Ethan at 10 Months and Ellie Stories

I'm asking for forgiveness in advance for the length of this post. Since I'm not able to blog as often as I'd like to, my posts can get somewhat lengthy at times. So, sorry.

I can't believe another month has passed and my sweet son is only 2 months away from his first birthday. Not only does time fly, but I think it goes by much faster with the second child.



Ethan, this is what you are like at 10 months old:

~I bet you weigh around 16 pounds and that you are around 27(ish) inches long.

~You are still wearing size 2 diapers, but I believe it is almost time to put you in size 3 diapers.

~You are no longer wearing 6-9 months in clothing. You only wear size 9 months now.

~You continue to do really well with solid foods and you are beginning to want more and more table food. This month you began wanting more snacks. You love crackers (favorites are Ritz and graham) and yobaby yogurt.



~You still take a bottle first thing in the morning, right before bed, and between meals. About 4-5 bottles a day.

~You have really become a great sleeper for the most part. Most nights you sleep in your crib 10-12 hours! Sometimes you'll still wake up once for a bottle in the middle of the night, but that is happening less often too.

~This month you gave up two naps and now you only take one long nap. You typically nap 2.5-3 hours. You like your sleep! When you are a tired baby, it really changes your mood.

~We're STILL waiting to see your first teeth. Thankfully, your drooling has slowed some, but you continue to bite down and chew on anything you can. I know those teeth can't wait to show too much longer.

~For the most part, you are a very happy baby. If you are well fed and well rested, you love to smile, laugh and giggle. You smile all the time now. Every once in a while I'll see your serious, pensive face.



~You are crawling very well now and you get around quickly! This month you have really started pulling up on anything you can (walls, furniture, my legs, the laundry basket, toilets, etc.). You LOVE being mobile so much that you never stop moving unless you are ready to sleep. I guess you want to keep up with your sister. You have started following her around the house. We think it's very cute. :)



~You sit up really well without support all of the time now.

~You love to be on the floor to play.



~You are so curious about your world now. You love to reach, grab and play with anything.

~You and your sister are developing a great relationship. She continues to make you laugh in a way that nobody else can. You're always watching her with a big smile on your face. The two of you are always making each other smile and laugh.



~Your love for baths continues to grow, it's the only thing that can make you go from completely angry and grumpy, to happy and giggling. You love to splash and play with the bath toys.

~You are not as content to sit and cuddle as you once were. I guess you're too busy to cuddle. I'll take what I can get though. You'll always sit contently in my lap when I'm giving you a bottle.

~Nicknames: Mister, Little Man, Sweet Boy, Handsome and sometimes EJ.

We love you Ethan and we are so proud to call you "ours". :) We are so excited to watch you grow and develop into who God wants you to be.

Now, I couldn't end the post without sharing a few funny stories from our Ellie. I just know that if I wrote down every funny thing Ellie says, I could write a book! Unfortunately, by the time I'm ready to sit down and document her "stories", I've forgotten over half of them. :( So, I'll do my best to remember what made us laugh out loud.

First of all, what do you think of this picture? Think that's a skirt she's wearing?


No, it's every.single.pair. of pull ups that we had in the house. She just stacked one on top of the other and came out with a proud smile to show me what she'd done. This girl cracks me up!

Speaking of pull ups, Ellie is completely potty trained now and has been for over a month. I just forgot to document that when it happened. Oops.

Oh, and speaking of forgetting important milestones about Ellie, over the past few weeks, she has stopped taking naps. I'm still grieving this new development.

Anyway, on with the funny stuff.

The other day Ellie said "Mommy, when I grow up, I want to marry Ethan." If you knew my daughter then you would know how many times she would have asked "why?" had I tried to explain why she couldn't marry her brother. So I just smiled and nodded.

We were just given a bunch of new movies from a friend because she was getting rid of her VCR (yes, we still have one). Ellie was looking over a few of them and I suggested Tarzan. She asked "Is there a Princess in that movie?" I honestly couldn't remember so I told her that I thought there was. She studied the cover and found the "girl" and exclaimed "She's not a Princess! She's just a person!"

Today Ellie was talking to Caleb and said "Daddy, when I die, I want to go to heaven. And live with Jesus. And have my very own house. And I want it to be purple." Ha!

Lately when Ellie makes us laugh, instead of becoming embarrassed or self conscious, she'll just look at us (with a big grin on her face) and say "Why are you laughing at me guys?" Which only makes us laugh harder. :)

Have a great week!

