We now are the owners of a Ford F-150 pick-up truck! The males of this household couldn't be happier! As most of you know, we have had one vehicle for about 4 years now. It's been more and more inconvenient lately just having one vehicle, so we decided it's time for two again. Of course Eli wanted us to get a truck and had specified criteria that he wanted. John has secretly wanted a truck all his life (it must be something that is ingrained in most guys). So, with the justification that he wouldn't drive it all that much (still carpooling to work) and would use it for his landscaping business, John and I agreed it was a good choice for our second car. After truck hunting for weeks and weeks, John finally found a truck that met all his and Eli's criteria. AND it was a great deal price wise, too!
John has started a workout program called P90X, which he likes because you do all the workouts at home. I'm impressed with his dedication to the program so far. The boys have enjoyed exercising with Dad as well, as you can see.
I had to take a picture of this moment because I need a reminder now and then that it does happen! It's of Eli and Jed happily and quietly playing in the playroom by themselves while building houses and robots and things with their Mega Bloks. They were in there about 30 min. straight! And on top of that, it was at the hardest part of the day...about 30 min. before John gets home. It was a much needed break for me!
And this is Eli and Jed's favorite thing to do outside right now. They go around and around chasing each other on their cars. It seems like they get going so fast sometimes that their little legs are going in circles.
Jed is enamored with Band-Aids. Every single little bump, bruise, and scratch needs a Band-aid, according to him. He's even asked to put them on bug bites and freckles. I usually give him one even if he doesn't need it because it is a great distraction. He likes to tear the paper open himself, throw it away in the trash can, and then find a place on himself to put it. The whole process takes awhile, which gives me a little break! Win, win situation!
This is after Jed got hit in the nose by Eli, who accidentally hit him while swinging a plastic bat. The Band-aid made it all better!
Last week, we took our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch at the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm with our friends, Jen and her daughters Mia and Eleanor. We had a fun trip again this year! The kids decorated pumpkins, fed the animals, navigated the mazes, went on hayrides, picked out pumpkins, had some duck races, and played, played, played. I love that there is one admission fee under $15 and so much to entertain the kids. I tried to get some good pumpkin pictures of us, but there wasn't much cooperation going on. I could not get Jed to look at the camera, and I kept getting crazy faces from Eli. Oh well! Some are okay, I guess. It's funny to Jen and I that Eli and Mia look more like siblings and Jed and Eleanor look more like siblings. You can see that in one of the pics of all four of them. It's fun to have friends like them! I'm glad pumpkin season is here! Now if the cooler weather would get here...it was a little weird taking pumpkin pictures in sleeveless shirts and shorts!
Here are the kids racing rubber ducks with water pumps. Go Duckeeee!
We had Jed's party the Sunday after his birthday at 9:30 AM. We did his party like Eli's...pancakes on the grill at Garrison park. It was another success! Many of our friends and family came, and the perfect weather made it even better! Jed's cake was decorated with markers and trains, two of his favorite things right now. The cake decorations were all Eli's idea, which couldn't have been more perfect! We didn't get around to opening gifts at the party, which I regret. So, I videoed Jed opening some of his gifts at our house and have included them below. I did a slide show of the birthday pictures since there were a lot of good ones. Watch for the picture of Jed being hugged by his friend, Naomi (in a yellow shirt). He's trying not to smile so that we won't see how thrilled he is to be hugged by her! Cute!
Thank You to everyone for the gifts you got for Jed and as always, Thanks for being our friends!
As many of you know, I love celebrating birthdays, especially mine and my boys! I like to celebrate birthdays for a least a week. So, on Jed's actual birthday, I made him a lemon cake, we sang Happy Birthday, and he blew out the candles. Jed got some gifts in the mail, so we opened those. I also took Jed to my favorite toy store, Anna's Toy Depot, where he picked out his own birthday present. He chose a trash truck named Rowdy.
Here are some pics of Jed eating his cake. I like the paparazzi shot. In the other picture, he's crying b/c he wanted me to wipe his hands. In other words, "Stop taking pictures and wipe my hands, Mama!"
