Almost Ready

Written December 16th

I had an eventful week last week! I went into the Dr. for that oh-so-fun initial OB appointment. I was measuring quite large at 14 weeks when I wasn't even quite 10 yet( which I guess is normal for having babies close together). The Dr. couldn't find the heart beat so down to ultrasound I went. I would have been freaking out, but  the same thing happened when I was pregnant with Elias. After a short wait, I got to see baby E for the first time! He/She wasn't very active but was there, and heart- a- beating none the less.
After the successful appointment, I told Brandon he could tell our family and friends. Now this is not our first or even 2nd child...It's our 4th! Due to this, I was not to thrilled to share our news with the world. Our first pregnancy everyone was over joyed...a little less with the second as they were very close together. By the third a few questioned our decisions and I wasn't in the emotional state to deal with what people may think of number 4, so I sent Brandon on the mission of telling people. Worrying was not necessary as everyone was happy to have a new little one to snuggle.
For all of those wondering how many kids we will have...the answer is 7. Not because I want 7 specifically but because that is what the needle and thread told us(back story on that later). It sounds good to me, oh and in case you are wondering, we are having a girl, again according to the all mighty needle.

A couple more weeks and I will be ready to share the news with everyone (i.e facebook), have to have time to tell a few more people in person first

Presents from Grandma Mary

Annie, Elias and Benjamin are pretty lucky kids! They not only have two very loving sets of grandparents in town to spoil them with love, but they also have great grand parents that send them cards and gifts on special days! Annie and Elias finally got to meet Grandma Mary last October when we went to Disney World. The kids had skyped with their great grandma before, but were pretty excited to meet her in person. 

Last year Grandma Mary made the kids hats for Christmas which Annie INSTANTLY became obsessed with. Needless to say she was pretty excited when we told her a package had come from the "hat grandma" . 

We made the kids wait until after everyone was bathed and ready for bed before opening presents. Annie got a little restless and may have decided to cover her entire body in stickers...girl is crazy!

Anyways, the first thing Annie saw when she opened the box was her NEW HAT!!! Next a baby doll followed by some gifts for Elias and Benjamin. I missed the most perfect photo op of Elias which I am still pretty bummed about. He opened a blue power ranger toy and jumped up and down repeatedly screaming "YES YES YES" It was one of the first times he was truly excited over a present. 

After all the presents were unwrapped, we sat down to enjoy some of the yummy baked goods she sent and play with the new play doh! 

Grandmas'  give the best gifts!

New Traditions

Each Christmas since having kids, Brandon and I have tried to do the same festive traditions together. Decorating cookies, making Christmas themed craft projects, looking at lights etc. We dabbled ..very unsuccessfully, last year in gingerbread making, look here to see the epic failure. 

As you all know, my parents moved here in the spring and unknown to me, my mom is apparently a skilled gingerbread house maker-person. Mom bought the goods for the house, and the three kids and I headed over for what I was foreseeing as another disaster. 

Benjamin sat happily in his high chair while the big kids listened to the rules.Grammy put down the first layer of icing and the kids took turns lining the house with candy canes. I was truly impressed how patient they were waiting their turn.

 It took about 20 min for the kids to decorate their rows. Grammy would do a row of icing then the kids would take turns decorating that row. Annie was pretty good at waiting, she did try to sneak icing from the pipe and ate a ton of candy! All in all it was a very fun evening. 

 Ta-Da!

Play Time

I was going through my drafts and deleting the ones that I never got a chance to finish, when I found this gem! I don't know exactly how old it is but we obviously had the cats still, pre- Benjamin and probably in the winter. My guess is February 2011 or so. So fun to see how much these kids have grown!

