Weekend Wrap-Up

We had a great weekend. It always seems to go by really fast but we had a lot of fun. Friday night we went and took a meal to some friends who recently had a baby, and we stayed and enjoyed the meal with them. We took Eli's pack n play and tried to keep him contained in that while we ate! It was quite entertaining. We really enjoyed the fellowship even if we did spend much of the evening chasing down our one year old. :) I made eggplant parmesan with basic marinara sauce and stuffed zucchini that I found on this blog. I adjusted the first two recipes slightly based on the reviews I read like I usually do but I made the zucchini as is. I thought everything was a winner and will definitely make them again sometime.

Saturday, after Marc was done rounding, we played in the baby pool with Eli for a long time. Marc rigged up a tent over the pool with a sheet so we were able to enjoy the shade (since I filled the pool up with water in the middle of the yard where there is no shade!). Eli loved it. Then, we grilled out some hot dogs and ate on the deck just a cool breeze started coming in. It was so relaxing and fun.

Sunday, after church, we went to the mall to pick up a few things for Marc for our upcoming trip. Marc is hard to get to go shopping. He really has to be in the right mood or you just have to tell him that he is going without giving him an option. Yesterday was the latter. :) Marc still hadn't used some of his Christmas gift cards from this past Christmas AND THE YEAR BEFORE. (sorry Noreen!) I was really beginning to worry that these things might have an expiration date on them so I told him he had to go buy some clothes. Well, he made away with several shirts, a pair of shorts, and a pair of pants that all looked so nice. He was able to get quite a lot because of all the great summer sales. I think he was happy in the end that I made him go. :)

Last night, we had our last small group for the year. We have been reading through J. I. Packer's "Knowing God" and enjoying some great fellowship in the process. This is our second small group to be in with our church and we find it a great way to connect a little deeper with people beyond just the church service. We had a cook-out along with some water activities for the kids.

Eli couldn't quite figure out how to handle this big water gun.

Eli enjoyed watching the big boys slip and slide.

How precious are these curls and blue eyes???

Sunday is also my grocery shopping day. I think I am on my third week with the Grocery Game. Each week is getting a little easier and becoming a little more successful. Marc says this thing is right up my alley because it really requires a Type A personality to get the job done. :) He was skeptical at first, but after seeing my savings last week he actually offered to help clip some coupons yesterday. Ha! So, I think I had about a 40% savings at the grocery store this week. I have heard you can get 60-70% savings once you have been doing it for a while so I still have my game face on. :) I had to take a picture of my first FREE items. Yes, I didn't pay a penny for this toothpaste or toothbrush. Doesn't that just feel wrong and wonderful all at the same time??? I have passed up some other free things in the past few weeks that we didn't have need for (ie. cat food) but I may just try to get all the free things I can and do something great with them at the end of the year for someone else. So I have started a FREE bag and these are my first two items. :)

So, if you are curious and not familiar with this game, here is how the free items worked this week. These items are both normally around $2 each. Dillons had them on sale today for $1 each (10 for $10 and I just bought one) and I had a manufacturer coupon for both of them for $0.75 which Dillons matches up to $1.00. So there you have it! FREE. Kinda fun, right? Well, if I haven't convinced you yet then just keep following along because I plan to update as we go. :) Have a great Monday!

Smart Boy!

I could not believe my eyes when I saw what Eli had done in our living room the other night. In fact, I yelled so loud for Marc to come and look that I startled Eli. I had been in the kitchen cleaning up and peeked around the corner to make sure Eli wasn't getting into trouble, and I saw this...

Besides seeing his cute tummy, I realized Eli had stacked up his blocks all by himself!

Marc has been practicing stacking these blocks up with Eli but I had no idea he knew how to stack this many. The tower of blocks was taller than him! The first picture I took had six blocks and then when I peeked back in on him a few minutes later he had added a seventh block. What a smart boy. :)

Last night I brought in a tupperware/storage box that I was going to use to store some of his clothes. Eli managed to get in all by himself before I could fill it with clothes. He thought this was so funny and kept getting in and out just giggling. I love seeing how entertained a child can be with the simplest things!

It is hard to believe that our vacation is less than a week away. Lots to do before then! It all starts with an OB visit tomorrow morning to check in on our baby girl. :) Have a great weekend!

Father's Day

Tonight on the way to the grocery store K-Love was doing a special on fathers. It was so interesting to hear all the different psychologists' perspectives on the role dad's play in a child's life. There was one in particular who was speaking about how a father's relationship with his daughter affects her future relationships with men as well as her relationship with God. He said that if you had a loving father growing up you should feel blessed. I feel blessed... very blessed. I love my dad. He has always been someone I could count on to give me good advice and I have utilized him a lot over the years in that area!

