Craziness

The last little bit has been crazy! With Michael back in school now it has been just me and the kids at home. I get pretty exhausted caring for them. Having a second child is a transition! So, I included some pictures from the last while here. These show some of the happy moments, but let me assure you that we aren't all smiles as anyone with kids knows. With the smiles come the lumps, bumps, crying, and more crying (on mine and the kids parts).

As far as updates go....

Eli had a birthday...the big 2! He is definitely showing signs of the stubborness that he inherited from someone in the family...I'll let you guess. He is a bright kid. He can count 1-10 and he knows the ABC song along with a ton of other songs. He can recognize a lot of his shapes and colors. He is a busy boy with tons of energy. It is tough keeping up with him.

Eli on his birthday eating a breakfast of Strawberry soup. He loves this stuff...you can tell by the amount on him, right?!



Sometimes this is what I get when I try to snap a photo. Can you believe all that blond hair?


Eli with a cute smile. He is a pretty happy boy and getting so big!


John Ellis is a joy. He is such a sweet baby! He is smiley and giggly most of the time! He is rolling around lots now and he is good at arch his back to move across the floor. He has had a tough time of late being plagued with ear infections. Even so he is still so happy. His hair is starting to turn red. He may end up a redhead!

I am hanging in there but it has been tough. I am exciting for Thanksgiving Break next week! I will get to see family and enjoy a break. We are headed to visit my brother for a few days. My parents will also be there!

Michael is nearing the end of his first semester at Akron U. It has been an adjustment for him being back in school, but I know he is enjoying it. He loves to learn and has really enjoyed getting to know the people in his program.

That's all for now. I will try to post more often, but lets be honest, it may not happen. =) For now I am staying afloat and taking it a day at a time.

Labor Day Weekend

It was a wonderful weekend! We had family come for a visit. Michael's sister Joni and her husband Chase along with his sister Emma who was in town visiting Joni. The highlight of the weekend was the blessing of our precious little one John Ellis. Michael, Chase, and two of the brothers from our ward were in the circle. It is such a neat experience to be at the blessing of a baby.

Joni, Chase, Michael, Eli, John Ellis, and I after church on blessing day

Our little family

Joni snapped this picture of the kids while she was here. I just love their dimples!

Chase holding John Ellis

On Saturday we went to Cleveland for the day. This is Eli and Michael on the U.S.S Cod (a WWII submarine.

Joni carrying the baby as we got onto the U.S.S. Cod. It wasn't easy getting into the sub. We had to climb down this ladder.

We also went to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. This butterfly was in the Glasshouse dedicated to Costa Rica.

Eli in the Children's Garden at the Botanical Garden. He absolutely loved that garden and it was hard to tear him away. This was a little cave we found there.

A sandbox at in the Children's garden. Eli was having a ball playing in here. What could be better for a little boy than a bucket, shovel, and a ton of dirt to play in!?

Eli also loved this little house in the Children's garden. He loved the table, chairs, and broom.

Joni and Chase in the Butterfly Garden

Emma in the gardens. It was nice to have her visit with Joni and Chase. We hadn't seen her since Christmas.

Michael and I in the Waterfall Garden. There were all kinds of themed gardens at the Botanical Gardens and we really enjoyed our visit.

Eli enjoyed riding in his stroller at the gardens. That is as long as he had snacks. It was a really hot day and we were all pretty tired by the end of our visit.

It was really a great weekend! We loved having Joni and Chase and Emma come. It was also nice to have some more time with Michael. He is pretty busy now that school has started.

An Adjustment

So, it has been an adjustment having two kids instead of one. I love them both but I can't deny that there are definitely times when we are all crying (yes including me - hormones, maybe?). We have some fun, though. I included lots of pictures here showing some of the things we have done.

A favorite pastime in our house is reading and we have tried to instill this in the kids. You can never start too early. I have pictures of us reading to Eli when he was the size of John-Ellis.

Life is too short...why not nap!? One thing I frequently do is nap while the kids nap. Lately, they have been napping around the same time and it has been great!

Thankfully, Eli is starting to be nicer to his brother. I thought this was the cutest picture. Eli got up there on his own. He loves his brother but I think he wishes he could play with him more!

This is actually the first time Eli held John-Ellis. We meant to have him hold him in the hospital or at least sooner, but it just never happened. He sometimes asks to hold him still.

I just love this picture! I love it that both of the boys got my dimples. I think he is a really cute little guy too. Of course, every mom thinks their baby is cute, though.

