Crew is 6 months old!!!

I'm not sure how this is even possible, but my little baby boy is 6 months old! Crew is the happiest, most cuddly, lovable and sweet little boy! I totally understand why people say that boys hold the keys to their Momma's heart! I am enamored with him!

Crew, at 6 months:
* You weigh 15 pounds, 1 ounce (25th %) and are 26 inches tall (50th %).

* You are still sleeping great and are still a night owl, but we seem to be getting a slight hold over you wanting to stay up to all hours of the night! This month, you have preferred to go to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 rather than 10:30 or 11:00! I think this is a huge improvement!!

* You have started to eat solid food (rice cereal and green beans) but are still primarily drinking milk. You love to watch us eat! Every time we sit down at the dinner table, with you in the bumbo seat, you stare us down and watch our every move. It doesn't matter if you have just eaten or not, you think you are hungry when we are eating! Kamryn loves to tell you "Noooo Crewzer... you can't have this chicken... you are too wittle"!

* When we are home, you spend most of your time in your exercaucer or on your play mat. You are very rarely in your swing, but I cannot bring myself to put it away... I think I will keep all of your baby stuff out for a while... I am not ready for you to grow up :)!!!

* You have definitely found your feet and are pretty much obsessed with them! Anytime that you are on the floor or in the Bumbo seat, and sometimes even in your car seat I will find you playing with them!

* You are sitting up really well! I sit you on the floor alot with the boppy behind you for support and you will play that way for a very long time! I have even started letting you sit completely unassisted for short periods time and you are doing GREAT! You love that you can see everything that is going on around you and will reach for things and turn towards the item of attraction. Sometimes you get distracted and will end up playing with your feet and I will find you folded in half chewing on them! You crack me up!!!

* You got one more tooth this month. That brings you to a total of 2 teeth (your bottom middle)! I love your little grin that is on its way to becoming toothy!

* YOU ARE SUCH A SMILEY BABY BOY!!!!! It seems like it is the easiest thing in the world to get you to smile! I love that you are so happy. You love to try to get our attention by making a really funny sound that sounds like I would imagine a pterodactyl would sound like. Then, when we look at you, you will hide your face and peek at us and smile! You are so stinkin' cute!!!

* You have started reaching for me this month... and it TOTALLY melts my heart!!!


I feel like I could go on and on for days about how much we love you and about all of the things that you do!!! I thank my God every day for you and for the privilege of being your Mom!

My Six Month Old Baby Boy!!!

Crew, you are a Brian Jr. in this picture!

Really?!?! Can you believe that he is big enough to be sitting up on his own?!

I like this picture because you can see both of Crew's little teeth poking through!
Handsome, smiley boy! Here is Crew before he had the sitting thing perfected! I would place the Boppy seat behind him for support and he would use it to lean on!

I am completely obsessed with this hat! Crew wears it every day that the weather is even close to being cold enough! Lucky for me, he seems to like being bundled up and warm!

I love these cheeks!

Yep, Crew... you are cute!

This picture was taken one night that Crew's "night-owl-ness" was at its finest! He stayed up until 11:30. We know that we need to get this under control, but we really love spending time with our happy boy too!

Crew seems to love being all bundled up. Most of the time, if you put a blanket and a hat on him, he will go straight to sleep. He gets so comfortable and quiet when he is layered up... I think he gets that from his Momma!

We spent this Thanksgiving with The Herlevic side of the family. We decided that it would be fun to go over to their house on Wednesday night, spend the night and then spend all day hanging out on Thursday. We packed up (an entire car full) all of our stuff and headed to Arlington for some quality time with Tim, Shelli, Gigi and Pappy! We had so much fun!!!

This was Kamryn's outfit for her first Thanksgiving! I thought it was gender-neutral enough to let Crew take some pictures in it! I think Crew makes a pretty cute little turkey!

Okay... I can't help myself... This is Kamryn when she was almost 4 months old.
and this is Crew at almost 6 months old. I think they look so much alike!

Crew went right to sleep as soon as we got to GiGi and Pappy's house. GiGi was happy to hold him!
Kamryn loves this rocking horse (it was Nic's when he was young). She always runs straight to find it when we get to GiGi and Pappy's house!

Kamryn was so happy to get to share her Turkey Treats with GiGi and Pappy! Pappy thought they were delicious!

This is Crew as soon as he woke up on Thanksgiving morning... at 10:15!!! He was so happy after his good nights rest!
Some cuddle time with Daddy before getting dressed!

The back of these PJ's were too cute to not take a picture of!!!

No words for this!!! :)

Crew got to try some green beans just in time for Thanksgiving. He loved them!

Kamryn was so proud of this display of animals that she had lined up on GiGi and Pappy's window!
The crazy girl in action. It is so hard to get her to stand still for a picture!

I LOVE this picture of Crew and his Uncle Tim!!!

I am starting to think that Tim and Shelli will have the exact same effect on Crew that they do on Kamryn...nothing but smiles when they are around!

Seriously?!?! Could I love these two cuties any more than I do right now?!!!

The girls!

The boys!

