Christmas and other things!

Well, the first set of Christmases have come and gone. That's right, I said the first set. ;-) With our big family we have multiple Christmas celebrations. This year we were so lucky to have my mom and my dad both come in to visit. Clayton was very spoiled by both, of course! Not to mention little miss Reagan who made out pretty nicely herself! ;-) We spent our actual first Christmas day as a family at our house. We haven't been at our house for Christmas in, well, forever! It was nice to wake up and come out to open presents in our pj's! We invited over Darren's parents and Granny so that they could come see Clayton open his presents! This year was wonderful too because we had a white Christmas! We had so much snow on Christmas Eve and all of the early morning hours of Christmas. It was so pretty.... but of course it all melted by the end of Christmas day. Oh well - that's West Texas for you!

Our little family on Christmas morning

We decided to start a tradition that we would give our kids 3 gifts each. Jesus received 3 gifts from the wise-men, and with all of the family that we have the kids will have plenty of presents. Then they get one big gift from Santa that will always be unwrapped. That's how we did things in my house growing up and I loved it. This year Santa brought Clayton a Rockin Rider horse! It is awesome! It has a seat for when he's small and can convert as he grows. It's supposed to fit him until he's 3, so we'll see! He loves it! He knew instantly what to do to make it rock! So strange! He also knows how to make the horse sing by squeezing it's ear. He plays the song over and over and over! We're glad he loved his present so much! His presents from us were a Reveille pillow-pet, a clap and play puppy, and this music table thing that I thought would be awesome but turned out to be too small. He still plays with it though!

Loving Santa's present!

We will have 3 more Christmases this weekend. Thursday is our Christmas at mom & dad's, Friday is Christmas at Granny's with the Hillgers, and Saturday is Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's with the Frerichs! Whew! We're housing 7 people as well, so we'll have our hands full this weekend! Thank goodness we have a big house!

"Rockin' is serious business, Mom!"

In other news.... non-Christmas related... Clayton is teething so bad. Poor baby's two front teeth are both coming in. He got his two bottom teeth at the same time, and now his two front teeth are both coming in. He really doesn't get much fussier but his cheeks get really flush and he gets off his schedule. Oh well! Hopefully they come in soon! One's through the gum already and the other is almost there! Other news... little sister is now viable! Hooray! I'm 24 weeks along so, heaven forbid, if something did go wrong she should be able to survive. That's such an amazing time in the pregnancy to me. A safety net of sorts! I've been feeling great, besides the pink-eye, or whatever it was that we had. I had an appointment this morning and everything was hunky-dory! Another month and I go for another big ultrasound in Midland to make sure that she is growing ok and nothing else has happened with my stupid placenta, haha!

Can't forget Miss Pearl!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Here's to a wonderful 2012!!!

Feeling Better

Well, it had to happen eventually.... Clayton finally got sick! This kid, thank goodness, has only had one real cold in his whole life, and other than that has been just peachy! I guess with the changes in the weather, the 30 degree days we had, and the wet/snow, he was bound to get sick! It started last Tuesday. We noticed that his nose was running a lot and that his eyes were a little swollen. By Wednesday his eyes were really pink and swollen, but still not producing the gooey stuff that comes with pink eye. We called the pediatrician and the nurse called us in a prescription for eye drops - just in case. Plus we were told to give him a minute amount of dimatap to help with the drainage. Well, several days went by and he was not getting better. One morning he woke up and his eyes were glued shut. We thought for sure it was pink eye, but after over 4 days on the drops he was not getting better. Away we went to the pediatrician..... No pink eye, but it was a definite infection! Poor baby just had a really bad sinus infection that was affecting his eyes and nose. We got a prescription for amoxicillin and he is looking and feeling a million times better now! (Nearly a week and a half later!) We are so thankful that he is getting better! Poor baby looked miserable but was still in good spirits, bless his heart! He still has congestion because he coughs and sometimes his breathing is loud and labored, but no running nose and no swollen/pink eyes! Hooray!

My mother-in-law had told me that babies born in March were the best because the weather is most favorable for not getting sick! He has definitely followed that trend, and for that we are very thankful! I was glad that this was his first prescription - EVER! WOO HOO!!!! Now lets hope he gets 100% better soon! I still haven't done my Christmas pictures because he looked so terrible, lol. Hopefully I can get them soon.... they might be New Year's cards instead of Christmas cards, but who cares! I have an 8 month old baby and I am 22 weeks pregnant... I think I have an excuse! ;-)

My mom has been here since Tuesday night and has been caring for Clayton at our house. I think that is making a huge difference in his well-being too, as he is not exposed to as many germs and what not! We are so glad that she is here! And tomorrow is her birthday! =)

Well, that's all I have for now! Just wanted a recollection of Clayton's first illness, lol... Thankful for our health!!

First Cousin!

Last night Clayton's first cousin was born! Charley Elaine Hillger came in to this world at 6:19pm weighing in at 6lbs 10oz and 19 1/2" long. She is beautiful (from what the pictures tell me!)! We are anxious to get to meet her but it looks like it won't happen this weekend like we had planned. All three of us are under the weather! Clayton has pink eye in both eyes, a cold, and he gave his cold to dear old Mom & Dad. Thanks, bud! Hopefully we'll be feeling better soon so that we can go hold that precious baby girl in Lubbock!

Congratulations to the new parents, Trey and Leslie! Welcome to the world, Charley!

