Eli the Deer Hunter

At Christmas Eli got a new deer gun for when he and Josh went deer hunting this year. This was something new for both Josh and Eli so we were all excited about this special rite of passage for our little boy. All Eli needed now were a pair of camouflage pants and an orange hat. Once we bought him those our deer hunter was all set to go. 

Modeling his new camouflage gear.

Before taking him to the deer stand, Josh took Eli to a Uncle Clare's land near the levee to practice target shooting with his new gun. They got all set up and then Eli started taking some practice shots. 

My little sharpshooter was a natural. He was so proud when he located the first shot he took. 

After some practice, he and Josh started going out to the deer stand. The first two times they went they didn't have any luck. They saw deer but they were never in a good position for Eli to take a shot. Eli was starting to get a little disappointed, but then it finally happened! 

On January 7th, Josh and Eli went out to the deer stand one last time. Around 7 o'clock that night I got a phone call from Eli telling me that he had shot his first deer. He was so excited!! He took his shot from 137 yards away (Josh used his golf range finder to verify the yardage) and Josh said he shot him perfectly below the shoulder. Josh said watching Eli kill his first deer was one of the proudest Dad moments he'd ever had. I think he was just as excited, if not more, than Eli! When Eli shot the deer, he thought it was a doe, but once they found the deer they saw that it was a spike. Eli was so proud that his first deer had horns even if they were small! They came home to show me the deer, take pictures, and pick me up so we could all take him to the processor. 

This was the picture Josh took right after Eli tracked his deer and found him.

Look how excited he is!! I'm so proud of him :)

My happy boys with Eli's first deer. 

We took Eli's deer to be processed and he loved being able to tell everyone at the shop his story of how he killed his first deer. A couple of weeks later, we went to pick the deer meat up. Now when I cook deer meat for supper Eli always wants to know if it's his deer that we're eating. He is so proud to know that he helped provide meat for our family. Now his goal is to kill a big buck because I told him he could hang it on the wall in our house if he did. If he continues to be as good of a shot as he is now, I'm pretty sure it won't be long before my house will be decorated with all kinds of deer horns. 

Eli's First LSU Game

At the beginning of October, Josh and his friend Guy took Eli and Hayden to their first LSU game. These two boys had the BEST time! Josh said they didn't quit talking from the moment they left. Eli wanted only two things...a big foam tiger paw and nachos. My sweet boy got both of his wishes as well as an experience to remember with his Daddy and one of his best buddies! This will probably become an annual tradition for these guys! 

Eli ran into one of my running partners, Carrie, while they were down there. 

She forced him to take a picture with her! 

Foam paw...check!

Enjoying the game with Hayden

Enjoying the game with his Daddy!

What a fun time!

April Fun

We had lots of fun in April after we got back from spending Easter at Grammy and Pop's house. School was beginning to wind down, the weather was warming up, and our garden was growing. April begins the "preview of summer" for us and it always gives me Spring Fever.

A lot of our fun came from the fact that this cutie right here lost his TWO FRONT TEETH within a day of each other. Both of them had been loose for a long time so we knew it was coming, but I had no idea they'd be within hours of each other. Eli lost the first one at Zue-Zue's house Thursday afternoon when I was getting things ready for Torri's surprise party. The next morning (after discovering the tooth fairy left him two dollars) he was taking his vitamins and bit down on one of the vitamins when his tooth just fell out. LITERALLY. He gasped in surprise and when I looked down at the floor there was his tooth. I didn't even have time to get a picture of him with just one tooth gone because he lost the other one so quickly! Needless to say, the tooth fairy had to make a return trip to our house that night :)

Barkley continued to grow like a weed. He made the transition to being an outside dog and he's happier and so are we. He LOVES being outside where he has plenty of room to run. Barkley, I'm happy to report, is NOT scared of rain or thunder like Maggie was so hopefully we won't have to drive around the neighborhood looking for him every time it rains. He is scared of the lawn mower, the weed eater, and the blower though. It's always something. 

