Praise Songs with Laney

Mom, thanks for teaching her these!

       

Am I a Trained Monkey, that I Sing On Command?...Yes!

All you Veggie Tales fans out there, this is for you.

            

Ben's Trip

As most of you know, Ben is on his "7 Games in 7 Days" baseball trip. He is having a great time and has taken some pretty cool pictures so far. You can see them on the trip blog. I put a link on the right hand side of the page.

One of the things that I love about Ben is that he has the creativity to dream big and the courage to pursue it. (How else could he have met and married me, right? Joking, joking.)

I love you Ben; and while I'm so glad you could go, I'm looking forward to you coming home. 

Tit for Tat

Okay family, this is the video we've been talking about.  For those who don't know anything about it, I'll just say that it's under 2 minutes long and the last 20 seconds are classic.

           

Giving Thanks

Do you see a man who excels in his work? 

He will stand before kings; he will not stand before unknown men.

Proverbs 22:29

I have a thankful heart today because Ben has received very favorable reviews from "the higher ups" at work.  Now, being his wife and a little biased, I think "Well, of course, he totally deserves that recognition."  But God reminds me that He did not promise immediate recognition for a job well done on this earth, and I'm back to recognizing these favorable reviews as a gift from God. Ben does his work with excellence, but He has granted Ben favor in the eyes of his employer. 

Once Upon a Time...

There was a beautiful little princess named Elena. Elena wanted only one thing in life; and that was to dance beautifully. 

She heard that only her Fairy Grandmother was equipped to teach her, so she mounted her noble steed, and rode off to find her. 

After a long journey, she reached her destination. She explained her wish to dance beautifully to her Fairy Grandmother, and they were soon practicing. 

They practiced from sunrise to sunset.

Many an onlooker was intrigued by the dilligence of the little princess. 

Finally, the Fairy Grandmother told Elena that she had learned all there was to learn and it was time to dance. 

And that's just what she did.

CREDITS

Costumes - Provided by Aunt Abby

Thank you Abby! Elena had so much fun dressing up

Fairy Grandmother - Played by Grandma, or "Ma"

We had a great weekend with you and were sad to see you go back to Houston. 

Evan Disillusioned

Evan had his first encounter with solids yesterday. I'll let him tell you how it went.

"Ooooooh! This looks like FUN!"

"Akkk! Get it out! Get it out!"

"Ewwww! NOW what do I do?"

"Dis is How You Do It, Mommy"

Elena decided that the proper way to eat her cereal was to first separate it from the milk. She counted each piece of cereal as she took it out. And by counting, I mean that she counted the first ten and then all subsequent pieces were assigned a random number between 1o and 20.

Not Your Typical Red-Head

Evan is out to break all stereotypes of red-heads being hot-tempered.  I know, I know... it may be a little premature to make this prediction at 6 months, but look at that face! Can you imagine him angry?

Peek-a-boo!

Here's Some Trivia for Ya

The average water usage per household in our neighborhood is over 18,000 gallons a month.

The Elkins' household average - 4,000 gallons a month.   

$$$CHA-CHING$$$

Hmmm, this could be why our grass is a couple of notches below "thriving". 

Our "Buddy"

...as he is affectionately called around here turned 6 months old today!

Evan at 6 Months -

He is 50th percentile for height and weight (26in and 17lb,4oz), but his head is 95th percentile! About every other visit my kids get their heads remeasured by the doctor to double check the accuracy of what the nurse wrote down. And every time the doctor says..."wow, they have a big head." :-)

He loves bouncing, listening to how loud he can "roar", bouncing, any smiling face, his sister's voice and touch, bouncing, cuddling with blankets on his cheek, and of course eating. We love everything about him!

Foot-Loose and Paci-Free

The time had come…and gone, but I’m proud to say we finally said good-bye to the pacifier.

Yesterday we brought Elena outside, tied the paci to 5 helium-filled balloons, and said good-bye as we let go. It was bitter sweet; Mom an Dad were grinning from ear to ear, and Elena was crying. I expected a grieving period of about a week, but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. The first thing she said to me this morning with a huge smile on her face was “Paci! Fwy! Die!”

Translation: “Paci! Flies! In the Sky!”

Miss Potato Head and Ferocious Baby

Sometimes You've Got to Stop and Smell the......Wha?!?

First let me say that having Elena really helps me slow down and appreciate the little things that I would normally write off as routine. She is elated when she comes across a bug or the remains of a popped balloon outside, and she always wants me to share in her excitement. Now, let me share this related story…

I was in Elena’s room putting up laundry when I hear her exclaim from the living room, “See! Look Mommy, Look!”.  In typical Elena fashion, she repeats this rapidly another dozen times as she comes to show me what’s in her hand. I have to admit that with so many exciting discoveries, I tend to have a pretty casual interest. I hold out my hand but was not looking at it. She places her new treasure into my palm and I look down….it was poo.  So there I am holding her poo.

I took a couple of seconds trying to figure out how this happened, but with no answers, I salvaged the moment by turning it into our first potty-training lesson, “Elena, this goes into the toilet…etc”

It was not the grossest thing I’ve experienced as a mom, but it’s up there. J

Eating is Highly Overrated

I have spent the last hour going back and forth between allrecipes.com, a cooking magazine, and my shopping list trying to figure out what we are going to eat over the next week. I've come to the realization that I really hate menu planning.  For starters, I'm indecisive on what to make.  Then, when I do make a decision, I have to filter it through the question, "would Ben like it?" (that knocks out about 40% of my choices).  Next, there's the figuring out what I need from the store. Once I make my list, the length of it starts spinning "$" in my head and I'm back to searching for new recipes with budget friendly ingredients, and the cycle begins again. 

If I had it my way we would eat cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. :-)