Wintery Wonderland

As you can see, we almost had a white Christmas. The day after Christmas we got almost an inch of snow. That may sound piddly to most of you, but to Arkansan's, that's a blizzard. Eli got to experience his first snow, and liked it for the most part. The holidays have come and gone for the most part. There's always a bit of sadness that comes with the passing of Christmas. We had a great time though both at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We spent some great time with my family over Thanksgiving, and then spent Christmas day with the Tuckers. Both events were full of food and fun. Eli was showered with gifts starting at Thanksgiving, and continuing on through the month of December. He is a very well dressed guy, and thanks to a lot of generous people, won't have to wear the same outfit twice for quite some time. He's still trying to figure out this eat, play, sleep pattern, but it's getting better and better. Someday he may even sleep through the night.


Leigh Ann is managing well as a stay-at-home mom. She does a fantastic job and is growing in patience all the time. Eli tends to extract that character trait out of people. She's now been home for eight weeks and enjoying it. Life is extremely busy running to appointments, taking care of Eli, and taking care of the house. All of her organizing and multi-tasking abilities are being pushed to the max.

I am enjoying some time off over Christmas. School ended on the 19th of December and will resume on January 7th. During the two weeks off, I've spent time in the office getting caught up on some projects. I've also enjoyed a lot of time at home with Eli and Leigh Ann. We've spent a few days cleaning and redecorating after Christmas, and it's been nice to be home to see Eli throughout the day. On the 28th, Amos and Meredith came out with his father and sister and we spent the afternoon shooting clay pigeons. Since I got a new 12 gauge shotgun for Christmas, this was a fantastic after Christmas activity.

We look forward to greeting in the new year next week. Hopefully it will be a little less chaotic than this year, but either way, it's fantastic to have a God that walks with us through it all. Here are some more pictures, since that's why most people check the blog. Enjoy and we'll add more soon.

Can't Get Enough of Elijah...

We have been promising more pictures of Eli so here they are. He is growing quickly and has started to smile and coo. He is more content and less fussy since we put him on a schedule and everyone is getting more rest because of it! He absolutely loves baths and being naked (watch out for the little shooter). As you can see, he also has a wide variety of styles that he enjoys sporting. He is still the most adorable when he is sleeping though. Jeff and Leigh Ann are doing well and are beginning to get accustomed to being parents.


Eli wanted us to say a special thank you to all who have sent outfits for him to wear, blankets to wrap up in, and toys to play with.



He weighed in at 10lbs 5oz at his last doctors appointment at one month of age. He has outgrown newborn diapers but still fits in most newborn clothes.



Eli loves being in his swing, going for walks, and riding in the car (puts him to sleep every time). Of course, he also loves being held!










He still has blue eyes and his mommy is hoping they stay that way but daddy hopes they turn brown. One of his favorite past-times is staring up at lights. When he got his pictures taken it was hard to get him to look at the camera and not stare at the lights.

Stay tuned for more pictures!

The Holidays Arrive

My favorite time of year is here. I love the month of December. I love listening to Christmas music, decorating the house, making cookies, all the wonderful family things that go on as we look towards Jesus birth. It's an awesome time of year. As we celebrate Christmas this year, it is definitely with a new twist. Elijah has taught us a lot over the past four weeks, the main thing being that we can and do survive with a whole lot less sleep than we used to.

As everyone who has seen pictures of him would testify, he sure is a cute bugger when he's sleeping. However, he's not always cute. He does have his crying bouts, but what baby doesn't. He went in for a checkup yesterday, and has gained almost a whole pound over the two weeks. He's obviously getting plenty to eat.

The past few weeks have been really hectic around here. Not only are we changing to accommodate a new baby, but my whole family came down to visit for Thanksgiving. In total, that would include 19 people. My parents came the Monday before Thanksgiving to get a little "Elijah time" before the masses arrived. We had a fantastic time throughout the whole weekend. While the weather wasn't quite as warm as they all hoped it would be, it was beautiful none-the-less. We played a little football on Thanksgiving, shot some clay pigeons on Friday, and went horseback riding on Saturday. Overall, a great couple of days. One thing that was definitely not lacking was food. As Rice and Tucker tradition would have it, we managed to eat our way through the weekend. Unfortunately, they didn't get to experience catfish, so they'll have to come down again soon.

We have three weeks of school left before Christmas break. I'm not really counting because I know it'll go really fast. After missing the first month of school, I'm really not all that excited to get it over with. The Christmas break will find us in Arkansas for the majority of it. We may do a bit of exploring with Elijah, we'll have to see what he thinks of road trips.

Anywho, enjoy some pictures from the past couple of weeks, and we'll be sure to update again soon with Christmas decorations and pictures of interesting holiday outfits (for a preview of what's to come check out Eli's new reindeer outfit compliments of his U.P. family).