My Baby is a Growin…

Warning…Long post with lots of pictures =)

3 years ago yesterday, my baby boy blessed us with his sweet presence. And oh what a sweet presence it is. Such a sweet and loving soul. He loves his family and loves his momma =)

What an amazing birth it was – scheduled c-section and it went so smoothly. I remember it like it was yesterday. My nerves were crazy and I was an absolute mess, but with such a great and supportive husband, I made it through just fine. I had to be put under for Elijah’s birth for many medical, scary reasons – therefore, I didn’t get to witness Elijah’s first cry. So getting to witness Noah’s first breaths was such a sweet moment and a precious gift.

Yesterday, 3 years ago was life changing (yet again). I was super scared, nervous, and so worried that I wouldn’t be able to give Elijah the one on one time anymore that I so desperately cherished the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Noah. Until the day before the birth when Paul said to me “Jessica, we are giving Eli the best gift he could ever receive, a brother”  I had not looked at it that way before and now, seeing them together, he was right. They love each other dearly (even though they don’t always show it) and they are, and will be such great friends.

Recovery was rough – the first evening my surgical epidural slipped out (no one knew) and I was feeling all of the pain from my surgery, ‘wow’ is all I can say about that pain. It took about 10 hours for the anesthesiologist to finally decide to check the epidural line and lo and behold, it was sitting on my back with all the meds just dripping down my back and onto the bed. After I received pain meds, I was one happy mamma and had my baby in my arms once again. He was so sweet and loving from day one.

My sweet baby boy is growing before my eyes and I see his boyishness coming out more and more every day.

He is such a little homebody and loves his family so much. He and his brother are complete opposites and I love seeing the differences in them every day. I am learning a whole new style of parenting with Noah, I feel like I am a first time mommy again. His brother is his hero and he tells him every single day “Eli, you are my best friend’ and it just melts my heart. I catch myself constantly staring at him up close and just wanting to squeeze him, kiss him, and tell him how much I love him and his little features.

I can’t wait to see what he is going to offer this world. My baby has blessed me with 3 amazing years and I hope I am blessed enough to have 70 more with him.

I love you so, my Noah baby!!

Below are pictures of our birthday weekend at Cloudland Canyon. We met some great people and had some wonderful family time. Even though it stormed a couple of times, our tents kept us safe and dry.

This is how we felt all weekend: (relaxed and tired)

Can you see us in the distance on the other side of this canyon:

 

The gift at the end of this hike was absolutely beautiful:

 

Baby Freeman loved it too:

Noah ran everywhere he went when we were hiking. I couldn’t tell if he was super excited, or just super competitive wanting to be the first one to wherever we were going:

Amazing rocks here – can you see us in the pics below:

For those of you that don’t know, this is an Iron Man cake…hehe

This was our tent pizza party during a horrible downpour on Saturday – we had so much fun, even though Elijah’s fake smile doesn’t say it: 

 

What an amazing weekend! I will never forget these precious moments with my sweet family – these are the moments I live for, long for, and cherish with my whole being.