7 Months

I am loving the stage that he is at right now. He is so fun! He interacts a lot more, is more smiley, laughs and just brings so much joy to our family!  This has been my favorite stage so far (as if I haven't said that every time), but I will always miss my new, little bubba.

• Nicknames: Bubba, Handsome boy, Bubbaloo, Stinker bug
• Still wears size 2 diapers (getting snug though). Can fit into some 3-6 month clothes.  6-9 month clothes are still a little big on him, but he is finally starting to fill them out.
• Least. Cuddly. Baby. Ever. He just pushes off of me, tries to stand on my stomach, pulls my hair. Sometimes when he wakes up in the middle of the night, I will just sit and hold him for a few minutes since it is the only cuddle I can get!
• Has learned to fake cough and does it all of the time.  It is especially awesome when he is eating and I end up with an oatmeal facial. Or when he spits out his binky. He can never just let it fall out of his mouth. It has to be a very dramatic bleh when he spits it out. 
• Started to babble more. His favorite "word" right now is baaa baaa baaa. 
• Sometimes I think he is TOO active. Naps are kind of a battle right now because he is too active to sleep!  He can be in there for over an hour just rolling around, pulling on his bumpers, throwing his binky over the edge of the crib, lounging his feet up on the bumpers, etc.  Such a little stinker.
• Just within the past few days, he has started to get up on his knees and rock back and forth. I think this is something he taught himself during his naptime.
• Sitting up all on his own!  I have finally started trusting him to stay there on his own. Playtime is so much better now that he can sit up and play with toys.
• Gets so excited when we get him in the morning. He does this squeal that I don't think he even means to do. He is just so excited for us to get him, he can't even control it.
• I swear he is starting to copy me when I say "hi". I say it a lot to him and he always makes a noise just like "hi" after. 
• Gives kisses.  Don't know if he knows what he is doing, but when we smack our lips together, he will put his mouth to ours.
• Sometimes I am in denial that he is growing up.  Last weekend when we were visiting my parents, my mom gave him some cheerios. I thought he wasn't ready for it (or maybe didn't want him to be ready for it), but now that he has had them, he can't stop!  He loves eating - especially what WE are eating.  Whenever we eat edamame out of the shells, he will whine until we put a shell in his mouth to suck on. He just wants to be a big boy!
• PINCHES!  He has such a strong grip and it is a lethal combination if he has even the slightest bit of a nail 
• He is so ticklish. The other day I was rubbing his back sweetly and he started to giggle and arch his back.
• Loves to play with toys and loves to read!  He has started leaning towards his books when we are sitting in his rocking chair.  And surprisingly, he doesn't have grabby mitt syndrome when we read. For the most part he will sit and look at the pictures (miracle!)

I am in love with the pictures this month. I feel like it finally shows his fun and cute personality. And if only you could see what I had to DO to get these pictures!  I am glad that I was the only one home for that since I was jumping around, squealing, making faces. The only thing I was missing was a rubber chicken.

Hi.

 Such a little ham

Who me?

Happy Boy

Sees the bird. Gets the bird. Eats the bird.

I love my books!

Cute little yawn

Deer in headlights

When did he get so big?

Puppy eyes and duck lips.

Many faces. 

Grabbing. Spitting. Talking. Still.

Help! I'm trapped! Get me out of here!

{And I wonder why he doesn't get any naps? He just sits in there and plays the whole time!}

Ok fine, I will eat my way out!

Up on his knees. Tell me that isn't the cutest little bum you have ever seen.

He avoids eye contact more than any other human ever.

 My how you've grown!

Snug As a Bug in a Bath

Owen's favorite time of the day is when he gets to take a bath.  He even pees a little because he gets excited.  No really, just last night, Jordan set him on the rug nakie when he was prepping the bath and he peed allllll over it.  Typically he waits until about 2 seconds after we put him in to pee, but he just couldn't contain his excitement apparently.

Grammy gave these toys to Owen for Christmas. Jordan put them on O's head and he didn't notice/care. They could have stayed like that all night!

Top 11 in 2011

I think it goes without saying that we had a pretty good year.  Of course, we had lot of challenges, but overall, this has probably been by favorite year yet!  We had so many huge changes and I don't think that we will ever have a year like that again!

11. Jimmer to the Kings!

This is kind of a fluff post, but exciting for at least one member of our family... Jordan is an avid Kings fan, but an even bigger BYU Basketball fan.  And he might be an even bigger Jimmer fan (remember when he wanted to name Owen Jimmer?)  Jimmer was drafted a few days after Owen was born and you would have thought it was Christmas morning. He was so giddy!  We have been watching lots of Kings games online just to see Jimmer play.

