Easter 2011

For Easter this year, we participated in 3 Easter Egg hunts, decorated eggs, searched for gifts from the Easter Bunny, and ate a yummy lunch with family. Being Anna's first Easter she got her own basket and enjoyed played with eggs filled with puffs :) Enjoy the pictures!

Eli left out carrots and a muffin for the Easter Bunny and the bunny nibbled on the carrots, ate the muffin, and left Eli & Anna notes around the house for gifts!

Yummy gum!

Found one!

MORE gum!? How did the Easter Bunny know he liked gum??

Cool! Nerf basketball hoop!

Oh my, gum and bath toys!

That Easter Bunny is a good hider!

What are these for?

Thanks for showing me what these things are...yummy puffs!

Concentrating on his drawing

Waiting.....

Decorating HIMSELF

We attended a fun Easter Hunt that a good friend invited us to....we got $$$!

Best buddies....most of the time :)

We attended Ollie's Easter Egg hunt at Paradise Park....and painted our faces, too!

And yet another egg hunt at Grandma & Grandpa's. Phew!! That was a lot of hunting!

Elijah Lee

Our little boy is turning into quite the big BOY!!! We measured him in February & I noticed his clothes seemed smaller so I measured him again....TWO inches taller in 2 months! Yikes!! I am unsure of his weight but I would imagine 45 lbs. since he was 40 lbs. at his 3 year well check.

Eli is becoming more interested in letters & spelling. He will ask how to spell words & names & can write his own name well. Granted sometimes his letters are out of order, but he loves to write it & also tell others how to spell it. He is curious about letter sounds and how to add numbers together. Just today he held up his hands and asked me "What is 5 & 5?". Also today he completed the below worksheet in one of his coloring books ALL BY HIMSELF without asking me any questions!

Coloring used to be a very short lived activity for Eli. Now he is more patient and interested in opening his art cabinet & getting out crayons, markers, colored pencils & paper to color:

We are beginning the Dave Ramsey journey and decided Eli was ready to do a simple form of a chore/job chart for money. He currently has 3 chores: making his bed, taking his dishes to the sink after each meal, & cleaning up his toys before bed. Each time he does this, he earns a sticker on his chart. Then at the end of the week, he gets 5 cents for each sticker equaling $1.05/week. We counted his money that he has collected over the last few years and he has $29.15! Pretty good for a 3 1/2 year old! Now to teach him how to save, spend, & give :)

Fun times with Hotwheels by daddy & Eli:

We are looking forward to a NICE spring and hopefully a DECENT summer with warm but not SCALDING days. We shall see. In the meantime, we spend our "get the energy out" time at Paradise Park, Chickfila, or sometimes at the mall:

Eli continues to push his limits with Anna & often makes her cry from his rough nature. We know this is a phase & she will soon be able to defend herself, but it is hard for him to understand. But, he can also be a very sweet brother & give her lots of hugs, kisses, & bring her toys to play with.

Some pictures of Anna taken by Eli:

Oops, Anna bonked her head:

Just some fun kitchen time while mommy makes dinner:

During Anna's 11 month photo shoot:

Fun times in the morning!

Anna turns 11 months

Keeping up with my trend, I am blogging monthly so there is TOO much to put into one post. I will do another post about Easter, a zoo trip, an Iowa trip, AND Eli. I really need to try to blog every 2 weeks!!

Anna turns 11 months today and my oh my are we close to ONE!! Seems odd that she will be turning a year but I also can't remember our life before her! She is doing awesome & makes us smile daily. She is becoming more vocal & particular, primarily due to her continuous desire to walk around and eat. And man, can this girl eat!! So unlike her brother was at this age! Here are some of her accomplishments this month:

1) Anna can sign for "milk" & "all done" fairly consistently

2) Anna likes to wave, but usually she has to "check out" the person she is waving to before she will :)

3) Anna loves to walk with help A LOT! She has also taken her first wobbly steps from daddy to mommy. She did this the day before Easter but hasn't done much since. She just needs some courage! I predict she will be walking by her birthday.

4) Anna will cruise & crawl like crazy....she's pretty fast!

5) Anna eats a lot of food! Well, I guess I have nothing to compare to since Eli was only eating biter biscuits & toast at this age, but she can eat a pretty good amount. She eats breakfast, lunch, dinner & sometimes 1-2 snacks. I have taught her the signs for "food", "more" & "all done" but currently her way of asking for more food is to screech at the top of her lungs!!

6) Anna still nurses well! I plan to let her nurse as long as she wants....maybe 2 1/2 years like her brother!! She also can drink water from a straw cup.


7) Anna can say "mama" & "dada" pretty person specific although sometimes it is more of a babble. I also think she says "E-I" for Eli on occasion!

8) Anna often sounds like a little monkey with all her sounds.

9) Anna really likes animals. She loves to pet, pound, and pull on our cat. We don't have a dog, but when we have been around dogs, she squeals with delight!

Happy 11 months little lady!