Ellerbroek Entourage

Photo Friday #69

2014-07-18T06:15:00.003-05:00

Yes I do realize that the last two posts were Lincoln's monthly pictures and I have posted nothing in between. Excuse me while I spend all my time in the evenings with this special guy. This week he began rolling over at daycare. Of course the little stinker wouldn't roll over for us at home. I can tell he doesn't like to lay still, he rolls to his side and then back to the other side. I hope this weekend he'll show off of us.

PS - doesn't his hair look much lighter? Lincoln's going to be a blonde little boy.

Lincoln Is Three Months!

2014-07-14T08:57:00.000-05:00

Now that we've entered into the fourth month of life, Lincoln is officially considered an infant (as opposed to a newborn). Or so I read somewhere. I find myself starting most sentences with "I read somewhere" or "someone told me." Guess that's what comes of reading about pregnancy and babies so much lately.

Lincoln James at Three Months:

-Absolutely loves to smile and has a great toothless grin

-Shed his first tear thanks to the development of tear ducts

-Rocks post bath crazy fluffy hair

-Master cuddler, loves soft fabric

-Regularly sleeps 7-8 hours at night (thank you!)

-Official left handed thumb sucker

-Happy morning baby... that is once he gets his stretching and eating out of the way

-Making new friends at daycare

Lincoln Is Two Months!

2014-06-30T07:12:00.000-05:00

Yes I know this post is very late, but better late than never! We took Lincoln's two month pictures while back home with family (thank you to my Uncle Jerry for taking these pictures too!) Sticking with the double picture, we captured Lincoln at two months of age.

Lincoln James at Two Months:

-Found out how to smile

-Occasional fan of the pacifier

-Still has no idea where his thumb is

-Sporadic daytime eater

-Good nighttime sleeper... eating once per night and sleeping up to 7 hours!

-Mr. Houdini when it comes to the swaddle

-Learning to love tummy time

-Went on first plane ride... and did great!

-First trip to Iowa, he didn't notice the corn fields

Oh Lincoln, how I love your little chunky thighs.

Photo Friday #68

2014-06-27T06:49:00.000-05:00

My apologies... here I am with hundreds of pictures I've taken lately and I haven't been sharing them. As you can probably understand, I've been a bit busy. We returned from our 10 day Iowa trip last weekend, I went back to work on the following Monday which means little Lincoln also went to daycare (which I have already started referring to as school). Hopefully this weekend I can organize my thoughts, wash dirty bottles, do a couple loads of laundry and write a few blog posts. However, I make no promises. In the meantime, here a picture of Lincoln and I in the airport waiting to board our final flight home. He was an amazing traveler, Joe and I are very fortunate.

Big Boy Smiles

2014-06-11T11:29:00.000-05:00

Early on Lincoln would smile often in his sleep. Some would say this was due to gas bubbles or something going on in his tummy. Others said he was just such a happy baby he would show that while sleeping. Either way I loved seeing this toothless grin. Most times instead of taking a nap myself while he slept I would just lay next to him and stare at him. How could I resist?

Then last week Lincoln started smiling for real. I mean smiles with his eyes open and looking at me (or in most cases, the camera). The hard thing is capturing these amazing smiles and not having a blurry picture. He's just so squirmy when happy, he won't sit still. Actually he's a squirmy baby most of the time when awake. Oh well, these smiles just melt my heart. Never stop Little Lincoln!

Photo Friday #67

2014-06-10T10:00:00.001-05:00

During my maternity leave it has been important for me to get out of the house every once in a while. The weather has been great so Lincoln and I have taken many many walks. We always made sure to go in the early morning because it gets too warm in the afternoon. Also, we've learned to avoid Tuesdays... that's garbage day and the truck comes around in the morning and makes the sidewalks smell awful. Anyways, we've made Dunkin' Donuts our date spot. For a while there I was getting free coffee the day after a Braves win (just another reason to cheer for them!) Unfortunately that promotion ended, but we still made some trips to get coffee and enjoy the outside patio. Just one of the many things I'll remember from my special time with Lincoln!