Our sweet family!
After a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving lunch, Kamryn and Pappy went outside to burn off some lunch. Spots somehow made it into the hood of Kamryn's shirt and did not leave for the rest of the day!

A leisurely stroll down the block!

While Brian was doing this... Kamryn was outside doing her favorite thing to do at GiGi and Pappy's house... feeding Suzie! Pappy always has lots of birdseed and plenty of pecans too. Today, they even tried out some peanuts.

Calling for Suzie to come get her dinner!
Kamryn may or may not have sampled some of the birdseed?!!! :) Oh well, I guess by the looks of it, she didn't like it all that much and probably wont be doing that again!

Crew got to snuggle a BUNCH with GiGi. I really don't think that he was put down for the entire time that we were there! He had a rough day the next day getting back to reality... I don't like to say that he is spoiled... I like to say that he is LOVED (alot!)!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!

Crew's First Meal!!!

We have been noticing for a while now that Crew is fascinated with watching us eat. He is usually sitting in the Bumbo Seat while we are eating dinner and seems to watch our every move. He studies us from bite to bite! So, we thought it was time to introduce some solid food to Crew's diet! We started with a very simple meal... Rice Cereal. I was shocked at how much Crew LOVED it! It seemed like he was going to jump out of the high chair to get more! I am so proud of my Little Man!!!

Crew's first bite of food, ever!

Dad wanted in on some of the history in the making!

I remember when we first started feeding Kamryn solid food, she would push everything out with her tongue. Not Crew, he opens his mouth so wide and slurps everything off of the spoon!

He cannot get food fast enough! The entire time I am feeding him he is kicking his legs and grabbing at the spoon as to say "give me more"!

I love a messy baby face!

Please Mom, can I have some more!

Proud Daddy and his Little Mister!

Momma and her favorite Little Man!

Crispy Turkey Treats!

I was online the other day trying to think of something new to bring for Thanksgiving Dinner and I happened upon this fun recipe for Turkey Rice Crispy Treats. Kamryn was so excited to make these sugary treats! It just happened that Crew took a very long afternoon nap this day so it left plenty of time for me to spend with my little girl! We had so much fun!

Kamryn loved sampling the marshmallows while waiting for the butter to melt!
She is getting so big!

Kamryn didn't need any help dumping in the rice crispies.... "I wanna do it"!

My little Rice Crispy Chef!

I did not take any pictures of this next step because it was SOOOOOO messy!!! We both had our hands completely full of marshmallow/cocoa crispy stickiness!!! Messy, but well worth it! Here is a picture after we had gotten cleaned up!

Now for the fun part... the decorating! Kamryn carefully frosted peanut butter on to each turkey to attach the head to the body.

Then we used pretzels to make the tail feathers and gumdrops to make the feathers. Kamryn was so careful to place each feather in the perfect spot!

Then on to the eyes and nose. We used icing and mini chocolate chips. I am pretty sure that at least a handful of chocolate chips made it into Kamryn's mouth rather than onto our Turkey Treats! :)

Kamryn was so proud of her creation!

I think she did a great job!!!

Our final product! Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun this year! Kamryn was a Ballerina Princess and Crew was a Monkey! Kamryn really got into getting dressed up this year (big surprise, right?!) and totally remembered what to do from last year! We were able to spend the evening with our family and lots of our friends too... the perfect way to spend Halloween!

Kamryn was so excited that Halloween was finally here! She had so much energy stored up (even before the candy was dished out :)!) that I told her we could go out in the front yard and run around for a while... well, all that running around wasn't enough! She decided that she needed to YELL at the top of her lungs too! Crazy Girl! A picture of the sweet brother and sister (or should I say very tired brother and seriously crazy sister!) before we got ready for the festivities!

Crew seems to have a knack for choosing the worst days to not take a nap! I guess some how he knew that today was Halloween and that we would be up later than usual and need him to be okay with that... so of course, it was no nap for Crew today! He was able to flash us this tiny smile before we got dressed.

"C'mon Mom, let's get ready"!

Being a Beautiful Ballerina Princess takes lots of work (and TONS of mousse)!

Her hair was so tight that it even looked like she had a face lift!

The final product! A gorgeous girl, dressed up like a ballerina princess! Kamryn was quick to correct anyone that called her a ballerina... she would say "a ballerina PRINCESS"! And the most beautiful one that I have ever seen, I might add!

"Ta-Da"! A phrase picked up from gymnastics that has made it's way into every day life!

I made a deal with Kamryn for the night that if she let me take all of the pictures that I wanted to throughout the evening I would give her LOTS of candy! This was when the deal still sounded appealing to Kamryn! :)

The Ballerina PRINCESS in action!

Here's one of the tired Monkey! He really did not know what to think about this whole monkey thing! But I sure do think he looked cute!

Kamryn loved Crew's monkey hat! She could not stop looking at it!

We had a HUGE group join us for Trick-or-Treating this year! Kamryn was so excited to get to show Kenrie, Hunter and Naaman her neighborhood! And, we were so happy to have our family and friends with us!

I think this picture of Crew and Naaman is so funny because they both have their hands in the same position. They were so cute!

