Elliott's 2nd Birthday

Elliott is 2! It sounds so weird to say that we have a 2 year old, although he's looked like a 2 year old for about 6 months now. Thank you "tall" genes. Elliott understands and repeats so much. We have found ourselves already playing the spelling game so he doesn't know what we are talking about. He is addicted to the choo-choos he got for his birthday and has to take them into the shower and into bed with him. He is starting to test Mom and Dad to see what our limits are and I'm afraid to say that he wins occasionally just because we don't have any fight left in us by the end of the day. Yes, sometimes our son goes to bed without brushing his teeth and eats animal crackers for breakfast. But we love him to no end! He is so full of life and can cheer up any bad day at work when he greets us with a huge smile and hug when he we pick him  up. 

We celebrated his birthday this last weekend and it was a great success! We had a lot of family and friends over and Elliott had a blast playing with everyone. It was one of our last weekends in Kansas City before our move back to Iowa which it made it that much more special!

Elliott was 36 inches and 31.6 lbs at his 2-year checkup.

Who knew that balloons could keep them entertained for so long

Awe...so cute 

Ok, get away from me now 

So many fun new toys 

Deciding which balloon he's going to dig into first 

Yup, that's the best we could get 

Cousin Love!

Easter Egg Hunt

Elliott got to participate in his first Easter Egg Hunt this year at our church. I think he was more excited about the fire truck than the actual hunt.

There's No Place Like Home

After a whirlwind of a couple of months, Mark and I will be official residents of the state of Iowa again on April 25^th! We both started exploring career opportunities just to in my words “make some contacts and see what was out there.” To our surprise we received some pretty promising leads early on and realized that we could quickly turn our goal/dreams into reality. We decided to put our house on the market on March 2^nd for sale by owner and sold it exactly 36 hours later after a bidding war. We had a much deserved “Oh Crap” moment when we realized we just sold our house and we had no jobs and nowhere to move to. We quickly accelerated our discussions with our prospective employers and we both received written offer letters 2 days apart. Wow, the Lord works in mysterious ways! We found a house a few days later in Ankeny and get to call it home on April 25th. After putting in my resignation at Commerce Bank, they decided they wanted to try and make something work for me to stay on with them and work from Des Moines. I am super excited to represent Commerce in the state of Iowa. Mark will go to work as a bridge engineer for CH2M Hill. 

We will miss our friends in Kansas City but could not be more excited and anxious to get back to the Cyclone state!!

Elliott's First Why Conversation

Sitting in the chair this morning while Elliott wakes up...

Elliott: Daddy?
Mom: Daddy's at work this morning.
Elliott: Why?
Mom: He had to go in early.
Elliott: Why?
Mom: He has to make money for us.
Elliott: Why?
Mom: So we can eat and you can go to college.
Elliott: Why?
Mom: So you can grow strong and get an education.
Elliott: Why?
Mom: So you can get a good job and move out of the house.
Silence....

It's a...

GIRL!!

We are so excited to add a little girl to our family! She is very healthy and measuring almost exactly the same as Elliott. The measurements are so close that my doctor was actually amazed. Looks like we will have another big baby on our hands! 

Big 12 Tournament

Aunt Chelsey, Uncle Steve, and Grandma and Grandpa Currie came down for the Big 12 Tournament again this year.  We had a great time! Elliott loved spending time with everyone and getting more attention than normal. Grandma Currie brought enough food to feed an army so I didn't have to worry about cooking a thing. Oh...and the Cyclones WON!! This tournament will go down in the history books as one of the best ever.

23 Months

Elliott is saying close to 10 new words a day, I can't even count what the total is up to now. He LOVES to play outside, especially his sandbox. He loves playing with the "diggers" that Grandma and Grandpa Currie and Aunt Chelsey and Uncle Steve brought him when they stayed for the Big 12 tournament. He now likes to walk on his own when we go for walks around the block. No more stroller! He has quite the palate and will eat, or at least try, just about anything. His favorites are any type of fruit, meatballs, tilapia, sweat potato and black bean burrito, and most recently crab cakes. Yes, our son will eat crab cakes! And when we are done eating he has to help wash the dishes. He will walk over to a chair at the table, put his hand on it and say "wash" while pointing at the sink. I hope he keeps this up!  Elliott has learned what time out means and he is quick to say “no” when you ask him if he wants to go. He visits it frequently when he starts his hitting escapades. I believe he is starting to get curious about Mom’s growing belly, but still has no idea what it means. He will find out soon enough! 

Washing dishes. Yes, he does actually wash them and then put them up on the counter once they are done. 

Playing with his new diggers 

On a walk...pointing out every single thing he sees 

Mom treated him to ice cream for being a good boy during the day while Dad was at work