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!