weekend roundup

Well, the weekend is not really over yet, but it's been plenty eventful so far.
Friday afternoon I had just finished feeding Eden (thank goodness for God's grace in that small act being completed!) and was heading out the door to pick up Andrew. Graham comes running into the living room, trips, BAM, eye meets ottoman. Instant blood, screaming, chaos.....!
I knew by looking at the cut that it would probably need a couple of stitches as it was a pretty good gash.
So, change of plans! Another grace in that my mom was still here! So she took Eden & went to pick up Andrew and Graham & I headed out to Med Express. Love those clinics as they took us right in without a wait. So then we had to endure the being strapped to the body board, horrendous screams, and a VERY unpleasant experience, for him AND for mom & dad. :-/ All for 3 stitches!!

 notice how sweaty his hair is!

 what a face!

overall, he was a trooper and when it was over, he was fine. He was just happy that he got a pack of fruit snacks when it was done. :)

Saturday morning, my church threw a baby shower for us. Thankful to all those who attended and for many kind gifts given to us!
group project - All the ladies made a card for her up through her 16th birthday. How fun it will be each year to open up a card from someone who attended her baby shower!

Most little ones don't get to attend their baby shower! She pretty much slept thru the whole thing, which was nice for momma. :)

Thankful my mom was able to be here!

The star of the show!

 

burrito babies

There is nothing more snuggly than a swaddled newborn.

Graham

 Eden

baby E is 2 weeks old today!

Things are going well, I really can't complain. Nights are getting much better and she will usually go at least 4 hours at a stretch and has been going right back to bed. Yesterday we were out all morning and then Andrew & I were out at some friends' house (with her) until 11:30pm. Totally my fault for really messing up her day! Hopefully she'll forgive me and settle back into our routine. I had the nasty mastitus bug hit me this weekend. Ugh. So glad my mom was here! I had gotten it with Graham as well. But I am feeling much better and besides that little setback, am feeling pretty great (besides wishing for a little more sleep!)
Her birth story is halfway written out, I'll get it posted one of these days. :)
Newbornland is never easy, but I must say, everything is so much easier/calmer/less stressful this time around. How thankful I am for that.
And yes, I've recently started having those middle of the night episodes again where I start yelling at Andrew to help me find the baby! Last night I was even holding my arm craddled like I was feeding her and I could have sworn that I was! Thankfully this time around, Andrew is more prepared and doesn't panic and realizes that I have probably not lost our child. Aghhhhh, good ole' sleep-deprivation. :)

let the little children come

Jesus..........thank you..........amen..........(prompting)..........pray Nick..........pray Owen..........pray mommy..........pray daddy..........pray baby..........amen.

So sweet to hear your little boy learning to pray on his own!

one

our little girl is one week old!

One week ago, Andrew & I were still having the conversation, "how can we love another child as much as we love Graham?" We just didn't know how that worked. But then, sweet little Eden was born and now we know. We love her in all her sweetness. And good thing she's cute or else she couldn't get away with keeping us up for all hours of the night. :-)

The first week has been....well, the first week. whew. Around Sunday night we realized she might have her days and nights backwards from ours.

• Sunday night was a rough night.
• Monday night was bad.
• Tuesday she slept from noon-10pm. We tried everything we could to get her awake and besides 2 feedings, that girl was NOT going to wake up. I knew we were in for it!
• Tuesday night she was up from 11:30pm-4am. Yes, what newborn stays up for 4+ hours??? We rocked and swung and swaddled and snuggled and tried every trick we could think of. Finally at 4 am she slept for a few hours. whew, this momma was at her wits' end! So thankful my mom is here! She has been amazing with caring for G, especially getting him taken care of in the mornings, she also is keeping the house cleaned and the dishes done, which is so great!
• Wednesday we had slightly more success with some awake time during the day....but I wasn't getting my hopes up! My mom reminded me that Graham would only sleep well in his car seat at the beginning, ahhhhh, one trick we hadn't tried. So she went in her carseat about midnight and slept till 3 am, then ate and slept until 8:30 am!!!!!!!!!! Oh blessedness. After a 5 hour sleeping stretch, I feel human again! Today, she ate breakfast, had some awake time, went down beautifully swaddled in her crib. Then had lunch and repeated the same process. Oh I can only hope she realizes the beauty of this routine and decides to stick with it!

