Thanksgiving and 7 months

Thanksgiving 2011

We had two Thanksgivings this year! The first was with my dad and Kathy's family and then we headed up to Evanston on Saturday for a late Thanksgiving with Adam's family. Steven got to eat mashed potatoes, crackers, sweet potato, turkey and peach cobbler! He loved getting to try some different foods and being around lots of family!

Thanksgiving Day 2011

Cousin Time with Duncan

Bath time together while eating their toys

7 Months

He got his first tooth on Thanksgiving Day and now he constantly has his tongue out :)

We let him put on his snow suit and go outside in the snow while we were in Evanston. He wasn't sure about it. He kept touching it and then looking very surprised that it was still cold.

This kid loves to sleep on his belly and he we find him like this more often than not. Here are some more things that he's doing at 7 months:

• Turning around and rolling to where he wants to when he plays on the floor.
• Eating ritz crackers and vanilla wafers
• Growing out of 9 month pajamas-- I swear pj's run very small for what size they say.
• Taking some small steps when you hold his hands. He thinks he is the coolest person when he is standing and always lets out a "huh" after he gets up.
• Putting EVERYTHING in his mouth
• Rocking back and forth on all fours and then jumping with his back legs.
• Crying himself to sleep
• He LOVES other babies and sqawks and squeals at them as much as he can
• Flirts with anyone sitting behind us
• Hold his own bottle when he eats
• Rips off his bumper pads in his crib and tries to pull himself up

SO EXCITED!!!!!

My best friend Bekah got engaged on Thanksgiving and I'm so stinking excited! Here's a picture of how he did it.... all I can say is "AWESOME"!!! I never would have expected that!

It's coming.....

BLACK FRIDAY in T - 3 days!!!! I might be flying solo this year but it's sort of become addicting.

Life in the moment

This is how I feel right now...

Warm Fuzzies

He gives me warm fuzzies just by hugging me! He is my best friend and I'm so grateful to get hugs like these all the time! I don't mind being a foot shorter than him by any means.

One of my favorite pictures

While I was on my mission I kept begging my parents to send me a picture. After I had been out a year I finally got this picture from my aunt's wedding. I cried in front of the computer when I saw it because I was so happy to see a picture of them. Now, this picture is a cherished memory of my parents together. I'm so glad that my aunt got married because now I have a beautiful picture to cherish forever!

Thanksgiving in Spain

Even though this meal doesn't look like much, it was one of the most wonderful Thanksgiving's I've ever had! I never knew I could appreciate Root Beer, mashed potatoes or my family so much! I loved having 2 Thanksgivings and 2 Christmases in the mission field (that usually doesn't happen to sister missionaries)! I hold those times very dear to my heart and am so grateful I got to serve the Lord! My mission taught me who I was and needed to become and has made me a better wife and mother than I would have been without it. I learned so many things about my limits and how to extend beyond them. España, te hecho de menos un montón y la gente me ayudaron a cambiar para ser mejor! No lo puedo creer que he estado en casa casi seis años... jolin. Me siento muy bendecida de poder llamarte mi tierra. Espero que nos vemos pronto! Besos

Does he look like me?

You be the judge. He keeps changing as he's growing but here is a picture of me when I was one.

One thing I'm proud of...

I have NEVER played Angry Birds and I am quite proud of myself for that!

Trips

If I had a lot more extra money, here is where I would go:

1. Norway!!! (My best friend Carrie lives there and I miss her dearly)

2. Spain- Honestly, who didn't see that one coming.

3. Washington D.C.- I'm completely fascinated with this place.

4. Argentina- My dad would come with me as well.

5. Italy- For some reason I really wanted to go there on my mission for some time.

6. Zimbabwe/Zambia- Adam would be so excited to take me there.

7. London- I would love to go and do some family history.

8. Thailand- I love the food, but I'm not sure I would like the bugs.

9. Fiji

10. New Zealand and Australia- but you better believe that I will not be getting in the water there.... the sharks are waiting for me.

Oh boy! Are we ready?

