February iPhone Pictures

Here are some snippets from our life in February...it was full of running, gardening, injuries, baking and several fun celebrations! 

Eli took a box from one of our latest Amazon Prime deliveries and made a costume for himself. 

Now I had my very own Box Troll!

I grew Brussels sprouts this year and these were from my first harvest. 

I probably won't grow them again simply because no one in the family is crazy about them. 

They were fun to try though!

While training for the New Orleans Rock and Roll Half Marathon, I accidentally injured myself. 

I wasn't paying attention and tripped on an uneven part of the sidewalk. The part that really stunk was that I was about a mile from my house so I still had to run back AND it ripped my new workout pants my mom gave me for Christmas! Oh well, now I have a battle scar to talk about. 

Eli and I visited our favorite yogurt place after school one afternoon. What a great Friday treat!

When we were in town after Eli's arm injury (the first visit) he and Tinsley found some cool shades at Target. 

We spent a nice quiet afternoon at the library and Eli even got his own library card!

He was so excited to put it in his wallet!

Bread day always makes me happy :)

I spent a rainy Saturday afternoon making Valentine treat suckers for Eli's first grade class. 

I found these treats at The Idea Room several years ago and finally made them!

Lego look-a-like erasers from Target added the perfect touch to Eli's Valentine cards this year. 

Running down by the river is one of my favorite things. 

Sunsets from our backyard are also one of my favorite things. 

On February 20th, we celebrated Reve and Brian's wedding. 

Josh set them up a few years ago and the rest is history. We had so much fun at their wedding! 

I am so happy that this sweet girl found love again :)

The end of February brought bad news for me. The Monday before my half-marathon I started feeling badly at work one morning. I barely made it through the rest of the day and when I got home from school I had already started running fever. I immediately quarantined myself in our bedroom and wouldn't let Eli or Josh in to check on me. I ran fever all through the night and the next day as well so I had to call in a substitute teacher for my classes. After two visits to the doctor I found out I had the FLU! The doctor told me no school for the rest of the week and definitely no race on Sunday. All that training and no reward! Talk about MAJOR BUMMER! I spent the rest of the week in bed sleeping, taking Tamiflu, and binge watching the final season of Parenthood. It took a full week for me to feel normal again and I hope that's the last time I get the flu. I'm so thankful that Eli and Josh didn't get it. That would have been even worse! It wasn't the way I wanted the end of February to go, but I'm thankful it didn't last long! 

Sweet Treat Prescription

He gets it honestly. Josh and I both love sweets. The other night I thought I'd give Eli a treat and let him have some fresh strawberries and Nutella for dessert. To say he enjoyed it is an understatement!



Then as if it couldn't get any sweeter, a couple days after this we found out that Eli had contracted some sort of virus that gave him ulcers all down his throat. Talk about breaking a Mommy's heart. On the way back from the doctor, a sweet treat was definitely a MUST. We stopped at Sonic (I heart that place!) and got him a vanilla cone. Just what the doctor ordered...no, seriously, she did!


For those wondering, the ulcers cleared up on their own and in a couple of days Eli was back to his normal self. I hate it when he's sick, but I'm very thankful that it doesn't happen that often. We've been very blessed in that regard!

Thanksgiving Trip-Part Two

Our second day in Dallas didn't start out so well. The night before Eli was up most of the night screaming and crying and not sleeping. The next morning he was still really fussy and not acting like himself at all. For those of you that have been around Eli, you know that for the most part he is always in a good mood so whenever he's fussy, you know something is wrong with him. We decided to play it safe since we were out of town and find a walk-in clinic that could check to see what was going on with his little body. We got there and while we were waiting for the doctor to come in, Eli had lots of fun playing on the step stool. He didn't act like he was sick at all while we were waiting for the doctor, but once he came in, Eli got very sick. Turns out both of his ears were beet red, so the doctor prescribed some antibiotics for him. We were sad that he had an ear infection, but were thankful that we knew what it was and that we had some medicine for him now.




We decided to go ahead and continue our day with Grandpa E, but stayed pretty close to his house just in case Eli started running a fever or feeling bad and needed to go back to the house. After a nap in the car, Eli was in a pretty good mood, so Grandpa E took us to a really neat event that was being held at the Gaylord Texan nearby. It was called ICE! They created scenes from How the Grinch Stole Christmas using over 2 million pounds of ice. You can go here to read all about this incredible event. If you're in the area, stop by and go see it for yourselves. It's something to see!

Eli checking out the scenery.

Inside the lobby, before going in to see ICE!

Eli LOVED this train and hated that he had to "share" it with the other kids waiting to take pictures. He wanted to be the conductor all day!

Before we went into the exhibit, they handed out parkas to us since it was going to be around 9 degrees inside. Since Eli was so little and was in a stroller, they handed us a blanket to wrap around his little head and body. I didn't think that was enough, so Grandpa E took off his fleece jacket he was wearing and wrapped that around him as well. If you know Eli or have read about him, you know that he HATES confinement of any kind. I was worried that he was going to get cold, so I made sure the blanket was tight around him, and that just made him even more mad. We went inside the exhibit and BRRRR! Was it cold! I was so paranoid about Eli, but after checking on him several times, I realized he was actually warmer than I was inside his little cocoon I had created. He didn't like the music from the Grinch that was playing or the lights being out because he had a hard time keeping up with me, so we made it through about 3/4 of the exhibit before he and I had to leave. Josh and Grandpa E finished the exhibit and said the manger scene was definitely the best part. I hate that we missed it, but next year I know we won't be able to pull Eli out of the exhibit he'll love it so much! Here are some pictures from our ICE experience.























After ICE, we walked around the hotel looking at all the decorations and out of the corner of his eye, Eli spotted the fountain. We walked down and went to watch it for a little bit. Josh had a death grip on Eli because our little daredevil wanted to go IN the water.






Before we left, Grandpa E decided to show Daddy one of the biggest TV's in the world that was in one of the restaurants at the hotel. He was very impressed and in awe!



On our way out, Eli and I snapped one cute picture in Santa's sleigh. Next year if we go, we'll both be in Christmas attire because this would make a precious photo!