Eli Nicholas

Eli Nicholas Ricci
Tuesday
October 20, 2009
6:50 pm
10 lbs, 2 oz
21 1/2 inches

Right after the birth.

All cleaned up and with Daddy. I have this picture from Sam and JT too. :)

Hangin out with Mom and Dad.
Eli has really been great. He is really calm and just sleeps and eats so far. He has even taken a liking to the binky!


Getting dressed to go home.




HOME!

This picture is when the boys realized we were home and Sam went running to the couch so he could hold his new baby brother. :)

The baby... JT.

brothers.

Ya-Ya and the boys.

JT singing to Eli

kisses.

Sammy and Eli

kisses.

JT taking pictures of Eli with Sam and Dad

Sleepy baby.

JT and Eli

The great debate... So, who does Eli look like?? You decide...

Samuel Matthew

John Thomas

Eli Nicholas

All the pictures we have taken so far...
Eli Nicholas

Passing the time until our Baby Brother gets here.

We are waiting and waiting for our new little guy to join the family (5 more days!) ... Here is what we have been doing in the meantime:

Gotta love Phoenix in October! The boys (and I) have been enjoying the cooler temps. Now when I say cooler, I mean in the 80's which I know is ridiculous to everyone back home, but when you are comparing it to 115 - it is cooler! And the nights have been getting into the 60's! So we decided to eat outside the other night. The kids LOVED it and want to do it every night now!

Monday night football... Football has been a little crazy this year at our house (Thank you Buffalo Bills!) notice it is on in the background.
Daddy - only happy because it is NOT the Bills he is watching!!
Sammy hangin out with Otis. This is how Sammy spends all his time at home - with that dog! Notice, it is cool enough to cover up with a blanket! Of course that is because I won't shut the screen door at night when it gets cooler and I keep the fan on. Hey, I am 9 months pregnant!!

Flu Shot:
On Tuesday, we went to get our Flu shots. My doctor had said it would be best for everyone in the house got one since the baby can't and the boys and I always get one every year. So, we went to the clinic to get one Tuesday night as a family. After I got them in the car, I told them where we were going. Sam was a little apprehensive about it because he remembers what it is all about. JT said, "Do I get to get a flu shot?" (The poor kid is just dying to be big like his brother Sam) I told him that he would get one too and he replied, "yes!" Then we met Dad there after work. There were a lot of people there so we had to wait for our turn. Finally we went into the room together and the nurse asked, who wants to go first? JT quickly raised his hand and said, "ME!" Matt and I looked at eachother and said, what the heck? Clearly he didn't know what he was in for, but he went first. He didn't even cry! He did look at us like, "hey, that hurts a little." but he was very brave. Next up was Sammy. He was brave (of course he had to be because his little brother didn't even flinch!) He took the shot well too, without crying and that is good for him because last year... well, lets just say it wasn't so easy! Finally it was Daddy's turn. Matt has NEVER gotten a flu shot. He had a million questions for the nurse and was definitely freaked out by even being there! He didn't cry either, but he did have both boys so concerned about him that they both were holding his hand through the 4 second process! I WISH I had brought the camera to blog the pictures, but I didn't think I would want to blog about a flu shot! Next time I will know better! I am sure I will get a lot of weird looks from the nurses though!


Today.
The boys got a surprise package in the mail from Aunt Trixie today. It had 2 birdhouses that they could paint, a grow your own pumpkin kit and halloween flashlights. The boys could not wait to get into it. We painted the birdhouses and planted the pumpkin seeds already!

Here they are hard at work on their birdhouses.


The little thief, Otis, stealing a toy to chew while we were busy.
Sam's finished birdhouse.
JT's finished birdhouse
Here are the pumpkin seed kit. It was pretty cool because you got to plant them right in the bag they came in. Cross your fingers and wish us luck that they actually grow and don't die! My thumb is FAR from green!!

This weekend in sports

Seems like all I have to blog about these days are sports with the boys...

Wrestling, Soccer and Football...

This is Sam's wrestling match day. He had a "round-robin" with the kids who were in the league. Here is JT getting ready to video tape. :)

Close up of Sam in the group shot.

Group Shot

The following pictures are not great... sorry. I was literally video taping and trying to take pictures with my other hand (Matt said he just could not focus enough to take on one or the other!)

Here are the ribbons and the group of boys that were in his group. He was the youngest by far. He weighed in at 49 lbs which is actually quite big for his age, so he wrestled two 7 year olds and a 6 year old at the same weight. At first I was a little concerned, but he really held his own. I was so proud of him. He won the first one against the 7 year old, lost by 1 point to the 6 year old, and pinned the last guy (the other 7 year old). It was very cute watching him wrestling and Matt on the side coaching him. I got a little emotional about the whole thing. I was so proud of him. I can not believe this is starting already!

Here is the video of the pin. I have the rest of the matches on our video camera but they are too big to post. SO, this is a little snip of him. :)

Matt and Otis in Matt's snuggie.
Yes, you read that right... Matt got "free money" in the mail to Kohl's and he insisted that he use it because it was "free money." I insisted that he would spend more than the $10 they sent out in the mail, but he went in determined to get his free gift. He came out with this. They had team snuggies and Sam had been wanting a snuggie because he is an info-mercial freak. They didn't have Bills or Steelers. Of course, I was right... he had to add 10 dollars to his free money, which really is the whole reason Kohl's sent out the "gift" to begin with, right?!

JT's soccer. Finally. He actually participated in this week's soccer practice. (With a little pushing and threatening to leave if he didnt go out there!) But once he got out there, he really enjoyed himself. He wanted me by him the entire time, and the parents were convinced I was going to send myself into labor, but I didn't and he enjoyed it, so that is all that matters!

Goal!

When he moves, he really is a power-house! :)

After practice the boys wanted to get some pizza and go to the halloween store. JT is still undecided on his costume. It keeps changing, but we think Sam has settled on Rocky. We had the camera from practice, so the boys had to use it. Here is pizza at NYPD.

Saturday. I was having a lazy day... I have been a little tired. (I wonder why?) and I took a nap. Here are some snap shots of the boys while I was sleeping. I am pretty sure they took some of these themselves.

Football Night Game. Well, It started at 5 pm so technically it was a night game and by the time we left the lights were coming on, but it wasn't really dark. But it was cooler! JT with his snacks and his chair.

Sammy getting a flag.

Sam was center in this play.

The football league that we have has photographers come to take pictures of some of the games. Here is the last one (not the one I just blogged, but the one vs. the Saints from last week) There are a bunch of pictures of Sam.

http://www.snapguys.com/Coast-to-Coast-Football-Fall/5-6-Saints-vs-Colts-100309/9886355_kpUMh#673421697_XKfCF


And that is it for now. The boys are on October break this week so no school which will cut down on the running around. Ya-Ya comes on Saturday and the boys are super-excited about that. I go to the Dr. on Tuesday, so I will let you know what the progress is on the baby front (or the lack thereof). :)