Year in Review

2007 was a great year for Eli and our family! Although it was really Eli's second year of life, it was a year of firsts for him. Here is a list of some of his firsts in 2007...

• First tooth (January 2007)
• First steps (February 2007)
• First time to color Easter Eggs
• First ice cream cone
• First official playgroup
• First visit to Chuck E. Cheese
• First Emergency Room visit
• First State Fair corny dog

Here's a look back at Eli's life in 2007:

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Christmas Morning

Eli got a kitchen and a rocking horse for Christmas and he loves both!! Since Christmas, Eli wakes up every morning, looks at me and whispers "chen-nay" (that's Eli's way of saying "kitchen'). Then, he runs into the living room and plays with his kitchen.

Playing with his kitchen in his new house shoes
Opening presents with Daddy

Sweet Boy!

Two of my favorite pictures!

Getting Ready for Santa!

Since we do not have a traditional fireplace, we have a magic key for Santa. Eli hung the key on the door before he went to bed on Christmas Eve.
We also set out some milk and cookies for Santa....if you know Eli well, you know the rest of the story!

Christmas Eve

On Chirstmas Eve, Ga-Ga (Laura's Dad) and Lisa (Laura's Sister) and her family (John, Justin, John-John, Jessica, Jack) came over to our house.

Lisa and Baby Jack
Jessica and her new puppy
John-John looking at his new Goosebumps books
Baby Jack!
Eli, Jack and Jessie in their Christmas Eve jammies...this is the best pic I have of all of them....it was about 9:00pm and everyone was VERY tired! : )

Sleep-over

Jessie (Eli's Cousin) spent the night with us recently. We had so much fun and can't wait to have another sleep over! : )

Jessie loves to wash Eli's hair and Eli was a good sport!

Three Years Ago.....

....I married the most wonderful person! Hunter and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary on December 18. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband! He is more than I could have ever dreamed of and a wonderful Dad to Elijah! Thank you, Hunter for being such a wonderful Husband and Dad!

Anniversary Weekend

This weekend we celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary...our anniversary is actually the 18th, but we celebrated a little early. We always stay in a hotel for our anniversary...this year we stayed two nights in the hotel that we had our wedding reception.... Marriott at Legacy Town Center. We had a very relaxing weekend and Eli loved the hotel. He jumped to the middle of the bed and just fell into the pillows.

We also had our traditional eggs benedict breakfast at Eatzi's on Sunday morning. After our wedding, we stayed at The Mansion for 2 nights....on Sunday morning, we ate at Eatzi's. So, every year we eat at Eatzi's when we are celebrating our anniversary.

Checkin out the Christmas Tree

Eli has done so well with the Christmas Tree. He looks at the ornaments, but doesn't show any interest in taking them off. We didn't know how it would work, but he has surprised both of us! : )

Cold

Eli likes to run outside each morning to see if it is cold. He stands out and tests the air and then makes his declaration.

Please Read To Me

Eli has a favorite book that he loves for my Dad (Ga-Ga) to read to him. Recently, Eli and I were over at my parent's house when no one was home. Eli found the book, but couldn't find Ga-Ga or Granny (Nanny).

The Angel

Eli helped Daddy place the Angel on the Christmas Tree.

In the house???

Eli was so excited when we brought the tree in the house! As Hunter was adjusting the stand, Eli got down to help. He doesn't like to be left out of anything!!

Mommy even had to help! :)

Christmas Tree Lot

Eli enjoyed running around the tree lot.



Like Mommy, like Son!!!! When I asked Eli to pick between two trees, he looked at the price first.....he knows me well!!!!! : )

Fun Morning

Eli is sound asleep taking his morning nap....we had an eventful, fun morning!

First, Eli and I went for a morning run. We haven't gone for a run in a couple of weeks, so it was interesting. It takes so long to get in shape and only a couple of weeks to feel completely out of shape! It was tough, but we ran 3 miles. Eli enjoyed it more than ever! When we passed a house with Christmas decorations Eli says "cool!" and then says and signs "more!". It was so cute and funny!

