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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

elated

We had fun with chalk yesterday in the driveway. Of course drawing with chalk consists of Elijah barking out orders for what he wants me to draw (and I am a terrible artist) and he watches with a piece of chalk in each hand barely drawing anything. I don't mind though because he loves what I draw.

I have posted three pictures of our creations below, the last of which is the best one yet! Check it out!



For those of you who do not know, we are pregnant!!!!!! We are due on May 12th and cannot be more excited! Of course the dreaded morning sickness is not fun and keeps me confined to the couch much of the day, but it is a small price to pay to be able to carry our second baby!!! If you could please keep us in your prayers as this pregnancy continues, that would be wonderful. We did tell Eli the news, so when we ask him where his baby is, he says "In Mommy's belly!". Then he wants to see it and tries to lift my shirt. Too cute!

Monday, September 29, 2008

atticus

It was love at first sight! Our wonderful and dear friends the Beans had their first baby, a boy named Atticus Riverdale Bean. Besides the fact that the name itself is way cool, Atticus is just darling! Eli leaned in to give him some cheek to cheek time. When Atticus cried, Eli was very concerned....already doing his duty of acting as a protector to his new friend.


Isn't he just precious? Wrapped in his very appropriate and timely Phillies blanket, he dozed in my arms for quite a while. He was warm in my lap, making silly faces in his slumber, as I felt him breathe in and out.


Chad is holding Atticus and they actually match....no that was not planned. :)


Here, Atticus' Daddy, aka Uncle Jesse, is showing Eli his watch and putting it on him. Atticus has the greatest parents ever. Whenever Eli is around either of them, he is usually covered in kisses and lifted up and played with constantly. It is such a true blessing to see these two people bring a child into the world and for me to know deep in my heart that this child has the best parents he could ever have. He is a lucky boy.

CONGRATULATIONS TAN AND JESS! WE LOVE YOU!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

season

Autumn is my FAVORITE time of year! I love the fall activities, like hayrides, pumpkin picking and bobbing for apples. I also love the weather, warm in the day and cool at night. I love sleeping with the windows open so our bedroom is cool, but snuggling up to Chad in our flannel sheets so we are toasty warm! I also love that my son has his birthday in October. I always thought that when he gets older, we can have crafts to do at his birthday parties like pumpkin painting. Fall is a great time of year!


We got a jump on the fall activities when Chad's parents took us all to a farm in New Jersey where they live. Just arriving made me feel giddy! I could see the pumpkins from the car and couldn't wait to get out!


We rode on a hayride to apple orchards and pumpkin picking patches. Eli wanted to desperately to kick the hay in the hayride. It was nice to see all of the different rows of different types of apples.


When we got to the pumpkin patch, Eli knew just what to do. All we did last year was go to fun fall activities so he was a pro! He found this big pumpkin and as we photographers were asking him to sit on one or between them, he decided to straddle one.


Of course Chad had to get in on the fun, showing Eli how it is done! As you can see, Eli is in the background having his own fun!

In the above picture and the one before it in the background, Eli is holding a gourd. Wherever he goes, he usually picks one thing to hold onto the whole time, as if for comfort or something. Usually it is a rock. On this day it was a gourd. Poppy nicknamed it Gordy. Gordy still sits on our counter and Eli likes to hold it.

We had a lot of fun and it seems that Eli loves this time of year too. I try to tell him his birthday is coming up soon, but of course time is something that kids don't really understand fully until they are older. He is just starting to be able to sing the happy birthday song, so that is a start. :)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

heaven

Sometimes in life, you get a little personalized taste of what heaven must be like. For me, it is watching my husband and son bond.

Sundays are my favorite day of the week. We go to church in the early morning and it never disappoints because our pastor is awesome and God is in that place so evidently. We then come home, Eli naps and I take my weekly nap as well. And now, because of the season we are in, we add FOOTBALL to the Sunday mix and it makes for one fantastic day!!

This past Sunday, Eli woke up from his nap, but was still sleepy. When we came downstairs, Chad was in and out of sleep on the couch so I plopped Eli on him and they both instantly fell asleep again. It was so nice watching that. I haven't seen it since Eli was an infant. Heaven!



