He's doing it....

Crawling that is! The day he turned 8 months old he found his hands and feet and started pushing himself across the floor. Now he's got the whole army crawl down. It is a lot busier for me as I now have to watch every move he makes. Sometimes I look away for a few minutes and I have lost him. He is usually under a chair or behind the coffee table. He is getting into everything and his favorite thing to get into is Skeeters bed. YUCK!! He is really keeping me busy but it is so fun to watch! I am just so proud of my little guy.

Check him out!!!



Just one more video that has nothing to do with crawling but I thought it was funny!
This is what Channing thinks of Broccoli..

7 MONTHS

I'm a month late on this post but I wanted to make sure I wrote it down!
It is amazing how time flies by so fast. I'm sure soon enough it will be a year! Channing has started to be quite the little gabber. He is always talking baby talk and he does not hold back! Either it's screaming at the top of his lungs(good screams of course) or just blabbing continually, he is always making sure he is heard. He is such a good little boy. So mellow but at the same time a little squirmer.
He took his first plane ride and did awesome both there and back. He would just flirt with the stewardess' or fall asleep. Never a peep out of my little guy. He also went on two long trips to Utah in a span of 3 weeks and did amazing. We had to stop a few times but other then that he was just a happy little guy. I truly feel blessed to have such a happy boy. I always feared that my boy would never smile or make strange but he does the total opposite which makes it easy for me

I'm not too certain on his weight but I am sure he's gotta be around 18.5-19 pounds now. He is getting chunky. I am always calling him my little chunk! He still struggles with eating. Always clamping his mouth shut so I have to trick him by putting his sippy cup to his mouth and as he opens it rush food in. So it takes quite a long time to feed. Hopefully he will quit this soon, it really is frustrating! He still does not like to take a bottle so I think I will just switch to trying a sippy, as he is pretty good at sucking from that.
This is what happens when I let him feed himself!


Channing loves people whether they are grandparents, friends or complete strangers(especially girls). It is so funny when he see a bunch of girls he totally flirts with them. He will get real excited and kick his legs and smile and make lots of noise!! It is so funny to watch! He loves his grandparents and loves all his many cousins!

He is the youngest but I think he kinda loves it as all his cousins love him so much and just are always playing and holding him.
3 generations!!

He continues to roll around, but doesn't do it too much, he would rather be in the jolly jumper or exersaucer! I need to buckle down on leaving him on the floor more so he can start to learn to crawl. His favorite toy is his little blue guy with lots of different textures for him to chomp on. He loves Skeeter and is really beginning to notice her and want to play with her. Skeeter also is starting to look at Channing as a person, always wanting Channing to play fetch with her. Channing is almost sleeping through the night, usually going down at 9:30, wakes at 12:30 for the last feed and then usually wakes at 2 or 3 for a soother and then wakes at 7 for a feed and then sleeps until 9:30 or 10. Oh how nice would it be to have no interruptions!! He's not too bad though.
He is super good at sitting up and no longer topples to his side or forward!

He continues to steal my heart more and more each day, whether it is a new sound, look or movement. He is just the sweetest little guy that is so cute. I could just eat him up!! I love that he loves me and always needs me and knows when I enter a room and just gets super excited and kicks his legs and moves his whole body until I pick him up. He loves to dance with me and have me throw him around. He just laughs hysterically. I love his laughs, he is so ticklish and loves when I chew on his side. His laughs are just my favorite!! He is always grabbing at my face and giving me kisses or in other words latching on to my face and drooling all over me. It's cute but I could do without the slobber!
I think I kinda love this guy!!

Virginia

So last week we were in Virginia with the whole family, minus Lindsey and Michael(we missed you guys). Every year my parents try to get everyone together. I think this is so important, as we live so far away. So as Josh is graduating dental school, they decided this to be the perfect time to go visit and make it our family trip of the year. It was so much fun. We were there for about a week. We first went to Virgina Beach for about 4 days, spent the days on the beach,parks, shopping, and allot of swimming in the pool at the hotel. Our hotel was right on the beach so it was so nice to be able just to walk to the beach and hang out. I lost my little point and shoot camera so there are very little pictures for this post. One night at Virginia Beach we decided to rent the bicycles and ride them on the board walk.

It was so much fun. The waves were rushing in and was just such a beautiful night.

We had many races and had to of course stop for ice cream.

Here is my family getting crazy on the board walk rocking out to some band playing in a concert!! Stacy is due any day now and she was really busting a move, she can move better than me and I'm not even pregnant.


Channing just loves his cousins and they just adored him.


