We wish you a Merry Christmas!!

We have been busy with all the Christmas festivities! Hadley and I have enjoyed lots of baking. We made treats for our Christmas party and some to take back to Iowa. Sugar cookies, cranberry chocolate chip cookies,gingerbread men, dipped gingersnaps, peanut butter balls and chocolate caramel pretzels. The list goes on. I think this was the most that I've ever baked. Hadley was very interested. I had him in the baby bjorn a few times. A little difficult...he kept grabbing the bowl or putting his hands in the dough. He loved watching what I was doing.

We had our annual Christmas party on Saturday. This year we did ugly sweater. It was so fun. We had about 30 people there. I tried to find a sweater for Hadley but had no luck. I will have to start earlier next year. He had a Santa hat and looked adorable. Hadley was a party baby. He did so well. A bit overstimulated I think! He even went to sleep with all the noise. I wasn't sure how that was going to go. We are finding hidden white elephant gifts in our house...oh joy.

We went to the doctor last week. Hadley didn't even cry really when he got his shots!-. I was amazed! He is just a few ounces shy of 16lbs and is growing wonderfully. He is smiling and laughing more everyday.

We leave for Iowa tomorrow very early. Packing up the car with Loren and I, a baby, a great dane, a lab, all our presents and our luggage....it will be a tight fit! We are excited to go home and celebrate Hadley's first Christmas with our families. With that being said, MERRY CHRISTMAS and may we not forget the true meaning of Christmas. A baby was born thousands of years ago and lives would never be the same. GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST!!!

To Our 4 Month Old

Happy 4 month Birthday Hadley! I will probably say this every month but, I can't believe how fast time has gone! You are aa complete delight. I love spending the majority of the week with you. You are smiling and smiling now. We have even gotten you to giggle a few times. It is music to our ears! You love making noises with your lips. There is a lot of slobber that hapens when you do that. Lilly and Oliver capture your attention quite often and you don't seem to be bothered if they are barking. You survivied your first cold a few weeks back. It was so sad, but any excuse to snuggle you, I will take! But, please lets not get sick too much, okay? We have taken you to Iowa twice. We will be going home for Christmas as well. Hopefully we will get to meet your cousin, only if he comes a litle early! Thanksgiving and the Christmas season thus far have been so fun with you. You make holidays that much more fun! We are so thankful that you sleep through the night and have since you were probably 6 weeks old! Your grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles miss you very much! Everyone loves your chubby cheeks and sweet blue eyes. We love you to the moon and back! You are a sweet, sweet blessing to our lives!
Love,
Mama and Poppy

Getting ready for Christmas

Here are a few recent pictures:)

Hadley found his toes!! He is so amazed by his feet and that's all he wants to grab now. Look at those chunky legs...I LOVE them!:)

Our little turkey:)

Thankful and Blessed on this last day in November

We had a great Thanksgiving. Both of our parents came out to visit. We had so much fun! I love having a full house. Makes any holiday that much better! We have many reasons to be thankful. We have wonderful families and friends, who we couldn't do life without. I am very thankful for Loren. He means the world to me, plus some. He not only is a great husband, he has quickly become a great father. There is no one else in this world, I'd rather share my life with. And of course we are thankful for our sweet little Hadley. Though our lives have changed and it's not always easy, this little man has brought us so much joy! His smiles and laughs far outweigh his cries. I am so amazed at how much we love him. We couldn't ask for a thing different. So, cheers to being thankful and few days after Thanksgiving. And I will try to be better about posting:)

3 months.

Hadley is growing and growing. Getting cuter by the day if you ask me:) I am falling more and more in love. Even when he cries, he is so adorable. He weighed in at 14lbs and is 24 1/2 inches long. He is such a even tempered baby. Only cries when he's hungry really. He is smiling so much now. Melts my heart every time. We are working on naps during the day. He just doesn't seem to need much sleep, just cat naps. Oh well, I'd rather him sleep at night anyway. Still in the mode of feeling like we have no idea what we are doing...it is quite funny. He has survived thus far, so I guess we are doing a good job!

I went back to work last week. My heart was SOOOOO sad. I think I was more sad at the fact that 3 months have gone by. I cried the whole weekend before and cried in the elevator up to my office. I'm fine now. It's only two days a week in the office and one day from home. Not bad at all. Of course I would rather stay home with Hads, but it's a huge blessing for me to work. And like I said, two days a week is not bad at all. I have 4 day weekends to snuggle my little mister!

