Update on the Family

Well we now have a 6 month old again and almost 3 year old. I hate how time flies faster as you get older. I'm sure it's going to get worse. TJ just recently had his 6 month appointment. He was 26 1/2 inches(54%), 17 lbs. 13 ounces(56%) and his head circumference is 44 1/2 cm(70%). Yes both my kids have big heads.
TJ is still a baldy. Though I am noticing a little bit more peach fuzz. He still has bright blue eyes, but that could change because Camo  had blue eyes until 6-12 months, but then they turned more green.

We started him on solids the last few nights. He can eat a whole jar. That's just crazy to me. It's nice that he does because I think it's making him sleep through the night. He slept from 8:30 to 8:30 a few nights ago. He did wake up at 1 that night, but I just let him cry and he fell back asleep until 8:30. How awesome is that!! Then last night he pretty much slept through the night only waking up at 6 this morning in which he went right back to sleep until 8:30. Finally!!! Hopefully this continues. He has been quite the struggle to sleep train and we have taken advice from people, books, and anything else we can learn some tricks. We tried all of them and finally at 6 months our hard work hopefully, has paid off. That's why I am now thinking that babies sleeping through the night at an early age is personality related. Go back and read when Camo slept through the night. It was about 6 weeks. TJ has also mastered how to poop. Hopefully this isn't too much TMI, but he has a tendency to hold off pooping and then letting it all out at once. Every single time he poops, it goes out his diaper. Sorry, but I will be posting pictures, so if you have a weak stomach don't look at the pictures.TJ also has started to scoot back and a couple days ago he started getting on his hands and knees. It probably won't be long before he starts crawling.

Camo is starting to get easier. I say that now and he will probably go through a hard phase again. I think he is starting to get used to the fact that he has a brother. He still doesn't seem to like him that much. TJ annoys Camo when he chews on his toys. Camo always asks me to wash them. Is this normal for a 3 year old or is he developing some OCD? Ha. He also doesn't like when his sleeves don't go all the way down his arm or his pants all the way down to his feet. He is always tugging on them. He also hates dirty hands. He still loves books! We go to the library a lot especially since it's been so cold and we can't really play outside. He also loves to sing songs and has memorized a ton of church songs. The nursery leaders say he is the loudest one when they sing. He is going to be the oldest in nursery for awhile since his birthday is in January. Also his new favorite word is poop. It's so frustrating. I didn't think it would begin this early for him. I thought boys didn't develop potty humor until they were a bit older than 3!?

Jordan is working away. He is still at Back To Health Clinic in Keizer working as a chiropractor. He is really liking it. He has also been up to the mountain this winter and really enjoyed it. He is such a hard worker and an awesome husband and father. We are so lucky to have him!

I'm just mostly doing the mom thing. I must say it is extremely tiring with two kids. I also personal train a couple nights a week at a private studio. I absolutely love my clients and enjoy helping them get healthy and reach their fitness goals. I also am running about 3 miles a day and strength training. Every Monday I do a cross fit style workout with a lot of the girls from my church. I love it! One of these days I just might get into cross fit. It reminds me a lot of gymnastics conditioning. I also might do the tough mudder obstacle course this June. I think it would  be a rewarding goal to work towards. We shall see if I will be brave enough.

Sorry for the long post.

                          Here's the evidence.

                         Guilty!

                     Begging for Grandpa's attention.

Christmas

Christmas this year was really relaxing this year. I was having a bit of a hard time because I was really missing my family. It has been a few years since I have seen my family for Christmas and most of them were in Utah this year. On top of that, J had to work Christmas Eve and didn't even get home until 6. I tried to make the best of it and still planned our family traditions.

We started a few new one's this year. There are a lot of tree farms in the area so we decided to go and cut down our own Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun especially because this is the first time I have ever done that. It didn't disappoint Camo either. He had a blast.  Not to mention we enjoyed some delicious pumpkin donuts that the farm sells. I have made quite a few stops at this farm just to pick up pumpkin donuts. The only downfall was that the Christmas trees at a farm are so dang expensive. I think we paid almost 30 dollars for our 4 foot tree!! It fit perfectly in our house though!

 Next we decided to start the tradition of making gingerbread houses. We decided to do this because now we have kids that will really enjoy this activity.  J and I quite enjoyed it ourselves as well. I think J ended up building most of it because he couldn't stand to have pieces and frosting all out of place. He is a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe next year we will have to make two gingerbread houses so Camo can do whatever he wants to his.

Christmas eve I decided to do my family tradition of soups for dinner and acting out the Nativity. J wasn't so thrilled about the acting part, but I'm hoping each year he will be more willing do it. I had great memories growing up of doing this with my brother's and sister's. We invited his parents and J's sister and her family over. We made broccoli cheese soup and Zuppa Toscana soup. We also celebrated J's sister's birthday since it is on Christmas eve. We enjoyed some delicious cheesecake. Since J's mom could not be at our Christmas eve dinner because of work, we decided to go to her work and surprise her. She works at a nursing home. We decided to bring a few items to act out our Nativity while we were there. I think the boys quite enjoyed going to visit their Grandma.

