Aaron's blessing & 3 months old!

We had a wonderful day today ~ sweet baby Aaron was blessed by his daddy on his 3 month birthday.  It was of course a beautiful blessing and I am so lucky to have such an amazing priesthood holder for a husband.  We were so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members join us for this special day.

We enjoyed gathering at our home later for lunch and visiting.  Thank you to each one who came (and for staying for my picture!) and helped make it a special day for our family.

Also to be celebrated today is Aaron's 3 month birthday!  I am just so so so grateful for this sweet baby in my life.  I cherish every moment with him.  I love holding him and cuddling him and just always want him to be close to me.  It is going so fast.  And even though I expect it to, I wish it could be a little slower.  I am so grateful for the time I have though.  I adore this little baby.  He is so precious to me.

Aaron at 3 months:
~He is finally settling down as far as the crying is concerned!  I don't don't think he ever really was colicy, but he did and still does have some tummy-gas problems... just milk coming faster than he can handle it sometimes which makes his tummy rumble and growl and hurt.  I think that's getting better though.  He is having more and more happy and awake spells.
~This kid's a tank!  He weighed about 15.5 lbs a week ago.  My friend's 7 month old little girl weighs 16 lbs! He didn't used to have many 'rolls' either, but he's sure gotten them this month.  I used to tell people he wasn't really 'chunky' but was just solid.  Now he's solid and chunky.  I love it.
~He loves to be held and carried around.  (I know, what baby doesn't, but I still thought I'd mention it.)  We love holding him and carrying him around.
~He giggled!  He gave us some all-out belly chuckles a couple days ago.  His first laugh went to his Ahma two or three weeks ago.  And then yesterday Grandpa Miller was playing with him and he got him to giggle over and over.  I got a video of it so I'll have to put that up here sometime.
~Aaron is super strong.  He's totally holding his head up.  We don't even worry about it anymore really.  He likes to stand on his legs too.  He pushes way up off the ground from on his tummy.
~He's really grabbing at toys now.  He'll swat at them a lot and even grab them every once in awhile.  He likes his alone time playing with his toys on the ground every now and then.  We also got out the jumparroo this month and he sits in it great.  He totally supports himself.

One Day

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Two Months Already!

As always, this time has FLOWN and already our little boy is two months old!  Even though I expect it, I'm still always amazed at how fast it goes.  This month has been a bit rough (that's kind of an understatement...) but things look like they've maybe possibly started getting a little bit better, maybe possibly.  We'll see.  Aaron cries... a lot.  We've gone back and forth about whether or not we think he has colic.  Either way, he's pretty fussy and obviously has a lot of pain in his tummy.  But he's had more and longer spells of happiness this week, so that's been nice.  We've finally been able to enjoy him awake and happy for a little bit!  That's been really fun.  So here's his two month picture.  (Scroll past the first two pictures.)

1 Day (24 hours)

1 Month

2 Months

Aaron at 2 Months:
-He's smiling!  Its the most beautiful thing.  Not many things more precious than a baby's smile.  We're LOVING this part.
-Lots of crying!  Lots of gas and air in the tummy.  More happy time this past week though.  That's been nice.
-Old man face
-Diaper rash finally went away!  (He's had it almost since he was born!)  We're still putting desitin on every time though to keep it away.
-Totally holds his head up.  He's really strong... and solid.
-13 lbs at last weigh-in.  Dr. appointment tomorrow... we'll see what the latest is.
-Loves to be held.  (What baby doesn't?)  He does love his alone-time sometimes too.
-Loves the lip touching game - when I brush my fingers over his lips he smiles almost every time.
-He's usually happy on the changing table - lots of smiles.
-He's starting to reach for things!
-Nursing is still going well... my milk comes really fast sometimes and he can't keep up.  He also gets big bubbles in him so he comes off coughing and crying in pain.  Poor guy!
-He's a good sleeper at night.  We both get lots of sleep and are very grateful.
-Not such a good sleeper during the day, unless he's held and there's either a lot of noise or silence.  Anything in between and he wakes up pretty easily.
-Good and bad and everything inbetween, we love it all with this sweet baby boy.  We're so blessed to have him.

He's Here! (He's a Month Old!!)

He's here!  Our beautiful sweet baby boy is (finally!!) here!  He sure took his time (2 weeks late by my count... I'll explain that later), but we're so grateful he's finally here and we've been able to enjoy him this past month.  I'm going to post about his first month now while it's fresh, and I'll have to get back to his birth later.

ONE DAY (EXACTLY 24 HOURS)

ONE MONTH

One Month!  For the records, here's what our baby boy is like at this time:

~Aaron has been holding his head up basically from day one.  He'd lift it off our shoulders and look around for brief periods at a time.  He's getting stronger and stronger with it, and now lifts and holds it up for quite long periods of time.
~I think he may have colic.  I'm still not exactly sure if it is or not, but I do know he cries a lot.  If he's awake he's pretty much always crying.  His happy spells are for about 5-10 minutes at a time and then he's mad again.
~He weighs 11 1/2 pounds!
~He's very strong, and very sturdy
~His brother and sister adore him - always want to hold him and touch him.  They're very sweet to him.
~Just starting to smile!  Just this past week.  Its soo sweet and I love it!
~Loves the kissy game... that's when he smiles the most.  But also sometimes when I smile at and talk to him.
~He's just about ready to grow out of his newborn clothes.  They're getting pretty tight!  I'm trying to enjoy them just a little longer.
~He's nursing well.
~He rolled over on our bed when was like a week or two old.  He was on his back and he arched his back and rolled onto his tummy.
~He's pretty cuddly.  I love it when he snuggles.
~He's the sweetest little baby in the world and we all adore him so much.

