As usual things have been non-stop around here, as evidenced by my lack of postings! In addition to multiple outfit and diaper changes per day, we've been busy (trying) to keep our house clean for constant open houses and last-minute showings. We did have a quiet week-end at home last week-end, celebrating Easter with us just our little family. We enjoyed a yummy lunch at Cracker Barrel (!!) and then coerced a friend to come take our picture on our back porch. We figured something should document Elliot's first Easter, right? :) The task of getting all four us smiling and looking at the camera at the same time turned out to be Herculean and this was the best picture of all the many taken that afternoon...

Oh well, it will have to do. At least Charlie isn't running away like he was in all the other shots. I'm not just holding his hand in the picture - it's really a death-grip to keep him still!

We enjoyed another egg hunt on Saturday and this time charlie was obsessed with rather than afraid of the "Easter Rabbit." Of course he was - we weren't paying for his picture to be taken this time!

Elliot enjoyed the day from his stroller, snoozing away.

In other news, Charlie's second birthday was last week and he loved every minute of it. I took cookies to "school" on his real birthday and we had a friend party for him the day after (last Thursday). He was very into the whole birthday thing, especially the presents, birthday cake and attention. Unfortunately I only have a few pictures because my camera was not cooperating and I'm trying to figure out how to get the other pictures from Shutterfly.

The cupcake tree, with Thomas the Train pics for decorations.

The big one on top was Charlie's!

Charlie "helping" Ryan grill the hamburgers and hotdogs.

Charlie and his best friend Lexi looking for airplanes.

I can't believe my little baby is two years old! Though Year 2 looks like it is going to be very challenging in the parenting department, we've really never enjoyed our boy more...he says the cutest things and as wild and as dangerous to himself and others as he is, he is definitely the joy of our hearts and lives!

Both kiddos are asleep so I'm off to take a nap. Charlie slept through the night the day before he turned 6 weeks old ( and has woken up during the night maybe 10 times total since then, including the 3 times he had the stomach virus) and I'm not optimistic that Elliot is going to follow suit. His 6-week birthday is tomorrow and he's pretty addicted to his 3:30am feeding, making naps for me a necessity!

New Pictures!

Thanks to Ryan's mom, who spent the week-end with us, I have some pictures to share! On Saturday, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt in spite of the FREEZING weather (it sleeted / iced / snowed on us while we were there!). Charlie was in a really bad mood, as unbeknownst to us, he was working on coming down with some cold or virus or something (he's had fever since yesterday afternoon) but we had fun anyway. Charlie looked cute in his navy sailor outfit but was quite cold (it turned out to be colder than I thought) but as I told him that morning - beauty sometimes has a high price. :)








We wanted to get Charlie's picture taken with the Easter bunny but unfortunately, he really didn't care too much for him. He cried and screamed when we tried to make him sit on his lap. So Ryan decided to pose with him instead. :)




Elliot was the warmest Moody of all, cuddled in his car seat with tons of clothing and blankets. I don't think he even knew it was cold!

We took some pictures of Elliot in his cute Easter outfit when we got home, since he never made it out of his car seat while we were out. And this is fun - this outfit actually belonged to my little brother Hunter! As you can see, he barely woke up for the pictures!

Hopefully my camera will be resurrected soon or we'll have to bite the bullet and buy a new one...I have a feeling that we might be asking for recommendations on cameras in the near future...

Last night I had my first experience in being up during the night with two children. And it was everything that I thought it would be! Just kidding, it wasn't that bad. It was about 4am and I had just put Elliot down after his feeding and as I was drifting off to sleep, which always takes awhile, I heard Charlie in the monitor: "Mommy!" I asked for volunteers to go check on him but Ryan wasn't interested :) so I went in. A new diaper, some juice and "purple mesin" (children's ibuprofin) and a few minutes of rocking later, I was back in bed, more wide awake than ever. I finally went back to sleep around 5:30. So needless to say, this was a pajama day for sure. Charlie and I played and watched Thomas the Train in bed until about 10:30. And you know what? We had fun.

Here's hoping for a less eventful night!

Alas, no new pictures to post. My camera is letting me down these days and refusing to let me upload pictures to my computer. And I don't have the patience, energy or mental fortitude to figure out why right now. :)

Anyway, life is good but very tiring and demanding. WHY did I ever think that taking care of one little newborn was hard, back when Charlie was just weeks old??? Elliot, aside from the demanding feeding and changing schedule, is a piece of cake. It's Charlie who is constantly wearing me out. THANK GOODNESS he continues to be a 12-hr a night sleeper + a 2-3 hour / day napper. Elliot is doing well and seems to be following in big brothers footsteps in terms of sleeping, only waking up once to eat between 10:30/11pm and 7am. Although I am the "mean" mom who stuck him in the back of the closet on about Day 5 (I can only hear the really loud screams from my bed) so that might have something to do with it. :)

I honestly cannot believe how little time I have for anything these days. I can't keep the house clean or even really straight, laundry piles up, emails go unanswered and phone calls are seldom returned, the checkbook needs to be balanced, and groceries need to be purchased. I don't even really have time to shower. And I also cannot believe how hard it is has been to keep Elliot safe from Charlie. So far he's almost been fed a small piece of chewed-up rubber ball (thanks Tyke), nearly had his eyes poked out on numerous occasions and there have been many, MANY times where Charlie has literally almost fell or jumped directly on top of him. AAHHH. This is what really contributes to my lack of ability to accomplish anything. Thankfully this time around my expectations were much more realistic - I didn't really plan on being able to accomplish much at all these first few weeks and so I'm not depressed or disappointed in myself in like I was with Charlie, which has been a huge relief. Also, I have really realized my inability to save myself from the demands of this new life we have...so I've prayed constantly that I'll have the strength and patience to handle whatever comes my way during the course of the day and wonder of wonders, my prayers have been answered! Somehow I am not too exhausted and life really seems OK. It's been amazing to see my prayers answered and feel supernatural strength coming my way every day. When I am weak, then I am strong...

I already love being the mother of these two precious little boys. We are so blessed to have them and really, that is the constant feeling around our house these days: amazement at just how blessed we are! God is so faithful and GOOD!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some new pictures. Elliot is 3 weeks old tomorrow and he's already changed so much. Everyone thinks he looks like me, which is fun, considering Charlie has been a mini-me of Ryan since the day he was born!