The first few days

Well here we are in the midst of the first days of Hunter's life. We left the hospital Friday night around 6:30 and have been making it work at home. It's an adjustment, but it's good to be where things are familiar.

Here are some promised pictures of Hunter, our new sweetie. This little guy is sleeping like crazy, and if he's awake, wants to eat. He's so cute and tiny and SKINNY! He looks more like Cory than Gabe did I think (if that's possible) - right down to the L-O-N-G fingers and toes. In fact, we compared Gabe's toes to Hunter's - and Hunter's are either as long, or longer than Gabe's! And Gabe will be 2 on Tuesday. Kind of funny.

But he's eating well - which is good. He really took to nursing immediately, which was such a relief and a surprise. Gabe did well - but this has just gone smoother with nursing than I had planned. Still painful....but that's to be expected at first I guess.

Gabe is doing OK with the idea of being a big brother.....not fantastic, but ok. He wants Mom and Dad a lot - and won't let Gramma help him with much - but he's been sweet with Hunter. He and Cory went on a LONG ranger ride yesterday with a bunch of Cory's friends and their kids (5 "daddy's" and 9 kids). Cory's Ranger broke down and they had to be towed back to the trailer by one of their friends, but they made it home in one piece (and covered with the most HORRIBLE smelling mud. UCK!) It was good for Gabe to have a day with Dad. It's funny because 2 of the little kids that they went on the ride with commented on how much Gabe talks (these were little kids too). One little girl said, "How old is he? (Cory answered almost 2) Then why does he think he needs to talk so much?" :)

I'm feeling pretty good too. My back is still sore (I had a lot of back labor - and it feels like it), but for the most part I feel pretty good. My feet are swollen too - but it's getting better. It does feel great to be able to sleep on my stomach at night and to be able to bend over without a large beach ball in the way is wonderful. I'm tired, but that's to be expected, and as I get more rest I can feel a difference.

Well I'm trying to get Cory and Gabe off to church now, so I better go. Gabe's taking a picture of he and Hunter to Nursery with him to share with everyone. The day after Hunter was born everywhere my mom and Gabe went he told EVERYONE about his new little brother Hunter. It was pretty sweet I hear. He couldn't pass someone in the hall at the hospital, or at the store - or Wendy's without sharing his news. Let's hope he keeps feeling excited about it.

Welcome Hunter Harding Ellis

Just a QUICK post to tell you that Hunter Harding Ellis made his way into the world this evening at 5:05 pm. He weighs 6 lbs 12 oz. and is 19 inches long. I'll post more about the specifics later - but knew lots of people were anxious to hear news. He is precious, and actually looks a lot like Gabe did...just smaller. He started nursing and made some of the cutest little grunts and noises. Can't wait to get to know this little creation.

Gabe is getting ready to meet his new brother - who is getting cleaned up in the nursery right now. He was concerned that Hunter had an owie (because he was crying) but when Gramma reassured him that Hunter was ok Gabe asked if Hunter could go swimming. Then he was worried because Hunter wasn't wearing a shirt :) Should be an adventure for all of us.

The date and time are set

It's official! I'm going into the hospital tonight (middle of the night...1:00 am) to start the induction process. At my doctor visit earlier today he just said that I'm not progressing at all - not dilated or anything. He said that since at this point I'd already had Gabe - he was fine with inducing me. He even said if it was HIS wife - he'd do the induction. So I take that advice and we're going for it.

I'm pretty nervous about the process - but I guess part of it is just nerves about this big new change in our life. I'm thrilled, excited - but nervous.

We'll update when we get a chance with some pictures and info.

Ellis Grandkids

Ashley was daring yesterday and took all 5 of the Ellis grandkids out to Kiddie Kandids for a group picture. Gabe's smile cracks me up - we're going to work on his "cheese" smile....it's cute, and kind of silly. But we're excited for the picture - thanks for thinking of doing that Ashley!

Not today

Nothing happening today in the baby department. However, I did look online and TONIGHT is actually the full moon.... I also heard that fresh pineapple can induce labor. I ate almost a whole pineapple today. It might not work, but it was a tasty treat :)

Weekend with fam

I loved these pictures of Gabe from this weekend that my sister-in-law Ashley posted on her blog tonight. She posted a whole bunch - so check out her blog: http://mullenspage.blogspot.com/ I appreciate so much when family has Gabe with them and they document the things they did. It's hard to have him away from us (we miss him!) - but we feel so reassured by the sweet memories he is creating with others who love him. Gabe has had fun eating berries from Grandma (YUM!), playing the piano, Raging Waters, Linzy's birthday cake - he's just had a blast all around. What a fun experience for him!

