A New Baby In a New Home

Sarah thought it would be so great to have the baby right after they moved into their new apartment so she could sit on the couch, holding the baby and resting, while she told me where to put everything and I could do all the work. That was funny stuff!


Well--it happened almost just like that when Sarah delivered Eli the day after they moved. I definitely did my share of cooking and cleaning to help out the recovering new mother.



Sarah got a little more involved in the setting up of the house than just sitting around all day long.


And we always had a project (or two or three or more) for Jeff each day when he returned home from school. Aside from putting lots of stuff away, fixing the vacuum, hanging pictures, putting up curtains, etc., I think my favorite thing that he did was recruit his brother to help him get their new washer and dryer installed and ready for use.


I wish I had taken pictures of the place when we first arrived, to have the before and then after photos, but I didn't. So, what we have now is the finished product of all our hard work of getting Jeff and Sarah's new apartment turned into a beautiful home for their family to enjoy.










The Excell home is now in order.



And it is definitely more complete with the addition of baby Eli.

The Universal Question Asked of All New Parents

Baby Eli Excell Born

Sarah had her baby. I needed to be taken down to Cedar City to get dropped off for the week. Rebecca and her cute traveling companion decided to go along for the ride.



Here's my cute traveling companion... Yes, he's back to wearing the reflective bug-eye shades because he broke his newer, more stylish sunglasses.


As we were driving, I kept watching the temperature go up and up and up. It was very hot when we arrived at our destination. But, by the end of the week, the temperature made a turn-around and on the day I left, it was very cool. Glen had played in a work golf tournament in Payson before coming back at the end of the week to pick me up and he wished he hadn't worn shorts because it was so chilly that day.


We planned to arrive at Jeff and Sarah's when they were coming home from the hospital. Eli was born 6 days early on June 4th and weighed 7 lbs. 14 ozs. He was on oxygen for a while in the hospital and had an I.V. and then needed to be put under lights for jaundice. When he was released from the hospital, he still needed light treatment, so he slept on a bilibed for a few days at home.



Despite the instructions to keep him on the light bed as much as possible, this new grandma was happy to get to hold him for a few minutes after a feeding so we could do some bonding.


Eli Excell, 3-days-old, at the doctor's office checking his bilirubin count. Not in the right range. Back on the bilibed for another couple of days.



Eli Excell, 5-days-old, back at the doctor's office to check his height, weight, head size and blood count. Good news this time. No more bilibed! That meant he could wear cute clothes instead of just a diaper and we could hold him as much as we wanted.









I think I enjoyed watching Eli have a bath more than Eli enjoyed having his bath.




There probably are no happier people on earth than Eli's proud papa (who said he's going to have to learn to do everything one-handed now that he's a father)... and Eli's adoring mother.



What a lucky baby to be born to such loving parents.

Poop On the Stoop

It was so frustrating when we got home from our trip to Omaha to find that the newly-washed window above our front door had bird poop dripping down it. Upon closer inspection, we saw that some birds were starting to make a mud nest up high in the corner of our porch. We weren't happy. Last year some birds were trying to make a nest on the decorative molding above our front door and that about drove us crazy. This year it's different birds making a different kind of nest right onto the wall of the stucco. And both sets of them leave lots of bird droppings.


Who really likes to open up their front door and see poop on the stoop?


Glen was not happy and was just sure he could knock some sense into those birds with a tennis racquet. All you animal--or should we say fowl--lovers out there will be happy to know that no living thing was harmed during the making of this blog.


Instead, Glen got out the hose and long brush attachment and went to work trying to get all that nest stuff and poop mess cleaned off the wall and the stoop.


And then he rigged up his make-shift scarecrow that deterred the birds from perching above the porch last year and so far has worked keeping the smaller birds from building their nest on the wall this year.


I keep wondering what all the people driving or walking past our house think when they see a yellow extension light bulb replacer with rags tied to the top hanging from the would-be bird perch.