If I ever tell you I’ve just bought a groupon…

for 100$ worth of photo books…  please remind me on several occasions  to scrapbook at some point during the year.

So, I’m not scrambling the week before it expires to crank out pages from 2010… yes… 2010. 

Who is a procrastinator… this guy.  

Who was shocked to find out that 100$ only got me 2 books instead of 3 and I could have been done hours sooner… this guy.

However stressful they were to complete on my 3 hours of Eli-free time per day… it is fun to look back at the memories in colorful 8.5x11 form.

 

 

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii….

 

Eli is still a man of few words… but get him around a guitar (be it Barbie or human sized) and he’ll immediately begin the chorus of his favorite song, The Cave.  “Iiiiiiiii…” and that’s all he can say.

I want to record all the little things that we love about him at each phase, because I know first hand how the things you think you’ll remember about the kid will be replaced by useless things like the names of all of the past winners of The Bachelor.  I can’t tell how many little things we remember about Lily only because of blogging and scrapbooking them at the time.

I don’t know how long this will be his favorite song.  One by The Strokes and Arcade Fire have entered the running… he’s always liked a good beat.  I always want to remember this story, though.

 

 

Sidenote: David showed us this clip of Mumford and Sons singing Come Thou Fount… LOVE, love, love.

 

Here are some other pages that I finished this summer:

for beankins…

for b-bug…

 

5 years…

with Olson and I love him more now than ever.

I learned that the theme for the 5 year anniversary gift is supposed to be wood…  and you know how I LOVE A THEME.

So, I took control of planning our anniversary celebration in all wood related things…  and as I am not currently paid for my job… I did it cheaply.

We celebrated things in our past that all had something to do with the ‘wood’ theme… here is the scrapbook page I made for the event:

1.I took him to  Rudy’s… to the exact wooden table on which he sat across from me and charmed me with his witty remarks… (and decided I was cute, but much too young.) **shout out due here to David James, who made the last 5 years possible by being so great that both Jeff and I wanted to sit by him at Rudy’s after church one Sunday, and consequently sat across from each other.

2.I look him to the driving range… where we used to go for fun when dating and looking for something to do. (** this is where I sustained a shoulder injury on my first ever golf swing and have not been able to swing again.  Jeff refuses to believe this… but yes…  I am THAT un-athletic.

3.We tried to camp out… but it is like we live in the Sahara desert…  and with Me, Him, and B-Bug in a 2 man tent.  We didn’t make it long.  I think we could maybe call it 10 minutes, before we were inside watching a movie in the AC with Nana and Augie.  Blame it on our anniversary being in June…. if you must.

4.I gave him a magnesium stick and tinder dust to start a fire from scratch for all the hours we’ve spent together watching OTHER men make fires.  Jeff LOVES him some survival shows.

5.We played Jenga… because yes…. we own Jenga.  We played it at night when newly married and bored for approximately 4 months.  Then I was pregnant and asleep by 7 and then we had a baby and remember with fondness the lost feeling of boredom.

 

5 things I love about him after 5 years…

1. He’s so, so funny.  It’s what caught me on our first meeting and everyday since.

2. He’s a man’s man.  I am confident always that he can make, build, solve or fix anything.  Just last weekend he went out with a dollar store sand bucket and some too small gloves and fixed our non-draining septic tank about 10 minutes after we noticed it was broken.  I didn’t have to smell a thing!  He’s good man to have around.

3. He grows more handsome with age… which is nice for me.  Poor him… motherhood, it seems,  is a one way ticket to Trolls-ville for me.

4. He’s such a good provider for our family. He is such a generous giver, so smart and has such a strong work ethic (which is semi- uncommon for someone with sales hours).  I am so thankful because he is the reason I am able to stay home and give our family ALL of my attention each day.

5. He makes cute babies.  Not singlehandedly, mind you.  But, it might be his super power nonetheless.

 

I love him so. I love him so. I love him so. I love him so.  I love him so.

More scrapbook pages…

half way in and I’ve hit a wall.  I’m trudging on… thoughts of first birthdays and easter in the coming months remind me that my list continues to grow… and free time will be hard to come by.

