Christmas at the Toliver's

I love Christmas - the smells, the lights, the food. And Christmas with kids is absolutely the best. Here are a few highlights from our house.

The boys each got to open one gift on Christmas eve - matching PJ's. Cheesy, I know, but so cute!





Then we took a middle of the night trip to meet our brand new niece, Elyse Noelle. What a fun gift! Shiloh thought it was time to open up presents when we got home at 3:30 am, but we told him he had to sleep again for a little while... poor confused kid. :)




Shiloh could hardly contain himself Christmas morning. We open our gifts one at a time, and we had to force him to take a breath in between. He also got double duty this year - he opened all of Eli's presents too. :) Eli loved the paper, just like an 8-month-old should. Here are a few of my faves. I know. I have a lot of faves.

Merry Christmas!

My Boys (and Cole)

Long time no update...

I'm not even going to try to catch up. So here's what's going on now...

Shiloh won't stop talking, and he's hilarious. His new favorite phrase is "Um, I don't know" and he loves to announce "Hey, I'm awake" when he gets up. He's obsessed with poop - he's always saying, "Mom, don't eat poop. It's gross." and "Ew. It has poopie on it." Very random. He's also teaching Eli from his catechism book. The other day I caught Shiloh on the floor beside Eli saying, "Eli who made you? God made you!" Tonight he was teaching his cars... :) I can't do anything in the kitchen without him dragging a chair over to "help" and I love it, most of the time. He LOVES to make Eli laugh, but still doesn't get that he can't sit on, hit, wrestle, and bonk heads with him. MY most popular phrase lately is "Shiloh, BE GENTLE!"

Eli is the happiest baby I've ever met, and adores his big brother. His face lights up when he sees him, and he laughs at him all the time. He's on his fourth ear infection - we just can't seem to get rid of it - and his eardrum burst today. Hopefully this new antibiotic will take care of it. He's still not rolling over, but he can kick himself around 360 degrees pretty quick. He's also eating rice cereal now, and has figured out how to spew it back into Mommy's face.

Izaak's semester is in full swing, so he's not home a whole lot these days. I'm still trying to figure out whether it's fall yet or not...

July Already?

I can't believe the summer is halfway over already! It's gone by so fast, but we're loving every minute. We started off the month with a road trip down to Atlanta for the 4th, which is also my Mom's birthday. She knew Izaak and I and the boys were coming, but the rest of the Heijermans clan went along to surprise her. We thought she might have figured something out, but we pulled it off - she and Dad didn't have a clue!



Shiloh had his 2nd birthday on the 12th, so we hit the beach with Jordan & Sue and Seth & Bethany, then headed home for cupcakes and presents. While Shiloh was eating his cupcakes, someone said, "Shiloh, hurry up so you can open your presents" so he stuffed the whole thing right in. Typical Shiloh. :)







Eli is getting so big - he's already more than doubled his birth weight! He started smiling a couple weeks ago, and it's so cute! I'm pretty sure he's going to have some pretty cool baby blues, just like his big brother.

Finally getting back to normal...

Whew! After almost 14 weeks of bedrest, a new baby, 2 weeks in Branson, and a week without Izaak, we are finally getting settled down. Shiloh is readjusting to being a big brother - the 2 weeks in Branson and one without Daddy kind of made him crazy - and Eli is growing like a weed. At his six week weight check at the pediatrician he was already up to 8 pounds, 9 ounces. He has definitely outgrown his preemie clothes, and is filling up his newborn outfits very nicely. The fatter he gets, the more he looks like Shiloh. I love it.



Izaak's sister's wedding was beautiful, and the weather ended up being perfect after a scary week of rain. It even rained the day of the wedding, but by picture time, it was perfect, and not too hot. Shiloh was finally starting to warm up to his big cousin, Nolan, by the time we headed home.






Shiloh has graduated to a big boy bed, and loves it. The other morning I was feeding Eli early and I peeked in and he was on the floor. When we got up, he had moved back up onto the bed but had a red bump on his cheek... He must have hit something on the way down. :)



We took our first trip to the beach on Saturday. It was nice to be back - we practically lived there last summer - and Eli seemed to like it. He was his usual sleepy self, while Shiloh and Daddy played in the waves.