On another note I was talking to a good friend of mine this afternoon who has a little boy who is about 3 months younger than Gabe. She was complimenting Gabe on his large vocabulary and language skills. She said, "When I see my son next to Gabe it makes me think my son is dumb". It sounded kind of mean - but I knew what she meant. Gabe really does talk a lot more than most of the kids his age - at church anyway. But she just made me feel good about Gabe's vocabulary - even if his sentence structures don't always make sense :) She also suggested that with his linguistic skills that I encourage him with foreign language and music (she's studied education and said that children with early language skills frequently excel in these areas.) So when I saw this picture of Gabe playing Uncle Spencer's piano I was pretty happy!

No baby yet

No baby yet.

But I DID go to church wearing flip flops (the beach kind - not the nice leather looking ones - none of them would fit on my swollen feet). As I walked into church I looked in a window and saw myself walking in with these horrible sandals on and I felt really silly. But hey - I was there, I was listening, and no one even made mean pregnancy comments that made me cry.

In fact - a couple of my girls in young womens came up to me and said, "We're so excited - you have less than a month till the baby comes!" I said, "Oh girls - I have less than a week - I'm due on Thursday!"

Then after church one of the cute 13 year old girls came up and so sweetly said, "If you don't have any family coming on Thursday I will clear my schedule so that if your water breaks I can come take care of Gabe and you can make it to the hospital." I love the fact that I not only have great family to take care of me, great friends - but even my sweet young women. It's a relief to know I have some great back up.

Speaking of great back up - I have a pretty great sister-in-law (well who am I kidding - I have fabulous family all around) - who has been watching Gabe all weekend. Ashley and the family invited Gabe up to Eagle Mountain to spend time with cousins and the rest of the family. I met Ashley 1/2 way on Friday, and we'll go meet up with her on Tuesday to pick him up. They have had fun celebrating birthdays, playing with cousins, swimming at Raging Waters, loving on Grandma and Grandpa, Coby, Chase, Kori, Ashley, Spencer and all the kids. Ashley said he's having a blast, and from talking to him last night on the phone - he doesn't miss us much at all.

So I've gotten to sleep in, relax, watch some movies and enjoy some time with Cory. I haven't worked on a lot of stuff - but I've been saving up some energy just in case I ever do go into labor with this baby - I can do it without being EXHAUSTED.

So thanks for all who are such great supports in our life - we are truly blessed!

(Oh - tonight is a full moon - so if that myth has any credibility maybe we'll luck out....And my doctor is back in town as of tomorrow morning, so I could maybe even deliver with him. So send all of your labor vibes - let's get this baby here!)

And so the 25th comes and goes....

Some of you might remember a while back when I mentioned that I wanted baby Hunter's due date to be 07-25-07. There were a couple of reasons for that.

#1 - it's 8 days before our due date, Gabe was born 8 days early - so I thought it was appropriate.

#2 - I like numbers with 5's in them. Kind of strange, but like when I buy cardstock at a scrapbook store I always buy in increments of 5 (5, 10, 15, etc). Anyway, I like the number 25.

#3 - 2+5=7. So then it's kind of like 7/7/7. And then tonight I realized that if you add up all the nubmers 7+2+5+7 it equals 21 - another number I like.

Anyway - kind of quirky - but like my mom mentioned the other days - I like to see patterns in things.

BUT - it is 10:24 pm on the 25th and this baby isn't here, and isn't showing up in the next hour and 36 minutes. So we'll have to find some other kind of pattern with his birthday when he does make his grand entrance.

I did have a dr appointment today, and I'm not dilated, not progressing - and the dr filling in for my doctor (who is out of town until Monday) said I shouldn't worry about having the baby before my doctor is around again. I guess that's good - I really like my doctor. But it makes me anxious and sad at the same time. I would love to welcome this little guy to the world soon...but I'm nervous about having #2 - so I guess that in the long run though, a few more days of swollen...everything....won't kill me.

And here are a couple of pictures from lighting some sparklers tonight. As many of you know - July 24th (yesterday) was our Pioneer Day celebration in Utah. Our town does a huge parade (which we were in) as well as games and dinner at the park put on by our stake. It's fun to see the city and stake come together to celebrate our pioneer ancestors who made it possible to live in this wonderful state.

