Yum and Some Fun

Our apartment is starting to feel more like home now that pictures and art work are going up!


Eliana loves these butterflies. My students should recognize them. I had 5 of them up in my classroom for the past 3 years.


Yum! These are delicious chocolate peanut butter bars. They came from 101 Things to do with a Cake Mix. There were only a few ingredients, so let me know in the comment box if you'd like the recipe.


A friend of mine made these for Eliana! Fancy work!!!


Mr. B should be proud of this photo that Kyle took.


I know that I nearly always post the happy pictures. But a dose of reality never hurts:)


I've decided that Eliana looks like my sister Trisha. If you compare pictures and look at their eyes, you'd agree too!


I love that Eliana is making eye contact now! Awake time is getting more entertaining with all of the cooing, smiles, and new noises.


Here are Eliana and Kyle playing.

Prayer Revolution

Kyle and I dated for 3 1/2 years before getting married. We've been married 5 1/2 years. Nearly every night for the last 9 years Kyle and I have prayed together. It is much nicer being married, because now we pray right before going to sleep rather than having to say goodbye for the night. These prayers were about whatever was on our minds at the time.

THEN, Kyle started a revolution!!! Although, now that I think about it, I don't know if he is aware of it:) A couple of months ago Kyle started asking me what he could pray for me about right before we go to bed. It is normally just one thing that is on my mind at the time. His asking has changed how we pray. We are focused on each other's needs. It has opened up opportunities for us to share about what is important to us rather than just assuming that we know what is on eachother's mind.

SO, start a revolution in your marriage! If you don't pray together, start! If you do, then ask each other how you can be praying for them!

WAHOO!!!

Last night Eliana went bed around 8:30 and fell asleep sometime around 9:00. She woke up at 1am and then went back to bed around 2am. Then next time she woke up was 7am! WAHOO! She was up only once in the night! She had done something similar the night before, but she was up at midnight and 4 am. She didn't go back to bed until 7ish then, so I was a bit bushed.

Last Day Being a Month Old

Tomorrow, Eliana will be 2 months old!

Doesn't she look like she is doing a cheer for her Daddy?


One day Cousin Ruli will help Eliana to learn some rhythm.


We got a lamp for Eliana's room. Our new place doesn't come with lighting in the bedrooms. She loves to stare at her lamp!


I love when Eliana and Kyle play. Kyle took this photo!


This striped piece of fabric is a life saver! Now I don't have to worry about her binky falling to the ground when moving her around! It also helps to find it quickly in the middle of the night.

Well Worth 11 Minutes

The Dancer from Kensington on Vimeo.

8 Weeks Old

Eliana is eight weeks old today!!! My how time passes quickly.


Eliana was pretty fussy yesterday. I love when Kyle comes home, because then I get some help! I was busy trying to arrange my clothes in the closet since the recent move. I realized it was pretty quiet. This is how I found them. They were spending quality time together!!!



Eliana was up quite a bit last night. She woke up at 4 and ate. I put her back down around 5 even though she was still awake. She was quiet and content, and I needed some more sleep. I didn't get much sleep for awhile because she had the hiccups for at least half an hour! Even though she is sleeping in her room, her little noises still keep me up!


Kyle and Eliana spent some awake up around 6 this morning. I'm not sure if she got any shut eye between those hiccups and getting fussy again. They played for about half an hour, including taking these photos! Her feet fit pretty well in these clothes. We'll soon be out of newborn clothes and into 0-3 months!!!


Today was a very important day! Today Eliana and I went to my school! The kids loved her!!! It was so good to see former students! I was very encouraged to see my amazing staff! I'm glad to hear that they are off to a great year! You can tell I super blessed to see them by all of the exclamation points in this paragraph!!!

A Photo Weekend

My sisters Trisha and Taylor came up for the weekend. It was wonderful to see them! Trisha has a nice camera, so enjoy the following shots she took.

Walgreens was having a free 8x10 deal, so this picture is now in our hallway!



She was awake for some of the photo shoot, but she wasn't too happy to be outside. Maybe it was a little toasty???


I love the colors in this outfit. They remind me of GramE.



The social smiles are fabulous!!!


Eliana is over 8 pounds now!

Seven Weeks Old

Eliana is seven weeks old today! She inaugurated her seventh week by keeping me up from 10-1:30am! Yikes!

Eliana has smiled a few times while awake! I love it!!!!!!! She does most of her smiling while asleep:)


Good friends got us a new bath tub not that long ago. She doesn't cry during baths anymore!


This is the dress I bought for her to wear home from the hospital. She is now a little more than 8 pounds. I could have worn it when I was born, but she is just now fitting into it!


By this point, Eliana was tired, done with photo shoot day, and ready to sleep!!!

Photo Update

Aunt Marcie made this quilt and accompanying crib bumpers!

Possible thoughts:


Ahhhhh, my hand disappeared!!!!


Just kidding! :)


We've enjoyed a few family walks lately. The wedge that isn't so great for sleeping came in handy to keep Eliana from rolling all over the place. She seemed to like the walks more once we got this good idea.

Motivation

Nothing motivated us to clean our porch of boxes like finding these feline friends. We didn't want them to "bless" our boxes with their waste.

These two were enjoying our Easter lily pot. The lilies are beautiful in the spring. They die off in the summer. Here you can see where Kyle prunned them. I'm always amazed when new buds start to come up. I totally thought they were gone after the first summer. I was so sad then because they were a gift from a sweet student. That was over 3 years ago!




This is the mama cat. There are a few more kittens, but they haven't been captured on film yet.

Moving is always a hard thing. No one likes boxes up their stuff and then having to empty those boxes when you don't know for sure where everything should go. We've got 80% of the boxes unloaded. My sister is coming this weekend to help me decide where the art work to should go. She's coming to see us to, but I nicely asked (aka begged) for her to help me!

A few reasons we like our new place:
*Tall, wide windows in our bedroom
*KDUV comes in clear
*There is a lot more trees and grass here
*We got to pick a wall that got painted for free (Kyle let me choose! Our wall is now light yellow!)
*After 3 years, we have a garbage despoil again!!!

6 Weeks Old

Eliana is 6 weeks old today!


She loves light, so being outside today was very exciting for her.


She was fascinated by the sound of jets and birds.






Eliana isn't doing much in the video, but I know there are relatives and friends out of town and country that want to see her moving.

Eliana's vision is starting to get better! She loved staring at her mobile on her swing yesterday! She loves the swing, and I love the swing because she loves the swing. I wish she loved the car seat as much she loved the swing. Half the time she is totally content in the car, and other times she screams until we arrive at our destination.

Some things I've learned:
*Caring for her on a fussy day or night is harder than any bad teaching day. On a bad teaching day, there is always recess time to give me a mental break!
*It is okay to not get as much done in a day as I used to.
*Sleep when the baby sleeps! She is starting to sleep a little better! I haven't had a up every 1/2 hour for feeding for hours at a time in a while. Some nights I even get 3 hours at a time of sleep! Those are amazing nights!
*Eliana is slow to wake up like her daddy.
*Eliana can make one eye brow go way up like her daddy.
*She doesn't like her arms swaddled.
*She likes to sleep with her arms by her face like I do.