Modeling For The Camera

Our good friend, Ashley Mogford, came over and took some photos of Israel back in April. And I am just now posting them. Let's just blame it on having two kids yeah? Also, I really need to get to work on his birth announcements. Who was the brilliant person who decided to make their own birth announcements? Hey, don't look at me...

  

Selfie by Eden

  

There are so many more I could post, but a baby is asking for my attention. That kid loves to squeal and talk and giggle and I just cannot resist it!! 

Also, I love my little family. Like a ridiculous amount. 

Israel | 2 Months

Better late than never right? Finding time to sit down and document this little guys life seems quite hard to do. He is a bundle of fun and we tend to enjoy staring at him much more than staring at a computer. This kid fits so perfectly into our family. He definitely "shook us up" a bit, but I'm learning his needs and things are much calmer now. Turns out that eating better helped our little boy out in so many ways. I am so glad we were able to find that out. 

Here is our boy now. He was 15.6 lbs in this photo and 24 inches long.

Yeah, so I chose to take his photo when he was both tired and hungry. The sun was going down. I had no other choice. Really. Besides, I thought it captured was his first two months looked like. Thankfully since then he has been the picture of happiness. 

Here is a look back at Gus from one week to two months. 

Israel,

Oh my little Gus Gus...Guster...Gusterson. We simply adore you. I keep thinking my heart has already exploded with love for you, and yet, somehow the love just grows more and more every day. You smile and have started to babble. Your favorite place is laying naked on a flat surface. That is when you are your happiest. I think you love being able to see our faces. Your sister smothers you and you are not quite tolerant of that just yet. You will learn. Bella hasn't seemed to notice your existence. I think she gave us and realized there are most likely many more babies to come. You have started to play on your play mat and will sit in your bouncer for super short amounts of time. I love that you need to touch me all the time. I wear you in the Moby many hours every day and neither of us tire of it. In fact, you started holding your head up so well in the last month and I am going to go ahead and thank babywearing for that. You still gag on pacifiers and bottles so "eating mommy's tummy" as Eden says happens every 2 hours or less. I love having a son. It is something I never knew I would say. Each day your daddy and I get more and more excited to see you grow and learn new things. Goodness I love you so. 

Love,

Your slightly obsessed mother. 

Israel | 1 Month

Everyone keeps asking me if the first month went fast. Honestly? I didn't feel like it did all that much. I think it helped that I got to have 2 weeks of rest with just Israel for the most part while I recovered from my c-section. I can't recommend that enough. It was a wonderful bonding experience with my new little guy and definitely what he and I needed. He is my little monkey...clinging to me always. 

 

I, Mallory Crain, did in fact give birth to that baby. Please be impressed. I call him my sumo baby. I am proud.

Israel,

You are the son we never knew we needed. The little boy who has stolen our hearts and then some. You have made your presence known in this house, that's for sure. You are a little man with a need for 24/7 snuggles. Everyone grants your wishes happily. We called you a high needs baby, but as it turns out, it was mommy's accidental caffeine intake that was causing your screaming fits. Now, we call you "Grumpy Gus" because honestly? You are one grumpy boy. If you aren't being held, while standing, and bouncing up and down, you tend to use your voice...a lot. Let's just say we were never worried about your lungs. We also find it sweet how you need that physical connection. I wear you in the Moby every day. Your big sister adores you. She also smothers you. I think you two are going to be close...or Eden will make you be her friend. You look like an identical copy of your daddy, but with a teensy bit of mommy thrown in for good measure. You have daddy's eyes, ears, skin color, height, fingers, and toes, but you have mommy's nose and look like her grandpa Ray. As for your growth? Oh dear boy, you don't stop growing! This is a shock after having your sister who struggled to stay on the charts. You have gained a pound a week since leaving the hospital and you have gotten so long. You LOVE to eat so I attribute that to your great size. Nights were extremely hard with you and you stayed awake almost the entire night every night. You dislike stimulation. Bouncers, play mats, toys...all of them make you angry. Israel John, you were the exact child God planned for our family and we are so thankful you are in our lives! You are one well loved little boy!

Love,

Mommy

Easter 2013

Easter is by far the most important holiday to me. Not my favorite to decorate for, but that's not really what Easter is about anyway. Although I believe it is important to celebrate our Savior every day, I really appreciate having that one day to truly celebrate what He has done for us. Jesus died for me. That is huge. I do not ever want to forget what He has done for me.

