Movies, ringworm, a virus, and the chicken

On Christmas Day my family decided that we would go see Marley & Me. It's pretty much tradition for us to go see a movie that day and we hold to it! So, the big difference this year is that Wes and I have a one year old, named Eli... I'm sure I've mentioned him before :) and he has never been to a movie. We load up, drive to the theatre, and get settled for the 5:05 showing of Marley & Me. Eli is doing good, he's eating crackers and fruit but you could tell that he's getting really sleepy. He still takes two naps. Once the movie begins he is passed from my aunt down the row until he gets to me. Yep, he's really tired and keeps crashing his head into my shoulder trying to go to sleep. After a few minutes of this, it's just not going to happen. Wes, being the incredible husband and father that he is, says that I don't need to worry, just sit and watch the movie and he'll take Eli. 

Wes packs up Eli's stuff, takes him to the car. From texts I get throughout the movie, Wes played some jazz for him, changed a poopy diaper, fed him the rest of the crackers, Wes ate the last cracker, sang some songs, drove him around, and then finally Eli went to sleep. Thanks honey. I love you!

Eli has these spots on his back every once in awhile that feel really rough. They are the same color of his skin and basically they are just little dry patches. He started getting one on his lower back after Thanksgiving but I didn't think too much about it and just put extra lotion on it. After time went on, it started getting a little red, and then it started looking like a faint little circle... now I was getting concerned obviously. We ended up taking him to the doctor and we all pretty much agreed that it was probably ringworm and to put antifungal cream on that spot everyday. ew. ringworm?? are you serious? where in the world would he get that?! so... gross. My child has a fungus. His doctor said it's pretty common and there is no way to tell where he got it and it's not that big of a deal. but still. ew.

Wes, my sister Amy, and my brother Josh (who is home from London for awhile. yay!) and I all drove back home from Austin yesterday. I woke up with a little sore throat and wasn't feeling that great but was in "go mode" and wanted to get home. So after the drive, which was awesome because there was no traffic on 35!!!, and once the car was unloaded I started feeling way worse. I went to the family clinic by our house and my strep test was negative so the doc said it is probably a virus and that's that. boo on that.

Last night we were feeding Eli some sort of chicken/veggie/pasta something and I noticed that Eli was holding a little pack of food in his left cheek. The more I fed him the more I could tell that he was segregating the chicken from rest of the food and just holding it there! After a few more bites he spits out all of the chicken onto his shirt and wanted more food. I fed him some more, he did his chipmunk thing and stored some chicken off to the side and well... just take a look...

Catch up

Eli met Santa

We took Eli to see Santa at the Gaylord Texan. It was SO fun and he loved it!! He did so good! I know the picture lady was just trying to get the stock "smiling facing forward" picture but there were so many cute ones that she missed! Like Eli pointing at Santa and smiling or sitting in his lap and just looking up at him like he was a giant toy. She only took three pictures and didn't get the best shot, but it's ok. He had such a fun time! Yay for Santa!

Whole milk and Facing forward

Yes, Eli is drinking the real deal now. I put it in his bottle (which we're trying to get off of by the way... we found those Nuby sippy cups that have the spout the same texture as a bottle nipple for transition. love them!!) and he took a drink, looked at it, looked at me, and then kept on drinking! so sweet... and we were finally able to turn his seat around. Thank goodness because his long legs were all crunched up against the seat the other way! So... he's really one now. I have to believe it. 

Master Jennifer

My sweet friend Jennifer (who starter her Master's after me... ahem...) graduated with her Master's to be a Diagnostician. We couldn't make it to her actual ceremony, so Sarah had the idea to throw her a celebration dinner! I said great, I'll bring the salad and cake (which turned out to be pie) and you do everything else. Perfect! So, we did that and had so much fun! Sarah's daughter (who is 2 by the way) took pictures of us and they are really good!! impressed? Congratulations Jennifer!! We are so proud of you!

Christmastime

I love Christmas. I love that Jesus came. I love that He loved us so much that He died for us. I love that He was a baby and grew and walked and ate and drank and was human. Getting together for the holidays is so much fun and we love getting to see both sides of our family, but sometimes I just need a minute (actually more) to sit back and soak in what I am actually celebrating. I feel like as I'm typing this, I'm in the midst of that minute. Thank you Jesus. I love you. 

Merry Christmas dear friends! 

Par-tay!

