Eli can ride a bike!

Last Saturday Eli surprised us and learned how to ride his bike all by himself, no training wheels! It took him a few times around the cul-de-sac with John barely holding on and that was it. John let go and Eli did fine. We were amazed at how fast it happened! So, it's official, at 4.75 years old, Eli learned to ride his bike!

Eli had another bike that was heavy and smaller that he never liked riding because it was hard for him to get going on it. So, Saturday we pulled out a bike that was passed on to Eli from cousin Garrett. I thought it was still too big for Eli, but apparently not. It's just what he needed, I guess!

Tristan, our neighbor's grandson, was over that day, which helped motivate Eli to ride his bike himself. Tristan is 7, so I think Eli wanted to show off some for Tristan. However, it ended up that Tristan didn't know how to ride his bike either, so he asked his Pop (Mr. Mike, our neighbor) to take off his training wheels after he saw Eli without training wheels on his bike. And just like that, they were both riding around the cul-de-sac without training wheels. It's amazing what a little competition, peer pressure, and encouragement will do!

Jed also joined in on the fun with his balance bike that he got for Christmas. It's a bike without pedals that is supposed to help teach kids to learn to ride a bike. They use their legs for support and to make it go. Do you remember the Skuut bike Eli had when he was Jed's age (the one I backed over and crushed with the car)? It was a balance bike, so I guess it helped give Eli some skills. Eli had also been riding Jed's bike around since Christmas, so I think that also gave him some confidence on the big bike. Maybe Jed will be riding a bike soon himself!

I think I need to get myself a bike to keep up!

Here's Tristan and Eli

MONSTER TRUCK JAM!

The boys have been into monster trucks lately. One of their favorite things to do in the evening lately has been to watch monster truck videos on the computer with Dad. It all started a few months ago when Eli got a book about monster trucks. In the book, they learned the names of many monster trucks and their drivers and some other facts about them, too. Medusa is Eli's favorite, the only truck with a female driver, and Jed likes Destroyer. Grave Digger is a favorite, too.

So, John saw that there was going to be a Monster Jam in San Antonio at the Alamo Dome, and we decided that would be fun to take the boys. We went last Sunday, and I'll admit I was a little excited about it. I never thought I'd be excited about going to a monster truck show and looking forward to seeing Grave Digger and Destroyer and Stone Crusher...ooo, or even Maximum Destruction! It was so much fun though! Everyone should go to a monster truck show at least once in their lifetime. It is pretty amazing to watch giant trucks fly through the air and roll and loose wheels and stuff.

My only complaint about our adventure is the traffic. It took us an hour to get out of the parking lot! We paid for our parking spot online so our parking spot was very close to the Alamo Dome, but that made it a challenge to get out. The boys did great while waiting. Of course we had to drive the truck to the monster truck show, so the were happy to just be in the truck. I felt like we fit right in there with our big truck.

The day was topped off with dinner at a Mexican food restaurant on the Riverwalk. What a fun memory!

I have lots of pictures and videos, and I'll try to tell you the names of the trucks. That way you can be filled in and up to par with your knowledge of monster trucks. At least the boys will be impressed with your knowledge!

Grave Digger on the left & Maximum Destruction on the right






Here's Iron Man








And Monster Mutt. I like how the ears fly when he jumps.






Bonus! There were construction trucks that came out to help the disabled trucks. They also came out to move dirt around and put crushed cars and trucks in place to change the course.





















Here's Grave Digger, The Legend, which is different from the green and black Grave Digger...not sure why. In his freestyle, the truck's body fell apart! The other Grave Digger is below.









This is Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction in the finale. Grave Digger did a flip and crashed at the end, which I missed b/c I was trying to help Jed get down from his chair.







These are some pictures of the races they had at the beginning. I liked the turtle truck. I don't remember that one's name.






















And here's Destroyer, one of Jed's favorite's. Unfortunately, I didn't get this one in action.

Cavity

I forgot to mention that Eli got his first cavity. I have no idea how because I feel like we've tried to do everything right when it comes to cavity prevention. We brush everyday, floss everyday, don't eat a lot of sweets or candy, and don't drink a lot of juice or other sweet drinks. And on top of that, I've never had a cavity and John didn't get one until adult-hood. I'm pretty sure the dentist didn't believe me when I told her we've been doing everything she suggested for cavity prevention. I know that my grandmother on my mom's side had bad teeth, so maybe that's where he gets it? Who knows.
The cavity is filled and all taken care of now. We only had to pay $25 for it thanks to insurance and a credit on our account. Eli did great while he was getting the cavity filled. The mask they used for the laughing gas looked like a clown nose and it had a scent in it. Eli picked orange scent. I got a picture of Eli and his clown nose mask on my phone, but I have no clue how to get those pictures on the computer. The gas did make him smiley, which was funny.
Now the dentist says she's watching two or three other spots for cavities. We'll keep doing what we've always been doing and hope for the best, I guess!

