My Sweet Boy is Crawling and it's Oh, so cute!

So this little boy seems to take his sweet time with most things. He's been rolling and scooting to get where he's going for quite a while now, so I'm happy to say that he's finally crawling at 11 months.  He's awkward and stumbly and I love it!  He usually gives up halfway and reverts to the army crawl. However, we thought he was a tornado before?  Whoa, he's into EVERYTHING!

He's also pulling himself up onto everything and usually falling down too. He's got a nice assortment of bruises on his poor little head. I watch him closely, but he still gets away from me sometimes.  I guess he has to learn the hard way.  This is how I found him in the pack-and-play in Idaho at Thanksgiving when he was supposed to be napping!

I just thought this one was cute with him sleeping with his little bum in the air.

He stayed awake the whole 3 1/2 hour drive to Montpelier and 2 1/2 of the hours home.  This boy does not like to sleep in the car. But it's so precious when he does.  We are driving to Phoenix the day after Christmas... that's going to be fun!

Just another cute one!

I tend Charlie's cousin AJ a couple of days a week.  He loves her.  She's not a fan of him.  But Grandpa is sure cute with them.

This is totally unrelated, but I made some curtains for the family room and I am so excited about them.  I got a screamin deal at Joann's and I love them!(Now we just need new blinds!) I made them long so I can use them in my house when we move back.  Now I need a new project!

Charlie's First Haircut

So Charlie was starting to look a little like baby Einstein so I decided it was time for a haircut.  It was longer on one side and he always seemed to be pulling his hair with food hands... ya, he's turned into one of those grody little babies that are always crusty (but adorable at the same time!)!  Here's the before...

His hair actually looks cute in these before pictures, but trust me, it was scary!

My mom actually did all the work. Of course he didn't hold still for one second.

Jared helped subdue him a little.

And he looks sooooo cute with his new haircut!

A Quiet Halloween!

Seems like an oxymoron, right? A quiet Halloween?  Well it was!  Charlie and I slept in this morning and then stayed home most of the day. We went to Jared's work to trick-or-treat and then later tonight, Ralynn, Toby, and Ralynn's mom came to visit and that was it.  It was so different from my Halloweens for the last ten years, but I sure enjoyed it. I guess next year I'll probably have to take Charlie out for some real trick-or-treating, but I enjoyed it while it lasted! I had a lot of fun making this little froggy costume for my sweet little Charlie.

I came across some past Halloween pictures and thought I'd throw them in for fun!

Love this one!   Moo!

I heart Pinterest!

 So the other day my brother said that no one really has time to do any of the things that they see on Pinterest.  I beg to differ!

This isn't anything new and exciting, but I found the instructions for covering a wipes case.  I made matching burp cloths and a binky chain and put it together with some baby lotions in a basket from the dollar store which made a darling baby shower gift.

 I turned this...

 ...into this! Jared's words: "I really like that table.  I guess Pinterest can serve a purpose aside from hours of entertainment for my wife!" 

 The Very Hungry Caterpillar cake for my nephew Benjamin's b-day party.

 A watermelon "cake" for our "It's Summer" party with my teacher friends.

 I made a cute keychain for my mom, since she just got a new car (finally, her old one was quite literally on it's last leg!).

I also make new recipes that I find on Pinterest all the time.  Some are better than others, I have to admit.

Okay, this one's not from Pinterest, but since I'm not teaching anymore, I've found my creative outlet in sewing.  I made this for our ward auction and it was such a hit, another ward member asked me to make her one too.  It was a lot of fun.  I also made Charlie's frog costume and a dress for me (which I hate, but I'm hoping to tweak so I will like it).

 So, this is to Andy (not that he will probably even see this).  Pinterest is awesome! And, well, I feed Charlie 5 times a day.  I need something to do with my time!

Happy Halloween!

We decided to have a Halloween party with my family this year, something we've never done, and I think it may become a new tradition. It was a lot of fun! Really, I wanted a chance to use some ideas from Pinterest!  We had scary ice cubes...

