Family Pictures

Our first professional family pictures...
Eli-2 1/2 weeks old
Sam- 2 1/2 years old

Baby Eli's here and I'm finally posting about it!!

So pretty sure everyone knows by now that Elijah Michael Huffman made his entrance into the world...he's over three weeks old now!! He was born on March 19th at 7:17pm after a long (well longer than I was used to) labor but was all worth it!! I was taken care of by two of my best friends down here, one of which took the time to come in special and stay with me all day when she had a huge party she was getting ready for the following day, her little guy was turning one! My mom got to be here for the delivery and we were fortunate enough to have our sitter agree to watch Sam all day on a Saturday while we were at the hospital! I was induced this time around, nothing was wrong I just was ready to have him and my doctor was kind enough to wake me up on a Saturday morning asking if I wanted to come in and have a baby :) My husband had been up all night working the night before so the nine am awakening by me was not exactly what he was hoping for, but none the less he was excited.
Elijah came into the world screaming and pink! He was 8lbs 1oz and 21.5in long with a lot more hair than his sister had when she was born! Especially in the back, his hair is still so thick and velvety soft!!
The next day my mom brought Sam in to see her brother, she was less than impressed. When we pointed him out to her she looked at him and he made a grunting noise, she promptly said "baby sad" and put the blanket over his face. That was as much interaction as she apparently wanted with him. She did kiss him when she was told to and pointed out his facial features when she was told, but generally she was more excited to see me and tried to pretend like Eli didn't even exist. She still to this day does not want to have much to do with him, she does however think he needs to be held all the time. If I put him in his swing or bouncer she will tell me to pick him up and if a stranger is standing near a door with him she freaks out that they might leave with him. Whenever we go to leave somewhere she refuses to go out the door until she sees that someone has his carseat and is carrying him out, or she will try and pick it up herself :) So apparently she does care for him after all, just has no desire to hold him or interact with him :) We did get her to hold him once when he was about 2.5 weeks old :)

Here are some pictures of us in the hospital with Elijah

February thus far...

Here's some pics of Sam over the past few weeks. She's really starting to grow up!! She's trying to copy pretty much anything and everything we say, it just doesn't always come out so clear :) Learning new things like painting, jumping, climbing on the kitchen stools, throwing fits in public places, operating the dvd player :) and I'm sure much more that I'm just not thinking of at the moment! She loves to help out in the kitchen with cooking, baking and playing in the sink while Mom cooks dinner :) Daddy has taught her just enough to where she now knows how to open the piano and play it all on her own...it's really cute, she'll play along to jingles on her veggie tales movies as she sings :) She's soooo much fun and we thank God for her everyday! We've been busy lately getting things ready for our son's arrival just a few weeks from now!!

McCall 2011

Last year we started a new tradition with four other co-workers and their families of going to the McCall Winter Festival. We rent a big house and all share in meal preparations and enjoy time just hanging out and visiting all of the beautiful snow sculptures that people create! Sam's favorite was definitely the one with the mine cart, ski lift and snowmobile we got to sit on...she liked it best because there was lots to see and lots of space to run around plus she was allowed to touch anything there. My favorite was the outhouse...someone had a good sense of humor :) The theme was celebrating 100 years of McCall so there were plenty of trains and logging trucks along with a few Sharlie sculptures which apparently is a local legend around there.