J-Bird's Wedding!

Over the weekend, Kirk and I headed down to Tennesse for the wedding of one of my Focus roommates, Jess Stollings (nicknamed J-Bird).  It was so fun to have a little road trip with my husband (HUGE shoutout to my sister-in-law Kelly for coming down from Chicago to stay with Elijah for the weekend...you are the best!!) and reconnect with some of my friends from my semester at FFI (which, by the way, was almost 6 years ago! Wow!).  Jesse and J were so happy the whole day and everything was beautiful.  

This is Pep (also a nickname:)).  She is another one of my former roomies.  We got to sit together at the ceremony and the reception so we had lots of time to catch up!

Kirk and me after the ceremony.  

J and Jesse's first dance.  It started out slow...

...then they switched to swing dancing...

...then they switched to Usher for the last song.  It was funny and cute.

Rachelle, me and Pepster at the reception.

The 4 roommates.  I am laughing in this picture because Jesse had just done a little dance right in front of us.

The Strangs and the Duncans.

We had so much fun dancing to the live music!

The happy couple!

Kids Room!

We took advantage of having a holiday at home yesterday and had a very productive day! We found a beautiful Pottery Barn crib on craigslist for 5o bucks (woohoo!), bought it and got it set up.  I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog yet or not, but we have decided that we are going to have the kids share a room.  Even though I'm slightly nervous about this plan, we didn't want to get rid of guest room because so many of our family and friends are far away and we want them all to have a place to stay (hint hint, come visit us).   So anyway, I'm super excited about the room...I found cute bedding at Target (old faithful) and we are set up.  Elijah was a little uneasy during the changes, but he came around by the end.  I think he's going to be a great big brother! 

Because of the angle of the room and the placement of the door, it was impossible to get a shot of the room that included both cribs.  But they are on opposite walls.  Here is BD2's crib! Elijah's crib is now on the other wall, if you've ever been in his room before.

Elijah was kind enough to share his stuffed platapus with BD2.

Elijah and Mr. Giraffe hanging out in the new room.

An overhead view of BD2's crib.

And an overhead view of BD1's crib.  It has a slightly more "lived in" look.

I hope BD2 likes the mobile as much as E did. That thing was a lifesaver a few times.

4 Day Work Weeks!

Kirk's job recently changed to 4 10-hour work shifts instead of 5 8-hour shifts.  Elijah and I have loved the change because we get to spend 3 days in a row with him on the weekends.  The first week of the change, Kirk planned a really sweet picnic/family day in the park and we had a great time.  I just told Kirk last night how sweet it is to see how much Elijah loves having him around.  He seriously lights up when Daddy is home.

Having fun on the swings!

Chasing a squirrel.

If you look closely, you can see the dogs in the distane.  As soon as E spotted them, he went running after them while yelling "Cucka! Cucka! ".  My parents dog is Tucker and ever since we were in PA, that has been the name for all dogs.

2 favorite boys.

Happy family.

Pennsylvania.

As promised, here are more pictures from my time in Pennsylvania.  It was so great to have time with both of my sisters and my parents.  Thanks for having us! 

Elijah was having trouble napping in a crib one day. I think he just wanted to nap with Grandma! 

This is probably one of the least flattering pictures of myself, but it needs to be on here because Anna gets very little playing time on my blog.  She and her husband Dan were sweet enough to come over and see me after having just flown back from Laos...they were seriously jet lagged but I was so happy to see them! I love you, Anna!

Elijah took his first carousel ride at a mall out there.  I think he liked it! 

Mothers Day

Mothers Day was when we were in PA.  I was happy to be able to spend the day with my mom and grandma and my son! He is the best and makes my job SO MUCH FUN.  I love you, little man! 

Silly face.

Wish those branches weren't in the way because I love that he was giving me a kiss.

It's great to be a mom!

He's not as crazy about my kisses as I am about his :).

The Philadelphia Zoo

Campbell was given season passes to the zoo for her birthday and was kind enough to share with E and me.  We had a great time seeing all the animals.  

Group shot.  Cam didn't like being that close to the bear.  I told her that I can relate to her fear of bears (I share it). 

This peacock was just standing in the grass right in front of us!

While visiting my sister Rachel in Lancaster (which I unfortunately took no pictures of because I forgot to take my camera), we went to her community's yardsale.  We found this excellent double stroller for a steal that will work great for us when BD2 comes along.  But for now, we used it at the zoo for Cam and Elijah and they enjoyed riding around together.

There were no animals at the zoo that Campbell wasn't intersted in. She gets excited about every one, and she really liked these flamingos.

Grandma and Elijah checking out the giraffes.

My favorite animal!

Elijah loved playing on the tractor in the farm area.  They also had a petting area where you could go in with the goats...he had no fear of walking right up those animals.  I wish I would've gotten pictures of that.

And, of course, we had to go on the carousel again! This is a blurry one of Cam on the butterfly with her mommy.

My mom just missed us in this picture but Elijah rode a Cheetah (right? Is that what animal this is?) and had a good time.

The zoo had a treehouse play area that Elijah loved.  He could just run around like crazy in there.  I was exhausted after our 20 minutes in there, but E was one happy boy! Here he is in a dinosaur egg.

...and climbing into a flower.  

We had lunch before heading home.  Elijah was having fun playing with Grandma.

I love that my mom captured Elijah giving me a big kiss (yes, he is a big-time open mouth kisser!).  

Ok, this picture is pretty ridiculous but I think it needs to be documented.  Elijah has 4 living great-grandparents and we got to spend some time with one of them, Grandma McGuckin (or G.G.) while in PA.  We tried to get a picture of the kids and Jess and me and Grandma and you can see how that worked out :).  But anyway, she was kind enough to let us come see her and let Elijah tear through her apartment.