8 Months Old (and a couple side notes)

Crazily enough, our little baby keeps getting older despite us asking him to slow down growing up!  

Another month has passed and Blake is thriving, growing and showing up more and more of his little (often big) personality!

* Nights seems to be pretty much the same.  You are sleeping on average about 12 hours a night and either wake up once around 5 or 6 in the morning or not at all. 

* You are still sleeping downstairs in the office, but we are probably going to move you upstairs to the nursery in the next couple of weeks! 

*  Naps are more consistent as well.  You nap around 10:30ish in the morning and around 2:30ish in the afternoon.  Naps range from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

* Biggest breakthrough this month has been in your eating!  You have finally decided that you love it and you will let me feed you again with a spoon AND you will eat purees again!

*  You will eat a variety of food and still seem to like veggies more than fruit (but you do L.O.V.E bananas)

* You are very good at self feeding yourself.  You like feeding yourself puffs, mum mums, peas and bananas.

*  You still nurse frequently throughout the day.  You get VERY distracted while nursing if there is anyone or anything around!

* You are eating 3 meals a day of solid food

* You still only have 2 bottom teeth, but are starting to drool and gnaw on things a lot so maybe a couple teeth are ready to pop through.

* Your personality is really shining through.  Mostly sweet with a demanding side at times.  If someone takes something away from you that you want you get VERY angry/sad and have had a full on meltdown with heartbreaking tears. You also don't like to be alone and let us know how much you don't like it if we leave the room without you.

* You love to laugh and get very tickled at things your brother does.

* You are also really ticklish and have the cutest giggle.

* You are babbling quite a bit and experimenting with different sounds.  You also get quite fascinated with your tongue and like sticking it in and out.  Recently you have started blowing air out which is super cute!

* You also like to growl like a bear!

* You are definitely not crawling, but can roll and scoot yourself to different places.  You easily roll back to belly and belly to back.  You get yourself stuck in really weird places at times!

* You like to sit up and play with toys.  You can get from sitting to laying, but not vice versa yet.

* You weigh right around 18 lbs.

* You are wearing 6-9 months clothing and size 3 diapers

On another note this toddler is potty training!

For the most part he is doing well but there are still hard days.

This mama can officially say "I REALLY don't like potty training"

Say a prayer for us if you think about it!

Finally, we have had the coldest weather this winter!

I don't think we have been above 20 degrees over the last 2 weeks and it is brutally cold!

Last week though we had a morning of frosty white trees and it was BEAUTIFUL!

I have never seen anything quite like that and was in awe of the beauty the Lord displays in His creation!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

A couple weeks late...but here's my 2012 Christmas post!

We went to Oregon again for Christmas and had a jammed packed week full of fun, laughs, family, games, food and presents.  My brother, wife and nephew joined us all week for the festivities.  There were a total of 9 of us at my parents house.  Jared and I slept in one of the guest rooms, Blake slept in our closet, my nephew slept in the other guest room, my brother and sister-in-law slept in the bonus room and Landon slept in my parents closet! We made it work, but I think all of us were excited to get back to our own beds!

I'm not fully convinced that Landon really knew when Christmas was because we celebrated 4 times with him (my parents at Thanksgiving, just us, Jared's side of the family and in Oregon).  Since we flew, space was limited with what we could take out and bring back, so Landon had a Christmas month not just Christmas day!  I don't think he minded too much!

I did a horrible job of taking pictures of my family while we were there.  I got lots of pictures with the boys and my grandparents, but that's about it :(

Here's a wrap up of our week...photo style!

All the loot waiting to be opened!

My parents bought all the boys stockings this year with their names...I think they turned out so cute!

Multiple attempts at getting these tree to all look at the camera and smile...

overall FAIL!

You would think two would be easier...not so much!

Christmas morning with Nana

Let the unwrapping begin!

These pics are actually from one of the Christmas's we celebrated here

Landon is very good at the cheesy grin these days!

Blake got in on the action too!

In the end, aren't the bows always the best thing anyway!

Loving all the new construction trucks he got!

Landon enjoyed helping everyone else open their presents too!

A couple of year ago, we decided we would all wear matching PJ's as a family!

It has been really fun...unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures with the whole group this year :(

We got to see a lot of my dad's parents while we were there

Unfortunately due to weather, none of my other grandparents could make it up to see the boys...a HUGE bummer

I seemed to do slightly better getting smiles out of the boys when they were with my grandparents!

I'm beyond grateful that the boys have relationships not only with their grandparents but with their great grandparents...what a treasure!

I think these pictures are just priceless and they make my heart soooo happy!

On one of the days we went to a Science/Discovery type place.

Landon really seemed to like it and it was a fun way to spend the morning!

Bubbles are ALWAYS the best!

Giant bubble you can stand in!

Blowing super big bubbles

Daddy and Landon

Funky mirror!

A pulley chair...Landon thought we was super high!

My brother and nephew!

(major Oregon duck fans as you can tell!)

What a fun week we had!  It is always the time of year I know I will be able to see most of my side of the family (including aunts, uncles and cousins) and I absolutely love it, look forward to it and treasure every moment of it!  

Snow Day!

Today we had a great surprise...it snowed ALL DAY long and we got about 2 inches of snow!

It was fun to watch it snow out the window and it seemed to make everything slow down a little.  We played a lot inside, made soup for dinner and then went outside after Landon's afternoon nap.

The only bummer of the day is that Jared stayed home because he is very sick, so unfortunately he didn't get to enjoy the snow with us!

This is probably the most snow that Landon has gone out in.

I realized how nice it will be when the boys are old enough to go out and play in it together...then I don't have to be the one to entertain Landon with fun snow games!

Blake wasn't so sure of all the white stuff...this was pretty much his expression most of the time.

He did go down for a nap about 10 minutes later, so tiredness could account for some of the lack of enthusiasm!

Addie on the other hand LOVES the snow!

She was in heaven!

She chased snowballs, played with her toys, rolled around and sprinted around the yard!

Landon started getting a little more adventurous the longer we were out there!

He sure is cute in his snow gear!!!

We would have had some yummy hot chocolate to warm up, but Landon is a weirdo and refuses to drink the stuff!  So we settled for some orange juice, graham cracker and cuddling while watching an episode of Team Umi Zoomi while the soup cooked!

What a fun (slightly exhausting) day!