New Year's Resolution

The boys are both napping, I just finished my bible study, and the kitchen is SCREAMING at me! HAHAHA! I am ignoring it of course, just to have a little "me" time.  Starting the New Year with my Facebook fast really helped me to discover what order my priorities should be in. These priorities include all the household duties of a mother:
raising kids, good ones
keeping the house clean
making meals
doing laundry
cleaning the kitchen
getting groceries
socializing to keep sanity
cleaning the kitchen
making meals
and I know there are some others I am forgetting.......
I did list a couple twice because those are ones that seem to be CONSTANT never ending in my house.
I sometimes feel like it is all to tempting to look on facebook frequently through out the day to see what is going on in other people's lives or maybe it is just the only way a country girl can socialize with out making the 30 minute trek to town.  This is usually taking away from many of the duties of a housewife. Anyways, I have made a New Year's resolution to only get on the computer when the boys are sleeping and it's not taking away from time with the hubby..... so far we are doing good. But I announced it on here so you all can keep me accountable. I don't want my kids growing up remembering their Mom being on her computer. I also don't want to look back and think did I play with them enough? Some days I can even get very wrapped up in cleaning, SOME days, the days I am feeling very productive, but lately I have decided to turn those productive energies into doing creative things with the boys. So far the result is: Happier babies, sleepier babies, and a happy mom!!! I am really tired by the end of the day, but it's a GREAT tired. Now I just want to say, I wasn't like NEVER playing with my boys before or anything like that, but I am just trying to be more into my FIRST job of being a stay at home mom, which is raising kids to follow the Lord!  We will see how the year goes!!!

Baby Food Trial #2

Tried some more baby food with Eli and the gagging continued! I tried squash, something I thought would be nice and neutral, but not so much. He gagged, coughed, and just plain didn't like it! He did think it was really cool to play with on his trey and fed himself from that, but would still gag! I will keep trying this one, because it wasn't as bad as broccoli was. Hopefully he will get on board with this food stuff! = )


Oh no not this stuff again!!!

No, no, no.....

I said I didn't want it the first time! = )

Oh..... ..... disgusting...

EEWWW, this stuff stinks!

Hey, this stuff is fun to play with! 

Christmas 2009- one to remember!

I went through my pictures the other night, and I had forgotten to post some pictures from Christmas time. I will remember this Christmas because it was really one of the first year's I got to see the joy of Christmas shown through my own child. It was so great hearing Luke singing Christmas songs everyday and wanting to watch every Christmas, or "snow movie" as he calls them, we owned! We started the month off by going to the Parade of Lights in Fredericksburg, which is so pretty because all the floats decorate with lights and it's at night. We brought cousin Abby a long with us and it was FREEZING, but we watched it from my suburban and stayed warm. Luke really enjoyed it!  The next weekend we celebrated Kelby's birthday here at our house. Just our family and his parents, and I made him a spice cake, that I don't want to brag about, but it was GRRRREAT! It was also, wheat free and dairy free which is always a bonus!  He even got to blow out his candles, I love birthdays! The next event last month was Christmas with Karen's family which I always enjoy! Luke had his first chocolate chip cookie! He liked it, but he hasn't asked for another one since.... hehehe.

He got to run around with his cousin's, his buddy Emmy, and get to see his great grandparent's and great aunts and all that good stuff! We spent Christmas day here at home for the first half of the day. Mia and Bubby, Kelby's parent's came over at 7 a.m., God bless them, to see the boys wake up to their presents. It was so great to see Luke's face when he woke up, his sleepy eyes, big hair and all. He took a lot of time with each present and enjoyed each one, forgetting there were more, hope it stays that way, but I am sure it won't. It really made it so much more fun and more memorable! We ate lunch down at Mia and Bubby's and then Luke and Eli took the new jeep out for a spin, which was awesome! Kelby's cousin left the jeeps here at our ranch since they moved to Wyoming, so Bubby got a new battery before Christmas day, so Luke could try it out! It was so cute to see his face..... He even gave brother a ride! Gosh there are a lot of things we did over the holidays, no wonder Eli is sleeping through the night now! HAHA! I tried to do them all in order, but I am going to have to rewind, one weekend we also went to see the lights in Johnson City, it's a big thing around here. The small town of Johnson City decorates with tons of lights! The boys loved it!

Good morning!

Now I feel like I can finish from last night's catch up entry with a fresh mind! Eli has been sleeping through the night 3 nights in a row so far 12 hours!!! PRAISE BE TO GOD!!! He is so good to give me good sleep! I love it! I think that he is giving me sleep for my bible study because he is going to show me big things through it! AMEN! Ok, so continuing my catch up.  There really is not much to catch up with left, just this and that of some things I recall that made my heart smile, and some of them have pictures to go with them, some do not. Ok, so first off, Mia has been watching both the boys for me while I go to bible study, which is SO huge!!!! It is so great to be able to go to bible study and really "be" there! Her and Bubby are so dear to us and this picture of her with the boys says it all! It shows so much love from both sides! I have enjoyed watching them with her lately. Eli already gets so excited when she comes over and "dives" out of my arms for her! I love it!

