Mixin' it up

Thursday we made cupcakes but with a little splash of color. I found the recipe in the Family Fun magazine. The girls had a blast watching the batter change color and then layering it into the muffin cups. They were very pretty when they came out of the oven, and they went pretty quick.







After our cupcake making the girls got the markers out and Ruby covered herself with drawings. She had flowers running up and down both arms, octopuses and spiders on her legs and a neon mustache. Emma was covered in scribbles and I asked them who taught them this little trick without hesitation they responded "Grandma Cook."

We have been keeping busy. We try to do something fun each week that gets us out of the house, and I personally have enjoyed getting together with Sarah and letting the kids play while we play hand and foot.

2 months

Since we have been home from vacation Eli is now waking up 2 times a night. He goes to bed at 8:00 p.m. and wakes up at 2 and then again at 6:30 a.m. I much preferred his 10 hour sleep schedule. He smiles often and has been cooing and babling for a couple weeks. I love his responses when you talk to him, he gets so excited.

Physical therapy is going well, Kris comes and sees us twice a month. She is also making his splints for him. We were jumping through so many hoops with our insurance company and the orthopedic companies we had been in touch with kept telling us that they hadn't worked with an infant in over a decade. So when Kris said that she could do it for him, we were so happy. She had him in splints in a week and we had been working with this other company for over a month.

During the day he wears thumb splints that help hold his thumb out and give it a little stretch. 2-3 times a day we take them off and stretch his fingers and thumbs out and hold it for 10-15 seconds while we use our thumbs to massage the inside of his palms. We are seeing little improvements and it makes me hopeful.



Right before bed time his thumb splints come off and we put on his hard casts, which hold his wrists straight and his thumb extended out. Then we put sock over the top of them so he doesn't hit or scratch himself with them. The first night was really hard for him but he is doing a lot better and it has just become a part of the routine.





Eli had his 2 month appointment on June 17th and here are his stats:

Weight:13 lb. 5 oz. 85 percentile
Height: 23 3/4 in. 85 percentile
Head:40 cm 60 percentile

He is a big guy and I am sure he will be growing out of his 3-6 month clothes shortly. :)

That same afternoon we had an appointment with his Neurologist. I left feeling very annoyed just because he didn't do much more than look at his hands and tell me everything I had already been told about the test results. It felt very pointless.

Arizona

On Wednesday night around 8:00 p.m. we left our house and headed on our way to Arizona. We decide to drive through the night, which at the time seemed like a good idea. :) The kids were extremely good. We just took the scenic route which was filled with winding roads. It made Emma car sick and she threw up 3 different times. Jed and I were very tired and so grateful when we reached our destination. We got to Cottonwood AZ at 5 a.m. in the morning. It felt so good to sleep for a few hours. When we got there, Jed's mom finished feeding Eli and stayed up with him so I could get some rest.

Thursday we were up around 8:00 and we ate brownies on the porch, and then got ready to go to Slide Rock in Sedona. It was amazing and so beautiful, being surrounded by red rock and playing in the water that had naturally occurring water slides carved out. It was such a fun afternoon and we even did a little cliff jumping. I stuck with the 12 ft. height and Jed jumped about 25-30 ft. It was a rush even from such a short height. ( In the video I had the height wrong. I should never be documentary film maker.) After Slide Rock we went to Dairy Queen for Ice cream. Butterscotch dipped cone= delicious.








The next day we went for hay rides behind the 4-wheeler, went swimming at the rec center and did some rock climbing as we left to go back to Gary and Ellie's after swimming. Jed and Sarah ventured up the pine tree in the yard, they got pretty far up in the branches. We also played my new favorite card game; hand and foot with Mark and Nancy. I think we were up until 1:30 playing. It was so great to have one on one time with them and pull the win. :) That evening we had a little program where you were able to share a memory of Grandpa Romig. I heard a lot of stories that were new to me and I gained a greater appreciation for this sweet man.




