One Month and smiling

Eli has been such a little angel! He rarely ever cries and when he does it just a little yell then he calms down and waits for me to come and help him. I am so much in love with this little guy. He can now make eye contact and gives me little smiles here and there. He will look intently into my eyes with this very serious face then his whole face lights up in a smile. It is amazing! I love it.

 I haven't been able to capture it on camera yet. He also likes to play on his back with his little play gym.

He had a beautiful head of red hair, but some of it is gone. :( Daddy did not want him to get cradle cap so he scrubbed his little head a bit too hard in the bathtub and now the hair on top of his head his gone. He still has his pretty red hair on the sides so he looks like a balding old man. :) He is still pretty cute though!!

Since the Bumbo chair had a recall again I decided to take the monthly baby pictures in our chair












We also got together this month will all 6 babies in Dallas. It was absolutely hysterical to see them all together! Eli is the youngest and Elliott is the oldest, but only by two months. We lined all the babies up for a beautiful photo op! We quickly learned that it is

incredibly difficult to take a happy picture of 6 babies at one time. It seemed that someone was always hungry, tired or crying. Oh well we tried. It was so cute to see them all together. Elliott is sooo much bigger than Eli. His dad Jay joked that we used to have 7 babies but Elliott ate one of them. Ha! I love these ladies and these babies.

Newborn pictures

One of the parents in my class last year offered to take newborn pictures of little Eli. We took them when he was eight days old and still very sleepy. They turned out amazing!!

Our Little Miracle!!!

He is finally here!!! After waiting and waiting for the little man to come on his own I was scheduled to be induced on August 21st at 7:00 am. When we arrived at the hospital they checked me to see if I was dilating and of course I was not . :) I started to get a bit worried that this  may be a difficult labor and delivery. They started the pitosin at 8:00 am and I was only a 1. Then a couple of hours later they broke my water when I was at a 2. We decided this would be a rather long day at that point.
The girls came in at that point with my mom and I gave them their big sister presents. They had big sister shirts, some crafts and the new Lorax movie. Livi ran over to the couch and grabbed my Boppy pillow. She said "I am ready to hold Eli now!" Yes baby girl aren't we all. Unfortunately he is not here yet!! :) The girls were in heaven with their new gear and sat and watched the Lorax for a while.
After that the nurse turned up the pitosin as high as it would go and I started to have intense contractions. I was trying to wait as long as I could for the epidural but decided it was probably time. We sent the girls home for lunch and a nap. We thought he would be here around dinner time. When I got my epidural I was at a 4. After the epidural I started to feel some relief so I decided to take a nap. Chad fell asleep too. 45 minutes later we were both asleep and the nurse came running in saying "He is coming! He is coming!" Chad and I were half asleep and quite confused. We had no idea he was coming. :) She called the doctor and the team in and sure enough he WAS coming. About 5 minutes later our little man was here!!!!  After my third baby you would think this would all be normal for me. Nope! I was balling and crying when I got to see him for the first time. It was like being a new mom all over again. This pregnancy seems so different for some reason, maybe because he is our first boy. I fell madly in love with him from the first moment.  I was able to feed him right away then Chad's parents came back with the girls. 

As soon as the girls walked in Olivia ran back to the couch and grabbed the Boppy again and said "I am ready to hold my baby!" She was so excited to see him. After that we had lots of sweet family who came to see Mr. Eli. I still can't believe that we have our little boy. He is truly a miracle!!!

37 weeks

Last week we had a little excitement! Chad and I went out to dinner and a movie to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. During the movie I started having regular contractions. They were coming about every 3 to 5 minutes.  We called the doctor and he sent us to the hospital. 36 weeks is a bit too early so it was a good thing that little Eli was not ready to come yet. We still can't wait to meet him!!

14 weeks!!

How can it be? Olivia is three!

