Spring

I forgot to add this picture last night when I posted our Easter pictures. 

Eli LOVES cupcakes! 

With all the flooding here, we were afraid Eli would float off so we put on his new puddle jumper. 

And he decided he better put on my rain boots!

Yesterday we FINALLY had sunny weather so we took advantage and played outside.  Eli loves his new bubble lawnmower he got for Easter, although it doesn't blow bubbles. 

We are planning to take it back and exchange for a new one but just haven't had time. 

I don't think he knows it's supposed to blow bubbles!

If only it really mowed the lawn!  One day...

We had one bounce left on our Boingo Bounce card that was about to expire.  My friend, Juli, and I took the kids to jump.  Alexi is her daughter (and Eli's best friend).  They go to the babysitter together and love to be around each other!

I've learned it is almost impossible to get a picture of two 2 year olds looking at the camera at the same time.

I asked them to get in the house and say "cheese" for the camera. 

This resulted in a long, drawn out (and loud) "cheeeeeeeeeeeessssssseeeee"! 

See the picture below...

This is the only thing I don't like about Boingo Bounce.

The water fountains! 

Why is Eli so obsessed by them?  It drives me crazy!  He comes away soaking wet. 

And not to mention the floor around them (carpet) is wet.  So when I go up to get him away from the fountains my socks get wet!  I hate wet socks! 

Most times, he would rather play with the water fountains than jump! 

I vote they be removed from the jump area!

But Eli comes away a happy (and wet) boy after he's visited the dreaded water fountains!

Happy Belated Easter!

We had a nice, calm Easter this year.  It rained from the time the sun came up and until it went down in the evening.  And it was cold.  But we didn't let that stop us from having a good time and enjoying the holiday.  This was the first year Eli was able to dye eggs.  Last Easter he was sick and didn't really understand what was going on.  This year he loved it!  He got mad when we ran out of eggs to dye!  He still doesn't understand the eggs are fragile and will break. 

Guess we will have to work on that one...

Checking out his loot from the Easter bunny

Is this a happy boy or what?!

I think he's mostly excited about the candy :)

Before church

Of course we didn't let a little rain stop us from having Eli's first Easter egg hunt.  He caught on really quickly and did pretty good!  Hopefully next year will be nicer weather!

Livng Arrangements

Here is Jigs in the backyard...

And here he is in his new home.  INSIDE our house!

Believe it or not, he's doing really well inside.  We've decided to try it out instead of finding him a new home.  I never, never, never wanted a big dog inside.  But things happen.  Eli loves his new friend.  He hangs on him, tries to ride him and pulls his tail all day long.  Jigs is great with Eli and lets him do whatever he wants with him.  Josey is slowly warming up to him too.



Branson Fun

I'm sure there will be plenty more of these posts throughout the rest of the year, as Branson has become our favorite getaway!  For Christmas, Dad and Sheila got us Silver Dollar City/White Water season passes.  We love them!  We live so close to Branson so it's an easy drive there and back in one day.  I think we are addicted to outlet-shopping!  And I'm counting down the days until White Water opens for the summer. 

Last Friday Chad took off work and we headed to do a little shopping then to Silver Dollar City for the rest of the day.  Eli's not quite tall enough (one inch too short) to ride most of the rides but there are a few he can ride with us.  He's usually scared of anything that makes noise or moves so I wasn't sure how he would do with the rides.  To my surprise, he LOVED them!  He giggled and smiled the entire time then threw a fit when he had to get off.  We can't wait to go back soon!

We discovered his love of carousels at the Kansas City Zoo last summer.  He LOVES them!

Matthew, Eli and Chad riding the new carousel at SDC

Eli's first "real" ride (other than a carousel).  Gotta love that smile on his face!

Taking a break and enjoying the train ride.  Another one of Eli's favorites, "choo choo's"!

Sweet smiles!  Notice Chad drinking all of our lemonade in the back.

He said he didn't do it, but I have proof!

Quick update on Dad:  He's doing sooooo much better!  He's still in the hospital and will be there a few more weeks.  He still has the feeding tube and can't eat or drink but hopefully that will change soon.  He has physical therapy often to strengthen his muscles and dialysis about three times a week.  They are hoping to move him to a rehab floor soon.  He was able to sit up on the side of his bed (with assistance) the other day!  Each day seems to be a little progress! 

Thanks to everyone for the prayers for our entire family.  We have been through so much lately.  Through it all I have learned to slow down and enjoy life more. 

Hopefully you are doing the same!

Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

Sunday Funday

We took a quick trip down to Little Rock to see Dad this weekend.  He's doing so much better!  It was great seeing him off the ventilator and talking!  He was moved out of the ICU yesterday and into a private room.  All I can say is the nurses and Sheila are gonna have their hands full!  Ha! 

I have a cute story about Eli.  On Friday Chad, Eli and I went out to eat.  We always order Eli's food when we put in our drink orders.  He is usually really hungry and it helps give him something to do while we're waiting for our food.  We ordered him his usual chicken fingers and fries.  Have I ever told you how much the boy loves ketchup?  So Chad decides he is going to eat one of Eli's fries and ketchup.  Eli yells at Chad "NO, Lili's" (pronounced 'lie lie', what he calls himself).  We just sat there laughing and in shock!  I have a feeling we are going to have our hands full when he gets older!

Eli got his first busted nose today.  We were at the AT&T store and Eli is running around being silly, like always.  Some of their walls are clear glass.  Well I guess they did a good job cleaning them because Eli ran smack dab into one of them, face first!  I didn't see it but Chad did.  When Chad picked him up his poor nose starts gushing blood.  I think they were glad to see us leave!

You all know my feelings towards our dog, Jigs.  He's a sweet dog but he's been extremely destructive to our backyard.  He's chewed up parts of our deck, torn down the lattice work around the deck, chewed our cable in half multiple times....the list just goes on and on.  Well we finally decided we are going to find him a new home.  We are looking for someone to take him who can give him more attention and will have a good place for him to run around.  We just took in way more than we could handle when we took him.  I think he heard us talking about finding him a new home this evening.  We sat down to watch our shows tonight and the TV wouldn't work.  Chad went outside to inspect and sure enough, Jigs had chewed the cable up one last time.  This confirmed our decision to find him a new home!  Good luck, Jigs!