Happy 1st Birthday Eli

I cant beleive that my baby boy has turned 1. It is crazy to think that a year (the 16th) I was in the hospital having him. Words cant describe how wonderful he is. It is joy every morning to go into his room to see his little morning face with his squinted eyes and big grin. He is definately a mommy's boy and I wouldnt have it any other way. He is starting to walk and he jabbers all the time. His teachers at school talk about how much he talks all day long. It is so sweet to hear. Happy Birthday Eli! We had his birthday party and mom and dad's this past Saturday. The weather was perfect so the kids were able to play outside.

Henley "Roo" & Eli

Grayson & Mary Glynn (The Twins)

Mary Glynn & Henley.... 2 x The Trouble

Its Been A While

Boy it sure has been a while since I have updated. A lot has gone on over the past month. Eli is crawling and pulling up. It took him a little while to master the crawl but he has it down pat now! Its hard to believe he is 9 months old. We will be planning a 1st birthday party soon. He has started eating some table foods... NO EGGS PLEASE! Yes, I fed him a scrambled egg the other day and he broke out in what appeared to be a red raccoon mask. He looked pitiful. It didn't seem to bother him. I called the doc and 1/2 teaspoon of benadryl and a 2 1/2 hour nap and the raccoon mask was gone. I haven't posted any recent pics of him lately because my mom has taken over the camera for some reason. Natalie has now started school and is in the 10th grade! WOW! Its hard to believe she is that old. I just dont know where the time goes. Well, I will Baby Harper, my new niece will be here Friday. We cant wait to see how big she will be and what color her hair will be. At Crystal's last appointment, last week, she had gained 8 lbs and if I had my guess that was all baby! The doctor tells her she will be enormous.... I guess we will soon see. I will be sure to get the camera from mom (probably not likely anytime soon since the baby will be here in a few days) and updated my site with some pictures of my cutie pie! Oh yea, please excuse the snot smeared across his face in this pic.

Colorado

We returned from Colorado on Sunday. We were there for 7 days. Natalie's softball team was in a exposure tournament up there. Wow, what beautiful land. There is nothing like sitting at the ball fields in July looking at snow caped mountains. There is also nothing like sitting at the ball park in July without shade or sweating!!!!!!!!!! The weather was wonderful. It was mid 80's to low 90's and the humidity was ZERO!!! It was hot but you didn't sweat which made you very comfortable. Now to the locals, it was hot, but to us it was absolutely wonderful! We did some whitewater rafting (twice and yes I fell in 1 time), visited Idaho Springs, Estes Park, Buffalo Bill's grave, the 16th Street Mall, and 4 different ball parks from Denver to Boulder playing 9 games in 4 days. Even on our day off from playing went to watch another Birmingham team play. This was Eli's fist plan ride and he did great. We flew out of Nashville on Sunday, June 28th. It was an afternoon flight and Eli slept about 30 minutes of the 2 1/2 hour flight. The return flight was a 7:25 a.m. flight and he slept the entire flight. We couldn't have asked for him to be any better. He just went with the flow all week. As for the outcome of the games..... We finished in the top 40 out of 68 teams. We played teams from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, and California. It was a great experience for the girls. There were several big exposures tournaments going on in Colorado from ages of 12U to 18U. There were 4 teams from Alabama representing.. I will post pictures as soon as our laptop is fixed at home.

Lake Trip

We had a first lake trip this past Sunday. You never know what your gonna get when the Nicholson Family takes a trip. Whether it small and large, the trips always have some kind of entertaining story. This was also Eli's first lake trip. Just going by all the other trips Eli has been on since he has been in this world, I knew he wouldnt be a problem at all. Once he got used to his life jacket, he was just fine. He loved the water and even slept for about 45 minutes.. with the life jacket on! Henley was really good too. She walked from one end of the boat to the other and sometimes tried doing it while the boat was moving which made her look like a drunk 2 year old! We had a good time and thought the day was complete without any kind of crazy story.. Well when we were leaving, Natalie was driving my car and we were following Adam with the rest of the family pulling the boat. Before we knew it we had a tube flying towards us. Natalie did real good and didnt panic. They didnt even know they had lost the tube. We pulled over as we watched the cars behind us try and miss the flying tube. Luckily, the tube wasnt injured and I safely retrieved it. Oh yea, you just have to giggle at my dad on the tube. He is a hoot! We will be returning to the lake this weekend, stay tuned for another outing with the Nicholson Family.