 

How sad is it that some movie called ‘kick ass’ was #1?  I’ll forever have the classic Africa by Toto as my birth song…  he’ll have Rude Boy.  Neat.

 

this may be a repeat… I can’t remember when I finished it.

 

 

 

 

 

So bizarre that she went from toddler to full grown kid over night…. that night being April 19th of course.

 

 

Happy HALF birthday to you…

precious E-why

you’re almost crawling.  You’ve been doing the rocking move for over 3 weeks now.

you’re finally sitting up on your own.

you LOVE food… especially anything with SWEET in the name like sweet potatoes and corn and sweet corn and rice.

you’re almost grown out of your 9 month clothes.

you love to be bounced, zoomed, flown around the room.

you’re a ‘getter’… if anything is in your reach… you WILL get it.

you’ll smile at anyone who talks to you… and even let them hold you.

you have your mommy’s features… but not coloring…. even have your mommy’s signature fuzzy baby orangutan hair (see last photo).  Nana said looking at your face is like de ja vu sometimes.

you LOVE your sister, but probably DAD most of all.

your  main nickname right now is Brother Beankins…  that Lily came up with all on her own to fit into the ‘Jenny Jenkins’ song

you drool ALL THE TIME (see photo 2)!

you are the sweetest boy in the whole wide world!

 

WE LOVE YOU, WE LOVE YOU, WE LOVE YOU!

 

Lily selected funfetti cupcakes and rainbow chip icing and enjoyed them with friends on your behalf…. while you ate baby squash.

4 months…

I feel such guilt when I don’t get around to recording important events… especially when I take THOUASANDS of pictures…

but that is RIDICULOUS! I don’t need yet another thing to feel guilt about in motherhood… so I plan to post Minnesota pictures … someday!

For now…

the focus is on this little guy…

 

who turned 4 months old on the 19th.  I don’t think I’ve ever written only about him… his sister is a bit of a spotlight hog.  But that’s okay with him,

he is happy doing ANYTHING… except riding in his carseat for longer than 30 minutes.  Daily, he sits happily and makes sweet noises while I’m dealing with Lily’s latest catastrophe.  He gets a pensive look when she is screaming and carrying on about the travesties of her life… such as being told no, not getting to flush the toilet when someone goes without telling her, someone putting the wrong outfit on her little brother.  I hope his thoughts in this situation are about how absurd his sister’s fits are and how frustrated they make his mom and dad…. and how when he’s older, he’ll NEVER do things like that. 

Look at this face… pure joy.  I don’t think fits are going to be a problem…

I thank the Lord every day for this little boy and his sweet, sweet spirit. 

He loves to be talked to, loves to stand up, and loves to look at patterns.  Unfortunately, his favorite is the pattern on my ‘hooter hider’, which greatly impedes his eating in public.

He loves his big sister… even though she likes to torment him.  Just another example of his easy-going personality… although he does have his flinch-y face every time she comes around.

He weighs 18.2 lbs.

He is 26 1/2 inches tall.

He’s in the 97th % for both.  Looks like we’re going to have to have another jumbo baby on our hands. As if the chins and leg rolls weren’t already an indication.

He sleeps through the night… every once in awhile.  Most nights, he wakes up once around 3 or 4.  He takes naps during the day… IN HIS BED… which is amazing and so NOT like his sister.

He currently goes by Mister Guy, Brotherrrr (said Hulk Hogan style), Brother (said Desmond from Lost style),  Bwudder (said Lily style), Brother Bean, Baby Noodle, Bright Eyes, E-Lo, and so on.

The evolution of nicknames fascinate me… says the mother of a girl called ‘Be-bo’

… wish I could explain how and when Lily-bug became Be-bo… but I can’t.   Who knows what Eli will be called 3 years from know.

Happy 4 month birthday!

WE LOVE YOU  Mister Brother Baby Noodle Guy!

Lily’s first movie theater experience…

I’ve realized recently that QUALITY TIME is Lily’s language of love… so in efforts to make her feel loved and spend some time together that doesn’t involve, “GIVE YOUR BROTHER SOME SPACE” and “YOU’VE GOT TO STOP SCREAMING!”… we went to a Sunday afternoon movie together.

