Life is Good

Little Mister enjoying an ice cream cone to the fullest.

Happy Birthday to ME!

I got to spend my birthday this year doing what I love best: being a Mom and a Wife:) As an added bonus it was almost 80 degrees here today! You better believe we spent most of the day outside! Here are pictures of me and the kids with the cake that they decorated for me.

Winnie the Pooh

So, this is why Eli had a Winnie the Pooh birthday cake: for the past few weeks this Pooh Bear has been his nearly constant companion:

Notice the different clothes in each picture; these were three different days. And there could have been many, many more pictures. I love it when their toys become friends.

Cantigny

There's a great place near here that we go to about once a year called Cantigny. It has acres of beautiful grounds, a fantastic war museum, the mansion home of the original owner, and best of all (for the kids) real TANKS they can CLIMB on! Every time we go I think, "Why don't we come here more often?" This time we went because they were offering free hay rides around the grounds, so we did that first.

Eli couldn't get over the fact that we were being pulled by a tractor! He reminded me of the fact about every ten seconds our whole twenty minute ride.

This is Eli's new "cheese" face (with his head tipped way back):

And, of course, the tanks! Check out Eli's unsure face. It wasn't his idea to sit on the wheel; he wanted to be on top climbing! I gave in after awhile and nervously watched him try to keep up with his pretty agile brother and sister.

We should go more simply for the exercise; I've never seen Logan run so much as he did here from one tank to the next!

It was a fun fall day out with my kids!

Happy Birthday Eli!

Two years ago we were so excited to meet our little Eli. And what a blessing he has been to our family every day since. We love you Eli! We can't wait to see what this year with you will bring.

The ones above were on his birthday (the one with Logan was a few days later). This one was taken today, also on his birthday:)

Happy Birthday Party!

What a blessing these last two years of Eli have been! We're so glad Eli is a part of our family. Though his birthday is today, most of the celebrating has been done earlier in the week. On Sunday we had his party at Grandma and Grandpa Eldredge's house. While he couldn't have known exactly what was going to happen, he clearly knew something wonderful was going to happen and that it was his night. He was in such a happy, cute mood.

 Here are Winnie the Pooh and his friends from the Hundred-Acre Wood wishing Eli a happy day:

We love Ethan and Emily! When Eli heard they were coming, he wandered around the house saying "Me-Me," which is what he calls both Emily and Aunt Amy, until they got there. When you ask him to say Ethan, he just points to him:)

After blowing out the candles, we told him he could take Pooh off the cake. He happily did and was pleased to see frosting on Pooh's feet. Eli quickly licked off the frosting, and when it was gone promptly stuck Pooh back into the cake, pulled him out again, and licked off the new frosting. I watched him do this several times, laughing all the while, until someone took the cake away from him to stop the double dipping. Hey, it's his party, I say!

This truck was the favorite gift of the night. It was the cause of much joy and much sadness.

Happy birthday my darling boy. We love you!

Animal Houses

Ali takes such good care of her animals, stuffed and imaginary. One day she asked if she could take one of the (imaginary) wolves she has under her bed to church with us. "Not the mean one, the nice one," she assured me. I told her that would be fine, and watched with growing amusement and amazement as the day went on. She put him on a leash and walked him out to the car. When we got to church, she walked him into Sacrament Meeting and hooked his leash under her chair. After Sacrament Meeting, she unhooked him and walked him down the hall to Primary. When I picked her up at the end of the meetings, she asked me to hold her picture because she couldn't hold it and the leash! And when we got home she walked him up to her room and put him back in his cage under her bed! I couldn't believe it: she remembered to take care of her imaginary wolf for over four hours!

Fire!

School is in full swing, and I wouldn't have thought it was possible, but they're liking it even more this year than last (or maybe they're just more expressive about it this year).  They just got done with their fire safety unit and were so excited to show me how their shirts were on fire!

But don't worry, they know to Stop, Drop, and Roll! Cutie kids.

Writing Girl

Ali is getting more interested in letters, sounds, and words. She'll frequently look around the house and say things like, "Table starts with...ttt...T! Picture starts with...ppp...P!" And the other day when she was coloring she calls me over and says, "Look, Mom, it says 'The dog is eating the shoe!'" (Can you see her letters at the top of the page?) I think this Mommy needs to take some time and try and teach this girl to read!

Wish List

I don't know about you, but we talk about Santa and what we're going to wish for at Christmas every single day. And this isn't a new development; this has been going on since about April. Logan loves toys and is always asking for one thing or another, and since April my answer has always been, "Maybe you can wish for it for Christmas," and that satisfies him. Why since April, you ask? Because between January and March I tell him he can wish for it for his birthday:)

Anyway, imagine his joy when on Sunday I gave him the toy adds to look at. He spent hours pouring over them, each time finding something new to ohh and ahh over.

He's actually very cute about this fascination. He never demands for things now, understands that in the end he will only get one thing from Santa, frequently tells Heavenly Father in his prayers what his current wish list is (and thanks Him for the toys he does have), and often even asks me or Ali what we are going to wish for. The boy just really loves toys.