Thankful for Beautiful Weather

 This winter has been so cold!  I know winter is supposed to be cold but does it have to be below zero?  That's just uncalled for!  We've had more snow than I can count.  Our public schools have had 7 snow days so far this year!  We can't wait for spring!  This past weekend we had the best weather although we almost blew away from the winds!  That didn't stop us from going outside and playing!  Eli is enjoying all of his new toys from his birthday and Christmas.  This little boy would much rather be outside than inside.  And that's just fine with me!

This was his birthday present from Chad and me.  He saw it on TV and asked for it.  It's actually a little big for him (hence the ghetto towel in the back of the seat) but he can still ride it.  It's actually really cool!  I admit, I got on it and tried it out.  I'm not ashamed.  And it's awesome!

This weekend I signed Eli up for spring T-ball.  We can't wait!  We've been counting down the days until Eli is old enough to play T-ball!  Spring, please hurry and get here!!!  We need more days like this after the terrible cold weather we've had so far this winter!

Christmas

 I love Christmas time!  I love everything about it.  I don't love all the crazies at the mall during Christmas time though.  I try my best to avoid the mall close to Christmas.  That's why I do most of my shopping online.  I don't know why I waited so late to take Eli to see Santa this year and I promised myself I would never wait this late again!  Just FYI, don't wait until December 23rd to go see Santa.  Just don't do it.

How cute is he though?!?!!

Finally...

  Christmas round 1 was celebrated with my family.  My Mom and Randy came up the weekend before Christmas and my brother came to town too.  I love when we are all together.  It's loud and fun and we eat a lot of good food!  Of course Eli only wanted to open presents!

    He is so proud of his new boots from Mimi and Grandy!

Christmas Eve we opened a few more presents from Grandma Sheila, or "Memaw" as Eli has started referring to her!

Christmas morning at our house was laid back and low key... just how I like it!

Santa was good to Eli this year!  He had fun checking out all the new toys.

After checking out the new toys from Santa we opened gifts from each other.  Chad's parents were able to come up at the last minute on Christmas Eve so they could be here when Eli woke up on Christmas morning.  Also, "Santa" needed a little help putting something together.  Ha!

 Eli is loving his new telescope from Mimi & Papaw!  We've been using it the past few nights to look at the moon.  I admit, it's pretty cool!  Tomorrow is a full moon and Eli can't wait to see it!

 This is the "something" Santa needed help putting together!  Eli was so excited and shocked to see that Santa had left him a trampoline in the back yard!

He's LOVING it!

And so is Daddy!  I actually like it too!

After presents I cooked a late breakfast of Pioneer Woman's Baked French Toast.  If you've never had this then go to the store right now and buy the stuff!  It's out of this world!  I also made this breakfast casserole.  It's my new go to breakfast casserole.  

After Chad's parents left we headed to our friends house for a late Christmas lunch.  The Ko's have become our second family.  We are so lucky to have such good friends like them!

Steven and Julie have a little girl, Emma, who is the cutest thing ever!  Just look at those cheeks!

Robert was one of my best friends in high school and we have remained good friends ever since!

After the Ko's we came back home to relax and let Eli play with some of his new toys.  This is the much talked about and anticipated "car maker" Eli asked Santa for.  He saw this crazy toy in one of the many toy catalogs and couldn't stop thinking about it.  It actually makes little Hot Wheels cars from wax sticks.  It is pretty cool.

And that my friends, was our Christmas.  I hope you all had a very merry one as we did.  It's definitely my favorite time of year!

Eli Over the Years

 I have really been into comparing pictures of Eli as he is growing year to year.

Here are pictures of him on each of his birthdays.

1st birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

4th birthday

5th birthday

He just looks so old to me in this last picture.  What happened to my baby from the first picture?  Eli is definitely growing up.

New Year's Resolutions

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions.  Mainly because I don't follow through with them.  That's why I am not calling this list my New Year's Resolutions.  I don't really have a name for this list.  It's just a list of things I want to work on this year.

1.  Blog more... Not that anyone really reads this blog anymore, but I've found that I really like to look back and read old blog posts.  It has become a sort of diary or place I can record what's going on with our lives.  Some day I plan to print it out so I will have a printed record of it.

