Life is Beautiful

Our little Bugaboo and Elmyra too

djmeisel — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:54:50 +0000

The last few months have been a bit of a blur for our family starting with the birth of our son and then blasting through the holidays. I can hardly believe that we are more than half-way through February. My sweet newborn is already 3 and 1/2 months and Kins-face is almost 2 years!

I love the dynamic that Elijah has brought to our family. He is too sweet for words. Darren says that I am smitten by him. To which I could reply- Almost as smitten as he is by our darling, little girl.

I love his chubby cheeks. He is a little social bug that will almost always crack a smile when you make eye contact. For various reasons I always tell him that he is such a “guy”. One of which is that he is stinky. Seriously, his farts stink with man potency. But his farts are easily forgiven when he looks at me, coos and smiles. He melts my heart. One of my favorite things about him is that he loves to cuddle- in fact he’s cuddling in my lap right now as I type with one hand. And obviously, he is just so darn adorable- well I think so at least.

Kinsey loves him too. She has acquired the nickname, Elmyra. You remember Elmyra from Looney Tunes? You know, the I want to love you and kiss you and squeeze you and pet you and hug you and squish you girl…. You get the picture. And poor little E is often the object of her affection. When we first brought E home from the hospital, K kept asking to hold it. “Mommy, tinsey hooold it?” I often find her up in his grill repeating the things that she hears us call him as well as a few she comes up with on her own. She will be less than a millimeter from his face one decibel below yelling saying things like, “Hi bugaboo”, “Whatcha dooin Lijah”, “Hi! Hiii big guy”, ” bubba boy”, “Hi little man”- just to name a few. He’s usually a good sport. She loves that he gets to ride in the backseat with her. If he starts crying she will yell above his crying, “Whats wrong Lijah? SH! SH! SH!” She will inform me, “Mommy, Lijah sad” and then I will suggest that maybe it will make him happy if she sings him a song. She will then belt out her version of Twinkle, Twinkle or the ABC song or a combo of both.

To be fair, E loves her too. His face lights up when he sees her. She offers him the best entertainment and has just started laughing at her, which is boosting her self-esteem. She tells me, “Mommy, I make Lijah laugh. Tinsey funny.” He really enjoys watching her play, dance and run around like a nut. I think he appreciates that she keeps life interesting.

The Countdown

djmeisel — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:25:18 +0000

I have officially started counting down the days until Darren finishes his Master’s program. Last night (after an exhausting night with the kiddos- more on that later) I crossed off the number 10 from my ghetto, little post-it note on the fridge. That’s right. 1 class down. 9 to go. That means 5 more weeks of classes!

Ok now for the funny now but not at the time recap of last night. So Kinsey has been sick so I was trying to get her in bed early, which early is kind of a relative term since K is a bit of a night owl these days. So we accomplished bathtime and jammies all by 7:45. Then I put Elijah down and took Kinsey to her room and read her some stories and cuddled until about 8:00, which was just in time to prevent a major hunger meltdown from E. So I’m feeding E and it’s been about 20 minutes and not a peep from her. Victory! I’m already celebrating in my head and making a mental list of what I’m going to do with my evening. 1. I’m going to text Darren and tell him I’m super mom and already have both kids asleep. 2. Tackle the dishes from dinner and do a quick pick of of the house that was hit by hurricane kinsey. 3. Take a shower. 4. Put my feet up with a good book and RELAX…

Then 8:36 happened.

K started crying. Poor thing is all stuffed up, coughing and having trouble breathing. So since E had fallen asleep while I was feeding him I put him in bed and went to calm down K. Some minutes later E starts crying so I go in to find he spit up and rubbed his face all in it. Clean him up and by now K is crying. I continue this back and forth ping-pong drama (although mostly spent with K) until 9:53!

Why is that funny? I know right. I guess I just have to laugh about it to keep my sanity. So I did the dishes and went to bed.

Just a couple hours after we took this picture Kinsey barfed. No wonder she was so cuddly.

Halloween

djmeisel — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:35:52 +0000

Raawr!

Almost 40 Weeks!

Fall Fun

djmeisel — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:28:55 +0000

Our little punkin

She loved the goats and was especially drawn to the ones with horns.

