Father's Day Fun!

Eli and I made it back to North Carolina just in time to celebrate Mark's 1st official Father's Day. Mark has been the most wonderful Daddy to our little Eli and I wanted to make sure he knew how much he is loved and appreciated. The day began with some muffins and fruit before we headed out to church. Eli had a great morning in the nursery and completely crashed-out in the car afterwards. On the way home, Mark requested we stop to get a smoothie. Eli was so exhausted that he slept through all of the noise of the blenders! After a quick stop to pick-up groceries, we headed home to hang-out in the AC. It's been so hot here lately! Mark got to watch his mix of World Cup Soccer and golf for the rest of the day. (There may have been a nap thrown in there too. Ha!) That evening we grilled-out and Eli gave his Daddy the Father's Day card he'd picked out for him. Mark loved it, despite the glitter on the front, which he totally detests! Eli also gave his Daddy some tickets to go to Busch Gardens with Mommy, since Daddy has been wanting to go for quite some time. It was a perfectly relaxing day celebrating the Daddy we love so much!






Just had to add this one from when we were at the hospital when Eli was born. What a precious father-son moment!

What We've Been Up To...

Eli and I spent the past week in Virginia for a couple different reasons. First off, we wanted to help celebrate the highschool graduation of my twin cousins, Jordan and Melissa. It seems like only yesterday that I was baby-sitting them at Eli's age! Sure makes a girl feel old! We spent the first few days of our visit hanging out with family. Eli hammed it up for everyone as usual. He's such a happy little guy!

Some graduation pics...








Eli got to go on his first ride in Granddaddy's convertible. He had the best time feeling the wind in his hair and squealed with delight almost the entire trip!



No summertime visit with my parents is complete without a trip to Rita's. He would make the ugliest faces when Grandma gave him little bites but he would always come back for more. Hopefully, Elijah won't develop too much of an addiction to its yumminess like his parents have!





The other reason we were there for the week was to help out with my grandmother, who was having eye surgery on Tuesday. Eli and I were the daytime caregivers/entertainment for the her as she was recovering from her procedure. Eli definitely did not slack on his duties. He would crawl all around her room, play with her "babies" (she is an avid doll collector), and babble and smile at her constantly. He LOVED hanging out with Great-Grandma and she was able to love on him all week. It was the perfect situation! (Oh, and I was able to have a lot of quality Grandma hang-out time myself, which was an added bonus since we are so close!)

We returned to North Carolina on Saturday evening, just in time to celebrate Mark's first official Father's Day. More to come on that soon! For now, we're just enjoying our time with the whole family back together again. Eli missed his Daddy and his doggy so much!

9-Months-Old!

We are in disbelief that our little Eli is only 3 very short months away from turning 1-YEAR-OLD!!! Where is the time going? Mark was even asking today if he is considered an infant or a toddler. I told him that he's still considered an infant, since he's not toddling, but truly I just want to keep thinking he's my little baby! Here are a few things that happened during Elijah's 9th month:

*Weight: 19 lbs 12 oz
Length: 28 inches

* He's still sporting the 9-month clothes, but I'm pretty sure a few 12-month items might start to fit him now. Still wearing a size 3 diaper as well.

* We're still working on the nursing. Hoping it can continue at least until he's one. We'll see...

* As of the other day, he's cutting another tooth. When you look at him, it's to the right of his bottom right tooth. His 2 top teeth continue to come in a little more each day.

* He claps his hands at random times. Often, he'll do it while sitting in his highchair. We think he's cheering for his food!

* A few days before he hit his 9-month birthday, Eli decided to start crawling. He had been rocking back and forth on his knees and hands for weeks! In just the last week, he's perfected his form and speed tremendously. We are so in trouble now, as he's into EVERYTHING!

* Elijah "talks" and squeals more and more each day. He's even begun to babble "Ma-ma", which I love!

* He continues to be a huge ladies man. He'll catch the eye of any female we are around and immediately break-out into a HUGE grin. Sometimes he'll even squeal and giggle in delight too! It's not unusual to have ladies smiling at him even from the next aisle over when we are checking-out at a store. He's such a mess!

