No more babies...

Elijah is growing up fast! His favorite thing to do now is climb on whatever he can! Something new to us, as Alia was never a climber. :) He has mastered climbing up on the stool we have at our kitchen counter. He likes going up there when I'm doing dishes or preparing food...he likes watching. Here's both kids eating a snack of yogurt covered raisins off the counter.
(please excuse Alia's post-nap hair)

Wedding

A few weekends ago we took a trip to San Diego, via Long Beach. We stayed two nights at my parents place, then drove to San Diego to see my college friend, Sarah get married. It was a nice time to be away as a family...and we were blessed to be able to celebrate with Sarah and her husband, Ben! Enjoy the pictures.




Elijah's first trip to the beach (with exception of his trips when he was just born). He loved it! He played with the sand and none of it went into his mouth. Great! :) He also liked walking in the water. He was perfectly content just digging sand with his shovel. Too cute.



Here's my two kiddos playing near a fountain. This was during the break we had between the wedding and the reception.



The little princess and the Queen. :) Alia would be the little princess! Teeheehee. I thought this picture was cute.

She jumped!!

Well...on Tuesday Alia took the big jump! Yep!! After weeks of trying to get her to jump in the pool, she finally did it, all by herself! She was soooo proud, she called me on the way home to tell me about it. And, because she jumped in, she got to go to the Hellp Kitty store and pick something out. Of course, she picked out a small Hello Kitty Castle. (by the way...if you ever want to get something for Alia...ANYTHING in the Hello Kitty/Sanrio store would be great! She loves it in there). So....here's some evidence of this great event. I took this today, on her last day of swim class.

Teeth progress

Here's the progress on Elijah's tooth. Every day it looks like it's come out more.

Elijah's on the move

Since Elijah started walking about a 6 weeks ago, he's really starting to move. He walks all over our house and loves it. It's so cute to see him walking around. Here's a little clip of him walking up and down the hallway.

Teethies!!

Elijah's first teeth are FINALLY coming in! As you can see from the pictures...it's the front two-mostly the front left one right now. It looks pretty painful to me...and from his fussinesss, I think it IS painful. Poor little mister. I'm a bit sad cause his toothless grin is gone...another sign of my "baby" growing up.

Playin' Around

We've been playing outside a lot in our little fill up pool. Both the kids love to splash around in it. We can put our climber slide into it also so they can slide down into the water. Lots of fun playing outside.



In the evenings, after dinner, all four of us gather on the floor in our living room and have family time. We tickle each other, play peek-a-boo, and just laugh together. Here's Elijah and I enjoying some good laughing.



My friend Faye and her 2 kids came to visit for a couple of days. We had lots of fun together...the kids love each other. On Thursday we went out to the Chandler's pool for our church playgroup. Here are all of the big kids looking into a hole "looking for the bugs".



Here's daddy and the kids. They really like climbing on him. :)

Poor Grampadad

So, last Thursday my dad had a bit of a stumble. While working in the garden in Oregon (probably picking weeds!) he fell backwards and hurt his arm. They immediately went to the ER and had quite the afternoon visiting a few DRs. It turns out he dislocated both bones, and fractured one, too. He goes back on Friday to find out if he'll have to have surgery to place a pin in his arm. Poor Grampa Jim. Pray for him...and his little arm! We love you, dad!! And...there will be more weeds to dig through when you are all done with this! teehee

Swim Class

The past two weeks we've been taking Alia and Elijah to swim class at a local high school pool. Elijah is a tadpole and Alia is a ducky. They both have enjoyed being in the water-Alia a little more than Elijah. Elijah just holds onto me...there's not much kicking going on, or arm usage...just hanging out with mom in the pool. Alia has become more and more comfortable in the water, but she still won't jump into dad's arms without holding onto his hands. We have two more days left, so we'll see. If she does jump in on her own we'll be taking a trip to the Hello Kitty store! :) Since both Jason and I are in the pool, I can't get any pictures in the water...here's a picture of both our cuties warming up after class.

Day trip to the mountains

Last weekend was the church's annual camping trip. Instead of camping the whole weekend, our family just went up for the day on Saturday. Alia was looking forward to "camping" and had a good time taking little walks and playing with her friend, Evan. Elijah, well...since he's walking he got quite dirty. He ended up just sitting in the dirt and dumping dirt on his head. Then he rubbed his eyes...and the dirt and drool mixed...and then you get the picture below! He was such a mess. After the picture was taken we took him to the faucet to wash his face. He ended up spending most of the rest of the day in his stroller. We had a good day in the mountains!

Elijah's walking!

