we have a five year old... and a two month old!

How is it possible that Matthew is FIVE??! Yesterday I showed him his baby book as part of homeschooling, {more on that later} and I just couldn't get over how fast time has gone by since he was born. I'm also a little weirded-out that I'm actually old enough to have a five year-old :)

Matthew is such a joy... our little "gift from God"... who's sometimes a little too big for his britches! However, here are some things we enjoy most about our five year old:

1. he is an affectionate little dude
2. he could draw and color and paint forever
3. he has a fun/big imagination
4. he is great about entertaining himself
5. last but certainly not least, he is always super willing to put the pacifier in Eli's mouth when he cries :)



Now on to the littlest guy... we no longer have a newborn. It's official. Especially since he weighs more than the average two month old! But he sleeps great, eats really well, and is a great baby! He is now smiling and most recently discovered that he can actually put his hands in his mouth. Precious.



Can't do a post and leave this one out... he fell asleep watching his favorite thing in the whole wide world, Thomas the train :)

look who's three weeks old!

Crazy thinking Eli is three weeks old today! He had a wellness check-up yesterday, and he checked out great... so thankful :) He now weighs 10 pounds 5 ounces, so he's obviously eating well! And he's sleeping well too. For some reason we've been blessed with pretty easy babies, but we're thinking Eli really takes the cake. With the exception of last night, for the past week he has only woken up once in the middle of the night to eat... and having as long as a six-hour stretch between the before bed feeding and the middle of the night feeding. Hooray for getting good sleep!! {now if only the night sweats would go away!}

These were taken over the last couple of weeks...

eli gus bert :)

It is so hard to believe Eli was born fifteen days ago! I hate that he's already that old, but at the same time I'm so glad we're over the hardest "hump" of having a newborn... needing pain medication about every 4 hours, trying to get the hang of nursing again, having an all morning cry-session even though my brain knew it was not rational, falling asleep in the middle of conversations, etc. I still don't feel back to normal or even completely adjusted to this new life of three little boys, but I'm so grateful I'm headed in that direction.

Eating breakfast one last time before our new addition arrived... they really didn't know what was to come {especially Hudson, of course}, but they have done great!


Fresh out of the oven... born at 1:34 p.m. on Tuesday, July 6th, weighing in at 9 pounds 5 ounces {yikes!} and measuring 20 inches long!


Out of the three boys, this was the first time we took the camera in the delivery room... so glad we did.


Enjoying our first moments in the recovery room...




All the happy grandparents finally meeting the third Bert boy :)


Meeting very proud great-grandmother, Googie!


Big brothers meeting Eli for the first time... their faces really say it all :)


This is the first of many Hudson kisses Eli receives on a regular basis. Hudson has also proved us wrong so far... he's usually very cautious with Eli and doesn't seem to be jealous at all. Yay!


LOVE this one because Matthew was just beaming the entire time... and pretty much still is. He's in love with his baby brother.


One of our favorite surprise visitors was our pastor, Gus. He showed up the night before we came home from the hospital, and it's a visit we will treasure. He read the precious verses of Psalm 139:13-18, prayed for us and dedicated Eli with a little oil on his forehead.


Other very proud great-grandmother, Mama Tom, wasn't able to come to the hospital... so she was itching to hold Eli right after we got home. The first thing she said was that Eli looked like Gus. I agree!

promise post #1...

I am so excited that I'm squeezing in one of the posts that I more or less promised before Eli's arrival... in FIVE days! I had my last doctor's visit today and signed all the surgery paperwork, so we're definitely good to go!

Anyway, my good friend, Sara Beth, took some pictures about a month ago to capture this pregnancy a bit. Here are some of my favorites!

{We both laughed when she took the hand-shaped heart one because we thought it would turn out pretty cheesy... but it's acutally one of my very favorites!}













Next up... room re-dos!

quick update.

