First Father's Day

We love you so much daddy! Thanks for taking such great care of me! Your the best!

Brody and I had such a fun time celebrating Mike on his first Father’s Day last week! The celebration began the morning before (due to Mike getting up super early on Sunday) with a breakfast favorite of cinnamon rolls. Lunch on Sunday consisted of heading to Buffalo Wild Wings and an afternoon of long naps J I love how no Sunday, or no celebration for that matter, isn’t complete without naps.  Brody insisted on getting his daddy some great gifts. We found a sweet little book called “Thank You God for Daddy”, some new (and very first may I add) running shoes and also some running shorts. A awhile ago my brother convinced Mike to do this crazy man 5K in September. It consists of running through mud, jumping over fire and some other manly things. Anyways, Mike thought he should begin running a bit so he didn’t die during the race.  Funny story because now this little 5k has turned into training for a half marathon in December! Crazy yes I know, but I’m so proud of my husband and Brody and I can’t wait to be cheering him on for the 5k in September somewhere in Tulsa and the half marathon in Las Vegas! J Needless to say the guy needed some shoes J

Youth camp was last week also. We loved being able to take Brody and Brod was just made for camp we think. He loved everything about it! The loud music, people everywhere, and being outside so much. His favorite part of camp was not needing to ride in his car seat. Yes, judge us as you may but we didn't strap him into his car seat all week! The camp is kinda spread out, especially where we stayed, and so driving made things easier. This kid of ours LOVED, LOVED, LOVED being behind the drivers seat!

Another youth pastor and his wife brought their boy who is 8 days older than Brod. What fun they had sharing toys, talking to each other, playing together and giving each other icky sicknesses!  Unfortunately Brody received his first double ear infection from this kid :( Oh, the consequences of having friends I guess. So I guess Brody loved the first half of camp and the second half was no bueno!

I came home a bit early to take Brod to the Dr and got him on some antibiotics. Poor boy has been miserable these last few days. It's so not fair that sweet little babies get sick! He is doing a whole lot better though and we plan a speedy recovery :)

We keep experimenting with different foods for B's taste buds to try. A huge winner is Barley! Who would have guessed, Mike and I didn't even know what Barley was. We can't give it to his fast enough.

Sweet boy has been receiving lots of baths while being sick. They have been relaxing for him and the steam has helped him to breath. He makes me smile because even in the midst of feeling so crummy he can always squeeze out some happiness and joy :)



Life skills....

Mike has been gone with the teens on our yearly missions trip. They headed over to Joplin, Missouri to help with tornado cleanup. This has been my first trip not to go on, ever! We just didn't think a tornado ravaged area was a very safe place for the B man. So it's been us this week and for some funny reason the Lord has chosen this week to be a week of training and learning a life skill for Brod. Oh His timing, oh His timing :)

Brod sense he was 8 weeks old has enjoyed being swaddled with his arms inside when he goes to sleep. This has been a lifesaver for us as it has allowed him to sleep long periods of time. Well this week he has begun to roll over like a crazy kid! Anytime he is lay ed down he quickly flips to his belly. It was finally on Sunday when I went into room because he was wailing and I found the poor guy flipped on his belly, face down in his bed not able to move because his arms were tucked in. That's when Mike and I decided the swaddle needs to end (easy for Mike to say, he was leaving that afternoon ;). So it's been a long few days to say the least. He is doing a whole lot better than what I thought he would do. We have always placed him on his back to sleep. Now that he's rolling he flips to his belly to sleep. I hate, hate, hate that this is how he sleeps, but what can you do?! His afternoon naps have gone pretty well it's just the nighttime. Our sweet little 12 hour night sleeper has gone to waking up as if he were a newborn these last 3 nights. He woke up 3 times last night and 2 of the times he was able to put himself back to sleep (even though that took 45 minutes) he did it! :) In the midst of wining and crying I just keep telling myself this is a life skill that he has to learn, he will only be better because of this. We will survive,we will! God promises strength for the day, I don't need sleep I just need His strength ;) Mike comes home today and I've told him because he has missed B so much this week, he can sleep on the couch and get up with him tonight as I sleep with our door shut :) I don't want to get into the way of daddy son time :) Love, love, love that idea :)

Some friends of ours have a great pool that we love going to in the summer. Yesterday was Brod's first time in it and he loved it!

