The Burns Family

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo! Luke is Two!!!

2011-07-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

(before I begin - props to Aunt Kristi for a precious birthday hat and shirt, and to Holly for the cutest invites ever! - www.shophollydays.com)
Our sweet Luke had his 2nd birthday the day after we moved into our new house - kind of hectic! We went out to celebrate at our fav Mexican restaurant, where he was serenaded w/ a birthday song and got to eat some cake (thanks Grammy!).
(Even Luke doesn't understand why they always smear whipped cream all over the birthday boy/girl's face)
If you ask him how old he is, he says, "Two!" and show you either his entire hand, or he'll hold up one finger on each hand.
He had been so excited about his choo choo birthday party that we had just one week after moving into our home. It was very hard getting everything together - moving furniture/boxes, painting 8 rooms, finding party supplies, etc. But, thankfully, with the help of a lot of people, especially Nanny, we got the party together just as people were walking in the door!

Luke loves choo choos, so that was this year's theme - All of the food was on top of "choo choo cars" and the desserts were all on a railroad track (cupcakes & marshmallow pop choo choos & cake pop "trees"). The actual cake, which really was for display since Luke can't eat eggs, came from publix.

We had a great time with lots of great friends and family over. The kids enjoyed eating some cake, opening, presents, and then pulling the strings on the pinata to race after all of the candy.
The birthday boy loves him some cake!

The pinata was a GI Joe pinata I found on clearance for $1 a Party City. But with a little decoupage and scrapbook paper, Luke had his own personalized pinata. :)

Train whistle party favors for all our friends
We generally forget taking a family picture at b'day parties, so we were thrilled to remember to take a picture with our family
and with all of the grandparents too!

It was such a fun way to celebrate Luke turning 2 years old. It's hard to believe that he's getting so grown up, but he's still as sweet as can be. The day of his party I asked him if had fun and he said "yes...cake...eat it...happy birthday to Luke...two!!!"
Now whenever it's someone's birthday, he still thinks it's his and he sings to himself.

We have tons more pictures from the party, but seeing as how it has taken me nearly 3 weeks to post this, I think we'll stick with a few pictures here and the rest will just make it in the baby book Another reason to come visit :)

Stationery card

2011-06-28T21:24:00.001-07:00

Picture Window Blue Birth Announcement

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Moving On...

2011-06-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

So we have now officially sold and left our first home. Kind of sad, but exciting at the same time. When we had the house built, Stephen and I were very newly married – only a few months into marriage. It was just us – no kids, no dog, both working – Stephen at E&Y and me at Oak Grove. Since then...we bought our dog, Sage. Stephen started working at Southern Company. We had our first son, Elijah. I stopped working. We had our second son, Luke. And here we are today.

There are lots of memories that were made in the house –

telling Stephen I was pregnant w/ Elijah, in the garage (where he laughed for 5 min before coming inside to find me)
walking into the house when Elijah was still in the NICU, seeing a poster that sweet Emily Key made with pictures of our new baby boy, and just crying realizing he should be with us
bringing both our boys home from the hospital after they were born
dancing around the bedroom to Nickel Creek with Elijah in our arms
swinging with the boys on our back porch
Stephen chasing the boys around the kitchen/den while I cooked dinner (always hitting my bottom every time they passed, saying “badonkey donk!”)
the many sleepless nights we spent walking from our room to theirs when the boys were babies
the front porch were the boys and I would anxiously wait for Stephen to come home and then, as soon as they saw his car come up the hill, they’d jump, scream, and get so excited to see their Daddy!
Jogging around the neighborhood to the playground and pool
Searching for caterpillars around the tennis courts for hours with Elijah, only to learn that they were not caterpillars that we were finding - they were centipedes...

The list could go on and on and on. There were lots of memories that we made there. But it’s the family who made the memories, not the house. We’ll make lots of new memories in our new home in a month! It’s a little scary leaving a great neighborhood and a location that we’re really happy with, and moving to a new place that you assume and hope is a great neighborhood and that it will be a great fit for your family, but you never know. It’s something we prayed about for a while and it’s the house that I felt, the first time we walked in it, that God was showing me all around the house little things that whispered “this is it!” So we just have to trust that God’s moving us to the right house/neighborhood for our family.

In the meantime, before our July 1^st (we hope!) closing date, we are living in Stephen’s mom’s “little house.” When they built their house out in McCalla, they built a guest house, which they call the “little house.” It has a woodwork shop for Larry and a complete guest house. They’ve rearranged things, let us use one of their garage bays for storing furniture, let us move ½ our house in the storage above the little house, and have just been so warm and welcoming. We’re storing the remainder of the furniture in Stephen’s old boss, Craig’s trailer and my dad’s trailer. We have TONS of projects we’re going to be working on while we’re waiting to move to Sandy Cove – fixing our large couch where Sage chewed it up, sanding/painting a dresser, headboard, desk, and bookshelves, painting/recovering seats for kitchen chairs, and a few more projects here and there. So less than a month to go!!!

The boys have been enjoying being roommates here. The first few nights were no problems at all - Luke just woke up an hour or so early with Elijah. =) But 2 nights ago, I went into their room about an hour after they were in bed, only to find Luke asleep in Elijah's bed! Then the next night, we told them that Luke was too little to sleep in Elijah's bed, so what did we see in the monitor 20 min after we laid them down? Elijah was in Luke's crib with him! The same thing tonight...I had to separate them. Brings back memories with me and Kristi. =) Good memories are still being made, even though we're not officially "home."

HILARIOUS - Elijah's last soccer game

2011-05-23T18:35:00.001-07:00

Elijah just finished up his last soccer game tonight and it was quite a memorable game. Let me first say that he had progressed a lot throughout the season...

Game #1: Elijah stood and watched the other kids
Game #2: Elijah picked flowers and kept running them off the field to Mommy.
Game #3: Elijah went after the other kids, physically. Pushed, grabbed, tackled,...we had to remind him that he's supposed to go after the ball, not the other kids
Game #4: Elijah had to sit out 1/2 of the game b/c of bad behavior at home, but did pretty good running on the field.
Game #5: Elijah ran after the ball!!! Well, he ran after the other kids, watching the kids, then looking at the sidelines with a huge smile while he ran. And he actually kicked the ball! It was right near the sidelines, and I was so excited and screaming for him. Then he got so excited that he ran right off the field, in the middle of kicking the ball, to give me a big hug. SO adorable
Game #6: And that brings us to tonight...

Elijah didn't pick flowers. He didn't push the other kids. He didn't stand there.

What did he do?
He ran around the field, screaming like a WILD animal, with crazy hands and faces...

We were all laughing so hard! I can only imagine how bouncy the video camera footage is...Water break?!

But he did get the kick the ball several times and he ran pretty well
(mostly while yelling and making crazy faces!)

Afterward, Elijah and all of his teammates received medals. He was SO proud. He tried to convince us his medal was soft so that he could sleep with it. =)

FYI - Luke loved watching his big brother play soccer. I woke him up from his nap today and grabbed Elijah's cleats before he climbed (note, I did say "climbed") out of his crib. When he saw the cleats he started saying "Soccer game! Soccer game!....Run! Run!!!" He had a great time watching Elijah, moseying around the sidelines, munching on apples during the games. Just a few more years...

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!!We had a really nice Easter weekend up in Huntsville. Easter morning, wasn't quite as planned - Gram Gram (Lisa's grandmother) temporarily lost a little vision in her eye and had to go to the hospital. She's staying overnight just to make sure everything's okay, so please say a prayer for her! This morning, Elijah woke up absolutely bursting with excitement over the Easter Bunny coming. He was giggling with delight as he waiting to run downstairs to find his basket. After checking out their baskets and visiting Papa Jeff and Jerrie, we went to church and met the Easter Bunny at Valley Hill.
Then we did our traditional Easter riddles and Easter egg hunt with Uncle David, Aunt Kristi, Taylor and Riley. Just incase you don't know what I'm talking about, the Easter Bunny always brings the boys riddles to solve and sends them on a scavenger hunt all around the house, leading them to another riddle attached to presents, and they ultimately end up finding their basket. This year for their riddles, Elijah read words (go find your "pet," go find where Nanny keeps a juice "box", etc) and Luke named pictures of places (car, swing). Elijah and Luke held hands as they walked from one present place to another... They had so much fun searching for Easter Eggs too!!! They did great learning about the Easter story this year. Elijah can tell you all about why we celebrate Easter, explain all the resurrection eggs, tell you about places like Golgatha and the garden of Gesthemane, Joseph of Arimethea...getting a lot of the big words down. And it seems like he's truly understanding the basis of Easter and not just repeating facts he's learned.
Luke can tell you what is inside all of the resurrection eggs and if you say "what happened three days later?" He kind of sings "three days later" like from the song "the end of the beginning". He's not the clearest of talkers, but we can understand him most of the time. He talked the entire way up to Huntsville while Elijah slept. We couldn't believe he was talking so much, but then we kind of just realized that he had time to talk since Elijah was asleep and he was surely making the most of it. He is repeating everything! He was all about the "E Money" (aka Easter Bunny) this weekend. The way he says "car" and any other -ar word crack us up with his yankee accent. He still loves pointing out "boo buses," telling us something is "right there," asking to "touch it," saying "hey guys" out of the blue...He's quite the character and is showing us that more and more everyday!

A Day Out With Thomas the Train

2011-04-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Today we went to visit Thomas the Train

at the Heart of Dixie State Railroad Museum.

We went with our good friends,
Jonathan, Holly, and their little girl, Karidyn.

We took tons of pictures...
We took a train ride on the rail car right behind Thomas himself. The train ride lasted about 20 minutes or so. We rode on an open part of the train.

The kids got to pet some animals at the petting zoo. Luke was petting a baby chick & squeezed it just a little too hard! Unlike Luke, Elijah was very gentle with the animals. =)
When Luke pet the baby goat, he said, "ears," "eyes" (as I had to stop him from pointing the goat in the eye!), "mouth," "honk!"...
Elijah loved feeding the goats and petting all of the animal...

Luke saw him and tried feeding the animals the mulch off the ground! We got Luke some pet food so he could try too.

The kids enjoyed singing, dancing, and playing instruments along with some live music.
We took some pictures on some old trains... a few hours later we saw a sign warning people not to climb on the trains...oops!

What a fun family day full of great memories!

Somebody Dial 911...

2011-03-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

(Sung to the tune of "Fire Burning:")
Somebody Dial 911...
The Fire Ants are burning on the soccer field...a whoa---!!!

Elijah had his very first soccer practice tonight and did awesome! He has a really good coach, with lots of energy, and Elijah listened really well! They ran drills, kicked the soccer balls one by one to their partners, dribbled the soccer ball through cones, ran and played defense against the coach, and finally ended practice by chasing the coach and tackling him.Luke painted him a sign with his "dot dots" that said "Go Elijah!" Luke had fun watching his brother, but kept wanting to run on the field (of course) to see his big bro.

Go Fire Ants!

We made a trip to Jacksonville, AL to meet Luke and Elijah's new best friend - Tucker! Of course, that meant getting to hang out with their Uncle Jay, Aunt Beth, and sweet Bella Grace. Tucker is so sweet and tiny - born on Feb 27th. It was great getting to hang out and catch up with some of our best friends...

and future daughter in law...

Here are some more fun pictures from the past couple weeks..

Our Mommy Date for their first donut experience at Krispy Kreme - Stephen LOVES this picture b/c it totally captures the joy and excitement of our boys.

Getting haircuts in Huntsville with Poppy

A few notes about Luke and his ever growing personality - he is growing to be quite a talker. Some of his favorite words "boo buses" (school buses), trucks, airplane, playground, police man, water, upside down, "I do," good girl (every time he sees Sage, but he's said that for a while now), toothbrush, cuddle, and loves loves loves his "paci" still (primarily at sleeping time), ...he's starting to string words together - "bye bye Daddy," "cup please". Most colors are "green," but he is starting to identify more. (Elijah loved yellow at first) Stephen believes Luke is our strong willed child (Oh dear Lord help us!) He is quite defiant when it comes to mealtimes (and the boy loves his food!), telling us no and looking up at us with those stubborn eyes/expression. But hopefully this is just a phase.
Elijah has been trying to give up his naps, which is tough on him (aka falling asleep when we travel 10 min at nighttime) and tough on Mommy. He now has the freedom to use the bathroom on his own during naptime and he can do puzzles or play quietly if he's not tired; however, the days when he actually tries to nap are becoming fewer and fewer. I have to admit, he has scared me a few days when he's crept downstairs while I've been alone in the kitchen. lol And the other day I went up to find him (couldn't see him in the monitor) and I opened our hall closet door, which is totally packed with blankets, boxes, etc, only to have him literally fall out of the closet. lol Only our sweet Elijah...
Loving these sweet memories with our boys!

Oh - and FYI - we have a contract on our house!!! The Lord was checking out our patience, and after just over 2 years, we have a contract on our house with a closing date of June 1st! Now on to finding our next home...

Attn: We have now left the McWane Center =)

2011-02-17T07:26:00.000-08:00

So I have to apologize...as my friend, Brooke, said this weekend, we've been at the McWane Center for forever!!! It's hard to keep up w/ a blog b/c you don't want to skip posting things (like Christmas, New Years, etc) but you just have to call it a loss sometimes! So I have some catching up to do...
We'll start with Valentine's Day....Every year since we've been married, Stephen and I have made homemade pizza. We generally arrange the pepperoni's in a heart (awww...) and it's just our little tradition that we've made.

After pizza, Stephen surprised us by taking us to get some frozen yogurt (even though Elijah kept correcting us that it was ice cream). This was probably only Luke's 3rd time to have ice cream/froyo, so he LOVED it, as did Elijah...

We've been enjoying some GORGEOUS weather this week. We've been hitting up the playground everyday - even went for a jog today! But just a couple weeks ago, we enjoyed some snow! Elijah saw is start to kind of hail/sleet and he asked, "Is it hailing because of Pharoah?" =)

Luke is now 19 months, just about the same age as Elijah was when we had Luke - so crazy! At his 18mo check up, he was 55% in weight and 85% in height (dr said either last meas. or this one was a fluke). He gave up his morning nap at 17 months. He got tubes put in last week, which went great. The day after, we had to go to children's to get an xray to see if his finger was fractured (he had just fallen on the hardwoods in his pjs) - no broken bones, but it wasn't fun! The picture below was before his finger turned blue...

Luke has been speaking a lot more (coincidence or a result of tubes, who knows!) He's repeating pretty much everything and is pointing things out...the other day he had to go to timeout (for only the 2nd time). I explained why he had to go to timeout and asked if he understood. He said, "I do." So cute!!! He understands feelings, saying that he "hurts," can make a happy face, a silly face (same as Elijah's at this age), a sad face,...He knows his body parts - loves to point to his "elbow". He is such a sweet little boy - loves his cuddles and his paci, which we were almost broken of, but he formed a habit of sucking on 3 of his fingers, so we went back to the paci. In a few months, we'll try losing it. We'd just rather break him of the paci, which we can throw away, than break him of sucking on his fingers. He just started this little defiant attitude last week. If you ask him something, he pushes his eyebrows down and says "uh.....UH...." and will throw his arm for an extra emphasis. So not like our Luke! I blame it on the tubes! haha. Just kidding! While he didn't learn that from Elijah, Luke is generally all about Elijah. I have NO influence over my poor child's behavior - he just watches Elijah and imitates him. So I have to pray that Elijah's a good example b/c at our house, it's all monkey see monkey do. It is fun to watch them play together and really beginning to embrace being each other's best friend. I was in the car on the phone w/ my grandmother the other day, and the boys started screaming for fun. I tried to get them to stop, but they were so loud, and looking at each other, smiling so big. It was actually incredibly precious; as loud as it was, they were doing it together and so happy about it.

