9/29 - MIA

It's been a while since I've been able to post. I had a really rough week last week and wasn't around from Tuesday to this past Monday. That said, some of these pictures are a few weeks old. Here is Eli opening his birthday card from Nana that sings to him. He loved it.

Aiden got one for his birthday too and we saved it so they both played with their musical cards for a while.

As you can see from this next picture, little Eli was pretty worn out. He was so grumpy and almost falling asleep sitting on the couch.

You can see Aiden below sporting his new Awana Cubbies vest. It's supposed to last them 2 yrs but I think we ordered him the wrong size. I think it just might be a really short vest though too. He's excited about it. He's done a great job at trying to memorize his verses for the week. His memory verse for this week is "God created the heavens and the earth."

This next picture cracks me up because I was taking pictures and Aiden was insistent that I take his picture. He was saying cheese but he doesn't exactly looked too thrilled.

I have Eli and Aiden playing below with the hangers on video. It was too funny. Eli was belly laughing hard because he thought it was so funny to push one side of the hanger and watch it go around the knob on the closet door until it fell off onto the ground. The things that amuse kids are just amazing sometimes.

Grandma and grandpa Hoyt mailed Eli his birthday present and Brad waited until I got home from the hospital on Monday for Eli to open it.

Aiden did such a good job of being patient and realizing that it was Eli's present. Eli was really excited about his new truck and didn't want to share at all.

Tuesday was my first full day back at home and I had the boys. It figures that neither of them wanted to nap. Actually, Eli fell asleep in the van on the way back from a dr appt for Aiden and stayed asleep on the couch once I put him there while I went to make lunch. He looked adorable but he thought that 15 min was the same as a 2-3 hr nap. NOT! Aiden didn't nap at all. Needless to say, we had a difficult evening because both of the boys broke down at about 6:15pm from exhaustion.

Wednesday was my first day back at work. It was great even though I just administered an exam. I can't wait for Friday when I actually get to lecture again. I got home really late on Wednesday (around 6:30pm) so Brad picked the boys up from daycare. Eli got some stickers for his birthday from Aunt Pat and went a little crazy with stickers.

Brad and the boys have really bonded. He did such a great job of taking care of the boys while I was gone over the past week. I'm so proud of Brad. Becoming full-time daddy for a week wasn't what any of had planned but Brad did such a great job.

I just enjoyed sitting in Eli's room watching the boys play on Wednesday after I got home. These boys are so precious!

Brad is so good with them. Eli is FINALLY starting to like books and I'm so excited. He made me quite nervous for a while. He LOVES to sing songs (he tries at least) and do the hand motions. Here are the boys (Brad included) doing Itsy Bitsy Spider.

I have definitely missed Brad. My sleep is still crazy off and I'm not sleeping much but I'm so glad to be home.

This morning we had Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) but I had to drop Eli off at daycare because of scheduling problems with Aiden's therapy on Thursday afternoons. Eli was excited his class was out at the playground when we dropped him off. Aiden had fun at BSF although I was disappointed that he couldn't even tell me what he learned.

It's great to be home. Oh yeah. Eli broke my nose on Tuesday afternoon. Little stinker. It's very sore and kills to wear sunglasses. Life is an adventure. God is starting to do some amazing things in my life and I'm so excited. It's gonna be amazing - I can just feel it.

9/18 - Eli turns 2!

On Saturday afternoon, we had a small party for Eli. He chose a Mickey Mouse theme. Since our house isn't that big, we can't invite too many people over. We the Snead family (Sarah) and the Payne family (Stephanie) and our neighbors made it over as well.

I made cute little name tags for some of the food. I believe we had 8 kids under the age of 6. It was kinda crazy but fun.

Eli had no idea what to do when we sang Happy Birthday to him.

He was actually able to blow out his candle. Aiden tried to help him.

This picture of Eli with his cupcake is too cute. The cupcakes had 2 little oreos for Mickey ears and crumbled oreo for the outline circle of Mickey's face.

We bought this little table with the 4 chairs at the consignment sale a few weeks ago for $10. It was perfect.

Aiden is a champ at eating cupackes now but gets so dirty. Eli had no idea what he was doing and ate the top part off and then left the rest.

Here is my picture with the boys. As you can see, I'm wearing my bright orange Florida shirt. They played Tenn and thankfully beat them. Go Gators.

Jen and Ryan came over from next door to say and brought Eli a present of soft balls (football, soccer ball, baseball and a basketball).

All the kids were running around playing and Eli eventually got stuck in my Step. He somehow climbed in the risers and then couldn't get out. It was too funny although he was crying and I don't think he thought it was funny.

For Aiden's birthday, the Payne family gave him a Lightening McQueen sleeping bag which you can see in lots of the pictures I've previously posted. Well, now Eli has his own sleeping bag too. I was shocked that he knew 'Buzz' and said the name (it's a Buzz Lightyear sleeping bag).

