Where is the month of August going? In a couple weeks I will back to teaching and I can't even believe it. I remember when I was a kid, I thought summers were never ending (I was one of those kids that loved school, hence why I became a teacher) and now I can't seem to get them to slow down. Before I know it my kids are going to be moving out!

Anyway, we've had fun around here. We finally finished putting up our craiglist find, our play structure, and absolutely love it. We spend many hours on the thing. At first we thought we might have been wrong getting it since Eva only hung out on one swing, but now she is all over that thing. I love that I can put Elijah down for a little nap and run out and play in our little park.

We also celebrated Eva's birthday at our house. It was fun to see so many of Eva's little friends and ours in our home. It was totally stressful throwing a party with a little one but worth it. That's why my dad is wearing a pinata (sorry no tilda for the n) on his head. I love the picture since we rarely get one of him smiling.

The last two are a couple of my favorites. Elijah has been figuring out the whole eye thing. Poor kiddo looks cross-eyed, but its gotten better. And the last one is of him three months. We just love the little guy!

Because I couldn't resist, I had to post this picture of my princess Eva!

We blessed Elijah with Matthew's family this past weekend. Doesn't our baby look cute?

Also when we were with Matthew's family everyone celebrated Eva's birthday early and her Nana made these cool cake pops for her cake. The kids thought they were real neat. I didn't get a good picture of them because I had the wrong lens, but I think you get the idea.

And finally, I meant to let everyone know how big my little baby is and I never did that back when he was two months. Well, he is BIG. So big the doctor told me I was over feeding him and put him on a little diet. Turns out our Eli is in the 95th% for his weight, 80th% for height and his noggin was in the 99th%. My doctor didn't think that was right but the nurse never remeasured so I am not sure how accurate that is. He does seem to have a big head though.

Random Pictures and Post

Sorry for the long post. This goes to show that I had enough to be posting things all along but lack of time left me to do it this way. Happy reading.

First, as documented by the first picture and I am sure later Eva will hate me for putting this on the web, but we discovered that our little girl is very allergic to strawberries. I suspected awhile back that she might be but a week ago we went strawberry picking and giving her one strawberry to prove to Matthew that I was pretty sure she was allergic she broke out in horrible hives. We felt so bad for her. It was sad to have to break the news to her that she couldn't have strawberries anymore. At first she said, "no mama" because she likes them so much and then sadly, broke down and said, "okay mama" she realized it was only for her own good. She continued to break out for the next couple of nights and since then has had no desire to eat a strawberry!

The second is of our little chunk. He is getting so big. We have his two month appointment tomorrow so I will have to wait to post all his stats.

The third is of more trauma to Eva's face. It has been a rough couple weeks for her. A rough month actually, because in May she had a huge shiner underneath her eye from running into her favorite daycare friend. But anyway, this one is from her crash on our new playstructure. I was pushing her on the swing, and I don't know if I was pushing her too high or if she let go but she did a complete flip in the air and landed HARD face first into the ground. She had dirt in her mouth and teeth and the wounds on her face to prove it. She cried of course but then wanted to go right back outside. She LOVES to play outside. One of the main reasons for her "park" we call it.

The fourth is of our tree that feel during a "storm" we had a couple weeks back. Branches fell off of the tree and into our yard. It created quite the mess. I was pretty worried the whole tree would fall on our house but luckily it didn't. It took Matthew awhile to pick up the mess but he finally finished. We decided that everytime we think we might have time to do a project that we want to do, we get dumped on with unexpected projects. The joys of owning an older home.

And lastly, we have moved Eva's toddler bed into her room but have not taken out her crib because we don't want to admit that our spare bed with the computer and guest bed will have to be surrendered her shortly to our little baby. While we try everynight to convince Eva to sleep in "la cama de Meg" or in other words with little friend Meg's bed because it looks just like hers, she won't sleep there. Well, one Saturday we had a breakthrough and she slept there. The next morning we heard a knock on a door and realized that Eva was knocking on her door so that we would let her out. We thought it was the cutest thing! So, I made her get back in her bed so that I could take her picture. But sadly, the next night did not want to sleep there again and still has not slept there. I have said to her that on her birthday her crib was going to disappear (or go to Elijah) so I will keep you posted on that one!