Elijah has been maturing a lot lately. He's able to entertain himself well - give him a puzzle or a painting project and he's set for at least 30 min. He's having less whiny days and more sweet Elijah days. (yeah!!!) We've been reading 3 letter words for a while now and he's doing great. We opted not to send him to preschool next year... TOUGH decision, but we feel it's the best. He's got the smarts, I think, so preschool would primarily be for social reasons. He's getting a lot of social experiences/structure through BSF, Sunday church, Wed night church, and zumba. So, I'll have one more year home w/ my little man before he goes to preschool. So, want to hear some stories? =)
This morning, I got up from the breakfast table to grab the laundry and Elijah moved to my seat, grabbed the flashcards, and said, "Okay Luke, what is this letter....A sounds like ("a" sound)." and proceeded through most of the alphabet.

Mom: Who was the line leader at your bible study today?
Elijah: Joshua
Mom: And where did he lead you? (I'm thinking, playground, bathrooms, etc)
Elijah: into Jericho.
And fyi - he studied about Saul that day! Nothing close to Joshua. lol

Embarrassing Story...A couple weeks ago, I used a raincheck at Publix and forgot to get it back (only used 6 of the 10 deals). I always get the raincheck back, even w/o asking. Well, after I checked out, I asked for it back at customer service. It was a big deal, speaking to the manager & all, but I didn't get it back. So I wasn't that happy. A week later, we were in that same publix & all of a sudden Elijah yelled, "Hey give my Mommy back her receipt!" Apparently, that manager had just walked by. Then she came up to me and said she remembered me and apologized for last week. (I was so embarrassed by this point!) Then Elijah proceeded to tell her how it was not nice of her to take his mommy's "receipt." I had to explain to her that I did not bad talk her and that he just has a really good memory! So embarrassing! Then, she brought the boys two Toy Story balloons a few minutes later, and Elijah said, "if you take my mommy's receipt again, you will get a spanking!" Gotta love the embarrassing situations you're put into with kids!

Emotional Day/Story....So I was about to walk to the mailbox w/ a card for Jared's birthday & Elijah asked me who he was. I told him he lived with Daddy during college. He asked me what college was and I tried to explain using Toy Story 3 and I said, "one day, you're going to leave home and you're going to go to school and live there without mommy and daddy...(tears started to roll)" Elijah asked when he was going to come back home, and I had to tell him that he's probably not going to come back home to live with mommy and daddy, but he'd probably get married after college and that he wasn't going to live with mommy and daddy for ever, he'd probably just visit us. (tears really started rolling). Then he said, "yes I will, I will live with you forever" and I was just crying...lol and then he smiled at me with that sweet smile when he's kind of looking down w/ his head, but up at you with those eyes, and he smiled and said, "Mommy, I will come back after college...I will." Oh my goodness...tears were rolling (and still were like 15 min later). Kind of a reality check...
We only have our sweet kids in our hands for such a short time, but thank the Lord He's always got them in His hands - much safer than mine and Stephens!

Playgroup and the McWayne

2010-12-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

Before we get started with the photos, I have to share the boys cutest way of sharing the Christmas story! If you ask them what gifts the wise men brought Jesus, Elijah says, "gold, frankincense, and..." then Luke says, "Myrrh!!!!". And it's nothing we taught them, saying Elijah say this and Luke say that. They just figured out to say it like that on their own. It is so precious!

We've been quite busy doing some Christmas activities this past month!
The boys and I went to Painted by U and painted a "cookies for Santa" plate with our playgroup.

Now, whenever he sees paint, he says "boop, boop!" (the sound effect I made everytime his finger touched the plate)

Elijah and Logan, chilling out after they painted.
Jolynn and Mallory painting a pig.
Nita and Kate painting.

And here is the finished product...
Elijah painted the blue background, the green inside the Christmas tree, and then some garland on the tree. Luke's footprint is in the center of the tree and his fingerprints were used for ornaments and snow.

The boys and I went to the McWayne Center yesterday for a little fun.

We (mommy included!) had so much fun playing in the snow!

Today, we had a great time at playgroup at Tracy's house!
Here we are decorating cookies...

Elijah had so much fun decorating some Christmas people, trees, bells, mittens,... didn't like the redhots so much... he put an entire handful in his mouth, only to spit them out immediately!
Sweet little Kate enjoying some cookies!

Luke got to decorate graham crackers. =)

Happy Birthday to Elijah!

2010-12-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Elijah!!! Our sweet Elijah turned 3 on Saturday, 12/11/10 (what a cool date!) He was super excited about his Toy Story Birthday Party, and about turning 3 in general. He has been looking forward to "December the eleventh" for quite sometime. On Wed, he wanted to wear his Buzz underwear, but I told him to save it for Saturday. He replied, completely upset, "No Mommy! I'm going to be too big to wear them when I turn 3!"

We had a Toy Story Party, of course. The menu for the big day was..."Ham," "Lil Slinky Dogs," "Mr. Potato Head Chips & Dip," "Jessie's Jello Jigglers," "Rex Mix" (instead of "Chex" - lol Thanks Aunt Kristi!), "Buzz's Bread," "Woody's Goodies," "Lotso's Lemonade," and "Bullseye's Buckeyes." Elijah enjoyed coloring the little name cards for the food...

We played a fun game of "Pin the Tale on Bullseye" - it was cute to see them all play! (Sorry, Little Miss Hayden was too fast to catch her picture!) And the results...

Here is all of the kids smiling for the camera....

Woody (Taylor), Bullseye (Luke), Buzz Lightyear (Elijah), Jessie (Hayden), & Barbie (Karidyn)

Here he is attacking his cousin Riley with his new shark puppet...

Elijah couldn't wait to blow out the candles - he did it before we got through the first line of Happy Birthday and before Dad could set down the cake!
This picture cracks me up b/c it looks like Elijah is absolutely bursting with excitement - totally captures him on his birthday (and most days) !

It was a fun day! 3 seems like such a big number for our little guy. It's crazy to know that he's that old, but at the same time, it feels like he's been our sweet Elijah forever. It's a joy and a blessing to be his mommy and daddy! We love him very very much!

Birthday Card

2010-11-28T18:00:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Damask Birthday 5x7 folded card

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Sweet stories

2010-11-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

First, some fun little stories to share...

We went to Publix the week after Halloween and Elijah saw a woman dressed up in a leopard print shirt and skirt. As we walked by her, he said (loudly), "Mommy! That's lady's dressed up like a leopard! Is that her halloween costume? Mommy why is she dressed up like a leopard?!" LOL Could I be a mature parent and hold in my laugh? ummm...no.

Elijah just asked me if I would set up our blow up bounce house again, and looked up at me w/ little puppy dogs eyes....
Mom: Where did you get those puppy dog eyes?
Elijah: These are not puppy dogs eyes. These are green eyes.
Mom: Well where did you get those puppy dogs eyes?
Elijah: From the store
Mom: What store?
Elijah: I got my puppy dog slippers from the store
Mom: Well what about your puppy dog eyes?
Elijah: These are not puppy dog eyes. These are real eyes.
Mom: Are they?
Elijah: Yes. they're real eyes that blink... (eyes batting)
Mom: Well where did you get your real eyes from?
Elijah: I got my real eyes from God.

When Elijah gets mad, his first instinct is to say "Stupid dog!" so weird.... I don't know where he learned that from........(I really have only said it a few times under my breath! And just to let you know, some character says in in Toy Story as well...)

Anytime my phone rings, Luke says "Dadda?!"

Elijah affectionately calls Luke "Lukey"

Nighttime is a precious sight to see at our home...after we're all ready for bed, we all get on our knees - including Luke - hold hands, and Elijah says the whole Lord's prayer. Afterwards, the boys stand up and we all give a big family group hug and give kisses to one another. As we're hugging, Elijah says "We're building a strong family!" (from a milk commercial on Disney...lol) It is precious!!!

Luke has started occasionally calling us Mommy and Daddy, instead of Mama and Dada. He started doing the sign language for and saying the words "more" and "all gone" and "milk" all in the same week (2 weeks ago). His sign language for "more" used to be hitting his tray....He's becoming quite the little parrot - echoing a lot more. He's realizing the predictability in books too - he'll fill in words in Goodnight Moon: "and goodnight to the quiet lady who was whispering...HUSH!!!" So precious! He can show you his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly, hands, fingers, feet, toes, knees...Becoming quite the little Elijah copycat too!

When we were doing flashcards over lunch, I showed them a picture of an ant, and Luke said the A sound..."A A Aaaas" (I think he was trying to say ant!) His Brainy Baby DVD does that for the word ant, trying to emphasize the initial sound. Yeah!! He's learning!! Elijah has been working on sounding out words and reading 3 letter words. He loves finding the word "God" on all the pages in his Bible. If you say a word, he can pretty much sound out the phonemes. When he sees them, he can sound out most words & read them with some encouragement. He sometimes goes into autopilot though- the word could be cat and he'd sound out "Cu Ah Tu---o m. Tom!"

Health Update:
Luke: since 10/14 had cold, then croup, then healthy for 4 days, then croup, then healthy for 1 1/2 days, then borderline walking pneumonia and an ear infection (diagnosed Tuesday)...
Elijah: since 10/14 has remained pretty healthy, praise the Lord! He had a strange cough last week and was wheezing...
Today: after 5 dr visits in 4 weeks, both boys are on antibiotics (Elijah for precaution - so thankful for that!) and using an inhaler (not asthma, just from a viral infection)...Thankfully, we've been able to get out of the house this week and the boys are acting much more like their sweet little selves.

Oh I hope that this will be the worst of their health problems this fall/winter. We've had about enough of being couped up in this house! (Can we say "date night" tonight?! Thank you Carol!)

The Pumpkin Patch & Halloween

2010-11-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch! The boys and I went to the one in McCalla on Friday with our playgroup. Here are the boys on the choo choo train!
We had so much fun with Sadie, Michael, Brooks, and Knox...but we just had to go back with Daddy!
On Saturday, we enjoyed some family time in almost perfect weather (as Stephen and I call it, "a Garth Brooks day"). We had a picnic and then some fun time exploring the pumpkin patch.
The boys just loved the inflatables, or as Elijah calls them, "bouncy playgrounds." Luke is on the verge of learning to jump - he just bounces in place, but he's trying. He had a great time running around, trying to jump.
We couldn't leave without taking a picture by the pumpkin patch measuring stick...

Luke, 2010Elijah, 2010
Elijah, 2009 (goodness he's grown!)

And, of course, we had to go on a hay ride!

Then went to Grammy's church on Saturday night for their Fall Festival. The boys, once again, enjoyed playing on the bouncy playgrounds and trunk or treating. They especially loved dancing to the band that was playing. This is their cousin, Hayden, dressed so cutely as Minnie Mouse!

Halloween morning, we were all set to go to church - all we had to do was wake Luke up and put him in the car w/ breakfast...but we found Luke in no condition to be around other kids. We took him to the after hours clinic at Children's to confirm that he had croup (AGAIN!) So, we missed our 3rd Sunday in a row due to our sick little baby. Poor guy! He felt well enough to enjoy the Halloween festivities later that night though...

Our neighborhood is always pretty busy and gets really into Halloween. Elijah went up to most houses and yelled "ROAR!!! Trick or treat!" and then, after getting candy, he told everyone "Happy Halloween!" and, of course, "Thank you!"

Luke enjoyed walking around, but didn't trick or treat w/ a bag this year.
One lady at Grammy's church tried to give Luke a lollipop, and Elijah was quite insistent on telling her that he was allergic to eggs and couldn't have the lollipop. lol We got Colin to take a picture of the family before taking it to the house and handing out candy.

After we got home, Luke, poor baby, began crying at 6:45 and would not stop until after we laid him in his bed 30 min later. So unlike him. Please lift up our little guy so that he gets and stays healthy! Elijah, on the other hand, was, surprisingly, in bed by 7:45...however, he was still talking in his bed at 9:50! I think it's the latest he's ever been up (with the exception of Disney)

Trunk or Treat (among other things!)

2010-10-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

So here is what's been going on at our house...
Stephen and his old boss and friend, Craig (who Elijah seriously thinks is the cartoon character Mr. Incredible - every time he sees a Mr. Incredible picture, he says it's Mr. Craig!) have worked hard to put up a fence at the house...

Elijah helped a little bit too...

We have made the most of playing outside now that most of the backyard is enclosed - we'll finish the gate this weekend.

Luke has become quite the climber....

The other day, he pushed Elijah's high chair over to the island, climbed on top, and tried to reach for the crackers that were on the island!
At his 15mo check up, he was 30% in height, 50% in weight, which is the norm for Luke. He is growing so big and getting more vocal everyday. You better watch out if you have a box of crackers around b/c Luke will say "cracker" as many times as it takes for you to give in and give him one (at least one).

We've been gearing up for Halloween... this was a trial run on Elijah's face paint as a lion...
(can you hear his roar?)
We had a good time at Hunter Street's Trunk or Treat! Daddy had to work a little late ;) so it was a fun little Mommy Date.

Luke was the cutest horse I've ever seen... (his cousin, Riley, comes in a very close second... I'm a little partial to my own boy!)

We found Elijah's Sunday school teachers, Mr. Mark, Mrs. Janet, Mr. Gage, and Mrs. Molly...
He hadn't seen them in 2 weeks b/c Luke had croup for 2 Sundays in a row, so he was overjoyed to see his teachers! He had been asking about them all day!

That's about it...more pictures and silly stories to share soon!

Our Cruise and Boys Updates

2010-10-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

Stephen and I recently took our first vacation without the boys. We went on a cruise to Cozumel and Progresso, Mexico. It was the most relaxing vacation we have ever had! It was hard leaving the boys, but it was really nice to have a little husband and wife time. The boys stayed with their Grammy and Gramps (Stephen's mom and stepdad) the first 3 nights, and then went up to Huntsville with their Nanny and Poppy (my mom and dad) the last 3 nights. They seemed to have a lot of fun! But here are some highlights of our cruise...

We got to dress up for formal night... takes us back to our senior prom - same outfits, different dates... (well, Stephen actually wore a white jacket...)
Here we are by the boat in Progresso. We thought we might enjoy some authentic Mexican cuisine, but then Stephen remembered how much he enjoys having the FDA in the US and we opted to eat on the boat. =)
We had a fun shopping, finding sea shells for Elijah, and, of course, taking some silly pictures in Progresso.

We met some really fun friends that we had dinner with every night - Leila & Mark, and Tammy & Tal. Dinner was fabulous! We enjoyed our chocolate melting cake most every night. And the wait staff was so fun, entertaining us with song and dance every night.
We had fun in Cozumel...just took a taxi downtown and then enjoyed our 4 mile walk back to the boat. So relaxing!
Stephen was excited to play basketball on the cruise!

And I was super pumped to lay out! And we tried to catch a sunset on our last night...Other highlights - Stephen surprised me with a massage for my bday. (so sweet!) We had fun running on the boat, but it was SO windy! So 1/2 of the track was a cinch, and the other half was SO hard! It was a GREAT vacation and it was so nice to enjoy some time together, actually focusing on one another, rather than our boys. If you have toddlers, you know how exhausting parenthood can get, so it was a fabulous way to recharge our mommy and daddy batteries. In the past, I've always been so bummed when my vacation's over; but this time, it was so exciting coming home to our boys!!! We were SO happy to see them!!! It's nice to be back together as a family again.

So here's an update on the boys...

Luke

is saying so many more words! Cracker, cookie, car, cup, good girl (to Sage), more, bird, ball...a lot of things are still "dat!" but he's getting there!
can now open doors...
can blow bubbles on his own
is climbing a bit on furniture and chairs (Elijah size chairs). I looked over from the kitchen into the den and I see Luke, standing on top of Elijah's chair, smiling w/ his hands in the air.
can put his hands up in the air during the "hands up song" at the library (don't know if I've mentioned this)
knows most of his facial features and his head, hair, tummy, hands, and feet.
has been in 18 mo clothes for a good month or so now.. which is weird considering that was what Elijah was in when I had Luke! Brings back some memories...

