our weekend {in pictures of course!}

friday night we visited baby taylor (and parker too) and took the family dinner. i made chicken spaghetti, pioneer woman's recipe and it was so yummy! i hope the family enjoyed it. if you have never made pw's chicken spaghetti before you totally should. it is delicious and makes a ton, so you can freeze part of it for later on (i froze part of the casserole that i made for the thomases for us this week...its thawing on the counter as i type)! go here for the recipe! taylor is doing just great. they had her first check up after leaving the hospital and she hadn't lost any weight and no jaundice. mommy and daddy are adjusting, as well. it is a lot different for them with a newborn in the house. but, parker, has been exceptionally good. sleeping in his own bed for naps and bedtime. he's such a big boy! and, a funny boy (as you can tell by the pictures)!







after we left the thomases, we went to eat dinner with our "vw" friends...rj, desi, the boy and the baby (as she calls them on her blog). ha! i hate to even call them that because they are just our friends, but we met them through our common likeness of vw's. we were part of an unofficial vw club called scare bear mafia (aka sbm). so, that's why i call them our "vw" friends. we really love them so much and consider them true friends and hadn't seen them in so long. our friends stayed the night on friday night and we headed to eureka springs for a vw show on saturday. we had so much fun with them and can't wait for our next get together!



and, elle started pulling up! she can't get from her knees to her feet but she is so close! still not crawling, but slowely but surely conquering pulling up! she is just so darn short and has the smallest feet...its gotta be hard!

so, i scheduled this post yesterday for today (that is so weird typing...and is quite confusing). so, as you read i sit at my desk at work. this week i officially start working two days. i was supposed to start last week but with elle's uti, i decided to take tuesday off. i think its going to be good (good on our pocket book at least). praying i transition gracefully. elle's gigi (aaron's mom) will watch elle every tuesday and then she'll switch around amongst other family members on thursdays. it will be fine. it will be fine. it will be fine...

sweet baby brayden

prayers are needed for a sweet family please...

a little back bio. heather and i met through blog world while i was pregnant with elle and became fast blog friends. we would be great friends if we lived closer to each other, i just know it. we are similar in lots of ways! she and her husband became pregnant in the spring. heather has had the normal pregnancy...sickness in the beginning, awesome 2nd trimester, and a very sleepy ending. but, on friday, august 27th, brayden was born 12 weeks early. he is all about making an entrance. from the get-go! at 28 weeks and 1 day gestation age, brayden decided he was ready to enter the world. he weighed almost 3 lbs and currently has a 90% survival rate (PTL!). he is virtually perfect, just really really early and really really tiny. baby boy needs all the prayers he can get! so do his mommy and daddy. i cannot begin to imagine what they are going through.

to read the full story on brayden's early arrival go here.


he is a beautiful boy isn't he?

i'm going to be sending heather a little care package in the next week, so if any one has any ideas of what i can send her, please leave me suggestions!

sleep like a baby

motherhood and all that comes with it, is exactly what i signed up for and i wouldn't trade all the sleepless nights for anything in the world. but, sometimes i envy elle when she is sleeping so soundly.

no more cable television...

since we are living on mainly one income and have quite a bit of debt to pay off, we decided to get rid of cable and use that extra money to pay off our debt. i was nervous at first, mainly because i thought there would be nothing for elle louise to enjoy. no nick jr., sprout, disney, or noggin. sad day. but there are great shows out there.


of, course sesame street! a pbs classic! elle loves it!


have you watched dinosaur train? it so so cute! elle loves it too! we watch it on pbs too.


i know i will probably get some slack from moms out there but our family just loves spongebob squarepants. so we let elle watch it! she even has spongebob pj's for our pj christmas eve at aaron's parents this year. aaron (his dad, nieces and nephew) have seen every episode a hundred times and there is nothing wrong with this cartoon (in my opinion, of course). yes, there is adult humor but it is clean humor. it is just a funny cartoon. elle is a fan. a big fan! we watch it on dvd.





