Joaquin is Walking

I can't believe my little guy is already on the move!

He still seems like such a baby to me, but I do realize every day just how fast he is growing up! He has been taking 1, 2, 3 or 4 steps off and on for the past month or so, but this past week he has moved himself into the completely "walking" class! He will walk across our entire living room floor and has great balance! I haphazardly caught him walking on video when I was trying to video the boys playing drums together the other day. Feel free take a peek:

The Gift!

Guess what arrived yesterday afternoon? Gamma, Gampa, Uncle Stu and Aunt Katie's birthday gift to the boys...ONE SERIOUS PLAY YARD!

Let me preface by saying that it arrived in two LARGE boxes while they were both napping. So, when they woke up and came down stairs the first thing Elijah did was run to the back door, point outside to the boxes and say, "was dat?"

He would have been happy playing around on the boxes, but when Daddy got home from work and whipped this play yard together, the boys were ecstatic!!! You would have thought they had each downed a 20 pound bag of sugar! They could barely stop climbing on things long enough for us to finish putting it together. In fact, the first thing that went together was the slide and platform and they played happily on that for an hour straight before the rest of it was put together!

A BIG BIG BIG thanks to the West Coast Kirkland's for all your love and generosity for the boys! Can't wait for you guys to come and play with them in the backyard some day!

Elijah had just crawled through the tunnel

Elijah loved the little clubhouse area with the fake phone and reloj. (he likes to use the Spanish word for clock because it is easier for him to say)

happy boy!

Joaquin realized he could get up and down using the slide and he loves it! Although, Elijah is a little bit of a bridge troll when it comes to passing into the clubhouse area. He likes to make it difficult for Bubba to pass through. :)

It is freaking AWESOME!!!

Elijah Turns 2

Elijah had an amazing birthday party this past weekend! Let me give a quick thank you to all those that drove out to Mom and Dad's in the rain for the party! Namama and Bill drove down from Waxahachie; Melissa and her kiddos- Carson and Alex- from Dallas; Sally, Josh and their boys came from Waco; Adam and Chandra and cousin Noah were there and their neighbors- Bob and Deborah- who have become close family friends of ours, as well as J.B., MiMi, and Papaw! (Even the dogs, Joni, Issa and Grayson joined in the fun!) We had a full house!

It was so much fun this year because he was actually old enough to enjoy all the activities! It was also special in a new way because there was a full group of little kids to share in the party time! It was so fun to watch them all celebrate together!

Let me also say that if you weren't able to be there, you were there in spirit with us. We made sure to incorporate all the other family members that morning at the breakfast table telling him who all sent him special wishes for his birthday!

About a month ago Ian and I decided to throw Elijah an Elmo themed party because he LOVES that little red headed puppet! It has been a weird mystery actually. We don't know how he got into Elmo because we don't even own a TV, but sure enough, "Elmo" is one of his top 10 most commonly spoken words!

Here are some pics and video from Elijah's day:

Elijah woke up to a crib full of balloons to tip him off that this was going to be a special day!

As soon as he saw Joaquin he started begging: "Bubba, Bubba!" and pointing to the crib with him. He always wants to get Joaquin in on the fun!

Joaquin loves to rough-house. He tackles Elijah all the time! It is so precious!

After we all got up, we had a special pancake breakfast where Elijah got 2 pancakes for being 2 years old! He even attempted to blow out the 2 crazy candles. :)

Two of my very best friends drove down for the party and brought their precious kiddos. Here are Alex (Melissa's little girl) and Jackson (Sally's little boy) underneath their Elmo masques.

(The first activity we did when we got to MiMi's house for the party was a craft time. We all made Elmo masques with the help of the mommies and daddies.)

This was the most difficult picture EVER to set up!

From left to right: Adam wore his son Noah's Elmo masque, then there are Jackson, Alex, Elijah, and Joaquin. :)

We were all dying laughing while we were trying to take this picture!

Adam wins the prize for most deformed Elmo!