Elijah

went into Luke's room the other night at bedtime, with his guitar, and so gently sang him a lullaby, then whispered "I love you sweet boy" and walked out
accidentally pulled the fire alarm at church the other night when we went to a packing party for a group leaving for Africa the next morning. (We don't think he's ever noticed a fire alarm before or knew what he was actually doing). The fire dept had to come to turn it off, but had difficulties finding a key...He was so upset about it that he couldn't eat dinner, and then got sick outside! Our poor guy!
has had difficulties taking his nap... so we've started waking him up btwn 6:15-6:45 and it has helped tremendously! (He used to wake up around 7:30/8). He still doesn't nap some days, but overall, he does. Yeah!!! (Mommy needs that time to clean!)
is fearless! He will climb anything on the playground and jump from it. He thinks that nothing can hurt him. I've had several parents at the playgrounds comment on how gutsy he is...do I hear injury coming? =)
can still sit and read forever. I love that.

Both boys think it's funny to run from me... =)

The boys recently painted pumpkins...

And then Elijah drew faces and glued eyes, a nose, a mouth, and hair on the pumpkins...

This picture was taken right after we got back from a fun carnival a local church hosted at our clubhouse - Elijah called the face painting his "alabama fan".

Lots of Pictures to Share...

2010-09-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

So we've been a bit busy these past few weeks. We've...
Helped give Sage a bath....

and got quite wet in the process!

Learned that Luke loves corn on the cob...

and he has started giving us a thumbs up when he's done eating! too cute!

Played with Uncle Jay, Aunt Beth, and Bella Grace...

We had a short but sweet playdate w/ Bella Grace, sporting her MSU gear, while Luke (& a sleeping Elijah) sported their UA gear. (Note: Bella Grace did wear her Auburn outfit the day after AU beat MSU...)

Tailgated at the Alabama/Penn State football game....

(it looks like Elijah's trying to get on our good side!)

Stephen, the boys, and my dad went to ttown & got to see some friends for a little bit as the rain came pouring down! After a little rain delay, we headed to the A-club for some dinner, and Stephen & boys headed home.

Mommy got to go to the game with Poppy...
It was such a fun game! We had a blast watching the game and it was so neat to see Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno, and Nick Saban all together on the field before the game! ROLL TIDE!

Played on the playground with friends from our Sunday school class...We had a fun time at Veteran's Park with friends today... however, our lunch was cut quite short b/c of a group of bees that wanted to join in on our picnic! And if you know me, you know I freak out around bees! But we had a blast, other than that!

And how can we have an outdoor outing without Elijah dropping his shorts b/c he has to tinkle... Here he is, running to the restrooms with his shorts around his ankles... our sweet Elijah...

Finger Painting Fun/McWayne/Biting...

2010-09-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

Elijah and Luke's Nanny and Poppy came into town a few weeks ago and took us to the McWayne Center. We had so much fun, although we were all completely exhausted after only 2 hours of playing. Here are just a few cute pics from our morning of fun!

So today, I introduced Luke to the world of finger painting... I had introduced Elijah to it when he was about 14 months old - right before Stephen came home from Africa, we made a big "welcome home" banner..so sweet! But while Elijah had kept his paci in his mouth (way back when), Luke kept spitting his paci out in hopes that Mommy would look away so he could sneak a taste of the super enticing turquoise paint. (As you can tell from the picture, he didn't like it too much!) But he was able to finger paint some flowers for a future craft project, and then he kind of painted his name. Elijah did a great job on his flowers, which he basically did all by himself, and then he decided to use a paint brush on his name. I was quite impressed!

LUKE
Luke has taken way more of an interest in books. He still likes to walk around a lot while we're reading, but lately, he's sat in our laps so much longer and has been really interested in pointing the pictures and trying to say the words. He is now forever dropping his cup in his highchair, just so he can say "uh oh!" (the 'oh' part isn't really there... it's just "uh uh..." but w/ the inflection of 'uh oh'). We started our classes at the library this week, and as I was singing the hands up song to him today, "Luke, Luke, if you're there, put your hands up in the air," he put his hands up! And he did it time and time again! So cute!

Now for the so cute, but not so cute... Elijah has been knocking Luke down and pushing him lately. And while Luke is smaller, he is not going to take it! When Elijah knocks him down, Luke has no change in his facial expression, but he just puts his hands up and opens his mouth (think godzilla) and just rams his mouth into Elijah's shoulder and stays there. I don't think he's biting down, but he's just going at him w/ all his body weight. It is SO HARD not to laugh while Elijah is freaking out that his little brother's going after him. So we've had to talk to Luke about how to respond to Elijah's behavior (and, yes, we've had to talk to Elijah about how not to push and hit)

ELIJAH
I don't know what he'll be when he grows up. He is such a smart little guy. But he has a knack for all things related to God. As early as he could talk, he could tell you that we go to church to learn about God. And if you asked him who God was, he'd say Jesus, and vis versa. Well, in the Lord's Prayer, he was saying one line wrong since day one, but we never really corrected it - "as we forgive those who have trespassed against us". Well, we corrected him maybe 2 nights in a row and he says in perfectly every time! It's the sweetest thing to hear. In church, they've been learning the verse "There is no one who does good. Not even one." Well, I said to him yesterday "There is no one who does good..." and he said "not anybody...Only God does good all the time." It looks like his sweet Sunday School teachers are getting through to him! He prayed before his nap yesterday and this is how it went... "Dear Lord. Thank you for Mommy. Thank you for Daddy. Thank you for Sage. Please protect her tummy from the peanuts. Please keep daddy safe while he's driving. Please help him drive home safely. Please help him be fuccessful (successful w/ an "f") at work. Help him to trust in the Lord. Help him to trust in the Lord. Amen". I love it!

Tonight, we put Elijah in a footed, zip up pajama that we bought him. It was the first time he'd been in a onesie pj since he outgrew his 18 month clothes. He LOVED it! He was dancing around his room, dragging his rubber padded feet along the carpet, with the biggest smile on his face. Too cute!

Every night, we go into the boys' rooms to check on them when we go to sleep. We shine the light from the monitor on Elijah's face as we kiss him and tell him "I love you." Both Stephen and I try SO hard to get him to say "I love you" back in his sleep. He says it every few nights and it's so precious.

And just to show how much both the boys are growing up - we were at the playground yesterday and I said "Okay boys. If we want to play soccer, we need to head over to the tennis courts b/c it's getting late." We were at the stairs at the time. Elijah immediately walked to the tennis court gate to hold it open, as Luke walked to the stroller, grabbed the soccer ball out of the back, and walked w/ the soccer ball into the tennis courts. It was so precious!

Let's Go on a Mommy Date!

2010-08-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

Let's go on a Mommy Date to Toy Story 3 again,

We'll watch Buzz, Woody, Rex, & Ham on the giant screen and then...We'll race along the sidewalk, I'll chase you and you'll chase me.
Side by side we'll stroll along, smiling oh so cheerfully.

Then how about some ice cream while we talk about the show?
We'll have fun being silly, until it's time to go... Our next date we'll bring Dad, and your little brother too.
But today I'll enjoy our Mommy date, with only me and you.{Love the book, "Let's go on a Mommy Date" by Karen Kingsbury (Thanks Carol!)}

Silly Stories of Our Boys

2010-08-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would share some sweet stories of Elijah, followed by Luke, during my 10 minutes of down time before cleaning up...
Elijah is getting so sweet and charming. A couple times, he's looked at me, rubbed my face so sweetly, and said "You're the kindest mommy in town" (and the same to daddy). He absolutely LOVES to laugh and to make people laugh. He is his father's son...
Story #1: Elijah apparently saw someone say "Do you want a piece of me?!" maybe in Toy Story or something. So the other day, after his nap, he bowed up and said really loudly, with a smile of course, "Do you want a piece of meat?!" LOL I said, "what?!" and he repeated it over and over... You'd correct him and say "me" but he just thought it was too funny saying "meat." And if you ask him, he says "yes" like, where is it?!
Story #2: For as long as I can remember, Stephen's grabbed my cheeks w/ his hands, pushed them together to make my face look fat and chubby, and has said "Do you want some cookies?" It cracks him up. Well, Elijah, now loves to squeeze our faces and say "Do you want some cookies?...Do you want some chocolate chip cookies?...Do you want some cookies w/ sprinkles?" in this deep voice. He loves it as much as his daddy!
Story #3: He loves to run. He can run all day long. When we go for a jog or leave the pool, I usually let him run along the stroller up the hill to our home. One day, he found several sticks along the side of the sidewalk and he was picking them all up to take home. After about 5 sticks, he said "Let's leave some for the other boys and girls". too sweet
Story #4: Somebody call the zoo b/c there are animals on the loose! Elijah sees tigers, alligators, lions, etc all over the place. We will be jogging and he will yell, "Mommy, Daddy, stop! There's a tiger in the road?!" or he will frantically run downstairs b/c an alligator is coming. And if we ever really need him to listen, all we have to do is tell him there's an alligator coming and he will run as fast as he can to listen.
Story #5: Elijah hates my hair in a ponytail. I mean, hates it. It's not a big deal if I start out the day in one, but if I ever go to put my hair up, he yells, "NO! Don't! Don't put your hair in a ponytail!!!" and will tear up! It's pitiful.
Story #6: I put both of the boys' milk cups in the microwave at the same time. Well, they were spinning around on the carousel thing in the microwave and all of a sudden, Elijah said "Look! Luke's milk is chasing mine!" lol

So Luke has changed in the past 3 or 4 weeks. He has turned into a boy who knows what he wants and will not sit quietly anymore until he gets it. He points at everything and calls most thing "dat" (resembles "that") or "da" or "na" or "ma"... not so much on the words yet. Still just mama, dada, banana,... But he has some lungs boy! He will holler loudly until you hand him that cup that he's pointing at. The other morning we were doing flashcards during breakfast, and I was doing some numbers (for Elijah), and I would say "what number is this?" and Luke would say something everytime before Elijah and he was quite confident in his answers...not so much when we got to Luke's flashcards, but it was still cute.
He is walking everywhere, getting pretty fast. He loves to watch you run after him when he's just about to get in trouble - he'll crawl over to the dog bowl or the step latter in the bathroom (which he LOVES to climb) and he'll just wait until you look at him and he'll just smile at you! I took Luke to an allergist on Wednesday to have him pricked 20 times. Poor baby! During the pricking process, he was pinned down on his belly on the table, and I was holding his hands and my head was flat on the table next to his, trying to look him in the eyes the whole time to let him know it's okay. I must have looked so silly...It turns out that he's only allergic to eggs (well, of what we tested). So no cooked eggs and no products with eggs - no baked cookies, no mac n cheese, no pasta... That's going to be fun when we go to publix and pass by the free cookie in the bakery! So now we have to be pretty diligent in what we purchase and prepare for him to eat. Hopefully this will stop his little rash breakouts on his face and we'll have a perfect complexion from here on out.

Our Beach Trip

2010-07-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our summer beach trip to Orange Beach, AL. We went with all of Lisa's family - Nanny, Poppy, Uncle David, Aunt Kristi, cousins Taylor and Riley, Uncle TJ, and his girlfriend, Lacy. We had a fabulous time! It was Luke's first time to the beach. He thought the sand was okay, but he didn't care for the water at all! It was my fault though b/c I just stuck him right in the water - after he started screaming, I remembered that when Elijah was a baby, I sat him in the sand and let the waves barely reach him so that he could crawl into the water himself. So Luke did not like the gulf. Elijah, on the other hand, LOVED it! He loved running through the sand, which was super soft, and jumping all in the water. Searching for sea shells was his favorite thing to do! We had a blast at the pool and hanging out at the condo with all of the family. We went to Lambert's, which was really fun for the boys. Elijah caught a roll, which was rather hot, and Luke was content gnawing on one all throughout dinner. On the last night, Elijah got to ride go carts for the first time. He had a really good time riding w/ Mom and then Poppy (until he took of his seat belt...) The vacation was wonderful and altogether too short!

I have a crazy story to share from this morning - Luke got his arm (from the elbow up)stuck through one of he and Elijah's chair rungs. He was hysterically crying and I could not get it out. I started freaking out a bit... I got Elijah to grab my phone and then afterwards I said, "Run to the refrigerator and grab the butter!" Like a 2 year old could do that! To my surprise, he found a bottle of spray butter within 5 seconds and I sprayed it on Luke, immediately releasing his arm. Then Elijah said, "Sheesh, that was a close one!" LOL It was a scary situation, but how funny and amazing did our little guy react in the heat of a stressful situation!

Oh and an update on the gulf waters with the oil spill..The gulf was so warm and beautiful. Every now and then, you could see some oil residue on the beach, but it was not enough for us to justify keeping the boys out of the water. One day, we could see some oil patches from our balcony, but that was really it. The clean up crews were on the beach the last day we were there. But it was kind of nice going down to the beach in the middle of the summer and having the beach not really crowded. So if you're thinking of going down to the beach, don't delay it b/c of the oil rumors.

Happy Birthday to Luke!

2010-07-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Our little Luke had his first birthday on Saturday! I cannot believe how quickly a year has passed. It seems like just yesterday, and forever ago, at the same time, that he was in the NICU and we were praying for him to come home. But here we are, one year later, and he’s as precious as can be. He no longer has to wear his helmet (as of Thursday)! Woo hoo! That is truly an answered prayer. His head looks good. He is walking all around and getting into trouble, as you can imagine. =) We now have gates inside our double sided fireplace b/c he thinks it is so funny to get in trouble when he tries to play with the rocks in there. We have to keep Sage’s water and bowls behind a closed door when he’s awake b/c playing with them is just so much fun! His little personality is just so cute! He’s making a lot more sounds now, but hasn’t got the whole talking thing down quite yet. He’s sleeping much longer at nighttime, going to bed at 7:30 and waking up after 7. At his one year check up, he was 50% in height and weight, and a little above average in head size (just like big brother!) So all in all, we have a wonderfully healthy, happy one year old!

His birthday was such a fun day! We woke him up singing, “Happy Birthday” and then went in Elijah’s room to wake him up. Then we asked Elijah what day today was and he said, “It’s Luke’s Birthday Party Day!!!” and proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to Luke! We had his party at 11 – just family and a couple close friends (who are practically family!) The theme was first birthday all-star (yes, we reused Elijah’s decorations!). But this time, we had concession style food – hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos in the little plastic trays, bags of popcorn, soft pretzels, sports cupcakes, and ice cream in little baseball cap ice cream cups. My friend, Holly, who owns and runs HollyDays made some stickers for the caps that all said Luke. Then the kids that came to the party had their own caps with their names on them. They were really cute! Outside we had a pool and slip n slide set up for the kiddos (however, after trying it on Sunday, myself, I have to admit, it’s fun for adults too!) Elijah decided to prematurely get in the water with all of his clothes on, and then proceeded to strip down after he was all wet… That’s our boy! =) Luke had a lot of fun, and a lot of help, opening his presents. He got some really great toys! Among them were some squeaky shoes that he got to sport for a while and sounded so cute as he walked… “squeak squeak, squeak squeak, squeak squeak,…” Too funny.

(The above picture is cousin Hayden Burns, future daughter-in-law Bella Grace Monroe, Elijah and Luke, cousins Taylor and Riley Swearengin, and Cameron, a friend of Luke’s Grammy)

Cake time was a blast as he dug into his baseball smash cake. He loved smashing it up, but didn’t really eat much of it. He smashed it outside, so it was incredibly convenient to clean him off in the baby pool (and you can see in the picture below, Elijah's just loving the slip n slide!) By that time, he was quite ready for his milk and nap. The party kept going for a little while after he left and we had a lot of fun. We got to take some pictures of him after he woke up. My sister, Kristi, made him a sweet little outfit , bib, and birthday hat, so if you’re ever needing something special, I’m sure she can help you out!

Luke, along with his big bro, is a precious little boy and we are so blessed to be his parents. We’ve grown a lot as a family this year and it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but it is a blessing to have these sweet boys and this great family. We are so thankful for everything the Lord’s blessed us with and we just pray that our household can serve Him well.

And, of course, a couple Elijah stories to make you smile:

It’s naptime and Luke and I are in Elijah’s room tucking him into bed. Luke tries to climb in bed with Elijah and then…

Elijah: I think Luke wants to sleep with me today.