Just Finding Out

Today is November 2nd and I have known since October 30th that we are expecting baby #4! I feel bad admitting this and Brandon will kill me when he finds out but I haven't told him yet. In fact I don't really plan to tell him until Christmas. We are trying to save money for a new house and we aren't doing Christmas gifts for each other so I thought this would be a perfect gift. To be honest I think a large part of the reason is, I really prefer to wait to share baby news, especially with our growing family. So many people disapprove and have rude comments the larger your family grows and I just prefer to postpone that reaction as long as possible. The other reason is Brandon is a gossip king, he just can't keep anything to himself,especially news as exciting as another baby. It would be nice if for once I told him and didn't have to threaten him with his life to keep it to himself. All that being said, I tend to get pretty sick around week 6-10 so I am sure I will end up telling him sooner than later, perhaps Thanksgiving.
So onto baby, I feel great. I am tired but I take naps on Elias' school days so that is nice. Brandon usually lets me sleep in on a couple of his days off anyways so that helps. All in all its a pretty typical start to a pregnancy for me. Hopefully the next post will have more eventful news.

Photo Card

Classic Snowflake Christmas

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Haircut Time

4:00pm. The worst hour of the day at the Eberhardt household. The kids are tired, hungry and missing daddy. They are sick of their toys and sick of each other. It is the witching hour, everyday we simply try to survive. Why, you ask did I think that the witching hour was a great time to give 3 kids haircuts at home..by myself? Cause I am cray cray, that's why!

I pulled out the last trick I had up my sleeve, play-doh. The older kids happily played while I trimmed Benjamin's awful mullet looking hair away. Benjamin was munching on some snacks so he was actually pretty content, Elias got antsy so I gave him the camera and told him he had to take pictures. He did a good job, until he got bored and just took an obscene amount of self portraits...whatever keeps the peace.

After Benjamin was done, Annie decided that she wanted a haircut too! She hopped in the chair and away I started to "trim" 6 inches and some uneven spots later, she had a new hair-do. We have a appointment to get it fixed tomorrow but I must say I do love the new lenght! She hates having her hair up so this is a perfect solution. Two kids down, mommy surviving...I can do this!

After bribery, stern mommy voice, sweet please and a couple of tears(from mommy and Elias) I managed to kinda snip a few spots from Elias' hair, but I still call it a success. 

There was hair everywhere and the kids needed a bath, no problem for super mom! I did it all with ease...then Brandon walked in the door I collapsed on the couch and didn't move until the next morning..maybe not such a super mom after all. 

Anyways, it was a task that needed to be done and for the most part we all survived!

 Benjamin looking very unsure of what was about to happen

 Note to self..when you give your 4 year old a camera, make sure there are no objects in the way...like a giant chair! He did a great job trying to take pics of Benjamin's first hair cut

 So.Much.Better

 Elias did NOT want it to be his turn

 So Annie went! She did great, look at how much shorter it is

 tramatized...

 Loving his new haircut(ps, like all the drool? This kid drools like I have never seen!)

11 Months

Benjamin is almost 11 months old!! Only one more month until the big birthday. On a side note, I am already contemplating doing what I thought I would never do, skimp on his birthday since we just had Christmas. Here is my justification, he will only be 1! If we do a little cake, sing a little song and give him some empty boxes to play with(left over from Christmas of course) he will be happy as a lark. Why spend the money now...I am getting chap in my old age! Okay, so as I contemplate that decision  here is what my not so little man has been up to!

My happy little music man

Weight: I am guessing around 20 lbs. His 12 month clothes are barley fitting with cloth diapers on but falling off when he is wearing a disposable  His 1 year appointment will be a fun event as I can finally see how much he weights!

lookin long and lean like his big brother..ps only a real man can wear pink!

Hair color- Still brown! I gave him his first home hair cut! It looks better than Elias' first home hair cut but still kinda tragic looking. At least his hockey hair is gone!

Before the tragic haircut...post coming soon

Eye Color- Mostly brown and he has a beautiful set of eyelashes to go with those big brown eyes.

Sleep- 1 nap a day usually for 2 hours. Goes to be around 8 wakes around 7. What more could a mom ask for?

Eating-  Still a eating machine!
Wake- MASSIVE breakfast! Usually out eating his sister and sometimes brother
Mid morning snack- usually some kind of cracker or fruit and water
Lunch- Exactly what the big kids are having!
Nap- sometimes a bottle most some days not. We are transitioning away from them
After nap- Snack! Usually cheese or yogurt and fruit and water
Dinner- Family dinner, we all eat the same thing these days
Pre bed snack- whatever the big kids are having, usually toast

Daily routine-Wake up around 7 and hangs out in his crib until Annie goes in there to "get" him. Immediately head to the table for some major chow time followed by play time with brother and sister. He is at the age where they enjoy playing with him and he loves being one of the big kids!

