Happy 7th Birthday Eli

August 4th, 2001 at 9:14 pm Elijah Luther Tennyson (Steffens) was born. What a day that was! I woke up with contractions around 5:45 and stayed in bed for another 2 hours before notifying my parents. I had gone to a lamaze class and the woman had told me to do whatever I would normally be doing at the time I went into labor in order to keep as much normalcy going as possible. If any of you know me, I am a sleeper... so I tried to go back to sleep. That didn't quite happen, so around 7:45 I mossied on down to my parents room to get into their large garden tub... it was then I was fully confirmed it was labor because the contractions started coming harder and closer together. When I was through and started back upstairs my dad, my sweet laid back dad, got very nervous. "Christy, you must get in the car right now and go to the hospital." I told my dad it would take a while,
especially because this was my first one. I then proceeded to go for a walk with my mother around 10 am... in the HOT AUGUST SUN... now they were really coming fast... I took a quick shower and was off to the hospital... my father, again sweet, quiet, laid back... " Christy I am putting this pair of scissors and rubber band in the back seat, just in case you have the baby on the way... ok?" I just had to laugh... what a great dad, wanting for things to run smoothly and wanting to make sure that we were safe... he even sterilized the scissors for us in boiling water! Thanks Dad. My father had to go to a soccer game that night... but he made it in time to hold Eli. My father was holding a new born... what? He never touched a baby until they are about 3 months of age because he thinks that they are too fragile. Do you know what that means? Eli was HUGE! He was a whopping 9lbs. and 7.5 oz. Now here I am 7 years later... celebrating his birthday... my how we have come so far. I am so thankful for him... he has such a charisma about him... he is so special to me. It was a hard time in my life... but one that I did much growing from. Thank you Lord for the growth!





This is Carolina and Gustavo. They are our latino family... we love them so much. They were able to make it out... they got Eli his, as he would say it, "Sa-weet" skate board. This is like Eli's older brother and sister... or I guess more like an Aunt and Uncle... he loves them so much also... thanks for coming to be a part of Eli's special day.





Here are the Kids from Left to Right... Anthony, Bobby, Trace, Eli S., Eli T. , next to the wagon is Zach, and in front Lilly. (Gabby, sorry I don't know how to crop pictures so you'll have to forgive me.) I know you wanted to be cropped out, but too bad! These boys played a balloon toss... and then they did an all out war. I even got in on the action... and you all know that Lilly was right there in the middle of it all ... Screaming.... !