Anyway - we did some sparklers last night - but Gabe managed to burn himself (a tiny burn) on his finger. So he wanted to finish them tonight. That is unti lwe actually lit them - and then he freaked out a bit and wanted mommy and daddy to do them. He's a funny kid and he definetly enjoyed watching Cory and I entertain him by dancing around the yard with our sparklers.

I wish that the pictures of him dancing around would have turned out clearer - but he was groovin, and it was getting dark - so there's only so much this amature photographer mom could do...

And the last picture is Cory's signature pose every time I work on getting Gabe to pose take pictures for me. Cory ALWAYS asks Gabe how big he is - and this is how Gabe responds....we will have hundreds of pictures of Gabe showing us that he's "SOOOOO big" (as well as Gabe showing us his "guns" (muscles))

(Thanks Grandma Tammy for sending Gabe those fun sparklers!)

TAGGED

My cute cousin Rachel tagged me - so here you go:

Jobs I've held:

1. Co-owner of The Blind Guy of Southern Utah
2. Marketing Director/designer for Kopp Design
3. Marketing Coordinator for The Scrap Coop
4. Assistant Manager at Memory Lane

Places to go for a weekend getaway:

1. Grand America hotel in Salt Lake - complete with spa treatments and tasty food
2. Bed and breakfast
3. Anywhere we can take the Ranger out for a ride

Movies I can watch over and over:

1. How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days
2. The Italian Job
3. Message in a Bottle
4. Father of the Bride (1 & 2)

Guilty Pleasures:

1. ICE cold Diet Dr Pepper in my frozen mug...ahh...
2. Big pink Granny B sugar cookies
3. bubble baths while reading cheesy LDS novels
4. Sleeping in

Places I've lived:

1. Southern Utah
2. Rexburg, Idaho
3. Detroit, Michigan
4. Spanish Fork, UT
5. Cleveland, OH
6. Orem, UT

What were likely the 1st things you thought of when you saw your significant other for the first time?

1. Don't my roommates know I just broke up with my boyfriend - and they bring a bunch of guys over to our apartment - how rude!
2. So that must be the guy who got home from his mission like 2 days ago...he looks terrified of girls. And he keeps trying to say things in Spanish...must be from his mission.
3. Hmm.....he must have lost all of his clothes when he went on his mission, because I'm pretty sure he's wearing his little brother's clothes.

Places I've been on Vacation:

1. The carribean
2. Hawaii
3. South Africa
4. Disneyland

Favorite foods: (at least for today)

1. Key Lime Pie
2. Chips and Salsa from Los Hermanos in Lindon
3. ANYTHING from Kneaders restaurant
4. Anything I don't have to cook, or decide to cook

If in a "jam" with your spouse, what tactics do you use to get out of the doghouse?:

1. Iron something (especially sheets)
2. Offer to do some yard-work
3. Let him spend outrageous amounts of money on something unimportant. (at least to me)

Websites I visit (ALMOST daily):

1. Hotmail
2. www.twopeasinabucket.com
3. blogs
4. Old Navy, Gap, Pottery Barn Kids, etc - just to check to see if anything new is on sale

Best First Kisses Landmarks:

1. Intermural fields at Ricks College.....

Places I'd rather be right now:

1. In a recovery room in the Labor and Delivery wing of the hospital - holding our new baby
2. Hawaii - specifically Maui
3. Disneyland (and not pregnant)
4. swimming in an indoor pool

Who sent this to me: Rachel

Now I get to pick 4 other blog buddies to do this "survey":

1. Laura
2. Mom
3. Ashley
4. Kori

Chase & Kori

I did a quick scrapbook page this afternoon. I am hoping that the scanning job is what's making it look funky.....I thought it looked a bit better in real life....

Anyway, it's just a quick layout using this super cute picture my sister in law Kori sent me last week with some journaling about how cute Chase and Kori are. They are seriously one of the cutest couples ever. Every time we see them I wish my Cory and I were more giddy still....

The journaling says:

Chase and Kori - the two of you make me smile! I love how sweet, giddy, and loving you are to each other. There is rarely a time when the two of you are in a room together when you are not gazing into each other's eyes as if you've just fallen in love. You're always patting each other on the back, holding hands, snuggling - I love it! And you also speak so kindly to each other. I've never heard a negative or sarcastic comment from either of you about each other. I hope we can learn from you guys and have a better marriage, more love, and more giddiness. Love you guys! (July 20th, 2007)

A little contest...

