Christmas Celebrations!

It's hard to believe that Christmas has already come and gone. It still amazes me that this year is already over. Seriously... why does time have to go by so fast?

Christmas this year was really great - full of family, games, movies, good food, naps, and presents... what more could we possible ask for? This year we celebrated a little pre-Christmas at home, and then the real deal down with my parents and little sister. It was a quiet Christmas because my older sisters and their families couldn't come so that meant Eden was the only kid. This is definitely good and bad: Good because we got to sleep in a little on Christmas morning, eat a good breakfast, and even shower before opening presents. But bad without little ones because they just bring in the fun and exciting Christmas spirit. All in all though it was a really great time.







This is the new coat that Eden got, but it sure makes for a tight fit in the car seat!



Now that looks cozy...




Here was the shocker... Brad got me a beautiful diamond and ruby necklace which I absolutely LOVE. This was the last thing I was expecting from him because he has always made it quite clear that jewelry just isn't a good use of valuable resources! :o) (He'd rather buy land is what he always says)




Eden loves this new toy and has gotten pretty good at pushing the buttons.


But it wasn't long before she was worn out and just wanted to relax a little.



Quite often these days Eden can't choose which thumb she wants to suck on so she just goes for both at the same time!


And finally, a precious moment - It's still a little hard for Eden to last too long in this new bumbo seat without a little head support so my mom reached over to hold up her head and I think that made Eden really happy.




Thank you Mom and Dad Justice, and Mom and Dad Malarsie for all the great gifts and good company. The best blessing of all is most definitely our families!

Another birthday post and other random things...

Before I get to all the Christmas festivities, I still have a few more birthday pictures and some other random fun pictures from last week that I was never able to post. So here they are!

Since Brad likes to celebrate his birth month, and not just the day, I figured I could continue the celebration with more than one birthday post. :o) Here's the birthday boy with the annual chocolate birthday cake, Brad's ultimate favorite.


Eden looks really bored. Maybe birthdays aren't her thing yet.


This year Brad got a popcorn machine from his parents (the perfect addition to our movie theater room) and I think I was way more excited about it than anyone else because I love popcorn, especially freshly popped theater style! Mmmmmm.... delicious.

The assembly. I couldn't wait to put it to use!


And the delicious product! Yummy... Thanks mom and dad Justice - we LOVE it and the yummy popcorn it produces!




Eden is now barely over 11 pounds. She continues to grow at a slow pace, but it's growing and that's what counts! We just love her to pieces and can't imagine life without her.

Too cute. These moments are priceless.


I'm afraid she is going to have a squinty eye problem just like her daddy. Big smiles, small eyes! :o)


No smiles here though. Tummy time = torture time. I don't leave her there long at all, but the seconds she is there don't go over too smoothly.


Yes it's official, she is definitely a thumb sucker.


She gets so happy and excited when her daddy gets home and gives her some attention.

Eden's Room

Just a couple days ago I realized that I never posted pictures of Eden's room so I wanted to make sure I got some up here. I was just beginning to paint this room when Eden was born so this project became a long drawn out process because I was spending about 95% of my time at the hospital with her. I'm so grateful I had this project to work on though because for that 5% of the time I wasn't at the hospital, working on her room made me still feel a connection with her. It was a lot of fun and I think it turned out pretty cute.



All the little flowers on the wall are lamps. It really looks cute when they are all on and the overhead light is off.



I definitely think this is my favorite room in the house. Eden seems to love it too. :o)


(If anyone is interested in ordering custom vinyl at a great price, check out my sister’s blog or call me and I can get you in touch with her! http://vinylletteringdesigns.blogspot.com/)

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my adorable, loving, strong, motivated, driven, caring, happy hubby! Brad, you're the best husband and daddy that I could have ever hoped for! Thanks for all you do for our family. We love you and hope you have a great birthday.

So here's to your adorable beginnings.... (now everyone can see where Eden gets her cute little button nose!) :)





We are so glad you were born ALL THOSE MANY years ago! :o) We love you! Happy Birthday!

Eden Updates

For quite a while we had a rocky road with Eden's weight. She would gain two ounces, then lose one, etc. and we just weren't making very good progress. She has a nurse who comes to our home and weighs her and up until the week of Thanksgiving she was hardly gaining any weight at all. It just so happened to be Thanksgiving week that we were finally able to determine what the biggest problem was.

When Eden left the hospital, the doctors had me adding a small amount of formula powder to the breast milk to give Eden extra calories to help her gain weight faster. Well, I'm not sure if she didn't like the taste, or if she was having some sort of allergy to the formula, but we decided to stop adding that to see if her intake would increase and it sure did! Immediately she started eating almost double and the weight started to come on quickly.

