Eli

What can I say, this boy makes my heart melt. I love every little thing about him and those eyes let him get away with too much around our house :) I'm sooooo behind on all of my personal editing but I had taken these and just loved them so I thought I'd get them finished as fast as I could. It was actually a beautiful day today so we decided to be outside and enjoy the fresh air. It was so funny......the other morning Eli came to our room after he woke up and he always asks for cereal right off the bat. This time was no different except I guess I wasn't fast enough getting out of bed that he turned around in the doorway and said "well....are you coming or what? " I guess I was a little surprised and both me and Tan just looked at each other and cracked up. Yes, I am the cereal slave. Today I had noticed a small scrape on his leg and asked him what had happened.....his reply was "I don't know but it's freaking me out! " This kid keeps me on my toes :)

I still haven't even posted Mya or Eli's birthday pics (not that they are super fabulous or anything, but still! ) but I will have them soon. Here's a few of my little monkey, such a cutie!

The bottom right photo ( in case you were wondering why I was showing you a mound of grass) is my little "ice cream cone" Every time we play on the playset Eli is selling ice cream. This little mound of grass/ice cream cost me $500 dollars!!! It was worth every penny :)

He's got personality

If you only knew how silly, cute and fun this little guy is in person you would be amazed :) He cracks me up every day and sometimes I can't believe the things he says. He's a little ball of energy and never can sit still-I don't think calm and serene are words that come to mind. Sometimes I think I'm gonna go crazy and Taner will come home to find me sitting comatose on the couch with my eye twitching while I stare off into space, but then the rest of the time I'm filled to the brim and spilling out with so much love that I could burst. Why is it like that? He brings me so much joy that I can't imagine my life without him. Life is definitely a roller coaster but one that you don't want to miss-I enjoy every minute with Eli and I'm going to be so sad when he goes to preschool and we don't have as much time together.

Behold for yourself.......he has so many different expressions all rolled into one little boy-I just crack up every time I see this. ha ha!

.Eli is 2 1/2!.

This little guy brightens up my day! I'm always amazed at the little things he does and says....he's sooooo smart!! He knows all of his colors, he can almost count to 20 (almost) is such a good big brother, has a contagious laugh, my little ball of energy, likes to play with my hair and cuddle, has the cutest smile I've ever seen, he's really good at sports ( doesn't get that from me :) ) and is so caring and loving. He cracks me up-he's got this little sense of humor that he loves to share and be the life of the party. It's been so fun to watch him grow and turn into the little person he is right now and I can't wait to see what he does and who he becomes. I love you Eli!!! You are my sunshine :)

.Powertools and Playsets.

We now have a playset in our yard!! I've been waiting a long time to have a big enough yard that we could actually have one for Eli and I think he's pretty happy! I had no idea just how much it took to put together one of these things and Taner earned major brownie points on this one, hee hee!! Love ya Tan! A big thanks goes out to Taner's dad, grandparents and to Toni (Eli's new best friend) for all their help... Tan and I would've still been putting it together and probably not speaking to one another :) Eli was a big help too, he would hold the measuring tape for us, use the electric drill (without any bits of course) and help read the HUGE book of directions. Here's to a job well done guys, it looks great and Eli loves his new playset! Thanks so much:)

Milestones.Yipee!

Can't you just see me doing the happy dance right now??? Guess who is potty trained as of a couple weeks ago? I am so excited that he did it, it's been a wild ride but considering we went through a move, a new baby, etc... I think he did a great job and I couldn't be more proud of him. Way to go little man!!! I'm sure you think I'm a little crazy for taking pics of him in "action" but I wanted to document this for all of our hard work that paid off. He'll be mortified in later years but I think it's so cute!