Family Of Three

2014-06-09T07:07:00.002-05:00

I have always enjoyed taking pictures. I have never thought of myself as a great photographer, but I have always loved having momentos and memories to look back on. Since Linoln's arrival I have turned this addiction of photo taking to another level (if you haven't already been able to tell). That's totally cool though, right? I'm simply a proud parent, right? Yes, most of these pictures have been of just Lincoln, but a few have been of our family of three. These are precious pictures in my heart, even if I do look pretty tired in some of them..

Photo Friday #66

2014-06-06T11:01:00.003-05:00

Let me start off by saying Lincoln is a noisy sleeper. We've been told most babies are noisy, but I still feel he takes the cake. Most nights go like this... we put him down in the pack 'n play (still sleeping in our room) around 9:00. He usually is ready to eat again around 12:30 or 1:00 and afterwards I put him back in the pack 'n play. Keep in mind he's swaddled each time to keep those flailing arms from awakening him. Then most nights he's ready to eat again around 4:30 or 5:00. At this time he's not sleeping as deeply and begins, what we consider, his "noisy sleepy". At this time I usually put him to sleep in the bathroom so that Joe and I can get a few more hours of shut eye. This probably sounds bad... we have a baby chair in there that he seems to like. Lincoln is not one to enjoy being swaddled once he's starting to wake up. Most times when I get up to feed him he's completely out of the swaddle. On this particular morning he must've had a hard time getting those little arms out. What do you do when you can't get the arms out of a swaddle? You work on the legs instead... Silly baby.

On a side note this little guy slept for a 6.5 hour stretch last night. That's a record! We're making progress. Thank you Lincoln for being such a good baby!

Memorial Weekend And Three Uncles

2014-06-04T11:42:00.003-05:00

We spent our Memorial Weekend here at home. But it wasn't just any weekend, we had three special visitors. Joe's brothers all made the trip out to Charlotte to visit us and meet their nephew!

Before their arrival Lincoln and I made a trip to the grocery store. Every time we go he is seriously such a good baby. He must love all the lights and stimulating things around him. He also gets lots of compliments. I suppose he better get used to it, he sure is a cute baby!

Uncle Jed was the first to arrive. Lincoln put on his new Hawkeye gear to welcome him. Thanks to a gift from my college roommate Lincoln sported a sweet Hawkeye tie onesie.

Lincoln also demonstrated his inner John Cena. Anyone a WWE fan??

Then the other uncles arrived. First Travis got to hold our little guy. Trust me, Lincoln did enjoy this, we just couldn't seem to capture his happy face.

Then it was uncle Nick's turn. Again, Lincoln's face shows his hesitation with this stranger, but he warmed up to the boys quickly.

During our 2:00 AM feeding I snapped a picture with my little guy. With all these boys around it was nice to have some quiet time together.

The next morning we lazily got up, ate some breakfast and passed Lincoln around. He seems to be studying Nick closely.

The weekend weather was gorgeous so we took full advantage of being out in the fresh air. Thanks to our new patio furniture we ate most meals outside.

First on the activity list was tennis. We have some pretty nice courts in our neighborhood. With five players we switched out teams and Lincoln enjoyed being outside. Again, he's such a good baby when we do activities like this. As you can see in this picture, he's just one of the boys.

Morning number two brought more baby carrying and Dunkin Donuts. Can you tell which one is wearing Lincoln and who has Carlos? You must be familiar with the movie The Hangover in order to get that joke...

Again the weather was perfect so after borrowing a ball from our neighbors the boys got a few games of basketball in while Lincoln watched. He was probably taking notes for the future when he's right in the action.

We grilled out once again and enjoyed the weather. Looks like Lincoln enjoyed Nick's lap.

All this excitement left Lincoln wiped out. Each night he fell right asleep. I joined him with going to bed myself, but the boys always stayed up. There was either a bonfire to be held or a NBA game to watch.

Lincoln also slept in... like I said, he was tired from all the activity!

The fun weekend had to come to an end. Before dropping the boys off at the airport we snapped a few more pictures. Thank you to Jed, Nick and Trav for visiting. Lincoln loved meeting you all!

