Elise is one month old!

It's been a month since Elise was born!

In this past month, she's spent most of her time sleeping, eating (and eating and eating!!!), fussing a little, and taking in all the wonderfulness of her new world!

She also started taking a pacifier last week, and that has worked wonders because she seems to need to suck all the time. She'll nurse for quite a while and then when she's really full, she likes to take the paci. Isaac never took one, so we weren't sure if we'd need to use them for Elise. At this point in time, she seems to like them and they've been lifesavers for Steven and me!

We've taken Elise out a few times this past week - to lunch with Steven and his work pals at Firehouse Subs, to lunch with Gramps and Granni at PF Changs, and to the mall with Aunt Kati and Uncle Ray. Those outings have been lots of fun and we hope to have many more opportunities like that in the coming days and months!

She looks a lot like Isaac did at this point but with her own unique features, of course. I just looked back on his one month blog post, and I can definitely remember those days as a first-time parent! This time around things have actually been much easier since we learned so much from our experience with Isaac! We have been less worried about schedules or "breaking her" and more focused on enjoying the moment and making sure we all get rest and more importantly, quality time with the Lord to replenish our spirits. I do still agree with my sentiments from Isaac's first month: (check out the actual post here)

"Whew! What a whirlwind it has been, but looking back over this month, I see the hand of God ever present in our lives even when we didn't seek Him. I see His faithfulness to strengthen his children in the midst of our fears, pain, exhaustion, and cluelessness. He is the Ultimate Parent and we are realizing every day that raising Isaac will require a relationship with God so close that we hear His voice directing us and feel His hand leading us every step of the way on this incredible journey."

Thank you Father for how you beautifully parent your children with love and discipline and give us the strength and wisdom each day to give that same love to ours. Thank you for this baby girl who has blessed our lives more than we could imagine. You are so GOOD!

Here are some pictures from her one month photo shoot:

Two in diapers...

Isaac - 23 months
Elise - 4 weeks

Yes, we love having "two in diapers!" Pure preciousness!

Elise's first bath!

We gave Elise her first official bath this week. Of course, we've been giving her sponge baths since she was born, but we decided it was time for her to try out the baby tub that we once used for Isaac.

Getting her soaped up:


She liked it!



Drying her off:


My sweeties:


All clean!

Isaac's first haircut!

We gave Isaac his first haircut Friday night. Steven had been wanting to do this for weeks, but I had just been too attached to his curls to go through with it. However, last week the curls at the bottom of his hair looked way too much like a mullet for my comfort, so I told Steven I was ready.

Here are some pictures of this momentous occasion. (And in case you're wondering, we distracted Isaac with gummie treats and dried fruit, which he loves! He let us chop away and just kept asking for more "nummies". Also, we used regular craft scissors and manicure scissors to get the job done, and they worked pretty well!)

Before:


During the haircut:



After (and yes, Isaac loves getting into the fridge...)

Picking tomatoes with Gramps!

They have so much fun together!



Check out how much Isaac has grown since he picked tomatoes with Gramps last year!

Elise is three weeks old!

Elise is now three weeks old!

She is such a sweet girl, and we all are madly in love with her. Over the past week she's really started to stay awake more during the day and show us her lovely eyes. During those times, she loves to hang out in the swing. We're trying to do regular "tummy time", too. She doesn't seem to mind tummy time for the first few minutes, and then she gets fussy. However, she is very strong and can pick her head up and turn it either direction while lying on her belly.

Other than some occasional time awake, her other favorite activities are nursing (lots of it!) and sleeping. She is nursing well and seems to cluster feed in the evenings (possibly to store up for sleeping a bit longer intervals during the night.)

I can't believe that she'll be a month old in a week! This time around is surely passing much faster than with Isaac. We jokingly (sort of) always say that Isaac's first four weeks felt like four years. I think that's because we were so very sleep deprived due to his feeding issues. However, we prayed for more sleep this time around and God has certainly blessed us with more sleep. Thank you Lord!

Elise, you're a precious treasure to us. We love you so much!

Isaac is 23 months old!

Isaac is now 23 months old. One month until his two year birthday! Wow!

Over the past month, Isaac has grown SO much. He's become a big brother and has taken the role with great pride. His vocabulary has increased exponentially since last month. It seems that he adds new words every single day, and he is regularly using short sentences to communicate with us. Just yesterday he kept saying "Ba's dote! Ba's dote!" Ba is his name for my dad (who would rather be called "Gramps" but is slowly growing accustomed to the cuteness of his nickname), and "dote" was a new word I'd never heard Isaac say before. As it turns out, my dad had left his coat at our house over the weekend, and Isaac was pointing to it and saying "Ba's dote!" We never taught him the word "coat", but he surely picked it up himself! It amazes me how quickly he learns new words! He also has added phrases such as, "Idy bey" (Isaac obey), "Ah-mam" (yes, ma'am), "E-dees dose" (Elise goes, which he says in reference to the swing when he's trying to tell us that Elise "goes in there").