We officially opened our pool in April. It was still kind of chilly for me and Josh, but Eli loved jumping in it after school. One afternoon we found a HUGE frog in our pool swimming around. Josh bet Eli $100 that he wouldn't be able to catch it and Eli set out to prove Josh wrong. Josh never specified that Eli could only use his hands, so my smart kid waited until the frog needed some air and used our pool net to scoop him up. We sent Josh this picture as proof and all of a sudden the rules changed...Josh never paid up but Eli didn't seem to mind. He had lots of fun catching this guy and then playing with him for a couple of hours. He wanted to keep him for another day so we put him in a five gallon bucket and brought it inside because we were scared Barkley was going to eat him. We left the bucket in the mudroom and after an hour or so I went to check on the frog and he was not in the bucket. EEK! I was not going to be able to go to sleep knowing that a huge frog was hopping around my house, so we all frantically started searching for him. Luckily, he didn't make it out of the mudroom. We caught him again and let him go in my flower beds in the front yard. Good-bye, Mr. Frog! 

Barkley became a pool dog and enjoyed finding an available chair to lay around and watch us swim. He wasn't a fan at all of the water and wouldn't even try to get in the pool. Josh threw him in a couple of times just to see what he would do and of course he swam but he immediately wanted to get out, which was fine by us. 

I used some blueberries from last summer to make some really good homemade blueberry scones. We planted blueberry bushes this year, so we can't wait until we get to have fresh blueberries without having to go to the store. 

Josh and I also decided to dig up just one of our sixty potato plants to see just how many potatoes we could expect this year. We were excited to find lots of new potatoes underneath. After digging that one up, it was definitely a test of patience for me to let the others continue to grow. I was ready for all those yummy potatoes! 

The Tooth Fairy Comes to Visit...Twice!

Well, it finally happened. The Tooth Fairy was finally able to make a visit to our house! What excitement!! All last year in PreK-4, Eli's bottom two teeth were very loose. I really thought it would have happened last year, but those teeth held on pretty well. Every time he would say something about them being loose, I'd wiggle them to see that they weren't quite ready to come out. I kept telling him that it would be very soon. After months and months of wiggling, it was time. One night when we were sitting on the couch, I asked him if he wanted me to try to pull the loosest of the two teeth. He agreed and with one quick tug it was out! He was shocked that he didn't feel a thing and so happy to have one of his loose teeth out! We cleaned up his tooth, rinsed his mouth out, and then sent this picture to all the grandparents. It was such an exciting time!

When Zue-Zue first found out that his bottom teeth were loose, she bought Eli a book about loosing his teeth. It came with a little tin box that he could put his teeth in for when the Tooth Fairy came to visit. She also gave Eli the Tooth Fairy pillow that his daddy used when he was little. Eli was so excited to get to use both.

He put his tooth in the tin box and tucked it inside the pillow. Then before going to bed he had me Google how much the Tooth Fairy paid for the first tooth. We found several articles that mentioned kids who had received $5 for their first tooth because it was such a special event. We read his book about loosing his teeth and then he went to bed. When he woke up in the morning, his tooth was gone and the Tooth Fairy had left him a receipt for his tooth and a sparkly $5 bill. Eli was so excited!

Then exactly a week later, this happened...

He lost his second loose tooth so the Tooth Fairy got to make a quick return trip to our house :) She didn't pay $5 again, but he was pretty excited about the two sparkly $1 bills he got for his second tooth. For now, I think we're done with visits from the Tooth Fairy. Up next are those two top teeth and I'm just not ready for that yet. He's already growing up way too fast for me. I hope those teeth hold on for a long time :) Plus, the Tooth Fairy could use a bigger space in between teeth to save some more money ;)

A Note to Eli on the Eve of Your 6th Birthday

My dear sweet boy, tomorrow you turn 6 years old. It is so hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that we have had you in our lives for 6 years now. Where did those 6 years go? It truly does feel like yesterday that they placed you in my arms and my heart grew immensely. If the love I feel for you is any indication of the love God feels for all of his children, the only word that comes to mind is "Wow." Eli, you are my heart and my soul. You are my sunshine and my light. I cherish every single moment I have with you and sometimes that isn't even enough. You are the sweetest and most precious little boy in the entire world. You have brought so much joy into our lives and made our lives so much fuller and richer.

Eli, you are so much fun these days. Of course, you've always been fun to me, but now you can do so much more. We talk and discuss everything. You love to know the ins and outs of everything. You ask so many questions on a daily basis and your daddy and I do our best to answer them all. I love how you're always thinking and always wondering. Keep being curious! You are one of the kindest boys I know. You care about others' feelings and go out of your way to make others feel better. You love to help and have started really contributing around the house with chores. I love having an extra pair of hands, too. You are so smart and the way your mind works amazes me somedays. You sat down the other day with a box of Legos, pulled out the directions, and put together the entire set perfectly without any help from us. We were so proud of you! You keep saying that one day you're going to grow up and be a worker man, but maybe that means engineer. You certainly love constructing and building things :)

You are reading so well these days and that makes my teacher heart happy. Your teacher told us last week that you brought one of your Fly Guy books to school and offered to read it to the class all on your own. I was shocked and so proud! I hope that you continue to love reading as much as you do now. It will open up a whole new world to you.

