Eli turns THREE!

Happy birthday to our sweet Eli !

Eli turned three two weeks ago, where has the time gone?  I had pretty much no motivation/energy to have a party for him but seeing that he is three and actually "gets it" now, I felt like I could not let the day come and go without doing anything.  I would have also felt really guilty about not doing anything.

On his actual birthday he woke up to the three of us singing him Happy Birthday, and took a treat with him to school and they celebrated his birthday there and made him a crown to wear during the day.  We went to his favorite restaurant for dinner where he gets to drink Sprite with his dinner and eat his favorite tacos.

That Friday we had a Glorified Play date/Lunch Date/Birthday Celebration for Eli with about 7 of his closest buddies and their younger siblings.  Turns out, it was the perfect way to throw a three year old a party--easy, cheap, fun and easy.  

We had toys strewn around the house, an art project set up for them, lunch for the kids and moms, and some celebratory balloons, a cake and a pinata.  

It really took little planning, and only one trip to the grocery store, and I think/hope the kids had a good time.
Eli talked about his party for the the few days following, so I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it.  The boys took to eating snacks instead of coloring their cups, while Sophia sat quietly and colored perfectly!

We had a couple sleepy babes....

The kids played with all the toys, played a game of Elefun (which by the way was a big hit for the 3 year olds!) and made a lot of noise while we all caught up.

And then we ate lunch and had some cake! And ended with a little pull pinata before everyone headed home for hopefully a very long nap!

Since turning 3, something strange happened.  Eli has turned into a pretty whiny, kinda difficult, hard-headed kid.  The tantrums.  The whining.  Oh make it stop!!!!!  The "terrible two's" was nothing compared to what is going on now with the "tumultuous/dreadful/unfortunate three's!" and we are only two weeks into it!
We definitely have good days, and great moments, its not all bad, but we just never know which Eli is going to wake up from his nap, or which Eli is coming home from school, we just never know what may set him off.  Here are a few good moments from the last week!  We have had some beautiful weather and some not so beautiful weather, so have been taking advantage of being able to be outside, but also of going places like the Children's Museum on those not so great days.  Of course Owen is his happy-go-lucky, but wild and crazy self and just goes with the flow.

Eli had his 3 year well-check appointment last week and checked out great.  He is now in the 25% for height and weight which is a big improvement from where he was at 2 years which was 7%.  He is now 29 pounds and 35 inches tall.

Four + One = FIVE!!!

Want to know the real reason for my lack of blogging lately?
I have been tired, more tired than I have been in my whole life.  I have  been going to  bed by 9pm every single night, I get in bed the second the boys are down for naps and take a two hour nap myself, and have been doing the absolute minimum to get through the day and make sure the boys are taken care of and fed.  It takes everything I have to just return a simple e-mail of phone call these days. I have worn pajama pants or yoga pants, no make-up and probably a dirty shirt here and there for the last month.  I actually cried watching an episode of Bubble Guppies and my patience level comes in at a big fat ZERO.
My diagnosis?  Pregnancy.

We are thrilled to finally share the news with all of our friends and start to prepare to become a family of FIVE.  But I'm not going to lie.  When I found out, excitement was not the word that came to mind.  It was more along the lines of shock, complete and udder shock. It has been our plan all along to have three kids, but recently we decided we were going to wait a little while before we had the third baby.  Apparently there were different plans for us, and it just goes to show you that you can mess with what God has planned for you. I was on birth control, still nursing Owen and yet to have a period and this little booger still managed to find his way through.  It is beyond me how this actually happened, but I am so happy it did.
It still doesn't seem real to me, but I'm sure as I pack on the l.b.'s it will become more real!
Already Eli is asking me what is in my tummy and how come there is a baby in there, and wanted to come to the doctor with me to "see" the baby.  I can tell we will have some pretty interesting conversations with him in the coming months.

Updates surley to come! I'm just so very excited to welcome another one of these...

Eight Nights

This year was exceptionally fun to celebrate Hanukkah.  Eli was extremely excited and read Hanukkah books the weeks leading up to Hanukkah, admired his presents that were sitting under the fireplace (while Owen ripped into one or two, or three on a daily basis), and talked about lighting the candles.  I think what Eli loved most (other than new toys) this time of year was seeing all the Christmas lights on houses.  He would literally yell "decorations!!!!" every time we passed a house with lights.  It got to the point that both boys were yelling in the back seat every night we were in the car and we went out of our way many, many times to see the beautifully decorated streets in our neighborhood.

We celebrated mostly at our house just the four of us, but spent a couple nights with my family celebrating, and one night with all of our cousins, aunts and uncles for the annual Latkepalooza Hanukkah party that my cousins Sara and Ryan throw.

Like the good Jews that we are, we spent the first three nights going to see Christmas lights after we lit the candles and opened presents.  On the third night we let Eli choose his favorite place to go to dinner.  He chose Chuy's, so we went for some Tex-Mex and headed to the Zilker Tree.

We even went back one night with my friend Becca and her son Jonah and let the boys run loose.

Jonah stepped in poop walking up to the lights and somehow kicked Eli and got it on him.  He was just so confused as to why he had poop on his knee...hence him starring at the poop.

We spent an afternoon at my parents while Blaine was at work and made some homemade challah to take to a neighbors house.  My mom is way more patient and willing to clean up big messes than I am.  She makes everything so much more fun that it really it.  She let the boys play with flour and some dough while she kneaded the dough and didn't flinch as they swung flour around and made a complete mess of the kitchen.  She even let them make a mess of her face!

It was really a great Hanukkah, the boys loved their gifts (kitchen, trail table and Legos especially!!!),  all the festivities, and Eli is already asking when it comes again!