5 months old!

Ayden turned 5 months old on December 27th. Last month I thought was eventful but he was just figuring things out...this month he had many firsts! It was such a fun month to watch him grow and change! Here are some pictures of the month!

He learned how to roll over from back to tummy. It makes it so much easier for him to play when he is can get to his tummy when ever he wants. Next month we will work on rolling from tummy to back! :)

We tried cereal for the first time. He really enjoyed it when it is mixed with breast milk but doesn't like it if I mix it with water. We are going to try baby food next month and I am going to try to make my own!

We can now sit up by ourself!!! This was the first time and he sat there with no blanket or help while I searched the house for the camera! I was happy to see him still sitting when I came back! :)

Ayden's first Christmas was great! It was so fun to be able to start our own family traditions along with celebrating with both of our families! This picture is Ayden and his cousin Jacob. Last time we saw them Jacob didn't pay much attention to Ayden but this time he would get him toys and hug and kiss him! I think this picture is so sweet!

And here is the monthly picture. I couldn't find the right moment to take the picture throughout the day so after he fell asleep I made Brett take this picture. I thought the pose was so funny!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Love,

Ayden :)

Send the Soldiers a FREE Letter!!!

Hey Everyone, I saw this on my friends facebook status and thought it was awesome! XEROX has a website where you can pick out a card and send it to a soldier over seas for free! All you do is go to this website and pick out the card (they all have been designed by children around the country). Write a message or pick one of many that they have written and click send. They take care of the rest! You can also do it as many times as you would like! The website is www.LetsSayThanks.com.

Lets spread some Christmas Cheer to our soldiers who are deployed this year!!!

Wrestling Season Has Begun :)

Ayden is 4 months old!

This will be my last post to get all caught up!

Ayden is 4 months old! I feel like this past month has been the most eventful. He has really been starting to figure things out and can do so much more! This past month he has started grabbing things. He is trying very hard to roll over. He can get to his side and from his side he can go to his belly but I have not seen him to it in one full motion yet. I think it will be anytime now. He likes to sit but can not do it on his own yet. I put him between my legs and he can balance for a few seconds so we will keep working on that too. He smiles all the time and loves to talk! The past few mornings we have been awakened by coos rather than crying. I just love that sound, even if it is usually around 6:30am. For the friends that have known me for a long time they know I am not a morning person! BUT nothing is better than being awaken by a happy baby!

We had his 4 month check up yesterday. Everything went great! He is a very big 4 month old! He weighs 17 lbs and is 26 1/2 inches long. His weight is between the 75-90th percentile and his height is between the 90th-95th percentile. His head on the other hand is off the charts. :) He is just now out growing his 6th month clothes and is wearing 9 month. During this check up he had to get shots. He was a champ! The first one he didn't even flinch, he started crying when they took out the second one and by the 3rd he was NOT happy! He was pretty good the rest of the day so I am happy that the shots don't bother him to much.

Here Comes Santa Claus

On Friday, we spend the day with Brett's family and had our Thanksgiving. We ate a great meal spent some time hanging out, watching football, napping, playing board games and being entertained by Brett and our niece Elizabeth's duet on American Idol for the Wii. It was a great day! In the evening Cedar Falls had the new Holiday Hoopla in Downtown. This was a great event! Most of the shops were open and there were people singing christmas carols, and by the end of the night Santa was supposed to make his appearance. All they told us was to watch the sky!

Maddie, Ayden and Elizabeth at the Holiday Hoopla.

We were all wondering how and when Santa would come...

Our family picture with Frosty!

Ayden slept much of the night!

Here comes Santa Claus!!!

This is how Santa made his appearance. He started at the top of the building and repelled down the side. Brett's sister Kelly kept telling Maddie and Elizabeth that maybe he would sky dive down so repelling down the side of the building was not as cool for the girls. I still enjoyed it!! What a great night it was and I think it might become a new tradition

for our family!!

So Much to be Thankful For!

