Ketchup

Here's a slew of pictures that have fallen between the cracks. First up: Jeff's birthday. We had angel food cake and that's the extent of what he wanted for his big day. Also I surprised him with a ladder. I mostly bought the ladder because we have Amazon Prime and the ladder shipped for free with Amazon Prime. So I kind of wanted to see the feat of getting a 6-foot ladder shipped to me for free. It was just as awesome as one would imagine.

Carson has started sticking his hands in his... "pockets." Even when he has pants on with real pockets, he still prefers his version.

We took the boys to Cherry Berry for our monthly family date night. The boys slurped down worms while they enjoyed a little TV. We need to teach them to be better dates.

I'll blame the blurriness of this picture on maintaining the anonymity of Eli's joy school group. But I don't think I've said yet that we have started up a little joy school with a few moms in our neighborhood! Eli LOOOOOOVES it! And he does so good! He listens and participates and is learning so much! It has been just what we needed to keep Eli busy throughout the week.

David and Mary came to visit us last month. The boys LOVE having their grandparents stay over.

Then we went down to Ben and Tana's baby's blessing for one last hurrah with all the cousins.

I love all the boy cousins Eli has on the Excell side. The curse has ended up being a blessing because they are all so cute together, and Eli adores his older cousins.

Behold the mildest winter that ever was. This year has been awe-some! We spent the majority of February at the park. Because it already felt like spring. In February. That's what I'm talking about!

Here's Eli throwing me some sass because I told him to smile for the camera.

Confession -- We have never been too great at brushing Eli's teeth. We have started trying to be more consistent in the daily fight against cavities, and somewhere along the way Eli started doing this move for teeth brushing time. It works like a charm. He holds out his cheeks, and I "tickle his teeth." We've finally got this tooth brushing thing down. Only cost us a few cavities to get there.

Carson has continued to prove he will be our most medically expensive child. All in one day he fell off our bed, landing on our nightstand, splitting his lip open so bad we were on the verge of rushing him in for stitches/glue, and then he banged his head on his door for nap time so hard that he gave himself a bloody nose. This kid!

Eli's best friend moved away this month. Tears were shed. Eli was being super ornery the day after his friend moved away, and I said to him, "Eli! Why are you so crabby today?!?" Then he quietly replied, "Because I'm sad Benjamin moved away." :'(

Here's Eli in happier times.

One day on our walk, I was pushing the stroller when Eli startled me by reaching up through a tiny slit in the stroller to hold my hand. It melted my heart.

And here we have Eli. Sucking his thumb. Mind you, he has gone probably 6 months now without sucking his thumb. And he's suddenly started again. WHY?!?! When we tell him to stop, he covers his eyes thinking we can't see him. So then we tell him he's going to suck his thumb off his hand. We're good parents.