Sister Sister.

A few days with my sister, her husband and two girls is always a good thing!

Together!

Thanks for the fun, Yipperts:)

-Heather

Where In The House Is...

All of these taken in the last week or so:

She finds a way to climb about anything.

Also biting.

Anything could be a chair.

This under-table spot is a fav.

She knows this is a no-no.

But seriously, she is delightful. (sorry for the naked photo, dear)

-Her Mom

Another Installment of Elisms.

This guy is hilarious. Sometimes he means to, other times he just is. Here are a few funny things he has said or continues to say:

1. "When I was a little boy..." and then a story he either did experience or just made up. He sounds like he's been through a lot of years when he starts out this way.
2. Breakfast totally sounds like "breast breast" - he can say it right he just defaults to this. 
3. Instead of saying "I have to go to the bathroom" or "I have to poop", Eli says "I gotta get some poops out."
4. He's into whatever is "the best" right now. Sometimes used interchangeably with favorite. Like red is his best color right now. "That's my best."
5. "Can I have something other to eat?" - never something else.
6. "I'm proud of you Mom" - one night last week out of the blue. 
7. "How was your day, Dad?" - he will sometimes ask this while we are eating. In a darn adult-like way.
8. "I'm still a little boy" when we ask him to do something he can't. 
9. Last night he pronounced lasagna, "basagna" since he still has issues with his "l's" - ususally it comes out as a y-sound but tonight it was a b.  

And some random tidbits of Eli personality:

1. He all-out hearty laughs OFTEN these days. 
2. Poop/bathroom humor is now a thing for Eli. Oh dear. 
3. Greg started a nightly tradition. He hides Eli's vitamin somewhere in his room before bed and gives Eli a clue to find it. He giggles loudly when he finds it.
4. Eli prays the "abcdefg, thank you God for feeding me" prayer before each meal... even though mommy and daddy are super ready for a new thankful prayer to take it's spot.
5. He will give kisses if someone gets hurt. Or if he's feeling especially grateful for something you did.
6. Super annoying aspect of Eli now is he talks baby talk. Or growls. Either of those are not MY favorite.
7. Eli and Greg watch this and mention it with a laugh often. 
8. He has an amazing memory. Last week I mentioned our friend Dori and he said "Member Dori and the strawberry? We threw it in the bushes. That was funny, huh? And remember, then we were in her car." They did all that on the last day we were at our house in South Carolina.
9. In relation, he has a great sense of direction. He knows which roads lead to certain places and will correct us if he thinks we are going the wrong way... or will pipe in "this is the way to church" or "this is not the way to Grandma and Grandpas".
10. He has a fear of giant mosquitoes, we think. A few times he's had nightmares and he screams for us that he's scared... then mentions something about getting the mosquitoes. He's got a vivid imagination so I'm sure they are quite frightening. 
11. He seems to have a sense of controlling excess. A few times now he's been offered something he already has (a piggy bank, candy) and he said "no, I already have one/some". Last week it was the doctor offering candy and he said no because we had some at home! Whoa!
12. Eli loves to play "school" with Grandma. Loves it. Today he begged me to play so I went to his room and said we are going to study geography so we can learn about the world. Eli said "yeah like India." (No idea how he learned about India) and I said "yes! can you name another country?". He responded: "South Carolina." Um, not quite their own country!
13. The boy still loves his blankies. They are the one thing he loves more than all else.

What a hoot!

-Heather

Go Zoo.

In South Carolina we used to go to the zoo often. Looking back I wish we would have gone ALL THE TIME because it was really so fantastically special and only a 10 minute drive from our house!!!

I need to move photos from our computer to our external hard drive (before the computer crashes and we lose all of Annalee photos). And so I started working on deleting and filing. And that lead me to the first week in December 2012. And these lovely outside photos and I'm groaning here in the single digit weather with wind and snow... oh Lord help us stay sane!

We went to the zoo that day and I took a photo with Eli and the koala. I did that almost every time we went to the zoo. A sort of tradition, as you will. The koalas were my favorite because they had their own temperature controlled building. It smelled like eucalyptus, not poop or anything animally. And they were just fun to watch, even sleeping. And they are cute, y'all. I miss them. Anyway, someday I will make Eli a photo collage with all his Riverbanks Zoo koala photos.

Cola friends, you must go the zoo for me, okay? GO enjoy the heck out of all the amazing animals, green flowering plants, elephants, giraffes and their crazy tongues, and the tiger that rarely comes out, the lorakeets you can feed so they'll land on your head, the flippin' awesome fish you can watch, and especially the koalas. OH MY GO! It's truly so cheap and such an amazing zoo.

-Heather

Burrrthday.

It got really cold and snowy Sunday night. It's winter now. Burr. So celebrate we must.

Amy had a birthday on Tuesday. We celebrated a day late by having them and the parents over for supper. Family!

Side note: The kids and I didn't leave the house all day and it was great! Grandpa brought the carrots I needed earlier in the day, how great is that grocery service?!

Glad for Amy in our lives!

-Heather 

High Tower.

I want to record this so it's remembered: Eli and Daddy lego time. They have the big duplo legos in his room (in case Annalee is near) and the actual legos downstairs. And usually every night involves Daddy building some tower and Eli crashing it. And yes, the expired lasagna noodles made a great bridge (I accidentally bought no-cook ones and never used them... who knew they would have a dual purpose). Just one of the reasons Greg is a great dad.

-Heather

WGW 2014.

Having fun at Welle Girls Weekend! Here's the crew this year minus sleeping Sarah, eating Alexia, and me photo taking:

After the three one-year-olds go to bed, games will commence and I'm sure it'll be legendary!

-Heather

Genius!

Look! She spells already!

Ok I maybe helped a little. 

-Heather

Christmas Card.

Oh what the heck. It's on Facebook so here you go... this is our Christmas card photo, circa 2014:

Annalee was no napping it that day and was so tired but thankfully we got this shot right off the bat and she's somewhat still "with it" ... by the end she just looked zombie dazed:

But adorable yet!

-Heather

Cameo.

Greg's job at KAT Communication is busy. He is way, way more busy than good 'ol BCBS of SC. Way. Much more rewarding, of course, but still much more intense. He does get to be a part of some neat projects. A few weeks ago he learned how to fly a drone so he could help out getting aerial shots for video shoots. That's cool, right?

Drone. Basically a video game with a real helicopter with video capabilities.

Mesmerized by said drone.

Captivated by same drone and desperately wanting to be taken by the aliens.

And when they needed to quick do a commercial for the ND Highway Patrol and an hour before the video shoot a family was needed, Greg stepped up. I was actually working at that time but he texted and said he had to pick up the kids from daycare for a shoot. Earlier that day, we had our Christmas card photos taken. So when you get our card in the mail, you'll know because they are all wearing these same outfits from the video. You can see Greg holding Annalee in a few bits of the video. And Eli debuts at minute 2:48. How cute is he?!

http://1.usa.gov/ZQbU3w

Anyone want to move to ND and work for the Highway Patrol? You should. 

-Heather