Aunt Heidi Comes to Texas

When Heidi called me a few weeks before I was due with Eve to see if I would want her to come to Texas mid-October while Sadie was off track, there was no hesitation...OF COURSE I wanted her to come! If there was ever a lady that loved babies, she is that lady and I did not want my baby girl to miss out on the hundreds of kisses Heidi was sure to give. Heidi saved her birthday money, bought a ticket and before we knew it Eve was four weeks old and Heidi was in town to join in with the new Monsen circus. 

She got here on a Wednesday and for some reason we did not take any pictures the first couple days! What?! Heidi and I are kind of picture fanatics. I guess we were just talking and staring at Eve too much to think about pictures. It was so nice to have an extra pair of hands all day like when my moms were here. The most helpful thing she did while she was here (and I think the thing she enjoyed the most) was this:

 Take care of my littles! As all mommies know, it is so hard to get things done when your little ones need your constant attention. It was so nice to have her to hold Eve when she wanted to be held, to entertain Wes when he wanted to be entertained or talk to Thad when he needed to chat. She kept saying how she felt bad she wasn't doing more around my house and I just kept telling her she was doing exactly what I needed her to do!

She was so awesome to bring her hair stuff to do my hair and cut my all three of my boys' luscious locks!

I tried to get her to cut Eve's to even out some of her male patterned baldness, but she thought I was over reacting and wouldn't do it. We'll see how that girl's hair is doing at Christmas time!

On Saturday Brian was kind enough to give us a girl's day out, so we headed to downtown Austin for lunch at Hopdoddy and nice little stroll down South Congress.

The line was crazy long at Hopdoddy, but we didn't mind. No kids, no time restraints and beautiful weather...What more could a pair of best friends ask for?! After about 40 minutes of waiting we got to skip the second half of the line and sit at the bar, so that was actually pretty awesome. Oh, and Heidi enjoyed the deliciousness of Hopdoddy like I thought she would!

We of course had to make a stop at Big Top Candy Shop. Anyone that knows Heidi and me knows how much we love candy...well, sugar...or just pretty much anything that tastes good! 

A beautiful day spent with a beautiful friend!

Sunday was Eve's first time to church!

Didn't she look darling? That is a Newborn size dress that she barely squeezed into! 

And of course while everyone was in their Sunday best and we had a photographer on hand, we had a mini photo shoot, and you know how Thad and I feel about photo shoots:

My boys of course love a good photo bomb session..

but that's besides the point.

Luckily our photo turned out pretty darn good! Eve could have been a little more cooperative, but I will forgive her.

And of course Aunt Heidi needed a shot with her! 

This is the dress Lucy and/or Josie wore on their first day of church, so it was really fun for Heidi to see that! Side note: Isn't Heidi's dress so cute? In the middle of sacrament meeting, Wes said (with a his stutter), "Ya-ya-ya-ya-you're a yady bug?" Heidi nodded and we busted up laughing, he is the best!

FHE was a huge hit with these boys! I rarely let them get messy, so they were in heaven when we bought and painted pumpkins to set on the porch for Halloween.

It was fun to have Heidi for FHE because she is pretty much family and it felt just right to have her there.

Eating at Torchy's Tacos (again), decorating for fall, rearranging my bedroom, getting Heidi organized to catch up on her blog, snuggling Eve and chatting our hearts out were what we spent the rest of our time doing.

And before we knew it, it was time to bid farewell until Christmastime.

None of us were very happy about it (except maybe Jason), but we pulled up our bootstraps and got our beautiful Heidi to the airport to get back to her own family. We may have both had withdrawals, but we both have managed. 

How blessed we were to have her all to ourselves for an entire week! Renewing friendships is so essential and it really buoyed me up. As you can see from the picture above, she genuinely loves my children and I love that about her. Her pure, genuine love. Thanks for sharing your time and love with us Heidi, Texas sure loved having you!

Eve - One Month

By one month Eve was up to 9 lbs 7 oz -- Not too shabby, gaining nearly 3 lbs since birth!

She was waking up two times per night, once at 2am and once around 5am.

She loves being cuddled and being the cutest girl in the house!

She definitely rules the roost and whatever she says, goes at this point.

She loves to eat. Like a lot. She's eating 3-4 oz  per feeding and would probably have more if I let her! But her double chin is totally worth all the eating she wants to do.

I love this girl more than life and can hardly believe we are only one month in to what is sure to be years of wonder and joy with our little girl.

Happy one month, little sister.

More Eve and Grandma Teresa Visits

I was trying to think of a clever post title, but I am just trying to get my head above water on this blog thing before I get too far behind, so the next few post names will be matter of fact. Being creative will consume too many brain cells at this point...I'm lucky I've gotten this far into this post.

Weeks three and four with Miss Eve were pretty much an extension of the first two with lots of pictures of her perfection. Enjoy.

  

Although Eve is only seven weeks old as I write this, it's almost hard to remember too many details about what was going on a few weeks ago! I was tired (still am), she was sleeping less during the day, fussing a little more, had some tummy troubles, but never ceased to be cute. I do remember very clearly that we all fell a little more in love with her every day.

We figured out pretty quick that this little gal likes her tummy time and wants it a few times every day.

 She's only 3 weeks old in these pictures and I just can't believe how strong she is! I think I am more surprised at her stamina on her tummy because the boys were not big fans at all! So for her to stay like this for 10-20 minutes lifting her head from side to side was really fun to watch. 

And let's not forget the lady that made these weeks that much more awesome -- Grandma Teresa!

It was so wonderful to have Grandma Teresa arrive after being on my own for a few days after Grandma Cindy left. Getting up at 6:30 a.m. to get Thad to school is a killer after a night with a newborn. Two days was enough for me, and this lady took over the second she got here! She would do everything to get him and Wes ready, walk Thad to school and go on a walk for an hour with Wes. She thinks of the funnest things and when I went walking with them one day, Wes talked about how they counted the fire hydrants and tickled them with weeds. She stopped at the park and pushed him on the swings between her strength exercises and he loved it so much. She has set a pretty high bar for walks and I don't think I have quite lived up to it with that little man. Luckily she's our grandma forever and there are a lot more walks in their future, I'm sure. 

She even spotted this creature that died a slow and agonizing death on one of our walks. We all stared at it for a few minutes and got a good laugh! But still a little bit sad, right?!

Having an extra set of hands to take care of these hooligans so that I could make dinner or she could make dinner or clean or do whatever was such a blessing. I was able to volunteer at the school a couple of times, run random errands, attend a funeral, and go to San Antonio to see Birtley and Tiffany and attend the temple. Grandmas are the best. 

 She made sure we had something fun for the boys for Halloween and for FHE, the night before she left, we (mostly her and Brian) decorated our door and the boys were pumped about having Frank for our front door!

None of us were happy about saying good bye to her that night, but it had to be done.

Not my prettiest picture, but that's what I get for not taking a picture with her until 10pm the night before her 6am flight! I'm sad I didn't get any others, but I really do love this lady a lot and had to have proof I was with her! 

 We sent her this picture the morning she left and told her we missed her on her our walk. Pushing the stroller the whole time on my own was WAY harder and I sure was wishing she was there to take her turn! 

What a wonderful week we had with a wonderful grandmother that adores her grandbabies. We are loved and we know it not only because she tells us, but because she shows us. Thank you for everything, Grandma Teresa!