Dinosaurs!

This weekend, Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson treated us to the "Dinosaurs Unearthed" exhibit at Union Station. We had been wanting to go and we were excited when we were invited to attend as an outing for Eli's birthday. It was great fun and I think it's safe to say that dinosaurs are now on Eli's "awesome" list :) Enjoy the pictures!

Eli, mommy & Anna standing outside Union Station in front of Mr. Dinosaur:

Eli with Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson:

Searching for dinosaur footprints:

Grandma & Eli:

"Roar!!!":

Yikes...nice teeth!:

Hilarious picture....although he never got really scared during the whole exhibit!:

Holy smokes....quite the hair twirler these days. You'd think he was a nervous kid or something!:

After the exhibit, Eli & Anna were treated to a Build-a-Dino doll. We've never been to Build-A-Bear so this was new to us. I must say it is too cute who they do it. The kids take part in making the dino even pushing the pedal to stuff it. They do this cute little rhyme when the heart is put inside and even stuff in the bar code so if the dino ever got lost, it could be brought to a Build-A-Bear store anywhere in the world and would be scanned and sent to us. Too cute!:

Miss Anna's "Sweet Girl" dino that I made her:

And here are the kiddos posing with their dinosaurs. Anna's is as big as she is!!:

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson for a fun afternoon! We love you!

Anna & Eli's professional pics

Check out our kiddos!

Thanks, Debbie!

Anna is 3 months!

Miss Anna and Eli shared their "3rd" birthday today....which won't happen again EVER!! Anna is 3 months today while her brother is 3 YEARS....pretty cool! Anna is doing awesome and continues to just grow and grow! She is such a long little girl that she is now needing to wear 6-9 month sleepers so her toes aren't poking through the ends :) She can still wear 3 month onesies, but barely. I need to go through her and Eli's clothes this weekend to see what they are in need of so I can attend the upcoming consignments sales.

Anna continues to coo, smile and laugh and is a happy little girl! I started work last week and my split shifts have been going well. It hasn't been easy, on either of us, but she is doing better with my absence. The bottle is another story and let's just say she has had to be syringe fed just to get some milk in her tummy! I've been stressed about this transition and while it is not fully resolved, she does better and better each day. I feel so lucky to have stayed home a year with Eli and am sad I cannot do the same with Anna, but must remind myself she is in loving hands and will adjust. We just need to win the lottery so I can stay home!!

Anna is doing great with weight gain and as of Monday weighed 13 lbs. 14.2 oz. Nursing continues to go very well and pumping while at work is good, too. Thankfully I have an amazing supply so our freezer is starting to overflow! Her sleep is up and down as far as how long she sleeps but I'm showing no worse for the wear. Her naps have been a little up and down to, but that is to be expected with the change of me being gone part of the day. Most days she will still do one morning and a longer afternoon nap with cat naps here and there in between. Being a tummy sleeper for naps has proven well for her as she can lift her head and neck up while on her belly well now...unlike Eli who couldn't for quite awhile. Here's some video of her tummy time:




Anna is now worn by daddy in the mornings in the Baby Bjorn which is great. I now wear her in the moby wrap but not as often since I started work. I'm thinking about a ring sling sometime in the future or maybe a mei tei....we'll see. Here is Anna today at the park:


Anna did really well with her 3 month pictures as you can see below...what a cutie!:

Now here is Eli at 3 months:


Just a random changing table picture:

Fun times in the swing!:

"Hangin' with my bro!":

And some fun laughing videos of our little girl:

Here's a kinda long video of Anna discovering her toys on her swing...

Just for fun, check out the post I did about Eli when he was 3 months! They are similar in their development besides the fact that Eli was 2 lbs. heavier and just overall a chunkier boy! We got out the Jumperoo and Bumbo for Eli at this age but Anna isn't quite ready for them....maybe at 4 months!

Happy 3 months sweet girl!

Eli is 3!!

Our big boy turned 3 today and we did much celebrating over the weekend in anticipation :) It was a great time had by all and I think this will be the first birthday Eli actually will remember! The evening after his party he was so excited that he could not go to sleep until 11pm! The next morning he was up at his usual time and immediately began playing with his new toys.

For his party this year we decided on a HotWheels theme since he was starting to have quite a collection and enjoyed playing with them daily. Last year we did a transportation theme and this year is our first using an actual "licensed" theme. We were excited to see so much HotWheels stuff out there and had no problem arranging for a party full of HotWheels! We invited friends and family and had a full house as we have in years past. The hard part about his birthday being in August is it was too hot to expand the party outside so we all had to squeeze inside! Nonetheless, it's awesome that Eli has so many friends and family to help him celebrate his big day.

Now for some pictures!

Aunt Sarah is a golf pro and decided that this would be the year to get Eli is first REAL set of golf clubs. Of course they will only be used under strict supervision and at special times to ensure everyone's safety :)

Eli's cake was really awesome! Hy-Vee did great! ;) We gave tattoos and a HotWheel cars as favors. Each kid got to choose their own HotWheel!:

The goodies:

Some of the kiddos (and mamas):

Blowing out the candle!!:

Anyone who throws a party knows that there is much clean up afterwards. I will have to say that I think this was definitely the most "trashed" Eli's room had EVER been!:

The living room wasn't too bad:

Eli got some additions to his HotWheels track and can now literally make a track with boosters and loops and turns that fills the whole basement! It really is pretty cool and here is a picture of the upstairs smaller version:


We had a great time and Eli got some wonderful gifts. Thank you everyone for your love and support throughout these last 3 wonderful years!!

Today is Eli's actual birthday so after work I took Eli to get ice cream and to play at the park. He did awesome and already is acting like a 3 year old! He played so well with the kids, introduced himself, took turns, said please and thank you....it was great!! He's such a big boy!:

Eli wanted his 3 year picture to be taken in the chair so here it is....hair twirling (his newest thing) and all!:

Last year I did a whole run down of the things he had learned in the past year. This year, let's just say I honestly don't have time!! What's great about this blog, though, is I can easily look back (and so can you!) at this last year and see all of his changes. We found out we were pregnant with Anna about a month after his birthday and his world hasn't been the same since!! Not in a bad way, of course, but definitely a change! This last year he has learned how to talk more with sentence structure and humor and quickly became (and still is!) our little parrot saying back to us everything you don't necessarily want him to! He was in his first wedding acting as the ring bearer for his Aunt Sarah and Aunt Stephanie's wedding and became much more aware of the world around him. He was more timid around Santa last year but loved the idea of him! Eli built his first snowman, and predicted the gender of his new sibling. Mommy developed a toddler schedule for him and dyed his first Easter eggs. He moved to sleeping in his own bed (although with daddy by his side) and got a newly decorated room! The most obvious change would be that he became a big brother and witnessed his mommy's belly getting "bigger, bigger, bigger, BIGGER!", as he used to say. That being said, I would say Eli's 2nd year has probably been the hardest just because of this change. But Eli has shown that he will be an awesome big brother to his sister and I so look forward to this coming year when Anna is able to interact more with Eli. He is so looking forward to this and I know they will become awesome playmates and pals.

I love my little guy and am so excited for this upcoming year as he starts preschool and on the road to becoming more and more independent. We made a calendar for him to count down the days:


He's such a loving, caring, social kiddo and school will open up a whole new world for him which I know he'll love! I'm sure this year will also hold great growth in his learning, speech, imagination, and emotions. His personality will continue to develop and he'll become more and more of a little boy!

Happy 3rd Birthday beautiful boy!!