Photo Shoot

I promise a marathon blog post is coming soon...I have been working on them. But here is one I just couldn't hold onto. Last weekend we took the kids on a photo shoot hosted by one of our friends, her wonderful sister is the photographer. Well here is the whole photo shoot. Tatum and Grant are about half way down the scroll bar. Look for Grant as he appears first. He is in a wicker basket with a cute little green hat on followed by Tatum has a pillbox type hat on and another one with a flower in her hair. They are very cute and whimsical pictures that capture our little ones in that perfect little moment in time. Grant is just being himself...a little buddy, and Tatum...well her pictures speak for themselves about her mood...ah a three year old! Enjoy!!! I also want to add that that cute little baby in the pink crocheted hat is our friend Sage. She is one of the Bradley Babies round two!!! So cute in that pink crocheted hat :)

www.movingimagesproductions.com/#/families/

Happy Five Years of Marriage!!

It is hard to believe that Eric and I have been married for five years today. Most couples have memorable days of course, but ours was especially memorable. The day was Saturday June 12, 2004. Upon waking up and looking outside I knew it was going to be a beautiful day in Nebraska City for our wedding. The sun was out, the skies were blue... God gave us a magnificent day.

Around 11:30, the weather started to change. I got the first call from the cake vendor wanting to know if they should still come from Omaha. I said yes wondering why they were calling. I got another call from a girlfriend a bit later saying not to worry about the weather, that Eric and I could take pictures inside Arbor Lodge if needed. I decided to look outside. The weather outside didn't look so great. It was now about 12:45 and our pictures were to be taken at 2:00. The phone rang again...this time it was the chair rental place...wanting to know if they should still come. I was starting to wonder if our wedding was going to have to be indoors.

I decided to go find Eric, he would be able to keep me calm and would know what to do. I found him with the TV tuned into the local weather channel. We looked outside at what later was confirmed as wall clouds, dark, grayish blue, spinning clouds. It looked like night outside. While looking out I stated "We‘re going to get blown away aren't we?" We stopped and prayed and I headed back down to my room. No mater what the weather would hold in store there would be a wedding :)

By 2:30 p.m. it was AWESOME, even beautiful. We took pictures both outside and inside of Arbor Lodge, they turned out gorgeous. By the time the guests started to show up so did a few clouds. With gray skies and soft thunder rumbling in the background, Eric and I were married. By the time we rode the trolley back to the Leid Lodge for the reception, the clouds burst and it rained for hours.

People could not stop talking about God's mighty power that day. I am glad that people could see God and how He is in control of all things. From blue skies to wall clouds, hail and rain. It's like God parted the skies for us...just long enough. Our desire back then is the same today. That our marriage would honor God.

I smile to myself today as the rain comes down on the fifth year of our special day. Looking forward to celebrating tonight with Eric, looking at our album, reading our vows, and recounting the day.

Happy Two Month's Grant!

Well another month has gone by so quick. I don't remember time flying by this quick when Tatum was little. I also feel like Grant is just getting big way too fast...I want him to stay a little baby. I guess that is how it is when you have two little ones. Is it like this for each child you have... that it makes the time go by quicker? Hummm? You mommies out there will have to let me know.

What a great month it has been for us though. Grant is such a joy to be with. He is just so sweet and cuddly. I love holding our little guy. He just takes it all in and looks up at us with the sweetest expressions. We go in his room at night and feel so blessed that God has entrusted him to us. We still do the same with Tatum. I love watching them sleep. Speaking of sleep we are getting some around here finally. Grant is now sleeping through the night with six hour stretches. Yeah Grant!!!

We had Grant dedicated at church on Mother's Day. Pastor Dusty White performed the dedication. We expressed our desire for Grant to grow up to know Christ as his savior, stand firm is his faith, become a man of courage, able to show strength and act out of love. Grant's middle name William means "strong protector" and has been passed down five generations now. Funny side note here...during the dedication Tatum waved to the congregation while up on stage. Of course having her grandparents sitting in the front row might have had something to do with that.



We took Grant in for his 2 month check up today and I am pleased to report that Grant's heart murmur is gone! He did so good while there. He put on his best show cooing and smiling at our Dr. She said that once the murmur is gone it is not likely to come back. Grant also weighed in at a whopping 11lbs 2oz which put him at 37% for weight and he measured 23" which is 54% for height. I knew that he had grown a bit as some of his 0-3 month clothes have been getting shorter looking on him.

Here are some photo's of the past month...enjoy!

Happy One Month Birthday Grant!

It is hard to believe that Grant is one month old already. Time has just flown by for us here in the Krelle household. The past four weeks or so now have been such a joy being with Grant. He is such a good baby. We love holding him and snuggling with him tons. He makes such cute little noises and just curls right up into you. If you give him a minute he will steal your heart for sure.

