Monday Miscellaneous

This is one of those "I have a bunch of random thoughts about nothing posts". Don't say I didn't warn you. :-)

Caleb and I were looking at our bed a few weeks ago and were admiring loathing it. We had the same duvet cover and sheets that we got when we were married 7 years ago and it was definitely time for a new set. One afternoon last week the new duvet set and pillows arrived and Ellie helped me set it up and surprise Caleb when he got home. We're loving the new look!

 

I realized after I put up these photos of the bed that I've done a very poor job of documenting the many, many, many home improvement projects we've done since moving into our house 4 years ago. There are so many I could show but I'm afraid I don't have pictures for all of them. My goal is to do a better job of taking before and after pictures from here on out.

 

The weather has been so beautiful around here. I just love being outside in the fall when it starts to cool down. Even just taking a walk to look at the gorgeous colors in the trees makes me happy. :)

Since the weather has been so great, the kids and I have taken many trips to the park in the afternoons. I'm enjoying these two so much lately my heart could burst. I love spending time with them and I mostly love watching the two of them interact. Sure they have little sibling spats every once in a while, but for the most part they are best of friends and truly enjoy each other.

 

I had a sudden realization the other day that I am WAY past the half way mark between Ellie's birth and starting school. I'm now less than two years away from her starting kindergarten. Along with that came the realization that once that time comes, my every day, all day time with Elliana is over. Be still my heart-I may have to go cry now.

 

It's hard to believe, but our sweet baby Ethan will be turning 18 months old this week. His vocabulary is really taking off right now. He tries to repeat every word we say. Although probably only 50% of his words come out crystal clear, we know he understands us and he definitely has improved in communicating with us. Here's just a small list of words he says all of the time; Ellie, Mama, Mommy, Dada, Daddy, Elmo, Bobo, Papa, Nana, Abby, Night-Night, Done, More, and Ball. He loves when we ask him about sounds that animals make and we love asking him to show us where his nose, mouth, eyes, ears, hands, feet and hair is. He's gotten really good at this game. I hope to get this on camera soon.

Both Ethan and Elliana have grown like weeds this year. I had Ellie try on some of her fall/winter clothes from last year and although everything fits the same around her waist, all of her pants are very short on her. I'll be curious to see how Ethan has grown at his 18 month check up this month.

Ebay and I have a love/hate relationship. Most of the items I buy for my kids on Ebay end up being exactly what I hoped for. Recently I tried buying some clothes on Ebay to save some money and with the exception of 1 shirt and the earrings that I bought, everything else turned out to be a big fat fail. Turns out that even if you know your exact size, it's not enough. I finally gave in to the fact that an adult's body is much harder to dress than a child's. From now on, I must try clothes on before I buy them. Seems obvious to me. Shoot.

 

My side of the family rarely NEVER goes on vacation. We are currently trying really hard to schedule a vacation for some time next year (2013). We have 10 adults and 6 kids in the family. 5 of those adults are opinionated, emotional women. It's already been an adventure trying to plan and schedule a vacation.  I'm holding on to the hope that a vacation will happen and we WILL all enjoy it. ;) It could happen... right?

 

I'm going on a women's retreat with the ladies from our new church this coming weekend. While I'm ecstatic to be spending another weekend in our beautiful Colorado mountains in the fall (I've been in the mountains 3 out of the last 4 weekends), I don't know anyone really well yet. I decided that if I was ever going to make new friends that this is as good a time as any.

 

I'm also singing on the worship team for the first time next weekend. There's nothing like jumping in with both feet. I'm nervous, but I'm SO excited to have the opportunity to sing again. It's been too long.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, ours is off to a good start. :)

1 Week Old Already?!

I simply can not believe that it has only and already been one week since Ethan was born. On one hand I feel like he's been part of our family and our lives forever, and on the other hand this has been the fastest week of our lives. I'm sure in a month I will say it was the fastest month of my life. :)

Overall things have gone much smoother and much easier than I thought they would. Ethan is the sweetest, easiest, most laid back baby. He sleeps a TON and wakes mostly for feedings only. We are in love. All of us. I can't get enough of him and Ellie and Caleb love to spend time holding and loving on him too.



