Monthly Tidbits-January

Another great stolen post idea! I wish I could take credit for coming up with these ideas...this one I stole from Carly. The jist: take a monthly pic of the kiddos and jot down some highlights, etc. from that month. I think it will be so neat to look back on, and only wished I had started it sooner. But better late than never, I suppose.

CALEB
Age: 4yrs,4months (35lbs)

Favorite things: hockey, swimming, playdates w/friends

Favorite foods: PB & marshmallow sandwiches, "sweet thins" (wheat thins), apple juice

Dislikes: someone else waking him up, wiping under his chin

Accomplishments: writes his own name, skating backwards, hockey stops

Tender moment: making Drayson laugh, climbing into his crib to sing to him

DRAYSON

Age: 7 months (19.5 lbs)

Favorite things: exersaucer, Caleb, anyone who smiles at him

Favorite food: biter biscuits, applesauce, apple chips

Dislikes: not much--when caleb leaves the room and doesn't pay attention to him

Accomplishments: sitting up by himself, using his walker, starting to feed himself, trying to wave, sleeps 11 hours straight at night

Tender moment: grabs your face and tries to give "kisses"

* I have never seen two kids more happy to see each other than the boys in the morning. It's like they can hardly stand being away from each other for that long. I pray that this continues!

Just an Update from House of Elfering

Not anything overly eventful for the past week or so. Just the same ol, same ol. But was afraid that if I didn't post anything you all may forget about us and stop checking the blog! :)

Good news is that we have found a food item that will keep Drayson occupied for more than 30 seconds. Yay for Biter Biscuits (and yes I know that the back of the package says that they are recommended for babies that are crawling and ours is not, but I was feeling dangerous and decided to live outside the lines--so there!). Besides he seemed to enjoy them and we enjoyed a peaceful dinner, sans growling! This pic also gives ya a great peek at his 2 lower teeth...the top two are on their way as well!

Chip was at home with the boys all day yesterday and when I came home this is what I found. I was informed that Drayson had been "doing work" for a good 25 minutes on Caleb's toy laptop. Chip and Caleb had been watching an all day marathon of Man vs. Wild. I got home and promptly got sucked in (I know you all have probably been watching this series for the better part of a year, but I tend to live under a rock and only watch reruns on the Disney channel)--but this guy does some crazy stuff--if you have not yet found it...it is actually really cool! I now know how to start 4 different kind of fires, make several different shelters and kill a variety of reptiles!

Drayson has also been motoring around in his walker for the past couple of weeks. Some attempts to scoot on the tummy. Wonder if he will just pass up crawling and skip straight to a full on sprint like Caleb? Lets hope not!

Just a pic of me and Mr. Smiley Pants

In other exciting news, Caleb found the hospital grade nose sucker that has been missing for over a month!

Caleb: "Mom, guess what I found?...now you don't have to use that white one that you hate so much!" Thanks Big Guy! I had literally been searching high and low for it, purchasing other suckers that claimed they were "hospital grade" (and were not). Does anyone know how you get your hands on another one of these things without having to give birth to another child??

Do you think Caleb is excited that hockey started back up? By the way: check out this kid's awesome skin tone? I wish I stayed brown in the winter...Thanks, Daddy!

Help!...We've Created a Monster

What has happened to my sweet little angel baby?

