The birthday card that almost was.

Eli was trying so hard to make me a card on my birthday.  Eventually he ran out of time and had to get to school, and afterward he was no longer interested.  He was getting so frustrated because he couldn't get it to look like how he wanted.  But I LOVED what he had, so I took pictures of all his different papers...

MOM with a party hat on.  how cute is that!

birthday cake, trying to spell MOM

trying to spell "birthday" all by himself!  such a great start, considering we haven't worked on sounding out spelling AT ALL yet!

there he got it!  =)

The count is 8.

2 yellow kittens  - 1 yellow kitten + 2 new kittens (white and calico) + 3 kittens (black&white, gray, white&yellow) - 1 yellow cat - 1 white cat + 4 new kittens. 

Mama cat had kittens the other day.  This time I actually had some warning.  I had noticed she was looking a little fat, so finally one day I asked Kevin to pick her up and see if she felt pregnant.  He reported that indeed she seemed to be with "child".  This time I knew that cat gestation is quite short so I should be prepared for delivery soon.  The maternal instinct in me KNEW she'd pick the stroller in the garage as the place for her babies to be born.  I had JUST told Kevin, "I think we should clean out the garage. I just know Mama Cat is going to have her kittens in the stroller."  Well, he's busy working right now and it didn't happen and sure enough, 2 days later, kittens are born (we noticed in the morning that Mama Cat wasn't up at the house waiting for food, like normal) and where is Mama perched? The stroller.  I couldn't see kittens for sure but I could tell by the way she was just staying there and seemingly hovering over something in protection that she'd probably had her babies.  Later in the day we got the slightest glimpse.  

Mama has since moved her kittens to the huge box that was for our deep freeze.  And finally today I peeked in on a nursing session and counted 4 little kittens.  Can't remember the colors.  Gray, 2 tabbies, and a black & white one maybe.

Later in the day when I saw Mama Cat out in the yard, I stuck in and got these pictures during cat nap

 So here we are again, less than a year from last spring's delivery. I love watching animal mothers with their babies.  It's nature at its finest. And we welcome these little kittens with excitement! {We might not keep this litter because more kitties >> more food.  But for now we'll enjoy their presence and watching them grow!}

Mama Cat of all these kitties

the runt of them all.

gray cat again

the pretty white and yellow one

"Pool time"

Sometimes it's okay to break the rules.  Jumping off of tables n such.  Inside.  The kids dragged out all the blankets, we pushed the kids' table in from the play room, and the kids changed into the swim suits, and they went swimming!  Splashing and jumping and having the best fun ever! How can you say no to that??

Carter's 1st Year - Album

I DID IT!  I made Carter's 1st Year memory book!  (considering I really haven't done ANYTHING but BLOG pictures since ELI was born, this is a HUGE step for me!!!)  Yesterday I happened to see in my email inbox that there's a Shutterfly sale on photo books right now, ending TODAY, so I got started right away, finished the page layouts last night at midnight, and finished up the details this morning, and just placed the order right now!  I think it's a pretty good deal because it includes the price of printing pictures, buying scrapbook paper, the album itself, and any add-ons, not to mention that you can "assemble" the entire book in 1 day!  So here I am to share with YOU!  ENJOY!

Note: you can follow the links to view it full-screen but it probably still isn't big enough to read all the text.  It still gives you a glimpse of the creation...

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shrine Circus!

My survival technique for getting through this year's Outage is to just plan lots of fun things.  Could be as simple as a lunch date or meeting at the park with friends or a trip home to see family.  It keeps the days passing, things to look forward to, things to share afterward, and we sure have a great time in the process!  So when I saw that the circus was coming to the city, I just HAD to find a way for me to get us there!  Big events like that are a bit much for me to do on my own with the kids.  From crossing the street to potty breaks with EVERYONE in tow to getting snacks, etc etc etc so I convinced the grandparents to come with us, and I do believe we all had fun!!

while waiting for the show to start the kids got to go down the big inflatable slide and do a pony ride.  You could also ride the big elephant but we passed on that one.

the kids' first pony rides.  they were both so brave!

Eli got in the last ride right before the show started!

all ready!

the show started with the chicken dance

The Shriners doing the chicken dance

Then all the motorcycles rode through

There was a live band playing throughout the performance

the ringmaster

one of the performers

acrobats.  they were pretty incredible.

and a lasso/rope guy

the spinning mouse wheel type thing

along with this were trampoline tricks, box juggling, and a short clown act

dancers

and the dancing elephant

three dirt bikes racing around in circles inside that metal sphere

the finale

What a great show!  The kids were captivated, even Carter who kept pointing at different things he saw!  Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa for coming with us!!

Ready for work!

Eli did this all on his own!  What a cute little boy!

Pirate Ship

I told you we were going to have so much fun building with bricks this spring/summer.  Yesterday we made a pirate ship out of swing set.  The top deck was for steering (I wish we had one of those play set steering wheels but it was okay to pretend too) and the baby swing was the lookout seat, watching for other ships out in the sea.  Although Eli seemed to make a bow and arrow out of the rope too.  Fun imagination!

Hannah's drawings

I posted the other day about ELI's drawings.  Now here are some of Hannah's!!

octopus family.

snowman family.  and she could definitely tell you which one is which.

And another one of Eli's that he drew that day too...

Holly was coming that morning and he wanted to draw a picture for her.  So this is a picture of Holly, and in the bottom left that's Claire on the Dr office table (no idea why??).  I don't know what all the letters are at the top of the paper are.  But he pretty much spelled Hannah's name all on his own without help.  He actually kept adding a lot more words after I took this picture.  Starting on the bottom and wrapping up the right side he wrote "Eli made this picture".  I love that he's getting so good at writing his letters! 

Carter: Golden "Birthday"

14 months!!

Updates: 

* CAN drink from a sippy cup now but sometimes I still give him his bottle because he does better with it.  Need to just fully switch.

* CAN drink other things besides just milk if we need to.

* Gave up on the high chair battle (him constantly standing in it) and moved him to Eli's booster seat and got back out the tray for it.  It closes so closely to his belly, he aint going anywhere!  Although now he likes to drop his food on the floor, particularly when we're having dry cereal. *sigh*

* Tooth #8 came in.  Bottom right.  So now he's even, with 4 on top and 4 on the bottom.

* New words: bubble.  When I try to get him to say "Eli" he says, "Lllll".  Making an L sound his favorite right now.

* Naps 2x a day with bedtime at 7:30/8pm.

* Mostly wanders around the house all day following everyone, but he especially loves playing with balls (big or little, it doesn't matter) or books or the play kitchen.
* Dislikes: being laid down for a diaper change, mommy leaving

* Definitely in the stranger danger phase.  I have a difficult time leaving him in the church nursery without him just being a blubbering mess and needing to be returned to me.  And when I am working in the nursery, oh boy, I better not walk too far away or he starts crying!
* Can sit in our lap through almost a whole movie with the rest of the family, which is fun because he's otherwise constantly on the go!!

He's such a happy, silly, curious little boy!  We sure love him bunches!!!

Eli's drawings.

It's so fun to watch Eli get better and better at drawing and for pictures to actually LOOK like something!  LOL  Here are a couple of his latest pictures he brought home from school...

a birthday cake

Family.  Carter's the one on the bottom right crawling, but otherwise the others he kept changing his mind on who they were.