Lately

It's pretty quiet over here; not much to report. We've been doing a little landscaping...

 

lamb's ear and coxcomb

azaleas, astilbe, and ajuga

I'll have to take an updated picture of this bed because the wildflowers have literally taken over. The spider plants are over 6 feet tall!

spider plant, black-eyed susans, shasta daisy, rosemary and some annuals

 

 The boys have been doing some mowing...
and we've been cleaning out some closets...do your husbands also have over 30 hats? We had to have a memorial for some. Lots of good memories those hats apparently carry.

 When your daddy looks like this....
this is the look you will get in return:

 This is a sweet little jon-jon my mom made for my brother 30 years ago. I love it and love how it fits Eli...the back is so sweet. It is so special to me that my mom and MIL kept these precious outfits!

 

 Eli loves the golf carts on the front!

 

In July, we went on a beach vacation with Matthew's family. Matthew and I have been together for 7 years and married for five and this was our first Bills' family vacation together! I told Kyle and Nadine I felt very privileged to be invited on this one! :)

 

Eli was a fair weather beach-goer. One minute he loved the water and waves; the next he hated it all and wanted to sit in the shade or go inside. I'm hoping once there are lots of cousins he'll realize how fun all that water and sand really is!

I ended up being pretty sick on this trip and hardly took any pictures- I'll have to get some from everyone else's cameras.
Later that month, I rode up with my dad to visit my grandmother and brothers for the day. My two oldest brothers have three kiddos, and it was so fun seeing them! One is a professor in Idaho and the other in the Navy, so we don't get to visit too often, which I hate, because Eli LOVED playing with his cousins! This was their very first time meeting each other, and Eli followed them all around the house all afternoon. This is the best shot I got of all four of them with my beautiful grandmother.

Here are the three Jane's: Jane Mccormick Bell Reinhardt, Jane Mccormick Reinhardt Bills, and Jane Ritchie Reinhardt!

And that brings me to Mother's Day Out:

 

The first time we went to meet his teachers, Eli played with the train set and hated to leave. Then we came to the first morning of real school, and Eli was not having it! He didn't want to wear it backpack or take pictures, or get dressed, or leave his truck, or basically anything.

 

This picture breaks my heart. Poor baby. I dropped him off and he walked right in to play. When I picked him up, he burst into tears and just released all his emotions from that day! Monday I was called to come get him after three hours of him sobbing uncontrollably, and today, we tried a abbreviated schedule of two hours. He sobbed in the car on the way there, sobbed when they peeled him off of me, and I could hear him crying in the hallway when I was walking down to pick him up.

Every day when I pick him up, he tells me, "I sowwy Mama, I sowwy." (sorry). I keep telling him it's okay and he doesn't need to apologize, and that we will just keep trying to have fun at school and pray to God for peace and comfort when he's away from mama. He also informed me today that he just wants to stay home with mama and eat his Flinstone vitamins. ha! I KNOW this is a process, and we're still trying, but growing up is hard on mama AND baby! Just look at that sad face above and tell me you don't want to keep him home forever!!