I have seen quite a few people have little contest regarding when they'll have their babies, the size and stuff. So I thought I'd have the same contest on my blog, and we'll see who gets the closest. Guess the following:

• Date:
• Time:
• Weight:
• Length:

For the record I am due August 2nd. And as far as with Gabe - he was born 8 days early, and he weighed 7 lbs 14 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.

Can't wait to see what you all predict.

random stuff

• Went to my weekly dr visit yesterday and I'm not having this baby anytime soon...bummer huh? I haven't made any progress (not dilated or anything) and then I found out that my doctor will be out of town ALL of next week. Lovely huh? So any of those "tried and true" home remedies for inducing labor myself will have to wait because I really don't want to deliver with anyone else. We'll see. He did offer to set an induction date for when he gets back - so we'll see how next week goes. I'd like to deliver on my own...but I also don't want to be pregnant until this little guy can just walk out (and based on how big he feels right now, and how strong he feels from his kicks and jabs - I have a feeling he'll be doing that soon...)

• Last night we were eating Ceasar Salad for dinner. Gabe was having a tough time eating the lettuce, and at one point started to kind of choke on it. We made sure he was ok - but the episode scared him. Cory said, "Are you ok Gabe?" Gabe said, "No, go doctor". We thought that was funny because Gabe never goes to the doctor - except for well-baby visits. It was interesting that his throat hurt and he thought he needed the doctor.

• My house STINKS right now. I had bought some stew meat to make beef strogonauff for dinner this week, and keep putting it off (I hate cooking and heating up my house/kitchen in the hot summer weather - we've been eating things like salads, carryout, sandwhiches, and milkshakes for dinner lately). But today I realized I really needed to get the meat cooked. So I put it in the crockpot to let it get going. BLECH! Now my house smells like meat. Cory came in a while ago and looked at me and said, "are you ok?" Not really....I'm not sure I'll even be able to eat it when we get it all made into dinner. Bummer huh?

• This morning I was showing Gabe a website of the place we're going to stay when we go to Mexico as a family in a couple of months. (Yeah, we're nuts - Cory earned a trip to Mexico and to Hawaii a couple of days apart. We'll all go together to Mexico, and then Gabe will stay home with Gramma Rhien when we go to Hawaii with our friends the Cheneys. We took Gabe to Hawaii last time when he was about 3 months old, and it looks like Hunter will be about that same age. We just can't pass up a trip to Hawaii - even if it does involve taking a newborn!) I was showing him how pretty the pools and ocean are. I asked him if he was going to swim in the ocean. He got really concerned and said, "No swim - SHARKS!" I hope we can get over his fear of sharks before we go on our vacation!

• My family is coming this weekend! YAY! My mom, dad, and Julia will be coming to visit us this weekend on their way home to New Mexico. They've been in Idaho to see Paul, Nicole, and Taylor - and for Paul and Nicole's commencement exercises (Nicole finished school in December 06, and Paul will be finished December 07 - so they walked together last night in summer graduation). Gabe hasn't seen Julia or my dad since Christmas time, and we've only seen my mom once since then - so we're really excited for all of them to get to see each other for a day or so (quick trip). I keep saying, "Gabe - Gramma and Grampa are coming this weekend!" And he says, "And Julia!" - making sure I don't forget her. He's excited to see them all. I think they will be blown away at how much he's grown up in 7 months! I sure am.

• Speaking of Gabe - he's obsessed with the computer and looking at blogs. He constantly wants me to pull up Coby (and Grandma and Grandpa Ellis)'s blog, Paul's blog, Ashley's blog and to look at any babies I can pull up from miscellaneous blogs. And then today when he was eating lunch he asked me to look up "kitty's".... So everyone - keep putting pictures on your blogs - Gabe checks them several times a day :)

• Gabe loves music lately. We've downloaded some fun stuff for him from itunes (theme from Bob the Builder, Rubber Ducky with Ernie, C is for Cookie - by Cookie Monster, songs about tickles, Mickey Mouse...and the list goes on and on), and he loves listening to them and dancing around the house. He does the funniest thing when he wants to twirl. He holds his arms up and whips his body around by swinging his arms fast in one direction - giving him lots of momentum and almost knocks him over. Hard to explain, but funny to watch! and he loves me to dance with him - in fact, insists on it. Last night he wanted "baby Hunter" to dance too. So I got on my knees and Gabe danced with my tummy. I guess these are the times I should be getting out the video recorder huh....?