Oh my gosh.. Eli's birthday was SO fun!! We had such a joyful time celebrating his first year! Thank you so much dear friends for coming!! I know it meant so much to us and Eli loves you all! He got the perfect gifts! lots of books, some bath toys, some guitars, some clothes, some Toms, some pajamas and a piano! Isn't that so awesome?! Eli did so great and partied like a rockstar until 9:30 pm! whoa!!! :) Thank you for all of your birthday wishes guys! He will love seeing this stuff someday!

Happy 1st Birthday Eli!

I seriously cannot believe it's here. Eli's first birthday. I feel so many things right now! I'm so excited, I'm so proud, I'm so in love, I'm so humbled, I'm so shocked, and I'm a little sad to know that one whole year has passed by. It's about 8 am right now and this is when I got the call that they wanted me to come into the hospital at 12:00 noon to start the induction. I go in at noon, get hooked up to IVs after getting settled and they start the process. About 3 hours later I wake up to starting to feel just some minor contractions, the put in some light pain medication and say the next time I wake up I'll need an epidural. They were right.

I wake up probably 3 more hours later to some more intense pain... still not that bad and I say, let's go ahead and do this epidural thing. Epidural in, and it's time to go back to sleep. :) About 4 hours later, the nurses have been a little concerned that Eli's heart rate had been dropping (remember that you saw that too Kelli?) and they were about to put an internal monitor on his head to see what's going on. My doctor just happened to be there to check on me (it's almost 10:00 pm at this point) and so he himself got ready to put the monitor on Eli, he's goes to check me and says those words "hmm. You know Amanda I don't think that is his head." I said, "really?" He said, "let's get a sonogram done." So, they wheeled in the machine, I got to see my sweet baby again, and sure enough, he was breech. I said, "So what does that mean? When am I going to have him?" He said, "in about 30 minutes" and they prepped me for surgery. At 10:39, he was born! It was so exciting, and such a blur... 

Tonight is his party. Of course there will be pictures! 

We love you Eli. 

we can cook again

The kitchen is finally done! Meaning... it's been painted, new countertops, new sink and faucet, new backsplash and I love it! We still haven't been able to put everything back together (as you can see in the pictures, but it is so nice for everything not to be leaking or torn up or anything! yay!

Before

After

Before

After

We only ran into a few minor problems during the process:

1. The countertop installation workers probably showed up high to our house

2. They cut the hole for the sink too big even though Wes gave them the template, which they refused to use

3. We found this out when Wes and my dad tried to put the sink in and all 115 lbs of it almost fell completely through

4. They got fired after that snafu

5. New people came and brought us a new countertop

6. The tile guys came and took a really long time getting it done, even though I think it was more than they thought it would be... they had to rebuild some walls

7. We didn't look at how much space was needed to put in the microvent and turns out we had them put the tile up too high

8. My dad had to learn to drill through tile

9. My dad had to go back to Home Depot to get a better drill bit and some how caught my house on fire in the process

10. My mom and I put out the fire and had to leave because of the smoke

11. My sink started leaking today

But! All in all it turned out great! Do you like it?

An imaginary friend?

Does Eli have an imaginary friend? An imaginary friend that is a bully?? Today Wes and I went to Target to get a present and I noticed something on Eli's ear as I was running him into the store since it is FREEZING outside! When I got him in and all settled I looked closer and his ear was cut! Wes was finishing his lunch in the car so when he came in I showed him and he was shocked! What I think happened is that Eli cut his ear with his nails. I have to cut his nails all the time and sometimes they end up with sharp corners. His nails are so tiny! It's hard to get it all! His ear kind of looked like it was sliced open. Since Eli loves to pull on his ears and hair I am thinking that's what happened. 

I really don't know but it totally freaked me out... I don't like not knowing what happened! When I gave him a bath tonight I was cleaning the wound and he didn't even flinch. Then when I started to dry him off it starts bleeding

 everywhere... which I know is because it's near the head and those always seem to bleed the worse. But... I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach. 

Then! Wes and I were playing with Eli on the floor and I noticed his toe! It seems that his

 pointer toe (I have no idea what the right name is) but his pointer toe is damaged!! Part of his toenail is gone and the tip of his toe is all red! What is happening?????? This story is out of order, because I cleaned that really well also in the bath and he didn't seem to care. Strange... and annoying. 

Eli's newest adventure is reaching as high as he can. He loves sitting by the back door and playing in that little area for some reason. Now, he has a new idea. He tries to reach the door knob, which he can, and messes with the lock. He can't quite reach it as well as he would like so he now climbs on top of the fire place and attempts to lean over to the door knob to reach it. awesome.

