Happy Birthday!

On Friday the 29th we celebrated Edgar's dad & Leilani's birthday. Eric made dinner, and the whole family came over to celebrate.
Eli decided he needed to start practicing for his upcoming big day...

He's pretty proud of himself.

The cousins :)

Hey...can I have the camera?

No really, I WANT it!

Abuela & Leah :) (Like the outfit, mom?)
Fun was had by all. It was really nice to all get together. Between work schedules and just random business it's really hard for everyone to get together lately.

Oh...and there was one more birthday-Happy Birthday to MY dad too :)

(This apparently is birthday season around here...)

All Ready For Church!

In her cousin Katie's dress :) (Her head is too tiny for the hat...)

Is it naptime yet?!

It's a good thing...

...that stuffed animals are soft...

Who says?

Who says a 19 day old can't hold up their head?
Cuz I'm pretty good at it!

A Picnic in the Park

Today Leah was getting a little bored of the inside of the house, so we decided to head to the park for a little picnic and play time.
Eli enjoyed his PB&J

And then went off to play.

Dad got a little play time in as well.

Eli always finds the things with letters on it...

The swing is always a big hit.

Leah was zonked out in the stroller. (So far we are really liking the double jogging stroller we got. Eli loves going for walks, and Leah sleeps the whole time she is in it. So far Edgar has done the pushing, but next week I hope to get out for a few walks just me and the kids.)

Daddy showing Eli how to exercise.

Sit-ups are always harder when you got a 30 lb toddler on your lap.

Pull-ups...or maybe just hanging there...

It was a really nice time at the park. We came home and put the kids to bed, and then Edgar had to head off to work. Back to real life, I suppose...no more full time help for mommy :( I suppose the day had to come eventually :)

A new adventure

We decided we'd try something new with Leah.
Cloth diapers.
Fortunately, Leilani is letting us borrow her newborn diapers so we haven't made a big investment yet. We're trying it out, seeing if we like it. So far, so good...ya know...7 hours in. I have pink and purple diaper covers on order...right now all I have is orange and blue. Gotta get some girlie colors.

Does this diaper make my butt look big?

(ummmm...yeah...actually it does. Much bulkier than disposable.)

Mr. Chatterbox

Hope this makes you smile...We sure did :)

See if you can pick out the words 'Crescent, Square, Triangle, Hexagon, Rectangle'...he's a little obsessed with his shapes...

Tiny Hands...

You don't ever have to let go...

Leah's Dedication

Sunday, October 10, we were able to have Leah's dedication at our church.
This was something I had been really looking forward to for a long time. When I was home this summer my mom and I picked out material and a pattern for a dress for Leah, so when mom came, she had this gorgeous dress completed :)

Doesn't she just look beautiful? But more than her looking beautiful, we were anxious to publically dedicate her to the Lord. Our greatest prayer for our daughter is that she would grow up loving her Saviour and live a life that is pleasing to Him. I love how our church does the baby dedication-it's a way to dedicate our child to the Lord, as well as dedicating Edgar & I to raising her in a way that is God-honoring. It's a big responsibility, as you all know, and we really do seek to please our Lord as we train her to be a Godly woman. Our pastor also takes the time to ask the church to dedicate themselves to being good, Godly examples. It's important to remember the role our church has in raising our children...and wonderful to know we are not alone.

We were very thankful that most of our family could be there. One of the reasons we had her dedication so early was so that my parents could be here. It was such a blessing to have our family standing with us as we dedicated her.

The elders and some friends from church joined us up front as our pastor prayed for her.

We came home and the family joined us for dinner. Dad had put a turkey in the oven before church, and mom had everything all set by the time we got home. Everyone contributed to the meal (except for me... :) ) and we had a wonderful time with family.

Before dinner we took some pictures. Eli even was game to take a few :) (Doesn'the look adorable in his suit?!)

Giving his sister a kiss :)

He loves his sister :) It's SO cute when he says 'Baby stister'

HUGS! A little rough...mommy was trying to rescue Leah at this point ;)

Our happy family!

The whole gang!

Abuelo & Abuela

Grandpa & Grandma

Surrounded by a lot of love! It's so wonderful to have TWO sets of granparents that pray for our children!

Us again

Ben even took some time to read to Eli...Eli was obviously so excited to be read to by his cousin!

Krista made a beautiful cake as well...and ridiculously delicious.

It was such a nice day. What a blessing to have a Godly family, a supportive church, and a beautiful healthy child. We are so amazed that God has blessed us so richly!