Greek Quinoa Salad

2014-05-28T07:39:00.000-05:00

We've had lots of visitors lately (thanks to Lincoln!) With visitors brings a reason for lots of good food. Between my mom and Joe's mom I've added a couple excellent recipes to my stash. One of the recipes we tried was found on the quinoa package and we thought it was worth a try. It was one of those recipes where you read through the list of ingredients and already know you'll love it. It's very different than most meals Joe and I make, but we both thought it was a keeper. This is the perfect meal to make and for each of us to bring for lunch during work. On a side note, quinoa is gluten and wheat free, plus is a good source of protein. Bonus!

Greek Quinoa Salad
Adapted from Vigo package (similar to this)

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup calamata olives
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Cook quinoa as directed on package. Set aside and let cool completely. Combine quinoa with all other ingredients. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Memorial Day Hunk

2014-05-26T10:20:00.001-05:00

Every holiday this year is a first in our household. Today is this little hunk's first Memorial Day. This past weekend was his first time meeting a few uncles. It was an action packed weekend for our little warrior. Thank you to all that have and are serving our country. We appreciate you!

App Appreciation: MammaBaby

2014-05-21T07:26:00.000-05:00

There are plenty of apps out there for use during pregnancy and such. I downloaded many during my pregnancy and stuck with just a couple. One was the very popular What To Expect When Expecting. Others were not as useful or helpful. All that I downloaded were free so I never had to worry about giving it a try and deleting it if I didn't like it. Now that my pregnancy is over I searched for a different type of app to use. The one I found and liked the most was MammaBaby. Indeed I liked it so much I ended up purchasing the full version (after my week trial was up) for $3.99. For me, that's saying something!

The app is very helpful for keeping track of Lincoln's feedings. Sometimes my memory is a bit short (does pregnancy brain carry over to having a newborn??) and I can't tell you when was the last time he ate. Sometime it's 2:00 AM and my brain was still sleeping. MammaBaby helps me with this! I love the fact that I can track how long he ate, when was the last time he did eat and which side he fed on.

Yes this app has many other features like keeping track of his sleep and dirty diapers, but I didn't find that worth my time of logging. It even has a feature to help log when he has his bottle feedings. We'll see if we use this app when he begins on solid food, but for now I've really enjoyed having this at my side.

Grandparents Are Great

2014-05-19T09:19:00.001-05:00

Lincoln has gotten the opportunity to meet all of his grandparents now. He absolutely loved having them all around. That meant extra arms to hold him, extra lips to kiss him and extra hands for some dirty diaper changes. Lincoln is so lucky to have these amazing grandparents.

Funny enough he met them both in familiar fashion. Of course as soon as his grandmas came through the door they had to get him in their hands. After a few minutes of being in awe they all settled down and I snapped these similar pictures.

We made sure to take some good pictures of Lincoln with his grandparents while they're here in Charlotte. There were lots of naps taken and walks around the neighborhood. Lincoln kept his grandparents busy while visiting and they all had a blast.

Our parents were promoted to grandparents. Again, grandparents are great!

Photo Friday #65

2014-05-16T06:48:00.000-05:00

You didn't really think this blog would be ALL about Lincoln, now would you?? I will admit most of it has been and will be for a while, but who would complain about that anyways? Well this photo Friday is about my brother and sister-in-law. They completed their first marathon last weekend in Delaware and I was so excited for them accomplishing this task that I had to share. You can tell by their smiles that they're happy for achieving their goal... and probably for being done. Good work Scott and Amy!

Lincoln Is One Month!

2014-05-14T07:39:00.001-05:00

Before Lincoln joined us I had been thinking and debating about how I wanted to capture his growth. Just like the pictures we took of my growing belly, I wanted a fun way to show his transformation too. I have seen many cool ideas online and couldn't quite come up with the perfect way. Instead of choosing just one I decided to go two different routes.

The first idea comes from Young House Love. They took pictures of their daughter weekly (instead of our monthly pictures). What can I say, I'm not going to be home with Lincoln forever and I know taking pictures weekly would get out of hand for our busy schedule. I'm perfectly fine with documenting this on a monthly basis. Here are the instructions I followed to get this look. Lucky for me I have Photoshop, unlucky for me I'm still a beginner. I worked pretty hard to get this picture the way I wanted it, but finally I think I achieved it... hopefully each month going forward will be much easier!

