JB 9 Months

9 Months. Jordan is now all over the place, all of the time (as you can see from the pictures above, so much for getting him sitting in the same pose like all previous months). He can't quite crawl on his hands and knees yet, but he can army crawl, scoot backwards, and is talented at turning a new direction while pushing himself up to a sitting position from laying down. Jordan continues to only take milk directly from the source and loves all solid foods. There isn't a food he'll turn down. Jordan had his first cold a few weeks ago, ever since then he wakes up one in the night, but this last week he's routinely been waking up twice in the night (not cool!). He doesn't have any teeth yet. He still LOVES baths. He can never get enough of playing with door stops and he continues to be a happy content little man almost all the time. He usually takes two naps each day and goes to bed between 7:30-8:00.

Fall is officially in the air and we love it!

I wanted to take a family outing to a pumpkin patch and a friend recommended a nearby one (Pack's Pumpkin Patch). We loved it! They had a huge patch to pick your pumpkins from, a free small corn maze, tractors the kids could sit on, and a scarecrow set-up for pictures. Here's the cutest pumpkins in the whole patch...

We got season passes to Lagoon as soon as we moved to Utah (the park is literally 5 minutes from us). We definitely got our money's worth from it. It closes at the end of October so we did one last family outing one evening, I had to document it. Eleanor has become OBSESSED with Lagoon and still gets excited to see it every time we drive by.

I never buy things like this hat, but I thought Jordan looked so cute/funny I was really tempted to get it! I didn't.

We had a lunch picnic at the park nearest to our house one afternoon ad put Jordan on the swing for the first time. As you can clearly tell, he loved it.

My little brother, Taylor, had a lacrosse tournament in SLC the other weekend so we were able to go and watch two games. The weather was PERFECT that day so it was really enjoyable. The kids have fun too despite the looks in this photo

Sam's mom, sister (Maddie), and our niece (Stella), were all in town for the past week. One morning we went to a local apple orchard to pick our own apples and then make caramel apples. We had a great time at the orchard. The kids loved getting pulled in the wagon, especially Jordan. He was smiling so big the whole time and would start laughing when Sam would pull them fast. He is becoming such a big boy! (Side note: once we were all at Sam's grandma's house and ready with our ingredients to make the caramel apples we couldn't find the apples from the orchard and realized we must have left them on the scale right by where you pay. So, I ended up running to the grocery store across the street and we just used apples from the store. SAD!)

Everyone's faces in this photo make me laugh...

JB 8 Months

My favorite chunk is 8 months old! Jordan still gives the best smiles. He rolls all over and loves sitting up and playing toys. He can scoot himself backwards and can push up onto all fours and rock his body. He loves any and all food, although he spits up sweet potatoes so he no longer gets those. I've also noticed that he gets read around his mouth when he eats baby cheese-puffs, so we're staying away from cheese anything for awhile. His favorite thing to eat is a graham cracker. Jordan always "sings" himself to sleep and continues to do that before naps and bedtime. He kind of holds out a long note and the closer he gets to falling asleep the longer and deeper the note gets, it makes me laugh every time. It is something he has done for awhile but I have never documented it!
Jordan goes down to bed between 7:30-8:00 at night and usually wakes up between 5-6 for a feeding then will sleep again till 7:30ish. He takes 2 naps (the times of them always change) and an occasional cat nap before dinner. I've officially given up on trying to make him take a bottle/sippy, so we'll tackle that again when he's closer to a year.

So far this fall has been very mild in weather so it has still been plenty warm which has provided us with beautiful days that we've been able to be outside and have a lot of family fun. Here are some of the highlight's from Jordan's eighth month.

I know that the mess-making has just begun as Jordan has started to become more mobile and explore his surroundings...

He loves food! Even if it gets all over his face!

Prepping for winter...

 My peeps...

Sporting some great bed-head...

At the end of September I got to fly to LA for weekend reunion with my college girlfriends (it was a blast!) Since Jordan refuses anything sort of bottle he was a lucky little fella and got to tag along (one other friend had a baby with as well). We had a great time! This was Jordan's first flight. (I think by 8 months Eleanor had about 6 flights under her belt haha Life is different when you're not an only child!) But Jordan did a great job on the flight. We got our own row for the flight to LA so that was wonderful. I'm grateful he is such an easy going baby.

