California has a special place

I love California. Love it. Wish we could live there, but we don't. What I don't love about it is it's high gas prices....that's about it. Either way, maybe God will place us there in the future, you know when it won't have the highest gas prices in the nation...right. Anyway, one can dream but for now we will always visit family.

This was Eli's first plane trip and I have to just brag, my baby didn't cry once and had no ear problems! I am so proud of him! He nursed during take off and landing and slept for most of the plane ride each leg.

 I will always cherish visiting family. As stressful as it can be, it is so worth it. God places people in our lives for an important reason. Each person we have met and know is there handpick, chosen for us. Our family is the only one we receive on this earth, the least we can do is try and have a relationship with them. I know that is not the case for some families, but even if you aren't 'blood' related, certain friends can be our family just like our 'blood' related ones. Whomever you consider family, remember to cherish them, love them, uplift them and always stay in contact with them. It's easy to lose someone, but its a lot harder to gain them back.

 My trip turned out a little unexpected, instead of coming back to Boise before Memorial day weekend one missed flight turned into an extended vacation to Seattle as well. Boise is such a small airport hub so it was a lot more convenient to fly to Seattle, stay with family and have my husband drive out to meet us there. It was nice seeing both sides of our family in one trip.

I just loved being able to be with my son and see his interaction with our families now that he responds to people more. It was the sweetest thing, five minutes after being picked up from the air port I look back at the car seats and his cousin and him were holding hands. They had met a couple months prior when he was just over a month old and she was a little over 10 months. It was as if they were saying,

"Hi cousin, I missed you.." 

I.Melted.

Enjoy the rest of our trip photos.

Aubrey is ever the explorer

Even seasoned explores get stuck and require a little help

So of course the auntie with the baby strapped to her is first to jump in on the tall cliff and help her climb down.

A little sand surfing anyone?

Quick thought.

I've reached almost 250 posts, that's half of 500 yo! I was thinking about doing a give away. What do you think? Yes, no? What should I give away? Can't afford anything too expensive, could possibly contact a couple etsy sellers I know...
Any thoughts? Comment below!

Four.

Four months have gone by since Eli has been born. It still blows my mind he is here most days. We have a baby. We are parents. We are responsible for someone besides our selves. Yup, still in shock. I'm so thankful God chose us as his parents, he has placed such an amazing gift in our care.

Baby boy your so big! I know I say it everyday, but I'm in such awe at you. Your supposed to be asleep right now, but I hear you in your crib talking away. I love hearing your little voice, especially when I can make you giggle and smile. It's the best feeling ever. The Psalm that explains how you were intricately knit in my womb is such a reminder to me that you are ours. I did carry you. 

You have become ever more aware of your surroundings. Always looking for your dad or myself. You love your puppy dog, Nizmo. If he is near you, you play with his hair. Your constantly trying to scoot around when on your belly, which the doctor says is pretty advanced. Always amazing us is your specialty. You got your first cold this past month and that was pretty miserable for myself and you. Let me tell you, you hate being congested. I can't blame you though, trying to eat and not being able to breathe is no fun. We have finally figured out which bottle you'll take after your bottle strike! It's a $15 comotomo bottle, of course you choose the most expensive one, you little trickster, you. But we don't care, as long as you take it, we will give it to you in exchange for date nights and mommy needs a break nights. 

Your still teething, with no teeth in sight, yet. But the drool keeps coming full throttle! You've also figured out how to throw up on demand. Well, you don't do it on purpose, but you do it. Sticking your fingers in your mouth to help soothe your inflamed gums and you toss a finger a bit too far back. Nobody is safe with your hands in your mouth. Your absolute favorite thing is when daddy or I say,
"hi" to you. You giggle and smile and kick...oh we love it! You also love looking at yourself in the mirror, the baby in the mirror just smiles at you and you just love it! 

You've definitely intertwined your little chubby hands in our hearts. There's no escaping you now. Even if your upset and your drop your lower lip, we want to make you happy as fast as we can no matter what it takes. I have a feeling that lower lip is going to get you whatever you want. Well, as long as your father doesn't teach you how to use it for legos. Yes, he plans on using you for toys. Don't fall into his tricks little boy! Don't worry, I'll probably give in anyway, you both deserve legos. 

We love you Eli. We want the best for you. Stop stealing away our hearts.

14 week favorites

Eli has done a massive amount of growing lately. He coos a whole bunch, to the point of having a conversation with you. It's adorable. We finally changed out all his 3-6 month clothes for 6-9 month clothing. Yes you read that right, my three month old is in 6-9 month clothing. Big. boy. Anyway, we've started to make a few new favorites this month. Here they are.


Oball-Eli loves this thing. He can grab it easily, it rattles a bit and it has plenty of holes for him to stick his tongue through. Yeah, it's a winner in his book, or hands.

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Hylands-Poor kid has already started teething. I'll do a post of everything we use for it soon, but hyland's tablets are some of our favorites. Plus they don't have a whole bunch of crap in them like other brands, so I feel just fine giving them to him.

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Cloud-b Sleep Sheep- Eli has been having a hard time going down without any noise. I was using the sleep machine app on my phone for a long time (and I still do), but sometimes a mama needs her phone and it just so happens to be nap time. Enter, sheep.

