Friday, April 13, 2012

Children Get It

Yesterday Anthony got home from work and after dinner we went for a nice walk to the park. It was wonderful. Lately I have noticed as we are out that Eli loves to say, "hi" to those that walk by. If they say hi back he proceeds to say, "my name is Eli!" I need to video it because his voice is just too cute and adorable.

Well last night on our walk, a little girl comes riding out in her driveway and begins talking to us. Eli immediately is all about talking to her. People rarely talk to him when they walk by. This little girl wanted to talk though. He of course said, "Hi!" I knew what would come next.........."my name is Eli!" It was too cute! They talked for a little bit. As we are almost past her house we tell her good bye. She told us the same thing and says, "bye Eli!" It was the cutest sweetest thing ever. She understood.

It got me thinking. Kids have no fear and are so friendly with each other. It is sad that adults can not be the same way. I know many times I am so busy with my own troubles, thoughts, or ideas I completely ignore everybody around me. I need to take an example from children and be more friendly. Children don't have much to worry about normally. They live very wonderful carefree days and I think this helps. I need to learn to live a more care free day and enjoy others! It is amazing that having children can teach us so many lessons. We think when we have kids we will be teaching them and helping them grow. This is true but it also seems they have many lessons to teach us.

Our night at the park.




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Little girl got brave and climbed the jungle gym all on her own!


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My monkey!!!





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Yes, I am as tired as I look. I am beyond exhausted lately. I am taking Iron and hoping that helps.

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He is getting so big. I can't believe he is riding a bike. He rides like a pro and it is so bittersweet.




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The bubbles are like kid crack! I know sounds awful but seriously its all they want to do anymore it seems. The machine is going to wear out before June the rate we are going with it.


Last but not least. Lilliana has this habit of every lunch time falling asleep while eating. I can hear it happening because she fusses the whole time. It does not matter if I give her a short morning nap or not she falls asleep and its just too cute.

Happy Friday Everybody! Take time to be friendly!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Embrace the Camera

Yes Yes I have joined that group.................the group that take pictures on their phones or in my instance tablets and uploads them to Instagram for those retro filters. I would like to say I started it because I saw this amazing collage I want to do with all those little square pictures and truth is I do. I also know sometimes I just can't get my camera out fast enough so having my phone or the tablet is a nice edition and who does not want old grungy looking photos just for fun?!? Ok, maybe grungy is not the word but that is what I think when I see mine. I could say poorly exposed or over filtered or any other photgraphic term I would like to use. Then again it is in the eye of the artist so I could go as far and say art! Regardless of what I call it. Its popular and I kinda like it. Not kinda I do like it! So I got the app. since now it is available for android and entered that world. My pictures are private at this point and will probably stay that way until further notice.

All that to say I did our embrace the camera photos with the tablet this week and Instagram so I didn't have to change lenses, set up the tripod, or wait for Anthony. Nothing will ever replace my camera but there might be more pictures like these in the future to mix in with the others. We had fun. Eli got to help pick the filter so he enjoyed it. They are kinda blurry and not crisp but hey that is what you get with a tablet or phone. Seriously 10 years ago who would have thought this even possible?!? The things we went without as kids our kids will think it is completely normal. By the time they are old enough I am sure they will have something even better.
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Now go get your cameras whatever they might be and Embrace The Camera. Your kids, grandkids, and even you will thank yourself later!

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Afternoon bath yes we will enjoy!!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Turn Baby Turn

There should be a song for that. Maybe there already is?! I have no idea but that is going to be my mantra until little Ari decides to turn his little body upside down!

Today marks 28 weeks. I also had an appointment today. My blood pressure is amazing which is a huge answer to prayer. I pray it continues that way. The only problem is he is breech! I knew he was. The kids flips somersaults all the time. Kendra my midwife said we don't need to start getting concerned until 32 weeks. After that we need to. Worst case scenerio is I would have to have another C Section which we all know I DO NOT WANT and will go KICKING AND SCREAMING THE ENTIRE WAY!! It it was it is though and only God knows what we need at this point. Sometimes we have to eat our humble pie and just do things we don't want to.

This is what an average baby at 28 weeks gestation is doing.....

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese Cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. He can blink his eyes, which now sport lashes. With his eyesight developing, he may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. He's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

My uterus is measuring really far ahead again......31 weeks to be exact.

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His heartrate was great in the 140s.............




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All in all it was a great appointment with another one of my wonderful midwives. This was my actual very first visit with Kendra. She came last year right after Lilliana was born. She is a great addition to the Birth Center. The kids also went along with Anthony so everybody could meet her as we know everybody else and have since Eli. They were so good. They loved listening to Ari's hearbeat. I could not ask for better kids! We are anxious to meet Ari and can't wait for this this little boy to arrive and join our family.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Easter Weekend

This post is probably going to be a mumble jumble of emotions, thoughts, and pictures.  I started this yesterday being monday but am just now finishing it on tuesday.

It seems at every point in my pregnancy I get to a spot where I am beyond over it. Being pregnant creates grumpy, sad, annoyed, frustrated Alexis. I think this weekend was that point. It didn't happen until Saturday but it still happened. The silly thing was it all culminated around the fact I have no energy and am exhausted! This means doing a lot wears me out. I have a lot I want to do. Saturday I needed to get to the store to get groceries and get Eli a pink collared shirt. He asked for pink! I was tired, didn't feel well, and felt just downright awful. I also was kicking myself for not getting their stuff sewn for Easter. We had a hectic week and I knew it was better not to rush the sewing project because I would just be adding too much so their outfits never got finished. They will later, but that is beside the point!