Please excuse Ellie's crazy hair, she's too active to keep her hair in place. ;-)


Part of what has made this transition go so well is that Caleb took the week off to care for me and to spend time with Ellie and Ethan. Most of Caleb's time has been spent with Ellie while I spend time caring for and nursing Ethan. I really haven't had to balance both kids yet but Caleb will be returning to work tomorrow so I'm sure things are about to get much more challenging. I'm still recovering from the C-section and having some pain but I can tell recovery is going well and I'm feeling a little better every day. I'm very thankful for the help I'll be getting from my Mom and Mother-in-law too.

Our little Elliana has been doing mostly well, but she has started acting out over the last day or so. We knew this would happen sooner or later and that her world would be rocked, but it's still hard. I'm sure things will get easier, but for now we're trying to give Ellie the love and attention that she needs while caring for Ethan at the same time.

Again, overall, I am just filled with joy and I am so thankful for our new son and for God's faithfulness to us. Thank you all for your prayers.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this past week:















"I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself." Psalm 89 1-2
Written by ETHAN the Ezrahite

Nursery Pics

Caleb has been on spring break this past week and it has been so wonderful to get so much last minute family time in as a family of 3 before Ethan arrives. Caleb has been so good to me this week in fact, that I've gotten a lot of rest and my contractions have really slowed down this week. I think Ethan is happy to stay inside for a while longer.

Caleb spent the first part of the week painting Ethan's nursery. It turned out great! We are so pleased with how it turned out. We picked a very typical baby boy blue and we love it.

As promised, here are the pictures of the nursery:

This is the view standing at the door and looking into the room. Sorry the picture is so dark.


This is the crib and changing table.


This is a close up of the crib bedding. I love how "boy" it is!


This is Ethan's closet, I guess there's not much more to say about it. ;-)


Don't you just love all of those baby boy outfits?! They're just hanging and waiting to be worn by our sweet little boy. We have been so blessed by generous friends and family and Ethan is set in terms of clothes.


This is my favorite corner of the room. I love the "E" hanging on the wall for Ethan and the lamp that goes with the bedding set!


A close up of my favorite part of the room.


My sister Jenn had these shoes made for Ethan. They were too cute so I thought they had to be on display.


And finally, what Ethan's room will look like at night. I figure I better get used to seeing his room at night. Ha!


We are truly ready for Ethan to make his grand appearance any day now.

My Favorite!

This past Monday with the help of our parents, we did some moving around of furniture and rooms to prepare for Ethan's arrival.

We made the big transition and moved Elliana from her crib into her "big girl" bed. We've been talking about it for weeks and by the time we actually made the move, she was SO ready and excited!

Caleb and I were quite scared to make this transition. We thought Elliana would be getting out of her bed at all hours of the night. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the transition went pretty smoothly and we've only had one bad evening of telling Ellie to get back in bed time and time again.

Ellie's newest thing is to call anything she likes her "fave-wit" (favorite). She has favorite books, favorite movies, favorite food, many, many favorites. Oh yeah, and her favorites change all the time too. :) She even told me the other day that her Daddy is her favorite. Then, when I made a sad face she got close to me, looked me in the eyes and said "Don't be sad Mommy. Mommy's my favorite too." This girl cracks me up!

Anyway, once we had her room all set up, she was so happy that she danced and jumped around and said "my big girl bed is my favorite!" I'm so glad she's pleased. :)

Here's what Ellie's room and new bed looks like:


Please ignore the cardboard. We really don't use it as a headboard. We use it to darken her room at nap time.



Here's Ethan's new nursery:


We still have a lot of things to get for Ethan (including his crib bedding) so his room looks pretty bare right now.



Do you know what my favorite is? This little one right here:



She makes me happy.



I guess I can only get away with calling her my favorite for a few more weeks. Ha ha.

