Eli Cracking Up

(Ben) One night Christine came over and her and Merrilee were in Eli's bedroom. All of sudden I hear this raucous laughter coming from the room. Well it turns out Merrilee started hitting the owl mobile with the teddy bear. Eli just thought this was the funniest thing (boys like that kind of thing). Eli laughed harder and longer than I have ever heard him laugh. Enjoy!

Ward Pancake Breakfast

I (Ben) am filling in for Merrilee today. This year our ward did a Christmas Pancake Breakfast instead of a Christmas Party. They needed some entertainment and the responsibility ended up falling to Merrilee. She put together a three-guitar quartet by enlisting her friends. They sounded amazing, they all have beautiful voices. My personal favorite performance was Feliz Navidad. They also did a wonderful rendition of Angels We Have Heard on High. They tried to get the ward to join in on a few songs, but found little volume and even less participation. It still turned out to be a lot of fun and Merrilee had a chance do something she loves (play guitar and sing).

Eli Laughing

The following video contains a few highlights from November. There are three clips. The first clip is Eli smiling. The second clip is Eli laughing. This is the funniest thing to watch... Merrilee laughs, and Eli loves her laugh so he laughs, which makes Merrilee laugh even harder. The third clip is Eli copying his Dad by sticking out his tongue. In this clip Eli is being very obedient and doing exactly what his Dad tells him to do. This is one of the few instances where that happens. Enjoy!

More Pics of Eli

Eli Sporting the Tux

So many times you just see the good pictures, but never see the hundred or so other pictures taken to finally get to that good photo. Well here is a little collage that shows some of what went into making the above photos.

Wicked... Back in Kansas!!

I recently had a wickedly fabulous getaway with all my sisters and my mom. On November 7th, my sister Christine (who lives right next door to me... love it!) and I drove up to my mom's house and then we all carpooled to Kansas, where we met up with my other two sisters, Shannon and Phaedra, at Shannon's house. We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and then we headed off to watch the most amazing musical of all time (well, it's Top Ten for me, at the very least!)........... WICKED!!! The set was amazing, the cast was spectacular, and the music was phenomenal. I am in love.

Where were Ben and Eli, you might ask? Ben, who happens to be the most terrific-est, spectaculous, amazeringest (I'm speaking in the Ozzian dialect from "Wicked", for those of you who haven't seen it yet) husband of all time, watched Eli all day and night so I could go!!! He deserves a medal, does he not???

But how do I repay him? By continuously singing the entire score from the musical until I successfully got each song stuck in his head. I couldn't help myself. I'm pretty sure after he sung a refrain from the song, "Popular", he informed me that he's never enabling me again. We'll see.... ;)

So, Mom, Christine and I drove back early Sunday morning. I got a phone call on the way back from the bishopric. Never a good sign! I rushed home, kissed Ben and Eli, got ready to go, and made it to church in time to be released as primary teacher and called as 1st counselor in the Young Women's presidency. Then I sang in sacrament meeting, drove Ben home during 2nd hour (he was feeling sick), and got back in time for my first day in YW. Busy weekend!

Girls' Getaway!! Left to right: Christine, Shannon, Mom (Carla), me, and Phaedra. Pretty sure the song "Popular" will never mean the same to us again!!!!

Eli's Blessing Day

My ENTIRE family (minus one brother, who's living in California) was able to come for Eli's blessing day, which was November 1st. It was a wonderful experience, and I felt very blessed to have all of them with me to celebrate such a special day with my own little family. For those who don't know my family, I'll list them off, left to right: Lemy (actually, he's a foreign exchange student from Taiwan living with my parents), Carla (mom), Christine (sister), Ariana (niece), David (dad), Daniel (brother), Hunter (nephew, in front of Daniel), Brent (brother), Grace (niece, in front), me, Eli, Ben, Austin (nephew), Phaedra (sister), Shannon (sister), Summer (niece), Zach (nephew), and Hayden (nephew). I have such a wonderful family!!

Ben was very prayerful before giving Elias his blessing. There were THREE baby blessings that Sunday, and Elias was the second one to be blessed. He started crying on the way up, but Ben was very patient and got him situated and calmed him down before he began the blessing. A member of the bishopric told us that he was very impressed with the way Ben handled it and it reminded him of our Heavenly Father's love and patience with us. My dad and brother were also able to be in the circle for the blessing. It was a beautiful blessing and I felt the Spirit very strongly that day. There were many neat experiences involving my family as well.

I couldn't resist... I bought a tuxedo for Elias for his blessing day. He looked so dang cute in it!! Doesn't he look like those guys who, after a wedding, throw off their ties and crash?

Reed... Elias Reed...

These weren't taken on the actual blessing day (since Elias threw up all over his little suit before I could even button up the vest!), but they were taken just a few days afterward.

Stylin'! Looks like a young James Bond!

Always a good sport...

My favorite pic... you can see his beautiful blue eyes.

Eli 0-2 months

Happy Halloween!

