Sunday, December 11, 2011

2011 Christmas Letter

When the year 2011 began, we knew only one thing for sure about the year: that we would be adding a member to our family.
On January 26, at 8:44 at night, that new member came - Elijah Tyndale Donat. He has had the tendency to dominate our lives since, so most of our stories of the year revolve around something Eli did. He is, after all, pretty much the most amazing little boy. It’s hard to not let life revolve around a little guy like him!
Elijah Tyndale Donat
January 26, 2011
8 lbs. 14 oz., 20 1/4" long
8:44 pm
While the rest of the newsletter will give you some highlights to the year, we want to lead with the story of Eli’s birth. We’ll keep all the gross stuff out – no “TMI” here – and try to be as brief as we can.
The day before, January 25, started out well enough off. About midday Lauryn called from work to announce she thought her water broke, though she wasn’t totally sure. After chatting with her doctor’s office she determined we should go to the hospital, just to be on the safe side.
After sitting in triage for what we were certain was about seven hours we were finally admitted to a room. Her water hadn’t broken and she wasn’t in labor, but there were other signs Eli was on his way. The next morning we decided to induce labor (a week early), and he started pushing his way out around 3 in the afternoon.
He was perfect in every way! Josh even thought he was cute from the very start.  He had big open bright blue eyes and a perfect round little head.  He was very alert his first seconds in this world and hasn’t changed a bit.  Other things that have remained the same: he hardly cries (he is our happy boy), and he would not stay swaddled (now he moves and moves, always on the go and ready for a new adventure and new friends).  Oh, and he can’t go to sleep without grunting to himself for about five minutes first. It’s hilarious to witness.
We named him Grayson Tyndale Donat ... and that lasted for about 18 hours. For whatever reason, neither of us was actually calling him by his name.  We were using every nickname – “dude”, “little man,” etc. but not his actual name.  Josh says he called him the wrong “G” name several times.  Although it was Lauryn’s favorite boy name at the time, Grayson just wasn’t right for our little man.
Reading in the Old Testament as a family that night we happened upon an account of Elijah, the ancient prophet, and his show-down with the prophets of Ba’al who worked for the anti-semitic queen Jezebel. About halfway through the account, Lauryn stopped and offered her thoughts that our son’s name should be Elijah. She wasn’t the only one having that feeling, so we gave it  a test run for the night.  It was obvious right away that Elijah was the perfect fit for our little man.    Lauryn had previously banned all scriptural names, so it was a bit ironic that she suggested we give him the biblical name.
Of course, as Elijah is technically a Hebrew name, Josh likes to use the Hebrew pronunciation, Ellie-yah-hoo (which we learned from our Jewish OB/GYN that we love). The kid will have a complex, we’re sure. We are also sure this is the name he was meant to have, that it is part of his eternal identity. We are thankful for being in tune with the whisperings of the Spirit enough to know the right name to call him.
His whole name is packed with meaning, actually. Not only does his first name mean “Jehovah is my God”, but his middle name has meaning also. Tyndale is the surname of the man responsible for the initial translation of the Holy Bible into English, and its distribution in England. William Tyndale was the first to translate the book in its entirety from Latin, Greek and Hebrew into English. He then distributed the translations through a network of black-market traders (the English translation of the Bible had been made illegal by the Roman Catholic Church at the time). In the year 1536 he was burned at the stake as a heretic for his efforts. Tyndale’s translation would eventually be used for more than 90 percent of the King James Version, published in 1611.
So there we have it. The year kicked off with the addition of our little Eliyahu. Not a bad way to start a year, eh?
1 week old- GO SOX!! 
1 month- The fight for team affiliation began before he was born
In March we were visited by all sorts of family members, who were really here to visit Eli. He was blessed in church by Josh on March 27 and spent the weekend meeting grandparents, great-grandparents and cousins.  People came from Chicago, Northern Idaho, Idaho Falls, and Houston.  How blessed we were to have so many loved at this special event.