The other idea I got from Pinterest. It was a simple idea on this blog that I thought we could easily copy. I had registered for the bath letters and numbers and received them at the baby shower (which seems like forever ago!) Instead of just showing Lincoln's head I wanted to show his entire body. I think the most change we've seen on him is in his legs. Those rolls have popped up thanks to his eager appetite. How could I not show them in the picture?! He also was fresh off a bath so Joe and I decided to keep him in just the diaper. I haven't decided if we'll keep this uniform each month, but why not??

From here I plan taking Lincoln's picture each month to document his growth. It's fun for us to see the changes in this little guy, but I'm sure lots of you out there will enjoy it as well.

My First Mother's Day

2014-05-12T12:49:00.003-05:00

Lincoln (and Joe) really know how to spoil this mom on her first Mother's Day. Truly it was such a great day because we spent it all together, but there were other reasons why it was so great. It started with Dunkin Donuts breakfast (in bed) and ended with sushi take out for dinner (haven't had sushi in over nine months and I think that was the one thing I truly missed eating while being pregnant... although I will say the urge to have a cold beer has hit now that the temps have risen). Here are a few pictures of our day...

After breakfast we started out with a family walk. We had to get it in during the morning hours, temps here in the south have been rising and we've had some warm days.

Then Lincoln got a bath. He's starting to actually like his baths! Well, maybe I should say he's beginning to not hate his baths. Maybe that's a better way to put it. This was the first one we've given him where he has screamed bloody murder. Either he's getting used to the idea or we're getting better at this bath thing. All parents have to learn, right?

We spent some time together on the floor. Lincoln has been working on his neck muscles and strengthening them. We like to do some tummy time with him when possible. He's going to be one strong boy!!

Those cheeks are plumping up nicely! Oh and those eyes... I'm so curious to know what eye color they will become and stay. Any guesses? Do you think this dark hazy blue color will stick? Or will he follow his mom and have hazel eyes. Maybe he'll take the more traditional route and have brown like his dad? So many people have told me he looks so much like Joe. Is it too much to ask that he has his mother's eye color??

Lincoln was fed for the first time via bottle. My lactation consultant told me to start pumping about a week ago and to start introducing a bottle to him this week. Slowly we've started to give him a bottle once a day. He took it down like a champ and daddy enjoyed being able to feed him for the first time too. Introducing the bottle now will help tremendously when he starts going to daycare. We have to make sure he can learn to survive without mommy (tear!)

And at the end of the day the little man was pooped. Actually he slept a lot of the day (of course after his bath and tummy time... I think we wore him out). He didn't end up sleeping like this, we did swaddle him. I just liked how he looked so small in his pack and play so I snapped the picture quick.

Joe and Lincoln made my first Mother's Day a very special one. Thank you to everyone else who was thinking of me and wished me a happy one. I'm one special lady!

Life Sized Birth Announcement

2014-05-08T09:20:00.000-05:00

We sent out birth announcements about a week ago. I was so excited to pick out the card on Shutterfly, but of course I had to wait until little Lincoln got here. Since we didn't know if we were having a boy or girl I needed to know that tiny detail before picking out the card. We had a discount at Shutterfly so that was the easy reason we chose to purchase the cards from that site. Otherwise I have always liked the card selection on Shutterfly so I was not disappointed.

When we got the cards in the mail we immediately noticed one funny thing... Lincoln's picture on the card was basically life sized. To prove it, we took this picture comparing the card with the real deal. How funny is this?!

My Body Transformation

2014-05-07T10:16:00.000-05:00

The body is an amazing thing. First of all to grow a human being inside of you is incredible, but to watch (and feel) this process first hand, it's hard to describe.

Joe and I had fun documenting my growing belly over the past nine months. I am so glad we did this, even if it wasn't professional by any means. The one thing I wish could have been different was the lighting. We don't have any fancy lighting equipment and our work schedule meant most of the time we were taking these pictures after the sun had gone down. Luckily Joe was all for the documentation and helped take my picture every week. Well, I think we missed one or two weeks in there (after we started at 12 weeks along) which I'd say is pretty good.

