Birthdays & Babies

Too long since we posted! Sarah is crawling, James has lost another tooth, and Eli will turn 5 in a matter of hours (although we already had his birthday bash)! Favorite pics from the last 2 weeks:





James and his "mud baby" that he made at school. That green hair on top is real live grass growing out of the pantyhose/dirt head. James was very disappointed he couldn't keep it forever. It already smelled by the time he brought it home from school!










Sarah finding a new way to use her baby entertainment center.







The boys climbing the lion statues at the zoo. Maintains their attention longer than the real, live lions 20 feet away!?









It won't be long now folks...look at that smile! Sarah can't wait to start running. Can Sarah beat Eli's mark and start walking before 10 months? Keep watching....





Black Belt birthday boy! Eli had his party at karate. His friends from school and soccer all had fun yelling, kicking, punching and breaking boards. Plus cake & pizza. Eli told me later he had a "birthday tummyache".

egg drop kicks

Instead of the traditional egg hunt, we took our hard boiled eggs to karate for an egg smash. It drew a big crowd and both our boys won wristbands for their powerful front kicks. They both kicked their eggs on the first try! Look closely - you can see the egg in each picture.

our bathing beauty

Bathtime with Sarah is getting increasingly wet for all involved!

My name is Eli

...and I like hair gel. Mom never thought she's have to buy styling products for her 4 year old, but I like to fix my 'do at least 3 times a day!

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my faux hawk (my parents won't let me have a real mohawk)

A mogul in the making...

Looking for a way to rid our yard of dandelions before showing our house that afternoon and wanting to keep Eli outside and busy for awhile, I offered him 2 pennies for every plucked weed. 410 dandelions later, I'm rethinking my pricing scheme.

>97% in weight!

I can't figure out how to get these pictures to the bottom of the post where they belong...you'll read about them later on...

(It doesn't help that I have Jamie singing "Pressure" while I try to do this!)


Look what I found Mama! It makes this great noise, why didn't you ever show this to me?

Sarah is into EVERYTHING this week! Babayproofing has to really begin now. She likes outlets, games pieces, window blind cords...things I read about in baby articles, but the boys were never interested in.

Speaking of baby articles, at least 75% make a mention of "trusting your instincts". Well, when I take Sarah to the Dr. and they tell me about all the shots she needs, my instincts shout, "RUN!!". I don't care what the research says, or the potentially horrible consequences of whooping cough or pertussis, I want them to stay away from my happy, healthy baby!

On the bright side of the appointment, the Dr. confirmed that Sarah is indeed perfect and healthy in every way. She missed the 20 pound mark by just 1 ounce. She continues to nibble on any food we'll let her have. This week she ate bits of cooked carrots, broccoli & beets, goldfish and rice. The only thing she ate from a spoon was hummus - which she loved! She also strangely enjoyed sucking on a large piece of raw green pepper from the salad bar last night.

We had our first close encounter with a tornado since moving to Oklahoma. One touched down about 10 miles west of us on Thursday. The sirens went off and the sky was a very strange color. We also got deluged with more than 3 inches of rain. Jamie and I were rooting for the house to blow away (none of us were home, of course), but alas, the house remained intact and we will put it back on the market in about 2 weeks.

It's a gorgeous spring day today and the ground is drying out, so the boys want Daddy to go outside with them and play a great game called "Kill the Man with the Ball". It seems to be a prehistoric version of tackle football that Mommy can't understand at all. But the boys LOVE it. They are boys.

I hope to enjoy the weather with something more mundane like a walk.

Meanwhile, everybody cross their fingers for James's second tooth to fall out today. The anticipation is just killing him. Here are the photos from his first tooth loss experience...