ELI'S 6 MONTH PHOTO SHOOT WITH AUNT CRYSTAL

Aunt Crystal took these pics Memorial Day at my mom and dad's. No, Eli doesn't have a little sister I am not telling anyone about, that is Roo (Henley Nicholson), my brother and sister-in-law's (Crystal) little one. She is absolutely the cutest thing too and has such a cute personality. I just love her to death and she so loves her Aunt Lana!

Eli is such a joy! We think he is the cutest thing ever and I could just sit and look at him all day. Its hard to believe he is 6 months. He has cut his bottom two teeth and I believe he is starting on his top ones. His hair is really starting to come in now and will be red! None of us really know who he looks like, some say Bradley, some say me and some say Nat... who knows. He is a great baby and a joy to be around. He has finally started rolling over.. didn't think that would ever happen. I think he will be sitting on his on in the next month. Boy time sure does fly. Oh yea, due to Eli's life at the ball park, one of the dad's at the park has nicknamed him "Softball Bob"!

A Much Needed Update!

Well I last left off with Natalie's school team heading to Montgomery for the Alabama High School 4A State Playoffs. What a weekend. The girls played really well and despite falling to the loser's bracket in the second round on Thursday, May 14th, they battled their way back to make it to the championship game on Friday against ACA (we beat them twice in Regional play). If any of you read the local paper, I am sure you read all about Corner's road through the tournament. Despite the hard fight, they fell in the championship to an undefeated ACA. The girls fought hard but just ran out of gas. You would have thought we would have had some sort of break but no way, the state tourney ended for us on Friday and Natalie had practice with her travel team on Sunday. Even though we would have enjoyed a break, she was ready for travel ball to start. We played a game and a half memorial day weekend (ended due to rain), played last weekend in Trussville (winning the tourney - going 6 and 0). This weekend we head to Columbus, Mississippi to play a best out of 3 against the Birmingham Vipers in hopes of winning a bid to the ASA "A" Nationals. Natalie is playing with the 14U Birmingham Mustangs-Caswell.

The Monday we returned from Montgomery, Eli had his 6 month check. We went preparing for rounds of shots but come to find out, no shots due to a double ear infection.... What???? Okay, he was a little cranky while in Montgomery and didnt sleep very good one night but we were blaming it on his teeth. He know has his two bottom teeth. He was by no means acting like he had a double ear infection. Well after 10 days of antibiotics, we returned to the doctor this past Monday for a re-check. What do you know... his left ear had cleared up but his right ear was still sickly, so another round of antibiotics. Dr. Farr went ahead and give him his 6 month shots that he missed the first time we took him. He is such a cutie pie and I could absolutely squeeze him to death. He is the best thing ever, you can take him anywhere!

On a sadder note, my Granddaddy (my mom's dad) passed away on the 26th. He was diagnosed with lung cancer just about a month ago and God decided he didnt want him to suffer too long and brought him home where there is no suffering! Words cant describe how much Granddaddy will be missed, and I am thankful Granddaddy had a chance to meet Eli and although Eli will not remember him, I will make sure he knows who Granddaddy was and what kind of husband, father and grandfather he was! Okay, cant talk too much about it, it will make me start crying. Just remember to keep our family in your prayers. My Granny and Granddaddy were married 63 years so please remember Granny as well. WE WILL MISS YOU GRANDDADDY!

Softball Update

Corner's varsity softball team has made it to the State Finals to be played this weekend in Montgomery. They are 1 of 8 teams from all over the state in 4A. Last weekend they won their Regional Tournament going 4 & 0 to advance as a #1 seed to state. Natalie pitched the championship game and we won 12-6. We are very excited about this weekend. This will be Natalie's 1st trip to State. Some of the girls on the team have been to State 4 times but have yet to win the title. Everyone is hoping this year is the year. Good Luck Jackets!

Little E Is Getting So BIG!

Just before leaving for church a couple of weeks ago. You really cant see in this picture but Eli is wearing a pair of white sandals. They are very simple sandals, but my dad absolutely hates them. He says their girly and that boys aren't supposed to wear white sandals. Needless to say, I don't listen to what my dad or Bradley has to say about how I dress Eli. I have decided I will dress him how I want! He is not doubt the best dressed baby boy around!