I had really wanted to make today special for Marc. I knew that he would have to round at the hospital this morning but was hoping we would have most of the day with him. That unfortunately wasn't the case. Marc has worked SO much this weekend. He worked from 6am on Friday morning straight until 3pm on Saturday and then came home and slept to catch up from no sleep the night before. Then he worked today from 6am to 3pm. If you are counting, that is over 40 hours in a weekend which is a lot. He is worn out. Now he has a patient in labor at the hospital and will likely have to go in tonight to deliver her and then be back at the hospital tomorrow morning at 6am. So, I had to adjust his Father's Day a bit. Since he couldn't enjoy breakfast with us this morning I made him some of his favorite banana nut bread last night while he was sleeping and put it out for him to have this morning. I got this recipe several years ago from Southern Living and Marc REALLY likes this bread so I knew it would bring a smile to his face.

I made the one on the right without nuts so Eli could have some since we haven't introduced him to any nuts yet.

Once Marc got home he opened up his presents. Eli had made Marc something at school and then he opened up the gifts we bought. He got a mirror for his bike so he can see Eli when he is the bike trailer (our neighbors recently gave us their old one for free!) behind him and some new Nike pool sandals for our upcoming trip. I think he loved them all and Eli enjoyed helping him open everything up.

Eli gave Marc a bag of peanuts and a cute card made like a shirt that he worked on at school.

After such a long day we decided to do something easy for dinner that the whole family would enjoy so we headed to Pizza Hut. We have a really nice dine-in one by our house that is never very crowded. Eli wasn't in the best mood tonight (yes, he is sick again with fever and probably has another ear infection) so we were glad to find that we were the only ones in the restaurant. :)

Eli has another battle wound on his forehead. He hit the corner of one of his stackable blocks and.. well you can see who won. :)

Here is my 22 week picture! Getting big in the belly. :) Baby girl is moving a lot and her kicks are getting much stronger. I still think she is still breech because the kicks are really low. I bought her first two outfits this weekend which was really fun. I have ordered some fabric samples and plan on getting the nursery figured out in the next month!

Growing Before My Eyes

Eli is SUCH a joy! I know every parent must feel that way about their children but he is really so fun at this age. Over the past few weeks he has learned several knew things and I love cheering him on as he figures things out. :) He loves being outside and every time we go out he drags ALL of his toys from the garage to play with. He really loves his red wagon. Marc's sister gave us this before Eli was even born and it has been great to finally put it to some good use this summer! Thanks Aunt Jamie!

Eli always has to be carrying something when we go on wagon rides. It really cracks us up. :)

Lately, he has been trying to get in the wagon by himself, but he mostly gets stuck with one leg in and one leg out and starts screaming for help. Once I get him out, he is right back at it again!

My parents got him a little electric car for his birthday that can be controlled either by the handle or by the steering wheel. He is starting to consistently hold down the button to make it go which excites him so much. Now if he can just figure out how to steer the car at the same time we can take that handle off and let him go!

Besides playing with some fun toys, Eli has made friends with a little girl next door named Lucy who stands about 1 ft. tall and loves wagging her tail. Lucy is a dachshund and has chewed a hole in her gate big enough to stick her nose through and Eli loves going over to say hi when he sees her. He now says "daw" when he hears Lucy and barks "oof, oof" at her. I love it! This morning we went over to look for Lucy but she was inside. She had accidentally gotten out of the back yard last week and our neighbors were a little panicked trying to find the dog! I was hoping they would find her not only for our neighbor kids' sake, but also for our sweet boy who loves paying her visits. :) Fortunately, another nice neighbor found and returned her safely.

After we get done playing outside I usually give Eli something to drink. He has loved learning how to use a juice box and a straw. We have tried Minute Maid apple juice and fruit punch as well as Capri Sun flavored water drinks. He likes to drink them by himself. If you try to take it to fix the straw or offer any help he fights to get his drink back and usually squirts half of the drink out onto himself and me or Marc in the process. Strong willed, maybe???

