'Tis the season

I have always really loved the holiday season. It is beautiful, magical, sincere, heart-warming, full of cute coats, snazzy scarves, and of course tons of boots, apple cider, eggnog, cookies galore, people are nicer, the music is better ... all things good! The past few weeks, though, I have been thinking... and I am pretty sure that I love it even more now, as an adult, than I did when I was younger! Who woulda thought?

When I was little, Thanksgiving meant no school and delicious food. Nothing wrong with that, right? Then when I went away to college, Thanksgiving meant that the semester was almost over. It was the beginning of the light at the end of the tunnel. It meant that for the next several months the only ground to be seen would most definitely be snow-covered (for, by November there is just no melting away in Rexburg!). And most importantly it meant going home to see my family. Last year, I was pregnant... Food. Thanksgiving meant food. And sleeping in. (I hope that this is not misleading. I am not really so shallow as to let the true meaning of the season escape me. I have always sincerely loved that there is a whole day devoted to family and being grateful for all our countless blessings)

Nowadays, I am in not in school, I work full time as a mama (which basically means I have the best job ever!), there is no snow, and I see my family pretty regularly.

This year, I have been so in love with the season and I think I know why. I was a kid with no money, I was a poor college student, I was working and pregnant... Now I LOVE being able to really contribute and show my love for my family and friends by giving of my time and talents! I tell you what, its just beautiful. Simply, purely beautiful.

I loved cooking for Thanksgiving and I am already looking forward to what I will be making for Christmas dinner. I am so excited about the gifts I am making for Christmas I could almost pee my pants!... Yesterday I got pretty much all of our Christmas shopping done, and thanks to Pinterest I am going to spend the next few weeks completing the wonderful things I have planned for my family. Its all very hush hush, sneaky peeky right now, but after Christmas I will show all you folks my charming creations!

Basically I am just so thoroughly pleased with the time of year. I am incredibly blessed. I love you people and I am grateful that I get to share the good, the sometimes not so good, the funny and the real with you! Happy Friday friends!

Oh. p.s. We took some Christmas pictures of little man (its his first one afterall!!!). Oh boy. Words cannot express. So I will show you. I want to do some editing so this is just a tiny sneak peek!

Five Months

Its that time again! My darling, little cutie pie is another month older!!! So, naturally I'm going to tell you all about it...

First of all, (I am not going to take the time to look, but I am fairly certain that the majority of my monthly baby updates begin this way...) I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S BEEN FIVE MONTHS!!! (...And really can you blame me? Basically, I am in awe of the whole thing. I grew a human. Pregnancy in and of itself should pretty much just be impossible, but of course Heavenly Father is smarter than me and obviously made it work. So then, this tiny, little--or in my case tiny and little to me, but not so much speaking comparatively-- baby comes out and grows at the speed of light. Learning new things by the second, growing and discovering. Time seems to stop and race on too fast all at the same time. I have a baby. And he is now five months old... Two words: Woah. Nelly.)

And what has my baby *BFG been up to?

One of my favorite things these days is watching him grab things. He loves grabbing anything and everything, and seeing him use his hands so well and with so much coordination just makes me smile. I love the look of concentration on his face!

He is fascinated by colors and loves it when I have designs or writing on my shirts. He stares, completely mesmerized.

He loves to stand... but his true love is jumping! Like a little kangaroo, this one!

He rolls over all the time now. When he first learned to roll over, just before 3 months, he rolled from his back to his front. A few weeks ago I witnessed, for the first time, him rolling from his tummy to his back. The kiddo moves around in his bed so much and ends up in places and positions completely different than when I lay him down. So it wouldn't surprise me if he has been rolling over both ways for quite some time!

Because he is such a rolly polly, he spends a lot more time playing on his tummy. But now that it is by choice he doesn't seem to despise tummy time quite so much. In fact, he really enjoys it! He wiggles around and loves going after his toys. He does little mini push-ups and then when he gets a little worn out he lays his head down and sucks his thumb. Cutest thing in the world.

He loves singing and dancing as much as ever! Lately we have been rocking out to Christmas music... Ryan is not such a fan of Christmas music, so I am starting young with Kylan!

When it is too early for bedtime, but too late for a nap and Goofy Gus becomes more of a Grumpy Gus, one of our favorite things to do is play in the sink. We fill it up with some warm water, and I sit him on the side and .... Splash! Kick! Jump! Giggle! ... He loves it... Sure he, the kitchen, and I all become quite the soggy mess, but it is definitely worth it!

We are working on sitting up. So far he can manage a few seconds before he slumps over, but he gets stronger and stronger everyday.

