John Deere

Eli turned 4 on Saturday with a John Deere birthday party.

We played pin the wheel on the tractor.

Lilly's with her consolation gift, ducks are her favorite.

Eli had a lot of help from friends checking out his new stuff!

It got a little crazy, maybe we should have opened presents on the floor.

The inside of the cake was lemon and white cake dyed green, got to keep up with the John Deere theme.

Sterling advising Eli on his Birthday wish!

Even the chickens gave Eli a birthday present. This is the first egg we've had from them, and it came on Eli's birthday. Eli went out to check for eggs, just like we've done daily for the last 2 weeks. Eli was ecstatic to find and egg, and couldn't wait to eat it for lunch. I think we decided Penny was the gift giver.

The cake was a hit, everyone wanted the slice with the tractor on it!

A Bath with a View

After getting cold and muddy outside, Lilly moved to a more comfortable viewing area.

Chickens

Goldie

Ginger

Penny

The Coup

We have 3 happy chickens!

We've been thinking about getting chickens for awhile, and when we heard the Carrolls were getting rid of theirs we jumped at the opportunity.

Eli loves "gathering" them. He lets them out in the yard and then puts them away again. He always want to take care of them, unfortunately chickens don't need a whole lot of taking care of. These are definitely well cared for chickens, they are fed, watered and herded around the yard several times a day!

Thank you Carrolls for this great experience you've given our family!

Toddler

Lilly is growing so fast I can hardly keep up. She doesn't look like a little baby anymore, she's a toddler! She learned how to open the pantry this week and I keep finding canned food all over the house. It feels like we just went through this with Eli, I guess we're starting it all over again with Lilly!

She babbles to herself all day, no one has any idea what she's talking about, but she's very expressive. She's saying quite a few words now like:

Mama

Dahdah (Daddy)

DaDa (doll or baby)

shoes

cracker

cheese

Baba

Bock Bock (Chickens)

Eli

LaLaLa (Lilly)

Santa

Hi

Bye

UhOh

Cargo

GoGo (she wants to go somewhere)

Eye

She has a few animal sounds down like:

Dog

Bear

Bird

Fish

Chicken

Elephant

She also puts her finger up to her lips and Shushes people when her baby is going to sleep!

She's a lot like Eli about performing for anyone. If I try to get her to say anything she won't make a sound, but she'll spontaneously say/do things on her own. We've been practicing body parts, like "Where's your nose", and she always points to the wrong thing. I saw her in the corner once, and she was not only pointing to the right parts, but naming all of them. I think she knows a lot more than she's letting on!

Eli was the same way, we tried to teach him sign language but he'd never do it in front of us. We'd say "do you want more?" and you'd see his hands start to do the sign and then he'd quickly put them flat down on his tray and stare at you blankly. Later we'd see him practicing all the signs when he thought no one was looking.

I was hoping Lilly was going to be a cooperative child, but the signs aren't looking good!

Snuggle Bugs

Sleepy Hiker

My brother just found this picture he took during a hike we went on this summer. It's so funny because Ben did this same thing on the first hike we ever went on together. 5 miles into Eagle Creek Ben declared he was tired, sat down, leaned up against a rock, and went to sleep. Eli didn't actually go to sleep, but he had to "take a little rest" on this rock!