Monday, September 22, 2008

proud

Yesterday, in a 94 degree pool, Chad was baptized by our awesome pastor, Chris Swansen. Chad wanted it to be a quiet affair, so it was just our immediate family and 18 other people that decided that yesterday was the day for them also. I am so proud of my hubby for doing this, as he felt the pull of the Lord nudge him into it. That was all he needed, a nudge. Chad is a wonderful spiritual leader of our household and he just such an amazing example for me, his wife. I am so proud of him. Here are pictures and video to follow.



Friday, September 19, 2008

color

What color are you?
Red? Blue?
What color do you feel?
Orange? Teal?
What are the purposes of color?
What do they mean?
Let the experts tell us.
Gray is the color of neutrality, neither subject nor object, neither inner nor outer, neither tension or relaxation. Gray feels as though it is not colored, not dark, not light a separation between two distinct entities, a demilitarized zone free from stimulus. Gray communicates an element of non-involvement or concealment. Its a color that remains uncommitted and uninvolved.



Blue is the color of calmness, repose and unity, symbolically the color of sky and ocean. Looking at blue relaxes the central nervous system blood pressure, pulse and respiration rate all go down, which allows regenerative systems in the body to work on healing. When folks are ill, the physiologic need for blue actually increases! The physiologic associations with blue are those of tranquility. The psychological associations are of contentment, gratification and being at peace.

Beyond its symbolic associations with nature and growth, green is the color of elastic tension, often associated with the desire for improved conditions: the search for better health, a useful life, social reform. It expresses the will in operation, firmness, constancy and persistence. It is a color that a person who possesses or wishes to possess high levels of self-esteem responds to strongly. Green is associated with many forms and degrees of control, not only in the sense of directed drives, but also as detailed accuracy in checking and verifying facts, as precise and accurate memory, as clarity of presentation, critical analysis and logical consistency all the way up to abstract formalism.


Physiologically, red makes blood pressure, pulse and respirations rates go up its an energy-expending color. Red's associations are with vitality, activity, desire, appetite and craving. Symbolically, red is blood, conquest, masculinity, the flame of the human spirit.
It is the impulse towards active doing, towards sport, struggle, competition, eroticism and enterprising productivity. Red it impact of the will or force of will as distinct from the green elasticity of the will. The person who favors red wants his own activities to bring him intensity of experience and fullness of living.

Where red stimulates, yellow suggests. It can elevate body rates as red does, but its effect is less stable. Yellow is primarily the color of happiness, cheerfulness, expansiveness, lack of inhibition. It is the welcome warmth of the sun and the glow of a spiritual halo. While calming and relaxing, the color does suggest a desire for change, that things are never quite at rest people who favor yellow may be very productive, but that productivity often occurs in fits and starts.


A combination of red and blue, violet attempts to unify the impulsive conquest of red and the gentler surrender of blue, becoming representative of identification. Purples are mystical, suggesting sensitive intimacy, union, enchantment, the blurring of thought, desire and reality. Violet represents a longing for wishes to be fulfilled and a desire to charm others. "Violet can mean identification as an intimate, erotic blending, or it can lead to an intuitive and sensitive understanding." Because it is so strongly associated with the idea of the world as a magical place and the need for wish-fulfillment, a preference for violet can communicate some degree of vulnerability or insecurity, perhaps a need for approval.

Symbolic of roots, hearth, home and family security, brown is a darkened mixture of red and yellow, with reduced qualities of these colors. The impulses of brown are not as volatile as red, not as restless as yellow yet the color has subtler warm, welcoming and sensuous qualities. When brown is favored, it suggests an increased need for physical ease and sensuous contentment, for release from discomfort.


Black represents the absolute boundary beyond which life ceases, and so expresses the idea of nothingness, of extinction. Black is the No as opposed to the Yes of white. White and black are the two extremes, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

We can choose to be black, but the Lord can help us become white. :)

What color are you? Let me know! I am brown. :)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

sing

Scene: Driving in the car on the way home from the park, listening to kids' bible songs on CD.

Car Stereo: (singing) "Everybody ought to knoooooooooooow, everybody ought to knooooooooooow, everybody ought to knoooooooooow, who Jesus iiiiiiiiiis."

Mommy: (singing) "Everybody ought to knoooooooooooow, everybody ought to knooooooooooow, everybody ought to knoooooooooow, who Jesus iiiiiiiiiis."

