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 :)

Trusting Him

I’m not one to worry about the weather. I’ve grown up hearing my Grandparent’s along with my mom and dad’s stories of the tornadoes they were in throughout their lives.  In college (I think or high school) a tornado touched down not even a mile from our house, it just missed us leaving only small debre in our yard. I’ve honestly just never been afraid. In fact I find the weather exciting. When the sirens go off most times that means in my head “Lets go outside and see what is going on”. Anyone else reading this from the Midwest don’t judge me, you do it also! :) However, over this last week the Lord has definitely been testing my faith.

Joplin Missouri is only about 2 hours from here and the devastation is just incredible. I have a few friends who’s family live there and lots of them are either dead, homeless or still missing. It’s some of the saddest conversations I’ve ever had with anyone. The part that has bothered me the most is how the hospital in that city was torn apart. I know tornadoes can do whatever they please but I honestly never thought they would take out a hospital I guess. We practice "Code Grey" at the hospital often (it's called when tornado warnings go into play) but really, who really thinks actual damage will be done. The hospital that was hit is one of our sister hospitals and the stories we keep hearing are horrific! All I keep thinking about is how I would ever be able to stay in nurse mode working, not able to go home and be with my family. As I try to wrap my brain around that sole thought the Lord continually has been asking me, "How much do you trust me? Where is your faith?" It was so easy to trust when it was just Mike and me, but now with Brody, it's a whole nother story. God promises to take care of us, I know that. If that means on this earth or with Him, because we have a relationship with Him, we will be fine. I can only do so much to protect my son, ultimately he is the Lord's and I have to remember that. I need to stop worrying and begin clinging to His words, "May the God of hope fill you with joy and PEACE as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

All this to say, last night there was more bad weather. Again Mike needed to keep reminding me that I had to trust the Lord. The sirens went off and for the first time I think in my life we took shelter. Mike, Brod, Gunner, Trig and I crammed into our bathroom (it's the center most room in our home)  and waited out the storm for about 30 minutes. The storm passed and we were fine :) Thank you Jesus! I do wish I would have snapped a picture of all of us. I still don't know how we crammed into the bathtub. Also earlier this week Mike and I developed an emergency plan involving a family contact person in Iowa and a place to meet if Mike and I were separated. Hopefully we will never need this plan...but we are ready! :)

Finally below is some pics we had taken while we were in Iowa last month with my sweet niece and nephew. Enjoy :)

Sick

I'm not sure what I was thinking but I truly believed that when you became a mother all sickness just disappeared from you. Well.....I got a great dose of how wrong I was this week! Monday morning I woke up sicker than sick! I had it all fever, chills, vomiting and other things I don't care to mention. Lets just say the whole day I was either in bed or camped out in the bathroom! Thankfully Mike was able to work from home and hang out with the B man. It just killed me hearing that sweet little boy play and laugh and not being able to kiss, tickle or love on him. Mike is a great nurse though! He definitely wins the prize for Mr. Mom! He did it all! Laundry, dishes, Brod's bath, kept the house picked up, various runs to the store for Sprite, Gatorade and soup, and yet still had time to hand me a cold rag every time I visited the bathroom! I'm so thankful for such a great husband! The fever broke Monday night, Mike took the morning off yesterday as I was gaining some strength back, I still napped every time Brody layed down and today...well we are almost back to normal. I'm having a hard time eating/drinking anything but I'm forcing it down due to my poor son needs to continue to eat meaning I need to produce an adequate milk supply for him. So all in all we will all survive! Needless to say....YES....mommas do get sick and how cruddy it is!! But with a great and loving husband it's not the end of the world :) I'm not sure why the Lord has blessed me with such a perfect guy, but I'm beyond thankful for him!

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was fun. I surprisingly didn't have to work but Mike did (big bummer!) being a Sunday. B decided to sleep in an extra 30 minutes longer so I enjoyed a great cup of coffee on the patio while reading my Bible. I couldn't of asked for a better beginning to the day! Once B woke up, I dressed him in a onesie that seemed very fitting ;) (See pic below) and headed to church. After church we went out to lunch at one of my favorite Chinese places. Once home, I opened a very sweet card that Brod made along

a hummingbird feeder! The feeder is something I've always wanted but never really thought of getting until B was born and I began imagining the fun we would have watching the tiny birds drink out of it this summer. We'll see if it works out as planned. If not, I know I'll have fun at least ;) Mike then told me to go take a nap (one of my all time favorite things to do!!!). I quickly ran off to our room where I slept for 2 hours! Once waking up completely refreshed, we all went on a walk and then off to small group. What a great day! I love being a mom and am so glad the Lord has blessed me with such a perfect boy! 

A growing boy

The Brodster had his 4 months appointment yesterday. He weighs in at 13 pounds and 7.5 oz and is 23 inches long (I think). He continues to hang out in the 25% for height and weight. He received two more shots :( but did so much better this time around. We gave him 2 does of Tylenol yesterday and that's all he needed! Praise the Lord because last month he was fussy the rest of the week and Mike and I were both on the edge of a meltdown.

