What a Month!

A close-up of Miss Eden Belle's cute cheeks and pretty eyes! Zion sporting his "hat".

Zion giving Eden some love. He's not going to know what to do when she forms an opinion of his love!

Eden's cute body.

"I love my play mat!"

I'm 4 months old today!

I'm 18 months old today and I have a fantastic grin on my face in this picture!

Heath going in the stage door for his concert at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. A door only "the chosen" get a chance to use!

Not sure how Zion got part of his sandwich ON his head while eating it. Funny boy!

Eden with her great grandma on Thanksgiving.

Whew! Every month I say to myself, "Self, you are going to blog more this month." Then the month slips by in a blind frenzy of breastfeeding (only one hand for typing--annoying to type with only one hand!), whirlwind weekends (no time for typing), and play dates (again, not typing/blogging friendly situations). So here we are already in December. December!? And I have to admit, I have taken down the fall/Thanksgiving decorations, but haven't gotten out the Christmas ones yet. Not even a Christmas CD yet! Heath even mentioned our lack of holiday cheer around here the other day. I told him I had to wait for the bug to bite me. So I'm just going to wait!

Anyway, the kiddos are doing well. Fighting colds and pink eye, but they are as cute as ever and growing so fast! They are now 18 months (Zion) and 4 months (Eden). Zion is chatting up a storm--real words! It is so fun to watch him learn and absorb the world around him. And he is entering the terrible two phase. Isn't this too early??!! Eden is so cute and interactive. She gives us the sweetest smiles and loves to be cuddled. I love her little chubby legs in tights. What a joy she is to us!

Heath had his first concert with the Portland Symphonic Choir and the Schnitzer. It's always been his dream to perform on stage there--that old, charmingly-ornate-musty smelling concert hall. They performed Brahms' German Requiem and it was pretty entertaining. (I was glad I had forgotten my magazine to occupy myself while at the concert at home!)

Thanksgiving was fun with the Meier side this year. Always good to see my brother and his family. I made a pumpkin cheesecake that was to die for! It looked and tasted like something they would have had at The Cheesecake Factory. Yummy!

Well, better get going. Hopefully the holiday season will catch up to me soon so I can pull out the decorations, deck out a tree, wrap presents, and join the rest of the world!

You Were Wrong!

Sorry, Mom and Dad, but you were wrong! Trick or treating is SO MUCH fun!

Tonight we decked Zion out in a tiger costume and face paint (well, okay, my eye liner) and hit the streets. And let me tell you. . .he got the loot! It was nice because he doesn't get candy yet, so he was oblivious as to what people were giving him. We'll see if he is so innocently guiless next year!

We had a great time toting this cute little boy around and just being together. We feel so lucky to have our kids and each other.

We dedicated the kids last week at our new church--Mosaic. We don't get many family pictures, so here we all are! Eden is now 3 1/2 months old and Zion is 17 1/2 months.

Cutie Pies!

Sleeping Through the Night!

Our little girl has slept through the night the past couple nights! Yay! Last night it was 12-7 am and the night before it was 11-6 am! I wasn't going to get excited about it, but since she has done it two nights I am hoping for a pattern! Keep your fingers crossed!

On another note, we went to the jazz bar, Jimmy Mak's, with friends last night and it was thoroughly enjoyable! It was nice to sit there, with adults, and listen to some fun music.

Labor Day

For Labor Day, we took a little family trip up the Gorge. First we went to the Portland Women's Forum lookout point (random name for such a place, I know). Then we traveled up the mountain to Larch Mountain where we took a little hike to the summit, which is what you see here.

Heath had to carry both kids up the mountain because he loves to be "THE Dad".

After our little hike, we met up with my parents for dinner at the Edgefield McMenamins in Troutdale. If you have never been there, GO! It is so cool! Here Zion is picking flowers and offering rocks to anyone who would take them.


Here are some pictures of the kids with their cousins on my side:

and on Heath's side. This is little Boston Cole and Eden. He is seven weeks older than her.


She is bigger than this now. We had an appointment for he a couple weeks ago and my guess is that she is 10 1/2 pounds now. She is fun to have around and Zion is adjusting to her too.

Just a couple random thoughts:

-If you have not eaten at The Screen Door Restaurant on 24th and East Burnside, you MUST! It is my new favorite place! It is southern food, and let me tell you, it does speak to the soul!

-We found our new place during the Street of Dreams in August! :) We'll let you know when we're moving into a Pearl District Penthouse!

-I forgot how much I love pedicures!!

-Being a mom of an infant (and breastfeeding said child) IS work, but is so rewarding!

-If possible, have your children more than 14 months apart! I am managing them on my own, but they are not both always happy. ;)

-If anyone knows how I can get my "Other Blogs I Read" section back on my blog since I updated the background, please let me know! I think I just need to change the font color, but I am not sure how to do that. Help!

Pictures!

Well. . .

We did not make it to August for the birth of our little one! In fact, July 16th, we had an emergency c-section. So, our little Eden Belle has joined our family! She is so cute and lumpish. We had forgotten how small they are at first. Plus, since she was three weeks early, she only tipped the scales at 6 pounds 5 ounces when she was born. She was 19 1/2 inches, which was the exact length Zion was at full term.

She is doing great and we just love her to pieces! Here are some pictures:

Today's Appointment. . .

Determined that I am starting to dialate! We're at a 1 so far. I really would like to make it to August, but we'll see. . .

And Heath finished rototilling the backyard tonight. Now he has to level it and plant grass! What fun it is to watch him with his new landscape maintenance skills.

Getting There

Well, we are almost to 37 weeks now. I have another appointment with my doctor this morning so we'll see how things are progressing. Last week's visit reaped nothing interesting except that I am starting contractions now and then.

I had another ultrasound to check Eden's size and she looks perfect! We're still going to try for the VBAC. I am nervous about the birth, but I know she will come out one way or another! I just hope it doesn't take 28 hours this time!

Heath is in his fourth of six weeks of the PSP Program and loving it. He is also working on expanding our backyard so every night this week he's been out until dark 'tilling up the dirt, getting rid of the blackberry roots. It'll be fun having more room back there for the kids to play.

Zion is now a toddler! He doesn't crawl at all anymore. His understanding of speech picks up more everyday too. This morning he made the "moo" sound for a cow when we were reading a book. So cute! He is such a delight--a true crown on our head.

So there is a quick peek into our life. I'll post more about Eden when we have more details!

June News

The sun has finally arrived again. It has been nice to see the blue sky, but the trade off is steep--I am SO HOT! Ugh!

Here Zion is getting ready to play in a local water feature. We are lucky to have several parks around us with them. He absolutely LOVES playing in water (but still hates the bathtub. We can't figure that one out!). I love this picture of his toddly-penguin walk and how his shorts are really pants.

Just THRILLED about this little stream of water. So innocently cute!

"Here's my tummy!" He likes to pat it when you ask him where it is. Seems like he learns something new everyday. Talking has also started. Some of his words are: dog, tree, please, food, cheese, shoe, this, no-no-no, Dada, Mama, and oops.

He also got his first haircut in June.

Before:

During:After:

June also brought a new baby into our fam. Little Boston Cole! Congratulations, Brock and Natasha! He is just so adorable and perfect! Unfortunately, I never got a great angle of his precious face or one with him and his parents. Isn't he a DOLL!

Here Zion is with his first boy cousin on Heath's side.

Speaking of babies. . .our Eden Belle is due in five weeks! And, yes, I have the BEL-LY to prove it! I begin my weekly doctor visits next week. Yikes! She'll be here before we know it! Yeah!