6 months and counting...

Hey, everyone!

Sorry I have been slacking so much on posting here. I have been doing lots better in keeping up with my cooking blog, so if you want to know what we've been eating lately, check it out! :) Haha!

Last week, Ian turned 6 MONTHS OLD!! We cannot believe how fast the time has flown. Here is a pic from the his 6-month birthday taken at a family party on my side of the fam.

Ian is now:

* sitting up by himself.

* rolling over when he feels the desire. :)

* eating solids. He prefers bits of cracker, apple, banana, and bread over cereal, though he does enjoy that.

* drinking out of his own sippy cup. Though he loves that, he loves drinking out of Mommy and Daddy's cups even better! :)

* loving all kinds of interaction. He loves when we all laugh and he loves to giggle and play with Mommy and Daddy.

* knows that even though he can't see Mommy and Daddy that they are still there.

* loves playing outside in this new-found warm weather.

* LOVES for Daddy to suck on his fingers! If you're holding him and he reaches up and keeps touching your mouth, he wants you to suck on his fingers. Just FYI. :) Probably a bad habit for later, but it's so cute now.

* sleeping in his OWN room! We are all getting much better sleep since moving him into the spare room. It has been a blessing for all of us.

He is still such a happy, healthy, sweet little boy. Matt and I are so grateful to have him in our family! We couldn't imagine it any other way!

I'll add a few other pictures of the happenings in our lives since I last posted.

*New Bed*

*First Easter egg hunt. Not pictured is the "big prize" egg that we found and the cute children's story we got. :) *

*Down in West Jordan meeting Cousin Micah for the first time. Ian and Micah are only 6 months apart, so I'm sure they'll be buds. (Ian & Micah were almost the same size when they were born. We can't believe how much Ian has grown!) Matt holding both cute little boys.*

*Me holding Micah for the first time.*

*After meeting baby Micah, we took his older brother and sister to the park. Here is Ian playing on the slide.*

*Maddie, Ian, and Levi playing on the swings, and Matt giving them pushes. :)*

In March, we were able to go down to St. George with some Matt's siblings and it was SOOOO fun! We are definitely planning on going back before too long. Here are a few of the pictures from that trip.

*Ian and Maddie swinging. Isn't Kel such a gorgeous pregnant lady? She is Micah's beautiful mommy.*

*Matt, Josh, Maddie, and Katie playing basketball.*

*Ian and I chillin' while we watch the others play ball. :) It was such a beautiful sunshiny day! Loved it!*

*After lunch, we hiked up a neat rock formation/hill and the views were gorgeous. (I'm blanking on the name of the place right now...)*

*This place not only had cool rocks and neat views, but hikes, and some awesome red sand dunes. These next few pictures were taken at the sand dunes. This one is of Ian and I.*

*Everyone gathered around to see if Maddie's sandcastle worked. Yay! It did! :)*

*Cute little Ian!*

*Ian's and Mommy's feet.*

*The place we stayed had some neat swimming pools at the clubhouse. Ian getting dried off after playing in the kiddie pool. He wasn't sure about it at first, but he warmed up to it really quickly. :)*

I think that about catches you up on our lives. :) Matt finishes school in just a couple of weeks (the first week in May), and then things will slow down a little bit. Matt's parents and little brother are coming down this week and next to spend time with new little Micah, and it'll be so fun to see them! Until next time! :)

COOKING BLOG!!!

Hey, everyone! When I have a minute, I'll update everyone on our lives, but I just wanted you all to know that I started a cooking blog. Trying out new recipes has become a new hobby of mine, so if you're interested in some yummy recipes, check out my blog: http://mommychefinthemaking.blogspot.com. I started this blog because I ran into some recipes that were just too dang good to keep to myself. Trust me, there is some yummy stuff on there! :)

2 Months Old and a Baby Blessing

Whew! Time just flies! Ian is turned 2 months old this past Thursday. He is getting so big and is such a joy to be around! He is now smiling and cooing all the time. It is so cute! Matt and I just can't get enough of our little guy. Ian has been sleeping through the night pretty regularly. It's been so nice! I forget how spoiled I am until those rare nights when he wakes up more often.

At his 2 month appointment, Ian weighed 13 lbs. 5 oz. which puts him in the 80th percentile (up from the 50th percentile at his 2 week appointment). He is now 23 inches, 2 inches longer than his birth height and that puts him in the 60th percentile (also up from the 50th percentile at 2 weeks). Our doctor said that he's doing great. He is right on schedule. =) Yay! We've been starting to move into 3-6 month clothes cause he's getting too big for a lot of his 0-3 month clothes. Ian's definitely a healthy baby! ;)

Ian had to get shots at his 2 month appointment. He handled them really well. He cried pretty hard for a few minutes, but calmed down very quickly after I picked him up and cuddled with him for a minute. It is so hard as a mom to see your baby in pain. It about tore my heart out when he looked at me and started bawling. It was all I could do to keep from bawling with him. Your heart just hurts for them.