Daddy and John-Ellis. I sure do love my three boys! I don't mind being outnumbered since it is by them!

This was an attempt at getting him to take a pacifier. He really hasn't shown much interest and since he is pretty happy most of the time, we haven't pushed it.

This is Eli and his Grandpa Redd at the zoo. While Michael's parents were in town when the baby was born, all of them went to the Akron zoo. Eli really loved it.

While Grandma and Grandpa Redd were here, we also went to Kirtland for a visit. We only live about an hour away from there. It was lots of fun and they finally got to see everything. The last time we went with them we only got to spend a very short time there.

Playing frisbee on the 4th of July. We had a fun picnic and played frisbee on the 4th with Michael's parents.

I am beginning to get things figured out to take care of two kids but it is still rough at times. They always seem to need something at the same time! I am grateful, though, to be a mom and to have two special little boys in my life.

Me and the Boys

Well, I have been a real slacker when it comes to this blog! However, I think I can plead good reasons for that. We have had a busy summer so far with moving, having a baby, and getting adjusted to a new home. Yep, you heard me right...we have a new addition to the family. John Ellis was born on June 15th weighing in at 7lb 4 oz and 20in long. Labor, delivery, and everything about his birth were SO much better and easier than with my first baby. All total the entire labor took 10 hours. We were only in the hospital for about 2 hours before he was born. It is a good thing too that it went better than last time, because if it was that hard again I would be having 2 kids total! I think Heavenly Father knew that. It really was a blessing that everything worked out nigh unto perfect with this pregnancy and delivery. John-Ellis is a sweet baby and I can't believe he is almost a month old already! It has been an adjustment for all of us especially Eli. So now I am definitely in the minority. It is just me and the boys.

Ohio Welcomes You

Just over a week ago, we saw the Ohio Welcomes You sign and began our time as residents. We now call Akron, Ohio home. It has been a hard adjustment. It has been hard to go from our little house back to an apartment. We didn't get to see the new place before we moved in so of course we had no idea what to expect. We are beginning to get settled in now but it is hard to move to a new state and know no one and nothing about the area.

Our past few weeks in Connecticut were very full. There were lots of goodbyes to say and packing to do. Eli seemed to take it all in stride. He learned to say the word box and even "helped" to pack a few of them himself. He even found time to play outside. Playing outside is one of his absolute favorite things to do. The pictures of him below are from just before we left. However, adjusting to being in Ohio has been much tougher. He has been much whinier and grumpier. But, we have all been pretty tired and grumpy. It is hard moving!


One of the sad goodbyes we had to give was to our car. This was Michael's first car and it was hard to leave it behind. After breaking down a couple of weeks before we moved and finding that the repairs were more than it was worth, we decided to not fix it.

In Ashford, CT they do a really great Easter egg hunt every year. This is the first year Eli was old enough to go. It was a lot of fun except that it rained really hard during it. We all got really wet. Eli had a great time though and he wasn't even afraid of the Easter bunny.

Well, that's all for now. We are beginning to get used to being in Ohio, but we still miss Connecticut a lot. Not the place mind you but all of the amazing people! We left a lot of great friends and a wonderful ward family behind. We love and miss you all!

Eli's Favorites

Eli has really gotten in to reading and books lately. He loves to have us read him books for naptime and bedtime. Sometimes I also find him on the couch just looking at a book. He loves to climb up in the chair and look at Mommy and Daddy's books too. He has a favorite shelf of our books that he pulls the books off of nearly every day. The shelf includes Harry Potter, Crime and Punishment and The Brother's Karamozoff among others, all of which I have seen him looking at or trying to get us to read to him. I guess he's getting bored with Clifford and Curious George! I am glad that all of the book reading we've done with him since he was a newborn has helped him to learn to love books!

Eli also loves his bucket. He has this toy bucket full of stacking cups and shapes that he loves to carry around and play with. Sometimes the first thing that he says when we pick him up out of bed is "bu-bu" or bucket. He then hurries over and grabs his bucket to play with.

He is beginning to discover the outdoors as it gets warmer here. If you take him outside, though, you can bet that it will be a fight to get him to come in. He could stay out all day even if he is getting cold. We went to the park on Saturday and he got to go down the slide for the first time and he loved it! We had stopped to get ice cream before walking to the park and we had a hard time getting him to stay with us and eat it. He was just so excited to play on the equipment and watch all of the other kids.

Sometimes I think his other favorite thing to do is drive me crazy! He is just so energetic and full of life! It is a true joy to be with him and watch him grow and learn each day!