She will get weighed again on Wednesday when her nurse comes over, but as of last week she was 10lb 9 oz. I have to say that one of the biggest perks of having a preemie baby is that I get to enjoy the small, cuddly, little body for such a long time which is my favorite! She’s actually starting to grow out of things quickly now and it kind of makes me sad!

We have also started our visits with the developmental care specialists who work with Eden twice a month to help facilitate her developmental progress. So far they believe she is right on track with where she should be given her extreme prematurity and medical conditions. We are always grateful for that good news and feel so blessed to have the resources and programs available to help Eden progress.

And the best news of all – I finally was able to hear a tiny little voice from Eden last week. It was extremely brief, but it was one of the most amazing things I have ever heard and it brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. I’ve waited a long time to hear her sweet little voice and I finally got my chance. So here’s the story –

There is a device called a speaker valve that can be put over the trach which allows the voice to be heard. This valve allows the person to inhale through the trach but it blocks exhalation so the air is redirected through the vocal cords and out of the mouth. Originally we were told that Eden would probably be 9 months to a year old before we could attempt the speaker valve.

Last week I had to take Eden for a clinic visit to be checked by the pulminologist. During this visit we also met with her trach nurse, a nutritionist, and a speech therapist. They decided to go ahead and do a speaker valve trial. I didn’t understand how hard it was going to be for Eden to redirect her air until I saw her struggling to figure it out. It ended up being extremely exhausting and stressful for her because she would hold her breath rather than redirecting it so we were only able to attempt it about three times with each time only lasting a second or two, but in those brief seconds I was able to hear something so amazing. The process will be long, and it will take a lot of visits and brief trials until she can keep it on for about an hour at a time, but I look forward to the next trial! I just wish now that I knew when that would be!

Isn't a sleeping baby one of the most precious things you'll ever see?


She is starting to figure out the whole reaching thing and is getting more and more playful.


This was her first trip to church about a month ago.


She looks a little concerned about something, I'm just not sure what it was!


She loves to lay by the Christmas tree anad look at all the beautiful lights.


Here's my handsome hubby putting up the lights on our house. It turned out beautiful but I don't have a picture so you'll just have to take my word for it!

Thanksgiving One and Two!

Has it really been over a month since I posted last? Wow - time really flies when life is fun and busy! We have definitely been busy, but add to that the fact that I can no longer connect to the internet on our laptop which leaves our desktop computer as my only option for blogging. Why is this a problem you may ask? Well, let me just say it took me a couple hours just to get on the internet and upload the pictures for this post. Yeah, I was avoiding the complete time sucker, but the longer I wait the farther I get behind so I braved the storm!

So back to the happenings of our time away from the blog - We had a great month complete with lots of family time and two Thanksgiving celebrations. We kicked off the party down at the Malarsie household where we had our Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday.

First, we had to do a side by side comparison of the two current babies in the family. Here's Eden and her adorable cousin Lincoln. Kally and I were due about six weeks apart, but obviously our babies are much farther apart due to Eden's early arrival. It didn't take Lincoln long to catch right up to her size though! Lincoln did manage to spit up on her as we were trying to take photos, but I guess he thought he could make up for it by holding her hand. :o)


It's hard to tell what feet belong to each baby, but Eden's is the top foot.


No question here though - Lincoln's hands are way bigger!


Eden also got in lots of good snuggling time with Grandma Malarsie.


Eden also got lots of love and attention from her adoring cousin Jade. Jade was such a good helper by making sure Eden kept her pacifier in her mouth.


Jade also brought this little furry chick all the way down to grandma's house just to show it to Eden. I think she loved it almost as much as she loves her cousin Jade!


Mmmmm... the food was So good!


And so were the games.


We were so glad to have my brother Michael home to celebrate with us. He is now serving our country over in Afganistan so we have been doing lots of praying for him since he left, and we can't wait until he gets home!



On Thanksgiving day we were fortunate to have a second Thanksgiving feast with some of Brad's family who came into town to celebrate with us. We had such a great time and are so thankful for you guys for making the trip out here to be with us! Matt and Heidi, and Jeff and Julie - we really missed you guys!

Of course there were lots of games played with this side of the family too...


And also lots of snuggling. Little Eden was spoiled.



These two guys kept us all in line throughout the week. Especially the one on the left!


We couldn't let them go back to California without first posing for a picture with Eden.


And Jeff felt left out so we had to make sure he got included too! :o)


So to sum it up, Thanksgiving was an awesome and fun time for us and we are so blessed to have such amazing family.

But the fun didn't stop there! There were a lot of other fun events and updates during this time of blogging haitus. Stay tuned!