He is up, rocking and hopping! For a little over a week Steven has been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. This past weekend he added jumping to the mix. He will get up on all fours and then jump with his back legs.

Doing a push up! He is getting so stinking strong!

And this is where we end after a long time of jumping and rocking.

Toy or Formula Can?

Is it a toy or a formula can? or both? Steven has found a new favorite toy in the form of an empty formula can. Maybe I should invest in these and sell them. :) He loves to sit on the floor and play with it. We left the scoop inside of it so that it doubles as a rattle... how innovative are we?!

This is just one of the absolutely cute animal hats that Steven has for the winter! I got it for $3 at Ross and couldn't pass it up!
And here are some more pictures of Steven's cuteness! It is rare that we capture a smile instead of a bewildered look so enjoy!

Question

Do you wake a sleeping baby or not?

My boys

I get them for forever... how amazing is that! Being with them is all I need to have a perfect day! Goodness, I'm one lucky girl.

Weird Quirks

We all have weird quirks that really don't make any sense but they keep life interesting. Here's a list of mine:

• I tap my soda pop can before I open it (like it really does anything:)
• After I turn off the light I run (literally) to the bed and jump in as if something was chasing me.
• The toilet paper must come over the top NOT from the bottom. If it is the wrong way I will change it... even if it's not at my house.
• I always turn to the right when I turn around in the shower.
• I constantly check for things crawling on the wall when I'm showering... blame it on the movie Arachnophobia.
• My water has to be ice cold or I won't drink it.
• I used to think you had to defrost the juice concentrate before you could make it... Adam has shown me the light!
• When I unload the dishwasher I take out the knives, then the spoons and then the forks.
• I have to sleep on the right side of the bed.
• I tuck in the covers underneath my feet and sides when I go to bed or I can't fall asleep.
• I don't like any part of my body hanging off the bed, even a toe.
• I do my make up in a certain order (and hardly ever deviate from it): Foundation, powder, blush, eye brows, eyeliner and mascara.

Ten Guilty Pleasures

1. ICE CREAM!!! (I've been known to finish a carton all by myself:)

2. Desperate Housewives- I started watching it with my mother-in-law a few years ago.

3. Pressing snooze 3 times before I finally get up.

4. Waking Steven up (at times), so that I can play with him.

5. Playing Texas Hold em' with Adam and going all in when I don't have many chips left.

6. Shoving clothes back in the dryer to make the room look clean:).

7. Ritz Crackers- I love them a little too much!

8. Late night Wendy's runs.

9. Scary movies... even though they give me nightmares.

10. Orange Fanta or Dr. Pepper

Extra Blessings

Adam and I have gone back and forth about whether or not I need to work full time for one more year and it hasn't been a happy subject but we got some extra blessings this past week that I wanted to share.

I had toyed with the idea of going part time so that I'm not gone as much but had heard that it was pretty hard to make it happen especially as an elementary teacher. I was nervous to bring it up to my principal and had decided to wait until January to talk to her. Last Friday I happened to mention to one of my team members that I was thinking about going part time but wasn't sure it would happen. Later that day she introduced me to a teacher from last year that had quit after she had her baby. She was an amazing teacher but couldn't get someone else to do 1/2 time with her for this year. Well..... we talked and she is interested in pursuing a split contract with me next year. It works out great for me because I would continue to teach all of the science in the morning and then she would take care of the reading, writing and social studies in the afternoon. I brought it up with my principal this morning and she loved the idea! Everything is obviously still up in the air but I am so grateful to have some things falling into place just in case I need to keep working another year.

The Evolution of Steven

Just thought it might be fun to post pictures of Steven from when he was born until now. Hope you enjoy!

Brand Spankin' New

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

Nursing

When I first started nursing Steven I looked forward to the day when I wouldn't be a snack bar. :) Now that I am at the point where my milk is declining and it would be easy to just stop, I find myself resisting. I guess I never realized how much I enjoy these tender moments. We'll see if I stop sooner than later but for right now I will enjoy it while it lasts.