2.  Enjoy the moment... I've become addicted to my iPhone.  I use it to keep connected to the world and as my main camera.  I've found that I constantly miss out on the moment because I'm too consumed with taking the perfect picture and then uploading it to instagram and then to facebook.  I am seriously contemplating deleting my facebook app from my phone.  If I made one NY's resolution this would be it.  I've become THAT mom who pays more attention to my phone than what's going on around me.  I don't want to be THAT mom and it makes me sad to think of all the moments I've missed since getting my first iPhone.  I got a new camera for Christmas and I want to start using a REAL camera instead of my crappy iPhone camera.  

3. Spend more time with my family... A couple of months ago I was forced to go PRN thanks to changes made with Chad's benefits.  I have to admit, I wasn't sad about this!  I have wanted to cut back on my hours for a LONG time!  A lot of people think I have cush work hours.  Yes, I only work 36 hours/week.  Yes, I only 3 days a week.  But what you don't realize is I leave my house at 6:20am and don't get home until 7:30pm.  Eli is asleep when I leave and he goes to bed 1 hour after I get home.  So that means I only see him for one hour, 3 days a week.  And not to mention if I am working an extra shift that week (which we have had to do quite often this year).  

4.  Cut back spending... This goes along with cutting my hours at work.  Less hours = less money.  Easy enough.  Ha!

5. Work on house... When we bought our house we only planned on living here for 3 years max.  We have now been here for 7 years and counting!  We have more than outgrown this little house.  I love it but I'm ready for a new one!  We bought it as kind of a fixer-upper.  The thing is, we haven't really "fixed" much!  We are hoping to sell it in the next year or so... so we have a lot to work on before then!  I'm sure Chad will love this "resolution" as it will just mean more work for him.  Ha!

And that's it folks.

That's my list.

And just because I like each post to contain a picture...

Party Day

December 8th was the big birthday party day.  We received 7 inches of snow on top of some ice just a few days before his scheduled birthday party.  I was afraid the party would not be able to go on but we decided not to cancel and just hope a few kids would show.  Eli was so excited about his birthday party since it was at his most favorite place in Springdale... Fun City!

Fun City is like ChuckE Cheese without the scary characters!

Each birthday child gets one spin on the big wheel.  I think this is what Eli looked forward to the most!  It's all he talked about before the party!  He ended up winning 800 tickets!!!

 

Eli with Alexi... these two have been best buds since Eli was 6 months old!

I always love Eli's face when everyone sings Happy Birthday to him.  It's such a sweet moment and makes me smile!

The party turned out perfect even with the snow/ice.  It was low key and easy.

Just perfect for my big 5 year old!

Eli Turns 5

Eli turned 5 on December 2nd.  How on earth did THAT happen?  I just came to the realization not long ago that he will be starting kindergarten in August.  That means I only have about 8 months to enjoy our free days together.  How depressing!  I'm really going to miss our fun days together when I'm off work and he's out of school.

 

 

I've noticed a big difference the past year in how Eli is maturing.  He's practicing writing his letters and even working on reading sight words!  He's come such a long way since starting preschool in September!

 

Eli likes to do things on his own, or at least try to do them without help.  He loves to help me cook and bake.  It takes much longer to get things done in the kitchen but I try to be patient and let him help me.  He's even tried new foods just because he helps me cook it!  One new food he's loving is scrambled eggs!  That child wouldn't touch an egg (no matter how it was cooked) since he was born.  One day he just decided he wanted to eat scrambled eggs.  He has mastered cracking the eggs, beating them and even stirring them in the skillet while they are cooking.

If you ask Eli what he wants to do when he grows up he will tell you he wants to "change jobs" a lot.  HA!!  He wants to start with building buildings, working on a golf course, then farming.  He wants to end his career by delivering packages like Daddy.  He loves to construct things and learn how they work (his favorite TV show is How It's Made).  We think he will be an engineer.  Or farmer.  The boy LOVES tractors!

Eli can be shy when he's around new people but it doesn't take long for him to warm up and start acting silly.  He's a total goofball and I love it!  We are trying to learn about "self control" and when we need to control our sillies.

Eli had school on his birthday.  I took doughnuts for their snack time and he said they sang happy birthday to him.  After school we went for a special treat at Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville.  He got to pick out any of the treats in the case and then we watched the cake decorators (one of his favorite things to do).  And he got to pick out a balloon.

After Chad got off work we went bowling at Fast Lanes.  Every time we drive by Fast Lanes he tells me he wants to go there, so he was thrilled when we went on his birthday.

After we got home from bowling we sang Happy Birthday again and let him blow out a candle on a petit for that he had picked out earlier at Rick's Bakery. 

I still can't believe our baby is a big five year old!

These have been the best 5 years of our lives.

Happy Birthday, Eli!