Jacob Turns 3!!

What a whirlwind the last 3 years have been!! Our Jacob was a HUGE surprise...Madilyn was only 5 months old when I got pregnant with him. Talk about shock!!! But after weeks of tears, I finally got use to the idea...and, once he got here, I just couldn't imagine life without him. He has definitely been our most "difficult" child--in many ways. He was born with a club foot that required several weeks in a cast that was changed weekly, surgery, and then years in his orthopaedic shoes with brace across the bottom of the shoes to keep his feet in position. He had reflux that caused him to be an extremely fussy baby and in pain everytime he ate for the first 2 1/2 months of his life. He had ear tubes at 11 months. He has been our pickiest eater--still will not eat fruit (except for applesauce). He is the most strong will and defiant child we have. But he is also so loving. He has been a Daddy's boy from the beginning--which is so different than Benjamin. He will come climb up in my lap and stroke my face or play with my hair. He has absolutely no fear--except of dogs--and has one of those "I'll try anything once" attitudes. He is just so precious to us and I am so glad he is "mine".

Anyways, he wanted a pirate party since he is very much into anything pirate--peter pan, Captain Hook, Jack Sparrow.

He didn't like us singing "Happy Birthday". I guess he got embarassed and turned his head away from all of us.But he was all for getting to blow out the candles--he actually tried putting them out with his fingers first--see, no fear!

Cousin Jadyn, Madilyn, Benjamin, Jacob, Cousin Pacey, and Cousin Blake waiting for Jacob to open up presents. They all tried to "help".

Benjamin's Birthday

Well, Benjamin turned 6 in February. I can NOT believe he is 6 years old! Here are a few pics of him during the first few months of his life (excuse the quality--these were taken before we had a digital camera, so they were scanned in):



Benjamin at 6 weeks.

3 months
9 months

He wanted a dinosaur party (big surprise)--which was fine with me since he had a dinosaur party when he was 4 and that meant I already had the dinosaur cake pan and had made it before.

Brady and Jacob wanted so bad to help him blow out the candles.

Waiting patiently for cake and ice cream.

His dinosaur cake and cupcakes. He got to pick what color mommy made his dinosaur and of course the cake flavor. We had white cake with sprinkles in it and red velvet cupcakes--YUM!!
Our good friends, Randa and Bailey and their 3 kids, and my cousin, Josh, and his wife, Dianna--who I went to college with and became close friends with, and their two kids were able to come to the party. It's always so much fun to get together. Usually, when Dianna is driving from Frisco to Lubbock, she will stop in Abilene and meet Randa and I for lunch at Chick-fil-a. It's always an adventure when we get together with the 9 kids (and 1 on the way) we have between us.

The kids are enjoying their pizza and enjoying each other's company. They were having some deep discussions between Grace, Dayton, and Benjamin--pondering the why's and how's of the universe, while Ella, Brady, and Madilyn try their hardest to keep up and get a word in. It's times like these that I know we'll treasure forever (as well as the naps that were taken soon after).

Random Pics

Noah is already growing so fast. He's awake quite a bit during the day and he has the sweetest smile. We are cherishing every moment with him because we know our baby will be four years old before we turn around.

This is Jacob's "cute" face. It's the face he makes when he gets in trouble, because it makes Lou and I laugh and makes it hard to get onto Jacob for whatever he's doing. How do they get so smart so young?

Our Princess is Four!

One of my hobbies is decorating cakes...I do cakes for all the kids' birthdays. I thought this one turned out pretty good considering I was trying to take care of a newborn while decorating.

I can't believe she's four!!! It seems like just yesterday she was Noah's size. We had a family party at home...with Nana, Papa, Mom-mu, Grandad, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Jeremy, cousin Pacey, Aunt Sarah, cousins Reaghan and Ethan, and of course her three brothers and Mommy and Daddy. What a blessing she is to us!

Life with Four Kids

Madilyn and Benjamin were in our church's kid's pageant at Christmas. Madilyn was a hummingbird and Benjamin was a lamb. Madilyn only had one line and it was with all of the hummingbirds...Benjamin had three lines and did really well at memorizing them and speaking loud enough for everyone to hear and understand him. They are still, a month after the Christmas pageant, walking around the house singing their songs. It was the cutest Christmas program EVER!!

Noah was bundled up to go to the doctor...he looks like the kid on the movie, "A Christmas Story".

The kids are anxiously waiting for Mommy to get ready so we could all go to church. Let me just tell you that getting four kids and myself ready to go to church all by myself (since Lou has to be there so early) is no easy feat. It's a good thing I only have one girl that has to have her hair done. I seriously don't know how my mom did it with four girls.

Introducing Noah Adley Ellerbrook

Noah Adley Ellerbrook was born on December 2, 2008. He weighed 7 lb, 9 oz and was 19.5 inches long. In the first hour after he was born, his blood sugar dropped. They got it back up within the normal range and we were able to go home from the hospital the next day.

Within 24 hours of being home, he was very jittery again (a sign of low blood sugar)--so we took him to the dr. After testing his blood sugar and jaundice levels, they wanted him back in the hospital. So we spent another 4 days in the hospital trying to get his blood sugar levels up and keeping them up (which happened the first night we were there) and getting his jaundice levels down (which is what took 4 days). While he was back in the hospital, Benjamin got strep throat and proceeded to share it with Lou, Madilyn, and Jacob. I was the only one that did not get it (at least that week). I have never been more overwhelmed in my life--being in the hospital with a sick newborn, having three sick kids who needed their mommy (but mommy couldn't be there because she was at the hospital), and having a sick husband who couldn't be much help because he felt so bad and was trying to keep from giving it to me or the baby. Good thing parents and grandparents came to our rescue!!

The Zoo (and, no, I don't mean our house)

At the baby shower that the ladies at the church threw for me, the hostesses got our family a membership to the Abilene Zoo. It's a pretty good zoo for being in the size town that it's in. So, in November, we took the kids on a Saturday that was pretty. The kids got to feed a lot of the animals. They had a blast! It was a very special day for us, because it was one of our last Saturdays as a family of five. I will forever cherish this day, also, because it was one of the last that we saw Jacob as a "baby" (even though he's 2 1/2 years old).