Firsts (times 4!)

This week has been a week for firsts around here...

1. Last Friday, first time crawling. We thought it would never happen and just as we were discussing how our little guy was ever going to experience the world if all he did was rolled everywhere, he took off. (By took off I mean did a rather snail-like pace version of the 'army crawl') I haven't been able to get a good video yet, but it's on my list. He's getting much quicker and starting to really like this newfound freedom. Our little explorer ;)

2. Today, first 2 naps and whole night's sleep without the sleepsack. (Basically a sleeping bag that covers your whole body, but still lets you move around. It's great for babies that move around a lot in their sleep.) He has so far successfully (did I just jinx us?) slept with just a blanket and paci. Getting him up from his nap and seeing him all snuggled up with his blanket was super cute by the way!

3. With the newfound 'sleep freedom' he discovered during his second nap, he decided that he wanted to give mommy a surprise and be standing in his crib when I came to get him. (Way to scare a mama kid!) Needless to say, his crib has now been lowered to the lowest setting to hopefully prevent any escape attempts.

4. Last but not least...we have a TOOTH!!! At 11+ months, I was beginning to wonder if I'd be pureeing food though kindergarten. I'm quite pleased to tell you that won't be necessary, because our baby boy's first pearly white is in. Don't expect any pictures of this one any time soon. He won't let us any closer than a safe biting distance to his mouth, ouch!

We're so proud of you little buddy! While watching you grow up so fast is a little hard on my mama heart, I couldn't be happier. And just in time for a first birthday, sheesh! (Tissues anyone?)

11 months

Dear anyone trying to take a picture of an 11-month old, good luck!

Take #1:

Take #3 (the dogs walked by):

Take #5 (trying to escape):

Take #8 ("Mommy, is this what you don't want me to touch?"):

Take #9 (got it!):

Happy 11 months to the sweetest baby boy I know. You sure do make mommy laugh!

Thankful Thursday

I woke up this morning thinking about things I'm thankful for today. Thankful Thursday blogging must be a good idea after all :) I'm striving to find ways to be more positive and more grateful in all areas of my life and sometimes voicing things you're thankful for is a good place to start. Today's thankful thoughts...

I'm thankful for...

1. My sweet boy's 11 months of life that we celebrate today. Man this kid adds some major laughter factor to our lives!

2. Being able to stay home and be the one to care for our son. I don't take this blessing lightly! It's the most rewarding responsiblity I've ever been given.

3. Answered prayers and the fact that the Lord has answered them in His timing, not our own.

4. Rainy/dreary days to enjoy staying home and being productive (this day's looking like it just might be one of those).

5. My sweet husband that always makes sure to hug and kiss me and Porter before he goes to work.

6. Having the money and resources to go the store and grocery shop whenever my family needs something.

7. Having family and friends to celebrate good times with.

8. Oreo cookie balls. Sinfully amazing! I went against my better judgement and made them. I enjoyed 1 2 3 and now they're happily on their way to work with Sean ;)

Happy Thankful Thursday! I hope you can all take some time to reflect on what you're thankful for today. It really does add some perspective to those 'tough' parts of the day.



Playdate

Porter had a fun playdate today with his friend Seth, who's 2 weeks older than him. They 'played' several times when they were younger, but now they can actually play together. They were super cute!

First steps (with help)

Some babies learn to walk with a walking toy. Mine uses a music table :) Hey, whatever works little buddy!

27-1 day=today!

I don't care how old I get, I will still get this excited about birthdays!!! Bring on the cake, candles, and singing because that extra year just doesn't bother me (ok, it may in a few years, maybe). I so look forward to starting birthday traditions with our little ones on their special days. Ice cream for breakfast? Sure! I hope they love birthdays as much as I do! Here are some fun birthday pics I found...

My 24th birthday- cookie cake is by far my favorite!

Happy birthday mom (Christmas day 2011)

Sean's 26th birthday at Chima (yumm!!)

