38 weeks 3 days....Eli James is here!

I will have to do a longer "birth story" type post later, but who has time right now with a 1 year old and a 1 day old?

Eli James Williams came to our family last night at 6:07 p.m., and we couldn't be happier with the little guy. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 3 oz. and is 20 1/2 inches long. He is healthy and sweet, and I feel pretty good too!

Now for the photo deluge:

Me, hanging out in the fancy fandangled birth pool.

Having a contraction in the birth pool.

Eli, just seconds after birth.

Nursing Eli. Let me tell you, this kid knows how to eat! ( You know I'm lookin hot in this pic!)

The baby boy!

Daddy and Eli circa 2 o'clock this morning. Hello 2 a.m. I am sure we are going to be seeing a lot of each other in the coming months.

Eli and I hanging out on the couch.

The brothers! Shiloh is oh so sweet to his little bro. He always gives him kisses.

Shiloh also thinks that he should hold Eli and lay on him. We're working on that!

Giving Eli a hug.

A pic from the same group, but I am actually looking at the camera instead of being paranoid about what Shiloh is doing to Eli. Behold my future, haha.

Well there is the short version. Welcome to our little family Eli!

Sandbox and Garden (Written By Kenny)

On Tuesday we decided to finish off our sand box building project and took the truck in to town to fill up the bed with sand. I was tickled to find that the whole Ton of Sand was going to cost only 9 dollars. Much cheaper and easier than opening up bags of sand. Never mind the fact that I don't think our truck was meant to hold a whole ton of sand and was riding really low, it was a smooth project and Shiloh got to see a real "Trac Tooor" load sand into our truck right in front of his eyes. It was probably his favorite part.















At first he seemed a little unsure about what to do with this new place to play














but, before long he was filling up his bin and bucket and was not ready to leave when it was bed time.

















Here are some current garden pictures. We have pretty much everything planted and growing now. I keep sizing up our corn with corn farmers around. They got theirs in a couple weeks before we did, but we're not far behind.
















Potato flowers, onion buds and the woods















Some of the squash plants














Pickling Cucumbers.



















More Garden



I just took off the wall of waters from the tomato plants. We have tomatoes! Although small and green.




This one is now a few weeks past, and the pea plants are now catching up to Brittani in height and are filled with peas. They are One of Shiloh's favorite snacks (3rd only to picking his own Mulberries #2 and Blueberries #1) He loves to have you peel open the pod and he likes to pick them out and eat them one by one.



These two pics are about a month old, but here is one of the woods with the trail.



Here is one of spring from our porch.

You know how when you are 38 weeks pregnant and....(whining involved: BEWARE)

Your friend who was due on the same days as you has her baby like....a week ago and you cry, but not because you are happy for her, but because you are done being pregnant?

Your other friend who was 2 weeks behind you has her baby last night, and you cry again, for the same reason as stated above?

You are having contractions, but nothing to get excited about, just the kind that are uncomfortable and annoying, and instead they just make you cranky and irritable?

You pretty much cry every night for no reason?

You have heartburn so bad you can't sleep?

You can't sit in any position that is even slightly comfortable?

Oh, well I do.

That is my life in nutshell currently.

Mulberries part II

We love our mulberry tree...still. We decided instead of just picking a bowl full here and a handful there, that we would shake down a bunch of berries at the same time. Seriously, such an easy harvest. Put down a tarp, grab a ladder and a rake, and shake the branches. Then we decided that we would try our hand at making mulberry jam. I have to admit that ours turned out like a cross between jam and jelly, but it is OH SO DELICIOUS. It was our first time ever making jam after all. A caution to all who have never made mulberry jam: if you happen to accidentally splash up a bunch of blended up mulberries out of your blender because the lid wasn't on, and it gets on to the wall and counter top etc. etc. then act quickly in the cleaning up process. It stains the wall and the counter. (Ummmm...I may, or may not, know from experiencing a similar situation. You will just have to look at the pictures to figure it out.)

Kenny shakin' down the berries

Just some of the goods that were coming down

Shiloh eating some of the berries, like always.

This was just soooooo cute. It doesn't really have much to do with the post, but who wouldn't want to look at this cute mug?

Ummm.... this was referenced earlier. No explanation needed.

Look closely at the stain on my newly painted well... just so you know it has darkened over time.

