Grandma's 50th Birthday

Grandpa planned an elaborate surprise party for Grandma's 50th birthday.
He asked us to come up about a month ago as part of the surprise.  

The day was gorgeous!  And Grandma's face was priceless!  She had no clue, and definitely was surprised.

for grandma's birthday, grandpa roasted a pig!

there was  a tractor for hayrides

the pig caught fire!  but only the outside was burned...the pulled pork was good

getting ready for grandma's surprise!

pall bearers bringing out the coffin of pam's youth

grandpa delivering the eulogy of pam's youth

derek graffiti'd the inside of the coffin =)  

one of the cakes...says "Pam your age is a grave issue"

jaden with brian and janet (the helpers to plan the surprise party)

grandpa driving the tractor

ray and kasey singing

i sense a modeling future for my oldest ;)

hay down, hoe down!

uncle josh, lauren and jaden

forgiveness

Forgiveness is powerful!  The topic has been on my mind in and in my heart a lot lately.  My sister sent me a podcast with a great sermon on forgiveness.  I had some time today to listen to it, and the Lord really convicted me!

http://www.kvministries.com/podcast/2013/04/30/bitterness-equal-opportunity-destroyer

My notes:

*If you can't find what you believe in either the life of Jesus or the teachings of Jesus, then you need to question it.
*We are responsible for our actions.  
*It's important to reconcile with our brothers.  Living in unforgiveness is not ok with God.
*We should not talk to others about a hurt done to us by another.  We should go to the person that we are offended with or that has offended us.
*Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry, but do not sin.  Do not let the sun go down on your anger."  Anger is not unforgiveness.  It is not sin.  But if we stay angry long enough, if it germinates long enough, it will turn to bitterness.
*Bitterness opens the door for demonic activity in our life (in other words, it gives Satan a foothold).
*Once you've forgiven someone, you cannot bring it back up to justify a present offense.
*You have to stay on the subject you are angry with now.
*The goal of communication is understanding, not agreement.
*Never yell or call names, or act like you know someone else's motives.  Bitterneess often begins in your heart when you determine you know why someone else did something offensive toward you.
*Forgiveness restores the standard.  I don't have permission to hold myself in unforgiveness when Jesus has already forgiven me.
*If we want justice when someone offends us, we had better be careful because Jesus will require justice from us.  If you're going to require perfection from someone, you better make sure you walk in that standard.
*Sometimes we have to forgive someone even though they don't deserve it.
*You can't enter Heaven without forgiving your brother.
*Forgiving someone does not mean my pain will go away .
*Sometimes I don't forgive because I feel like then I have to trust the violator.  Trust is separate from forgiveness.  Trust is earned, forgiveness is required.

Such strong truths!  I pray that these truths will be molded into my mind and into my heart.  I pray that the Lord will transform my ways of thinking with this sermon.  I hope you are also encouraged with this sermon!

thoughts from the last three weeks...

Time right now feels like it goes super slow and really fast, all at the same time.  I feel like just yesterday we had Eli...but really, he's three weeks old!  Sheesh!
We're all adapting pretty well now.  Derek and I are both in the "able to function off of scattered sleep" mode, and Jaden is pretty well used to having a little brother.  I think once he realized that Eli wasn't going anywhere, he really embraced the "big brother" attitude.
I wrote down some thoughts from the last three weeks in a little notepad so I could have a memory of sorts.  Here's what I wrote:

*What day is it? 
*What time is is?
*I really want to formula feed so I can get a break! 
*I love breastfeeding...it's such a bonding time
*I love that nursing is comforting to babies
*I absolutely love baby coos and sighs.
*I am ready for the newborn stage to be over, but at the same time, I don't want him to grow up!
*Newborn diapers are sooo small!
*Jaden looked at my belly and asked why it wasn't flat....I cried.
*I am very thankful for hospital disposable underwear, and for the little squeezy bottle they send home with me.

I'm off to bed....gonna try to post some new pictures later this week.

pictures of Eli

Derek made a photography website with some great pictures of Eli =)  I figured posting the link was faster and easier than me trying to upload the pictures myself....enjoy!

http://derekcoller.zenfolio.com/

Elijah Daniel was born =)

I will post pictures, but haven't had time to look through them all yet....so I thought while Eli is napping, I'd jot down some thoughts and put up pictures later today.

*The big news: MY BABY'S HERE!  We feel so extremely blessed to have this tiny baby.  He is beautiful.  7 lbs 15.6 oz, 20 inches long.