• Gabe loves music, but at the same time - I guess he doesn't always want me to sing to him. Last night I was singing silly songs while we were getting ready for bed. He looked at me with the most serious face, pointed at me and said, "STOP! No songs mom!" I kept singing and he'd get madder and madder and telling me to stop. Apparently I am not as good as listening to the songs on the "pod" (our ipod).

• I'm so sad I'm going to miss my 10 year high school reunion. It is August 11th, and even if I have the baby today - I'm not going to have the one time I see these people in 10 years be right after delivering a baby...with all this baby weight. Plus that is just kind of soon to pack everyone up and head up to Orem. I wish I could plan a seperate reunion with the people I'd like to see - a lot from other high schools, working at Wendy's in high school, those who were a year younger than me...oh well. I think that since my family doesn't live in Orem anymore (and haven't for 9 years) that I feel a little more disconnected with Orem, and the idea of going "home" still. I don't know what's going on in anyone's lives in Orem really...kind of sad that we have to grow up and have this happen huh?

• I am really nervous about being a mother of 2 little boys. Terrified really....Gabe has so much energy, and wants "Hep Mommy" so much (basically says he wants my help - but it means that he wants me to be doign whatever he's doing with him) - that it will be interesting to see how he and I adjust to this new little guy. I think he'll do great - he loves babies, and wants to hold every one he sees. (I let him hold my friend's little 5 month old the other night on my lap and he LOVED it. He kept saying, "Ohhhh, Baby....") I'm nervous about sleep schedules, jealousy, being able to spend enough time with both of them and having the energy needed for all of it. I know I can do it (I keep telling myself, "I can do hard things") - and I know that there are hundreds of thousands of people who have more than 1 kid and do just fine - but I'm just nervous. Any advice anyone has - I'd love it!

• One of the things I'm really nervous about is how much love I'll have for this little guy. That sounds weird I'm sure. But when I was pregnant with Gabe there was so much that was "unknown". I didn't know how it would feel to be a parent, how it would feel to love someone so much - I thought I knew - but I had NO idea. And I remember holding Gabe in the hospital even - and it feeling surreal, not really sure how I felt, and how I was going to feel - it was weird. And when it sunk in (and has continued to do so over the last 2 years) I have been totally overwhelmed by it. So when we welcome Hunter into the world, and our family - I think it will be VERY emotional from the get-go. I'll have a different idea of what being a mommy means, and I think that will make me pretty teary-eyed right away. It's weird how I already feel differently about him. Not because I love him more than I did Gabe - but because I understand it a bit differently now. Does that make any sense...?

• Well this random list has gotten too long - sorry....hope you are surviving summer in an airconditioned place, and that you have a wonderful glass of ice-water to enjoy. :)

My brother Paul

Well I know that not everyone who reads Paul and Nicole's blog reads ours....but I thought I'd catch a lot of the same people.

My mom called this morning and said that Paul's computer has broken (yet again...) so they won't be posting any graduation (which is tomorrow) or baby pictures anytime soon. My mom will try to update you when she gets back from her grandmother duties in Rexburg - but until then - be patient :)

Baby's middle name

Hey, everybody! We need your help choosing a middle name for our baby. We've narrowed it down to a chosen few, and we'd like all our friends and family to vote for their favorites. We're eager to know what you think, so vote now!

Click HERE to vote!

Gabe's haircut

The most traumatic and frustrating experiences I have had with Gabe have been involving his last couple of haircuts. I've had my friend Lynette cut his hair and we've tried everything to get him to sit still, and to let her cut his hair with the clippers. But he freaks out, it takes hours, and we get nowhere. He gets a little trim (with scissors) and I hate it. I've told Cory how hard it's been and he has thought I'm nuts - how hard can it be?

So on my birthday Cory had tried to make his schedule work out so he could take Gabe to get a haircut for me. It didn't work out, but I kept reminding Cory that it was part of my birthday present, and I wanted him to still get Gabe's haircut. So on Friday Cory had me bring Gabe into town and get it cut. And get this - Gabe was prefectly fine! They used the clippers, it's nice and short, and the only thing that upset Gabe was when his sucker got hair on it.

