Merry Merry Christmas!

We'll let the pictures do most of the talking

 Adams new Bumbo chair!

Wiggly!

Christmas dinner.

Photo Shoot at the family Christmas Party

We had a a blast playing win it in a minute games, eating super yummy waffles, and of course taking photos of the babies. Nathaniel's cousin welcomed little Jesslyn Justien two days before Thanksgiving.

She is a big little one. Congrats Wilsons!

Our Favorite gift this Christmas

Uncle Veloy also took a lot of pics of the little ones and they turned out gorgeous! 

 His eyes are blue...you can almost see it even in black and white.

My beautiful baby boy :)

Cocoa and Games

Ah the season of family and friends.  We invited our good friends the Klemetsons over for Hot Cocoa and games and had a blast.  Little Eliza was born on the same day as Adam and they had a fun time getting to know each other a little better.

 So cute that they started holding hands :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

After we got home from California for Thanksgiving, Nathaniel and I got to work getting ready for Christmas.  This is our first Christmas together and at home (last year we were in California). But unlike last year we were unable to buy a real Christmas tree because the apartments we live in don't allow it :(  We decided to go for a fake one instead and it turned out pretty beautiful and it cost less than a real tree would have :)

 Getting started

 Adam enjoyed watching

 Almost done

and finished!

It was super fun decorating and finally feeling ready for the Holiday

Little Sitter

 In the last few weeks, Adam has experienced a few major firsts that we are so excited about.  Number one, his first big road trip.  We went to California for Thanksgiving to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Cook and his Aunts and Uncle.  We were also able to visit my sister Sherri and we met my niece Kimberly's fiancée Andrew. Adam was an angle for the trip.  While there we decorated for Christmas (after Thanksgiving ;). This included making gingerbread houses

Nathaniel and I combined our creative juices and made a mansion together, complete with log cabin on the roof and helicopter and launch pad! 

Grandma and Grandpa Cook made a lighthouse for theirs... I have never seen a cooler "ginger bread" house (ok, technically we used grahm crackers but still awesome )

Another big first for Adam is sitting without support! ta da!

I guess no one told him he wasn't supposed to do that for a little while longer.

He has also started eating a little rice cereal every day and he loves it. Yesterday he took the spoon from my hand and shoved it in his own mouth.  Adam is such a delight; he cracks me up constantly.

Lately we have discovered that Adam is extremely claustrophobic... and I didn't even know that was possible for a baby his age. Every time anything covers his mouth, or his nose, or both, or even his eyes he starts holding his breath and kicking his legs super fast and freaking out in general. A couple times he has been so scared he's started to cry, I've tried to explain to him that he can still breathe with something there, but what can be done he is only four months old :)

Proof

We finally got Adam rolling over on camera!

Juice!

Nathaniel thought it was time to teach Adam an essential life skill... making juice!

Also, some more pics of our little boy... just cause :)

Playing with his hands.

 With great Grandma Bassett

He's turning into a little boy... no longer a newborn.

Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween, including a costume party with some friends and a ward trunk or treat.  Our little monkey went as... a little monkey! Thanks to Aunt Sherri who got the costume for Adam.  Nathaniel and I went to the ward party as "football" (soccer) fans from our respective missions. (it was cheap and only took a couple minutes) here are some pictures.

 Adam was having a hard night, so by the end his arms were zipped  up in the monkey suit.

 Such a cute little monkey!

At the costume party (only the babies dressed up) we also decorated Halloween sugar cookies. They were really tasty!

The Best Year of our Lives

One year ago (give or take a couple of weeks) I married my best friend, and this last year has consequentially been the best year of my life.  I have learned that I married the most excellent sort of man. Nathaniel has stood patiently and even happily by my side through morning sickness, moving, different church callings, labor, midnight feedings (although in that case I guess he didn't "stand")  postpartum moodiness and a whole load of great memories too. I could not have asked for a more perfect husband for myself.  Friday (our anniversary he came home from work with this.

Actually with a dozen of these they were beautiful.  That night we did sealings in the Mount Timpanogus Temple, where we got married, and were treated to coldstone ice cream (yum) Thanks Jocelyn and Ryan for the ice cream and babysitting!

On our honeymoon we went to Park City.  Because we didn't want to cook or prepare meals and we wanted to keep the expenses fairly low, our first meal alone as a married couple was crumb doughnuts and milk.  We drank the milk out of the carton and I think we dipped the doughnuts in the lid.  Yes we are weirdos :) To commemorate that event the day after our anniversary we did the same. Fun memories.

After we went to a fun place called 'color me mine' where we painted our own ceramic stuff,

Nathaniel had a really cool design for his plate.

