Thinking about Christmas!

I love Christmas time!  And one of my favorite things about Christmas is sending and receiving Christmas Cards.  It is that one time of year that we get lots of fun things in the mail!  So this year I have decided to do my card through Shutterfly.  I loved the photo book that my brother and sister in law made for the grandparents  a few Christmas ago.  You can not beat getting a Christmas present full of pictures of one of your grandsons!  Dave and I made a calendar for the grandparents full of pictures of Alex’s first year of life, once again, can not beat it!  I think  it would be cool just to have some personalized stationary for myself to use with pics of my family (maybe a gift hint?) I have gotten my photographs printed by Shutterfly and since those have turned out great, I figured my Christmas cards will too.  So the other night I got the boys to bed and spent some time picking out my card!  It was a harder then I thought it would be, they has so many great layouts to pick from.  The layout has now been chosen and now I have to pick the pictures.  An even harder thing to do!   

The thing I am most excited about is getting 50 of my card free!!!  And you can to!  Shutterfly is having a deal for all bloggers out there.  So if you are a blogger and want 50 free Shutterfly cards click here http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

Our Thanksgiving sleep depravation

This year we headed down to Kentucky for Thanksgiving with my parents!  Since we do not get down there often, we decided to go a few days early.  So we hit the road on Tuesday!  The Natives got a little restless by the end of the trip but we made it down there with no major problems! We made a trip to a park before dinner and enjoyed a great evening with Grandma and Grandpa.   But then Tuesday night happened.  

We were finishing up a movie and Alex got that look in his eyes and dinner came back to visit!  Poor kid....from then on  every 1-2 hours he was up and puking until 7 the next morning  We made him a bed on the floor of the bathroom we I could see him from the bed!  So needless to say....I did not get much sleep!  We had a great day hanging around the house the next day.  My dad and Dave went Disc Golfing (If you need ideas for Dave for Christmas, the man is crazy about disc golf right now.  Yes even now while it is cold, Dave will still go and play!)

Dave and I were hoping to go out on a date after the boys went to bed to take advantage of the free babysitting.  Alex went down like butter....Eli on the other hand....not so much.  We finally got him asleep on our bedroom floor at 11pm.  So, as you can guess, the date ever happened!  I crawled into bed at that time and feel asleep until 2am rolled around and Eli work up and freaked out and started crying and running around the room.  Around 5:00 we got him settle down again and asleep. This time I stayed on the floor with him. 

 When Eli woke up at the right time in the morning I looked at the clock to see that it was 8am and my dad and i need to leave soon.  We decided to run the Throwbread Turkey Run at 9am.  So I jump off the floor, sent the kids out to get breakfast and threw on my running outfit.  On a positive note, it was 50 degrees outside that morning.  A great day for a run.  Needless to say, after two sleepless night, my time was horrible.  I did finish the race and ran the whole time! 

My mom made a wonderful Thanksgiving meal that included buttery rolls that did not have butter in them and a turkey that was perfectly cooked!  That night both boys feel asleep and did not awake up until 8 the next morning!  How wonderful was that!!! Grandma and Grandpa house is fun....but we were all looking forward to getting home!!!  And now that it is all behind me, I do treasure this past Thanksgiving because that is just the chapter that our family is in right now!   

I will leave you with two pictures that I took on the way home.  Yes, it was 50 degrees on Thanksgiving morning and the next morning we woke up to snow!   What a great way to start off the Christmas Season!

What is a trip to Lexington without a pic of horses 

Not a lot of people on the road but the outlet mall we passed had a packed parking lot!

Pumpkin Carving

This year I was finally brave enough to do some pumpkin carving with the boys!  So Dave was informed that when he come home that night, a pumpkin had to come home with him.  So after dinner was eaten and cleaned up, we dug in!  Oh wait a minute, Mommy dug in.  Neither boy wanted to touch to touch in insides of the pumpkin.  I was not surprised that Alex did not but Eli....that I was surprised at!  After Mommy was done cleaning it out....Daddy stepped in with the knife.  Alex helped pick out a face and Daddy cut it out.  The boys loved it!   They were excited to show it off on Trick or Treat night. 

We did our annual free hot dogs with candy for our neighbors on Trick or Treat night.  We have done it 3 years now and it has been fun to see some of the same people back each year!  Alex enjoyed passing out candy.  He was excited every time we got "new customers."

Our first born

Our oldest is now 3 1/2 years old!  I can not believe I have been doing this mommy thing for over three years!  If you are a friend of my husband's on facebook (if you are not...feel free to request him), you have been able to read all the great conversations we have had with him in the past few months.