Christmas Time Is Here

I don't mean to totally skip Thanksgiving. We actually had a wonderful Thanksgiving and it's one of my favorite holidays. We spent lots of time with both sides of the family and everything went smoothly and we had so much fun. Elliana was very happy to spend so much time with her cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and well, most of all her cousins ;-). Unfortunately though, I forgot my camera once again and I have nothing to show for it.

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year though. The day that we get to break out the Christmas music and put up all of our Christmas decorations! We also enjoyed some eggnog while decorating. I think eggnog is one of Ellie's new favorite drinks. :)

This is the first year that Elliana really got into it. She had so much fun helping us decorate the tree and yesterday morning she plopped herself in front of the tree just to sit and stare at it. There's nothing like seeing Christmas through the eyes of your child. I really can't wait to see how she reacts to everything else that comes with the holiday season this year.

I put most of our Christmas decorations on the blog last year, but here are some pictures that I took yesterday and I just wanted to share them.

This is the Christmas pillow that sits on our couch.


Here is a view of our stockings. Elliana's is my favorite. Probably because it was handmade by my sister Courtney.


Here is our manger scene and angel candle holder. Oh yeah, and that bowl usually has some sort of Christmas candy in it. You've got to love Christmas candy too.


You can't tell from this picture because Elliana is only half-smiling, but she was so excited to take a picture in front of the Christmas tree.


And of course I can't go without mentioning my new Christmas design. My sister Jenn did another amazing job! I LOVE it! I have to hand it to her, in the midst of waiting for her 4th child to arrive, she's still finding time to let her creative juices flow and crank out some amazing new designs. Thank you SO much Jenn!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and that you get to enjoy some time decorating for Christmas too.

2009 Highlights

We had a wonderful, crazy, busy, blessed Christmas. I hope the rest of you did too. Sadly, our camera battery died on Christmas Eve, so I have no pictures to show for it. :( I'm a little depressed about that.

Since 2009 is coming to a close, I thought I'd write out several highlights from the year.

-Welcoming my sister Courtney, and her husband Jeremy home from their honeymoon.

-Maternity leave and learning how to be a family of 3 with our newborn Elliana.



-Getting to have the same months off with my sister Jenn, who also was on maternity leave.

-Our short but fun trip to Phoenix, Arizona to watch my Uncle Andy and Aunt Christina get married.




-The birth of our nephew, Nehemiah Duncan. He is SO cute!!



-Watching Elliana's unique relationship with each of her cousins. She loves all of them.





-Watching my mom come full circle, and eventually recover completely from her Guillain-Barre syndrome that hit her last year around the holidays.

-All of the healthy births of our friends and family. There was definitely a baby boom this year.

-After working long and hard, Caleb comleting his Masters degree. I'm so proud of you, babe!

-4th of July




-Enjoying Caleb's family cabin. His parents have dreamed of a mountain cabin for so long, and their dream finally came true this summer.




-Our trip to Washington for a family reunion on Caleb's Mom's side of the family.




-Various visits from out of state friends.



-Seeing Wizard of Oz onstage at the Candlelight Dinner Theater.




-Beginning this blog. :)

-Going to the Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley concert with my sister-in-law, Shamree.

-God providing a way for me to be a stay at home Mom!! Thank you Lord!

-Watching Caleb's volleyball team and their very successful season that eventually lead to State where they took 2nd in State!




-Beginning the What's For Dinner blog with my sisters.


-Our first Halloween with Elliana (she was a bunny).



-Celebrating the first homes bought by Caleb's brother Josh, and his wife Shamree, and also my sister Courtney and her husband Jeremy.

-Thanksgiving.

-All of Elliana's milestones, and celebrating her first birthday. God is so good.




-The honor of getting to sing a solo for our church's Christmas Eve Service.

-Christmas day, spending time with my family and singing and worshipping with my very talented sisters and cousins.

-Spending the days after Christmas with Caleb's family at the family cabin.

Whew! I think that covers all of our highlights (or most of them). We're headed to Jackson Hole to spend some time with some long time friends. We'll be there over New Years.

Happy New Year everyone!!