Party for Opa!

Today was such a fun day. I've always felt like I won the "in-law lottery" when I married into such an awesome and big family!! And even though I never had a sister growing up, I'm so lucky I got these 3!
(And even more with Mel and Tony's step sisters!)

We had a fun day at Church then a big surprise party celebrating Tim (Opa) for all his years in ministry.
It was so fun hearing all the stories of him and seeing so many familiar faces. 
I'm so glad I've been around since I was little to witness a lot of those years, share in memories, and know so many of the church family. It's funny that people in the church have watched both Tony and me grow up and now get the chance to watch our kids grow up!
Elliott sure had fun running crazy and dancing with all of his cousins!


   

20 Months and Counting!

I haven't been the best at keeping up with all the milestones in my blog. It's really hard to capture the amazing, silly, smart, and hilarious personality of Elliott in words. He's a little shy around groups, but once he warms up he is the funniest little chatterbox. He's so happy and full of life... and SO SWEET. Every day I'm amazed that I get to have such a fun little boy to call my own.

Sneezes every time he gets in the sunlight.  EVERY-single-time! (and he loves saying "bess you" to himself and even strangers anytime he hears a sneeze!)

Can point to lots of different body parts: eyes, ears, nose, eyebrows, cheeks, chin, elbows, knees, fingers, forehead, fingers, hands, hair, belly, tongue, teeth!

Plays with blocks and stacks same colors; for example, sometimes, if he has the legos all poured out, he will only use the single yellow blocks and stack them all together!

Thinks burps and farts are funny. (Typical boy. Sigh.)

Climbs up on tables and out of his crib—not mommy’s favorite activity

Loves puzzles, especially his number puzzle and the color/shapes puzzle; thanks to the number puzzle he can recognize almost all of his numbers 0-9... I had no idea he was picking them up so fast and one day we were out and he pointed and said "4 and 8". I was shocked! He has started asking about letters so I feel like those won't be far behind. 

Mickey, Minnie, Barney, and Elmo are favorite characters

Favorite books are Little Blue Truck and Goodnight Moon

Is a strawberry monster. Loves strawberries (and can say “strawberries”). I have to avoid the strawberries in the grocery store due to the loud, insistent, repetitive "strawberries!! strawberries!! strawberries!!!" and even if I put them in the cart it's a struggle to keep him from trying to crawl back to get them. Bananas are another favorite. 

Started getting himself out of carseat until Mom found a way to stop it
(actually Grandpop randomly got the idea one day while on a walk with the dogs... so, thank you, Grandpop and chip clips, Elliott is now safe!)

Starting to say more family member’s names. He calls my dad "Pop" and says "Poppppp"

Gives toys (and babies) lots of sweet hugs and kisses. Seriously, loves giving kisses. He looked at his straw yesterday and said, “Straw. Awww.” And gave a kiss!

Can make lots of different animal noises: frog noises are the funniest.

Has a fun imagination. He often pretends to be a dog, fakes being asleep where he shuts his eyes and snores, or just acts silly and makes funny faces and rolls his eyes!  

Says “trash” “duck” and “bite” in an extremely high pitch and dramatic tone that cracks us up

Is finally sleeping better at night! Hallelujah!

Had another airplane adventure! We went to visit Aunt Rachel and the cousins in NC and he did so great! 

Lastly: His friendly little spirit captures the hearts of everyone around. Today at brunch he was "flirting" with an older lady and she came over to our table and said, "I'm so sorry to interrupt your meal, but I just have to tell you that I've been playing with your son across the room this whole time and he is the cutest baby I've ever. His eyes and hair are to die for. I just told my husband that I've just never seen a more beautiful kid. I have 9 grandkids and he tops them all."  Haha! Oh, Elliott, you are something else!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures lately!
(Although, I've realized that this is such a fun age that I mostly take videos and not as many pictures. )

      

                           

          

Orneriness!!

This ornery guy is starting to wiggle his way into my heart... now that he's housebroken... and when he's not chewing things that aren't his toys, eating my vegetable plants, or running around the house like a giant rambunctious puppy!

