some traditions are just worth keeping

2007


2008

2009

In case your wondering...it is kev's shirt! I realized last year that he'd worn it two years in a row on Christmas Eve. This year I suggested a different look...but you can see who won. He said this is his official Christmas Eve outfit! I may have to hide it in a few years!!

I love looking back at our pics througout the years. It's amazing how much growing and changing happens in 365 days! I wonder what 2010 will hold?

Our Christmas

Christmas Eve...we didn't get a dog...our neighbors did
and we got to puppy sit! Guess who wants a puppy now!!
Everytime we leave our house and drive past our
neighbors ella says, "No Whit-nee dat my doggy!"
Of course she is two and thinks everything is hers!


Oh how she loved the puppy!

Opening her new pj's!

Me and my eliza

Daddy and his girls and the puppy!

Daddy and Eliza

The girls!

Ella on Christmas morning by her tree!

She looks so excited! (note the miss patty-cake

dvd cases that she carries everywhere!)


Eliza's tree

Ready to begin!

Eliza's loot!

Dr. Ella checking out sissy!

We had such a fun and busy christmas! We are blessed with so much..more than we need!

Merry Christmas!

We've shopped
We've crafted
We've baked and gingerbread house constructed

We've wrapped
We've seen the lights
We've movie watched and we've cookie decorated.

Christmas clothes have been worn and ornaments broken
Cards have been mailed and Carols have been spoken
We've decked our halls and waved at Santa from afar

Yet there seems like something is missing
There must be something more...

Tonight we will worship with both young and old
We will sing Silent Night and remember so long ago
How the King of this World left His home of Splendor
For rags and a cross
Oh Lord Let Help us to Remember

For without your Great Sacrifice
There would be no Christmas Glow
No Candle Light, No Merry Night
No presents, cheer, or mistletoe!

So on this Christmas Eve with my to-do list almost done
I find the one thing left that I must do
Is to worship the King in Heaven above.

Look who is already 3 months

This post is a little old. I have been slow on uploading my pics,

Little miss Eliza is growing so fast. It definitely goes faster the second time around... which is so sad.


At 3 months
-eliza is wearing 0-3 month clothes but is almost ready to start trying on some of her 3-6 month wardrobe! (I love that I have two girls that were born in the same season. She can wear all of ella's clothes and I love getting to see them on her and reuse them!)


-She is now wearing size 2 diapers! We have come a long way from those teeny tiny preemie diapers! (Last week after several diaper explosions,I decided it was time to go to a bigger size! Now, I really think it is just the huggies! I hate huggies for (breastfed babies)! I feel they are just not absorbent enough for runny poo! Is it only me or has anyone else had this problem? I love huggies for bigger babies! And why does huggies put out a ton more coupons than pampers??? Okay...off subject but that has been a big issue lately!


-eliza weighs about 11lbs 4oz. as of today! That is a gain of 5 lbs 3oz. in 3 months...so she has almost doubled her birth weight!


-eliza only likes to eat for about 10 minutes at a time! This is great, but I always hope she is really getting her tummy full enough! I always worry about my girls not eating enough...probably because they both started out tiny and I feel like it is my job to "beef" them up!


-eliza is a SUPER sleeper! She is sleeping from about 9:30pm until 6:30 or 7:00am. She needs no paci and doesn't even cry! I swaddle her and but her in her bassinet and she looks around until she falls asleep! Oh how I love her (i'd still love her ...even if she was waking all through the night..but this mama loves her sleep!)


-eliza is so sweet! She gives the best smiles! All you have to do is talk to her and she can't hold back! She is especially smiley after getting her tummy full! She seems to have a sweet and calm personality...so far (i do know they can change!)


-eliza loves her sissy and loves to smile at her. She pulled ella's hair for the first time yesterday and ella looked like she didn't quite know what to do! The beginning of the sister wars!!


-she loves to be held! She will stop crying immediately when mommy or daddy pick her up!


-she likes her bath


-she finally found her fingers and can't decide if she wants to suck her first two or the two middle ones. She is still alternating between the two. I am still trying to talk her into being a paci girl because they seem like a less germy option and an easier habit to end...but I think she will win!


-she is growing a full-on spike! Her hair is coming in stick straight and sticking straight up! It is def. going to be light brown or blonde. She's got her daddy's hair and hairline for sure!


-She is really changing in her looks. I still think she favors her cousin landon the most. She has a def. look of someone in my family and I just cannot figure it out!



A year ago this past Saturday...Dec. 19th was when we had a miscarriage at 10 weeks into a pregnancy. I never understand the "why's" of all that but I would never want to trade my eliza anne! If we hadn't had a miscarriage then we wouldn't have her. God is good when we don't understand or even like what is going on. He always knows what we need and has a bigger plan than we can see! I have seen this over and over in my life and I know that it is true. Happy 3 month Birthday!

Almost ready for Christmas!

I cannot believe that it is the week of Christmas. I have been a bad blogger this week. Life seemed to be busy with finishing shopping and then my ella girl got sick again! She ran fever from Thursday morning until last night. It is gone today and she never got any other symptoms. We took her in on Friday because her cousins have all had strep so we thought it was probably that, but it wasn't...just another viral fever thing! I have had several moms tell me that it is just her age in attempts to make me feel better. I think she has just gotten run down and is having trouble fighting all the germs out there right now. So much from avoiding playgroups, Chucky Cheeses, the play center at chick-fli-a(the poor girl wants to do the slide so bad), and using hand sanitizers! It's not working for us! I am just thankful she is better...now if we can stay well until Thursday, I will have all I want for Christmas! I guess when there are 7 cousins under the age of 8, in one house...someone is bound to be sick!

