PIctures....

Here are some pics from the last 6 weeks. We have been busy but I have not been very good about taking pictures!

Elijah is a busy little boy these days. He is now 7 months old, he sits up, is chowing on solids, and I think crawling could be in the next month or two...

Advent Calendar

This year I finally got around to making an Advent Calendar. It was fun to make new traditions now that our family has grown a little bit, and have things that Elijah is excited to look foreward to in the Christmas Season. An Advent Calendar is a count down to Christmas. There are a lot of different things that you can do with it. Here is ours....

I went to Michael's for my supplies and decided on these little bags. I got some some glue and glitter out and had some fun glittering the numbers. I found out that I really like to glitter!! Then I punched a hole in all of the bags and tied string on them, then hung them up.

Then I put a verse in each of the bags to read each night during the month of advent. The scripture starts in the Old Testament and ends with the Birth of Christ on Christmas Eve. It shows how the entire Bible points to Jesus.

Latest Pics....

Daddy and Elijah on our first snow fall as a family of 3!

Elijah very intently "working" on his laptop

Taking a break to cheese it for mommy :)

Growing up....

Elijah is almost 6 months old! He is starting to sit up and is really into eating baby food. His favorite right now is squash, apples and bananas. He could go without carrots and peas but they are good for him so he will just have to truck through them!

Nothing But The Blood

This is such a beautiful hymn that we are memorizing as

a small group.

Nothing But The Blood

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! Precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon, this I see,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

For my cleansing, this my plea,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Naught of good that I have done,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

This is all my righteousness,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Only Jesus can wash away our sin. Thank you God for sending

Christ

on the cross for my sin,

it is only through you that I am

reconciled

and made right before you. Thank you for your

grace!

It has been awhile

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe it has been 6 weeks since I last updated. So much has been going on that I cannot recall all of it so here are some pics instead:)

Bryan and I dedicated Elijah on Sunday. It was a very surreal and amazing thing. I plan to post about more on that when I get the pics from Bryan's Dad. Here is some of the prep work....

I was making cupcakes and Elijah was eyeballing them I never guessed he would get close to them or really have any interest in them, I was wrong....

He got one! Of course I did not let him eat it or his hands until there were clean of all traces of chocolate but it was very sweet. Instead we gave him rice cereal and bananas. We are starting to feed him solids on a more regular bases now, and he loves to eat it. I think today we will venture squash:)

Elijah is teething. Nothing has poked through yet but he is drooling and chewing everything! My little boy is growing up much too fast.

First Haircut

I know it seems early to get Elijah's first haircut, but he lost most of his hair so we decided to cut it all evenly so it can grow evenly. I was looking back from when he was first born to now and the difference in his hair. It was dark brown when he was born and now it is blonde!

I think he was about 3 weeks old at this picture

Almost 4 months in this pic

Here we go, Bryan giving him his first haircut....

Elijah checking out his new cut!

" Mommy, I am not so sure about this..."

Life's busy.....

I am not sure why it is hard to find time to blog, but it is!

My precious little boy is 4 months old now! I cannot even believe it. He is so much fun and I would love him to stay this age forever. Here are a few pics I took in the last few weeks.

Guess what.... I am on the move !!! I can roll over from my stomach to my back!

More pics to follow....

Time....

Time where have you gone my friend.....

Where has the time gone, people say once you start having kids time flys and they arnt joking! 3 weeks ago I went back to work! I am working 2 days a weeks at the salon. We are blessed to have our moms and a good friend willing to watch Elijah while I am at work. Bryan is with him at night which I think is sweet that they some special time together just the two of them.

I cannot believe my little boy is 3 1/2 months old already. I have been enjoying our time together so much that I have forgot to take any pictures. I will try and take some and post soon. There is so many new things that he is doing it is so fun,

-He smiles like crazy, all you have to do is look at him with a smile and he will give you the biggest grin

- He is quite the talker... He coos, razzes, and makes a lot of noise especially if he is excited

- He eats everything that comes near his mouth... his hands, my fingers, his blanket, his toys and his favorite the nookie

- He is becoming more independent, he like to play under his play gym and bat at and try to eat his toys that hang down

- He loves to stand. He likes to hold my or Bryan's hands and stand on our lap, and then try and eat our hands at the same time:)

I will try to post pictures soon as he is growing fast and changing everyday. It is amazing to see how the Lord has made him and how he learns. I think of psalm 139: 13-16

For you formed my inward parts:

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there were none of them.

I am so amazed reflecting on these verses that the Lord has His plans with Elijah as He created

him in my womb much before we even knew I was pregnant. What a love the Father has for us!

Duluth

Bryan was so sweet to surprise Elijah and I and take us on our first family trip with the 3 of us! He took us up to beautiful Duluth which I had never been there in the summer and we had beautiful weather, and a great time.

This is at the Leif Erickson Rose Garden. It was a beautiful view and I have never seen so many roses in different colors. They were beautiful!

Mommy and Elijah at the Rose Garden.

This is Daddy and Elijah at the Lift Bridge in Canal Park. We were able to see the lift bridge close and go up for a few boats. That was fun to see. We walked around Canal Park for a few hours, I really enjoyed reading about the history of all the anchors, and different historical pieces around town.

This was about 3-5 miles across the lift bridge on the island at the beach. It was very windy! It is crazy that this is a lake it feels so much like the ocean.

All of us at the beach.

After being up their I have a lot more curiosity about Duluth and the Great Lakes. I know they were used during the war for shipping but beyond that I do not know much of their history. It is so beautiful up there and such a different terrain. It sure did not feel like Minnesota.

