Father’s Day 2013….Part 2.

I decided to create a separate post for this. All about Logan. Or maybe a better way to describe it is my thoughts on Logan.

There are no words to describe how thankful I am. I definitely believe I got the better end of the deal.

My husband is the most caring person I have ever known. He is always going out of his way to help out others, no questions asked.

He is that person who will always stop his car or turn it around to ask someone if they need help, or pick up a lost dog and find it’s owner.

He never meets a stranger and can strike up a conversation with anyone. Seriously, anyone!

We run into someone he knows everywhere we go and he always stops to say hello.

He is a very hard worker and always does his best to provide for his family. Whether it is at his job or around the house.

He is even helping me around the house, doing projects, and finishing MY projects.

I rarely see him get upset or angry and he is always trying to make my life easier.

Sometimes I get upset about these things. Staying so busy, doing so much for others, or taking 20 minutes to long at the store because he ran into someone and was talking. At times I just want him to stay home and just relax, but when it is all said and done I respect him for it. This is who he is and if there were more people like him… the world would be a better place.

Like I said…I can’t even describe how thankful I am. He makes me want to be a better person, and I am so lucky to call him my husband.

and as a DAD…..

He blows me away. Always telling ME what a great mom I AM??

HE is the most INCREDIBLE dad. It has been so fun to watch him and Noah together.

From newborn snuggles and those first poopy diapers….

to bedtime stories

to getting those first giggles

to many dinner times and bath times

and lots of fun times

Noah and I are both so lucky to have such an amazing role model in our lives. We would be lost without him!

We love you through and through.

Father’s Day 2013…Part 1.

Here’s to another “first” for this year of first-time parents. Father’s Day! We had Noah’s first year pictures taken last night and we were all up late, so thankfully we all slept in till’ 8! That may be a record for our little guy! WAHOO!

Since we woke up late there was no time for a fancy breakfast, since we had to rush to get to the early church service, so we all settled for cereal. You can’t go wrong with cereal though, right?! We also went ahead and gave Logan his first Father’s Day gifts.

I found these letters at hobby lobby and just spray painted them white. I took these pics a couple weeks ago so that I had time to order them. Even though he didn’t smile for me, I love the way they turned out. The “A” is my favorite. HAHA!

I found 3 seperate frames since I couldn’t find another one that I liked. We also gave him a “get out of the house free coupon” to go golfing. He is always so busy, I know golfing more is one thing he wishes he could do more. He also got a new bottle of cologne.

After breakfast and gifts we headed off to church! Then we came home for lunch and to put Noah down for a nap. We got to relax for a bit, then when Noah woke up we went out to my parent’s house to swim have dinner and hang out.

Look who is getting some curls in his hair!

It was a great relaxing day and I think Logan enjoyed it.

Father’s Day part 2 next….All about Logan!

Memorial Weekend and a BBQ.

Let’s start with the BBQ first since it was actually a few weekends ago!! We had a kickoff to the summer with a few of our neighbors. It is so awesome to have such wonderful people live so close to you, that you enjoy spending time with! We are blessed with a really great neighborhood.

I look forward to many more summer BBQ’s and hanging out with friends!

Noah is lucky to have a lot of little friends to terrorize roam the neighborhood with. Mr. Garrett and little Miss Fiona are just 2 of them!

They are just too cute!

I can hardly handle all of this daddy and son cuteness here.

I know these 2 twinkies are going to have so much fun together.

We were having so much fun Mr. Noah just couldn’t hang. He took a nice lil’ snoozer on Anitra. I think she loved it.

Onto our Memorial Weekend….

Overall it was a pretty laid back weekend at home. We did some cleaning/organizing in our house and worked a lot in the yard. We did make a quick trip out to Logan’s parents to hang out on Sunday.

Ella and Noah having a ball on the kitchen floor. No need for toys when you have kitchen tools!

Our landscaping has been a very sad neglected area of our home for a couple years now. So we have been trying to spruce it up a bit! We (Yes, Logan did most of it but I did help!) did a lot of work this weekend but still have quite a bit more we are planning on doing over the next few weeks.