Here we are having a little family celebration for Jed, singing Happy Birthday to him.
I took videos of Jed opening the gifts that were sent in the mail for you, Gramma, Grandad, Aunt Laura, Uncle Steve, and cousins Will & Alex. I thought you'd like to see his reaction and hear a Thank You from Jed himself.
During Jed's birthday weekend (more on that later), my sister and her boys as well as John's sister and her girls came. It was fun for John and I to hang out with our sisters and also have almost all the boys' cousins all together. I don't remember that last time we were all together like that. The older cousins got along great! We had a fun day chatting while the kids played, going to the greenbelt, and eating burgers at P.Terry's.
Here's all the cousins together
We intended to go for a hike in the greenbelt, but for the older cousins it turned into a swim...and wet clothes, but lots of fun!
Story time with Uncle John was a highlight for all the boys.
Somehow, me and my sister's lives have taken similar paths. Here are some things that we have in common: we both have minivans (that look very similar), both have Weimeraners, both have 2 boys 2 years apart, and both married our high school sweethearts. It's pretty crazy! I'm thankful for my sister and love being with her!
Remember when I posted about how much Jed loves markers? Here's a picture I got of him pushing them in the stroller like his babies. That is how special they are to him!
Eli had his first soccer practice and game last weekend! He is playing through the YMCA. Soccer practice, which was really a 'get to know your teammates' and to '(somewhat) figure out the rules of soccer' type of practice, was on Friday evening and the game was Saturday morning. He will be playing every Saturday morning until Nov. 13th at various times if you want to come!
Anyway, the coach wasn't quite in tune with exactly how little the kids knew. For example, he'd say, "okay dribble the balls around the cones" and the kids just kicked their balls all different ways. So, luckily John was there and stepped in to help the coach and gave the kids some more direction. John is so good with the kids. He says he'll probably coach next time. I don't know who had more fun at practice, John or Eli! John just laughs the whole time b/c the kids are hilarious.
Eli did well at the game. Most of the time, he was right up there in the front of the clump of kids trying to kick the ball. He's pretty fast! He got embarrassed one time when his shoe came off and ran to us crying, but other than that, he did great. It's amazing how many melt downs there are at a 4-5 year old soccer game! There are two older 5 year olds on Eli's team who are good at actually controlling the ball and making some goals! Go Panthers!...that's his team name, BTW!
Also, I want to say a big thank you to our neighbors, Chad and Hannah, for coming out to cheer on Eli. It was fun, and Eli really liked that you were there, even though he didn't show it!
Jed and I played at the playground during most of the practice.
Here's Eli dribbling. He was a little timid at first.
Jed sat in my lap and watched the whole game! I thought I'd be chasing him around and not be able to watch the game, but Jed decided he wanted to watch the game, too, thankfully! And he did it in style!
On Labor Day,we went with our friends, The Klentzmans, to Burnet. If you've been reading this blog awhile, you've heard about Mia and Eleanor. Well, their grandparents live on some land in Burnet, and they happen to have some construction trucks that little boys are crazy about! They also have bb guns and skeet shootin', which are fun for the adults, too! So, needless to say, Eli and Jed had a blast. Their favorite thing was the trucks. There was a dump truck, a grader, a skid steer, and a backhoe. Jen was laughing at me and the boys b/c we knew the names of the all trucks and knew all about their functions and parts. She has two girls who call all construction trucks tractors! Eli got to drive the backhoe (Rex's dad really did let him steer around the barn and he did great) as well as control all the parts. Eli moved the stabilizers up and down (a special request by Eli) and even dig a hole with the scoop! Jed got to sit in the backhoe and see all the trucks up close, which was enough for him. It was heaven for the boys!
Once again, my camera was out of memory at the worst time, so I got short clips of the boys and the backhoe.
In this first one, you can hear Jed say, "I yai duh-dum, Mama!", which means he wants to ride the dump truck. He says "duh-dum" for dump truck. Then you hear Jed say, "Hi Eli!, Hi man!". I guess he didn't know Rex's dad's name. Ha!
