3 month pictures...

95% of the time our son is a happy, easy going baby. On September 20th we had his 3 month photo shoot at 5:30. This was the day he decided not to be that happy, content baby. Every afternoon he takes a nice long nap at his Mimi's house. On the 20th, he refused to take that nap no matter how hard she tried. I wasn't that worried yet because I knew he would sleep in the car since you could tell he was tired when I picked him up. He always sleeps in the car. That day he stayed awake all the way to Versailles. Once I got home I fed him and put him in his swing thinking a full belly, swinging, and calming music would do the trick. Nope. That booger stayed awake the whole time. Thankfully Matt was able to slip away from work to help me get myself and Reagan ready. So for Alex hadn't been fussy, just wide awake. At 5:30, Hilly walks in and the fussing begins! By the time she left at 7, I was stressed beyond stressed and so upset that we didn't get any good pictures of him. As she was walking out the door, Matt put him in the bath tub and he was his normal, smiling, happy self. If only we had thought to just take the tub out back, we might have gotten a few with him smiling. Matt pointed out that our pictures will just show real life, both sides of our baby. By the next day I was still disappointed but resigned to the fact there was nothing I could do about it and luckily we have tons of candid pictures of him smiling.

Last night Hilly posted a few "sneak peeks" and I was surprised at how well they turned out considering his mood. I pick up the rest of them at lunch today. I am sure some will make me laugh at how mad he is but hopefully a few of them are good. I am just hoping we captured one smile. If not, she can try again on December 18th at his 6 month shoot! And we have a family session on November 5th at Mark Kidd so out of all of them, surely we can get one good one! :)

Here are a few of the sneak peeks she posted:

Not smiling but thankfully not crying. He looks like he is ready to punch someone. Probably me for putting him through the photo shoot!

One of the "not happy" ones. But I love the blocks. If all else, this one makes me laugh.

An attempt at a family picture. Clearly Alex is wondering what in the heck we are doing.

2 months...7 babies...

Without any sort of planning, pregnancy pact, etc, me and 6 of my friends ended up having our babies in a 2 month period - May and June of this year. You will see that 6 of the 7 are boys with Adalyn right in the middle. Stacy and I were the only 2 that had our babies in June so there were 5 just in the month of May! 

We decided to get them all together occasionally. At this point it is more for us mommies to get together and talk about sleeping, eating, teething and any other things that are going on with our babies. We are hoping eventually they will all enjoy getting together and playing with each other. At the play date in September we attempted a photo shoot with them. It wasn't that easy. We tried pictures of them laying together and in their bumbo seats. At any given moment at least 3 of the babies were crying and it was never the same ones. We hopefully got a few good pictures. I will post those when our friend gets them posted for us. Needless to say, I think us moms were worn out by the time pictures were done.

Here are a few pictures that I took from the play dates we have had so far:


6 of the babies on July 21st. From left to right Kolston (11 weeks), Cody (10 weeks), Adalyn (8 weeks), Liam (7 weeks), Alex (4 weeks) and Jacob (3 weeks). Griffith wasn't able to make it to this play date.



All 7 of the babies on September 25th. From left to right Kolston (20 weeks), Cody (19 weeks), Griffith (19 weeks), Adalyn (17 weeks), Liam (16 weeks), Alex (13 weeks) and Jacob (12 weeks). 



Mommies and babies together in order of birth like the couch. Mommies are Katie Bratton, Nancy Gatewood, Lindsay Roberts, Sara Floyd, me and Stacy Perry. Amanda Adkins joined us in September with Griffith.



Mommies with our babies in September! Katie and Kolston, Nancy and Cody, Amanda and Griffith, Lindsay and Adalyn, Sara and Liam, me and Alex, Stacy and Jacob.



Our bumbo ad. The left half of the group do not enjoy sitting in their bumbo seats. The right half didn't seem to mind it. Alex was just glad no one was within reach of him anymore. :)



Hanging out but no exactly happy about it. I learned that Alex does not like other babies hitting him or touching him. Clearly Liam isn't worried. He is just relaxing over there.



Alex and Cody and that silly wubanub. I tried to keep it out of as many pictures as possible but it kept him happy so that was the #1 priority.



Jeep Update!

Matt found some awesome rims and tires for the Jeep. Now the Jeep is looking really good. It was so awesome to see how excited he was when he drove it home Friday after he had the wheels and tires put on. I am so glad he is enjoying his new toy. He got some money and a gift certificate from Fastrax for his birthday so I am sure it is just a matter of time before a few more things get replaced or added. :)

Birthday Fun!

Matt and I celebrate our birthdays only one day apart - mine being the 15th and his the 16th. So this year we decided to let Alex have his first sleep over with his Nana so we could go out to dinner and a movie to celebrate. We went to Asuka for some hibachi fun and then went to see The Help. We both enjoyed it very much. It was only a little too quiet in the house on Saturday morning but we didn't have too much time to dwell on it before we went to Reagan's soccer game and then to tailgating.

As for gifts, I learned once again how sneaky my husband can be. When I asked a couple of weeks ago how much we were doing for gifts, his response was "we will keep it small." So I found a couple of small gifts (budget wise) and he went with size - a VERY nice ring he designed himself. Sneaky,sneaky, sneaky...

