A Will Update

It seems almost the entire summer has past without posting anything. It has been a busy and fun summer so far.

A very exciting thing happened on June 18th...Will started walking at 14 months!! He was a much happier baby when he could get around without crawling or me carring him.


Will also got his first haircut! A friend in the ward who cuts Olivia's hair did his too. His blonde curls were getting a little unruly.

Will said his first word too. Guess what it was? It wasn't mamma or dadda it was Dog! We don't have a dog but he loves them and can spot one from very far away. In fact, today he was in the living room with me and starting yelling 'dog, dog, dog' and I realized that very far down the road in our neighborhood someone was walking a white dog.

One year ago

After returning from Georgia my laptop was on the fritz until Rick figured out how to fix it last week. Then this week, I haven't felt motivated at all to document Will's first birthday. Maybe my lack of motivation is because it still feels more like winter than spring here (it snowed on Saturday) or that our close friends in Chicago are moving far away or because I'm in complete denial about Will turning 1. How did it happen? It went so quickly, and I feel as though in some ways I missed it. Did I miss opportunities to sit and snuggle with him or lay on the floor and play? I'm already dreading him going off to college!! His two bottom teeth

We first celebrated his birthday a little early in Georgia, so that so the extended family could celebrate with us.

He wasn't that interested in the cake.

Even with extra help from everybody

Then annoyance

This is the only damage he would do

On his actual birthday we had cookie monster cupcakes.

He was way more interested in the balloons than the cupcake.

It's a tradition that when our babies turn one year old, we take them to the toy store and let them pick out their present. Will chose a green bouncy ball and has played with it everyday since.

In the craziness of having a baby last year, I never wrote down the birth story, which is also a little crazy.

I woke up having contractions at 3 am. I busied myself until 9 when I called the doctor to let them know what was going on. Then said to come in to see them. We dropped off Olivia at our friends house. Once there, the doctor told me that I was defiantly in labor (which I knew) and that I should go to the hospital and since I have a history of having babies quickly, they would break my water and I would have the baby.

So off we went to the hospital. Checked in, got settled and the physician at the hospital (which I had never met before) said that my contractions weren't close enough and that I needed to walk around. I would have never went to the hospital if the first doctor hadn't told me to go. I would have much rather walked around my own house. So Rick and I walked around the hospital for 2 hours. We came back to be checked out and the same doctor told me that he would schedule an induction the next morning because I was at a 4 and he wanted to "see more progress". I asked him what the difference between now (4 o'clock) and the morning was. He said "since his shift was over soon he didn't want to have another doctor clean up his mess." That's right, he said that to me.

So we packed up and I left the hospital in tears. I was mostly scared that I wasn't going to make it back in time to get an epidural. I had that happen once and I really didn't want to experience that again. Plus the kids were already with our friends and had given up a day watching them already. We decided that we would get some dinner and go home and try to get some sleep. I was exhausted because I had been up since 3am. We went to dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant here in town. We were in the middle of the meal when I started having contractions that were really painful. The kind that double you over. Rick wanted to go back to the hospital but I'm stubborn and I was scarred that they will send me away again. We drove back home for me to take a shower.

After I take a shower, I realize that I really need to be at the hospital. The contractions are 2 minutes a part now, sometimes less. Now we are in a hurry to get to the hospital. Rick is driving like a crazy person. He actually passed a student driver in a non passing section of the road. We get to the hospital and in the hour and a half that we have been gone, there has been a shift change and we have to check-in again. I'm dying by this point and no one really believes that I'm as far along as I say I am. They put us in a temporary room first until Rick tells them we need a real room quickly. They bring us back to the room we were in that hasn't been touched since we left it. A sweet nurse checks me out and sees that I'm at a 8 1/2. She quickly throws an IV in my arm and and calls the anaesthesiologist. Within 45 minutes I have the epidural! Hallelujah!

Our baby Will was born an hour after that at a healthy 8lbs. 15 oz.

I can't imagine our lives without this face! Happy Birthday baby boy!!

One of my favorite times of the day......

is when Will wakes up from a nap.

11 months

Our sweet Will turned 11 months yesterday. Here are some pictures throughout the last month.

In his Sunday best and looking handsome.

This past month he has really started getting into things (and by things I mean everything).

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Exhibit D (same day as the pantry)

And although I don't have a picture to prove it, he really loves pottys with the lids up. (if you know what I mean).

Other facts:

He finally has a tooth! It just came in a few days ago.

He is a champion crawler but prefers to slide on hardwood floor like an emperor penguin.

Loves to snuggle

Sings during sacrament meeting

Loves to look out the front windows for Ben's bus

Loves to splash in the bath (which is why he also loves the potty)

Doesn't like to be left out of wrestling and body slamming with Daddy, Ben & Olivia

Chases the vacuum around while I'm vacuuming.

10 Months

Although Will turned 10 months old over a week ago, I'm just getting around to it. I was only a day late taking the picture but who can tell, right?

This month he learned to pull himself up to standing. He also has figured that he can move sideways while still holding on. As you can tell from the following pictures he is very proud of himself.

He really loves standing here because his toys are in this drawer.

My little heart breaker celebrated his first Valentines Day

He is growing up so fast. More than anything else, he loves for me to carry him around. I don't mind, in fact, I love it. It just means almost everything is done one handed.

9 months

I had an impromptu photo shoot with Will the day after he turned 9 months old. He is on the move these days. I wouldn't call it exactly crawling but he can get from point A to point B pretty quickly. It looks like he is doing a swimming stroke.

He will give kisses all day long, which everyone in the family takes full advandage of.

I couldn't help myself.

He had a great first Christmas. Santa brought him some of his favorite blankets.

Will really loves this car! Most nights Ben & Olivia take turns driving him around the house, while I make dinner.

Still no teeth.

19 lbs 1 oz.

27.5 ht.

45 cm hc

Some things that happened in December...

Ben ended his basketball season with the game winning shot. A great way to end the season. This is him with his trophy.

This year instead of cookies, I decided to make homemade fudge for the neighbors. I gave them with a pint of vanilla ice cream. I wanted to find peppermint ice cream in pint size but never found it. Hot fudge is good on anything right?

Rick gave me any early Christmas present this year...recessed lighting!! Since it gets dark around 4, it gets very very dark in the kitchen. We only have the pendants and under cabinet lighting which didn't give off very much light. Thankfully our friend (who has the same floor plan of house and had put in recessed lighting at his house) came and helped Rick install it. Thanks Jeff!! As you can see he still has some holes to patch but I'm a happy camper. Will figured out that he can roll underneath the Christmas tree and grab presents and ornaments. How does a child just instinctively know that a Christmas tree and presents are awesome? Tis the season for bundling up the kids for school, unfortunately. I took this picture one day before school while Ben was waiting for the school bus. He decided to play his DS all bundled up in his snow clothes. This picture just cracks me up!

Olivia had her annual Christmas P.J. breakfast. We had a great time (how could you not, when you can legitimately go out in public in your jammies) and she had even made Rick and I a present, this cute Christmas tree.

I was in charge of Ben's holiday party at school which thankfully went great. The kids had fun and I think the parents and teacher did too. I made these little cuties for the party. Although delicious and cute, they were super time consuming, and I will only be making them by specific request from my kids. The things we do for our little ones.