School Days

This year Luke went to a pre-school for about 2 weeks, the picture to the left is him on his first day of school, such a big day for all of us and he really did so good! He attended a very sweet private christian school in the little town near us, they use the A Beka program which is supposed to be very advanced. So, then we found a rent house in Fredericksburg and felt it was our chance! So we pulled him out.... but I have to say I was kind of glad because for some reason I had hesitancy about putting Luke in school period. I had considered home schooling many times in my mind, it just always made me tired thinking about it. Well, since we moved so quickly and unexpectedly, it was just easier not to put him in anything. The school where he was going let me take the curriculum since we paid for it, so we have this really advanced curriculum (i'm talking crazy advanced) that I can try out with him this year. So it will be a great help in my home schooling endeavors this year with him.  Little Eli is ever eager as well to go to "cool".  He is picking up everything too! We are starting out slow in the curriculum, Luke is doing some letter tracing, letter sounds, and recognition, but I know his favorite "subject" so far is crafts. He loves using scissors and glue, could care less about writing, and really has to try hard to color. Eli loves the craft time too, and is learning colors and shapes.  The pictures on the top right are of them at our kitchen table doing "school". The house we live in now is seconds from the park, so we do "school" for about 30 minutes to an hour, since I have to pull them away from crafts, then we head to the park. Today we also went to the library to check out our first books since living here. They like the library, and do actually pretty well for their age, I try to make it quick and painless. We are talking about the letter 'I' and the short sound it makes, so we got some books on Indians. They loved the books we got. We made some Indian headbands later on, which I will have to take some pictures and post later.

Banana Blues

So I will always look at bananas with a tender heart after my kids have grown up since that is their favorite thing to have first thing every morning. I don't know how we started the habit, but every morning the boys wake up and ask for their banana immediately. For the second one Eli it has become a sort of "coffee" of sorts for him, when he doesn't have his banana he is a little cranky ;), so it seems. So, when they watch me peel their bananas they start shouting out like an auction, "My banana!! That's my banana!!" So yesterday and today I told them that its not a good way to ask for a banana, they should be polite and wait quietly. Well, Luke picked that up quickly, because this morning he was completely quiet while I peeled the banana, while little brother was going off as usual. So of course I gave the first banana to Luke since he was being polite. Little Eli did not take this lesson very well.... So I gave Eli the next one and he got very scrunched up in his face and bursted out crying, "that was my banana" (pointing to Luke's) So after I handed Eli the second banana, he took it and went and threw it in the trash, I guess to show me how much he was mad at me for giving Luke "his" banana. HAHAHAHA! Wow, was that a two year old tantrum! So, needless to say, Eli had no banana this morning before breakfast... and he was not too happy about it. I didn't get a picture of the moment, but I thought this banana picture I found was appropriate. Long drawn out story, and you probably had to be there, but if you know Eli you can picture it pretty well and now I have this great story to keep and tell his kids one day! ;)

WHOA! lOng TiMe no WRITE!

So it has been a really really long time since I have blogged, about a year and a half to be specific. It's amazing how time flies and how it drags at the same time raising two little boys. I have felt like I need to probably record our experiences, but never feel like I have time to pick up a pen. So then I thought, hey I could just do it on my blog, I have heard you can make a book out of these things? I am really out of it when it comes to the blogging world. I have really not quite understood the benefits of it, until recently. One being it's ok for it to benefit only me! =) Before I felt like I had to try to be the best blog on the block, but now that I found out I can print this out (one day), it kind of gave me a new motivation. I really want to write down how the boys are growing and what they are saying and capture all the moments before they all slip away like I feel like they are already starting to do! So, if you are reading this, bare with me, this will be like reading my journal of life with the boys (big one included). The above picture makes me smile anytime I look at it, how could it not? We were out for a walk with the boys and the dog around the block, and this is little Eli riding on Daddy's shoulders, with "his bobo showing" as big brother Luke pointed out. Love that little bobo! Such a sweet time and memory as we just moved into Fredericksburg from the country life. It is a little sad to leave the ranch and the MANY memories we made there, but super exciting to start this toddler/boy raising in a great small town that allows for enjoyable walks like the one pictured =)

Valentines, Sunny Days, and SNOW!

It has been a really really fast month, once again, I think the months keep getting faster and faster! I think I shared this before or maybe I didn't. Having a second baby you really are more aware of how fast it goes, and I am so aware it makes me teary eyed often! When I am holding Eli I am trying to remember Luke at that age and I can remember glimpses but of course it's not exactly the same, so it makes me sad that my Eli and Luke are getting so big, and these days of holding and helping babies with everything will soon be gone! I just love love love these babies, every minute with them is so precious! I don't always think that way, but I know I should!  We had a fun time in Houston this month, we got to see our baby niece/cousin turn 1! I took on the challenging and fun feat of making her cake, it was great fun, except the boys didn't like the lack of attention they got during mommy's kitchen explosion at Grandma's house. I am a messy cook, but not near as messy as when I BAKE! WOW! I am a MESSY baker, glad my parent's have lots of mercy for me, because I really really made their kitchen messy! We had a great time though with family and friends, playing with bubbles, and of course eating cup cakes, which was Luke's favorite part! We have had some great days outside too, but I have pictures from this past Sunday, which was an absolutely beautiful day right before it snowed!!! We got a new jogging stroller and the boys love it, they love getting to be right next to each other!  When it snowed it was great, we let Luke play out in it and he loved it, he even said, "Thank you for the snow Mommy!" It made me laugh really hard, Luke says a lot of things lately that make Kelby and I laugh so hard.  We threw some snow balls and even did some snow angels, Mommy took one for the team! HAHA!

