Mother's Day, Popsicles and Mud!

Hello all,
This past month has been fun. Our playset was installed and the boys love playing outside. The weather has been sunny (and sometimes rainy). Here are some pics...
Enjoy!

Mother's Day 2010

Eyes open, looking at the camera and smiling is

just about near impossible to coordinate with these two!

Fudgsicles on the patio with mommy and daddy!

Mmmmmm...

Sam can be so silly sometimes! haha ;)

A big popsicle kiss from brother...

Popsicles in the backyard one afternoon

Playing in the mud! It rained last Friday so the boys had a little bit of cabin fever. Their friends Logan and Dylan had stayed the day and when we went outside to say goodbye the boys saw this puddle. They were really good and waited until Mommy said that they could play in it. It was just too cute. This is why I don't buy expensive clothes: 1. because i want to let them play in the mud from time to time 2. because i don't want to freak out when they do. Boys will be boys!

First Camping Trip of 2010

Last week, Joseph pressure washed the camper and with it looking so purty we decided to take it out for the first camping trip of 2010. We only went once last year (probably due to our couple of trips down to FL and AL) but we definitely plan on going more this year. It's just so cheap (especially at the state parks) and it's not like you spend more on food cause you just take what you have at home with you!
Well, little did we know that by the end of the first day we were going to be ready to pack it all up and come home. Little bugger Eli drove us INSANE! See, last year we took him camping when he was 3 months old (our friends took their 1 mo. old on the same trip) and we joked that we were crazy for taking babies camping. I stand corrected, because taking a walking 13 mo. old is so much crazier! He just wandered around so someone had to constantly follow him. And of course keeping him inside the camper was not going to happen because as soon as Daddy and Big Bro Sam went outside he would pitch a fit!
We made it through because we just came to the conclusion that camping, for now, is no longer relaxing! Haha It was fun watching them explore, make friends, play with sticks, flowers, bugs, and eat dirt! Sam was GREAT! He’s pretty much potty trained so that made it a little easier. Plus he will listen to directions like “get out of the road” and “don’t put that in your mouth” and Eli doesn’t have a clue yet! The only downfall of the trip was that we couldn’t even start a fire until after Eli was in bed because he had no concept whatsoever that it would hurt him!
But we are making memories and we can’t wait until our next trip! Enjoy some of the pics. (I tried to find some that I haven’t already posted on Facebook!)

At the waterfalls (we stayed at High Falls State park)

Eli loved the flowers!

Sam and Daddy just chillin! :)

Cutie pie

Not sure why the hands are on the head, but he's a cutie, too! :)

What's new...

January 2010

So far January has been fun! Not too much outside time, but we are looking forward to warmer weather. Here are some pics from the past month.

Sam told me to put Eli on the horse with him! Eli thought it was fun!

This shirt just sums it all up!

Eli trying to stand up on his own

Joseph's 30th birthday

Family pic

Buzz Lightyear says, "To infinity and beyond..."

Eli is 9 months old!

My baby is growing up too fast! He is pulling up on anything he can get his hands on. He loves chasing Sam in his walker and I think it won't be long before he is trying to walk on his own. He loves to watch everyone around him and he NEVER sits still!! He is definitely a go-getter right now. Here are some pics of him from birth to nine months. I've tried to keep up with taking his pic in the glider rocker, but you know how it goes with the second child! haha :)

One day old
One month old

two months old

three months old

(we were in FL when he turned 3 mo.)

five months old

Six months old

Eight months old

Nine months old!

(Such a cutie!)

Happy New Year!

Sam and Eli have both had their share of illness so far this winter. Eli was sick before Christmas and they both came down with RSV (a respiratory cold) along with Eli having an ear infection and Sam having a mild case of croup. Needless to say, New Years was pretty boring! We pretty much spent the entire week at home because the boys were sick and it was too cold to get out and do anything. We are ready to get back to normal. Here's to a happy and healthy new year!

The following pics are of the boys playing hide and seek together! It was too cute! :)

Just some random pics

Thought I would post some random pics from this month! Enjoy and Merry Christmas! :)

Our Christmas Card this year

Sam

Eli's first haircut. He had two or three (literally only two or three) hairs sticking up so it always looked funny when we would take off his hat and the static would make them stand on end!

So I buzzed them!

Eli and Memaw

Papa

Me and Lauren

Christmas Card Pics

I guess I thought it wouldn't be that difficult to take a simple Christmas card picture. And I'm sure it wouldn't have been had we paid a professional (no offense, Emily), but with funds tight this year we couldn't rationalize spending money on pictures over groceries and gas! SOOO, I thought you would find it funny to see a few of the MANY tries that it took to get a decent family picture of us. I will definitely keep all of the "mistakes" pictures because years from now it will be fun to look back and remember the year we gave Sam well over 20 M&M's just to get a picture where everyone was looking at the camera and smiling. Enjoy!

This one was one of the last ones we took. You can see how everyone felt just by looking at Sam's expression! Priceless!

Sam was counting to three with Aunt Emily (the photographer)

Eli thought Sam was much more interesting!

Ok, this one was pretty good!

Merry Christmas!