Arizona Trip

Logan and I decided to take a little trip to go visit Linds and her family in Arizona. I was definitely looking forward to the trip to get out of the doom and gloom which is Seattle in the winter. I couldn't wait for the sun. Obviously, I was more excited to see Linds, Ben and Macee and meet baby Blake. Andy didn't have the time off of work unfortunately, but it turned out to be a good thing he didn't come since he got sick just a few days before we left. Poor guy...

Logan was such a good boy on the flight there. We had to wake him up at 4 in the morning! But once we got on the plane and took off, I gave him his bottle and he fell right asleep. He sleep only for about half an hour, but was super happy the rest of the flight. We sat next to friendly people, so that helped him to be happy. He was even better on the flight back...slept THE WHOLE TIME! I was very lucky, but I also wasn't surprised considering he didn't sleep very well the whole time we were there.

He had a pretty hard time adjusting to the new place and new people. He was super sleepy, but he couldn't sleep on his own. So I had to lay down with him for his naps and he slept in bed with me every night. It was kind of fun to have a cuddle buddy, even if he took up the whole bed! It was cute to see how he slept, moving all over and eventually getting comfortable with his face down in the bed and his butt in the air. So funny!

We enjoyed the nice weather by sitting outside on the patio and going to the park. We went swimming one day, but apparently it was a little bit too cold for those Arizonian's to swim. We had to swim in the heated pool. :) I had a bad mom moment because Logan fell asleep in his car seat a few minutes before we got to the pool. And since he hadn't been sleeping very well, you'd think I'd just let him get his sleep...NOPE! I didn't want him to miss out on swimming with his friends. I'm glad I did because he really liked the water. He'd been swimming when he was a few months old last summer, but he really liked it this time. All of the other kids were shivering and Logan was just in heaven.

We went to the Phoenix Zoo and was a lot of fun. We spent 7 or 8 hours there and it was just nice to walk around, take out time, and enjoy the sunshine. We petted some stingrays in the stingray pool, rode the carousel a few times, played at the splashpad and walked around to see the animals. Logan didn't love the splashpad...he finally got the courage to crawl closer to the wet area, but right when he got there - the water shot up and he was so scared! Poor baby... He was pretty much attached to my arms the whole time we were there, so when I was holding him, he enjoyed the water. 

Group picture minus Macee. I love this!

Love her sweet face!

Riding the carousel

Train ride around the zoo

After a long day at the zoo, we were on our way home and all three kiddos were asleep. It was heavenly!

Hard to get a picture of all 3 asleep

We spent a lot of time just relaxing and hanging out around the house. Logan finally warmed up to the house and could venture out on his own. He especially loved the doggie door and the sliding glass doors. He also learned to crawl up the stairs on the playground. Too bad we don't have stairs in our house so he can practice his new skill.

Swinging babies

Macee was so sweet. She went nice and slow for little Logan

Trying to sneak outside

The boys will love this picture when they are older.

We had such a nice visit and it was great to spend 4 whole days with Linds. It had been too long, but of course it didn't feel that way. I'm very lucky to have such great friends that keep in touch (almost every day...) People always doubted that we would be friends when we grew up, I'm so happy that we can prove them wrong. I can't wait for our California vacation where we all get to be together, yes under the same roof for 5 days! I'm so glad Logan and I were able to take a little break and get away and visit our friends.

11 months old

Our little one is 11 months old! I feel like this last month he has just grown a ton. I'm almost thinking about not calling him "my baby" anymore...um, who am I kidding. I'm sure I will call him that the rest of his life. Poor kid. He's still so funny and cracks us up all the time, but he's also been such a grumpy mama's boy. Andy and I both hope this phase ends quickly.

Here are some fun things about Logan at 11 months:

