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!