Sorry I haven't updated in so long

OK...so I'm a bad blogger! I realize it's been forever since I've updated this blog. What can I say...there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to sit down and "chat" on the computer. Well I guess I could, but I haven't mastered this task with a 6 month old jumping around in my lap and a 3 year old repeatedly saying "momma I want to play computer games" every time I sit down at the computer. lol


Things have been great here. Eli goes for his 6 month checkup here in 2 days and Jeremiah is now 3 (going on 10) years old. Eric turned 36 years old today and told me he's starting to feel like an old man. I still think he's hot though. lol The ducks have all left. 3 are now are uncle Brad's pond, 2 sadly got hit by cars and 1 - Mrs. Quakers- was the last to "leave the nest" here about a week or so ago. Although we still have quite the little zoo going on here at the Foster household with 1 rabbit, 1 hamster, 1 dog, 1 turtle, 2 hermit crabs and 4 fish. That's pretty much it for now. I'll try to update this more often. Here are a few recent pics of the boys.

Jeremiah playing at the park

Eli sleeping on his brothers bed.

Brothers

The SweetPeace Swing

For those of you that don't live right down the road from us you may not have known that the baby swing we got for Jeremiah and used for Eli broke. I smelled something electrical burning almost 2 weeks ago and it turned out to be the motor on the swing. It was on of those swings that not only swung back and forth but also side to side. It was a REAL life saver for me. If it weren't for that swing there would have been a lot of day that I wouldn't get anything around the house down or often not even get a shower till after Eric got home from work. Eli loved the swing....and it was a LONG eleven days from the time the old one broke till the new swing arrived. Eli has his new swing now and that makes EVERYONE in the Foster house hold happy. lol

Ducks on the run

The rain has stopped...at least for now. Jeremiah got to run around in the yard and play with his ducks. He's still a tad bit upset that they don't run to him but from him, but he's getting over it. He still likes to try every once and awhile to catch them. Momma is the one that usually ends up running around the yard like an idiot for 15 minutes to catch one so he can pet it for all of 30 seconds and be done. lol The things we do to please our children! Eli is doing great. I'm going to post a video of him soon if this one turns out good on my post. Till then....take care all!

Mallard Update

Ok, so I've had a few inquires on the ducks. Yes we still have all 6! lol They are now 3 weeks old and getting big fast. They graduated to the outdoor pen I set up for them. They love it and take daily strolls around the back yard. Jeremiah still LOVES his ducks and is kinda sad because they used to follow him around everywhere....now you have to chase them down if you want to hold one. lol They are starting to get there feathers now. Here's a few picks

We wanted to hatch ducks eggs, and still plan to do that, but after thinking about it...we were afraid that if none of the eggs hatched and Jeremiah was sooo looking forward to ducks then he'd be sad. And momma can't have her boy sad....soooo we go a few baby ducks today. We only wanted to get 2, but could only buy them if we got at least six. SO now we have six baby ducks and will be hatching ducks eggs probably in another month.

Jeremiah with his 6 ducks

The six Mallard Ducklings...Enie, Menie, Minie, Moe, Chip & Dale(Chip and Dale because they kinda look like little chipmunks)

Jeremiah LOVES his ducksAnd they love him. They follow him around everywhere. I think they think he's the momma. lol

Eli's First Spoon Feeding

Since Eli has a lot of issues with his throat and choking while he's eating, he's had rice cereal added to his bottles for awhile now. But the other day he had his first feeding with a spoon. He didn't know what to think at first and ended spiting the majority of it out. But it didn't take him long to catch on and he LOVED it. He kicked his little legs around in excitement if I didn't get the spoon to his mouth fast enough. He's growing up soooo fast. Both the boys are actually. Jeremiah and I will be coloring Easter Eggs today so I'm sure there will be photos of that up here soon.

Eli eating from the spoon

Got to love that face!Brothers

Dora LIVE

Jeremiah and Momma went to Pittsburgh on the 22nd of March to see the Dora LIVE show.
We had a lot of fun! Jeremiah got to see Dora and all her friends and even got to see Diego and baby Jaguar. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance so the few pics here are ones I snapped really fast during the shows break. Jeremiah still talks about the show and the things he saw. It was well worth the money and driving in downtown Pittsburgh. :)

The Stage

Momma and Jeremiah

Jeremiah with his new Diego and Baby Jaguar stuffed animals

Jeremiah right before the show started...not knowing what to expect.