I am sure that everyone has been checking this blog everyday waiting for an update on this guy, so let me do a top 10 list (not in particular order) to bring you up to speed. 

1. Alexander's vocabulary has tripled in the last three months.  It has been amazing.  I feel like he went from one-two word sentence and only understanding him 50% of the time to full sentences and understanding him 95% of the time.  He is still getting speech therapy (and loves going to Miss Jenny's) and she has been excited to the the progress he is making.  I love to listen to him use words that he has heard but is not sure how to us it.

2. We have offically entered the potty training era!  Can I just tell you how hard it can be.  And I am not finding the needing to ask him if has to got potty the hard part.  It is the teasing.  You think you have a great way to get them to use the potty and you are all excited....and then it does not work.  They use the potty and you think they have it....and they don't.  My emotions are totally being played with!!!

3.  Thomas the Train is an everyday part of our life.  Need I day anymore!

4.  Alex loves to sleep in his big boy bed, except for the nights that he crawls into our bed!

5.  Being a big brother just comes natural for Alex!  He has this amazing gift of knowing what his brother wants before his brother says anything (of course the only words his brother has is "yeah").  We can be sitting at the table eating lunch and Alex tells me that Eli is done eating and wants to watch a video (This of course is after Alex has asked me if he can watch a video and I tell him that he needs to wait until Eli is done eating).  Wow, what a gift!

6.  Just the other day, Alex figured out how to spell his name!  That was one of those moments that I realized that he will not be little forever. 

7.  People say the emotions of a teenager are crazy....well I say that the emotions of a three year old are insane!  Alex can be so upset about not watching a video one minute and then the next minute he is busy giving a tickle party to his brother.  Once again....just playing with my emotions! 

8.  Alex has kind of started Preschool.  Because of the delays he has had, he was eligable for free preschool through the Delaware Schools.  Now, I have nothing against sending our kids to preschool, for it works for many family!  I just did not feel it would work for Alex.  One reason is that if he started this year, he would be in preschool for three year.  Preschool is 4 days a week, and he has only been out of the house once a week for bible study.  I also feel I have a lot still to offer him.  And last but not least, I enjoying having him around.  Someday I will not be his world, so I want to advantage of the time I have!   So since I have not sending him to preschool, they are sending a teacher to me.  So, Miss Kelly comes to our house once a week for an hour for school.  Alex really enjoys his time with Miss Kelly.  I believe it is a highlight of the week for him. 

9.  He lives on hotdogs, chicken nuggets, and chips (sometimes I get peas in there too!).

10.  The afternoon nap has disappared!  Sometime last summer/fall I noticed that every time he WOULD fall asleep in the afternoon, going to bed was a fight until about 9 or 10 o'clock.  The afternoons he would not fall asleep, going to bed was still a fight but only until 8 or 8:30.   So after a few weeks of fighting it, I threw up the white flag and let him drop the nap.  Now he just plays in his room during nap time for mommy still needs some time to herself!

Well there you go, the simple life of Alex Pacheco!

A Buyer Wanted:

How about an update on our house and yes coming in March I will have lived in our current apartment for the same amount of time that I lived in my house!  And yet the crazy part is how much our small little apartment just feels like home.  I have a hard time imagining my family living in a bigger place! (and maybe it is a sign that I have lived here to long and am finally going crazy!).  I am wondering how does one keep tract of two kids in a bigger space.  Wouldn't there just be more places and things for kids to get into?  They are never to far out of my reach right now!!  And that is a good thing.  It is amazing how you will make any space you live in work for your family.

Anyways, our house has not sold yet.  We have found a wonderful couple who are currently house sitting for us, therefore the house has not be standing vacant this whole time.  He has also done some small projects for us and that has been very helpful!  The reason I wanted to post about this today is because we have two showing tomorrow (Sunday)!  No one has looked at our since last November, so we are excited to have two showing on Sunday.  Please pray that God brings the right buyers to our house!  It is a great house in a great location, but our difficulty is that we are having a hard time competing with a plethora of foreclosures and short sales in the Chicago market.  Houses are going cheap!   The other day I found a townhouse for sale we almost put a bid on four yeasr ago. Then it was going for about 200,000.  now I found it for around 130,000!

Off to the Races

It is official, on May 15th I am going to run my first 5K!  I have planned on running several races throughout the past 10 years and never followed through.  I am planning on following through with this one (though I do believe that I planned on following through with the other ones also!), but I mean it this time!  What makes this one different?  Well let me bring you up to speed.  Bear with me for I have to go back about a year.