Over the past month, Isaac has started kicking his football rather than just throwing it. He also can kick his round ball and seems to be getting ready for little league soccer! He also still loves to dance around the house when any music is playing. He has started spinning around on his own and also bouncing up and down to the beat of the song. It's so cute to watch him!

He's still sleeping through the night from 8 PM - 8 AM and taking 2-3 hour naps in the afternoon. (Actually all three of us take naps when Isaac does. I nurse Elise and then she and I lay down for a couple hours while Isaac is sleeping. This helps me recover from the middle of the night nursing sessions...) Since last month, though, Isaac has started wanting lots more things in his crib with him. He likes to have all of his stuffed animals in there and at least 3-4 books. With all that stuff, it's hard to imagine where he lays down. But I guess he's got it all figured out!

Some of Isaac's favorite toys are his clipo blocks (thanks Kalpana and Dylan!!!), his little Nerf football, his little tool chest, and his mega blocks. Blocks are definitely hot right now for this little man!

Isaac is a sweetheart and we are so blessed that he is a part of our family! We love you little buddy!

End of the pepper harvest...

Remember this pepper?

Well, throughout the summer, we ended up getting much larger, more normal looking ones and we've enjoyed them chopped up in soups and stews. However, at some point in my third trimester, I stopped feeling up to getting out in the garden and kind of left the peppers to themselves. Turns out, that wasn't so bad! Last night, my Dad was at our house and he went out to see the remains of our garden. He ended up picking 13 huge and beautiful bell peppers! Most of them were green, but we got a couple of gorgeous red ones! I was thrilled and couldn't wait to wash them and get them cut up so that we could freeze them for soups, stews, and stir-frys in the winter. Thanks Daddy for picking them before last night's frost! :)

Here are the beauties:


Isaac "helping" me:


All chopped up and ready to freeze:



Bagged up for the winter:



Yummy! Can't wait to pull those out on a really cold winter day and have a taste of summer in whatever I mix up!

Our Fifth Anniversary!

This past Friday, Steven and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary! We are so thankful to have met and started our relationship almost eleven years ago and to be celebrating five years of an incredible marriage. God has blessed our lives with each other and increased our family over these years with two beautiful children. His goodness to us is overwhelming. On Friday night, we were able to go to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse (with sleeping Elise in tow) and enjoy some one-on-one conversation. It was a wonderful time!

Here are some pictures of our family over these past five years:

Our wedding day, October 16, 2004:


Christmas 2004 (in our first home - the apartment off of Tyvola Road):


Our first anniversary - 2005 (celebrated at Cherry Grove Beach, NC):


Our second anniversary - 2006 (celebrated at Macaroni Grill in Charlotte):


Our third anniversary - 2007 (celebrated at the Melting Pot in Charlotte; I was almost 9 months pregnant with Isaac):


Our fourth anniversary - 2008 (celebrated with a family trip to Blowing Rock, NC; Isaac is 11 months old):



Our babies:

Isaac - almost 23 months old on our fifth anniversary:


Elise - 2 weeks old on our fifth anniversary:


Our fifth anniversary - 2009:



We thank God for the blessing of our marriage and all the incredible joys He's brought us throughout these years together! It's been awesome, and we are confident that even greater things are yet to come!

Two weeks post delivery!

Today marks two weeks since our little Elise was born. It's been a wonderful second week, and we are so thankful for this beautiful addition to our family! She still eats and sleeps very well; in fact, she's either doing one or the other these days! Isaac loves her and we are all getting more used to life as a family of four.

This past week with Isaac we've been working on saying "please" and "thank you." He's picking it up and starting to say these things on his own sometimes (without our prompting.) He is such a sweet boy!

Elise had her two week doctor visit today, and the report was great! She weights 7.0 lbs, which means she's well on her way to returning to her birth weight within the week. The doctor was impressed with her strength and said she was doing wonderfully! Praise God!

Here are some pictures from the past couple days:

Elise at 12 days old:


Elise at 13 days old:


Daddy time!


Elise at 14 days old:


Isaac pointing out his sister "E-dees":



Thank you Lord for our family!

The first week with two littles!

It's been a week since Elise was born! We have not only "survived the first week", but it's really been a wonderful time for our family! Steven is back at work, and I am adjusting to be a mommy to two. I love saying "my kids"!!! :) Elise is doing very well. She had dropped 11% of her birthweight (from 7lbs 5oz to 6.0lbs) by the time we were discharged from the hospital, but by her first doctor's appointment on Monday she had started gaining it back. She was up to 6 lbs 7 oz at that point! We are praying that she'll regain back to her birthweight by sometime next week. She's still breastfeeding very well and sleeping great! Over the past 24 hours she's started staying awake for longer periods of time. She is so sweet!

Here are some pictures from the past few days at home:

Steven and the littles:


Elise and Daddy!


Sweet sleeper!


Spending some time with Gramps:


We love this girl!


Isaac loves to kiss his sister!


Elise with Granny Gurley:


Isaac reading with Pawpaw Gurley!


The BIG brother!


Sweet little princess! (7 days old)