And to end this lovely post, I would like you to view a video. Eli really loves books, which is funny because he doesn't really like to sit and read with you, he just really likes to read all by himself with you near him. He's so sweet. Now, many one year olds (or almost one year olds) know several words. That is all well and good, but my son knows a whole different language. Jealous? Well, you should be. ... now if we can only figure out which language it is...

the kitchen mess

**before I begin, you must go over to Sarah's blog and see the pictures that Jeff took of her daughter Sydney! Jeff is the same guy that took Eli's pumpkin patch picture! They are fantastic!!

***oh! AND I just saw a commercial for chia pets on TV! Did you guys know they sell those, and still advertise for those??

So yesterday my dad and mom came over to help destroy our kitchen. We took (we meaning my dad) took the countertops off and started to bust out the tile (Eli was a lot of help as you can see). My dad took the sink out, the disposer (which for the life of me I thought it was "disposal") came with it, and so now we have to buy a new one. Then we had to have a plumber out because of the craziness that was happening with the plumbing by the sink. Right now our kitchen is a disaster. Our new "kitchen" is our guest bathroom and please don't get me started on how sick I think that is. oh the spoiledness I embody... 

The upside is tomorrow the countertop guy comes to put in a new one. The sink will be delivered to the house and my dad will put that in. Then on Wednesday our dear friend Ben will have one of his guys come out and put in tile. Kitchen complete! We are SO excited!

And tomorrow the gift I got my mom and dad comes in and I can't wait to see it!!! 

In other news, I also went to a dear friend's baby shower and had a blast there! Not only was the food delicious but I had the best wassle I ever had in my life! I'll get the recipe and post it! It was SO good!! Anyways, Leny got some really sweet gifts and we all had so much fun! Leny's one of those naturally gorgeous people... you know the type... She's due with sweet little Jayna in the middle of January and we are so excited!! Hurry up little Jayna!

The many faces of RSV

RSV is really annoying. Praise God it hasn't become worse and I'm hoping that it won't. I just tortured him again by sucking out his nose again, which is HORRIBLE! ugghh... restraining your child should never have to be something you have to do! It's awful! But his doctor said that we have to do it, so we do...

I don't think that it has spread to his ears or chest. I'm going to take him back to the doctor this upcoming week to check in with her again and make sure that it's not getting worse. Honestly I think it's getting much better! The snot secretions have become a lot less... though his cough seems worse. But it's one of those phlegmy coughs from drainage and not a wheezy cough from his chest. His birthday party is on his birthday (the 18th) and we don't want him to be sick then!

I took these pictures a little while ago of his sick little self. He's so precious. 

I think we're alone now

So I can put my freshly wrapped gifts under the tree for as long as needed... until Eli wakes up. :)

I LOVE Christmas shopping! If we had good money, I would buy everyone I know tons of presents! I love it!! Sometimes when it's time to open them on Christmas I get a little anxious because for some reason I completely forget what we bought the person! strange?

Anyways, before I got married my side of the family's Christmas tradition was (and still is for them) to allow all the kids to open one present on Christmas Eve Eve! We celebrate Christmas with our whole family... all the aunts, uncles, cousins... the works. We thought that was so cool! The only downside was the parents got to pick the present, and usually it was Christmas pajamas or socks or something. bummer. :)

Then on Christmas Eve we would all go to the Christmas Eve service which is my absolute favorite service of the whole year! It would be beautiful! Candles everywhere, everyone dressed all warm and cozy, and we would get to hear the story of when Jesus was born and sing Christmas songs. I love that service. After church we would go home and my grandpa, Pa, would make his delicious chili. We would eat chili, eat dessert, and everyone would go into the living room and a kid would get to be "Santa" and pass out presents from under the tree to everyone. It always started out as going "one at a time" so everyone could see you open your gift but by the end "Santa" would get annoyed and ready to go and just started shelling them out to people. 

After that, usually my uncle John has been picking up all the paper during the openings, and so we all get ready for bed. The little kids would all go to bed after setting out milk and cookies, and the big people would stay up to help Santa.

Christmas morning we all rush to the tree to see what Santa brought. We had so much fun! We would eat the same meal that we do on Thanksgiving on Christmas and after lunch we open up stocking stuffers. 

I love Christmas! Do you have any traditions?

Now... I know Eli isn't quite yet 12 months old... and I know that he's not saying that many words, but y'all I promise this kid is trying so hard! Please tell me you hear him trying to say real words here! The dang battery died at the end...

"You know I'm going to blog this"

Have you ever seen that Seinfeld episode where Elaine is stuck in the bathroom stall, without toilet paper, and begging the lady next to her for even one square or one ply of a two ply square and the lady wouldn't give it to her.