Once again, showing off Eli's style. This is before going to school. Ms. Kay always greets us at the door. She says she always has to see what Eli is wearing! She says he wears the cutest things and wonders where I get it all. Well, the answer is CONSIGNMENT! Me and my mom have spent lots of money at consignment sales and shops over the past few months. I just love going to them. However, this outfit and the one above were not consignment. The top came from Trisha's Baby Station (1/2 off) and the bottom from Macy's (Polo=1/2 off)! If its not consignment then its on sale!

Big sister Nat and Elie relaxing at home.

BAMA Baby!
Snoozing before bedtime!

Our weekend once again consisted of ball. If you havent figured it out yet, that will be what most of my post are about. We left the high school at 12:00 Friday to head towards Opelika for a softball tournament. Of course, Eli was as good as can be! Due to someone making the decision in our caravan to go to Opelika via 280, we were still in the car when it was time for Eli's next feeding. He usually has cereal and fruit for breakfast and a veggie and fruit for dinner with bottles in between... well since we couldnt give him a bottle going down the road, he had squash and bananas instead. He had squash everywhere. Bless his heart, he is so easy going and never fusses about anything. He is always on the go and never seems to mind! Corner finished 3rd out of 16 teams. We got beat in the international tiebreaker 3-2 in the semi-final game! Natalie got a double that scored 1 or our 2 runs. She was the in the batting line up all weekend and pitched the first game on Saturday which we won 1-0 (also going to the international tiebreaker). Well the regular season is winding down with a game this Thursday, with a tournament in Cullman with weekend and the final game of the season next Tuesday. Then it is the area tourney, regional tourney, and state. Well that sounds like we are almost at the end of ball, but that is just school ball and we have the rest of the summer ahead of us with a trip to Tallahassee, Florida, Colorado, Dothan and of course all the local tourneys!!! Looks like we have a lot of traveling ahead of us.

What can I say, Eli is not only the cutest baby at school, but he is the best dressed too! Me and my mom have been hitting all the consignment sales at some of the local churches and a big one called the Kidz Clozet at the old Food World on Valleydale Road. Wow.... I spent over $100 myself. I met mom there at 11:30 (they close at 6:00) on my lunch hour and stayed for about 2 hours.... they had to run mom out of the store!!! Needless to say Eli will never wear the same outfit twice this summer. I like the consignment sales because I can find all kinds of name brand clothes that still looks really good for a really good deal! Note below, Polo t-shirt $4, Target shorts (not named brand) $2. Precious outfit for only $6... cant beat that!

Natalie's & Eli's Easter Baskets. Yes, the Easter Bunny still comes to see Nat. I love doing their Easter baskets. I couldnt get Natalie to pose for a pic with her basket. I think this was the 1st time I havent made her get her pic made. Eli seemed to be very interested in his basket

He was the cutest baby in the nursery!

Eli Update & Its a Girl... No, not me!

Eli is almost 5 months old. He is getting so big and he is absolutely the best baby every. He is so good and so laid back. You can take him anywhere! At his 4 month check up, he was weighing in at a whopping 16lbs 14oz. He is in the 90th percentile! He has started eating rice cereal and fruit and I finally graduated him to an 8 oz bottle. It only took him a couple of times before mastering eating off a spoon. He opens his little mouth like a bird now and will reach and push my hand towards his mouth. He is just a delight to have around the house. He is always squealing and cooing. His hair is really starting to come in and it is most definitely going to be red! Yea for red heads!!!! We are hoping that Baby Harper is redheaded too. Oh, that brings me to my future niece. My brother and Crystal will be having another girl. Little Roo will be a big sister. I was hoping for a boy so Eli would have a boy to play with, but oh well, maybe on their 3rd try! Harper Leslie(Leslie after the best grandaddy/great grandaddy in the world!) will be here in September! I cant wait. If she is anything like Henley she will be the cutest thing ever. I guess them having a girl means that E will get to keep his Cuties Baby Boy Ever crown that he currently wears! LOL! Well that is all for now.... I promise some pics soon!!!

