Catch Up Part I

Wow! I's has been a long time since I have posted! A lot has happened in our lives since February, so I will just quick give a quick recap. Tax season is obviously over now, and it went as well as could be expected. Afterward we went to Iowa a couple of times to visit my family which is always fun, but a long drive.

At the beginning of May we went on Vacation with Steve, Sara, and Ethan Davis to Cancun, Mexico. Will was Mr. Popularity everywhere we went, and that came in handy when we requested an extra seat for him in the airport at the gate. Of our four flights, he only had to be on my lap for one! It was good to get away and just hang out at the pool and beach.

In June Rob and I had our 6th anniversary, and we celebrated by staying the weekend at the hotel at Mystic Lake (thanks Barb!). We stayed with Will one night and left him at home with Cassie the other. He and I both did fine for our first night apart - he slept the whole time we were gone, but not before pooping in the tub for Aunt Cassie! My parents came up for the weekend before Will's birthday and we had a small party and cake for him. The day before his birthday, Will starting walking and I don't think he has slowed down yet! Before that he had been taking maybe four or five steps at a time, but after that day he pretty much never crawled again.

Going Places

Time has gone quickly since Christmas, and now I am in the midst of tax busy season again at work. Since I am part time this year, I am not working quite so many hours as I have in the past, but I am still working around 50 hours a week, which has been a bit of an adjustment for our family. Rob is able to watch Will 1 to 2 days a week and Cassie watches him the rest of the time along with the Pluth kids. Starting next week Rob will be watching Will full time since Cassie got a new job.

Lately we have been experimenting with different eating and sleeping schedules to try to find one that will allow Will to get enough sleep, enough solids, and enough milk at the right times throughout the day and hopefully help in also getting him to sleep through the night. He still wakes up in the night once or twice, and doesn't necessarily need to eat but usually needs some help settling back down to sleep. The last few weeks have been a flurry of firsts for Will. He will now crawl fully up on his hands and knees for about 6-7 steps at a time, but then moves back down to his stomach, especially if he is in a hurry to get wherever he is going. His favorite places to get to fast are the dog bowls to play in the water and the computer and tv cords because I guess they just look like fun. We have been busy baby proofing, but it is still a work in process.

This past weekend two more teeth popped through - the top middle teeth - and they have been giving Will some grief. Hopefully they will finishing cutting through in the next couple of days.

About 4 days ago Will learned how to pull himself up to standing all by himself, and now it seems like he can't get enough of it. He will hold on to what ever is convenient - the steps, coffee table, toys, bed comforter, toilet, or parent. It is amazing how long he will stand if he has something to hold on to. Sometimes his legs start to slide apart and he begins to do the splits, and this scares him and he cries, but won't sit down. Yesterday when I put him down for a nap and left the room I could hear him talking and whining a little, so I waited for him to settle down and fall asleep. After about 15 minutes I went in there to check on him since he was still awake, and he was just standing in his crib waiting for someone to play with him. I guess why lie down when you can stand up?

This past weekend was Valentine's Day, and we had a good time. We went out to eat at Bonfire's on Sunday night, and on Monday night Barb got a suite for us at Mystic Lake Hotel. That was a lot of fun; we took Will with us and went to the buffet and then took him to the pool. It was his first experience in a big pool. There wasn't really any shallow part for a baby, though, so we just held him on the steps for a while until we were all too cold. Even though this trip to the pool wasn't as fun as the tub, we got some pictures of it! The rest of the evening we spent watching the pairs figure skating finals which was a lot of fun, too.

Eating Baby Food and Christmas

Will turned six months old in December, so we decided it was time to start letting him try out other foods besides milk. For his first meal we gave him rice cereal, and except for his initial surprise at the different taste, he loved it. He did pretty well eating off the spoon, too. Since then we have tried some other foods like sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, apples, prunes, peas, peaches, and avocado. I think bananas are his favorite, but at this point it is hard to tell because he seems to just love food in general. It is fun to feed him, but mommy and daddy haven't been so excited about what all this new food does to Will's nice cloth diapers! Here are some still shots of the video we took of his first meal.

Christmas in our family was pretty busy this year. On Rob's side of the family, the Wheelers and Davis usually come into town several days before Christmas and then stay through New Year's Day, but this year the Wheelers weren't here quite as long since they were in the middle of moving to Minnesota and Dan was preparing to start his new position as pastor in January. Several days before Christmas we started hanging out with family in the evenings, sometimes for organized events and sometimes not. It is good to see everyone, but I usually prefer to spend time with people either one on one or just one or two couples at a time, so in Rob's family that means we need several social events to feel like we got to adequately connect with everyone.

