rose garden

Monday was so incredibly beautiful!! After I took all those fun pictures of L hanging out in the crib, we decided that the weather was perfect and necessitated additional pictures. We picked Ry up from class in the afternoon and went to a park on the way home. It's the Columbus Park of Roses - and honestly ... it's October. I knew that quite a few roses stayed in bloom well into September and October, but I didn't think that we would see that many!! It was absolutely beautiful! And the minute you walk into this area of the park, the smell just hits you like a wall and it's heaven on earth. At BYU I worked as a TA for a floral design class for spring term, and I got so spoiled working with roses and other flowers every single day. It was awesome! I had way too much fun taking hundreds of pictures ... but I like so many of them that I want to share a lot! Since they're small, just double click 'em to make 'em big. Hope you enjoy!

On top of the view point where you could see thousands of roses!

As I was taking pictures ... I noticed two little guys in the background being ever so patient! Cute, huh?

I loved these colors!

Although taking pictures of the roses were fun, I think this subject is much more cute!

This one was called "Singing in the Rain" - cute, huh? :)

just hanging out

Monday morning I was kind of cleaning up L's room a bit, so he was just chilling in his crib watching me. He LOVES being able to sit up now and see what's going on (in fact - last night during his bath, he would literally scream as loud as he could the second I started to lay him down. He would only stop if I brought him back up to a sitting position. Ugh ... he squirms a lot more like that ... but oh well!). He was so dang cute that I had to run and grab the camera!

Here's him sitting - he can barely see over the top of the rails. That will definitely change soon - because he's starting to pull on things to help him sit up, and I don't want him to suddenly pull himself up to standing without me realizing it! But for now at least, it's dang cute!

So we started rolling around ...

And look at how big he is! Sadness ... I loved it when we used to lay him this way to sleep. It's happening way to fast!

This picture makes me laugh - as if he's just sitting there singing to himself or something.

His eyebrows kill me. He's so expressive!

I made him kneel right next to the railing and put his hands up on it - I think he was a little nervous about this.
Especially when his knees would slowing start slipping out from underneath him! haha
And this is one of him standing ... kind of. See? I think it's time to lower his crib mattress ...

fall fun

This past week we had a lot of fun! L and I went to the famous Pumpkin Show in Circleville, OH (about 45 min. south of us) with some friends, and we had a blast! We tried all sorts of yummy treats - pumpkin burgers, pumpkin chili, pumpkin doughnuts (by far the best!), pumkin cheesecake fudge, pumpkin butter, pumpkin-you-name-it! It was sooo good! 

Then on Saturday Ry, L, and I went to a little farm to pick out pumpkins.  It was an activity hosted by the med school, so we ran into some friends there and had a grand ol' time (although it was freezing!!).  This picture might just be my favorite of L lately. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of him with pumpkins!! 

Here's a few of the friends we met up with on the hay-ride. So cute!

I have to defend the bloated appearance of my son in this picture.  Even though he is still larger than the average 6-month old, we definitely had multiple layers on him this day! I think he wore three shirts under those overalls ... so please do not laugh at my baby. :) 

I love family pictures - especially with old rustic barns and trucks. 

random cuteness

Since I'm playing catch-up with my posts, I figured I could add these in.  These are just some of my favorites from random things ... 

L in his overalls

L watching Daddy play ultimate frisbee down on campus. 

a new potpourri

Don't you just love it when you've put the baby to bed a few hours ago, and yet you can still smell the lovely aroma from the squash-flavored baby food on your hands? Even after washing them multiple times? Yeah ... priceless. 

daddy's little sidekick

graham cracker boy

So I was really grouchy yesterday, but Mom stuck me in this new chair thing. I didn't like it too much until she put something in my hand and didn't take it away when I put it in my mouth. There's a first time for everything, right? 

So I kept doing it. Turns out that they were graham crackers. Tasted pretty good, although I had a little trouble getting them in my mouth.

Is this really how it's supposed to be done?

I don't know, I like the good ol' fashioned finger-sucking. Takes less coordination. 

You see that little piece on my hand? I tried to get that off so many times, I just had to give up!  

And picking up the pieces once they got soggy? Well just forget it! I need a new one Mom! 

Now we're talking - one for each hand! 

I could get used to this kind of life!  

I'm happy, Mom's happy.  Why don't we do this more often? 