• At the beginning of the month Logan was saying "mama" all the time, but especially when it was time to eat. I think he thinks that mama means food...which in a way, I guess it does. But he's taking a break from saying mama and dada, we haven't heard it in a while.
• He loves to be chased around. He will crawl away so fast, but then all of a sudden stop and sit up and face us. So funny.
• Logan would probably be a nudist if he could. He's started trying to take off his clothes, and pushes his shirts away when we try to put them over his head. I'm okay with it sometimes, because I love to see his chubby, rolly-polly body.
• He is standing all by himself for several seconds!
• He has started to walk with us only holding one of his little hands.
• He has also started crawling up stairs. His record is six!
• Logan is not a big fan of the sun...whenever we are driving and it gets in his eyes he gets pretty darn frustrated. Poor baby, good thing we live in Seattle.
• Logan loves to brush his teeth. Sometimes I have to fight him to take his toothbrush away.
• His favorite fruit lately is kiwi (Jan, I thought you might like that. :))
• He has started pushing things around on the floor - cars, books, dvd cases...anything that slides easily.
• We've had to start setting some limits on things he can and cannot touch. The TV has been a big issue lately, but he's pretty good at stopping when we say "no no" and "no please". Should we be saying "please"? Is it really a request?? Oh well, always good to be polite I guess. :)
• Logan loves to say "ah ah ah" while putting his hand in front of his mouth. I think it started out with us teaching him to blow kisses, but this is much more fun. 
• He is starting to try to feed himself. He gets pretty frustrated when I don't give him the spoon. But sometimes I just don't feel like cleaning up a huge mess...but I suppose I'll have to get over it so that he can learn. 

We are having so much fun with our little man and can't wait until we get to celebrate his birthday in a month! How did that come up so fast!?!

First time riding on daddy's shoulders

Love when he falls asleep cuddling with Andy

One of the few times I set him free to play with his food

Pure joy!

Cute little climber

Reading his favorite book

Getting stuck 

I think he's saying that he is done taking these monthly pictures!

Babies and hymn books...

Eating his noodles

Crawling under anything he can

Playing with daddy

10 months old

This little baby seriously gets so much more fun every single day! This last month has been full of laughs and giggles as Logan's personality is growing more and more.

Fun facts about Logan at 10 months:

• Right after I wrote his 9 month post, Logan upgraded from the army crawl to crawling on his hands and knees. He's gotten so fast now! 
• He also likes to stand on his feet and his hands, particularly when he is naked and crawls on the tile (it's just so cold!)
• Logan is so polite and likes to share his binky and his food with us. We then politely decline... :)
• He thinks the only way to get rid of something when he is done, is by throwing it. He'll take a sip of water and then throw his sippy, when he's done with his bottle he just tosses it away. It's funny at times, and then frustrating when I've picked up his sippy for the 5th time.
• When he doesn't want something, he will let us know by pushing it away. I love that he's getting old enough to really show when he wants something (or doesn't want it). 
• Logan is a funny little boy, and he even thinks so! I often find him just laughing at himself, or laughing at something he's playing with.
• He has taken a few steps, with the help of his musical walker. Andy and I have a bet going whether or not he will be walking by his 1st birthday. I said that he won't be (because he took forever to crawl, and also because I had to pick the opposite of Andy), but I realized that since I'm home with him all the time I could easily swing the bet in my favor... but of course I won't! 
• Logan has a fascination with his socks. He really likes to chew on them. He must like the feeling of pulling them apart with his 8 teeth. 
• Log really likes to crawl underneath chairs, tables, anything! The other day in Sunday School, we were sitting on the very back row against the wall. We let him wander, and he crawled underneath the chairs all the way to the door (probably about 10 chairs). He found some friends at the end of the row and was quite the distraction. But I just couldn't stop him, it was too cute. 
• As I'm writing this post, he just had his first real tantrum! He wanted the computer and Andy kept trying to stop and he was crying...man, not a good sign for the future!
• His latest eating habit is sticking his tongue out and showing us his food. Gross! Sometimes he'll have a big soggy mess of food on his tongue and that just takes the grossness to the next level. It's funny...but man, so gross. 

We are loving this little guy more and more everyday and love having him be a part of our family. We feel so lucky to have him. He's going to be so funny, just like his daddy. I can't wait to see it more and more as he grows up.

Playing with his girlfriend Bailey. She's about a week younger than him.

Getting stuck in the stool with his buddy, Eli.

Loving his first time eating crepes

He looks so chunky here. I've gotten compliments saying that he's getting so chunky, and then a minute later someone else says he's really thinning out. Ha!

Finding any tight space he can get into

Baby stink-eye

Sporting his sweet baseball outfit

9 months old!

Our little rascal is 9 months old! I thought for sure it would be weird once he hit 9 months, thinking that he's been out of my belly for as long as he was in...but really, it's not that weird. I think the only weird thing is how fast the time has gone and I can't believe I'm already thinking about his 1st birthday party (yes, yes 3 months in advance).

