Elijah is 11!

We celebrated Elijah's 11th Birthday with a few friends today. He chose a Minecraft theme, a video game that he is really into. We bought an X-Box as a family gift for Christmas from my Dad and Elijah had been saving up money to buy a Minecraft game for himself so after Christmas, I took him shopping to finally buy it.

Elijah is a pretty easy-going kid. He likes to tease his siblings and make lots of noise by singing, humming, drumming on things or just about anything to let us know that he's in the same room--but other than that. He's a really easy-going boy. He goes with the flow of whatever is happening around him as well as able to focus on a game or book or homework or puzzle no matter what other things are going on around him. It sure helps him be a good student at school!

Every year, I really enjoy making a BIG DEAL of him on his birthday, partly, because of all that, he's just so easy-going, sometimes it's easy for him to be overlooked. If any of the kids have to "give in" for the wishes of another...Elijah is usually the first one. He's a little peacemaker and I enjoy that about him.

It's pretty fun to love on him and make him the center of attention because he sure enjoys it and the rewards of hugs and kisses and thank-yous are pretty amazing to his Dad and I.

At school this year, he ended up in a class (that we chose for him) separated from most of his "friends" that he's had classes with since Kindergarten. It's been a joy to watch him choose new friends--Kevin & Michael--both really great kids, and just lean in to new friendships. From the very beginning of planning his party, they were the first two on his list. I like that.

So he created some world and game within the Minecraft video game for the party, which they all played and enjoyed. We also bought some perler beads for making Minecraft characters and surprisingly, the boys all enjoyed making them!
 

Elijah's 3 years old!

Three years ago today, Elijah joined our family! It has been quite a ride since he joined us. It's never a dull moment in our home or family, that's for sure! He makes us all laugh and laugh and take life a little lighter.

For his birthday we headed over the mountain to my parents house for a couple days. There's an aquatic center in Madras (that I recommend!) so we went there for their open swim from 1-3pm. We all had a great time! There's a 90' curly slide, (which you have to be 48 inches to ride), there's a fountain and splash area for little ones with a padded bottom on the pool! Makes it great for parents hanging out in that area. We all enjoyed the lazy river too. It was a perfect amount of time for swimming and playing!

After that we headed to Pappy's pizza in Redmond for some food and more play time! Thankfully it was about an hour drive from the swimming pool to the Pizza Parlor, giving both Caleb & Elijah time to nap in the van. If you have small kids and ever need a break on a trip to Bend, it's a wonderfully kid-friendly place with pretty good pizza!

Months ago, the kids & I were in the car and I asked Elijah, "What kind of birthday cake would you like this year?" To which Abigail replied, "Ooh, Elijah, you should have a sign birthday!!" I totally tried to boo that idea, which didn't work and since then he has said, "I'm going to have a sign birthday (cake) this year!!" As it got closer and closer I kept trying to get him interested in other ideas, but he was stuck. I even googled "traffic signs" to see if I could find one that I liked (yeah, completely selfish of me!!) because I really, really didn't want to make a red cake if he asked for a STOP sign. Well, he did. Thankfully though, he really wanted a green STOP sign cake. Not sure where that came from, but I jumped at the idea, hoping he wouldn't change his mind. He didn't...in fact, he's been saying, "This year is my green sign birthday and next year is my blue one!!" Oh dear.

It's a bit ironic though, that he did choose a STOP sign for his birthday. He really does hear that word a lot!! : ) And I mean, A LOT! : ) I would like to say that a YIELD sign might be more appropriate, but we are in the thick of training this little man and honestly, STOP is what he does hear most often. I'm praying this year will be a fruitful year of YIELDing his strong, determined will to that of his parents and the Lord as he grows in wisdom and discernment.

Besides being incredibly energetic he is also incredibly sweet and tender. When he and Abigail are arguing over something, it's Elijah who is the first to apologize and ask for forgiveness. He doesn't hold tightly to "things" and if something is taken from him, he just moves onto something else. He gives great hugs and kisses and loves to cuddle, especially after naptime in the afternoon. He is the first to greet Joel with a big hug when he comes home from work, saying, "I missed you at work!" He loves life and is full of life! He already is and will continue to be a JOY to our family through the years!!

Happy Birthday Sweet Elijah! We love you!!

Elijah's Birthday part two

I've switched to Internet Explorer and although it's not as user friendly as Firefox, I'm going to try to finish telling the story of Elijah's birthday! The pictures are all out of order, but oh well! : )

Joel's sister and family came over for the day to celebrate Elijah. It was fun to have family around to share his birthday with! His cousins, Katelyn & Morgan are both so sweet with the kids and Abigail and Elijah both love having them around! We decided to go to Chuck-E-Cheese's for his birthday lunch...a perfect place for the kids! They have a special toddler play area as well as games suitable for them. All four of the kids had a great time!

After that we headed home for some cake and ice-cream and opening presents. We got him a train set for Christmas, so he's really into trains right now which is why I made him a "choo-choo" cake as he called it. It wasn't that hard to make...here's the link for the how-to video!