.."Red and Yellow, BLACK & WHITE, they are precious in His sight!"

The verse from "Jesus Loves the Little Children" rings very true lately for me having two children now. Jesus loves us no matter what and I can see why now that I have two boys and I love both of them so much even though they are as different as black and white! I have loved seeing Eli's personality lately coming out more and more.  Kelby and I are amazed all the time at how Luke
and Eli are so different!  This past week we all had scratches on our faces from Eli, every single one of us! It was so funny to me, like we had all been in a battle, but it wasn't, it was just playing with Eli that got us all scratched! He has a rough kind of playful way of showing his love! He is very very active too. When he is awake he wants to be moving all the time.  He army crawled for about 6 months because he was so extremely fast at it, now he has finally perfected his regular crawling to full speed and is always following brother wherever he goes! Anytime you are close up with Eli watch out because you might get a high five to the face!  I won't even go into what it is like when I nurse him! It's quick I can tell you that! HAHA! I love him so much and I have enjoyed this new personality that has come into our family very very much! Eli is VERY smiley and thrives on interaction constantly! It is such a joy to have a laid back one and a fast one, it makes life much more interesting! Eli really acts much older for his age than he is, he really has never liked any baby toys, probably because he just wants what brother is playing with. So, we have always wondered,"what does this baby like to play with?" Well, we have discovered that Eli is only really occupied for a long period by something that he has to figure out, he loves trying to get stacking cups to work and make them go together and come apart!  If we want him to be silent at the kitchen table we now know we have to give him something to "work" on, he gets so happy when he is "working"!  Like I have said before Eli is super busy and constantly on the move, one way we help him to get that out is crawling back and forth with brother (or sometimes while brother is napping) through the "hole"/"pipe" (tunnel).  He loves playing peek a boo around it and crawling to get to someone.  I am very thankful we have multiple tunnels to entertain him and his busyness!  He is our rock 'em sock 'em, rumbler tumbler, baby rambo, and him and his big brother are so precious in our sight!

The Greathouse Band!

Just had to post some pictures of our musical boys lately. They love love music and are already showing lots of music memory as well as crazy good music techniques on the instruments they play..... (Luke mainly, eli just kind of bangs them at the moment) Luke went with Mia, Bubby, and his Daddy just recently to play in his first "gig". I stayed home with Eli, but from the pictures and of what I hear he was a hit! He played up on stage with them with his little guitar, asking them before they would go on, "are you ready?" Still even today when he put on his guitar he asks me "Are you ready?" I want to say I don't know Luke!!! I don't think I am ready for any of this, you are growing too fast and I can't stop it!!!! Such great memories I will have of them with music, since that is what we do almost every night. We get out the instruments, yes I even played the banjo for the first time again in forever, and just sing and play praises to the Lord, it is really rocking around here in the evenings. I don't have a picture of him with it, but Luke's new favorite instrument lately is the mandolin and he loves it, he calls it the "volin" and he is actually very good at strumming it.

New Year's Resolution

The boys are both napping, I just finished my bible study, and the kitchen is SCREAMING at me! HAHAHA! I am ignoring it of course, just to have a little "me" time.  Starting the New Year with my Facebook fast really helped me to discover what order my priorities should be in. These priorities include all the household duties of a mother:
raising kids, good ones
keeping the house clean
making meals
doing laundry
cleaning the kitchen
getting groceries
socializing to keep sanity
cleaning the kitchen
making meals
and I know there are some others I am forgetting.......
I did list a couple twice because those are ones that seem to be CONSTANT never ending in my house.
I sometimes feel like it is all to tempting to look on facebook frequently through out the day to see what is going on in other people's lives or maybe it is just the only way a country girl can socialize with out making the 30 minute trek to town.  This is usually taking away from many of the duties of a housewife. Anyways, I have made a New Year's resolution to only get on the computer when the boys are sleeping and it's not taking away from time with the hubby..... so far we are doing good. But I announced it on here so you all can keep me accountable. I don't want my kids growing up remembering their Mom being on her computer. I also don't want to look back and think did I play with them enough? Some days I can even get very wrapped up in cleaning, SOME days, the days I am feeling very productive, but lately I have decided to turn those productive energies into doing creative things with the boys. So far the result is: Happier babies, sleepier babies, and a happy mom!!! I am really tired by the end of the day, but it's a GREAT tired. Now I just want to say, I wasn't like NEVER playing with my boys before or anything like that, but I am just trying to be more into my FIRST job of being a stay at home mom, which is raising kids to follow the Lord!  We will see how the year goes!!!

Baby Food Trial #2

Tried some more baby food with Eli and the gagging continued! I tried squash, something I thought would be nice and neutral, but not so much. He gagged, coughed, and just plain didn't like it! He did think it was really cool to play with on his trey and fed himself from that, but would still gag! I will keep trying this one, because it wasn't as bad as broccoli was. Hopefully he will get on board with this food stuff! = )


Oh no not this stuff again!!!

No, no, no.....

I said I didn't want it the first time! = )

Oh..... ..... disgusting...

EEWWW, this stuff stinks!

Hey, this stuff is fun to play with!