Eli's 1st Trip to the Dentist

A few days ago, Eli went for his very first dentist's visit. For a couple of days before we'd been talking about the dentist with Eli to prepare him for his visit. We assured him that he was a nice man and all he wanted to do was look at Eli's teeth and count them. I was a little nervous about taking him, because I'd heard horror stories of kids kicking and screaming on their first visit. I definitely didn't want that. I picked him up from Mrs. G's house and asked him where we were going. He told me we were going to the dentist. I asked him what the dentist was going to do and he happily replied, "Coun my teef!" I was very happy that he seemed excited about it, so we drove to Dr. Lee's office for his first visit.

When we got there, Mrs. Vickie had me fill out all the necessary paperwork. I chuckled at one of the questions..."Would you like to keep all your teeth rather than replace them with dentures?" Ummm, yeah that's the plan :) While I was doing that, Eli enjoyed playing with the puzzles they had there. He REALLY enjoyed the mix and match bear puzzle they had where he got to change outfits on this bear.



Soon Mrs. Torri called him to the back so she could clean his teeth. He climbed into the chair without a moments hesitation and settled back like he'd been doing this all his life. I was super impressed with him at this point. Mrs. Torri showed him all her special tools and explained every step of the cleaning process to him. I knew that if he was going to have a breakdown this would be the time it would happen, but it never did! He let her clean his teeth like a pro! The only time he got a little nervous was when she pulled out the water and the little vacuum thingy. He wanted me to sit with him when he saw those, but Mrs. Torri let him play with them for a little bit and he was over his fear. He looked at me and said, "I a big boy, Mama!" I asked if that meant he wanted me to get out of the chair with him and he replied, "Uh-huh!" Wow! My little boy is getting too big :(








Mrs. Torri finished cleaning his teeth and then Eli got to pick out his surprise. He got a timer, some new toothpaste, and a new toothbrush. He was very excited. Mrs. Torri left to go get Dr. Lee, and while we were waiting for him, Daddy stopped by to see his little man! Eli was so excited! He showed his Daddy everything he'd gotten for being such a big boy. Daddy had to leave to go back to work, but Mrs. Loyce came in when Daddy left and entertained Eli by showing him how the chair was magical and could go up and down. Eli LOVED that!




Dr. Lee came in next. He's such a great dentist and always makes visits fun. Plus, he has two young kids of his own, so he knows how to talk to kids and make them feel relaxed. Dr. Lee looked at Eli's teeth and counted them. Eli helped him with this part. I found out that Eli can now count to 13 on his own :) He's getting so smart. Dr. Lee said his teeth and his bite looked great! He said to keep doing what we're doing. I was so thrilled for a great report, but more importantly I was ECSTATIC over the fact that Eli had done so well!



We left the room and Zue-Zue was waiting for us. She'd heard about the visit from Daddy and drove over to see Eli since her office was just a block away from the dentist's. We were all so happy for a wonderful report!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Molly!

This past Sunday, we celebrated Eli's friend, Molly's, 3rd birthday. Molly has been obsessed with The Wizard of Oz for quite some time now, so Dara chose that as her theme this year. I thought it was precious! Molly made the cutest Dorothy I've ever seen :)



We had to follow the yellow brick road to get in the gym and when we did, this is what we saw! This was Molly's present from her Mommy and Daddy. WOW! She's going to have hours and hours of fun in this thing!



Molly's older sister, Whestley, dressed as the Tin Man for the party and Eli was SCARED TO DEATH of her. It took a full 30 minutes to convince him that it was Whestley under the paint and make-up. Finally, he worked up enough courage to give her a high five, but every time she walked near him, he'd run to me and say, "Hold me, Mama!" Towards the end of the party, Eli had gotten used to her, so he was okay when Mrs. Dara told him they were going to play a game and put hearts on Whestley. (You know because the Tin Man wanted a heart.)

I know the picture is blurry, but I was excited to finally see a smile on his face!

Isn't Molly just precious?

After the game and before we ate cake and ice cream, they attempted to take a picture of Molly with all her friends. It was funny trying to get all the kids looking at the camera at the same time. I thought you'd like to see the progression of pictures :) We never did end up with the perfect one, but we definitely tried!

Then it was time for cake and ice cream! Yummy!



We had a great time at your birthday party, Molly! Thanks for inviting us!

Mama Lion

With the weather being quite chilly lately, we've been bundling up in our warmest coats and jackets. This morning before I left for work, I grabbed an old coat of mine that I haven't worn in years. It's a cute coat, but I guess I've got other practical coats that I wear more and this particular coat had just gotten pushed to the back of the closet. Since the coat I wanted to wear is currently still at the Hampton Inn in Southaven, MS (supposedly, they're mailing it to me), I had to grab this one before I left for work today. I must have put my coat on after Eli told me goodbye this morning, because otherwise this conversation would have taken place this morning rather than this afternoon. This afternoon when I walked in to pick Eli up at Mrs. G's house, Eli looked at me kind of funny and said, "Mama, a lion??"

