Incredible Views Right Outside the Front Door

Yesterday evening we heard a knock at the door, and I opened it to one of the most breath taking sites I have ever seen. Our neighbor Ronielle came over to show us that there were two rainbows right next to each other sitting directly behind the house across the street from us. The pictures do not do it justice. The rainbows were bright, as if they were glowing. It was beautiful.

Hannah was fascinated by the rainbows and made sure to point out that she knew all the colors of the rainbow impressing the neighbors.


And then my neighbor pointed out they you could see the ends down the street. WOW! Four rainbows. (Technically two, but since you couldn't see the middles behind the cloud coverage I'm going with four!) It was an amazing moment.

And just to the right of the rainbows were beautiful blue skies.

And of course Eli took full advantage of our not paying attention to what he was up to and ran out of the house in socks. We had to strip him, and then he went splashing through the puddles barefoot and with no pants.
He was happy. Definitely don't need rainbows to make that boy smile. Just let him run outside naked!

Just a Great Babysitter

Wednesday my friend Andrea watched Eli and Delaney while Amy and I went to get our taxes done. Andrea wasn't feeling her best, she has a cold, and is pregnant and thus can't get much relief from the cold, so Amy and I promised to be quick. Promises are such terrible things to make when you have no control of the situation. It took us about two hours to get our taxes done, and then we headed to pick up lunch as a thank you for watching the kids. I felt SO guilty for leaving her with all the kids. Eli is such a handful. I had these visions of him destroying her play room, and throwing things through the television. BUT, about halfway through waiting for our lunch order to be ready I received the above picture in a text message. Eli passed out on the couch. Shortly there after, Amy received a similar message. Delaney had passed out on the floor behind the chair. I guess I won't worry about leaving Andrea with kids anymore. She's the best babysitter ever!! I would love to know how she got those two little ones to sit still long enough to fall asleep. AMAZING!!!

She's Part Asian

Last night we had beef stir fry for dinner. I want to add here that it was delicious. This is one of the few dishes that I cook very well. Any who, Ben decided that since he did spend three weeks in Korea a few months ago, and during those three weeks in Korea he ate with chop sticks, and since we were eating an Asian meal, that he might as well put all that chop stick practice to good use. So he grabbed our chopsticks. Of course Hannah wanted to join in the game, and asked Daddy for lessons.

This look translates to, I don't understand why they have to show off. I can't even eat neatly with a fork, and now they have to go and pull out some damn sticks. COME ON people!!" If he would talk I am positive that is what he would have said. I love his face in this picture!!

Back to the lessons.

And finally success!! Ming and Boo Boo would be so proud! I will give it to her. She never gave up. She did ask why I wasn't eating with chop sticks, and I politely responded that I was starving and didn't have time for the patience that chop sticks require. Plus, I like to eat my meals warm, so with two small children, I have to eat fast!!!

Proof that She's Smarter than I

My friend Amy showed me a game for my Iphone where you have to move blocks up/down or left/right in order to create a path to move the red block through the opening on the right. I went through the first 7 or 8 puzzles within about 2 minutes, but number 9 stumped me so I asked Ben to help me work through it. Of course he finished it in about 3 minutes making me feel like a moron, but anyway. Ben enjoyed the game and has played it a few times since then. I believe he was on puzzle number 30 or so when he began playing last night. Of course Hannah wanted to know what he was doing, so he explained the game. Once she watched him a few times, she confiscated the game and wouldn't let Daddy have his turn.
It's really funny to listen to your 32 year old husband argue with his 4 and a half year old daughter about who's turn it is. And damn if she isn't good at it. I mean really good. I'm truly embarrassed for myself to write this blog entry, but more proud so that overcame the embarrassment. Guess that's called being a Mom.

She's just so intelligent.

After this picture Ben had to go corral Eli so Hannah was left to work through the puzzles on her own. I was in the kitchen preparing dinner and I kept hearing, "da da da daaaaa." Which means she figured it out and was on to the next puzzle. I believe she completed four ALL ON HER OWN. Yes, we're raising a genius. It's ok. You will eventually learn to accept that she's smarter than you. I'm nearly there. :-)

Last Minute Park Trip

Wednesday afternoon my friend Brandy sent me a text message and invited us to meet her at the park. I'm not usually one for leaving the house in the afternoon because of traffic, but the kids really needed to release some energy, so off we went.