We forgot a blanket for the sweet man and he gets striped down to his diaper and it was a bit cold in the room. We thought daddy's jacket would be the perfect remedy :)

The last week we've noticed that B was not satisfied by any amount of milk he received. He woke up every night (which is highly unusual) and would scream his little head off as soon as he sucked me dry. We ended up giving him additional frozen milk in a bottle to try to satisfy him. All week I thought I was failing at giving my son adequate milk and I hated thinking he needed a bottle after nursing because I wasn't good enough. I pumped and pumped like crazy to get my already dripping like a cow milk supply up more. We were very glad we had a Dr. appointment coming up. So all to say we brought our concerns to the Dr. Low and behold we leaned Brody is simply showing classic signs of being ready for food!! Who would have thought?! First timers!! We hurried off to buy some rice cereal for our starving son. Again, these first timers are so naive! Who would have thought there were a million different types of rice cereal?! Whole wheat, regular, apple, banana, etc!!! Thankfully an experienced mom was in our same aisle laughing as she overhead Mike and I in panic over these dumb cereals. Needless to say we settled with the plain old original rice cereal.

We waited until almost bedtime to feed our son his first bite of food. Rice cereal is a hit with the B man (not a hit with his momma though, don't judge me, yuk!!) He's a pro at eating, we never had any doubts though :) This rice is also a fan of filling B's belly, all three of us had a very sleep filled night! Well I guess at 4:30 am I woke to B chatting with his friend monkey on his bumper in his crib for about 15 minutes before re falling asleep. Such social boy!

It was a beautiful afternoon today and my pasty white skin wanted to get out an enjoy it. So B and I made a fun little fort for him to play in. Success! He was happy and I was happy :)

Four months

There aren't too many changes from three months to four months expect for:

• We look for a new love rolls daily on you :) Your such a chunk!
• You now have fun during tummy time.
• Lately, you have no clue what a stranger is. You will chat it up with anyone who is willing to listen. You become bashful though quickly or you turn on your flirting charm ;)
• You love, love, love being outside! 
• Anything and everything goes into your mouth. You have quite the slobber gobbers coming out of you mouth also. Lots of times we resort to placing a bib on you to save your clothes :)
• Your so close to rolling over! You just need a bit of a nudge from us and your over. The look on your face in priceless. You get so happy!
• You had your first few giggles!
• You hold things great in your hands and can bring everything straight to your mouth (your so smart!).

 The look of innocence.

The classic hand in the mouth.

 Grandma K made this Noah's Ark blanket for Brod. He loves looking at the ark. It's such a great opportunity to tell him all about Noah's Ark.

 

Trig and B have finally become friends!!!

 He loves looking at this picture book. There is a pic of a monkey he is looking at and Brod can never stop talking to him. His face lights up as soon as the page is turned to his monkey friend.

Road trip

We took our first road trip and visit home with the B man this last weekend!  We figured this was the first trip and the next 5 months a trip is scheduled  monthly and so B had no choice but to like it ;) He did GREAT! We were so proud of the 8 hours he put up with hanging out in his car seat. The way to Iowa it took us 10 hours and the way home 8.5 hours (we're not sure how we did such great time the way home). Meghan came with us so it was great that we always had someone sitting by him which I think helped a lot! We discovered traveling with a baby is kinda relaxing. When it was just Mike and I we tried to get to our destination as quick as we could. There was no stopping unless we ABSOLUTELY needed to. And now, we stop for meals and even eat in the restaurant! We walk around and even play! I kinda like this new road trip life :)

Anytime we stopped was some major play time for Brody. There were HUGE smiles anytime he was out of his car seat.

There was lots of family who haven't met B yet. They ate him up. By the end of the trip Mike and I were missing our boy because he was always with someone and not us. I selfishly loved that I had to hold him 4 times a day to nurse :) We started to place B in the middle of our table when we are eating at a restaurant. He loves it. Well he was only in the middle of this table for a very short while because there were very eager hands to snatch him up!

B loved meeting his grandma!

I couldn't wait for B to meet his great grandma and grandpa!

Brody has a fussy time between 8-9 pm every night! We were truly on vacation this hour because thankfully Grandpa missed his grandson so much he gladly took this shift :) He discovered B likes the piano and enjoyed playing it.

We had such a fun time showing off our boy! He definitely was a hit :) We are so proud of him how great he did during the whole trip. This puts our minds at ease a lot for the next few months of traveling. On the agenda is California in May, youth camp in June, family camp in July, and vacation to Colorado Springs in August!

Three months.....really???

Oh our sweet Brodster! How in the world are you three months already? We feel like we've known you forever but yet it's only been a few short weeks. It's amazing how quick you are growing and developing into such a perfect little man the Lord is creating. Each day we both wake up somehow more in love you then the day before. I say "somehow" because we go to bed saying "there is just no way we can love you anymore because our hearts are so filled!" Again how true God is when He says, "Blessed is the one with children." (my own translation of course). So true!!! We are so blessed to have you in our lives! Our hearts are busting at the seams with love for you sweet B :)

At three months:

• You love sucking on your fists, you sometimes take your soothie but definitely prefer your hand
• You love watching TV. Sometimes we use it as our last resort when your crying and we have no more tricks left to try to calm you
• You love your mobile friends that hang above your head in your crib. You spend alone time with them once a day chatting it up :)
• You are still not a fan of tummy time
• You are a great talker and love to make noises
• You love to smile, you melt our hearts every time :)
• You are nursing every 4 hours during the day
• Your bedtime feeding is at 9 pm, after eating and some singing your asleep by 9:30. Most of the time you sleep then till 8 am!! Sometimes you wake up at 6 am for a quick feeding then back to bed. This only happens once or twice a week though.
• After a feeding your awake for two hours and then sleep for two hours
• Your favorite song is "I'm in the Lord's Army". It's a guarantee when we want you to smile, so funny!
• You recognize your mommy and daddy and can spot us from across the room
• You just started to make purposeful movements with your hands and are able to grab objects

We love you sweet boy!!