Drayson has been getting solids since the beginning of December, but just in the last couple of weeks has the sassing began. He LOVES food!.... loves, loves, loves it!!! Warning: do not let him see the bottle, the bowl, his bib until you are absolutely ready to feed him. I used to like to sit him at the table in his little high chair thingy that attaches to a dining room chair and pull him right up to the table to hang out with the rest of us. But, he has no manners whatsoever. He stares, he drools, he grabs and worst of all he YELLS. No crying, just looks right at you, opens his mouth and makes this growling noise from the back of his throat. We started him on those little dissolve able snacks, they worked for awhile. But now he knows how to mash them up in like 2 seconds and then its like he just KNOWS that we are trying to put him off and that does not go over well. The only thing that seems to be working at this point is grapes. Yes, Chip let him suck on a grape the other day while Chip held onto it, and that was the beginning of the end. Drayson is a grape lover for sure. So now my days have been spent peeling grapes and cutting them into little tiny baby sized pieces. I'm pretty sure that grape peeling should be ranked right up there with Chinese water torture! But they do seem to keep him occupied, so that the rest of us might have a somewhat enjoyable meal. Then comes the long awaited rice cereal mixed with some fruit or vegetable concoction-- he hasn't found a veggie he doesn't like (must get that from his brother). He also seems to enjoy strawberries and tofu (Grandma Sy would be so proud). Oh but how the thought of that last spoonful of food brings on a slight anxiety attack for me...the dirty baby looks and the growling, I can hardly take it.

I'd almost rather be peeling grapes (almost)!

Happy {Late} Birthday, January!

OK, so I know we are mid-way through the month already, but I still wanted to send all my January babies belated birthday wishes! Fingers crossed that I got all these dates right.

January 1st--Aunt Lauri (shown here doing some supreme mini golfing with the fam)

She is so hilarious, one of my coolest aunts. I still remember sleep overs at her house before she married my uncle carl. Something you might not know about my aunt: she has a wonderful voice and was in a rock band many moons ago! This "wild woman" is a CPA by day..and loves it! what are the odds?

January 2nd--my BIL John (shown here with Caleb a couple years back)

John is one of the hardest working and nicest guys you will ever meet. He is an Army Reservist and was in Afghanistan last year. Now he lives in California and we don't get to see him nearly enough. We enjoyed every minute of our "taxi rides" on our CA holiday last month. Does this sound like a profile on E-harmony.com? Seriously though, he could use a nice lady...haha (sorry John)!

January 5th--our good family friend Matt (shown here (front left) up at the Cabin after a dirt biking adventure)...he no longer has blonde hair and is like 3 feet taller and turned 22 (I think). Our families used to do everything together...race 4-wheelers, boating, vacations. Now he is all grown up and working in Seattle, but we always have a great time when we see him!

January 5th--my cousin Nick (far right in orange shirt) at the Cabin of course! I know this is another old pic, but since we are old now we hardly get to see each other. Jamie and I and my cousins Nick and Casey were more like brothers and sisters growing up (we are all within 3 years of each other).

January 19th--Uncle Carl (here with Caleb)

This tough guy is all bark and no bite! He is a good time, but he is always there to lend a hand to whomever needs it as well!

That is all, hope I didn't miss anyone. Love you all!!

January Journal Entry

I stole this idea from Sarah...she got the idea from a blog called The Simple Woman's Daybook. It is basically ideas for a weekly journal entry...but I am going to make mine a monthly entry to start, so that I don't set myself up for failure (it's too early in the year for that)! I think it will be neat to be able to look back and read what I was thinking. So here goes...

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:

thru my back sliding glass door I can see the city lights of Kennewick. Wow, nearly six years in this house and I've never really noticed that we really have a pretty great view at night.

I AM THINKING:

that I wish our pics this afternoon for the church directory had turned out better. I had weird hair, Chip hadn't shaved, and Caleb was doing his weird "chin thing" smile that he totally inherited from Chip (you can definitely claim that one Jane)!

I AM THANKFUL FOR:

my husband, who played bus driver tonight and delivered Caleb's friend Bryant home, while I got to stay inside out of the wind.

FROM THE KITCHEN:

the dishwasher is running, which means that YAY, I finished the dinner dishes and will get to wake up to clean counters and dishes!

I AM WEARING:

my jammies, hooray!

I AM CREATING:

nothing at the moment. but have been thinking about a picture collage of a bunch of pics I have of the boys together.

I AM GOING:

to watch Private Practice and then go to bed.

