PIRATES!!!!!

   In our house....pirates, water, and pirate ships are an everyday reality.  Those that know Eli know that he is almost always on water somewhere.  Most of the carpet in our house is "water" and various other surfaces.  I'm not sure when the fascination began but its been at least 8 months!  He loves to watch the Veggie Tales "Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" movie which I think had something to do with it.  On a recent vacation, Grandma and Grandpa went to Tortola Island (an old pirate capitol) and came home with a LOT of souvenirs for Eli.  An official hat, 2 shirts, a wooden gun, an eye patch, a sand bucket and pictures of ships!  I'm not really into the skull and cross bones but these were pretty neutral and not scary looking. Still weird for my kids to be walking around town with a skull and bones hat!

This shirt is so cute, it says "Hand over the hugs!"

    Eli loves the pirate goodies so much he wore the hat and carried the gun all around town for 2 days!  Here we are at lunch.

Great Grandparent pic.

This is Callie's new headband. When Eli saw her in it he said, "Callie looks like a girl pirate!"

After we got home the pirate was off to slay the dragon in our backyard.

The imagination in this little man is out of this world.  It's fun to watch the variety of characters he plays on a daily basis...you never know if your talking to a pirate, a cowboy, a preacher, a dragon slayer or just Eli...who sometimes likes to be called Steve.

Spring Break (part 3)

We rounded out our quick trip with a visit to "Silver Dollar Movie City" as Eli called it. I have been so excited to take Eli since he became tall enough to ride the new kids rides!

Riding the tram in to the park...

This pic is from the awesome measuring station!  So kids can come and get measured by a worker and they give the child a wristband that lets them on to the rides without having to stop at each ride and get measured. And they write a contact number on the band in case you get separated from your child. Genius!

Eli's first roller coaster ride!

Succotash! So good!

Hilarious hair on my part, but sweet moment with my boy!

"Fishing"

Challenging Grandma to a pig race!

Waiting for the train...

Love that we asked Eli if he wanted to take a picture with the conductor and he said, "Um...who is he?" So funny!

It was a delightful day and I am so glad we did it! Eli was not so into the waiting in lines part but the rest was awesome!  So fun to be moving into a stage with him where we can do more of these interactive type things!

   

Spring Break (part 2)

  Later that evening (after the circus) we headed to the MSU Lady Bears basketball game.  Eli really got into cheering with the crowd.

The funniest part of the night was when Eli sneaked a drink out of my dad's coke.  My dad is notoriously a germ-a-phobe.  We NEVER shared a straw with him for as long as I can remember over my entire lifetime.  Eli came out of left field and stole a drink before anyone could tell what he was doing.  I laughed and laughed as my dad took the straw out and we had to go get another one so he could finish his coke!

Spring Break (part 1)

    This spring break we decided to take a quick trip up to Springfield to pack in as much entertainment as possible!  Haha! The first thing we did was a trip to the Circus!  We certainly didn't know it would be 2 hours long, but we were actually impressed!

Before the show they offered pony rides and elephant rides.

ELEPHANTS!!!! 

Eli had a great time!

This guy balanced vases on his head while twirling around. It was incredible.

No ropes, no nets, no safety anything.

3 generations of awesome women! I love Callie's little face here!

She didn't last long. Thankful for Grandma to hold her the whole time!

Elephant rides. The things we do for love...

Didn't see the iphone shadow when we took this.  Oh well! And I forgot to get a picture of the 4 of us before we left.

Did I mention I loved the elephants? They were so fun!

This guy was crazy. He walked in and around this thing as it circled around in the air. Truly hard to watch because it was crazy!!! 

He tripped once which got us really nervous!

Callie is 6 months

  
    Even though in 8 days Callie will be 7 months...I thought I would do a 6 month post before it was too late!  My sweet Callie is 6 months right now and I can't believe its going by so fast!!!!!

      Callie, you don't seem to love rolling over.  Although you can, you sure don't do it very much.  I think its funny to watch you get so frustrated at being on your tummy when you know how to roll over. You are starting to sit up on your own but only for about 15 seconds.  You pretty much always burp once you get situated in your upright position (which is slightly bent over your belly).

    Callie, I think your are the prettiest baby.  You have the cutest rosy cheeks and big blue eyes. I LOVE how happy you are. You are pretty much always happy and content unless your fiery angry and hungry.  We joke that you have 2 gears...peaceful/happy and raging mad. But usually your only mad if your hungry so it doesn't last long.

    Callie, you LOVE to make eye contact with people.  And every time you do, you light up with a smile.  I love to sing to you and hear you laugh and giggle along.  Eli is your best friend.  You love everything he does.  It is so sweet to watch you watch him walk all around the room and play.  He plays with you so well too!

     You are an incredible sleeper.  All we do is swaddle you up and you sleep about 12 hours a night which makes Mommy & Daddy very happy.  In the mornings Eli likes to go into your room and turn your light on and talk to you.  Lately he has been getting into your crib with you and playing with you.  He walks up and down over you and you laugh and laugh!

     Mommy is definitely your favorite.  Last night Daddy was trying to feed you and you were hardly eating your oatmeal and blended fruits.  As soon as I started feeding you, you started eating like a champ and finished the whole jar.