The candles were too far away from Elijah for him to blow the candles out, so in the end, Abigail did that for him! What's a big sister for??

Elijah didn't actually end up eating any of the cake. He polished off his ice-cream and left he cake. His Uncle Will was playing with him afterward, trying to get him to take a bite of the cake, but all he would do is make this funny face. Silly boy!!

Guess who's twooooo?!

That's right! Elijah is two years old today! Wow!

Elijah is such a fun little boy! Usually making us laugh at some new funny thing he's doing, which makes him do it all the more. He's a bundle of energy that keeps us on our toes almost all day long too and has a sensitive side that is so sweet is just melts our hearts!

We celebrated today by going to Chuck-E-Cheese's with Joel's sister, Marie & family and Joel's parents. It has a great toddler area with a play place and games, all the kids had a great time! His favorite ones were the riding ones.

I'm going to have to finish this post later...Firefox keeps shutting down on me for some reason. At least I got the video uploaded!

Happy 1st Birthday Elijah!

Hi! I'm Elijah Thomas Woodard and I'm one year old today!

You can see how big I am now that I'm a year old, especially compared to when I was only 1 month old! I've grown a lot!! I've enjoyed my first year of life, it feels like it happened at warp speed, cuz that's how I like to do things! My Mama is always telling me to slow down, take my time and enjoy life, but I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in, so I like to go fast.

When we were in America for Christmas I decided I would start walking cause I can get around faster that way and I'm almost ready to run! Sometimes I do, but then I fall cause my legs can't keep up with my mind yet. Pretty soon, though and then my Mama will be sorry!

For my birthday, Mama made me cupcakes that looked like sports balls. I like all sorts of balls, so I was happy. Mama & Dada had a staff meeting at Luka's Mama & Dada's house, so we were all there and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and I got to blow out a candle, which I wasn't very good at, but it was fun to have everyone looking at just me. My cake was yummy.
Mama & Dada gave me a toy airplane for my birthday and both Abigail and I like it cuz it reminds us of when we went to visit Grandma & Grandpa.
Some of my favorite toys are cars, balls, tractors and Mama's pot lids cuz they make lots of noise and anything else that I can slide across the kitchen floor.

I like to make people laugh, however I can. It makes me happy if other people are laughing because of me. I like to laugh too. One of my favorite games is peek-a-boo.I don't like sitting still, being buckled in my car seat or having my daiper changed. I like to move and when I can't it's not fun. I like to have fun.

I also like to wrestle with and head-butt my Dada. My favorite word is Dada, I say it all the time. Sometimes Dada asks me to say "Mama" and I smile and say "Dada!" Everyone laughs at me. I like to cuddle with Mama and put my head on her shoulder and give kisses to my family.

I think I'm going to have fun this next year and try lots and lots of new things and probably end up in the hospital at least once. But I'll be having fun along the way cuz that's just what I do!

Eli is 9 months!

I have several things I've been wanting to write about and having a difficult time these days finding the time, so I'm "hoping" to get several done tonight now that the kids are in bed...
So! First things first! Elijah turned 9 months the other day! I put a shirt on him today and just happened to glance at the tag, it read "9 Months". Oh my! Not, 'oh my' that he's still wearing a shirt size 9 months, but that he is actually 9 months old already! Oh my! Where has the time gone?! I think I say that every month...yet it's true e v e r y time! : )

He is still cruising all over the house and still putting everything into his mouth, nothing has changed there! His cruising has changed a little though. He has grown out of his little army crawl and into a sort-of (I call it) monkey crawl as well as just recently your traditional hand and knees crawl. Here's a picture of his little monkey crawl in motion... (I totally use that title affectionately!! : )Another way he's starting to get about is by walking or pushing furniture around as he goes. Sometimes he picks things that aren't very stable though and...crash! He's learning though and no bad tumbles...yet!

I'm...

8 months old...the other day!

I'm copying a post I did with Abigail when she was 8 months. Click here to see her picture.

So Elijah is now 8 months! Oh my! Where has the time gone? I think most of it has gone through trying to channel where I want Eli to go...opening doors to rooms where I don't mind him being and closing doors where I don't want him to go. I can often tell where he is by the noise that he's making ... like clanging that bathroom floor drain that I really, really don't want him playing with!

He is cruising all over the house these days, making a break for any open door that leads to the outside, putting anything he can get in his hands into his mouth...that list includes, but is not at all limited to:
plant dirt
gravel
grass
soot
food off the kitchen floor (we don't need a dog, we have Eli!)
slippers or any shoe that fits
and other things that are actually allowed in his mouth!

Just this month I bought him two new toys for chewing on...he often puts them aside to find other things. Crazy kiddo!

Besides his army crawling all over, he's also pulling himself up now. Most of the time after sleeping, I go in to find him like this. He climbs on or over everything in his path or sometimes things or people that aren't even in his path. He just enjoys climbing and I think the sliding off part. He is a lot of fun!
So here is this month's picture with his little bear. It was tough to get one this month! I would settle him into the place I wanted him and he would leap forward. I would quickly push him back which he thought was great fun and then leap forward again. Most of my pictures ended up more like the one below and I think 3 or 4 (out of about 25) were like the one above. He's a mover and a shaker!We just love this little guy and are having a great time with him!!

Eli is 7 months!

I had a hard time getting a picture of this little guy this month because he wouldn't stop moving! Often he looks like one of those toys that you pull the string from the bottom and both arms and legs fly up...that's Eli these days! Just a mover and a shaker! I didn't realize how good I had it with Abigail ...she hardly got into any cupboards or drawers, I didn't have to be careful where I put cleaners, etc. I would just tell her "no touch" and she would stay away (for the most part!) but I can tell that I am going to have my hands full with this guy! Or maybe I should say, he is going to have his hands full ...of everything that he isn't supposed to!

Right now here are his interests:

• electrical cords of any kind
• Abigail's juice cups
  
• sticking his fingers in the tiny holes of fans
• food of any kind
• pulling hair
• a bathroom floor drain (yeah, ick!)
• giving me zerberts on my arm after his feedings
  
• and wrestling with Dada

We are really enjoying him!

Six Months Already!

Elijah is six months now! Wow! Our neighbors just had a baby girl recently and when I saw her and then looked at Eli who was swinging in their swingset, I couldn't believe that it was just 6 months ago that he really was that small and fragile.

He is sitting up pretty good on his own, and is now falling gracefully. : ) It's amazing to watch how that process develops! He is creeping everywhere, rolling all over the floor to get wherever or whatever he wants and should be crawling pretty soon too! It's like he's in fast motion all-the-time! Maybe he's making up for being 11 days late!

He's so different from Abigail and it makes me feel like I'm getting to know her better through watching Elijah develop. When she was small I didn't know what was "her" and what was just normal baby stuff, so it's fun to see just how different Eli is from his sister.

Each month I'm getting pictures of Eli next to this bear to show how he grows, but it's turned into more of a wrestling match each month and it's so cute to see the progression on film. The first three months he didn't even notice the bear was beside him! I just love all the pictures this month, so I decided to include them all! It may be one of those "only a mother will like" things, but the pictures are there if you want to watch!

Enjoy!

Family time in Vienna

The kids and I were able to go with Joel to Vienna, which was both good and bad for us all. : ) All four of us were in a small room with a sky light that lit up our room every morning at 6am, waking both of the kids for the whole day. Then with all that was going on, they were staying up later each night. It was trying for us all and will most likely be the last camp that the kids and I go to for at least a few years. It's just better if we stay at home and pray for the camp! : )

The Hunnicutt family also went with all of us and Abigail really enjoyed the extra play time with Lili. There was a full size bathtub at the Hospitality House, so Abigail had two baths while we were there and loved the room to stretch her legs and even to share a bath time with Lili one night!

Also, one day we were able to hang out with Joel in Vienna while the students were off doing things in their English class groups. It turned out to be July 15th, which was Elijah's 6 month birthday, so we got some fun pics of him throughout the day!

Enjoying some Starbucks with Mom & Dad!

And banging on the menu at TGIFriday's!

Abigail fed the ducks with Dada and got to ride a "choo-choo" which was fun for her. The trip in to Vienna she was so exhausted, she actually slept the entire 50 minutes. She thoroughly enjoyed her trip back with Lili though.

The last week

has been really busy, so I'm just going to post one time and include news from the whole week!

Elijah turned 5 months on Sunday!

He's sitting up better and better, rolling over all the time (especially during diaper changes!!) and using his vocal chords a lot lately! He is so much fun! We're just really enjoying this little guy. We also celebrated Joel's second Father's Day on Sunday. That was fun! He got a new wheelbarrow!! And was actually excited about it. He "inherited" one with the house that was completely rusty and had a flat tire, so he was glad to receive a new one. Also, I found a program online where you can take a photo and turn it into a sketch for a coloring page. So I did that with a picture of Abigail and Joel that she colored for him for Father's Day. As she was coloring it, she kept saying, "Dada!" and "Abby!" It was really cute!

Also last week, Abigail got the flu. It felt like it was her first time to actually have a temperature of 100 degrees. I remember one other time, at the JV Spring Conf last year, but other than that, I don't remember her having an actual high temperature. It was really sweet to have her just wanting to cuddle and be held. She also spent a lot of time on the couch, like in this photo, which she rarely ever does. It was sweet and short lived...After she got better though, it became a sort-of pretend game that she liked playing for, oh, about a day! She kept asking, "ho Lila?" which means, "Can I hold Elijah?" and then she would make room on the couch for him to sit beside her. I think these two are really going to enjoy playing together once this boy gets to moving!And finally, we've been having lots of rainy days over here! Bleh! We're running out of indoor activities to do! The other day I got out some watercolor paints for Abigail to try. She's still a bit young, but we gave it a try! It turned out to be more WATER than the color, but she enjoyed it and didn't make too much of a mess. She liked putting the brush in the paint, then putting it in the water and then putting it on the paper. I had to hang the papers outside on the laundry line to dry, they were so wet! It ended when she discovered putting her hand in the water was more fun than using the brush. I think she's ready for finger paints, but I need to get some plastic tablecloths before I am!!