I AM READING:

I just finished the last book in the newest Karen Kingsbury series. She is a wonderful Christian author who writes fictional stories. Her stories aren't the kind that keep me on the edge of my seat in suspense, but her writings of faith and family touch my soul and keep my inspired.

I AM HOPING:

that the boys will let me sleep in until at least 8am tomorrow morning. and that Caleb won't come try to crawl into bed with us again tonight (he never does that any more, but the terrible wind we have been having the past couple of days has him rattled).

I AM HEARING:

the dogs wrestling and the post game show from the Oklahoma/Florida football game that Chip is watching in the other room.

AROUND THE HOUSE:

I see remnants of the play date that Caleb had this evening...hockey sticks and pucks, race cars, etc. Thankfully both boys are in bed and asleep for the night.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS:

watching Caleb entertain Drayson into a fit of giggles. watching Caleb play hockey. watching Drayson period. do you detect a theme here?

A FEW PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK:

taking Drayson for a rash recheck tomorrow, Caleb's hockey practice, an American' s game Saturday night, eventually getting my lazy behind around to taking down the Christmas decorations (remember, I LOATHE this part).

HERE IS A PICTURE THOUGHT I AM SHARING:

i took all the pics from the beautiful Christmas cards I got and trimmed them down and put them up on this board so that i can enjoy all my friends and family's smiling faces all year round!

This was fun. Maybe I will be able to motivate myself to do it weekly (maybe). I encourage my blogging friends to do this...partly for yourselves, but mostly because it will give me one more reason to stalk you even harder!

So Many Lovies...So Little Time

When Drayson was born someone gave us one of those tiny blankies with an animal head on it. Now personally, I thought it was kinda freaky, but in a cute way, so I plopped that baby down in the corner of Drayson's crib and forgot all about it. Well, since Drays began scooting around his crib in the last couple of months he discovered said blankie and has fallen in L-O-V-E! Blankie has been dubbed "Lovie Lamb" and usually carries a distinct odor of spit up, rice cereal and Aveeno baby lotion. Well I decided that I should probably find a "backup" just in case anything were to ever happen (you mommies SO know what I am talking about). So after searching every possible word combination for "baby lamb animal blankie" on Google, I was finally rewarded. Turns out they make many other animal "lovies" as well. My mom and I were quite taken with the giraffe, and they were having a 3 for the price of 1 special. So Drayson is now the proud owner of 2 Lovie Lambs AND 2 Lovie Giraffes! What more could a boy ask for?


How stinkin' happy does he look? You can almost hear him thinking: "oh yeah baby, they're all mine!"

This afternoon Caleb passed out and took a nap, so Drayson and I played and pretended (in blissly quiet) like he was my only baby! Look how well he is sitting up by himself now!

Looks like I have a lot of time on my hands doesn't it? Didn't I have anything more productive to do this afternoon you ask? Well, of course I did (as all other mothers of 2 small children had I'm sure)...but they weren't nearly as fun or entertaining as this!!!

Where does he come up with this stuff?

2 new thoughts from the Brain of Caleb:

1. "I SCALED myself and it said 55 pounds"
(he actually WEIGHED himself on the new scale...and apparently he doesn't know his numbers as well as we thought because he only weighs 35 lbs! ha.).

But what can you expect as far as the numbers go when he only uses them to relate to anything hockey? Case in point: "dad what time do we get on the plane?" when the clock says Kruise Reddick's number" "OK." (that would be 11, friends!).

2.
him" "Mom, I have issues" (don't we all?, but seriously?...this otta be good)
me: "what kind of issues?"
him: "when I pee, it takes forever now!"
me: "go talk to your Dad about that one."

And on a side note--it would appear the baby does not particularly care for bananas!

That is all. Have a good day!

Christmas Vacation

So I am sure you have all been dying without a blogpost! ha! So here it is. The MEGA post! And then you will be all caught up.

Pics from the McCue Family Christmas

Caleb wanted to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus (of course he got to blow out the candle).

