Eleanor

As hinted at in the last post, we have a new addition to our family!  On September 1, Eleanor Ruth Gilliam was born. 

We found out we were having her almost exactly a year ago.  I had another really easy pregnancy and was able to exercise those whole time, right up to the day I went to the hospital to have her.  Unlike Caleb, she was measuring big on ultrasound, so we decided to induce at 39 weeks in order to help prevent a C-section. 

Just like her brother, she wasn't really hopping to exit her warm and snug home, so I had to come in the night before to have a balloon place.  Thankfully, I respond well to this.  My parents and David's mom were here, so they brought Kate and Caleb to see us that night.

 Then after they left, David and I had Mellow Mushroom pizza and went to sleep.  I only got one dose of pain meds and slept through the night.  The next morning, Dr. Brantley (THE BEST!)

 came in and broke my water.  I immediately started having more painful contractions.  About 30 minutes later, I asked for the epidural.  It took about 30-40 minutes for them to come place it.  It worked well on the right side; unfortunately, it didn't work at ALL on the left.  I felt like I didn't have an epidural.  Finally, about an hour after getting the epidural and second med bolus, it worked.  It was pretty good timing, because about two contractions after it started working, I was ready to push.  So...essentially I labored without an epidural (at least on one side!).  By the time Dr. Brantley came, I pushed 3-4 times and my beautiful strawberry blonde, blue eyed baby girl was here! 

She was pink and got GREAT APGAR scores.  We got to do skin to skin (unlike with Caleb who needed a little stimulation to pink up) and she ate great right away. 

She weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and was born in the same room and at the same time as her brother!  So neat. 

Kate was over the moon to meet Eleanor and just couldn't believe that she had strawberry blonde hair.

 Caleb was curious but hesitant.  He quickly warmed up to her and by the time she came home, he was in love! 

She was a very noisy and spit-uppy baby those first couple of days.  I wanted to keep her in the room the whole time but I quickly realized that I would get NO sleep if I kept her, so we sent her to the nursery and they brought her back to eat.  We stayed a couple of days and went home two days later.  Caleb greeted us with a trumpet serenade! 

The last four months have been SO much fun.  I got to stay home with Eleanor for 12 weeks and then she has been home another month due to not having a spot at daycare. 

We are so thankful for her and the responsibility of raising her in God's Truth. 

Caleb is 3

I'm going to skip around just a little bit!  :-)  One month ago, Caleb turned THREE!  I cannot believe that my little baby boy is three.  He is growing up so much.  He loves school, his friends, and talks so much.  His favorite is reading (like 6 books in a row!). 

He loves to go to church and can sing lots of songs (some he knows better than Kate does!).  We had his birthday one Friday night because there are SO many friend in his class with birthdays around the same time - his best friend's birthday is two days later. 

Caleb wanted a Curious George party so that's what we did.  He and his friends immediately began playing just like they were at school when they got here.  Then they played outside some. 

We had pizza monkey bread, fruit, cheese puffs, pesto chicken pasta salad to eat. 

Then we had a Curious George birthday cake.  I was super excited with how it turned out.  I know some people don't like doing cakes but this is one of the best parts for me. 

I love seeing what different things I can do.  This one turned out great! 

We got Caleb a Ninja Turtle scooter with a Leonardo helmet.  So far, he's enjoyed the helmet more...but that's just due to lack of opportunity. 

I love this little boy so much.  He has a tender heart that loves people so much.  He wants to do what is right (though he still has the typical three year old moments!) and gives the most pitiful face when you have to fuss. 

He adores both of his sisters (yep, two sisters now!) and goes back and forth between being a mama's boy and daddy's boy.  He gets excited to go to church and already wants to learn about Jesus - we read a Jesus story every night and he told David that the Bible says "In the beginning God made the world."  We pray that he will see his need for salvation through Jesus and grow to love and serve Him.

Kate is 8

And now, I will skip through seven months - mostly filled with school activities for Kate including the Principal's award, AR parties, and all A's in second grade.  She LOVED Ms. Hurt and will forever, I'm sure, go visit her!

 She decided that she wanted a butterfly party this year.  We ended up having it at the YMCA for a swimming party. 

Of course, as we were getting in the car to go it started raining.  It rained for the first hour of the party, but they were great and let us play, eat and do presents in the workout room.  We had watermelon, cheese puffs, butterfly hotdog crescents, and butterfly pasta salad.

Then Kate opened presents - she got some fun stuff including crafts, gift card that she used to get Land of Stories (her favorite) books, and a bracelet. 

Then we were able to go outside and swim!  The kids had a great time and I didn't take many pictures because it looked like lightning and confused the lifeguards.

We had cake at the last minute and then everyone left. 

It was a great party! 

Kate's actual birthday was a kids camp again.  This year, they sang to her on stage.  She acted embarrassed but I think really enjoyed it.  We are so proud of Kate. 

She has such a giving and caring heart.  She wants for everyone to be happy and taken care of.  She shares her love and joy with everyone she knows without concern for what they will say or think.  She shares Jesus in a way that is so pure and innocent.

I pray that she only grows in this and doesn't become worried about whether others will think that's ok or not.

Christmas 2016

So, because it's almost Christmas again and have lots to update on here - an all encompassing December post! 

The Christmas parade was actually postponed by one week due to rain but that was fine with us - because it meant that we could all go! 

Caleb loved the band the most at the parade and was excited about meeting Santa...until it came time to meet Santa.  Still crying!!!  He says he's going to smile this year...we'll see! 

Christmas Eve, Doc and Allie came and played in the leaves until it was time to make Christmas cookies.

 Caleb and Kate both enjoyed decorating but Caleb was a little more distracted by eating and was able to sneak more cookies than he was supposed to eat.

Oh, well! 

The next morning, we did Santa presents with the basketball

and American girl doll

being the presents that the kids had specifically asked for. However, I think that this animal puzzle David got for caleb was the winner.

After church and David working, we all came back for lunch and family presents.

Then that evening, Philip and Kenna came and we had brunch. 

Then we opened more presents.

I love that my family has been able to come each year for Christmas. 

Hope that this continues now that we have Eleanor and Abigail!  After David finished working, we went to Decatur. 

The kids LOVE playing with Nana and I think she was pleased with her gift!

Then we were able to go to Spring City this year to see GG.  So glad we got to go.  It even snowed some while we were there. 

A great Christmas season!