Holiday Happenings!

We have had a great holiday season so far and Christmas hasn't even come yet!  We are getting ready to go to Oregon for Christmas and are so excited to spend a week with family!

We have been busy, busy and doing all sorts of fun things:

Blake isn't quite sure what to think of solids yet, but he does like playing and making a mess!

He seems to be a bit picky about eating really pureed foods and food off a spoon...if I mash it and then finger feed him, he gobbles things down much better!

Landon is in love with his older cousin and constantly wants to spend time with her.  He actually had his first sleepover at their house so we could go out for our anniversary...he had a BLAST!  They even slept in a fort (what a fun Aunt and Uncle)!

Kirsten is really good with Landon, she was a sweetheart and helped him decorate his gingerbread man on Thanksgiving

We celebrated 9 years on December 6th!  We are hoping for a tropical island next year when we celebrate the big 10...who knows but we can dream!

I'm as thankful as ever for the man God gave me as a husband.  It was fun to look back and reflect on our life over the last 9 years!

This year we went out to a fabulous dinner at a restaurant we had never been to.  The food was unbelievable and Jared said the soup he had was the BEST he has ever had!

Unfortunately we took no pics until our way out :(

After dinner we went to the mall and picked out clothes for Jared's work Christmas party.  It was so fun to shop just the two of us and something we haven't done in forever.

We also made sugar cookies to deliver to our neighbors...I had never made sugar cookies from scratch. They are A LOT of work!  Holy cow, it took forever, but it was great delivering them as a family and we got to meet some neighbors we hadn't met before!

Landon is always the helper in the kitchen...this time the powdered sugar was his favorite!

Blake continues to grow, change and be as sweet as ever!

We took the boys to look at lights...both loved it!

Although Blake didn't make it all the way home before having a slight meltdown!

We didn't visit Santa at the mall this year, but we did visit him at my work.  

Landon was really excited to see him, but was sooo quiet around him.  

We have also had lots of photo shoots the last couple of weeks.  I am trying to get better at using the nice camera since I am the one home all the time.  

In my opinion Blake is much easier to take pictures of right now

Landon is cute but moves a ton and smiles like a cheeseball about 90% of the time!

Last but not least, Landon had his Christmas program today at school!

He was so cute and did a great job sitting up front with his class like a big boy!

 He got to be a cow and loved his hat so much he didn't want to take it off!

And I FINALLY got a picture of him with his teacher Mrs. McConnell!

The comment I got today is a speech therapist's dream comment!

(Terrific verbal skills :)

We are so thankful for the year we have had and feel more blessed than ever!

I had hoped to send Christmas cards out this year, but that will have to wait until next year :)

We hope that all who read this will have a very blessed Christmas and experience the love and joy of Christ this holiday season!

6 Months Old

Can you believe it?!?!?  My baby boy is already 6 months old, a half a year!  So fun, so crazy, and a teeny bit sad!  It seems like he has changed a ton in the last month.  He's grown a lot, developed a lot and begun to express himself with his own little personality!  Jared just said last night that he feels like Blake has really grown up a lot over the last couple weeks, I totally agree.

Here is what you are up to these days:

* Sleeping is still going good!  

So thankful because your brother decided to become a very poor sleeper around this time.  You are consistently sleeping from about 7:30/8:00 until 5:00-6:00, eat and then go back down for 2-3 hours.  

* Naps vary from 2-3 a day, usually around 10:00 and 1:30/2:00.  If your second nap isn't very long you will want another nap before bedtime.  You nap anywhere from 45 minutes to 2-3 hours (completely variable based on the day).

* You JUST stop being swaddled, as in 2 days ago.  So technically at your official 6 month mark you were still loving the swaddle to sleep :)  You are sleeping well without it and we have transitioned to sleep sacks, since you tend to flail a lot and uncover yourself or get all tangled up in blankets!

* Another huge milestone is being able to find your own pacifier and get it in your mouth!  I throw as many of those suckers in your crib as I can find (usually 4-6) and hope that you will be able to round one up if you need it while sleeping...so far, so good!

*  You are still sleeping on your back primarily but will occasionally roll to your side since you aren't swaddled anymore. 

* No teeth yet, but I am predicting they will come in any day (although, I have thought that since 4 months, so who knows).  You drool a lot, chew on things a lot, bite things a lot (pacifier), have swollen gums, and show all the signs, so we will see!  I kind of like that you still have your gummy smile though!

* You have stretched your eating out to about every 3 hours or so

*  You get solids twice a day...once at lunch and once at dinner.  I think you may be somewhat of a picky eater.  So far you have had rice cereal, apple sauce, pear sauce, banana, pumpkin, various winter squashes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and carrots.  Fruits are a huge dislike right now and actually have made you throw up a couple times (which makes me think your digestive system is a little sensitive still).  You were also not a fan of parsnips, but everything else seems to be a hit.