Such a great day to celebrate a most wonderful year. Can't wait to see what the next year brings!

Caramel Apples

Word to the unexperienced caramel apple makers... do not forget the water when melting the caramels. Other than having the caramel hard enough to break our teeth, this was a fun activity :)

3 months!

Adam has been hitting some impressive milestone in the past week or so. He is just over 24 inches long or you could say two feet tall! We finally caught one of his smiles on film but you can see that once he sees the camera he stops- silly monkey!

I got him a cool rattle that he just loves to hold on to and shake, this morning I caught him passing it from one hand to the other.

He also has started jabbering away when ever he isn't sleeping (including at 4:00 in the morning when he used to just fall back asleep) as you can imagine, it is a little difficult for me to sleep through!

As of yesterday, when I rolled him over for tummy time, this is what happened.

Adam has never gone up on his arms like that before and he seems to enjoy the view! Next step is rolling over, so no more sleeping on the couch!

For some reason, blogger is having a really hard time with the videos I am trying to upload... they are all on facebook if you can't see them here. Sorry about that. This is a snap shot of Adam giggling from the video.

more pictures, as promised!

S0, I have been slacking a little bit, but I am still taking a lot of photos of Adam and the family. Here is a good sampling of the happenings in our home :)

Getting too big for his little chair

He likes his moby wrap

Tummy time

My 25th birthday

I got together with a couple friends whose babies were born around the same time as Adam, Eliza, the girl in the middle, was born on the same day. Jonas is about a month older. I got the outfits for them for our combined baby shower.

He loves bath time, especially with his baby bath that can be put anywhere (important when the sink is full :)

Sunday afternoon nap with daddy, in a really cute outfit!

Our little monkey playing with his little monkey. He will hold the monkey on his own and tries to eat it too!

He likes his sling too

Sleeping with his pouty lip out.

I love his giggles and smiles that are more and more frequent. Last night I had a dream that Adam was walking around and I decided that even though we love how big and fun he is getting, I can wait for that milestone.

Two Month Check-up

Adam had his two month check up last week and here are some of the numbers. He is now:

11 pounds 5 ounces

22.8 inches long

39 cm head diameter

he is between the 28th and 50th percentile for everything so he is just on the small side of normal. It's crazy how fast my little guy is growing up!

I love his blue eyes that seem to get more blue every day. He is grinning a lot more too :) but I have yet to catch a really good smile on camera. as soon as I pull the camera out he gets all shy or fixated on the thing! He cracks me up all the time.

He also is really good ad kicking his blanket off. He is such a wiggly boy!

I never understood why my mom always got videos of my baby brother, they were sooo boring. But now that I am a mom I do it too! But now I think they are the cutest thing in the world. The other great thing is that you don't have to watch them if you don't want too ;) More pictures to come.

Look what I can do!

I really like this picture of Adam. Not only is he wearing a cute onesie tie-dyed by his Cook Aunts, Uncle, and Grands, which is super cute but he is also showing off one of his new tricks! With the support of the couch at his back he is able to sit up. only falling over when he gets too wiggly :) Other new skills he has all but mastered include:

~standing, with only stabilizing back support (he has been doing that for a few weeks!)

~making fists with his thumb on the outside

~responsive smiling (seriously soooo cute!)

~talking, I wouldn't really call it cooing yet seeing as though it sounds pretty forced and more like yelling, but he will start jabbering away... tried to get it on camera but I guess he is a little camera shy, or just being a tease :)

~self soothing by licking and sometimes sucking on his fist, one time he even got his thumb!

We took him swimming on Labor day and he really enjoyed that as well. It just amazes me how quickly he is learning and that he is such a good baby.

On a more spiritual note. I have always felt or known that our Heavenly Father loves his children, but it wasn't until Adam came into my life that I started understanding if only a little bit that kind of love. I look at Adam and I am filled with this indescribable love for him. Mostly he eats, sleeps, whines, and makes messes in his diaper, but I love him all the same, logically or not. Most of the time we as humans whine and make messes out of everything, but God loves us, and he always will. We are his children and nothing we can do will change that. I look at the love I have for my husband and son and I am filled with gratitude and awe to realize that my love pales in comparison to God's love. His love is perfect. I hope to one day understand that love completely.

Bath Time!

Adam just loves taking a bath, he could stay in the water forever! even if he is having a hard day, a bath can calm him right down.

see how big his belly is getting? But he still has tiny legs, it makes him look like a little froggy!

"Walking" on the bottom of the sink. Can you see that his hair is turning red?!

All snug as a bug in a rug. He is doing better at not crying when we take him out of the water :)