Last March I was in Indiana visiting family and hanging out with my cousin Kandice.  I knew that I wanted to spend some time with you because, one I love spending time with my cousin and two she was going to be leaving in a few days for a month of training before heading to the mission field.  Not even two week later i can not call from my mom that the Doctors think that she has breast cancer.  If my memory serves me right, by the end April my Cousin was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Today, she continues to battle her  cancer and if you want to read more about her story you can go to her Caring Bridge page www.caringbridge.org/visit/rrobinson .  As I have watched her battle this past year I have been left with a feeling need to do something.  So when family stated talking about participating in the Race for the Cure in the Spring, I said “You Bet!”  Though I can not fight her battle for her, what I can do is do what i need to do to make myself healthier and raise money for cancer research.  If you are interested in helping to fight breast cancer, check out my page and join Team Robinson or donate (or just check out the page) I want to get a icon for this blog on my side bar so you can get to the page from this blog.  I have never done this before, so if any one out there knows how...let me know!!!

So I will be keeping you updated as I prepare to the race, I may need the accountability (for reasons previously stated!).  You may see some more info about  breast cancer in general in the future also.  I the best way to fight cancer is through education.  So do not be surprised if I educate you a little!!! 

Bringing compassion (eleos) to our fine city!

Welcome back to our blog for those who gave up checking it since I took some personal time away from the blogging world.  You know the usual stuff; getting through the first year of a baby life, moving two states away, trying to sell a house two states away, job change and anything else that was an adjustment! (Thanks Miraim for being faithful!) I know, poor Eli!  He just did not get the posts that Alex got when he was a baby.  Being a second child myself....I am sure that he will survive!  And I promise, he will get his time now (and I will not forget about Alex either!)

So what has happened in our lives since July (that was one of my last posts!)?  I would say one of the biggest is the start of my own counseling practice!  Yes, that is right!  I am an proud owner of my own practice.  Last summer, I started looking around to see if I could find a group of counselors to join and work just a few hours or even a christian counselor.  I could not find one.  I just started calling people in the telephone book to see if anyone was interested in bringing me on and my second phone call was to my currently landlord.  She does not have group but she rents out office space (and she has a part time office with room for me)  After some prayer and conversations with my husband, I decided to to fill the void for christians counselors and make the big step!  With much prayer and hard work..Eleos Counseling officalily opened it's chair in September 2009!  And as of today, I am busy with clients!  (Oh, by the way Eleos means mercy/compassion in greek!)

I have enjoyed getting back into counseling again.  So you might be wondering what happens to my boys while I am at work...well right now Dave and I have quite the system.  The two days that Dave has off, I work!  And one of the great thing about it being my practice is the flexibility.  There are times that duty calls for Dave and therefore I can just plan to not see clients that day.  And I love that Dave has them while I am at work because then I do not have to get the kids ready to go day care and get myself ready in the morning.  I just get up and go!  And I know that Dave will take wonderful care of them (in fact today then when out to eat for lunch)! 

Winter Wonderland

Well it is Winter time! I know it has been winter time for quite some time, but the difference now is not only does it feel like winter, it looks like winter! And when we had our first big snow fall that we were home for, we had to take the boys out to have some fun. I am not sure how much fun that had at least at first. Not quite sure about the fall snow!

Neither one wanted to walk in the snow. So they waited and watched from the garage while daddy cleared the driveway.

You can see him in the back ground using our landlord’s beast of a snow blower. My husband was enjoying every minute of it!

They slowly ventured out, only exploring the areas that were clear.

Then Alex got a hold of the snow shovel. He was taking snow from one side of the driveway.......

to the other.

Now he to was enjoying every minute of it!

They crazy part is that since we took these pics, it has snowed two more times and snow is still in the forecast! I love to look out my front window and see the ground covered in beautiful white snow.

It has been a year!

Well, today deserves a post! Elijah turns 1! I will post pics of our trip to the Zoo for the special occasion later!

5 Reasons I love Elijah
1. He is my son!
2. Oh my goodness....his laugh so cute!
3. And those curls!
4. He looks like his daddy (I think think his daddy is pretty cute!)
5. Cuddling is one of this favorite hobbies!

Eli First Hair cut!

Ok, so this really did happen back at the beginning of April. But as my faithful (as faithful as you can be) blog readers know, I have not been very consistent with the whole bloging thing! So with out delaying any more, let me tell what I remember about Eli first hair cut!
I was disappointed to learn, when I moved away from Chicago, that not every corner of this country has a Cookie Cutters or a kids friendly hair place. Cookie Cutters is awesome! The often have a big slide kids can play on while they wait, cool chairs to sit in and TV to watch to help keep them still and occupied while getting their hair cuts. And since Alex started getting is hair cut at 3 months, someplace like this was wonderful for him! He enjoys getting his hair cut! But here in small town USA, no such place. But 20 mins away, in the big city, there is a Cookie Cutters! So, on a Thursday morning, we quickly ate breakfast and packed the kids up and off we went to get hair cuts!