Mom: Well, when you and Luke are bigger, you can sleep together sometime.

Elijah: I think he’s big Mommy. I think he can sleep in my bed with me.

I just read a book that Luke received in the mail and I was showing Elijah that it was Luke’s book…

Mom: It says “Luke Burns”

Elijah: I think it says Me Burns… see? “Me Burns” (as he moves his finger under the words as if he’s reading it). It says “E-L-I-J-A-H.” See Momma?

Our Baby's Walking and Our Big Boy's Trilingual

2010-07-12T04:43:00.000-07:00

We'll first start off by showing Luke's first haircut... I had called our friend, Jennifer, who cuts mine and Elijah's hair, but Stephen didn't want to wait and took the clippers to his head. I can't really say much since I didn't do a great job when I attempted to cut Elijah's hair for the first time. We'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...
Because we were going out of town before Jennifer was able to fix his hair, we had Taylor's hair dresser fix it up in Huntsville... He looked so much better!

We can finally say that Luke is walking!!! A few weeks ago (I think June 28th), he started to take 8 or so steps at a time here and there. Since then, he has steadily increased the amount of steps he'll take. Yesterday he walked from the far side of our den fireplace, all the way to the oven in the kitchen. So I think we can officially say he's walking now. Elijah was such a dramatic shift from crawling to solely walking in one day. But Luke likes the variety of crawling and walking.

He's getting more talkative, but still not saying anything really besides momma and dadda... I think at times he says duck, banana, more, and ball, but nothing incredibly consistent. He has dropped two feedings, so now he just eats breakfast, lunch, whole milk before his nap, dinner, and nurses at bedtime (snacks in btwn of course). He's been quite fussy when it comes to eating dinner - the boy hates his veggies. We're also convinced in just a matter of time he's going to either turn into a banana or a blueberry with the amount of fruits he's eating. We are gearing up for his birthday on Saturday! It's so hard to believe he's ready to turn one!

A few sweet Elijah stories...
Every time before he lays down to sleep, we sing him a lullaby. It started out with "I'll love you forever," then it changed to "Brahm's Lullaby" with us making up words. Here's an example.... Lullaby and goodnight. Go to sleep sweet Elijah. While you're sleeping mommy and daddy, and Luke will go to sleep too. And while you're dreaming, dream of airplanes and helicopters too. But for now, close your eyes, and know that mommy and daddy love you." And we always change up what he dreams about - and the wonder in his eyes as he's getting exited about dreaming is so precious! But lately, he's been wanting us (well, Mommy) to sing the "German Lullaby," which is just Brahms Lullaby in German. And I asked him to sing it to me the other day and he sang most of the words correctly! So Elijah is now trilingual - he can speak in English, sing his Spanish ABCs, and sing in German. :) lol

Every time Elijah hears a fire truck, ambulance, or police car, he insists that we pray for them (so sweet!). So we'll pray for them together and then he will always add "And please help them not to get boo boos on their knees. Amen." [A little background on that - Mrs. Debbie at church was the first to pray for a fire truck with him and it just so happened to be after Elijah got a boo boo on his knee. So I guess that's something he associates with praying for them.]

Luke is 11 months! (And a bunch of pictures)

2010-06-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

"We want to be just like our Daddy!"
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY!
This picture was taken several months ago for a card we made for Stephen. They had a fun Father's Day with their Daddy yesterday. Stephen and Elijah went to see Elijah's first big movie, Toy Story 3 yesterday and they had so much fun! They both equally ate an entire thing of popcorn (Elijah just asked, "may I please have some popcorn mommy?") and enjoyed their Daddy Date.

We had so much fun at cousin Taylor's 3rd Bday party - This is one of the only shots of Taylor and Elijah together - they were always on the go! And in the background is cousin Riley!

Elijah and Luke had a blast at Summerquest, Hunter Street Baptist Church's Vacation Bible School. They did so many crafts! The sweet ladies from Hunter Street even made Luke a precious scrapbook with pictures and Bible verses. Too precious!

We had fun at the this month's playgroup! We were at our friends, the Watson's, house, but the kids felt like they were at a water park! In the picture above, Elijah is climbing up the right slide. (go figure!)

Luke is now 11 months old! At 11 months, Luke...

-is walking everywhere, while holding onto something. He has taken a few steps on his own, but would rather push a toy to get to another toy, than let go and try to walk to it. In the pool, however, he is bold and thinks he can walk. He has taken about 7 or so steps in the 1 ft pool.
-has grown attached to his cuddle and paci at nighttime and naptime. He does not let go of his cuddle (a little stuffed animal head w/ a tiny blanket attached) from the time he lies down until we pick him up.
-isn't much of a talker. He will say syllables a lot (mostly nana, mama, and dada), but hasn't picked up any words yet besides mama and dada.
- loves to wave hello and bye bye, clap his hands, and put his hands up for "touch down bama"
-can go from crying to giggling up a storm just by walking up to the radio to turn it on. The boy loves to dance! He laughs and laughs when you turn on music and dance with him.
-has a unique whine that sounds like an ambulance. We hear this when we're not giving him enough attention or if he's frustrated with something.
-gasps in his air in excitement whenever he sees Stephen pull in the driveway. He reaches his hands out to him, kicks his feet, and giggles for his daddy.
-is fearless in the water. He could care less if kids nearby splash or pour water on him. And it doesn't phase him one bit when he walks in the pool and falls down under the water.
-is still wearing his helmet. I know a lot of pictures show him w/o it, but he can't wear it in the pool and we tend to take it off for a few minutes when we want to take some pictures. He's still wearing it 23 hours a day. We go back on Thursday for them to tell us whether or not he's done wearing it. Most likely, his head will have grown the amt needed to take it off, but it will be up to use whether or not to continue the use for a little bit longer to make his head more symmetrical. He still has a little flat spot in the back, but at this point, it's hard to tell if that's just a normal baby's head or if it's something to continue to correct. Most likely, we will keep it on another month just for added correction.

FYI - As of a month and a half ago, we only have one in diapers!!! Elijah still wears them at naptime and bedtime, but the moment he pops out of bed, his underwear goes on. He has been doing AWESOME! He's only had about a handful of accidents, the last one being the first weekend in June. We're so proud of him!!!

Luke finally said Mama!!!! (and some other fun updates...)

2010-06-02T04:43:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start off by boasting that my son finally said Mama!!!! It was Elijah's first word, at 6 months, but Luke was 10 months and never said it... But finally, last Monday, May 24th, while I was video taping the boys during dinner, Luke said it!! Elijah got a big smile on his face and he said "He just said Mama!!!" He was as overjoyed as I was - and it's all on tape! Woo hoo!!!

So since I mentioned potty training in my last post, I figured I would follow up a bit... Elijah's doing great!!! He gets a gold star on his calendar for every day he doesn't tinkle in his underwear and his calendar is filled up with stars! And if he "poo poos" in the potty, he gets a dollar bill and a big sticker for his calendar. He likes to save those for during naptime when he's wearing his diaper, but he's still filling up his piggy bank pretty well! Last week, I started sending him in his underwear to childcare at church (while I teach aerobics) and we had no accidents. This Sunday, however, was his first time at church from 8 until nearly 11 (during the week it's 8:45ish to 11) and he almost made it. They said he tinkled a lot and did so great, but just before everyone was getting ready to leave, they were tending to the other kids and happened to look back at Elijah and see he had had an accident. That was the first accident he had in nearly 2 weeks (and even before that it was just a tiny bit). But they said to still send him in his underwear next week b/c he did great. We have summer quest (VBS) at church all next week from 8 until 12, so I'm really wanting to make sure he can wear underwear to that. But it's really been rather easy potty training him. (I know I'm going to regret writing that!) Praise the Lord for allowing Elijah to be ready for this!

We went to the zoo last week and had so much fun! We went with friends in the playgroup from our Sunday school class. It was Luke's first trip to the zoo. He seemed to have fun looking at all of the animals, but the water park was by far his favorite part! They have a squirt pad that the kids can run around where water randomly squirts out of it. When we took Elijah at 10 mo, he hated it! We have a picture of him crawling around on it and the look on his face was "I am so mad...I can't believe you let me get wet!!!!!" Luke, at the same age, on the other hand, loved the water! He would just crawl right up to the water and wait for it to come up and splash all over him. He absolutely had a blast! The animals were fun to look at - a lot were sleeping though. When we were over in the barn area, Elijah saw a llamma and kept calling it "Llamma llamma red pajama" (great book if you've never read it!). It was funny.

On Monday we finally took both of the boys to the pool. The weather had been awful all weekend, but once we saw a glimmer of sunshine on Monday, we rushed down there. Elijah apparently forgot all about how to play in a pool - he got in the 1ft baby pool and immediately started running! He fell over, which startled himself, but as soon as we got him on his feet, he tried to run again! That happened several times to the point where he got a little afraid of falling. So we decided to have him kneel and show him how easily he can stand back up. But as soon as he (reluctantly) knelt down, he started to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven,..." We were cracking up! Then about 20 min later, we tried to get him to kneel again, and he started "Dear Lord. Thank you for this day..." Too sweet!!! Meanwhile, Luke was having a blast walking around the pool and splashing up a storm. I got the courage to take the boys to the pool myself today and we had a great time. Elijah was a little cautious, but never fell. Luke, on the other hand, was fearless - trying to reach for the diving sticks at the bottom, letting go of the side and standing up by himself in the water, falling numerous times without a single cry! Elijah looked at me while we were at the pool and he yelled "This is so fun!!!" It really was. I'm looking forward to a super fun summer with my guys!

Oh and a note to all you couponers out there - We went shopping on Monday and bought 10 packs of Huggies jumbo pack diapers, 2 Olay face washes, Nivea body wash, and 2 Physician's Formula bronzer/blush/eye shadow combo... Originally, that would cost about 140 or so. But with all of the good deals and coupons, we got it all for 36! God has really blessed us with good deals and wise spending!

Summertime's Coming!

2010-05-24T04:55:00.000-07:00

With the weather being SO beautiful, we've been able to have some summertime fun! We took the boys a Baron's baseball game on Friday night and had a blast. Stephen had a work social at the game, so we went and got dinner and Elijah got to bounce in one of the inflatables. Both of the boys got a glove at the game (which worked out perfect since we forgot to bring Elijah's with us!) Despite the SUPER hot weather and lack of a breeze, we had a great time.

Grammy took Elijah for a little "Grammy Date" last night, so we decided to take Luke to experience his first time in a swimming pool. He was not having anything to do with it - super sad whenever his toes hit the water, which was a pretty comfortable temperature. But once he got in the water completely, with his feet of the floor, he was perfectly content. He was just all smiles and splashing up a storm! We could have stayed there all afternoon, but dinnertime came all too quickly. But now we know that he loves the pool, which was kind of a prerequisite for being in this family, since mommy plans on being down there every day this summer!

Potty Training Time

2010-05-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

It is potty training time, once again. I tried this last year around this time, but Elijah wasn't quite ready. He didn't have the bladder control at all, although it was a great starting point. Since then, he's tinkled in the potty on command really well and has gone at least once a day. But we had a pretty boring week, so I decided to start hard core on Monday. His incentive for tinkling is stickers for his calendar. We have a calendar that we do every Monday - I make a new one on posterboard each month and on every Monday, we color pictures of our plans for the week (library book for library, cross for church, etc) on paper, cut them out together, and he glues them on the specific day. [This started off back when he was about 20 months old b/c I wanted to make sure, since he's not in Mother's Day Out, that I'm teaching him most things that he would be learning there, and I thought "Days of the Week" might be one of them.] So anyways, we used to give him coins as an incentive for going on the potty - which since he LOVED them so much, he can now tell you what men are on the quarter, penny, and dime - but that didn't work so well once we used coins as bribery for other things (aka good behavior in public). So this week he has started putting little stickers on the calendar in 'today's date,' every time he tinkles on the potty. On Monday, he spent all day naked and only tinkled on the floor once. I reminded him every hour to go and he did great. On Tuesday, he spent the morning naked (w/ one accident during lunch in his high chair), and then he wore underwear in the afternoon. On Wednesday, he spent the day in his underwear, and I let him lead me a little more on when he goes to the potty. I eventually made him go a little after 10 since he hadn't gone since he woke up. We made a trip to Publix without a diaper on (I thought that would either turn out to be a brave or stupid decision). At publix, we were in the frozen section when he told me he needed to tinkle on the potty, so we made a mad dash to the rest rooms. It was quite difficult getting him up on the potty (praise the Lord for sanitizing wipes in the bathroom) with Luke in my arms, but he did a great job. He tinkled just a touch in his underwear later that day and then, when I was cleaning up after bedtime, I found that he tinkled in Stephen's chair during his movie... oh well. But my goal, from now on, is to wear underwear at home and then pull ups, I guess, in public outings (with the exception of small trips here and there). I really hope this goes well!

Life with two boys is getting more and more interesting. Luke's pulling up and walking/pushing everything. I didn't pay much attention to it when I was helping Elijah brush his teeth and Luke was walking around the potty, until he grabbed Elijah's little potty and turned it over, spilling a potty full of pee all over the hardwoods. I quickly put both of the boys out of the bathroom, told Elijah to watch his brother for a second =), and closed the door to clean up the mess. When I was done, no more than 1 min later, Elijah was all the way up the stairs, and Luke had made it past the landing on our stairs (almost 1/2way up). Then Elijah said "Hey down there!" with a big smile on his face...It was really cute. Lesson learned - I should shut the gate to the stairs and not close the door when I'm cleaning. =)
Luke has finally started to like books in the past couple days. Generally, he's too distracted to sit and read for a wihle, but something has just clicked in the last couple days. He gets really giddy when I take out "Brown Bear." and it's so cute... Other things that make him start to smile, laugh, and kick his legs in excitement are...opening the front door to the house (we generally wait for daddy to come home when that happens), bananas, Elijah giggling at him, holding him in your arms and dancing with him..He's a sweet, happy boy. He has gotten not one, not two, but three teeth now, and the fourth is about to break through the surface. We'll just say teething hasn't been the best experience in the world...He hasn't been all that fussy though, so that's definitely something to be thankful for. He's had trouble napping the past 2 days and woke up in the middle of the night last night, screaming bloody murder for a good hour. I had quite the meltdown on Tuesday... I keep trying to wake up early, setting the alarm at, now 5:45, just to get some things done around the house and find some time to shower. But Luke keeps waking up earlier and earlier! So I was crying to Stephen on Tuesday, and what does he do? He comes home a little early with roses and chocolates (and an orchid), and a beautifully written little card. Then today, he went into work later than usual (which is probably normal time for most people) just so I could get a shower before my day started, which is so sweet. (A shower might not sound like a lot to most people, but for moms with little ones, you know how big a deal that can be!) So I just wanted to let everyone know how great of a husband he is!

Luke and Elijah

2010-05-05T12:41:00.001-07:00

Things are getting quite crazy in our household with Luke growing up so fast! He is almost 10 months old now and has been crawling around for a while and cruising along anything that will hold his body weight up. I think this is one of the harder stages of the first year - where you have to be sure everything they try to pull up on won't topple back on top of them. But Luke is now into pushing everything and walking behind them - the kitchen chairs, his table toy, boxes, Elijah's bicycle (which makes for a pretty cute scene when Elijah's on it, trying to pedal) Luke is talking a lot more now. He can say "Dada" and I think he says "nana" for banana (which he gets so excited to eat)- but the boy REFUSES to say "Mama!" I think he's a true Burns boy and is just giving me a hard time by not saying it. =) He got his first tooth at 9 months and we are in the process of cutting tooth number two. He's having a bit of trouble with it. He's the world's happiest baby all the time, so for him to be fussy, you know something's wrong. But in no time at all I'm sure he'll be back to his sweet happy self. We've noticed that he has a bit of a shy personality. If he meets someone and is in my arms, he will put his head against my shoulder or chest in a super sweet, but shy sort of way. I guess God might be trying to balance out my boys with a super social Elijah and a shy laid back Luke... time will tell!

