HAPPY BIRTHDAY STUD!!

Today is Jacob's birthday! He turned the big 26!! Jacob said he was ok with this birthday (we both actually still get confused how old we are) he said his scary age is 27. (he is so funny) So we started of the day with me going to the dentist and Jacob working (I promise it gets better) Then we met up to eat lunch at Red Robbin. Jacob wanted to eat there because they mailed him a birthday coupon so he wanted his free burger. Then we got Eli and headed out to Tempe market place. We went to his favorite running store and got him some running shorts, and then went to his favorite store of all time BEST BUY. We spent sometime there looking around and then ended up buying some movies (I don't think we ever go there without buying Jacob a few movies) a new Wii game and a new TV. We were not really looking for a TV, but we did need a new one in out bedroom and they had this great deal so we bought it. It is nice and Jacob is VERY excited! At 6:30 we met up with my family to eat at Guru Palace this Indian food restaurant Jacob likes. My family never had Indian food before so it was nice trying it with them. All and All I think Jacob had a wonderful birthday. Happy birthday mister I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

The D-back game

On Monday night Jacob got some tickets to the D-back game from Brad. We were given 6 so we invited two other couples, Chase & Shalyse, and Preston & Kelly. We went and ate a very healthy dinner and by healthy I mean IN N OUT Burger (What were we thinking???) Then headed off to the game. Like true Ash form we had a hard time finding the parking lot that we had a pass for so why would it be any different this time! I am sure everyone (ex specially Chase) thinks I am a crazy driver. I almost ran a red light, and turned the wrong way on a street!! I don't like Phoenix what is the benefit of a one way street?!!?!? Anyway we got there and then got lost in the place because we went to the wrong box. Finally we found our seats and they rocked!! We were right behind the Phillies 4th row!! We had a lot of fun!

Jacob is going to die that I posted this,I think his exact words were "tell no one this!". This kid was sitting in front of me and I wanted to pinch his ears! So I took a picture.

Dog sitting

Jacob since we have been married has talked about how much he wants a Lab. I on the other hand got bit by my own big dog, and I am not fans of them. So basically I get the master salesman trying to get me to get him a dog. Then he the future he wants another dog...yes that is right 2 dogs!! Since I am not ready for a dog, and I feel we do not have the yard to keep a big dog like that happy I still have not given in. However the Pratt's in our ward needed someone to watch their dog. Since Jacob's birthday was coming up I volunteered so my guy could have a wonderful birthday. We got Juno for 10 days. I should have known things would not go so smoothly when I was reading the letter of instructions from the Pratt's and the first sentence said something like this, Juno still jumps up and so tell her down if she keeps jumping up on you give her a good knee to the stomach. Sara also warned me that since she is still a puppy she chews on everything. So even after all these warnings, I went with it so I would have one happy hubby.

The first day with Juno Jacob was so excited he came home from work early to play with her. They went swimming. Jacob kept telling me whenever I jump in she tries to save me watch....so I went out there and watched. This is not what I observed to me it looked like Juno was jumping on top of Jacob and he was actually kind of drowning. Other then Juno jumping all over me and the glass door the first day went ok, but after that everything went down hill. We were prisoners and could never go in the back yard because she would jump on us so much, she would run in the house ever chance she got, jump and knock over Eli, scratch the glass on my back door. She also ate the tube to our grill, she pulled the vacuum our of the pool and ate that, she ate one of the pillow on my lawn chair...trust me the list goes on and on. We also took her one walks to make her happy so she wasn't always in our backyard...lets just say she took us for walks. After 4 or 5 days we called another family in the ward that said they would watch Juno. We told the Peterson's we were overwhelmed....which I think is an understatement to how I felt.

Anyway after all that I still think Juno coming and staying at our house was the best move I ever did. Ever since she stayed Jacob has not said anything about getting a dog. He actually I think feels that same way I do. So this I have to say....THANK YOU SO MUCH AARON & SARA PRATT!! Oh yeah and Juno!!

Here are some pictures of our backyard after Juno left.

9/22/09 update on Juno damage. Juno also ate a sprinkler head to our lemon tree. It has since died, and now we only have our grapefruit tree. Jacob still does not ask or want a dog.

1 year check up

Today Eli went in for his one year check up. Everything was good except he has pink eye AGAIN, and a runny nose. The doctor says if we keep having problems with his eye we will have to send him to an eye doctor. I hope this round of eye drops goes a lot better!

Here are Eli's current stats:

Height: 31 in. 75%tile

Weight: 23 lbs 8 oz. 50th%tile

Head: 17.75 25%tile

Other things to note from the visit:

• Last time I went in for a well visit I got a new Dr. Auxier I loved him then, and I love him even more now. He is a great doctor. Has tons of advice, very helpful, spends time with you and I just plain like the way he does things.
• Dr. Auxier gave me a mommy talk it was nice because he always warns me of things that are going to happen so I am ready. He gave me a pep talk to help me through the next 18 years. Some major pointers from this pep talk were: how to deal with fits, time outs, feeding, weaning, adjusting to a less cuddly baby...things like that. It was really cute and helpful
• Eli got two more shots. One in each arm. He hated it and screamed until we left the exam room. However as soon as I opened the door Eli stopped crying and was smiling. The girl who gave him shots was outside the door and he had already forgiven her I know this because he started smiling and flirting with her again.
• Eli is cute and I love him!