6 months

This cute little boy was six months old a few weeks ago and just had his shots yesterday. Here are his current stats:

Height: 28.5 inches

Weight: 20 lbs 7 oz

Things he is doing:

Sitting up like a champ! I am actually liking that he can sit and play with his toys for 5 minutes or so before he realizes that I'm not right there by him. :)

Eating lots of vegetables and fruits

Grabbing at anything he can get his hands on!

Transferring toys between his hands

Swinging his arms everywhere! If you aren't careful than he will whack you in the face.

Scooting backwards

Getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth

Saying " Da, da" "Ga, ga" and "Ba, ba"

Rolling over and all over the place

Reaching for toys that are far away and doing all he can to get to them

Having the sweetest and most unique grunt laugh!

Getting his arms and legs over the bumper in his crib (Time to take them out I guess:)

Eating books

Flirting with anyone who will look at him

Foods he has tried:

Sweet Potato, squash, green beans, carrots, peas, mango, apple, banana, banana yogurt and prunes. We still have some more fruits to try but the doctor told us to limit his new foods to every 5 days, so next up are peaches and pears!

He's a pound and a half away and a half inch from the weight and height limit for his car seat so we are hoping that Black Friday will bring some good deals on convertible car seats! His 9 month clothes fit him perfectly so I'm doing my best to stock up on 12 month clothes in the next couple of months. Maybe he will start to even out on the height and weight gain like people have told me. I hope that is true so that I don't have to keep on buying new clothes every month.

Things that he loves:

Going for stroller rides

Looking at the dogs

EATING! (If you couldn't tell:)

Playing with his toys

Being the center of attention

Reaching for everyone's food (He almost pulled a pan off of the stove (it wasn't hot) tonight... had the handle in his hand)

Playing with cousins

Charming his grandparents

Standing on our laps or next to the couch

We love this kid and he is growing so fast! Adam is such a good "baby daddy" and I'm grateful for the special relationship they are forming.

First Halloween

Here is our the cute little monkey we poached for the night! Adam and I went as Rhodesian Safari hunters and we made quite the adorable catch:).

Here he is standing... now that he can sit he prefers to stand.

At our ward party earlier in the week.

With some of his cousins on Halloween night.

I picked him up early from daycare on Halloween and brought him to my school for our Halloween Parade and party. His face was priceless when I walked into the room! He got so excited and just kept looking at me with a face of "Are you really here?" My kids LOVED seeing him and kept commenting on how cute he was. Steven did great for the first little while but then got really tired and overwhelmed during the parade. Luckily I had some great room mom's so I could sneak out for a minute to the faculty lounge and give Steven a break from the chaos.

After school we went to my dad's and then stopped at my grandparents to say trick or treat. On our way home, Adam convinced me that we should at least go trick or treating to some of our friends houses around the neighborhood. So out came the stroller and off we went with our little monkey in tow. He was so tired but was a good sport. He went right to sleep when we got home after a very long day.

Motherless Daughters

I still can't believe that it has been 5 years since my mother left this earth. It always seems to come up faster and faster each year. Some people have asked me if I am learning to be okay with the fact that my mother is gone. My answer: No. I don't think I will ever be "okay" with the loss of my mother. If I had the power I would bring her back right now. I need her for so many things and I will continue to need her everyday of my life. Have I learned to live with the fact that I can't just call her up or go and see her? Yes. I have learned how to manage and to look to other people for the things that I need. Has Heavenly Father blessed me? More than words can express. I don't consider losing my mother a blessing but I would be a fool not to acknowledge that I have been blessed immensely with the tender mercies that the Lord saw fit to give me. He continues to bless me in those moments where I need my mother desperately and when I feel alone and abandoned. I also anxiously await the day when I am reunited with her again after this life when all of the pain and heart ache will be rewarded.

