Gardner Village

Today my Aunt Carolyn and cousin Karlie were here and we decided to go down to Gardner Village with them and then out to lunch at Culvers (yummy!)
I think Walter's favorite part was riding in their van- the windows were low enough for him to look out and see all of the big trucks on the freeway.  He would get so excited and point and shout every time he saw one :)

My mom and aunt were mostly looking for fabric so Walter, Michael, Karlie and I just walked around outside while they were in the fabric store.  They were having a Hawaiian theme all around Gardner Village which made it possible for this beauty of a picture to be taken :)

Luckily Michael is really good about watching and chasing Walter for me, since I'm big and slow and Walter does not do well sitting still in a stroller

I'm Gonna Do Better...

Every day I think about how I should be updating this blog- not that I think anyone really reads it, but I am horrible at journaling and this really is the easiest way for me to make sure I'm documenting my life at least a little bit.  So I have decided to try a different approach, and instead of blogging every few days and writing a ton of stuff down, I will just make myself post at least one picture a day and a short description of what happened during that day- we'll see if it becomes as interesting as I am hoping :)

So for today, here is my sweet boy, who is quickly becoming a big boy- and soon to be big brother :)  He loves his blankie more than anything and has just started loving me reading books to him

Life As Of Late

I've become absolutely terrible at updating this blog regularly and there are a few changes I haven't mentioned on here yet.  The first and biggest is that we are expecting baby number 2 at the end of October! This was a huge surprise for us, and I would be lying of I said I was super excited when I found out.  I was extremely overwhelmed and it was not something I was planning or thought I wanted at all.  But since I have had a few months to get used to it I have become more excited and I realize that it is a huge blessing to be able to have another baby.  I find out on Wednesday what the gender is, I'm pretty excited for that.
The next thing that has changed is that Jesse and I are no longer teaching Sunday school together.  That part kinda sucks, but I would not trade my new calling for anything! I got called to be the Mia Maid Adviser!! Ever since I left Young Womens I have been hoping that someday I could go back.  The girls I teach are the same girls that were in our Sunday school class so I already know them really well.  I won't be able to go to girls camp because of Walter and because I'm pregnant, but thats ok.  Jesse got called to teach gospel doctrine.  I do not envy him.  But he will do great.
And the last and most unimportant change is that I have officially joined the world of hair coloring.  I dyed my hair for the first time ever a couple weeks ago.  I did it myself, and the color that I thought I was getting was a really dark blonde, light brown, but when I washed it out of my hair it was a brown/red color.  Totally not what I was expecting, but its not bad either so I'm ok with it.
I think that's pretty much everything that has changed, life is good, cant complain :)

1 Year!!!

How the heck is my baby boy a year old already?!?!?! Gosh, I hate how fast it's gone by.  He is so big and changing so much! But he is the sweetest, funniest, bestest little boy in the entire world and I love seeing him get bigger and smarter.  I have spent every single day of the last year with him, and somehow I still don't feel like I spent enough time with him.  He doesn't look like a baby any more, he's a little boy and it's crazy how many things he has learned in the past while.  He doesn't really say any words, but he understands almost anything we say to him.  He shares when we ask him to, he will go and get things when we tell him to and whenever we tell him "no" he does whatever it is even more, because he thinks it's funny :) Some other things about him at a year old:

• He is in size 18 month clothes
• He is finally sleeping all the way through the night.  The best he has ever done with that is go about 9 to 10 hours at a time, but now he sleeps 11-12 hours, and those couple hours really do make a difference
• He takes 2 naps a day
• He never stops eating, but all he ever wants is snacks, like granola bars and fruit snacks and puffs.  When I try to feed him real meals, he spits them right out- frustrating!
• He meows like a kitty, that's the only animal sound he makes
• He loves real milk! I've been slowly giving it to him in order to get him to stop nursing, and he can not get enough of that stuff
• He is just starting to like books, and he will bring them to people so they can read to him, I love it!
• He isn't walking yet, but he stands on his own and walks along everything, it's coming soon!
• He gets really embarrassed and shy when people give him attention, and if he gets too much attention from people he gets overwhelmed and bursts into tears
• He loves to push cars around, already acting like a boy!
• He has just started to climb things, anything we leave lying around, like containers or laundry baskets, he will climb them

This past year has been the best year of my life! I can not even describe how happy this little guy makes me, I am so so so lucky to be his mommy! 