* Eli swam in a "big pool" for the first time this past month. He loved it!

* He made his first trip (out of my belly) to Maple View Farms for some yummy ice cream a couple weeks ago. We gave him a few little tastes and he would get angry when we'd stop feeding him. Smart boy!

* He had his first taste of Rita's (ate some strawberry Gelati) and rode in Grandaddy's convertible for the first time...all in the same night! Both were a hit!

* Speaking of food, Eli cannot get enough of his Puffs now. If you pull-out the container, he will crawl right to you.


* A couple weeks ago, I put Eli in the front seat of the shopping cart for the first time. He proceeded to spend the entire time propping his foot up on the handle, which caused him to lean-over/slump to the side. No matter how many times I tried to sit him back upright, he'd return back to his slumped position. We'll have to try again sometime soon.


Eli's 9th month has been such fun and we just can't get enough of our smiley little guy! Looking forward to yet another month of exciting new changes!

Our Little Fish!

Mark and I decided to take Eli for his first official swim in our neighborhood pool this afternoon. We weren't quite sure how he would react to the water and all of the people there swimming. The boy does really seem to love his bath time (except for the getting cold/dressed part afterwards), so we figured our odds of success weren't too bad.

Here's Eli and Daddy, geared up and ready to go for a swim...


Needless to say, our worries were completely blown away in the first few seconds of Eli's pool experience. He LOVED it! Mark took him right in and he was immediately smiling and giggling as they swam together. I think it helped that the water was pretty warm since it's been so HOT here recently. After taking a few pics, I was able to join in on the fun. Eli especially loved to splash with his hands and kick his little feet in the water. It was adorable to watch, and we are both so proud of our Water Baby!






Gotta have some post-swim cuddle-time!




Our little guy was pretty tired by the time we walked home. (See thumb in mouth)



I'm definitely looking forward to many more family times at the pool this summer!


(Sidenote: I just realized that Eli is sucking his thumb in many of our pool pictures...too funny! The boy LOVES his thumb!)

Phew!

We had a pretty full schedule of family and celebrations this past weekend. My parents came in late Friday evening to spend the night before we headed to Winston-Salem to celebrate the birthdays of our two oldest nephews, Jacob and Isaac. Mark was even able to have the entire weekend off to join in on the fun! On Saturday, we celebrated Jacob's 10th Birthday. I can't believe he's already in the double-digits! Unfortunately, Mark, Eli, and I were unable to make it to his actual party earlier that morning, due to a little confusion about the time, but we did spend the rest of the day just enjoying some time to hang-out with the family.

Caleb and Bekah helped feed Eli his lunch...





We went to feed some goats that live in the neighborhood.






Eli napped with Grandma while we played outside. This is their newest dog Fresco...he's not even 2 pounds! We think Candy might try to eat him if they met!



Grandma snuck Elijah a taste of pink lemonade cake, but the evidence was all over his face! He loved it!



Eli wanted to feel the wind in his comb-over riding in Grandaddy's convertible!




(I just realized that we didn't get ANY pics with Jakes in them. I promise he was there and we did hang-out with him. He is just so hard to get on film and was pretty focused on building his new Lego sets! It's amazing to watch him go through the process of building those things! I'll have to steal some of my brothers pics to share!)


On Sunday, we drove back out to W-S to celebrate Isaac's 7th Birthday a few days early. Since his favorite place to eat is Moe's, we met everyone there after church for some yummy food and balloon animal fun. (There's a really nice guy there every Sunday who makes balloon animals/creations for all of the kids...which they love!) After lunch, we went back to the house to open presents and eat some cake and ice cream. Again, I'm in disbelief at how quickly these little guys are growing up! It seems like only yesterday they were Eli's age!

My older brother, Rick, made Isaac's awesome Buzz Light Year spaceship cake!




On a different note, Eli started to show signs of congestion with a pretty bad cough on Saturday, which progressively got worse on Sunday and Monday. Thankfully, it looks like he is on the mend. We're ready to get him all better so he can play with friends and go swimming at the pool. With the ridiculously hot and humid weather we've been having lately there is no doubt that summer is definitely here to stay!