2 months- blessing day
A few weeks later, in April, he saw his first baseball game in person. It was inevitable to happen sooner than later! We all went up to Round Rock, Texas, to see our friend Lance play with the Omaha Storm Chasers against the Round Rock Express. Eli paid attention to about an inning and a half of the game, having been well-practiced from the week-and-a-half of baseball on TV.
2 1/2  months- hangin' with Uncle Lance

3 months- sitting poolside


In May Josh turned 30, and he’s been dealing with the prospect of losing his youthful 20s. Lauryn threw a little shin-dig at our place with some of our closest friends in San Antonio. It turned out to be one of the best birthdays he’s had yet!
5 months- Father's Day
In July Josh was hired by the Texas Department of Transportation to work as the department’s official spokesman for all construction projects in the district. The offer brought a ten-month search for our family to an end. We had been exploring a number of options to that point – including graduate school and a half-dozen career directions – with almost no real idea what the future held for us.
Meanwhile, Lauryn got a phone call with an offer to join a very small interior design firm as the right-hand woman of the company. She had left her previous post at Cabinetry Designs when Eli was born and wasn’t able to return for a variety of reasons. This new opportunity, with a company called CasaPosh, allows Lauryn to stay at home most of the week and work a schedule as she wants. This way she keeps her skills sharp so, later in our lives, when she looks to work full-time again she will have the experience behind her to allow her to do as she pleases.
Oh, yeah, and Lauryn got her own gun this year – her first. It was her anniversary present (4 years). To those of you wondering what kind of dude would get his wife a gun for an anniversary present, the answer is simple: a very confident one. The story behind it is funny, but should be left to Lauryn to tell.
Thanksgiving was spent here, in San Antonio, with some of our friends and on our own. It was Lauryn’s first year to be responsible for cooking a major part of the meal and cooked the heck out of an apple pie and two chocolate cream pies that didn’t survive the weekend.


8 months- 1st haircut
Along the way, we’ve witnessed Eli sit up on his own at ten weeks, roll over for the first time at three months, crawl and “swim” at four months, stand at five months, climb stairs at six months, play catch at seven months (he started throwing lefty but has since switched to righty), field ground balls at eight months (also had his first haircut then) and start all-out walking at nine months. His latest trick is clapping – he claps like crazy whenever he hears someone say, “Good job, Eli!” It’s really funny.

He got his first tooth when he was six months old (he now has seven), and started eating solid foods shortly thereafter. Well, really it’s more like “soquid” foods – not totally liquid, not totally solid. Most of them are gross, but some of the apple or pear hybrid foods aren’t too bad. Because of the order in which his teeth have come in his smile is a little crooked. It’s pretty much the greatest thing ever and he loves to show off his smile so much!


10 months- crooked smile

10 months- walking like a pro.
We’re looking forward to Christmas, which will be spent at Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. That is, after a week in the Bahamas with the Moon family. Very stoked about that!
The new year will find us back in San Antonio, and for the first New Year since we’ve been here we know this is where we’ll be at the end of the year. With the newfound certainty, next year should bring a little more travel and plenty more baseball games (or other recreational events). We’re hoping to catch ball games in multiple cities as well as travel and visit family we haven’t been able to see in far too long.
We thank the Lord for 2011. Christ our Savior said, “Behold the fowls of the air: for the sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”
We have witnessed His providence and guidance – we certainly have seen His hand in all things over the last year, and we are anxious for how we might serve Him in 2012.
That, and we are excited for the adventure that is Eli. We never know what he’s going to add to our lives each day, and we look forward to what he adds to our year.


8 months
9 months- such a ham!

Merry Christmas, everybody. May the Lord smile richly upon you during this incredible time of the year, and may the next year be your best yet!
- Josh, Lauryn and Elijah




Sunday, December 4, 2011

Christmas- Texas Style


 We decided to get out of the house for awhile and go on a little adventure last night.  We drove about an hour away to a little town called Bandera, Texas.   They were having their Christmas celebration.  We sat around a campfire & chuck wagon drinking hot chocolate enjoying the Christmas songs performed by a cowboy country band.  We were surrounded by a lot of older couples- it was great.  After it got dark we turned our chairs to the riverbank where there was a live nativity being acted out with live music.  They even had real animals- sheeps, a donkey, and a camel!  Honestly the production was a little lame, but the concept was fun!  The town puts together over 100 Christmas trees made of lights in their park.  We drove through to see all of the pretty lights.  It was a lot of fun.  My friend Paige and her 3 boys joined us for the evening.  Hyrum, Kaden, and Quentin love Eli.  They call him baby Eli and love it when baby Eli picks them up from school.  Hyrum is silly and likes to call Eli "Mr. E" and give him lots of kisses.  It's pretty cute.  Hyrum really wanted to be in the picture with Mr. E- that's why there's an extra member of the family in the picture above :-)