We have a pretty good schedule going now. It wasn't that way at first though. It took awhile to get into a little rhythm going. Grant nursed about every 2 hours during the first few weeks, but now we are getting 3 hour stretches during the nights, which is nice for me. I am a person who can get by with little sleep, but there is something about being up every two hours or less that left me feeling like a zombie for awhile.

Some of Grants milestones so far are that he gained his birth weight plus 8oz by a ten day check up. He quickly outgrew this little spit up thing that he was doing while in the hospital, and the echocardiogram that he had in the hospital revealed that his heart murmur is something that we will monitor, but he should outgrow it over time.



He loves to look up at us when we are holding him. He tracks object quite well and will move his head from one side to another just to keep his eye on the object. He does not seem to scared when Normandy comes over to give him a lick, which is good because she likes to give kisses. He seems to like bath time and is pretty relaxed when we give him a bath. This is something that Tatum loves to "help" us out with. He also seems to have pretty good neck control as he can hold his head on his own while we hold him for some good little moments. He can also lift his head for awhile during tummy time too. He also bats his arms and if there is a toy that they come in contact with he seems pleased.

We have gone on quite a few outings including: BOINGZ, the zoo, MOPS, movie night with the girls, church and grocery shopping. I have found out that the world doesn't slow down when you have a baby...especially when you have a 2 1/2 year old. So we have just tried to keep up with our schedule and Grant seems to fit in nicely :)



One of my favorite moments with Grant just happened last night. We were all in the bathroom singing while giving Tatum a bath. Grant was laying on the rug and I was clapping his hands together and singing. Grant got out a few noises as well. It seemed like he was trying to sing with us all and it was quite cute.

One final thought. I can say that the saying "they grow so fast" is true. I just can't believe how quickly Grant has grown. He is getting to big for his newborn clothes and it almost looks like lengthwise he will be out of the 0-3 months well before he hits three months. The other night I went into the bedroom with small tears in my eyes and Eric asked what was wrong. My reply was that Grant is just growing way to fast. I just want to cherish each moment we have.

Here are some photos of the past month for you to enjoy!

Introducing Grant William Krelle!!!

We couldn't be more excited to share with you all that on Sunday March 15, 2009 God blessed us with the arrival of Grant William Krelle. Grant was born at 4:38 p.m. He weighed in at 6lb 14oz and 18 1/4" long. He couldn't be more beautiful and we couldn't be happier. God is good.

Labor treated me well. I was able to do natural child birth as I did with Tatum. This time labor started at 4:15 a.m. and lasted a little over 12 hours. Compared to Tatum's 20 hour labor, this was a walk in the park. I will say that active labor only lasted for 6 hours this time. My admit time to the hospital was 1:50 p.m. and Grant was born about 2 1/2 hours later.

Eric was a great coach. He stayed by my side and kept me calm. There is no way that I could have done it with out him. One of the things I love about childbirth is how well we work together as a team. Our midwife, Lydia, was also great. Man she just knew exactly where I was at in labor and was able to be a great support for both Eric and I.

We are all doing well. Eric, Tatum, Grant and myself. The past three weeks have been great just getting to know Grant and bond as a family. Eric was able to take off two weeks which was wonderful for us all. Tatum especially liked having Daddy home to play with her.

I love having this little boy here to hold finally. There is just nothing like it. He is so sweet, the little noised he makes, and the way he just stares up at us it is just amazing. We feel so blessed to have two beautiful children to love on.

Here are some pictures of the first few days of Grants life.

5-5-5

Thanks Victoria for tagging me in the photo trip down memory lane :) This is a picture that I love of Tatum on our first trip to Neb City with her. Eric is holding her and she is holding onto Eric's Mom's hands and looking at her. The inscription on the whispering bench in the background sums it all up I think. LOVE

So here goes: Post the fifth picture in your fifth folder and tag five people.

1. Amy Bruce
2. Bruce
3. Elizabeth Lewis
4. Eric...using army photo's for any of his blogs :)
5. Anyone who reads this could also post on Facebook :)

I couldn't love this day More!

Man what a great day it has been today. Today I decided to have a day here around the house and to focus on Tatum. We had a great morning together playing and cleaning. Our friend Natalie came over for a quick visit and those girls were angles. They shared toys and would ask each other to see a toy if the other one had a toy they wanted. I fed them some lunch and they ate about every bite. And to top it all off the weather was just great outside. My neighbor Kathy and her son Christian came over in the back yard to play with the girls, which was so nice.

I just didn't know if it could get much better until we decided to run a quick errand to Target. I rolled the windows down on the way home and Tatum was laughing with pure delight. "Oh Mommy goodness the wind is all in my hair!" We drove around and turned up the music in the car...Matthew West's song More was on the radio. I can remember days like this in High School that I would just drive around with the windows down and the music up. It was great.

We came home and Tatum is now napping...first time in weeks she has napped for ME. I am now going to go take a bath...all by myself :)