Just some cute pictures

These are at our house site. Eli had a lot of fun playing around, throwing rocks, etc.

 

  

 

Kids say the darndest things!

The other day Cameron was very excited about a basketball game that was coming on. The Cleveland Cavaliers versus The L.A. Lakers. He was telling Eli all about it, so Eli has been going around the house talking about Lebron James. Every time he sees a basketball game on the tv, he automatically says, "Lebwon Dames!"

However, something else Cameron said in passing, Eli has also caught on to. When Cameron said, "Kobe sucks!" our little Myna bird thought it was hilarious and immediately repeated it. Unfortunately, he pronounced the first S as an F. Much to my dismay!

Sucks isn't really a word I want him to know yet either, but in my attempt to get him to stop saying the other one, I find myself teaching him the correct pronunciation. At first I just said, "Eli, don't say that!" But he looked at me with such a sad face that now when he says, "Kobe *ucks" (about 15 or 20 times a day) I say, "Eli, don't say it like that." and he replies, in a very serious voice, "sucks" and I say, "That's right."

Our House

Our house is finally underway! That's right! We decided to build! Sorry for all of the exclamation marks. I'm just a little excited. I'm going to try and keep an updated photo of the progress of our house in the sidebar, so for those of you who are interested keep checking back for the latest!

Week 1

What will be the view from our back porch.

 

 Week 2 

  

Week 3 

  

Week 4 

  

Week 5 

  

Week 6

Week 7

 

Week 8

 

Week 10 (Oops missed a week! Sorry!) 

It's a little hard to see the mountain in this picture because of the clouds.

Christmas fun!

This year for Christmas we went to visit my mom in South Carolina. If you don't know much about my family, I have 4 brothers and 4 sisters, 4 of us are married (including myself), and 3 of us have children. We were ALL home for Christmas this year, and my mom also invited my Grandparents, my aunt, and my cousins. The grand total of people sleeping under one roof was 26! Not only that, but my mom has 5 cats, 3 dogs, and 4 snakes. As you might imagine, it was a bit chaotic at times. Here are some of the highlights:

It is kind of a tradition (well, when my sister and I are home anyway) to build a gingerbread house at Christmas time. Originally, we tried to make it look as professional as possible, but in recent years it has gotten a bit silly. Last time we had King Kong climbing up a castle turret and a man doing a hand stand at the front of the castle. This year... well, here are the pictures.

 View from the side.

View from the back.

 

I designed the water wheel myself (I can't take credit for the decorations on it, I only designed the gingerbread part of it). That would be why it is a little lopsided.

 

 

View from the front.

 

Santa (or someone) lounging under an umbrella, drinking a Piña Coloda on the roof. The umbrella was originally going to be a spaceship, but somewhere along the way it transformed.

 

An alien sitting in a chair on the front porch.

 

Opening his very favorite gift...

 

Thomas the train!!!

 

One of the funniest things was listening to Eli and Natalie sitting in the back seat of the car together. Eli would say something like "Derby Pie" and Natalie would laugh hysterically like it was the funniest joke she had ever heard. Natalie is the cousin that is closest to Eli's age, so he played with her the most. He did make her cry sometimes, but it was usually when all of the adult's back's were turned, so it was hard to tell if he actually did anything wrong. We have some video of them playing together, but I have to wait to get it from my sister before I can post it.

We also went out to the movies to watch "Blind Side." If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!

All in all we had a great time! Eli is still talking about his cousins and grandma (sorry aunts and uncles, but he hasn't mentioned you).