Busy, busy summer days!

Hi to all our family and friends who we miss so much! We are doing great here, just busy and trying to avoid the heat and humidity. Noah has been swimming in his pool and now has tan lines from his swimsuit. Eli is still a little white, white, WHITE boy...gotta slather him up with SPF 60 sunscreen every few hours. :)
Eli is now a crawling machine! We had to put a gate up in front of the lower level so he won't fall down the stairs there. His physical therapist discovered his feet are not properly aligned to stand or walk, which is why he has trouble pulling up to a standing position by himself. He will get orthopedics on Friday and that should help him out a lot! He still hates eating baby food and we now put rice cereal in his bottles. He is just a skinny baby, but has never been very chunky anyway and he's gaining weight, so we'll just keep pushing the baby food for now. We will be meeting with his pediatrician soon to discuss his progress and see what he thinks.
I have been busy with all the paperwork and coordinating of Eli's therapies and that has been a job in and of itself! We love all the incredible ladies who come to work with him, they are all fantastic at what they do and he already has them wrapped around his little finger. What a booger!
I went to my 10 year college reunion a few weekends ago and it was so much fun to see all my old college friends. It's been so long since I've seen some of them! The picture is of me with my best friend, Carrie up at our old college campus.
I also finally got my "mommy's necklace" custom engraved with my boys' names and a heart charm. Love it! I have wanted one for awhile now and it was a late Mother's Day present.
Hope everyone is doing well and staying cool in the summer heat! We love you all!

Pool time!

Hot, hot, hot! We finally got a pool and Noah has had a blast! He was the first kid in the neighborhood with a "big" pool (bigger than a small baby pool) so he enjoyed all the company playing in the water. The kids would swim for awhile, then run to the trampoline and jump for awhile, then go play on the jungle gyms and then head back to the pool. All day long they did this sort of rotation and boy were they tired by the end of the day! Our neighbor gave us a little baby "tent" for Eli (and I forgot to take a pic of him in it, but I will!) and he loves being able to see out, but be out of the sun to roll around and sit and play with his toys. The water in the pool was a bit too cold for him, so he wet his feet and then had enough.
Jason and I had a date night last night and we went running on a trail nearby and then out to dinner afterwards. It was actually a lot of fun since we don't often run together anymore since Noah is usually out playing with his friends and Eli naps so much still! We end up taking turns and with his Nike Plus running tool, we can listen to the iPod and still keep track of how far we go, pace, etc. Plus, neither of us wants to push over 50 lbs of kids while running, too and even Noah alone would be really heavy now that he weighs 34 lbs (plus the weight of the stroller!) That would not be fun for sure!
Eli has also been enjoying his Johnny Jump-Up a lot lately. He loves to hop up and down and move all around. Since it's hung in the office doorway, he can screech and it echoes through the foyer, which he finds delightful! He's quite the little character!

Learning to ride a bike

Oh how precious life is when seen through the eyes of a child. How exciting it was for Noah to ride his first bike! He was so proud of himself when Daddy got him going and then he peddled some on his own.
And Eli's therapy is going great! He is getting into the conventional crawling position consistently and may be doing more than slithering like a snake and army crawling soon! He's also eating a lot more baby food and we are now adding rice cereal to his bottles to help him gain a little more weight.
Jason will be going to the Bahamas soon WITHOUT me! He'll only be there for a few days, as Pastor Parsley is preaching at a few churches there and he is traveling with him on this trip. And I will be leaving in a few weeks to go back to KC for a quick weekend trip for my 10 year college reunion! This time I'm flying....and the boys will have a weekend with Daddy!
We're looking forward to more gorgeous weather and play dates the rest of the week! Hope you all have a great week, too!

Long overdue update!

Okay, so we were in Kansas City for a week and I am still recovering from driving the 10+ hours back to Columbus by myself with both boys! :) I promise to get some new pics and an update on what's going on with us up soon. I need to get to bed and get some rest now, though since the boys are busy recharging their batteries right now and will be raring to go in the morning!

Preschool, doctor and upcoming birthday

Hello everyone! Well we've had a busy past few days! We toured a school for Noah and enrolled him for 3 days a week, mornings only. He will love it! We also decided on a house floor plan, so we're ready to move forward another step in the building process! We are getting ready to go back to KC to visit family and friends and celebrate Noah's 3rd birthday, so we are all excited! We also have to make some decisions about our house in KC, which still hasn't sold. Lots of showings, but most people want a 2 car garage and ours only has 1, even though it has a driveway for a 2nd car. Pray the Lord brings us the right buyer and soon! Eli also had a dr's appt and we found out he is in the ZERO percentile for weight! Still a little guy...he's growing, but he's not exactly piling on the pounds! :) I am thankful he is finally EATING more than just taking his bottles of formula. Hope everyone is enjoying the nicer weather....so glad there's no more SNOW for now! I'll take a few thunderstorms over the snow and ice!

Yucky, yucky colds!

I've been overwhelmed with Jason out of town and 2 boys with nasty colds. It started with Eli and at first I thought it was just a runny nose from his teething, but it got worse and then Noah started the little cough and snotty nose. Jason has a cold, too, but lucky for me, I just get to take care of everyone else and have not had to battle it myself.
Eli is getting better and better at eating his baby food. So far he seems to like carrots and pears the best. He is also still sitting up and has really started pushing up on his knees! We have have a crawler sooner than I thought! He has learned to get around by rolling and by slithering like a snake by pivoting his body squirming and moving his legs.
I just pulled my hair back today...can't wait to be in KC and get it cut and the color touched up! But Noah LOVES hair accessories and he's always getting into my headbands and hair clips, so I finally put one in his hair. I'm sure Jason will be thrilled that out of all the clips, he chose the yellow FLOWERS! Guess I got my girl after all! Hee. Hee.

Weary from the weekend!

Well we accomplished a lot this weekend...yard work, grocery shopping, outlet mall shopping (best EVER outlet mall is here in Ohio!! I promise!!). We even took the boys to playgrounds (yes, more than one!) and played outside for hours. Not to mention church and then Jason flew out this evening for a 3 day work trip in Seattle! I really miss him already, which is rare for me! ;) Usually it takes me until at least the 2nd day! Ha. Ha.
We met some more neighbors who are very nice! Everyone has kids in this area and totally understands what you go through as a parent! Noah just loves being around so many little ones, too! And Eli just watches everything! Oh, and flaps his arms up and down excitedly, kicks his legs and squeals!
Eli hit a MAJOR milestone this weekend, too...he is now sitting up by himself for 15-20 minutes at a time! From 30 seconds to 15-20 minutes! He doesn't take baby steps to anything..just BAM! and he does it! Personally, I think he's holding back! ;) I'll have to quit taking his slacker attitude, huh? Hee. Hee. That's how little observers are...they quietly take everything in and then one day they just do it! He's the one I'm going to have to watch out for someday!
Anyway, here is a picture of Eli sitting at his music table. He can sit even longer if he's leaning a little on something with his arms. He LOVES this table and will literally roll across the room to get to it! Then he babbles loud like he's asking for help to sit up at it and play! I'm sure soon he'll be crawling across the room, then walking, then running and I'll laugh at how I worried so that he would take forever to sit up! :)