I'm just amazed that he keeps his hat and shades on!

Such a good looking boy!

At one point I was holding him and he kept diving with his face first into the water! The first time I felt horrible as I thought I wasn't holding well enough, but after he kept doing it I realized we are going to have a fish on our hands next year! A successful swimming afternoon that we must make a regular thing!

Baby food

I'm kinda really proud of myself at the moment. There have been so many things that I said I would do either being pregnant or being a parent before being a parent and not doing (does that sentence make any sense?). For example...I thought I would never have an epidural (I held my ground on that idea for maybe one hour into labor before breaking down and getting the epidural), I thought I would use cloth diapers (that idea actually never even got experimented with!), and the best yet was that I thought life would just continue on as usual after having Brody. HA! I crack myself up! But I also did say that I wanted to make Brod's baby food, lo and behold....I have accomplished it! :)

I experimented with some frozen peas earlier in the week. I can't believe I didn't pull the camera out for that. Brod, I think, really hates peas. He brought himself to gagging the second day of giving them to him. We will push though though :)

Mike, B and I headed to the Farmer's Market on Saturday to test our luck on other veggies. We aren't huge veggie people. We will do a salad, some carrots and maybe some frozen mixed veggies with dinner but just pretty basic. So going to the market looking for veggies was a bit overwhelming. Especially when we had no clue what things look like. We knew we wanted some squash and sweet potatoes but didn't know what they looked like. So we got up to a vendor and would just say what we wanted. I think sweet potatoes aren't in season because they would just stare at us and hand us only squash. So we walked away with carrots and squash.

Lots of phone calls were placed that day as I had no clue what to do with a squash I just read it was good for babies. I couldn't believe you cook it with the skin on! But I trusted those I spoke with. Sadly before this week I really didn't even know how to steam veggies. Well with my new steamer basket, I've found it to be kinda fun :)

 I've been debating over getting a food processor or simply using my blender. I think I may stay the cheaper route and continue using my blender. Once the veggies are steamed, I pop them into the blender, pour a bit of breast milk, and puree like crazy!

 Another discovery this week.....Cheap ice cube trays are cheap ice cube trays! Always go for the higher price ones as they work much better. Well I guess I'm not sure on that I just know anything has got to be easier than my 3 for $1.27 ice cube tray purchase purchase. The plastic doesn't bend easy when trying to pop out the cubes

As of now I have weeks worth of peas, carrots and squash ready for the Brodster. Tomorrow we will begin our squash journey. I hope he likes that more than peas ;) Out of all three squash has been my favorite, I can't get Mike to try any!

5 Months

Oh our sweet little man, you are 5 months already!!!

• You secretly rolled over the other day while we weren't watcing you. Daddy layed you down on your back and when we looked at you a few minutes later you were on your belly! Of course you haven't done it again :)
• You are ticklish! The greatest spots are the bottoms of your feet and your belly. In fact if we just lay our face on your belly and you laugh and giggle :) Your sweet giggles never get old!! I wish I could bottle them up for years down the road.
• You are reaching for everything and anything and it all goes into your mouth.
• You are paying lots more attention to Gunner and Trig. You love petting them. Because you love grabbing their fur, we have to be careful to watch how much of their fur you put into your mouth. Oh sweet child :)
• You just began wearing size 2 diapers!
• Your still sleeping 12 hours at night (9 pm-9am!) and take 3 naps during the day (2 of the naps are about 1.5 hours, the last nap is a quick 30 minutes)
• You eat 4 times a day off of me and one small bowl of rice in the evenings.
• You've developed the sense of being scared with loud noises and Gunner barking.
• You continue to love being sung to.
• You love, love, love being in your stroller!
• You enjoy reading books
• You probably weigh 15 pounds by now
• We just pulled out the 6 month clothes. Yes, they are a bit large on you ;)
• You still get swaddled while you sleep. You break out your sleep sack often, but we haven't wanted to fight the battle yet. Soon son, soon ;)
• Your nicknames thus far: The Brodster, B Man, Chunk, Chunk-a-lunk and Popyee.

