4 months until 2 years old!

HOLY SMOKES! Really I have an almost 2 year old. Wow! Zeke is so so fun right now. Everyday is a blast. He is hilarious and has us rolling laughing. At other times he is precious and sweet. He talks so much and puts together things that blow me away everyday. This isn't a doctors appointment month, so we will just have to wait until August to find out those stats.
Some things he is currently doing are:
*loves crafts, he goes to the pantry where we keep those supplies and asks "color"
*he also loves snacking and goes to the pantry saying "cookie" or "cracker"
*thinks Ben should be everywhere he is at all times
*puts his hands together to pray, says pray or "God, God, God" to pray and then "Amen" when he is finished
*repeats after us recently it has been "hot mama", "bastard" (but meaning mustard), "I got it", "see ya"
*loves reading books, his favorites right now are Go, Dog, Go (he walks around saying Hello, Goodbye); an Elmo book that talks about balls (he walks around saying High Ball, Low Ball), and the story of Jonah (he's all about the BIG Pish)
*completely self suffiecient with feeding
*sits on his potty, but has not actually used it
*likes to wash his hands
*wants to be outside more than inside
*really into songs right now- Itsy Bitsy Spider, 5 Little Speckled Frogs, the Name song are favorites
*Still obsessed with airplanes, but now points out buses and trucks, especially likes being about to say "Big _____"
*names our neighbors, friends, and family through out the day
*is enjoying learning time each day where we read a Bible story and do a craft/activity

water play after talking about Jesus walking on water

riding a tractor at a park

so big going down slides by himself

playing in a neighbor's sandbox

hanging out at the museum with our buddy Samuel

we were getting ready one morning and noticed Zeke was missing and quiet,

this is how we found him

He had a blast at the farm at the museum

forget about the little slides, he wanted the "BIG slide"

Happy Half Birthday!!

My sweet boy is half way to one year! It is just crazy to think that in the next six months he will be crawling (maybe), feeding himself, learning to walk, and saying real words. The first six months with a baby are just so sweet. I love the snuggles and cuddles. I love how everyday they learn something new. BUT those first six months tend to drag by a little because those new things are things like following you with their eyes. The next six months are jam packed action! I can't wait (but I don't want it to go too fast) to see what happens next.
Here are som fun things that Ben is currently doing, we don't have his 6 month stats yet, we go to the dr on Friday:
*blows spit bubbles
*belly laughs when we sing (I'm guessing with Spence and my voices it's either laugh or cry...)
*rolls both ways
*says mama (but not directed to me yet)
*still waking up to eat, but usually only once a night
*gets in bed with me most mornings for some snuggling and sleeping
*loves food, but doesn't actually get much in
*has tried oatmeal, avocado, bananas, and sweet potatoes
*wants to drink from a sippy cup, and will grab Zeke's if it is laying close by
*thinks Zeke is the greatest thing ever
*is still pretty laid back and chill
*trying to sit up
*trying to scoot all over

Yes, this is the same shirt I made him wear at 3 weeks, but now it fits :)

is loving sitting up and playing with the mirror

it doesn't look like it, but he loved the swings

look he has chubby cheeks!

mmm...avocado!

Self portrait with mommy

Peanut Paintshop

As I am typing this I am realizing that I haven't posted pictures from where Erin made an amazing sign for Zeke's room. I will get that up soon, but for now I have to share the amazing sign she made for our front door. I emailed her and basically said "I need a sign that I can have on our door to keep people from ringing the bell and waking my kids up during nap, but it needs to be flipped just to say our name for nonnap times" I gave her a few ideas from things I had seen on her website. But really she just knows what I am looking for and goes above and beyond. Check out the cuteness that she created:

the sheltons

close up

Go ahead and squeal, you know you want to

AND no one has rung the bell since we have been using the sign!!! YAY!