All the kids were just obsessed with Channings soother, they were always stealing it from him and suck on it. Even little Rachel would snatch it a few times. Shannan took some family pictures on the beach but that will be in another post!

On Thursday we went to Williamsburg where my parents had another resort. We swam in there pool and had a bbq. It was a really nice place with a ton to do. The girl had a night out that night and went and got our nails done. We got mani/pedi's and man was it relaxing. I need that more often. They look so good! After we went to the outlets and only hit up Carter's cuz there was so many good deals there. Then we went out to AppleBees for dessert. YUMMY!!! It was so fun just to be with the girls. We were gone for about 5 hours and had left the kids with Dad and Brad. Well as we came home we heard Talmage screaming, James dressed in Channings clothes, Izzy still in her wet bathing suit, and the 2 babies sleeping. Oh the boys tried!!! HAHA we had to laugh... That night Brad and I headed to Stacy's house with her family as in the morning was graduation.

Josh spent the last 4 years in dental school and he is now a graduate from VCU!! Congrats Josh, we are so proud of you and the hard work you put in. Congrats to Stacy as well as of course it takes two to accomplish this great goal. And to raise 3 kids during this takes quite the amazing women.

Well it doesn't stop here. They are now off to Nebraska to do another 3 years in periodontics school. I'm sure that will just fly for them. Good luck and I know you will do great.

The Graduate

All the supporters

I got to be the photographer for the big day. So I followed Josh around most the day. After graduation we went for dinner at Bottoms Up Pizza, SOOOO good! I am going to miss visiting Virgina, it is so beautiful! and really who want to visit Nebraska?? Of course we will cuz Stacy will be there but really..

Stacy is due anyday now... I wish I was there. My mom and Shan stayed for a few more weeks so they get to meet the baby. I am so jealous.

I miss my family already. I just have so much fun when we are all together. Love you guys!!

First visit to the Zoo

A few weeks ago Channing and I made our first visit to the zoo together. We met up with Alex and Camilla and a bunch of other girls.


Alex and I only were staying for an hour so we made a quick walk around to the few things that we wanted to see, the giraffes, elephants, butterflies, chimps, and a few others.


Channing didn't seem to interested, as you can tell from the pictures but I am sure he just enjoyed being out of the house. I look forward to bring him more once he is older and can understand whats going on. It was a fun quick trip!

Way too long...

I know, I know it's been forever. I have had a very busy last 3 weeks. It has been filled with traveling, visiting family, relaxing, and working. Three weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Little One Workshop hosted by Katie from Peekaboo Photos and Skye Johanson. These 2 ladies are so talented at what they do. They have create such amazing art with there little subjects, so when I saw they were having a workshop, I jumped at the chance. So My mom, Channing and I headed to Utah. On the way there, about 15 minutes north of Idaho Falls, we hit an Elk! I was in the back playing and entertaining Channing when all the sudden I feel a bit hult, a rather large hit, I kinda flew forward but nothing to harm me. Channing started screaming as I think the toy hit him in the face as we hit. All we could see is white, as the hood of the car flew up. I didn't know where we were so I just screamed to my mom to turn off the car. We got out and we were in the middle of the road. The front was smashed up and we didn't know what to do. As we were examining the engine, a few ladies stopped, they helped up push the car over to the side. We waited for the sheriff and got the car towed. The ladies that stopped were so helpful and offered us there house as we were kinda in the middle of no where. It's amazing as you meet people of the same faith as you have an immediate connection with them. We accepted the invite and were on our way again in the morning in a rental. We made it to Utah and got to spend some time with Shannan. We stayed there for a week and helped Shannan watch her nieces and nephews in her sister in laws beautiful home. The day of the workshop was awesome. We started off at Katies house and spent about 4 hours there going over lighting, poses(she had a few models come in that we could practise on), displaying photos, and just asking questions. Katie has my dream studio, it is just massive with tons of pictures all over the ways that displays her work. ONE DAY!!! We had a light lunch and then headed over to Skyes house to see her in action. She had quite the studio as well. It was amazing to see these women work. They made it look so easy and I was able to learn quite a few tricks that I would have never thought of. We than went over to a restaurant to go over editing and learn about the business side of photography. It was a long 13 hour day but I feel that it was well worth it.

I was on a photo high that day!

It was so fun to hang out with Shannan and Mom for that week. We did allot of shopping, eating( Cafe Rio 2 times, my favorite), photo shoots, and just lots of good talks. It is so good to be with family and I really just wish we lived closer. We are just blessed that we are able to visit. Shannan took me around to a bunch of boutiques so I loaded up on new outfits and props for photography. I swear Utah just has the best stuff and such good ideas.