I also feel like Eli is responding well to our discipline and direction over the past few weeks. When he started in the 1-2 year old class a few months ago he quickly started having problems with hitting and being aggressive in general (his class has almost all boys!). His hitting was playful and never out of anger, but still VERY hard. He would usually hit us in the head! We have been trying to teach Eli how to touch people, dogs, or flowers in a gentle way. The minute we tell him "gentle" he starts softly petting whatever he was previously trying to hit or destroy (like my flowers!). I know his sister hopes he learns this "gentle" touch thing well before she arrives in a few months. :)

Marc took Eli back to Dr. H yesterday for a follow-up on his ears and to review his x-ray. I was so glad to hear he thinks it would be worthwhile to try some conservative therapy to shrink Eli's adenoids before we resort to surgery. He wants to try Eli on a nasal steroid for 6 weeks first to see if his adenoids will get smaller and allow better drainage from his sinuses and ears. If we follow up at 6 weeks and he still has lots of fluid behind his ears and his adenoids are still large, then he will need surgery. I just hope he doesn't have any more infection develop from the fluid behind his ears in the meantime. Our trip is two weeks away and we want to send a healthy and happy boy to Arkansas while we are gone!

Well, I think I am going to go grab some lunch before Eli wakes up from his morning nap. Have a great weekend! We are excited about Father's Day and should have some more pictures after the weekend is over.

Grandparents are the Best!

We had a last minute visit from Marc's parents this past weekend. I think they were worried about us getting worn out since Eli had been so sick last week and wanted to come and offer a hand for the weekend. It was great getting to see them! We were used to seeing them a lot when we lived in Illinois so it is much harder now that we live so far away. Eli was feeling really well all weekend and LOVED all the attention. They couldn't believe how busy he is! He is so fast on his feet and is sometimes hard to keep up with. It was nice to have someone else chasing him for a few days to give us a break. :)

This slide was Eli's birthday present from Mama Reenie and Grandpa and he really loves it.

He tries to go UP the slide more than he goes down. :)

Eli really loves being outside. The minute he wakes up from sleeping in the morning or after his naps he is at the back door pointing to get me to take him outside. He loves playing with rocks and sticks and throwing everything he can get his hands on!

We took him to the park on Saturday night and Eli had tons of fun mingling with the other kids. He made this friend shortly after we got there. Marc's mom told me she doesn't think we will ever have to worry about Eli not making friends easily. Ha! I think she is right. :)

We had a great weekend and really enjoyed catching up with Marc's parents. It was also SO great seeing Eli well and happy. He is such an easy going boy that it is so hard on us when he is sick because he seems so miserable. We are trying to decide how best to proceed as they continue to figure out his recent ear infections. His adenoids were large on x-ray which may mean they need to come out with surgery, but the doctor at this point wants to draw some of the fluid out from behind Eli's ear drum to see if it has infection in it or if it is just fluid. Watching someone stick a big needle in my baby's ear does not sound like fun so I may send daddy to that appointment. :) We are hoping to delay any further treatments at this point until after our vacation at the beginning of July. Pray that Eli stays well from now until then!

Finger Lickin' Good

So, BEFORE I decided to start saving on groceries I splurged a few weeks ago and bought some yummy beef brisket (that was not on sale!). :) Marc loves juicy and flavorful meat dishes so I couldn't resist trying THIS recipe I found on allrecipes.com. I thoroughly read the reviews on their site and adjust the recipes accordingly. Here are the changes I made: I didn't trim the brisket because the layer of fat adds flavor when cooking. You can remove it fairly easily off the top after cooking. Just make sure you cook it with the fat side up! I put the rub on ours the night before and put it back in the fridge in a Ziploc bag to marinate some. I didn't use the celery seed because I didn't have any and don't really like the taste. I cooked ours in the slow cooker for 7 hrs. on low. In the end it turned out delicious! Marc could hardly get the words out as he was savoring each bite. :) This brisket would be great with THESE baked beans that I made for Eli's birthday party/cook-out (I used 1 cup of sugar instead of 2 and they were plenty sweet for my liking). Some grilled corn on the cob would top this meal off! I have been trying several new recipes lately that have all been good so I will share more in the coming weeks.

Eli is going to have...

...a baby SISTER! We found out today (or confirmed!) that our next baby is indeed a girl. We are so excited and loved getting to watch her move around on the screen. She is currently sitting complete breech, but she still has plenty of time to flip. She weighed 15 oz. today and was measuring a week ahead. She looked great! I must admit that I have spent the last 14 months drooling over little girl clothes whenever I would go somewhere to buy Eli something. The baby girls section is twice as big as the baby boy section at my favorite department store and now I get to shop on both sides. :) We are just so thankful that this baby looks very healthy. What a blessing! Here is her profile picture from today. She had her feet pulled up to her head with her hands so it was hard to get a great picture!