So for weeks before we flew out to California I agonized over our trip and basically dreamt of everything that could possibly go wrong. And as far as the traveling part of our trip---IT DID! Here is the "short" version.

We drove up to Spokane to catch our flight, only to find that the garage parking was full and we would have to park outside and come back to a car buried in snow. Caught our delayed flight to Salt Lake. Got stuck in a holding pattern after high winds and poor visibility would not allow us to land. The high winds & poor visibility ultimately led to one of the roughest 20 minutes and landings of my life (like I am almost throwing up & crying with Drayson sitting on my lap). We assume that we have missed our flight to LA, but NO, because that flight has also been stuck because of the weather conditions. They allow us back onto that flight (assuring us that our luggage will also make it). After getting onto that flight we get stuck INSIDE the airplane ON THE RUNWAY for 5 HOURS! Due to a broken radio, weather, having to be de-iced like 3 times and waiting behind several other planes to take off. Finally take off, land in LA without any further incident only to find that the before mentioned luggage has been lost and did not make the trip. Talk to some useless people at the Delta Counter. John has been sleeping in his car in the parking garage this whole time. We then realize that Caleb does not have his booster seat (it was checked & lost as well). But at this point it is 3am on Christmas Night, so we strap him into the truck and pray for the best. Chip and John had to drive back to the airport the next day to wait for our luggage! And then on the way home they cancelled our connecting flight from Salt Lake to Spokane and tried to tell us to come back tomorrow. Thanks, but no Thanks, we were getting on that flight. At this point I am nearly in tears and just want to be at home and cannot imagine having to spend a single extra minute, let alone hours, in an airport with the kids. Chip is starting to lose his cool (and we all know that means that things must have been really bad). We are like how about any flights to Seattle (NO), Portland (NO), then randomly the guy behind the ticket counter goes "are you familiar with Pasco?" And I nearly threw up...they gave us the last 3 seats on a tiny plane back into Pasco. So we did finally make it back to the Tri-Cities....but yes, our car was still in Spokane. So thankfully Travis drove Chip up the next day to pick it up (they brought a shovel, but ended up not really needing it, because a guy with a snow blower happened to be wandering by our car in the parking lot at the same time they were picking up the car!)---That is probably the only good thing that happened during the whole travel escapade. So there you have it! I am here to report that we will NOT be traveling/flying over Christmas again any time soon.

Now for the actual vacation part of our trip....we had a GREAT TIME! Thanks again to Gma Jane & Papa Larry! And to Char & George for being such wonderful hosts!! And to John for being the best TAXI driver ever!! We did Disneyland & the Wild Animal Park, played with cousins, etc. It was so good to see everyone. Caleb had such an amazing time and sobbed when we had to leave!



Thanks Uncle John for the Ducks jersey & hatCaleb & cousin Nathan

I cannot believe I didn't get a better pic of all 5 of the grandsons together. But I had to post this (this one is for you Rosie)

Caleb has been begging for a goalie mask (he even asked Santa for one), but since the real deal are like a couple hundred dollars, he did not get one. But look what Daddy found in California at the Anaheim Ducks Team Store

We had dinner at the end of this Pier in Oceanside

Disneyland here we come!


Check out Caleb's painted face! It was supposedly a "puppy dog" but it looks more like a member of KISS to me! He loved it though!

Drayson was such a trooper. We were there for over 10 hours.
They boys with Gma & Gpa staying warm under the heaters.

Wild Animal Park

My hottie of a husband rocking the front pack! I know he is an awesome dad, but he proved it time and time again on this trip!

The Carousel. Check out Caleb's safari hat.

Look at this cutie pie!

I am so thankful for being able to give these experiences to our kids, but man was that a lot of work! I totally would have lost my marbles if not for my rock steady husband, my awesomely well behaved children and by the grace of God of course. I just keep thinking that maybe this will be like childbirth and eventually we will only remember the good parts!