        The other night, I was getting ready to put Eli down, and that has been quite a challenge lately with his teething. Once he's down he's down, but getting there takes a little bit of "wrestling" on my part. Lots of rocking and trying to get him to calm down! So, the other night, I handed him to Kelby and said, "Ok I just need a little break, I will finish getting Luke's pj's on." Then my sweet little Luke chimed in, "You can do it Mama, it's pun (fun), just try it!"  Oh WOW! Kelby and I just laughed with joy so much! How sweet is that? He was encouraging me! I did feel so encouraged too. It is so sweet the things kids say and we are getting into that season with Luke, where his words are meaning more and he knows what he is saying. I just loved that and had to share!  The rest of our time lately has been playing, playing, and more playing! As many of you know I have been fasting facebook this year. It has been awesome, I love the extra time it gives me. More than anything it helps me to have more time with the boys to just sit and be engaged with them, same with Kelby. He comes home, poor guy, tired from work and just plops on the floor and is at their "disposal" for wrestling, blocks, or whatever Luke thinks up! I truly love it, and don't know why I would even want to bring facebook back in, but I think that I am going to use it as an example, that facebook is just for me and for my time, when the boys are sleeping! I really want to try and stick with that this year! The boys have been playing so so good lately. Luke has really started to like to play with Eli and Eli puts up with brother in his own way. 

Playing Catch Up!

Ok, so I am so new to this, I only have one follower, my sweet sister in law Danielle. So here you go Danielle! HEHE.... Hopefully I can get some more people to read this stuff! I guess it will be interesting to family members? Anyways, ok, no more messing around, this is actually meant to catch everyone up on what has been going on around the Greathouse Ranch since we have been home from Christmas.....There are a couple of big events that have happened and then there are just some small moments that are precious to my heart and I think you will enjoy too. First big event is Luke getting a new bed! So thankful to "Deedaw" for letting us use Aunt Nina's old bunk beds, which we are using as twin beds for now until the boys get bigger. He was so so excited when he saw his new big boy room.
                    We put some of his big boy toys in there that we don't really like Eli playing with and we also put his new tent he got from Aunt Kim up so he would have a fun place to hang out.  I told him that when his Deedaw comes to see him she will sleep in the extra bed, and so now of course that bed is called "Deedaw's bed".  Our next big event that has happened, is just about 5 days ago Eli tried his first baby food, which was broccoli! I know I am so mean, but I am doing this for his own good! HEHEHE.... I can't wait to put these pictures on, because as you will see the pictures say it all!!! They are really hilarious! So, with out further ado, here is Eli trying his first bite of food......

Um... Mom? What is this stuff??!!! 

Whoa! That's nasty!

Yeah, I don't really like it.....

Oh no.....

Yep, still nasty!

Oh, gag me!

No.. I think I might actually throw up!

 

Ok, I have had it!! That is enough!! Come on!

Yeah, brother, sorry, that stuff smells horrible!

Ok, I don't know about you, but these pictures have had me belly laughing the whole time I was uploading them, maybe it's just because I was there, but I hope they made you smile atleast. It has been quite a task trying to get him to try food, I am hoping it is just the broccoli he is not partial to and not food in general! I think that is all I have for tonight, as for the other stuff I was going to write about I will finish tomorrow.... Sleepy!! Goodnight!

Still a work in progress!

So I am trying to get some pictures on, this is really confusing people! I will try to make this more my own, just wait! hehehehe

Here goes......

Well, I have decided to try to make record of my family and what is going on here at our home. I am not very good at keeping up with the boys' baby books, so maybe this will be easier for me, since it's on the computer, who knows. I don't know if I can really manage an email, facebook, and a blog, but why not give it a shot right? I am not really sure either what the difference is in a blog, twitter, facebook, and all of that stuff. But I guess if I start this and don't really thinking it is serving any purpose I can just stop! HAHA! Ok, so right now, it is about 3:25 in the afternoon, I have been trying to put the boys down for an earlier nap around 1ish compared to 2ish, so that they can still have some time outside before the sun goes down, after their nap. So, so far it has been working great. One problem is that I have one little boy who doesn't really think he needs much more than about an hour to sleep. I have seen him take a couple of 3 hour naps, so I know he can, just don't know what brings those on! There is no rhyme or reason with this baby Eli! So, today, we went outside to enjoy this beautiful sunshiney day! Luke was having fun jumping on my shadow and running after it, when he all of a sudden fell down! It was so sad, he cried very hard, and having Eli on my back I tried very hard to console him as best I could! So, we went to Mia's house to "to make it better". Luke wanted to tell Mia about his boo boo. So we went to Mia and Bubby's, Luke had some fun with Bubby, had a sandwich, then we came back home. When we got home I put Eli down, because of course he was tired, so I thought. He went right to sleep, so I came out and bandaged Luke's boo boo up again, and put him to sleep. Right after I got out of his room, Eli starts crying, yeah, he slept about 30 minutes! So I let him cry while I ate my lunch and started my bible study, because I was starving, and I thought surely he will go back to sleep. No such luck, he was crying so hard I had to go and check if he pooped, did the famous bottom sniff, no poop. So I rocked him a bit more, laid him down, and he cried some more, yep I just made it worse by going in there, he never went to sleep, and is up with me right now actually while I write this, but looking VERY sleepy, I might try him again! His big brother of course is nice and snug and sleeping right through all of the crying and even a knock from little brother on his door to come out and play! Oh the joys of napping! So, I guess that is all for now, I just don't think anyone will read this, I didn't know what else to write for my first blog, hopefully I can make my life a little more exciting! HEHEEEEEE!!!!