Although I've been in that embarrassing situation before, that's not what happened today.

Today Wes and I took Eli to the doctor (more on that in a second) and afterwards went to Linen N Things to check out their going out of business

 sale. I've been wanting these certain kind of white sheets that are the softest I have ever felt but they only had a California king size :( Anyways... afterwards Wes wanted to stop by Taco Bueno for some food. He orders his favorite, a muchaco and a party burrito. They give us our food and Wes is extremely excited about his muchaco. It was steaming hot, just the way he wants it, and he was very ready to eat it up! Ok... now, I do know that asking someone for a bite is sort of annoying. But have you ever seen a muchaco? They aren't small! right?? So I asked him for a bite. 

He said "no." 

I said, "what?!" 

He said, "no."

I said, "Can you spare on bite? Even ONE bite?"

He said, "no." 

I said, "Half a bite?? A really small bite???" 

He said, "no, if this was any regular ole muchaco I would say yes, but this is the perfect muchaco." 

I said, "you know I'm going to blog this." 

hahaha... he later offered me a bite, but I said "no." women...

Ok, so I've mentioned that Eli has had a cold for the last week. Well today I just couldn't stand it anymore and took him to the doctor. They came in, swabbed his nose to test for RSV and then our doctor came in and chatted with us. His ears are great, his lungs sound good, but he did test positive for RSV. My heart sank. She basically said right now, we just have to continue to bulb his nose, listen to his breathing and his chest and watch it to see if it spreads to his lungs. It makes me sick. I hate this. Please say prayers that this doesn't spread and that this will just go away. I hate this.

Fluffing the tree

So my mom is the master at fluffing trees. Even Charlie Brown's tree would be no challenge to her. I... however... well, not so great yet. But, I gave it my all this year. Usually half way through the tree I'm so tired of fluffing branches I quit. Not this year friends! I was in the mood to get that tree fluffed and I did what I could! Don't you think it looks pretty good? 

Eli loves to get into everything so we were pretty nervous about this tree situation. My mom said when I was little she literally had to tie the tree to the wall so I wouldn't pull it down. Eli

so far hasn't been that interested. He's looked at some of the ornaments but that's basically it! Of course, it has only been day one of the tree, so who knows...

I found some prelit garland at Walmart for a steal so I bought some to put on top of our mantel. While I was putting it up there I knocked off one of the stocking holders, it fell off, hit the brick fireplace and broke! :( All I could think was "thank you Jesus for Eli not being under here!" He was way on the other side of the room destroying a plant my mom arranged for us. So, this said little Santa Snowman is broke, but it's heavy enough to at least hold the stocking up there. poor snowman...

I absolutely love Christmas. I love the feeling, what it means, the  music, the decorations, everything! I am SO excited about what we are getting our parents this year! I can't wait to show it to you guys... after Christmas of course :)

Y'all Eli still has this cold! It started last Wednesday. He's only had one other cold this first year of life and it lasted about a week and a half. Hopefully by the end of the week he'll be better. In the meantime, I guess our house will continue to be covered in snot. eww...

I cleaned my kitchen for this

Well, I'm not sure if you remember this, but earlier this year Wes and I had this amazing plan to redo a room a month. hmm... obviously that didn't happen, but we are getting to work on it now. And when I say "we" I really mean my parents. They are getting us new countertops, a new faucet, a new microwave, and possibly backsplash for our kitchen. Is your mouth hitting the floor? Mine still is. They are way too generous and my mom loves redoing rooms so I'm reaping the benefit of that obsession! No more making fun of her for watching HGTV all the time. :)

My folks woke up at like 4:30 Friday morning to get some good deals. (that's the sink Wes and I bought yesterday) This faucet was advertised at Lowes for half off and they got one! We love it!

Here are our current countertops. They are fine and are in pretty good condition but my mom found a really great deal with her friend from work so we get to upgrade! We are super excited!

Our microwaved belonged to my grandparents. It's seen much better days and sometimes it's a struggle to get it to work. We were going to buy a new one someday soon and my parents surprised us by getting us a microvent so we will get a new vent too! Isn't that awesome?? We were thinking of putting that shiny stuff up but we might be getting a steal on this tile we are looking at so I'm not sure yet.

Wes and I bought a new sink (you can see it up top). We found one we really liked and would last hopefully forever but it wasn't going to come in until January from Lowes! yikes! So, I went home and looked online at Home Depot and it was on sale like crazy until today! I snatched that up and hopefully it will be delivered this week!

Congratulations to Ashley and Conn!! She had sweet baby Cash this morning! He is precious!! I am so excited for you guys!!