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DropCam- This was one of the items I really wanted on our registry. It's a baby monitor (or any monitor actually) that you can use with your phone, computer, iPad, tablet...whatever. I really wanted something Josh could use by logging onto the internet to see Eli. If Josh deploys he can hop on and check up on him from Afghanistan, pretty cool huh? Anyway, it has night vision, a speaker and motion detection. If we pay for the monthly fee we can even get it to record up to a certain amount, but I could care less about that. 

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Angelcare- So we actually have two monitors. No this wasn't planned at all. Eli decided to be a tummy sleeper only. As in, he won't sleep on his back no matter what. Seeing as Josh works in a pediatric clinic where you automatically tell the parents not to have their kid sleep on their belly because of SIDS, he was a little worried. This is where angelcare comes in, it has a sensory pad that slides under his mattress and detects whether he is breathing or not. The pad is so sensitive if you pick him up it starts a beeping frenzy within 30 seconds. Either way, it helps Josh sleep better and myself included. Definitely a peace of mind product and in our opinion when your kid likes to bury his face into his mattress, it's worth it.

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So there you have it our current favorites. As you can see they are constantly changing, I'm sure by the time our first year is over we will have some constant favorites, but right now it's fun to see how he is changing and growing. What are your favorite items and what would you buy? Hope this is helpful for you!

Twelve

Little boy is getting so big! He can now scoot his whole body up. Seriously we place him in the middle of his crib and find him scooted up to the top left corner of it after his nap. He grabs at his favorite toy. He LOVES it when you talk to him, coo's, smiles and giggles back at you. He is definitely ticklish and mama loves making him giggle.

On the other hand this little stinker has master the art of 'actor' crying. Or that's what we call it. His fake cry when we leave the room. It is so pathetic it's funny! We have now got a handle on nap times and we are only waking up two, count that one-TWO times in the night. WAHOO. That means mama sleeps GOOOD and when mama sleeps...mama is happy.

God has shown me patience I never thought I had with this little guy. From trusting my gut and sticking out through his colic and tummy issues, to hour and sometimes half-hour feedings. Yes you read that right. Sometimes half hour. He did double his birth weight by two months...yeah.

But how can you not love him? He's part of me. Part of Josh. He's ours. I'd do anything for him. Anything.

Including taking naked baby butt pictures to show his future wife. Yes. I am that mom. Hey, it's cute...I couldn't resist those cheeks! 

And toes. I love them toes.

I love you Eli. So, so, SO much.

Keep Runnin'

Originally I had started this post in my head last week about how I am tired of people who consider themselves Christ followers using God's book like trail mix. Picking out the m & m's and leaving the raisins. But after yesterday, somehow that doesn't seem applicable. One day I'll put down my words on how our faith shouldn't depend on what feels good, but now, we mourn.

We mourn the loss of those who died while bettering their health and lives. 

Like they, I am bettering my health and life as well. 

I guess I am naive when I continually ask myself how anyone could have so much hate, anger, malice in them to be willing to kill other people? Because you don't plant bombs during a race of thousands to go off for fireworks, ya know? While I could probably go on and on with why's, there is no point when there will never be an answer.

Instead of asking questions without answers I run. I ran last night to no music or conversation, I ran to my own thoughts. I ran for those who weren't able to finish, for those who lost their life and for those hurt.

I have never been a long distance runner, always a sprinter. But since getting back into shape and getting my health back on track I feel a deep connection with the marathon runners of Boston who were effected yesterday. Maybe I'll be running in a half marathon or even a marathon next year, we will have to train, wait and see! 

With that I leave you with a bit of joy from my kid to you. 

A short excerpt from my reading this morning:

"So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,

but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted

out of it."

Proverbs 2:20-22

There is hope for those effected and justice for whom cause fear and hurt.

 

'O' Box

I think I'll call our subscription box to each other 'O' Box, after the first initial of our last name. Josh and I exchanged our first box to each other this month and it was a lot of fun to see what we chose for each other.

Josh's box to me was a new pair of flats and a fun soy candle for spring. I absolutely adore the flats! Gap flats last me the longest so they are always well worth the cost for them. Josh scored these on sale. Love him. Love them. Already worn them. The candle smells amazing. Another score for the boy! 

I won't post a photo every time of the box because we will be using the same box for each other every month. Also, Josh needs to get on the bandwagon of wrapping one of our many empty amazon boxes for me...ahem. That's why his box is so roughly packaged, it needed to be wrapped in a way we could open it and I didn't know it was going to be so dang hard!

For Josh's box I found:

• Two vintage disney books with Bambi, his favorite movie growing up.
• Lush massage bar. Lush makes amazing and fun products and our previous bar lasted us 2+yrs
• Express tee. I knew this wouldn't be a shirt he'd pick himself, but I knew he'd like it, so I snatched it up.
• Dark chocolate mint. I'm not a huge mint fan, but Josh is and I needed something else to fill our  $30 limit. Always fun to get a little chocolate. 

Overall, I think we both did pretty good based off of our likes and dislikes. I requested a new pair of flats, so I knew they were coming, the candle was a complete surprise though. I knew going into this it might be a bit harder for Josh than myself. I tend to be the finder of random and unusual things wherever I go. I peruse antique malls, discount stores, grocery stores..etc. I'm excited for Josh's box to me next month though! Can't wait. 

So did you try this out between your significant other and yourself? Would you? What do you think?