Man, you've missed a lot!

OK, so I'm a slacker. Normally it isn't that big a deal, but since my child is WALKING now, everyone has been on me to change my ways and stop slacking! What's up with that??? I have no excuse, it's really just because I'm either slacking or I've forgotten to upload anything until the thought awakens me at 2 am. So, here's what you've missed in a nutshell:

This is what happens when daddy dresses Elliott. :)

At first glance it looks like Elliott is on his knees. Nope, this is just our short little cutie trying to walk whilst dragging the pajama feet behind him. This was taken a few days before Christmas, and already these jammies fit him just fine. He's growing so fast! (Please pardon the mess in the background)

We went to a friend's Christmas party and this is what Jacob was doing all night long. He loves the ping pong, what can I say? It was a pretty fun night, be glad that my camera ran out of batteries because it's saving you from Jacob's activities later on. Let's just say that there was some indecency involving Jacob...

CHRISTMAS!!! Elliott's playing with the wreckage.

Thanks for the cute beanie Aunt Chelsea!!

He got this toy with a hammer and pegs from his Auntie Leith and Uncle Mack. Can you guess which part he was most excited about? He loooooves bangning this hammer everywhere he can, I should be annoyed but it's actually pretty dang cute. :)

He's so stinking cute with his little straw sippy cup.

Erin, Mike, and Cecily Gillis on Christmas day. Cecily is showing off her cute pregnant belly as well as our Christmas jammies. Man, I know she's my sister but we certainly didn't receive the same pregnancy DNA. I think I was showing this much when I was about 2 months along, and Cecily is due in April. This was Erin's first Christmas that she spent with us and we all had a blast! Erin is Mike's sister but while she's been living in Provo she's become an adopted Christensen as well.

The boys got marshmallow shooters for Christmas this year. Here they are aiming at Jenna, they were at it for quite a while...

But she was pretty well shielded. :)

Elliott discovered Grammy's piano, and he looooooves it! Jenna's room is right next to the piano, hopefully he's not too much of a bother. :)

For New Year's every year we play games with a bunch of friends. One of the games has penalties each round for the loser, so Milo and Jacob had to wear angry eyebrows for the rest of the night.

Elliott found a yellow belt of mine and decided to accessorize. :)

He'd take it off to try to eat it,

then swing it back over his head and wear it around again.

Elliott is SUCH a daddy's boy! I'm hoping it's just a phase, because whenever Jacob leaves the room Elliott acts like he's packing up and leaving us forever. Here he is crying outside for Jacob while he's using the bathroom. :)

And here he is accessorizing again. Jacob's hat was on the floor and he just picked it up, put it on his head, and started crawling around with it.

Trying to get the camera. :)

It snowed a TON on Saturday, so we took Elliott out sledding for the first time with some friends of ours and their big dog. :)

Ralphie, wait! I can't get up!!


Here's Vinny, Elliott's friend. Vinny's 9 months older than Elliott but standing up he looks like he's 2 years older! This kid is big. :)

Jacob and Cody decided to race down the hill. Cody beat Jacob, but Cody's dog Beau smoked them both...

and then Beau decided to come after us. Elliott hadn't seen him yet, but this is what my face looks like when a 120 lb. giant poodle comes tearing at you full speed.

And here is Elliott trying to warm up. Everything was fine but his face, which was frozen! He's still super cute though, he loves to make this face. Whenever he sees or hears something he thinks is cool, his eyes get wide like this and he says, "Ooooh!"

And that, ladies and gentleman, has gotten us up to speed. Except for the video of Elliott walking, which I attempted to upload but again was thwarted by either Blogger or my own techno-stupidity. I have a feeling that it isn't me though, because I've uploaded before... Hmmm, curious. I'll have Jacob take a look at things and hopefully you'll have some videos before too long.

Happy Birthday Elliott!!

So yesterday was the big day... Elliott turned 1!! I can't believe it's been a year since he's joined our family, it seems like we just brought him back from the hospital. He's been such a joy to our lives, he's such a sweet kid and we love him to DEATH!!

So on his birthday he slept all night (yay!!) and when he woke up he was his usual happy self. We ate breakfast and since it was a special occasion, I gave him a sugary cereal instead of the usual Kix (Boo Berry left over from Halloween. By the time he was finished, his hands and mouth were all blue... More things turned out to be blue than just the cereal, more on that later). So long story short, we just played until about 2 pm when I all of a sudden realized that I didn't know what to do for a cake. It was his first birthday cake, so I wanted it to be cute and homemade, so I looked online for some cute ideas and decided on something like this:

Cute idea, right? So I baked and crafted all afternoon (all while Elliott played away from the hot oven... He's such a good baby!!) and finally I was finished. The end result was a bit anti-climatic. I've decided that I'm not a creative baker.

Oh well, he doesn't care, right? It's the thought that counts... :) I'll just keep on telling myself that...

We're having a birthday party for Elliott this Saturday, but had the Jackson/Bugg family over because they weren't going to be able to make it this weekend. They have 6 kids so Elliott was having a BLAST!! Here are some fun photos from the night, please enjoy.
Elliott enjoying his Boo Berries breakfast. I didn't get a shot of the blue all over his hands and mouth afterward, too bad. It was pretty dang cute.

He just wanted to eat the paper, he could have cared less about what was inside.

After lots of eager hands to help him unwrap, he found a toy laptop from his adopted Grandma Bugg...

A train with tracks from Kim, Rodney, and the Jackson kids...

...which he then tried to eat...

Then he got mad when we took it away.

He got a box of tissues from his mom and dad (hey, we're poor, and he's easily entertained. We want to exploit that for as long as we can) :)

And finally, Jacob came home with a surprise present, Star Trek. Needless to say, it was even a surprise to me. Apparently according to Jacob we're not so poor as to deprive our one-year-old action/adventure movies.

Right here is where a video I tried to upload should have been. It was of Elliott starting to eat his birthday cake, but it was taking FOREVER to upload. I started at about 11 pm last night, waited until 1 am, went to bed, and in the morning it still wasn't done. I tried again, but now it's 1 pm so I've decided to give up. We have the video on our camera so if anyone is super curious, come on over and take a look. ;) So Elliott started off a little slow with the eating of the cake, but after a few minutes he wasn't so shy anymore. :)

...And he's done. He fell down from his sugar buzz pretty quickly, it was kind of funny to witness.

Behold the destruction...

After his bath he decided to start playing with one of his favorite toys. He's just recently discovered toilet paper also, we'll have to make sure to always leave the bathroom door closed. :)

He noticed me taking pictures and decided it would be more fun to play with the camera instead.

Resting on his bed of tissues right before bed.

It was such a fun night, hopefully the video uploading fiasco was just a fluke and I'll be able to post videos soon, there are a few that are really too cute to not see. By the end of the night it was clear that Elliott was sick, his little voice sounds like Copper from Fox and the Hound, all raspy and cute. I think he'll be feeling better by his party on Saturday, he'd better be!! :) The next morning he woke up cheerful as ever, and gave us one more happy birthday surprise by finding the contents of his diaper as blue as the frosting on the cake. I'll spare you pictures, but just know that it was pretty dang funny. All in all, it was a spectacular birthday, and we can't wait for everyone to party with us on Saturday!