I thought Toy Story in 3D might be a little to much for her first time… so we chose Ramona and Beezus.  It was perfect for her because she loves older girls!  She is totally my little 3 year old teenager.  We had so much fun together!  We need to do it more often.

Too bad I didn’t have a camera to document… but I knew that I didn’t want to forget our special day.  I ran inside, once we got home, and snapped a picture of her sleeping in her carseat.  I had to make a scrapbook page that night… before I forgot all of the things that I didn’t want to forget.

Here is my little love note to my baby Be-bo,

I hope I always remember today… grabbing our popcorn and root beer to share, wandering into the pitch black theater to find a seat, giggling at all of the silly parts of the movie together, watching you sit on the edge of your seat mesmerized by the giant screen, the big smile you got when a Taylor Swift song came on during the movie, then belting out every word to ‘I’m just a girl- trying to find a place in this world” with all the necessary motions and facial expressions, asking me to play the same song really loud in the car on the way home, us both singing it at the top of our lungs, looking back to see you had fallen asleep in your carseat holding your new chapstick.

Eli…

After watching the slideshow over and over with Lily… I couldn’t stand the messed up music.  So, Jeff made a better one.

Welcoming Eli from Jeff Olson on Vimeo.

He’s here…

 

Elijah Mark

April 19,2010

11:37 a.m.

8 lbs. 9 oz.

21 inches

I can’t believe he’s here and almost a week old.  Today is our very first day all alone as a family of 4.  So far, we’re surviving quite well.  Both kids are even taking a nap right now… AT THE SAME TIME!  Very little spare time on my hands these days… but I did compile this slideshow.  I knew there would be too many pictures to upload each one.  We made a trip on the way home from the hospital to take his first photos with his cousin/BFF, Ethan.  Laura came and took the most AMAZING newborn photos of our little man yesterday… I put the sneak peeks that she sent me at the end.

We are absolutely in LOVE!!!!  He is perfect and one of a kind.

Memoirs of a belly…

My induction is officially scheduled  for Monday the 19th.  I’ll go in tomorrow evening to start the festivities.  I have loved being pregnant again  (most of the time).  As this will probably be our last (planned) baby, I’m trying to enjoy the last few days with my belly.  Although, the recent discomfort and insomnia  is not making it easy. 

I remember how easily I forgot everything with Lily… so…

Let me take this opportunity, before it leaves me for good,  to remark on the size of this belly… it’s GINORMOUS.  I don’t feel like photos do it justice… but I refuse to show the bare skin. I have seriously not seen another like it that only carried one infant inside.   It is kind of bizarre too, that I have gained less weight with this one. I swear it is because he takes up so much room in there that my stomach is half its normal size.  People look at me with shock when they see it, like they might witness a live birth in the HEB parking lot.  For over a month, people have been commenting on it and shown serious concern when I told them how long I still had to go.  The doctor estimated that he’s already 9 pounds and I can feel body parts stretching in every possible direction at the same time.  I’m guessing he’s going to be a big’un… and am starting to feel a little nervous about the delivery. 

I’m certainly glad that 2 piece swimsuits have never really been that important to me… because this stomach skin is never going to see the light of day for as long as I live.  Small price to pay for the greatest gift ever.

I must say though, that I will miss the other comments from strangers.  Never again in one’s life is there a time when you’ll go through the grocery store and have someone on every aisle tell you  how ‘cute’ you look and then share personal stories.  Even grown men will say ‘congratulations’ or remark “any day now?”… nice  when you still have MONTHS to go.  I always just nodded in agreement with a big fake sigh of relief… just because it was easier.

Here are some maternity photos that my best friend, Laura, took when I went to visit her last month(… and forgot my make-up and hair products.) My belly seems miniscule compared to it now. It was so nice and round and not lumpy with baby bottom, elbows, and heels.

I’m glad I’ll always have them to remember this special time… I’m even more glad that she is coming when Eli is 4 days old to capture THAT forever.