Christmas day we opened presents from Santa at our house. Camo loved all of his gifts. His favorite was probably the play dough. He also really enjoyed his remote control car. We then went over to J's sister's house for a brunch. We made waffles and she made her sausage egg bake. The rest of the day was really relaxing and all the cousins played really well together.

In no particular order, here are some pictures from the month of December.

Polar Express

We recently had the opportunity to ride the Polar Express in Mount Hood, Oregon. J's parents treated us and J's sister and her family to this. They even made us little treat bags. Camo devoured all the treats in the bag about 10 minutes into the train ride.  Camo was super excited the 2 weeks prior to going. Every day he would say it's getting closer. We had a blast. Camo was super excited to see Santa and sit on his lap. We read the entire book on the train while they passed out cookies and hot chocolate for everyone.  Then halfway through, the train slowed down so we could see Santa waving to all the kids and to see his house all decorated in Christmas lights. We then picked up Santa and each kid got to sit on his lap. He then handed a Christmas bell to every kid.  After the train ride we went to a hamburger joint with the whole family. It was a super fun day!

Deck The Halls

One of the exciting things about moving to Wilsonville, Oregon is that there are farms everywhere. There are pumpkin patches and Christmas tree farms. This year we started a tradition of going and cutting down our Christmas tree. The best part about having an almost 3 year old is that they are super excited about all the festivities of Christmas. Camo had so much fun cutting our tree down and decorating it. Every morning he wakes up, that's the first thing he does is turn on the Christmas tree lights.

Turkeython 5k

This was my first race post baby and my first 5k. I didn't really think that racing a 5k would be fun. I actually quite enjoyed it and want to run another to try to beat my time. I have always like running longer distances  better than shorter distances because every time I run shorter distances my body builds up lactic acid and makes me feel like puking. I hate that feeling so I always try to avoid racing shorter distances. Not anymore. I actually think the next race I sign up for will be another 5k or 10k. Don't get me wrong, I  loved doing the Sauvie Half last summer, but I think I might stick to shorter distances for awhile. Not to mention it's easier to train for these races with 2 small children that require so much time and attention.

I wasn't so sure how I was going to do come race day. I was feeling a little nervous because I was having some major stomach issues. It might be due to eating Little Ceasar's the night before and having a pumpkin doughnut for breakfast. I know, what was I thinking. The funny thing is, is that it didn't stop me from running 30 seconds faster per mile than most of my training runs. I finished in 24:01. If only I could have pushed it a little harder at the beginning. I say beginning because I was sprinting as fast as I could towards the finish line which goes to show you that I had way too much energy stored up for the end. I could have probably pushed it a little harder at the beginning. I was just so worried about losing steam at the end if I went out too fast.

4 months old

TJ just recently had his 4 month checkup. He is getting so big. He weighed in at 16 pounds 4 oz, which means he has doubled his birth weight already. He was 24 1/2 inches long. He is already rolling over from his back to stomach and just recently started rolling from his stomach to back.. I think he is going to be a lot more active than Camo. He still eats about every 3-4 hours and wakes up at least 1 or 2 times in the night. I can't wait until he sleeps through the night. I could use a full nights sleep. He takes great naps during the day. We just recently started him on rice cereal and he likes it okay. We tried sweet potatoes tonight and he seemed to really like those. I wanted to start him on baby food in hopes that he would be more full at night. This may help him to sleep through the night. He also just recently discovered his thumb and loves it. J and I aren't quite sure what to do about it. We are nervous because I was a thumb sucker and had a hard time breaking the habit. We like it because it helps soothe him. He absolutely hates the binky so we feel this is our only option. He is super smiley and very chatty just like his brother. We love him so much. I just realized I have not taken hardly any pictures of the boys lately. I promise to have lots more pictures on his 5 month update.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year.. We started the Halloween week out with carving pumpkins. We didn't get into as much as we did last year. Jordan attempted an Oregon Duck helmet, but only got halfway through. I carved a pumpkin with stars and a moon. We didn't get any pictures of the finished product. Then the day before Halloween we went to the ward trunk or treat. Does anyone else agree that ward trunk or treats are mad chaos? I think Camo enjoyed it though. For Halloween this year Camo decided to be Thomas the Train and TJ was a giraffe. TJ used Camo's costume that Camo wore when he was 9 months old. Kind of surprised me that TJ could fit into it at 4 months. On Halloween night we first stopped at the assisted living home that my mother-in-law works at. The residents like to pass out candy. Camo scored lots of candy. Then we got some pizza and headed over to my sister-in-law's house for some trick or treating. Camo was super excited to go trick or treating. He kept up with his older cousins at the beginning but soon ran out of steam. He still ended up with lots of goodies.

                               Handsome boys

                           The cutest little giraffe

                                 The boys and Grandma

                                 Camo and his cousins

 

 Love this picture of Camo and his cousin.