When I went to pick Gabe up I could tell that Cory thought I had been exaggerating about how hard it had been - because Gabe didn't have any troubles with him.

So offically - Cory is in charge of all boy haircuts from now on! (whew - I'm kind of relieved)

And here's how cute Gabe looks with his freshly cut hair. I am aways so surprised how much older he looks when we get his hair cut - he's quite the little BOY now!

A Gabe funny

On the way home from church today Gabe had Cory and I laughing so hard! Gabe started saying, "Parade! Parade!" We were puzzled there for a second, until we realized we had just passed a large family walking home. Cory laughed and said, "Nope - that was just the Gibson family." We got a kick out of that. I guess even in Utah sometimes large families (especially as big as this family is....) it looks like a parade is going by :)

Girl Crazed

Oh dear! Gabe is really social lately - REALLY social! Not only does he chatter non-stop - to anyone who will listen (but most likely not understand the stories he's telling them) - but he has a thing for girls.

Yesterday I was talking with one of my Young Women from church, and asking her to babysit for us next week. I also said something about her little sister - who is just a bit older than Gabe - named Abby. After this Young Woman got out of the car I said to Gabe, "Maybe when she comes to babysit you next week Abby can come with her to play. Would you like that?" For the next hour all he could talk about was ABBY! He wanted to race cars with her, read books, and go to the library. Finally we distracted him with something else - but he was sure interested for a good hour or so.

Then today I was showing him pictures of different family members blogs, and we ended up on my friend Jana's blog. She has a little girl about 5 months younger than Gabe named Gabbi (Gabriella actually). I showed Gabe some new pictures of Gabbi - and oh goodness! Not only did he fall in love - but he told me that Gabbi was pretty and he wanted to dance with her. After sharing this idea with me about 100 times he grabbed the cordless phone and tried to call her. Then after I wouldn't let him use that phone he got ahold of my cell phone to use that - Kept saying, "Gabbi? Dance?"

So I guess my young boy craziness has been passed on to my son - he has crushes already. (I haven't even told you about his friends Livvy and Trina who he's smitten with....) And with how adoreable he is, I think we're going to have some tough teenage years if this keeps up...

It's so sad!

I don't know how many of you know about the fires that are consuming Utah, but it is so sad, and heartbreaking to see our state literally going up in smoke. Check out this news story about the wildfire that is not really all that far from us:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1450723

Can you believe 442 square miles burned?!?! This fire is less than 1/2 way between us and Salt Lake. It's right in the area we drive through to get to see family in Utah and Salt Lake counties. It just makes me sad and sickened to know how close it is, and how scary it is for those it will affect.

Please keep these people, families, animals and land in your prayers. This record breaking (shattering) fire will affect so many!

7-7-07

Cool date huh? I had really wished that this little baby wanted to be born a few weeks early, and he would have choosen this date - it would be a pretty awesome, and lucky birthday!

But he didn't....and it wasn't even really a particularly awesome or lucky day either. Pretty normal and mundane at our house. Oh well, that's what life is made up of isn't it? Normal days. We should be grateful for 'normal' - instead of 'insane', or 'horrible' - right?

Anyway, I made sure to snap a few pictures of Gabe for 2 reasons - one because it's an awesome date. And two because he turned 23 months on the 7th. We now officially will be tracking his age by years, instead of months. I don't know if there is an official time to start doing this...but 2 years old made the mos sense. I don't see us saying when he's 6 - "Yes, our little boy just turned 72 months - we're so proud..."

So here is our little guy one month before he hits the big 2. I can't believe how quickly the last 2 years have gone by - and that he is now a little person. He's not a baby at all - he's so independent (frighteningly so at times), and so funny!

He loves to tell us 'stories' - to tell us things we should do, or tell us things that have happened. His vocabulary is big, but he doesn't really have the grammar capabilities to put sentences together. So we have to piece together the words he's saying and ask him if that's what he means.

For instance - the other day he woke up from his nap and started blurting out all these words. And kind of jumping around. He said excitedly,

• store
• shopping
• fireman hat
• mommy
• tummy
• baby

After being completly confused (and actually, I'm still a little baffled....) I put together that he thought we should go to the store and buy a fireman hat for mommy to wear on her belly. Hmmm....our son with an active imagination (or maybe just an odd dream during his nap?)