Bunnies, Eggs, and Chocolate

These are the things that Easter is not about for the Shelton household. Yes, we do celebrate Easter with some of those things, but that is not what makes or breaks the holiday for us. I know that you (if you are like me) visit this blog to see what cute pictures are up. And I really won't get too wordy on you, but I do feel that I would make a serious mistake if I don't share with you the real reason for today. Today, Easter Sunday, we celebrate our risen Savior. We believe that God sent His Son to us to live a perfect, sinless life. He faced temptation the same way we do, but because He is God (and we are not) he withstood that temptation. We believe that He was crucified for us because of our sin. He took our sin on Himself in order for us to be able to spend eternity with God. BUT this is where it gets good... He did not stay dead and in a tomb. No, Jesus rose and that is why we celebrate. We serve a living God and for that we praise Him!
Does this mean that we didn't hunt some Easter eggs? Absolutely not, we hunted with the best of them. (well, I would use the term hunt loosely, Zeke found 4 eggs in 2 different hunts) Does this mean that we are not living it up with an overdose of chocolate? Absolutely not, it is practically running through our veins. Does it mean that an overstuffed rabbit rolled into our house with goodies? Well, that's where we gotta stop. A bunny didn't bring fun stuff, but Mama and Dada did give some fun stuff to our boys.
Here are some pictures of our fun festivities:

Zeke hunting eggs at the neighbor's house

"I got it!" (his new favorite phrase)

Happy Easter, buddy!

Ben hunting eggs

Zeke's basket and goodies (with a few things from Nana and Bampa)

Ben's basket and goodies (with a few things from Nana and Bampa)

Bottoms and Bananas

Ben is learning to sit up. He has been able to sit up for a few seconds on his own, but mainly I have to put the boppy around him. He loves it!

from the back shot

Enjoying the outdoors

Big boy!

Ben has also started eating bananas. He pretty much LOVED them!

Helping out with the feeding


YUM!

Finger lickin good

Go Fish Guys

Just had to let ya'll know about a great deal. Go Fish Guys are having a sale right now. Buy one cd/dvd at $15 and get as many as you want for $5. We love these guys. We have 3 cds, Splash, Party Like a Preschooler, and Snazzy. I am thinking I might buy the dvds and see what Zeke thinks about them. Happy shopping!

Losing our Marbles

WARNING: This is a long long post, but mainly pictures so enjoy the cuteness that is Zeke, oh and please excuse the poor pictures, he moved constantly through the whole place!

Nah, we didn't really lose them, but we did have a blast at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh. Friday we had planned to go to the zoo, but with scattered showers we opted out of driving a zillion miles away and getting rained on. I decided we should should still do something fun and was choosing between Marbles and the Museum of Life and Science. I have been to the Life and Science Museum, but not to Marbles so I decided we should check that out. Marbles used to be a place called PlaySpace. I nannied for some kids in college and we hung out there once a week, it was adorable then but my it's so much cooler now that it teamed up with Exploris! We only spent an hour there (due to last minute decision to go/Ben's schedule/Zeke's schedule/stupid downtown Raleigh construction), but check out the action packed fun we had:

Walking into the museum (Z was a little overwhelmed)

not interested in posing for a pic

Sliding into the play area

The mail truck that Zeke called a school bus.

He kept coming back to this saying "bus. bus", we stopped correcting him

Picking veggies

Hoping he can be some help to his dad this summer

Putting the veggies into the wheelbarrel

Pointing out each fish and telling us what color they were

Bouncing on these things in the fish room

(it looked like a middle school dance with the disco ball in here)

L.O.V.E.D. the orange fish (doesn't know who Nemo is yet, though)

About to make daddy walk the plank

He kept trying to hit the flowers (sorry Amber!)

Realized playing in the dirt was more fun than flowers

Such a boy!

LOVING the dirt!

SPLASH!

BIG splash!

Turtle=BIG SPLASH

Give me that turtle!

We are really excited about going back!! I know Zeke will have even more fun when he returns. We only went to 2 of the 5 exhibits, and seriously could have just hung out on the dang mail truck/school bus. I am hoping to get a membership for Zeke's birthday... hint, hint, grandparents ;)