Corb 7 months

Well Corb...you are a whopping 7 months old today! We are so excited for your first Christmas!!! Mommy took you to sit on Santa's lap, which you were not a fan of the big jolly guy. Aaron tried to tell you it was all right but you just stuck that little lip out and looked up at me with the most pitiful face with big ole tears streaming down your face. Maybe next year buddy. We don't make a big deal of Santa in our house at all but we were in the mall and your brother asked to see him. Sorry I didn't get your picture with him...it was $15 for a 5x7 and well, frankly, it's not that important to me to pay for a picture of you screaming. Maybe next year...do I keep saying that???

So here is what you are up to Corban:

-You continue to LOVE your daddy. I think you would choose him over mama any day...unless you are hungry of course. I would say he is your favorite person right now...brother comes in right behind him.
- You are eating lots of different foods now and nurse 3-4 times a day. You still don't like carrots. We are slowly depleting our homemade baby food in the freezer....I am hoping you are going to start eating chunkier stuff so I won't have to make more.
-Bedtime is about 7 or 7:30 and you sleep anywhere from 10-12 hours straight. If you wake up between 5 and 6am I nurse you and you go back to sleep til after 7am. I can't tell you how happy this makes your mama...keep it up buddy!
-Naps are getting much longer in length. You will take a nap about 9 or 9:30 and sleep 1-2 hours. Then you will go back to sleep about 1 or 2 and sleep until around 3:30 or 4pm. I am also really liking this schedule. You sleep with your nuzzy and don't take a pacifier or suck your thumb. You love your nuzzy though. I try to only let you have it when it's time to sleep.
-You are starting to wave at people. You also this think is really funny and are usually smiling or laughing when you wave. I guess you like the attention.
-At home you 'talk' like crazy and are full of personality. When we go out, most of the time you just stare a hole through people. Interesting.
-You can sit up by yourself. I still put a pillow or something soft behind you because you still fall over some...and your brother thinks it's funny to 'help' you fall over.
-You are reaching and grabbing at everything and can pick things up and put them in your mouth pretty well. Yogurt melts and puffs are some of your favorite snacks.
-You love to jump in your johnny jump up and are starting to really like sitting on the floor surrounded by a million toys. I dump your toy box over and you will spend a long time reaching in the box and pull out toys.
- You have a tooth. Bottom front. It came in this past weekend. It looks like the one next too it will be in quickly too.
-You will pretty much let anyone hold you.
-I love your smile. Those dimples are adorable and when you stick your tongue out I just melt.

We love you sweet boy. We are so blessed by watching your new stages of life. You seem to discover something new every day and we find ourselves giggling quite frequently watching you do it. Next week is Christmas..we can't wait to wake up Christmas morning to 2 sweet boys and spend time together.

PJ's, Pancakes, and Pillow fights!

This morning we spent the morning at the Abrahams house. We went in our PJ's (which Aaron was more than pumped about), ate pancakes, drank coffee (grown ups only), made a xmas craft, watched The Grinch and The Polar Express, and played pillow fight (Aaron's favorite part he said). It was a blast. Aaron talked about how much fun he had the whole way home.

Thanksgiving 2012

Yay for firsts! This year is Corban's first Thanksgiving and my first time to host Thanksgiving at my house. I have been so excited for this day to come. I had the whole day planned out. We have always gone to Melber for Thanksgiving (well, all Holidays). We missed being with the Adams side of the family, but were excited to do something a little different. I was happy for a chance to feel like a real grown up. Let me tell you, I had my eyes opened to how much my mom and mother-in-law do to get things ready for holiday festivities like this one. Not only did I clean for 2 or 3 days straight in preparation, but the cost to feed a bunch of people for multiple days was much more than expected. It was SO worth all the time and money spent though. I can honestly say I appreciate those who do it every year (and sometimes more often than that). Next year I believe I will probably go back to not being a grown up:) Aaron and I even did a craft for each family as a gift for Thanksgiving. He loved it of course because it involved paint and construction paper...his FAVORITE past time. Mom, Dad and Raich got here Wednesday night late and Matt and Lori (and family) got here this morning. I started out making homemade cinnamon rolls this morning. They were a huge hit. I think it will be an annual tradition, but I am changing the icing part...not as good as I would have liked. Still yummy enough to have several cinnamon rolls for myself though. Lunch was really small. Followed by dinner at 5pm. We ate on my China (first time EVER), watched a movie together, loved on each others babies, took a walk, and cooked, cooked, cooked. Here is what we made:
Turkey
Ham
Green Beans (from Mama's garden)
Corn
Sweet potatoes
Mashed potatoes
gravy
Chicken and Dressing
Cranberry sauce
Rolls
Pecan Pie
Cherry Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Peanut Butter Pie

It was super scrupmtious and we have enough leftovers to feed us for about a week I think:) My house is a disaster but I wouldn't get up to clean it for the world right now. Love sitting in my living room being with my family. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! No shopping for this girl tomorrow....I'm staying in and playing with my kids.