Andrew keeps reminding me, she's only a week old, and yes, I am keeping that in mind. But when you're sleep-deprived, days past post-partum, recovering from delivery and adjusting to being a human beverage machine, your brain doesn't always function normally. :)
2 crazy faces!

Graham is doing great with her! It definitely helps having Grandma here for him! Our biggest issue with him this week is that he's been so hyper (can you tell by the pic?!) as he adjusts to everything. But he LOVES to hold Eden and throw away her diapers and help however he can. He wants to share with her (like his water bottle!) and set a teething toy in her bouncy chair for her to play with.

This hat kills me!

oh we love to see her eyes.

Especially at noon and not at midnight!

we love you sweet girl.

and we'll still keep you even if you don't sleep at night. But if you decide to get on the same schedule as the rest of the world, that would be great too. wink*wink.

It is a pink kind of day!

 And a great day for my first little jeans

 kisses

 my very favorite snuggle position

and a great day for Grandma to arrive, making the 18 hour drive, we're so glad she's here!

l.o.v.e.

• my sweet brand-new little girl
• not being pregnant :)
• any piece of clothing that is not maternity
• my fun-loving, loveable and energy-filled little boy
• the daily grace of my Savior
• my husband who has done everything this weekend from laundry to everything for G to cleaning to arranging my junk drawer. :-) (apparently that was on his top ten list when he got the chance to run the household, haha. knock yourself out, babe!)
• did I mention not being pregnant?!!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Eden slightly interrupted our planned date night for Saturday....but I'm ok with that. We'll take a rain check and hopefully get the date in the next few weeks!

well hello, Miss E

Happy to say that Eden Hope arrived on Thursday, February 10th at 6:02 pm!

It was kind of a strange and surreal labor & delivery, but all in a good way! SO much easier than G's for sure! I'll share more on that later.

She arrived at 8lbs. 8 oz, 20 inches.

Apparently we make big babies. :-)

Andrew & I don't think she looks much like us, but she definitely looks like Graham, so she must be ours!

She barely fits her little hats, we also have big-headed babies, haha!

 Graham seems to be doing well with her so far!

 G has been having lots of fun! We are so indebted to our friends Becky, Thresa, and Christi for caring for Graham over the past 2 days! He's been having a great time! He got to hang out with his (much older!) buddies, Noah & Marshall, and eat hoagies. And then yesterday he had a great time with his friend, Jack, and got to eat pizza! Though he does seem very happy that mommy is back home now, even if the baby came too. :)

 G meets her for the first time, about 2 hours after she was born.

Exciting days ahead as we adjust to a family of 4.

So glad you're here, little one!

the orphans

We currently know 2 families who in the midst of adoptions, so exciting! And we have other friends who will be actively pursuing this in the future. And some who have already taken this journey. We are praying to start pursuing this venture in probably another 1-2 years. It is exciting and terrifying at the same time! We are currently looking at pursuing a domestic adoption of siblings....but only God knows how it will how pan out. All I know is that even now when I think my child(ren) is out there somewhere waiting to come home, I can become completely overwhelmed. It's hard to be patient when you read the stories, hear the needs, and see the faces. But we know that we must rest in God's timing for our family.
I recently finished reading Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches, by Russell Moore. This book is currently available in a free download for the month of February! Check it out here.

This is such a great book. Even if adoption is not in God's journey for you, I think everyone should read it to turn our hearts towards the orphans & fatherless. Everyone can do something. It would also be very helpful in helping encourage those who are or will be on this path.

_____________________

Adoption is not just about couples who want children - or who want more children. Adoption is about an entire culture that sees adoption as part of our Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.

_____________________

I love this shirt.

 It was designed by a family who is using the profits to help fund their adoption of 2 children from Uganda.

So go order yours here!

Our hearts are with the little ones waiting to come home.

buyer beware:

I do believe little girls should come with this label.

