Well, no...he's not really reading, but he likes to look at books. He has become much more interested in books lately and also a lot more vocal. He'll babble away like I should understand what he's talking about. He's so funny! I took this video a few days ago and thought it was cute!
courtney...i just realized you're gonna be 25 this week!!! that's so crazy...25 used to sound so old...lol. yep...you're definitely old...25...mommy...homeowner... :) remember when we were little and everyone teased me cuz i was younger? i always said oneday i'd be the one making fun of y'all... ha ha! i'm younger! j/k. it still doesn't matter...but...in a few years when you turn 30 and i'm only 29...THEN it'll matter & i'll be sure to make a big deal of it. love you! :)
Is this Courtney Pope? I'm not sure you remember me but, this is Christie (Mullinax) Crane....from Alabama. We worshipped with y'all in Tusaloosa. Please tell ALL of your family, I said hi!
First off, I would like everyone to welcome my sister, Ashley to pleonast! It's about time she joined! :)
So we survived the hurricane! The only damage we had were some shingles blown off the roof and a few fence planks down. Our power went out early Saturday morning while the storm was going on, and we got our power back on Tuesday. That was a great thing considering we were told to expect not to have power for two to three weeks. We were the lucky ones...some of our friends didn't have power for almost two weeks! Here is a picture Robert took during a mild part of the storm. You can see part of our neighbor's fence blown down and the shingles on the roofs flying up:
The night after the storm, it rained some more; so when we stepped out the door the next morning to go to church, we found that our road was flooded. There was no way our little Nissan Sentra was getting through that.
A benefit from the storm was that we were able to go to a friend's farm for a few days. They have all sorts of neat animals: giraffe, kangaroo, llamas, zebra, etc. Eli loved all the animals. He liked to bark at them. We also got to go canoing, eat lots of good food, and just relax. It was a nice getaway.
A negative thing that came out of the storm is that we missed about 7 days from school, so now we have to make up those days. I have to go to school five Saturdays this quarter. I have a huge feeling I won't be showing up those days. You don't mess with my Saturdays!!!
Last weekend, my sister, Brianne, made a surprise visit to Houston. I was meeting my brother and older sister for lunch when all of a sudden she pops out of the car. It was great to see her since I probably wouldn't have been able to see her until December.
We went to the grocery store while she was here and put Eli in one of those car grocery carts! He loved it! He immediately knew what to do when we put him in there! Y'all get to see some pictures and a video of it too because, of course, I take pictures at the grocery store...haha!
Eli is 10 months old today! I can't believe he will be one in just two more months! He is crawling around everywhere. He mostly just drags himself around. I think he thinks that's faster then crawling on his hands and knees. He's also pulling up on everything. It was hard at first because he didn't know how to sit back down after standing up. We worked on teaching him how to sit back down for about a week and he finally got the hang of it. Now it's not so bad putting him to bed at night. He's not walking yet but I'm told that when he does, he'll be getting into everything! He's already doing that so I can't imagine what it's going to be like when he walks!
In other news, it looks like Hurricane Ike is heading right towards us. I usually don't get too worried about hurricanes because they usually turn at the last second. However, everyone seems really concerned about this one so it's gotten me kind of nervous. We've stocked up on the supplies we'll need and have come up with a plan in case of a real emergency. I think we should be fine, but please keep us and everyone in the storm's path in your prayers.
Well, here are some pictures of my growing baby!
Chewing on a rib:
He likes to crawl behind our curtains and peek around:
Here he is with his Aunt Terri. She came to visit from Alabama in August:
Here he is with some of his buddies, Travis and Ayden:
He made a new friend, Chelsea Moody:
But he likes to pick on her and pull her hair:
He likes to give hugs and kisses:
Trying to take the camera from Daddy:
Sleeping in various places:
Standing up like a big boy:
Crawling:
Trying to escape with his accomplice, Bear:
Family picture:
Happy boy:
And here are two videos! One is of him laughing at his aunt Brianne eating popcorn, and the other is of him splashing in the bathtub.
Ahhhh...I can't believe I've waited this long to post. So many cute pictures have been taken since my last post...way too many to post! It's hard for me to narrow down pictures of Eli for some reason. Well, anyways, here's what's been going on. At the end of April, Eli had his first plane ride to Tampa! We went for Brianne's graduation and to visit with family and friends. It was a fun trip but it just flew by. I wish I could visit Tampa more often! Eli got to meet his great-grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, cousins and some of mommy's friends. Of course, I can't post pictures of all that; so I'll just post some pictures from his first trip to the beach, first experience on a horse, and some great pictures that Lauren Bingham took for us.