This Thanksgiving was so much fun for our family! It is amazing how having a baby makes everything so much more fun! This Thanksgiving I could not help but remember last year... Last year we went up to my brothers house on Thanksgiving and I remember being "exhausted"! The whole weekend I felt "exhausted" and I remember Brett giving me a hard time but by the end of the weekend we decided to take a pregnancy test. Well that Sunday I took a pregnancy test and it came out positive!!! We were so excited to find out we were going to have a baby! The past year has been amazing and I could not have asked for a better year! We had a healthy pregnancy and now a healthy and fun little 4 month old baby boy! Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving this year!

Ayden and his cousin Jacob...they are 1 year apart!

Grandpa Higgins and Ayden

Ayden's first Thanksgiving!!

We stayed in a hotel Weds. night in the cities and he tried swimming for the first time...he was not to excited about it yet. I hope he enjoys it a little more this summer

because mom is looking forward to days spend at the waterpark! :)

Ayden with his Uncle Mike and Aunt Kelly. We spend Friday with Brett's family!

Discovery Toys

This weekend I decided to become a consultant with Discovery Toys. Discovery Toys is a company that sells high quality educational toys for children ranging in age from birth to school age. I became familiar with the company many years ago when I baby-sat for a consultant. While baby-sitting for her I was able to play with the toys and I noticed how great they were, how much her kids enjoyed them and how much they learned from playing with them. Once I was hired at McKinstry I contacted my friend and she showed me some great toys for first graders. My students loved playing the games I had when they got done with activities, during transitions and during inside recess.

I have really enjoyed staying home with Ayden these past 3 months but I have really wanted something to do that could get me out of the house occasionally. Working with Discovery Toys can give me that as well as allow me to get educational toys for Ayden! I also love that they make toys that promote interactive play between parents and children!

So, for all you mammas, grandmas and teachers I will be hosting a grand opening party in the next couple weeks and I would love for you to come if you would like to see what these toys are! Also, if you know about Discovery Toys and you would like to earn some free toys and help me out you can host your own party! Its a great time to get some holiday shopping done! Or if you live far away and would like to just purchase some toys from me let me know! I would love to help you out any way I can!

Thanks for reading this! I am excited to be able to continue to use my education background, stay home with Ayden and get him some great toys along with showing all of you some great toys!!! :)

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween

Love,

~Ayden :)

3 Months Old!!

My baby is 3 months old! It is crazy how quickly they change! I have been looking at all the new babies in the past couple weeks and it feels like it has been forever since he was that little, but, its only been 3 months!

Ayden is really starting to get a personality and become more interactive! He has been smiling like a pro but as soon as the camera comes out he is to courious about what it is that he doesn't smile. Just stares. He is finally starting to play with toys and grab things. He is much more awake and alert! It is more fun to take him places because he doesn't fall asleep as soon as he gets in the car seat anymore!

He has been sleeping so well and really has his routine down! He usually plays for an hour and a half then sleeps for about 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. And he takes about 3 naps a day. This week he has slept through the night every night except last night. Its amazing when you get a full nights sleep!

Now that he is 12 weeks old I would have had to be back at work. I am so happy to be at home! I just love my days with him! Also, having Jordann at our home has been great! Having two babies makes it much more difficult to load them up and take them somewhere so we spend our days at home playing on the floor most of the time! I am very much on the go and this has really been good for me and for Ayden! If I just had him at home I know we would be out and about all the time and he would not get as much play time as he gets now. I do miss the social part of working outside of the house but I am blessed to have my friend Emily who comes over with her daughter. The other week she came over and we made "Butt Pumpkins" with the kiddos. That was fun! We took their diapers off and painted their butt's and sat them on some paper! Very cute and it was fun too! I can't wait for the kiddos to get a little bigger so we can do more art projects!