Kevin and I saw the movie, The Blindside on my birthday. We both loved it and thought it was one of the best movies we'd ever seen. I highly recommend it! It was funny because as we were getting in the van to go...Kevin said, "wow, I've never driven a mini van on a date." And then I looked down and realized I was carrying my diaper bag rather than a purse (in my defense it doesn't look too much like a diaper bag)! We laughed at how life changes. In fact, we loved all 2 hours and 6 minutes of the movie just sitting there in silence. It was so nice to just sit and relax and know that we didn't have any responsibilities.

I have one more present to buy, which is a gift card for my dad because he is the hardest person I buy for. I did get him one little gift, but it is basically the same thing I get him every year. I also have a hard time shopping for Kevin. He never really wants anything. This morning he pulled out a new shirt with the tag still on it that I gave him for Christmas last year. I should have re-gifted it...he'd never known. He tried it on and decided he liked it....must be his new muscles! He has been working out like crazy for several months now. I am really proud of him. He seems to really enjoy it. He is wanting me to start P90X with him in Jan. but I am just not a good work-out girl. I enjoy walking and I would love to be a runner one day. I want to try it because I think it is one activity we could do together and that would be good for us!

We had to cancel seeing the lights this past week with our "older"friends from church due to ella's fever. I am hoping we can work it in this week. I also still need to make our Christmas cookies and a few reeses cookies that I make every year. I hope to have some good family time this week and enjoy Kevin being on vacation. So...it looks like we are...almost ready for Christmas!

30 Candles are on my Cake!

Today is my 30th birthday! It's hard to believe that my 20's are already over...which is a sad thought. The 20's were really a great decade of life for me. I graduated college, got my first "real" job, got engaged, got married, built our first home, bought our second home, traveled to lots of fun places together, had three beautiful babies, and lots of other normal but blessed days in between. How can the 30's top all of that? I think the 20's are so great because it is a season of first!

I told Kevin today that the 30's make me think of growing kids, growing bellies, and growing older. Doesn't sound as exciting to me. I am sure there is still lots to look forward to!

We have had a busy but great day. Kev worked a short day and we picked him up and we all went to have Christmas pictures made. Stress! I never understood that until I had kids! Ella ans Eliza actually did well, but we had a long wait...which throws things off. Eliza was ready to nap by the time we got started!

We were waiting and I heard one of the photographers talking about how bad she felt and she even said she was running a fever!!!! I was being nosey and listening to their conversation and of course my ears perked up when I heard that!!! I thought....oh great...watch...she'll get us! And sure enough about two minutes later she said, "Julie." I wasn't sure what to do! Do I tell her that I overheard her say she was sick? Do I ask her for a diff. photographer? Do I leave?? After having two sick kids that are finally well...I might go to drastic measures to keep them well! I've even thought about screening the kids in the church nursery for runny noses, fever and coughs...before I let ella play! Just kidding, but the thought did cross my mind! So back to today....I am not one to create a scene...so I went with it and prayed over and over that those germs wouldn't land on us! We sanitized a few times too!

We left there and ate an early lunch at my favorite restaurant. Tonight we are going on a date all by ourselves! We are going to see the the movie The Blindside. I cannot wait. This will be our first alone date since April...I think! We are so excited! We are going all out with popcorn, candy and a big diet coke! We are so adventurous, you know! We said we might sit down and just sleep! I can't wait to not have any responsibilities for a few hours!

So here's to the beginning of a new decade of my life!

Sharing Joy at Christmas!

When I think about the kind of women I want my little girls to grow up to be...
I think of :
wholesome
kind
sharing
giving
hospitable
generous
classy
sincere
caring
pure
loving
and I guess the list could continue. I really do desire for them to grow up to be Godly girls and eventually (a very long time from now) women. They will learn these characteristics from me! That's where it gets tough and the dreams I dream for my girls become a daily reality... in which I daily fall short! (Kev and I had this discussion last night as he was reminding me of my previous post on 1 Corinthians 13). They will learn to be hospitable because their mommy and daddy always welcomed others into their home. They will grow to be generous...because "we" always did that growing up. They will prayerfully remain pure because mommy and daddy have stressed purity and modesty throughout their lives. They will love others who are different, unlovely, and strange, because we will teach them how to. And while I know they will fail and make mistakes they will have a foundation of "how" to live!

I was thinking about all this the other day and something I read in last months Homelife magazine gave me a great idea. It is something that we are planning as a way our family can be generous and share some joy this Christmas season. The idea was to invite an elderly couple to go look at Christmas lights with your family. I thought this was such a great idea. We have many sweet "older" couples at church so we picked one and have invited them to go to the Light Festival at one of our local parks. I doubt this is something they would do on their own (esp. at night), and I think they will enjoy watching and hearing ella's reaction to the lights. So hopefully we can time it right (between eliza's feedings and bedtime) and have a great time sharing our Christmas Joy!! I'll take some pictures for you!