Stellan is just a few months older than Eli, so this blog is very special to me. I always feel so very thankful and humbled as I read the story of this amazing baby boy.
On a side note- say a quick prayer for Chris too. He is taking the bar Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Pray for all the other law students and their families; this is such a stressfull time. We are so excited to see the light at the end of this seemingly endless tunnel.
Through all of my fun roaming around other blogs for ideas I stumbled on the world of digital scrapbooking. I found a great site, http://blog.freedigitalscrapbooking.com/, and I downloaded all kinds of fun, free papers and stuff!
Chris is already a huge fan because it is a creative outlet for me that doesn't involved scrapbook pages and photos scattered throughout the house- very important for a wife-diagnosed, border-line OCD husband. It is a win-win for both of us.
Here is my first page! It only took me about an hour to put together. Of course it is of Eli...what can I say, he is my favorite subject at the moment!
Sitting here today I can't believe that we have a 6 month old baby! It seems like only yesterday we were heading home from the hospital wondering how on earth we were qualified to take care of a child! It was a kind of surreal moment like letting animals back into the wild from captivity- scared out of our mind and wide-eyed, we had a feeling of "Wow...this is real. What are we going to do?".
Amazingly, we are all still here!
Precious baby Eli,
You are such a joy. You seem to learn something new everyday...along with mommy and daddy. We are so happy to have you in our lives and we can't wait to see all of the new adventures the next 6 months will bring. It is amazing how you fill a hole in our lives that we didn't even know that we had. We can't imagine life without you. You steal pieces of our heart every day. Happy 6 month birthday, baby boy. We hope that your future brothers and sisters aren't any cuter than you, or we may never want to stop having babies! You are absolutely amazing. love, Mommy & Daddy
Here is what little "E" is up to these days:
He currently weighs around 17lbs (we are going to the doctor tomorrow for a check-up, so I will update this later)
He loves his puppy dogs...even more than daddy and mommy.
He chews on his thumb constantly.
He is usually a great sleeper, but the last couple of nights he has not slept through the night.
His bald spot is almost completely gone!
He is still mostly on breast milk and we plan to stick with that for as long as we can, and other than a tablespoon of rice a day, he has not started any solids yet.
He is sitting up by himself and smiles and giggles constantly.
The day has come. We will no longer be taking baths in the sink...
Eli has been splashing in the tub for a few weeks, but tonight he made the big cause/effect connection...while it was a huge mess later, it was so cute that I had to let him have fun for a little while! :)
Happy 4th of July! We hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and took time out of their busy lives to be thankful to our service women and men and celebrate the freedom of our country.
We love the 4th. Since we have been dating we have stuck to the same routine- Pancake Breakfast, Parade, and then off to WD for a party on the patio and fireworks.
Making his first 4th of July debut...Eli! Just look at him. He finds new ways to steal my heart every day.
"Hey! I want some pancakes too!"
Chris, Richard, Morgan, Gloria and Eli...
Our 4th of July family shot...
Morgan, our beautiful niece. We were so happy that she came to spend the day with us...next year our goal is to have ALL of our nieces and nephews there!
Memaw and Papa...
So, I still can't tell who Eli looks like...
Happy baby waiting for the parade to begin...by the way, the adorable onesie that he has on was from his aunt Lori- super cute, huh?
Everything was great, until the firetrucks came...Papa thinks that is pretty funny, huh? Little did he know that we would have to take Eli down an alley to try to get him to calm down. :)
Us in the alley.
Eventually, he tuckered himself out. (Side note- Isn't Chris's new camera lens cool? See how blurry the background is? This is called the "bokeh" effect.)
After the parade it was time for refreshments!
I only included this shot because it shows off Chris's cool lens again! Cool, huh? Okay, maybe it is just me; I think it is cool.
Learning our colors...
After the parade we stopped in to see Mamaw and Grandy...Nanny and Ken were visiting!
Eli loves all puppy dogs; Sam is no exception.
Grandy and Eli...
After a quick trip to pack up our stuff from the house, we headed to White Deer to cook and get ready for the party and fireworks...
Here is Eli and Papaw...
Robin, Chris and Kaci...
Alison and Emma...
Grandpa and Eli...
Grandpaw teaching Emma how to feed the puppies...
Nanny and Papaw...
Here is Eli getting his first chiropractic adjustment from Dr. Kaci.
Stink'n hilarious, right...did you see his face? Every thing was fine in the end!
So, being the educated woman that I am, I suggested to Dr. Kaci to climb into my dad's lawnmower wagon for a picture. Being the educated woman that she is, she agreed. Neither one of us thought for a moment that since the wagon wasn't tied to anything it would flip over...I am really glad that I didn't try this with Eli first! Kaci, thanks for protecting Eli- you are such a good aunt! Here are a few pictures that Chris took while Robin and I were trying to help Kaci up...
Ah, doesn't this picture of Aunt Lynda/Lady Liberty just make you want to stand and salute? :)
At this point in the evening, Eli was asleep and it was lightning all around us, so we thought it best to stay in the backyard to light the fireworks. :) After all, we did have two firefighters with us, right? Really, it was only a few sparklers...right...(wink).
Here is Eli getting a bath with a little help from Memamaw...
What a great weekend! It was so nice to be home! Now, it is back to work and study...Chris will be taking the bar July 28th-30th. If you want, please say a little prayer for him. Honestly, I can't imagine what it is like. I know how his studying is effecting me- I can't imagine what it is doing to him!
Some time last week I decided to try out a ton of different recipes...
Here are the cake balls....in theory it seems like a good idea- take a cake, crumble it up and add a can of icing to it, then roll...lets just say, I don't care for them, so I wouldn't share them with anyone. In fact, I wanted to throw them away, but Chris liked them, so I let him have them all to enjoy. Here are a few pictures from the process...
Only because Eli was such a good little napper did I get a chance to do a little cooking...
Just a few more pictures to share...
About 2 or 3 weeks ago we started sucking on our feet...
Hopefully, Eli won't be as bad as mommy about sticking his foot in his mouth...(figuratively) :)