Well, while I was in Florida, we closed on our house! Unfortunately, I have not taken any pictures yet. We are still fixing things up, painting, unpacking boxes, etc. Hopefully, I'll be taking some soon though. I love the house. It's got a great layout, and it's just SOOOOO much nicer then climbing 3 flights of stairs to our apartment.
Also since my last post, Robert and I had our first mother's day and father's day. Here is a family picture from mother's day:
And here is a family picture from father's day:
We also got Eli's 6 month pictures taken. They turned out great. I went into the place determined that I was only going to buy one pose because that's the cheapest; but when I saw all the pictures, I caved and got more.
So I'm not sure all the changes that have happened with Eli since my last post because he changes so much every week. I can't seem to keep up with what happens when. He got his two bottom teeth. He is, of course, sitting up on his own now. We are working on crawling right now. He can get his upper body up off the ground and his lower body, just not at the same time. I can tell he's almost there though. He also is doing a little bit of mimicing. If he's in the mood, he will clap after we clap or pat the floor after we do. I'm working on trying to get him to wave "bye-bye" but he just seems to think it's funny. We recently went on a road trip to Mississippi, which he did impressively well on, and to keep him happy, I sang to him. Well, apparently he thinks that the part "up, up, up" in the David and Goliath song is hilarious. He just cracks up! Well, here are some pictures that have been taken in the last few months of Eli. I know what you are thinking..."that's what she calls narrowing down!"...but I promise you I did!!! Hope everyone's having a good summer!
Laughing with Daddy:
He likes to feed Bear:
Always chewing on something:
Relaxing (by the way, he is no longer swaddled as of the end of June!)
His Uncle Terry and Aunt Jerri's garden:
he is so stinkin' cute!! :) How old was he when you stopped swaddling him. Our ped told us to stop swaddling him by 3 mo and ever since then (he's 4 mo now) he hasn't slept through the night!! He really liked being swaddled! I'm about ready to start swaddling him again, especially since school starts in another 12 weeks and I really need sleep!!
I like lots of pictures!! Eli is getting so big! It's hard to pick just one pose of your sweet babies...b/c they're all so cute. I have been a big sucker for that one too.
Okay, so, it doesn't matter how old they get, it's hard to walk away with just ONE picture/pose. They always seem so much better than the ones you take on your own! We used Portrait Innovations for Bryanna's graduation photos. They did a great job and were really inexpensive!
Let me just say that I cannot wait until this whole house buying thing is over! I'm so excited about owning our first home but the process of getting to that point has been pretty stressful. We are buying a house that was foreclosed on so there are way too many people involved. We were originally suppose to close on Wednesday but then it got pushed back to today. Then we found out yesterday, after 5, that we will now not be closing until next Wednesday. The seller just refuses to do it sooner then that. Because we didn't find out until after 5, Robert couldn't change his day off. That was his last personal day so now he's going to have to be docked a day of pay when we actually do close. Also, I'm flying to Florida on Tuesday so I won't be here for the closing. We had to get a Power of Attorney signed so that Robert could sign in my place. This is just so frustrating because our offer on this house was accepted over 2 months ago. We thought that it would only take about 30 days! I do realize that we are very blessed that we are able to buy a home. We are so excited and thankful for this...I just needed to vent about the stresses! Anyways, on a more positive note, I'm going to Tampa, Florida next week for Brianne's graduation from FC. Eli will get to meet my grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousins and many of my friends. We are going to be there from Tuesday to Saturday. I wish we could stay longer but I've got to get back to school. I grew up in Florida so there are so many things I want to do and people I want to see whenever I go back.
Well, I can't have a post without new pictures of Eli so here they are:
Here he is in his jumping seat. It's so funny to watch him in it! He loves it!
Such a sweet face!
Here he is before we first gave him rice cereal!
Here he is with rice cereal on his face. You can see how blond his hair is getting!
Getting dressed by his Uncle Jesse. He just looks so sweet!
Chowing down on his keys
Funny face!
I love these next few pictures!
I'm sorry the house thing is so stressful. yuck! It will all be over soon (hopefully!) and you'll be in your house with tons of stuff to do to it. :) That Eli sure is precious. I love that last picture!
LOVE the one of him with the little monkey! I hope you get your home soon. I'm sorry you've been so frustrated. Keep waiting on the Lord and His timing will be perfect!
He is so darling! It was wonderful to see you and meet your sweet boy. I hope that I can photograph Eli more in the future--he is such a GOOD baby! I put some photos on Facebook for you. :)