Yesterday he threw a huge fit because he wanted to have pizza for dinner. We had pizza the night before when I had our Young Women group over, and we'd had leftovers for lunch, which he didn't want to eat at the time. But come time for dinner on Saturday - he wanted pizza - and not much else. We kept explaining to him that there wasn't any pizza left - and he kept throwing a fit. Then after a few minutes of it he told us to GO DRIVE in the CAR to the STORE for PIZZA. He had gone with Cory the night before to pick up the pizza, and just assumed we could drive and get another one. Smart little sucker.

He has also developed quite the little night time routine. He's added to the routine every few weeks with something new that we have to do. But the basics are that we:

• Take a bath, get jammies on - the basics.
• Read stories in the chair - (recliner) in the baby's room. We read....FOREVER! Generally I try to read about 20 minutes, or 3 books...however, there are definetly times we read much more than that. He keeps saying "Again! Again!" (I have a really hard time saying "NO" to reading - when I feel it's so important!)
• Go into his room, and say prayers with Daddy. He's pretty good about kneeling down, being revrent, etc.
• Get into bed. Make sure we have all the "Ginks" (binkies). It used to be 2 ginks - and it's grown and grown. He has hunted binkies all around the house - ones that he was completly uninterested in as a baby when binkies were appropriate. Tonight I think he went to bed with 4 ginks.
• Tuck him in with all of his animals and blankets. Right now he is sleeping with a large Elmo toy, a monkey named George (after Curious George of course), Stanley (a stuffed beagle), and 'Chops' (a Lambchop toy). He also has 3 different blankets - or 'Ninks' as he calls them.
• Then I have to sing to him - Cory can't do it - it has to be 'mommy'. And I have to sing 3 songs - in order. We start with "I am a Child of God", then "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam", and end with the 'apple' song - which is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (he calls stars APPLES - because of the part of the song where it goes, "Up above the...." - somehow when he was little it became "apple" - much easier to say.)
• To top it all off, when I'm singing the above mentioned songs I now have to rub his back, or his 'gack' as he calls it. He rolls over and yells at me until I do it - every time. And Cory can't be a part of this - it has to be me. (and don't even ask how I about died when he told me that "Chops - Gack!" meaning he wanted me to rub his Lambchop toy's back. I told him no, if Chops needed her back rubbed - he had to do it. And he did!) I'll rub his back for the 1st two songs, and then I sing the 'apple' song from the bedroom door.
• As soon as the last song is over (sometimes before I finish the last word) he says, "Wuv you! Bye!" and he goes down pefectly fine until morning. When it goes so smoothly I'm ok with all the steps I have to do - he doesn't throw a fit, and he stays in his bed - it's worth singing and rubbing his back.

Anyway, he's a sweetheart, and we are so blessed to have him in our family. I had no idea when we first brought him home from the hospital almost 2 years ago - how much I could possibly love someone. And now with the fact that we're bringing another baby home - I can't even fathom how much love our house will have. It's amazing to me how the Lord provides for us, and our love for others just multiplies. I'm not worried about whether or not I'll be able to spread my love thin enough to reach everyone - instead I'm nervous about having so much love for all of the people in my life. I just can't imagine feeling so much love - it grows so much! I am so richly blessed, and I almost don't feel like I deserve to have as much love in my heart as I do. Anyway....thanks to all of you who also add to that love in our home, and in our lives!

So I guess that 'normal', 'boring' days are perfect, because with those days we can remember how lucky we are every day. It doesn't take a special date, or special event - we are lucky just to be alive and to have the lives we do!

Waiting for the news....

Well, we got a call this morning that Paul and Nicole had headed to the hospital to have their baby! We are SO happy and relieved for them. Poor Nicole has had to deal with being overdue since last week - and we're excited for this to be (finally) happening for them.

We'll post more info when we get it - but we're so excited we had to share the news that at least baby Taylor Ann is on her way!

I told Gabe this morning after I got off the phone with my mom that Aunt Nicole was having her baby. He said, "Ohhh.....YAY!" and clapped. He's excited to get another cousin!

Edited to add:

She's here! YAY! She weighs 8 lbs. 3 oz. and is 19" long. And has a fair amount of hair, or so we've heard. From what my mom and Paul told me she's doing well, as is Nicole, but we haven't gotten a ton of info yet, so we're looking forward to hearing more. We love you Taylor Ann, and are excited for Paul and Nicole!!!