Eli is ONE today!

I can't believe it! Our little guy is a whole year old today! He has been such a joy and blessing in our lives and we thank God for him everyday!!! We'll post pictures from his party soon; we are still trying to catch up on the blog! For now here are some pictures of the sweet boy on his actual birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday Eli!
aka: Mister, Mister E, Buddy Boy

**CHEESE!**

A nice shot of all 6 teeth! :o)

An afternoon treat for the birthday boy!


Eli, how old are you today?

The rest are just a few pics from our "photo shoot" today :) He has so many facial expressions, i LOVE it! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get to him smile, that's what skipping a nap will do to you.
Hope you enjoy!

In this last one he is actually responding to a dog he hears near by...
he's making a "barking" noise back to him! :)

Blueberries

Another fun thing about Lake Norman is that we have a huge Blueberry bush in our front yard! We have thoroughly enjoyed picking and eating the berries. Eli is a blueberry fiend, he will eat blueberries forever if you keep feeding them to him! He is like this with most fruit, which is why we call him a fruit-a-tarian.

Blueberry bush.

Our haul early in the season.

Eli in the Bjorn while mama picks blueberries.
Eli is a better leaf picker then berry picker.

Our haul the day before we left for Kentucky.
It had only been two days since we picked last.

Indiana!

June 28 - July 4 Eli and I had the opportunity to go to Indiana to visit my relatives and we took it! Alison, Wyatt, Claire, Eli, and I took the van and Mutti and Vati drove with us in their car. We had to make a number of stops along the way and it was very helpful to have them with us to help with the 3 munchkins! Unfortunately both Jason and Matt had to work that week. Hopefully they'll get to go the next time!

Mutti and Vati on the road.

At one point all 3 of them were "reading" these cute little books from Grandma.

We had a week full of going from place to place and visiting lots of relatives. We stayed with my cousin Michelle. She even gave up her room for us! Alison and I shared her bed, Wyatt slept on the floor in there, and Eli slept in a pack-n-play in her closet! Claire slept in a pack-n-play another room. It actually worked out really well! Here are some pics from our trip. We had a lot of fun!

Visting at my Grandma & Grandpa Eakright's house, our cousins and their kids came over to hang out too.


Grammy and Great-Grandpa hanging out with Eli!

We had taco pizza from Pizza Hut at my Aunt Vicki and Uncle Doug's house. Indiana is the only place I know of that has taco pizza's at their Pizza Huts...and it's awesome!!

We got to spend some time with my Grandpa & Grandma Nichter too!

Wyatt loving on his little cousin!

Just hanging out at Michelle's house!

We went to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo and had fun looking at the animals, riding the train, and ....sleeping!

Eli is checking out the bird!

Taking a nap at the zoo.

The whole zoo gang, minus me and Eli. He's still sleeping on me while I'm taking this picture.

A fun train ride to end our day at the zoo!

This was Eli's first time on a train, I think he liked it!

We were also in town for the birth of one of our second cousins, Alivia Brynn Mowery! Our cousin Jason and his wife Hollie now have two little girls! It was so fun to get to see them while they were still in the hospital! What great timing to be in Indiana to experience this, oddly enough this is actually the second time we have been there when a cousin had a baby! I guess when you have 34 first cousins the chances of that happening are better than if you had 5!

Hollie and big sister Abby.

Our cousin Jason with Alison and the new baby, Alivia!

Our last day we went to a lake with our cousins Michelle & Angie, and her kids Gracie and Austin, to have some fun in the sun!

Eli, Claire, Alison, & Michelle getting ready for lunch!

Eli playing in the sand. Also the last picture of him with a paci!
On our trip home he refused to take it and hasn't used one ever since!

Grandpa with the kiddos during a pit stop on the trip home!

Other June Happenings...

Wow, I can't believe how much of a blog delinquent Jason has been recently. Looks like it's up to me to pick up the slack! ;) Here are some of the events from our lives during June...

June 13
(This excerpt was actually written by Jason, just never posted....)
The weekend of June 13 we went to Durham to celebrate Andrea's 30th birthday, which was 6/27. We had a lot of fun. We saw the Bakers on our way to Durham and ate at Smithfields :-) We then had a party at the Eno, of course, and on Sunday went to the West Club Campus of the Summit and loved it, and then celebrated Laura H's birthday Sunday evening!

The cake says "Thirty, Flirty, & Thriving"...from the movie 13 Going On 30, for those of you not well versed in chick flicks.

We gathered at the Few's Ford shelter and had cake and ice cream, hung out and destroyed a pinata!! It was a lot of fun and good to see the friends from Durham! I teased Andrea with the pinata by pulling it up and down while she swung at it, I broke the beating stick...but not the pinata, and Jay destroyed the pinata with one swing! I had never done a pinata and it was a lot of fun.

Andrea's futile attempts....

Claire & Wyatt collecting some of the spoils!

Laura H., Emma, Andrea, Eli, and Hilary :)

Left: Shot of the family eating
Right: Andrea and Laura C.

As mentioned we also really liked the West Club Campus of the Summit. It had such a cozy and welcoming feel, and like the Summit, all of the people were great. We also got to see a bunch of friends. Then we were treated to an awesome cookout at the Hoyles for Laura's birthday.

June 13
Rub-a-dub-dub....3 babies in a tub! :)
After running around in the heat the cousins needed a bath!
How cute are they?


June 20
Eli's first bike ride! I got this awesome bike seat and helmet for Eli for my birthday (a little early) from Pops. We have enjoyed it many times since then and love being able to get out of the house and enjoy the fresh air, the sights of the park, and some exercise!

Poor little guy got tired out from the ride!

June 21

Happy Father's Day!

We went to church in the morning, and arrived a little early, so Eli got to "drive" in the parking lot. He loved it!


Then we took da-da to the Carolina Raptor Center! Which he loved!

June 23
Eli started pulling up on things...first thing...Daddy! He's been very enthusiastic about pulling up on new objects and crawling to get what he wants. He is very proud of himself when he accomplishes something new! He's so fun to watch!

He also loves interacting with Doc. He's started to try to feed him from his high chair, which we try to limit. Doc usually does a good job of waiting patiently for the food to fall.


June 27
Andrea's 30th Birthday!!! I had a great day! We met Jon & Laura in Statesville at Cracker Barrel, they were headed west for a shower and came a little further to see us! Then Mutti & Vati came to hang out with me and Eli (Jason had to go to work) and took us out for ice cream.

Happy Birthday ma-ma!

Mmmm....Dairy Queen, thanks guys!

They stayed the night too since we were all leaving for Indiana the next morning...everyone except Jason...work again! :( Look for Indiana fun in the next post!