Elijah has been so sweet lately. Just a happy little boy - although we've been having issues dropping him off at childcare when I teach aerobics. He pitches the biggest fit and nearly left me in tears on Friday! But I spoke with some of the workers and they've assured me that this is another phase that most kids go through about this age. And the hardest thing is leaving him, knowing he's crying and sad, but knowing that's what you've got to do. Hopefully this phase, too, will soon pass! Okay on with some more stories that make you smile...

Elijah's daddy recently taught him the biggest word he knows - supercalifragilisticespeallidocious (spelling?!) He's so cute to hear him say it!
He is currently obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. When we went up to Huntsville, his Nanny ran to the stores and got him a Buzz Lightyear toy so that both he and cousin Taylor would have one. All we heard that week (and are still hearing) was "To Infinity And Beyond!" I mean, all the time! But it's pretty cute.
Elijah likes to pretend to be other people now... we were eating lunch and he said "I'm the Daddy - I'm the fastest man in the world!!!! I'm the Luke - Dada... Dada...Dada..." I asked him to pretend to be the Mommy, but he didn't have an impersonation...
So as a former music teacher, I'm kind of proud to say that my 2 year old can sign a solfege scale (do re mi fa sol la ti do). Well, one day at Publix, Elijah was singing (rather loudly) "Do Re Mi!" over and over until one of the sweet men who was stocking the shelves sang it back to him. They went back and forth singing Do Re Mi for a while, and then, even when we were several aisles over, kept singing. It was pretty funny. But now whenever we go to Publix, Elijah will singing "Do Re Mi" to each and every shelf stocker in hopes that they sing back (and they often do). It's pretty cute.
Elijah looked at one of his weeble toys who had blonde hair and said "Mommy, he has corn on top of his head". This made me laugh so much that I called Stephen and let Elijah tell him that. Stephen said "he has corn on top of his head?" And Elijah said "That's so silly!" in a manner that made it sound like it was Stephen's idea.
Whenever Elijah waters the flowers and plants, I've noticed that he sings "Sprinkle Sprinkle little flower..." and then some other words to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, very softly.

The pictures are from Luke's 9 (and a half) pictures. He's getting so big and grown up! The picture of Stephen and the Elijah is after one of Stephen's softball games. Their Grammy was sweet enough to watch Luke so Elijah and I could cheer their Daddy on during a softball game, which is too late for Luke and pushing it for Elijah. But we went and had a blast. I spent more time trying to keep little man off the field than actually watching, but it was fun nonetheless! The one with the "Cahaba Cup" trophy is after Stephen got finished playing (and winning) the "Mudtown Classic" Basketball tournament. And the cute little girl is Bella Grace Monroe, our future daughter-in-law. Elijah and Luke's Aunt Beth and Bella Grace came to visit for a playdate on Monday and we had so much fun!

Elijah & Luke Have a New Cousin!

2010-04-28T12:10:00.001-07:00

Elijah and Luke's Aunt Kristi gave birth to a baby boy named Riley Thomas Swearengin on Monday, April 26th at 10:03. Riley was 7lbs 10oz and 18in long and is as cute as can be! He was 3 weeks early, but is wonderfully healthy and is doing great. They came home from the hospital today and are really excited. We've been up in Huntsville to celebrate his birth and Elijah & Luke have been having so much fun hanging out with their cousin Taylor and all our Huntsville family.
Our boys are doing great - Luke's had his 9mo check up since I've last written on here. To our surprise, he was only 50% in weight and height. He's been crawling around everywhere, pulling up on everything (including walls!) and cruising along furniture and everything else that will hold him. He's starting to talk more, but refuses to say Mamma! He loves saying Dadda and he says Nanna whenever I pull out a banana for him to eat, so maybe that's his second word... we'll have to see if that continues. Elijah is doing great as well. I have tons of funny stories that I've been meaning to post, but time just seems to fly by with these guys. I'm trying to ignore the crying I hear in the background b/c Luke needs to nap, but I'm about to give in... I'll write more soon.

"Are we going to heaven, Daddy?"

2010-04-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

So it's been tough with the big guy these past few days... terrible twos, here we are. Instead of reading Elijah a book today before his nap, I just prayed as hard as I could b/c I was at the point of tears dealing with him! So to remind us all (including myself!) of how cute he can be...
Elijah: Are we going to heaven, Daddy? (saw a commercial for 700 club earlier that day, apparently)
Stephen explained how we get to heaven... A few minutes later...
Elijah: Are we going to heaven, Daddy?
Daddy: Do you know how we get to heaven?
Elijah: Yes.
Daddy: How do we get to heaven?
Elijah: By a donkey... we get to heaven by a donkey
Daddy: No. Do you know how we get to heaven?
Elijah: Yes.
Daddy: How do we get to heaven?
Elijah: By an airplane
Daddy: No. Do you know how we get to heaven?
Elijah: Yes.
Daddy: How do we get to heaven?
Elijah: A car.
Daddy: No. Do you know how we get to heaven?
Elijah: Yes.
Daddy: How do we get to heaven?
Elijah: Jesus. We get to heaven by Jesus
Daddy: Yes!!!! We get to heaven by trusting and believeing in Jesus! (and then a further explanation)

Then this morning, we were going over the Easter story, and I asked him where Jesus was carrying his cross...
Mommy: He was carrying his cross to Gol....
Elijah: ly. Golly. (with a smile)
Mommy: No... He was carrying his cross to Gol-ga-
Elijah: fa! (He can't say his th sounds great, so he meant Golgatha)
........
Mommy: Then what happened three days later?
Elijah: (singing in a high voice like David Phelps song) Three days later! Three days later! (with eyes squinting b/c he's singing so high!) Three days later!!!! He ROSE FROM THE DEAD!

Too funny! He can tell the Easter story so well... He says that after they "spanked" Jesus and nailed him to the cross, that "He was stuck". He can tell you what Jesus said when He was up on the cross, what happened to the sky when He died, who came to visit his tomb... future preacher maybe? =) We'll see!
This perked me up a bit before the boys awake, and I hope it did the same for you.
Stories and actual pictures of the boys to come soon.
ps - Luke's doing great! He's crawling EVERYWHERE (even in the fireplace - not lit). And his favorite (only) word is.... Dada!
Mommy: What does Luke say when he's hungry?
Elijah: Dada
Mommy: What does Luke say when he's happy?
Elijah: Dada
Mommy: What does Luke say when he's sleepy?
Elijah: Dada....

Luke is a crawler now!!!

2010-03-15T11:50:00.001-07:00

Luke will be 8 months old this week and he's moving all around now! He started crawling backwards a while back and finally got his wheels moving in the right direction on Feb 28th - 7 1/2 months old. He is constantly on the go now, which means we have to be careful with the little matchbox cars and other smaller toys that he doesn't really need to play with (we've tried to clean most of them out, but who can take little cars away from a 2 year old?) He said his first word - "Dada" on Feb 11th, but we're still waiting for "Mama" (Just a note: Elijah said "Mama first) He started pulling up to standing here and there, but last night, he was pulling up a lot. He would pull up on his jumperoo and then eye his little table top toy a few steps away... then you'd see the determination in his eyes as he'd let go and step to it. He is quite courageous! And today he was standing up in his bed and was walking from one side to the other. Crazy! He got dedicated at our church on the 21st of February. Big brother, little brother, and Daddy all wore matching pinstripe blazers...and Mom wore the matching skirt. I mean, what else would you expect from the Burns family? =) Luke's head seems to be shaping up well, just rather slowly. He could care less about wearing it though, praise the Lord! It's just like it's a piece of him. But he is just as cute as can be and developing all too fast - it's hard to enjoy one stage before it's completely over and he's moved on to the next!
Elijah's as cute and funny as ever. His big thing now is to get coins. If he tinkles on the potty he gets one coin - and he doesn't care if it's a lot or just a dribble - he will let you know that he deserves another coin. He will go to the potty 5 times within 10 minutes if we let him (and expect 5 coins too!) And he knows that when he goes poo poo on the potty, he'll get 2 coins (only happened once so far). But we're thinking pull ups are just around the corner, which I will be thrilled about!!! It will be like getting a pay raise once this guy's off diapers! I feel like I'm constantly calling Stephen to tell him things that Elijah says... here are some things that have made me smile lately...

Mom: What does the rain do for the earth?
Elijah: Hmmmm (pointing his finger to his cheek). It cleans daddy's office.
Mom: What else does it do?
Elijah: Hmmm...it cleans our house.

Elijah: (riding in the car) Hey! Gimmie my cup!
Mom and Dad: (ignoring Elijah b/c of his bad manners)
Elijah: Hey! Gimmie my cup... Hey... can you hear me guys? Can you hear me guys! Guys! Can you hear me guys! (yelling)

Elijah: (walking down the stairs every morning) Here comes the (insert color of shirt here) alligator... Here comes the blue alligator...
One night he was walking down the stairs naked, so I said...
Mom: Here comes the naked alligator!
So now everyday it's...
Elijah: (walking down the stairs every morning) Here comes the naked alligator! Here comes the naked alligator!

We've been catching him reading stories to himself.. he was holding his Bible and we listened as he said "Are you my mother? No I'm a cow said the cow...are you my mother? No I'm a doggie, said the doggie"..." And lastly, he LOVES to make Luke smile and laugh, which we love. He's a great big brother!

Fun the Snow!!!

2010-02-16T12:33:00.000-08:00

On Friday, we had a fun little snowday! We had about 2 or 3 inches at our house. We bundled both the boys up to go outside to experience snow for the first time for Luke and the second time for Elijah, although he only sat in it for a few minutes about this time last year. Elijah loved running around in the snow. He had a snowball fight with his daddy and and they made a snowman together, of which they were very proud. It lasted unitil Sunday afternoon. They made snow angels too. It was so much fun! Luke seemed to like the snow. His helmet has a hole in the top, so snow kept falling in it the first time we went outside The next time we went outside, he wore one of Stephen's hats b/c all of his were too small! It was beautiful and so much fun!

Super Bowl Fun!

2010-02-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

Well tonight is the superbowl and both our boys are decked out in opposite team jerseys - Luke is pulling for the Saints, dressed in his Saints attire given to Elijah last year by one of the Stephen's groomsmen, Mike. He is a huge Saints fan and actually took Stephen to the Saints/Jets game this season. Elijah, on the other hand, is pulling for the Colts, dressed in his Eli Manning jersey given to him by Stephen's step-brother, Quentin. He is a huge Colts fan and has a little boy named Peyton, so between our two families, we have two Manning brothers covered. Although Elijah's jersey is 12mo, he still fits in it. (Barely!)
Luke got his helmet on Friday and we've started the gradual process of adjusting him to it. Yesterday he wore it for about 3 hours, today 6, and by Friday he'll be wearing it 23 hours a day. He seems to be taking to it pretty well, thankfully. We just pray that this works and that he enjoys wearing it... for the next several months.

Helmet here we come...

2010-01-27T19:14:00.000-08:00

So I'll start of with an update on Luke's plagiocephaly (fancy word for a misshaped head) - after a consultation with an orthotist, the scans revealed that he will need a cranial band (aka helmet). Most people do not have a symmetrical head; your measurements are off by about 2-4mm. If the child's head is off by 6-10mm, they highly recommend the helmet. Luke's was off by 12mm. So for the next 5 or 6 months, he will be having to wear his sweet little helmet 23 hours a day. That's right - 23 hours a day! Poor guy. I was under the impression that he might have to wear it a couple hours a day, but, unfortunately, I was wrong. His cranial band will be ready on Monday, when we'll go for a lengthy appointment to further customize and fit it to Luke's head. So be in prayer for that situation - that he takes well to the helmet and stays a sweet and happy baby. And that it doesn't hinder his sleep... we are just to the point where he is back to sleeping through the night, for the most part, and are so not looking forward to adding something to complicate his sleep.
On a lighter note, here are a few fun stories about Elijah that I thought I'd share to add a bit of laughter to your day...

Stephen had to go to Miami for work. Elijah is doing a great job w/ his pronouns when he talks - so great that he pronounces "Miami," "Your-ami." How funny is that?! I told him "daddy's going to Miami... where is he going?"...Elijah: "He's going to Your-ami". We were praying and I said "Please keep daddy safe in Miami" and Elijah repeated and said "Please keep daddy safe in your-ami". lol
One of his new favorite songs is Zaccheus (was a wee little man...) Out of nowhere, generally at dinner time, he will say "Zaccheus, you come down!..." Of all the bible songs, that one has clearly stuck.
He has this funny little voice that he uses sometimes. It's really deep and he chooses to use it at the funniest times. He'll say "Papa Jeff and Jerrie" and will almost always say "Jerrie" in his low voice. Stephen and Elijah chase each other all the time, and the other night Stephen had a coin of his and Elijah kept yelling "HEY! (Really deep)... gimmie my coin.... HEY!... gimmie my coin!" Although his manners weren't top notch at that moment, him yelling "hey" like that and chasing Stephen was so funny to us both.
Thumbs up is the biggest incentive right now. He will do just about anything to get you to give him 2 thumbs up. A few weeks ago, when he was just learning to do thumbs up, he would look at his hand and say "thumbs up!... is that my thumb?" Now he has it down pat.
Elijah sat down on the potty tonight and was waiting and said "Penis! Tinkle!"

Luke is 6 Months Old!

2010-01-20T12:46:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe, but our baby Luke is 6 months old! We went to the doctors yesterday for his check up, and he weights nearly 18lbs, which puts him in the 50th percentile for weight. He is in the 75th % for head size and 15th % for height, so he's still short and chubby, but Dr Malone is hopeful that he'll hit a growth spurt soon. We have an appt with an orthotist on Monday to see if they would recommend our sweet Luke to get, for lack of a better term, a helmet. =) So that will pressurize his head and get it shaped a little bit better. It has improved greatly, but he could use a little extra help since we can't force him to lay a certain way anymore b/c he's so mobile. He has changed a lot in the past couple months! He scooted for the first time on December 16th, one day shy of his 5 month birthday! He only goes a few feet now, but it is progress. He sat up for the first time right around then too... I just don't know where I wrote down that date! So it's fun right now, watching him curiously try to get objects and try to move around. And it's so cute to watch him and Elijah sitting next to each other, playing with the same toys. He loves to sit in his little jumperoo (like an exersaucer, but it bounces) and the little jumper that you attach to a door frame - however, I have learned that I can't leave him in it while I'm showering b/c several times I peaked my head out of the shower, to see Elijah standing next to him, smiling mischievously at me. =)
He's eating solids for breakfast and dinner (fruit and cereal for breakfast and fruit and veggie at night) and is even drinking a little juice every other day (to help out his tummy). Sleeping is a whole different issue... Ever since we visited our family in Huntsville for Thanksgiving, we've been dealing w/ him waking up once a night most days of the week. (prior to that he slept through the night since 2 months or so). And since we had to position him in a certain way at night for his head, we swaddled him up until last Friday. So now that he can play with his feet and hands at night, he thinks it's playtime. Last night was especially rough (could have been attributed to his vaccinations yesterday) - He woke me up every 30 minutes until 1:20, and then he decided to cry until 3 when we finally decided to put him in his swing. We generally let him cry four about 15/30 minutes before we check on him and/or change his diaper. Thank the Lord Elijah is a fantastic sleeper and could care less whether or not his brother is crying in the wee hours of the morning. We're working on teaching him to nap in his bed rather than his swing now, so napping is rough too... whew. I'm getting exhausted just writing about this! So this time period is a little trying, but it is temporary. We'll get through it.
I'll end on a happy note though. He loves to giggle, especially at his daddy and Elijah. At the doctors, he got so tickled watching Elijah run around the room that he made me and the dr crack up as well. It is so precious and so contagious. He is such a sweet child and such an incredible blessing.

