Pictures

I haven't been very good at taking pictures of Adam recently because I haven't felt very well and it's not on the top of my priority list.  But I've been feeling a little better so I charged up the camera and have taken a few over the last month or two.  Our little baby is turning into a little boy.  This one is a few months old but I had to include it.  This is the face only a mother could love.  That's dirt in his boogers.

Little boys are so dirty.
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Brent's Mom is awesome.  She spoils Adam with clothes.  Adam got a whole summer wardrobe from her and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.  I hadn't felt well enough to go shopping for him and he needed new clothes badly.  It was a huge blessing for our family.  All the outfits have some sort of vehicle on them.  He LOVES trucks and cars.  The bigger the better.  He thought that the "Ga Ga" (dump truck) on his shirt was so awesome.  Here he is modeling his new outfit.

He even has a toy dump truck to match.

These pictures turned out so cute.  He's reaching for the camera.  He wants to see the babies in the camera but he doesn't realize that we have to take pictures of the baby first.

He's becoming quite a little ham too.  Lately when I go to take his picture or take video of him, he really hams it up.  We got a new dining room table recently.  Adam wanted to test it out.

Anyway, even though he's growing up, he's still a little cutie.  We love him so much.

Easter

I know it's almost a month late but we have just been so busy!  I thought that things would slow down after Shaylin's wedding but I guess not.  Anyway, I just wanted to post some pictures from Easter.  Little Adam didn't really get the point of looking for Easter eggs, even after we showed him that there were snacks in them.  Oh well, maybe next year.

Some of the eggs had trucks in them.  He liked those ones the best.

We also had a egg hunt with his cousin, (Pictures to be inserted HERE if I can remember to get them) and I thought maybe he would have gotten the hang of it but he just wanted to play in the dirt.  I guess he's a typical boy!  But I think next year will be different.

Adam's Words

I'm still pretty sick, however I think the worst of it is over (I hope).  But I just wanted to share some highlights from this week that cheered me up a little.  Most of my time is passed laying on the couch watching Adam play and use his imagination.  He has quite an imagination.  He loves to talk on the phone (or more accurately, he loves to push the buttons).  But he pretends to talk on the phone.  He says, "hi" and "hello" or at least I think that's what he's saying.  But when he doesn't have a phone to play with, he is pretty inventive.  He's used several things in place of a phone, such as: a hot wheels car, a phone charger, a mega block, a block of wood, a puzzle piece and basically anything that fits in his hand and is rectangle-ish in shape.

He has some other words that he says, though most of the time he says them when he wants to, which is not very often.  But the other day, he actually used his words to communicate.  One of his words is "bissy" (fishy).  We were eating lunch and he pointed to the goldfish crackers and said "bissy!"  I thought it was a one time thing, but he did it again!  And again!  I was so proud of him.  He ate lots of goldfish that day.

Another word he says is "buh" (bird).  Today he spent a good 10 or 15 minutes looking out the window at the birds and saying. "Buh!  Buh!"  It was cute.  He can also say "bear" and "ball" but they sound so close to "bird" that I have to pay attention to what he's doing in order to know which one he is saying.  The other word he is really good at saying is "uh oh."  Though he says it more like, "ee ooh." He recognizes many other words and sentences but just hasn't figured out how to say them yet.  He finds other ways to communicate though.  It just makes me so happy to watch him learn and figure things out.  He's a little smarty pants.  He's learning how to color too.  Unfortunately we only have pens and markers so we don't color as often as I would like, but when I get feeling better, I want to get him a pack of jumbo crayons, a coloring book and some play-doh.  I'm sure he'll try to eat them but who hasn't eaten play-doh before?  I think it's required to be a kid.  That and glue, which I'm sure he will also try eventually.  He's quite the explorer.  But until then, I guess blocks, cars and books will have to do, which he loves anyway.  He doesn't know what he's missing but he's such a good little boy.  I just love him to pieces.

Dusting

I did some dusting today.  I let Adam be in charge of the paper towels...

He's such a good helper!

The Holidays are Gone :(

Thanksgiving

We had a very nice holiday season, beginning with Thanksgiving, of course.  We had Thanksgiving at my aunt's house and it was fun to be able to see all my cousins and their growing families.  My oldest cousin is pretty good at photography so while she was taking some pictures of her siblings and their families, I asked if we could squeeze in too.  We got some pretty good ones!

My favorite are some that she took of Adam.

I just love how cute he looks in his little plaid shirt and blue jeans.  He actually had a milestone that day too.  They have a big back yard and since it's Arizona, we could all eat outside and enjoy the nice weather.  Because it was so open, Adam could run around all he wanted.  He got so much better at walking that day!  He just loved being able to roam free.

