"YOU... ARE.... A.......TOY!"

If you spend any amount of time at our house then you definitely recognize the quote in the title. We are quickly becoming experts on Toy Story and Toy Story 2. As I was uploading the pictures for this post I overheard Eli say, "YOU ARE A TOY!", as he was playing with Buzz and Woody. It seemed an appropriate title for this post, although I'm not positive why....... So Christmas has offically begun for our family. We celebrated with my brother and his family yesterday afternoon and then with my Grandmother, Aunt and cousins last night. Eli and Lucy recieved very cool toys and clothes. Eli also recieved a very cool jacket from his Great Aunt Becky, it is a bomber jacket with Buzz Lightyear patches. Here are pictures of him sporting his new Buzz Lightyear jacket. He isn't much of a camera ham so this is the best I could do to get the picture. It was all I could do to get his shirt on first, he kept saying "my jacket". I will post more pictures from the 2 celebrations yesterday later. We are getting ready for church, so I better go freshen up. Enjoy! And thank you Aunt Becky for such a cool gift!

Just the girls

Last night was Fellowship Bible North's Women's Christmas Event. It was so nice. It was held at Next Level Events and included a yummy dinner, shopping from some local women, a program and ended with all 100+ women singing a few Christmas songs together. I was blessed to have both my mother and grandmother present. I am so thankful that we enjoy each other and are able to do outings like this together. Here is a snapshot of the 3 of us. Christmas is officially here!!!! We are celebrating with my brother and grandmother this weekend. I can't believe it is already here.........wow, time has just flown by! Merry Christmas to everyone. May you be blessed as we celebrate our Saviour's birth and remember the gift that he gave us so many years ago. God bless and guide you!

Our baby girl is 5 months old

Our sweet little Lucy is officially 5 months old as of yesterday. She is such a happy baby. Still spits up a bit, but nothing like it used to be before we started the Enfamil AR formula. She loves tummy time and is already showing signs that she might crawl in the next month or so, yikes! She loves to pull her feet above her head and kick her feet when she is in bed. When she kicks it makes a loud THUD THUD THUD. She appears to be a morning person, she wakes up happy and very content in the morning. Half the time she is awake and we just happen to look in on her and get her out. Very rarely does she fuss when she wakes up. She has been such a blessing. I could talk about her for days, but I know this isn't the place to ramble on and on. Thanks for checking in!

say cheese!

I was attempting to get some pictures of Lucy this morning and Eli decided it was a good time for him to take some pictures with his buzz lightyear camera. He took pictures of me taking pictures :)
Eli is definitely 2! He gets flustered easily and has breakdowns without much obvious reason. It has been quite an experience. As I may or may not have mentioned, he has had some night terror episodes in the past year, but most of them in the past month or two. I did some reading on them and came across articles that addressed terrible twos. I didn't read anything that I didn't kind of know, but I needed to be reminded as I deal with this stage. One thing it said is how at 2 years old children begin wanting to do things that they can't physically or mentally do or handle and they don't know how to handle that frustration so it often times turns into a tantrum. I have had to stop, take a few deep breaths and remind myself of what he is experiencing many times a day. It has helped. Now, don't get me wrong, we still discipline him, but what I was describing is how I keep calm and don't go crazy. It also helps me keep my expectations of him in check. There are days when I feel defeated before we get going and others where I feel very on top of things, but such is life with or without children, right? On a happier note, he is so fun. His imagination is getting bigger and better with every day. He loves to read books and play with his Buzz and Woody and his little einstein rocket. He loves to build things with blocks. He really loves to sing. For example, this morning I heard him singing and caught the verse "for da bi-ble tells me so..." We sing a lot of songs to and with him and they sing at school. Some times we can hear him singing on the monitor when he is going to sleep or nap time. It's fun to try and figure out what he is singing, although most of the time it isn't hard to figure out, he really knows the words well. He is a sponge! He will have seen something once, maybe twice and remeber it's name. Okay, so I could go on and on, but I will stop here. He is such a blessing. God has taught me many things through Eli and I look forward to learning much more in the years to come.

The new bed

I saw this bed on the IKEA website and fell in love! It is so stinkin cool. This is an early Christmas present from Eli's Gramma Gari. Thank you!! Right now it is set up as a single bed, but you can turn it upside down to make a bunkbed. When it is set up as a bunk bed the top bunk comes to my shoulders. It took Nathan about 5 hours or so to put it together and I think Eli's reaction made it more than worth it. He was saying "I wuv my bed mommy" and "Look at my wadder, I climb it" He was running in circles around the bed, on the bed, jumping, peeking out of the tent, it was so much fun watching him react with such excitement. Bedtime and nap time are still a challenge around here, but getting better. He does like his big boy bed, so that has helped. I think it might just be a power thing. He hasn't had any choice about bed or nap time until now, so he is trying out some power and independence. Eli being done with the crib has presented many challenges that we were not prepared for, but we are learning and making it through. I've heard it a million trillion times before and can now join the many that say "Being a mother is the hardest job I have ever done and will ever do" Saying that I must also say it has been the best job I have ever had and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Eli is 2!

Eli turned two yesterday and we celebrated with a party today. Yesterday was quite a day. He was a great example of what some refer to as "terrible twos". Today we had family and a few friends over for lunch and cake. It has been such a nice day. The weather has been awesome and all the kids seemed to have a good time. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked to of all the guest, but I can't really do anything about that now. Eli got lots of fun toys and books and colors and of course Buzz Lightyear stuff. Thanks to everybody for helping us celebrate. I can't believe our little boy is 2.