Aiden and Kyleigh (one of Stephanie's daughters) are so cute. She is so sweet and found some necklaces and shared them with Aiden.

OK. These next two group pictures are too funny. WE took the first one and the kids did well (despite the two big boys sticking their butt on the couch - Harold Payne and Brad). I then realized Eli had his paci in and wanted a picture without it.

It's hard to see in this smaller picture but Eli is crying in the next picture since we took his paci away. I took a few more pictures after this one but each time there were less and less kids.

 Here is a picture of Stephanie and I. I'm so fortunate God has put such an amazing person in my life.

Stephanie's youngest, Blaise, decided he would try and have a green marker as a lollipop. It was too funny. He had green all over his face. You don't see his right arm in this picture which is in a cast. Wild child here!

We tried to get a Hoyt family picture and this is as good as we got. Aiden wanted down to go play and Eli was just getting tired. Maybe next time we'll get one with at least 1 child smiling.

Eli had a fun little party. It's so amazing that 2 yrs ago today, almost at this time, Eli was born. After weeks on medication every 4 hours for 6 weeks, I stopped by medication on a Thursday morning and was in labor by Thursday night. I was trying to wait until 7am the next morning to go to the hospital so we could drop off Aiden at daycare but Eli wanted to come earlier than that. At 2am I woke up Brad and he drove the 30 min to the hospital. My contractions were 2 min apart which is way too close the dr said since I'm supposed to have a c-section. They gave me some drugs to try and slow things down so I took a rest for a while. At 7am, the dr broke my water and I dilated very quickly. Unfortunately, all the L&D operating rooms were taken. I had to wait, a really long time too, to get into an OR room. Finally, they had to take me to the regular part of the hospital to do the surgery at 2:00pm. It was over 4 hrs before I could finally see little Eli because of me trying to recover from the spinal block they used. Happy Birthday Eli. Even though my pregnancy with you was horrible and you were born at 36 weeks, you still managed to get severe RSV at 3 months old and you had colic for about 6-7 months. Since you been about 1, you have been so much fun. Thanks for usually putting a smile on my face.

9/17 - The past 2 weeks

So I just realized I haven't posted any pictures of the boys in about 2 weeks. I"m slacking. Actually, I'm still learning how to manage my time since I got the job at UF and am gone a lot more and am so tired. Some of these pictures are actually 2 weeks old. Here is Eli copying me and trying to use the PedEgg. He was so cute. He even tried to do Brad's feet.

Here is Aiden and daddy and Eli playing on the car track I made with painter's tape.

Eli is such a cute little guy. His smile lights up a room.

Eli is starting to enjoy coloring more and is behaving with the markers for the most part. 

These boys are so cute and starting to play together so much more. It's great.

 

The boys love playing in the kitchen in Aiden's sleeping bag and on their blankets. I can't wait until we actually try to camp in the backyard soon when it gets a little less hot and humid.

Last Friday, I went down to St. Pete for the Mary's girls reunion. I got to skype with the boys on Saturday morning and it was great to see them. I even took a picture of us skyping.

Before we left for church last Sunday, the boys thought they would try the gliding discs again. Aiden did pretty good.

Eli could barely stand up on them and it was pretty funny to watch. 

Aiden playing with his crane.

Aiden finally got his bag from AWANA that the rest of his class got in May. You can color the bag and then wash it and it clears again. How fun!

Here is daddy and Eli getting some rough play time in. Eli loves it when Brad throws him on the bed and tickles him.

My cute little Eli.

Eli's last day of daycare at Sunshine Academy was on Friday. He will greatly miss Mrs. Reeva, his primary teacher. He wasn't in the best mood to take pictures when we picked him up but he finally gave us a smile.

Eli really enjoyed it at this daycare. He'll be starting Aiden's daycare on Monday since he turns 2 tomorrow. Hopefully he'll like it there too. We'll see. It's definitely more structured which is great for Aiden but I'm not so sure about Eli.

The boys are still enjoying their train track and doing a great job of playing together.

I made cupcakes for Eli's daycare on Friday to celebrate his birthday and I also made cupcakes this morning for a little gathering we had for Eli's birthday today. We just introduced Aiden to licking beaters and he likes it. He was trying to watch Brad to see how he did and didn't get so messy but Aiden hasn't perfected it just yet.

Aiden also helped daddy fix a table today. Aiden is such a helper. He always helps me with laundry and sometimes with the dishes. This cute big boy has such a huge heart.

I'll post pictures tomorrow from Eli's birthday party. This time 2 yrs ago I started labor pains. I tried so hard to hold off as long as I could but I eventually had to wake Brad up. I'll give a short summary of that tomorrow.