Happy Birthday to Ben!

Ben wanted power tools for his birthday this year, and he got what he wished for.
He got a circular saw, a sander, a router and a jigsaw.
I'm not sure if Eli or Ben is more excited.
Eli wasn't with us at Home Depot, but Ben made all of the power tool noises while selecting his new toys. Eli got to help open all of the tools once we got home, and promptly started making the same noises, it must be a guy thing!
Thank you to Ben's Parents and Siblings who chipped in to make Ben's birthday a happy one.

Playdough

Thanks to the Tonks for the toothpick idea!

Big Boy Bed

Eli moved to a big boy bed a couple of weeks ago and loves it. The only down side is that naps have become sporadic. He didn't take a nap at all for the first week, but then he settled in and takes a nap a few times a week now. I think 2 is way too early to give up naps, but I have to say bedtime is a lot easier. He goes down at 7:30 with no complaints on days that he skips naps, otherwise he's in his room fooling around until 9:30. If I wasn't so selfish maybe we'd skip naps everyday, but I just can't resign myself to never having another daytime break.

He loves his fishy music from Aunt Adrianna. We took it off of the crib and put it with all of the pieces in the hall while we were making the switch. When we got the bed all assembled we told him to hop up and try it out. He yelled "Wait!" ran into the hall and came back with the fishy music and said "forgot music". We put it on his big bed and he seems really happy with it.

More Good News

As some of you may know Ben's job is a temporary position that ends in June. We have been hoping since his initial hire that this would turn into something more permanent, but it's been up in the air for awhile. It seemed like we were on the verge of hearing good news a few times, but nothing concrete ever materialized. Last week Ben interviewed for two positions, he said he had a 99% chance of getting one and a 1% chance of getting the other, so this equaled a 100% chance of getting a job. Well today he got the good news, and he has a job! He'll be working in the Public Works Department for the City of Hillsboro. The nice thing for us is that his employer isn't changing so our insurance (very important at this stage in the game) and his vacation time won't change at all. We're hoping for a very seamless transition.
We want to say thank you to everyone for all of your prayers and support.
We feel especially blessed in these economic times to have employment.

It's a Girl!

We had our ultrasound today and are happy to report we have a healthy baby girl on the way!
She was much more co-operative than past children (we won't name any names) about having her picture taken. She was squirming all around and even gave us a wave.
We've been discussing girl names for awhile, since everyone but me knew it was going to be a girl. I'm voting for Lucie, but Ben likes Lillian better, Eli love Babbette.
We were going though names in the baby name book and Eli didn't seem like he was paying much attention until I jokingly called out Babbette. Since then he says it all the time, and if anyone asks him what the baby's name is he replies "baby Babbette". Unfortunately we've all gotten used to hearing it so much now that we don't think it's quite as bad as it first sounded. Ben says he likes Babs!

Parade

The St. Patrick's Day parade comes right down our street!
The Christensen's came over to enjoy the rainy fun with us, and Eli and Kylie loved it.
We saw horses, tractors, antique cars, police, a train, a few floats and Ronald McDonald.
Of course everyone threw candy, and there was more than enough for 2 two year olds.
The candy was mostly the "cheap stuff", but there were a few big items. I think Craig took the cake with a full sized Hershey's bar!

Daddy's Helper

Eli loves trash trucks and this obsession has extended to actual trash. He loves to help Ben sort the recycling, he actually says "recycling first, then trash", next he goes with Ben all around the house collecting trash. He helps Daddy bring it out to the barrels and wants to bring the barrels to the curb by himself, but isn't quite big enough yet. He's always asking if it's trash night, and if we ask him what day today is he always replies "trash day!". If only I could figure out a way to keep him excited through his teens.

SNL Videos

These SNL clips crack me up!
No one commits to a character like Kristen Wiig.

Sexy Shannon

Target Lady

Engagement Surprise

Felt Food

For Christmas I collaborated with some Gals from the Quatama Ward and we made sugar cookies. They came out so cute, and were fairly easy to make, that I couldn't resist trying some other foods.

The eggs were by far the easiest, and came out pretty good.

I thought the cinnamon buns looked easy, but it ended up taking quite a bit of time, so I only made one. I also made an apple slice, and some bow tie pasta (which just happens to stick to the fork when Eli pretends to eat it). He's been having a lot of fun with all of the kitchen stuff, I think we have a budding chef!

