2010 Family Portirat!

Portraits taken by Kyer Castlewood Portrait Arts! 

Christmas 2010!

Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas as a new family of five. The kids were spoiled as usual by all the Grandparents, and Aunt and Uncles. We took our time Christmas morning opening presents stopping in the middle to give the kids a rest and have some homemade waffles (by daddy) for breakfast. It was a nice and peaceful morning.

Thought it would be fun to show some of the ornaments that some of our family has made for us over the years...

 Paul's Aunt Mary crocheted decoration around ornament.

 Elizabeth's Aunt Patty made this one.

Elizabeth's sister made this one. 

Paul's Uncle John made this dream catcher. 

Paul made his Laufer Christmas cookies once again this year and they were enjoyed by all. Rachel especially loved them for it was the first time she had them. 

 
 

 

The kids had a blast opening all their presents.

 

Tuffy needed a little help with his presents. They were the same size as he is!

The kids played with their toys all day while mommy made Christmas dinner. Elijah had a lot of fun too...It was a wonderful family Christmas one we will never forget. Our first family Christmas as a family of five.

Elijah's Dedication

This is our Senor Pastor, Pastor Peter. Yes he is very young for being a Senor Pastor, but he is so wise beyond his years. We really enjoy his teachings.

On December 19th Paul and I had Elijah dedicated to the Lord. Paul put together a wonderful prayer for Elijah and had it all typed out ready to read. When we were worshiping that morning before the dedication Paul felt that God wanted him to say something completely different than what he typed. So he bravely went up there and said what he felt God was leading him to say. It was so perfect! I just hope you can hear it on the video because we do not have it written down and Elijah was crying almost the whole time until our Pastor took him, then he calmed right down. We also had to have another pastor come up and hold JP because he wanted to run all around the stage. We are putting the video together and will be posting it soon...

Elijah's 2 months old

Wow another month has flown by! Elijah is doing so well. He is growing and gaining so much weight. He now weighs 10 lbs 9 oz. He is 21.5 in long. He still has GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease). He gets medicine twice a day to help reduce the acid in this stomach. All three of our kids had this. It went away by the time the other two were four months old. So we are expecting the same with Elijah. Other than that Elijah is doing really well. I am so happy and grateful to God for how well he is doing.

He handled his shots like a champ. He hardly cried. I was really impressed. He is able to stand holding his own weight with his knees locked (of course we are helping him balance). According to our Pediatrician Elijah is a month advanced in development. Which is so surprising to us given just how early he was born. We cannot believe how strong he is.

He is really starting to smile and coo. We have little conversations back and forth with each other. He loves grabbing his toys on his tummy time mat. It's so hard to get him to let go once he has taken hold of one of the toys. Tummy time is hard to incorporate into our day with two other toddlers running around who could trample him. We try to make it work though.

He is sleeping well. The longest he has given us is close to five hours. Although we did not go to bed when he did so we did not get that amount of sleep. But Paul and I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our Pediatrician told us that he should sleep better once he reaches about 12lbs. I cannot wait for that to happen!

JP's Art Projects!

JP is really getting into his creative side and he enjoys doing art projects. So I thought it would be fun to post some of his latest work. He is so proud of his accomplished art work and cries when we are all finished.

Here is JP paining the letter "J" for Jeremiah. He also painted to stars.






























































Here is JP making rice krispies treats...eating rice krispies treats!
























He also made a wreath with cutouts of his hands. He helped glue them on.

Elijah is already 1 month!!

Where has this past month gone? I can't even believe it has already been a month! Elijah is growing and filling out nicely. He was skinnier than either his older brother or sister when he was born but now is looking rounder.

Elijah's accomplishments thus far include rolling over from his front to back (yes, all by himself!), lifting his head and looking around, looking us in the eye and smiling (and no, it's not always gas), and eating like a champ. Thus far he's avoided developing the "baby GIRD" that plagued his brother and sister. Of course we chalk that up to improved parenting :) ! He is doing so well that we have nicknamed him "Tuffy" because he is just so tough and strong.

Jeremiah and Rachel have adapted well to their new sibling. JP showed some signs of jealousy at first but for the most part that has gone away. He loves to kiss and pet his baby brother and really wants to hold him. We have let JP hold Elijah while sitting and JP says, "Awe, so cute!" which is, well, SO CUTE! JP also says, "It's OK 'lisha" and "Calm down 'lisha" when he's crying. Rachel also loves kissing him and bouncing him in his bouncer.



Here's hoping the next four years go just as fast. Then I'll have a break when all three are in school! (Of course I'll be crazy lonely and long for these days back...)

Halloween 2010

Here are some pictures of the kids all dressed up for Halloween. JP was a doctor. He had a pager and all the doctor tools but he didn't want to wear them. Rachel was Tinkerbell if you could not tell. And little Elijah was a skeleton. JP and Rachel went down our street to do some trick-or-treating. JP thought it was great that all he had to do was ring the door bell and he would get candy. He had lots of fun! We all did!!