Christmas

As soon as Thanksgiving is over (or before) I kick into Christmas mode.  I really had an enjoyable Christmas.  Last year was nice too, but I was still recovering from pregnancy and stuff (it took a lot longer than I expected) so I was really stressed at times and found it hard to focus on what Christmas is about.  This year I wasn't crunched for time or trying to figure out how to be a mommy.  I was able to spend more time thinking about the whys of Christmas and really enjoy the season.  I did a post every day about a Christmas tradition and how it reminded me of Christ.  I learned a lot and it was very interesting.  It made me look at everything a little more differently.  If you missed it, you can read about it here, or just go back in the archives.  The one thing I didn't enjoy so much about it was writing something every day.  I'm not much of a writer.  But now I won't have to do it again because the great thing about journals is that you can always go back and read what you wrote.  Which is what I will be doing next year.  

Anyway, it was nice not to have the stress.  Thinking back on it, I only had about one day of "stress."  I was torn weather or not to bake cookies, or make stockings for our family.  I didn't have time for both, but thanks to personal revelation, I was prompted to make cookies with the intent to give some to friends in our ward (of course keeping some for us as well) and I could always make the stockings next year, seeing as how Adam doesn't get the concept of stockings yet.  I decided to use some giant red mugs (we got them for our wedding but never have used them) for "stockings" instead.  Everything worked out perfect.  I made little name tags for the mugs (which I got from my sister-in-law's blog) and tied them onto the handle.  The mugs were big enough that I could fit all the stocking stuffers plus some nuts and candy.  I was very proud of my resourcefulness.  Plus, the cookies were AWESOME!!  And then, to top it off, my husband, being the sweetheart that he is, didn't know I had plans to make stockings, so he went and bought one for me and Adam and stuffed them with stuff as well!  His brownie points soared that day.  Or should I say, "cookie points."

I even got all my Christmas cards mailed with time to spare.  I was able to get them printed, addressed, stamped and mailed all in one day.  Unlike last year, which, for some reason was a really, really big headache.  Literally.  But that's another story for another time.  Like a time when I decide to catch up on the stuff I missed writing about from last year (and the 5+ years before that).

On the 22nd we celebrated with my parents and sisters at our house since we would be out of town for Christmas.  It was fun to watch Adam, who still hadn't gotten the hang of opening presents.  I figured since he just had his birthday, he would have gotten the hang of it.  Oh well, at least I didn't have to worry about keeping the presents out of his reach, which was nice.

(There's supposed to be a video here but for some reason Blogger can't upload it.  I will try again later I guess.)

I think his favorite gift were the cars that Auntie Breanna gave him.  He loves Lightning McQueen and the Doc Hudson cars.

We celebrated Christmas together as a family on the 23rd because we would be going to Brent's dad's house in California the next day and we didn't want to haul all our stuff up there.  We saved a few things for Adam to open there, but the rest we did at our house.  I got the best gift ever!!!!  I have been wanting a Silhouette CAMEO for a long time now.  I hinted very strongly that I wanted it for Christmas/my birthday.  Brent was very sneaky about it but when he came home from work that day, he had a big, wrapped present in his arms.  It was the Silhouette!  YAY!  All my crafting dreams will come true now.  If you don't know what a Silhouette is, basically it is a vinyl/paper cutter, similar to the Cricut but better, in my opinion.  I was just bummed that I couldn't use it right away because we still had to pack and stuff.  Oh well, now that the holidays are over, I can cut vinyl all I want.  But first I need to get some.  Brent got a new tool box and a ton of storage/organization stuff for the shed.  And a coupon to pick out a new fish.  When we got back from California, he spent the rest of his time off building shelves for the shed and getting it all organized out there.  Now he has a Man Cave.  

Christmas in California was a lot of fun, especially because we were there with the whole family.  Brian and Janny were able to come too.  There was so much anticipation on Christmas morning.

Santa ate most of his cookies the boys left for him. 

One of the best parts was when we were trying to decide who would open up presents first.  Should we go youngest to oldest?  Smallest to biggest?  Then someone suggested we go by whoever was the goodest that year.  Poor JR.  He got really sad and said, "That's not fair!  That means I have to go last!"  We decided to let him go first because he was being so honest.  We had fun spending time together and opening up our gifts.

That night we had a Christmas feast!

Yum!

Another fun thing we did while we were there was visit the Reagan Museum.  Adam loved the Air Force One hanger.  It was so open and it had cars and airplanes in it.

It was pretty crowded but Adam was happy once we got in the hanger area and he had space to move around.

