Day Three-July 7

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Declan and Elliana both woke up very early. While Declan ate breakfast, Elliana joined him at the table in the highchair and tried some rice cereal.  She does this funny thing sticking out her tongue and there wasn't much success at all.  We thought she had been eating some solids while in the transition home, but apparently not.  We are going to try to be consistent about giving her some every day to get her used to it.

 

 

We had planned to take Elliana to church our first Sunday home as a family, but that definitely didn't happen this week.  Brent was still feeling a bit not himself so he stayed home and since Elliana's sleep schedule is not adjusted yet, we kept her home as well.  We also want to continue to keep our faces in front of her so she associates us as her mommy and daddy and the ones who are around.  Hopefully next week we can all go to worship together!

Before church, while giving Elliana her bottle, Raelynn asked if she could help.  So we let her feed her for a few moments and of course I had to capture it! It was so sweet.  Raelynn is doing so well with her.  It's adorable to see because she was only 17 months when Declan was born, so she didn't quite take on the 'mothering' role.  She's a great helper!!

 

Right as we were leaving, Brent was able to put Elliana down for a nap.  I gave him the task of getting a picture of her first real nap in the pack n play!  She had napped for short times in there before and is in there at night, but has always been put down after she is asleep.  It was our first success at her going down awake and actually napping! :)

 

 

After church, we came home to some delicious tortilla soup that Auntie Dre had prepped for us in the crock pot the night before.  We are so blessed to have these meals take care of for us.  So nice to have the prep work taken out for us so we can focus on caring for Elliana--and the other two children, too:)

 

 

 

 

 Elliana was in the ergo for a while on mommy while daddy was still catching up on sleep.  She transitioned nicely to the crib! yay! Second successful nap of the day:)

Mimi, Papa, Auntie Dre, and Adele stopped over just before we were leaving to celebrate Declan's first birthday party.  Cousin photo shoots are always a must when Adele is in town, and we knew this was our only chance.  Here are some of the photos:

(and I'm sorry, but there were too many good ones not to have them all!)



 

Elliana LOVES her cousins! Can Raelynn's smile get any better?

Adele is wondering what Elliana is doing to her dress.  Raelynn smiled for the last one, so now she's taking a break. Someone off to the right is making Declan smile big!

and here we have none of them looking at the camera

Declan is escaping!

Great photo with Mimi and Papa and their grandkids...and Ike too

ok, this is about the cutest picture ever. 



And Adele is still going in for more kisses...and Elliana just loves it!

Sister finally gets in to get one...and manages not to rip Elliana's head off

little sailors.

 

At 5:15 we headed off to Grandma and Tank's house to celebrate Declan's 1st birthday!!! (wowzers...is he really one already?!)

 

With all that is going on in our lives right now between brining home Elliana and having a house full of moving boxes, Grandma and Tank were kind enough to open their house for all of us to celebrate.

Declan's real birthday is not until July 17, but since both sides of the family could be here, we wanted to celebrate early. We love celebrating birthdays and like to have fun parties with lots of friends, but this year for Declan, we kept it simple.  real simple. sorry buddy.  We'll go all out for number two!!

 

It was a fun time with just our family.  Super fun to celebrate the big boy turning one, but even more special was that we could all be there together to celebrate--with Elliana and also both sets of grandparents.

 

Thank you Aunt Kacia for making a cake for Declan!

it was a pizza party! whoo hoo!

Daddy and Elliana at dinner

YAY! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

This says "Mommy's Big Guy"  :) pretty perfect for him!

I love all the out-takes of picture attempts...

And time for CAKE!!! Declan's first time eating anything other than veggies, meat, or fruit!  He reacted just the way we thought he would.....

he swayed to our singing happy birthday! He loves music!

staring...not sure what to do...

He would touch it, then take his hand off real quick like he wasn't supposed to be touching it.  Finally Brent gave him a piece...

and from there he had lots of fun with it!

Raelynn thought he should be sharing

haha, this one cracks me up because Raelynn is sneaking a piece!

 

Happy Birthday Big Boy!! (Or, the B-MOC, as Daddy calls him....Big Man On Campus)

 

 

The Frazey family gave Elliana (and mommy) a gift too! Some really helpful products and books on learning to take care of Elliana's hair.  We already used the brush, and it is AMAZING! Excited to read the books and learn--good thing it has pictures!

 

 

 

Such a great day! We came home from the party and were debating to put Elliana straight to bed in her clothes or change her (she had fallen asleep in the car).  We decided to put her in her pajamas to wake her up a bit.  She did wake up while we were changing her and she went back down really well! No bottle to put her to sleep! yay!