We got a few pictures of the cousins!


Enjoying a bath together


Little overall cuties!
Shannan bought my old camera from me so I got her to grab some of me, cuz I am never in front of the camera. I love my little boy.

Love you Shannan and thanks so much for having us and let us stay with you. It was such a blast. Now it's your turn to come visit us!!

It's My Birthday!!

Well not quite yet but we celebrated early!

This weekend our awesome friends Nadia and Adam threw me a birthday party! We had a few friends out to celebrate. The food was amazing! I have to comment about the mini burgers Adam made, they were amazing. I think I had one to many!! But thank you for the great spread! They had a ton of food and made two special desserts, a fruity one(for me) and a chocolate one for all the chocolate lovers!YUMMY.. It was fun to see friends I hadn't seen for a while and just visit and see everyones little families grow. Thanks again to all my wonderful friends that came out to celebrate with me.
Nadia, Alex, Me, Amy, and Anona
The wonderful Host, Nadia
I even got to blow out the candles!!
Thanks again to all my great friends for coming out!! and to the Larsen's for the awesome night!

Today Brad's Family threw another party for me and my nephew Joe, we share the same B-day! We went out to Strathmore and had another delicious dinner. The best part was dessert, Sex in a Pan!! I could of ate the whole thing!! I love Sundays just to be with family and hang out and just totally relax. I wish we had more days like this. I also wish I had my own family closer.. My parents took me out to dinner on Friday night for a pre-birthday dinner as they are coming up next weekend for another birthday dinner. Kinda getting spoiled with all these great dinners, I'm gonna have to throw in a few extra workouts after all of them.
Channing's Ready to party!! Can you tell??

It's crazy that I will be 25 on Tuesday, I feel so old!!! I know I'm not, but I think this is kinda crazy, I have been married for 5 1/2 years now and have a little guy. Back in High School I told everyone that I wouldn't even start thinking about getting married until I was 24, so to be where I am today is not what I had planned. I can honestly say I am so glad that things turned out the way they did. I'm happy at where I am in my life and for my beautiful family and great friends. I have had a wonderful 25 years and look forward to the next 25 and more!!

Photoshoot!

Brad stayed home from work today because of the big snow fall so I was able to get his help with getting some pictures of Channing in the studio. You would think I would be shooting him all day but it's pretty hard with just one person and I'm the one shooting. It was so funny as everytime I would try to get him to smile he was just so serious! Then of course when he is not in front of the lights he's all giggle and smiles. Oh well I think he is still just the cutest!!

6 Months

At 6 months Channing is a healthy 17 lbs 9 oz and is 27 inches long. He ranges in the 50% aisle for weight and 90% for height!

It's hard to believe that Channing is now half a year. Honestly as soon as he turned 6 months old he started to do so much more. Like over night he learned to roll both from his front to his back and then his back to his front. He is now rolling everywhere. I just wish I had more carpet on the main floor because he tends to bonk his head when I'm not watching him. He is wearing 6-9 month clothes and continues to wear 12 month sleepers. He is also eating solids constantly and his favorite is avocado and pears.

He will just eat those up. He usually is pretty good at taking cereal but I don't think he cares to much for it. He continues to breast feed as well and I just love these moments. He is so cute, he is always reaching his little hands up and putting them in his mouth as he feeds, I think it comforts him!
He is sitting up on his own but still tends to be top heavy so topples over after awhile. He loves making lots of sounds and is always gabbing away usually saying "dadadada" or" yeeeeyeee"

Brad thinks that he is saying Dada but I'm not counting that as a word. He loves his puppy. He is always trying to grab for Skeeter's toy and is always giggling when she is running around the house playing fetch. I am so glad Skeeter is so good with him. She tend to try to lick his face right after he eats but other then that leaves him alone. She does like to lay by him allot and I think it's so cute.

Channing loves when I dance with him and throw him in the air. He just has a perma-grin and laughs hysterically!

His favorite thing is to be naked and chew on his toes. He will just gnaw on them forever. He loves his big toe and just sucks on it until it's all pruned up. He is so aware of everything that goes on around him. He loves when Daddy comes home from work. He will just start jumping up and down and smile!