Happy Fall :)

I love Fall!!! It is such a pretty season and I love that the days are getting shorter and a little cooler (but not when it snows in October...) and things start slowing down a little bit! Having a little one has made fall even better. We went to Pumpkin Town with the Hofferts...what a great thing to do as a family and the best part is its all free! They had a petting zoo, hayride, a few yard games and props to take pictures with. You can also buy your pumpkins there. And we also had a little halloween party at the Hofferts with the Nelson's and Blanchards. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends to do lots of family things together! I can't wait till our kids start enjoying it as much as the parents do :) Here are a few pictures!

Denver the Frog, Madison the Monkey, Ayden the Lion, and Kyler the Pumpkin :)

The Hayride!!

Ayden and Madi!

Petting Zoo...Right after this the Llama took our cup of food!

Best Buddies!!

2 months old!

Ayden is 2 months old!!  He turned two months on Sunday!  I can't believe how big he is getting and how much he has changed already!  

We went to his two month check up on Monday and he was 14lbs and 4 oz (95%) and 25inches long (97%).  He is getting to be big and he doesn't look as much like a newborn anymore.  He is already in 6 months clothes! At his check up he also got his first round of shots.  I did much better than I thought I would and so did he!  He was a little fussy that night but we made sure to give him some Tylenol and that did the trick.  

This month he has become much more alert.  He is starting to get very smiley and really loves to talk to you!  I just love to talk to him and get a big grin and a "Ah Goo" in response.  He also loves his music.  If there is music playing he usually coo's a lot.  This month he started sleeping longer at night...he can go anywhere from 6 to 8 hours for his first stretch then wakes up around 7ish for the day.  We have started to make his bedtime a little earlier.  We are now putting him to bed between 8 or 8:30 instead of 9:30.  Since we have done this he has not slept longer than 6 hour stretch but we are just hoping he will bounce back to 8 hours soon!  

His days are starting to be much more routine and predicable.  He usually wakes and eats at about the same time each day.  He is also awake for longer periods of time and he is starting to take better naps.  Luckily his routine matches pretty closely to Jordann's so we can all play and then all nap at the same time!

Our First Rough Night....

Well last night was the night I was expecting was going to happen at some point but not looking forward to it.  Ayden had been sleeping much more than normal this whole weekend.  We decided it was either a growth spurt or Ayden getting sick since Brett and I have had a cold this past week.  He was a little harder than normal to go to bed and by 11 he was up fussing... and that continued all night.  I finally fed him at 3:30 when he ususally eats between 4:30 and 5:30.  He is currently on his first nap for the day...I hope this no sleep things blows over quickly!  Brett is planning on going hunting on Thursday for a few days and I don't want to be up all night while he is gone.  We have his first set of shots later on today so I'm sure I will have more stories from that...I'm not looking forward to them.  

Kansas City!!!

This past Sunday we headed to Kansas City for a Royals game with our friends Tyler and Megan.  We left Sunday after church and made it to Kansas City in time to meet up with our freinds Jason and Katie for dinner.  We have not seen them in a while so it was great to see them!  On Monday we went shopping and then to the game!  It rained almost the whole game but we had great seats and were on the first level right under the second level seats.  We stayed dry the whole game!  Ayden did great!  I was worried about how his nights would go especially because his routine had to be changed up a bit but he went with the flow and did awesome!  Both nights he slept till 5 am then woke up for the day at 8...I wish he would do that everyday!

Here are some pictures of our trip!

We spent a lot of time in our car seat...

In my new Royals gear!!!

Our Family at the game!

Our family with our good friends the soon to be Ruane's!!!!

First Week with Jordann

This week I started watching our friends baby, Jordann.  Jordann is 4 months old and is such a sweet baby!  She is very happy, loves people and loves to talk!!!  She is so relaxed and laid back!  I only took her on Monday and Thursday this week to ease my way into two babies.  Both days went really well but I was very tired!  Two babies is a lot of work!  

I have always thought Ayden was pretty good around noise until Jordann was over on Monday.  During Ayden's first feeding Jordann was on the floor playing and talking!  Everytime she squealed Ayden's little face would make a pout and then he would start fussing.  It was like he was saying this is my time I just need it quite!  Haha!  Yesterday was a lot better!  