Hannah and Isabell hit it off right away, which thrilled Brandy and I.
I couldn't resist this shot. Isabell lost her shoe and came hopping over to Brandy for help.

Eli of course found something to climb on.

So he climbed.

And climbed. Until he was at the top and I had to put the camera on my back and climb up there after him. Of course he is WAY too big for me to carry down so I had to loosen his grip and lower him down through one of the openings and drop him down into the center of the dome. Then I had to crawl back down trying not to damage my camera. (Any of you that have seen my clumsiness realize what a feat that was!) And of course by the time I got back onto solid ground, Eli was halfway up the dome again. I had to physically remove him and carry him to a different area of the park. And yes, that only lasted about 5 minutes and he was back at the dome. I believe we will head to a different park next time.

Hayden!

Pics of Eli

Musical Chairs

In our attempt to watch less television in the evening I asked Hannah for some ideas of games we could play together. Games that would INCLUDE Eli. That is always the tricky part. And she suggested musical chairs. In order to make it fun and a little easier we decided to forgo the eliminations and just have three chairs, one for each of us. Hannah used the surround sound remote's mute button to control the music, and we danced around the chairs. Eli never really quite caught on to the whole sit down when the music stops idea, but he had a great time watching his Mom and Sister run around in circles like crazy people. He definitely put forth an effort, running around in circles behind us. I think everyone had a great time, at least until Mommy had to stop because she was getting dizzy and out of breath. I'm getting old.

NFC Championship

Sunday afternoon we headed over to the Vogel's house to watch the second half of the AFC Championship (Colts vs. Jets) and the first half of the NFC Championship (Saints vs. Vikings). It was a amazing to watch the game on the HUGE projector screen, plus on the HDTV sitting on an adjacent wall. Brett Favre was so big on the projector screen that I could have kissed him square on the mouth. (And yes Amy before you start yelling at me that I'm a Saints fan, YES I'm a Saints fan and I was screaming for the Saints all the way, but Brett Favre is HOT!!!) Ok, back to Sunday. The kids had a great time tearing apart Jennifer's house. All I can say is that there is no storm like Eli. He destroyed the toy room, and even managed to pull a majority of the toy room into the living room. Thank goodness Jennifer is used to him and she didn't even bat an eyelash!! We had an excellent time between the game, wonderful pizza, and great adult company! We hope to do it again soon!

Oh, Jazzy (the beagle) stalked Eli most of the evening trying to steal his food, and did eventually snatch this cheese puff from Eli. It was hilarious!!

A Muddy Morning at John Slidell Park

This morning we decided to head to the park since the kids haven't had the chance to really run around like little maniacs in a few days. We realized before even leaving the house that the park was going to be wet and muddy from yesterday's rain, but we decided to just let loose and allow the kids some fun. And boy did Eli have some fun. The pictures are out of order, and it is just a lot of trouble to move them around, so just enjoy. ;-)

Ben stripping Eli before putting him in the car to head home. Quote of the day: Ben, "You know you're a redneck if you're driving around with your child in his car seat in only a diaper."

Hannah pushing her Daddy on the swing.
Ben showing Hannah how easy it is to do a pull up.

Ben's nervous, can you tell?

Hannah fell of the swing and got a little dirty. Don't fret, she was fine about 2 minutes after this picture.

I love watching her swing.

We found a great tree for pictures. Ben is standing behind her in case she falls.

Hannah did eventually do a pull up. It was really impressive!

Eli couldn't quite pull himself up. I think he was having a hard time holding on, what with all the mud and dirt on his hands.

Eli running through the mud puddle.

Fearless.

Eli in the tree. Yes, Ben is standing behind him.

Eli crawling through the mud puddle.

We had a great time. Now maybe they will give us a few hours peace to watch some Football!!!