Oil Ranch

A few weeks after my sister left Elijah and I got to go the Oil Ranch again with his cousin Remy.  Here are some of the fun things we did.

Horseback riding.  Twice!

He LOVED it!

Remy liked it too.

 

We got to pet a sheep and this is Elijah baaing at one.

We got to ride on a little train with Hallie and Remy.

We also went on a hay ride of sorts and fed some cows and went to see a cow get milked.  Elijah was too scared to touch it though.  It was a lot of fun.

Fun with the Stevens

Bonnie reading to her son, Eric, and Elijah.

My sister and her husband came to visit at the beginning of October.  Unfortunately I forgot the camera everywhere we went so I just have a few pictures of when they were at my house the day before they left.


The first day they were here we went to Oil Ranch in Hockley.  It was such a blast!  There were tons of animals to see and pet, horses to ride, the older kids enjoyed playing on a "sky swing" and doing a little put put course that was on site.  There was even a train ride.  I was able to go again with my sister in law a few weeks later so I will post some of those in another post.

I could not get these two guys to stop sharing Elijah's cups with each other.

That evening Dave joined us and we honored my brother in law Jason's mom Linda (who passed away last year at this time) by going to Fajita Willie's for dinner.  I wish I lived closer to Willie's!

The following day we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival and had a blast eating lots of fair type food and seeing lots of shows.  The kids and Bonnie and I spent some time jumping on some trampoline's attached to bungee cords which was a lot of fun.  All in all it was a blast.  I am so glad that even though I don't get to see my family very often I have a sister who comes to Texas at least once a year.

calling all readers

So I'm toying with the idea of going private and just keeping this blog as my own personal journal.  I haven't gotten any comments in a while so let me know if you are still reading my blog so I can decide to start a new personal one for myself or just make this one private.

Hey Mom, Look what I can do!

One thing I was going to write about in the last post (before it got so stream of consciousness) was some of the things Elijah is doing these days just so I have a record of them.

• Elijah can tell you what a cow, sheep, horse, dog, kitty (not cat), lion, bear, and 3 singing pigs say.  He's actually been able to do most of those for quite a while now.
• can sit down on command so I can put his shoes on. 
• can find his binky in my pocket.
• is starting to use a fork.
• can show you his eyes, ears, head, nose, tongue, teeth, mouth, fingers, toes, knee, and his belly which always becomes bellybutton (he's also done most of this for a while).
• can smell his feet and if you ask them how they smell he waves his hand in front of his face to say they stink (thanks David).
• does all of the actions for patty cake and popcorn popping as well as most of the actions for 5 monkeys swinging in the tree and jumping on the bed.
• can put himself to sleep at night and sometimes for naptime too.  Yay!
• can put things back upon command, like daddy's socks from the drawer.  Sometimes he doesn't want to so he won't but it's nice that he does sometimes.
• can give closed mouth kisses which is so cute but a little sad because it means he's growing up.
• folds his arms for prayer (but he's been regressing at this I think because it is losing its novelty).
• says momma, dadda, night night (na na), love you (la la), shoe, sock, amen, cracker (ca ca), cookie (a variation on cracker), diaper (di doh), no, grandpa (pa pa) and attempts grandma but it's different depending on the day.  He some others which I can't think of right now.
• has said banana perfectly once and randomly said gnome perfectly when I was telling him what something was, neither have persisted.
• signs more, all done, drink and uses a sign I made up for binky which he has for a while, and recently added sorry.
• throws a ball and walks backwards.
• pushes cars along the ground.
• dumps out baskets of things like toys and clothes.
• climbs into his high chair booster thing as well as onto most chairs and sits on them.
• gives me his binky when I ask for it although he usually wants it right back if he's not distracted.
• grabs any writing utensil he can find and uses it to draw on the nearest paper.
• loves to look at books and turn the pages.
• climbs on the outside of his crib.
• is starting to be able to blow from his nose on command.
• dances to music in a few different ways.

He is just so precious!  I love this boy!

The humdrum daily life

First some recent pictures of Elijah in all his cuteness.

Every morning I send Elijah to get stray binkies from under his bed and often he gets them and just lays there.  It is so cute!

I was so thrilled when Elijah finally started liking fresh fruit.  I think he had some strawberries each week for a month.  It's nice when I know he's eating something healthy.

Elijah is obsessed with walking in mine and David's shoes.

Elijah also LOVES pizza. 

I had given Elijah some food one morning and left to go do something for a minute.  When I came back I found this.

It only takes a minute . . . I was getting a bag ready to go swimming and I came back and found this,  Not only was it on his face but it was on his tongue

Everything is pretty humdrum here these days.  We have pretty much lost our lawn in the drought but I suppose the upside is that we haven't mowed in months.  The weather is really starting to get to me and I am looking forward to fall and winter with much anticipation.  I keep reminding myself that we have to stay here until 2014 because we got the new homebuyer tax credit when we bought this house and don't have the money to pay it back if we move out before we've been in it for 3 years.  Sigh.

I have been talking to my sister recently about the difficulties of being a homemaker.  I never expected myself to struggle with it to the degree I do.  Some days it is very hard to get things done and as much as you love your child(ren) they can really get on your nerves some days.  Elijah broke his first glass today and I was MAD!  I should not have been so upset because he is just 16 months but I wanted to make an impression and hopefully stop his obsession with getting things off of the table.  It seems that it only takes 10 seconds away from him and he will get into something bad, as is evidenced in some of the above pictures.  I just feel overwhelmed some days and it I feel guilty for feeling that way.  Sometimes I have a hard time knowing how to interact with Elijah in meaningful ways. 

I was very grateful that I was able to watch our church's general Relief Society (women's organization) broadcast.  I needed the words spoken by the Lord's apostle.  I am so grateful for the reaffirmation that the Lord knows me and my personal struggles. 

I have also been finding my load easier as I have been making time to read my scriptures each day.  I started reading Sept 1st and will finish the Book of Mormon by Dec 31st.  It has been such a blessing and I seem to find myself able to get things done that I wasn't able to get done before.  Some days are worse than others (like today with the broken glass) but I am getting through it with the Lord's help.