We're all happy

So, this morning I was pureeing some of B's food in my blender. I noticed smoke after a bit and discovered somehow that my blender had melted! I've been looking for excuses to purchase a food processor and well here was my moment. I quickly threw B in the car and we were off! I love, love, love my food processor!! Why didn't I invest in one sooner?! As much as I love my new "toy" the B Man loves his new box :) We're all happy!

The B Man has discovered the art of crawling! We are so proud :) We dropped him off last week at Aunt Meghans' dorm room and well....she made a crawler out of him. Now, hello to the art of setting boundaries. 

He loves not just crawling to the pups but crawling over them multiple times! Oh thank you Jesus for sweet pups that love our boy :)

A week away

 Vacation finally came last week! We did it a little later than usual this year and so we were ready. With the camper, we decided to brave the 10 hour drive to Colorado Springs. What a beautiful place!! I'll share about the trip through pictures below (warning....tons of pics below!)

 Some friends of ours told us that when they go on road trips they bring in a saucer for their little guy while eating out. Mike was a bit hesitant and for once a bit embarrassed, but after B in the car for 8 hours I didn't care what others thought (for once for me also). Here we sat/played and ate at Applebee's, everyone was happy! Thanks Adam and Emily :)

 We all had a blast making our dinners. Mexican foil packs for this night, our favorite! Yum, yum!

 We had the most perfect campsite! Privacy and the mountains, what more could you ask for?

 An afternoon was spent at Garden of the God's or we called it God's Garden. B fell asleep in the car on the way there so we parked in the shade and waited for him to wake up for an hour and a half! Mike and I had so much fun waiting together. It may have been one of my highlights. We met some really neat people who passed us, got the opportunity to pray with a young college girl on her way to California, and shared some really great laughs together.

 What a great place this was!

 Another day we rode the train up to the summit of Pike's Peak. It was fun to keep our summer clothes in the suitcases and pull out the winter things :)

 The B Man had so much fun during the hour and such ride up he fell asleep. Can you blame him though? He had a very full belly (we were nervous his ears would bug him with the elevation so we kept feeding him puff after puff followed by tons of water) and was very warm (we may have bundled him up too much) it's the perfect combination!

 The crazy thing is that this kid never sleeps on us, but he was out. We loaded him in my front carrier, placed another blanket on him and allowed him the sleep the sweet boy needed.

 The "special" thing is to buy donuts on top. So B woke up as we were getting ready to eat them ;)

 His daddy was a very proud daddy on this day just knowing that his son was on top of a fourteener! Oh the future Mike has set out in his mind for the two of them :)

 One of my favorite pictures! The bond these two share is just incredible already.

 This is a highlight of Mike's. You are looking at a black bear on the side of the road! Mike spotted it, slammed on the breaks, spun the car around, barely parked it before running out leaving me and B behind (he wasn't thinking!) There was a couple picnicking near where we parked and so Mike went over and alerted them. They lived in the area and motioned for me to come over to them saying we were safe. For about the next 30 minutes we watched as the bear ate berries and took a nap about 30 feet from us! So cool!

 Seven Falls was our next adventure, these stairs about did me in!

 We forgot the shade thing that goes over Mike's pack and also the sunscreen (there is SOOO much to remember as a parent) so the umbrella looks a little girly...but it did the trick :)

 My cousin lives in Denver and she came down for dinner. So great to see her!

 My aunt,uncle and cousins from Wisconsin flew into Colorado Springs the last 2 days we were there. We had a blast exploring with them.

 We drove to Pike National Forest with them for a picnic and a bit of hiking. Besides watching the sunset on our private beach in Kauai last summer, this is one of the two most beautiful places Mike and I have EVER seen! Our eye's were all over the place as we were just lost starting at God's wonderful creation!

 We sat in a meadow! Yes, a meadow!! I couldn't get over we were hanging out in a meadow! It's places like these that I wonder how in the world anyone could deny God's existence. Thanks you Lord for the gift of your creation!

The park we stayed at, Cheyenne Mountain State Park. What a great place it was!. The week was great. Yes, it was definitely a transition and sometimes a bit trying vacationing with an 8 month old. The Lord continues to reveal areas of selfishness Mike and I are holding onto during this transition into parenthood, but how fun to be able to vacation as a family and continuing building onto the foundation we have begun.

7 months

I truly feel as if I post these monthly updates weekly. Life is flying by so quickly. My goal lately has been to focus more on enjoying every minute by slowing down and not getting overly stressed out. I admit I am one to get a bit uptight on Brod's "schedule" and I hate being that way. So I have begun (in little steps) taking on Mike's philosophy of, "He'll survive, it's okay". Mike has always been the laid back one and also definitely has a one track mind (which comes to his advantage often). So thanks babe for helping me to just "chill" lately :)

These 7 month pics were the hardest to get! Our wiggle worm hates being still and wants EVERYTHING in his mouth! So enjoy his little personality below :)

• He continues to nurse 4 times a day and eats fruits/veggies 3 times a day.
• He really wants nothing to do with crawling, trust me we practice all the time and he throws a huge fit. He wants everything to do with standing and bouncing though. I think he would be 100% fine if all he did during the day was stand and bounce in his Johnny Jumper.
• He loves drinking water from his sippy cups.
• He goes from laying to sitting now.
• He loves Gunner and Trigger! They bring him so much joy and many giggles!

• Brod loves reading books and eating books ;)
•  No teeth yet, but we go through rough weeks where we think one will bust through any moment because of his discomfort but then he recovers. Hmmm.....I'm learning teething is a process and not a one time event.

 I added the pic below because it makes Mike and I laugh. This is the outfit B wore to church on Sunday. All through the day it looked as if it fit him because we were either holding him or he was sitting on the ground. It wasn't until evening while he was standing that we noticed how large it really was :) I'm not a fan of Old Navy sizes. It's a 6-12 months, I think thats the strangest thing.

Little get away

A couple weeks ago we all headed up to Osage Beach, Missouri for our church districts Family Camp. It was great to get away even though we felt like we hung out in our hotel room the majority of the time with B taking naps. No complaints, because that just meant naps for Mike and I also :) We ate lots of great food and shopped till we dropped during waking hours. One of our favorite seafood places we found a couple years back has these really fun cut outs, we couldn' t resist!

 A Culver's was very conveniently located near our resort, YUM YUM YUM!!

 The grass at Culver's was incredible! I didn't realize how much I was missing nice, soft, green grass until we got out of our car and saw the lushness! The flip flops immediately came off and all three of us plopped ourselves on the richness :)

The B man really enjoyed the grass also :)

 Uncle Adam has been back in town and Brody is loving all the Uncle Adam time!

 A friend of Adams came over for dinner the other night. Mike and I weren't quite ready before the B man woke up so we put the college guys in charge of him until dinner was ready. This site was priceless as the guys had every one of B's toys out on their laps to try to entertain him. They did great job, B loved it!