Christms Card Picture

All of the Brother and Sister-in-Laws came over last Saturday night for the 1st Annual Thanksgiving Weekend Movie Night. The plan was to make homemade pizza's and watch movies. Well the pizza part was true, but no movies... too many good football games on. A good time was had by all... especially Nico!! :)

We also had ulterior motives for everyone to come over... needed someone to take a picture of the 3 of us for our Christmas Card. After Eli got up from his nap, we got everyone dressed and all set for the picture. Sahsha took it for us and she did a GREAT job considering the 3 of us... Nico and I "arguing" how to take the picture (sitting or standing) and Eli's nose running like a faucet and wanting to get down and walk around. So I'm going to keep the one we chose a secret until you all see it on the Christmas card, but I will show you some of the bloopers. Enjoy!!

Black Friday

It is a tradition that my mom and I ALWAYS go out on Black Friday and get most of our Christmas shopping done. We even went last year when I was like 8 months pregnant. This year we hit Meijers at 5:00 AM and shopped until about 4:30 PM. So this was a Daddy and Eli day. They had a good time. Here's what Nico dressed him in... surprise, surprise. I'm surprised it wasn't an All-Star DJ shirt. :)

Nico usually avoids Black Friday... unless there's an OUTSTANDING computer deal. So how surprised was I when he told me he wanted to go to Guitar Center. I reminded him he'd have Eli and he said he was going to meet Molly and Hunsche there. I was impressed the boys were going to do it (There was a GREAT deal on lights for the DJ business. :) I said make sure you take a picture. I have to have a picture of Eli's first Black Friday outing. So here they are:

Nico forgot to take the stroller and it was PACKED in there, so he held Eli for about an hr while waiting to be helped... needless to say the next day he woke up with a sore bicep. :) The price we pay for good Black Friday deals!!

Hendricks' Thanksgiving

We went to the Hendricks' on Thanksgiving Day. Eli was pretty excited for it... it was all food he could eat. He went to town on the turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and roll. But his ABSOLUTE favorite was Uncle Kenny's sweet potatoes. YUM YUM!! We found this shirt for the festivities.

Notre Dame Jersey

Coach Potter (family friend and he coaches football with Nico) knows that Nico is a HUGE Notre Dame Football fan. So when Eli was born, he drove up to South Bend and got Eli this jersey. Little did he know then that they were going to be horrible this year... but Eli still wears it proudly. It helped that when he wore it they beat Duke 28-7.

We took some pictures for Coach Potter. Who knows... maybe someday Eli could be playing for Notre Dame... let's hope he's not #7, then he'd probably be a quarterback and boy would that make mom and dad nervous!!

Tigulis Thanksgiving

Since everyone was home last weekend, we had the Tigulis' Thanksgiving then. It was nice to all be together and there was TONS of awesome food. Eli loved Uncle Andy's mashed potatoes.

It's always nice to all get together to remind us that we have SO MUCH to be thankful for!!

Eli and his Aunts and Uncles:

Eli and his Baba & Dedo

Eli and his Great Baba, Aunt, and Cousin:

Party Time

Last Saturday, the Ankenbruck family invited all of their friends from college and their families to their house for a kid friendly party. Of course, Nico had to deck Eli out in All-Star DJ gear.

We laughed how the parties have changed over the last few years.... from beer to baby toys!! :) And this Fischer Price House was a GREAT one... it's now on Eli's Christmas list. He loved it!!

It was nice to see all the kids. Not everyone was able to come, but those that did had a GREAT time!! This is Luke Davis and his dad Brad. He was born in the same day Eli was.

This is Johnny Ankenbruck reading with his mommy. He did a great job of sharing his toys that day. Here he is giving Eli a night kiss

The Tigulis Family...

Swimming Lessons

Monday was Eli's 1st swimming lessons. At the NACS natatorium they offer all types of classes. This one is for infants and toddlers. We go to the 5:15 class and there are only 3 others in the class with us... and one of them is Ava!! She's a pro... we kept telling Eli to watch her.

He did GREAT!! He didn't cry at all, but he was a popsicle by the end of the class... that water was cold, even for me. I think he had a good time and he'll just keep getting better every time!!

Colts vs Patriots Game

This Sunday was the much anticipated Colts vs Patriots football game. We invited the Hunsche family over for some game watching, pizza eating, and toy playing fun. It was nice for both Eli and Molly to be awake.

When we normally do Monday Night Football, the kids are asleep. So they enjoyed playing around each other... they still don't get that playing together concept. All in all it was a GREAT night minus the Colts loss and Mike beating Nico at Fantasy Football. :)

Halloween

On Halloween, we had a nice family night.

Together, Nico, Eli and I sat on the front porch and gave candy to the trick-o-treaters. He had a good time watching all the kids in their costume. He also enjoyed chewing on the candy wrappers !! But eventually it was bed time. Here he is in his Halloween pj's.

I can't even imagine how much fun next year will be when he's old enough to actually trick-o-treat himself!!

Halloween at the Zoo

We went on Monday, October 29th to Halloween at the Zoo. We went with my mom and dad, Uncle Kenny and Aunt Amanda and Cora and Keenan.

We expected that Eli would be awake for only a bit and sleep for the rest of the night. But he surprised us!! He stayed awake the ENTIRE time... there was too many fun things to see. He was nice and toasty in his bee costume and looked adorable!! Can't wait until Halloween!!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Carving was a team effort this year. Nico did the top part and cleaned out some of the pumpkin while I watched Eli. Then Eli and I cleaned out the pumpkin together. When I carved it, Nico watched Eli... like I said team effort.

Eli liked the insides of the pumpkin... it was squishy on his hand. He was also hungry, so he ate little bits of the pumpkin. He liked it, which doesn't surprise me since he likes squash so much.

Finished product:

Whole Milk

We started Eli on whole milk 2 Saturday mornings ago. He loves it!! The sippy cup on the other hand... not so much! He'd much rather try and drink out of a regular cup, which leaves milk everywhere.

High School Football Ends

This year the weather for Friday night games was unpredictable. One Friday night we'd be sweating sitting in the stands and then a week later we'd be all bundled up. It got a bit chillier closer to the end of football season. The last regular season football game was at DeKalb. We made the trip there to hopefully see a good game. Unfortunately they lost. We only made it until half time and Eli got tired so we left. But he wasn't cold... we were all bundled up!!

Carroll drew South Side for the first round of sectionals. We played at South Side and it was a chilly night. Again we bundled up Eli and he had a good time.

Uncle Andy and Aunt Andrea and Uncle Jason and Aunt Sahsha also came, so it was a family affair. Uncle Andy held Eli all night and kept him nice and warm, so much so that he fell asleep... he slept through the entire second half. Unfortunately again, they lost. While we were sorry they lost, we were happy to have Nico back in our lives again!!

High School Volleyball Game

The middle school volleyball teams were introduced at the High School Varsity game vs. Concordia. Nico had a freshman football game that night, so Eli was with Mommy that night. Here are some pictures from that night. This one is Eli with some of my players.

This is one of my favorites...