Computer Crash!

Oh noooooo! Our hard drive died a couple days ago, so we lost some pictures. However, John did some magic and saved most of them. The ones we lost were all of the Christmas pictures plus some more I took in early January. Thankfully, the Christmas pictures are on Picasa and on this blog, so they're not totally lost. I had just deleted a bunch of pictures from my camera a day before we lost the ones on our computer, which is a bummer. Oh well! It could have been much worse.

Eli Plays Hoops

Eli played in his first basketball game last Saturday! We signed him up through the YMCA and were curious how 4-5 year olds were going to be able to get the hang of playing basketball. They surprised us with dribbles, passes, and successful shots! Eli really enjoyed playing and also surprised us with his skills. He was aggressive and went for the ball, played some good defense, and he even hit a shot! Eli seems more confident in basketball than he did in soccer. Maybe it's in the genes! Jed really wanted to play on the court during the game, but after we gave him a ball, he was content to stay on the sidelines and roll the ball back and forth. It was so much fun for all of us. I can't wait for more!

Christmas catch-up

Side note: I'm writing this so I can look back and remember what we did for Christmas 2010. Some of the details probably won't interest you. So, this post may seem long and boring, but the pictures are fun to look at!

We had a great Christmas this year. As I mentioned before, we spent time with my family in Dallas the weekend before Christmas. Then we did a little yo-yo-ing back and forth between Austin and back to DFW after that. It was worth it, and the boys did great with the traveling and going house to house.

We were home in Austin for the week of Christmas, just the four of us, which was a nice, laid back way to celebrate Christmas. This year we decided to get each other gifts, so Eli and Jed got to pick out gifts to give to each other and to John and I instead of just receiving all the gifts. I think it worked out well. I liked seeing what they chose for others. For example, Eli chose some water bottles for John (for his P90X workouts). I thought that was thoughtful of him. We did our little traditions: setting out the milk and cookies for Santa (this year it was a brownie we had leftover from our dinner co-op b/c I forgot to make cookies), the reading of The Night Before Christmas and the birth of Jesus from the bible, and coffee cake and breakfast casserole, too. It doesn't feel like Christmas without those! This year, Eli got a police pick-up truck from Santa, just like he asked, and Jed got a wooden train set from Santa.





A couple days after Christmas, it was back up to Ft. Worth to hang out with John's family. Everyone (all four siblings and families) were there together, which doesn't happen that often. It was good to see everyone as usual. Eli and Jed had fun playing with their cousins, Will and Alex (same age as Eli), who they don't get to see much since they live in Denver. Here's some pics of our time in FW:

























After a few days in FW, we were off to Dallas to see some good friends, Lane & Erin and Bcat & Amy, from college for the evening. However, Bcat was sick and couldn't go, which was a bummer since he lives in Denver and we don't get to see him and Amy much. We missed seeing you, Bcat!

Then, we hung out with my family a few days. Mammy took the boys to see a train exhibit that they had at Northpark mall. They had tons of miniature trains set up there with all kinds of things to look at. Jed loved it and could have stayed in there much longer than we did. He spotted a Thomas train in there right at his level and would say, "Thomas, yoo hoo, where are you?" every time the train went through the tunnel. So cute! John and Eli liked it okay, but they get overwhelmed when there are big crowds of people (and there were a lot of people packed into a small space in there), so they decided to walk around outside the exhibit while they waited for us. Plus, Eli and John aren't big fans of malls, which made them feel more overwhelmed, I think. Like father like son!
























For New Year's we went to Whitney and Reed's house (more friends from college), and Bubba and Anna met us there as well. They are all good friends who feel like family, so it's always a good time seeing them. Somehow, we stayed up until 2:30 am just chatting and having a good time, but when the kids woke up a little before 7:00 am, we remembered that we're not in our twenties anymore! It was a good time nonetheless! I got one picture of me and Whitney's boys. If you want to see more pictures of our time there, you can look on my Facebook profile. I couldn't figure out how to post them here.