Elijah's 2.... and a month

2010-01-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

So I understand that I'm posting stuff about my sweet Elijah's 2nd birthday a good month after the fact, but that's what happens when you have a son who's birthday is right before Christmas! It's been quite busy! I cannot believe he is two years old. Before his birthday, he was so excited about his "Mickey Mouse Birthday Party," which he would say all the time. When you asked him who was coming, he would name a list of friends from church and what not, but it basically was family and a couple of our best friends. His party was a blast! It was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed, so all the food had to do w/ the show... Toodles' Tea, Donald & Daisy's Cheese & Quackers, "Chip" & Dale's salsa, Goofy's goody bags, "Minnie" fruit cups, Boo Boo Chicken Nuggets, Hot Diggidy Dogs,... and my favorite - Professor Von Drake's Vaffle Chips". (I mean, if you're going cheesy, you might as well go all out) We made a "toodles" for his party and Elijah had to call on him throughout the party for mousekatools. But it was absolutely precious when a baloon floated to ceiling and he grabbled the cardboard toodles to help get it down. Thankfully, his daddy was there to save the day. He had a great time at the party and was sad that it was only a one day thing. That night we went to our fav mexican restaurant, San Antonio, b/c you can't miss having your little boy decked out in a sombrero and sung to on his birthday. He thought it was so fun! He is just the most incredible little two year old! He loves loves loves to sing. I always wondered if our first born would be more musical than the others since he heard me teaching music all day while I was pregnant with him... we'll see... But he can sing SO many songs! Stephen's favorite is the farmer in the dell. I was singing rudolph, which I barely sang during Christmas, and I would stop at the end of each line, and he would sing the correct word every time! And then I sang "Oh you better watch out..." and he sang the rest of that song! I didn't even realize I had sung it that often for him to learn it. A sweet thing he is doing now, is that everytime we go up to bed for his nap, he runs and kneels by the side of his bed to pray. He repeats everything I say when we pray and it is just so sweet - he, the 2 year old, was reminding me, the grown up, to pray. And after he sings the blessing before we eat, he always says, so sweetly, "Thank you God for our family... I love you God" I know I'm going on and on about Elijah, but that's b/c this post is about him. My next one will be all about Luke. I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog! Hope all is well with you and your families!

Superdad and Luke's Check Up

2009-11-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

Well, first of all, I have to say that Stephen has been such an amazing dad and husband, especially this past week. I had plans Thursday night, a hair appt on Saturday, went shopping on Sunday, and went to Sipsnstrokes on Tuesday night and he watched the boys without complaining at all. (not that he would complain to watch his own children, but that's a lot to ask of him, with him working all day and being busy on the weekends as well.) On Sunday when I came home, he had cleaned up the house a good bit. That was super sweet, b/c as anyone with any kids, especially small ones, knows, it's super hard to keep the house clean for more than a min. On Tuesday, when I came home from sipsnstrokes, he had cleaned up all of the dishes, put them away, cleaned up all the toys, the kitchen, the den, did a couple loads of laundry, and even folded them! And did I mention he had chocolate chip cookies waiting for me? =) (He brought them home from work that day, but hey, they're still chocolate chip cookies!) So I wanted to give a big thank you to him for being a super dad!

Luke is officially 4 months old (this picture is a couple weeks old). We went to the Drs for his 4 mo check up and Elijah's 2 yr check up. Elijah is 50% in height and weight - completely avg! Luke is 50% in weight and head, and 25% in height. It's funny b/c Elijah was always 50% in weight, but he was always tall for his age, so Luke's a little chubbier looking b/c he's shorter - which is so cute. Everything looked great with both of the boys except the dr was a little concerned w/ Luke's head shape, so we had to go to Children's to get a skull scan. After a long morning, it turned out his skull is forming together just as it should. yeah! If you haven't seen him recently, his head kind of bulges out a little bit in the back - it's not hugely noticable, but it concerned the dr. Luke favors looking to his right and it appears that has caused his head to form a little funny. His brain is all good, but his head's shape is not quite round. Elijah's head was funny shaped for a while but his turned out round once he was able to sit up, so we hadn't been concerned. But the dr wants us to make sure his head is looking up completely straight when he's on his back for the next 2 months and hopes that will solve the problem. If not, we'll have to go to a specialist to get a special helmet for him to wear to kind of pressurize his head to fix his problem. So he's not enjoying not turning his head, but he's going to have to learn to adapt b/c we don't want to go down the helmet road, as cute as that would be. So alls well for now and hopefully we're on the path to getting his head fixed up. But he's as sweet and bubbly as a baby could be - talking a ton, rolling, smiling, sleeping great! We're really thankful for 2 great boys.

Saving Money

2009-11-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, so since I’ve been a stay at home mom, particularly with two kids, we’ve had to watch our budget & try to save as much as possible. The Lord has provided a lot of help to us, like me teaching aerobics again and different ways we’ve been able to save money. Well, my friend Holly introduced me to www.proverbswife.blogspot.com and www.southernsavers.com and we have saved SO much money pairing up coupons with buy one get one free deals and what not - everything purchased at publix. It gets me so excited - I grew up shopping all the time for clothes and bragging to my parents how much I “saved” them, so I guess I’ve had to change from clothing shopping to grocery shopping to satisfy my craving for a good deal. But this week, I just had to share what we’ve bought…

4 pkgs of Pillsbury Simply Cookies (all natural), 3 lb bag of gala apples, 1 International Delight Creamer, 2 pkgs of Green Giant Steamers frozen veggies, 2 pkgs of Green Giant boxed frozen veggies, 1 Multi Grain Cheezitz, 1 white posterboard… 31 cents total!!!
4 pkgs of Green Giant boxed veggies, 2 pkgs of Solo heavy duty paper plates (48ct), 1 box whole wheat Mueller’s pasta, publix all natural peanut butter… 86 cents total!!!
Arnolds Honey Wheat Bread, 2 pkgs of Country Crock butter, 1 pkg of reduced fat cheezitz, 3 lb bag of gala apples, publix all natural peanut butter, publix milk….8.12 total
And we’re going back this afternoon for purchases that will probably resemble the first two listed.

All of those purchases were made w/ coupons I printed online from these websites. I try to do all of my shopping on Sun & Mon to get the publix penny item (which was peanut butter this week). We try to break up our grocery bill into 10 dollar increments (to get the penny item) and go as many times as necessary on Sun & Mon to stock up on the penny item. This week we kind of slacked on that, so we only got 2 penny items, but normally we get like 4 or so, which can be great when it’s toilet paper or tortilla chips or something really useful. This week, we made out big time w/ the $4 off 4 general mills products coupon, found in the publix circular in their store - we were paid to buy the cookies and green giant veggies, since we paired them up w/ that $4 off coupon and individual coupons.

For example, we bought 4 pkgs of Green Giant frozen veggies 3 for $5 - we used 50cents off coupons on each, which publix doubles, so we got $1 off each box. Then I had one 50cents off 2 boxes (they sometimes allow you to use more than one, which worked today), so that’s another $1 off. Then we used the $4 off GM coupon. So just for the veggies alone, we got paid nearly $2.34!
I would highly recommend checking out these websites and trying it out for yourselves. I get so excited when I get a good deal!!! Hope you do to!
FYI- These deals end after today, so if you want to get them, make sure you check out the weekly ads for whatever date through Nov 3 b/c they probably have this next weeks’ ads (wed thru tues) posted already. =)

Fall Fun

2009-10-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Fall has been fun so far! We went &tailgated at the Alabama/Tennessee game where we got to hang out with some friends from college, including one of Elijah’s little girlfriends, Meredith Eller, as well as with Uncle TJ & Poppy. If you ask Elijah what we do on Saturday’s, he’ll excitedly tell you “Alabama football game” and can cheer “Roll Tide” and “B-A-M-A Bama All the Way” at the top of his lungs. I guess you could say we’re raising him right. =) We went to the pumpkin patch as a family on Sunday and had such a fun time! We rode the choo-choo train, went on a hayride, and Daddy & Elijah figured their way through a maze. It was a gorgeous day & we had a blast. I took the boys back on Monday, when it was less crowded, for Elijah to bounce on the inflatables, play the games, & get his face painted.

For Halloween Elijah is an Alabama football player and Luke is the football ~ the perfect pair! We joked about doing these costumes last Halloween before we were expecting Luke. My mom made Luke’s sweet little costume, which we have gotten so many compliments on! Wednesday was our church’s Trunk or Treat, which was the first time Elijah was able to experience trick or treating. Last year he just rode around in a wagon with his pal Jonah. He ran from car to car & really liked getting candy (which he’s only been allowed one piece of so far!) He was so good at running from car to car that, when we stopped for a few minutes to work our Sunday school classes’ car, he ran off without us. I was tending to our classes’ candy & holding Luke and Stephen was grabbing a paci for Luke. Within 2 seconds, Elijah was gone - Stephen went one way and I went the other. It was such a zoo there that he could have been anywhere! After which felt like forever, probably 10 min or so, I got back to the car and Stephen had Elijah in his arms. Our friend Clay found him running, quite far away from our car… It was the worst feeling in the world, not knowing where he was. We said so many prayers that night - of worry and of thanks. So it was definitely a memorable night to say the least.

Tonight we’re going to carve and paint pumpkins and then tomorrow’s the big night! Halloween’s so much more fun with kids!

Pumpkin Patch & Trunk or Treat Pics

2009-10-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

More pictures and stories to come shortly!!!

We got the flu!

2009-10-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

(I don't know why everything's underlined! Sorry!) Both Stephen & Elijah have had the flu… On Sat, Stephen tested + for it & Elijah didn’t, but had the same symptoms that Stephen started with, so they treated both of them for the flu. Stephen’s had his pitiful moments, but we think we caught it early enough w/ Elijah that he mainly just had a cough. We lysoled everything and Stephen wore a mask around Luke in hopes that he wouldn‘t get it. But Stephen and Elijah made the most of their sicknesses - building forts together and hanging out in their pjs (Elijah). While it was fun having Stephen home from work, I’m glad he’s healthy again! I’ve been taking tamiflu , so hopefully that will keep both Luke and I from getting it as well. So please pray for our household to get and stay healthy.
Luke is getting huge! He’s nearly 13lbs and is getting so active! He's getting in the groove of eating, playing for an hour and a half or so, and then sleeping. He is smiling a ton and can hold his own in a conversation (just “ahh”s and “goo”s for now, but words will come all too soon enough!) He and Stephen seriously talk up a storm together! It's so cute! He had been waking up in the 5am hour for a while, but for the past week he has slept from 9:30ish til 6:30-7:30. Yeah!!!!! We’ve been praising God a lot for that!
Elijah's been saying the cutest things lately! When he goes to sleep now, if I carry him up, he'll say "I love you forever?" meaning he wants me to sing the song from the book "I'll love you forever." Too sweet! Bedtime has been so weird this past week. We don't know if it's his meds or what, but he plays in his bed for nearly 1 1/2 hours before falling asleep. He'll go from rubbing his eyes before bedtime to jumping up and down in his bed the minute you close the door. You can just see the excitement in his eyes when you lay him down to sleep. His new thing is "I want some" If you have something, he wants it. He's getting to know his numbers really well and we've been working on days of the week. He colors pictures of footballs and crosses and books and then we glue them to a calendar so we know when we're going to watch football and go the library and so forth. When you ask him "what do we do on Saturday?" he says "Football game!!!" He's a huge bama fan. You just say "B-A-M-A" and he screams "Bama All The Way!!!" He spent the night with his Grammy a few weeks ago and came home to tell Daddy "War Eagle." Stephen said "Go to timeout" Elijah got all sad and Stephen had to console him saying he was just playing. Then I came downstairs and said good morning to him and he said "War Eagle!" I said "no sir" in a joking manner and his eyes welled up with tears and he got so hurt! We have to work on joking around with him... but he learned his lesson. =)

Luke is 2 Months Old!

2009-09-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

Above is Luke on the left and Elijah on the right, both at 2 mo old.

Luke is now 2 months old! At his check up, he was 11 ½ lbs and 23in long. He was 50% all across the board. He gained more than 4 lbs in 6 weeks, which is better than they expect, so yeah for Luke! He goes to bed around 9:30 and wakes up, on average, one time at night; then he is up by 6:30 or 7:30. He is starting to eat on a 4 hour schedule and getting into a routine of eating, playing, and then sleeping. He is lifting his head up like a strong boy, pushing all the way up on his forearms. He’s starting to coo and pay more attention to his toys and surroundings. He's been having the sweetest little conversations w/ his daddy. Where Luke doesn’t talk near as much as Elijah, he makes up for in loudness. =) However, he has a little tender cry at times that’s pretty sweet. He has had several playdates in the past few weeks. His girly friend, Karidyn, has come over. She's kind of sweet on Elijah, but we'll see what happens there. ;) His friend, Walker, has come over for several playdates. They're only about 4 weeks apart and his mom, Michelle, is just a few houses away, so they'll be good buddies.

We’ve had a lot of fun experiences these past few weeks. The boys went to the McWayne Center with Poppy, Aunt Kristi, Uncle TJ, and Taylor. Taylor and Elijah had a blast playing together and exploring all around the McWayne Center. It was great for kids their age. We also met up and tailgated in Tuscaloosa for the first home game. Elijah loved the atmosphere and is a big fan. He’ll just yell “Roll Tide” out of n where, and if you say “B-A-M-A” he will respond with “Bama All The Way!” Those two cheers woke me up the other morning. =) Stephen went to Colorado for 4 days and left me to tend to the boys on my own. It was a good few days with the boys – no real crazy moments – but I was so thankful to have my sweet husband back home. God made us a team for a good reason. =) While he was gone we went to the library for a 12-24mo old storytime class. It was superfun!!! 30 min of nonstop activities – songs, stories, dancing, and a snack. He was so cute clapping and yelling “yeah!!!” after most of the songs. It was very structured, so it was great for him to practice following directions from someone other than mom and dad. We’ll definitely be frequenting this class from now on. While Stephen was gone, Elijah painted a few “masterpieces” for his Daddy’s birthday. His rendition of Happy Birthday is hard to beat ~ “Happy – O to you!...” We also had our Sunday school play group at Pump it Up. Elijah had so much fun playing on all the bouncy toys and running around like a wild man.

Our days seem so short and so long at the same time. Stephen and I were talking about our “jobs” and how they’re trying at times and so rewarding as well. They’re both roller coasters. I made the comment that at least he gets to get off his roller coaster at night. He joked and said that he gets off his roller coaster and then hops on mine. =) And he reminded me that while my “lows” can be trying, my highs are way higher and more special than any high he could have at work. It’s so true. The little smiles and silly moments I get with our boys can erase the most recent meltdown in a heartbeat.

Luke's Room... Sick Boys... Funny Stories....