Our first project was to replace the bricks we had laid down a couple years ago with new ones and level it out.

My hubby hard at work!

We headed off to Lowe’s to pick up some new plants/flowers.

Here’s the finished product of the new leveled bricks and Logan starting to plant the shrubs.

We ended up transplanting one of the boxwoods over about a foot and need to get a couple more for the other side. I also want to trim them up to more of a ball shape. I wanted to do it last weekend but my husband didn’t trust my trimming skills. What’s new.

Our crepe mertles are pretty green right now and I can’t wait to see them bloom! They have pretty purple flowers. We are still planning on adding some more things to our flower bed but just doing a little at a time.

We added some wispy grasses along the side of our house. They look so small right now but will eventually cover the space well.

We also are extending our flower bed to wrap around our house. This is still a work in progress but we want to fill it in to help cover all the piping “stuff”.

I love having fun bright flowers in our pots. I am making a commitment this year to water it. I never have in the past and of course everything has always died. Flowers/landscaping has just never been my thing, but I have enjoyed working on it this past weekend. It really gives you such pride in your home!

And of course we couldn’t have done it without this little stinkers help. HAHA. He actually was really great, he loves being outdoors.

“O, what is that mom? You don’t want me to eat the mulch?”

“Ha Ha, Ya you know I’m going to anyways.”

A Day in the Life of a 9 Month Old.

Our little 9 month old.

It is almost impossible for me to get any pictures anymore of him sitting still.

I break a sweat trying to get these pictures every month. wears. me. out.

It’s funny his hair looks red in these pictures (I think because I had to use my flash?) but it is actually a white blonde!

I have said it so many times this month…but I really am loving this age! He is so much fun right now.

I am no longer lugging his car seat around. He gets to ride in the cart like a big boy! He loves it! He is such a wiggle worm though he has tried to lean over the seat and crawl into the back. I felt like a total mom failure when I noticed a lady walk by and stop and look back at my cart ( I was getting something off of a shelf), I turn around and there he is hanging over the seat about to flip into the back. ugh.

He seems like a little person this month. I know he can’t have conversations with me, but I feel like I can communicate with him more.

Most of his talk is all jibber jabber but we do feel like he has been repeating words to us this month. We believe the new words he has repeated this month are: dog, ball, Ella, hey, hi and I love you. I know that may sound a little crazy and seem like we are just biased parents thinking our child is a genius…but seriously. We heard it! He doesn’t repeat these every time but it’s happened several times.

He also has gotten very good at waving “buh bye” this month. It’s pretty stinkin’ cute.

He has become quite the little speed crawler, pulls up on everything and walks around things while holding on. He has let go and stood by himself a handful of times (only for about 3 seconds or so).

With increased mobility and pulling up on everything comes a lot of bonks on the old noggin’. He’s had a few doozies that turned into goose eggs and bruises. Which is no fun for mom and dad. I am surprised though because he usually takes his falls like a champ. He’s much more durable than I had given him credit for!

He is into anything and everything.

We just follow each other around all day making and cleaning up messes. I bet you can guess which one of us does the cleaning.

He has also starting getting himself into situations that he can’t figure out the way out of.

Like climbing into the hamper then throwing a fit when he can’t get out. This boy has a temper!

Getting stuck under the ottoman. It’s all fun and games until he can’t get out!

Sleeping this month:

Since the time change he has been going to bed at 7:30 or sometimes 8:00 and wakes up around 6:00. He will sleep through the night maybe 2-3 times a week. The other nights he’ll wake up once. However with teething this month we have had some rough nights, he even ended up sleeping in our bed one night. Poor guy did not feel good!

Of course we had a few naps together again this month. I love them and hope he will always nap and snuggle with me.

Eating:

Most of his diet is still purees. He is eating usually 5 ounces at a time but occasionally it is less or more.  I have been trying to introduce him to a lot more finger foods. He does really well with his pincher grasp and I have noticed just in the last week or so he’s really got it down.  We have tried finger foods such as: strawberries, sweet potatoes, banana(with peel cut back), blueberries, quinoa and avocado and of course his beloved puffs. I am not moving away completely from purees yet. They are just so easy, but I am giving him a lot more finger foods to try. It is a lot of fun to explore new foods with him! He has also really caught onto the sippy cup this month too. It’s cute to see him use it like a big boy!

