October 2011

In october my brother and his family came for a visit. They live in Texas so we don't get to see them often. We had a great time visiting with them. We spent a day down on the family farm where my grandma lives, it was nice reminiscing and showing the kids all the fun things around the farm. We took some great pictures, and here are a few...

We also spent some time in bloomington/normal where my parents live. We had a nice time going to the zoo and just relaxing at my parents house...

Charlie got to attend his first wedding this month also. My best friend Sarah got married and I was maid of honor. It was so fun being a part of her wedding, and I was very honored to stand by her side on her wedding day. Nick ran sound for the ceremony, so my parents came and took care of Charlie during the ceremony and then took him home with them after dinner at the reception. Nick and I were able to have a little date night which was nice. Here are a few pictures from the wedding...

hanging out at the rehersal

Nick and Charlie waiting for Sarah and I to get our hair done

Sarah getting her hair done

The bride ( having a little wine before the ceremony lol)

Beautiful bride

 The Girls

Charlie and I also ventured out to the zoo here in Peoria one day. We couldn't find anyone to go with us ( because mommy waited to long to ask anyone, oops) so we decided to have a little fun day ourselves. The park was all decorated for Halloween, but the decorations didn't seem to distract Charlie to much. His favorite animals were the meerkats and the rhino's. He was so amazed that we stood and watched both of those for a good 20 min each! Here is a picture of Charlie watching the meerkats...

As we were getting ready to leave the zoo it started to downpour, so we got a little wet on the walk back to the car, but it was all worth it to have a fun  Mommy and Charlie day at the zoo!

We have also been making trips to the park with our friends Megan and Kamden, Nikki and Joclyn. We have a fun time watching the bigger kids play on the playground. Charlie does like to swing in the baby swings!

Charlie turned 6 Months old this month. I cant believe how big he is getting! We started giving him more solids. He gets 3 meals a day, breakfast is fruit and cereal, lunch is vegetable and fruit, and dinner is cereal and vegetable and fruit! He is starting to gain a little more weight and the Doctor thinks that he looks really good! Here are his 6 Month pictures...

Halloween was also this month. Charlie and I ventured out to the Wild life "scary" park with a few of our friends. It took more then an hour just to get through the line to get in, and then it was soooooo crowded that it really wasn't all the fun, just kind of stressful. If we ever do that again we will definitely go earlier ( to beat the crowd) and we will make sure daddy comes with for an extra set of hands. Here is a picture of the 3 kids..

Every year on Halloween our street goes nuts. Our neighbor builds a 32 ft tall scarecrow and turns his front yard into a haunted path and gives out cotton candy. We had around 500 trick or treaters again this year. We had a really fun time because my parents, and grandparents, and Nicks parents and brother and his family all came by to hang out with us and watch the spectacle of 500 trick or treaters in one night. Charlie was a tiger for halloween this year and I had a great time dressing him up :)

 getting ready to go around and show off Charlie in his costume

Trying to play catch up

ok so I sorta gave up on the whole blogging thing for a while, but I've decide to make a come back and catch up on everything since the last time I posted. I will break it up into several posts so as not to overwhelm myself or anyone reading. Ok so here it goes..

5 Months
We started Charlie on a little food, he's not to sure about how to eat very well yet so it's pretty funny to watch. You can tell he wants to eat and really enjoys the new flavors, but is just having a hard time keeping it in his mouth. Here are a few pictures from the first food adventure...

 Nick, Charlie and I took a little adventure to the bears game on 9/11/11, which happened to be right on Charlie's 5 month birthday. We got up early and made our way to Chicago. It was fun having Charlie with us, he was definitely the hit of the game. People all around us the whole time were oooing and ahhhing about how cute he was ( we got him a little Cutler jersey), and asking if it was his first game ( which of corse it was he was not even born the last time they played lol) People were even letting us get in front of them in line to get into the game just because we had a baby with us. Here are a few pictures from the game.

On a little bit of a sad note, we found out in September that my grandmother has a cancerous tumor in her abdomen. It is an aggressive sarcoma, which means that it is rapid growing, and surgery ( if she even survived) would leave her with no quality of life because anything that the tumor is touching would also have to come out. Being that the tumor is already the size of a football it is touching a lot of stuff in there so a lot would have to come out. She seems to be in good spirits though, especially now that we have her home and out of the depressing hospital. My mom, Uncle, and hired nurses and hospice workers are helping take care of her. It's sad to see her so weak and dependent on other people as she has always been a very independent woman. I am thankful that I have had the time with her that I have in life, and I will continue to be thankful for the time I have left with her.

Back to the happy stuff, Charlie loves playing in the mirror with the " little boy on the other side" He lays on his side right in front of our closet doors and hits and kicks at his reflection. He also has really taken a liking to his jumparoo, and is getting very good at jumping!!! Here are a few videos of him playing...

On Sept. 22 Charlie slept in his own room for the first time. We got his new monitor ( one that doesn't make awful static noises all the time and lose reception like our old one) and got it hung on the wall in his room. He slept great, only woke up once but all it took was putting his paci back in his mouth and he was fine. 

Charlie has been going over to Megan's house once or twice a week while I work at the golf course in Metamora to make a few extra bucks. He seems to like playing with Kamden, but Kamden gets a little jealous sometimes :) 

On October 5th Charlie had his first tooth poke through. Here are some pictures...

4 Months Old!!!

Charlie is 4 months old! I weighed him on our little baby scale and it said he was just a little over 13 lbs! He has recently found his toes and has really started to like playing with them. He is still sleeping great at night, which is nice for Nick and I. He has also started really taking a liking to Nick. If I can't get him calmed down when he is being grumpy I hand him over to Nick and he's fine. He loves for Nick to hold him, and he really likes to study his face. It's very cute! Well here are a few of Charlie's 4 month pictures...