Sweet friends! Kenrie was a beautiful fairy princess!

I think this was about the time that "our deal" started to lose it's luster! Kamryn lost all interest in being bribed with candy and went back to her usual aversion to the camera!

Seriously, they're gonna make us take ANOTHER picture? Should we boycott?!

Okay, fine... just one more!

Kamryn and Hunter had a quick dance before it was time to get started with the candy fest!

All of the boys! (Tye, Nate with Hunter, Brad with Naaman and Brian with Crew)

The kids had so much fun walking from house to house. They were so polite and always said thank you!

Kamryn even gave out a hug for our sweet neighbor, Janise!

Our very tired Monkey finally got to take his nap!

This is what he looked like the rest of the night! A much happier monkey, now!

After walking around for around a half an hour and stuffed their candy bags FULL! We called it a night and just went back to the house to hand out candy and hang out. Kamryn was very happy to finally get to enjoy some much anticipated candy!

And then inside for some pizza!

What a fun night! Can't wait until next year!

5 Months!

Crew Ryan is 5 months old! This has been a very busy month, especially with all of the Fall/Halloween activities. We have been on the go pretty much every day this month and Crew has really become quite the adaptable baby. He is pretty much a go-with-the-flow kind of kid. We have loved watching him develop into the happy baby boy that he is! We love this little man!!!

Crew, at 5 months:

* You weigh approximately 15 pounds (according to our home scale). You have the cutest double (maybe even triple) chin ever!

* You have 1 tooth!!! It took a very long 3 weeks for that stubborn little tooth to break the surface. You were a trooper for the entire 3 weeks but seemed very happy when, on October 26th, that tooth popped through! You are drooling a TON... maybe another one is on the way!

* You are FULL of personality! You are such a smiley boy. You have discovered that you can make different sounds with your mouth and very much enjoy the sound of your own voice! I have a suspicion that you are going to be a talker! The sound of your laugh is absolutely intoxicating and we feel so blessed to get to hear it so often!

* You are such a cuddler!!! I think you would be happy if we held you all day every day. You love to rest your head on our shoulders and look around. You are content being held in almost any position. Sometimes you even put both hands around my neck and it feels like a real hug! I LOVE IT!!! But, the good news is that you really don't mind being put down either. As long as you are given something to entertain you, like the play mat or a toy, you will lay and talk and entertain yourself for quite a while. This combination makes you a very easy baby!

* You are still sleeping great, usually for 12 or 13 hours at night! You also take 2 naps a day, one for about 45 minutes in the morning and another in the afternoon for 2 - 3 hours. This month we have made a little discovery about you.... you are a NIGHT OWL!!! Every single night we lay you down in your crib between 8:30 and 9:00 pm. Some nights you will lay there and talk yourself to sleep, but most often you let it be known that you are NOT ready for bed yet. About 50% of the time we will go into your room and reassure you but make you stay in bed. The other 50% of the time, we will actually get you out of your bed and enjoy some one on one time with our smiley boy - it really is one of my favorite times with you. You are so relaxed and happy and just soak in all of the love and attention. I think you would prefer your bed time to be around 10:30... a night owl, just like your daddy!

* Crew, you are so much fun! I wish I could freeze time and bottle you up right now. We love you so much!!!

One of the many funny faces that Crew makes when blowing bubbles and making noises with his mouth!

Our little monkey!

Crew LOVES his exersaucer. He loves to walk his feet around and turn to all of the different toys. He gets so excited when he finds a new toy!

Crew has spent a couple of dinner times right here in the jump-a-roo. He hasn't quite figured out what to do in there yet, but he really seems to like it! As evidenced, Crew is still very comfortable in his Bumbo seat, too!

Painting Pumpkins!

Last year we started a pumpkin painting tradition in our little play group and had so much fun that we decided to do it again. It was a great excuse to get together and watch the kids get super messy and have a blast!

Before the pumpkin painting fun began, we had to have an obligatory photo session. Ahhhh, kids hate it, moms love it!!!

Yep, we are still working on getting both Kamryn and Crew to look at the camera. Looks like we were half way there in this one!

Allie, Crew and Baby Naaman were too small this year to get in on the fun, but next year will be a totally different story!

Okay, now we are ready to have some fun! (Kamryn, Hunter, Reese and Zane)

Kamryn was so careful at first not to mix her colors on the pumpkin. She wanted to use each part of the brush for a separate color... then she realized how long it was taking her and she changed her mind and globbed it all on there!

Crew was happy to be held by his Aunt Shelli!

After painting, we headed inside to do another fall art activity. This was a little bit over their heads so lots of help was needed!

Kamryn was very proud of her turkey!

Then outside for some lunch... followed by cupcakes, of course!

I'm pretty sure that if you asked Kamryn what her favorite part about the morning, she would say the cupcakes!

Kamryn is always very happy to have a messy face after a dessert. She kept saying "I have a cupcake face, I have a cupcake face"!

Then it was off to work off that dessert! Kamryn's car will not drive by itself in the grass so the kids all took turns pushing each other through the yard. Pretty cute!