I was looking back at these pictures the other day and thought it would be fun to share the growth once again. Here are a few of the weekly pictures.

And a back to back full transformation...

Welcome Lincoln James

2014-04-24T08:22:00.000-05:00

The Ellerbroek Entourage is growing!

You've noticed I've been MIA on the blog lately. It's all for good reason, trust me. Mr. Lincoln James Ellerbroek joined us on Monday, April 14th at 5:10 PM. Although one week earlier than expected, he was warmly welcomed by mom and dad.

Joe spent a week with us at home before returning to work. We are both so in love and amazed by this little boy. I am so lucky to spend so much time with him, he's a good baby! As you can guess, having a baby is time consuming, but I will try to continue to post about him. I have so many great pictures to share!

Photo Friday #64

2014-04-11T06:43:00.001-05:00

With the weather warming up and our weekends free we've started spending more time in our backyard. This past weekend you could say we "nested" when it came to yard work. We spend a good couple hours out there spreading lime on the grass, pulling weeds and spraying weed killer. While pulling weeds Joe found a friend. We commonly find salamanders in our backyard (sometimes even climbing up our screened-in porch). This guy was a little one. We snapped a funny picture and send to family in hopes of grossing them out. No worries, no salamanders were hurt in the making of this photo. Joe released him back into the wild to be with his friends. Unfortunately then he sprayed the lawn with pesticides so we're not quite sure if this little guy survived or not. Sorry PETA.

Weekly Pregnancy Update (38 Weeks)

2014-04-09T06:31:00.001-05:00

Family, friends and whoever else actually reads this blog... we are still alive and baby has not arrived yet. Honestly I haven't been in the blogging mood lately. Our week nights have been filled with visitors and baby classes and our weekends have been filled with some chores and watching The Good Wife. On a side note, have you seen that show? Joe and I are hooked. We've been seeing the doctor on a weekly basis lately and have now seen all five doctors on the rotation at our hospital. Last week the doctor said I was measuring precisely to my due date and everything was right on track. My weight gain, blood pressure and baby's heart rate were all right where they need to be too. It has been so great during this journey to know that baby has been healthy, I'd like to think I had something to do with that! Yes, that was me taking credit for baking this bun in my oven. Ha!

Week Number: 38 Weeks, 2 Days
Baby Size: Watermelon (6.5 pounds)
Sleep: I have still been able to get a good nights rest. With the exception of the tricky maneuver I have to perform just to roll over, everything has been fine. Our schedules have allowed me to go to bed at a decent time, allowing me to get about 8 hours of sleep each night. I hear this is important to do before baby arrives... seeing that sleep goes out the window.
Movement: I love that I have never had to worry if our baby is doing ok in there. I feel movement pretty regularly and enjoy it every time (yes, even in the middle of the night).
Symptoms: Last week I did have one night after work where my feet were definitely swollen. I knew it was because I had been on my feet for majority of the day and was just plain busy at work. No worries though, I kicked my feet up and relaxed at home. My feet were back to normal the next day and have been fine ever since.
Belly Button: We've been monitoring this one lately because I'm oh-so-close to an outtie. So far Joe and I agree, my bellybutton is puckering, but it's not an outtie... yet.

Best Moment of the Week: Even though this was a little over a week ago, we had a great time with my mom when she came to visit. She was so much fun to have around, plus so helpful with laundry and cooking meals for us to eat after baby arrives. We even had some time to go shopping, get pedicures and see a movie. Thank you mom for making the trip!!
Looking Forward To: Finding out if our family is growing by one girl or one boy. The closer we get to the due date and ultimately the day our baby decides to joins us, the more anxious I get to find out if baby will be a boy or girl. Joe and I will, of course, welcome either with excitement, but I'd like to know if we have pink bows or blue soccer balls in our future.

Down To The Wire

2014-03-31T06:32:00.000-05:00

Life (and the exciting fact that we will be parents soon) has gotten in the way of blogging. I got this email today and well, this is getting real. Our baby will be joining us soon!

