6 Months Old & More

Xander turned 6 months on Thanksgiving. Which was relaxed and fun this year. But he didn't have his check-up until last week. Everything is looking good. He's about 25 inches tall and 16ish? lbs. He loves to talk and eat his toys. He laughs a lot at Japheth and always has a big smile for him until Japheth hurts him. He can sit up and roll over and has been having fun playing with the Christmas tree.

Japheth still loves playing with his little brother, but like all kids, shows too much love sometimes. He's started potty training - which at first sucked big time - but now isn't so bad. He's getting the hang of it a little, and is better at going up with us every hour which cuts down the wet pants a ton!

Douglas is officially done with everything for his Bachelors. He graduates this Friday (11th) and it's very exciting to feel done. He still needs to take his national boards, but technically has 3 years to do so I think. He has applied to a few Echo jobs and we're waiting to hear back.


We also made ginger bread houses for fun. Japheth loved getting to eat his. And as you can see Douglas got fancy on me by making his with a peaked roof.

The Challenge

So Douglas bought the P90X videos with some of his birthday money a while back and we decided to start the 90 day challenge after he finished student hours. Well the time has finally arrived, and we are nervously excited? about starting the program. Hopefully it doens't kill us. By posting that we're starting maybe we'll have better drive to keep going, because now we have accountability by telling others.

Halloween Time

Rrrggg! Happy Halloween! We had a great time, Japheth was so excited to be pirates this year. We went up to Idaho Thursday for my nephew's baptism, then made a mad dash Saturday back here for Trick or Treating. We went to our ward's Trunk or Treat and then around our circle. After we got the boys to bed and handed out most of the candy we collected, saving a few choice pieces for Japheth and ourselves. All in all a great Halloween.

Captain Japheth


Xander was our parrot, since every pirate needs one!




Our trip to the pumpkin patch.


We went to Douglas' parent's on Sunday for their Halloween party, this was the treat we took.

Xander 4 Months

Well we thought that it was about time we updated. Sorry we didn't get the 3 month pictures up. Anyway, we had Xander's 4 month check-up. He's doing great! He weighs 15 lbs 8 oz, and is 25 inches. He's currently in the 60th percentile for height and weight. He LOVES to talk especially when he is getting tired, he has started to laugh a little, and he plays a lot with his hands and feet - more so when playing with his rings that hang from a toy. He puts up well with all of Japheth's rough housing and smothering kisses, and loves to watch Japheth play around him. He has started baby cereal, which mostly he hates, but has been doing really well learning to eat it.

Japheth loves his little brother too. As evident by the picture. He likes to give hugs and kisses, and play by patting him and yelling high pitched words. He still loves his numbers and letters, and reading books. He's starting to get to the point where he can read some books through memory. It's really cute to hear it in his 2 1/2 year way of saying words, and what words he does or doesn't say. He also loves to exercise with daddy.

Xander 2 Months

So we had Xander's 2 month check up this week. He's doing very well! He weighed 12 lbs 11 oz and was 22 1/2 inches tall. So he's gained 4 lbs 7 oz and an inch since he was born. He's sleeping longer through the night, and hopefully will be sleeping the whole night soon. He's doing well with tummy time, and is starting to coo, smile and look at people more.

Japheth still loves his little brother, sometimes a little too much. He is getting better with letters, he's starting to recognize some of the lower case letters. He's also continuing to say more words, and some previuos words are becoming more understandable. He loves to brush his teeth and floss. There are even times when he gets in trouble for getting into the floss on his own.

Douglas is getting closer to being done with school. He has finished all his tests and assignments for Summer semester, so we only have one to go. Though it still feels forever away because of student hours. I'm better adjusted to 2 kids now, though some days are still tough. But I think that's how it'll always be now that there's more than 1.

Careful What You Say

So Japheth is at that fun stage where he repeats everything he hears. He'll repeat the last word of a sentence while Douglas and I are talking to each other, he's even called Douglas "Babe" because he's heard me say it. It can be really cute at times, but other times it can be a bad thing. There are even a few words we're trying to get him to change in his vocabulary (like saying "yes" instead of the "sure" he's picked up from Douglas). Because of this stage we have some really funny experiences. Like what happened today...