For those of you who are wondering... we have decided to stay put. {at least for awhile} We don't really know what the future holds other than the fact that we are where we should be for now. It's kind of easy to come to that conclusion when no one's calling to inquire about your house on the market :) We are so fine with that too because we love so many things about our house and Quincy. And it's just really nice knowing that we are exactly where we need to be!

So, we pretty much came to this conclusion mid-May... and then I started freaking out about how little time we had until Eli arrives. We had put so much on hold just in case someone wanted to look at the house. I've been crazy-nesting ever since!

I must say that "nesting" is one of my favorite things about being pregnant. Just today, I filled almost an entire trash bag full of junk in our bathroom. I love being so motivated to dust shutters and re-organize drawers and eliminate so many things that simply take up space in our house!

One last thing... the thought of re-capping all that I left out between Easter and Hudson's birthday seriously makes me want to quit blogging all together. I think I would rather have a gap than call it quits! And I know I am very unreliable/untrustworthy about my blogging... BUT I have to say that I am pretty darn confident that I will have a couple more posts before July 6th: maternity photo shoot & room re-dos.

Be back soon!

hudson is TWO :)

Today is Hudson's birthday!! It is so hard for us to believe that he was born two years ago... I remember that day like it just happened.

His delivery was scheduled for noon, and I had been very nervous the day before. That morning, however, I was more excited than nervous. It was so strange kissing Matthew goodbye and knowing that our family was going to change dramatically in just a few hours. I also knew what to expect, which was both comforting and a little nerve-wracking... the thing I dreaded most was the i.v. because it's killer. Much more so than the spinal in my opinion. And even though the hospital was running behind making Hudson's delivery at 1:15, it all went by pretty fast... before I knew it, Gus was off with Hudson while I was being stitched up. And once again, I laid there thinking how I couldn't wait to do it all again. {on july 6th that little wish will come true!}



And now we have this crazy little two year old that we are nuts about. Here are some fun facts about our "hudsie":

1. he loves his milk and says "milk pwease" on a regular basis.
2. he could swing for days and days.
3. he goes crazy happy anytime we mention a "tweat"... peanut m&ms are his favorite.
4. he LOVES ice {and so does his pregnant mama... we share it often throughout the day}
5. he loves to count "1-2-3-go" before anything fun like jumping on the bed or jumping off his little stool.
6. he can go from sunshiney-happy to cloudy-ticked in a heartbeat!
7. his favorite books at the moment are: bedtime peekaboo & goodnight moon.
8. he loves to wrestle with "mattu", and he's definitely the rougher of the two.
9. he loves to sit on the windowsill in the kitchen to drink his milk in the mornings.
10. one of his phrases we cannot get enough of is "hold you" :)



It's easy for me to go through our days and take Hudson {and Matthew} for granted. With this birthday and us welcoming another addition soon, God is definitely reminding me how undeniably blessed we are to have healthy & happy children. We thank God for our "gifts" and pray that we spend the rest of our lives pointing all three of them in His direction.

cookies with a story.

Last night we made Easter cookies for the first time! I saw the idea last year on one of my favorite blogs and vowed to start the tradition this year. It was so much fun for all of us! The cookies have very simple/common ingredients, and each has scripture to go along with it to tell the Easter story as you're mixing everything together... beginning with Jesus' crucifixion to His awesome resurrection. It's just a cool way to begin to teach the boys and also to remind ourselves of the amazing love of our Saviour!

{smelling the vinegar... what Jesus tasted just before he said "it is finished"}




{i had to document this... matthew is very affectionate and hudson is not. this was huge for hudson to give matthew a hug out of nowhere. it thrilled matthew!}




{"sealing" the oven, which represented that Jesus' tomb was sealed as well}



Okay, so I have to admit that the cookies weren't exactly cooked enough when we checked them this morning. We don't know what happened! I was so excited to show them that when you bite into them, they're hollow... just like Jesus' tomb was empty Easter morning. Oh well! Once Matthew remembered the cookies had pecans in them, he wanted no part. Next year maybe we'll try crescent rolls instead. I heard that when you cook them with a marshmallow inside, the marshmallow disappears.

HAPPY EASTER everyone!