Contact Leaf

These pictures are from yesterday. Eva had slept for 8 hours straight! Last night she slept for 4 hours, ate, then slept another 4 hours. Good job, baby girl.

Elijah and I made leaves with contact paper and construction paper. He had trouble ripping the construction paper, so I started little rips and let him pull the rest apart. Playing with the sticky paper and his hands was more fun than sticking on our little ripped up paper pieces. 

Duck Duck Turkey

I had Elijah take a bubble bath just for fun. Actually, he hadn't taken a bath the last two nights so he got two baths today. Does he have enough rubber duckies?

I love post-feeding nap/cuddle time with my baby!

Here's our Thanksgiving hand turkey craft that our whole family made. Eva had 2 hands; Elijah had 5 hands; Mommy had 2 hands; Daddy had 1 big hand centered in the very back. I traced all the hands and cut all the paper, and Elijah helped organize and glue everything.

Early Sleep

Elijah fell asleep for his nap an hour early and missed his lunch time. He was too cute to move, so I just threw a blanket on him and served his lunch as an afternoon snack.

Eva's only 6 weeks old so she sleeps a lot. No nap time for her. If she's tired, she sleeps; if she's awake, she stays alert. We just hope for lots of that sleep time to be during our sleep time.

Daddy Do

Daddy picked out Eva's clothes for church today. Good thing she has a sweater on because it was freezing this morning. When we left, she was also wearing a flower headband (Mommy's wardrobe addition).

I hear Elijah yelling from the other room for me to come take his picture. Looks like Daddy put him in Eva's crib. Elijah thought that was hilarious.

Tracks

The elephant that goes around his orange train track broke, so we put it away and opened up this track that he wasn't old enough to play with until now. (We didn't get out some of the smaller pieces.) He really likes how this track is easy to put together and the train stays connected by magnets.

Eva girl is sleeping with her blanket and matching bib. How cute!

My Apple Game

Whenever I bring out something for Elijah to do, Elijah calls it a game. I told him we would make an apple later, and then he kept asking me if we could play his apple game. We made this with a glue stick and pre-cut red squares. He was usually able to use the glue correctly and always got the red square on the right spot. Craft success! 

This little lady slept all day as long as she was being held. Each time that she fell asleep and I put her down, she'd wake up within 5 minutes. Therefore, few chores were completed, but lots of cuddle time was accomplished.

Christmas Ready

On Pinterest, I found pipe cleaner candy canes and thought we'd try to make some in December. Well I couldn't wait, so we made some today. Elijah was good at putting the beads on and he enjoyed doing it so much that he asked to do it again in the afternoon.

Erik brought the Christmas decorations down from the attic last night so I could begin decorating the house for our favorite holiday. This morning Elijah saw his Little People nativity set and asked me to get it out. So I did, and he remembered from last year that it played music. He must get his memory from his Dad. I was telling him about all the people and animals when he asked, "Where's God?" I was about to explain that God is everywhere when he held up one of the wise men, "Is this one God?" I decided to change my answer and told him that Baby Jesus is God...that was enough explanation for now. Later in the day, Elijah went over to his nativity, pointed at Baby Jesus and said, "That's a baby God, right there."

Siblings

The three of us were sitting on the couch, and out of the blue, Elijah reaches over to hold Eva's hand. So cute!

Trip to GG's

We took a car ride to see GG at her home today. We were sad that we didn't get to see Aunt Kass. Baby Eva loved having GG hold her even though her stomach was hurting. Elijah liked playing with the balloons, pretend cooking on the stove, and reading books. He baked us apples and tried to feed the kitty. We had to leave for nap time, and Elijah was asleep after being in the car for less than 2 minutes.

Dirty Day

We played basketball downstairs in the unfinished basement. His feet and pants get so dirty from playing in all that dust. We have to clean up when we go upstairs. Today when I tried to clean him, he said, "No, me do it." So I gave him a wet rag and he wiped his feet and the floor and the walls. And we're working on the 'I', 'me', 'my' switching.

Eva looks a little scared, but she's just cold from her bath. She spit up right after I changed her clothes for the night and earned a bonus bath.  I dressed her quickly and wrapped her in a blanket. Then she fell asleep.

Go KC

This pretty princess is taking a nap before the football game begins.

Elijah has his jersey on and has been practicing his football stance and run.