This year I had to forego the usual Easter festivities and traditions so that Israel and I could continue to rest and recover at home. Josh was able to take Eden to our church's annual Easter egg hunt...which she thoroughly enjoyed. On Sunday I was able to head up the stairs (something I have only done twice since being home) and enjoy a meal with the family, egg painting with Eden, and an egg hunt on the front lawn. I missed church greatly, but was thankful for our "home church" where we played a couple videos from the Jesus Storybook Bible for Eden and then watched last year's sermon from David Platt. Speaking of him, if you want to be challenged in a major way, listen to his series on James. Each sermon was amazing. 

Now on to some photos of my sweet babies...

I seriously love these two. They confirm that I want a big family each and every day. 

Her hair kills me. 

Nothing better than my two babies out in the sunshine. 

I haven't been able to take all the photos I want of the littlest Crain due to being confined to the couch 24/7...although I have been blowing up Instagram...but I did manage to sneak a few photos after a diaper change earlier today. He changes so much each day. Oh my goodness I love this kid so much. 

Can I be honest with you all? My mama heart is struggling this week. I bonded with Israel immediately. This is all thanks to a fabulous birth experience...which has been written, I just need to finish it up and add some photos. Obviously I am thankful for this, but there is one thing that has been bothering me. I have noticed a little bit of fear creeping in. The biggest one came during his three very heavy spit up episodes where he choked and had trouble breathing. It was extremely scary each time and in fact Josh and I took turns checking on him throughout the night last night. I try to be strong and remember that Israel, while entrusted into my care, is truly God's child. And yet...I broke. I saw him struggling to breathe, and I completely lost all sense. I bawled. I have known him for 9 months in my tummy and 11 days out in the world, and yet I feel like he has been a part of me forever. I am usually pretty calm about these things, but something in me snapped. I know this is "normal," but it pains me all the same.

I am so thankful for our two babies. They both add something into our family that is unique and fun and perfect. I know there are many tough days ahead, but I do not want to lose sight of the blessings we have.

The Happiest Place On Earth!

We went to Disneyland back in November. Did you know that? Yeah...I am slacking in a major way. These contractions tell me I better hurry up and get these photos posted before I am juggling two kids and more sleep deprived than I am now. I truly don't think that is possible.

So...California. The state I was born in. I moved to Oregon in 3rd grade. I still have a very soft spot for Cali in my heart. I am a sun loving girl in a big way. The last time I had seen the state was in 2007, just after Josh and I got married. We went down to witness my longtime BFF get married. It was fantastic, but since then she has had 2 babies and I had 1 and I had only met her firstborn once. That had to change. So, we planned a trip. This took a lot of deal seeking since we do not exactly have cash just lying around. Well, technically our trip was funded by cash that was in a sense laying around....our furniture. We sold a bunch of things and that helped pay for us to have a vacation! Can I just tell you, that was the most wonderful trip? Seriously. I honestly think taking a vacation with a child is the best thing ever. I know you all are rolling your eyes, but hear me out. There is something magical about watching your toddler's eyes light up as they realize they get to go up in the sky in the airplanes they always have to point out in the sky. And Disneyland? Wow. That girl felt the magic in a big way. I love Disneyland on my own, but Josh and I agreed, nothing topped walking through the "Happiest Place on Earth" with Eden. Was everything picture perfect? Um, hardly. There were meltdowns and diaper explosions (we missed our cloth diapers in a big way on the trip) galore, BUT the positives far outweighed any negatives. 

How do I even sum up the days that we were gone? There are so many things to tell you! We flew into California right after finding out that we were having a boy. Only our family got to know...everyone else had to wait until we announced it from Disneyland. We hit up thrift stores because I was a bit excited about buying some little boy things. We spent the first half of the trip in San Clemente, visiting our long-time best friends/second family. Sadly, the weather was not cooperating so we never did have a trip to the beach, but we had tons of fun anyway. We had a joint birthday party for me and my BFF's brother which was so fun. On my actual birthday we hung out in Palm Springs and ate lots of Mexican food. You know I was happy. We ate lots of good food (sadly I was still in the morning sickness phase of pregnancy), saw a whole lot of thrift stores, enjoyed Starbucks, and all sorts of fun things. I only took one photo with my big girl camera, but don't worry, I'll be posting my IG photos on a later date which has more from that half of our trip.

Oh, Disneyland. You were amazing. Everything we dreamed and more. We planned on going to Disneyland for 3 days. If you know me, you know I am a bit hardcore about my Disney trips. As in, I want to be at the gate before they open and be the last to leave. Already on the first day that didn't happen and I kinda sorta had a bad attitude about it. It was one of those "it's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to," moments. I was super excited to see my beautiful Brianne (who happened to be there with her husband), make our "we are having a BOY!" announcement, and soak up every glorious moment of that place. Thankfully, I have an awesome husband who knew that our trip to Disneyland probably wouldn't be replicated for many many years, so he surprised me with an extra day! That boy knows how to make me happy. Honestly? If you are going to Disneyland with kids...please just go more days than you expect. Long gone are the days where you can plan out each minute of your visit. I was a master at getting to each ride at the right time of day. On the first day, we made it on 3 rides. That's it. It just takes longer when you have a toddler who needs diaper changes, food, time for meltdowns, and naps. Add to that a pregnant mom and well, you get nothing done.