Well, I guess so, son. I see what you mean now :)

Mama, I fix it!

The funny toddler conversations have started and I love it. My good friend, Nicki, started blogging about her son's funny conversations when he was young, and I thought it was such a great idea that I'm stealing it ;) Thanks, Nicki!

The other day Eli and I had to go to Wal-Mart to get a few items and when we pulled into a parking space, I heard Eli say, "Mama, oooooohhhh, nooooo!" Concerned, I quickly got out of the car and went around to the back to get him out of his car seat. I asked him what was wrong and he pointed to a truck parked several rows away from us. "Mama, it broke!" he said. Confused, I looked at the truck again and only then did I realize what he was talking about. We were looking at a big rig truck (eighteen wheeler) that didn't have the trailer on the back of it. In his little mind, it was broken because it was missing the trailer part. I started laughing and he looked at me and being the sweetheart that he is said, "It otay. I fix it!"

The Toddler Months: 26 Months Old

Dear Eli,

It's hard to believe that it's already been 2 months since your 2nd birthday, but here I am again writing a detailed account of what you're doing these days. I was thinking the other day about various school projects you'll have when you get older, and I'm hoping that your teachers will accept the response, "See my blog" when you have to write about your life growing up :) I've made it pretty easy for you kiddo :) All kidding aside though, this blog is such a wonderful outlet for me personally. I love that anytime someone asks me a question about something you did when you were an infant, I can just go pull up a blog post and find a detailed account of everything I could possibly want to know. I also love blogging because even though you're only 2 right now, one day you might read this and think, "Wow, I'm glad my mom did this for me." Ultimately, sweetie, this blog is for you and for our family. These are precious moments in our lives that I want to remember and savor and never let go of...this blog keeps all those memories alive.

Physically: Kicking, running, climbing, jumping, riding your motorcycle, riding your scooter...these are just a few of your favorite things right now. You love to be moving-something that has been the same since you were in my tummy! We're working on getting you to stand on one leg right now and it's pretty funny. You're clumsy like your mother, bless your little heart, so I'm hoping you get your equilibrium before sports become really important to you. Otherwise, there's going to be a lot of extra practices in your future :) You wear mostly 24 month clothes, but can wear some 2T. You weigh about 27 lbs. right now, which isn't saying much because your 8 month old cousin, Grant, weighs 23 lbs. You're a skinny minny and he's a fatty fat, but we still love you both to pieces :)

Verbally: Your language is just exploding and you're adding more words to your vocabulary everyday. You speak in 5 word sentences consistently and love to ask the question, "What's that?" You repeat everything we say. You love to sing songs. Your favorites are "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," "Old McDonald," "Twinkle, Twinkle," and "Wheels on the Bus." You usually give your Daddy and me an instrument and we all play and sing together. It's lots of fun! You can carry on conversations now, which is LOTS of fun. I love picking you up in the afternoons and getting to hear about your day. You do lots of imaginative play now with Buzz Lightyear and Woody. It's so fun to see your imagination just take off!

Eating: You still have good days and bad days, but we expect that. You love pizza, lima beans, peas, hot dogs, frosted mini wheats, raisins, blueberries, bananas, cheese, veggie sausages, and milk. We have discovered that if we tell you how many bites of something you have to eat, you'll actually eat the required number without a fight. I wish I could just tell you to eat everything on your plate, but that would NEVER happen. I try to guess how many bites it would take you to finish whatever is on your plate so you will end up eating most of what's there and not realize it. Yeah, I'm sneaky like that :)

Sleeping: Dr. R mentioned that as long as you're not climbing out of your crib to not worry about moving you to anything else right now, so we haven't. You go down without a fight by 7:30-8:00 pm, usually wake up early in the morning 4-5 am to come snuggle some with us, and wake up completely by 7 am in the best mood. We are going to work on moving you to a toddler bed soon and also will work on you staying in your bed all night; although, I will miss those snuggle sessions. I love them :)

Activities/Games/Toys: You love to ride your motorcycle around the street in the afternoons when we get home. I thought about just letting your ride to the nearest stop sign, but you wanted to keep going, so we did. We ended up going about 1/2 a mile. I couldn't believe it! You still love being outside, and I'm ready for spring just so you can run and play like you want to do. You love any kind of art (like your Mama), so we paint and color a lot. Like I said previously, you love singing and music, so your musical instruments have become a favorite activity now. You love your new Elefun butterfly game, but you have yet to play it correctly. You like your color words puzzle, number puzzle, and shape puzzle. You love your Leap Frog Tag Junior books, and we read those every single day. You love playing with your trains, blocks, cars, and, of course, Buzz and Woody.

Skills We're Working On:

-Potty training, but you have shown ZERO interest in this, so I'm probably going to delay going hard core until summer when I can focus on this more.

-Identifying letters and numbers

-Riding your tricycle

-Taking off your shirt

*I figure I don't need to bombard you with lessons right now, so we're just kind of taking it easy and letting you be the guide. You have a quick memory and soak things up so easily, so when a teachable moment presents itself, we make sure to use it.