Nursery ABC

With Erik home this weekend, I was able to get a lot caught up around the house. I moved my maternity clothes into storage and brought out winter wear, did laundry and the dishes, and decorated the nursery. This is just a picture of some of the mischief my guys were into while I worked around the house.

The alphabet is on the wall! Elijah came in and watched me put up a few letters...he thought it was his name at first. So we had to review our ABCs.

You may have seen a giraffe picture on Facebook. Yes, this was taken at the same time, but I thought it was cute as well. Her cheeks are shiny from the Vaseline...she has a lot of red bumpy baby pimples that we're treating.

Slip & Smile

I almost caught her smiling. She's just over a month old and she already outgrew her newborn clothes. Some of her size 3 month clothes fit. She just started true smiling a couple days ago. She had her first bottle this week and she's had a pacifier 3 times.

We played with shaving cream in the bathtub again...followed by a bath. Elijah found out just how slippery a tub can get. He couldn't make his way to the other end of the tub.

In His Room

Eva is hanging out on Elijah's bed while Mommy and Elijah play.

Elijah shows Mommy his diggers and how they dig in the dirt.

Double Nap

Elijah finished half of his nap while Eva was awake. Then he came out to the couch for his afternoon milk and fell back asleep and Eva fell asleep at the same time. 

When Daddy came home, he covered Elijah in stuffed animals, and got Elijah to say 'cheese' for a picture.

Eva's 1 Month

I took a picture with my cell phone of us girls hanging out on the couch this morning.

This picture is also from my phone. Elijah is eating his lime flavored yogurt.

Here's Eva's 1 month picture in her big glider wearing her month sticker and pink tutu.

Always Awake

Mommy didn't get much sleep last night because Eva was up for a while. This morning Eva had the biggest spit up we've seen so far. After changing her outfit a few times, she managed to keep down the rest of her meals.

Elijah tries to teach Eva new things every day. He always wants her to watch him do things. So today I took the opportunity to tell him about how he's a role model for her. 

Football Nap

This is how we spend our Sunday afternoons. Eva taking a nap on someone's lap and Elijah running around like most toddler boys do. The perfect blend of a crazy/calm kind of day.

Swimming and Stacking

Sometimes Eva will cry because she wants to be held. Other times she will cry because she wants to lay down by herself. Today, she mostly wanted to be held, but she did swim in the ocean for a little while.

Elijah loves being able to run around with Daddy on the weekends while Mommy is holding Eva. It's that one-on-one attention he likes. He stacked up his blocks and kicked over the tower then watched Daddy do it.

Bag Painting

Here's another find from Pinterest. I don't know how Mom's stayed at home before Pinterest. How would you know what to do all day? We put paint in a bag and colored with it on the door. Elijah had me help him write the letter 'E' many times.

Great Visitors

Grandma and Grandpa Great Shipps came over to our house today to meet Eva and play with Elijah. They had fun looking at our new cutie and holding her while helping Elijah make a mess in our living room. Thanks for coming by!

Watching

Eva makes some funny faces when she's on my lap.

Elijah was wrecking his dump truck into his block tower and said, "Mommy, watch me!" "I am watching you," I said. He said, "Eva, watch me!" The first few times I told him she was ready and he could wreck the tower, but then he noticed she was facing the wrong way and her eyes were closed. So, he starts repeating himself getting louder and closer to her face each time. Poor Eva, and she had no clue what was happening. Poor Elijah, he just wanted his favorite sister to watch something totally awesome.

Bonus Eva pic!

Cookies

Elijah dumped most of the ingredients into the bowls. How old do they need to be to crack an egg?

He helped stir the mixture with Mommy's help. I think he'd rather bang on it with the spoon.

Who doesn't love cookie dough? He kept asking for more...can't blame him.

Eva was a good little helper too. She was in the kitchen awake and not being too fussy. Thanks!

Awkward Sleep

After Elijah woke up this morning and enjoyed his milk with Daddy, he fell back asleep on the couch. I had to double check to make sure he could breathe like that.

Eva was napping and raising her hand. She's going to do so well answering questions in school.

Church Day

Eva spit up on Erik in church...a few minutes later she spit up on me too. I did get to see her in 4 outfits today. Oh the joys of having a newborn...

Elijah played with Noah's ark on his toy shelf. He's really learning a lot of the actual story. He knows that Noah built the ark, the animals live in the ark, and God shut the door.