More pictures...

I realized as I was posting yesterday that I didn't have any pictures of Elijah with Elliana. So now we have some of those...unfortunately for him, she was not really happy about it. Anyway, so here are a few more pictures.

Elijah wants to hold Elliana a lot.

He's a great older brother!

Three cheers for sleeping...hip, hip, hooray!

Find something you're good at and do it!

In Elliana's case, napping!
So Lydia's a little bored, she's hoping this drawer will offer a little excitement.

A few baby pictures

Well, most of these are still from the hospital but they are new. So far Elliana has been a good sleeper. She wakes up to eat, but then goes right back to sleep...I can't ask for much more than that! Anyway, I will hopefully take some more pictures soon and upload those too. Hope you enjoy these.

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, so Christmas is already passed, but some of us spent it in the hospital. So we didn't fully "do" Christmas until the day after until Elliana and I got home. Some one thought that I posted the last blog, but that was Tim. We are really glad to be back home. So the following are just a few Christmas pictures of us opening our presents so the grandparents and great-grandparents can see. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Sleepers for Elliana

Sudoku...we are going to have to share this!

Watches

Elijah's t-shirt and the girls' jeans

An IQ booster book...are you guys trying to tell us something?

Kids' stockings

Lydia wants to wear the Stockings



Are we smarter than a 5th grader? I'm not so sure!




Lydia's animal boat and Elijah's Buzz Lightyear coloring book




New bags


Cinderella



Mama's French press

Grandma and Elliana

Welcome Elliana Noel

The pregnancy we thought would never end has finally come to an end. On Christmas Eve at 8:05pm Elliana arrived as an extra special Christmas gift. She was the biggest of our children weighing in at 8lb. 13oz. and measuring 21in. Take a look at our newest little girl below (yes, all of that hair is real).

Mom enjoys the fruit of her labor

Lydia welcomes her newest competition...I mean sister

Bright eyed and bushy headed

It's my due date...

And I'll cry if I want to. Alright, so I went to see the doctor today. He said that he felt sure that I would have the baby by the 1st of January. As you all can imagine that did not go over so well. It was a terrible sinking feeling when I realized that I am no where close to being ready. So all I can say is I'm still pregnant. We're going to try the Mexican food trick tonight. (Any excuse to eat Mexican is a good excuse.) I figure it's because I haven't been getting enough Starbucks...ha, ha, ha. Trying to keep a positive attitude.

And still...

NO NEWS! Yes, I know I haven't actually come to my due date, but I think I more look at a due date as a deadline...therefore, I'm feeling like I'm cutting it close! Pat, Tim's mom, has made it. We, especially the kids (!!!!), are excited to have her here. We haven't yet gotten to take her to all the fun places (ie. night market, elephant rides). But we have fed her local Thai bbq and sticky rice. Anyway, there's not much more to say. I hope to have something really important to post soon!

And...

Nothing to report! How sad is that? Pretty sad. The doctor said maybe next week...which would be right at my due date. But these things are never certain. So the waiting continues. The belly gets bigger. You know, the normal stuff. But Tim and I got a date two nights ago. It was a little weird to go to restaurant and not have to tell anyone to sit down, not yell, or sit down (yeah, I know I wrote that twice). We also got to walk around the night market and have wonderful Starbucks! The peppermint mocha is pretty good! The kids got to eat pizza and watch movies. Other than that, there is not much to say. I'll keep you updated!

The news...

Well, there is none. I have 9 days to my due date. But no baby yet. I promise to keep this as updated as much as possible. We are just passing time here. One of our friends has offered to babysit for us, so tomorrow, the kids get pizza and we are going out to dinner. We are really looking forward to a little time out. And we may do some last minute Christmas shopping. The nice thing about being in a country where Christmas is not a "local" holiday, shopping is just as easy before Thanksgiving as on Christmas Eve!
Isabella has only a couple days more before she starts Christmas break. Elijah is confused because we say it is Christmas time but he can't open his Christmas presents. And Lydia is talking more and more each day. Lately she's been trying to say Elliana, which has turned into "Lana." And "sawasdeekah" (which is Thai for hello and goodbye), which turns into "wah wah kah." Here in Thailand, the kids have rediscovered hot dogs (thank you Dairy Queen!) and cold cuts (yep, they didn't know what lunch meat was).
One last funny story: in the mall across the street from our apartment, there is a Warner Bros. store. I'm not sure that Lydia has ever seen Tweety Bird, but there is a big Tweety statue in the display window. As we walked by it the other day, Lydia saw it and said "quack, quack, quack, quack, quack."