family photo shoot

I am sure most of you have seen these by now, but here is a link to our Christmas/Eli's 6 month photos. These photos were taken by Elyse Fair (elyfairphotos.com) I love these photos more each time I look at them!

Diciembre

Eli is 6 months old today. When I was pregnant and even just after Eli was born people would tell me that it would go by quickly. They were not kidding. The past 6 months have flown by and I can barely believe that it has been that long since our sweet little boy first came into our lives. Here are some highlights from the past couple months:

-Eli is now able to sit up on his own for short periods. He may topple over after awhile, but he is working hard on those core muscles :)

-He is also getting a lot more mobile. He isn't crawling yet, but that doesn't mean that he stays put when you put him down on the floor. He rolls and spins and belly crawls to get where he wants to go. Poor Yoda better get ready.

-We get to hear and see lots of smiling, giggling, and talking. ooooh boy does he talk sometimes. He squeals and squawks and coos. He has a lot to say, we just can't understand him yet.

-He enjoys playing in his Johnny Jumper and his exersaucer which makes the day a little easier for me. He can entertain himself so I am able to get a few more things accomplished. Of course, I still don't have pictures hanging on the walls and very often the laundry gets forgotten, but I am doing better :)

-We have started eating solid foods---or I should say purees. We have tried peas (YUCK!), green beans, carrots, squash (his favorite!) and sweet potatoes so far. Next week we will start working on the fruits.
-The most common question I get: No, he still does not sleep through the night. He usually wakes up once per night. Occasionally we have a rough night where we see his little face 3 or more times, but those nights are few and far between.

-He almost always wakes up for the day happy. Sometimes I think it is a little too early (6am) but Eli is happy to start his day and usually greets me with a huge grin and some gibberish I do not understand when I walk into his room in the a.m.

-Eli's first Thanksgiving at the Haws house. He got to hang out with cousins Parker and Jackson. Jackson (BBJ as we call him) is 2 months younger but weighs the same as Eli. I guess his mom is feeding him some good stuff :)


-We went on a mini vacation to Kansas City. We visited Josh, Sara, Jake and Bethany. I was able to do some shopping and Andy and Josh went to the Chiefs vs Broncos game. We also saw Christmas lights at Crown Center, went to the College Basketball Experience and had a great time hanging out with family.

umm brrrrrr!

We ate dinner at Fritz's (the train restaurant as jake calls it) where your food is delivered to your table by a train. Pretty cool, especially if you are a 3 year old boy who is obsessed with all things with wheels.

with cousin Bethany

-Tonight Eli met Santa for the first time. We went with our dear friends the Crawfords and the Jesters to Bass Pro where they were offering free photos with Santa. Eli didn't mind Santa (I always thought he was a little scary), but it only lasted a few seconds.
The three daddies pushing the strollers through Bricktown. This quickly turned into a hysterical (though somewhat dangerous) game of bumper strollers/nascar racing. It has been so much fun going through pregnancy and parenthood with these great friends! We also drove through to look at the Christmas lights at Chesapeake. They always have the best lights and this year they nearly made me squeal out loud. Various vibrant colored LED lights on every single tree on the property. So great!

-We are taking family photos tomorrow so stay tuned for new pictures!

-I am finished with my Christmas shopping except for a gift for one of my nieces. I attempted to make something and it was a failure, so I will have to face the crowds and head to the stores hopefully just one more time. My goal is always to be finished by Thanksgiving. I didn't quite make that goal this year, but I was close. I still have to wrap everything.

That's about it, I think. I will post family pictures soon. I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween

We did Trunk or Treat at church again this year. We have really enjoyed this event in the past and like to come up with fun games/themes for our decorated car. This year's theme was football. We didn't really decorate the truck, but we had a football toss game and we all dressed up. Andy and I were football players, Eli was the football, Tucker was the referee and our little friend Kerrington was our cheerleader.Kelli and Kerrington. Me and Eli
Tucker was the most popular member of the family. He sat next to us and let all the little kids pet him. Such a good dog :) Yoda had to stay at home because he would bark waaaaay too much. We love you though Yoda and I decided to show you how much I love you by NOT putting a Halloween costume on you this year. (Remember how much you hated the moose costume???) You are welcome.

chatty cathy

having a good conversation/laugh with daddy. i guess they speak the same language :)

SOLD

I forgot to post this: We sold our "summer home" as Andy calls it. We closed on the sale of our "old" house on September 30th. I don't always understand God's timing, but I am so thankful that the house is sold and we survived several months of 2 mortgage payments with me being essentially unemployed. Praise God!

more pics and videos

Here is some randomness of photos and video, mostly from the past month. wathching OU. He loves watching football.
Yaaaaawwwwwn.

crying after we took him out of the warm bath.

www.mobywap.com i love this thing

snoozin

tummy time with the dogs

fell asleep on the way home. it was pretty cool outside so he is wearing a hoodie...and he is actually wearing pants he just kicks so much when he is in the carseat that his pants end up like shorts.

the speedbumps i made on the bed so he wouldnt roll off while i got dressed.

bandaids :( after his 4 month shots

bumbo seat being used unsafely according to the warning on the side of the seat. do not use on elevated surface (except kitchen table while eating pancakes for dinner!)

snoozin some more

crooked smile.

ready for church

After our 4 month checkup, our pediatrician told us we could start trying some rice cereal. ohhhh what fun this will be.

Just making noise

enjoying splashing in the tub

4 months old!

Eli is 4 months old today (10-12-09). I really wish I could say that I have documented every little milestone like a good mommy should, but I haven't. I enjoy (nearly--except when he is really cranky and I am really sleep deprived) every minute I spend with the little man, but I am horrible at writing things down and I have even been pretty bad about taking pictures the past few weeks. Ugh, I know I will regret it, so here I vow to do better :) The past month has been a lot of fun. Eli smiles tons... usually a shy, coy little smile where he tucks his chin down to his chest while the little grin just creeps out, then it develops into a whole face consuming smile where even his ears come up just a little (just like his daddy). This is fun because even when I am behind him, as in holding him to face his daddy or grandma or a stranger, I can still tell when he smiles just by the little movement of his cute little ears---it is a lot easier to see this because he STILL doesn't have a hair on his head. And yes, we have purchased a nice warm hat for him for the winter. We got to use it this weekend when we traveled to Hillsboro to visit with Froese/Loewen family. It just happened to be FREEEEEEZING (not technically), 33 degrees saturday morning when we left the house to watch a soccer game (we watched from the car) but we did walk around Tabor campus a little so we were all bundled up. picture to come...

Let's see, Eli is rolling from back to belly fairly consistently. He started rolling from his belly to his back about 3 weeks ago, but then apparently forgot how to do that and started going back to belly. He gets mad now once he ends up on his belly because he has "forgotten" how to roll back onto his back. (confused?) He is getting pretty good with his head control and loves for us to hold him up so he can stand. He laughs when we talk in the silly baby voice or when we tickle him. His most recent acheivement is finding his hands. He plays with them constantly and has started putting them in his mouth (awesome! during flu season) so anything that happens to be near his hands ends up in his mouth as well (blankets, pacifier clip, etc.) He coos and "talks" and has started to splash in the tub. He is just so much fun lately and I am so in love.