I am so happy we are able to have Jordann at our house!  Doing this will help so that I can stay at home and everyday I am realizing how much I am enjoying being at home!  It will also be great to see Jordann and Ayden grow up together.  

Playing with my ocean friends!

Ayden has just started to enjoy his play gym.  He loves looking at all the bright colors and batting at his toys.  Here are some pictures of him playing!

Look at my cool under water friends!

Looking at my whale hanging above me!!

Looking at my friend in the mirror!!

One Month Old!!!

On Thursday, Ayden was a month old.  It is so crazy how much they change in just a month!  In the past month Ayden has grown to 12 pounds, stays awake after his feedings for about 45 minutes then naps till his next feeding.  He sleeps 5 hours between his first feeding at night and then goes 3 to 4 hours before his next feeding!  We are so lucky to have a good sleeper.  He is starting to track his toys when you move them across his face, and he looks for mom and dad when he hears us talking.  Ayden has taken a bottle 2 times and has done great!  He has also gotten to spend a little a lone time with both sets of grandparents so mom and dad can get a little time together!  

Some of Ayden's favorite things to do are being held, laying on the floor and looking around (without toys...I think I could have waited before I bought some of his things) play on his play gym, tummy time and swing.  

As far as mom and dad, we are loving being parents!  We have really enjoyed getting to know Ayden!  Our life has changed but it is such an amazing change.  Brett loves getting home from work and holding Ayden...I don't get to hold him much when Dad is home.  I have also made a big change other than just becoming a mom.  I decided last spring to stay at home with Ayden this year.  I have really enjoyed my time at home.  Every morning I try to get out and take a walk with Ayden and Jacoby.  This is one of my favorite times of the day and I know that I would not always have the time to do that if I were working.  This sounds like such a little thing but there are many other little things that I just feel so blessed to be able to enjoy now being a stay at home mom!  I do miss McKinstry and the kids but I have been back to visit 3 times already and I am planning on volunteering once a week.  I think that will be just enough time in the classroom for me!  

Ayden Joseph Williams

Ayden Joseph was born on Monday July 27th at 7:49 pm.  He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and 21 1/2 inches.  

We were very blessed with a quick labor.  We went to our doctors appointment on Monday morning and the doctor checked me.  She told us that my water was ready to break.  She then asked us if we just wanted to have this baby today.  Brett and I were very excited and said yes!  Our wait was over.  We checked in at 2 pm and in less than 6 hours we had our son in our arms!  Both grandparents were able to meet him a little over an hour after he was born.  We were very blessed!  The whole thing could not have gone any better!!!

Here are a few pictures...We have not uploaded them all so I will be posting more later...enjoy these now!

Our first family picture!

Daddy and Ayden

Mommy and Ayden

The Waiting Game :)

This past month has been quite the waiting game!!  It started with the bathroom and is still going with the question of when we get to meet our little guy...

We decided this spring that we were going to remodel our bathroom.  When we moved in there was only a stand up shower and no tub.  With a baby on the way I felt it was important to have a bath tub.  So this spring Brett started demo in the bathroom and after school got out we completely gutted it and started to rebuild.  

We were very lucky during this process that Brett's parents opened their house to us for four weeks while we were waiting for everything to be installed...  We also are blessed to have such nice and understand neighbors, the Mackeys and the Hofferts to let us come over at anytime to use their bathroom  :)  

And four weeks later this is what it looks like...

 Not done but all in working order and we can sleep in our own bed! :)

I learned a lot during this remodel about being patient!  I also learned a lot about being a wife and trusting in your husband.  We made it through our first remodeling project and I am very confident that when we decided to tackle another it will go more smoothly and hopefully a little quicker :)  But I think I am very pleased with my house for a little while!