Little Boys, Ohio, and Fun

The past couple of weeks have been full of fun and busy times. On Valentine's weekend, we went to the chocolate festival in Willimantic. A large number of businesses on Main Street and elsewhere use this as a chance to advertise their business and also hand out lots of chocolate goodies. We had cake, cookies, candy, and even chocolate soda at Hosmer's. It wasn't the best lunch for our health but we had a great time...especially Eli. =) I don't normally give him candy or chocolate much so he was in heaven. He especially enjoyed the Victorian Home Association stop with balloons and stickers. We had to pretty much drag him out of there!

On Valentine's Day Michael, Eli, and I found out that the new little member of our family will be a little boy. This little guy definitely had the right parts and was looking great and healthy. Although, he was much less cooperative than Eli was. He just went about his business and ignored the technician. We are excited to welcome this new little boy to our home. We might even have a good name picked out.... Of course, you will have to wait and see what it will be. Sharing names we like has ended up with someone else using the name. =(

The weekend after Valentine's Day Michael went to the University of Akron to interview for grad school. It was hard to have Daddy away for a couple of days but it was worth it. This was our first choice school and we found out on Friday that Michael got in there. He will start school this fall to earn his PhD.

That also means we will be moving sometime before then. Once again we are moving when I am pregnant. I told Michael that the next time I am pregnant (that is if I survive having two kids =) we are not allowed to move!

So as you can see our lives have been pretty full and so blessed lately. We are especially grateful at this time for all of the prayers and support from friends and family!

The Next Big Thing

Well, the next big thing coming for our family is the arrival of baby number 2 in June 2011. We don't know if we are having a boy or a girl yet, but hopefully we will find out on February 14th at our next ultrasound. 2011 looks to be a very busy year for us with the arrival of a new baby, and if all goes well starting grad school and moving all during the summer. Everything is still so up in the air, but we are excited to welcome a new little one to our home!

First Haircut

Well, over the break we gave Eli a haircut. I know that we took pictures of the actual process but I can't seem to find them anywhere. So, these are before and after pictures. Neither one is that close up but these are the best we have. Hopefully now we won't get any more comments on how cute "she" is. I do kind of miss his long hair though. I really loved to run my hands through it. These pictures also show how much Eli is in to his Daddy right now. He gets so excited when Daddy comes home and his new favorite word to say all the time is Da-da. Notice in the bottom picture how much snow we have gotten! We have gotten buried this year!

A Great Vacation!

For Christmas, Michael, Eli, and I went to Pocatello, ID to visit with Michael's family. It was the first vacation we had gone on in a long while and it was much needed. It had been two years since we had been to Idaho and that long since we had seen much of Michael's family. My sister-in-law and Michael's sister Joni took lots of pictures and I included a bunch here. They are in no particular order.

Me with most of Michael's sisters and Mom

Girl's Night....We had SO much fun, ate lots of junk food, and watched the new Emma movie.

Michael and I at his grandparents. We went over there for lunch one day.

The two newest additions to the family...Cami Egbert and Benjamin Smyth. What cuties!

Michael's family with just the parents and kids

Our little family being silly

Family picture

It is hard to decide which picture of so many people is the best....the entire clan!

Grandma, Eli, and Uncle Matthew reading books

Daddy and Eli playing. Eli loves to play with Michael's hat.

Christmas Eve dinner. We had a candlelight dinner with lots of yummy food.

Making gingerbread houses. I had never made one but I had a lot of fun and ate too much candy too! =)

A bunch of us just before heading to the extended family party.

Eli and Cami with Aunt Joni. Eli loved his aunts and uncles and all of the attention.

Eli playing at Great-Grandma Redd's house

We really had a great vacation. Some other highlights include celebrating our 5th anniversary on December 29th. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. Michael's parents let us get away for the night and they watched Eli. Eli also got a hair cut. After having a few people refer to him as a she I decided it was time to cut his hair. He looks so grown up now. I will have to post the pictures of the process. Eli was also cutting molars while we were there and so he was periodically quite grumpy. All of Michael's adult siblings with their spouses all went to dinner one night. It was lots of although we didn't get to sit at the same table. I hope we can continue that tradition each Christmas with those of us that are there.

It was tough coming back to everything and tough readjusting to Eastern time. We are still working on adjusting to the time change. In recent news we got a huge snow storm yesterday that left us with 2 ft of snow I think. It is the biggest snowfall we've had since moving to CT by far. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and that the New Year treats you well!