Da Da Happy Birthday Eli

So today was Eli's first birthday. It was fun because yesterday I kept thinking at this time a year ago we were doing.....(fill in some detail of my delivery here) Then around 1:20am Eli woke randomly. Instead of being grouchy I thought how sweet this was because Eli was born at 1:52 a.m. so it was pretty close to the real first time I held him. I just cuddled and kissed on him. I wanted to cry a little because I am sad my baby is getting so big, but I couldn't let myself I am sure Jacob would think I was crazy if I did let myself cry. So today was close to a normal day except I finished Eli's giant cupcake, and we went to lunch to celebrate my dad's b-day, and Eli's. We ate at Oregano's, and we had a pizzookie when they brought it out was sang to Eli and he had the biggest happiest grin on his face. Lee said he was so cute how excited Eli got. It was hard getting everyone together, because this whole week Chase had a Baseball tournament in Peoria so everyone was out there for his games. Anyway we are having everyone over later to watch Eli eat his cupcake, and sing to him again.

These are all the pictures from the first part of his birthday...

Now for the 2nd part....

I went home and finished the 2nd cupcake. This cupcake was more of an experiment with colors, and candies to see what was best. Debbie kept calling this a cupcake on acid, but I think it still turned out pretty cute. Then after dinner Linda and Cecil came to my parents house and we opened up Eli's present from them. Then we let him loose on his cake. He ate a really big lunch before that so he didn't dig into the cake like I thought he would, but he still had a lot of funny just grabbing the cake.

Things I want to remember...

• How cute and excited Eli got the 1st time we sang happy birthday to him. I am 100% positive that he had no idea what it meant, but he sure loved everyone looking and singing at him.
• Eli's sweet spirit. He is truly I loving sweet child. He likes to cuddle up on someone...ex specially me!
• Aly and Ethan got him a truck that he just loves. Along with the truck Aly made him a card which said, "Dear, Eli, I hope you have a great first birthday! I'm so excited that I get to see you!" Have fun from Aly. Aly and Eli have become little buddies. Since she was gone in Peoria so much he hasn't got to see her so they have missed each other very much. Oh yeah and Aly put $1 in there because Eli turned one! How cute.
• I also want to remember how hard, fun, rewarding, stressful, funny, and exciting this past year with Eli has been. Even though I am tired or it is just plain harder to go places now it is all worth it to have this sweet baby boy in our home and lives.
• My dad and Eli share the same birthday. I think that is such a sweet think for Eli to share with his Papa. They love each other so much!
• How fast a year goes by. I want to soak up my baby and enjoy him I don't want to look back and think I missed to much or made him grow up to fast. I want to enjoy these sweet tender moments with him.

A year ago today we got this...

Happy Birthday Eli!!

Pioneer day

This past weekend we went up north to celebrate the 24th of July which is pioneer day. We were originally going to leave on Thursday morning, but since I had boot camp and Eli had one more swimming lesson we pushed back our departure. We left Friday afternoon after Eli's swimming lesson (which he is doing great at). We got to the cabin and just relaxed until the Gilmore's got there in the early evening. We ate dinner and then went for a walk which ended up with Eli getting the creek and riding in his blue truck naked. I am sure he just loved the freedom of that! The next morning we got up pretty early and drove to snowflake for the parade. Poor Eli got a bad eye again and it was watering so bad. Luckily my uncle bill was able to call in a prescription so we all headed off to Showlow to get him some eye drops. Everyone wanted to go to Showlow anyway for lunch and get some DQ. Steph and Jerel say that DQ in Showlow is the best one around. I got a root beer freeze and poured some in a cup for Eli he went CRAZY! He loved it and I honestly have not seen him go that crazy over something since he was a tiny baby. After our desert we went and hung out on Uncle Gayle's land with some family. Eli went and saw cows and horses and was a nice dirty boy. Then we headed to Uncle Doug's where he made yummy green Chile we played games. After games Jacob went to the Rodeo which he said was a blast and I went Steph and Doug's family to watch Mark (Becky's husband) perform at his 20 year reunion. Mark did a great job and it was very funny. We finished off the night by watching the fireworks on tee box across from the temple. It was such a pretty view with the temple and the fireworks. We had a great trip!!

Rain!

So last night we had the biggest thunderstorm EVER!! I couldn't believe how loud the thunder was, and all the lightening. I normally LOVE it when it does this, however the whole night I was worried about Eli and that he would scare him. Around 5 am Eli woke up crying (not cause he was scared) I figured I would do better if he was in bed with me. So I moved him in our bed and then when he got up I took him outside and let him look at the rain. It was really cute. I know it has rained since Eli's birth, but this was the 1st time he actually saw it coming down and stuff. I wonder what he thought of it...

p.s I loved that top picture how everything around Eli was blurry...also the last one is cute because that is Jacob driving away and Eli would not get in the water, but then he saw him dad and he didn't care, he wanted to go with Jacob!