One day I was cleaning in the kitchen and started hearing giggles from BOTH of the kids. I looked around the corner to see this. Eleanor loves playing with Jordan, but sometimes forget how little he is/how gentle she needs to be. He is slowly progressing and able to interact more with her. He was loving this little train she had setup!

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

Up until this past month I had never thrown the two kids into the bathtub together. After doing it once, Eleanor asks to take a bath with Jordan all of the time (she usually likes to shower instead). I had to get the obligatory siblings-in-the-bath-tub-together photo. Doesn't it seem like one of these pops up in every wedding video? And since my blog is my scrapbook, for memory keeping...

8/13/15

JB 7 Months

Eleanor wanted in on some of the photo shoot fun...

 Sibling smothering :)

7 months! Jordan continues to love to sit on his own surrounded by toys that he can pick up and chomp on. When he is laying on the ground he will roll all over until he finds something he can shove into his mouth. He loves baths and solid foods. HE gets mad when he sees others are eating and he is not! He'll make fist and straighten his arms with loud grunts until he's given food. He's also very quick at grabbing anything within reach so we have to watch what gets put near him. He's still on his reflux medicine and despite any attempts I have made, refuses any bottle or sippy cup. Jordan gets a huge grin on his face when he sees his sister for the first time each morning and it always makes me so happy - one of those little moments that always reminds me of what a blessing it is to be a mother. And the best new to report - the week leading up to his 7 month mark he slept from 8 pm - 7 am four times. Whoo-hoo!!!

Eleanor finally figured out she could climb in Jordan's crib and entertain him (somehow she never climbed out of the crib the whole 2+ years she slept in it). Jordan was happy to have a visitor...

I love this crazy crew

 

First time riding like a big boy in the shopping cart. Isn't Costco the best for having the two-seater carts?! Just another reason to love Costco...

Sam and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary (woot! woot!) We celebrated by riding the Front Runner and Trax into Salt Lake and eating at The Cheesecake Factory...with our kids in tow. We laughed that our anniversary date was something we planned because we thought it would be really fun for Elle. We like having our kids tag along with us, or maybe we're just too cheap to ever get a sitter, or maybe I would get a sitter in a heartbeat if Jordan would actually take a bottle...either way, it was a fun night for our family of four :)

A cute memory I had to document. I had left Jordan laying on the floor in his room and had gone into my room to get something. Eleanor ran to me and said, "Mom! Jordan sitting! I carried him on the floor." I figured that meant she had helped him sit up. I thought it was so cute when I went back into his room and saw that not only had she sat him up, but she had also brought in a pillow from her bedroom and laid it behind him in case he fell backwards. She is a sweet big sis.

Sometimes Sam has to work on Sundays. Those days can feel really long and I end up taking weird selfies with the kids to try and kill time...

Cecret Lake

I came home from an aerobics class in the morning of one of Sam's off days and as soon as I walked in the door he asked if I was tired. I told him not really and he said, "Well, good. Because we're heading out for a hike now!" Sam had packed up a lunch, water bottles and snacks and planned a fun adventure for our family. He wouldn't tell me where we were headed to, but I was excited! We drove out to Little Cottonwood Canyon and we were both ASTOUNDED with the beauty! The pictures don't do it justice. There had been a lot of rain the week before so rumor had it that with the extra moisture the mountains looked even more beautiful than usual for this time of year. 

Eleanor was such a little trooper on our hike! We were really proud of her because she hiked the whole way in and out all on her own. Jordan was our little dream baby (per usual) and was happy in the baby carrier. The hike is only 2 miles round trip and is easy, except towards the end it gets steep and a little tricky with big rocks. You've reached the end of the hike once you've reach Cecret Lake. We sat on rocks at the water's edge and enjoyed a little packed lunch the headed back out. It was a gorgeous day with beautiful scenery and of course, the best company! Sam caught so many cute photos of Eleanor on our good camera (thank goodness we brought it along!) so I had to do a post and document on here.

So many beautiful wildflowers!

Sweet Joe. Three times when people passed us they would mention how his hat was fitting or how he matched it, because he is always smiling at people - except here for the photo of course! :)

We made it!

We asked another hiker if he wouldn't mind snapping a photo of our family for us - he got a great shot!

As soon as we were in the car and had service I texted pictures to my mom and told her that as soon as she was back in Utah we had to go on this hike because I knew she would love it! The following week we were able to go. Sam had to work the day we were able to make it happen, but my little brother Taylor was able to join us as well. It was, again, a lot of fun! These are only phone photos, but I still wanted to document...