Fall Review

Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, & Guitar
Josh is big on making sure we do family coordinating halloween costumes.  He really wanted to be super-heros but I said there was no way I was going to wear spandex.  Plus, there is really no way to be a girl superhero modestly.  We settled for Tim, Faith, & their little guitar.  Josh wasn't totally convinced but got cowboy boots and a cowboy hat our of it so he was pleased in the end :-)  I think Eli's costume turned out really cute.  I now realize how I could have made it better, but hind sight is always 20/20!  We rocked our costumes at the ward trunk-or-treat.  On Halloween Josh and I dressed up as farmers so we could get $2 boo-ritos at Chipotle.  Eli went trick-or-treating with his friend Julia (her 1st birthday was on Halloween) and another little friend, Eleanor.  They mostly had fun trying to eat their candy bags!

Say cheese!
Lately Eli has been such a ham.  Whenever we get the camera out he puts on this big grin.  We kind of love him and all of his cheesiness!  Most of these photos are just to give you an update on the little guy.  The one above is pre-haircut and the rest are post-haircut.  He had his first haircut back in October, but this recent one was done by me!  It was my first time with the buzzers.  It's a little shorter on top than I wanted, but he's still cute and it will grow.


Eli is always climbing under the desk and getting trapped under our chairs.  For some reason he can climb in but can't figure out how to climb out.  It's really funny to me.  He was all smiles because I was laughing and got the camera out.  He started freaking out a little after this- he does not like to be retrained/restricted in ANY way.


Look at him go!
He's been walking along furniture since he was about 6 mo. old.  He's been taking steps on his own since he was about 8 or 9 months, but this week he really stepped it up.  One day he just started walking like crazy.  He walked across the apartment and hasn't looked back.  He can even turn and manuever.  He's getting really good at pausing and re-gaining his balance.  It's fun to watch him learn but man is he all over the place.  Today at church was interesting- he doesn't care where he is going as long as he is going!  I look at all the other kids that sit nicely on their parent's laps or sit quietly on the floor with a toy.  Not our little man.  He's on a mission exploring every second.  No complaints here- he is so fun and happy.  I love our little man.  How could you not with that sweet smile?



Thursday, October 6, 2011

September Randomness

Just being silly

Acadia, Wynn, Eli, & Lauryn




We have been having too much fun the past month.  At the beginning of September Eli and I took a wonderful extended weekend trip to Chicago.  Oh what fun we had with Grandma, Papa, Uncle Dev, cousin Splash, and Katelyn.  I can't believe we fit so much yummy food into just a few days.  Portillos, Lou Malnati's, Naf Naf, homemade chicken noodle soup, and a few other favorites to boot.  I love going home just for the food :-)  Eli had the most amazing time with all of his new friends.  He and Splash really hit it off.  It was so funny watching them interact.  It was as if they each knew that the other was a baby as well.  They were gentle (for the most part) with each other and loved the same toys.  They kept taking toys from each others' mouths and wrestling around.  Eli liked to grab Splash's face and twirly tail and Splash like to follow behind Eli as he crawled and push him down with his front paws.  Eli just laughed.  It was too cute.  Of course Grandma spoiled him rotten playing with him constantly and feeding him yummy new foods.  I think everyone had a lot of fun together.  Our last night there we all went miniature golfing.  We tried to warn Katelyn that we are semi-pro mini-golfers but she insisted that she could keep up.  She did a great job!  We went to the most difficult/intense coarse any of us had ever golfed on.  I got a hole in 1 on the first hole (hurray!) and I think that did make Katelyn a little nervous.  Mom got the most amazing hole in one- on the most difficult hole.  She is always full of surprises.  Dad ended up winning even with his handicap (carrying a sleeping Eli in the baby bjorn).  It was so wonderful to spend time with everyone.  I'm glad Eli got to meet his Uncle Devon and I was so happy to meet Katelyn- she is so much fun!  Other things I did while in town:  visited with friends (Mrs. VZ, Sis. Rodo, Sis. Black, Sis. Caine, Sis. Thomas & all my other friends from church), sat in on a missionary discussion with Dev and Katelyn, went shopping, watched football, walked splash, played with the neighbor kids, went to the park, and played outside A LOT.  We learned that Eli does not like grass- it makes him very nervous, but he loves to swing.  It was the most wonderfully relaxing trip.  I love my family!

