Things that make you giggle

I'm starting to get better about catching fun moments on video. We just play play play all day! In our house right now, it's all about what you can do to make Eli laugh. He usually tries to catch us off guard.

Here's a cute one from this morning.



Eli goes for his 4 month check-up on Monday, we're excited to see how much the little guy weighs! And just for fun...I must add that he was called 'chunky' at church on Sunday. Dan and I got an absolute kick out of that. In his short 4 months of life, he certainly has never been called chunky before! His mimi prefers to call him 'peanut.'

We'll keep you posted on his stats after Monday's appointment.

'Mommy Brain'

I will forever and ever have my 'blonde moments,' but I'm learning that those moments don't even touch the terribleness that is known as 'mommy brain.' I've always heard of it, but never knew the severity of it :) We had a play date today with Amy and Baby Brinley, the 2 month old baby girl that I will be watching a few days a week when her mom goes back to work. By the way, Eli is quite the flirt already! He made Brinley laugh today for her very first time! It was such a sweet moment to share with them. We had a long and hysterical conversation about how we've totally lost all control of our brains since our little one's were born. From putting dirty diapers in the hamper AND washing the diaper with what would have been clean clothes, finding a box of cereal in the refrigerator, stopping dead in our tracks and wondering what exactly we were about to do, and the list goes on and on. All of this just means that our entire lives have been taken over by the every move of our babies...and there's nothing else in this world that we'd rather be doing! If my mommy brain is this bad already, what in the world will we do when the 2nd, 3rd, 4th children are born. haha just kidding Dan! I keep joking about wanting to have more than 2 kids, and he thinks I'm on drugs or something. However, I remind him every day that the plans for our family are ultimately in the hands of our Lord. With God at our center, we will achieve great things in life. And we will certainly LOVE the little one's that he blesses us with, with every ounce of our being. Let's just give mom plenty of time to recover before we even start talking about #2!

"Every good and perfect gift is from Above, coming down from the Father of Light." James 1:17

I love watching my sister-in-law's with their kids, and wouldn't know near as much about babies if it weren't for them. I feel like I have 3 pediatricians just a quick phone call away! There's not much that they haven't seen or cured over the past few years. With Eli being baby number 8 in the past 4 years, he certainly has the best cousins any kid could ever ask for. We're SO excited to see everyone at Christmas, and are praying that ALL 8 of them will be together for the first time :)

5 of them were together this summer...missing McKenzie, Maddie and Micah. We need some more girls in the bunch!



Just a few pictures from the week...

We couldn't have possible gotten a happier baby. His smile will melt your heart in seconds!



Ready for bed...fast asleep before he even made it there!



He loves his doorway jumper! Thanks Aunt Katie!



Asking for prayer this week for my Grandaddy, he'll have a spot on his lungs removed on Tuesday. They will do a biopsy to find out exactly what's going on. Also, for my family as we approach the 2 year anniversary of my Dad's passing. My heart gets heavier as the day approaches.

Belly Laughs

This has to be one of my favorite moments in the past few months! We were hanging out at the house with Billy and Amanda...and Eli decided to give us all a good laugh! He's always full of smiles and loves the sound of his own voice, but it's been over a month since his last true belly laugh. He was absolutely full of himself tonight, talking and laughing up a storm. He must've been excited to have company! He is SO much fun these days, and absolutely growing like a weed. He's finally getting some meat on his bones!

You have to stop the music playing on the left side of the page in order to hear the video. Enjoy!





I cry everytime I watch this! There just aren't enough words to describe our love for this little guy.

Baby Talk

It's taken me over a week to write this..as its been a busy on! We've been blessed to have company two weekends in a row, so there's a lot to catch up on. Last weekend we had a fun visit with Auntie Liz and her friend Julie. Eli completely ate up all of the attention...check out the video below! We spent some much needed time lounging by the pool, and the girl's got in some good shopping at the outlets. It will probably be Christmas before we see Liz again, so we were pretty bummed to see her leave. It's crazy to think about how much Eli will change between now and then.
He's such a talker these days!





Update on Eli - Most of you know that Eli didn't gain any weight in the last month. We worked really hard last past week, and he gained a pound in 5 days! With his intollerance to dairy, and my diet being very restricted, he just wasn't getting enough calories from my milk. After supplementing with soy formula, and waking him up once at night to eat, that seemed to do the trick! We took him back to the Dr on Thursday, and she was thrilled with his weight gain. But she wants to see him continue to gain at this rate for a while. After much discussion and a ton of heartache for me, we've decided to put him on strictly soy formula. My milk just wasn't keeping him satisfied for long enough. After the first few days of being on all bottles, he seems to be doing great! And definitely packing on the pounds! We just want our little guy to be happy and healhy.

I seem to be taking this much harder than Eli, but am glad that I could nurse him for the almost 4 months that I did. Physically it has been even harder for me, and seriously painful! Yesterday was terrible, and the day that I feared would come. I came down with an infection, but luckily I have an AMAZING Dr. that helped me through it while he was out of town. After a day of antibiotics, I'm already feeling much better.

Unfortunately, all of this was going on while we had company. My mom, Tom, and Cindy came in town for a short visit this weekend. The plan was to have Eli baptized on Sunday, but the scheduling didn't work out. I guess its a good thing we didn't have something so special going on while I felt so miserable. I was forced to stay home yesterday, while my mom took tom and cindy sight seeing on the island. Poor Dan...he stayed home and took care of me and Eli yesterday. Not an easy job! Eli loved having company again, he absolutely loves having new faces to entertain him. When he wasn't sleeping, he was busy 'talking' and playing with his mimi!


I'm hoping for nice weather this week...I'd love to catch some rays over at nana & pop pops! There's just nothing better :)