I leave you with the beautiful prayer that our pastor prayed for our family

Lord, thank you. Our great thanks go out to you today for your amazing goodness for sending loving people for generation after generation for your kindgdom. Of extending families, for creating safe places for children to grow and find you. And so we are greatful for your goodness and your love and kindness today in bringing Leah into Edgar & Rochel's life. Thank you for that. We pray for her, Lord. We pray for every good blessing to be hers-for health to be hers, for physical strength to be hers. That emotional stability would be hers, and that You would keep her safe from all harm at all times. That You would keep her from temptation at all times. We pray, O God, that You would help her to find her calling in life, and especially that you would help her to find You. That you would move her. That you would never relent in bringing her to You, until that day when she finally knows you Lord, and cries out to you as her Lord and Saviour. Lord we pray for Edgar and Rochel, that You would give them all that they need-the grace, the patience, the strength, the character, the integrity to be a great dad and a great mom-not just to Leah, but to Eli as well. We thank you, Lord, for how they have proven themselvs to be faithful so far. They really are a good man and a good woman-good parents. We pray that you would continue this good trajectory that you have already begun for them. And Lord, we also just pray for all of us, as their church family, that we would be good models for this child. That we could represent You well-that she could look all around her and see goodness & Godliness. Help us to be that for this girl. In Jesus' name, we dedicate Leah unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Lots 'O Leah

I had high ambitions of doing a post for each day of Leah's first couple of weeks...but I'm so far behind that I figured I'd post a few of my favorites from her first few days with us. I hope you don't mind :) I have hundreds of other pictures (literally) that I will probably be uploading to walmart.com, so look for more pictures that way :) Saturday morning, just after midnight, we got the news that Leah's biliruben number was too high, so she had to be on this light to help bring it down. Fortunately they brought this right into the room, and wrapped her in this little 'outfit' with her back completely exposed to the light. It was a pretty nifty little contraption...and wonderful that she didn't have to leave my side. She kept spitting up and gagging all night, so I didn't get much sleep (Unrelated to the jauntice) By the end of the second night I don't think I had slept much more than 5 or 6 hours total, but I was feeling pretty good...baby adrenaline...
Saturday Eli got to hold Leah for the first time. (By the afternoon on Saturday her numbers had come down enough to where she didn't need to be on the light anymore) He was SO cute with her! He loves his little sister! (Though he keeps calling her 'cousin'...we're workin' on that...)

Sunday morning Edgar and I were ready to GO. We had everything packed up to head out of the hospital shortly after 8 am. Unfortunately, my doctor didn't show up until noon, so we sat around in our room for quite a while. I watched 'Sleepless in Seattle' and played around with pictures on the computer, and Edgar worked on his computer for a while...we were pretty anxious to leave, but had to stay put. Once we got the okay to go, though, we were outta there! SO excited to be going home!

The next day Ryan & Jennifer came over with the kids. Carly was anxious to hold Leah.

Ben & Eli played the whole time they were there. Eli LOVES his cousin Ben...and I have a sneaky feeling Ben likes playing with Eli too :)

Ben managed to disobey his mom while at swim practice, so his punishment was that he had to hold Leah :) That is the only way to get him to hold a baby :) He NEVER held Eli...never wanted to. He's pretty funny with Leah...he held her here, but hasn't held her since. He does periodically come by her and 'pet' her, but that's it. It's pretty cute. I was thrilled, though, to get a picture of him holding his cousin :)

Daddy and his girl :)

The next morning we decided Leah needed a bath. I get so nervous to give such little babies a bath, so I convinced my mom to give her a bath while I took pictures. Mom's a pro.

All clean!

Ummmm...she was happy up until this point. Apparently she got cold... (I DID give her a bath today all by myself...okay...Edgar helped :) It's kinda scary when they're that little, but she did fine. She's all nice and clean!)

'Ahhhhhh...nice warm towel'

That afternoon we went to Target...and HAD to buy these for Leah. Yeah... pretty sure she's posing.

Man, she's pretty!

The next day (Wednesday) we went to the park. Eli played with some other kid's toys-they were nice enough to share, since I had forgotten to bring his toys.

It was a fairly breezy day, so Leah was covered up.

This is her 'under the cover'

She did get out to get a glimpse of the park...with her sunglasses on, of course!

Eli had lots of fun playing with Grandma!

This is pretty much one of my favorite expressions she has...

Checkin' his sister out.

Thursday I discovered how fun accessories can be :) I love the little bow in her hair! And those are some shoes I made for her. They were super cute...but they wouldn't stay on. Jennifer & Carly bought the outfit for her...SO CUTE!

Friday Eli started regressing...

Saturday we had dinner over at Ryan & Jennifer's house and watched the Rays game. Dad held Leah for a bit-I tried not to bombard him with pictures every time he held her...and I'm kinda mad that I did that, because now I have hardly any pictures of him holding her :( But he DID hold her :)

We all had our Rays shirts on! (Apparently I need to get a matching shirt...)

Brother and sister cheering the Rays on. They must be good luck, because the Rays won!

And that gets us through Saturday :) Sunday was a pretty big day for us...it deserves a post of its own...it will come soon (hopefully!)