He loved it once he saw Dora AKA his girlfriend

Shots and Rashes

Eli is now almost 11 weeks old. He had his 2 month check up the other week and weighted in at 10 lbs 2 oz. He got his shots which was hard on me. Not so much getting the actual shots, but the aftermath. Jeremiah never seemed to have a bad time with soreness after his shots. Eli did. He pretty much screamed in pain any time you move or touched him for about 24 hours after he got his shots. And I do mean screamed! Not just a "I'm mad and don't feel good" cry...but an all out 'I'm in extreme pain and it's not going away" type cry. It broke my heart cause I couldn't do much to help him. Thank God that's over...even if it's just for a few months. They also found out he has something called Tracheomalacia (sp?) which basically means his trachea is underdeveloped and that's why he chokes a lot while eating and he makes grunting or squeaking sounds when he breaths sometimes. He has a very mild version of this and will grow out of it by around 18 months. So basically all we have to do is thicken his feedings with Rice Cereal.

I've also been giving him some formula along with the breast milk I've been pumping because I'm not making as much milk as he wants to eat. It didn't take long before we could tell that Eli has a reaction to milk based formula. He had a rash all over his face that would come and go...and got worse not long after he got the formula.

Eli's formula induced rash.

After we switched to Soy formula things cleared up in no time.

Jeremiah is still being an awesome big brother and even tries to play with Eli now...even though all Eli does is sit there and smile at him. Still it's cute to see Jeremiah interact with his little brother. Tomorrow I'm taking Jeremiah to Pittsburgh to see the Dora and Diego Live show. He LOVES Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go. So I'm sure I'll have more photos to post soon.

Stir Crazy

With the it being so cold out it's been hard to keep Jeremiah from going a bit stir cray. So for the past few weeks I've been trying to get him out to do something fun at least once a week. Last week we went to Chuck E Cheese with Nana. Today Gram went with us to the bowling alley. Jeremiah had lots of fun at both places. As much as I love to see him having fun, I can not wait till it's nice out and we can go on some "outdoor adventures".

Here is Jeremiah bowling

And at Chuck E Cheese

A pic of the three of us in one of those drawing photo booths at Chuck E Cheese

Just wanted to let you all know we had Tony Urban come and take some pictures of the family at the house. He's going to come back and take some more of us once things green up and get nice outside. He put up a slide show of some of the pictures he took. You can check them out at http://www.tonyurbanstudios.com/ then click "Read my photo blog". We should be right up at the top since he just took our photos yesterday. If for some reason the slide show doesn't come up for you just try refreshing the page and that should work. Hope you enjoy.

Time flys when your having fun

Well life at the Foster house hold is kinda laid back right now. With the weather only being in the teens, the boys and I often hang out in the basement where the nice warm wood burner is. Personally I'm getting tired of winter and can't wait for Jeremiah to be able to run and play outdoors again. Before long Eli will be crawling around outside as well. Eli has just started to really smile a lot and coo a bit within the last week or so. I can't believe he's already 8 weeks old..and that his brother will be turning 3 in just a little over 2 months! Were did that time go?
Although I enjoy every minute with my boys and look forward to watching them grow and change...it's kinda sad in a way too. They don't stay babies long enough. I know Eli is still a baby, but I can't believe how much he's changed in grown in just the 8 weeks he's been here. He's already lost the "newborn" look and is starting to fill out. Guess that means it's time to try again for a little girl. ;)

Hallelujah

Well today was Sunday and even though Eric was working I got the kids up and out the house for church this morning. It's funny how God can convict you so easily. In all honesty while I was trying to get myself and 2 little ones ready and at church on time I was thinking to myself that this was pretty much going to be a waste of my time and effort. I thought for sure that I would spend 2 hours trying to get us all ready and out the door only to end up sitting in the nursery the whole time because Jeremiah wouldn't want to stay up there with out me. Well not only did he stay up in the nursery without me, but God really used him to bless me (and convict me at the same time). He stayed in the service during Praise and Worship which he normally does cause he loves to clap and dance around to the music. We started off by singing Hallelujah, The Lord Almighty Reigns. You know the song that goes.....Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah The Lord reigns Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah The Lord almighty reigns He has shown His awesome power He has triumphed mightily He's the victor over darkness and the grave He has broken chains that bound us He has set the prisoner free By His own great mercy we are saved.

