Sweet, Sweet Boy!

I can NOT believe our baby is already almost 14 months old.  He is the sweetest baby...laughs alot, tries to run after his brothers and sister, loves on everyone and definitely gets loved on, just started playing pat-a-cake, waves bye-bye and hi ALL the time, gives hi-fives, takes two AWESOME naps a day, has a very healthy appetite (can almost put his oldest brother to shame...and for those of you who have ever seen Benjamin eat, you know that's quite an accomplishment for a 1 year old), has an old-man mullet going on with his hair (but mommy is not ready to do the first haircut thing yet), likes to explore in kitchen cabinets, and especially loves his mommy and daddy (who are quite fond of their little blessing).  What joy he brings to our family!

Enjoying Spring-like Weather

A Vacation from Our Vacation

Ever heard people say, "I need a vacation from my vacation."  Well, that's exactly where I'm at right now.  Being away for a week was fantastic.  It was a welcomed break from our daily grind.  We have been home from our Christmas "vacation" for a week now, and I'm still trying to recover. 

We came home last Friday after being gone for a week and I was sick with a sore throat.  And I don't mean just any ole sore throat.  I mean I could not eat, drink, or swallow without crying because it not only hurt my throat, but also my ear.  So we went straight to the doctor when we got into town, but with it being New Year's Day, they closed early so I had to wait until Saturday.  After going on Saturday, getting a couple of prescriptions filled, running errands that needed to be run since we had been out of town for a week and I had children to feed, we finally got home and I spent the next two days in bed and this entire past week trying to recover.  There are still suitcases in our room with clean clothes in them to put away.  There's piles of laundry that have gone untouched all week laying on my bedroom floor.  I cleaned the house before we left for our trip, but after a week of Mommy being under the weather and Daddy being busy catching up on work, you can imagine how badly it needs to be cleaned now.

All of that to say, I am way behind on getting things down around here and I have lots of pictures to download onto the computer and then upload to this blog from the few weeks leading up to Christmas. 

But that will have to wait...first on my priority list:  I still have to take my Christmas decorations down.  What's that?  It's already January 9th, you say!!! 

Don't remind me.  But, you see, Lou and I have this "deal".  I like to put the decorations up right after Thanksgiving and then take them down sometime during the week between Christmas and New Years.  Drives Lou crazy!!!!  He really can't stand that!  Since Christmas really doesn't "start" until December 25th and lasts through Epiphany, January 6th (hence the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'), he likes for the Christmas decorations to be up until then...which drives me crazy!  So, we compromise....I get to put them up right after Thanksgiving, if we leave them up until January 6th. 

Now that you know that, you understand that I'm really not "that far behind" in taking the decorations down.  Only 3 days.  So you can guess what I'm going to be spending my Saturday doing.  Lou was so kind to bring all the storage boxes in from the shed...now I just have to get a major dose of motivation and get my Christmas stuff put away so I can clean this house, unpack from our trip, and do some laundry.  Like I said, I already need a vacation.  Or maybe I just need a maid.

Bowling

We took the kids to a friend's birthday party today and they got to go bowling.  For Madilyn and Jacob, it was their first time.  Benjamin had been a couple of times when he was younger while we lived in Kentucky, but, of course, he doesn't remember.  Here's some pics of the fun they had:

What a fun time!  It was hysterical watching them pick up the balls...we couldn't find any that weighed less than 10 lb, but they didn't want any help.  They did pretty good...better than Mommy and Daddy did, anyways.  Thanks for inviting us, Dayton!  We hope you had a great 6th birthday!

Need Your Opinion...

I just tried my hand at creating my own blog layout.  I had been using pre-created ones from The Cutest Blog on the Block, but decided to try making my own.  I even did the banner at the top of this page.  What do ya think?  There's still some things I need to tweek, but I'd say it's not too shabby for being my first attempt.

End of an Era...

About a year ago, I went to a "paint-your-own" pottery shop here in Abilene and painted my first-ever ceramic platter.  For those of you who have been to my house since then, you might have seen it up on my fireplace mantle.  It has "The Ellerbrook Family" written in the middle of the platter...with each of our names written around the edge.  And, if I do say so myself, it looks pretty darn good for my first time. 

But, ever since I made that platter, I've always had this "secret" fear that I might accidentally get pregnant, again, even though we hadn't planned on having more kids...which, if you know our history, you know that's not an unreasonable fear (do I need to remind anyone that both 3 & 4 were not planned surprise blessings from God?).  Then, if I did get pregnant, I would have to paint a new platter (the first one took me over 15 hours and going to the pottery place 4 times to finish...which is not an easy feat with small children at home). 

Well, it's the end of an era for us Ellerbrooks.  As of this past Thursday, our family has been firmly established as a family of 6.  This "baby-factory" is closed, assuming the procedure Lou had done is effective at preventing what it's suppose to prevent (more Ellerbrook children).  While Lou is recovering from this, apparently, very traumatic procedure (probably wouldn't be quite so traumatic if a stomach bug that has been passed around in our family hadn't been so lovingly shared with Daddy), I have been having mixed emotions about the whole ordeal.  Do I really want more kids?  No, but then again, maybe...sometimes.  Does Lou want more kids?  Heck, no.  So there you have it, folks. 

I get to enjoy my platter just the way it is...with 6 names.  I finally get to shop for coordinating Christmas stockings without the worry of trying to find one or two more (or however many subsequent children we had) two or three years down the road.  I can start sorting through baby and kid's clothes and giving them away/selling them after Noah outgrows the boys' clothes and Madilyn outgrows the girl's clothes (my garage and storage shed are going to thank me!!).  I get to throw away all my yucky, extremely-worn maternity clothes (seriously, if I had to look at those for one more pregnancy, I really think I was going to scream).  And, most importantly, I can enjoy all of these milestones that my four kids are reaching, able to fully appreciate them because I know that they pass by way too quickly and they will not be babies for long.

It may be the end of one era for us....but the beginning of an exciting, new one.  One that we will get to journey on together...just the six of us.

New Family Pics

For those of you who don't Facebook, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures that our good friend and photographer, Jamie, took of us about a month ago. Some of these were taken at the zoo in Abilene. Some of them were taken at Hardin-Simmons University. And we even got some good ones at Rosa's, after dinner with Robert, Jamie, and Maddie Jane. Don't look to close, though, because you'll see food on the kids' shirts. Well, except for Jacob. We made him take his shirt off (yes, he was sitting in Rosa's shirtless). What can I say? I didn't really wanted the cheese nachos he ate for dinner to make the pictures.

My lovely husband bought me Photoshop when we got our new computer and I have been playing around on it, lately, trying to learn the program. Here are some black and white pictures that Jamie took that I edited. All of our kids have gorgeous blue eyes, so I wanted to make them "pop" in these black and white pics.

These last three I edited to make them look old fashioned.

This last one is my very favorite that Jamie took. So sweet!!!

Just wish there was some way we could have gotten Noah in there. Oh well! He wasn't very cooperative that day anyway. It was getting close to bedtime and the kid LOVES to sleep (his favorite activity right after eating).