Father's Day

For Father's Day this year, we decided to make our zoo trip an annual event, because our zoo lets in fathers free on that day! (You can click here to remember last year's trip.) It's funny because we think that Elias was even LESS interested in the animals this year than he was last year. The bongos got a slight grin out of him:And he liked the elephants:Other than that, he didn't give a hoot. He did love the misters that sprayed water to help keep us cool:And the hit of the century was the zoo TRAIN! There was a conductor who said "All aboard!" and Elias was just thrilled!He heard the whistle blow from across the zoo and had no interest in anything but finding the train. So we took a ride on the train, and he LOVED it! His eyes were wide in awe.

He looks more scared than anything in the video, but I think he was just so overwhelmed with wonder! He was clutching his Thomas toy, and he had the sweetest smile when he said "Choo, choo!" This is the closest I got to capturing it:Precious!

So we had a really special day celebrating Daddy. I am so thankful that my son has such a great Daddy, and I look forward to seeing their relationship blossom as Elias grows. I love you, babe!

New House

I finished taking pictures of everything in our new house, and I've posted them for your viewing pleasure. I made it pretty detailed for my family who might not be able to make it for a visit soon. Now you'll see everything! Just click here to go to the album where the pictures are. Click on the first picture, which will bring up a large picture of the front of the house, and you'll be able to read my caption beneath it. Then just click the "Next" button above the picture, and you'll move to the next picture in the album. I have them in order like a tour through the house. (All of the pictures have titles and captions, but sometimes they don't load, so you may need to refresh the page to see the caption...) Feel free to make comments here or in photobucket where the pictures are. :)

2-Year and Family Portraits

The moment you've all been waiting for! Here are my favorites from our recent photo shoot for Elias' 2-year pics and some new family portraits. If you're family, you can expect to be receiving a couple in the mail (or hand delivered in person!) in the next couple of weeks. :) Enjoy! You can click them to see a larger photo.

No Way!

I've been MIA for the past week because we've moved! Just to a new house across town, but it was still a pretty major ordeal. Justin's parents came to help us with the move, and they were INDISPENSABLE! We seriously couldn't have done it without their help. They were here for an entire week, and I did not take ONE picture the entire time they were here. Sorry, Nana and Granddad! We'll always treasure your visit in our hearts!

We're getting settled into the new house, though, and we LOVE it. I'll be posting pictures for everyone to see our new digs hopefully in the next few days. I also have Elias' 2-year portraits and some new family portraits, so I should be posting those in the next couple of days too. So keep checking back for serious excitement on here!

In the meantime, though, I had to tell a story on Elias. We were watching the news the other night, and it was a commercial, so Justin and I weren't paying much attention to it. A commercial came on, though, and Elias immediately looked at it and said "No way!" I didn't catch on at first, but Justin realized that it was the Post Office commercial for their Flat Rate Shipping. They say "No weigh? No way!" over and over again until the postman says "Yes way. No weigh-ing."

We could not BELIEVE that Elias recognized the commercial as the "No way!" commercial before they even started saying it! I had seen the commercial as many times as Elias has, but I wouldn't have known it was that one before they said it! Just goes to show how sharp and attentive my little guy is!

On a related note, he can also identify which one of his DVD's he's going to watch by the FBI warning at the beginning. The other day I put in one of his DVD's, and he said "Einstein Show" as soon as the FBI warning popped up. Indeed, it was his Baby Einstein show, but why on earth did he recognize it from that?! Seriously, this guy is SHARP!

First Time Fishing

We had a fishing adventure today! This morning at our city park, they had an event where kids could come fish in the lake for free. They provided the worms, we brought the pole. They even had prizes for the biggest and smallest fish, but we didn't take any of our catches to be measured. We may have had some good competition for the latter category, though... :) I'd say we caught 5-10 small bluegill in the 30 minutes we were there. We saw a little 6-year-old girl that caught a huge catfish though! We couldn't believe it!This is the first time Elias had been fishing, so it was FUN! He laughed and laughed at Daddy casting that hook out there and then reeling in a fish! He was scared to touch the pole, which is strange to me, especially considering he thought nothing of touching the fish!After seeing Daddy do it several times, though, he got over his fear of the pole and helped him reel in a fish. Elias' first fish... What a whopper!Elias actually tried to grab that one out of Daddy's hand. Silly boy!So our first fishing adventure was definitely a success, and we can't wait to try it again when we visit Nana & Granddad's house at the lake next month!

Birthday shirt

As some of you may have noticed in the party posts below, Elias had a special birthday shirt in honor of the occasion! Not only is the shirt super cute in itself, but there is an awesome story associated with it.

I wanted Elias to have a cute shirt to wear for his birthday. So about 3 weeks before the party, I ordered one online. They said there was a 1-2 week turnaround between ordering and receiving, so I knew I was good to go. However, 8 days before the party, I received the shirt in the mail, but lo and behold, there was a mistake in printing. They had the name right, they had the number right, but they had sent me the PINK design instead of the blue one. Ummmm, not gonna work for me. Unfortunately, it was too late for them to print me a new one, so all they could do was offer a refund.

A refund is all well and good, but that means no special birthday shirt for my precious boy. However, a day or two before this, I had read this review on another blog about an etsy shop called For Your Little Monkey that does personalized shirts for babies and toddlers. So in desperation I emailed her and asked if there was any chance I could order it with rush shipping and get it in time. She was so quick in answering me back, and she assured me that it could be done. So I told her what I wanted, and she designed, printed, and SHIPPED it all in the same day! SERIOUSLY! I placed the order on Thursday, and I had the shirt in my hands on Monday for the party the following Thursday. How stinking awesome is that?!?!?!?!The shirt is exceptionally cute, and I can definitely vouch that the designer is great to work with! So for any of you that have littles (sizes newborn to 4T) that could stand having some precious personalized clothing, I can't recommend For Your Little Monkey highly enough. Her prices are totally reasonable too!

Side note: What's even better is that I actually won the giveaway on the blog where I first saw this product review... So we'll be getting ANOTHER sweet personalized shirt from FYLM for free! Score!