So anyway as I was holding Eli and watching Jeremiah clap, standing next to my mother-in-law...every time after we would say Hallelujah for the third time Jeremiah would yell out as loud as he could "Ha ya you ya" aka hallelujah. At first it tickled me cause I thought he was just trying to sing along with us, but even after the songs changed and we sang 3 or 4 more song (which didn't even have the word Hallelujah in them) he would still yell out "Ha ya you ya" ever minute or so until we were done signing.
The more I saw him say it...it was honestly like he was praising the Lord. He got no laughs or praise from me or my mother-in-law for saying that. So I know he wasn't saying it just because he saw or knew we thought it was funny...but I really think my precious little gift from God was praising the Lord in his own way.
And here I had been complaining in my own mind earlier about how this was just going to be a waste of time on my part....The Lord showed me that even if all I do is sit in the nursery for the whole service...still I need to go because it not just about me. My son...even at the tender age of 2 is being fed God's love by seeing and experiencing going to church. I can't express the warmth it brought to my heart to see Jeremiah clapping and praising the Lord today in church. He wasn't just mimicking others...he was truly praising the Lord I feel. As a mother...what could be better then seeing your child love and praise Jesus???

Our dog Dallas has adjusted well to having another kid in the house. She really could care less about Eli. Although it was cute to she her run over when I was trying to take this pic and roll over to get into the pic. I guess she's probably desperate for a little attention now that she has been knocked down another rung on the attention totum poll. lol

What's freaky about this pic is that Eli is fast asleep...even though his eyes are still slightly open. I've been told that I tend to sleep with my eyes open at times...guess I passed that on to Eli. Still, it's FREAKY to see. I wonder how his little eyeballs don't cry out cause he doesn't seem to blink at all when sleeping like this....I don't know...it just looks freaky. Did I mention that it just freaks me out???? lol

Geo Trax Boy

Jeremiah got some Geo Trax trains and air plane for Christmas. We've slowly added on to that and as you can see from the pic it's fastly taking up A LOT of room. lol But he loves trains and these are prefect for him. He can work the trains and planes by his self and plays with them daily. Daddy secretly loves them just as much as Jeremiah and the two of them often "play trains" together. I think we are going to have to invest in the track expansions that have lifts so we can make the tracks go over the already existing tracks....at least that way they won't be taking up the entire basement floor! lol

The Car Wreck

A pic of the car the ran right into the neighbors tree yesterday. Not sure way, but the guy just ran straight off the road and into our next door neighbors yard and was stopped by the tree. Thankfully the guy was ok, just a sore knee. Eric has taken to calling me "Little Glo" (after my mother-in-law Gloria) because I've told the story of how I heard the car smashing into the tree more then once or twice.

For those of you that don't know my mother-in-law...some people (not me of course because I'm the perfect daughter-in-law. hehehehe) seem to think she has the "gift" of telling the same story over and over and over.

So because I told the story more then once...I'm now little glo. But hey,whatever. It's not everyday a car wrecks in your neighbors yard. And lets face it...these days...with 2 little ones in the dead of winter....I don't get out much. So this is big news for me. lol

Well little Eli is 6 weeks old now. He's already changed soooo much. Jeremiah is still loving the whole big brother thing. The one and only sign of jealousy he's ever shown is when Eli has a little toy or rattle. Jeremiah thinks it's his and doesn't really want to willingly let Eli have it. lol But if that's the worst he does while adjusting to a new baby in the house...I'll be more then happy with that. Jeremiah really is a great big brother and is very protective of his baby brother. Eli can't cry more then 30 seconds without Jeremiah telling me I need to pick him up cause Jeremiah doesn't like to see him cry. He'll run and give Eli his pacy if I don't get there fast enough and he loves to cuddle with Eli when he's down on the floor.

Eric loves being the father of 2 boys. We have already stated that we know Eli wasn't our last baby (God willing). Eric seems to think that he "only makes boys". I told him then we'd keep going and going till I got at least one girl...even if that meant when ended up with 10 kids! lol I guess we will just have to see what the future holds.

The New Addition

On Jan 5th 2009 we welcomed little Elias Scott Foster into this world. He was 6 lbs. 15.7 oz and was 21 inches long. Eric and I are thrilled to have another boy and Jeremiah loves being a big brother. Hopefully this blog will be a great way for those of you that can't see us all the to see how our little family is growing and what we are all into.