My Sunshine

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away

I was complaining to my sisters yesterday that I'm really feeling the "winter blues" lately. I don't know what it is, but there's something about January and February that is so boring, so bleak, that I begin to feel down.

There's nothing bad going on in our lives right now, and for that I'm truely thankful. I guess it's just always hard for me to come off of the "holiday high". During the months of November and December it seems like there's always something going on and lots of loved ones around to spend time with. When the holidays are over, it's still so cold outside and there isn't much to do or look forward to.

That's why I'm so thankful for my kiddos (and my husband too of course. I just don't get to spend every day with him). They keep me smiling and laughing all day long. They truely do brighten up my every day and pull me out of my winter slump.

I won't lie, I'm really looking forward to spring and summer. I'm looking forward to being outside more, to more get togethers with friends, and to vacations and holidays.

In the meantime, I'm more than happy to spend my days inside making memories with these two. :)

Mission Impossible (Ethan's Story)

I've been a little absent from this blog lately. Although I have so much I would like to share and post on here, I haven't had the time recently. This past week I made a conscious decision to spend more time with my littles during the day and my husband in the evening. It's been wonderful, yet I still miss this little corner that I can call mine. :)

I posted recently about Caleb's opportunity to speak in chapel at his school. Here is the second video, from the second week about our precious son Ethan. It was SO good for me to watch this video and relive that time in our lives. It continues to amaze me how God loves to show up when we least expect him to, and in ways we don't expect too. As I said before, we serve an awesome God!

I hope you enjoy this video as much as the last one. It's another long one (35 minutes) so you'll want to make sure you have time to watch the whole thing.

Without further ado, I give you Ethan's story:


Most of all, I hope this encourages anyone that may be struggling to get pregnant. If I know you, believe me when I say I pray for you constantly! Because of the journey we've been on, infertility and miscarriages are heavy on my heart. I pray every day for women that strongly desire to become mothers that God will create life inside of them. :)

"I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations." Psalm 89:1

Bucket List Surprise

I couldn't decide if I should name this post "Checking off the bucket list" or "The best surprise" so I decided to combine the two. :)

My previous posts stated that I turned 30 a couple of weeks ago and that my amazing, romantic husband had planned a surprise getaway for us. He lead me to believe that we were spending last weekend in Denver, kicking the trip off with a hot air balloon ride. I was more than happy to spend the weekend in Denver. I knew we would have a ton of fun. Little did I know that he had been planning a much bigger surprise all along...

Early last Thursday morning we dropped off the kids at his parents house and made our drive to Denver. Caleb had printed out directions to the "hot air balloon" place and as we got closer I made the comment that we were awfully close to the airport. At that moment Caleb turned to me and said "Christine, we are getting away for the weekend, but everything I've told you about where we're going and what we're doing has been a lie".

I instantly looked puzzled and begged for him to tell me where we were going but he refused. He told me I would know when we got to the gate. He was successful in hiding the airline tickets from me all the way through security and as we approached our gate I was able to read that we were headed to Nashville!!

I have always dreamed of going to Nashville. I have always loved music and when I was young I often dreamed of moving to Nashville and getting "discovered" and having a music career. Even though my dreams changed slightly as I got older, my love for music stayed strong and I still yearned to visit "Music City".



After we found our seats on the plane, Caleb handed me several birthday cards from my family and his. He explained that they all had known about the trip for over a month and they had all contributed to the trip. Some gave money and some bought us tickets to the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum, The Bluebird Cafe, and some bought us gift cards to Nashville bars and restaurants. I was in awe of the generosity of our families and I've never felt more loved or spoiled. My excitement grew as I opened each card. By the time it all sank in, I was completely giddy with excitement.

After landing we checked in at the hotel and got ready to head out for the evening. I had slept horribly the night before (2.5 hours of sleep) so I knew I wouldn't be able to last too long.


We drove to downtown Nashville and just walked around for a while taking it all in. You couldn't pass a single bar or restaurant without hearing the live music filling the streets.


We ended up having dinner at a nice italian restaurant named Demo's. Someone had given us an insiders tip and we asked for the sauce sampler which wasn't on the menu. The waiter quickly came back with some bread and 9 different kinds of sauces for us to dip our bread into. It was delicious!


After dinner we went into one of the bars and watched one of the many bands play for a while. Due to my sleep deprived state we didn't last too long and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.


The next day (Friday) was our biggest day. We went to the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum. First thing on the list was a tour of Studio B, where many famous artists have recorded many famous songs.