Then, we went for a Starbuck's treat! : ) We don't go to Starbuck's much anymore (getting to be WAY too expensive!), but I decided to allow myself two visits during the Christmas season for a yummy Peppermint Mocha. So we all went this morning. Eli had a chocolate milk and loved it! It was the Horizon milk....he recognized the packaging and I think he thought it was going to taste like his regular milk because he made a surprised look when he took a drink. Anyway, he loved it and I loved my peppermint mocha! Eli took the highchair and wheeled it around Starbuck's like he was at the grocery store! He selected several different bags of coffee beans and placed them in the highchair! I wish I had a picture...it was so cute!

Then, we went to a Christmas tree lot and picked out our tree. Eli ran around the lot yelling "tree!" I think he is going to be SHOCKED when we bring the tree in the house! : ) It should be

interesting. I have pics, but for some reason, I cannot upload them right now....I'll try again later!

Weekend at Mimi's

This weekend, we went to Arkansas to visit Mimi (Hunter's Mom). Eli had a great time and was sad when it was time to go. Eli did great on the airplane and loved seeing all the airplanes at the airport!! This morning, Eli was pretending to talk on the phone and I kept hearing, "blah, jibber-jabber, Mimi, jibber-jabber" I have NO idea what he was saying, but he was either talking to or about Mimi. : )

Watching planes at the airport
Playing in Mimi's backyard - Eli and Mimi played baseball for a while
Eli helped Mimi pick up leaves and pull some weeds. The bush/tree in this picture has been with Mimi since she was 15 years old (she's 80 now...shhhhh!). She has moved it from house to house throughout the years.
Laura, Mimi, John & Eli
The house across the street from Mimi's has lots of Christmas lights. Eli loved to look at them through the window. When he sees Christmas lights he says, "cool!".

Eating Update

No pictures, but wanted to give a quick eating update....Eli is still loving all his veggies! WooHoo!!! In fact, tonight he at only his veggies and didn't eat his chicken. In the past three days he's eaten carrots, green beans, zucchini, celery, rice (i know...not a veggie), and peas. I'm praying that it continues! : )

Eli enjoys scooping things from one container to another. This morning while I was starting the dishwasher, he decided he wanted to scoop the soap from the dishwasher into a cup. Since playing with dishwasher soap is not the safest, I decided to try something else....rice! So I put the rice in one container, gave him another and a spoon. He had tons of fun!! PS....if you come to our house anytime in the near future, please watch your step in the kitchen. Rice is very slippery on tile floor and I'm SURE I missed some in the clean up! ; )

Before the spill.....
...after the spill. Eli was "helping" me clean up the rice.

What have you done with Eli??

It is a well known fact that Eli does not eat veggies. I offer them at lunch and supper and even for snack, but he just skips right over them. He is a meat and bread boy! Tonight, I put chicken, steamed carrots, and steamed zucchini on his plate. As I was cutting up the carrots I thought to myself, why am I even bothering. To my surprise, Eli ate everything on his plate and wanted more veggies. He ate two servings of carrots and three servings on zucchini!!! OK....this cannot be Eli.....what did you do with Eli???? : )

Bed Head!!!

After Eli's afternoon nap today......

Baking

Eli and I made banana bread on Friday afternoon. I turned my head for just a second and Eli had the bag of flour everywhere!!

New PJs

When Eli sleeps, he does not like any blankets near him and does not like anything at all to be on his legs. Finally, we were able to get Eli to like his new PJs. He still pulls at the legs and the long sleeves, but he doesn't complain about them.

Helping Mommy

Eli likes to help me with housework. It usually takes me twice as long to do things, but I always try to let him help. It's amazing to me how much he really does help me! He has learned how to help put clothes and towels away when I'm folding laundry, how to help dust, and now he's learning how to vacuum. He's a little short so the vacuum doesn't touch the ground when he's pushing it, but you should see him pick up Cheerios with the attachment thing (I don't know what it's called). When we're vacuuming corners and along the baseboards and furniture, Eli does it all and does a great job! I think he likes to see things get sucked up the tube!! : )


OT: we are starting the potty learning process....that is why he is vacuuming with no clothes on.....to help him learn, he is diaper free and sometimes clothes free when we are at home (and not sleeping!). I'll keep you posted on Eli's progress.