But I LOVE my ring so I will not complain. :) He put our birthstone, the sapphire, in between Alex's and Reagan's birthstones, the Alexandrite and Emerald. It is perfect. Here is a picture:

Messy but fun...

My dad was given a shirt that says "World's Best Grandpa Hands Down" and came with paint so you could add hand prints of your grand kids. Super cute idea, well until he sent it home with me and asked us to take care of the hands. At first this didn't seem like a big deal at all. I got out some plastic plates, opened the paint and spread it around, had Reagan dip her hand in and on the shirt went a great hand print (she did a great job making sure it came out good). We got both of hers on there, hands washed, and all was well. Until I realized it was time to do Alex's. One look at him and that paint and I decided I needed daddy's help. So we stripped him down to save the onesie from death by red paint and assessed the situation. Matt came up with the good idea of q-tips so we didn't have to try and dip his hands in it. The plan was to have one of each hand in between Reagan's prints. We quickly realized we would be doing good to get one on there. He would not open his hand up for anything! We finally got it open enough to get paint on all the fingers. I leaned him down really close to the shirt and Matt was ready to press his hand down as soon as he opened it. Enough time went by waiting that the pain started to dry so on to plan b. Matt re-applied the paint and just forced his hand open and onto the shirt. Probably not the best hand print but you get the idea. He just looked at us the whole time wondering what in the heck we were doing. After we finally got a print onto the shirt it was straight to the bath tub since by this point there is paint all over him and me. I wish I had gotten a picture of this but I was trying to focus on keeping his hand out of his mouth and Matt was getting the bath filled and all the stuff we needed for that. But here is a picture of the final outcome. I think Poppy will wear it proudly!

First visit to Happy Camp...

Alex had his first experience at Happy Camp this weekend before the home opener verses Central Michigan. He won't be making it to many games but since this was an early game, it was just as easy to take him with us. Mom had him a special onesie made so he would fit right in...

All ready to go to Happy Camp!

He behaved very well and everyone enjoyed getting to meet him or see him again. Next week he will be hanging out with his Nana while mommy and daddy tailgate before the Louisville game!

A big day for a big girl...

Ever since Matt and Reagan started going to Kings Island several years ago, it became ritual to stop at customer service to have Reagan measured to find out what rides she would be able to ride that day. They would see what the biggest height she qualified for and would give her a wristband for that height. This allowed us to avoid the dreaded "measuring stick" at each ride. Last year she hit the 48" mark which only left 7 rides that she could not ride. One of these being Diamondback. Ever since Matt and I rode Diamondback last year she "just couldn't wait to be able to ride it". She had asked several times this summer if we thought she would hit the 54" mark this year and be able to ride and I honestly didn't think she would. We told her it would probably be next year.

This past Sunday Matt and Reagan headed north to Mason, Ohio for the first Kings Island trip of the year. And guess what happened after walking in the gate and being measured...someone hit 54"!

This almighty band granted her access to every ride at Kings Island - including Diamondback. So off they headed to Diamondback. After waiting in line for 45 minutes and being just a few steps from being on the platform, the ride was closed because of weather. They tried to wait it out but after an hour decided to go eat lunch and let the storm pass. After lunch they got back in line and finally Diamondback was marked off her Bucket List. She rode in the second row for her first ride on the coaster with a 215 foot drop at a 74 degree angle. This ride still makes me nervous when we start the climb up the big hill. Matt said she never blinked an eye. After that they made their way around the park and rode every ride that had been just out of reach for her except Flight of Fear which was closed. To say she was excited would be the understatement of the year.

Here are a couple of good quotes from the day that Matt shared once he got home -

After finding out that she's hit the ever important 54" mark that enables her to finally ride everything at Kings Island. "I'm so excited my stomach hurts. Maybe I need to fart......(grunts). Nope, I'm just excited."

While at Kroger to buy the tickets she sees Matt pick up 2 "adult" tickets and tells him he needs to get a child's ticket for her. He explains that you have to buy an adult ticket for anyone between 3-61 years of age and over 48" tall. Later she responds with, "I love Kings Island! Not only do I get to ride all the rides but they think I am an adult!"

Despite the off and on rain all day, the two of them stuck it out until the park closed at 10 and finished the day in style - riding Diamondback, in the dark, in a slight drizzle, while the fireworks were going off. Not too shabby.

I think it was a bittersweet day for daddy, his little girl has grown up and finally hit that big mark and could ride all the big rides with him but that also meant she is no longer our little girl that has some milestones to reach.

So what were Alex and I doing?
Pretty much just being lazy. We enjoyed a day of sitting on the couch, snuggling and playing. I was sad when I found out Reagan had hit that big mark, I would have loved to have been there with her but I am glad her daddy was the first to take her once she was able to ride the big rides. Kings Island has been their special place for a long time. He rode with her when she rode a roller coaster for the first time and was able to ride with her when she finally was able to ride the biggest one there. It is special. Plus I reminded myself that we will get to go through all those milestones all over again in the upcoming years with Alex.

Another successful trip to Kings Island for Matt and Reagan!