Once inside the studio, they showed us the piano that was Elvis Presley's favorite. They still keep it in tune and people still use it for recording today. We all got a chance to sit at the piano for pictures.

After the Studio B tour, we headed back to the museum. Outside the museum was a huge open courtyard. You could walk up and down and see who got a star on the Music City Walk Of Fame. Caleb and I had a little fun reading the names and posing next to a few of our favorites.


Then we headed back inside the museum and hall of fame. We spent the entire afternoon looking over the entire museum and enjoying a nice lunch.

And of course we couldn't leave without trying on a few cowboy hats. ;)

That night we headed to the Bluebird Cafe and that was my favorite experience! We got to see four songwriters (Danny Flowers, Gordon Kennedy, Janis Oliver and James House) that have all written famous songs. They took turns performing and I was surprised to learn so much about them in such a short time. Janis Oliver was Vince Gill's first wife. I was also surprised by how quickly I recognized their songs and how close we sat to them. They were close enough to touch. It was SO much fun to watch them perform. Thank you Jenn for that amazing gift!




The next morning (Saturday) we headed to the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman was originally built as a church building and became the first location where they hosted the Grand Ole Opry for many years. In the 1980's they moved the Grand Ole Opry location to a new building, but many people still perform at the Ryman today. I couldn't get over how old, yet beautiful that building was.




Of course I had to get my picture taken on the Grand Ole Opry stage. :)


My only regret is not taking advantage of the opportunity to record a song at the Ryman. I looked over their very short list (I expected there would be a lot more than 10 to choose from) and declined. I wish I had at least tried to record 1 of the 2 songs I recognized.

After leaving the Ryman we spent some more time walking downtown and then headed to the Opryland Hotel.

The moment we walked in I was in awe of this place. As Caleb said, it was one of the most beautiful and grand man-made structures we've ever seen. It's so large and breathtaking. With the all glass ceiling, the live plants, flowers, and trees, and the river large enough to take a boat on (yes, they offered boat tours), you could easily forget you were inside a building.



We walked for hours and hours and still didn't cover the whole facility. We didn't want to leave but we were getting weak from walking and we were hungry so sadly, we left. We went to a restaurant close to the hotel called the Grand Ole Opry Grill where they have live performers all the time.

After dinner we went to Franklin, a small town about 20 minutes away from Nashville and walked around and had some frozen yogurt. Most of the shops were closed in Franklin so after eating our froyo we went back to downtown Nashville.

We went back into one of the bars on Broadway and enjoyed some drinks and listened to another live band. After an hour or so we headed back to the hotel.

The next day we slept in, packed up and flew home to our babies. I told Caleb it was a good thing we had family back home because I wouldn't have wanted to leave. It was a wonderful trip, and one that I'll always remember.

Thank you to my incredibly loving husband for planning and surprising me with this trip and to our families for making this the best birthday EVER!! Thanks to you, my 30's are off to a wonderful start!

Forgetting To Remember (Elliana's Story)

Happy New Year everyone! My 30th Birthday party/ New Years Eve party was a blast (thanks to all of my family that helped pull it off)!



As much as I want to post about that, I don't have any pictures since we forgot our camera. So, I'm waiting to steal pictures from my sisters when I can. Ha! In the meantime, you can read my sister Courtney's blog about her take on the party.

I've noticed most everyone has been blogging over the last week about how their 2011 went and their hopes and goals for 2012. I would love to do this too but I'm lacking time and inspiration right now.

For now, all I can say is, we had a wonderful 2011 and I'm optimistic for 2012 as well. Mostly, I want to see some dreams come true for some family and friends that I've been praying for. I know a LOT of people that are praying for babies this year, and that is heavy on my heart. Especially because of our history. Which brings me to the title of this post.

A few months ago, my husband Caleb was asked to speak in chapel (2 weeks back to back) at his school. He was of course honored and quickly agreed. It didn't take him long to decide what to speak on.

Although most people reading this blog know our history and the miracle that our children are, I loved how Caleb told the story of Elliana showing God's faithfulness to us and how our story can apply to everyone in remembering God's faithfulness to them.

The school taped both chapels, but since they are SO long I decided to put them on here one at a time. The video is over 30 minutes long so make sure you have time to watch the whole thing.



I know I'm biased, but I think Caleb did an amazing job speaking and I am so proud of him! Even more than that, I hope that God can use our story to reach others. We serve an awesome God!