Happy Birthday Eli!!

Eli,
I can’t even believe that you are TWO years old today! I remember your birthday like it was just yesterday. The moment we set our eyes on you, we knew our very lives had changed for the best. I still pray the same prayers for you as I did that day. That you will remain happy and healthy, and that the Lord will use you in mighty ways. You have been the light of your mommy and daddy’s eyes ever since that day. I’ve loved watching you develop over the past 2 years, into such a sweet, loving, and fun little man. You are quite the mommy’s boy, and it makes me sad to think that it won’t last forever (your future wife will thank me). You are so gentle with others, and love to talk about and love on babies (especially your baby cousin Luke!). You have a huge family that loves and adores you. You have a Jesus that loves you even more. I love your hugs. Your ‘run as fast as you can into Mama’s arms’ hugs. I love how you pronounce ‘Mama’ and 'Dada’ with such enthusiasm everytime.

Here are some of your likes/dislikes and funny things you do at two...
*You think your world is ending everytime we ask you to stop long enough for a diaper change or change of clothes. We tell you each time…we’re ready to ditch the diapers when you are!
*You love to stare at yourself in the television. You make faces, laugh hysterically, and practice both baseball and golf swings while watching yourself.
*You love to sing in your bed. Thank goodness for video monitors, otherwise we’d be missing some precious moments! Your favorites right now are Head & shoulders, and Itsy Bitsy Spider (both complete with the motions)
*You are making great progress on your ABC’s. Just last night, as I was singing, I stopped and had you fill in some of the blanks. You surprised us by knowing more than we thought you did! I guess all of that singing we do is starting to pay off :)
*When you want something you say, Pease, pease, pease, pease over and over. Patience is something we work on daily.
*Everytime we pass a park it starts all over again, ‘Pease slide, Pease slide, Pease slide.’
*You still love ALL things cars, trucks (cruck), and trains.
*You love to talk on the phone. Anytime you hear a phone ring you say, ‘Hi, Mimiiiii!!!!’ (Good thing it really is mimi just about everytime :)
*Your little world revolves around Neigh-Neigh’s. What they eat, drink, sleep…everything.
*You’re still an excellent sleeper. You’ve been staying up a little later recently, but not getting up early anymore. You still love your nap, and LOVE your big boy bed. We’re thankful that you havn’t even tried to get out of your bed since the one and only 3am incident.
*You have a shoe obsession.
*You still love chatting with strangers. You talk to cashiers, waitresses, and anyone who will listen.
* You’re still a fantastic eater! You tried to test the waters around 18 months (as the Dr. advised would happen), but it didn’t last long. You still love any and all veggies, and Broccoli (aka trees) is a current favorite. You’ve added Italian dishes and pizza to your ‘like list.’ Those were the only things you weren’t crazy about in the beginning.
*You’re so sweet during prayer time before meals. You’ve learned to close your eyes real tight and not peak. You love talking to Jesus, and we go to Him often during the day when we need extra help with patience and obedience.
* You love to be around other children, but also really love your independent play time. I guess that’s just the ‘only child’ in you.
*Most days you wake up talking about your best buddy Kres. You often ask, ‘Kres coming???’ You know when we say church, that means Kres! I know you two will really enjoy your summer at the pool, park and beach together.
*You take full advantage of your outside time with daddy. He's been coming up with some extra fun things for you too! (More on this another day)



Here's to another fun year ahead, and that three doesn't sneak up on us quite so fast!

Splashin' Fun with Cousins

We always have a blast when the cousins are together. It's crazy to think that there will be even more kids added to the bunch someday! I love the memories that are made during these times together, and know that the kids will all love looking back on these picture when they're older!

After DAYS of the kids begging to get in the pool, they finally got the opportunity to on Saturday after the egg hunt. Thanks to a very brave Nana & Aunt Sarah for going in with them! It took Eli a long time to actually get in...but he loved it once he got past the coldness.