While we were out driving we ended up being stuck in traffic behind another driver who was texting on their cell phone. We found ourselves getting frustrated as we were repeatedly stuck behind them and stopped while the cars in front of them were moving. After a while we were finally able to escape their distracted driving and get around them. Moments later we found ourselves next to them at a light and as the light changed they again didn't move. So as we drove past them I yelled out "pay attention!" in hopes of saving other drivers from our experience. And since Japheth is in this fun stage he decided he needed to copy mommy and yell out too, much to our surprise he yelled "pay a chicken!"

What does thunder say?

We haven't videotaped or photographed Japheth as much during the last year. So having a new little guy has reminded me to capture a little more of the cute things that Japheth does. During a recent rain storm Japheth was surprised to hear some very powerful thunder. So I took the chance to have some fun with the video camera.

Xander Live

aaaannnd...ACTION!

Meet Xander

Xander was born on May 26th at 5:15 in the morning. He was 8 lbs 4 oz, and 21 1/2 inches long. That's 1 lb more & 2 inches longer than Japheth was. No wonder I was so uncomfortable at the end! Everything went well and we're all home and healthy. He recently had his 2 week check-up where we found not only did he re-gain his birth weight, which is the norm, but he also gained 9 oz.

Japheth is loving being a big brother! He loves to give Xander hugs and kisses and binky. He thinks Xander is very cute. He has also really hit his 2's. He has a harder time listening and doing what you say than he did before. He has also learned how to open doors, yes the knob kind, and the fridge. So that's been a bit hard, but he's learning slowly.

A Better Ultrasound

Hey we went in this last Saturday and got some 3-D Ultrasounds done of Xander. He's still measuring a few weeks ahead like Japheth did. But everything looks good and normal.

2 & 28

So, Douglas and Japheth both had their birthdays this month. We had a lot of fun for both. Sadly on Douglas' birthday he had to work and go to school, so we celebrated the day after by going out to dinner. He got some Heroscape stuff (a game he got for C-mas and is enjoying), a garage door opener since we only had one, and "I Am Legend." Also because his actual birthday wasn't much fun, I thought he'd really like to have a Game Night with some of his guy friends. And of course they played Heroscape. But it was a lot of fun, and he said it was a great birthday!

Japheth had a good time too. He had to go to the Doctor for his 2 year check-up on his birthday, but after Douglas got home Japheth opened his presents from us, and we went to dinner where Japheth got his own dessert! We had birthday dinners on each side where Japheth was excited to get to open presents. I think since C-mas he understands that part a bit better. He got some great books and toys including a Rody Horse and a bubble lawn mower. He now weighs 24 lbs 4 oz, and is 32 3/4 inches tall. He's still on the little side, and probably will be as a kid, but is growing great and is praportional. He can count to 12 on his own, and recognizes the numbers 1-10. He is also pretty good at the alphabet, but doesn't quite have it all. He knows a lot of shapes, and still loves to read. We're working on colors and getting the rest of the alphabet, along with recognizing letters. He does recognize S, T, O, & P for obvious reasons.

Japheth also had a birthday party with some friends. It was a Curious George party, they got to color, make George cup-cakes, and play "pin the butterfly on the log." They all had a lot of fun playing and eating. And they enjoyed the game more than I thought they would with their ages. Overall it was a pretty good birthday month!

A Name

Sorry we didn't blog Christmas, but it was a lot of fun. We got some ultrasound pictures on cd when we went to Douglas' work in December, and we thought we'd share one with you. Everyting is still going well with the pregnancy and progressing at the right times. He loves to kick! We also picked a name for our new baby and thought that this time we'd try sharing it before he's born. So the name we chose is Xander (said Zander). We have already been reminded why we wanted to keep Japheth's name a secret, so I think next time we'll stick to waiting until the kid is born. But this time we've already told people and thought we'd better tell eveyone then. We have yet to pick a middle name, maybe when we do we'll keep that secret.