Elliot at 8 months

Elliot's current favorite place in the world is the bathroom counter. It has a big mirror and shiny faucets- what more could a little guy want?

Sometimes I'll let him play the "pick up all the things" game on the counter while I get ready in the morning. It is all smiles and laughs until I turn on the hair dryer:

Oh the betrayal. Note the boogers that started streaming out his nose when he started crying- classy. 

 Elliot has started demanding more and more solids- he'll squirm all over when I try to nurse him but happily gobble up several ounces of blended whatever. He also likes finger foods, but has a very close to 0% success rate of getting cheerios into his own mouth. He just clenches them in his hand and sucks his thumb vigorously. He can get bigger crackers and banana chunks into his mouth... but will inevitably also get it into his hair and everywhere else in his splash zone. 

Peas are his current favorite

Elliot is now literate! Jokes. But he can hold books better and loves looking at them.

A bookworm in the making... I'm starting the "you love books" brainwashing early!

Elliot has made a lot of progress with his army crawl, thanks to Aaron's "baby boot camp." He discovered that Elliot will try to crawl towards some toys, but he gives up easily if they are too far away. The big breakthrough came when Aaron realized that Elliot will NEVER give up on crawling towards a cell phone with the screen on. 

He's getting more and more efficient, but is still a long way off from a full on crawl. I love his desperate full-body lunges. 

He also still likes rolling around. Much easier than crawling. 

Recently he started rolling into me for cuddles. I love it!

He got a cool elephant toy from my friend Jenny who went to Uganda over the summer

So much concentration. That elephant tail won't stroke itself!

 Life is great when absolutely everything is a toy. 

Like laundry baskets

and door stops

He is very enthusiastic about door stops lately. I have to screw them on super tight or he will twist them off and chew on them. I like to let him play with the pantry door while I cook.

He was being SUPER cute with our friend's dog Boomer the other night:

Rose Canyon Lake Camping

We went camping this weekend with our pals the Hays! We went up to Rose Canyon Lake on Mt. Lemmon. The weather and company were both great!

Our little family

Desert kids thrilled by their exposure to water. I'll admit that I was pretty happy about it too!

It was all I could do to not let him drench himself

Seriously, he would not stop looking at the water

Cool fairy flower

Colby had a very unfortunate brush with the very hot dutch oven that resulted in him having to stick his 2nd-degree burned leg into a cooler of cold water for about an hour. Poor guy.

The alphabet game on the iPhone was a great distraction from the pain

Getting Elliot to nap was a bit tricky. We ended up using a white noise app on my phone to drown out our neighbors.

Lakin got picked on mercilessly during our cut-throat Citadels game after the kids went to sleep. We also spotted a skunk wandering around and overheard a bunch of boy scouts talking about throwing rocks at it... fortunately they did not follow through on their terribly thought out plan, and we didn't have to deal with skunk spray! 

Our happy camper

Could those pants go any higher?

The Lake

Such great snuggles

Hi Colby!

Little Buddy helping us take down the tent

Yeah, he's really cute. 

Dos Casas Grandes

We finally made it over to Casa Grande this weekend! It is on the way to the Bear's house, so we have driven by the turn off dozens of times. Casa Grande is the name of the ruins of a 4-story structure and surrounding complex built by a mysterious group of native americans in the 13th century. It was abandoned not too long afterwards. The US named it a national monument and built a big roof over it to protect it from the elements and did some structural support in the 1930's. 

Their building probably would have lasted longer if the Hohokam had used big metal trusses like the Americans did for the roof

The classic "phone camera propped up on the stroller" trick

Pretty big for a building made by hand out of adobe

It was cool to see, but we really liked the museum next to it. They showed how they built things with cutaway models, and had information on what they farmed and their irrigation system.  

The next day we were able to go to another big house: The Gilbert Temple! It was our first time going since Elliot was born. We left him napping with Mary. It was really great to go back.

 Scott has been listening to Harry Potter audiobooks (always a good choice) and he felt inspired to brew up some butterbeer. It was delicious, but I did feel a little bit like I was drinking diabetes. 

We also got to swim in their pool for the first time! I hope that Elliot turns out to be as good of a swimmer as his aquatic cousins. 

And now for a small sampling of the 200+ pictures that Rebekah took with my phone:

Rebekah Selfie

daww

Andrew may be a wild child, but he is super sweet

July Happenings

Today I went out in the backyard and took some videos of Elliot thinking that maybe I'd make a cute little montage at some point. THEN GOOGLE DID IT FOR ME. 

Speaking of Google Photos, I got a job! I'm writing articles for a website called tech-recipes.com. They are short tutorials on tech topics. I'll write 3 a week and can work on them whenever I want. I'm excited about it!

But not as excited as Elliot is when I go get him after he wakes up from a nap:

YOU CAME!!

 Elliot is rolling all over the place these days. Still no signs of crawling and it seems to be mostly accidental if he ends up somewhere. He's starting to be able to aim himself in a general direction. 

Scooted on over to say hi to me

He started out on top of this blanket

got himself into the corner

Captivated by the vacuum cleaner

Playing with furry friends at Melony's house

Good doggie

Monsoon season is upon us! The tree in our front yard got knocked over by the wind and we have been doctoring it ever since. It's a work in progress. 

It fell even further to the right- it was pretty close to level with the ground

On the upside, monsoon season has the absolute best sunsets!

Our street

Aaaaaaand More Beach Pictures

I made the mistake of writing all the beach posts before waiting for the family photographer to send out her pictures. Here's some awesome pictures taken by the awesomer Megan Blood!

"Why hello, Ladies"

This is why Aaron is Catherine's favorite uncle

Also I hear he has funny jokes

Cute

Look! He can stand!
(Not too hard when someone is supporting all your weight and your feet are buried in the sand)

Munching on a seashell

Elliot making his scrunchy face at Jonny

Playing with the hilarious goggles

Eowyn jumping the waves

Matching swimsuits with Elizabeth

What a great group of sandy cousins

Digging for clams

Eowyn & Elliot checking each other out

Skim boarders Stephen & Aaron

Aaron always opens his mouth before jumping. Or throwing. Or catching. It's cute :)

There must have been something super interesting on TV

Me and Seth

The non-stop thumb sucker

The Blood Clan