Weekly Pregnancy Update (35 Weeks)

2014-03-19T06:17:00.000-05:00

I don't have too much in terms of updates for this week. This baby is still growing and I'm getting bigger too. Tonight I'm bowling with my coworkers... this should be interesting. Can't say I bowl much to begin with, but when you add this big belly I think it might get even harder. Wish me luck!

Week Number: 35 Weeks, 2 Days
Baby Size: Large Cantaloupe (about 5.5 pounds)
Sleep: This has still been just fine. It helps that our weekends are consumed by trips or lots of activity. I'm able to sleep in and get plenty or shut eye.
Movement: Still very consistent and strong at times. I'm starting to be able to notice where baby is laying by the firmness of my belly. As the nurse pointed out to me a couple weeks ago I'm pretty sure I still feel kicking me on my right side. Sometimes it's way up at my rib cage. This movement still amazes me and I love it. I said to Joe the other day that I'm anxious to meet our baby, but I'll probably also miss feeling the movement inside my belly. Oh well, once baby arrives I'll have lots of other things on my mind.
Symptoms: Still nothing to really complain about. No heartburn, swelling, varicose veins, etc. I'm considering myself very luck.
Belly Button: Still an innie! I still don't think this will change, but it's amazing how close I'm getting to pushing this belly button outwards.

Best Moment of the Week: This one is easy... I got a prenatal massage over the weekend. Friends of ours gifted me the massage and so I went to the spa on Saturday and enjoyed some pampering.
Looking Forward To: I'm anxious for our doctor appointment next week (my 36 week checkup). The main reason is to find out whether this baby is head up or head down. I've been very curious this whole time what position baby was in. Even when baby was moving or twirling in my belly, I'd love to have a way to see what sort of contorted angle baby is sleeping in. Of course I'm also looking forward to my mom traveling to Charlotte to visit! She arrives in a little over a week and I think I've been counting down the days for weeks now. It will be great to spend some time with her, but I also know she'll help us with any last minute preparations we have before baby gets here.

Perfect Hard Cooked Eggs and Egg Salad

2014-03-18T06:46:00.000-05:00

Behold one of the most ingenious ideas ever... baking eggs instead of boiling them! I'm sure most of us think of hard boiled eggs and say to our selves, well, they must be boiled. Well let me change that thought for you and introduce hard cooked eggs in the oven.

With Easter approaching I'm sure there will be lots of this taking place for dying Easter eggs or making deviled eggs. Maybe this year you can try a new way that I think is far easier. The original idea came from this post found on Pinterest. My mom told me about this brilliant idea so Joe and I wanted to give it a try.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. It's seriously that easy.

I place them in muffin tins to keep them from rolling around.

Immediately after baking toss the eggs into an ice bath.

Let them sit until cooled, drain the water and store in the fridge either peeled or unpeeled.

Then enjoy with your favorite recipe! I figured I would share mine. This egg salad recipe is about as basic as you can get. As you can probably tell from many of my recipes, I don't like to over season or add too much that's unnecessary. Maybe it's because I don't have a sophisticated enough pallet so I can't pick up on the subtle flavors added by some ingredients. Either way, this recipe is so easy to change and make it how you like it.

Egg Salad

Ingredients

12 Hard Cooked Eggs (chopped)

4 Stalks Celery (chopped)

1/4 cup onion (chopped)

2/3 cup mayo

3 teaspoons mustard

Directions

Mix mayo and mustard together first to ensure they're well blended. Add all other ingredients and mix well. Serve as sandwich or with crackers.

And if you want to go totally off the grid... try an egg salad (open-faced) sandwich with avocado.The picture might be terrible, but your mind is still blown!

Photo Friday #63

2014-03-14T06:17:00.000-05:00

This is what I like to call an oldie, but goodie. My brother Scott was in the area of George Washington University the other day, snapped a photo of the statute and send to the family (we have a group text constantly going so it's easy to update everyone on happenings). I immediately recognized the statue and remembered this picture we took together back in July of 2005. I pulled up my computer and the many many folders of pictures I keep. Surprisingly it wasn't hard to find this picture. Mom and I were in DC to pick Scott up and move him back home to Iowa. He had interned in the capital city for about seven months and it was time to return to the Midwest. Honestly I'm not sure why we decided to take a picture in front of George... but now I'm glad we did.