Easter Weekend

We started off the weekend on Friday with Eli and Hailey having check-ups at the doctor. Since they were both due for a visit (6 months and 2 years) I decided it would be easier on me to take them both at the same time. Marc had taken Hailey earlier in the week for her shots so it was really a pretty easy trip. Eli weighed 29 lbs. and Hailey weighed 15 lbs. 10 oz. She was around 40th percentile on all of her charts. Eli did so well with the doctor. I think his Sesame Street doctor kit really helped because he recognized all the tools they were using to check him over. Hailey screamed the whole time but the poor girl was over due for a nap so who could blame her. :)

I took these pictures before we ran out the door for their appointments. It amazes me that this girl lets me put bows like that on her head! ;)

Friday afternoon our family started pouring in from Illinois, Arkansas, and Texas for Eli's birthday party. We miss having family close by but it is so much more special when we do get to see them! Eli had so much fun with everyone and was really loving all of the attention. Hailey got lots of love as well. We ordered pizza for dinner and just relaxed outside. It was great fun. :)

Saturday was a bit hectic leading up to the party and I certainly couldn't have gotten everything ready without lots of help from family throughout the day. Eli loved seeing everything unfold before his eyes! He loved the balloons and of course Elmo stuff that we decorated with. I found him the cutest Elmo birthday shirt off Etsy and he was SO excited to wear it.

Marc and I had asked our friends to make a donation to the Ronald McDonald house this year instead of getting Eli a present. So, we decided we would let him open his presents from family before the party started. He was very excited to open his gifts and loved all of his new toys!

I have too many pictures from his party to share in this post so I will try to sort through them and put up a birthday party post later this week. Eli had the best time and I loved seeing him enjoy everything we did for him!

Sunday we got all dressed up to go to our Easter service at church. It was great getting to worship at church after missing the past few weeks. It is through Christ's death and resurrection that we can have a restored relationship with God, and I am so thankful that when He died on the cross some 2000 years ago He made that possible for me. That is good news indeed! The kids looked so precious that day in their new Easter clothes. I snapped a few pictures after church of them and think I need to put some of these in frames. :)

I hope you all had a great weekend with family and friends!

Time to Celebrate!

Since Eli's birthday falls between two weekends this year he is having lots of celebrations. Aunt Stacey and Uncle Brandon are going to be in Colorado next weekend for Easter and will miss his party so they decided to come and visit us this past weekend. He LOVED opening his presents. He was really excited about his set of golf clubs and toys for the sand (for our upcoming trip to Florida).

The sand toys came with two small boats that we have let him play with in the bath. He has been so sweet to have already designated one of the boats for himself and one for Hailey to play with in the tub. Such a good big brother!

Watch out Hailey! Eli has a crazy golf swing. :)

Marc had to round both days this weekend so he didn't get to join us for lunch on Saturday. We decided to go and eat at Chipotle which is usually a favorite for Eli. It was obviously too close to his nap time because he got a little out of hand. Brandon and Stacey decided after this lunch that they might want to wait a little bit longer before they decide to venture into their child rearing years. Ha!

So, we took that wild one home for a nice long nap before we decided to head out again to the ZOO! Marc was able to meet up with us and we enjoyed a few hours with the animals. Stacey couldn't get over this chimp's bare bottom that he kept scratching. Ha!

My little thumb sucker. :)

This peacock was strutting its stuff as we were leaving the zoo! It's feathers were so pretty.

Our "attempted" family picture

It was such a beautiful day and I am glad we were able to get out to enjoy the outdoors. We finished a great day off by going out to eat for pizza. Brandon and Stacey headed back home early on Sunday and I stayed home while Marc was rounding at the hospital.

 I really wish it was easier on me to get both kids to church by myself when Marc is working but it just isn't. I usually end up nursing Hailey once during church so I feel like it is a lot of work for me to get both kids there only to go and sit in the lobby to feed Hailey while listening to the sermon on the loud speakers. :( I know Marc wishes he were free to go with us as a family but this is just a rough month. We will be celebrating after tonight though because he is currently working his last 30 hour shift of residency! Woo hoo! He went in at 6 am today and will be done sometime around noon tomorrow with this shift. He is getting so close to the end. I am so proud of him and can't wait to see him graduate in June.

Once Marc got home from his rounds on Sunday he helped me clean the house for some showings we had that day. This was the first time he has helped clean for a showing and when we finished he told me he was in complete awe that I am able to do that with two kids in tow! Ha! We are praying for a contract on this house soon. We have had 4 showing in the past two days and are REALLY getting burned out of it. I just keep reminding myself that it only takes one to want it. :)

After our last showing on Sunday we came home and quickly ran through our dinner/bath/bedtime ritual so I could make Eli some cupcakes for school today. They were Elmo themed of course. :)

I may have eaten a cupcake (or two) in the process of icing them. They were too good to resist. I hope Eli enjoyed them today at school. He is worth every bit of effort it took to make them. I really can't believe that he is two. Time has passed so quickly. Hailey woke up early this morning around 3:30, and when I went in to put her pacifier in her mouth I peeked in on Eli sleeping soundly. I was remembering how two years ago at that time I was in labor and about to hold my very first child in my arms. He has brought us nothing but joy every since that moment. What a blessing it is to get to parent him and teach him how to love God and everyone around him. I look forward to seeing all the ways he is going to grow in this next year! Thank you God for choosing me to be his mommy.