Mt. Hood

On Memorial Day Luke and I climbed Mt Hood. I thought it would make me manly because there are crampons and ice axes involved. We started a little after midnight which made for some really cool pictures at dawn. It is incredible to be so high up and see all of the mountains. Also, the sulfur stunk. Besides the second half of the way down (next time I'm taking a sled), it was a good experience. Maybe, just maybe, I'm a little more manly, I don't know, I should Verenice.

Things have been pretty calm around here believe it or not.  We are all trying to adjust to having a new baby and overall adjusting well.  I had already forgotten how stinky it is to have to get up every couple hours to feed a little baby.  That is really the only thing that is kicking my butt right now.  Eva, as you can tell, loves her little brother.  He is growing nicely.  He weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. at his two week appointment which is more than his birth weight!  He is getting quite husky.  In fact, I hate to think that soon he will be too big for the newborn size and eventually be big all around.  In Eva news, she is getting to be an expert on her little bike.  We got it on craigslist and she LOVES it.  We laugh because we are spending more on the accessories than on the actual bike.  Next, I really want to buy her a little basket to put in the front.  She is just too cute riding her little bike in a dress.  I can't believe how girly my little girl is!  

We welcome to our family...Elijah Burton Powell.  On May 2nd, at 12:16 in the morning I managed to get this kiddo out of my belly once in for all.  He was supposed to come on June 2nd, but instead came to us four weeks early.  For an early baby he really isn't that tiny.  He weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20 in. long.  He is doing great.  He has jaundice, but really a good baby.  I honestly sometimes forget that we have him because all he does right now is eat and sleep.  Eva loves her baby brother.  It is good to see that she is good to him and loves to give him lots of kisses and feed him his bottle.  They have me nursing, bottle feeding and pumping.  It is quite the task!  But I am glad that I appear to be getting more milk that I did with Eva.  

So, for the birth story.  On Friday, May day, I started some light bleeding.  I didn't really think anything of it so I called the nurse and she said I should be ok.  I went to work and was having contractions all day.  I knew I was in the first phase of labor but I also knew that it didn't necessarily mean anything.  I was hurting off and on all day.  In fact, at one point one of my students asked me if I could still get a substitute.  I made it through the day and went home early to take a little nap before I had to get Eva from day care.  My contractions were slowly getting worse and my bleeding hadn't really stopped so I called the nurse again in the evening and she told me to go to the hospital.  My dad came and got Eva, we quickly packed a bag and got to the hospital at 9:00 p.m.  By then, my contractions had picked up and I was hurting some more.  I was dilated to a 5 by around 9:45 and they got me into a room.  I got one dose of phetenal, and was still in pain, I could feel pressure like I wanted to go to the bathroom but I think that was the baby.  I had them break my water and then I started pushing at around 11:40.  I didn't get him out in 2 pushes like most women do with their second baby, but this time around I didn't have back labor either.  Things seemed intense, but I did it again.  I am so thankful to have that over with.  You really do forget quickly how much having a baby all natural hurts!!  But, even in my moments of thinking I couldn't do it, I did and he is finally here.   

The pictures are out of order, so, the first is of the proud big sister.  She is more beautiful to me everyday.  I love her big brown eyes.  The ones of Elijah with Matthew are of Elijah 6 days old, and the last two are from the hospital right after I had him.  

All of these pictures are from Easter. I decided that one of my favorite parts of easter is finding all the fun little presents to put inside Eva's easter basket. In fact, Matthew was a little disappointed that we have moved on from Easter baskets to each other and now it's all about the kid. Guess that's life. I loved watching Eva get so excited. She wasn't so excited for all the hair ties and bows I got her, but she loved the mouth wash and her Bolt movie. She makes me laugh.

With the idea from a woman in our ward, Matthew made these cute bunny cupcakes. We actually didn't do the whole, "search for the eggs thing" because it was rainy and windy that day but we had fun nonetheless spending time with each and my family.