Merry Christmas!! and Christmas card!

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you, my dear family and friends.  I hope your day is filled with joy and love.  I am truly grateful for each one of you and they ways you influence my life.  Thank you for being part of who I am.  Merry Christmas!

Halloween Pictures

A link to our Halloween Pictures, just for Grandma Miller!  :)

It was a fun weekend.  Happy Halloween!

It's a...

B - O - Y !!!!

And we are way super excited!  I've been loving on my adorable little McKay lately, and I'm really excited to have another one of these oh-so-sweet little boys around.  I just realized I never told you, so I thought I ought do that.  Next milestone... choose a name.  We're very much having a hard time this time around.  We shall see.  I can't wait to hold this sweet little guy though!

Haylee's Art Themed Birthday Party

Okay, so it was four months ago... so what?  :)  I'm just glad to have gotten these up somewhere I could share them. 

Haylee had an 'art' themed birthday party full of rainbow colors and lots of art activities. Art and crafts are her favorite things to do, so I thought she'd have so much fun with this kind of party and she did. It was a great day.

Please, please please click on the collage below to see the picture album.  They're much cuter individually and big!  (Then come back here and tell me what you thought!  Or feel free to comment on FB if you're on there!)

  It was a great day for my little girl and it was such a fun party to throw.

Camping, camping & more camping!!!

That's what our summer has consisted of.  I guess we got a bug after not camping while in Texas AT ALL (3 years) and then having our stuff in storage for 3 years... we're so happy to have it back and love using it to enjoy the great outdoors.  Our family and local friends probably think we're nuts by now... I haven't even kept track of the times this summer we've been camping.  More weekends than we haven't, I think.  We finish unpacking our stuff just in time to re-pack it all almost every week.  We just love it.  Who wouldn't want to spend the day and night in the beautiful outdoors, rather than in a stuffy house?  I love our new home, but I love being outside even more.  My dream home is something similar to this one of Richard Branson's:

Patio
Living Area
Hammock

The whole house is outdoors.  Amazing.

Anyway... We've had so much fun and even have plans for more camping fun next month!  Summer's quickly getting away from us though.  And before you know it this baby will be here!  We can't wait for that!

Our first trip of the summer: Papa (my dad) & Grana came up to meet us for breakfast.

Our next trip: Papa and Grana came up to meet us for breakfast again.

The best part of camping of course...

Papa & Haylee made leaf boats for the river

My super-delicious dutch-oven cobbler my dad taught me how to make on this trip.  MY favorite part of camping.  :)

   Our next trip was just Brandon and I because we went up north for a wedding and decided to camp the night before.  We packed in a little ways, and I didn't have my chair which wasn't much fun at four months pregnant.  It was the last time I camped without my chair.

We got to drive through some of the redwoods on the way home... that was amazing.

Not sure which trip these are from... they're from my phone.

Nice... (no, she didn't suffocate.  It was cute though.)

How sweet is this?

In June we went on a four night campout with friends.  We had such a great time and can't wait till next year.  Here are a few from that trip:

So lucky are we to be included among such great friends!

The campsite we were at was on a beach so we got to spend a lot of time there.  The kids loved playing in the sand (even though they wouldn't go near the water.)

Four of the six moms were pregnant.  Its so fun to be pregnant with good friends.

Thanks guys for such a great time!

A couple weekends ago we got to go camping with Ahma (my mom), Ampa, Aunt Hannah, Auntie Janeal and her friend Joey.  Another awesome trip.  We had such a good time with them all.

As you can see, with the new baby on the way and needing a new tent anyway (we'd been squishing into a little four man...) and we needed an extra tent for all the people coming, we upgraded to a condo for this trip.  Lol... j/k... we did get a huge tent though.  An 8 man.  It has a closet...!  Its a beast, but it sure was and will be nice to spread out and actually be able to keep our stuff in our tent, instead of in the car!

I didn't take very many pictures on this trip and my mom has a bunch I want... I'll have to post more later.

Haylee, the budding photographer (girl after my own heart...); "Make a sad face" she says... :)

Balancing on a log

Hangin' out at the stink-holes... fumaroles at Mt. Lassen National Park

We don't know what we're going to do with this kid's super-human strength!

We have a couple more trips to post about but those pictures are on Brandon's phone or another  so I'll have to get them later.  We also have at least one more campings planned this summer...  So I'll be back some time with more.  And I still have Hawaii to post about so you can look forward to that!  I know you'll just be loosing sleep over it.  :)

Thanks for looking... and mostly, thanks for being someone who loves and cares about our family.  We're lucky to have friends and family like you.

Presenting...

Oh, my poor blog, you are so neglected, aren't you?

Ah well... such is the life of the overwhelmed, doing-too-much, no-time-for-anything young mother that I am.  I do try daily to do better... I suppose I will get the hang of it some-day, yes?

But anyway... on to the important reason for this post...

I have yet to share this news with those who can't physically see me... If I've seen you in the past month or two, you surely know.  For the rest of you...

SURPRISE!

Yep, that's right... baby #3 is on her way!  (We don't actually know its a girl until after our ultrasound on Tuesday, but I'm putting my order in.  :)  We actually would adore another boy too though.)  I'm twenty weeks along tomorrow!!  Half-way there!  I'm due November 27th (hoping I get to take this Thanksgiving off from assignments! :) ) and we are sooo excited.

How I'm going to add another child into this overwhelmed, doing-too-much, no-time-for-anything life of mine, I haven't quite figured out... but I have five more months for that, right?  :)

Anyway... woo hoo for us... and we can't wait to meet you little one!