Mom made this AMAZING Elmo gingerbread cake from scratch! It was awesome!

Way to go MiMi!

Everyone sang a sweet happy birthday song for Elijah before he blew out the candles!

My handsome men!

Joaquin is just about to start walking. He can do about 3 steps on his own now!

The rain had let up enough for everyone to go outside for some activities!

Elijah proudly wore his birthday boy ribbon all day! (It was hard to get him out of it to put on his p.j.'s that night!)

Mom's rose arbor was in full bloom and it was gorgeous!

We had an Elmo/Sesame Street hunt outside and the kids had a blast finding all the hidden characters.

Watch out, Alex found an Ernie!

The big kids were FAST, so MiMi decided to help Elijah. But of course, the older kids were smarter than that and they figured it out that wherever MiMi went, there was going to be a hidden character, so if they could just get there first, they could get it! It was a riot!

Elijah and his treasured Elmo.

He accidentally dropped the Elmo doll in the dirt and was really upset. He tried to get Daddy to "fix it!"

Dirty Elmo = Unhappy Elijah

I think Elijah is getting to look more and more like Ian the older he gets.

Alex and John were best buddies the entire time! Alex loves birds and so John let her hold his bird, Cheeks.

Alex holding cheeks. She is so comfortable with animals.

Sally and her newest little addition, Bennett.

He is such a little happy boy!

He was all smiles the entire time!

Joaquin and Mommy

If you can't tell by his face, he was definitely ready for a nap at this point!

We moved into the parlor to open presents. Here is a pic of some of the party-goers.

Sally and Bennett, Josh, Ian and Joaquin, Mel and Carson, Bob, Deborah, and Chandra (with another little cousin inside)

Elijah loved opening his gifts this year, but he did enlist the help of his buddies and MiMi.

Carson, Mel's little man, had finally gotten up from his nap and was ready to party!

Elijah received a fire truck from Bob and Deborah and he immediately dug into it!

This impressive fireman pose was actually done by Daddy. :)

Poor guy was pooped at this point. With all the excitement he wasn't able to nap all day, but he hung in there! Even after most people left, the kids continued to play. I worried that all the rain would ruin the party plans, but it ended up being the kids favorite parts of the day!

Easter: Visual Tidbits from Daddy

Here are a couple "retrofied" photos from our Easter Sunday. Enjoy!
By the way, if you like this look and are thinking about getting portraits done by Kirkland Professional Studios, this is certainly an option we can provide.

Cousins: Elijah and our nephew Noah, hatching one of their schemes.

New Egg: Joaquin's first Easter egg discovery.

Better late than never...

I forgot to put these pictures up a month or so ago when I took them. I had a photo shoot one day at the house so the backdrop was up. When Elijah got home from Mothers Day Out he was soooo excited about the lights and all the set-up that they started playing with all the props and things and I couldn't help but get the camera out and set them up for some pictures before they went down for their naps. Here are a few of what resulted. They are actually in backwards chronological order, but that doesn't much matter...

This was actually the very end of the shoot. I was trying to get them to hug, but they weren't quite into it.

I love showing off their doughy little baby skin!

I love this picture! Ha! Completely dead-pan!

I tried to give him a toy to keep him occupied long enough to sit for a few snaps of the camera, but he was still on the go!

Little man.

Joaquin close up :)

My little sweet cakes...

Elijah

Trying to open the patio door.

Tugging at his diaper...

This little stinker loves to try to take it off!

Elijah staring at Joni out the patio door.

I got them in their diapers by the end of the shoot. Kids are just so much cuter naked!

I tried out some of my props on Elijah and you can see he wasn't too happy about it!

I was trying out my little cupid wings.

Joaquin on the old suitcase.

He really tried getting into this thing.

Almost a walker now!

I sat the two of them in the suitcase and they were checking out those fake roses.

Elijah was impressed.

All I needed was a cute little girl for him to pretend to hand the flowers to... :) When are we gonna have a baby girl in this family! :)