Thankful...

All my life, I always said I felt called to be a housewife. I forgot about that for a long time. I got married, got a "real" job, and life happened. I had a beautiful baby girl several years later, and still... life was happening. The cost of living is high these days, and staying at home with her just wasn't an option. I never second-guessed it, and put her in daycare to continue providing additional income to the household. Not to mention the 3 years of not-so-cheap infertility treatments that gave us our sweet girl.

Fast-forward 18 months. A miracle happened... and her name is Gracie Elizabeth. (Elizabeth, after another lady who experienced the blessing of a child when all odds were against her.) Once again, the cost of living is STILL high.... but daycare is even higher! Putting two children in daycare would have eaten my pay. In other words, I would have been working strictly to pay daycare. ( It's HIGH in my neck of the woods.)

All of this to say, that before I knew it... the Lord had given me the desires of my heart. Not only did I have a family, but with the birth of our second child, I was given the oppertunity to stay at home and raise them the way that I had always dreamt. Because, not only had He given me precious children to look after, but He had also fulfilled my purpose by giving me a hard-working, driven husband to help make it all possible. He is now the sole financial provider in our family, and for that I am forever thankful.

The transition from work to home has been a strange one, but I am so thankful to my Father, and the father of my children, for bringing it to life. Instead of computer screens and spreadsheets, I get to look at these beauties all day long....

Been Awhile

So, I haven't blogged in a LONG time. Just haven't found the time. Well, I have, but decided to use it to do something else :). What has been going on since my last post??

Gracie is no longer the tiny little thing she once was. It's funny looking back, that for the first month of her life I was so worried about her gaining weight. She lost almost a full pound after she was born, and everyone one was always asking me if she was premature because she was so little. Well.... she's made up for that. Ella was always long and slender. Gracie, on the other hand, is short and chunky! I think she gets that from me. She will be 5 months this week, and STILL has not rolled over. I think she's just to fat lol. It bothers me, even though I know it shouldn't... and that she WILL do it eventually. She has started some solids, which she gets once a day right before bed. She went to full-time formula at 3 months... which was both freeing and sad at the same time. But the reason was a good one...

In September, Brent and I went to Las Vegas with some friends for a few days!!!! It was so fun, and such a nice, and much needed, get-away. We hadn't left Ella like that since she was 9 months old, but she did just fine and didn't really ask for us at all lol. We stayed up late, slept until we wanted to get up, and roamed around all day with no agenda. It was wonderful. Also, no diapers were involved... which is a double plus! When we get home, Ella was very happy to see us, and Gracie could have cared less. Speaking of Ella.....

She is loving being in Mother's Day Out at church. She loves her teacher, and from day one has never been anything but excited when I drop her off. Having her here full time the rest of the week has not been as hard as I thought it would be. It is trying some days, but most of the time the days fly by and we get along just fine. Don't get me wrong, when bedtime rolls around I am singing praises, but the days aren't near as hectic as I thought they would be. Most of the time, anyways :). She is so funny these days, and is constantly saying things that I have no idea where it came from. Today, for instance, I asked her if she ate her lunch at school. Her reply? "Umm... not exactly." My friend Amy had given her something to eat the other day and asked her if she liked it... "Not so much." LOL!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some pics, and more tales. But right now, the kids are in bed, and the DVR is calling my name.

A Friday and a Sunday...

I kept Ella home with me Friday, and actually managed to snap a few pictures I thought I would share. The bag she is coloring was supposed to be her 'money bag' for the money she would get when she went to the potty. We won't talk about how that went.

Ella's "cape"

Today, we took Gracie to church for the first time. She stayed in the service with us, and was awake the whole time. I was a nervous wreck. Luckily, she didn't get fussy. I fed her the first part, and the rest of the time she just kind of squirmed around.

Getting There...

