My baby is 6 months old!!!

Ayden is 6 months old today! Where has the time gone... I look at him now and is not a baby anymore! He likes to play, knows what he wants and his personality comes out more and more each day. I just love to see all the things he is picking up and trying to do now.

Some of Ayden's firsts this month:
-we can make him giggle by tickling him and making silly voices
-he goes from sitting to a crawling stance
-he can get a toy that is on the other side of our legs by pulling himself over our legs
-he can get a toy that is out of his reach or to his side
-he started on formula
-he now eats sweet potato, carrots, peas (not his fav.), squash, banana, avacodo, apples yogurt and pears
- he now eats breakfast and dinner

Some of his favorites:
-his blanket
-his crib
-his binky
-his feet and sucking on his toes!
-his bottle
-anything with wheels
-rainforest rattle
-daddy (and mommy)
-playing in the water

Water Play

Well it is the end of January and winter is starting to get long!!! I look outside and can't wait for the spring so we can get out in the fresh air and play!!! Our neighbors the Ruane's have two baby swings in their backyard (Megan's mom did daycare at that house and has now moved). So I am very excited for Ayden and Jordann to get to go outside and swing!!! BUT until then we are stuck inside...

Today we decided to pull out an old rubbermaid tub and put some water in it and play in the water! The kids loved it!!! I could not believe how much Ayden enjoyed it! He does not sit up in the bath yet because I am to afraid of him toppling over so it was really fun to see him so excited to splash and play with toys in the water!

First Giggles :)

Children's Bible

We just found a great children's bible that I wanted to share with everyone! Brett was listening to one of his podcast and they told him about "The Jesus Storybook Bible" by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Since he really trusts this pastor he decided to order it at Willey's. Then Brett was at a meeting with Dave Bartlett and he also recommended it. This week I have started to read it to Ayden before his naps and it is great!!! Each story is told in such a great way for children to understand and each story points straight to Jesus. So far every story in the old testament is linked to Jesus coming and why Jesus needed to come! I love when things that are made for children also teach parents something! Not only does it have a great story but wonderful pictures and the stories are long enough that lower elementary kids would enjoy it! So if you need a good children's bible go get this one! It is awesome!!!

Homemade Baby Food!

Ayden is 5 months and we just started him on baby food. We tried the rice cereal for a month and he was not a big fan unless there was breast milk in it and I just couldn't get it down when to pump that 1 ounce everyday... so we decided since he was sitting up and rolling over we would try food. He has loved it and mom and dad have loved it as well! It is so fun watching him sit forward and open his mouth for more...he never did that for cereal...

When Ayden was born my friend Emily started making her own baby food from her daughter Madi. I was interested in this so for my birthday she bought me the baby food cookbook "Top Ten Baby Purees" By. Annabel Karmel, and 4 ice cube trays. I wanted to try to make my own baby food because I knew that if I was making it I would know what he was getting and also I remembered Emily warming up Madison's food and it smelt like real food! I have tried baby food from the store and it doesn't taste like much. I really want Adyen to eat healthy and hopefully it will help his parents eat more healthy too! I have heard from lots of moms that when kids are done with baby food then they only eat "kids food" so I think that at least if we start with this food maybe he will continue to enjoy it after we are done with the purees. Another plus about home made baby food is it has helped me to try to fix vegetables that I would normally not buy or cook. I never thought I liked sweet potato's and after I made them for Ayden I tried them and I did like them. The last benefit and the most import for us is it is much cheaper! I have made carrots, sweet potato's and peas and spent $4.00. Making all three of these veggies totaled up to 42 servings! If I would have spent $4 at the store I would have gotten about 8 servings. This also didn't take very long! Peas were the easiest taking 30 mins and to make both carrots and sweet potato's at the same time it took Emily and I 1 hour.

I really like cooking and it has become very fun to look at the store adds and figure out whats on sale and what I can make Ayden next. I think we are going to try Apples, Pears and Bananas next and then I can start some of the fun recipes in the book and put things together like Chicken, Sweet Potato and Apple.

Go Hawks!

Christmas

Its amazing how having a baby changes holidays and makes them so much more fun to celebrate! We had great Christmas celebrations with both sides of the family. We went to the Higgins' side the weekend before Christmas and were able to go the Christmas Eve service with Brett's parents and celebrated with the Williams' side on Christmas Day!

The Higgins' side was very fun this year because my nephew Jacob who is 15 months was able to open presents. Not only did he open his own presents then have to play with each new toy but he handed out all the presents and opened everyone else presents. Ayden was asleep for all this so we saved his presents for the next morning. He didn't quite know what he was doing but since he grabs at everything he was able to unwrap his own presents. I can only imagine what Christmas will be like next year when Ayden is Jacob's age and Jacob is 2! We were not able to celebrate with two of my brothers because they both had to work. Hopefully we will be able to make it up to Duluth later this winter or early spring to see them.

The Williams' side was a lot of fun too! We weren't sure what the weather was going to bring so we didn't know if Brett's sister Kelly and her husband would be able to make it but they were! Ayden by that time was a pro at grabbing at wrapping paper which was good because he had the biggest presents under the tree, including a new wagon! I am very excited to use the wagon this spring taking Ayden and Jordann to the park!

It was so awesome to celebrate Ayden's first Christmas with each of our families. I was not that lucky when I was little. My grandparents lived in Iowa and Chicago and we were up in Duluth so we stayed home each year. Having 4 children there was plenty to do on Christmas so I didn't know the difference but I am very happy that both sets of grandparents live close enough that we can celebrate special occasions with both of them.

Along with celebrating with both sides of the family we also took some time to start traditions for our family. We want to make the real Christmas story the center of Christmas at our house so we decided as Ayden grows we will get a new book of the Christmas story that is age appropriate to read with Ayden and hopefully our other children someday! It was so neat to watch Brett read that story to Ayden before we started opening any presents. Ayden sat so intently, we will see if he does the same next year!