10. Celebrated our birthdays

I turned 25 and Jordan turned 27. We are turning into old people now.  

9. Quit working full time to stay at home with Owen

I still work part time a few hours a week from home, but it definitely beats that 8-5!  I stay plenty busy with taking care of Owen and keeping our house in order.

8. Got to see every family member at least once

Sorry Shauna, didn't get a pic of your visit!

For some people, this is a weekly occurrence, but with our family spread out around the country and the World (my sis lives in Australia), getting to see them once in a year is about as much as we can ask for!  And we were lucky that Jordan's sister Erin and dad came out for Jordan's graduation, his sister Shauna came out for a wedding, my sister, Nicole, and her family came out for Owen's blessing and we went to Australia to visit my sister Natalie.  And of course we are so excited that Megan and her family moved close to us and that we get to see my sisters Hannah and Kate multiple times a year.

7. Bought a car

We have pretty much been a one car family since we got married.  At one point we were both working at different places and going to school at different schools, but somehow we made it work!  For the first 4 months of O's life, we were usually stuck at home without a car.  I was getting a little stir crazy, so we knew it was time!  We bought a Toyota Camry in October and it has been loads better to not be trapped at the house all day!  Even though I don't go out a ton, it is still nice to have that option :)

6. Jordan got a job at Property Solutions

Jordan graduated from a few over the phone sales jobs and took a Marketing position at Property Solutions in Lehi.  He is very happy to be out of that phone sales loop and have a foot in the door with marketing.

5. Celebrated our 3rd Anniversary

It is almost time to celebrate our 4th Anniversary, so this seems like it was forever away.  We celebrated with a nice dinner at Ruth's Chris and it was deeeelicious (and apparently we didn't take a single picture).

4. Jordan graduated

So happy that our school chapter of life is behind us!  When I met Jordan, he had only completed one year of school, so we had a long road ahead of us.  Somehow we both made it through and even made it through debt free (besides the loans Jordan had before we met...)

3. Went to Australia!

A year ago from today, we were in sunny and warm Australia.  I keep thinking back to what exactly we were doing a year ago.  This was definitely a once in a lifetime trip and we had so much fun.

2. Bought a {town}house

Not ours, but in our neighborhood

It was a crazy whirlwind decision, but I am glad we went through with it.  I was able to get over my dream house mentality and realize this is our first home that we will realistically be in for 3-5 years.  We have been very happy with our decision so far.

1. Welcomed Owen into our family

This is a cute video my sister in law Shauna made. I am pretty sure I already posted it, but for your viewing pleasure once again...

This is by far the biggest and best thing that we experienced in 2011.  I think if we were being real, all of our top 11 would probably be revolved around Owen in some way. Our lives have completely changed from where we were a year ago mostly because of this sweet boy.  He makes our lives that much better every day!

We sat down and made a few goals for the new year.  We have never done this before and I am feeling very optimistic about it!  A few of our goals include going to the temple together at least once a quarter, reading our scriptures together daily, paying off Jordan's students loans and part of our medical loans (going to try out Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball) and watching less TV (I'm an addict - it's on way too much!)

Ice Skating with the Patricks

Before Christmas, we went ice skating with the cousins at the Peaks Arena!  Owen and I didn't brave the ice, so we had fun watching everyone from above.

...And taking pictures. He's just too cute not to - especially in his little hat!

 Lincoln and Megan

Coleman and Justin

Jackson

Jordan got a little sick of ice skating, so he joined us up top.

And of course, we finished it off with some bat time. 

Owen's First BYU Game

On December 20, Owen attended his first BYU Basketball game.  I am sure this is his first of many games since his daddy is the biggest BYU bball fan I know.  This was the same day that O had his doctor appointment. I had put him down for an evening nap (which he NEVER takes, poor boy) when Jordan came home and said that he won front row tickets to the game.  I was apprehensive to take him since he probably didn't feel good with the shots - not to mention I would have to wake him up! But Jordan convinced me and off we went!  

He loved watching the game in action!  He watches a lot of sports since his dad watches so much, so I think he was pretty fascinated that it was right in front of him.  And for some reason, they had the sound at the game on SO LOUD.  At times I had to plug my ears, so we kept the hat on to try to do the best to protect those little ears!

In the zone