and, our family of 3's favorite, pocoyo. as i mentioned we don't have cable, so aaron turned it to dora the exploradora on univision (the spanish-speaking channel) for elle and pocoyo came on after dora. it was in spanish, but we found the english version on you tube. i sit elle in her bumbo in front of the computer and she watches it. she is all smiles the whole time. and the best part is the pink elephant's name is ELLIE!

we also have some baby einstein dvd's that elle loved at one point, but i honestly think she is starting to outgrow them because she can only watch about 5-10 minutes of the dvds at a time. i bought the veggie tales dvd, jonah, on sale at target the other day. elle's only watched it a couple of times, but i think she really likes it.

exploring food

it really is a fun time! messy? yes. worth it? yes!

ready for fall

specifically:


picture courtesy of flickr

fall's fresh air and beautiful colors.

polyvore

fall's comfy clothes.


photo courtesy of flickr

and, fall's yummy foods.

fall, you can't come soon enough.

recipe for your own little slice of heaven

totally staged these photos so that the bananas were in the background...

one word, yum! i made a loaf the other day and didn't use enough chocolate chips, so i made muffins last night (sorry, no picture) and used double the chocolate chips and they turned out much better! and, the muffins cook a lot faster.

chocolate banana muffins

1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 bag mini chocolate chip morsels (or you can use regular size)

Preheat oven to 400-degrees. Mix dry ingredients in bowl. In seperate bowl combine bananas, milk, egg, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract--stir into dry ingredients just until moist. Add chocolate chips and pour into muffin pan. Makes 1 1/2 dozen.

For bread loaf, pour into bread pan. Bake for 45 min-1 hour at 350-degrees.

You can also sprinkle the other 1/3 bag of chips on top of the bread loaf of muffins before baking for yummy melted chips on top!

ENJOY!

beautiful baby

jason and holly the night before taylor was born! both were so ready at this point. who wasn't?


welcome to the world, taylor katherine. you have no idea how much you are loved!




very proud daddy!


very proud mommy!


little papoose.


the thomases.


parker loves his baby sister!


melt my heart! my favorite picture from the day!


elle did not know what to think of that babydoll. she wanted to get her hands on her so bad!


and, just some sweet pictures of elle belle. aunt toto made elle the cutest little piggy hat and brought it to the hospital! i can't wait for fall/winter so elle can wear it all the time. is it not the cutest?

elle is so much better today! the antibiotics have kicked in. she slept through the night (PTL!) and has pretty much slept all day. i guess she is just playing catch up! so thankful that she is doing so much better. i feel better too! i can breathe!

the most eventful of eventful days!

elle louise waiting at the clinic for the shots that would make her feel all better!

elle louise has been sick since friday running high, high fever so we decided we better go ahead and take her to the doctor this morning. low and behold she has an urinary tract infection. the saddest thing ever. honestly, i thought we would go in there and the doctor would tell us she had the "fever virus" and that medicating her with tylenol was what we were supposed to be doing and send us on our merry way, but no...uti was the culprit. elle is much better this evening. but, it took a lot to get to that point...a catheter, bloodwork which consisted of being poked in both arms (one arm twice), the wrist and the toe, and then back to clinic for shots in both thighs. she was so mad at the nurses taking her blood and she let them know. they felt so bad for having to stick her so many times. glad that we know what is wrong with her and that with antibiotics she will be back to her happy, normal self if a few days! praise the good good lord for awesome doctors and nurses!

and, we were so glad to know that she wasn't contagious so that we could go to the hospital and visit the little bundle of sweetness, know as taylor katherine!



our niece was born today at 11:15 a.m. she weighs 6 lbs, 14 ounces and is 19.25" long! she is absolutely precious and perfect in every single way and has made herself right at home in our family.

today has had its definite highs and lows. i think i might have a mental breakdown at any point. we are so thankful that we figured out what is wrong with elle and that taylor is here, safe and sound.

PRAISE JESUS FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!

more pictures of taylor and family tomorrow!!!