First Day of Preschool

Holding hands as we get ready to head out to school! Such cute brothers!
Look at my little boys!

Eli started preschool on Tuesday! Such a big day! Last year Eli spent one morning a week at a program called Mother's Morning Out, and now he is a part of their 2 day a week 2.5 year old preschool program! All of the students turn 3 by December first and Eli is the baby in the class with a November 30 birthday! He is also a good 3 inches taller than everyone else! He had so much fun on the first day and couldn't wait for me to stop hovering and leave him in his classroom! What a big boy! 

P.S. Please note the adorable matching converse sneakers, khaki shorts, and matching stripe polos in different colors! This is as close to matching as Sam will let me go (but its still pretty close and very very precious)! 

P.P.S. Isn't Eli such a long, tall drink of water? Nate, well he is a combination of bowling ball and all maniac! 

A whale of a good time!

We added a new member to our outside toddler fun world! Wally the Whale! The boys love having a pool in the backyard! These little guys couldn't get enough of it! They splashed, romped and beat up on poor wally's tail for at least an hour! Such fun!

Pasta and Lasagna Night are back... so fun new pasta head pictures!

Say Lasagna! 
Who is that lasagna covered boy?
Uh-oh, spaghetti-o!
Oh, sweet boy!

This must be the 40th round of lasagna/pasta pictures! But they never get old! Nate takes after his mommy with his new found love of dumping bowls of pasta on his head!

Two Toddlers, Finger Paints and a Turtle Sand box lid

It is so much more fun to paint with your body than with hands and paint brushes
My Little Artist loves creating
Showing off the turtle sandbox lid, his painted body, and sweet sincere face as he told me what he had created!
Nate loved painting, eating paint, and rolling in paint until he took a facer into the turtle lid! 
So he went back to driving like a maniac with paint covered hands and a trusty shovel!

The boys and I were playing in the backyard earlier in the week when I decided to make our outside time WAY more fun for all of us! First we put our baby shampoo in the water table and made a bubble table... genius! Then we used the turtle sandbox lid as a giant, washable paint canvas and went for it! What a great time! Eli is such an artist and Nate thinks paint tastes great!

Giant Toddler Update

This is our "baby" at almost 17 months! 
Notice the devilish glint in his eyes! He is ALWAYS up to mischief!

Nate was cracking Eli and I up at lunch yesterday with his funny faces and mimicry, so I had to snap a few more high chair poses (seriously people it is almost impossible to capture Nate on film if he isnt strapped down.... he is like the mysterious big foot). Nate is such a funny little guy. He has made huge physical and mental leaps in the last month. He is talking in lots and lots of 2 and 3 word sentences and learning new words at an incredible rate. His favorite new phrase is "hear kitty kitty" that he picked up from watching Gromma call her cats! Pretty funny! He is also likes to emphatically say "yes" with head shaking emphasis and "No" with equal fervor! 

The boy is a monkey climber. His most notable climbing accomplishments include the train table at the book store, any and every couch and chair, and our coffee table. He climbed the coffee table by turning a toy box upside down, pushing it to the coffee table, and using it to climb right on up! My hair is turning grey as I type this! 

More of the adventures of Eli and Nate to come! 

Meet Bobbit Diggit

Meet Bobbit Diggit. He is a construction guy/digger/alter-ego to my amazing 2.5 year old son. Eli is the most imaginative little boy. Every day (and sometimes every hour) he is trying on new personas. He is lightening McQueen the race car, he is Thomas the Train, he is a tractor guy, he is Nate (yep, he sometimes wants to be the little guy). My favorite persona of all is Eli though. What a creative little boy! His alter-ego appeared yesterday and has been going strong. This is the first named alter-ego (other than characters from books). Life with Eli will always be an adventure and I am excited for every alter-ego we encounter on the way!

California Part IX: Visit with Grandpa and Grandma Sally... Pictures and all

What a great picture of Nate and Grandpa! Look at those smiles!
Grandpa treated the boys to some great guitar! The boys have some serious musical genetics thanks to Grandpa (guitar) and Gromma (voice)!
Traci, Dru, Grandpa, Momma, and Nate pose for a family picture! (Grandma Sally is behind the camera, and who knows where Eli and Daddy are in this shot!)
Look at my handsome guys! Such buddies!
Sweet, Sweet picture!
Nate in all his glory! He has slimmed down... no, really!
Yeah, Baby!
This could be the best Eli picture ever! 
READY!
SET!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAWWWWWW!!!!!
That was awesome! 

What a fun afternoon we had with Grandpa and Grandma Sally. We got to play on this amazing water slide, we had a great dinner (despite Nate's antics...teething plus no sleep), and lots of fun family time together. It was such a wonderful trip and we are so fortunate to have been able to see the whole family! We love you all! 