Sweet 6 month old boy!

Happy 6 months Corban! What if our sweet boy was half way to a year???? Well, he is. I think I have decided that 6 months is one of my favorite ages. He is fattening up and showing his little personality and I LOVE it:) Here is what the Corb is up to...

-I love how easy going you are. I have said this before and you are continuing to be an easy baby. You seem to love being around people and go places. This is a good thing because we seem to always be on the go. You are also happy to just play by yourself most of the time. As long as you don't need food, sleep, or a new diaper, you love to play in your bouncy horse/seat, or spinner toy thingy.
-You continue to love, love, love your daddy. If you hear his voice you immediately look around until you find him. He gets the biggest smiles and laughs from you. Aaron is a close second as your favorite person. I hope you both continue to love each other this much. He is so sweet to just let you grab and pull on him all the time.
-You roll over all the time and are working on sitting up by yourself. You still fall over quite a bit, but just this week I have noticed a significant improvement in your balance.
-You have officially entered the dreaded 'screaming' phase of life. Mark and I are not a fan of this phase. And it's even worse because Aaron is picking it up again because of your new phase and that is NOT ok. Explaining that you can do it but Aaron can't because he doesn't understand is not flying well.
-You have tried several different foods. Oatmeal is still your favorite. Daddy calls you a great white shark when he feeds you at night...you dive for it. If you don't get it fast enough you reach your hand out and shove the spoon in your mouth yourself. Can you say impatient?

You have also tried green beans, pears, bananas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. So far you don't really like the carrots. Pears and bananas seem to be a favorite. You are chunking up too!!!
-You nurse 4 times a day on a regular schedule and I feed you one other food either at lunch or dinnertime when we eat as a family.
-Sleeping is a source of frustration right now. I have been holding out for you to just start sleeping through the night by yourself. It hasn't worked. In fact, it's getting much worse. You slept better at 10 weeks than you are now...little stinker. You are 6 months old now and I know you aren't that hungry in the night but just need help going back to sleep. So last night was night #1 to crack down on getting you to sleep through the night. It was tough and your daddy was sweet to help out. We made it, but you were up most of the night whining and crying off and on until about 4:30am and then went to sleep until 7am. It's hard for me to let you cry, especially when you are so persistent. But I know it's necessary and will be beneficial in the long run.
-Naps are much better. The 45min naps are slowly getting longer and I am SO excited about this. You take about an hour nap at 9am and then another nap after lunch and usually a 3rd nap about 5pm. I don't require a strict schedule to stick to, but I do like to have one...so this mama is much happier and I think you are too:)
-You have the sweetest smile EVER! Those dimples just kill me.
-You love your nuzzy. Everytime I go check on you when you are down for a nap I find the nuzzy completely covering your face. I pull it down and you put it right back up there. I am no surprised at this because you loved your face covered to sleep from the time you were born. It's worrisome for a mama, but I know you can pull it off. Someday I will get a picture for your baby book.
-You have started to reach for us when we put our hands out to hold you:)
-You are in 6 month clothes now. I think you are cutest in your jammies:)

I am so excited for your first holiday season. This mama loves the holidays. This year I am even more excited because I am hosting Thanksgiving at our house for the first time ever. We will miss having our annual Thanksgiving in Melber with Mark's family for sure. But I am excited for the opportunity to host my family.

Corban it's hard to believe you have been apart of our family for only 6 months, and we can't imagine our family without you. Our new normal is perfect. You have added joy beyond measure and we love you.

A short visit

Bala and O'Pa came to visit this weekend. Aaron was beyond excited. He carved another pumpkin with RaRa, played the IPAD and a million other games with O'Pa, made Goop with Bala, sat around a fire outside, and just plain had fun. Corb showed everyone how awesome he was at rolling over and eating bananas! Mark and I even got to take a short ride together:) They didn't get to stay long, but we sure did enjoy the time together. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving with Matt and Lori will be here (and Esssie too!).

"A great big 'ole Cow-a-pitt-er"

Yup. Aaron and I had fun building different shapes and animals with blocks this afternoon. The Cow-a-pitt-er as Aaron called it, was my favorite.

Aaron goes to the Dentist

Today Aaron had his teeth cleaned for the first time. He asked the Hygienist about 1500 questions as she showed him all her instruments and explained to him what she was going to do. He did great and was sure to explain the entire experience to Mark when he got home from work this evening.