I love getting to know this sweet boy. I love learning about his personality and watching him discover. I find it difficult to accept that next month he will be half a year old. Ohhhh the craziness of that fact. But then again it shall be our first Christmas as a family of three! I think that shall soften the blow considerably!

*BFG... Big Friendly Giant, a delightful character and children's novel, written by Roald Dahl. Do ya get it?? Eh? I am real clever huh? :) Oh how I love my giant baby. He is just the right size and perfect for me. Not so much for his carseat though. Those days are numbered. Luckily I ordered a new carseat from Amazon just the other night! Excited for it to get here! Well... Good day mate!

Halloween!

I know its a little late, but I still feel the need to document this lovely, not so spooky, Halloween!

This was Kylan's first Halloween... obviously! :) And it was so fun. We went to a Trunk or Treat in Ava on Saturday (October 27th, which happens to be Nay Nay and Spencer's birthday!) and then on the actual day of Halloween we went trick or treating in Ozark and to my ward's Trunk or Treat... no offense my Ava peeps, but my ward's Trunk or Treat kicked your Trunk or Treat's butt.

I had so many big plans for costumes this year. Seriously. It was going to be a family affair and an epic one at that! Unfortunately I am the queen of procrastination. So none of my plans actually panned out. But don't you worry! I am making it happen next year!!!

As it was, we found a nice little infant costume at Target, which almost did not fit him... or ya know, depending on who you ask you could just skip the "almost"... but only because kiddo is a giant! Nonetheless, he was the most adorable pea pod ever.

The little nieces were tutu ghosts and totally rocked it.

At one point I called Nay Shay a little monster (because, really that girl is fierce when you stand between her and her candy) to which Bella replied "She's not a little monster! She's a little ghost!!!"

Anyway, here are some delightful pictures! Enjoy. And once again, I know its late, but I hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!

A Third

My little Gus --sometimes Goofy, other times Grumpy, mostly just adorable-- is 4, thats right FOUR months old!!! What? Excuse me. My child is a third of a year old?!?!?!? I will never understand the crazy time warp that seems to be causing my tiny baby to grow up way too fast!

Oh how I love this small child. No matter what the circumstances may be, one look from his sweet, little face and I'm done. None of the little messes of daily life, the struggles and trials, nothing seems quite so bad as I originally thought. Turns out, this kid has magic. Mind-blowing, innocent, sweet and helpless, pure and perfect, and like I said, simply magical. That's what my baby boy is.

So what has this past month seen??? Well. I tell you what, if I hadn't been here to witness it, I wouldn't quite be able to believe how much he has grown. It is just plain silliness!

I am not positive on his stats at this point in time. His 4 month check up is on Thursday, so never fear, I will fill you in then! (*Update* My little giant weighed in at 16 pounds 2 ounces, and is nearly 28 inches long!!! He is pretty average for weight, but off the charts for height........ time to begin the search for an over-29-inches carseat!) ...now, on to the good stuff...

This month has been one of discoveries!

He discovered his thumb, and let me tell you, he is a huge fan! :) The term "thumb sucker" seems to have some sort of negative connotation, but when I see his cute little hand curled in front of his face and hear his adorable lips smacking, I just can't figure out why? Some moms may discourage thumb sucking, but I am not one of them. So this discovery is one of my favorites!

He also found his feet this month. Up until recently he delighted in discovering WITH his feet (he especially loves putting them in the stream of water as his bath fills up!).... oh but now! Now he has actually realized them to be the most fun and wonderful things ever. Oh how it just melts my heart and soul to see him all folded in half, a foot in each hand, toes in his mouth. I'm just not sure it gets much better than that! He is so in love with his toesies that when he has some time to spare, in the middle of the night!, he kicks free of his bonds (also known as, his nicely, neatly swaddled blanket) and finds those adorable little feet and goes to town! By the time I get in the room, to feed him, he is cooing and conversing with his angel friends, not a care in the world!

Raspberries. Oh yes. This kid has learned how to blow raspberries. It is so funny and adorable. Sometimes he will just look around blowing raspberries, perfectly content. He is such an adorable goofball. He was sick this past week, and after he slept most of the day, instead of going to bed (at like 8:30, almost 2 hours past bedtime) he decided he would rather smile and coo, blow raspberries and look around. I think Heavenly Father, geniusly and purposely, made babies irresistibly cute and sweet so that even when you are exhausted and on the verge of tears, you just can't help but smile at them, because looking at perfection it is hard to stay grumpy!