Eli, I could go on and on, but I'm going to do a post of all your favorites as a 6 year old very soon. More than anything I want you to know how much your Daddy and I love you. You are the best gift God has ever and will ever give us. You may be getting older each year, but you'll always be my precious little man :) Don't ever, ever, ever, ever forget how much I love you. I am so proud of you and I am so excited to see what incredible things God is going to do in your life and through your life. I love you, sweet boy!

Love,
Mommy

1001st Post-A Look Back at My Blogging Journey

(Note: Originally this post would have been the 1000th post, but since I'm a blog slacker I left it in the draft folder until the night before my son started Kindergarten and I had to use the 1000th spot for my letter to him...he's the reason I started this whole blog anyway :) )

1,001 blog entries. That blows my mind. I can't believe that I've had enough to say to fill up 1,001 separate blog entires over the past 6 years. When I saw that I was approaching this milestone number I started thinking about how I wanted to commemorate and celebrate this special event. I decided that I wanted to look back and see just how much life I've been able to witness, experience, and document through this blog. When I started my blogging journey back in March 2008, I saw this media outlet as a way to keep out of town family and friends updated on our lives. This blog, however, has become so much more. It's a personal diary, memory keeper, anecdotal treasure, and so much more. I can't tell you how many times I've gone back and re-read posts I wrote in years past or how many times I've woken up to Josh doing the same thing. I love that the past 6 years are recorded forever. This blog has documented a lot over the years and I thought it would be fun to tally up all the fun memories we've had and gotten to experience. Time for a little blog rewind :)

Since starting this blog, our circle of family and friends have welcomed lots of babies into this world. I love these sweet, precious babies and watching them grow up together has been such a joy. I'm so excited to see how God is going to use them to impact this world.

Hannah-September 2008

Eli-November 2008

Grant-May 2010

Addison-May 2010

Brett-March 2012

Tinsley-August 2012

GraceAnn-June 2013

Harley Clare-August 2013

Finley-October 2013

Jameson-July 2014

There have been weddings...

Jessie and Will-November 2009

Josh and Andrea-July 2010

Allison and Spencer-October 2011

Jordan and Jim-August 2012

We've watched our baby go from staying with sitters at home to going to real school. It's been fun watching Eli grow and learn! He's so smart and I hope he continues to enjoy learning as much as he has so far! It's hard to believe that he's in KINDERGARTEN this year. OH.MY.WORD! How did that happen??

Loving on Mammy (Spring 2009)

Staying with Hayden and Ms. Ashley ( Fall 2009)

Staying with Molly and Mrs. Dara (Winter/Spring 2010)

1st year of "school" (Fall 2010)

Mrs. Cathy always took him

First year of PreK-3 with Mrs. Paige (2011)

2nd year of PreK-3 (2012)

PreK-4 with Mrs. Rosemary (2013)

Kindergarten with Mrs. Baroni (2014)

Since the blog started, we've lived in three different houses where we've made and shared lots of memories. First was the house where we became a family of three, then the rent house we lived in while we were building our dream house, and then finally our dream house. I have loved each one of those houses in their own special way, but watching the entire process of our dream house being built was my favorite for sure!

Just as we've welcomed so many babies into our little circle of family and friends, we've also had to say good-bye to some amazing people. The memories we shared and made with Tommy, Cliff, and Papaw will always bring a smile to my face. I'm thankful for the hope we have in Jesus because it means we'll see them again one day. That's a reunion I can't wait for :)

We've made so many wonderful memories together as a family and with our extended family and friends. All the birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and get-togethers we've hosted in our home have been so much fun. I pray for many more years in this house where our family and friends can gather together and celebrate all the many blessings God has given us. This is just a small snippet of the past 1,000 posts. I'm thankful that I have so many memories and fun times written down so I can always look back and remember them. The blog is a lot of work and I do sometimes neglect updating it because life just gets in the way, but it's something I really enjoy doing. I can't wait to see what happens and what memories we make in the next 1,001 posts!