Here is Eli before! Such a sweet face!

I love that my boys enjoy getting their hair cut!

He enjoyed watching some Diego also! No tears with no morning nap!

Here he is, looking ohhh so cute!

Here is Alex after his hair cut. He was loving the slide and was very sad when we had to leave.

We may not be making that trip again anytime soon. I may just have to find some place a little more local and not a kid friendly, but I am sure that will do a fine job. If we find ourselves in the big city again and the kids need a hair cut....maybe will will stop in!

Our mornings!

So have you ever wondered how Alex and I spend our time in the mornings while Eli takes his morning nap. You are about to find out (if you have not wondered, you can just skip with post!) Alex often desires a mid morning snack so we often find ourselves at the kitchen table eating a snack. Well, on this fine morning, I was skimming through the paper and I let Alex pick out a section to read also. And if you look closely you can see what section he chose! Dave would be proud, he wanted the sport section!! He went through several sections of the paper (not a long attention span!) He was so cute and I was lucky enough that my camera was close by! He is so much fun to hang out with on those lazy pajama mornings!

Here is a picture of Eli waking up that morning in his room. For those who have not heard, we turned our two bedroom apartment into a three bedroom apartment by making our closest Eli's room! Notice my shoes on the floor. I gave Eli my space in the closet. So I had to find someplace else for my clothes that was hanging in the closet. I have not found a new home for my shoes! His first night in this room was his first night he slept through the night!!!

Easter

Oh my! So much time has pasted since I posted last, I do not know where to begin. I think the Grandparents would love to see Easter pics, so I will start there!

It was a wonderful Easter! Our Church had 3 services that morning, so Dave had to get up early to get everything ready. The boys and I did not get up till later. We went to the last service. With the boys still so little, we are not always at church all morning. I still like it when Eli gets to nap in his own bed!

I love this picture. I made Alex a Easter Basket (thanks mom for the bucket, I never got out to buy a basket) and he was not interested in sharing it with Eli. Eli was not even allowed to touch it. I wanted a cute picture of the two of them with the bucket in the middle. I arranged the contents very carefully so you could see what was inside. But as you can see, I did not get my picture! But that is a price expression on Eli's face!

After church, we headed over to Marysville to eat lunch with the Family. It was wonderful to live close to family again! And Alex always enjoys going to Jonathon's house to play. In the evening, we eat dinner with our house family. Our landlords (who live in the apartment behind us) invited us to eat with them! So we had two Easter dinners and some great company! Gone are the days of having no one to celebrate holidays with and we love it!

On the Eli front, ohhh the things he is getting himself into. Cabinets, trash,baskets and Alex's toys!
Do not worry overanxious mothers out there! As soon as I took this picture, I quickly put the camera down and then put Eli on the floor. He is no longer safe on furniture for any amount of time! We actually caught this little man crawling a couple times yesterday. He would get about three or four knee steps and then fall on this tummy. Amazing, he is getting so big! He also has figure out how to roll from his tummy to his back (yes, both of my son's have been late rollers!). But has yet to figure out how to roll back to this tummy. This is an important step to learn for a tummy sleeper! We have had some bad nights and nap times these last few days. At the rate he is learning things, this will hopefully not last long!

I hope to get around to post some more things later!

Music to our ears!

Da-Da-Da. That is what this cute little boy says now. We heard it the first time Tuesday morning and he has not stopped since. He loves practicing his D's! If he keeps this up, he may catch up with his brother. Since Alex was delayed in many areas, when Eli reachs a milestone on time we think it is amazing. He must be advanced!!

Someone is paying attention

So nightly after Alex brushes his teeth and we put his tooth brush away and then go through the contents of the cabinet and name everything. The other night Alex was a little confused that there was a shelf empty, so he quickly put his tooth brush away, closes the cabinet and turns off the lights. I then asked him to put his stool away but instead he stood outside the door telling me something. Though Alex is saying more words everyday, he will still babble when he has a lot to say. I asked few questions trying to figure out what he was saying and I was totally getting it wrong. So I tried"go get it" (hoping that he was telling me about something he wanted), and he takes off to my room. I follow him into the room and see him run over to Dave's toiletry bag and he picks it up and takes it back to the bathroom. He opens it up and takes out the contents that belong on the empty shelf. He then puts it all away in the cabinet, puts his stool away, takes the toiletry bag back to the room and off to bed he goes.