He loves to flirt. I don't want to think about what this natural inclination will amount to 15ish years from now (... my baby as a flirting teenager is just not something I can handle!), but at the moment it is joy personified. Seriously. I would like to see someone try to resist this. His powers of flirtation are undeniable. You don't even have to be looking at him or paying him any attention. He just turns on the charm, smiles his big adorable smile and waits for you to turn his way! Then he really lets you have it, with the cooing and the squealing. His final tactic: the feigned shyness. "Oh don't look at me. I'm just too shy and sweet and so I will just nuzzle into my blanket and hide my infectious smile. Oh yes, I shall leave you wanting more!... Bahaha I got you right where I want you." He is a tricky little one, I tell ya. But alas, there is nothing for it. He is just too cute to be resisted. Luckily, for all mankind, he only uses his powers for good, and never evil!

My sweetie still loves music, dancing and mommy singing to him! I love to watch his face light up when I break into song. He doesn't mind my embarrassing dance moves either!

He loves being outside, although with the weather getting colder we don't go on walks as often as we used to.

The biggest change this month though??? As of 3 nights ago, Kylan is sleeping in his own room. Oh boy... The truth is I don't think he cared so much!... but it was a big and scary change for me. One of the most comforting and beautiful things was being able to lay in bed at night and hear him breathing, knowing that he was safe and sleeping soundly. But, I decided that as honorable as my intentions may have been it would be selfish to keep him in our room, when he was quickly outgrowing the pack n play that he slept in. So now, he is just a few extra feet away, across the hall. I can still move quickly to his doorway to hear him breathing, only now he seems to be sleeping more soundly. I guess you could call it a win-(pull your big girl panties up and deal with it)win situation!

There are a great many things wrong with the world, in general... but MY world, safe and sound in our little home, my honey, my baby, and me? Its all things glorious!

3+ Months!

Earlier last week (Wednesday, to be exact) my Goofy Gus turned a whole, big THREE months old. Each time I write one of these monthly updates, it completely overwhelms me. I simply can't believe that it has been three months already, but then there is also the contradicting sensation that he has always been here and the tendency to forget how life was even possible before this little squirming monster came.

Before we get to the real reason we are all here (my impossibly cute little squirt), how about some nice family news...

Recently Ryan has started working nights. It's pretty hard on us, because our time together was so limited before and now we don't even get to sleep at the same time. We are working to adjust to this new schedule and basically where it leaves us, is with a whole lot of Mama/Baby time and the hugest of smiles when Daddy walks in.

Thanks to the inspiration of my meal planning sista, I have started making dinner most nights. Most of you are probably aware of my deep and abiding love for the Food Network, and you probably also know that despite this love, I very rarely cook. Not because I don't like to, I just have a hard time finding the motivation or drive or magic fairy dust to get it done; especially since there are always nachos and sandwiches! But I am really trying harder and so far so good. Kylan doesn't really care too much, he gets yummy milk either way, but Ryan sure does appreciate my efforts.

Now that the basic family update is out of the way, I shall do some.... well, not bragging... let's call it, unbiased informing of my child's brilliance! :)

Kylan hasn't had a doctor's appointment recently so I am not sure of his stats exactly, but the kid is not exactly small... but he sure is perfect. I am estimating that he is maybe 15 pounds and probably over 26 inches long.

He has been developing his singing and dancing skills! He looooves music and he loves it when I sing to him. It is so fun to watch his smiles and see his eyes light up.

His streak of 45 minute naps (rather than the lovely hour and half beauties that he really needs) is continuing, but he is also killing it on the sleeping through the night front! We had a patch of sickness and growth spurting that interrupted our nights for a few days, but we seem to be running smooth again. He sleeps a nice 10 hour stretch, eats and then sleeps a few more hours.

As you probably read, he is rolling over like a stud. He rolls from his back to his tummy. I read in some article online that usually they roll from their stomach to their back first, but what can I say, my kid is a trail-blazer. He goes his own way :) I have yet to get his rolly polly olly action on video, but I shall so never fear!

We go on walks almost every day, and he simply loves being outside. I have been bitten to hades and back, but luckily the mosquitoes have left him alone!

Kylan still loves standing and is able to hold more of his weight and do so for longer periods of time! He is just so stinkin awesome. He also jumps like a little kangaroo and looooves it.

He is beginning to use his hands more to grab things. It is so fun and exciting to watch him grow and develop! The other day I got out some toys that I forgot we had, on the package they said "3+ Months"... I was so excited to see him start playing with them. Kiddo looooves to clasp his hands together and what was so precious is that even when he was reaching for his little keys, he kept his cute little hands together in a sweet little fist!

He smiles and laughs and squeaks and squeals all the time. He has the most precious little voice and I love watching his face light up when he smiles.

There are probably a million more things that I could gush about but I don't suppose you people would enjoy that quite as much as I would :)

So instead I will share pictures of my little 3 month old piece of heaven.