He is still nursing every 3-4 hours. He will nurse when we get up at 6 then 10, 2, and 6. Then he will eat dinner, have a bath, read books ( little play time), and bed time. Then I do still nurse during the night if he wakes up. This month I feel like my milk supply has dropped more than I have ever noticed before. He always seems fine after he nurses, so I am just hoping to be able to make it a couple more months! He has been taking his bottles better this month too.

One of the biggest things to happen this month….

Dun Dun Dun…

We FINALLY have a tooth popping through! It’s pretty exciting since he has been working so hard to get it through. It has caused us all some pretty rough days/nights. He got the runny nose with it and all. We were calling him a snail all day because he left a trail of snot and drool everywhere he went. On our roughest day (he looked miserable) I decided to try anything to help him. I went and bought him an amber teething necklace. After having it on him I think it is kind of cute, even though he is a boy. We double it up and put it on his ankle at night. I am not going to say it has worked miracles or anything (yet) but his drooling has improved! We have decided to keep using it for now.

Stats:

Weight: 15 lbs 9 ounces ( 3%)

Length: 28.3 inches (70%)

Head circumference: 42 cm (5%)

Teeth: one! Just the tip is showing through

Diapers: size 2 disposables and cloth part-time

My first Mother’s Day….as a Mom.

I couldn’t have asked for a better day. Logan always goes above and beyond to make these kinds of days special.

It started with breakfast in bed from my boys.

scrambled eggs, cinnabon cinnamon roll (with extra icing), watermelon, an orange and orange juice. He overdid it for sure, but I’m glad he did.

This cinnamon roll was amazing and I took my time eating it. I didn’t want it to end!

He also gave me a certificate for not one but THREE massages. I am looking forward to using them!

My breakfast was also delivered with fresh flowers. I never buy fresh flowers, but I really like having them on my kitchen island. They just make me smile and I think I will buy them more often!

Logan took care of Noah so that I could sleep in a little longer. It felt great to stay in bed and be lazy! Once I decided I needed to get out of bed we all got ready and headed out to church.

This is motherhood right here. Having a baby hanging onto your leg while trying to get ready!

We both decided to leave Noah in the nursery for the first time. I know I know it was probably a little overkill to wait so long but until recently we just weren’t ready. Today we just felt like it was time and really had no problem with it. It was so nice to sit in the auditorium again and be able to actually give our full attentions. The volunteer in the nursery said Noah did great! She said he started playing and crawling around right away.

After church it just worked out for us to meet up with Logan’s parents to visit his grandma who is in an assisted living center. She hasn’t been around Noah much, so it was fun to take him there.

Then we headed out to lunch together and walked around to a couple stores. We scored on a big sale at gymboree (I rarely shop here) and found Noah a couple random things.

It was a beautiful day outside, so when we got home we went out for a nice long walk.

We kept our eyes open for good landscaping ideas. There is ALOT of work to be done on ours.

Such a great day! Logan made all my food, didn’t let me do any laundry and did the dishes. A girl could get use to that!

My sweet little baby and I.

I am so incredibly thankful to have this little blessing call me mom, and I thank God everyday for him.

Today I squeezed him a little tighter and stared at him a little longer.

I am so grateful to be his mom, and even more grateful to have a husband who appreciates me and loves us both unconditionally.

I hope all the other mommas out there had a wonderful day as well!

Happy Mother’s Day!

A Weekday.

Now that the weather is warming up (a little) Noah and I have been staying pretty busy! Today we met up with a new friend at the zoo!

This was Noah’s first zoo trip!

He loved it! I don’t think he was too interested in looking at all the animals, but he enjoyed watching all the other kids that were running around. I was surprised he stayed awake the whole time! It was fun to get out and walk around the zoo, a great way to enjoy the beautiful morning!