Lunch anyone?

Things kids say!

Carrying Eli up the stairs has become a bit difficult (even though he's a few pounds lighter now), I blame the little baby for stealing all of my oxygen!
So, the other day when I was carrying him up the stairs I was telling him "You're too heavy for Mommy to carry you up the stairs any more", Eli replied "Heavy Mommy!".
So now every time I carry him up the stairs he says "Heavy Mommy".
Thanks Eli!


Another funny one is when he wants to go with us somewhere. I'll say "stay here, Mommy's going to get some pants for you upstairs and I'll be right back" Eli replies "come me?".
I guess this comes from us when we ask "do you want to come with me?", but he doesn't have it quite right yet. So now whenever we go anywhere it's always "come me" or "come me too?".

I'm sure he'll get it straight one of these days, for now we just laugh.

Skinny Baby

First off, this is the face Eli makes every time I get the camera out. Apparently he's smiling because he says "Cheese!".

Eli was painting tonight and I jumped at the opportunity to get a couple of cute pictures. I realized while I was taking them that my little guy is shrinking, and I could see his ribs. He's had the stomach flu all week and he had a cold the week before, the poor kid has had a tough time. Honestly he's not the only one, morning (all day) sickness and cleaning up after the stomach flu don't really mix. He hasn't had an appetite all week, and the little we get him to eat doesn't have much time to do him any good. Today was the first day he really seems to be improving, he ate a yogurt for breakfast, 2 chicken nuggets for lunch and 1/2 a pancake and a piece of toast for dinner, that's more than he's eaten all week. Luckily he's been drinking a lot, so dehydration hasn't been an issue.
Here's to 13 weeks and hoping for an end to the nausea, and not having to do a load of laundry at 2:30am for a long time!

My List

You'll have to reference Adrianna's blog for an explanation on this post. After seeing her all time favorites I just couldn't help myself from making a list of my very own.

Gerard Butler

Gene Kelly

Dennis Haysbert

Hugh Jackman

Viggo Mortensen

Brad Pitt
(Go ahead Adrianna, give it your best)

Patrick Dempsey

Liam Nesson

Sean Connery (young)

Sean Connery (still has it)

Harrison Ford

Antonio Banderas

Growing up

Eli wants to be a grown up, and do everything grown-ups do. Some favorites are sweeping, dusting, cooking, driving (of course we don't really let him drive, although it's still a fight every time we get in the car), vacuuming, using lotion (too bad he puts it in his hair) and going potty. He wants to sit on the toilet all day, but he hasn't actually done anything in the potty yet. I get tired of sitting in there with him, and he doesn't want me to leave. The other day I went out for a minute and came back in to find him "reading" Fortune Magizine.

On a side note:
He had his two year old check up today and measured 39 inches (over 100th percentile) and weighs 33 pounds (83rd percentile). This means he grew 3 inches in the last 6 months and gained 5 pounds. I'm not sure how he gained any weight since he's such a picky eater, it must be all the Ranch Dressing!

Honey

Eli's thinks it's great to look at pictures on the computer. We show him our blog, friend's blogs and have recently started taking requests for searches on Google Images. Mostly he wants to see excavators, cranes, trash trucks and windmills, but he'll throw in the occasional bear or tiger. He usually asks very nicely if he wants something, "more crackers please", but the other night he pulled out a new one.

For those of you who don't speak Eli -

Eli: More trash trucks honey

Cement trucks

More trash trucks, no

Cement trucks

Michelle: Cements trucks

Eli: Yeah

Michelle: or trash trucks

Eli: No

Michelle: Cement trucks

Eli: Okay

Eli's Birthday

Excavator

Eli is still obsessed with trucks, here's his latest new word!

A break in the weather

The poor kid hasn't played outside in weeks, I guess he forgot he's supposed to keep the sand inside the sandbox.

Cooking up a storm

Eli loves all of the accessories he got to go with his kitchen for Christmas. He mostly make us toast with butter and jelly, but occasionally the menu varies and we get soup or cookies!

Advent Calendar

I got crafty this year and made an Advent Calendar. I saw the idea in Parent's Magazine, and afterwards thought of more exciting ideas. We could have made a Snowman and decorated him, or a Nativity and put different people in everyday, Santa Clause........Oh well, we'll have to wait until next year for more crafty fun.

Christmas Morning