2009-09-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures from Luke’s room. We decided to paint the room with an accent wall and do the whole blue and brown theme. It’s funny to see Elijah run into Luke’s room b/c he starts yelling all of the letters he sees on the wall. His Aunt Beth and Uncle Jay got him that sweet little vinyl wall art above his bed: “I see the moon and the moon sees me. God bless the moon and God bless me.” It took us several weeks to get it done, but it’s finally finished.
This past week has been a little crazy. The Lord so sweetly reminded me that, although Elijah has been acting like a big boy, he still is quite the little one himself. Last Wednesday morning he woke me up crying from 5:30 on. I try to make a point not to get him out of bed until after 7, but I got him up a little early & brought him downstairs. I was going to read him a story, but by the time we sat down, he was asleep in my arms! I can’t remember the last time that happened and it felt so sweet just holding him like that. We cuddled for almost an hour together on his daddy’s chair while he slept. It turns out that he had a cold, which Luke caught as well. It lasted a couple days with Elijah and several more with Luke…poor things. But we're basically all clear of the colds.
Life’s been a little adventure with Luke spending more time on the ground. If I turn my back for 2 sec, Elijah has his arms underneath him, attempting to pick him. I have made many a dashing sprint to get there just in time to support Luke’s head before Elijah’s got him airborne. Luke is doing a good job lifting up his head. He actually enjoys tummy time! He rolled over for the first time from his belly to back Tuesday!! I thought it was a fluke, so I put him back on his belly and he did it again and he's done it a couple time since then! So he was 6 wks and 4 days old. He also smiled for the first time Wednesday!!! It was so sweet!!! He’s sleeping anywhere from 3 to 5 hours a night, which is pretty good. It’s a lot easier handling getting up at night the second go around, since we understand that this truly is just a temporary thing. Hopefully a full night’s rest is just around the corner. He’s been a very even tempered baby, but he’s also still sleeping quite a bit. I hope that he stays nice and laid back even when he’s up more often… we’ll see!
Elijah’s been quite the character, as always. He’s got some new dance moves on him - he can shake his little booty so cutely! It’s on our to-do list to get it on video. He’s been watching the track and field world championship (or something) on tv with his daddy, so now we hear “Guys Run Fast!!!” all the time, meaning that he wants to watch the guys run fast on tv. We were driving in the car the other day and he saw a guy on the side of the road that looked like a runner and he yelled “Guys run fast!”
His time in time-out is increasing a bit, but he’s able to tell us what he has done wrong, which helps when I forget after the 5 min he’s been sitting there! Yesterday he was in time out and I asked him “what do you say?“ When I expected him to say “I’m sorry,“ he said “I pooted…scuse mees!!!“ Talk about trying to keep a straight face! He’s starting to talk more in complete sentences now - “I dropped my paci,” “Daddy eat cereal too?” “Oh no! Donald Duck fall down!“ My grandmother fell and is currently in the hospital with a fractured back and a small blood clot that they’re trying to dissipate, so please keep her in your prayers. Elijah wanted to say the blessing again at breakfast this morning, so I asked him who does he want to pray for and he said “Gram Gram.“ So we prayed for her and then for the next several hours, he would say out the blue, “Gram Gram fall down… feel better…“ He’s a bundle of fun and so amusing… There’s never a dull moment in our house.

2009-08-18T06:40:00.001-07:00

Wow... I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by and that Luke is already one month old!!! Luke is doing fabulous! At his 2 week check up he was already up to 7lbs 4oz, up from 6lbs 8oz at birth, which is great as far as weight gain goes. He's getting to open his eyes much more frequently and for several hours at a time. He's still basically sleeping and eating and just looking around. He has done awesome at tummy time! He seems to enjoy it (knock on wood) and his little neck muscles are getting so strong. He is sleeping well at night. We've only had about 1 night that led to tears (and we're not talking Luke's!)
Elijah has been adjusting so well to having a little brother. He loves to tell me to "pick him up!" Then he climbs into his daddy's chair and he gets to hold his baby brother; after a couple kisses and smiles, we'll hear "all done!" and he'll try to shove him out of his lap. =) He's learning what babies need very quickly. If Luke's crying, he'll say "feed Luke" or he'll run and get his paci. We've noticed a few signs that Elijah's accepting Luke into the family...
1. We were on a stroller ride when Elijah started singing "Rain Rain Go Away." At the end of the song, we normally sing "Mommy/Daddy & Elijah want to play. Rain, rain go away." Well, Elijah was singing the song and he sang "Mommy, Daddy, Luke Thomas want to play..." It was so sweet!!!!
2. Elijah and I were playing Ring Around the Rosie and Luke was in his swing on the floor. Right when we started, Elijah stopped, reached his hand out to Luke, and said "Luke Thomas too?" I mean, how precious is that?!
We're just having a blast easing into the transition of having two boys. Nights are a little more hectic, but fun all the same. We typically enjoy a long walk, fun at the playground, then Stephen and I go our separate ways with the boys to give them each their baths and get them milk. Afterwards, we tend to crash! It is definitely an adjustment, but it's such a good one! I hope to update with more pictures and stories a little sooner next time. =)

The Family's All Home!

2009-07-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay on an update! Luke was able to come home from the NICU last Wednesday, just one day after Stephen and I went home. It was so exciting taking home our little son, only 5 days old! Elijah was nearly 2 weeks old when we took him home, so we hadn’t experienced bringing home a baby so young before. It’s been nice being back home & adjusting to life with a family of four. While Stephen’s been back at work, my parents have been helping out during the week. They kept Elijah while we were at the hospital, so he’s been getting a lot of one on one time with his Nanny and Poppy. His Grammy, Stephen’s mom, is going to be helping out the rest of the week and part of next week. It’s so nice to have such sweet family to help out during this recovery time. I can’t pick up Elijah until Luke‘s 6 weeks old, supposedly, so the help has been greatly needed & appreciated. The c-section recovery hasn’t been bad at all. I pretty much feel back to normal, but I still have to take it easy as far as exercise goes. But I'm quite anxious to get my running shoes back on! Luke is doing so great - sleeping a ton and eating very well. He’s been a very good sleeper at night (knock on wood!) so we’ve been quite thankful for that. He’s all healthy, with the exception of a little hip problem. A lot of breach babies have hip problems, so we’ve got another ultrasound scheduled at the end of August to see if it has corrected itself. It’s hard to tell who he looks like just yet…I expected him to be a little clone of Elijah, but he’s his own little person. He does give a few expressions that totally remind us of Elijah as an infant. He seems to have my hair and his daddy and brother’s mouth… the rest is a toss up! Elijah has been enjoying having a little brother. Yesterday morning, he was playing in his room and I was sitting with Luke, who eyes were wide open at the time, watching Elijah play. Elijah kept smiling at Luke and looked as if he felt so much pride showing Luke how to play. And we got the biggest giggle out of Elijah when Luke went on a sneezing spree! Elijah also held Luke for the first time today. He rested his head on Luke's belly to hug him and gave him a kiss without us asking or prompting him to - SO sweet!!! He hasn’t showed too many signs of jealousy yet… We just have to be very careful when Luke’s on the floor in his bouncer or swing, or when he’s sleeping in his pack and play downstairs - Elijah loves to run over to check on him and sometimes shake the pack and play! Yikes! We’re working on that… Right now the adjustment to two hasn’t been that significant, especially since we've had so much help. We’re sure it will be a lot more difficult once Luke’s on the ground more and sleeping less often during the day. We are so thankful to be parents of two sons, who we hope will grow up to be the best of friends. Parenthood is awesome! It’s so amazing watching Elijah grow up and it’s going to be so much fun watching Luke develop into a little man as well. Thank you all for your prayers and support during this time. We have the best family and friends!

Pictures of Luke Thomas Burns

2009-07-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Holding Daddy's hand

Held by Mommy for the first time

Arriving at the NICU

Getting a little oxygen in the NICU

Little man is getting better!

The entire family

It's a..... Boy!!!!!!!

2009-07-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

Where do we begin?! We went in for an ultrasound/NST on Thursday and they informed us, due to low amniotic fluid, they wanted to deliver our baby via C-Section (b/c the baby was breech) on Friday. We went into the hospital at 11:30 and, just as scheduled, the c-section began at 1:30. I was quite terrified by having a c-section and didn't know how I'd get through it w/o balling my eyes out. I did pretty good though... was a little nervous right beforehand when Stephen had to leave my side for me to get my epidural and prepped for surgery. But I got to look into his sweet blue eyes and hold his hand (aka take all of the circulation out) throughout the entire procedure. I held my emotions together until the doctor said, "Well Dad, what is it?!" and Stephen said "It's a boy!!!" Luke Thomas Burns was born at 1:45 on July 17th, 2009, weighing in at 6lbs 8oz and measuring 18.5in long. My first thought was that our sweet Elijah now has a best friend for life. Since he as booty down, he didn't get to squeeze all of the fluid out of his lungs naturally and his breathing was a bit irregular. So after Stephen held him by my head for about 30 sec, my man and my new little little man went off to the NICU. He was having trouble at first regulating his color, but it didn't take long to correct. His breathing was quite rapid - 110 per minute when what they'd ideally like is from 30 to 60. His oxygen levels were also lower than they'd like, so they put his little head in an oxygen filled shield. He looked like a little bubble boy, which made me giggle.(Thank you Karen Bowers for the tip to hold a pillow on top of my belly whenever I need to laugh). By nighttime, Luke was out of the bubble and his oxygen levels were up to 99! I was unable to get out of bed until 12 hours post surgery, so all Friday, I just got to see pictures and videos of my new baby boy. At 3am, anxious as could be, Stephen and I went down to the NICU to see Luke. His breathing had slowed down quite a bit; it was in the 80s! Therefore, they allowed us to hold our son, which was such a thrill for both Stephen and I. He looked so great!

ABC...Easy as 123...

2009-07-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

This little boy of ours amazes me every single day. He's growing into such a young little man - He so cutely says "excuse me" whenever he burps (or pretends!). He's getting into a great routine of saying "please" and "thank you Mommy (or insert name)"; however, for some reason when he says thank you to Stephen, more times than not he will say "thank you Mommy Daddy." LOL It drives Stephen crazy!
He's showing us how much his little brain can absorb everyday. He's got his colors down and most of his shapes. We've been noticing that he's learning his ABCs too. We'll sing it to him and stop during the song, and he'll usually say the next letter or run of letters. He normally says the correct letter, although he thinks "LMNOP" is "apple bee." =) And we noticed that he pointed out a few of the letters on Stephen's t-shirt the other day just out of nowhere. Well, today during lunch, I decided to run through the alphabet side of some of his flashcards (pictures on one side, letters on the other). I didn't ask them in order of the alphabet - just randomly - and these are the letters he got correct on the first try: Q, G, K, H, O, F, M, E, P, B, N, I, R. He got the letters U and S correct on the second try (after we were done w/ all the flashcards ). A few of the letters he missed, but I could tell he was trying with how he answered - he thought D was B, thought X was K, thought T was I, thought Z was W, thought W was M....I kind of thought those letters either sounded similar or looked similar. I was absolutely floored with our 19 month old son! He's been watching this Brainy Baby ABC dvd in the car on longer trips for the past couple weeks, so I attribute this learning mostly to that, but it's still exciting, nonetheless. We ran through about half of the letters during dinner tonight and he was getting them correct, one after the other. It just makes me realize that I don't need to slack off on teaching him one bit - kids can learn way more and understand more, even at his age, than we usually give them credit.

Pregnancy Update

2009-07-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

I had an OB appt this Monday where my Group B Strep test and my first "exam" took place - for any of you who have been pregnant before, this was not exactly a fun appt. =) GBS is a harmless bacteria that some women carry, and I happened to have it when I was pregnant with Elijah. Due to all of my drug allergies, they were unable to administer any of the antibiotics for GBS during my labor, so Elijah either got some strain of strep or a skin contaminant that kept our little boy in the NICU for 10 days after delivery... not a fun situation at all. I had an allergy appt scheduled in January for me to be tested on all of those antibiotics so that we wouldn't have to go through this problem again; however, I had to cancel it when I found out I was pregnant with baby #2. So I have been praying so hard over this situation from day one - that I either would test negative for GBS or that the Lord would just somehow shield this baby from getting it if I was positive. I've been sitting on eggshells for the call from my dr to say I'm positive. I finally called them a few minutes ago and found out that I tested negative! I am so thankful that the Lord cleared my body of this and hopefully will allow Stephen and I to take this baby home after the routine 2/3 days in the hospital. They'll still probably test this baby for it since Elijah was positive last time, but hopefully he or she will be completely healthy. I am still going to be praying hard over this, but I know God is faithful and works everything for our good and for His glory.
I have an ultrasound on Monday to check on the baby's size. I'm trending just a tad small (how in the world, I don't know!!!) so they just want to check how big the baby is and probably check my fluid levels. We have less than 4 weeks now, so Elijah's baby brother or baby sister will be in our arms before we know it! Crazy!!! Speaking of - I can hear Elijah's voice in his monitor, which means his nap is now over... "Mommy...Daddy...bye bye Sage...donkey book...goofy's hat...school bus...airplane..." The things this boy wakes up talking about! I will be posting some fun stories and pictures of the little man asap so stay tuned in!

Potty Training and House Updates

2009-06-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I would give an update on potty training... My last post was on his best day ever! He only had an accident 4 times that entire day; however, the next 3 days were quite difficult and trying. I don't know if we were pushing him too hard or what, but he just didn't seem to be enjoying it. He would tinkle and tell us as he was going, instead of before. So he was so close to being there, but wasn't there yet. We decided that we'd just do a more gradual approach over a longer time period and let him and mom actually enjoy our summer! We weren't able to really go outside or go to the pool or anything, which wasn't fun or fair. So now, we'll take him to the big potty about 3 or more times a day and he'll tinkle right away - and he's so proud of himself! We still have to buy diapers =( but he's a much happier little boy =)

We've been spending our time going to the pool, which he adores. He loves to get in the kiddie pool and walk like a little duck. He's a good little kicker in the big pool too! We've been finger painting and coloring at home (he's working on drawing circles) and just having a blast enjoying the summertime while I'm still able to chase him... speaking of - one of Elijah's Sunday school teachers told us the other day "man he's fast!" A few min later, Stephen asked me what I thought of when they said that. I said "yeah I know! And I'm 8 months pregnant chasing him!" Stephen said he was thinking, "That's my boy!!!!" Like father, like son.

Stephen and our sweet friend Joey got the baby's furniture moved into it's room - all but the crib, which we have to disassemble and reassemble to get it in the doorway. We've decided to keep our house on the market, so instead of decorating the baby's room like I want to, we're just going to set up the furniture for now and wait to really decorate until after we move. I told Stephen, as I was crying, that I think it's the best decision to not decorate or paint or anything, but being a girl, I do want the baby's room to be really cute and it makes me sad that it won't be. But it will eventually be cute and permanent, so I just have to think what's best long term. We're getting closer to being ready for the baby to be here. Less than 6 weeks now, so we really need to get going (which I'm sure the Phelps would agree!). Please be praying for our house to sell and us to move before the baby gets here, and for a continued healthy pregnancy, baby, and delivery!

And you can check out my not so stellar acting and Elijah's you tube debut at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcBcQ3kaCyg. This is a video our realtor put together to help promote the sale of our house in a bit of a lighter way. Hope you enjoy!

Potty Training...

2009-06-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well this has been an interesting and trying week. Monday we had his 18mo check up. He weighed 24lbs 7oz (30%) and was 50% in height and maybe a little bigger in head... I forgot what percentile. He did great for Dr. Malone! I told him that I was going to start potty training on Tuesday and he told me if I was able to pt an 18mo old boy, I needed to right a book. LOL That's what I've heard quite a bit! But I figure it's worth a try. Hey, we've saved money on diapers this week! (although we've gone through some spot shot and paper towels...)
So I started naked baby training on Tuesday morning... no pants at all, except for a diaper at naptime and bedtime. I've tried to keep my eyes on him at all times to see when he looks like he's about to tinkle. When he looks like he's ready to go (or after he starts to tinkle on the floor), I try to encourage him to sit on the potty (maybe read a book or watch tv or something). I've made a spread sheet and have recorded every time he's tinkled or pooped, all with cute little graphics, and if he tries to go on the potty - or refuses - I make a note of that. I put a little heart graphic in the spreadsheet whenever we have a success. So that being said...
Day 1...
4 hearts - 3 of which were after he first tinkled on the floor, but finished in the potty. This was a hard day! The Lord blessed me with a positive attitude though... Elijah tinkled a lot in 5 min intervals. =) He would tinkle a little and I guess he would surprise himself by seeing it, so then he would stop. I mean, for 20+ min before naptime, I was just trying to get him in a diaper but he wouldn't stop tinkling for me to put it on him!!! lol But it was the first day...
Day 2...
9 hearts - 3 of which were after he first tinkled on the floor, but finished in the potty. 6 were counted as success b/c he tinkled in front of his potty (so he tried!) and 1 was when he sat in the potty and actually went w/o an accident. We bought a new potty today and it plays music whenever he tinkles in it, which he really seemed to like. It also has a flusher that makes a noise. Fun incentives. We were able to go on a walk in his stroller (1 1/2 mi) w/o an accident. He tinkled in the tub immediately before and in the potty immediately afterwards. Yeah!
Day 3...
5 hearts - 3 of which were w/o accidents (one he warned me in advance) and the other 2 were in front of the potty, so I counted them as a try. This was a very trying day. It's so hard to be encouraging and not scold him for doing something that comes natural to him... especially when he likes to rub his hands in the pee that's all over the floor! At one point, he was being super sweet and cuddly, but I was so down about the day that we just rocked in the chair as I cried and talked to him. I'm so proud of him for trying so hard and I just want him to see that. I'm just hard on myself.But Stephen gave me lots of encouraging words and helped me to focus on the small successes that we've made. One thing that worked really well was to lure him to the potty with a piece of a cupcake (no frosting, but the confetti kind of cake). He wanted it so bad and I told him he had to tinkle in the potty first and then he'd get the cake. He fussed and fussed sitting there and then...music played...yeah!!!
Also, today was Elijah's year and half birthday! And it was our 4 year anniversary! It was such a romantic evening - chasing around our naked little boy!
Day 4...
(today) As of 3:15, he has already had 9 hearts!!!! Only one of which was an accident first!!! He told me he had to tinkle upstairs, and both the potties were downstairs, so I just plopped him up on the "big potty". He tinkled immediately! Then I put him down and he cried, so I put him back up there and he tinkled 2 more times!!! When I've lured him to his little potty today, it hasn't taken very long at all for him to tinkle - like 30 sec or so. Unfortunately, I had to put a diaper on him for almost 3 hours today b/c our realtor came over to shoot a video. After an hour and a half, I sat him on the potty and he tinkled right away. And right before naptime, I sat him on the potty and he tinkled again! Today has felt very successful - only 3 accidents (one was during snack time in his highchair). I thank the Lord for a good day so far b/c I just needed to see it clicking with Elijah and I'm really starting to. But this is all naked... in a few more days we'll add the clothes and see how it goes from there. =) Say a prayer for us! It would be so nice to only have the cost of one baby in diapers come August. =) (By the way - make sure you vote off to the side... girl or boy?!)