I was really worried that this post was going to be somewhat of a "negative" post. This has probably been the most trying month that we've had with the little guy. He has become so very needy (probably due to all of his teeth coming in). I feel like I can't go two steps away from him without him chasing me down and demanding to be held. Some babies have to be held 24/7 when they are newborns...apparently our baby needs to be held 24/7 when he is 9 months old! It's been hard, but I'm learning to just enjoy it because one day soon, he will stop and probably won't want to be held as much. There were a few days when he was first learning to pull himself up that were VERY frustrating. It would take about an hour or more to put him down for a nap because he would stand up, get stuck, I'd lay him back down, he'd stand up, get stuck, fall and hit his head, I'd comfort and lay him back down, he'd stand up...you get the picture... it was ROUGH, to say the least. But we solved that problem for the most part with lowering his crib. It's awful for me because I have to stand on a stool and can still barely reach to lay him down, but it's totally worth it to have him go to sleep right away (most of the time).

Okay, enough of my venting. Here are some really fun things that Logan has been doing at 9 months. We are so proud of our little boy for growing up and learning more and more every day.

• I told Andy the first thing I would put on here is that he is saying "dada". Obviously right now he's just saying the sounds, but soon enough he will associate it with his daddy. I can't wait for that day! I don't even mind that he said "dada" first. I LOVE it!
• We had his 9 month check up and he is 19 lbs and 28 inches long (those are estimates, the paper is in his room... and there is no way I'm going in there and risk waking him up. :))
• As I said above, Log is pulling himself up on everything! He's such a strong little guy. I'm still trying to decide what his limits are, but for right now, he basically has no limits excepts cords and remotes. 
• He's feeding himself so well. He can pick up his own little pieces of food and find his mouth, most of the time. 
• Because of his ability to feed himself, he is definitely Mr. Independent when it comes to eating. Before, if you offered him food, he used to just open his mouth and wait for it. Now he has to be the one to feed himself.
• Logan has 6 teeth! His top 2 teeth are growing in and it's so stinking cute! I love his toothy smile.
• He has learned to put himself into a sitting position.
• He also loves to sit on his knees and play.
• Log LOVES bathtime! He will splash and laugh the whole time he's in there. He loves to look at himself in the drain thing and just smile. He likes to roll over onto his belly and kick and kick. We have a squirty fish toy and he loves to be squirted with it. 
• He has started giving kisses! Aww this is my favorite! He gets easily distracted, so it's pretty rare when we get them. But if we can get his attention, we ask for a kiss and he opens up wide and leans in. One single kiss from him makes all of the hard times worth it!
• Logan loves to touch peoples faces. And not just touch...he loves to claw and grab and scratch. During Sunday School, he reached up into my nose and scratched and gave me a bloody nose! I had to run to the bathroom and wait forever for it to stop. Pretty funny story!

As hard as this month has been at times, I wouldn't trade it for anything. It just means that our little guy is growing up. I can't get upset that he likes to stand, it's a big accomplishment for him and I'm sure he's so proud of himself. So we need to encourage it. Here are some pictures from the last month of our baby Logan.

He loves playing with daddy's birthday balloons

BATHTIME!

I pulled out his bouncer because I'm going to start watching a little baby girl in my ward one day a week. I thought it would be funny to see if Logan liked it. And he did!

Brushing his many teeth

Messy boy eating some tortellini

Playing on his knees. I love it!

His favorite snack...CHEERIOS

Swinging at the park on a sunny, but cold day

He somehow managed to climb onto the Lego basket to reach the TV. 

Playing with his big cousins at the Children's Museum

Christmas 2013

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. Obviously because we had Logan! I think that we were actually pretty good about keeping his presents to a minimum, we only got him 3 (and technically only 2, because one was from my baby shower before he was born, but he's just now big enough to play with it).

We went to Andy's parents house on Christmas Eve to celebrate with the family. We ate good food, played games, and watched and laughed at the cute kids! Logan had a short nap and then didn't sleep until he finally just zonked out a little bit before we needed to go home. I love this picture because you can just tell how exhausted he was!

On Christmas day, we just stayed home and opened presents as our own little family. It was fun to pretend that Logan actually knew what was going on.

Here's Logan at our ward Christmas party with Santa.

And just a few pictures of me trying to have a Christmas photo shoot with Logan... didn't go so well since I have terrible lighting in my house. Oh well!