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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas Morning #1

My parents came in town this past weekend with Santa's big red bag in tow. :) As they unloaded their sleigh (aka, car), our little 4 1/2 foot Christmas tree was filled with joy by all of the beautiful presents that now surrounded it. :) On Saturday morning, we had our first "Christmas morning" with Elijah. He liked the ribbons and bows the best and certainly enjoyed climbing on the big packages. He woke up a little early with all of the excitement of Nana and Papa being in the house, so our sleepy little man had to go and take a nap in the middle of opening presents. :) This was a great time for us to get to open our own goodies and play with our cool new "toys"! As you will see below, we got some good ones!! We are so thankful for all of the gifts and goodies, but most of all we are thankful for my parents. No gift in the world could compare to the gift that they are to me. I love you Mom and Dad, thanks for the visit and we can't wait to see you again soon!

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Santa's little elf, getting things ready for Christmas morning.  You can tell how fast this little elf is because she is kind of blurred.  It is an amazing feat that I captured this on camera.

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Elijah checking out the presents.

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Going to the good ol' fall back...when in doubt, just find something to chew on....

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...or something to climb on.

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Daddy and Elijah opening presents.

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Our first Christmas morning as a family of three.  Our greatest gift of all is the little guy right in front of the box. :)

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Nana showing Elijah how to open the presents and Mommy trying to capture the moment on video.

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Documenting the other members of the family...Daddy and Boomerang.

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"Whoa, what is all this stuff?!"

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"This is a great present...thanks Nana and Papa!  How did you know I like paper!"

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Who could this be from?

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Mommy: "Good job Elijah!"

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Mommy and Daddy:  "Whoa!!  A new camera!!"
Eli: "Where did that ribbon go?"

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We felt that after unwrapping our new camera, it was a good time for Elijah to take a nap. :)  He was really tired and took his morning nap here while we checked out the camera and opened the rest of the gifts. 

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Me and Ethan with our awesome new camera!  It is a Sony 390 and takes incredible pictures.  We are so excited...thanks Mom and Dad!

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Nana with her present.

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Nana displaying the goods.

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Boomerang all cozied up.  Poor, neglected little dog.

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Quite the studious couple.

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Me and Ethan with our new Veggie Tales Bible!  Okay, so this one is not really for us... :)

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Guess who woke up from his nap?

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"Are these for me?!"

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"Are you taking pictures again, Papa?  In that case, check out this move."



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More family pics with Boomerang right in the middle of things, as usual.  Notice the stockings in the background.  Guess which two belong to me and Ethan and which on is Elijah's.  And so it begins.

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Merry Christmas!

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This picture has us all laughing.  It looks like my head has been superimposed on Eli's sweater. :)

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Love the new clothes for Elijah!

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Book set, growth chart, and other goodies for Elijah. So sweet!

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Christmas morning can be a little overwhelming.  Elijah wasn't such a big fan of the tearing of the paper and cheering.  But, the good thing was that Daddy was there to make it all right.

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Eli and Daddy playing with the cool baseball toy he got from Uncle Daniel and Aunt Jenny.

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And one final picture or Nana and Papa Clause.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

That will melt a dad's heart

This morning I came back in from working out.  As I came in the door Jennifer was walking down the stairs with Eli.  For just a few seconds I was talking with him and he was smiling.  Then, and this is a fairly new trick of his, he leaned away from Jennifer and reached out his arms for me to hold him.  Believe me I quickly dropped my keys, cell phone and towel to grab my little buddy.  He didn't even seem to mind that I was still sweaty.  Needless to say, I made it in to the office a little late.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Look What I Can Do

Goodness, goodness, goodness...our little man is growing and changing so quickly! It seems that sometimes the changes come in waves. I remember when Elijah first learned to roll over it brought on a wave of new discoveries. Then we had a bit of a lull, where it seemed like he was just perfecting those new tricks for a while, and then recently we have had another wave of new discoveries! It feels a little bit like we are on a rollercoaster, and once Elijah began crawling we rounded the crest of the highest point and have been zooming down huge drops and flying around twists and curves ever since! (Hope that makes sense...for those of you who know me well, you know I love analogies. :) Here are some of the changes and discoveries he has seemed to make even in the last week:

- Elijah has become a "super crawler" to use my friend Kimber's description. :) Instead of slowly making his way across the room, he flys to his intended destination in the blink of an eye...further reason that it is time to babyproof now!
- Elijah can now stand up on everything.  Instead of just being able to pull on a surface with a ledge, he can push himself up with his legs.  So, anywhere he can find a flat surface to place his hands he can now stand up...walls, doors, washing machine, etc.
- Eli has just recently discovered how doors work.  He loves to push and pull them back and forth.  If there is a little crack, he can pull the door open (and then try to escape).  He can also slam the door shut and then stand up against it, which is equally fun.
- Elijah is starting to imitate movements more.  The other day Ethan was drumming on the floor with his hands and then Eli began banging the floor with his hand.  What a genius! ;)  He is also beginning to play with toys more instead of just putting them in his mouth.
- The little man is getting more and more vocal with each day it seems.  He is really good at saying "mama."  I don't really think he connects the meaning, but he will babble mamama all the time.  Ethan says we have mama down and need to start working on dada. :)  He will talk and make his sweet little baby noises all the time and it is just so precious.
- Finally, I have notices Eli's hair really starting to grow.  For the longest time it seemed to pretty much be the same length.  Within the past week or two, I have started to see that his hair is starting to get pretty long.  And, I have to give credit to Ethan's sister, Amber.  She always said that she thought his hair was going to be curly and I thought it was straight for sure.  I am not saying it will be completely curly like mine, but there is going to be at least some curl to it.

While I could go on even more, I will let Elijah show you some of his new tricks and skills himself:

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"I can stand on the hampers and help Mommy do laundry."

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"I can help draw a bath...if I could just reach that faucet."

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"I can stand up on the shower door and leave my finger prints all over the glass, giving Mommy a constant reminder of me."

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"I am determined that when I see a place I want to climb, I find a way to make it to the top."

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"See, I made it!"

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"I can help Mommy sort through papers left on the table."

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"I can even stand up on things one handed."

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"I can crawl around naked with my hooded towel trailing behind me like a superhero's cape!" 

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"I love to make things easier for Mommy when she is wrapping presents by unrolling the paper."

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"I can help to reorganize Nana and Papa's pantry."

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"I can eat a whole container of baby food in one sitting."

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"I can talk to Mommy very loudly and imitate all kinds of sounds."

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"I can make Mommy and Daddy laugh all the time by my silly faces, noises, and tricks."

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"I can stand up on the toilet."

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"...and unroll the toilet paper."

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"I can unroll the whole thing if Mommy lets me!"

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"I am an excellent sous-chef and can help Mommy with the spices."


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"I guess that's about it..."
 

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"Is that enough for now?"