 We had a Dr. Seussical three year old Lorax party for Livi this weekend. This was her first real big girl party. Last year's party was kind of a flop. :) She was very excited to invite her friends from school and to be the birthday girl. We had the party at a little place called the Little Gym. It was fabulous! The kids were able to play and the people who work there ran the whole party. I am not used to just being able to hang out in the background and watch the kiddos have fun. We had all of our friends and family come that have little kids. Also, all of my bible study girls came and brought their kids. That meant a lot to me! They are just amazing ladies and I feel so blessed to have them in my life. She also had about six or seven friends from school. I had two parents tell me at the party that their child is new to the school and that Livi mentors their child and makes them feel better everyday. :) That was a proud mommy moment. It was a wonderful party and I had so much fun celebrating my sweet little middle child. Sometimes she is okay with just being in the shadows and letting Ella have more attention. Today was her turn! Look how much fun they are having.....

Eli James Copeland

So I wanted to tell you my name story for the little guy. It is a pretty cool story and I think he will love hearing it one day. Three years ago when I was pregnant with Livi that I was driving in my car and I heard this loud God voice say "You will have a son and his name will be Eli" then it repeated again. I was like whoa I never heard a loud God voice before. :) I was determined that we were having a boy named Eli, except that at the time I really didn't want a boy I would have much rather had a girl.  But I was certain because God had told me that it would be a boy. I didn't even think I needed to have an ultrasound to find out. I remember standing at Ella's 1st birthday talking to Mel and she said "what if it means that you will have a boy someday and his name will be Eli?" I hadn't thought about that possibility yet but I thought maybe Mel was right. Sure enough two days later I found out that I was having a girl.  The following Sunday I went to church and I was a bit confused about my faith and listening to God. The bible reading at church was a story I had never heard before about Samuel the prophet and Eli. Eli was a high priest, I had no idea Eli was in the bible. I just thought there was Elijah.  So anyways Eli is sleeping and Samuel wakes up and says "Lord did you call me?" Eli says "no go back to sleep I didn't call you" and it happens again and again finally "Eli says next time you hear your name say yes God I am listening because He is calling you". I took this to mean thank you for being willing to follow me and for listening but I am not calling you yet. So I figured we may have a boy some day.

Fast forward to now being pregnant I had kind of pushed the Eli story out of my head and was picking different boy names. First we picked Luke and Chad's good friend Todd is having a baby named Luke. Then we picked Gabriel, which I LOVED, but found out shortly after that Chad's boss and Confirmation Sponsor is having a baby named Gabriel.  Then the same weekend that we went to Dallas for Vicky's shower I found out about the other baby Gabriel. That Sunday I came home and suddenly out of the blue Livi starts acting out the story of Samuel, Eli and God. It was random! She told me "I'll be Samuel, you be Eli and you be God". I didn't even know she knew that story. I had this overwhelming feeling that God was telling me that he didn't want me to pick Luke or Gabriel but that my child would be Eli. The same night I also got a message from a friend saying that she thought of me today at mass because of the scripture reading. So I went online and looked up what she read and sure enough it was the Eli and Samuel story. I was like whooaa again! 

I know it might sound crazy to think that God picked my son's name, but I have a very discerning heart and it feels so good to know that I am following Him and letting Him make choices for me. Anyways I just thought it was pretty cool and thought you guys might want to hear the whole story. 

So his name will be Eli James Copeland. James is after my grandfather who died when I was a baby and Chad's dad's brother who died as a child of heart failure. 

Are you serious?!! No way!!

That was my response followed by a mountain of tears. I could not for the life of me believe that we would be able to have a sweet little boy to love and care for. I want to cry just writing this. I am so excited for Chad to be the daddy of a little boy. He has been amazing with the girls but he and his dad have so much wisdom, courage, and strength to share with a boy. I know he will be raised to treat women well, work hard all day long, love God and cook great dinners at night. Our little Eli has  two really great role models to look up to! Just get ready Chad and Keith all your dreams are about to come true and I couldn't be happier for you!