That's Brianne. She's amazing. Our goal growing up was to go to Disneyland together. It happened and it wasn't even planned (although we knew she and her hubs were going to be there at the same time as us). It was incredible. Thankfully they were flexible and just followed us around the whole time! 

The girls. From left: my mom, me, Brianne, and Eden. 

I think one of the highlights was meeting the characters. Eden LOVES all things Disney (duh...she's our child) so she couldn't believe her eyes when her favorite characters were right in front of her. She was elated.

 

Goofy got the privilege of announcing that we were having a boy named Israel. He was quite honored. It was a bit tough to get a full shot of Goofy with the hat since I had my 50mm lens on, but hey it captured the memory well enough.  

Yes, that is Eden's hand in Donald Duck's mouth. After this photo he pretended to wipe his mouth out, which made for some giggles. A fact we weren't aware of until we were at Disneyland...the girl is OBSESSED with the duck. I mean seriously. She would cry every time we had to leave him. You can bet when we let her choose one thing to bring home from Dland she picked a stuffed Donald Duck. 

Awesome Snow White right? I happen to be a serious Disney character critic. I approved of this one. 

  

Oh, Merida. We hadn't even seen her movie yet. In fact, we didn't even know how to pronounce her name correctly. BUT we had a chance to be third in line to meet her and by all means, we weren't passing up an opportunity like that. Merida had a bit of an attitude problem. And by a bit, I mean I was THISCLOSE to grabbing Eden and leaving the line. We watched her deal with the two families in front of us and whoa, girl had some issues. However, we stuck out the eye rolls figuring we would just get her to sign her autograph and wish her a better day. Turns out, her attitude changed immediately when Eden ran up and hugged her. Eden has magical powers, seriously. From what we thought was going to be our worst experience, ended up being the best memory. Merida scooped Eden up and hugged her so tight. We kept insisting we should let other people have a turn, but Merida insisted we stay longer. She talked to Eden like she had known her forever and Eden looked mesmerized. They even danced around a bit. So, a lesson was learned from our darling two year old. The girl with the most beautiful green eyes may have had a bad attitude, but shouldn't we love her anyway? Eden didn't care that she had rolled her eyes and stomped her foot at other people, she only saw a person that needed a hug. I need to work on that. Not jumping to conclusions, but loving people no matter what. I am so glad we met "Merida."

Notice the Crain family is so white that we glow. Whooops...didn't compensate for that in the camera settings. Also, aren't Brianne and Marcus the best? Eden was the flower girl in their wedding last summer (which was also the day we found out we were pregnant!) so they have a bit of a special relationship. I just wish they lived a teeny tiny bit closer. 

We watched the Soundsational Parade the first day we were there. I was super excited to see this one. It was fun music, lots of color, and all the greatest characters. Not to mention I captured a couple funny moments. 

Oh hey Aladdina....whatcha doing? Worshiping the sun again? I mean for real. 

Great job on the tower my friends. It was realistic. I liked it. Sadly, it was getting dark thus the photo is especially dark. 

Hey girl, heyyy! Also, Rapunzel, not so much. Eden didn't even know who you were supposed to be and she is a resident 'Punzel expert. 

Dear Belle, you look awesome. Dear Cinderella, you aren't doing it for me. I don't believe you are Cinderella for one moment. Try again. Also, did I mention I was a Disney character critic? Believe me now? 

This girl stole my job. They said a pregnant Tinkerbell was "inappropriate." So what if there is a pregnant fairy riding on top of a float? It's a new day folks and I WANNA BE TINKERBELL! 

I loved this one. "Hackin Hooks" and Peter Pan were fantastically funny and lively. And that boy sure can jump. 

How many photos until Blogger fails and won't let me post? Let's try a few more shall we?

Our girl LOVED the rides. Shall I mention the fact that she rode Pirates of the Caribbean at least five times? Yeah, it was one of her faves. She liked the Haunted Mansion, but getting stuck on it for a looooong period of time was a little lame. Dumbo was awesome. She loooooved the Astro Orbitors at night. It's a Small World is always a win. Like I said, rides were a hit with this one. I'll give some tips on rides in the next post, so for now here are just a few more glimpses into our trip. 

Well, thanks for reading the world's longest blog post. Wow. Took a few tries to put it all together, but I am so glad I finally did it! Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me...