The Elrod Update

Friday, February 23, 2007

Valentine's Day

A couple of weeks before Valentine's Day, Grant had asked me if I was going to get him and Matthew a surprise like I did last year. Truthfully, I had completely forgotten that I had done anything for them other than making a special dinner. I then remembered that I had placed a small box of chocolates and something else Valentine-y on their plates before they sat down for dinner. You just never know what little things they'll remember and look forward to the next year. This year, I made each of them a special treat sack with some goodies that I had picked up at the store. Before they got ready for school that morning, I had them sit on the couch and close their eyes while they awaited the handing over of their gifts. Here they are anxiously waiting:


I then let them look inside to see what they got:

They each got a small box of chocolates, a heart-shaped Ring-Pop, a box of Conversation Sweet Hearts, and a pen with a heart on the end that lights up when you write. Just a few lil' fun things. :)

"You're always FIRST with me!"

"You've got me HOPPIN'!"

Showing a little Valentine's Day love

Hope each of you had a great Valentine's day and got to spend it with someone special!

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Children's Museum

Last Saturday, Chris took Matthew to a Memphis Tiger's basketball game. A friend at work offered Chris the tickets but there were only 2 of them. So that Grant didn't feel left out of a special activity, I offered to take him to the Children's Museum... one of his favorite places to visit. He was so excited and asked if he could plan our whole day. Okay. His agenda? We went to the Children's Museum, out to lunch (Wendy's... Daddy and Matthew joined us because the game was over but Grant wasn't too happy that it wasn't just the 2 of us), had ice cream at Baskin Robbins, and went to Blockbuster to rent a movie (Treasure Island). It was a fun day of just getting to spend time together. Oh... the Tigers won!!

What Will I Be When I Grow Up?:

A Doctor??

A Construction Worker??

A Grocery Store Worker??


(This was his favorite thing to do... shopping at the mini-Kroger store)

A Pilot (like Uncle Phillip)??


Oh, the possibilities...!

Monday, February 05, 2007

Oops!!

Why do these keep posting backwards when I think I'm posting them in the right order? Hmmm... Oh, well! :)

Last of the Cabin Christmas Pics

More Random Pictures:
Meme and Matthew


Shooting the bow and arrow


Chris, Pam, and Patrick



Scrapbooking:




Pictures with Nana:



Goodbye:


Our cabin

More Cabin Christmas Pictures

More PJ Pictures:






Chris's mom, Nana, and me


Mesmerized by the TV

Random:


This was Chris's job all weekend... keeping the fire going! :)


Patrick (Chris's brother), all the kiddos, and Chris

Christmas at the Cabin

(Yes, this is another post that's chronologically out of order but I only recently was able to download these pictures from my mother-in-law's camera... that's my excuse.)

For the past several years, we've hosted Christmas at our house for Chris's brother & his family, and Chris's mom & Nana. This year, my sister-in-law had the idea to do something different and rent a cabin for the weekend. So, the weekend of December 8-10, all of us loaded up and went to Village Creek State Park near Wynne, AR for our Christmas getaway. We got there on Friday evening and left late Sunday morning. We exchanged gifts, ate a nice Christmas meal, played games, scrapbooked, and just enjoyed visiting with each other. I think we may even try to do it again this year! :)



Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree :)

Opening Presents:


Hayden and Tanner... our nephews


Pajama Party:


Me and my sister-in-law, Pam, with our new jammies

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Snow Day!!


Last Friday, we woke up to a blanket of white across the yard. The winter weather had started the day before and the kids didn't have school on Thursday due to some ice patches on the roads out here. The kids enjoyed the day off but were really disappointed that there wasn't any snow on a "snow day". Things were different, however, on Friday morning. Chris woke me up at 5:30 to tell me that the kids wouldn't be going to school. I thought "Great! I won't wake the boys up and I'll get to sleep a bit later.". Nope. Grant was up about 10 after 6 and couldn't wait to look out the window. An hour later we were outside making snow angels, tasting the snow (what kid can't resist eating some snow?), having snowball fights, and sledding down the hill in our backyard. Matthew was the ingenious one that came up with the idea of using the big toybox lid as a sled. It worked great! :) At the end of the day, we had gone through several changes of clothes and shoes, a few mugs of hot chocolate, and lots of little boys running in and out of the house. Some say that there will be more snow again before winter's over, but chances are that was our one Big Snow of the season. We'll see! :)


What it looked like across the neighborhood before the kids came out and the sun melted it all away


Me and the boys


Our house

Below are some pictures of our sledding fun! :



I wasn't just posing... I actually did slide down the hill and it was fun!! :)



Wheeeeeeee!!!

We had a wonderfully cold and snowy day! :)