And this ornery guy is crawling out of his crib-- HE'S ONLY 1.5 YEARS OLD! 
I am NOT ready for a "big boy" bed yet but I feel like it's just around the corner. 
I wonder if all kids avoid naps like this little guy does?!? The kid seriously hates sleep. 

Also, a lesson in Orneriness 101:

HOW TO KEEP MOM ON HER TOES IN UNDER A MINUTE:: 

1. Pull out the chair; 2. Climb up on chair; 3. Climb up on table; 4. Go through diaper bag and find a spoon; 5. Give Mom a big smile when she catches you up on the table; 6. Convince her that you need to keep the spoon; 7. Lead her to believe you're going to take the spoon and go play with your toys in the living room; 8. As soon as she turns her back, run over to the big dog bowl and spoon feed yourself as much of the dirty water as you possibly can while getting yourself and the floor soaking wet.

Ultrasound!!

Hello, Little Love! We are so excited to meet you!!

It still doesn't feel real, but, oh, it's very real!

We got our first "real" ultrasound and you are looking great!!

This pregnancy has been quite the opposite from my first.

I had zero morning sickness with Elliott, and when I was tired I could nap. It was such an easy pregnancy! Not so much the case this time around (not actually throwing up, just always feeling like I need to). It's not glamorous, but we're making it. I've passed the 12 week mark and am slowly starting to feel better; at least, I think, without jinxing it, I can say that I'm having more "feel good" days rather than feeling like a sick, exhausted zombie.

We go in for another ultrasound in a few weeks! I keep going back and forth on whether I want to find out if it's a boy or girl. I'm a pretty strong Type-A personality and I like planning... but if there was ever a time to not find out, it's now... and that'd be a pretty fun surprise!

After the baby is born we will be placing our house on the market and moving where Tony is matched for residency. March 17 is Match Day and in May he graduates Medical School!!! We are hoping and praying our next chapter is back in Tulsa!! So, we will not set up a nursery until we move into our new home. I just don't know if I have it in me to wait until delivery to know if it's a boy or girl! I'll be 100% happy and excited for either... I just don't know if I can wait that long!

Our Garden

As good as candy!

Sometimes having a garden is a lot of work (thanks, honey, for doing most of it for me) but it sure is worth it to enjoy fresh veggies and fruits!!

Some day I'm probably going to miss this garden.
I still remember early in 2009 when I first got this crazy idea to plant a garden.

We didn't have kids so we had the time, we didn't have a lot of money so we had to do it all on our own (side note: thank you, Home Depot, for tool rentals because we could have never tilled that hard ground alone!), and we had no clue what we were doing so it took some trial and error.

Like.... the fact that the first year we planted all our plants on Spring Break while getting sunburns only to have a storm with freezing temperatures and ice kill them all so we had to replant.

Or the year we discovered squash bugs and had to pull out all those plants because we couldn't figure out how to get rid of them without burning it all up.

Or the many times I planted seeds instead of plants and planted things way too close together (it's really hard to believe a tiny, itty bitty seed can turn into a big plant!) only to rip some out so they wouldn't choke each other out and could actually grow.

Or how quickly we realized that not only would the wooden fence not keep the dogs out, but we'd also need chicken wire around it all... and the dogs could still get in and Henry would still eat pounds of tomatoes.

But it's been worth it. We've tried new recipes. Probably saved a decent amount of money on produce. And we've even been able to share with others... I'll never forget the time we were getting the roof redone and the workers went to town on picking and eating watermelon!

We've had: lots of varieties of tomatoes, watermelon, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, hot peppers, bell peppers, and more!

This garden is one of my favorite things about this house.

   

Lake Day!

Another Dreier generation of lake lovers has officially begun! 

What a fun day! This was E's first time on the boat and the tubes and he loved every second of it! (Mommy may have been a bit nervous though!) Seriously, he LOVED it and it was pretty fun to watch! 

Even though we don't get to go nearly as often as we'd like, we are so blessed to have such a fun and beautiful escape at the Lake House. Oma and Opa have put so much time and energy into making it such an awesome place!! I think this is going to be one of those "favorite childhood" places as the kids grow up.

  

   

And we ended the weekend at Grandmom's where "Big Brother Elliott" started getting in some good practice for being gentle and soft with a baby (in the form of a baby doll, just to be safe)! Haha.