Mom's group photography lessons!

I joined a meetup group back when Aidric was born, but we've never really gone to any of the meetings. Then, a few weeks ago, I checked out the upcoming events and saw that one of the other moms, who is also a professional photographer, agreed to give the rest of us some pointers! We had our first "shoot" the other day, and I took these photos. The cute little boy in the tree belongs to Monica, the photographer. This kid is a PRO at modeling. So cute!

Enjoying our beautiful TX weather...

...while we can still call it that! Now that we finally have furniture out there, we've been enjoying dinner in our screened in porch the last few nights. AJ loves being out there, listening to the birds and looking around. I put his travel high chair out there and I think this could become a ritual for us! (until at least ...May, right? Or is that wishful thinking? We're too new to TX for me to remember when the heat wave strikes!)

Music with Daddy

I've mentioned before how much AJ loves his music class, but we're currently on hiatus. I was inspired by my friend Joli's blog (I'll post a link) when I saw adorable little Sawyer listening to his daddy play the guitar. I told Chris he should get his out and see if AJ likes it.

It lasted long enough for me to throw dinner together - and I call that a successful activity!

He is definitely going to hate me for this one later

But then, maybe he should stop crawling away from me in the middle of a diaper change! I couldn't resist a picture of these adorable chunky thighs and the dimpled butt!! His face has leaned out so much over the past few months, but here you can see where he has been hiding those extra lbs!

Another great visit

Thanks to Mary, Larry, Sarah, Richard and Gracie for coming to visit us this past weekend!! (and special thanks to Larry who gave up BOX seats to NCAA games to come see us!!) We had a great time!!

(There are, of course, more adorable photos, but you'll have to check Grace's blog to see them! Give her a day though, I still haven't e-mail them to her....)

Their first "cousin bath" was in the sink over Christmas. They've graduated to the big tub. They were hilarious- Gracie kept "swimming" and putting her face in the water to blow bubbles and Aidric just wanted to stand up.)



Just one of many from our little photo session!

Easter Baskets

The Easter Chick

I don't know where my mom finds this stuff, but Aidric loves it! This Easter Chick (which for some reason, I keep calling a duck in the video) came in Aidric's Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa Sytsma. He is hilarious with it- he just keeps breaking out in a little grin...that is, when he's not trying to eat it.

I can't stop taking pictures

of this adorable little face!

Enjoy....

Yet another way he takes after his mommy...

Seriously, he could stand in front of the refrigerator ALL day and be happy. And I would let him if Chris wouldn't get mad at me for wasting money =).

PS- For those of you who might open the pictures and look closely, you'll see a PBR in the door. Yes, my dad was here visiting and that beer will still be here waiting for him to come back.

You know your baby is growing up

When six months ago, your freezer looked like this:




(That's approximately 1000 oz of breast milk!)

And now, it looks like this:



These are ziploc bags filled with cubes of homemade baby food. Making it is a lot of work (and very messy) but it's kind of fun too! I like to get creative with the combos. Here we have: sweet potatoes, green beans/apples, asparagus/white potatoes/sweet potatoes, mangoes/peaches, pineapple/pears, pineapple/pears/avocado, spinach, carrots and cauliflower/peas!!!

I love my husband

A post about what a great dad and husband Chris is is long overdue! His birthday was this week, but that's not what prompted me to start this. It's the fact that he is upstairs giving AJ a bath right now and all I can hear are AJ's giggles and Chris's quacks. (as in a duck- for some reason quacking is HILARIOUS to AJ) Wait....now, they are yelling "Baby" at each other. I'm not sure who is having more fun =)

Here is a video of the two of them dancing from a few days ago....




Chris telling Aidric a very important secret:


And a few oldies but goodies:





They have so much fun together and Aidric is so lucky to have such a great dad. Chris does bath most nights and gets up with him on weekends while I am lucky enough to sleep in! I usually come downstairs to find them eating breakfast, playing "bulldozer", listening to music or just hanging out with some of Aidric's toys. I love seeing my boys enjoying each other so much!

He's a talker

I wonder where he gets that?

And if any of you know how to rotate a video in i-photo, let me know! Until then, you're just going to have to tilt your heads to the side =)

Every now and then...

he does take a break.

Four teeth in Four days!!

After 9 months of waiting for that first little tooth to pop out, they decided to come in full force!! The first one was his bottom center/right on Monday. Then, yesterday morning, I was so proud and telling the babysitter. She took a look and said, "oh, I see it" while looking at the top. I told her it was on the bottom and she said, "But, there's one on the top too!"

Then, this morning, while Aidric was laughing on the changing table, I saw ANOTHER one on top. He wouldn't let me get a good look at the bottom, but I didn't think there was anything new. So, we went to the dr. for his 9 month check-up and while she was using the depressor to look at his throat, sure enough- another tooth on bottom!!!

The nine month stats are:

19 lbs. 3 oz. - 25%
29 in. - 75%
45 cm (head)- 50%

PS.....This picture taking with the sign business is getting next to impossible. These pictures are horrible! Actually, I don't have any good pictures of him lately b/c all he wants to do is MOVE!!!! My mom just ordered a backdrop for me for my birthday, and it's supposed to arrive tomorrow. I am hoping I can find something to entice him to sit still and let me take a few pictures with it!

Hope this works...

Babbling, crawling and pulling up...all in one 78 second video!

(My new little point and shoot camera takes video- be forewarned there will be a LOT more videos on the blog!!)

I did it!

I know, it's "Aidric's" blog, but I don't think he'll mind sharing it for the day. I ran a 10K yesterday in San Antonio! I ran with Hannah, Gretchen's sister, who is living in Austin now too. Our goal was to do it in under 60 minutes and we made it! My official time was 59 minutes 36 seconds. (9:34 minute miles)

Chris and Aidric came to cheer us along. It was so fun to see them around the 4.5 mile mark!

Here is Aidric waiting for us to come by.


Hannah is in the pink shirt- I'm in the white.


Every time we turned a corner, I swear there was another hill!


After the race, we went to the Alamo and for lunch on the River Walk.




He was so tired but refused to nap until he finally just couldn't take it anymore!