Favorite Things

It isn't as thrilling as Oprah's favorite things and I'm not giving away any free stuff (boo) but these are some things that I am loving right now and thought someone else might like to check them out!

1)

This software is $30 on amazon and I LOVE it! It has made scrapbooking so easy and the program is so simple and easy to use. I love that it automatically detects the pictures on my computer so I don't have to upload the photos I want to use to the program. I can just browse through my computer files and find the pictures I want.

Another thing that was most important to me when I was researching programs was finding one that I could upload the pictures to their website and they would print them in an album for me. This one does that very easily plus I have the option to convert the pages to jpeg format and print them anywhere I would like if I so choose!

It has been so simple and so fun. I was able to pop out 67 pages in a matter of 2 days (while caring for two little boys) and get myself completely caught up. Now to start to work on Eli's album!

Here are a few of my favorite pages from the last couple days:

#2) For years I have been following a website called "The Generous Wife". This website sends daily emails on a way that as a wife you can be generous to your husband. I have followed it for years but I admit that a lot of times I just deleted the emails without even opening them. Well, in the season of marriage we are in right now, it is so easy to be completely wrapped up with my two busy little one's and it is easy to forget the person who started this whole family! Well, I have been trying to be more intentional about reading these emails and applying some of the ideas.

Here is the blog address where you can sign up for the daily emails (or just read the blog) http://www.the-generous-wife.com/

And there is a husband counterpart located here: http://www.the-generous-husband.com/

#3) I am not watching as much TV these days as there are always chores to be done in my free time (or scrapbooking) and I would much prefer to get some zzzz's in the evening hours than watch a tv show. But there is one show that I am loving and stay up late to get to watch. I have always loved labor and delivery shows and this one is great and entertaining even for the guys (Peter enjoys it too!) It is even more entertaining to us now that we know what these people are going through!

Here are some previews and clips for your enjoyement of One Born Every Minute:

How Goes It?

So how is it going with Peter back at work?

Well for the most part I would say if an outsider were looking in, it would be comedic. The boys already know how to gang up on me it appears. I am completely frustrated at different points in the day and swear that I could never have another child and then at other times I am so in love with my boys that I want another one right now (hormones anyone?!?) It is a constant juggling act to meet everyone's needs and I consider the day a complete success if I am able to get a shower and get something to eat! Once this week I was even able to lay down for an hour while the boys napped - score! On top of caring for the boys I also try to fit in time to take care of the other household duties. Earlier this week everything was caught up, but today there are dishes in the sink and the laundry is piling up, bathrooms need cleaned - the list goes on but I know that there really is no possible way for me to have it all together right now so I just do the best I can.

Here is a small snapshot of how my day goes:

7:00 - Eli is awake and ready to eat NOW!!!

7:30 - Fed and changed and back to sleep we go

9:00 - Malachi is up, change him and play with him for awhile.

He seems ready to eat and I figure I better get it done before the baby wakes up. I put Mal in his highchair and make him some cream of wheat and get him a yogurt. Sit down and start feeding him. I hear the baby wailing from upstairs. Go upstairs and get Eli. I put him in his swing and go back to feeding Malachi. Eli doesn't like this idea and starts screaming again which makes Malachi freak out (he has a huge fear of the baby right now). Malachi starts reaching for me, so I guess mealtime is over.

I put Malachi in the living room to play and pick Eli up. He is still upset and wants to eat. So I start working on heating him up a bottle. From the living room I hear a boom and Malachi starts crying. So I set Eli down in the playpen (he is not happy about this) and go pick up Malachi and comfort him. After a few minutes he is better and off playing again.

I start to feed Eli his bottle. Malachi starts choking on something so I retrieve the item from his mouth - a piece of plastic. I have no idea where he found that. Back to feeding the very upset baby who keeps getting his mealtime interrupted. Eli gets done eating and I smell something nasty. I change Malachi and then change Eli. Eli pees on his clothes and I had to use the new diaper as a shield. I start to unfold a new diaper and Eli pees again but this time all over my clothes. I can't help but laugh.

I change Eli and we go upstairs and I get him dressed in clean clothes and then change my clothes. I go back downstairs where yet another piece of plastic is hanging out of Malachi's mouth. I swear our house is safer than it appears on this morning. Fortunately that was the end of plastic finds.

How do you mother's of big families (4 or more) do it?!?

This is just a small snip-it of the comedy of my day. There are diaper blow-outs, spit-up in my face, both babies crying at the same time, and lots of other fun things that happen. While I do get frustrated and feel overwhelmed at times, I really do truly love life these days! I mean what is not to love about this?

Eli Must be going through a growth spurt right now because he wants to eat all the time and is eating 5-6 ounces every feeding. His cheeks sure are filling out :)

Parenthood at its Very Best! (This is Gross)

It's 5AM. Baby is fed and just needs a quick diaper change and it is back to bed for a few more blissful hours of sleep.

Open the diaper and survey the damage. I have 2 wipes left in the box. Our new boxes of wipes are downstairs and it doesn't seem worth it to go get them. I am super-mom! I can clean this mess up with just two wipes!

Lift up baby's legs, clean the mess up with two wipes - no problem. Reach for clean diaper............ and then it happens............. On the receiving blanket. On the crib sheet. On my sweats. On my feet and ankles. On our king size bed sheet. I tell my husband that I need more wipes RIGHT NOW. He runs downstairs to get more as I sit there in shock at what just happened.

After what feels like an eternity, the wipes arrive. Just in time for mess take 2 to explode all over the place. My lovely husband stands there and laughs as I am in awe. I had no idea that my little angel had this much in him. I also had no idea that it could shoot out like this!