There was a small replica of the Berlin Wall.  Adam fit perfectly in the tunnel.  Too bad the picture is kind of blurry.  We weren't supposed to use flash photography.

We also tried to get a good family picture.  It was really hard with the babies.  They had had enough.  We took a few and I'm going to try and edit the good parts of all of them together.  We will see how it goes.

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip, though poor Adam got sick on the way home.  But that meant he slept most of the way.  

We had a few days to recuperate before Brent had to go back to work.  It was nice to spend some time together.  Now I am in the process of putting all the Christmas stuff away.  It's almost done.  I have all the tree stuff put away, except for the tree, and a few other odds and ends.  Now it's time for a new year and some resolutions.  

But not today. 

:)

My Handsome Little Man, A Pirate, And Cookies

Adam got some new church clothes for his birthday.  He just looks so sharp in his little suit and tie!

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Yesterday we went to check the mail and the food adds were in the mailbox.  So after I was done looking at them, Adam grabbed them and started playing with them.  He was having so much fun, I decided to help him realize the potential of newspaper.  We made a pirate hat!  Yo ho ho!

  He didn't really like it on his head.  But he had fun trying to put it on my head!

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Today I had a little helper in the kitchen.  We made cookies! 

 Adam knew exactly what to do with the spoon and bowl when I gave it to him.  I didn't even have to show him.

I just can't get over how sweet he is.  I know he'll be a good helper when he gets older.

A Hair Cut for Adam

So Adam's hair was getting kind of long and it was starting to look patchy in some areas, mostly on the back of his head, but the long parts on top kind of made it look like he had a comb over.  But I didn't want to cut all of his baby hair off because it's so soft and kind of curly.  Brent kept saying we needed to cut it and I told him that after he turned one, then we could cut it.  So last Saturday was the day.  It took probably a half hour to do it and of course it was a two man job.  But I think we did pretty good considering how wiggly he was, and the fact that  all he wanted to do was play with the scissors (we let him play with the Sonicare instead).  Brent wanted to just use the clippers on the entire thing but I wanted it a little longer than what the clippers would do, so I cut the top part with scissors and we did the back part with the clippers.  It's a little uneven in the back on the sides, but I figure we did pretty good considering he didn't want to hold still.

This is after his haircut.  The light wasn't very good so the picture is kind of grainy but he's still a little cutie pie!

I took some more pictures a few days later and I realized that my little baby is turning into a little boy. Sniffff.

Doesn't he just look so grown up?  Sniiiiffffff.

I just love his big blue eyes.  He just makes me melt!

Happy Birthday Adam!

Yesterday was Adam's 1st Birthday!  Happy Birthday Adam!  I can't believe it has been a whole year since he was born.  He has gotten so big!  And he is walking now, too.  He started walking one month ago yesterday, right as we were getting ready to leave for a Halloween party.  

We celebrated his birthday a few days ago with Brian and Janny at their house.  Don and Connor were there too.  Adam wasn't sure what to do with the present.  Luckily Iris was there to help him figure it out!  Thanks Iris!  You are such a good helper.

He got some cute clothes from Don and Connor, which was great because he needed them!  

He also got a cute little chair that Janny made but it wasn't quite done yet so there will be pictures to come of that.

Then we had some cupcakes that Janny made.

He liked them a lot.  Most of it ended up on his face and in his hair.

Yesterday we celebrated his birthday with the Swensens and we also Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Waldram.  That was fun.  Grandma Waldram's present was a big hit.  Adam opened it first and then lost interest in the rest of the presents.

How cool is that?  Even Brent was envious.

Grandpa Swensen had to help Adam open the rest of the presents.

"What?!  Clothes?  I don't want clothes for my birthday!"

It was better when he opened this car track from the Swensens.

I love how he's concentrating on the wheels.  

Then it was cake and ice cream time.  Auntie Breanna did a good job decorating the cake with lots of bright colors.

"Give me my cake!"

"Forget the cake.  I'll take the ice cream!"

It was a fun day, but we were all tuckered out at the end.  I hope it was a good first birthday for Adam.  We sure love him!  Happy Birthday Adam!!

We Must Be Related...

For the past few months, Adam has been making this funny little face.  The only way I can describe it is it's kind of like a "cheese" face.  You know, when you are getting your picture taken and you say, "Cheeeeeeeeese." He doesn't do it all the time when he gets his picture taken, but sometimes he does, and sometimes he does it when he is feeling bashful, like if he meets a new person or something.

  

Anyway, the other day I was looking at some of my photos from when I was little and I found this one of me when I was 2 years old:

I started laughing because it reminded me of Adam and his "cheese" face.  I think it's obvious where he got it from.