7 Years Old

Eli turned 7 on Tuesday. 7. Can you believe it? I can't. The weirdest thing is that he is acting seven lately. He seems so grown up to me.

Here are a few pictures of his birthday.

With his wrapped presents.

Opened presents

He loves his light saber. It lights up and makes fighting noises when you swing it. He came up tp me about 4 days after he got it and thanked me for it again. He also really likes the LEGO At At Walker. That kid and Star Wars.

We had a family party tonight with extended family. This is the only cake Eli had, Star Wars cupcakes made by David. I kind of dropped the ball on the whole cake thing this year. He didn't really have a friend party which is when I usually do a cake. We brought a few friends to a bouncy house place to let them play. They had fun and I'm glad we could do it.

And since Eli turned 7 here are 7 things that I love about Eli.

1. He is an awesome big brother. He is almost always willing to help both of his little brothers with anything that they need.
2. He is really liking art. He got an award at the end of year recognition assembly from his art teacher.
   
3. He started reading in his bed. Lately he has been reading the Star Wars book that he got for his birthday. It's a long book and it's awesome to see him reading it in his bed.
4. He loves to play with friends.
   
5. He loves Star Wars. He knows everything about it even though he's only seen most of the movies once. He and Isaac have also made up their own episodes in their head. They have like 20 more and they made up the whole story. They're funny.
6. He likes school. He is learning French and loves it. I love hearing him speak French and am always amazed at what he can understand.
7. Even though he is growing up he still tells me that he loves me no matter who is around, wants me to help him do things, will give me hugs, and wants me around. He isn't old enough to be embarrassed of me yet.
   

Of course there are many other things that I love about Eli. He is a great kid and I'm so glad that he is in our family.

10 Months

Keenyn is now 10 months old. He is still such a joy in our home. He has learned a few new tricks over the last few weeks. He can now sit himself up as well as climb on or over small things. He is definitely all over the place. He feel down the stairs a few days ago. Luckily he was fine, just a little scared.

He has gotten more vocal. It is easy to tell if he wants something because he says "uh, uh, uh" and gets all excited. He does this mostly when he wants to eat something that he sees someone eating or if he wants to be picked up. He also says "a-da" a lot, usually while pointing to something.

His favorite place to play is the bathroom. If I ever can't find him that's the first place I look. He is starting to enjoy playing with Isaac more and doesn't cry every time Isaac picks him up.

He eats pretty much anything I give him. He tried green beans for the first time yesterday and seemed to like them a lot. He is only nursing once or twice a day. He prefers a bottle. I don't think he'll be nursing much longer.

He still loves baths. I have to get him undressed int his room because if he is in the bathroom when the water is on he does everything he can to get into the tub.

He got a top, front tooth and had a hard time with it. He had a fever for about 5 days and slept a lot. I'm not excited for the other one to come in.

He has started standing up in his crib as well as anywhere he has something to hold onto. He usually has his legs spread out pretty far because they slip and doesn't have the ability to bring them back together. He will just hold on with all his might and try to keep standing up.

He is sleeping pretty well. He sleeps through the night most nights and takes good naps. He is not on any sort of nap schedule. They are usually just about 2 hours from when he woke up last which is different every time. I imagine a lot of that has to do with being the 3rd child and missing naps a lot because of others schedules.

He still prefers his Mom over anyone else. I have to relish this while it lasts because if he's anything like his older brothers it won't be long until Dad is his favorite.

Edgemont Fun Run

Every year Eli's school has a 5k. All of the kids in the school participate in it except for the kindergarteners. I think it is the best idea. This was our first year participating. I put Isaac and Keenyn in the stroller and ran with Eli. He did so much better than I expected. I was surprised at how far he ran before he took a break. I was glad when he finally took one because I was getting tired.

Isaac got out of the stroller a few times and ran too. I lost he a few times because he ran ahead. He ran the last 1/2 mile or so around the school all by himself. He also ran much more than I expected and had a great time. Here he is at the finish line.


You can't see us very well but here is a picture of us running past Chris. He was nice enough to take my volunteer spot so I could run with Eli. Eli has a red shirt on, I'm obviously the wide load in the street.

This one makes me happy because it was towards the end of the race and Eli was tired. I told him to run to Chris and then he could walk again. But obviously he ran past Chris. He only went to the corner but I was still proud of him for going further than he planned.

At the finish line.

Playing on the playground after the race.

We can't wait to run it again next year.

Soccer

The last month has been filled with soccer games. With both Eli and Isaac playing we had games Tuesdays, Thursdays and 2 each Saturday. It's a good thing I like to watch my boys play soccer.

Here is Isaac scoring a goal.

and here is his happy and proud face after scoring a goal. I LOVE IT.

Isaac is quite the soccer player. He tends to run into the pack that follows the ball around more to run into the other people than to try and get the ball. Here is a picture to prove it.
Notice how the ball is not even in the picture. He is pushing the kid just to push him. I'm pretty sure he will be more of a football player in the future but he can't start that until 1st grade. Until then we will have to settle for other contact sports.

Eli's games are getting pretty fun to watch. It actually looks like soccer. There were a few pretty competitive games. Eli doesn't seem to be into athletics much. He has enjoyed soccer but usually liked playing with Isaac on the sidelines and getting treats at the end more than the actual game.

Eli decided that he likes to play goalie. That doesn't bother me one bit. He was actually sitting on the ground just before I took this picture. I was a few seconds late. The ball hadn't come on their side of the field the whole time he was playing goalie.

Playing defense.

It has been a fun, crazy month.