..................Mimi's are Great!!!

Last night my Mom (mimi) and Dad (poppi) kept both Alex and Ella for the night. When I came back home it was strange to not have any kids in the house, strange but nice. Now I can't say that it really enabled me more sleep because Alex is the champion of all sleeping babies. He slept 9 hours the other night! But it was nice to get some things done and try to start putting photos together in albums. I am the queen of procrastination. I got an album for Ella when she was an infant and have 4 pages done. So I went through a lot of photos and put them in different catagories and am going to work little by litte to put some scrapbooks together. I am not going all crazy mom scrapbooking or anything (I am not creative enough and frankly just too ADD to put a lot of time into it). But I want to do it for us. I know once it's done, it will be easier to keep it up to date and I will be happy that we have them when we are older. Funny thing is I have so much more fun getting all the things I need and going through all the photos than actually working on an album. By the time I have everything out and pulled the pictures, I am bored with the whole thing. But I still try.

Alex is 8 weeks old already and just growning and his little cheeks are filling out so much I could just take a bite of them. He had his baby well appt. with 3 shots. He did pretty good, cried for a few minutes but then was ok. That evening and the next day he acted like he was hurting and cried a little but for the most part he did great, much better than Ella. Poor girl after every set of shots she ran a fever, was fussy and a few times threw up a lot. She just didn't handle them well at all. Alex is up to 11 lb 14oz and 23 1/4" long so he has grown a full 4" in 8 weeks, that's a lot of growing. I call him my cuddler as he just nuzzles himself in my neck. I hope I never forget that feeling.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, my brother is driving up from Louisana, his wife Jane and her daughters are going to NYC for the holiday so it will just be him. It will be so good to see him again and for him to meet Alex. Ella will like playing with him too. The only thing about Thanksgiving is that will officially star my countdown back to work. I haven't thought about going back much but now that time is quickly approaching. After the Thanksgiving weekend, I will be just two weeks from going back (Dec. 15th). It will be so hard. I love being home and forgot how hard it was to go back to work after I had Ella. I was on maternity leave with her for 16 weeks and will have been for 12 weeks with Alex. I do love my job, I enjoy what I do and the people I work with. I will be happy to sit across from Sabrina again and have great conversation and laughs. I will look forward to getting back to some projects and to travel again. Still, I will miss the days at home just spending time with Alex watching him grow and do new things. I will miss picking up Ella from school and going to the library. These are precious days that are too quickly going by. This is my only time to be at home with my children and I am trying to treasure it as much as I can but it just seems like the days are going by so fast and I am screaming and pleading for them to slow down.

Well how was that for a complete downer??? Really I am ok with working, I have made my peace with not being able to stay at home. The Lord provided me a job that is family centered and if I ever need to work from home I can, or if something comes up it's never a problem. I can have a Bible at work and we have company-wide devotions every Wednesday morning. I get to see and actually be a part of thousands of children all over the world have the opportunity to play sports in a great environment and be told about Christ. I get to work in the Global Department and travel to different countries and experience different cultures and meet so many wonderful people who have the same desire. I couldn't imaginge being happier working anywhere else, for that I am so deeply humbled and thankful. It makes it all worthwhile!

Holly H

.................Family Photo's by Sabrina Lewis

A few weeks ago we had an amazing photographer come out to the house to take some family photographs. She is AMAZING and we are thrilled with the shots she got. The photos in the slide show are a some of the photos she took. She comes highly recommended and you are welcome to ask me about her or contact her yourself. We work together at Upward so I can tell you with all my heart she is wonderful and will do a great job! Her links are listed under my "Link's" section on the right. You can also email her directly at sabrina.lewis@yahoo.com.

Holly

.........................History is Made

This week we elected the first black president, Obama. Like it or not, agree with him or not, Democrat or not.........it is progress. I, for one, am optimistic. I think that it can't get much worse in the US and I hope and pray that it will get much better. Of course, my devotion is to Christ, not to man but I pray for Obama and our nation. Many think that you can't be a democrat and a Christian because they are too liberal. I don't agree with everything in either party but try to look at it objectively, what is going to be the better for the majority of America. I hope and pray that Obama is just that!

The other day my Mom and some of her prayer sisters came over to see Alex. They are a group of amazing ladies that have been prayer sisters for over 30 years. It was wonderful to have them over for lunch, conversation and prayer. I so apprecaite all that they have done for me and I just love them and am so thankful for them.




Well, Alex is now 6 weeks old and up to 11lbs!!! He is doing great and I can't say enough how good of a sleeper he is....it's almost unnatural! He has his routine down pretty good. He wakes in the morning for a bottle and will doze off and on for a few hours. He will wake again and eat and then be awake until around 1pm. Then he goes down until 6pm and stays awake until 10ish and then is down for the night. He usually wakes for a bottle around 4:30 or 5am but then goes back down until 7am and we start all over. He is an easy baby and just loves to cuddle. He has always smiled a lot since he was born but this week he began to truly smile in response. It's the best feeling in the world to see him smile back at me. I could just nibble his little cheeks off! Alex had his first bath in the tub this week too. I have ben giving him a sponge bath. He didn't seem to mind at all.



Ella is doing great and loves her little brother so much. She is doing great in school and loves her teacher. The other day I picked her up and asked her what she did in school that day and she said "oh Mommy, you wouldn't understand" I also got the "it's not fair" line for the first time. She is four but you'd never know it. I had to include a couple photos of Ella with the mice, she loves all animals and I thought these photos were so cute.

..................Happy Halloween

Ready to trick or treat!


Ella went as a dog and Alex was a Bumble Bee (for a few minutes anyway)

Ella and Alex