“I give this place a thumbs up, mom”!….Glad to have his approval.

We came home and ate lunch and ATTEMPTED a nap. You’d think he’d be worn out. He’s like the stinkin’ energizer bunny, he just keeps going and going.

After a couple failed attempts I nursed him and he fell asleep. He only slept for about 30/45 minutes though. It’s amazing the things a mom can accomplish during a short amount of time. I finished steaming/pureeing/freezing apples, cleaned the bathroom, did laundry and ate lunch myself.  Then he was up and ready to go again! That boy….

After we got bored with being inside we headed outside to soak up a little vitamin D! I painted my toes and Noah watched.

Trying to eat the polish is WAY more fun, right?!

We love our time outside in the sun! I think it brightens both of our days.

Mommy and baby feet. Love him.

Of course our little tater tot was outside enjoying some sun too!

That night we had our friends over for pizza and to hang out. They brought their little girl over who is 3 months older than Noah. They seemed to have a lot of fun together! Noah is a pretty social baby (for now) and loves to be around/watch other kids.

We ended up sticking them both in a bath together after dinner. It was hilarious!!! They would both splash and then just giggle like crazy. They had a blast…and so did we watching them!

Noah’s Baby Dedication.

On Sunday we had Noah’s baby dedication! Most (not all) of our close family were able to come and that meant so much to us! It is so important to us to bring Noah up in a Christian home. We think that it is the most important thing that we can do for him. It is a lot of responsibility but I feel that it will push Logan and I to be stronger more faithful Christians ourselves.

We got a few quick pictures before the dedication started but not too many.  It started to get really busy and EVERYONE wanted pictures, so I just kind of gave up. Looking back I wish I would have taken the time to get more of us and our families. I always do that.

Here are a few we did take

Noah with his great grandma

Noah’s pawpaw

Noah with my parent’s, nana and pawpaw. He is obsessed with necklaces and wouldn’t stop reaching for hers!

The room was full of baby noises, but I am afraid to say ours was the loudest. He was VERY happy and excited! He was squealing and babbling like crazy. And LOUD! He is always like that in church. Maybe he just is excited to be there

Our picture taken by the church.

I envisioned a really cute picture of Noah outside the church in his little outfit, but this was the best I ended up getting. He looks like a hot mess! Oh Well.

What the dedication means to us:

It is a declaration that we are choosing to raise our child with the influence of the Lord.

We are going to pray that Noah will choose to accept Christ on his own someday.

We also wrote a letter to Noah of who we hope he will become by time he is 18. We hope we can be positive role models and give him all the tools he will need to make good decisions.

We also just plan to love him unconditionally.

Foodie Baby: 9 Months.

Our little foodie baby has an opinion this month. He doesn’t seem to love everything anymore (darnit!). He has become a bit more finicky on what he is eating, still a good eater though. He may gobble something up one week then look at me like a crazy person for trying to feed it to him the next week then eat it again a few days later. He seems to have a few staples that he always likes but his dislikes are in a rotation it seems.

I still use the same basic method for making his food that I wrote about here. He is still eating mostly all purees. I have been trying a few finger foods here and there with just whatever we have available around the house. The purees are easiest for us right now because I can make sure he is getting as many calories as he will take. He is a small % for weight and the doc always mentions he needs more calories (AHHH stresses me out!). I honestly feel like he is just where he needs to be, just will never be a chunky baby. Sorry for the tangent!

I have started giving him puffs this month. I really like the organic plum brand. We have the “greens” one right now but plan to try the other flavors too.

Noah LOVES them! After about a week of giving them to him, he has gotten really good at picking them up and putting them in his mouth. I have also tried giving him chunks of avocado, pears and banana. He struggles with picking them up because they are so slippery but if I put them in his mouth he eats them just fine.

I am a vegetarian who borderlines vegan with a lot of our cooking at home. I don’t plan on giving Noah any meat or dairy for the time being. I’ll try to write a separate post on this soon. So I’ve been researching and trying new foods!  I have also starting mixing foods together more.