The second part to our waiting game is waiting on our little guy!  I am currently at 38 weeks and I will be 39 weeks on Monday.  Since 35 weeks the doctors have been saying that he is where he needs to be, and things are going the way they should.  I have dialated more each week and last week at my appointment she told me I was 3-4 cm and 90% effaced and he is very low!  All good things you want to hear!  Then she even said we will probably see you back later on today!  Well 5 days later I am still sitting at my house wondering is this feeling a contraction or is it not strong enough :)  

We have spent the last week doing lots of walking, eating spicy food, pineapple, four queens ice cream, and all the other things that people say to do to induce the baby...  So far nothing has worked.  I finally started to pray about it.  I have finally left it up to God.  He knew when I was supposed to get pregnant and he knows when this little guy will make his entrance!  I'm sure during these last few days (not weeks please) that I will still wonder about different feelings but I know that God has a plan for this baby boy and his plan is much better than mine!  We sing a song at Kidz Rock that says "he knew me before I took my first breath" and that is true.  He knows our son too and has a great plan for him!  A much better plan than I can have so I need to put my trust in the Lord and enjoy these last few moments of being pregnant and it just being Brett and I.  

I will end this very long post hoping that the next post will be with pictures of a new baby boy!!!

The Nursery

                  Where our little guy will sleep at first.

The changing table.

The crib all put together with 

his own little Jacoby :)

     The valences Grandma Higgins made.

Our little guys room :) 

Now all we need is the baby :)

     6 weeks to go!!!  We are very excited to meet our son!!!

The School Year Has Ended and New Adventures for the Williams'

Monday was the last day of school for the students at McKinstry.  We had a half day carnival and then the rest of the day was spent cleaning out my room with my mom.  My last day was Tuesday and I was all packed and out of my room by 1:30.  

Brett and I decided in April that I would stay home next year with our baby.  This is always something I have wanted to do and Brett and I have been planning for it since before we got married.  I can't wait to take on the adventures of a stay at home mom!  I am sure there will be days that I miss teaching but I have no question that this is God's plan for our family.  I am very excited for this new adventure but I will miss McKinstry!  I will miss the students and teaching but most of all the staff I worked with!  I really became close friends with many teachers at McKinstry and I hope to keep those friendships! 

The church that Brett works at, Naz, is a partner in education with McKinstry and we have been in the process of organizing volunteers this past year.  I have decided that I will try to help out with that more and hopefully I will be volunteering once a week.  Along with volunteering I am also planning on watching one of our friends, Nate and Alex's, baby Jordann.  Jordann was born in May, so our kids will be 4 months apart.  

Now we just have to wait for our little man to arrive!!!  I am almost 33 weeks and feeling great!  7 weeks left!!!!  Hopefully the nursery will be finished soon so I can post pictures!!!  

One Year Anniversary!!

Wow, its hard to believe our first year has come and gone.  It was so weird the week before our anniversary thinking back to what we were doing at that time on that day a year ago....  I don't know how I got it all done and still taught up until Thursday.  

This past year has been filled with lots of great memories:

• Our honeymoon to the Dells right after the wedding
• Brett's starting his new job at the Church
• Picking out Jacoby
• Bringing Jacoby home and with that our many sleepless nights (he was just getting us ready)
• Baseball and softball season
• Our trip to Colorado
• Meeting our nephew Jacob for the first time
• Brett's Sister's Wedding
• Starting another school year
• Finding out we are expecting our first child
• Telling our families that we were expecting
• Hearing the little guys heartbeat
• Finding out we are having a boy!
• Celebrating our anniversary in Minneapolis!!

Its crazy to look back and see how great this year has been together!  My  parents just celebrated their 35th anniversary the day after ours.  I can't believe what it will be like looking back on 35 years together and all those great memories we will have had.  