On top of needing to get to town Anthony starts working on the car. The parts he got were defective and it was just a mess. So now we have no car. Thankfully we live by family and and were able to borrow a car for a couple days until Anthony can get parts. It still just made things frustrating. As the day goes by I get more tired so come 7:00 I am ready to be at home and relaxing. That did not happen. Oh well.

Finally we get going and  I can't find Eli a pink shirt. I can't find him any shirt in his size. Yes, I should have never waited but I am still going to rant that they do not make cute clothes for boys! Sigh I pick up a cute skirt for me thinking I can wear it for Easter.

We finally get home and get groceries unloaded. I get the kids Easter stuff all together. I get outfits laid out. I also try on my skirt and ugh. Yes this is when the real pure frustration and just being over pregnant begins. The skirt does not work. I am huge! It does not matter I have hardly gained much weight my body just looks huge. I am not a cute pregnant person and it bothered me!! I was swollen and downright frustrated. I spent a good half hour in my room crying! It is always a humbling experience and I go through it at least once every pregnancy. I pulled out my Bible and read for some time. I read of Jesus' crucifiction. I found it fitting as the next day was Easter. It took me a bit but through it all, I realized I was stressing about the wrong things for Easter. I wanted everything to be perfect and really that was not where my focus should have been. My focus needed to be be on celebrating the wonderful gift I had been given and celebrating the fact that "He is Risen!" It was humbling. The funny thing is I spent all that time making sure things were perfect for Sunday morning and we were not able to go. Lilliana was a faucet. She did not feel well and could not be in nursery. It figures. It was sad but it was probably best we did not go.


So what all did we do this weekend besides have me frustrated......................

Friday I went out to lunch with a good friend and caught up. I also did a little shopping for their Easter baskets. It was wonderful to get out and enjoy just some girl time. Before I left the kids received mail from Great Gandma Gloria. They love getting mail and she is always wonderful at sending them cards.
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That night after I got home they were all playing with Eli's cars. I decided I would get out Lilliana's babies and play with her. She plays so much with Eli she hardly plays with her own toys. Little did I know Eli would want to join in the baby game and so we all ended up playing babies. Eli ended up wanting to sleep with one. It was really fun and cute.


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Eli ended up turning his car container into a baby bed and adding cars in with the baby. He said the baby wanted to play with them.
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Eli also got me a flower this weekend. He helped Aunt Toni plant flowers last year. The Tulips are finally blooming. He was so proud of them. He told me it would make me feel better! It did cheer me up! I do love fresh flowers. It is sitting on the desk and since I have put it in the jar the stem has grown.

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Saturday night we colored eggs. I had not colored eggs in years!! I mean years!! We always did plastic eggs after a certain point. I ended up messing up the dye but it still worked. Eli loved it. He did not want to eat them but still loved coloring them. We did  tried tye died ones but they did not really turn out.

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Lilliana loved sitting in the chair watching us. She was complete with a nasty snotty nose and runny eyes. Allergies are just making her miserable!



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Finally Easter morning arrived with two snotty nosed kids that did not feel well!!


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We spent the morning reading the Bible and resting. Then it was time to meet Anthony's family for an egg hunt and dinner.
Lilliana loved hunting eggs and figured it out no problem. She adores her Grandma Terri and kept showing her all the eggs. Eli was on the run and I had such a hard time getting any pictures of him. After he hunted his eggs he helped the older kids find their eggs. They are always hidden really hard. He ran around Uncle Todd's house and wore himself out but loved every minute of it. Unfortunately the picture exposure is terrible. It was a bad time for light and I had a camera setting wrong so salvaging them was near impossible. I also can't move around like I could even a month ago. It is ok though. I have some and that is all that matters.

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They also were able to go and see the cows. They both loved seeing the cows and were so excited to see them. PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Dinner was wonderful thanks to Anthony's aunt. I think I was voted to do next years dinner providing I am not pregnant again and I really hope I am not. We had a wonderful time visiting and enjoying family.

Lilliana did not sleep well on Sunday night. Consequently, I was a zombie yesterday hence not being able to finish my blog entry. I had to step away from it all. The car still was not fixed and long story short we had bigger problems than before with that. Anthony ended up taking today off just to get the car fixed. It didn't take much but it just needed to be done. We all were even worse zombies today as neither kid slept well again last night. Lilliana coughed and cried all night. She and Eli both have terrible seasonal allergies. They are pretty miserable. We did get to enjoy Eli's kite last night though.

Anthony's mom came to jump start our car and she stayed to visit for a few minutes. We all went down to the school and Eli got to fly his kite. He did really well and really enjoyed it. It was chilly though so we were not there long.


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I have also discovered the best babysitter ever!! I really hate to just throw Eli in front of a movie although not going to lie at times I have done that. They love the bubble machine though and it has been a great thing for them to do while I fix dinner at night.
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It has been a trying last five days! Through it all I have learned to be more patient and realize what really is important in life. God has answered another prayer in our lives also so it was all worth it. Sadly we will be saying good-bye to Anthony's sister for a few months. She leaves for Marine Boot Camp on monday. It was not supposed to happen until fall but plans changed. We will be very sad she is leaving. Eli misses his Uncle Stephen and so do Anthony and I. I know we will miss Natasha now too. We will always be grateful for their service but it is bittersweet to send them off to boot camp. Hopefully our lives get back to a little more routine this week and we can enjoy some nice weather as it snowed today even though the trees look like this.
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Regardless if it does not not through it all I will remember God is Good! He will not fail those that are faithful to Him.