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Sweet stories

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

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!)

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

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...

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...