I really need to get him on a sleeping schedule, it is just all over the place. He does really good during the day, usually going down 3-4 times and napping for 1-2 hrs. It's the nights that are crazy. I will put him down usually at 10:30 and he will sleep until 2:00, I will go in and give him his soother, then he will wake up again sometimes at 4:00 but usually at around 6:00, I'll feed him, and then he will sleep until 8 or 9 and then feed and sleep again until 10-10:30. It just everywhere and I wish I could just get 6 hours. I need to crack down on just letting him cry himself to sleep but I feel bad. I know he can do it but then it wakes Brad up and he has to get up early so it's just easier to give him his soother. I am going to crack down on this this month!

Channing loves his grandparents and just anyone that loves to play with him. His grandparents just love him to death and love visiting and playing with him. We just love when they love him just as much as we do.

Channing is such a happy baby. As long as he is fed and not tired he is just all smiles. He loves when you make funny noises and sounds. He giggles when his toes are chewed on and is super ticklish, pretty much everywhere! He loves going outside and being in the fresh air(finally we are getting out of the house with this good weather) He is so good in his car seat, but is honestly growing out of it. As soon as he is in, he usually falls asleep or just plays with his hanging toys.

I love this age as he is just learning so much, from picking up toys( or anything within reach) and sticking it in his mouth to sitting and rolling and just being his happy little self. We love our little Channing so much and are so happy he is ours. I could just cuddle him all day long. He is just growing way too fast. Please slow down...

Me... Making Food?

Yes it's true, I have decided to make Channing's baby food.

For those of you that know me I'm sure this is a surprise, as I don't even cook, and when I do, I hate it. So when I decided to make Channings food we had to make it be as easy as possible for me or I knew it would probably just be a faze. Well, we went and bought a little baby cooker(steams the food and purees it all in one) Easy is always better!! It is pretty amazing, all I need to do it chop up the veggies or fruit, dump it in and let the machine do its magic! I know I am lazy... Oh well I just want to make sure I stick to it. Lately Brad and I have been really watching what we eat and trying to be as healthy as we can.. So as we started talking about Channing and what to feed him once he hit 6 months, we thought it was probably best to make his food cuz I really wonder what kind of preservatives are in those little cans of baby food for them to be able to sit on the self for so long.. Brad was also talking to one of his clients and she was telling him of an awesome book that tells you exactly what to eat at certain ages and when to introduce new things to your babe so we went and snatched it up. It is called "Superfoods for babies and children" It looks pretty good and from what I have tried, Channing really seems to like it!! I also tried a few jars of fruit(apples and pears) and veggies(carrots and sweet potatoes) and Channing hated it, he would have nothing to do with it. So I have already seen improvement! He seems to love it! I really just feel like I want to feed him the most healthy things and what better way then to make it from scratch.. As long as we are being healthy better get babe on board too! I have really enjoyed introducing solids to Channing, he makes the silliest faces and it is just fun to watch him express his little personality. He always want to feed himself, he is always grabbing for the spoon and shoving the food inside. It's messy but I think it is so cute!

Once while I was doing a photoshoot Brad fed him some carrots. Well.... I come up from being finished and there is orange everywhere, all over the counter, the dish cloth, highchair, and his sleeper is laying on the floor covered with orange. I go up stairs to see the damage and there is Channing mostly cleaned up but still a little orange on his eyebrow, his neck and on his cheeks. Brad ran to get his iphone to show me the pictures. Brad would scoop the carrots and just give Channing the spoon and it just went everywhere! It was hilarious, I wish I could post the photos but have no idea on how to get the photos from the phone. But let me tell you he had fun!!
Watching Channing grow and do new things is seriously the best... I love watching him be independant, not really in feeding himself, but hey he tries!!

Tongue-Tied

Why is it that people that have been in the medical field for years expect you to know what to do in certain situations? It is so frustrating but I am glad I have taken care of it sooner than later! What I am talking about is Channing's Tongue Tie. He was born with a tongue tie, I was aware of this but the nurse at delivery told me that they would only snip it if I had any complications breast feeding. Well I didn't, Channing latched perfect and I was only sore for a few days. So I told them the truth, it didn't hurt. So they said he wouldn't need it to be snipped. So that is where I left it. As he has continued to grow older and more mobile I have noticed him trying to stick his tongue out without luck. He was very limited with the movement with his tongue. But I thought this might be normal and he might grow out of it. Well, I take him in for his 4 month immunizations and the nurse notices it and asks why I never had it snipped. I tell her the story and she can't believe they didn't snip it. It is a very severe tongue tie, almost connected the tip of his tongue to the bottom of his mouth. She said even though I had no complications feeding, which is pretty much unheard of in these situations, they should have cut it because it could cause speech problems and dental problems. While this kinda made me mad that the delivery nurse just left it and didn't talk to me more about it. So I called the breast feeding clinic to get a second opinion. She was astounished by this. No wonder he lost a pound in his third month, he wasn't getting enough food. Because even though I couldn't tell he was having issues he was. How sad! She said that because it was so tight he would for sure have some issues as he grew up. So I decided to have it snipped. It was a quick process but kinda sad to watch. I even had to hold his head still as they took a little pair of scissors and snipped the skin and then pushed it back. He was not happy! He cried for about 5 minutes and then was comforted by being put straight to feed. He did so good, but I felt so bad for him. They said that is about the same pain as getting your ears pierced or taking blood, but sorry it looks and sounds worse than that, Hello you are cutting the skin! Oh Well we took care of that and now we don't have to worry about speech therapy or any of that stuff! HOPEFULLY.. It's funny to watch him now as he discovers his new little tongue, he makes a lot more noise and is always sticking it out! I am glad that is over but you know this could have been taken care of the day he was born! Some people... Seriously, I'm sure the nurse knew it would have to be done sometime, so why wait! Whatever, maybe I should have asked more questions! Well now little Channing has a tongue and he is letting us know that he is pretty happy about it!!