Eight Months!

Happy Eight Month Birthday, Clayton Scott!

Mommy has decided that I am going to invent some sort of machine so that you stop growing up so fast! This past month you have become mobile... and our life has changed drastically! ;-) You started crawling shortly after your 7 month birthday. You first major crawls happened on November 5th. It was so fun to watch you! Once you figured out what you were doing.... watch out! You're on the move! You don't slow down! You now always want to be down and crawling. You love to explore and go from toy to toy. You also love to play "fetch" with yourself. You will hit a toy (mostly a ball or block, but you've even used water bottles!) and chase after it, only to hit it again once you get to it. It's really funny to watch you entertain yourself! You hardly ever get bored and fussy anymore because you are able to change your scenery and find new toys! You do get fussy though when we won't or can't let you down to crawl! Your clothes are now always dirty from you crawling around! You're quite speedy too! You make record time!

Shortly after you started crawling you decided that you needed a new trick.... pulling up! You started pulling up on November 14th . You now pull up on anything you can, including the side of your crib! We had to drop your mattress already because we were afraid that you would climb out! You can pull up and then stand for long periods of time, and you love it! Every morning when we go in to your room you are standing at the edge of your crib waiting for us! It's really cute! It won't be long until your cruising along the edge of the couch - and then - walking! Oye... again, where is the machine to make you stop growing?!

One of your favorite activities, besides crawling and pulling up, is dancing to music! Anytime that you hear music you start swaying back and forth. It is so cute! We love how much you love music and we can't wait until you are big enough to start playing musical instruments! You make your own music for now! ;-) Speaking of your own music, you love blowing raspberries and making a smacking noise with your mouth. Your still not speaking a whole lot (you just blabber dadada) but we're hoping you start saying some words soon! We can't wait to hear you call us mama and dada for the first time! Your other noises are LAUGHS. Oh my goodness you laugh so much! You are so ticklish and you love being scared. We love the sweet sound of your laughter. It brings so much joy to our lives!

You have graduated to the big boy bathtub - no more baby tub for you! Now you just sit and play with your toys. Once we took you out of the small tub you stopped splashing so much. Maybe it's because you have tons of toys now! Who knows! You still love bath time though, but man do you hate getting dressed afterward! We think you'd rather run around in your birthday suit, but it's too cold for that!

"Panking" is still one of your all time favorite activities. Haha! You hit everything!!! You also like to bounce a lot when we are holding your arms and you're standing. You probably learned how to bounce from your exersaucer! Another favorite activity is making a mess! You love to go over to our bookshelf in the game room and pull all of the dvd's off the bottom shelf. Guess Mommy & Daddy need to babyproof some! At least they are not fragile! You definitely like getting into things you're not supposed to. For instance, you love chewing on plugs... not a good habit!

You had some awesome firsts this month - besides all of the mobility changes! You went to your first Aggie football game in College Station for starters! You were such a good baby! You didn't cry or fuss the entire game. You took a nap during the 3rd quarter and when the game was over you were ready to crawl on Kyle Field! That's right - you have touched Kyle Field waaaayyyy before most people/kids have! We think that is really special! So many people complimented on how cute you were and how neat it was that you were there, and plus, crawling on Kyle Field! You're such a good Aggie already!

Yes, this is what you did during your pictures!

You also had your first Thanksgiving(s) this month! We had our first turkey dinner at Opa and Oma's house in San Antonio with Uncle Ross and Uncle Adam and Blakely! It was a lot of fun. You had sweet potatoes! We had another meal on Thanksgiving day at Pop & Gia's house with the family here! And finally we had another meal at Grandma & Grandpa's house where we fed you cereal!

Eating wise you are exploring a lot of new foods, but you are still super picky! You now get to eat the little cereal things called puffs that are made for babies. You also eat some table foods that we know are ok for you like fruits and veggies. You love to make a mess with any food that we give you! You're still picky though and won't eat any fruit that is smushed up into baby food. In fact you hated peaches, pears and bananas when we gave them to you. Your all time favorite food is still sweet potatoes! You still looooove your bottle and drink 7 ounces every 4 hours, pretty much like clockwork! You're very predictable on when you need a bottle or a nap, and we like that!

Mommy and Daddy like taking you to town now because you can ride in the shopping cart and you can sit in a high chair at a restaurant! It makes it a lot easier to cart you around places! You love riding in the shopping cart! We think you like looking at all of the people and things on the shelves!

Appearance wise you still look like your daddy but you have mommy's chubby baby cheeks!  You're finally starting to get some hair too! Woo hoo! Now it doesn't just stick straight up! Your hair is a light brown color and your eyes are still a gorgeous blue! We love it! You're wearing 9-12mo pants and 9mo onesies. You have long legs! You're still in a size 3 diaper - which you've been in for a while now!

You sleep great and have been sleeping from 7:30-8ish to 7-7:30ish every day. Mommy & Daddy are ok with not getting to sleep in on weekends anymore... you are worth it! Some times we can feed you your morning bottle and you'll go back to sleep in bed with us until about 9. That's always nice! =)

You truly are the BEST baby, and you truly bring such an immense amount of joy to our lives. We never knew that we could love you this much! You are so wonderful and we are so blessed to have you as our son! Now, let's hope your little sister is as good! ;-)

Little toot!

We love you so much, baby boy! Happy Birthday!

Love,

Mommy