4th of July

Sorry I'm so behind. I realize that we're (I'm) slacking in the world of blogging but this is just going to have to do! :). For July 4th Mike, Isaac, and I spent the evening with a great family we know here, the Buzbee's. We had a blast with dressing up, fireworks, and great company. Here are a few pictures from that night.

Grammer Elmer's visit!

My mother in law came to Nicaragua for 4 days to deliver some important papers/see her new grandson for the second time. We had a lot of fun and took A LOT of pictures of Isaac. Here are a handful. I hope you enjoy! Can you believe he's 7 weeks now?

we love the dalke's!

As you know, it's taken me a while to get the ball rolling here. There is a lot more that goes on here than just our son:). God has really blessed us with some great friendships and it's about time I show you one of our favorite couples here! Nate and Amy Dalke! They work with Young Life here and have been for close to 2 years now. They live in our neighborhood and Amy and I go walking 4-6 days a week together. She has become my closest friend here by far! Nate and Mike play ultimate frizbe on Sundays and we like to get together for dinner parties as well. Here are a few pictures I've neglected to post until now. The most recent one is last Friday when we went out to eat with out Isaac! I was so proud of us:).

six weeks

hi mom!

A lot of women say it takes 6 weeks to feel back to normal again after having a baby. I'd say that's pretty accurate. There is no excuse though why I haven't posted more pictures of my son that I'm falling more in love with every day. Each week I get an email from babycenter.com giving me an update on how my infant is developing. They sent me weekly updates throughout my pregnancy and now they send me one now that's he's actually here! At 6 weeks they say they will start smiling at you. Amazing how God makes us all so different but very similar. Thank you God for the sweet smiles I've been getting lately. They are making all the hard work pay off :) Without further delay, here are a few!

I didn't say he doesn't cry :)
always with his tongue out!
next to mike's shoe to show you his size. ha ha..

D Day!

getting wheeled away!


one last shot

they were for real!


Ok, I said I was going to do it tomorrow but since Isaac is sleeping now I'm going to allow myself the time to post some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Many of you may know this already but I ended up giving birth via c-section due to a few complications. Thankfully it was planned and I had him one day prior to my due date. Honestly, it was such a wonderful experience in so many ways but mostly because I knew God was walking me through the whole thing. I felt Him with me. Mike was an amazing support to me that day and has been since, but especially that day! Mom and Jessica were at the hospital as well but only Mike could be in the surgery room. Enough of the gibber jabber here are some pictures.


Isaac Michael Patterson Elmer
Born: April 22, 2008 at 12:40pm
7 lbs 1 oz and 20 1/2 inches

I love the look on Mike's face here! What a pumped dad :)
How sweet is this? My first good look at him a proud "sweet mama" Aunt Jess
and then they came...

It was a long two days and there are still more pictures to come. I needed to start somewhere and I figured this was a great intro. We seriously had close to 50 people visit us in less than 48 hours. God has blessed us with an AMAZING community here. I'm still in awe of his glory. Thank you Lord for bringing this healthy, beautiful boy into this world!

And life begins...

I'm going to go ahead and admit that most of my readers are going to be disappointed that I don't blog more often. I'm not saying that in a pompous way or anything. I used to be so computer savvy and spend way too much time on the computer but I'm afraid those days are over. What's really crazy is that I have the time. Maybe I just lack the desire. Now that Isaac is here I really am going to try to make more of an effort. How does that sound?

So a lot has happened in a month. The eggs hatched and the baby birds flew away already. Not only that but a new Mama bird came in and built a new next right on top of the old one. She had two eggs as well but only one survived. It made me kind of sad to be honest with you. All that to say is that I'm a super slacker. OK, so it's not just that either. It's been 3 weeks and one day since I gave birth to my beautiful son, Isaac Michael Patterson Elmer (I'll be sending out birth announcements soon enough). I'll have to blog about that whole experience too on another blog. Tonight I'm just posting pictures of the baby birds that I'm hoping are still alive. They flew away while my Mom and sister were here and it was something I'll never forget. What I really want to say is that I've seen God's hand in such a mighty way over the last 3 weeks. Through my incredible husband, my loving mother, sister, and in-laws. God is good! I can't wait for you to meet Isaac some day! I can't even tell you how much I love being a mom. Maybe that will be tomorrows post?

truly blessed,

Mama E.

Nesting Part II

I've been working hard on this so called "nest" for several months now. Mike and I have been blessed above and beyond with friends we call family here that have really helped us out along the way. For instance, our crib and changing table was given to us. Now as a new Mom I wanted the very best for our son and something brand new...but God wanted to give me something better. A family that Mike knows wanted to give us theirs! Now, being in Nicaragua we are somewhat limited to nicer things. There are a few (especially for babies) but it's triple the price as it would be at home. To make a long story short, we got the crib and changing table and some guys at the cabinet shop Mike works with totally refinished it for free ( as their gift to us!) So I can go ahead and say it's safe to say we saved around $500 right there. 

I was blessed with two amazing showers both of which were equally awesome. The stateside one was especially sweet because both of our Mothers were there as well as my sister. I was literally showered with some AMAZING gifts. After a few exchanges and returns I had an ample amount of money to work with which is what went towards bedding and such for the baby. All of which was completely covered and I had a hefty amount left. I was blown away by our friends generosity, as well as our families. Thank you thank you thank you for that! My shower was sweet here as well due to my friends that have become family to us. A lot of brothers and sisters in Christ. More than we could have ever wished for. God is good. Enough said. I guess it's not too late to post pictures of those showers. But for today here are the nursery. Enjoy!