    We truly cannot imagine our lives without you sweet Callie!  Your infectious joy and laughter has become a staple need of my day. Right now we call you so many different nick names!  Callie Bear is very common, Callie Baby, Cal, Cal Gal, and Lakey just to name a few.

3..2..1..SEW!

    For a couple of years now I have thought from time to time that I would really like to sew.  After all, I did make straight A's in my sewing section of my domestic class in 8th grade.  And I have always known that my great-grandma was a prolific seamstress as well as my aunt on the other side of the family.  My aunt actually made clothes for my Barbies on many occasions! Every year for New Years since Eli was born I have taken on a project-type resolution and it has been wonderful!  The first year I learned to scrapbook.  Year 2...cooking.  Year 3...committing to do crafty things more regularly (painting, etc).  Year 4...SEWING! This year I decided to make my project be learning to sew. The only problem is that I needed a machine.  Just before Christmas I decided it was time to commit to my 2011 project resolution so I sent the following email to my mom.  I was pretty sure it was a long shot but I had hope that I could sucker her into one more Christmas (I am so still a little kid at heart!)

Dear Santa,

     I know I have made a lot of requests for Christmas this year, but I would really like to make one more request.  Today I was reminded again that I have been really wanting a sewing machine for quite some time.  I still would really like to sew and make home-made goodies.  I know that I have been passed down the best genes possible for this as the line of women in my family are all bent toward sewing. How can I deny my genetic pre-disposition any longer?  Furthermore, it would mean the world of sugar plums and gum drops if this machine could do embroidery as well.  I have visions of monograming my way through my thirties.   To make it easier on your elves I have found a machine that can do both.  

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Brother-Sewing-Embroidery-Machine/14237607?sourceid=1500000000000003260370&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=14237607#Item+Description

I know that it will cost a lot of snowballs and I am willing to exchange or substitute some of my previous requests for this one if the elves would allow.  This Christmas I'm really hoping you are still working in the North Pole and I promise that I have been a good girl!

Sincerely and shamelessly manipulative,

The mother of your grandchildren

Rachel

PS, Im laughing out loud writing this.  Hope you thought it was funny!

    I'm happy to report that Santa did deliver and I am in sewing heaven!  I haven't had the time to bust the machine out until the last 3 weeks but I am in awe of all it can do.  It has an embroidery feature which is so cool so I can personalize...well..everything!!

     

    I'm not sure how I feel about this belt but I made it anyway.

My first official project is this little zipper pouch...which I am giving as a gift this weekend. 

Here is the link to the blog about making this zipper pouch: 

http://seekatesew.blogspot.com/2011/03/basic-zipper-pouch-tutorial.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SeeKateSew+%28see+kate+sew%29

   I am so excited to keep making all kinds of things! I am still learning how to keep my lines straight...but after that...LOOK OUT WORLD! 

A Pastor In The Making...

   This has been an emotional week for me.  Nothing that is particularly that big of a deal, but it seems that all my stored up emotions from situations over the past month or two caught up with me this past Monday.  I found out some surprising news, that was definitely not the end of the world, and cue the water works.  In hind sight, I know I was releasing emotion from LOTS of different things and I just could not stop crying.  I thought I had gotten in under control and then a phone call from my mom just released even more.  Here I am balling on the phone to her while filling her in on different events over the past month that she had been on vacation!  While I was crying, Eli came in the room and asked me, "Whats wrong, Mommy?" I told him that I was really ok, even though I was crying and that sometimes we have a lot of emotion that just needs to come out.

    A little while later he heard me telling my mom a story and sharing an opinion about the situation that was, shall we say, less than loving.  Of course I would like to not say certain things in front of my kids, and really I would like to not think them or feel them at all.  But I'm still in the sanctification process and I let this one slip without realizing it.  Then Eli interrupts me and says, "Mommy...mercy is when you give someone a second chance...even when they don't deserve it!" Needless to say it stopped me in my tracks and forced me to correct what I was saying, as well as let out a laugh or two!  This kid is amazing!  He has learned that line about mercy from his favorite movie, the Jonah veggie tales movie (which he has watched well over 40 times!)  So the day went on and I moved beyond the waterfall and found God in the places where I needed to see Him.  By today all of that seemed to be way in the past and very distant from me.

    Today Grant took Eli to school and I stayed home with Callie so I could get some cleaning done at the house.  When I picked Eli up from school his teacher stopped me and asked if everything was alright with a lot of concern in her voice.  I was surprised by the level of concern and told her that I was doing great, actually.  Then she told me that Eli had told them earlier, "My mommy is VERY upset!  She is crying and crying and VERY sad!" Then she told me it caused some alarm in them because Grant had dropped him off at school instead of me! So she had been thinking about me and praying for me! Oh I wanted to laugh and at the same time was honored that Eli was carrying me in his heart.  . I assured her that I was really fine and that a couple days ago I had a little bit of a rough day but we are actually doing quite well.  His teacher then shared how sweet Eli is and how sensitive and caring he is.

   I am consistently amazed at this little man of God.  He has such a tender heart toward the Lord and truly loves to think about God and talk to Him.  Last night we were walking into a restaurant and he looked at me and said, "Jesus says hi Mommy!"  Oh I cannot imagine him any other way!  He is caring, compassionate, loves to share, and such a delight to be around!