The day after we returned I was scheduled to work so life was a little crazy for the next 2 days.  Eli is such a sweet boy and loves playing with his friend (his sitter).  She is wonderful.  And Eli did a really good job on the flight for being such a wiggly squiggly boy.  At the end of the week we had a really special day.  My childhood friend/neighbor came to visit.  She brought her husband & cutie baby with her.  We love you Wynn, James, & Acadia!  It was great to catch up with them and all the excitement in their lives.  Wynn will always be my special neighbor/friend.  Thanks for taking the time to visit with us!

Since then we have been hanging out, trying to get organized, and working on a few projects.  I just re-finished a desk and chair (with the help of my awesome friend, Paige) and I'm now looking for a dresser.  I'm trying to make this little apartment more functional for our families needs and a little more Eli-proof!  We love him, but he sure gets into all of our stuff.  I call him captain destructo.

*Eli update:  He loves to eat pureed pears, his 4th tooth just broke the surface yesterday, he is 8 months old, and he just got his first haircut (pictures of that to come).

Monday, August 29, 2011

Trouble with a capital "T"






I think we may have given Eli the wrong middle name.  The initial is right, but I think the "T" needs to stand for *T*R*O*U*B*L*E*

What a funny guy he is!  He DOES NOT like his carseat at all, unless he is playing with it.  It's one of his favorite toys.  He is always trying to climb into it, but the other day was the first time he actually managed to get in all the way.  Oh what fun he had with that.  He ended up turned around trying to eat the tail of the tightening strap and landed head first in the ground, lol.  He sees no danger.  He is my little daredevil.  I love him to pieces even though he makes my heart jump all the time!

By the way... he is 7 mo. old now!  Where has the time gone?

Monday, August 22, 2011

All Aboard!

What will we be doing for Christmas this year?  CRUISING TO THE BAHAMAS!!!   

Eli is just a little excited...

(these were not staged)
The Moon family is headed to the Bahamas for a destination Christmas.  The whole family will be together, including my grandparents, for 5 days of fun & sun.  We return to port Christmas Eve and will then head up to NC to celebrate Christmas Day at my Grandparents beach house.  I will miss having snow (again) this Christmas, but I think it's going to be worth it. 

Thursday, August 11, 2011

6 months

Eli's stats at his 6 mo. check up:

- 16 lbs. 14 oz. (35%)
- 26 3/4" (50%)

The doctor was pretty impressed with all the things he can do- he's crazy strong :-)  We are still trying to work solid foods into his diet.  It's more work for me and a lot harder without a highchair- I guess I better give in and get one!  He's just as sweet and fun as can be.  I took him to get his 6 mo. pictures taken yesterday.  It took me 30 minutes to decide what to get- there were too many to choose from.  He has so many different facial expressions that I wanted one of each, lol.  The things I could do without the limitations of a budget...

Drinking from the daddy man's CAMELBAK

Drinking from mama's CAMELBAK

First time in the shopping cart!


Did I mention in the last post that he says "ma ma ma ma"?  If I did, sorry.  I just love it so much!!  And he LOVES drinking ice water from our CAMELBAKs.  We have to hide them now because the water makes him puke more.  No thank you!