11 Months Old

This hilarious little dude is 1 month away from being 1 year old!! I cannot believe it! Time is going faster and faster as it gets closer to his 1 year mark, and I don't like it at all because he is seriously so funny and so much fun to be with right now, so I do not want this part of his life to just slip away so fast like it has been.  He is quite the little clown, always doing things to get a laugh out of us- and it works.  He makes the silliest faces and the funniest noises, he dances and claps and all sorts of fun stuff now.  He is becoming more attached to me by the day, and I honestly love it.  He now cries if I walk out the door without him and several times throughout the day he will just crawl to me and beg to be picked up and cuddled- I love it! He loves loves loves attention and will do anything to get it- his favorite is fake crying, because he knows that gets me every time.  And here are some other things about him at 11 months:

• He is in size 12 month clothes
• Still size 2 diapers, but I think we are graduating to 3 once the 2s are all gone
• He got another ear infection a couple weeks ago (his 3rd all ready) and that totally messed up his sleeping, so we are slowly getting back to him sleeping through the night, he wakes up at about 3 or 4 every night
• He is taking 2 naps a day
• He has 7 teeth
• He eats everything, and could eat all day long if I let him
• He weighs about 20.5 lbs
• He's not walking or standing on his own yet- but that's just fine
• He claps now, and it's so cute because he usually does it when Ellen comes on every day
• He can hold his sippy cup now
• "da-da" is his way of saying "ma-ma"
• He's become a major thumb sucker

I know there's more, but I can't think right now, so I'll just finish with some adorable pictures of our little goof.

Happy Easter! (3 weeks later...)

Dang I suck at blogging lately.
We had a good Easter this year! My family was out of town, but we were able to have Jesse's family over for dinner and the Easter bunny spoiled Walter, of course.  We got to go to church and just hang out for the day, it was great.

The day before Easter, Sherri had a fun  little Easter egg hunt at her house.  Since Walter can't really hunt for eggs, she just put all of his eggs and toys on a blanket outside while the other kids ran around, Walter loved it and he got some fun things from his auntie Sherri!  Sherri's brother in law also made him a cute little onesie that said Official Easter Egg Hunter :)

10 Months Old

Oh how I love this little boy!! This month has brought so many changes, and has left me super tired, but it has been so fun to see Walter grow and learn.  He is seriously the funniest little guy I've ever seen.  He makes the goofiest faces (if you've looked at my facebook you would see what I'm talking about) and he now knows that the more he does those goofy faces the more we will laugh at him.  He is always doing things to get us to laugh.  His new thing is to spit his food everywhere- I made the mistake of laughing once and now he does it all the time and thinks he's so funny.  He thinks that he is a little puppy dog because while he crawls he always has some toy hanging out of his mouth.  He tries to meow when he is looking for the kitty.  And he has started playing peek a boo every once in a while.  We just love him!! Some other things about him at 10 months:

• He is wearing size 12 month clothes and size 2 diapers
• He has 4 teeth, 2 top 2 bottom
• He is sleeping for a good 10-11 hours straight at night and will eat and go back to sleep for another 1-2 hours
• He takes 1 to 2 naps a day
• He loves to eat everything, but his new favorites are those little yogurt bites
• He crawls like crazy and is really good at pulling himself up
• He has started to try and stand up alone
• He loves being outside
• Whenever a stranger comes up to him, instead of smiling at them he gives them this goofy face where he squints his eyes and wrinkles his nose- I think that's his way of flirting :)
• He has never been mistaken for a girl until the last month, where he has been mistaken for a little girl about 4 times- its because of his beautiful blue eyes
• He likes to give kisses.  He kisses stuffed animals, my phone whenever he sees a picture of him on it, and today I caught him kissing princesses on the cover of a Disney storybook we have :)
• He's the happiest, most laid back baby ever and I love it!