Eliea the Magnificant

Eliea is now easily turning over- front to back, back to front! I think it even surprised her as well. She's getting to be a big girl- 5 months on Feb. 18th.

Elie is working on her fourth month now, with strong legs that like to stand. Here she is in a door-frame bouncy chair, which she enjoys.

We'd like to thank deeply our wonderful friends / extended family, Don & Kathy Cobb, who were our very first babysitters! We finally had our first night out (dinner & a show) with Steve & Taylor, while Don & Kathy watched the kids.
Hope they had fun too!

Thank you to my friends who nudge me to post more here. The latest photos & news of Eliea- she is now 3 months old already! Smiling and coo-ing, grabbing things & sleeping through the night once in a while! :) Still no hair yet... working on it!
She enjoyed her first Christmas, here are some photos of that.

Elie is 1 month old!

Ok ok, I didn't want to be the type that plastered their blog with photos of their baby, but come on! Ain't she just the cutest thing?! I know I'm biased. She's now officially one month old, and here she is playing on a fabulous playmat that the Bewyers gifted us at our Colorado baby shower. She loves it, and looks like she isn't camera shy either!
Also, Eric has finished cutting & placing the cool slate tile for the back-splash in our new kitchen, check it out! It's gorgeous & really looks great in the room.

Elie is 1 week old

We celebrated little Elie's one week birthday by playing the Beatles Birthday song & dancing & singing to her, all of which she soundly slept through! We took video of it though, so that we can show it to her on her 18th Birthday.
She pretty much has this "sleeping through the day" down pat, it's the sleeping during the night that she hasn't gotten the hang of yet. Neither has her momma.

It has been an unusually warm, sunny (no snow yet!) September here in the mountains, and we took advantage of it by taking pictures on the deck.

Eric and my folks have been steadily working on finishing the new kitchen in our house. Currently they have been putting together the backsplash. Here is a photo of how they are laying out the slate tile pieces after Eric cuts them.

We are thankful to all for your thoughts, gifts and help throughout this new period of our lives!

Baby Graves is here!!!!

Her water broke at 8am yesterday (9/18), as Laura was rolling over in bed. The contractions started 15 minutes later. By 12 they were only 3-5 minutes apart, and we were getting a little antsy since we live 45 minutes from the hospital, but we still had some guys coming over to correct the new kitchen counters that weren't installed entirely correctly. Laura wouldn't let me cancel them. They showed up, I told them to move quickly and they did. By 2:00 we were on our way to the hospital. At 3:00 the contractions started getting really strong, and four hard and fast drug-free hours later, little Elie arrived. Truly amazing. Laura did great.

Here's all the detailed statistics....

Eliea Kylyn Graves

(Elie for short)

Born 9/18/08 @ 7:18 pm

18.6 inches long

5 lbs 15 ozs

(long and skinny, just like her pa)

blond hair and dark brown eyes
with a birthmark on her head over her left ear (also like her pa who has one over his right ear)

And truly beautiful.

Thanks for all of your prayers and love.

Can't wait to introduce her to you.

E & L & el

House Update

We've been making some head-way in our shared living-room/ kitchen area in our mountain home. We were lucky enough to have Dale visiting again in July to help us put in the kitchen cabinets and the bamboo floors throughout the whole area! Check it out: first ont he right is Dale & Eric with the cabinets installed, and then on the left is a shot of the bamboo flooring next to the edge of the fireplace in the living room.
And as a bonus, here is a beautiful shot of the cool sunset I saw on the way home from work tonight!