Clean up adorable baby. Clean up moms legs. Put on new pair of sweatpants. Strip down crib. All the crib sheets are in Malachi's room and we are NOT going in there and risk waking him. Layer crib with receiving blankets for remainder of night. Change bedding on king size bed.

5:30 AM - finally back to bed!

I have 2 babies but am still such an amateur.............

Baby Step #3!

Well, we did it! As of yesterday we are driving a paid for Jeep! It really feels good to pay off another debt and now we can press on with Baby Step #3 - 6 months expenses in savings! We still haven't filed our taxes but my accountant (Peter) blames that on the IRS for not releasing the adoption tax credit form until after we had a baby, but hopefully we will get those sent off this week.

Originally our tax return was going to put a huge dent in the 6 month of expenses in savings, but things change and life happens. Now, a good part of our tax return will be going to the medical bills that just keep coming (Mr. Eli is worth every one of them!) And that is the exact reason that Dave Ramsey says to get that much money in savings, so when the unexpected happens, you don't have to go in to debt to work your way out of it. I am just thankful that we are going to have the money to pay these bills when they come in! On a related note: I have never been more thankful to have health insurance!!!

So we are doing well and staying focused even through the craziness of our life right now and I am thrilled to be driving a paid for car!

1 Month Old

Eli's first month of life was not without hardships. It is hard to imagine that today, March 4th is the day that we were originally counting down to, but our little guy decided he wanted to make an early appearance. So today is his 1 month birthday! You would never realize the rough start that Eli had looking at him today. He is very strong and beautiful and perfect!

We are starting to get into a routine around here. Peter goes back to work on Monday and then I have to figure out how to juggle both boys. It has been a fabulous month with Peter home to help out with Malachi so that I could focus on getting to know Eli and his cues. Now, I feel ready to face the double team during the day and figure out a different routine to life with two little boys!

Eli is pretty consistent with a 4 hour sleep schedule at night. We have had a few lucky nights where he went 5 or 6 hours but that is definitely not the norm (yet). During the day he is pretty consistent with wanting to eat about every 3 hours. He is a champion in the weight gaining department and on Tuesday was up to 7lbs 5 ounces (up 2 lbs from his birth weight!) but that still puts him below the 5% for his age but that is to be expected for awhile. It is pretty funny to have one child riding the very top of the growth chart and one sitting at the very bottom.

Eli is definitely starting to be alert and awake more. Throughout the day he stays awake for an hour or more after he eats. At night, he does better (thankfully) at falling asleep sooner. He is definitely engaged in conversation now. When I talk to him his eyes study my face. We are just now going to start tummy time with him. The pediatrician told us to wait until he was at his due date and here we are, finally at term!!!

Elias is a true blessing in our life! I couldn't be happier to have 2 little boys to love and enjoy!!! I feel like the luckiest mother in the world!!!!

Name Game

How do you pick the name that someone is going to have to use for years and years and years? I have always felt a lot of pressure when it comes to picking a name. I have shared before how we came up with the name Malachi and its significance. After the challenge of agreeing on one boy name I NEVER thought we would need to pick another boy name so soon :)

So where did Elias come from?

When it comes to naming our children, we have 3 basic rules:

#1) We both had to love the name

#2) The name had to have meaning

#3) We did not want it to be so mainstream that you hear it everyday (so no names in the top 100 baby names)

So when it came to picking out a boy name (since we still have the girls name in reserve) we searched the baby name book again, went back through the Bible, read movie credits to try to find names....... and were not coming up with anything that we both liked. With Malachi, it was just so apparent. As soon as we came across the name, we both just knew it was "the name" and we were not getting that feeling with any one name this time.

But finally we found it!

So what does this man have to do with the name we picked?

As everyone knows, we are huge Disney fans in this house. So in passing one day, Peter throws out the name Walt (I thought he was joking). There was no way in the world that I was going to name my child Walter. But then we saw it - Walter Elias Disney.

Elias - My God is the Lord! It followed all 3 of our rules and we both loved it!

As I was sitting in my hospital room all alone after Peter and Eli were transported, I was reminded of the meaning of his name. This little boy was God's. Instantly at birth, I had to release him into God's hands and that was not an easy thing for my longing arms to do. He was not mine to protect or save as much as I wished I could. That was something that only God could do and we are so thankful He did and that Elias is here with us today. God has already reigned the Lord over Eli's life!

Video Overload

We just cleaned off the video camera and I found some video's that I thought would be fun to share.

The first video of sweet little Eli. He was enjoying his bili-light up in the NICU. So tiny, so fragile.

This is how we entertain ourselves after the kids go to sleep at night:

Malachi LOVES to dance and he has some moves :) He loves to dance to the different commercials on TV - crazy boy!

And his first encounter with the snow. He wasn't sure what to think of it but eventually decided it was no fun and started to cry (see pictures in previous post). I had no idea that my husband was throwing snow balls at the poor boy and got him in the head right off the bat - poor kid. At least we are confident that someday this guy will be bigger than daddy and can get his revenge! Daddy needs to remember that Malachi gets to decide what nursing home he goes to someday.

On an unrelated note, I had one of those very sweet moments with Mr Malachi tonight. I was rocking him and giving him his nightly bottle. He has to be covered with a blanket when you try to put him to sleep (this is what they did at Hannah's Hope). Anyway, he fell asleep and reached his hand out from under the blanket and grabbed my hand. Moments like that are so sweet and melt my mommy heart!