Breakfast:

Oatmeal with breast milk. If he is having problems with pooping ( did I really just type out pooping?) I add in an ounce of organic prune juice, it always helps him. I’ve also started giving him organic plain coconut milk yogurt mixed with pureed blueberries.

We just tried this recently and we Noah Loves it. Logan and I decided Coconut milk yogurt taste like a pina colada! Yumm!

Lunch:

He will usually eat a mixture of fruit for lunch. He likes apples (with or without cinnamon), mangos, pears, peaches ( he is off and on with these), bananas and avocado. Today it is carrots and apples!

Dinner:

I have been trying to mix more foods together. One of our usuals lately is a cube of peas, black beans, and a few cubes of sweet potatoes or butternut squash. He always loves sweet potatoes with cinnamon mixed in.

“This better not be plain peas, mom!”

I’m not sure when I will stop giving him purees. I’m not in a huge hurry to be done with them completely, but I am going to try to give him more finger foods or little bits of what we are eating. I’m sure it will get messy interesting real fun!

Thank you to http://www.ahealthysliceoflife.com/ for munchkin meals. This is my first time linking up!

A Day in the Life of an 8 Month Old.

Guess who’s 8 months old!?! This little stinker!

Not sure where his smile went on this one…he sure does love those little plastic Easter eggs though!

Phewww I can’t believe another month has past. It really seems like a blur. I hate that, but I guess I can’t remember every single minute of every month. I sure try though.

Noah is ALL over the place! He is crawling and pulling up on things. It is weird to see him getting around so quick! I feel like I am constantly just chasing after him. It can be exhausting, but I love it! Just within the last few days he has started taking a few steps while holding onto furniture, I’m not ready for that.

This is the difference a couple weeks can make. Just starting to pull up (above picture) to climbing on his toys and standing on them (below picture). I think I may have a little monkey on my hands. So far he has NO fear!

Since he thinks he is such a big boy, he decided to start pulling up in his crib too.

We have lowered his crib twice just this month. Logan lowered it two notches the first time, but I couldn’t handle it. It was just too much too soon. So for my own selfish reasons I had him move it back up one (yes, he thought I was crazy). Which is why the next week…we had to lower it again…and yes, I heard “I told ya so”.

Meet Elliott.

Our new humidifier. I could have bought any humidifier but the cute baby stuff always wins me over. Isn’t he adorable though?!? Unfortunatley we had to get one because Noah had croup this month. It started with a runny nose and turned into a cough from there. It’s not fun having a sick baby, but he really was a trooper. With the exception of letting us use his nose sucker. He still hates that.

Since using the humidifier though it has helped with some dry skin issues we were having with Noah. I had tried several different lotions and creams and nothing helped. It is SOOOO much better since we’ve had Elliott.

It’s been really cute this month watching Noah interact with Sadie. Sadie will sneak in a quick lick of his nose and Noah thinks it is just hilarious. He has started picking up Sadie’s “monk monk” and trying to play with her.

Quite the personality this little boy has. He’s a happy boy, but knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to let us know too.

We have also caught him laughing at himself a couple of times, then he looks at us like “you think I’m funny too, right?”

Somebody was trying to take a bite out of the ottoman. Teething stinks. He has been working really hard on getting his lower 2 teeth and still has nothing to show for it.

I did get in a few naps with him though. I do love the extra snuggles

8 Month Stats: He weighed 14 lbs 10 ounces when we took him to the doctor for his cough. No other stats this month

His favorite things: His blue toy box that is in our living room. He loves to pull his toys out of it and then try to climb in. He also loves to pull cabinets open and destroy whatever he can get out of them.

Diapers: part-time cloth, size 2 disposables

Teeth: Zero.

Food: He is a pretty good eater most the time. He has become a little bit pickier though. He had puffs for the first time and he loves them! He is getting really good at picking them up and putting them in his mouth. He eats 3 meals a day and is nursing every 3-4 hours. He refuses to take a bottle 99% of the time.