A little bit about my labor.....
*I've been saying all pregnancy how completely different this pregnancy was compared to my pregnancy with Jaden.  Labor wise, that has been true also.
*My labors I think are just going to be long.  LOL.  I labored with Eli for 24 hours.  Most of it was at home, which was a huge blessing.
*Contractions started at 2 am Monday.  I walked, and rested, and ate Chick Fil A, and walked some more.  By 3, my contractions were long and strong, but hadn't gotten closer together so my doula recommended me go to my ob's office to get my membranes swept.  Derek took me over to their office and the nurse practitioner checked me.  Low and behold, I was 5 cm and 90% effaced.....and she gave me the go-ahead to go to labor and delivery.  I chose to labor for a few more hours at home with my doula and Derek...and by 7 we were headed to the hospital!
*Once I got admitted, I was 7 cm and completely effaced.  I labored for another 8 hours, and finally Eli was born at 213 am Tuesday March 19th.
*I was able to do natural/drug free child birth this go round!  Let me just say, labor is HARD.  But there's this HUGE sense of accomplishment when it's all said and done without drugs.  I felt empowered.  I felt like I could conquer the world.  Definitely, it was not easy.  Especially at the end, during transition.  I am thankful for the experience.  I think the natural child birth has helped my recovery and definitely helped Eli when he was born =)

Getting home with the baby....
*I had planned for people to take Jaden while I was in labor.....and totally forgot to plan for the few days you spend in the hospital after delivery.  Thankfully, we had faithful friends who were able to help out until we were able to come home with Eli.
*The first night at home went MUCH BETTER than I thought.  I had this horrible picture in my mind.........and not to say bad nights aren't coming, but I was very thankful the first one went well.  Jaden woke up this morning and said he didn't even hear Eli at all...and that must have been true because he didn't wake up at all.
*Eli nursed every 3 hours, but slept really well in between feedings, so both Derek and I were able to get solid rest.  Also a huge blessing!

Some prayer requests......
*Continue to pray for our transition into a family of 4.
*Pray for Derek, as he prepares to go back to work while dealing with a newborn baby at home.
* Pray for Jaden, as we're trying to keep his schedule as routine as possible.  Pray for his little heart to grow to love Eli and want to help with him.  Pray for him to remember that we still love him, and he is still important.
*Pray for me.....as I adjust to staying home with 2 kiddos.  As I try to figure out the nursing baby/5 year old life.  Pray for my hormones, they're all over the map right now.  Pray for me to allow myself grace to rest and not be GOGOGOGO all the time.

Thanks, friends!  Updates will come soon.

preggo update

38 weeks!!!!

Full term! =) Wahoo!  Just a few updates:

*all our bags are packed and ready

*our birth plan is written and a copy is in our hospital bag too

*a list of all our "on call" friends is posted on the fridge

*Eli's the size of a pumpkin....which freaks me out a little bit to know something that size is growing inside my uterus =)

*I'm still sleeping fairly well at night....occasionally I'll have to get up, but most nights I'm able to sleep through

*I'm also still power walking...although my "power" walk is more like "stroll" 

a baking morning

The weather cannot make up it's mind.  We got just enough snow to cover the ground, and enough to cancel the county schools, but not enough to last.  It was all melted by mid morning.  I thought today would be a great day to get some baking done!

My mom gave me her old bread machine, and I have spent the past few days trying to find a recipe that looked yummy.  I found several!  It's always hard to choose a recipe when you have 3 or 4 that look delicious.

After 2 failed attempts at making this loaf, the third time finally worked!  (I think the first 2 loaves I tried to make I was using dead yeast).

Milk and Honey Bread

Ingredients:
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons honey
3 cups of bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Combine ingredients in bread machine (for mine, wet ingredients go first, then dry, with yeast going last).  Select setting and crust, and hit start.  Easy peasy!

*Some notes*
-I used bread flour this time, but all purpose flour would work well too.
-It is possible to make this bread by hand.  If you wanted to do that, dissolve the yeast in the liquid, add other wet ingredients, then dry ingredients.  Combine and knead the dough.  Let it rise in the bowl until doubled.  Punch the dough down, knead it a few more times, and move it a loaf pan.  Let it rise until doubled.  Then bake it at 350 for 30 ish minutes or until the crust is golden and sounds hollow.

Since my bread machine takes 3 hours to make bread, I had some time to kill before Jaden and I could eat it.  We decided to make cookies!

My house definitely smells like a bakery! =)