Great Grandma Romig gave the girls both 25 pennies. They had fun making letters out of them and counting them. It was also so sweet watching GG hold Eli and sing to him.




Saturday we decided start heading back home which gave us the opportunity to stop in the Grand Canyon. It was incredible. It was raining and quite cold but we got to take in some beautiful views and enjoy the park for a couple hours.









We stopped in Page, AZ to get some rest and spend the night. We had fun swimming and sitting in the hot tub, Emma hung out in the hotel room watching Toy Story 2. We drove home Sunday, and it was so nice to be back home. We loved the vacation and made lots of fun memories.

Eli's blessing day

We blessed Eli on June 6 in our ward. One of the sweetest things about the day was seeing Eli be blessed in the same outfit that Jed was blessed in 27 years ago. It was in perfect condition and Eli looked so sweet in it. I am so glad Suzanne hung on to it, the outfit is a treasure to me.




I have to start out by saying that hosting a blessing at your house is a lot of work. When we blessed Ruby and Emma we were still living in the filing cabinet and it would have been impossible to accommodate everyone.


I was grateful for all of the kind cue's I was given to remind me what I was supposed to be doing as host. Suzanne kindly offered to make the BBQ beef for the sandwiches. It greatly lightened the load.

We had almost all of the family and a few friends travel the long distance to our house. I failed however to take any pictures of except of my beautiful neice Ashlyn holding Eli. Which I think makes up for all of the other pictures I failed to take. She was so sweet with him.



My SIL Mindy took all of the blessing pictures of Eli. I love them so much and am very excited to get them printed so Eli can take his proper place up on the wall with the rest of the family.



It was a wonderful day, and enjoyed seeing everyone, even though I am left with the feeling that I didn't get to spend the time I wanted to visiting with everyone. I so appreciate everyone's support.

Parade

On Saturday we went to the Eagle Mountain Parade. It was really fun. The girls loved catching candy and telling the princesses they were pretty, Phia was telling them to be careful up there. It was so funny.



We saw Snow White and Sleeping Beauty go by and the girls wanted a picture with them. Jed took the girls to get their picture, and the princesses got pretty ahead. As I was watching I saw Emma pick up full speed and run right after them and wrap her arms around Snow White's leg and shout her name. Ruby was more shy ( I was surprised.) I am also wondering why bag pipes make me cry. Ruby recieved flowers from the Home Depot man during the parade and also got to break a board. She was so excited to participate.




Then we headed off to the park for a picnic with Grandma and Erin and Shane. The girls had fun playing together and I had fun eating doughnuts. :) Our day didn't stop their, we then headed off to Costco to get rolls and strawberry lemonade for Eli's blessing the following day and then to Lowe's for Weed and Feed so Jed could green up the lawn. Then we scurried home and started cleaning the house top to bottom, and then it was off to a Pampered Chef party and over to my sisters to borrow a dress that I didn't look poured into. :) It was quite the busy day, but very fun.

Sunday with a side of scissors

At our house, a Sunday has not passed that I haven't found these two cuddle up taking a nap somewhere. Eli wore his white shirt on Sunday for the first time. It is a 3-6 month and it fits. Every time I looked at him, I would say something like "Oh, he looks like a little man." and then I would get a fit of giggles. Proud giggles of course. I am sure Jed wondered what had set me off, but then when he saw him he too got the proud giggles about our Bubba.





We did an impromptu photo shoot this morning. Sometimes Ruby will just grab the camera and take some pictures and then show me her work. She took this one of Eli, which I love. And then came a whole slew of flashes and posing.



The picture of Ruby holding her finger up is her way of "telling the story" of the scissor incident yesterday. I was down stairs and Ruby came running to me with her finger sticking our and bloody. I looked down at it and noticed that he finger nail was partially clipped off. Ruby's version of the story is that "Emma was cutting my nails with scissors." Of course Emma couldn't have done so without permission for Ruby.