What did I learn from this experience
1) Alex pays attention to detail
2) He likes things in their place

Who's child is this? Not mine! Who knew I could have a child who is into details and likes things a certain way!

Out of my kitchen

My son loves my banana bread and I love it because I can make it Alex friendly and it uses up the ripe bananas in my freezer. I am including a picture of my most recent loaf for all to enjoy! I even had fun taking the picture. It has been a long time since I have played with my camera! The reason I am posting about his is because I am a little excited about this loaf. Not only did I make it Alex friendly but it is also a little healthy! I am not saying that it is healthy...just healthier. Therefore you do not feel so bad when you eat 1/2 the loaf in one sitting. So what did I do differently? I replaced 1/2 the AP Flour with whole wheat flour, oil with applesauce and added little more banana to make up for only putting in the egg white. It is a little denser then usual (I think because I did not use oil) but the taste is the same! And the important part is Alex loves it as you can tell from the pic!

Brotherly bonding

Alex loves to watch videos on Dave's computer. So often before bed Alex will watch a video and this night Eli joined him! How cute!

This is for my mom!

So the story goes.....when I was a baby, I loved my pacifier upside down! My mom would put it in the correct way and I would turn in upside down! Apparently it runs in the family.

This is a new milestone in Eli life. He can now find his pacifier and put it back in his mouth and sometimes it is upside down. Sometimes I find it upside down when Alex puts it back in his mouth. I loves to be helpful!

The six months mark!

My Elijah is now 6 months old. I was hoping to do this post on the acutal 6 month mark (Jan 8th) but then life happened! So let us recap what Elijah has accomplished in the first 6 months of his life....

1. He cried for the first 3 months and smiled for the second 3 months
2. The boy grabs everything in sight. The other day I was trying to drink something while holding him....he apparently wanted some also! Needless to say, I was wearing some of my drink by the time the drink of done!
3. He ate 3x each night...2x each night...and now 1x each night. We are getting there!
4. He moved from Illinois to Ohio
5. Elijah found his brother and loves to laugh at him.
6. SOLIDS.....loves it!
7. Can ride in a car without crying.
8. He can sit up for a few seconds before falling over.
9. While on his back, he can turn himself 360. (He is following his brother footsteps and has not rolled over!)
7. The #1 thing he has accomplish in the first first six months is staining every single onies he owns!

I am closing this post with pics of my boys at six months! They are not twins anymore!!

It starts with a small step

I would not say that this is a New Year's Resolution because I have been trying to do this for awhile. But I have decided to share it with you! Two things I have been trying to improve upon in my life is eating healthier and being more green. Two things that I think are important to do as I think about what God has given me and what I am responsible for in the life.

Before I was pregnant with Alex, I considered myself a fairly healthy person. Then I became pregnant and I was all about fat and calories!!! The more the merrier! And who wants to exercise for two? Not me! So here I am two kids later and deep in bad habits! For those who have interacted with me for the last two years know that try to stay away from High Fructose Corn Syrup (evil stuff!). That was my small step to get healthy after Alex was born. To my credit, two years later I still away from it. Now my I am adding whole wheat flour to everything I bake! I substittute half of the AP Flour for WW Flour. I made chocolate cookies the other week this way and I could not tell the difference! This week I made corn bread this way. It did taste a little different but I like the difference. I just feel better about giving it to my family!

So what am I doing to be greener??? One, I do not go anywhere! But that is really not because I want to be greener, just a part of life of being a mother of two! When you kids naps twice a day, it does not give you much time to get out! I am not using as much gas and less pollulents in the air! So that is a side benift and helps me feel better when I feel like a trapped animal! What I AM trying to do is reduce my "disposibles" in my kitchen. You know, your paper plates, paper napkins, plastic cups, paper towels, plastic zip lock bags. I would not say that I am going to elimate them (for sometimes you just need convince) but I do need to reduce my use of them. I was getting in the habit of putting most of my left overs in zip lock bags instead of using storage containiers and that is something I need to stop doing.

So there it is...the next two steps I am making in my life and I hope they become a good habit that cancels out some of my bad habits! For I am positive that there bad habits that I will alwasy cling to!!

I am adding a picture of Eli just because you sometimes just need a dose of baby to brighten you day!

Yum-0! Single grain cereal.

Eli got solids for the first time this week. He likes it better then Alex did. We got tears from him. Dave captured the moment with pics. Enjoy!