TRICK OR TREAT!

We've had a fun filled weekend! We were more than excited to be able to dress Eli up this year and have him trick or treat for the first time. We don't care much for the holiday itself, but it is fun to have an excuse to get the kiddos dressed up. Things are CRAZY for Halloween in our neighborhood, and thousands of kids flock the streets. I've never seen anything quite like it.

We had our fall festival at church on Sunday night. There were tons of games for the kids, a firetruck, bounce house, and a chili cook-off! Eli was voted best costume even though there wasn't a contest this year :) His little golfer costume was quite the hit all weekend! I think it started to get to his father's head since it was his idea :)

We're all exhausted, but gearing up for another busy week.

HAPPY FALL!!!

ONE AND A HALF!

I don’t have the time or energy to continue doing an update every single month on our little man, but I couldn’t let this one go by without an update! I’m not excited at all about how fast he’s growing up, but it will be much easier to say he’s ONE AND A HALF now! I just can’t believe it!

I’m guessing that you weigh close to 24 pounds, but we’ll find out for sure next week at your check up. You wear size 18 month clothes well, and size 5 shoes (a wide feels pretty good :).

You've learned to take your diaper off, but we haven't had any nasty accidents yet. You don't mess with it unless thats all your wearing.

You're starting to associate what the potty is used for. We've been slowly introducing the idea, but we’ll have to muster up enough energy to start working on that for real!

You never seem to lose steam until you crash at naptime or bedtime. You’re starting to become a much better listener, and understand more of what we’re asking of you.


You would stay outside all day if we’d let you. You love to go on long walks with us and Bailey every night after dinner. You haven’t had any bad run-ins with the pavement lately, and we’re so thankful!

Your vocabulary is growing rapidly, although most of your words start with M, B, and D. You say ‘Uh-Oh’ at least 500 times per day, and you always bring it to our attention when you’ve done something wrong. Your newest words are cookie, baby, bear, bing-bong(belly button), diaper and golf club. You know all parts of your body, many animals, and we’re starting to work on colors, numbers, etc.

You still spend a good 30 minutes of quiet time with your daddy every morning before he leaves for work.

You’re becoming quite the little athlete! You’ve mastered your baseball swing, golf swing, and basketball dunks. You throw just about anything you can get your hands on. Your daddy already loves to challenge you, and he loves to see you master something new. You are going to be the cutest golfer in the world for Halloween this year!

You have a mouthful of teeth now, and we’re still getting use to your new toothy smiles!



You would spend 10 hours a day in the bathtub if you could. We can't walk past your bathroom without you begging for a bath. Bathtime is starting to get a little longer now that we're using your bath numbers and letters to learn!

We love you SO much, and enjoy every little thing about you. You fill our house with laughter and so much happiness.

A Short Visit

Want to know how crazy my family is about Eli?! Last weekend my mom, grandparents and aunt drove 8 hours from Virginia to see Eli for 2 very short days! I'm sure they were excited to see us too, but we certainly weren't who they were coming to see :) It was short, but so fun to spend that time with them. Eli took advantage of all the extra attention, showed off some of his new favorite things, and ate some really good food! We always eat good when MiMi comes to town, and she always gets in trouble for sneaking Eli the sweet stuff. The girls fit in as much shopping as possible, and my grandaddy got some quality one on one time with Eli. I never take our time forgranted. My heart still just absolutely melts watching my grandparents with Eli. I always hear my grandad whisper to my grandma that he'd love to take Eli home with him. So sweet, yet so sad that we don't get to spend more time with them. We're really looking forward to Christmas and that time with them.



My mom brought Eli a fun new book, and he wasn't happy until everyone in the room had read it to him at least 5 times.
He loved lots of playtime with his great-grandaddy!


They really enjoyed just watching him do his thing. He keeps himself and everyone else around him busy going from one thing to the next. He certainly does know how to put on a show for company!