Monday, August 1, 2011

Mr. Man the Little Mover

Eli had his first 1/2 birthday last week- he's a whole 6 months old.  We have our check-up with the Dr. today so his stats will be posted later.  Here's what I can tell you about him.  He's a crazy little mover.  He's been crawling since 5 months (like his daddy), but has really perfected his crawl.  He's very speedy and very clever.  We set up what we call "Eli traps" to keep him out of spaces we would rather him not go.  He usually finds a way to get through them.  He loves to explore and play.  At church he zeros in on a toy or another little kid and races after them.  Last week he learned how to crawl under the pew during Sacrament meeting.  I guess we'll be sitting in the back from now on :-)  He really enjoys playing with other kids/babies.  I think he is fascinated by them.  He is even pretty good at sharing his toys!  He crawls and climbs and even stands up.  He's been pulling himself up to standing for a few weeks now.  He's just a crazy little man that gets into EVERYTHING!  Of course I anticipated all of this, just not this early :-)  We got rid of our coffee table and replaced it with 2 padded storage ottoman cubes.  He LOVES them.  He pulls himself up and just bangs his arms on them and giggles like crazy.  He is so proud of himself whenever he is standing.  He loves it!  He can even move around them a little if there is something he wants that is out of his reach.  He will use anything to try to stand- your leg, his carseat, a wall, the ottomans, the couches, a toy, the excersaucer, his diaper bag, etc.  Anything slightly elevated gets used and abused.  Of course he has more success with some things over the others.  He also loves to crawl/climb over things, especially our legs when we are on the floor with him.  He sometimes faceplants during his attempts, but he is determined to climb over you.  He also climbs up me when I am holding him.  He's a little monkey man!!  I just can't believe how fast he is learning everything.  I have a feeling he will be walking soon.  He's just that kind of a kid!

And now what you really came to see...

Asleep on daddy.

Just look at that face!

Cell hone and baseball- like father like son :-)

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Happy Fourth of July

Mom and the Little Man sporting the red, white, and blue for church

all tuckered out after a day of fun & friends

and he woke up...
We had a fabulous 4th celebrating with friends.  We packed the day with all kinds of festivities trying to distract ourselves from the fact that there would be no fireworks.  Stupid drought.  Anyway, we started off the day at our ward's annual pancake breakfast.  DELICIOUS!  Then we headed over to the USAA grounds with our friends Collin, Laura, and Julia to play some frisbee and toss around the football.  We didn't last too long because of the crazy heat.  We all headed back to our apartment for a picnic at the pool.  It was cute to see little Julia and Eli splashing in the pool.  They are so sweet :-)  The sun definitely wore out all of us- we headed home for nap time.  We then spent a wonderful evening with our friends the Rushforths and Browns.  Craig made dutch oven chicken and cobbler- Josh was in heaven!  We ended the day with a Skype call with my mom and my best friend Abby.  She was visiting Chi-town and staying with my parents.  I swear they see my friends more than I do!  It was great chatting with her- Eli was even showing off for her!  I hope everyone else had a great time celebrating the wonderfully amazing country that we live in and all of our freedoms.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Father's Day Numero Uno

Happy Father's Day!!!

Josh is seriously the BEST dad (tied of course with my own dad).  He and Elijah really have a lot of fun together.  They like to be super silly and try dangerous new tricks.  Eli loves to be tossed onto the bed so he bounces.  He loves to fly like superman, loves to hang upside down, and loves when daddy drops pillows on him.  But most of all, he loves to watch baseball with his daddy.  Only difference between the two of them is their team preference.  Eli prefers the White Sox, of course :-)  It's quite amazing how such a little guy can even tell the difference of what is on the TV.  But he really does perk up and pay attention when baseball is on.  It must be part of his DNA or something!

After being spoiled with my apple TV for mother's day I wasn't sure what to get Josh.  How could I top that?  He already got MLB.tv for his birthday and got a new iphone.  I decided to get a little domestic and test my sewing skills once again.  I made Eli a tie to go with his blessing outfit, so I got to work again.  I made Josh and Eli 2 sets of matching ties.  They are REALLY cute.  Josh insists that Eli wear a white shirt and tie to church every Sunday (uniform of the priesthood) and Eli needed to ramp up his tie collection.  It ended up being the perfect gift.  Josh loves it.  I think i'm going to have to make more because it's really cute to see how proud he is when they are matching :-) 

I love being a mom, but I especially love it because I have such an awesome husband and such a sweet baby.  I love my guys more than anything.  Thanks for being so incredible, Josh!

don't you just want to eat them up?  so cute!!!

