5 Years!

Friday, the 23rd, we'll celebrate 5 years of marriage! In some ways, it feels like we've been married forever, and in some ways it feels like it has flown by. These five years have definitely been the best of my life. I got married, finished college, had two beautiful children, traveled, played/wrote/performed music, moved into my dream home, and was able to spend every day of it with my best friend by my side. What more can a person ask for? I feel blessed every moment of every day and often feel guilty we're so happy. Life without Brandon is unfathomable. He is my rock, my joy, my laughter, my love, my fun, and most importantly my friend. Looking forward to celebrating with a trip to Tahoe! Here's to you love!

Cora rolled over for the first time yesterday at 2 1/2 months old! She rolled from her stomach to her back, and I tried to get her to do it again for Brandon when he got home and she rolled from her stomach to her side. You'd think that each little development wouldn't be as exciting as it was with Eli, having been our first, but it's just as fun! I think we know better now that each development leads to more and more fun. I spent the weekend finishing up packing for our Lake Tahoe trip next weekend. I'm completely done except for the last minute items, which is a great feeling. I've been prepping Eli for the plane ride and telling him what to expect, that he'll have to wear his seat belt the whole time, etc. He's really excited to get to chew gum (he loves chewing a tiny piece of gum once in a while) and to go really high in the sky. This week marks the first time Cora wants to go to sleep on her own in the crib and not in my arms. Usually like most newborns she would fall asleep nursing, being rocked, or in my arms with her pacifier. Now she just wants to be laid down in her crib on her side with her paci and she falls asleep. Part of me is relieved (because it was big struggle trying to keep Eli quiet and occupied while I would get her to sleep) and part of me is sad because she is already becoming more indpendent and less of my little cuddly needy baby. I really am trying to treasure every moment I get with her because she might be our last. I'm really trying to appreciate each stage she is at knowing I may never go through it again. We are really enjoying having two kids. I feel I can easily give them each equal attention and nurture them both to a degree I'm happy and feel good about. Brandon and I really like being able to each take a kid and trade off etc. We're loving our little family!

Big sigh of relief....

Well, I figured out why Eli was such a disaster last weekend. His 2nd back two year old molar was coming in. Today I can feel a tip of it through the gums. He had a couple drops of blood on his sheets, so Brandon and I figured that was probably the case, but we weren't sure. So nice to know my kid hasn't turned evil :-) ha ha.

Mastitis

We thoroughly enjoyed having Brandon's parents and grandparents here with us this weekend. They all got to spend time with the kids and hang out. Bob and Donna brought up an adorable little bike with training wheels for Eli. I can't believe he's old enough for a bike already! We had Brandon's 2nd cousin Justin and his girlfriend over for dinner, which was fun. Cora was her usual sweet self, but Eli was a disaster the whole time. I guess just having his schedule interrupted did him in. He screamed and cried and threw fits. I've never seen him so terrible. I guess that's life, what can you do? He was back to normal today luckily. Unfortunately, on Sunday I came down with mastitis. It's an infection that causes or is caused by a clogged milk duct and being extremely run down and stressed. I have just been so busy I knew I was running myself into the ground but didn't know how to find rest. I had a fever, chills, exhaustion, and pain all day Sunday and Monday but finally got a shot of Rosefrin in the hip and woke up Tuesday feeling all better. What a relief! Now I get to play "catch up" for the days I was sick. UG! Brandon and I just feel like we're scrambling to get everything done we need to do before we leave for Tahoe in a week and a half. Praying for some rest and relaxation some day!

2 month appt.

Cora had her two month appointment yesterday. She weighs 11 lbs 14 oz (70%) and is 22 inches long (50%) and a head of 15 inches (50%). Eli was a great little trooper going with me, but was very concerned when she got her shot. He kept saying "boo boo" when he saw her bandaid and gave her some special kisses to make her feel better. This week my aunt and uncle from Odessa and their four kids stayed with us. Eli was very entertained by their boys. It's amazing to think that I used to babysit my cousins and the oldest is going to graduate next year! I feel OLD! Today, Brandon's parents are coming up from Dallas, and his grandparents and aunt are coming up from Hot Springs for the weekend. I can't wait for them to see the kids!

4th of July

What a fabulous adventure our 4th was this year! We all met up at the farm to throw my sister's family a huge "Welcome to the Family" party. We always have a big Corman bash on the 4th.....it's pretty much everyone's favorite wild get together. We originally had about 65 people coming and had the house all decorated, food ready, etc. when it started raining so hard there was terrible flash flooding. We didn't think people would be able to get to my parent's house, as well as be able to fit everyone inside (usually we have tons of chairs etc. outside), so we rented a community center at the last minute. Then, we took everything down and loaded three vehicles full of decorations, food, and drinks. We headed up to Ada to the community center in the pouring rain and right when we got to Ada there was deep flash flooding going across the road to the point we couldn't even get to Ada. We had to go home, unload everything and just have the family come to the house for the party. At the time we were a stressed mess, but later we laughed our heads off at the disaster. The rain ended up stopping right before the party started and it turned out to be a blast. The kids were all able to do fireworks and it was beautiful enough to be outside! Nothing like getting 7 inches in a couple of hours! YIKES! We barely got home yesterday because there was terrible flooding everywhere and the road out of town was flooded in two spots and almost closed. What a wet mess! Overall, we had a blast with our nieces and nephew. Brandon fell in love immediatly just like the rest of us. They are awesome kids!

Cooing!

Every day with Cora is getting more and more fun. Let's face it...the newborn phase is somewhat boring. I'm so glad to be getting into constant smiles and reactions, and cooing!

Mingo Fishtrap

Not much blogging going on around here because we've been in survival mode. Cora hasn't been sleeping well from having congestion, so we're running on minimal sleep. She finally slept a 5 hour stretch last night, so I feel a lot better today. Yesterday, I was running on 4 total hours! UG! She also has been pretty fussy, which means I have to hold her a lot more and now have tendonitis in my wrist. That's what happens when you have a chunky baby :-) I'm looking forward to her being over this cold already! I took her back to the doctor yesterday just to make sure it hadn't progressed any, and it hadn't. She just still has congestion and that's it. Better safe than sorry since we're going out of town for the weekend. We're having our huge Corman bash on the 4th at my parent's farm, but this year to celebrate and welcome Becca's kids into the family. Last night we got our first date night out in a few months. We took Cora with us, but I'm still counting it! My brother babysat Eli and said he was perfect. We met up our friends at a free Mingo Fishtrap concert outside. They are a funk/r&b band that we love. It was fun to be with friends and just spend a beautiful and cool evening outside. We ate at Jason's Deli before the show. It got a little loud for the babies, so us women got our slings on and took the babies for a walk. There were thousands of people there watching the show and we had to walk through all of them. You would have thought nobody had ever seen a baby in a sling. We were quite the spectacle. People gawked and oohed and commented constantly. It was slightly hilarious! I'm curious to see if Eli likes the fireworks this year. Last year he didn't have a whole lot of interest in them, but this year will be a whole different story!