For our anniversary we wanted to get away but I was not able to take anytime off of work so we decided just to drive up to the cities.  We spent lots of time shopping and looking at things for the baby.  This was a lot of fun because I was able to see Brett's excitement for our son to be born!  We went out to a nice dinner at a Habachi Grill which was a lot of fun!  Best of all, for our anniversary Brett gave me our son's name!  I had been planning on making name plates for the nursery but was waiting because we had not decided on a name yet.  I was stuck on one name but Brett just wouldn't agree to it.  Well the week before our anniversary he went to Hobby Lobby and bought all the supplies and put together the name plates with the name I really wanted!  He painted them and put them together and that was what I opened up!  I was so excited!!!!  I couldn't have gotten a better gift!  Sooo thoughtful!  And by the way it is a secret so you will find out in August :)

Its a Boy!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything!  The past few months have gone very quickly!  In March we found out we are having a boy!  The ultrasound was awesome to experience!  It was so fun to see our little guy moving around and even yawn!  We decided to find out what we were having but we wanted to put a little different spin on it.  Our friends had given us the idea to have the Ultrasound Tech write it down instead of show us and then we went out for dinner and were able to experience that alone.  Brett decided to take it a little further and that day he went and bought a boy and a girl outfit.  We wrapped them up and then he got to look first and gave me the present to match.  It really made it fun and gave us another event to celebrate!

6 and 7 year olds responses to their teacher having a baby...

So I told my students about 3 weeks ago that I was going to have a baby and here are some of their radom responses since:

"Your to skinny to have a baby"

"Who's going to be my guest teacher and when do they start?"

"How do you find out your gunna have a baby anyways?"
My response - "The doctor tells you"

"Are you going to have a boy or a girl"
"We don't know yet but I will tell you when we find out"
"Maybe you will have a boy and a girl"
"So you think I am going to have two babies?"
"No just a boy and a girl"

Earlier this week we had been discussing needs and wants and I was expaining that you need to save for your wants and we have to spend our money first on needs. I was explaining that I have to save my money for things I want like more clothes that I don't need or getting my hair done and I said and even I have to save for some of the things for the baby. Well my students got a little worried! Many hands shot up and this is what was said:

"Mrs. Williams babies need things"
"Your right, who can tell me what babies need"
"diapers"
"bottles"
"clothes"
"blankets"

(my favorite) "You really need to buy a crib because some day you are not going to want to hold it and neither will your husband so you need to put the baby in a crib. If you don't Jacoby will probably jump all over it and hurt the baby!" (She was very concerned and these were her exact words!!)


Yesterday I was explaining that I would not be at school Monday morning because I had to go to the doctor and get a check up on the baby and make sure the baby was healthy.

"Are you ever going to bring this baby to school?"

"My mom just went to get a check up too and you are going to get this picture. It looks really weird and the picture will look black but don't worry your baby won't be black."

"Where do babies come from anyways?"
"I think you should go home and ask Grandma about that"
"Yeah, your right she would probably know, she did have 2 of her own"

(Same student a few minutes later)
"And I just want you to know Mrs Williams, when that baby is ready to come your gunna scream ALOT!"
"Really"
"Yep because when the baby is ready it really hurts and all girls scream!"

And that is all so far. I hope you enjoy the stories and I am sure there will be many more especally when my tummy starts to grow bigger and they finally realize that I do have a baby in my tummy.

The New Year and New Additions to our Family!

Wow, looking back to 2008 a lot happened in our life including: getting married, my first year teaching, a new house, a dog, Brett's new job working at the Church, my brother and sister-in-law having their first baby, Jacob, Brett's sister getting married which included gaining two great nieces, Elizabeth and Maddie!  We have so much to be thankful for from the last year!

This year looks like it will also be filled with wonderful things!  Brett and I found out after Thanksgiving that we are going to have a baby!  I am about 11 weeks along and will be due on August 3rd.  This past Monday, we were able to hear the heartbeat!  It was crazy how fast thelittl little baby's heart is going!  They told us that it is 175 beats per min.  It was so amazing to hear it!  Brett and I are very excited for what this new year will bring us knowing that there is a baby on the way!  We have quite a few friends also expecting and it has been really fun to be able to share this new adventure with others that are in the same 'season of life'.