I was given a book to read called Motherless Daughters shortly after my mother's death. At first I was skeptical about reading it but my experience resonated with so many of the ideas that were written about. It helped to put my feelings into perspective and really just give them a "safe" spot to be while I sorted through everything. Mostly I think that it just gave me back some of the "control" in my life that I had felt like I had lost. As the years passed I felt like I was figuring out life without a mom and starting to get back in to the flow of things. Then this past April I became a mother and everything changed again.

I am now a motherless mother and I feel like I've lost some of that control again. I know how to be a motherless daughter but I haven't figured out how to be a motherless mother. Now, I realize that there is more to me than these two parts. I am a teacher, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a daughter of God, etc. and those things are mostly figured out. Yet, now I have discovered a part of me that still needs some figuring out. So many feelings are arising that I have never felt or even thought of before. I find myself literally picking up the phone and trying to call my mom but quickly realize that's not going to happen. I am changing and learning so many things each day but at times I feel like I have no reference to check with. The other day we were trying to figure out when I walked, got my first tooth, said my first word, etc. Per no fault of my dad, when I asked about these things the answers weren't all there. Then when we asked about Adam's childhood his mom was there to answer. I found myself wanting to know more about my childhood but without my mom there are gaps and holes. A new kind of hurt surfaced and I had to figure out how to deal with it. I hope this post doesn't seem so dull and gloomy. It is just a part of some of the harder things I'm experiencing right now. I know that there is a sequel to the book I mentioned earlier that talks to motherless mothers so I think I will have to go and check it out. Again, I have been extremely blessed throughout this whole experience and I know that the Lord will provide the tender mercies that I will need in the future. I am so grateful for my testimony of the gospel and for the understanding I have about the plan of happiness. It makes things easier to sift through and puts a smile on my face:) If you still have your mom here, give her a call, tell her you love her and look for ways to appreciate her in your life.... that is one thing that I would give all the gold in the world to be able to do again.

NaBoMo

I'm going to try this blogging everyday thing, but I can't promise quality:). Thoughts from today are:

1. I live to come home to this face! I love to see his face light up when he sees me come through the door! I can't get enough of him and I can't wait for the day when I don't have to say goodbye in the morning. He makes me so happy and he is growing up so fast:)

2. Adam cooked me dinner! When I got home the food was ready and hot! It's nice to have a wife to come home to.... LOL Now if only I could do something about the laundry issue.

3. Life can be hard and there is always someone to compare yourself with but that's not what is important. You've got to do the best with what you've got. I don't know if people realize this but I'm horrible at comparing myself to others and I'm pretty hard on myself for it. Adam is helping me learn how to let it go and find the good things I am able to do, even with my crazy schedule.

4. I miss seeing my dad more. He has to travel a lot for work and I hope that things will work out soon so that he isn't gone as much. I love my dad and love seeing him as a grandpa to Steven.

5. Teaching is different once you have your own kid. I'm just not as excited to go to work as I used to be.

6. I don't know how my mom worked and had 3 kids at home... yet another thing that I wish I could talk to her about.

7. I still hate Halloween Parades at school.

8. My house will probably never look like a magazine picture and there will always be a pile of laundry that still has yet to find a home.

9. Steven gets cuter and cuter by the minute.

10. I don't think I'll ever find a better team than the team of teachers I had at Hidden Hollow! They are truly an exceptional group!

11. At least weekly, I count how many days there are until our next break. Case in point: there are 9 days until Thanksgiving Break. After that We are in school for 3 weeks until Christmas Break. In January and February we have a Monday off. There are no breaks in March (grrrr) but then we get a week off in April. After Spring Break we go for 7 straight weeks before we get out of school.

12. ... I'm not a perfect mom/wife and that's okay.

She would have been 56

My mom's birthday is today. My sister, my dad and I went to Magleby's Fresh to eat some yummy food and celebrate her birthday with some delicious chocolate cake. It's nice to be together and just hang out like old times. I miss her more than ever but I'm grateful for the memories that I get to share with Adam and Steven. She was/is so amazing and beautiful! She accomplished so much and I hope to be more like her.