15

We have been so busy lately with Natalie playing ball during the week I havent had time to just sit on the computer. So much as gone on since my last post. Let me first start with March 25th. That was a big day in our house. Natalie turned 15!!!!!!! I took off work that day and took her to take her permit test. Well if you dont know, you can take the test as many times as you want. It costs $5 each time you take it. Well, I gave her $20 and told her she had 4 times to take it. If she couldnt pass it in 4 tries, she would have to go home and study and I would not bring her back until I knew she had studied. I brought the book home for her a week before her birthday but she didnt decide to take a look at it until we are on our way to Cullman for the test. Oh by the way, going to Cullman is so much better than Jasper or Birmingham. We were in there a total of maybe 30 to 45 minutes. I have heard horror stories about people waiting in line for hours to take the test one time and would have to wait back in the hour long line if you have to take the test again. Well, Natalie finally passed her test on the 3rd try. She was sooooo excited. I havent let her drive too much with me (it scares me)! My dad has let her drive some! All I can say is if you are on 78 Hwy anytime soon, you better look out!

Spring Break

This week is spring break for Natalie. We dont have nothing planned because I have to work. She got to have her first "big girl day out." I let her for the first time ride with friends to go ice skating. She has been riding with a friend to ball practice but this was her first official trip on the interstate. I must say me and my mom were both nervous all day. Not only was it the first time I let her ride with someone across town, it was raining the the girl she was going with drives a Mustang. I know I think I am crazy. I have been joking with Natalie about it being her first big girl day. She will be 15 next week which is scary and sad! She is no longer a littler girl anymore :( Fortunately this week Natalie does not have any ball games. She has practice tomorrow and they are playing another round robbing tournament Friday in Tuscaloosa again. I think I may try and take Friday off. Well I better go for now, the kitchen is clean and American Idol is on for two hours tonight.

My precious baby napping in his swing

Eli after long day of watching his Nat Nat playing ball. He went to Tuscaloosa with us to watch Corner play three games. We were there all day and he was the best thing ever.

Eli is always happy before going to school every morning. He has gotten so big and we just couldnt think of life without him. He always makes me smile and I would have to say he has to be the cutest thing ever!

This is the snow view from our back deck.

Short Update

I absolutely loved the weather this weekend. We had to turn our air on. Natalie played ball all day in Brookwood on Saturday. She had to be at the park at 11:45 and we arrived early, at 11:00. Well, good thing we did. Natalie had forgotten her cleats at a friends house. So we had to drive 15 minutes in to Tuscaloosa to buy her some new cleats. I have never seen my dad so mad at her in all her life. It was really funny. Corner went 3 & 0 in the tourney out scoring their opponents like 30 something to 6. Natalie got to pitch the last game against Brookwood where we won 12 to 6. She pitched a real good games and most of the runs were scored by errors. During the last part of the game he played all his second string defense so they were all a little nervous. Of course we took Eli with us. He was great. I couldnt have asked for him to have been any better. I know, I know.... I promise I will post pics of him soon. There is just no time in the evenings when I get home. Hope everyone has a great day.

CAN I TAKE BACK MY WEDNESDAY RANT?

Last night Natalie had a game at Hueytown. For those who dont know, Hueytown is the reigning 6A State Champs in softball. Corner is only a 4A school. As you will remember from my previous "rant", in three games Natalie has got to bat one time and pitch one inning. That is all the playing time she has got. As I have said it makes me mad but she is somewhat okay with it. I was beginning to question the coaching (because I know how I would do it). It just makes you wonder why you wouldnt play your best players regardless of what grade they are in.... Well last night while sitting and watching what was going to be one of the best games we have watched in school ball thus far, my mom looks at me and says "Natalie has on a helmet and a bat in her hand." We both kind of chuckled. Okay, he hasnt played her at all so far and he is going to put her in the starting batting lineup against Hueytown????? WOW! We knew that Natalie could handle playing them... she plays that type of ball all summer, we were just waiting for him to give her the chance. When Natalie came to the batters box, she was right in front of us.... she says to us with the funniest face.... "This ant funny, I think I am going to poop on myself." She was so nervous. She flyed out (but got the bat on the ball) and her second time at bat (with Hueytowns #1 pitcher) she struck out but not before fouling one off, and getting hit on the wrist with a screw ball being thrown about 58 mph. We were very proud of her and the coach. He does has some since and knows when he needs big sticks coming to the plate. We know what she can do with a bat in her hand and it want be long until he will see that too. Look for more updates to come on the softball thing. She is supposed to start her first Varsity game pitching this weekend. The Lady Jackets are now 3 & 1.... Hueytown beat us with 1-0 with a solo homerun in the 5th inning :( It was a really good game. Oh yea, my park rat baby does not like the cheering and clapping at all. Every time someone would clap or yell around us he would pucker his bottom lip (which is absolutely adorable) and cry real tears..... He will just have to get used to that! I know everyone wants pics... they will hopeful come this weekend if I get some down time. Natalie plays a round robin tournament in Brookwood all day Saturday.

