Elijah Turns 1

It is hard to belive that it was an entire year ago Elijah was born! It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. Who would have thought that just one year later we would be getting ready for another hospital visit for baby number two! (Just one month away now!)

We had a small family party at my parents house in Moody and Elijah was showered with attention! His favorite part of the day seemed to be getting to eat the cake with his hands! We decided to serve everyone their pieces of cake and give him the leftover 3rd of the cake to do with as he pleased. He molded that thing like a beautiful sculpture, but was sure to share with Daddy some of his treasured "clay". Then, when it came to opening presents, the wrapping paper seemed to be of more interest, but boy did he rake in on all the wonderful gifts. (Thank you guys so much!!)

My best friend, Melissa, brought her kiddos Alex (4) and Carson (7m) down for the party and Alex was a big help. When Elijah couldn't blow out the candle on his cake...Alex helped; when Elijah didn't know how to open the gifts...Alex helped. :) It made me excited to think that Elijah will be the one helping next year as our next baby eventually turns one and Elijah will then be the big brother that is two! :)

Here are some videos from the day!

Here we are singing Happy Birthday to Elijah and Alex helping to blow out the candle.

Here is Elijah getting his first taste of cake! I made Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing and he loved it, although it dyed everything red, including his hands and face! :)

And, last but not least, here is Elijah opening some of his gifts! You will notice he had to lost his shorts at this point...they were also covered in red velvet love, but you know how I feel about how babies look in their diapers anyway. (Much cuter than clothes in my opinion!)

We took a ton of pictures and I promise I will put some of those up soon! :)

Lots of love-

Rachel

Alright, folks, I know you've been sitting around at home counting down the time till I posted more exhilarating videos from our Buenos Aires, Argentina trip.  Well, wait no more.  Here is an unedited (i.e. very rough but very real) video of our part of our vacation.  It's not some groundbreaking film. It's just closer look at a very cosmopolitan, European city—the 10th largest urban agglomeration in the world—that's often overlooked (undeservingly) by many Americans.  Have a look!

Surprise Gifts!

Aunt Chandra and Uncle Adam gave baby #2 a crib mattress for his baby shower and Elijah got the gift of the leftover BOX in return!! He was soooooo excited! Daddy cut a door and a window into the side of the mattress box and pushed it up against the side of the dining room table so Elijah could go in and out. He loves his new play wall! Ahhh, brings back memories of how much fun it was to just play in a box! :)

He also got a birthday card in the mail from Aunt Katie that moo's when he opens it and looks at the cow. That has also become a quick new favorite and a surprise gift! Thanks Aunt Katie for the hours of "mooing" entertainment! :)

Here he is reading his favorite new card underneath the table.

Here is his "fun wall" with Mr. Otter Puppet coming to see him.

And, here he is crawling through the door! It is acutally quite fun, and if mommy didn't have such a freaking huge belly right now with baby # 2 in it, she would be crawling in and out of the door too! :)

Sorry

I have to give an apology because we accidentally erased some photos from our camera that we were planning on sharing with everyone. Last weekend Elijah had his first Easter egg hunt at Uncle Adam and Aunt Chandra's. Little Noah (their son that is only one month younger than Elijah) and Elijah went crawling through the grass looking for eggs. It was so precious!

Also, Ian and I decided to dedicate Elijah to the Lord on Easter. Our church just does a large group dedication that is kinda a general thing, so we wanted to do something on our own. It was really special. We took Elijah down by the San Gabriel River by our house and prayed over him, giving him back to God. It was a gorgeous day and so peaceful down by the river. God even sent a Hawk that was swooping around our heads. I really felt like it was a sign that God's Spirit was present. Sorry, none of the pictures of either of those events made it on the blog, but I still wanted to share a brief bit about them since they were both new and special in Elijah's life.

I promise that when Elijah turns 1 year old (in a week and a 1/2) we will have lots of pictures to share. :)

Lots of love- Rachel

New video clips

We recently bought Elijah a little sandbox and took a video of Elijah's first time in the sandbox! We ended up putting it on the back porch because we don't have shade anywhere else. :) Elijah didn't quite know what to think about the sand, but he thought it was funny when daddy covered his foot with it.

Here is yet another video of Elijah playing musical instruments. I have a strange feeling this is going to be a reoccurring theme in my life...video taping my boys and their musical endeavors! (I can just see piano recitals and garage band practices) :) He has just started to use the "drumsticks" instead of his hands. He also likes to try to do it all at once with one hand on the keyboard, one on the drum, while dancing, and humming a tune! It is too cute! I don't know if you will be able to hear it, but at the very end of the video he starts trying to sing along with the music. :)

Baby Shower

This past weekend Chrissy Healey threw baby Kirkland a beautiful baby shower. We had sooooooooooo much fun and it was wonderful to see everyone. Chrissy had a rubber ducky theme that was precious! Everything was ducks...from the large duckies to the ice cube shapes! We played "guess who" from baby pictures, pictionary, and guess the nursery rhyme games and all had a blast. Thanks again Chrissy for EVERYTHING!! And thanks to everyone else for being a special part of baby # 2's day! We felt so showered with love! Here are a few pics from the shower that Mel took. (thanks Mel for being the resident photographer!)

The "Guess Who?" baby picture game was so much fun!

Cynde, Mom, me & baby #2, and Namama

One of the precious baby outfits he received!

Here is the wonderful party planner and I. Love you Chrissy! Thanks again for everything!

Mel and I

Some of the "decorations" around the house that were actually gifts!

The Belly! :)

Some of the ducky decorations!

Baby # 2 Maternity Portraits

I had been meaning to take maternity portraits for baby #2 for a couple months now.  I was about 6 1/2 months pregnant when we took photos of Elijah in the womb, and we wanted to be sure and give baby #2 just as much love and attention.  So, we knew we needed to get the backdrop and lights out but somehow it kept taking a back seat to other more pressing "to-do list" items.  So, last weekend Ian said, "I think your belly may be beyond the point of taking maternity pictures.  The belly button has popped out and you just might look uncomfortable!"  That was all it took for me to get into gear and that night the photos were taken!  This time, however, instead of trying to show off how big my belly was, we tried to choose poses that hid the 8 month stretch (as I like to call it, where you are just round all over) :)  We had fun getting the family involved in the shoot this time, though.  And now I feel like I can rest knowing baby #2 will have portraits for his baby book too!  Here are a few highlights from the session.  (Most of them are in black and white just because I personally think my belly looked a little better that way) :)

New Name Options

OK, so I know you all must be getting frustrated that we haven't picked a name yet. And honestly, instead of the options getting smaller and more narrowed down, they have opened up and not really resolved. I hope no one will be angry with us if we don't even pick any from these polls, but sometimes the more I look at a name the less I start to like it. So, here are some others we are considering. Believe it or not, we really are giving a lot of thought and time to this, it just seems like we aren't getting very far. We are praying every day that God make the name that this little guy needs obvious to us, so we are trusting that we WILL eventually choose one. It just may not be before his birth :)