Recipe Contest

I NEED HELP!!

I am in desperate need for some new recipes.  I keep making the same 6 things over and over again.  If I am sick of my favorite foods then Josh must be dying (poor guy). 

Here is my proposal- each of you leave a comment on the blog or send me a facebook message/e-mail with your favorite recipe(s).  I will select 5 recipes that seem to best fit our family taste/lifestyle and I will make them.  From those 5 recipes I will choose our new family favorite and the winner will get some kind of prize.  Deal? 

*disclaimer:  I don't care for fish/sea food.

Please invite your friends to join the challenge and feel free to leave multiple recipes!  I hope to be greatly inspired by all of you and your domestication! 

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Elijah's First Video Footage


Josh got the iphone 4 last week.  The 2 best features:  skype & video.  Here is the first video footage of Eli.  His new trick, rolling back to front, will be posted soon!  Enjoy his cuteness!!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The day & the night from YOU KNOW WHERE {a.k.a. Eli's 1st sleepover}

My sub-conscious apparently decided that this week just wasn't going to be exciting enough.  It decided to take over and spice things up.  So as I tell you that I poisoned Josh and myself with food poisoning I really mean that my crazy evil inner twin was somehow released and ruining our lives {temporarily}. 

I woke up Tuesday morning and thought it was so wonderful that Josh was home (seminary is done for the summer).  I thought I was being a wonderful wife by making us a nice warm breakfast.  Pancakes and bacon are a favorite in this house.  However I did not know that there would be some SERIOUS negative consequences for such an action.  Little did I know that I was actually poisoning us!!!

By 3:00 I really felt sluggish and I just was not doing well.  I decided to go take a nap because that usually helps.  By 5:00 I felt even worse.  It rapidly developed into the most horrible pain/illness I have ever experienced.  I literally was not able to leave the toilet from 5:00pm- 9:00pm.  Josh was a TOTAL saint and was taking care of Eli.  At one point he told me that he felt kind of funny.  He went on playing with Eli and doing the laundry {like I said, he's a saint}.  At some point around 6:00 I was able to escape the bathroom for 30 min. in order to feed Eli (literally a blessing from on high).  While doing so Josh returned from getting the laundry and promptly began throwing up.  Josh has not thrown up since he was a kid.  He does not get sick, it's incredible.  At this point I realized it was food poisoning.  Otherwise there is no way we would have both been hit so hard so close together by this horrible evil.  So here we are in our 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment with our sweet little baby boy who is screaming because we can't take care of him.  We are having to trade off in the bathroom and watching {literally watching him cry} Eli.  I can't even begin to explain the levels of heartbreak that went on top of my severe pain and suffering.  Around 8:30 I decided we just couldn't do this any longer.  There was know way we could all make it through the night like this.  I called my friend to see if she was available to watch Eli for awhile.  She saved me once before and pulled through AGAIN.  I miraculously had some milk pumped so she was able to take him to her place for a few hours.  About an hour after she left I was able to get off the floor and crawl into bed.  I just waited to hear from her.  Around midnight Eli was sound asleep and she didn't want to wake him.  I was feeling quite a bit better at that point (most of the toxins had previously vaccated my body) so I was able to pump more milk and take it to her.  Being the amazing friend that she is, she offered to keep Eli overnight so that I wouldn't have to come get him at 4 am when he woke up hungry.  It was hard to leave him for that long, but she said he was so peaceful and I still wasn't really up for helping him in anyway.  So, he stayed with her until about 9:00 the following morning.  She said he was such a trooper.  As soon as they got in the car he was happy and cooing and he didn't fuss all night.  {On a side note... I think babies are SO much smarter than we give them credit for.  Eli could sense that something was wrong at home and when he was removed from that horrible feeling he was able to feel safe again}.  I am so grateful for such a wonderful friend and for my sweet baby Elijah.  He really is a good boy- I am the luckiest!