Sean's 24th birthday cake at his mom's

Lola got a birthday cupcake for her first birthday :)

Jesse's 21st birthday

Thankful Thursday (chapter 1)

If you're anything like me, those 'what we're thankful for' conversations often get postponed until Thanksgiving. That being said, my Thursday blogging will now be devoted to reflecting on things I'm thankful for. Today's 10...

1. Grace from a God that loves me, even when I don't show my love towards Him.
2. The sweet, cuddly, oh-so-huggable,drooly little ball of fun that's trying so hard to help mommy type this blog.
3. That same sweet boy's happy face that I get to see every morning.
4. Our warm house that we get to make memories in together.
5. A husband that works unbelievably hard to make sure that he can provide for our family.
6. A family that loves me even though they know just how far from perfect I am.
7. Our family being healthy (did I just jinx us?!)
8. The 1 hr. and 20 min. nap that my little darling took today. (He gave in, finally!)
9. A car to get us out of the house on those 'if I don't go somewhere NOW I'm going to lose my mind' kind of days.
10. The fact that I don't  have to know all of the details of our 5 year 'plan' because I have an all-knowing Savior that has already taken care of those for me.

Happy Thankful Thursday y'all :)

The nap strike

I never really realized how clockwork-like my sweet boy's daily schedule was, until it became no longer clockwork-like. Since about 3 months old, he has taken naps at 8:30am and 12:00pm for about an hour and a half each EVERY day. Well... that is all changing and making for one tired mama! Starting last week, he went 6 (six!) days with zero (zip, none, nada!) naps...wow! He then, of course, took great naps over the weekend when daddy was home for reinforcement and began the strike all over again on Monday, ahh!! In 3 days, he has had a whopping total of 2 hours worth of naps (combined, mind you). If anyone has any successful nap advice, send it my way! Until then, it's a good thing you're cute Porter Graham :)

Storytime (Porter style)

This pretty well sums up how story time goes around here these days...

He sure does love his books :)

Roly Poly

I always thought roly polys were so cute! Now I have one of my very own...

I get around

While Porter still seems to have absolutely NO interest in crawling, make no mistake, he gets where he wants to go...

Bathroom renovation

Don't get me wrong, I love our house. However, anyone who has been here knows that our guest bathroom is in serious need of a welcome to the 21st century! After a little over a year of 'getting settled in', it's time! As of last weekend, this lovely bathroom has been completely gutted (walls, floor, the whole thing) and is ready for a re-do. So far, we (for the purpose of this post, we=Sean ;) have completed the drywall and are on to paint, shortly (hoping!) followed by flooring. Only hints I'll give... light blue walls (rain dance to be exact), white pedestal sink, beige tile. Until then, I'll leave you with some pictures to remember the motivation behind this project...

New year, new fun!

Seeing as how I'm a great resolution-maker and not such a great resolution-keeper, this year's New Year's post (ok 4 day late post) will be things I'm looking forward to instead. 2011 was our greatest year yet! Aside from our wedding day, we experienced the single most important day in our marriage to date. The birth of our sweet boy changed our lives forever and makes our days sweeter all the time. We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary and had all kinds of 'firsts' throughout the year (vacation, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, trick-or-treating, solid foods, sitting up, the list goes on...) I'm only guessing 2012 is going to be packed full of even more exciting adventures. Some big ones I'm looking forward to... Sean and I will celebrate our 27th birthdays, our 5th wedding anniversary (a trip to Jamaica was our plan for the big 5, but we'll see how that goes), Porter's first birthday (mama gets a little teary-eyed, so we'll lightly skim that subject for now), 2nd beach trip with Porter, trip to Atlanta to watch the Yankees vs. Braves, and probably tons more but my calendar-minded head is getting boggled already :) Anyways, this year's going to be a great one!!

And since no blog is complete without pictures, here are some favorites from 2011...

First family of 3 picture

6 hours old

On the way to the hospital (I still don't know how my stomach stretched THAT much!)

enjoying a warm summer day :)

First 4th of July

Happy half birthday buddy!