...and brain jello!  Honestly, it looked so gross, hardly anyone ate it!

We had a spaghetti dinner and the kids wore their costumes.

Charlie got his first taste of spaghetti, and loved it!

And he got to wear his costume for the first time!  I made it myself and don't mind saying that I'm pretty proud of myself!  I have since made a second hood since this one was so huge.  The good news is that the mittens prevented him from trying to pull it off!  He looked so dang cute and totally played along with it.  I was worried he'd hate it and fuss the whole time, but he was just having a great time with the cousins.

Andelyn was a cute elephant.  These two are going to be best buddies.  We wanted to get Benjamin in this picture too, but he wouldn't have it with the costumes.

The kids painted pumpkins which turned out to be  a huge mess, but they had a blast.

I know Halloween's not everyone's favorite, but I sure enjoy myself!

Could this boy be any cuter?

Charlie had his 9 month visit last week.  He is doing very well and growing like a weed.  He is in the 80th percentile for weight and 68th for height.  He is busy, busy, busy!  Sacrament meeting, diaper changes, feeding time, and many other times have become a serious wrestling match.  This boy never sits still.  We are in for it in a few months when he starts walking.  He's a tornado!  (But he's our little tornado and we sure do love him!)
We finally got Charlie's pictures taken professionally for the first time since he was brand new. We wanted a new family picture too, so Jared and I jumped in for a few of them. I was so happy with how they turned out. This boy makes us so happy, it was easy for us to smile for the camera!

I really wanted one with this cute hat I got for him, but this is the best we could get.  He pulls it off the second I put it on him.

This little lion is special to us.  We got an identical one for Charlie's biological brother, Toby, when Charlie was born.  We thought it would be fun to have it in some of the pictures too.

He kept blinking every time the camera flashed.  This face made us laugh.

This boy loves his daddy!

I think Daddy loves him too!

My dad wasn't expecting for his pumpkins to grow so huge.  They took over the whole garden.  They're awesome!

Charlie started pulling himself up to standing position in the bathtub today.  He was so proud of himself he had to do it three or four times.  Bath time is becoming very interesting!

Where's Charlie?

He loved the car.  However, I looked away for one second and he had slid off the seat and was laying flat on his back on the cement (which he was not happy about).  I guess he's not quite ready for driving. Luckily he just slid instead of falling.  He didn't get hurt.

Everyday is another exciting adventure with this little boy!

We have a sitter! (Finally)

We've been waiting for months for Charlie to decide to sit on his own and he always just falls over on his noggin!  Well, last week we went to Bear Lake for Jared's sister's wedding and hung out with family for a fun weekend.  Charlie's cousin, Ava, who is two months younger is sitting up like a champ and I think he decided he didn't want to be shown up by a girl, haha!  One day this last week, he couldn't do it in the morning, but was sitting just fine by the end of the day.  Yay!  It makes lots of things so much easier and he looks so big!

We got a seat to go on the back of my bike and I was so excited to get out and ride.  He didn't love the helmet, but couldn't pull it off, so he had to succumb.

We went out for  a short ride today and Charlie loved it.  His little feet were kicking me in the bum the whole time!  It was super cute.

No more baby seat in the shopping cart!  He makes car noises the whole time and everyone in the store likes to stop and talk to him.  He's so friendly.

Bad hair day (it was combed all cute until nap time came around!)

This is one he'll hate me for later, but this is Charlie.  Every diaper change has turned into a serious wrestling match where he ends up like this and I have to wrestle him back into position several times!

Black sock Sunday!

Toby came for a visit this summer and Charlie loved to snuggle right up with him and Erica and watch a movie. Cutie kids.

Charlie also got his first two teeth since the last post.  It was silly how excited I got, but it was so cute to feel that first tooth poking through his gums.  I love every new little thing about him.  He's so much fun. The best part is that Jared gets as excited about every little thing as I do.  He's such a cute daddy.