Elias went to his first-ever Halloween party dressed as a lovable skeleton!

More Eli (almost 6 weeks old)

Eli has decided he likes bath time now, thank goodness!

High five!!

Elias makes the funniest faces!

The Many Faces of Eli (almost 6 weeks old)

"Life is good..."

"What the heck???"

"Aren't I cute?"

"Yes, I know I'm cute!"

Trials and Blessings

Trials and Blessings

Trial: So, about 50 other people gave birth at the same time as I did. They are all up and going places and seem to be fine. I am not. My friends keep giving me odd looks like, "How come you aren't feeling better?", which I interpret as, "Wow, Merrilee, I didn't know you were such a wimp!" Well, last week I called my OBGYN and told her my symptoms (trust me, you don't want them listed here!) and that I was in an inordinate amount of pain. She told me, "It's perfectly normal. If you feel there's something wrong, go to the ER", which I interpreted as, "Wow, Merrilee, stop being such a wimp and wasting my time!" So, I just dealt with it. But...

Blessing: by Friday I was in so much pain, I called four people I trust: a nurse at the hospital, my sister (who's a nurse), my friend (who's in nursing school), and my mom, who's not a nurse, but gave birth to seven kids, and so deserves a medal of honor and an honorary nursing degree. They all told me my doctor was crazy and that my symptoms were definitely NOT normal. Yay for having great people to call!

Trial: So, I went in to the ER on Friday night. Ben and I did NOT want to bring Elias in to the ER (for obvious reasons), and so we weren't sure how I was supposed to get there (I was in too much pain to drive myself). So...

Blessing: thank goodness for visiting teachers!!! I called my visiting teacher, and even though it was a Friday night (and Date Night!), she dropped everything to take me to the ER while Ben stayed home with the baby. Which meant...

Trial: I had to pump. Any woman who has ever had to pump will realize why that is a trial. As if feeding your baby doesn't make you feel enough like a member of the bovine family. But luckily...

Blessing: Eli is not picky. He made some funny faces when he first took the bottle, but he took it nonetheless. So...

Trial: my VT, Andrea, took me to the ER, where the ER doctor took one look and prescribed an antibiotic shot before he even took a culture. Apparently, I have a pretty bad infection. So, the nurse comes in and tells me he is going to give me the most painful shot they have. Thanks for the pep talk. Thankfully...

Blessing: after childbirth, this was nothing! I almost laughed when he gave me the shot. I received two prescriptions for two different antibiotics and we were out of the ER after a stay of only ONE HOUR! Can anyone break that record? I've never been in and out so fast! So, Andrea took me to get my prescriptions, which means...

Trial: I cannot feed Eli for two weeks! :( That is the saddest part of the story to me. So, Ben and I bought formula. Elias gives me the SADDEST look sometimes when I feed him from the bottle (it breaks my heart). His little accusing eyes seem to say to me, "What IS this??? You're holding out on me!" It also means that midnight feedings double in time, since I feed Eli and then time to pump 'n' dump. What a waste! I just pray Eli will switch back after two weeks of eating from the bottle. However, I must say...

Blessing: I'm grateful to be feeling better (I could feel a difference by the next morning!). I'm grateful for modern medicine. I'm grateful for a WONDERFUL husband who gets to take turns feeding Eli (although I still take the night shift, since he has school). I'm grateful for an AMAZING VT- Thanks Andrea!! And lastly, I'm grateful that this was my trial. I know that so many people have it so much worse (for example, there was a sexual assault victim at the ER when I went- how terrible!), and I am grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to see how blessed I am!

P.S. I included a picture of Eli so people would actually look at this post. I know how it is! :)

Birth Announcement

Make a Smilebox greeting

Bath Time!

May I just say, bath time is never boring! Whether Elias is shooting poop across the bathroom and hitting the opposite walls and cabinets in protest, or switching dramatically to a smile while you shampoo his hair (okay... and I thought I was supposed to be the one with the mood swings!), I don't think I've made it through one bath without laughing at my little guy. It is nice that I can give him real baths now (in his little whale tub), rather than sponge baths. Fewer opportunities for him to get revenge. He does love his little blue hooded towel, so we always end on a good note. So nice to know he still loves me at the end of it all!

Tribute to Grandmothers

Grandmothers are the best. We had our lives saved by Eli's two grandmothers. They cooked, cleaned, changed dirty diapers and what did we give them in return? We let them hold the baby. Their only complaint: not enough time with the baby. Honestly, they made our lives manageable and helped us in so many ways. So... THANK YOU!

Family Portraits

Baby Eli pics

 
 
 
 

Eli's Video

Here is a video that hopefully works!

These first two pictures are at the hospital. For the most part Eli is calm and laidback, but when we were all ready to leave he became really upset and delayed our departure.
He fell asleep in the weirdest position we got a kick out of this.
Here is a video. This includes just about all he can do right now. Which is open his eyes yawn and stick out his tongue.