Where does the time go?

Ok so people say that they grow up too fast, but this fast, who knew. I swear it was just a few weeks ago that I was in the hospital with our new baby boy and now here he is 5 MONTHS OLD! He has been doing so much new things lately. Since he was 4 months old he has really started playing with toys and reaching out to touch and hold things and to bring them to his mouth(everything ends up in his mouth now!)
He has turned over only 2 times but I think they might have been accidents as it was during one of screaming incidents! He is great on his tummy but only last for about 10 minutes and then wants to be turned over on his back. He is the happiest little baby (when he has been fed and had a good sleep) he is just all smiles and is always giggling. He is pretty vocal, always giving out a happy shrill here and there. In church he is always the loudest one there. It will be so silent and reverent and then Channing has to of course make some noise letting out a big giggle or shrill! At least it is usually a cute sound not a cry! He has started teething and this is not a favorite past time. Poor little guy just cries and cries and there is no stopping it. The worst night for him was about 3 weeks ago, right before we left to Utah, he cried for almost 2 hours straight. I tried everything, rocking him, feeding him, giving him the soother, a bath, etc. Nothing was working, and of course this was at like 12:00 AM and nothing is open in Raymond at that time so we couldn't go get him anything. Finally we called my Aunt Carma and she said it might be teething so my Dad went and got some medication from her while we tried to calm him. I put my finger in his mouth so he could gnaw on it to sooth his gums. This seemed to help and then I fed him and he fell asleep. Poor little guy. It's so hard when you can't make the pain go away or know what is wrong! Since then there hasn't been a night like that but you can tell he is still hurting. He always has his hands in his mouth, drooling a ton, and always has a toy in his mouth. He has just started sucking his thumb. It is really cute but I fear for the whole weening, as you can't take it away. I say he learned it from his cousin Rachel, as she is a total thumb sucker. He also loves to suck on his toes, while on his back I will always find him grabbing at his feet and putting them in his mouth.

He is sitting up so well, still needs a little help, but is almost there I think.. He loves the bumbo chair( I still haven't got one but my friends have one and he lasts forever in it). He no longer is sleeping through the night. At 4 months he was waking up every 3 hours on the hour but lately has been doing a bit better. He goes down at around 10:30 and then wakes up at usually 3:00 and 7:00. Not too bad but oh how I wish he was giving me 9-12 hrs again!! I have tried rice cereal with him now twice but not too sure if he enjoys it or not, kinda seems like he just spits it back out. I think I am going to hold off until he is a bit older! No rush as breastfeeding is just the easiest and most convenient for me. He still has bright red hair(culdesac like, bald on top and lots on the bottom in the back). I get him weighed on March 10. At 4 months he weighed 14 lbs 8 oz and was 26 inches long. He really is such a big guy, not really chubby but just really long. He is wearing 12 month sleepers and is in 3-6 month clothing( probably moving into 6 month clothes shortly) Channing has been such a fun baby and I am so happy that he is a happy baby!
My favorite thing at this age is his smiles, every time I come in the room or when he hears my voice. He really knows his Mom and it really melts my heart! Nothing is sweeter than knowing your little guy loves you. Channing has been just such a blessing in our lives. We just love our little guy and he bring such joy to our home. When I'm having a bad day, I just look at that cute little face and it makes me so happy. I love being a Mom, it is honestly just the best. Sure you lose sleep but it is so worth it. Just to play with your little guy and make him laugh and just watch him grow. I am just so in love with my man!