Firsts:  Lots of new words like the very important word cookie! His vocab now consists of: Da-Da, Ma-Ma(like never), all done, ho ho ho, bath, bye bye, bah-bah(bottle), cookie, pa-pa, the ga sound of grammy and grandma, book..I think that is all. He is such a talker! On a side note, most of the words that start with B sound exactly the same similar but he knows what each means. 

He had his first thanksgiving, and his first Christmas tree decorating!

Help me mom, I ate too much turkey and now papa is tickling me!

What we are looking forward to: Watching him on Christmas morning. I am sure he will be way more entertained by the bows and boxes, but it will be joy none the less.  Also looking forward to that big 1st birthday!!

Pumpkin Pie Anyone?

The day after thanksgiving Elias found a can of pumpkin pie mix and begged to make it. Elias has always  loved baking with mommy and recently made pumpkin pie in school which has re sparked his interest. Brandon agreed to help the kids bake the pie! They got set up at the table and added the ingredients very carefully. Milk, spices, sugar 1/2 cup salt, poured the pie and stuck it in the over...tick toc tic toc 2 hours later a very eager Brandon took his first bite of pie...and immediately spit it out. He said it tasted like pumpkin flavored sea water. We went over the ingredients....1/2cup salt!!!!!!!! It was supposed to have 1/2tbsp of salt hahahahaha MEN!!! The pie went in the trash and I had a awesome laugh!

 Reading carefully what is needed while the kids nervously look on

 Ready to start!

 See all the white stuff in the bowl...its mostly salt hahahah

 smelling clovers

Elias being helpful

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas Part II

The day after Thanksgiving it was time to set up the tree! This project is getting more fun every year, as the kids are enjoying helping more and more. This project is also getting much more stressful every year as the kids want to help more and more. 

On a side note, Kate from John and Kate +8 once said, sometimes I have to put away my anxieties and let the kids be kids...or something to that effect. I have to remind myself of that often. I am easy to have a anxiety attack and fear messes with a passion.  Just Thinking of the kids painting or helping me back gets my hear rate up, never mind adding glass balls and razor sharp hooks into the equation!!! BUT..each day I try to control the crazy and let the kids be kids. So back to decorating

The kids eagerly got the ornaments on hooks and had daddy help put them on the tree. This process went on successfully until ornaments started to shatter, glass everywhere..ahhhhh..calm.down. 

We cleaned up the mess and got right back to it. I found the ornaments I made for the kids last year with their hand prints and that was fun to remember back to making them . We will definitely be doing that activity again this year!

Side track #2, We have these redish/maroonish velvet stockings with gold letters on them that I LOVE! I bought them in 2008 and got Annie's in 2009. Shocking enough, they don't still make them and have moved onto a new style. We had a B-Brandon A-Amber A-Annie E-Elias. I am so in love with these stockings that We decided Brandon and I would go without this year and Benjamin could have Brandon  This means that we have one extra, A! Two things WILL happen due to this. 1. we can only have 1 more kid 2. That child's name will have to start with an A!! Crazy person over here, I know.

Anyways, stockings check, tree trimmed checked! Annie topped the tree with our angel and our tree was complete in all of its 2/3rds decorated glory.

 Benjamin helping daddy

 My boys!

 Mommy's turn to hang some ornaments

 Elias was very meticulous on where his ornaments went

 Comparing hand sizes to last year

 Girl is just as crazy as her mamam!

 Our Benjamin friendly tree.....hahahah

 Annie helping hang the stockings

 Sweet story: We asked who was going to put the angel on top, Annie or Elias. Elias looked and Annie who was eager to do it and said" I will let Annie do it" such a sweet boy! 

 Always my favorite part of Christmas! Putting the angel on top of the tree

Final trimming of the tree...ps I love this picture!