This season..

We love this time of year. It makes us so happy-- the lights, decorations, family time together, delicious food, church programs, nativities, baking, hot cocoa, Christmas cards and all the other wonderful things that come with the Christmas season.

This year has been a bittersweet one, in May we welcomed our beautiful baby Elijah with a rather fast and natural childbirth. Now, seven months later, we are saying goodbye to Matt's grandma Dane. How grateful we are to know that we will see her again, one day. We are so blessed to know the truth, that our Heavenly Father sent Jesus to die for us so that we can all be together again one day. We are constantly reminded of how lucky we are- especially during the Christmas season, of how much our Heavenly Father and Jesus love us.

We must say thank you to our amazing family and friends, we love you all and wish you all a very Merry Christmas! (and a Happy 2009!)

(shoutouts to John Brown ;)

Bouncers, General Conference, Goats and Printers

Maybe it's too early for the bouncer? :p He's sunk in it! Lol..

Uncle Kippy with Eli.

So, yesterday was general conference... it was nice to stay home and get to watch it from our couch. My dad came and took Eli for the second session, so Matt and I got a little bit of quiet time together during that session. Eli watched the first session with us, and for a lot of it was just staring at the computer, so cute. Then he started talking :) Last weekend was Relief Society Session, I wasn't able to go so during the week I was watching it. Matt came in while I was watching it and President Uchdorft was speaking, he was saying some pretty interesting and funny things, so Matt started watching it with me. So, yesterday when Pres. Uchdorf started talking Matt said "Hey look! It's our friend." Haha. It was too cute.

Last week I went to my mom and dad's and the goats were on the hill eating the grass, so we went to go see them! He absolutely loved them, as it started getting dark it was harder to take pictures though. :( Seeing all those beautiful goats made me want to live in the country so bad. Living in the bay area sure is getting old. Lol. I would love to have a house with a deck that goes around the perimeter of the house, with a swing on the porch, overlooking beautiful tall grass, sipping lemonade on the porch as the sun sets. And maybe some goats out there eating the grass :) Goshers, better start saving! ;) Maybe some day..

I've been thinking lately.. I really want to get a nice printer, but I am always hesitant to buy something expensive like that if i'm not sure how well it will work for what I use it for (mainly scrapbooking). Anyone have any suggestions? I probably won't be able to get one for a while, but if anyone has a good photo printer than they love it would be good to know so I can start comparing.

Voting..

This video is important for people to watch before they vote:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1815820715?bctid=1822459319

Really quick while baby is taking a nap.. just an update...

Libb came down for her birthday this weekend.. we had tons of fun. A few of us went to Fenton's, which is now my favorite ice cream place. They also have awesome food, like tuna melts and crab sandwiches. If you haven't tried it yet, you should.. so yummy!

We went to Aunty Tina's for dinner and played catch phrase, which was awesomely fun. Remind me i need to buy that game! ;)

We also went to scandia and played miniture golf... Eli slept that whole time...

Right now this makes me happy:

and this:

And this:

(strawberry lemonade-- made by.. the earth + and yours truly! :)

And lastly, this:
(well, not the saying goodbye part, but the family hug part. i think there was 9 of us in there :)

our wrinkly little man...

I can't believe how fast my baby is growing! I have an ongoing list of scrapbook pages that I'm trying to get done, slowly but surely. I want to remember everything. Every little stage. Every favorite of his. Every milestone. All of it. This is him looking at scrapbook pages of himself. :)

Eli with his cousin Kyan. He was mesmerized by Kyan, I think he can't wait until he's big enough to play with him.

Eli and mema yesterday, he was quite happy being on her shoulders.

Eli and Aunty Libby at her last visit a few weeks ago, they're so cute together! She just loves him so much.


And this, my friends, is my mini wrinkly baby, just 4 months ago. 6 lbs, 13 oz. He's quickly catching up to his daddy :), ok, so maybe not that fast. But he's 14 lbs now, and a happy little explorer. He's on the move and constantly wants to be doing things. But I still miss this tiny wrinkly Eli ---->

4 month shots and first giggles..

I am so happy to have this sweet one in my life.
Just the other day Eli noticed that he could touch his animals in his bouncy seat :) It was so cute to see the look of excitement on his face. Within minutes he started flailing his arms, pushing them back and forth, then grabbing them and holding onto them, and talking to them all while playing with them. Now, everytime I put him in his seat he knows exactly what to do.

Matt made Eli laugh for the first time about a week and a half ago. Secret to his success: Rasberries on Eli's belly and under his arms. I could not figure out why he wouldn't laugh when I did it to him, he would just smile. Then on Sunday Matt figured it out-- his goatee tickles him! I guess it's a good thing I can't make him laugh like his Daddy can just yet, otherwise I might need to pull out some shaving cream and a razor and take them to my face.. ew. lol. :)Yesterday was baby's 4 month appointment, a week shy of his actual 4 month birthday. Anyway, at his 2 month appointment he got his first vaccines, and a few hours after we got home he cried like i'd never heard him cry before. (He hardly ever cries). Needless to say, after his appointment yesterday, we went through the same thing :( It's not that his crying irritates me or anything, but i can't stand to see my baby in pain. And he was in so much pain, and he had a fever. So, baby Tylenol must be kept on hand during times like these. He has been sleeping 80% of the time since his appointment yesterday.

We miss Aunty Bibby terribly, can't wait until her birthday weekend! :)

RECENT

Just thought i'd share a few recent photos- fyi there's tons more than this... these are just a few of my faves.
I am so thankful to have such a hardworking, devoted husband, and such an awesome family, they mean the world to me. :)



This picture cracks me up, Eli looks so tiny in the backround watching his aunty, hard to believe he is 13 lbs, almost double what he weighted at birth.

His expression is priceless, look at those chunky arms of his!

he loves his bathtime, but i think it's time to upgrade him to his own little bath, the sink is getting to small for him. :) oh, i mean, he is getting too big for the sink! ;)

Taking Aunty Bibby to school

So last weekend we drove Aunty Bibby to school in Northridge. The drive down wasn't bad, but the drive back up was a little stressful. We had no AC in our truck, so we had to figure out other ways to cool off (it was blazingly hot!)

We had a lot of fun getting libby all ready for school in her new apartment, we went to ikea and got her a bed, her setup was pretty awesome in the end. Big shout out to Matt for building the bed, if it wasn't for him we would probably still be trying to put it together ;)

I already miss her like crazy, as i'm sure everyone else does.

On the way back home we stopped at a gas station so that I could feed Eli and when i was done I asked my dad if he could burp him for me, of course he said yes. So while i was getting things situated in the truck I heard my dad laughing behind the truck and I turned around and this is what I saw:

So I ran back there and got a few more pictures of the proud papa with his biker grandbaby :)

I'll post more pictures later, I need to get some things done while Eli is still napping.

Dishes...

This is what i get to look at while i do the dishes. Could i be any more willing to do the dishes? :)

Oh- and he talks the whole time as he waits for me to finish them.

At 3 months

Eli likes to smile at pictures of himself, He talks all the time, mostly coo's, goo's, as well as other sounds (which, i'm sure he knows exactly what he's telling us :)
He tries to crawl all the time, with daddy cheering him on of course And fall asleep while in the pool with his aunty bibby:

We are excited to take her to CSU Northridge in a few days, it will be our second trip our of town with Eli. On our first one we took him to Provo, Utah, and ended up getting stuck at the airport for 15 hours, needless to say this one should be a bit easier :)