*  I am making your baby food, which proves that the first baby doesn't always get the most love and attention (Landon didn't get homemade food)!

*  You technically weren't rolling on your 6-month birthday, but you are now! This past Sunday night (11/25), you officially started rolling from back to belly and vice versa!  You are still pretty content with whichever side you are put on.

* You can sit up by yourself if propped and your overall core strength has really gotten a lot better in the last couple of weeks.  You need definite supervision though as you topple over frequently!

* You grab everything, in any direction and immediately shove it in your mouth!  You also get a little angry if someone (meaning your brother) take something that you were playing with.

* You still like to be part of the group and not be left alone.

* You tend to throw you arms back a lot when being held and it makes it look like you are trying to fly!

* You are usually all smiles for anyone that pays attention to you and have the cutest giggles and squeals.

* You have begun to laugh at things (other than people) that tickle you...which usually involves Addie

* Things you LOVE: your mommy (for good reason :), your baths (kicking, splashing, laughing) and when your daddy plays his guitar (you kick so hard...super cute)

* You are still fascinated with your brother, although, the bigger you get the rougher he thinks he can be...but you guys still seem to have a good "relationship"

* You are babbling a variety of vowels, haven't really heard any consonants yet (maybe an occasional /m/)

* You can scream super loud still (both in delight and anger :)

* You do not like to be overly tired or overly hungry and can take awhile to calm down if this happens

* You are in size 3 diapers and 6 month clothes

* At your 6-month appointment you weighed 16lb 5oz (30th percentile), 26 1/4 inches (40th percentile) and head circumference was 44 1/2 cm (70th percentile)

* Eyes are still a hazelish color and hair is still brown

How can you not instantly fall in love with this cutie!?!?

Halloween and Fall Fun

I am sooo far behind in blogging right now :(  I was doing so good for awhile.  

Hopefully, I can get a little caught up with Halloween, fall and Blake's 6 month post today!

 Halloween was fun this year as Landon really got into it and was excited to dress up and get CANDY!

We decided to do an ode to grandpa and have a postman theme!

 I found the cutest postman costume last year online but it was too big for Landon, this year I couldn't resist and Blake was a good sport to dress up for the theme too :)

Landon had a fun Halloween party in his class that day.  I luckily had a hole in my schedule at work and was able to slip away to join in on the fun!

It was very difficult to take a picture of him in class!

He's in a class full of boys!  Of course...seems to be all we are surrounded with!

A couple of moms were very creative with their Halloween snacks!  The green cookie fingers were a big hit!

I tried to get Trey and Landon to pose together...this is the best I could get!

We also went over to some friends house the weekend before Halloween and decorated pumpkins.  We had 3 crazy toddlers running around while daddy's did most of the carving!  We also, had two sweet little babies that joined in the fun (although no pics were taken of Blake and Brooklyn)

These pictures make it look like the little guys really got involved in carving...really their interest lasted about five minutes before they were off playing!

Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the final pumpkins either :(

I will admit that Halloween was a bit stressful and crazy.  Since it was on a Wednesday, I worked and then tried to hurry home to get everyone ready to go trick-or-treating.  We were going over to some friends' house to eat dinner, go trick-or-treating with all of Landon's buddies and then go to our church harvest party.  I got home about 5:00 and found out that both Landon and Blake hadn't taken an afternoon nap :(  We hurried to get everyone ready and out the door, as we were already very late! Both Landon and Blake fell asleep on the way to our friends' house, so we let them take about a 20 minute catnap.  Then it was shove dinner into Landon's mouth while we trick-or-treated!  Crazy night, but lots of fun! Landon was very hesitant to trick-or-treat at first and didn't want to leave our side, but he got more in the spirit of it as the night went on.  He also had a great time at our church harvest party.  He LOVES going to church and it makes us so thankful that he is comfortable there and excited to go!

Somehow, I had a smart moment on Tuesday and decided to dress the boys up and take early Halloween pictures....so thankful I did because I got some really cute one and there's no way we would have gotten cute pics on Halloween with two no-nap, emotional boys!

Ready to ship off to Grandpa and Grandma's house!

Fragile...handle with care!

Ready to deliver the mail

Blake looks like he was miserable in these pics..he really wasn't, I just couldn't get them to smile at the same time!

On the way to church with trick-or-treating loot!

We have had other fall fun too:

Raking leaves!

Lazy mornings playing in pj's

Making cookies

Doing cookie dances!

Decorating gingerbread men

Fingerpainting

Perfecting our bike riding

Landon is a pro on his bike now and can even ride it clear down to the playground!

Unfortunately he says he is "too tired" to ride home, so mom ends up carrying it home most of the time!

Learning how to roll and enjoying tummy time

Bundled up walks to the playground

And lots and lots of playing!

We are very excited for Christmas around here!

Hopefully, I can get a few more posts up before then about Thanksgiving and having a fun and loving 6 month old!