Our family threw us a family baby shower. We had so much fun!

Here’s a few pics from it…

The delicious home-made cake pops my mom and Jen made

They decorated everything so cute with jungle animals

Logan chill-axing in the hammock

Brayden and Kinsey playing wack-a-mole

36 weeks prego

Enjoying the yummy cake pops. They were not only adorable but delicious!

Some recent family times…

Coloring with Daddy

Daddy's girl! She always wants him to come color with her. So cute!

: Kinsey all bundled up while Daddy took her and Bruiser on a late night run

What a weirdo! Lately Kinsey has been sort of obsessive over her paci. We only let her have it when she goes to sleep, but I guess she had a rough day and just had to get her fix…

She snuck her paci out of her bed and got her blankies and I found her chilling here in Bruiser's bed.

Grandparents are the best! We are so thankful to have 4 amazing grandparents that live less than an hour away…

Driving the box truck with Papa

Swinging with Grama. When I tell her to smile I'm starting to get the impression that she is mocking me and being sassy.

Thank God for grandparents!...Grama entertaining the munchkins while my sis and I did some shopping.

Reading with Lolo

Date Night

djmeisel — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 06:18:52 +0000

Thanks to my sweet hubby who planned a fun family date night.

A boquet of "flowers" aka Red Velvet Cake Pops

Giving baby brother love

Teaching Kinsey how to play Bocce Ball

Dusty & Chrissy’s Beautiful Wedding

djmeisel — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:44:56 +0000

I love weddings! And this one was especially special because we got to see so much family that we rarely get to see. This is all of the cousins that were there- the 5 in the middle are the Schroeder siblings, Leah on the end representing for the Vaughn side and Darren on the other end representing for the Meisel side. I wish I had a good picture of the bride and groom because they are a gorgeous couple. You can check out my cousin’s blog for some better pictures.We had such a wonderful time catching up with family and celebrating the marriage of Dusty and Chrissy. Their love for Christ was certainly evident through their ceremony, reception and testimony from friends and family. They had an “open mic” during the toast at the reception and it was so special to hear testimony after testimony of God’s faithfulness and goodness. My sweet cousin, Charity, said something that touched my heart. She encouraged the newlyweds to walk closely with God because that is the only thing that will hold their marriage together. This is something that God has been teaching me. In fact that very morning I was reading in 1John and I was meditating on the verse that says”… if we walk in the light as he is in the light that we have fellowship with one another…” I know that when I am not “walking in the light” by having daily fellowship with God in his word and prayer that my relationship with Darren is shallow and not fulfilling and I am selfish, impatient and unkind. It’s necessary to be reminded of our daily need for Christ.

33 weeks and name still TBD for our little man.

a good birth story

djmeisel — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:47:49 +0000

Pregnancy and bringing a new life into the world may be the most amazing miracle that God allows women to actively partake in. I love hearing from different women about their experiences.

If you like birth stories you have to read the story of one of my best friends from college. She just blogged about it- HERE.

Congratulations Kim and Derek on your precious new son, Eli!

18 Months

djmeisel — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:35:53 +0000

Kinsey is a year and a half. Oh my how time flies! She is full of life and energy and brings so much joy and laughter to our lives. Some of her favorite activities include swinging, blowing bubbles and playing in water.

This is the face I get when I ask her to smile. She has quite the little sense of humor.

Rumor has it…

djmeisel — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:04:37 +0000

You may or may not have heard the rumors going around that we are pregnant. I will confirm that those rumors are in fact true. We are expecting another blessing from the Lord in the beginning of November 2010. So before the year is over we are growing from a family of 3 to a family of 4!

We are so thankful to be entrusted with another precious life. I’m finding that being a parent is a humbling task and one that drives me to be at the feet of Jesus every day. I’m excited to add another opportunity (child #2) that will challenge me to live what I say I believe. Marriage and parenthood provide countless opportunities for my sanctification.

Don’t worry- I’m not already this big! These pictures are from last time.

Brayden & Kinsey

djmeisel — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:27:20 +0000

They are too cute together…

kissing cousins! i love how brayden has his eyes closed.

taking a drive