Reasons to Celebrate

Last week, we had some pretty massive reasons to celebrate in our house. 

A little background for reason #1: As most of you know, Eli has been taking karate for the past year. He is still a part of the Tiny Tigers program that will prepare him when he is old enough to enter the children's program at his karate studio. In Tiny Tigers, the students advance ranks and earn colored stripes on their white belt in the same color progression of the belts and in the children and adult programs. But in Tiny Tigers, there is also a camo belt. This is the most prestigious belt in Tiny Tigers. It is not earned for skills (though you have to be a blue stripe to be up for consideration), but rather on your self-control, focus, and discipline. 

Eli earned his blue stripe after the summer session and was up for his camo belt, but he did not earn it. It broke his little heart. And his Mommy and Daddy's too. He had to watch as his friend of equal rank (though a year older than him...) earn his. He smiled through his hurt and tears for all of the pictures and came home sobbing. It was a tough lesson for him to learn. It was the first time he hadn't earned what he was up for next. He grew up a lot from it, and we saw some incredible changes in his behavior....at karate, school, and home as a result.

Needless to say, at last week's karate test, Eli earned his green stripe and his camo belt! He was incredibly proud, and I was in tears listening to the his Sensei talk about how far Eli has come. He has a knack for karate, but the discipline piece was hard for our little squirrelly little nut. 

Check out that huge smile on his face! He was beyond thrilled.

Congratulations Eli! Congratulations on your camo belt and your green stripe! So proud of you!!

Not long after we got home, we heard from Daddy....about reason #2. Matt had been working around the clock....literally. He was wrapping up a jury trial in federal court. I got the phone call that they had won! Wahoo! All of Matt's hard work and hours on this case had paid off!! And we would be getting our Daddy back....we hadn't seen him in over 3 days. 

Needless to say, we went out to dinner to celebrate. Eli picked Chili's and a yummy dessert to top off an already awesome day.

Congratulations Eli and Daddy! 

Getting His Kicks

Eli started another soccer season last weekend, and boy was he excited! (We actually missed the first weekend of the season due to our beach getaway with family.) He and Daddy set off for practice early Saturday morning, and Jude and I were not far behind. Love living so close that we can walk to soccer too!

It was fun to watch Eli interact with and get to know his new teammates....and being a year older has really improved his skill set. What a difference a year makes! This year, they are splitting the teams and playing 4-on-4 (or maybe it was 5-on-5?) games. I really like this new format. The kids get more touches, and because it is being played on a half field, it means less running. Great decision!

Eli did so well! He kept up with the ball and ran, ran, ran. Again, what a difference a year makes. He played so hard and sweated buckets.  .....And this little boy.....All he wanted to do was be out on that field with Daddy and Eli. 

I had him playing football and soccer on the sidelines for most of practice and finally wore him out about halfway through the game. I locked him in his stroller and he was happy to chill, sip some water, and watch the rest of the game. 

Looking forward to Saturday's game as well as the rest of the season!

Cousins

Eli and Jude's cousins came for a visit....all the way from Colorado!!  Of course, Aunt Theresa and Uncle Ricky came too, and while Mom and Dad loved visiting with them, the cousins had a really fun time together.  It was a joy to finally get to meet and cuddle sweet baby, Davis. He's a doll!  We spent some time in town with them, but if they are gonna come all this way, they wanted to get down to the beach for as much of the visit as possible.  And who can blame therm?

So Friday, after school for E and work for Daddy, we hit the road to join them at the coast. Asher was already asleep but had been told that Eli would be in the bed next to him when he woke up. And he was! The two were up and reading to each other at the crack of dawn. They quickly found all kinds of fun and trouble to get into. Jude was the tag-a-long; always trying to get in on the action when he could. Lots of fun cousin bonding, for sure.

The super duper hot months have passed, but it is still quite warm. Perfect beach weather!!  The water was nice, the seaweed from the storm was almost all gone, and the skies were as blue as could be. Picture perfect!

Rest time was a nice down time for everyone. Davis, the littlest and newest cousin, spent much of his time sleeping on anyone and everyone. Simply precious!

Eli was smitten with the baby, once again. The boy really does love babies.

Hard to believe that we practically had to push the boys outside again in the afternoon. Eli and Asher were so into their games and cars, they almost forgot about playing on the beach. We finally got the boys suited and lotioned up again. It was time to run off some energy before dinner, bath, and bed time. 

Day 2 was just as full of fun and trouble as Day 1. It kicked off with a tasty pancake breakfast that left all of the boys with full tummies, and big smiles. Everyone took it easy and lazed around in jammies for a while. Eli made time to play with "Doll Baby" Davis. And then it was on to some incredible fort building fun before they were ready to hit the beach.

Another gorgeous day! The boys decided to try out the boogie boards despite little waves. Once they realized they weren't going to ride many waves, they moved on to picnic lunches and cornhole before a northern wind brought some awful biting flies that chased us off of the beach...just in time to rinse off for naps. 

Now that is a cute set of tushies! 

These three boys played so hard and so well together. They truly enjoyed each other's company.

Then it was back to town to for a once last meal all together before the Lotspeiches were homeward bound the following day. In an attempt to get a picture of all four cousins, we had the older three ham it up while waiting on Davis. 

Silly faces! Where are your belly buttons?

Cheese!

What an adorable group of cousins!  (Already getting excited about the next group shot with *five* boys!) And of course, we had to try to take a quick sister pic too....too bad Theresa and I didn't manage to change out of our beach attire yet. 

Such a great visit with the Lostpeich crew. Jude and I did squeeze in a little more time with them. After walking Eli to school, we headed over to hang out and play with Asher and Davis while Aunt Theresa and Uncle Ricky packed the suitcases to head back to Colorado.

So glad we got some extra play time and snuggle time in. Thank you for coming and for playing with us. We miss you all so much already and can't wait for the next visit.