Warning: beware of walking into a store's baby girl clearance section (like Old Navy!)

There will undoubtedly be something you canNOT resist.

the big day

Graham helped me make his cake the day before. He loves to stir!

We won this sweet little birthday crown through a facebook friend.

He loved wearing his birthday hat! 

 We did a "lego cake". Thought it would be super easy, turned into more work than it looked, but Andrew & I did it together and it was fun! Graham loved it at least!

 they kinda look like legos, right? :)

 It's funny, last year was his first piece of cake and he had a cupcake and enjoyed shoving it into his mouth. This year he ate with a fork and barely got messy. Big difference!

This was morning after his birthday....notice he found his hat again! One of his gifts from us was a chalk/white board that had magnetic letters as well. He is loving coloring and his letters as always.  

 The next day he got to try another little(!) piece of cake, this one had blue frosting and was lots of fun. :)

TWO. How do we describe you?!

From this...........

to this..........!!!!!

What sweet, sweet joy you have brought to our lives.
***

Fun at the Science Center...........

 LOVING the huge model trains exhibit

Isn't this how every potty break should be?

Your dog by your side and reading your favorite book? :)

He reads everything he can get his hands on.

This was a Birthday Express mag that came in the mail and for days he read it constantly, just because it has all sorts of fun characters throughout it!

• His current favorite bedtime reads are Go, Dog, Go (dr. suess), the potty book (it has a button that flushes!) and baby on the way. I'm just glad he loves this book! I think he really understands that a baby is coming, but the timing thing is probably a little confusing. Like, when is this baby going to make an appearance, anyways?!
• wow. the child finally speaks! took a while for a regular vocab to come through (and probably only I still understand half of what he's saying!), but it's so fun to hear him talk. I just realized the other day that he no longer just babbles sounds, everything he says is real words (or his interpretation anyway!). His sentences are funny though. Like - Again. Church. Go.
• Speaking of church, he moved into the 2's/3's class and ever since he has started just loving going to church and especially his friends. He can't wait to show Andrew & I his coloring picture when we pick him up, it's so fun! He talks about his friends all the time and usually prays for them before bedtime at night as well!
• He loves his letters as well. When he was 18 months he started watching the Leap Frog DVD - The Letter Factory and immediately picked up all the letter sounds. I love that it teaches him the sounds the letters make and not just the name of the letters.  It has been on my to-do list ever since to post a video of him saying all of them....but alas, obviously never happened. But a lot of people ask me how he learned them and I can't take too much credit. Definitely recommend that video! He loves seeing letters, saying letters.....but counting & colors.....those are a different story! Not so quick on the pick-up there. :) Go, Dog, Go has been a really great book for helping with colors though!
• He just continues to love balls and sports even more all the time! He loves to watch the Steeler games and yell football! He says "awwww" when they tackle or "missed" when the ball drops. He also loves to shoot basketballs. We have a couple of nearby playplaces with about 4 ft. hoops and he can actually shoot and make (a light) ball. He loves it!
• Funnies - He was standing about a foot from Andrew and fired a ball at him, which then bounced off Andrew's head. Graham yells "you missed!" Nothing like being mocked by your toddler. :-)
• Andrew wrote out g-r-a-h-a-m and said "what's that spell?" Graham yelled "Bible!" I guess that's the only time we usually ask that question, haha!
• I am amazed at what sticks in his brain. Andrew had gotten some pepsi for his birthday and the next day in the car we were driving and saw a Pepsi truck. Graham said "daddy's juice". How does he remember that logo after seeing it for a day?!
• He likes to tell everyone Hi & Bye in stores. 'Cept he says bye like 8 times and it gets a little awkward! 
• Whenever he hears a baby/child crying he tells me they need to go ni-night. I guess he's heard that a time or two. :) 
• He just loves the snow and loves to help daddy shovel!  

This is such a fun stage! We are loving it and he is cracking us up all the time. It's hilarious now that he deliberately tries to do funny things to make us laugh.  

We love you more than you'll ever know.

We know you're going to be such a great big brother.

We thank God for entrusting you to our care.

Happy 2nd birthday, Graham Owen!