Ever since we visited my mom's house in Texas, he's had a serious obsession with watering plants. This kept him busy while the bigger kids were swimming.
I love this shot of Goomba with Micah and Eli. He was one proud great-grandaddy when he found out that he was getting two little boys to carry on the Morgan name.
This was Eli's first time of really getting into the dress up attire at Nana's house. He wore this fireman outfit for hours one day

And I think he makes a mighty cute one at that :)
The boys enjoyed plenty of car/truck/train time together.
Chase is always loving on his cousins, it's so sweet!

We were sad when our time was over, but we're very much looking forward to another visit with cousins in June! A visit with Becky, Jason, Noah and Colin is well overdue...and we're counting down the days!!!!

Easter

A few weeks ago we had our annual Easter egg hunt at church. Eli had just started walking last Spring and got to participate in the egg hunt, but this year he was really able to enjoy it. He knew just what to do, and filled up his basket in a hurry!

Stickers!!!

Picking out his special prize.

We were blessed to be able to have 7 out of the 9 cousins together for Easter this year. It was so neat to watch the kids enjoy Easter traditions and activities together. On Saturday morning we had a big egg hunt at Nana & Pop Pop's house. It was extra fun to have the grandparents AND the great-grandparents involved!
He figured out very quickly that there were special treats inside :)
And thats ok...because it kept everyone sitting still long enough to snap a group shot!
Pop Pop hid a very special 'golden egg' and he helped everyone check their baskets for it. They ended up needing help from the adults to find the lucky egg ;)

And here are the 7 all dressed up for Easter Sunday!
Missing Noah and Colin :( Eli sharing a book with littlest cousin Luke. My handsome boys before church We started the day with Nana's special french toast breakfast, and then had a traditional Easter lunch after church before everyone headed for home. We were stuffed to the max, and enjoyed a much needed lazy afternoon!

I'm so thankful that Eli is already being taught the true meaning of Easter. As exciting as Easter bunnies and chocolate overloads are, we love even more getting to shout, 'HE is risen, He is risen indeed!!!'

Something Special

Eli and his daddy did something special together yesterday...
Eli knew what to do right away! He helped daddy steer
They went round and round until the field was just right...and they were both quite dizzy.
Eli is still talking about driving the 'big green tractor' (we're still working on colors:)). I have a feeling he has many more tractor rides with daddy in his future.
When they were almost done, Eli waved and said 'Hi Mama,' as they rode past me, letting me know that he had no intention of getting off anytime soon.
I love the expression on his face! He was so proud of himself :)
I love my boys so much. I look forward to the many memories that these two will make on the ball field. Eli sure does have some wonderful foot steps to follow in...

Birthday Cake

I know I've mentioned Eli's absolute love for horses before. He talks about 'neigh neigh's' all day long. My mom found the perfect little horse for him in San Antonio, Tx. It came in the mail yesterday, and this is how I found him this morning :) I looked at him, smiled, and he said 'neigh neigh go night night.'

We haven't even had this horse for a full 24 hours yet, and he's already been to Target, and eaten several family meals with us. I guess we should consider giving him a name if he's going to be part of the family :)

We had another wonderful weekend. We were coming off of 5 straight sick days, so it was bound to be better than our week! My 25th birthday was on Sunday, so we kind of celebrated all weekend :)

All 3 of us before church on Sunday.

On Saturday I was able to enjoy a full day of shopping, and then we had a date night with our best friends Billy and Amanda. We had the perfect dinner and then went to the movies(which we never do) and saw Soul Surfer. Nana and PopPop had us over for dinner on Sunday for my actual birthday. It was delicious as always! Let me just tell you...this was one of the best birthday cakes I've ever had! Nana and Publix really outdid themselves :) We're still eating on this cake, and it gets better everytime! Eli got so excited about helping me blow out the candles!

This boy just adores his Pop Pop. It's so sweet.

This is a really busy week for us, but lots of fun going on! Between Easter, the Heritage, lots of family time, and Eli's 2nd birthday party, we've got plenty to keep us busy! We moved Eli's birthday party up a weekend since my mom had to cancle her trip here. It just happened to work out that most of the Morgan family will be in town this week, so it made sense to throw a big birthday bash with most of the cousins here.

