Random pictures and birthday pictures for your viewing pleasure!
(I have quite a bit of video footage from his birthday but I don't have the right cable to put it on the computer...I'm going to make cd's of it to send to the PA folk!)


Eli with his cookie goatee:


Excuse the goofy lady...this was at the park one day...


One of Elijah's new favorite things...CHOCOLATE PIE!


Elijah having a pretty bad hair day!


On the night before his birthday, he decided to toss corn meal all over Grandma B's living room...he looks rather pleased with himself!


Adam's follow-up to last year's awesome monkey cake. This is the crazy candy cake...


I think he looks rather pleased with his creation, don't you?


Elijah's new rubber frog boots...his cousin has a pair just like it and Elijah has always loved wearing them! They're still a few sizes too big so he trips in them a lot...probably would help if he would put them on the correct feet!



Elijah doing what he is so good at right now...melting down!


I don't think it'll fit me! I'm sure it'll fit the birthday boy, though!

Elijah's new skeleton pajamas...



He's so cute..."rides" around on that boat by pushing with his legs!






(goof ball!)


And finally, Elijah likes to take his clothes off after sleeping if I don't get to him quickly enough...


He sort of got stuck!

Our work of deliverance, or His?

Our work of deliverance, or His.

"...Let God work for us, when the hour of the trial of our faith comes, and do not work a deliverance of our own. Whenever God has given faith, it is given, for the very purpose of being tried...

Yea, however weak our faith may be, God will try it; only with the restriction, that as in every way, He leads on so gently, gradually, patiently, so also with reference to the trial of our faith.

At first our faith will be tried very little in comparison with what it may be afterwards; for God never lays more up on us that He is willing to enable us to bear. Now when the trial of faith comes, we are naturally inclined to distrust God, and to trust rather in ourselves, or in our friends, or maybe our circumstances.

We will rather work a deliverance of our own somehow or other, than simply look to God and wait for His help. But if we do not patiently wait for God's help, if we work a deliverance of our own, then at the next trial of our faith it will be thus again, we shall be again inclined to deliver ourselves...

And thus with every fresh instance of that kind, our faith will decrease.

...On the contrary, were we to stand still, in order to see the salvation of God, to see His hand outstretched on our behalf, trusting in Him alone, then our faith would be increased - and with every trial of our faith, our faith would be increased yet more as we wait on Him to deliver instead of delivering ourselves in our own way...

Would the believer have his faith strengthened, he must give time to God... Who tries our faith in order to prove to us, His children, in the end, how willing He is to help and deliver us - THE MOMENT IT IS GOOD FOR US."

("Answers to Prayer" by George Mueller)

Enjoy...

My super cute date for D6 on Wednesday night:




Ron and Ari, those are his shoes from you! Thank you again!!!

These are from when we got home:

Trying to ride on his boat...






This was Friday morning while he was spending time with Daddy:


and this one was from a few days ago when he decided to be super cute:


The following are from his photo shoot...it was a self portrait project!








Some of you may know that Adam has experienced these "self portrait sessions" as well...definitely passed that one on to Elijah!

Finally, with the exception of the picture of him sleeping in his chair, you may notice that there is NO PACI in these pictures! We have been completely paci-free (not even nap time or bedtime!) for two days now! Sometimes when he gets a little worked up he'll ask for it but we just divert his attention and he forgets about it. Wanna see what we did?


Now, first of all, PLEASE don't tell me how cruel it was to cut the tip of his pacifier off! It was very traumatic on Adam and me...we snipped it without his knowledge and then gave it to Eli for his nap. He put it in his mouth, pulled it out and looked at us very confused..."uh-oh" was what he said. We acted very surprised and basically told him it was broken. He took his paci like this for about a day and a half and just lost interest in it.

Thanks, Christie, for the idea! It worked beautifully!

Have you ever had one of those days when you're driving home with your husband and son from a fun afternoon which included shopping and dinner? Yeah, it was a good afternoon...we were chatting as I drove north on Duff Avenue. I heard an odd tapping noise coming from my car and turned the radio down, asking Adam if he heard the noise. Well, by the time we stopped at a red light in front of Target, I was JUST about to turn to Adam and tell him that I was going to pull over to see if he could hear the noise when he was driving. There was this CRAZY noise...and for a brief moment I thought someone had hit the car. But then I heard Adam say "Get down!" and he grabbed my head and pushed it down. I eventually looked behind me and realized the the back door window on the driver's side was just totally shattered. My well-meaning husband starting telling me to pull over and just drive but, well, I was sandwiched among many other cars stopped at the same red light! So once it turned green, I started to try to pull over to go into Target's parking lot. Here are some photos of what we saw:



If you look closely, you can see a small hole. Adam is pretty convinced it must have been a BB gun. And here is a pic from inside the car:


Well, first of all, we're all okay. Second, holy cats! I'm still totally weirded out by this whole thing. I can't help but be thankful that first (and most importantly to me!) Elijah was behind the PASSENGER seat! There was not one glass fragment on him or even in his car seat. Thank you, God! Second, I'm so glad that it wasn't MY window! Third, I'm VERY glad Adam wasn't driving. I think if he had been driving, we would have pushed the 3-4 cars ahead of us into the intersection! And fourth, again, everyone is okay. Seriously. I'm bummed that my window is now completely gone (please see exhibit B below):

Exhibit B


That was all that was left of my window when we got home. Once again, it could have been worse...a lot worse.

Yeah, we've been living back in Ames for less than a month and my window gets shot out. Anyone know who doesn't like me???

Just now, Elijah made me smile and he doesn't even know it. He just went to bed about ten minutes ago. Before he went to bed, we spent some time practicing "listening", which has been a little difficult for him lately. I first asked him to put the trains away in the green bin, which he did very well...he even put the lid back on. Then I asked him to pick his cars up and put them away...which he did (but I didn't see where just yet). He then went to the gate and said "gate down? Eli bed!" I was impressed. So we went down the hall to his bedroom, he turned his radio on and we said prayers and he got into bed for the night. Excellent. I cleaned cat boxes, took our trash out and sat down to relax for the night. And this is what I saw when I sat down:


He sure did put his cars away! But wait...check this out:


Those cars are fairly evenly spaced! I'm so proud! My kid rocks!