Christmas Eve Rob, Will, and I went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and then drove around the city looking at Christmas lights with Andrew and Jessica. We saw some neat displays, but were a little late and some people had already turned off their lights for the night. On Christmas morning I made Frech Toast for breakfast and we opened gifts with Will. I was actually really surprised that he was able to open a couple of gifts without much help from us, but of course the focus was on the paper and bows, not the actual gift. I think Will played with the bow and cardboard backing to his pacifier package for most of the day, much to his delight. Since he is also beginning to scoot around the floor army crawl style, he loves going over by the Christmas tree. Here are some pictures of when I caught him pulling the ribbon off the tree.

In the afternoon we went over to Becky's new house and had the Pike Christmas. It was a good time with good food and tons of people. Funny how even in a bigger house it can still seem crowded with all the family. This year they split up the adults and children for the meal and for gift opening, which made it a little bit more managable.

On Sunday after Christmas we celebrated with my side of the family over at my brother Andy's house. My parents and other brother Ben drove up from Iowa, and it was good to see them. We had a good time with another great meal and watching the kids open gifts. Ava and Luke always love playing with Will, and it is so much fun to watch them interact together. Rob and I even played Settler of Catan with Sara, a game which we generally refuse to play, but it was really fun this time.

Well, that pretty much sums up our Christmas. We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, too!

Thanksgiving and Disney

For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to head south to Florida to celebrate. Several months ago, Rob got a marketing phone call from Hilton wanting to give us a three day stay in Orlando super cheap in exchange for us attending a timeshare presentation (No, we didn't buy it). So we booked it for the same time that Steve, Sara, and Ethan Davis were going to be there, as well are Gail and Mike Davis and Barb Pike. Between our timeshare deal and some military deals we got through Steve (thanks!) we ended up with a super fun and cheap Disney vacation!


The Davis' and Barb stayed on Disney property which ended up being really convenient because we could park our rental car at their hotel for free and get free parking at the Magic Kingdom, but still be within walking distance to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We enjoyed the parks, and I think my favorite was Epcot. I loved looking at all the countries and exploring the authentic-looking buildings and international food.

For Thanksgiving, Gail ordered a Thanksgiving meals for all us from a local grocery store and we all ate together in the Davis suite. Gail even brought turkey napkins so it would feel like the holiday even though we were in Florida.


It was fun to see Will, who is now 6 months old, interacting with his cousin Ethan who just turned 1. Here are some attempts to get a picture of them together.

One of the best parts of vacation was being able to be outside together and walking around the Disney property. Here is our family walking on the Boardwalk near Epcot. The weather in Florida was actually quite cooler than I had expected it to be, but toward the end of the time we were there it was warmer and quite sunny.

Here are some cute snapshots I took of Will one morning in our hotel room when we were just hanging out. He can now rollover both directions and loves to do so constantly so that he can get the best possible view of whatever is going on around him. He is also fascinated with almost anything colorful, and water bottles in particular are a favorite item that he likes to reach out and grab.

Here are some older snapshots of Will that were from Halloween that I can't resist including. He was a "Wild Thing" for Halloween and even treat-or-treated to two houses before getting too cold.

Hello Again!

Wow, it's been a long time since I have written an entry here! I hope you all have not given up on me. The summer has been very busy and is now almost gone. Here are some of the highlights.

At the beginning of August we went on the Pike family vacation with all the extended Pike family at Green Lake in Wisconsin. The whole family rented three small cabins (1 room) and one large cabin that had a large kitchen and family area. We shared our cabin with John and Cassie, and we had a great week enjoying the beautiful grounds. We did a golf scramble one evening which was really fun, especially for those of us who rarely golf, and had a kids carnival another day.

On August 31 I went back to work, but I have dropped my schedule down to 20 hours a week, at least until busy season in mid-January. That was such a relief as I was not at all keen on only seeing Rob and Will for a few hours in the evening after being spoiled all summer seeing them all the time. For the days that I am working Cassie will be watching Will along with the three Pluth kids at their house. They also love to hold Will, and Raegan is quite the little babysitter in the making!

Last week we went to the Minnesota State Fair and had a blast! Will was really good in his stroller, and loved all the sights and lights. We ate our way through the day and in the evening watched a junior high rodeo competition and then also saw some fireworks. The weather was perfect for being outdoors.

Well, those are the highlights, but here are a few more random pictures. Enjoy!

William Rolls Over!

Last weekend was the first time Will rolled over from his stomach to his back. Both Rob and I missed the first time which was when I had put him on a blanket on the floor for some tummy time. When I came back a couple of minutes later his was lying on his back. I asked Rob why he had turned him over, but Rob said he hadn't! So I went to get the camera and and he did it again, but wouldn't do it for the camera. He hadn't done it since, but today he did it again four times, and this time we got it on video! Hope you enjoy it.

This summer the garden I planted in Barb's backyard several years ago is just beautiful. A lot of the plants are finally maturing and are just gorgeous. Here are some pictures Rob took of the flowers.