We are going to work on her name more in the coming weeks. Just like with Eli, we know what her middle name will be but are still thinking through the first name. My middle name and my mom's middle name is June (it was also a family name on my mom's side before that) so that will be her middle name. We have thought about Hailey or Hannah for a first name. I think picking out a name is the most stressful part of a pregnancy! So many factors to think about. :)

But, to balance that stress out is the stress-free fun of decorating a nursery. I LOVE this part! I have started looking a little bit at colors and fabrics (since we thought it was a girl from the last ultrasound). I also know I want to paint something special like I did with Eli's room. I love looking at the canvases that I made when I put him to bed at night. They are nothing too special but make his room so personal for me. I remember being very pregnant and sitting on our living room floor painting each of these three canvases.

Eli had an appointment today with an otolaryngologist to look into his recent ear infections (and constant runny nose!). Marc and I know how important conservative antibiotic use is so it is crazy to us how many antibiotics Eli has needed to be on in the last year. Last weekend Eli became sick AGAIN so I took him to a walk-in clinic to get seen since Marc was on call. The doctor noted on his exam that he had a right ear infection so Marc and I decided it was time for him to see the specialist to get some suggestions. We know this time is very important for his language development and hate it that he probably can't hear well because of all of the fluid build-up behind his ears. The doctor today felt like Eli could be having more problems with his adenoids than anything else and decided to take an x-ray today of his neck and said we will go from there. Hopefully, we will get some answers soon. I want this sweet boy to feel better!

My latest adventure has been working on our budget. Every few months I get really motivated and re-work how we are spending our money to see where we can improve. Marc and I have always desired to be good stewards of what God has given us and try to make a conscious effort to see where our money goes each month. We unfortunately spend Marc's entire salary after taxes on student loans (depressing, I know) so it is even more important that we use my salary wisely. I have a few friends who have recently been talking about The Grocery Game. So, when I realized recently a large portion of our money each month goes to groceries, toiletries, and diapers, I decided to give it a go. I am only one week in and still trying to figure it all out, but I think it is going to be a great resource for us. It takes some time right now to figure out what we need and where to find the coupons but I think with time it will get much faster! For example, a box of Pampers wipes at Walgreen's is normally priced at $3.99 (which is why I never buy wipes there!), but this week they are on sale for $2.50 each and through the grocery game I found a $2 off manufacturer coupon so the wipes became $0.50. Can you believe that! That is nearly 90% savings. How easy is that??? I will update in a month how things are going, but I am hoping my desire to save in this area becomes permanent and not just a phase. :)

Well, it is time to get dinner going. :) Have a great night!

Friday Fun

I have really loved having my Fridays off since having Eli. It gives me some time to hang out with him doing fun activities that we don't get time to do during the week while Marc and I are working. This morning Eli woke up around 8 and I cooked him some eggs and sausage to start the day off. Then we headed out to run some errands. I had a doctor's appt. this morning for follow-up on some dizziness that I had early on in this pregnancy. Fortunately, I haven't had any more problems so it was a quick appt. I REALLY wanted to have the ENT look at Eli's ears while I was in there and give us a recommendation but I knew Eli didn't have an appt. so I didn't say anything. I get a lot of parents at work that bring in one child to be seen and then try to get me to look at one or two more children while I am in there. I decided not to be one of those patients. :) He has actually been doing much better with his runny nose on the Zyrtec so we will just wait and see.

Eli started getting restless waiting on Dr. L and I had not brought enough entertainment! He normally loves his puppet monkey... but not this morning! He kept throwing it on the floor every time I gave it to him.

So, I resorted to the sunglasses which worked until we were able to leave. :)

In case you didn't know, today is National Donut Day and many donut chains offer free glazed donuts on this day. Our local chain is LaMar's Donuts so Eli and I headed there after my appt. for a mid-morning snack. This day was originally started by the Salvation Army some 70 years ago so the Salvation Army was at LaMar's today taking donations.

Eli really loved his donut and juice. I hope his sibling enjoyed it as well because I sure did! They recommend an extra 300 calories a day during pregnancy so considering that I ate my donut and 1/2 of Eli's I think my extra calories are probably already done for the day. :)

After our snack I took Eli to the park. I didn't have his sunscreen with me so I knew we wouldn't stay long. Even though it was only 10:30 in the morning it was really hot. We were both sweating and didn't last long at all. I let Eli go down the slide by himself today (with me really close by) and he loved it! He is just getting so big and becoming so independent.

We are looking forward to spending all day with Marc tomorrow. He has been working some long days this week in the hospital with some really sick patients, so I know he is looking forward to a day off as well. Have a great weekend!