Josh had given me a blessing in which I was told that I would be healed by morning.  And I was.  When Eli came home at 9:00 I was able to care for him and play with him.  I wasn't back to 100% but at least I was functioning and could keep my baby happy.  Since neither Josh nor I slept hardly at all that night I let him sleep in a bit.  After he was awake for about an hour Eli fell asleep.  I decided to take a nap and suggested that Josh take one as well.  We all slept for 4 hours!  I guess we needed it :-)  After a day or 2 of being extremely nervous about eating we are back to normal life.  All I can say is that I NEVER want to experience that again.  I have been sick my fair share in life, but I have NEVER been so brutally ill.  It was awful.  I was absolutely more miserable with food poisoning than I ever was being pregnant or giving birth.  You might think I'm crazy, but it's the truth.

Moral of the story-  don't let yourself poison your family {even if it's an accident}. 

Monday, May 23, 2011

Momma's Boy





He finally got me & I still love him :-)
Elijah has been so much fun the past few weeks.  He is rolling over consistently from him tummy to his back.  He keeps trying to get from his back to his tummy but he gets stuck on his side.  He has been sleeping really well (6-8 hour stretches regularly with a record breaking 11 hours thrown in one night), and this week he has been sneaking in bed with mommy in the mornings.  He likes to sleep on his side when he gets in our comfy bed.  I love to snuggle up right next to him- he's so precious.  Sleeping so much at night has reduced his naps during the day, but he is so happy all the time.  We just play with him and we all laugh and smile together.  Josh says that Eli is his favorite toy and I would have to agree :-)  He brings so much love and joy into our home with his cute little giggles and big 'ole grins.

This past week he decided to learn to crawl.  He has been turning himself around (360) in his crib or on the floor since he was about a month old.  He'll make a little forward progress but mostly just by chance.  But this week he really started going places.  He went over 4 ft. across the living room floor one day.  He only does it when he's screaming mad, but it's still amazing to watch.  He gets on his forearms and somehow knows he needs to use his knees and feet.  He scrunches his knees up and raises his bum in the air and then uses his arms to pull himself forward.  It's pretty incredible.  It's fascinating to watch him because he really is trying to figure it out.  He was even going after a toy when he first did it.  He is just too smart!  Josh's dad informed us that Josh was crawling by 5 months and walking by 11.  I guess Eli is following in his footsteps!  I guess we will be baby-proofing sooner than we thought!!

I also think the little man is teething.  He gnaws on our fingers and everything else like crazy.  Lately it has started to hurt my fingers because his gums are hardening.  No guarantee that his teeth will pop up soon, but I think they are working on doing something!

Eli has his 4 month check-up this week.  I'll post his new stats when we get them!


**I love my little man more than anything.  Thanks for being such a happy and sweet baby!**

Happy Birthday, Josh!

Apple pie & triple chocolate cake with caramel glaze

Yes, he's 30 and still won't take a serious picture!

Hyrum & Eli

Daddy getting birthday kisses

Brock, Hyrum, & Jayce

Stephani (w/ Eli), Laura, Julia, & Brock

Laura, Julia, & Collin
Last Monday was Josh's 30th birthday.  I really wanted to do something special for him.  He hardly ever lets me get away with doing nice things for him.  I wanted to have a party but I knew he would say no if i told him.  It had to be a surprise.  Unfortunately Josh was gone umpiring Friday & Saturday.  I decided to have a small open-house style surprise party for him on Monday night.  Our friends just started showing up and saying surprise!  It ended up being a lot of fun.  I baked an apple pie and a triple chocolate cake.  And of course there was ice cream because that is Josh's favorite :-)  It was pretty packed in our small apartment but I think everyone had fun! 

I spent most of the day cleaning up for the party.  I found out later that Josh thought my cleaning was his birthday present!  He got to just hang out and play with Eli all day.  I think he enjoyed that :-)  We went to dinner at a new place- Pappasitos.  It was yummy (thanks for the rec., Laura)!  People started showing up after we got home from dinner.  I think he was surprised and had a nice time with some of his close friends here in SA.  Thanks for coming everyone!

Josh's real birthday present was MLB.tv.  He got me apple tv for Mother's Day and it goes perfectly with his MLB.tv.  He can watch games on the TV, computer, and his iphone now.  He LOVES it!  I'm glad I was finally able to get him something that he truly loves.  Happy Birthday to my most favorite.  You deserve all the happiness in the world.  I LOVE YOU!