Oh sweet Brody! I say it all the time, we love you so, so, so much! Everyday being your momma and daddy just gets better and better and it's so much fun! We truly are bursting at the seams of our love for you. We are thankful the Lord has given us you to raise and are thankful He continues to work in you! We pray daily you will come to know Him and have a personal relationship with Him at an early age, love Him and serve Him with your heart and your life. You are so special to us :)

We bought a pool the other day. B and I went to Wal-Mart to get only milk last week. Well......we got much, much more (I hate it when that happens). For some reason I thought the pool would fit into the Pilot with Brod in it. Ha! I just ended up making a fool out of myself as 2 guys tried to help and I resulted to needing to call my husband and requesting his help. It all worked out though and the Brodster LOVES his pool!

6th Memorial Day trip

Our 6th annual Memorial Day trip was spent in sunny California this year! :) Yes, we can't complain we have friends in California and get to visit them ;) I never can get over that this group began as 5 and now is up to 9 with am extra little heart beat in Elaine's belly! :) How great the Lord has kept us all together.

This trip included LOTS of Brody firsts. His first airplane ride was a complete success! He loved every part of flying.

 We flew Southwest and will try to never fly with anyone else. Every employee was eager to go out of their way to assist us with Brody.

 He loved looking out the window and everyone else on the plane. We made the rule that Brod got anything he wanted on the flight to save sanity of all the other passengers. There was no sticking to the routine. He only had one major meltdown on the way home. I ended up rocking and singing with him on the back of the plane till he fell asleep.

 Drew picked us up from the airport and took us straight to the ocean! We couldn't wait to get B's feet in the sand. We did dip his tiny feet into the ocean and well...he hated that, too cold I guess ;)

 With no kids themselves, Drew and Heather did a great job planning a weekend that accommodated kids. Brod did beyond wonderful at taking naps wherever we were. In the pic above we spent the day at the lake having a BBQ, swimming and kayaking and B spent a huge chunk of it sleeping :)

 All three guys spent an afternoon with the kids while us girls had the afternoon shopping and eating! What a sight it would have been to see all 6 of these boys out on the town :)

 There was a great park nearby we spent a few hours at. Who new these swings could fit 2 babies?!?! Rowan and Brody loved doing swinging together.

 There was a pool in their neighborhood that B got to take his first dip in. We have a swimmer on our hands we think ;)

 I don't need to say much about this pic. YUM, YUM, YUM!! If we ever lived in California we would all be chunky due to this fast food restaurant.

 Every year the group has a competition. Mike and I were this years winners with finding the most spare change throughout the year! Yay to us :) Next years competition is to see what couple can memorize the most of the book of James in the Bible. We plan to bring the trophy home again next year ;)

 Brod was so excited to meet his best friends, Ashon and Rowan! They had tons of fun playing together. Such sweet boys!

 The whole clan! Next year there will be another baby to add :)

 The three boys all dressed in their jammies and ready for bed! We all loved bedtime! How quiet the house became when all the boys were sound asleep :)

It was another great year! We are so blessed to have such great friends and such a great tradition of getting together every year. Yes, every year gets a bit more difficult with the the continued baby additions but it makes it all the more fun. It always makes us wonder when our group will be totally complete? If it were up to our planning (the 6 adults) there will be 9 kids between the 3 couples. But only the Lord is in control and so we just wait to see and welcome new babies every year to this great group :)