Elijah's First Haircut, and Vacuuming! - February

Well, the beginning of February came and so did the time for Elijah's first real haircut. He did great! And looked sooo handsome with it trimmed up. The whole time Naomi was crying, "Don't trim it all off!" Haha, you know how much she loves rubbing his hair. In the end, she was okay with it :).

Here is a video of our happy boy getting his locks chopped :)

What was the first thing he did after he was all cleaned up? Well, vacuum with mommy of course! This is pretty typical when I pull out the vacuum or broom. Maybe it will last a few years until he can really help? hahaha

Here is a video of my little helper in action:

Playing Away the Winter Days - January

We've spent a lot of time playing this winter to try and pass the days!

Painting

Super baby!

Silly!!

Lots of playdates with friends

Brothers!

Making jewelry

Play Museum with friends! It was Elijah's first time there when he could run around and I don't think he stopped the entire time!

More playdates! :)

Frisbee Hill - January

Seems like winter has dragged on forever with all the snow we've had this year! We have been able to get out and enjoy it a bit with the kids. In January we took a sledding trip to Frisbee Hill around the corner from us. It was Elijah's first sledding experience and I think Riley's first time alone down the hill, which he loved and did over and over! It was fun to have Auntie Ally join in on the fun too!

As I shared in the last post (which was almost 2 months ago now!), January really threw us for a loop with all the sickness and stuff, and it seems it took quite a while for me to really catch up on life since then. With three kids and a husband who works an above average number of hours a week at all times of day or night I seem to get stuck in survival mode just keeping everything going here. Blogging has been pushed to the very bottom of priorities lately as you can tell. It's so easy to just upload a batch of photos each month to Facebook, and know that most people will have access to them if they want to look...plus on my desktop computer (which is mainly what I use now) Blogger isn't as user friendly for some reason so it takes way too much time to do what I used to do very quickly on here. So I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up here or not, but in the meantime you will know you can catch an updated photo or two on Facebook. :)

Three (Somewhat) New Videos

Well I am MAJORLY behind on blogging. Unfortunately, right after Christmas the kids were all hit with illness. Riley just had a cold/cough for a few days, but Naomi and Riley had fevers of over 104 for a week straight with coughs/congestion as well. Elijah ended up being diagonosed on top of that with pneumonia and an ear infection, for which he was put on amoxicillin, but then ended up with a head to toe rash from an allergic reaction which lasted another week (and on top of all this, mind you, he was cutting a molar!) so our lives the last three weeks or so have been TOUGH! But we finally have a healthy household again, and this mama is trying to get back to some kind of normal around here while catching up on everything that had to be neglected while caring for sick kids and getting little to no sleep each night.

I'm sure I'll catch up eventually. If you're on facebook you've probably already seen our holiday photos, so I don't feel too bad :). Here are a couple videos I do have to share today.

This first video is of trying some "flag math" with Naomi. She is very mathmatically minded (always telling us how many boys there are and how many girls there are or counting up various things and setting up scenarios). A game we frequently play in the car is counting flags. This video is at home (since I can't video her while I'm driving!) showing how she started figuring out differences while playing this game.




This is a video of Riley and Naomi on Thanksgiving Day 2010 (see I told you I was behind!) sharing some things that they are thankful for :).



And finally, here is a funny video of Elijah and his response to transitioning to a formula/whole milk mix...not so much a fan (although since this video he drinks it just fine! haha)

Happy 1st Birthday Elijah!

Tuesday was Elijah's first birthday, so we had a few close family members over for pizza and cake to celebrate. Elijah just ate up the attention and was so happy to be around so many people who love him.

I made my Elijah bear a teddy bear cake!

Uncle Tim!

Mimi and Poppy - funny picture, but poppy looks good! We'll get another one at Christmas :)

Happy boy!!!

His Aunties! (he's signing more and saying "pees" in that picture begging for cheetos hahaha)

Me and my boy!

A John Deere tractor toy /book from Papa and Nana

A car set from Uncle Tim

And a silly shirt from Tim too :)

Playing with his tractor

A tubby toy from Aunties! Looking forward to using that!

As well as a super cute bear outfit! Perfect!

By the end he was an expert at opening gifts! He'll be ready for Christmas :).

A music table from mommy and daddy!

And a ride on car from Grammy and Boppy!!! One of Boppy's treasures from the side of the road he found and fixed up for him. He LOVES it - note the cheesy smile face!

Time for cake!

He has his own little bear smash cake...this was hilarious!

He kept taking a big bite then making this face

The remains of the cake hahaha My best girls

Auntie Ally was the tickle monster...

After he was washed up from the cake he went right back to playing...love this little guy!

Happy Birthday Sweet Elijah!!! We love you very very much!

And here is a video highlighting the festivities, especially for my dad (aka Boppy) who couldn't be at the party: