Summertime

Oh how I love the summertime. :) Well, here goes another gigantic post. This one has pictures from April to July. I will start with the most recent things we've done and go from there. It's been a great summer so far and we're glad it's not over yet.

Last week, we were at the ranch. The weather was beautiful and Eli is the perfect age to love every second of it. Here are a few pictures from that. First, is this one on our last day...Eli was exhausted. He always falls asleep on Ranger rides. It's hard to be a baby and be driven around in a jeep in the woods. :)

We saw the most gorgeous sunset while we were there. The pictures come close to doing it justice. Here is the token self family portrait.

This is my favorite picture though.

Eli entered his first beauty contest while at the ranch. His girl cousins (Abby and Allie) put it together and it was a lot of fun. Eli won for best talent which was jumping up and down.

You have not lived until you have experienced the Snowflake Pioneer Day parade. Matt said he refuses to ever miss one. This year was our first and it was really something. Complete with fashion shows on floats from the local boutique and flying candy aimed for your head (not intentionally of course....or was it?). It was great fun. Here is Eli on Grammy's lap. He loved it.

Eli got a tricycle for his 2nd birthday which he is getting close to riding by himself. He looks so cute and little boyish on it.

Posing with his stash of presents.

His birthday party with all of his Trendler cousins.

A close up of my cake masterpiece. All he wanted was a "truckie" cake. I think I delivered pretty well if I do say so myself. :) I must give a shoutout to Matt for helping with the design and color scheme. We had fun putting this together for our little Elijahbarry.

So happy to finally have his truckie cake.

Just looking cute in San Diego. We went there for the 4th of July.

Dad and mini-dad reading Dad's and Eli's favorite book. They have matching outfits of course.

Watching fireworks on Grumpy's (Grandpa T) dingy in San Diego Harbour. I must say, Eli has quite the life....

Waving, a little nervously, to Grammy who we left behind on the sailboat.

On Memorial Day weekend, it was unseasonably cool, so we celebrated by being outside and went down the street to this little pond/lake thing where they have ducks.

Grandma Patti with Eli in San Diego...we had gone there in May for Matt's brother's graduation.

Eli and Grandpa looking at Eli's favorite thing about San Diego...watching hot air balloons at night.

Watching all the balloons. They come really close to the Faas' house somtimes.

At the beach...

Getting ready to get on the plane.

Daddy and Eli looking at the planes in Phoenix getting ready to go to San Diego.

Just cute.

Earlier in May, the Faas' also cam to visit us at our house. We had a fabulous time and Eli loved them being on his turf. Here is Eli and Grandpa.

Sometimes Eli comes out wearing Mommy's cherry red heels. Of all the shoes I have, he of course picks these ones. Pretty funny.

We also went to San Diego to celebrate being done with Matt's April 15th deadline. A welcome break! This is on the sky ride at the San Diego zoo.

A little camera shy with his glasses....

Newsflash -- It's a Lady Baby

We interupt the 24/7 Eli nature of this blog to announce that another little person will be joining our little family come October 27. Some of you who read this blog know that I am pregnant and some of you do not. So I guess this first order of business is to announce that I am indeed pregenant with #2. The second would be to announce that we are having a baby girl!!! We're so excited for our little girl and we think Eli will make a great big brother. Here are the token ultra sound pictures we got today. Personally, I think the 3-D ones can look a little weird and blobby but it is cool to see. And the last picture is the traditional two dimentional profile. Anyway, it's great news and mostly we feel blessed that so far she looks normal and healthy. Oh my, so much shopping to do. :) Bring on the pink!!!

The Wait is Over -- Easter Eggstravaganza Time!!!

Every year my parents throw an Easter party for all of the extended family the Saturday before Easter. The kids love it and it's always a fun time to catch up with everyone. Here, Eli is with cousin Sydney in Grandpa T's tractor train.
Eli is a pretty popular guy and made a couple of new friends at the party. Sports fans, you recognize these two? :)

Chewing on a celery stick....mmmmmm.

Only a grandma would share a water bottle with an almost 2 year old. The mom even has her reservations.

Grandpa and Barry. Grandpa tried to help Barry get some candy during the candy "hunt." Notice the "Cup o' Gold" in the bag. According to Dad, that was the good stuff. I'm more of a Twix kind of girl.

More candy hunting.

Barry got to open Easter gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Faas before the Easter Bunny came. He LOVES his new Cars back pack.

We all know Matt is a man of many talents. Chalk up tractor-train driver to the list. Pretty much Eli was having his own private Disneyland in my parent's back yard. Lucky son of a gun.

What a nice boy in his Easter church clothes.

Eli's new favorite thing is to bend and smell flowers....doesn't matter if they are on TV, on a shirt, or planted in the dirt. He smells them. So funny.

Grandpa was swinging Eli outside and he quite enjoyed it.

Eli and Matt before church.

Hunting for eggs in our backyard Easter morning. Eli loved it and totally caught on. It was fun to watch him get so excited to find an egg.

Making sure he found all 12.

The Easter Bunny loot. The plastic eggs are empty...shhhhh. Eli didn't care...he just loved opening and shutting them.

So happy to have a lawn mower just like Daddy.

Ooooing and awwwwwing.


Welp, that's all kids. Yet another ode to the famous Elijah Barry Faas through pictures. What can I say? We love that guy!

Potpourri (a Jeopardy reference, of course)

I was working on something and I looked up and saw this. I just busted up. Not one, but two passeys. Apparently, getting him off one is going to be harder than I thought.

This picture just makes me happy.

As does this one...so cute.

Sometimes our small baby likes to relive the good ol' days and take a little swing ride.

One of my all time favorite pictures of Eli. I love his smile in this one.

Helping Dad with a little spring sprucing in the backyard. Matt is just counting down the days until Eli can mow the lawn.

More helping.

What a good weed puller! Unfortunately, he was so good he pulled out a nice chunk of my tomato plant the other day.

A little outing in January to see the world's tallest fountain in Fountain Hills, AZ. Are you jealous?

UP NEXT: It's an Easter Eggstravaganza...look for the new posting coming soon....