AS for this little munchkin...she's been talking to us in all kinds of sounds and squeals, and we call her our little sunshine. She always wakes up so happy and it makes my day to start out that way. I can't get enough of these cheeks and I just want to kiss them all day! She's almost rolling over...and she's at that stage of chunky that I love with the creases in the legs....I keep hoping time can just hold still for a minute while I take it all in. I just love days like this!! Being a mom is amazingly crazy-fun :)

Much love, Jen

{Eli's Friends}

As we're getting ready to head out to Idaho, I can't help but feel a little sad...Eli has made so many friends here and we're going to miss the families we've gotten close to here in California. Here's a few pics of him and his friends here at Creekside, we're going to miss these hooligans!! Much love and thanks for everything! To see the full set of pics, hop on over to my photo blog, we had a lot of fun!

{Munchkins}

These two hooligans always make me smile!! While editing these, I couldn't help but laugh because during most of the shots, I kept catching Eli running in the corner, totally naked and all you would see was Mya happily grinning while Eli's bare bum was a blur in the background. Ha!! He's such a crack up and he says the funniest things lately. Just recently he has been telling us there's an "elephant coming" and he runs to the couch to be safe. Then he says "save you mama" and hugs me tight to keep me safe. I love it!! I'm not quite sure where he came up with the elephant, but he's definitely been showing more of his imagination. Mya is just our little sunshine, smiling a lot lately and just being a little sweetheart. I had the chance to take some pics of a beautiful baby girl the other day and since I was already set up I couldnt' resist getting a few shots of my own cuties. Enjoy! and if you want to see a preview of the session I had, hop on over to my photo blog, they're super cute!

.keepin' it real.

These silly pics were all found on my little point and shoot camera so that's why they're not the greatest quality but I just had to share! Laurie, the one in the robe is for you...we got him to wear it! :) These are an example of what we do with our time around these parts, pretty important stuff as you can tell! Eli's been "fixing" everything around the house lately.

He also went to a transformer birthday party awhile back and he had such a blast! He was hi-fiving the guy through the whole party and was making all kinds of transformer "moves" for the ladies, ha ha, so cute! We'll have to do something like that next year for his birthday.

Anyways, sorry for the picture quality but these were too funny.

{Rain, Rain..Go away!}

Not really, I actually LOVE the rain but when you have two little kiddos who are sick as well, sometimes keeping everyone happy and entertained is a whole different story! Eli loves playing out in the rain so when it broke for a minute we ran out super fast and let him run wild and free!! I see you lookin' at his crazy hair, we've decided doing your hair around here is optional, ha! His fashion choice wasn't exactly gap kids either but I'm loving it anyways. Aside from all that, Taner is now back to work....I'll admit I was a little scared to be manning the fort all on my own but I'm doing okay so far....check back at the end of the week! Oh, and is anyone else eagerly anticipating the last season of LOST to finally be here? Taner and I watched all the episodes back to back on Netflix since we weren't getting much sleep and we're totally hooked!! I hope it hurries up, I really need my fix!! Take care, much love, Jen

{E-man's birthday party}

Wow! This took me forever to get posted but better late than never, right? Eli's birthday was a lot of fun even though there was a complete lack of planning on my part. We ended up just having a small get together at our house after going bowling and just kept it pretty low key. Eli got so many cool presents and I think this year was the year he started to really get the idea. I also posted a picture of a little card that we get to read every year for Eli's birthday....my sister did this up when I had Eli's baby shower 2 years ago and it's the cutest thing! She had everyone at the shower write down advice for each year of his life until he reaches 18 and she did each year up in a really cute way! This year it was a little shoe and when you open it up, there's all these great words of advice from people I love on what to expect or how to deal with that age. Some of the things said are hilarious, others are heartwarming and I truly look forward to reading each one when his birthday comes around. My sister is so stinkin' creative and thoughtful.....I dont' know what the heck I'll do when she has her babies, I'm in trouble!! I just thought it was a great idea to do for a shower if you were in need of a fun idea! Anyways, hope you are having a great weekend! I love you Eli! I can't believe you're already two!

Here's the cake that I worked sooooo hard on......Uggh!! It was pretty cheesy but Eli seemed to like it even though there were some language barrier issues at the ice cream shop.....the cake ended up saying Happy 2 TH , not happy 2 ND.....ha ha and there wasn't any lightning McQueen figures, just spongebob. Sigh......I'll do better next year! :)

I think he had a great time, don't cha think?