While we were in Minnesota Elijah took his first steps! He took one in the morning, then two more a few hours later...then just started to walk around. It was crazy how quickly he figured it out! Now, a week later, he is walking all around our house! He still does his silly crawl when he wants to get somewhere fast...but he's trying out the walking thing more and more. He's a cutie pie. I have noticed that he has to feel comfortable in a place before he'll walk. When we got home it took him a while to walk (he wasn't in the familiar hotel room), then on Sunday at church he wouldn't really walk...but once he got home, he was walking all over. Enjoy this cute video...it was the best we could do.

Our Trip

Little Mister looking at the big planes.








We spent the last week in Minnesota, visiting for my cousin's wedding. The whole family was there and it was so much fun to be together. We frequented the Mall of America (there's so much for the kids to do and be entertained by!), visited with family and friends, and celebrated Alia's birthday. And...Elijah STARTED WALKING! Yep...he took his first steps on June 16th, and it's been uphill ever since. I'm still trying to get a good video on my camera. I'll try to get one tomorrow. For Alia's birthday (the 17th) we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe with my family. I ordered a Backyardigans birthday cake-and she was thrilled! We opened a few presents too. Earlier in the day she got to make a bear at the Build A Bear store. Of course, she chose the pinkest animal she could find. She put pajamas on her and named her Snoozy. It's pretty cute. We had a great time away...but it was good to get home, back in our own beds.

Here are the big girls at my cousin's wedding. They were given little bags with a princess coloring book and glitter crayons-perfect idea! The girls spent lots of time coloring and playing with the stickers inside. Then, the music came on and they danced the night away.

Our friends from seminary (who now live in South Dakota) came to Minnesota for a Dr Appt...and so we got to spend a day with them! It was so great to see them, and their new additions to their family. Them, us, and my brothers family all went to the zoo and spend the day. There were 6 parents and 8 kids! Yikes!!! We had a good time. Here's a picture of all the kiddos...Elijah is in the way back, probably trying to crawl away.

We spent some time at LegoLand, in the Mall of America. Here's Avery and Alia playing away. They loved to play at the Lego tables.

Here's Elijah getting his turn at the Lego tables, too!

Alia and Mommy on the Carousel.

Daddy being silly with Elijah at lunch.

I've come a long way...

For those of you interested (is anyone out there??)...my weight watchers progress thus far is -34 pounds! It's so hard for me to believe...especially when I fit into a single digit size pants. Crazy!!! Anyways...I still have a little more to go, but I KNOW I can make it there! I can't give up now...look at what I've done! Praise the Lord!

Elijah's Dedication

Elijah was dedicated on June 10th at church, along with Micah Nickell. It was a nice service, although the older children didn't cooperate as well as they could have. But, the two being dedicated had no issues, and just went right along with it.

The Birthday Party

On June 9th we had a birthday party for Alia and Elijah. It was a castle party, so all the little boys got prince crowns and the little girls got princess tiaras. The kids had lots of fun playing in the back yard, eating yummy mexican food, opening presents, and, of course, eating cake!



Here's a picture of some of the decorations.


The craft table-there were swords and wands for the kids to decorate with markers, stickers, glitter glue, and some other fun things.


Here are the cakes. Since Elijah is only 1, I decided to let Alia chose the color for the cake...and of course, she chose pink...or more appropriately "princess pink". I saw a picture of this cake online and knew I could make it. I think it turned out pretty neat, and it was fun to make. Plus, it was yummy. I also made Elijah his own little blue star cake-that way he could eat it to his heart's content...which he did.

Cake, yummy!

After dinner we came home to have some cake. Well, Alia, Elijah and Daddy had cake. :) I made little star cakes-the size of cupcakes and then decorated them. I put it in front of him and he fingered it a bit...then brought his fingers to his mouth. AHHH...YUM! And he reached down and grabbed a BIG chunk and started eating. He loved it! Fun to watch.

A trip to Toys R Us

Elijah is part of Toys R Us's Birthday Club, so we took a trip to let him "pick out" a birthday present. He got the special treatment. They made an announcement over the loudspeaker, announcing to everyone in the store that it was his first birthday. And then we heard a number of the other workers there say "Happy Birthday" to him over the loudspeaker. It was cute. Then he got this fantastic balloon (which he loved banging it around) and a birthday hat (which he took off as quickly as we tried to put it on him). We got a few things and went on our way to have pizza for dinner.

Happy Birthday, Little Mister

Well...today my little boy turned one year old. It's so hard to believe he's one already! Wasn't it just yesterday that I was in the hospital waiting for the Dr to come so I could push him out? Man...time flies! And how he's grown. I'm feeling a bit sad that he's grown up so much, but also excited at what is in store for us. Many more milestones to hit...and to be proud of! We love you, little mister...and happy birthday.


Elijah, just born.


Elijah, today. Don't you love the gummy smile??