2009-06-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

Elijah's First Vacation Bible School!

2009-06-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

This week, I taught music at Hunter Street's VBS (aka Summerquest). They had childcare for all the workers' kids, but they really treated it like an actual class. Even though I only taught from 9:30 to 11, the asked to keep him from 8:30 to 12. I had to pack a lunch for him to eat with his friends - I had never packed him a lunch to eat out w/o me before, so I was a bit nervous! =) Everyday, he came home with some crafts they had done. They used little dot sticks (like bingo dabbers), crayons, glue sticks, paint... He made a choo choo train, a shaker, a fishing rod w/ some yellow fish, a boomerang, etc. They even had a music class everyday! By the end of the week, when I asked him "What do we learn about at church?" instead of saying, "mick mouse!" he would respond, "Bi--ble." And then I would ask him "Who's the bible about?" and he would say "Jesus." Too precious! He's understands what a bible is since we tell him to grab it off the book shelf every night to read while he drinks his milk (and he chooses it among 15 or so books). So it's really neat to see him making the connection between his bible and Jesus. It was a really fun week for him - exhausting, but fun. However, after seeing how much crafts they did in one week, I now feel obligated to start gluing and painting more with him! So I guess we'll add a craft segment to our day!

Our Little Smarty Pants

2009-06-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

Elijah is amazing me everyday! I can totally understand why parents think they're kids are all geniuses! Yesterday morning, I walked into his room to pick him up and he's smiling, saying "blue! blue!" for my blue bathrobe that I had on. He is really starting to learn his colors! When we're in the car, he'll yell out "YELLOW!" every time we pass a yellow car or see one of those yellow signs on the side of the road; and when we're stopped at a red light, he'll yell "green! go!" after the light changes. He still responds that most things are yellow when you ask him the color, but if you ask him twice, he'll most likely tell you the correct color. =) He's getting to know his shapes too! He tells us circle, star, triangle, & heart. We're working on the rest...
He is definitely my little talker too... He was sitting on my lap yesterday and he asked for his daddy. I told him that daddy's at work and he replied, as always, "baseball." Normally I correct him, but I just sat there watching the wheels turn in his head as he yelled "swing!!!"....(Elijah thought for a few sec)..."go! go! go!"....."run! run! run!" (while pumping his arms, of course). Too cute. He was watching me make him eggs the other day and he said "egg...egg... crack it!...mix mix!" His vocabulary is growing so much! I don't know where all of his words are coming from, but I love it. He also made mommy proud when he sang "rain rain....go away! go away!" He was so proud of himself for learning that second part of the song. He now replies with his version of I love you ("I do") sometimes when we tell him we love him, and he'll just kiss us out of no where. He absolutely melts our hearts!
BIG NEWS! Last night, Elijah started kind of grabbing himself, so I asked him if he needed to go pee pee and he said "uh huh." So I said, "let's go to the potty" and he ran towards the bathroom. So we took off his diaper and he sat down and started looking through a magazine, telling me the different things he saw. Within 30 seconds, he tinkled!!!! We said "yeah!!!" and clapped and then he said "tissue," so I gave him some toilet paper. Then he said "wipe, wipe" and he wiped himself and was done! Stephen and I had a talk later where he told me that I have to eliminate the tissue and wipe part... what can I say? I'm a girl and he learns from me! But Stephen suggested that, when he asks for a tissue, he can just blow his nose after he tinkles. lol! We're officially starting to potty train Monday, so this gives me a little more confidence going into it. It will be a crazy week of not really going anywhere, but hopefully the payoff will be worth it.

Trip to the Zoo

2009-05-26T14:17:00.001-07:00

Last week, our Sunday school class' play group met up at the Birmingham Zoo. We had so much fun! We saw a bunch of animals (camels and the sand cat were among his favorite), rode the choo choo train & the carousel, pet some barnyard animals, and played in the little water/squirt play area for a while. He did not seem to like the goats in the petting zoo this time around... one of them really loved the way he smelled and would NOT leave him alone. Elijah kept whining, then would say "bye bye" to the goat, then would whine, then say "bye bye"... I was cracking up laughing! Then, when we went to see the sheep, they were all at the back of their pen, so he yelled "come!... come!" Surprisingly enough, they didn't respond to his command. He had a blast playing with (or should I say eating gold fish from) Abby Grace, Joy's little 3 year old girl. At one point, he looked at her and did his motion and word for the itsy bitsy spider, which sounds like "E-E-I, E-E-I;"she understood him and started singing the song! It was so precious! We had a great time and he was out cold before we even left the parking lot.

Our Trip to Orlando

2009-05-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

Our much anticipated trip to Orlando is now over. =( We had an absolute blast though! Here's a breakdown of our trip...
Tues, Day 1: Elijah had his first experience on an airplane. We prayed very hard for a quiet flight and the Lord was so good to give Elijah a sweet, happy attitude the entire flight! He loves airplanes, but he saw a car on the runway as we were leaving and kept asking to see a car while we were in the air. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Stephen got to go golfing at Grand Cypress once we got there while Elijah and I, after many wrong turns and stressful tears, made it to Beth and Jay's. We had an easy going night, visiting with our best friends!
Wed, Day 2: Stephen went golfing at the Magnolia today while Elijah and I hung out together. We went shopping and got Elijah and the baby matching outfits for Christmas from Strasburg... a matching set for a girl and a matching set for a boy. =) We also went to the playground and the pool and had a fun afternoon. That night, Elijah's Uncle Jay & Aunt Beth babysat Elijah. They had a lot of fun together (although during their fun Beth's phone somehow ended up in the pool...). Stephen and I enjoyed a fun evening that started with "cocktails" (aka water) at a marina outside the Dolphin Resort at Disney and ended with a great dinner at Shula's. It was fun getting to meet some of the people that Stephen does business with (and enjoying a beautiful evening while doing so!)
Thurs, Day 3: Today was the highlight of the trip for Stephen - golfing at Bayhill! He had a great time. Elijah and I drove to Clearwater to visit his Gram Gram. We had so much fun and it was so good to see her! We went on a walk around the bay and saw a dolphin! We had lunch, played on Gram Gram's organ, ran around her house... He loved dancing around to her bear that sang "Girls just want to have fun." lol I always loved visiting my Nanny and Poppy in Clearwater when I was little, so it was really fun seeing him have fun there too. We went back to Beth and Jay's house while he napped in the car. That night, the 5 of us just hung out around the house.
Fri, Day 4: Elijah and I went to the pool and playground before his nap. Afterwards, Stephen, Elijah, and I went to Hollywood Studios for a few hours. He got to meet Mickey Mouse! While we were in line, he kept yearning and calling for "Mick Mouse!" He went up to Mickey and said hi and then hugged him. It was very sweet. We went to the Playhouse Disney show, which he really enjoyed. We played around in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and watched a few shows before heading out. We went out to dinner w/ Jay, Beth, Brian, and his fiance, Laurey. It was an exhausting evening, but we had a great time.
Sat, Day 5: Today was our marathon day. We played around the house in the morning before going with Jay and Beth to their friend's daughter's birthday party. Little Addie turned two and had a fun Minnie mouse pool party. Elijah had a great time playing in the pool and running down his gas tank before his nice, long nap. After he woke up, Jay, Beth, Stephen, Elijah, and I went to Magic Kingdom. It was so much fun!!!! We rode the boat to get to the park, which was as magical as ever. Daddy, Uncle Jay, and Elijah all tried to pull the sword out of the stone (see the pictures), but to no avail. We got to ride the giant carousel, during which he kept saying "Neigh, Neigh!"
We saw the 3-D show, Mickey's Philharmagic. Elijah was so cute with his 3-D glasses on, reaching for the objects in the air. Then we rode Dumbo, which he was so anxious to get on, yelling "Dumbo! Dumbo!" We all got do relax a second during It's a Small World. We went in the evening, so we saw their nighttime parade which was all aglow with lights. It was so cool. We ended the visit with a beautiful fireworks show at Cinderella's castle. Elijah was, once again, out before we got home.
We had such a fun trip and it was great visiting with friends and family. After a long trip back to Birmingham, we are finally at home, safe and sound.

Silly Elijah

2009-05-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

This is the face our sweet boy makes when you ask him to make his "silly face"... it's followed by a huge smile because he knows he's so cute! It's really funny to watch him do it in the mirror because he makes himself laugh, and then he can't make his silly face because he's smiling so big! Too precious...

His newfound fun is finding shadows. He first found it on the tennis courts when we were playing soccer. He likes to wave to it and chase it... and especially likes it when his shadow and mommy's shadow do the itsy bitsy spider. Everytime he sees a shadow, whether it be on the dance floor when we're watching "Dancing With the Stars" or when we're taking a stroller ride, he yells, "shadow!!!" He's really good at pointing them out to us.

Another fun word he just loves to say is bicycle... which he pronounces oh so cutely as "Bi-thi-ble," always saying the first syllable with a high pitch. And when he sees a bike, scooter, wheelchair, or motorcycle, he says, "bi-thi-ble, bi-thi-ble, bi-thi-ble!"

And here is the picture of Elijah's new girlfriend, Karidyn McKenzie. She was born yesterday to his Aunt Holly and Uncle Jonathan. He has already given her a sweet little pet name - he kept calling her "baby." =)

Fun times

2009-04-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Well not much is new with the little man... we've been getting into a good routine of going on a walk and then ending up at the "playground", or as Elijah pronounces it, "carride." As soon as we make the turn on the main road of our subdivision, still 200 or so yards from the playground (which he can't even see), he starts yelling "carride" or "slide" over and over and over! It's pretty funny. While we're at the playground, Elijah loves to play soccer in the tennis courts nearby. As he chases the ball, he yells "run, run, run, run!" I wonder where he learned that.... =)
Anytime he sees a stroller, he's now saying "baby." I've asked Elijah whether mommy's having a baby girl or baby boy, and he's told me I'm having both a girl and a boy, so he's making sure that whatever I have in my belly, he's guessed correctly. =)
We're getting really excited about our trip to Orlando! We leave one week from tomorrow! We're going to have a lot of fun flying in an airplane (which Elijah LOVES) down to Orlando. Please pray for a safe and quiet flight! We'll be visiting with Aunt Beth & Uncle Jay, Gram Gram, and Brian & Laurey. While Stephen's enjoying his conference (aka golfing most days), we'll be maybe visiting disney and sightseeing in Florida. He's very excited about the idea of seeing "Mick Mouse." Everytime I mention his name, he can't stop saying it over and over again! He has a mickey mouse book and mickey mouse diaper cover that he sees, so he knows what he looks like. It should be a lot of fun though!

Fun at Play Group

2009-04-20T08:53:00.001-07:00

On Friday, we had our monthly play group with a bunch of the kids and moms in our Sunday school class. This month, we went to Jennifer and Brad Bradley's house and had an Easter egg hunt and explored on their farm. The hunt went well ~ little man did a good job collecting his eggs, but was really more interested in their dogs. After the Easter egg hunt, we went over to see a bunch of the animals. Elijah got to pet, feed, and chase a ton of goats. He thought they were really cool. He's not the gentlest petter though ~ he's a bit spoiled with Sage allowing him to poke her in the eyes and climb all over her. He also saw some chickens and roosters, which he tried to chase, but couldn't quite catch. It was a fun day!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

Elijah had a great Easter weekend. W e went up to Huntsville to spend time with some family. He got to see his Papa Jeff & Nana Jerrie, Nanny & Poppy, Aunt Kristi & Uncle David, his cousin Taylor, and Uncle TJ. We had our first trip to Chuck-E-Cheese - he had a blast! He liked riding the little cars and even gave the big mouse a high five. He and Taylor were driving in a jeep car together and Elijah decided to pull down the lever that tilted up the front end of the jeep pretty high. Elijah loved it, but it Taylor wanted nothing to do with it - he refused to ride any more rides the rest of the day!
Easter day was a lot of fun. Before church, Elijah received some notes from the Easter bunny, sending him on a scavenger hunt around the house in search for Easter gifts. With each gift, he got a new note with a riddle that he had to solve (basically made him name the picture which led him to another gift & note, ultimately ending with his Easter basket.) After church, he and Taylor went on an Easter egg hunt outside his Nanny and Poppy's house. Elijah loved collecting the eggs and putting them in his basket. He tried to help out Taylor, who insisted on dumping his eggs out of his basket - that was way more fun for him. After the Easter egg hunt, they went inside to find even more goodies from the Easter Bunny. Before our ride home, he got to finish off his Huntsville trip with a visit to the fire station. He loves sitting in the cabin of the fire truck and running around the station. It was a really fun Easter.

Easter Egg Fun

2009-04-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well, Elijah and Mom tackled coloring Easter eggs together. It went a lot better than I had hoped! At first, I tried to hold an egg while he scribbled on it with a crayon, but he fought me b/c he wanted to hold it. After trying that for a little bit, I decided to let him hold the egg and scribble on it with the other hand - and what do you know, he did great! He, so intently and delicately, scribbled on it like a pro. Then he dropped each egg into the different colored dyes and loved it! Now all I hear is him trying to say egg (he leaves off the g sound) b/c he wants to see them! I wish taking pictures would have gone as well as dying the eggs - he decided to bang and squeeze a couple of the eggs... ooppsie! We've been having Easter egg hungs inside the past couple of days b/c he has this new found fascination with eggs. He throws each egg into the basket and once it's pretty full, he dumps it over... And then we repeat...Too cute!

We're new to blogging!

2009-03-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Thanks for viewing our blog. I've never been into blogging, but I thought I could try it out while Elijah takes his naps! Thankfully, he is napping two times a day now, but I have a feeling it's going to be changing to once a day very soon! He is now 15 1/2 months old and is so much fun! Our days consist of running around the house, taking stroller rides, swinging on the back porch, going to playgrounds... He is constantly on the go, which means he falls down quite often. Learning not to react when he falls took some time, but now I feel like people look at me like, "I can't believe she's not rushing over to him!" whenever he does fall. He's a boy and he generally takes it like a man. =) He's talking up a storm too. He wakes up saying "uh oh" or "cuddle" b/c he is forever throwing his blankies out of his bed in the mornings. He loves to tell us how much he wants to swing or slide or see the daddoos (aka doggies) outside. It is so fun trying to teach him and trying to learn from him what he wants. His personality is every growing and being revealed. Too much fun!!!