I have been such a slacker with this blog! Hopefully over the next few weeks I can find more time for it. Not that I have ANYthing else going on :). Gracie will be 6 weeks old tomorrow, and slowly but surely things are getting back to normal. Well, our new normal I guess.

I actually got on here to write about a few things Ella has been saying lately, since I am mainly doing this blog so I can look back and remember things. Two is a VERY trying age, but it is also a very FUNNY age. Here are a few examples...

- Ella was in the back with her Dad, and evidently he had threatned to 'spank her butt.' She ran into the living room where I was and said, "Mama! Daddy gonna scratch my butt!!" She then ran back to him and said, "Daddy, you not scratch my butt!!" LOL

- When I get ready to fix her something to eat, I try to give her choices. Her reply now is always "umm... how bout a popcicle?"

- And her favorite phrase to tell EVERYONE in the house right now is "there's no sense in actin' like baby!!"

- This child has the memory of an elephant. She remembers songs, places, how to GET places, quotes from movies and shows, etc. Evidently, she also memorizes books. At school, she has one of their books memorized. They give it to her and she reads it to the class. It's the craziest thing I have ever seen.
Anyway, as I was saying things are calming down a little bit. Itty bitty Gracie is still wanting to eat like a teenager, so I don't get to get out just a whole lot... or at least not for extended periods of time. The joys of breastfeeding! She is for sure going to be very different than Ella was as a baby. She doesn't sleep much during the day, and isn't very content just hanging out. I think she is going to be y needy baby :). Maybe that means that when she is Ella's age, she will be quiet and gentle like everyone says girls are supposed to be...... cause Ella sure ISN'T! Haha.

I will leave you with some recent pictures... nothing exciting, but awfully cute!

Tuesday...

Another day in the life. Tuesday is probably my favorite day of the week, even though I am on my own all day/evening. Brent always works out of town on Tuesdays, and sometimes doesn't get home until after Ella is in bed. In all honesty though, she is not nearly as wild and unruly when he is not home, and she just seems to generally be better behaved on these nights. I guess she just gets too excited by his presence :).

Gracie woke up around 6:15 to eat. Actually, she also woke up at 2 and 4, but the nothing too exciting happened during those instances :). I fed her while Brent got ready for work and left. Ella got up around 7, and we watched Mickey Mouse in the bed before jumping up to get ready for school. In order to get there in time for breakfast, we have to leave the house around 7:45. I got her ready, and off to school we all went!

Gracie and I came home, she ate and then went back to sleep. I used this time to make beds, pick up and such. Oh, and eat breakfast. Nothing else too exciting happened the rest of the day. Just lots of feeding, crying, blog reading, cleaning and more feeding. I finally was able to get a shower around 2:30, and we left to go pick Ella up around 3:30.... in the pouring down rain.

Once we got home, Ella ate a snack or three and watched Mickey Mouse for a bit. On Tuesdays we normally either eat sandwhiches or order in. Tonight I decided to try Pizza Hut's pasta since it was the special of the night. It was actually yummy, and Ella ate every bit of hers! So, we ate supper around 6, and spent the rest of the evening playing.

Brent got home a little earlier than normal, around 7:30. Ella went to bed at 8:30, and Gracie is currently asleep before her next feeding. I'll feed her again around 10:30, Brent will give her a pumped bottle around 12:30 or 1, and then she is usually up to eat at 3 and 6. I try and get to bed by 11 so I can get a couple of hours sleep while Brent takes over a feeding. And then we'll start over tomorrow! I didn't take any pictures today, sorry!

Sunday...

Another blog I read is documenting several days of her week. I thought it would be neat to do the same, and be able to look back and see how in the world we functioned with a 2 year old and a 3 week old..haha. So I will start with today, Sunday. Which isn't a typical Sunday since we haven't gone back to church yet. It also isn't very exciting.