Weekend in Columbia

We took a last minute trip to Columbia this weekend. We've been patiently waiting for the weather to cool off so we could hit the Columbia zoo for the first time. It's a shame that we have to travel so far to visit a good zoo...but it was so worth the trip! It's so nice to have family within a few hours away that we can spend weekends with.

Me and three very sweet boys!

Cousins having breakfast together

Uncle Dan and the boys before bed

It was such a beautiful day on Saturday. We spent all morning at the zoo, ate a picnic lunch, and then headed back to the house with very tired boys. Feeding the Giraffe's was definitely my favorite! Eli never even hesitated to stick his little hand straight in the Giraffe's mouth. We fed him some lettuce, and Jacob took some with him just in case he got hungry on the way home :)
The 3 big Monkeys! Baby Luke was sleeping and couldn't get in on the picture taking.

It's no easy task wrangling 3 boys to sit still and all look at the camera, but we gave it our best effort all day!

Eli just loved the zoo. I so love watching him experience and explore new things. It's also very fun to experience the zoo again through a child's eyes.

Saturday before dinner Katie and I braved taking all 4 boys to a church pumpkin patch by ourselves. Thankfully we talked the guys into meeting us there halfway through. We had our minds set on getting some cute pictures of the boys in their fall attire. We got great pictures considering they all would have much rather been doing their own thing.

We had such a fun weekend! It was nice to get away and do some fun fall things. Here we are back at 80 degrees and shorts wearing again this week...please got cold before Eli outgrows his fall clothes!! Life sure is fun with this sweet boy!

Strangers

Just a little something for the baby book...

Eli has always been great with strangers. Never cries when we leave him in the nursery, MOPS, or with a babysitter. But lately he has taken things to a new level. Twice in the last week I have found him sitting on the lap of a complete stranger. First was at the library. We were there for our weekly library visit. We always seem to make friends there while playing in the children's section, but this time he took his book, and backed right up to a man sitting in a chair. Laughing and not sure what the man would do, he didn't even hesitate to pick Eli up and start reading him the book. I assured the man that he did not have to that, but he insisted! Now I know he didn't get this trait from his father!

Yesterday Danny got to witness something similar himself. We were all at the dentist office yesterday morning, and Eli was clearly enjoying entertaining everyone in the waiting room. An elderly gentleman gave him a little bit of attention, and that's all it took. Before we knew it, Eli was driving his cars all over the man, and probably read through 2 or 3 books on his lap. Danny and I sat there laughing and shaking our heads. He had everyone in the waiting room clapping for him at one time as he practiced his jumping skills. He truly knows NO stranger.

My how we love this little boy!

FALL!!

I'm beyond excited that it's actually starting to feel like fall! I guess we just needed to make it to October first. I love all things fall. The slight drop in temperature makes me want to rush to the first pumpkin patch...if we had one within driving distance that is. I've been washing new fall clothes all weekend and have all of my fall decorations out. Bring on the fun fall festivities! We've had such a good few weeks. Last weekend was full of much needed family time, and we all got to love on Baby Luke for 3 days straight. We certainly weren't ready for the Smoak's to head back to Columbia, and for the great-grandparents back to Florida. We so cherish our time with them.

I haven't blogged in a while, so here's a quick picture rundown of our last few weeks...
The boy loves shoes. His father doesn't love when he wears my girly shoes :)
I'm trying to get better about actually being in more pictures with my sweet boy. This is us before church last Sunday.
Eli LOVES Bailey's new dog bed. He spends way more time on the bed than Bailey does.

We ventured out to the children's museum last week for the first time. We had a great time!

Eli and Danny had their first father/son trip to the golf course on Saturday. Danny has been begging me for months to let him take Eli out there, but it just never worked out. The weather is just perfect right now and I had shopping plans with a friend of mine, so off they went! They had the best time, and would probably go every weekend if they could! I'm so glad that they will always have special things like this to do together.