I think my mom's pretty smart ... those cracker's were mighty tasty. 

nonnie's visit

Ryan's mom, Cynthia, came out this past week to visit us! It was so much fun playing with her every day and watching L fall in love with her! Here's some of our favorite things we did:

• Cynthia putting L to bed and babysitting while Ry and I went to a Columbus Crew Soccer game
• Cynthia playing with L while we had choir practice before conference on Sunday
• Getting to take showers whenever I wanted while Cynthia played with L
• Catching up and talking for hours
• Going to the RPAC to play volleyball and go swimming
• Watching Ryan play soccer at the ARC
• Picking out a color and painting our dining room wall red! (three coats plus primer!)
• Buying placemats and dishcloths to match the red wall!
• Feeding L again ... and again ... and again
• Spreading beauty bark in front of our house to make it look so much better!
• Making apple crisp and savoring the yummy freshly picked apples
• Meeting Ry for lunch and going to the Columbus Fish Market ... oohh, so good.
• Celebrating L's six-month birthday by taking lots and lots of pictures
• Making L laugh and giggle for Nonnie
• L being such a good sleeper while Nonnie was here - she put him down for naps and bedtime a lot, and she must have that special grandmother touch
• Going to the park and pushing L in a swing for the first time! 

And here's some fun pictures!! Thank you SO much for coming Cynthia! We had a wonderful time! 

first buckeye game

A couple weeks ago, we took L to his first Buckeye football game. Talk about intense! I think I had forgotten how loud football games are, and I am still surprised when I remember how L fell asleep during the game - twice! Crazy, I know. It was supposed to be cold that day, so we bundled up .. and then started shedding the layers as the sun came out and baked us all. During the third quarter I ended up walking around with L under the stadium's shadow because he started showing signs of a heat rash. Completely unexpected ... but he was totally fine and the clouds came back soon enough! 

Here's the three of us in the stadium, otherwise known as the temple, the shoe, and the home of TBDBITL. 

Some cute pictures of L asleep on Ryan's lap.

And falling asleep on the bus ride home. I think he was exhausted! 

fall is here

I LOVE the fall season! The weather cooling off, the crisp mornings, the apples, the pumpkins, the colors, the preparations for upcoming holidays, the decorations, everything! 

L and I went on a walk today while Ryan went to the football game (I promise we did more than go on a walk ... like, how we finally got dressed for the day at 4pm and that was only to go to Home Depot to buy the rest of the beauty bark for our front yard), and I grabbed my camera on the way out the door.  There's a really big tree across the street from our complex that I love! The colors of the leaves have been changing every day, and I wanted to try and capture a little of the fall feeling ... hopefully we'll get to take family pictures with the fall colors! 

six months

Six months! I can't believe it! We have had so much fun lately, and the time flies by! 

Recent Statistics: As of October 7, L is 19 lbs. 11 oz (85%) and 27 ¾ inches long (90%).  I was shocked to hear 85 percentile for weight - first time since he was a week old that he has been below 90!

Recent favorites about L:

He eats everything in sight! We graduated from rice cereal to sweet potatoes, carrots, peaches, applesauce, pears, and bananas! He won’t stop eating!

I reminded him how to roll over one day, and he has been non-stop moving since then! He rolls back and forth all day long, and does not like to stay still.

He’s been sitting up by himself for a couple weeks now, and it’s amazing how fast he was able to do it! He wobbles after a while, or when he’s super excited and kicking his legs, so we still have to be close to him - but he does it all by himself!

A little bit more peach-fuss is growing in on top … any day now and he’ll have bright red hair. I can’t wait! J

His skin tones easily pull off both Cougar gear and Buckeye gear. He’s got the best of both worlds.

He can sit in the child seat of a shopping cart now - saves TONS of room while grocery shopping! Yay!

Books galore! Maybe it’s from watching Daddy study so hard, but L is a huge fan of books! We read together every day (almost), and he loves to help turn the pages.

Still loves to splash in the tub and go swimming in the pool. So much fun!

Cracks me up with all his facial expressions.

Starting to show preferences between people. He cries when he can’t see me anymore, and immediately starts to smile when I come back into view. Melts my heart!

When he gets really tired, he starts touching my face a lot - as if to get my attention to remind me that I need to focus on him and his needs right then. So cute.

Sadly, he still has a nasty cough with congestion every once in a while - and we’ve had him checked out by the doctor a couple times because of it.  It makes the whole sleep issue a little harder now … and we seem to be starting all over with multiple night-waking again.

Teething is lasting forever! You can see the perfect outline of the bottom two front teeth - and they’re being stubborn and not coming in yet! Poor little L … so sad.

Hate to admit it, but L sleeps with a purple stuffed-bunny. Purple. I know … we’re setting our son up for multiple gender-related issues. But he loves how soft it is, and it helps him fall asleep. So I say who cares?! J

He’s starting to look like such a little boy now instead of a newborn. He’s growing up so fast!