The finished product. We are awesome!

So all in all, Mulberries rock! I really hope my mulberry tree doesn't die very soon because I am in love with the jelly-jam, and Shiloh is in love with the berries.

37 weeks today! (but the pics are from 36 weeks, so I am a lot bigger already)

So I took pictures a week ago and planned to do a post, but I was unmotivated and still dealing with a sick child. It has already been a week and I didn't want to have to get ready just for another set of pictures, so you will just have to settle for the "oldies".

I am still craving sugar, almost in any form is fine. I drink Shiloh's soy milk because it is the only thing that is kind of sweet that we have around our house. Beef is still good, but hard boiled eggs are good too. At this point, Kenny keeps telling me that I should be eating a ton, but there seriously is no room for anything but Eli in my torso, so I just snack all day long.

I still haven't gained any more weight, but From my 32 week appt to my 35 week one, my stomach grew 10 cm! Plenty of growth in there. I cannot wear any shirt with out some sort of belly band, and I cannot wear any of Kenny's shirts. They all show my belly. There is just no where for this kid to go but out anymore. I feel like a total goof anytime I try to get ready and dressed for the day. Nothing looks good on me so I just settle for what is comfy.

At this point in my pregnancy with Shiloh, I would have had only four more days until he came into the world. I am trying REALLY REALLY REALLY hard not get my hopes up for that same scenario. It is even harder trying not to though. I am pretty sure that Thursday of this week will be filled with kleenexes, tears, and ice cream. Babies come when they want to and definitely NEVER when you expect them to. So this is what I am sure of, that I will be completely surprised at the time that Eli decides to come. So if any of you want to send good vibes for an early comer my way, feel free. I will welcome them with open arms.

As you can tell, I have hit the end of pregnancy wall. You know, the one where you truly feel like you can't be pregnant for another day and yet there is still the chance that you could go 2 weeks past your due date? That's the one I have hit. I have hit it pretty hard, and I feel bad for Kenny. I am sure he wants this pregnancy to end soon just as much as I do, but for different reasons, and he is so sweet he would never admit it. But if I am going to level with you, I am so grumpy I don't want to even be around myself, so I can't imagine that others are having much fun around me. hahaha

I would report more progress on the pregnancy front but my appt with my midwife has been cancelled twice, once due to Shiloh being sick, and again today due to 2 other moms needing her to deliver their babies. I guess I can be understanding of that ;)

All complaining and moaning aside, I am so excited to meet Eli. It will rock my world to have two little ones in stead of just one, but I can't wait to meet this little guy and hold him and see what he looks like.

Unforgettable...

Only getting 3 hours of sleep because of screaming child+a child who is screaming with fever and hand, foot and mouth disease(i.e. rash on bottom, soles of feet, hands, and in mouth)+ hubby at work for all of Sunday+being 8 months pregnant and having to bend over and clean up said child's poop out of the bath tub=

One unforgettable Mother's Day

Luckily it didn't end all bad. Kenny got to come home a tad early and he grilled me food. It was delicious! It's a good thing I have him around. And he made me breakfast this morning and let me take a nap, so I have been treated kindly and I felt appreciated. It just didn't pan out quite the way I anticipated is all.

I guess I spent Mother's day being a mom (which includes, but is not limited to: cleaning up poop, pea, puke or any other bodily fluid that comes from a child, running around the house like a crazy person, kissing boo boos, washing dishes, running myself ragged, loving one adorable little boy, making sure all of his needs are met before I even think of brushing my teeth for the day, and so on and so forth...), and not kicking my feet up. :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day, and maybe a slightly less eventful one than my own!

Mulberries

We have a huge mulberry tree in our side yard.

It has a TON of mulberries on it.

Kenny helped Shiloh discover mulberries.

Shiloh LOVES them. He has even gotten so good at picking them, that he can find the ripe ones, pick them off of the tree on the lower, sagging branches, look for bugs, and if there aren't any on them, then he pops them into his mouth.

Mulberries turn everything their juices touch a purplish-black, including your mouth and fingers. I wish I had been able to get Shiloh to keep his hands still for a pic of the fingers. You can imagine that he doesn't have a delicate hand while picking mulberries. He just cares about getting them in his mouth.

Mulberry picking and eating has turned into a favorite past time here are the Williams'ziz house.