Elijah: "Stop, stop, stop, Mommy. Stop."

Mommy: "Do you want Mommy to stop singing?"

Elijah: "No singing Mommy, no singing."

Moral of the story: When your own child tells you to shut up because your singing is so bad......it is time to get singing lessons. :)

Monday, September 15, 2008

gloomies

Water is a necessity. Humans need it, earth needs it. So why do I hate rain? Because it means being all cooped in the house with a very active almost two year old, that is why. So we took a trip to the mall last week, as we usually do when it rains. Eli HATES the stroller, vehemently. So I always let him walk. He listens fairly well, but there have been times that I have run out of a dressing room with a dress half on, chasing after Eli around the clothes racks. This day, he listened very well and we had a good time!



Eli's favorite place is the fountain. He loves to throw/launch pennies into the water. He has quite an arm and tries to make the pennies hit the metal duck figures in the fountain.


Jumping is Eli's favorite new feat. He loves jumping from anywhere! He is on the playground they have at the mall, which is very small and has way too many kids on it. Eli is fearless when it comes to jumping.


Here he is dancing and also break dancing on the floor of the women's perfume department. There was music playing and Eli was showing off his mad skills. The ladies were amused by his dancing abilities which seemed to spur him on more.


And here is a train that Eli watched circle around the track at KB Toys. He used to be able to look at the toys in a toy store and look, touch and then put it back.....not anymore. He now takes the toys off the shelves and says "Pay?".

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

kick


As parents, if we see a glimmer of interest from our kids in any sport, we want to give them every opportunity to involve them in the sport early on in their lives to foster its growth. Tiger Woods' Dad started coaching Tiger in golf at age 2 or 3. Eli's interest is in any sport, but one of his favorite is soccer. So as an early birthday present to him, we enrolled him in a 10 week soccer camp on Saturday mornings.

When we woke up for his first day, he was excited to go play soccer. You can see the excitement on his face in the above picture. He wanted to bring his soccer ball even though we told him there would be many there.


When we first walked in the doors of the United Sports Training Center, we were floored! We have never been before and it was HUGE! Immediately Eli saw the little soccer dudes and dudettes kicking their balls around. He ran over and excitedly to tried to join in on the fun. Once there, we was a soccer goal shooting maniac!

They had little kid goals that Eli loved shooting the balls into. Proud Mommy Moment: he made so many goals, even from far away! This kid has a gift, people. He cannot even eat with a spoon very well yet, but give him a ball and a goal and he is like Pele! :)


I cannot be sure what he is doing here, but it looks to me like he is dancing with the ball. He does love to dance.


They also had different activities other than soccer goal shooting, like the above parachute. At first Eli wanted nothing to do with the parachute. Every other kid was holding onto it and having fun, but Eli was still shooting goals.....very dedicated to his craft. :)


But then when he realized balloons were involved, he ran over and wanted to kick the balloons like a soccer ball.


Look at that height! That form! That concentrated face! We will be taking calls from scouts now. Act early because this kid is going places! :)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

celebration



My sister Michelle's wedding was yesterday night. It was supposed to be an outside affair, at my parents' house, under a tent. Tropical Storm Hanna changed those plans very last minute. The last few days before the wedding consisted of Michelle and my Dad scrambling to find an indoor venue to have the wedding and reception. Friday, they found one! Friday!!!! The wedding was Saturday! I would not wish that stress on my worst enemy. So her wedding was held at the Inn at Chester Springs. They were MORE than accommodating and the coordinator, Katherine Burnes, was phenomenal! They had to call people from home to help set up! So if you are ever in need a venue for anything at all, I highly recommend the Inn at Chester Springs. :)

The wedding was wonderful! My sister looked AMAZING! Eli was the ring bearer. I have no pictures of that, unfortunately, because I was in the wedding and couldn't be snapping pictures when I am supposed to be standing and looking professional. :) But he did SO WELL! He was very efficient because he RAN down the aisle, gave me the pillow and RAN back up the aisle, saying "Daddy, lost!". So cute!

Anyway, here are some more pictures from the day. Now all of us kids are all married and I think my parents are experiencing a sigh of relief! :)

CONGRATULATIONS MICHELLE AND MATT!