Please keep my mom in your prayers this week. She's having a pretty serious surgery to correct a hole in her eye tomorrow. She's obviously anxious about the surgery, but even more so about the recovery. We're praying that the surgery will be successful, and she'll be back to her normal activities quickly. She won't be able to fly for 6 weeks, and that's been hard news for her. She's always on the go! We're looking forward to seeing her all better in June!

Playset

Eli will wake up in the morning to find this in his playroom... I think he's going to be in 'slide Heaven!' He's all about sliding and climbing, so we thought this would be the perfect addition for his 2nd birthday. I did A LOT of research, and this seemed to be the best fit for him. So...a big thanks to Mimi for this wonderful gift! I love that it has 2 slides...double the fun! It also has a fun steering wheel up top, which we all know he will love. We did some major clean up and re-organizing of the playroom tonight, and made room for this to temporarily(maybe) stay indoors. We only have one of the slides on right now, which seems to allow for more play space. We put a lot of the 'baby' toys in storage for now, which also opened up a lot of space. This is what Eli will wake up to in the morning. We waited until after he went to bed tonight to move it inside. We're hoping that this will cheer him up in the morning! This week marks our first ever 'sick week.' We've been very fortunate that Eli's been pretty healthy for his first two years. He started running a fever on Monday afternoon, and it's been really high ever since. He spent all day on the couch on Tuesday, and today wasn't any different. He's so pitiful and sad looking. We're just not use to seeing him down for the count like this! If he's still not any better in the morning, we'll be making a trip to see his Pediatrician. He's watched the movie Cars more times than I'd like to admit, but that's his #1 request, and I can't argue with those sad sad eyes. He also insists on wearing these, and only these pjamas. Mimi thought he 'had to have' his very own pair of Cars pj's. You should see the pants that match...loud would be an understatement :) I'm praying that whatever he's fighting is on its way out. After 3 straight pjama wearing days, we're ready to get out of the house!

The Masters

We just had the best weekend! On Friday, my hubby got the chance of a lifetime that he's been waiting many years for. He and his dad were given Friday tickets to the Masters. When his dad called to tell him the news...for a second I thought we had just won the lottery or something :) I was just as excited for him, as it's really been a lifelong dream of his. They had an amazing time, and I'm so thankful they were able to experience that together. In honor of the Master's, we had a true Master's style get together at Billy and Amanda's Sunday night. Billy really did a great job putting all of the food together. They prepared all of the same foods that are sold there at the tournament...things like pimiento cheese sandwiches, barbecue, Arnold Palmers, and even klondike bars! It was fun to do something a little different, and all of us enjoyed watching the last few hours of the tournament together. Eli even sat still for a few pictures...which is by all means a small miracle :) Mr. Billy has beautiful roses, and I think Eli put his nose in the middle of 99 of them Billy and Eli shared a Klondike bar.

We're so thankful for our sweet friends.

Not Much

Not much has been going on around our house. It rained ALL week, but we tried to make the best of it. We had friends over to play a few mornings which really helped get us through the day. By day 4, I was breaking out birthday presents from the closet. I was desperate for something to entertain Eli, so out came his new Cars tent. It was one of those after Christmas clearance buys, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

He loves piggy back rides and has now learned to turn his animal blankets into capes. He's turned into such a lovey boy. Always giving out kisses to any willing person or animal.

He's all about stacking things right now; his food, blocks, really anything.

Like I said, he's not afraid to show affection! It wasn't hard to catch this, because he is constantly loving on Charlotte. I love how sweet and gentle he is with her. I can just hear him saying...'Muaaahhhh!' The new tent...he likes to crawl through the 'tunnel' as he calls it. We had a major milestone worth documenting last week. I've always hated these shopping carts. They're huge, known to knock over displays, and absolutely filthy disgusting. I got up the nerve (for the sake of my car loving boy), gave it a clorox bath, and let him at it. Let me just say...it made for two happy shoppers! He let me shop for over an hour, and had a small meltdown when it was time to leave. Some things in life just aren't worth missing out on...Eli agrees that this is one of those things. We finally enjoyed some outside family time today. The sun has never felt so good! Eli lined up about 30 baseballs in the shape of a snake...he's always coming up with something!