Sleeping Beauty

Just a couple pics of my sweet Elina getting her beauty sleep :)

I love her dainty hands.  She definitely has my insanely long fingers!

Elina has also adopted finger sucking like Brandt.  He sucks on the first two fingers on his left hand.  She usually sucks on the second and third.

Siblings

Here is a little comparison of the children as newborns, one, two and three months old. 

Newborn

Carter

Brandt

Elina 

One Month

Carter

 Brandt

 Elina

Two Months

Carter

 Brandt

Elina

Three Months Old

Carter

 Brandt

 Elina

What do you think?  Who does Elina look like most?

7 Quick Takes

My friend, Athena, does these posts called "7 Quick Takes" where she posts quickly about various different things that are going on in her family's life.  I thought I'd do the same as so many things are going on in our family.

1. Eric is taking the Step 3 of the boards today.  He's been studying nonstop (the main reason for the lack of posts lately as he's been using the laptop to work on questions).  We (he especially) are so excited to have him back as a participating member of the family! 
2. We just accepted an offer on our house in Phoenix...for 51% of the price we paid.  Ouch.  Darn Phoenix market.  Bad news is that it was obviously a short sale.  Good news is that we will be free and clear of the house and the buyer is an investor who is going to let the family who is currently renting it stay.  Yaaay!  They are an awesome family and we are so excited about that.  Let's just pray the bank accepts the offer! :)
3. Last Saturday was the one year anniversary of finding out I was pregnant.  It was fun to reminisce about that day and think about how our lives have changed since Elina was born.
4. Brandt learned a new phrase the other day.  During dinner, Eric's dad noticed a squirrel eating the bird food.  He open the back door and yelled, "Get out of here!"  Well, the little mimic liked this phrase and started saying it.  It's so funny!  It sounds like, "Geh-ow-a-hee!"  Well, it's funny until he says it to his mommy :)
5. Eric and I are gearing up for our trip to Augusta in a few weeks.  We're pretty excited!  We're going down to find a rental home. It's slim pickings on the MLS, but we have faith the Lord will lead us to the perfect home :).  I'm excited to see Augusta for the first time but even more excited to spend a couple days with my hubby.  When the boys were about 4 months old, I visited Eric in Dallas when he was doing a rotation there and we had a BLAST!  Going away together without any children is such a treat and such treasured time.  We can be the couple we were when fell in love!  I really hope we can continue to get away without the children every once in a while.
6. It's beginning to warm up a little bit here in the Arctic, aka Chicago.  This weekend is supposed to get up to 80 degrees!  We're so excited and I'm sure we will be hardly spending any time in the house.
7. Eric started OB-GYN last week at a hospital downtown.   It's a tough schedule and he's been dreading this month all year.  As he says, he doesn't do ladies and he doesn't do babies!  Luckily he scheduled a few days off to study for the Boards and he's taking a few days off to go down to Georgia.

And that's about it! 

Miscellaneous pictures with the new camera

Eric and I got a new point and shoot camera for our trip to Augusta we're taking in a few weeks.  I was playing around with it one day and the boys were my victims :)

Eating lunch.  The boys got to have a banana crunch muffin for dessert. It's an Ina Garten recipe and they turned out sooo good!

Hey!  I got Carter smiling on camera!

My beautiful boy!

Helping Pop fill the bird feeders

Carter upset about something :)

Fun with the Jump-a-roo

I pulled out the jump-a-roo the boys used last week to see if Elina would be big enough to use it.  Her little legs aren't quite long enough to reach the floor, but if I put a pillow beneath her, she can kind of bounce.  The first day she tried it she was so excited!

She was so excited

She was concentrating so hard!  You can see her latest skill here...sticking out her tongue.  She does it all the time!

Concentrating so hard!

"Mom, leave me alone!  I'm busy!"

So fun!

We ended our play session with a little tummy time.  She's doing so well at it.

Elina at 3 months

Wow!  I need to get this post up before she's 4 months! 

Elina constantly reminds of how blessed we are as she is such an easy baby!  She is such a joy.  I've never seen a baby as happy as she is.  It's as if she is so content to be with us and be part of the family.  I love having a daughter :)

Things she's learned or done this month:

• Roll over
• Squeel
• Gnaw
• Sleep 12 hours at night
• Moved to a 4 hour schedule
• Exhibits stranger anxiety~the poor girl has it pretty bad!
• Plays in her jump-a-roo
• Sits in her bumpo chair

She loves to talk to anyone who will listen.  Her favorite thing to do is sit with you and have a conversation.  I love it!  She has also become more aware of her surrounding and if anything is going on, she wants to know about it!  This is especially true when she's eating.  She has a little bit of Brandt in her and sometimes you've got to tell her to focus! :)

Being very thoughtful!

Concentrating so hard!

Look at me!  I'm so cute!

Blowing bubbles

One of the cutest smiles I've ever seen!

A fun little project

While my mom was here last month, she helped me with a little project I was working on.  I'd inherited a picture frame that was pretty darn ugly but had some potential.  It was white with cheesy teal silk screening on it and the different parts of the frame were attached with the same color ribbon.  I wanted to have a pretty, scrolly "E" on the frame, and Mom helped me.  Here is my project:

Carter helping me and his Mimi

Playing around with different decorations on the frame

After we added the "E" and still playing around with the decorations

The finished product on my bedroom wall!