Hadley and I put our Christmas stuff up!! We have been listening to lots of Christmas music. I think he likes it:) We are anxiously waiting for Thanksgiving. Both our parents are coming out . Now that we have Hadley it's amzing how much more I miss family. Oh well, it's the way it is right now. Not ready to move anywhere at this point. Denver is a hard city to compete with and so are all our friends here:)

Well I will end by saying, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! It's my very favorite time of the year! I'm going to have Loren put the lights on the house tomorrow:)

Happy Halloween 2

My cute bib from Aunt Rachel...
Finally got a smile on camera!!!

Happy Halloween

Our sweet little pirate:)

A few more

October is almost over

Can it be??? It is crazy how fast time is flying by. My sweet Hadley is almost 3 months!! Crazy. I feel like we are finally getting the hang of things. We are getting used to Hadley and he is really responding well to us. We seriously could not ask for a better baby! I cannot get over how much I love him!!! I want to kiss him all day. Good thing he likes it:)

We went to the doctor today for his check up. He is growing wonderfully. He is in the 75th percentile. So, I suppose he is on the bigger side. He had to get his shots...that was not fun. Poor baby cried like I've never heard him cry before.

Here are some fall"ish" pictures of the little man.
Happy Halloween weekend!!

Apple Orchard

On Saturday we drove up to Longmont to an Apple Orchard. We learned how apple cider is made and are going to try it out with apples from our neighbors yard. We have a pear tree, I think we will try apple pear cider-we will see how it goes. Hadley went on his first hay rack ride. He slept through most of it:) We came home with apples and apple doughnuts. I've never had an apple doughnut but they are quite tasty. Let the yummy fall treats begin! I have pumpkin bars in the oven as we speak!

Hadley is 8 weeks old today. Hard to believe. I had to take a few things out of his dresser that no longer fit him:( I'm glad he is growing because that means he is healthy but, it's all going so fast! He is really getting good at holding his head up. He is sleeping like a champ. We are so blessed in that department. He is sleeping 8-9 hour stretches at night. We are still working on naps and a schedule. When I say this, I don't want to sound selfish because when it comes down to it we do what is best for Hadley. But,we are busy people and it's just not practical to say that he will nap 2 times a day in his crib. I would go crazy at home all day everyday. We like to get out and about. We go for lots of walks, to the store, visit friends,etc. He seems to adjust well, and it's not affecting his nighttime sleep, so I say we are doing just fine.

I can't believe I didn't write this sooner- HE IS SMILING AT US!! Oh my, does that ever melt my heart each time! He is seriously the best part of our lives right now. Amazing how much you can love your child. It has given me a whole new insight on how much God loves us. Simply unbelievable. And it is so neat to now know how much our parents love us.

We go to his 2 month checkup on Thursday. It will be fun to see how he has progressed. And then...shots! Yikes...not looking forward to that:(

Happy Fall!! It's finally feeling like fall here in Colorado!
Oh, Hadley also found his thumb!!!:)

Sweet Boy

Restless
Getting sleepy
And he's out:)

Hadley's Room

I have finally gotten to it. Here are some pictures of Hadley's room. It turned out so cute, if I do say so myself!This was Loren's dads dresser growing up. I switched out the knobs to make it a little more unique.
The hamper was my inspiration for the branch and birdsUncle Nathan being silly

I am bad at this thes days

I have quickly become a bad blogger. Hadley is 6 weeks old. He is doing so great. Last night was his first night to sleep in his crib. I think I had a harder time with it than he did. It's sort of a milestone. I loved having our new little family sleeping in the same room. Dogs and all! :) A part of me was sad to move Hadley but it was time and he did just fine. He sleeps pretty well. Usually he wakes up around 2:30 or 3 to eat and then back to sleep until 6:30 or 7. It is a huge blessing because there are very few morning where I feel tired still. He is being good to his momma and daddy!

I always wondered what sort of mom I would be before this little guy came. I have surprised myself. I am pretty laid back. I just figure, there is no reason to stress about things. We even took Hadley out on the boat last week. He liked it. I want to be a great mom to Hadley but I also know that no one is perfect. I will make mistakes and probably already have but I will do my best to be the best mom I can be. I have a wonderful mom to look to for advice.

Here a re a few family photos