Missing

Our internet hasn't been working, and Jacob has been taking the computer to school for finals. So, I'm very behind in the blogging world. Here are a few pictures to make you happy. Elijah fell asleep in the bumbo today while I was doing dishes. That man, likes his sleep. He's still an angel baby, but cuter now because he smiles at me. Luci's hair is finally long enough some pony tails! Can you tell she likes them? She especially loves staring into the mirror and admiring them. She asks for them every day now. She is such a big girl, it breaks my heart. Jacob got me a book from the library called, "You're not the Boss of Me"... It's much needed since Luci has become quite the boss lately. I just need to channel the independence right?? Love that girl :)

Buckle up...here come pictures

What have we been up to? Nana and Pop-Pop came to visit. Eli was blessed. Luci had a birthday cake. Swimming. Barbecuing. Sleeping. Playing outside. Etc...

What a special day. Thanks for an awesome experience Jacob and Eli.



Luci wanted a ladybug cake again this year, so I decided to change it up a little this year. I made banapple cake again with cream cheese frosting. The ladybugs are chocolate softies with whoppers on top. Mm those chocolate softies are delish, thanks for the recipe Deanna.
B...anca and Wyatt are some of Luci's favorite friends :) Even though their parents like to ditch me when I'm not looking..ha ha, just kidding.
Luci likes to stare at people when they're having fun. I'm not sure why. She does it at the park...instead of playing she stands in the middle and watches everyone else play?? silly girl.
This handsome boy has slept 6-6.5 hours straight at night! Thank you Elijah :)
Luci loves helping me and pretending like she is a mama. She needs a miniature mommy everything. She begs and begs to use the boppy nursing pillow while I'm feeding E, she steals the burp cloth, puts on my bras, and as you can see here pushes eli in her baby's stroller. She really is a great helper. She's been doing awesome as a big sister. Ps. Thanks for the outfit Rachel V. and Wendy!

Party Time

Say Cheese Birthday Girl!

Today Luci turned 2! She was so excited when she woke up to find a bunch of balloons in her room. Jacob told her happy birthday and for the rest of the day she kept saying, it's party time! and happy my birthday! She got to have monkey bread for breakfast, but of course she still asked for grapenuts... we asked her what she wanted for dinner and she said, "a smoothie please". So she had a green drink :) We made cupcakes with our friends, vanilla chiffon with lemon buttercream, yum. Thanks for coming over to celebrate with us! And thanks for all the calls we got today from family!



We got her a soccer ball and while we were outside kicking it around she saw the dog next door. The dog was scratching his ear, and Luci thought it was hilarious! She thought the dog was dancing because she kept saying, "He's shaking his booty!" She also told me, "mom, you're crazy" and "okey dokey artichokey" today. I'm really not sure where she get's all these sayings. Our favorite these days is when she says "see ya later racoon" instead of "see ya soon racoon", or "see ya later aligator". Love you Darlin'! Don't grow up too fast!

Chocolate!

Back to Baking...I love baking, and chocolate. Check out theses delicious brownies :)

Happy

Oh, we are tired but we are happy. Okay, Luci's not tired, just happy. Luci is as cute as ever. She says the funniest things. She keeps us laughing all the time. Here are a some of them,

"Luci, what's on daddy's face?"

"--Fur"

"Cheer up Charlie, Don't be afraid"

She loves to request either Blue Cheese or Caesar for her salad.





















Mom came to town to help and visit for a week. We are so grateful that she came! And Pops too :) He came for the last couple of days. Luci loved all the attention, and so did I. Thank you mom, we miss you already.

That's Silly Daddy

This is one of Luci's favorite phrases. We've had lots of silly moments around here. Silly faces, silly games, silly accidents which may include little baby boys peeing everywhere...including their own face... The first major difference in our little boy and our little Luci, diaper changing requires much concentration and quick reflexes. While the little red heads look amazingly alike, they are so different already. Elijah being laid back and ever so patient, Luci being feisty and loud and ever so busy. It's so interesting that we could tell these differences within the first few minutes of birth.

Speaking of birth... Although the experience started out nothing as I had imagined it would, I couldn't have asked for a more memorable and awesome experience. The importance of trusting in the Lord and his plan was unmistakeably a lesson I needed to re-learn. While I tried and tried everything i could to have things go the way I thought would be best, I was reminded to trust not in the arm of flesh. Since my water broke slowly and I didn't actually start going into labor for a few hours, I thought for sure that I would have to be induced...not cool. But instead, I was able to check into the hospital nice and relaxed like. (Completely different than being dialated to an 8 and 100% effaced in triage with Luci.) Then I got to go over my birth plan with my nice nurse, get all settled, and boom the surges had arrived. Three very short hours later he was in my arms! It's crazy how quickly time goes by when you're in the zone. It was definitely intense, but I have a wonderful husband who is an expert, and should probably be a professional doula. Forget Law School. Yes, I did indeed ask for an epidural, and I lost my focus once or twice, but it was so fast that by the time i asked he was almost here :)

****I know this post is incomplete, but my prince is hungry :)*********

Until next time!

Elijah

Elijah Edmund Dean finally arrived today at 5:31 a.m. I use "finally" loosely, because today was his due date, but we anticipated that he was going to come early. He is a pretty big boy -- 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 21 inches long. He's very cute in our unbiased opinions. Danielle and Elijah are both doing well.

The last pregnant picture of Danielle, Sunday after church.





The man-child.