California Part VIII: visit with Grandpa and Grandma Saly

I seemed to have taken every picture of this great visit on some weird camera setting so I am begging grandpa and grandma Sally to send pictures ASAP so I can share all of our fun times!

California Part VII: Grammy, Great Grammy, and Family

Grammy and Nate snuggling away the day! 
Great-Grammy and big boy Nate! Look at those long legs!
Great-Grammy reading to Eli and Dru
Auntie Traci reading to Eli while Cousin Dru naps in true 13 year old style!

Great-Grammy and Eli playing in the yard! Such buddies!
Great-Grammy wrestling with Nate and Eli
Such Big Boys: Nate, Cousin Dru, and Eli
Cool guys hanging out!

After our amazing trip north we braved (tortured ourselves) with an 11.5 hour car ride to Northern California to stay with Grammy! The drive was well worth it because we had such a special visit! Grammy started off the trip with a bang by rescuing poor Eli our first morning there as his mommy and daddy were so exhausted from Nate's all night antics that we didnt hear Eli wake up! This let Eli and Grammy have special time together, and it let momma and daddy and Nate get some much needed sleep! Yeah Grammy! 

We spent a ton of time visiting with Cousin Dru and Auntie Traci! It was so much fun to watch all those boys together. Dru is 13 and was incredibly patient with and interested in the boys ! What a great guy! The biggest day of our visit came when Sam's Uncle Tommy drove Great-Grammy down for a visit (Tommy's grandson seth came too, so add one more boy to the mix).  Aunt Kathy and Cousin Whitney came over too and we had a wonderful family reunion! Great grammy and Eli became instant pals and Nate loved her laughs and games! This is such a special day for all of us. Great-grammy is the only great-grandparent left in either family and it is so important to cherish all the times we have together! 

California Part VI: Trip to San DiegoZoo with Auntie Bec

Two Monkeys in a safari Jeep
Eli and Auntie Bec! Best Buddies!
Hanging out with Daddy! Best view of the zoo!
Brother and Sister Look-a-likes!
Our attempt at a family portrait! Though this sums us up nicely! Chaos!
Gap-tooth Nate!

On our last day in Southern California we met Sam's little sister Rebecca at the San Diego Zoo (she drove down from LA, What a great Auntie). We had the best time with her. We saw all the animals at the zoo, ate snack and lunch together, had lots of family time, and just generally loved being together. We miss you Auntie Bec! 

P.S. Auntie Bec is our hero because she is in Bali right now! have a great adventure Auntie Bec

California Part V: More to come...still

We also have to post pictures from our terrific visit with Grandpa Stuart and Grandma Sally. There was some serious slip-n-slide action and great food. All northern California pictures are coming up soon!

Coming Up: Auntie Bec, Grammy, Great-Grammy, Cousin Dru and Traci

AS soon as I get the rest of my pictures down loaded I will post about our super-fun zoo trip with Auntie Bec! As well as our awesome trip to Northern California to stay with Grammy! We had so much fun with Grammy, cousin Dru and Traci! And we had a wonderful visit with Aunt Kathy and cousin Whitney, Great-Grammy, Uncle Tommy, and cousin seth! 

California Part IV: Renewal of Vows

All dressed up before our vow renewal! 
Sam and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary in July and as part of our celebration my parents kept the boys for 2 days and a night so that Sam and I could get away (escape) just the two of us! We went up to beautiful Julian, CA and had the most amazing time. We renewed our marriage vows in a very quaint ceremony in a horse drawn carriage. It was such a special moment. We then enjoyed two full days of of us time which we haven't had since the boys were born! We had the best time but boy did we miss those little boys! We cant wait to go away again next year! 

P.S. Gromma and Pop Pop we love love love you for doing this for us! 

California Part III: Dato/Kenagy/Munger/King reunion

Grandma Amada holding beautiful baby Cami (5 weeks old and gorgeous)
Pop Pop, Gromma, Eli, Nate, Momma and Daddy! What a great family picture! (we miss you Uncle Chris and Auntie Bec)
Auntie Nikki blowing bubbles for baby Nate
Princess Natalie! What a cutie!
3 toddlers in 1 wagon equals chaos
Grandma Davis with baby Cami
Momma and Auntie Nikki. 4 babies and countless years later (ok, 30 years) still best friends!

We had a get together with the Kenagy family (Auntie Nikki, Uncle Kevin, Natalie and baby Cami) and grandma and grandpa Dato (Big Bill and Amada, and Grandma Davis! We had 9 adults, 3 toddlers and one very new baby and it was such fun! Watching Natalie, Eli and Nate play like Nikki and I used to as toddlers was amazing (our dad's looked all sappy eyed about it!). The Dato's and Kenagy's are part of our family and we love them all!