Just A Quick Update

Well our hectic time of the year has officially begun. Natalie's school ball has finally started. She has been practicing for a couple of months now but the games have now started. She plays two days a week, usually Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30. For the next three weekend straight they have tournaments which are will start on Friday and end on Saturday. This means that on Tuesday and Thursdays, mom and dad pick up Eli from daycare, and meet me at what ever park Natalie is playing at that day. This also means I usually have to leave work around 4:00 to make it to the 4:30 game that she doesn't get to play in that often because she is an underclassman. That is a whole other rant in its self. I just dont understand high school ball (although I played). These days the coaches (the ones that dont really know a whole lot) only seem to play favorites and/or upperclassmen regardless of what their talent level is. We are really not used to her not playing. It bothers me that the coach seems to play girls on that dont have near the coaching and/or ability that Natalie does (Im not saying that because she is my daughter) and most of them only play ball for the school. After school ball, they do not pick up a bat or a ball until school ball the next year. Natalie never puts a ball down. She plays year round. That just drives me crazy. Not all the girls that start are that way. There are several starters that are great ball players. I would love to tell the coach that he will never make it out of the first or second round of the state playoffs if he doesnt play ALL of his talent!!. Dont get me wrong, Natalie gets some playing time, like when the score is 18-0 or something like that. She has been told that she will get to probably start in the first game this weekend on the mound. We will see how he does that. This means he will have to take out one of his starters. Will he pitch Nat only and not bat her or will he keep her in the line up all together. She could be very beneficial to him at the plate if he would give her a chance. Ok, ok, my rant is over... for now. Just a note, Natalie is okay with riding the pine. She has not got upset about it at all... she knows school ball is not as important as summer ball and she is having fun! I guess that is what counts. Oh yea, Eli has now officially become a park rat! I will post a pic of him from last night after we got home from Corner's 6-0 win over Moody (at Moody). We got in about 8:30 which is probably about 30 minutes past his bedtime. Till later.....

ELI'S FIST SNOW

Eli was up at 5:00 this morning so we watch the snow unfold. We fell back to sleep about 5:45 when we woke up about 7:00 there was snow covering the yard and it was still falling. I woke Bradley up so he could take a few pics of me and E in the snow. Natalie had spent the night with a friend so I called to let her know it was snowing. I knew if I didnt call her they would have slept until it was all melted away. Hope everyone enjoys the snow today.... Just wish it would have landed on a work day :)

I believe my precious baby is a thumb sucker. As you can see, his paci is laying to the side of him while he sucks away on that thumb. Its cute now but not so sure how cute it will be when is he 4! LOL Eli in his camo before leaving for school

Eli wore his Alabama outfit to school Monday morning. I guess our house is a house divided. The girls are Auburn fans and the guys are Alabama fans. I must say, Eli does look cute in his outfit....what am I saying, you could put him in a paper bag and he would still be adorable!

Looks like NatNat is teaching Eli to text at an early age :)

Weekend Update

We didnt do much on Friday. We ate at Bradley's mom's. Saturday morning I cleaned the house and Bradley made a trip to the dump. We had my family over for a fish fry Saturday night. Bradley had went fishing the weekend before and caught about 40 something crappie and earlier that week had caught several bass. We fried a lot of fish and needless to say there wasnt much left. My brother made a strawberry cake and it was really good to. I have a wonderful family and really enjoy the time we can spend together. Of course, Natalie is way too cool to hang with the family anymore. She used to always want to do whatever we were doing with the family and would get mad if we did something and she wasnt there but that has changed.

HANGING OUT AROUND THE HOUSE

Eli really looks like Bradley after Bradley cut his hair. It is obvious, he has my nose though!
Natalie wanted to make brownies so she could lick the batter

Eli loves bath time at night. He talks and laughs the whole time I am bathing him.