Attn: We have now left the McWane Center =)

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!