Gracie woke up around 5:45 ready to eat. I fed her, and then we both fell back asleep. Then my alarm clock, aka Ella, showed up at the edge of the bed. She had pink marker all over her face. I looked at the clock and it was 8:30. Ella doesn't sleep until 8:30,  so I have no idea how long she had been up "coloring" :). I also don't normally sleep until 8:30, but it was nice for once!

Brent fixed Ella breakfast while I fed Gracie, and then we watched tv for awhile. Around 10 we decided to go outside before it got too hot, then decided to take Ella to the pool. Brent and Ella played in the pool while Gracie ate and I watched. We came home from the pool, ate lunch, and Ella went down for a nap around 12:30. While she was asleep I fed Gracie and watched tv. Normally I would have also used this time to clean, but not today :).

Around 2:30 I heard a knock on Ella's door. I went to let her out, and was greeted by a child covered in poop. Sorry, just being honest. Brent threw her in the tub while i went about discovering what all had to be scrubbed in her room. In the meantime, hungry Gracie was not happy this was delaying her meal.

After throwing half of Ella's room into the wash, and getting her dressed, we decided to reward her good behavior with ice cream from Dairy Queen. Yeah, I know. Parent's of the year. The rest of the evening it stormed and Ella watched movies and played while I did laundry and dishes.

Ella will go to bed around 8:30 for the night, and I will feed Gracie two more times and finally give it up myself around 12. Exciting, I know! Anyway, that was our day.... here are some pics!

Back in the Saddle!

Wow, it has been awhile since I last posted. I was so exhausted at the end of this pregnancy, that I just didn't have the energy to do a blog post... sad! So, what has been going on?

My last day of work was May 27th. It did not feel like my last day, I just felt like I was going on maternity leave. I loved where I worked, and have a lot of friends there... so I am sure there are days I will miss it. But I do plan on visiting some, and keeping in touch with everyone. I will say, that the next Monday morning when I woke up, it was a good feeling :). I spent that next week doing a lot of resting. Ella actually got strep throat that weekend, so Monday and Tuesday she was home with me. The rest of the week I ran a lot of errands, went to my final doctor's appointment, layed out by the pool by myself, and just enjoyed some quiet time. We also took Ella to the pool several times in the afternoons, and on the weekend.

Monday night before my surgery, my parents came down and spent the night. We did not have to be at the hospital Tuesday until 10am, but this way they didn't have to fight traffic. We actually got to the hospital a little early, and they got the ball rolling right away. Miss Gracie Elizabeth was born at 12:46 and weighed 7lbs 3oz, and was 20.25 inches long. She is a tiny thing! She actually swallowed a good bit of fluid when she was born, and we thought they were going to have to take her to the nursery to be monitored for several hours due to fast and labored breathing. Luckily, that didn't happen and everything turned out ok. We came home from the hospital on Friday. My surgery was so much easier this time, as far as recovery goes. My first time getting out of bed was not nearly as bad, and a week later I am almost pain free. With Ella, it was a much slower progress. Speaking of Ella...

Ella was very excited to see Gracie for the first time. She was all smiles was was anxious to touch her and give her kisses. Now that we are home, she ask to hold her several times a night, and loves to stare at her. She has been acting out a bit in the evenings looking for attention, but we expected that and hope it will get better with time. She also gets very mad at me because I won't pick her up. I'm hoping by next week I will be able to hold her again. She had a bad night the other night and woke up several times crying. When I went in to check on her, she wanted me to rock her. Brent was asleep, so I carried her into the living room to rock, and could tell it probably wasn't the best idea as soon as I did it. We have had several visitors, and of course Ella has really enjoyed that. She loves when people come to the house, and loves showing them all of her 'things'.

Gracie has been a wonderful baby so far. She eats a LOT, and only cries when you change her diaper or if she is hungry. Of course, most of her time right now is spent asleep. She actually slept a 5 hour stretch last night, which is not normal this early for breastfed babies, so I am considering it a fluke lol.

Here are some pictures of the sweet girls. Hopefully I will be able to post more regularly now!