The Alesso Visit

Elijah's sister, Cyndi, and her three children came to visit from California for a few days. We had such a great time together! Abby was especially excited to have her cousins spend the night. The kids played so well together. It was nice to have enough children to play some fun games like Duck, Duck, Goose and Freeze Dance. One night the whole family played a really fun game. We used Snoogle (my pregnancy pillow). We each took turns pretending that the pillow was a different object. Everyone else had to guess what object the snoogle was. Even the grown ups had fun acting. It was so sweet to see the kids teaming up and helping each other, too. We hope the Alesso family will be able to come back again soon (and bring Casey next time)!

Enoch's 1st Birthday

Enoch's 1st Year Video from Elijah Manor on Vimeo.

We had a great time celebrating Enoch's 1st Birthday.

Andrea's parents, Aunt, and paternal Grandparents came to our house along with our good friends the Guinness family and Talley family.

We presented Enoch's 1st Year video that I've been working on the past couple of weeks. I think all in all I put in over 40 hours preparing and putting together his video. It was hard work, but it was well worth it!

Andrea made an amazingly delicious healthy carrot cake for everyone and a special little one just for Enoch. We also had hot dogs, black bean salad, and lots of fruit.

As I mention at the end of the video... Enoch, you are truly a blessing from the Lord!

What Would You Do For A Combo Meal?

Chic-fil-a had their annual dress like a cow day. This year we did it and got three free combo meals!

My sister, Alissa, let me borrow two cow costumes for the kids. Abby and I had fun making cow masks and putting together a costume for me. Fun times.

Daddy, we're proud of you!

Congratulations goes to Elijah! 

Elijah got nominated and accepted to be a member of the ASPInsiders.

"The ASPInsiders is a select group of international professionals who have a demonstrated expertise in ASP.NET technologies and who provide valuable, early feedback on related developing technologies and publications to their peers, the Microsoft ASP.NET team, and others."

Also, recently a huge website posted an entry about the Top 20 developers to Follow on Twitter and his name was in it!

He's listed as #18 alongside developers that are highly respected.  As for the other 19, some have podcasts, some work at Microsoft, some write the technologies that Elijah uses, and others have blogs.

What an honor!  Our family is so proud of Elijah and all his hard work. 

We're also thrilled for him as he received a wonderful job offer not too long ago. He is using cutting edge technologies that he has been speaking about for the past few months. God is so good to provide more than we could as or imagine.

He was also mentioned in a video that was posted recently on Bytes by MSDN. Scott Hanselman, a Microsoft Principle Program Manager, mentioned Elijah as one of the answers when asked who he goes to for sources of technical information.

Many developers read Scott's blog, listen to his podcasts, and he recently co-authored a book about ASP.NET MVC (which is one of the main technologies that Elijah's been focusing on the past year or so).

The question about Elijah starts at the 3:34 minute mark and his name is mentioned shortly after that if you want to skip directly to that part. You can watch the video here.

We are so proud that Elijah has been recognized by such a leader in his field.  All his hard work over the years is really paying off this year.

Father's Day Times Two

This was my first Father's day with both Abby and Enoch!

They presented me with these two special books...

• Dance me, Daddy
• Daddy Hugs

I love being a daddy and I love my two precious children! Thank you Andrea, Abby, and Enoch.

4th of July

We had another great 4th of July! This year Enoch was able to participate in the 4th of July parade in our neighborhood. All the kids decorate their wagon, bike, tricycle, etc... and we all make our way up and down the main road.

At the end of the parade we are all awaited with watermelon! Then we headed to the neighborhood pool party with hamburgers, hot dogs, cookies, and swimming fun!

Swimming Lessons

Abby has been taking swim lessons from our next door neighbor, Michael.

We're so thankful to have a pool in our neighborhood. Our other neighbor across the street, Mary, has been learning to swim with Abby and Michael, too.

Abby has done well and enjoys the lessons, but going under water is not her favorite part. Maybe next year will be easier.