Elijah did great for his first trip. It took a bit longer to get there and get home with him, and a few extra bags but it was a great time together, just the 3 of us!

Things we have been up too....

Its official Elijah has graduated to his crib! Well actually he did almost a month ago but I have not had a chance to post it. He slept in his swing for the first 6 weeks of his life, he was pretty against his crib but he is finally in there. Now next will be sleeping through the night.... I would settle for like a 6 hour stretch :)

It is so amazing how much he is growing and how alert he is. He now is starting to play with toys, well sort of. I have been putting him under his play gym and he likes to look around or grab at the toys hanging down. He will just lay there and smile and giggle at the toys. It is really sweet.

This was a few weeks back at Grandpa and Grandma Guenther's house. We were in the play room looking at all the fun toys.

This is one of my favorite pics. This is his bumbo seat, I think he is still a little small in it but he likes to look around in it. It is very convenient while folding laundry or making dinner I just put right next to me and he can see what I am doing.

Family Photos

Grandpa Tom took some family photos for us last week when Elijah was 6 weeks old, the pictures turned out great! It was fun to take pictures of our little boy and try to get him to smile for them. We were only successful to catch a few smiles on camera many more were off camera.

10:31 Sermon Jams

For any of you who are not familiar with Sermon Jams, Bryan and his friend Caleb run a small ministry called 10:31 Sermon Jams. They take pastors sermons and mix them over beats like hip-hop, techno, and more. They are pretty cool to listen to and are very encouraging. Here is one of my favorites, Sermon Jams made the music part of it and mixed it and Desiring God made the video to go along with it. Enjoy!

Elijah in his Sermon Jams and 'Dont Waste Your Life' Gear

Things we have been up to....

Bryan took us to the Como Zoo over the 4th of July weekend. I think the temp was over 90 Degrees and very humid. We had a great time starting with a picnic when we got there, saw the new polar bear exibit and of course the lions here.

The weekend before we went to a friends wedding, this was Elijah's first. He did great and the wedding was beautiful. Congrats Eric and Leah!

A few weeks back Auntie Jessie and Cousins Caden and Sydney came down to see us, we went shopping at Ikea then a picnic lunch at the park. Hope to do it again soon!

Happy Father's Day

Happy First Father's Day Bryan! We had a fun day hanging out together and celebrating Bryan as a new father. Of course I was taking pictures through out the day to remember our first fathers day. We started the day by Elijah and I making Bryan breakfast, going to church, taking a nap, then went to our church picnic which was fun with good fellowship and ultimate frisbee, then home to just relax the rest of the afternoon.

Daddy and Elijah relaxing together

Daddy helping Elijah stand up and down which Elijah likes!

One of my favorite outfits that I thought was fitting to wear on father's day :)

We enjoyed spending the day together and look foreword to many more Father's Days to come. It is crazy to think how big Elijah will be this time next year and how fast it will come!

Our Birth Story

Monday May 24th

This is Bryan and I at 7:30am, our last photo of just the two of us, the next photos would be so precious of our newest little member in our family. Elij

ah was in no rush to come out. I was 9 days over due and was being induced. We had come to the hospital the two days before to start the process but my body would not budge with the first two attempts. So here we were for the pitocin induction, hoping it would work and that I would start to dilate. When we got there I was finally dilated to 1cm so they could do the pitocin. We were very thankful to the Lord for we had been earnestly praying for me to dilate. So they decided start the pitocin. After that things got really intense and I was having contractions almost every minute yet they said I wouldn't deliver until midnight and it was only noon. We then decided to go for the epidural. We had really hoped for no drug interventions but at this point there had been so many I didn't think I could make it 12 more hours.

After I got the epidural the next few hours were great I hardly felt anything and we just got to relax. About 5 or 6pm I was dilating to about 6cm and the contractions moved down to my lower back and tailbone and they started getting pretty intense. About 15 minutes before I delivered they decided to take my temperature and noticed that I have a fever of 101. They immediately gave me some medication to treat an infection and called Children's Neonatal team in to check Elijah and treat him for the same. I don't think we really knew what was going on at that point or that the potential of something being wrong was there. At 9:45pm one of the most overwhelming joys instantly came about, Elijah Timothy Guenther was born. It was an instant love that I cannot explain. We were able to hold him just a minute then the

Neonatal Specialist took him to examine him. They said things looked good but they were going to treat him for the infection that he may have gotten through me. We got to hold him for just a few more minutes and Bryan and I were able to dedicate him to the Lord. I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to pray over him before they took him.

The next few hours were heartbreaking for me. They took him over to Children's and told me I could not go with him. The absolute blessing was that they let Bryan go with him. Bryan had the opportunity to spend his first few hours with our son, holding him and watching what the nurses were doing to him. Finally about 3 hours later after I probably drove them crazy asking them to let me go and see him they did. They gave me 15 minutes to be with him until I had to go back to United. It was such a precious time just to hold our beautiful son and awe at how the Lord created him and that He gave him to Bryan and I.

The next 24 hours we were there were a little crazy.

The next 24 hours we were there were a little crazy. It was very hard that I had to stay at United and Bryan and Elijah were at Children's. So every two hours Bryan would come and get me (which was like a 1/4 mile down the hospital hallways) then after an hour I would have to go back to my room so they could monitor me. I think the nurses were frustrated with me because I kept disappearing to the NICU to see Bryan and Elijah but I just couldn't help it.

At about 10am on Wednesday they said that everything was looking good with me and they would release me. We were excited but had to wait on Elijah to get discharged. About an hour later they told us that he would get an early discharge because he was looking great. We were very excited to finally take our baby home.