Sleeping: It’s been a rough month. Between teething and him being sick for a week we haven’t been getting a lot of consistent sleep. It seems to be improving though, so we’re hoping it stays that way. Naps have been real hit or miss lately too. I’m hoping this is a temporary thing!

Words: We think that he says “Hi”, and he has been working on “buh bye” and waving. He will wave and say “buh”  but not always on command. It’s pretty cute though.

It is such an amazing feeling to watch your child learn. When you have been working with them on something and then you see them try to do it, it’s awesome. I didn’t know I could be so proud of someone just for clapping their hands or trying to wave. Children definitely make you appreciate the little things.

Random Photo stragglers

He has become very interested in his books. He loves opening and closing them and chewing on them. We read to him every night before bed and he likes to turn the pages…usually the same page over and over again. It’s a good thing by now we know all his books by heart and could recite them in our sleep if we needed to.

Too bad he doesn’t do the laundry.

“Let me out!”

The little squirt and myself. Love this boy so much.

 

Baby sleeps.

Okay. So I saw this post that was shared on facebook yesterday and thought it was hilarious so I had to share it! I did not write this. But O my I can tell you that I’ve thought it before. Here is the link I read it from.

http://www.today.com/moms/exhausted-new-moms-hilarious-take-expert-sleep-advice-goes-viral-6C9559908

“You shouldn’t sleep train at all, before a year, before 6 months, or before 4 months, but if you wait too late, your baby will never be able to sleep without you. College-aged children never need to be nursed, rocked, helped to sleep, so don’t worry about any bad habits. Nursing, rocking, singing, swaddling, etc to sleep are all bad habits and should be stopped immediately.

Naps should only be taken in the bed, never in a swing, car seat, stroller, or when worn. Letting them sleep in the car seat or swing will damage their skulls. If your baby has trouble falling asleep in the bed, put them in a swing, car seat, stroller, or wear them. Use the crib only for sleep and keep it free of distractions. If the baby is having trouble adjusting to the crib, have them play in it first. If the baby wakes up at night and wants to play, put fun toys in the crib to distract them.

Put the baby in a nursery, bed in your room, in your bed. Co-sleeping is the best way to get sleep, except that it can kill your baby, so never, ever do it. If your baby doesn’t die, you will need to bed-share until college.

Keep the room warm, but not too warm. Swaddle the baby tightly, but not too tightly. Put them on their backs to sleep, but don’t let them be on their backs too long or they will be developmentally delayed. Give them a pacifier to reduce SIDS. Be careful about pacifiers because they can cause nursing problems and stop your baby from sleeping soundly. If your baby sleeps too soundly, they’ll die of SIDS.

Don’t let your baby sleep too long, except when they’ve been napping too much, then you should wake them. Never wake a sleeping baby. Any baby problem can be solved by putting them to bed earlier, even if they are waking up too early. If your baby wakes up too early, put them to bed later or cut out a nap. Don’t let them nap after 5 p.m. Sleep begets sleep, so try to get your child to sleep as much as possible. Put the baby to bed awake but drowsy. Don’t wake the baby if it fell asleep while nursing.

You should start a routine and keep track of everything. Don’t watch the clock. Put them on a schedule. Scheduling will make your life impossible because they will constantly be thrown off of it and you will become a prisoner in your home.

Using the “Cry It Out” method (CIO) will make them think they’ve been abandoned and will be eaten by a lion shortly. It also causes brain damage. Not getting enough sleep will cause behavior and mental problems, so be sure to put them to sleep by any means necessary, especially CIO, which is the most effective form. CIO is cruel beyond belief and the only thing that truly works because parents are a distraction.

Formula and solid foods will help the baby sleep longer. Solid foods shouldn’t be given at night because they might wake the baby. Don’t stop the baby from nursing when asleep. Be wary of night feeds. If you respond too quickly with food or comfort, your baby is manipulating you. Babies can’t manipulate. Babies older than six months can manipulate.

Sleep when the baby sleeps. Clean when the baby cleans. Don’t worry. Stress causes your baby stress and a stressed baby won’t sleep.”

I just thought this was so funny…sadly because it is so TRUE! Just a little laugh for the day!