of course going from the hot tub to the cooler pool didn't make him a very happy swimmer, but it didn't take long before he was smiles and loving it.

Cars are usually involved when Eli and Drew get together.

In the pool. I love the goggle eyes from Drew in the background!

Goggle boy...

Wah-lah! No more goggles!

Giggles in the hot tub.

Jumpin' In!

Can We See the Fishies?

Today we had to run into Seattle with my parents, then decided to visit the aquarium. This was Eli's first time at "our" aquarium and he loved it. Before leaving my parents this afternoon, they have him a new truck. It is now referred to as "Papa's car." We can't call it Papa's truck because he already has one with that name and you can't have multiple cars with the same name and every car must have a name.

We love how this looks like he's just zooming along

Today was the first time I've been able to see anything that looks like me in Eli. We have the same chin!

Our little jellyfish

A little lovin'

JoAnn Update!

Honestely, I never thought I would hear anything back from my call to corporate about Eli's and my interesting visit to the fabric store. I was told that they would send me a gift card because of the hassle, and assumed that if that truly happened, it would be around $20. Yesterday I got a $50 card in the mail! Talk about a surprise! I have a few projects that I want to do, a new shower curtain and a drape of some sort for the window above the stairs, now I can set out and possibly do so once I get movitivated! LOL

Since it's so chilly this morning I'm thinking maybe Eli and I will go into school and unpack a few boxes from my move to a new room. He usually enjoys playing in my classroom, so we'll see how much of a dent I can make in the massive pile of boxes today!

New Do

Last week was hot. I couldn't stand having hair on my neck anymore. So I did what I always do...I chopped of my hair! Katharine cut her hair too and it looks absolutely adorable and I told her I'd post pictures of my new do, so here I am and here it is!

I'm not entirely sure why, but I have my head tipped down at kind of a weird angle. Wy I don't know, but I'm not retaking the picture.

On a side note, we get our house fixed tomorrow! Hopefully Jess will be back to his normal self by the time Ron, our contractor, arrives at 8am. Poor guy has been sick as can be today.