As for other news, on December 6th we blessed Ian. Matt gave the blessing and did a wonderful job! It was such an amazing experience for us. I'm so grateful to have a faithful priesthood holder in my home. He is so incredible and I feel so blessed to be able to call him mine. I love you, Hun!

Here's a few pictures from the last little while.

*Most of Matt's immediate fam after Ian's blessing.*

*Our cute little family! :)*

*Another family shot.*

*What a stud!*

*Cute smile on his blessing day.*

*Doing some tummy time.*

*Mommy & Ian*
*I'm a happy, smiley guy!*
*Sleepy little guy*
*Look at my cute smile!*

Better Late Than Never!

Hey everyone! I'm sorry I'm not very good at keeping up with this blogging stuff! So, it's been 5 weeks since little Ian came into this world and I figured it was past time to blog about it, so here goes! =)

Let me back up a little and give you a little background about what was happening before Ian came along. At the last few doctors appointments, my blood pressure had been on the rise. It got to the point where my doctor was watching it closely because high blood pressure is a sign of a serious problem that can come with pregnancy, called preemclampsia. Preemclampsia is when some of the mother's organs are shutting down (I can't remember which specifically, but I think it's something like the liver or kidneys), and the only cure for it is to have the baby. Well, I never exhibited any of the other signs of preemclampsia, but my blood pressure was borderlining it. I had a doctor's appointment the day after our due date, which was October 12th, and she stripped my membranes a second time to try to get my labor to start. She said that if I didn't go into labor on my own before Thursday, then to come in as early as possible Thursday morning. She wanted to check my blood pressure again and if it was still high, then we would be able to be induced that day! I was SOOO excited!

Well, needless to say, I didn't start on my own. So, Matt took Thursday-Monday off of work and accompanied me to the doctors office Thursday morning. We were Dr. Blackett's first appointment on Thursday morning, and, of course, my blood pressure was still really high so she called the hospital for us and sent us over.

Matt and I were so excited as we drove through the parking lot to the hospital. We checked in, and the nurses got us situated. We arrived at the hospital at 9:30 AM, were induced at 10:30 AM, and my water was broken at noon. The labor and delivery went really well. Matt and I relaxed and watched TV and movies all day. I was able to handle all the labor pains pretty easily, which kind of surprised me. The contractions definitely didn't hurt nearly as bad as I had expected! We only had to use the breathing techniques for less than an hour and a half. I only had really hard pains for about half an hour and then we got an epidural around 4:15 PM. Epidurals are heavenly! Being numbed for the epidural was the worst part of the whole experience for me. That was the only time when I wanted to cry, but it was totally worth it when the medication started to work and I would do it all over again.

After that, everything progressed pretty quickly and we were able to start pushing at 8:30 PM. Ian arrived at 10:27 PM after 2 hours of pushing. He weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. and was 21 inches long when he was born.

It was such an amazing feeling when he finally arrived! I remember the feelings of wanting to cry and awe at the miracle of what just happened, mixed with the feeling of "Oh my gosh! That's my baby!" I can't even begin to describe the feelings in my heart then, but I can perfectly recall them now. Every pain, every sickness leading up to that moment when I first saw him was SO worth it and I would do it all over again and more to have him! It was such an incredible feeling when they first placed him in my arms. Love for him just swelled in my heart as I tried to comfort him while he was trying to adjust to life in this world.

I think the looks on Matt's and my faces say it all!

We just love being parents to Ian! There is nothing more fulfilling to me. His being here has filled holes in me that I didn't even know existed and he brings so much joy into our lives. Every day, I look at him and marvel at the miracle of his being here. We couldn't have asked for a better baby and we're so grateful to have him here!

Here are some more pictures to document his first five weeks of life.

Alert from the very first minutes.

One proud daddy! =)

Grandma Jo and Ian

Great-Grandma Patsy and Ian

Family picture

Cute little guy! Less than 24 hours old.

I won't caption the rest, but here's just a TINY amount of the other pictures we have from the past 5 weeks.

This last one is a picture taken today, when Ian is 5 weeks old! Time flies! He is getting so big and healthy. He is soooo cute!

And last but not least...

I'm SOOOOOO very grateful to have this wonderful man in my life!! I can't imagine being without him. There's no way I would have been able to go through some of the things I have without him and I'm so grateful for his love and support. I love you, Hun!!!