sweet baby face

happy birthday to our favorite guy

Andy marked a special milestone yesterday, his 30th birthday! With a simple dinner in, Andy's favorite homemade carrot cake, and a few special birthday goodies from Eli and I, we had a fun evening at home celebrating the birthday boy! Eli and I are so lucky to call this special guy "ours"!

fingers crossed

MAJOR mission accomplished!!

Oh, how long I have waited to write this very exciting post! Since Eli's birth, he has been swaddled tightly for every nap and for every night's rest. I am a strong, strong advocate of swaddling, as I believe, in combination with other factors, helped Eli to begin sleeping through the night at 7 weeks old. However, in recent weeks, our soon-to-be 4 month old has been fighting his beloved swaddle, thus leading to multiple day and night "jail breaks" of his hands, resulting in a very awake and not always happy baby. Needless to say, after one day of pretty good swaddle-less naps, our little guy was put in his crib for the night without his swaddle, mind you...a very big deal in this home! To our delight, Eli slept peacefully the entire night for 10 hours! We are so happy to retire this piece of baby goodness, but are so thankful for the security that it offered to Eli (and to us) for almost 4 months! We are so proud of our little guy for learning to sleep with his wild arms and hands!

...Our very happy morning baby...
"Look at me! Look at me! I slept only in my sleep sack without my swaddle!"

While we are so glad to say "adios" to the swaddle, we highly, highly recommend the HALO SleepSack Swaddle! With it's zippers, velcro wrap, and extra velcro fasteners, we so lovingly referred to this as the ultimate baby straight jacket, thus giving Eli (and us) many, many hours of wonderful sleep!

country roads lead to indianapolis

What excitement there was in our Louisville home on Saturday night! Our beloved Mountaineer basketball team played in the Elite 8 NCAA tournament game against the Kentucky Wildcats! After a roller coaster game, our Mounties were victorious, thus winning them a spot in the ever illustrious Final Four. We are so very excited for this coming Saturday as WVU will meet Coach K and the Duke Blue Devils. Win or lose, we are so, so proud of our Mountaineers and can't wait to cheer for them again! We are always so proud to wear our BLUE & GOLD in a city of Wildcats and Cardinals! Let's Goooooooooo Mountaineers!

While Mr. Eli was tucked in cozily to his crib during the actual basketball game, he enjoyed wearing his own lucky blue and gold all day!

...Click on these fun links below for great Mountaineer Basketball goodies...

Nice article: Mountaineers Nearing the Summit

WVU Football Coach, Bill Stewart, celebrating the Mountaineer victory at Myrtle Beach's Broadway At the Beach...so many WVU fans in the crowd!

Morgantown Mayhem
A High Street Celebration following the basketball game in downtown Morgantown, West Virginia

A fun, fun Sprint Commercial...could there be a couch on fire?

a visit from nana & papaw

Eli was certainly happy to welcome his Nana and Papaw Freeman to Louisville with lots and lots of his sweet smiles. Andy and I were so thankful for their helpful visit and only wish our visits could be more often. We had lots of fun playing with Eli, shopping at the Mall, and of course watching Mountaineer Basketball! Thanks for visiting Nana and Papaw! We can't wait to see you again soon!

Does this boy love to smile or what?!?

looking up to dad

look, mom! no sling

Eli has officially graduated from the newborn sling to simply sitting up in his tub! His little, chunka-chunka legs and feet just love to kick at the water. From splashing the water to lotion time, bath time is such a joy in our house!

growing & learning

Oh how quickly things can change in just a short amount of time. For Andy and I, it feels like just a few weeks ago, rather than months, that we brought Eli home from the hospital. Since then, we have watched him turn from a sleepy, sleepy baby into a unique "little person" that is so observant, happy, and curious. We love watching him learn and discover something new almost every day. Recently, Eli has loved trying to reach for things that are just within his reach, namely his beloved penguin on this favorite play mat. What fun it is to see his little hand, reach with control to grab this link. We just have to smile at how much he is growing and learning!

sweet, sweet, carmen

Our little Carmen showers us with unconditional love each day. Tonight, as Andy continued to study for his upcoming boards, Carmen's wish was not to be played with, not to be petted, but just to be close. Nestled under Andy's Radiobiology textbook, she was as close as she could manage. What a blessing we have found in our little Carms. There simply is not another "fur-baby" like her!