5 Months... a month ago:)

At 5 months, here is a little schnippet about this handsome little man:

Steven loves to eat food! We gave him sweet potatoes over conference weekend and he LOVED it! Shortly after that he got to try squash, which is also a favorite. Actually I think that this kid loves food in general. He thinks that any bowl he sees is for him and starts to grunt at it while he stretches as far as he can to get it. :) He almost dumped my taco soup one day, so my days of being able to hold him while I eat are coming to an end. I've been wanting to make my own baby food, but without a food processor that doesn't work so Gerber will have to do until Christmas. He's finally figured out that he can roll both ways and is all over the place. He's been sitting since about 4 1/2 months and can pretty much play with toys for 15 or 20 minutes without falling over. This kid amazes me more and more each day. I can't believe how much I love him and I love that he gets excited to see me when I come home from work. Warms my heart. He scoots backwards instead of forwards and its quite comical to see his confused face when he realizes that he is farther away rather than closer to his toy. We love to go on walks and were fortunate enough to have Grandma Fieber here for 4 days while Adam was in St. George. Steven loves other kids and can't get enough of them. He loves to go "hoo hoo" at things he gets excited about and LOVES books, whether we're reading them or he's trying to eat them.

We seriously can't get enough of this kid and are so grateful to be his parents!

So much has changed...

I still remember this day four years ago and I'm grateful to have Adam forever! It just keeps getting better and better. :) I love you more than I ever thought I could and am grateful for you as my best friend and father to our children. Love you always! Ndino kuda nemoyo wangu wese.

How did it happen?

When did my baby get to be so big? We just love this munchkin! I still remember when he was just "little" like this.

I'll take a picture and blog about it tomorrow... but for now this tired teacher mommy needs to go to bed.

4 months continued...

Here are his current stats at 4 months:

- 16 lbs. 15 oz.
- 26 1/4 inches

He loves to get things in his hands and hold them in front of his face and just study them! We also bought him an exersaucer and he loves it because he gets to stand all on his own. He still doesn't have a typical laugh but the doctor told us that he is laughing at us:). He seems to be doing just fine now that I've started work, better than me some days. I'm getting used to our new schedule and Adam is doing a great job as Mr. Mom! He still spits up a lot but since his weight is fine, they're not worried. We also started him on some rice cereal about a month ago and he is liking it. The only problem is that he hates being spoon fed and screams between each bite. I finally started making it thicker and putting in a bottle with a bigger nipple hole. He's much happier with that, but I hope he learns to like a spoon. Life just keeps going and we're so grateful to have our little family!

Here are some fun things he's doing:
Jabbering and squealing at kids and babies.
Holding his links and flicking them all over.
Getting his first mohawk, styled especially by daddy.
Playing with his toes and grabbing at his feet.
Razzing all the time and sucking on his bottom lip.
Charming everyone that sees him.... "What a cute baby!"
Triple threat thighs.
Sleeping about 9-10 hours a night.
Sitting up in the boppy.

4 months old!!!

So this picture is actually when he was 3 months old, but I forgot to put it up and I still need to take a picture of him at 4 months. I have had so much fun with this little boy! While I'm sad to be away from him during the day, I LOVE coming home to him! I feel very lucky that Adam can be with him 3 days a week and that we have a great day care and wonderful people to help out when he can't. :) During his 3rd month he finally started to laugh and became so alert! He loves to read and..... eat his books. His smile melts my heart and he is the absolute cutest boy ever! He's so good at grabbing things with his hands and I can't wait until he can put his binky back in all by himself...:)

Fourth of July and More

We celebrated the 4th of July up in Evanston and Steven slept through all of the fireworks! Maybe he'll be more interested in them next year. :) He loved getting to hang out with his cousin Duncan though. They would jabber at each morning and take turns napping. I can't believe that summer is almost over but I'm enjoying each day I have to spend with Steven!
Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure as usual!

Having fun with Grandma Fieber!


So Sleepy....


So cute!


Celebrating the 4th of July in Evanston


Hanging out before bed time


The magic touch on Grandma's Porch


First 4th of July Evanston style!