6 Months

Today Hailey is 6 months old and she learned a new trick! I put her in her crib tonight to play while I was giving Eli a bath. I left her playing on her back and when I came back in.... she was on her tummy (and she had found her paci and stuck it in her mouth!). She has been rolling from her tummy to her back for several months now but tonight was the first time she has flipped from her back to her stomach. She gave me the biggest grin when I came back in and found her. :)

Happy 6 months Hailey June! We love you so much.

A Weekend of Firsts

I just can't believe Hailey turns 6 months old in a few days. It seems like the time has gone by twice as fast as it did with Eli (probably because I am handling twice as many kids!). We had started Hailey on baby cereal when she turned 5 months old but knew last week that she was ready for some more solids. She just LOVES eating with a spoon. So, on Friday I made up some homemade baby food. We started Eli at this age on sweet potatoes, and it did not go over very well. We have it on video and it is certainly worthy of America's Funniest Videos. Maybe I will try to post it sometime. So, I decided to try something different with Hailey. I had a bag of frozen peas in the freezer so I steamed them up and then stuck them in the food processor. Eli never liked my homemade peas because the shell of the pea was a lot of texture so I decided to strain out those pieces this time and my peas turned out much smoother. Hailey really enjoyed them!

Eli was getting a little jealous he wasn't the center of attention and wanted me to take a picture of Marc feeding him. Ha! He is such a silly boy sometimes. :)

There was another big first for the weekend. Eli went for the first time that I can remember without taking a nap. He has had some days with short naps but always had at least something of a nap until Friday. He laid in bed for 2 1/2 hours and never fell asleep. He never wined or cried for me to come get him, so I just left him in there. I got him up around 3 pm so we could run some errands and go take Marc some dinner at the hospital. He eventually fell asleep on the way home from seeing Marc at 5:30. He was out cold when I pulled into the house. Since it was way too early for bed I just laid him on the couch until he woke up. Sleepy boy. :)

I thought Friday was a fluke but then it almost happened again on Sunday. He finally fell asleep that day after being in bed for 1 1/2 hours. At least he understood that it was still "rest" time even if he didn't fall asleep. Eli has always been such a great sleeper, and I am not ready for that to change. I think I need to remind him that he is not big enough yet to skip his nap time. :) Mama knows best, right?

First Spring Walk

We took our first walk as a family of four on Thursday evening. I LOVE the longer days that allow us to get out for a bit together after dinner. Ever since Marc and I have been married we have taken after dinner walks a few times a week when weather and schedules permit. I can think back to every city we have lived in over the past 5 years and have wonderful memories of our walk dates. :) Now, we have two kids to take along with us but it is still such quality time for us.

Marc pushed Eli in the jogging stroller and I pushed Hailey in the snap n go. Hailey was fast asleep in no time but hopefully she still enjoyed it!

I got an update tonight from my dad on my aunt's status. She is now stable from a cardiac standpoint so they have weaned her off the medications that were needed yesterday to keep her blood pressure up. This is such good news. She still has lots of problems that have resulted from the E. coli infection that made her septic so please keep praying. God is faithful to hear them!

Praying

I found out this afternoon that my Aunt Carolyn is very sick today. She developed some stomach illness over the weekend that rapidly progressed to an infection in her blood. She is now in the ICU sedated on a ventilator with acute renal failure and lots of other issues. She is really fighting for her life right now. We are praying tonight that God would bring healing to her body in a powerful way. Please pray for strength for my uncle as well as he is standing vigilantly by her side as she battles this infection.

I am also praying that God would be glorified through this time of suffering as my family draws nearer to Him for His peace and understanding. God's love for us is more than we will ever understand and I know that nothing is outside of His control. Even though it is difficult many times to understand the "why" of it, I fully trust Him and His will. Would you pray with us tonight? Thank you!

Lazy Saturday

Marc is working most of this weekend so I have just been hanging out with the kids. We had a house showing on Friday that went SO well it led to our first offer today. While we were are currently waiting to hear back from our counter offer, I was relishing in the fact that there would be NO house showings today. It was so nice to not have to worry about how many toys Eli was dragging out or whether I put every single dish away immediately after it was used. Whew! Keeping this house spotless has been a difficult task. I just want to do everything I can to help someone fall in love with our house as much as we did. :)

Our morning started off great with both kids sleeping until 7:30am. One of my favorite things on Saturday mornings is spending a little extra time hanging out in our bed after the kids wake up. I think the kids enjoy it as well. However, Eli has started jumping on pillows more than relaxing lately so this time may be coming to an end quickly!

 Hugs for Hailey

During Eli's nap time today I finished ordering his birthday invitations. Somehow, his birthday is sneaking up on me and I really should have taken care of these before now, but I hope to get them in a few days to mail out. We are having his birthday this year on Easter weekend so we are planning on having an Easter egg hunt for all the kids that can come. My sister got me a bunch of free plastic eggs from her last job to use so it should be lots of fun. I have most of the Elmo themed items that I need and have been buying food and drinks as they have been on sale over the past few weeks. Now, we just need a beautiful day without rain and we will be all set!

Marc and I took pictures of Eli last weekend for his birthday invitation and these were some of my favorites.

I think this boy looks ready for a party!