Skills You've Mastered:

Everything mentioned in previous posts, plus...

-Counting to 10 on your own

-Taking off shoes, socks, and pants

-Knowing all your colors

-Knowing all your basic shapes-circle, triangle, rectangle, square, diamond, star, heart, oval

*There are SO MANY more, but these are the ones that stand out to me right now.

Eli, I love everything about you. You are such a wonderful gift from God, and we are so thankful to him for allowing us to be your Mommy and Daddy. You are so very precious to us, and I can't wait to see how God is going to use you for his kingdom. I can't wait to celebrate many more precious moments with you :)

Nine Wonderful Years

*Click on the video below to play while reading this post. Ray LaMontagne is one of our new favorite artists and his song says exactly how I feel about my hubby :)

Nine years ago, my life changed for the better. It was the day that I married my best friend. I loved him so much then; little did I know that the love I was feeling then would grow exponentially over the next few years. I have watched Josh, over the past nine years that we've been married, grow into such a wonderful man. In honor of our anniversary, I thought I'd list nine reasons why I love my guy so much!

1. He loves me. Period. The end. It is so wonderful to know that I have someone who loves me despite all my many faults, quirks, and oddities. He loves me simply for being me and I don't have to pretend to be anything other than myself around him.

2. He loves our son. I watched Josh transform into a Daddy right before my very eyes, and it's been the best thing ever. Before Eli, Josh had never held a baby or even given a thought to being around little kids. That's completely over now. He and Eli have a special bond and it's heartwarming to see them together. I can't wait to witness all the special things he and Eli are going to do together over the coming years-t-ball games, golfing, camping, running, etc. They're going to be best buds :)

3. He's funny. Those of you that know my husband know how true this statement is. Josh can always lighten up a situation with his humor and it's what keeps us from arguing with each other. Just try to stay mad at someone that can make you crack up laughing...it's quite hard to do.

4. He is always himself. Josh is one of those rare guys that is the same person around the preacher as he is at home and as he is around the guys. He never puts up a front or tries to be someone he's not, and I love that about him.

5. He has so many admirable traits. He's honest, hard working, determined, dependable, trustworthy, and so much more. I hope our son grows up to be a man just like this.

6. He likes change. I'm a stuck-in-a-rut kind of person, so I guess it's good that I found someone who is completely opposite or my life would be utterly boring. I'm the girl that can eat the same thing everyday for lunch and not think a thing about it. Josh can't even drive home from work the same way, and it's not like there's a lot of other ways he can go considering how small of a town we live in! Change is good though, so I'm glad I found someone that can help me embrace change every now and again.

7. He loves to travel. Before we had Eli, we traveled a lot, but even now with him we are still very much on the go. We love to see new things, new people, new places. We love making memories and having experiences. In fact, we're both dying to go back to Crested Butte (where we were married) to ski with Eli. We'll get there sooner or later, I'm sure!

8. He loves music. I love that he can play the guitar, and I hope it's something Eli learns to do one day as well. I love that we enjoy listening to the same types of music. I love how relaxing it is sometimes that we turn the TV off and just have music playing in the house. I love that I can relax with him this way.

9. He strives to be a better man everyday. I love waking up and seeing Josh reading his Bible or devotional. I love knowing that his relationship with God is important to him. I love that he questions and doesn't accept something because someone says it's true. I love that he will search out answers for himself. I love that I feel challenged spiritually when I'm around him. I hope we can both continue to grow spiritually together.

Happy Anniversary, Josh! I love you more and more as the days pass. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. I'm so glad God chose you for me!

I thought it would be fun to see how we've changed together over the past nine years. It's so much fun to look back and see all the wonderful things we've been able to do together. I'm looking forward to making more wonderful memories. I love you so much!!

Our first date with our friends, Jeremy and Stephanie.
We went to see the Christmas lights in Natchitoches, LA.

Setting up for a Union Board event at Louisiana College.
Josh was the director and I was one of the members.

Our engagement picture for Josh's town's newspaper

Our engagement picture for my town's newspaper
My all time, hands down, favorite picture of us.

Eloping in Crested Butte, CO.

Our Justice of the Peace reminded us both of Wyatt Earp

First out of the country trip to the British Virgin Islands with Josh's dad and brother.
We chartered a catamaran and sailed around the islands for five days.
It was UNBELIEVABLY FUN!

Gulf Shores with friends

Watching a football game at Independence Stadium

Skiing again in Crested Butte

Las Vegas trip

Crested Butte, 2008

Becoming parents for the first time :)
November 6, 2008

November 6, 2009
Eli turned 1!

Watching the Saints win the Super Bowl
February 2010

New York trip
March 2010

Central Park
March 2010

Easter 2010

Joshua's Wedding
July 2010

Our family of 3
July 2010

November 6, 2010
Eli turned 2!

Memphis Marathon
December 2010

Christmas 2010

The best is yet to come...