My Silly Sleeper

First, here are few of my favorite recent pics

I bought this hat for him in Jersey. I LOVE it! I think it's so cute! I love how the green makes his blue eyes stand out! I wish I had the matching sweater!

And Calin loves his Bumbo! It makes him happy to sit like a big boy in his own little seat :)

So . . . can you help?

How do you get a baby to not take so many naps?

Calin eats about 5 times during the day (I'm working on stretching that out. It's way past time!!), and he takes about 1 hr - 1.5 hr naps about 1.5 after each feeding . I wouldn't mind it so much, but he's still waking up between 4-5 every night. Maybe if he took fewer naps during the day he would sleep better? But it's not like I put him down for 5-6 naps each day, he'll just fall asleep wherever he is. He starts to get fussy, then usually within about 5 min he's out. I've tried to keep him busy, but that doesn't do it. I've wondered if he just gets overstimulated during his awake hours, so I try to let him play without so many toys, etc. But that's even worse! If he's not doing something fun, he'll fall asleep even faster.

How do drop the middle of the night feeding so your baby sleeps continuously through the night?

For the past couple nights, we've been trying to let Calin fall back asleep on his own when he wakes up at night (since he's waking up at the same time each night, we're hoping it's just out of habit, not that he really needs to eat), but so far it hasn't worked. He doesn't stop crying! The first night he cried for 45 min (that seems way to long! We're not talking about little wimpers either), then I fed him and he went back to sleep for another 3.5 hours. Last night we let him cry for about 15 min, then I went in, picked him up for a few minutes, and he went back to sleep, but only for an hour. That time I fed him, and he slept another 3 hours. He's slept 8 hours without eating or waking before, so I'm sure he doesn't NEED to eat in the middle of the night. Babies his age can go 10-12 hours (usually 10 for breastfed babies). Man that would be nice! lol. I really don't mind feeding him once a night since it's fast and he goes right back to sleep, but I know it would be better for him (and us of course) if he would just learn how to sleep continuously through the night!

I know everyone has different opinions and advice, and different things work for different people. So what do you have? Any advise??

M&M Family Photos

When we went down to Utah for Thanksgiving, I took some family pictures for Matt, Mickie & Ty (Jordan's brother and family). We took them down the street from their house by this AWSOME barn! We didn't have too much sunlight left, so we had to work fast, but I love the way they turned out. And I had SO much fun playing with different textures while editing them!

Here are some favorites

Cute family huh?! :)

Calin's Story

We put this video together a couple weeks after Calin's birth, but "lost" it. I found it last week, and thought we should share it.

I think it's a sweet way to remember such a special time.

I would like to do this with all our kids.

And now that I have this plan, the future videos should be better.

I didn't think about doing this till after Calin's birth, so we worked with what we had.

(Good thing Jordan drove to Idaho Falls while I was in labor to get the video camera, lol. His video's are so sweet - he is a very proud dad!)

Thankgiving

Jordan had a week off from school for Thanksgiving. He has been so busy this semester so a week off was much needed! We spent it with family in Utah. It was so much fun! We drove down on Wednesday. And here is a breakdown of our fun filled days in Utah:

Wednesday

• Made the 4hr drive, Calin did GREAT! (It was his first long drive)
• Took family pictures for Matt, Mickie & Ty (I'll post them later, they turned out great)
• Went to Will & Kristen's (Mickie's sister) for dinner with the Braggs

Thanksgiving Thursday

• Jordan, Matt, Preston & Suzanne played football with Matt's ward in the morning
• Went to Kristen & Will's for dinner that afternoon then took naps and relaxed
• Went to Mickie's grandparent's and had pie with the Coombs and Maxwells. YUM! So many delicious desserts to choose from! (I went with Mickie's Heathbar cheesecake :)
• After pie we went bowling then headed back to Matt & Mickie's.

I love these B&W's of Ty!

By the end of the day we were all matching :)

Friday

• Jordan woke up early to do a little shopping.
• We all met up in American Fork to see "The Blind Side" - great movie! And again, Calin did so well!
• Jordan and I did some shopping in American Fork
• Went down to Kristen and Will's and when everyone headed to the BYU basketball game, Jordan and I headed back to Matt & Mickies to get some rest.

*Jason and Sierra - Kristen and Will's kids - so sweet!

Saturday

• Packed up our stuff and headed down to Kristen and Will's again to meet up with everyone else.
• I took some pictures of the Bragg grandkids (still working on them to try to get at least one that is decent, lol)
• Had some lunch, and headed back up to Rexburg while everyone else went to the BYU vs U of U game.

*how cute is this pic of Calin (on the left) and Ty! Less than 3 months apart, they are going to have sooo much fun together :)

It was such a fun weekend! We weren't used to doing so much fun stuff! And I wasn't sure how Calin would do with so much going on, but he did so well! He loved playing with Ty already. I can't wait to see how much fun they have together in a couple years!

We love having family so close! It won't be like this forever, so we better take advantage of it now! Nate and Kelly came to visit this past Saturday. They only live 1.5 hours away, but it seems so far since we're used to having them right next door for the past few years! I just love my nephews! All my family really! But all my nephews are so dang cute and fun!

3 months

My little newborn baby is growing out of that newborn stage very quickly!

Calin is such a sweet little boy! He LOVES to smile! And loves it when people smile at him!

He grabbing more objects on his own now. Before he would just move them with his fist, but he's finally starting to grab them to get them to move.

He still loves his hands! And he usually only takes his paci when he's sleepy. Most nights he sleeps about 5-6 hours straight. But there are of course the rare times when he'll only go 4 hours, or the lucky nights when he goes 8.

He laughs, well tries anyway. It usually sounds more like a cough - still dang cute though!

He does NOT like to be scared. lol. For some reason Jordan thinks Calin should like this at such a young age. So he tries to scare (more like surprise) Calin often. Jordan tried this yesterday and Calin was mad at him for hours! Every time Calin looked at Jordan he would start to cry. Then as soon as Jordan was out of sight and Calin could see me, he would smile. haha. I don't think Jordan will be trying that again anytime soon.

The first picture is one of the only ones I got of him without his hand in his mouth. Most of them turned out like this picture above.

For Thanksgiving we went down to Salt Lake. We had so much fun and I have lots of pics to share on the next post :)

Christmas Card Smiles

(Disclaimer - That IS my cute little boy, but not our "official" Christmas card)

Have you ordered your's yet? If not Seehere.com has some great customizable photo cards for FREE!! You can get up to 100 free cards! I had already designed ours on my own using photoshop, but was still able to use their program, and just insert my own design. When you sign up, you also get 100 free prints! I should probably get some pics of Calin ready to order - any requests from the grandparents? :)

So I used the code "newbaby" at check out and only ordered 50 (I wish I had 100 friends! Well then again that's a lot in postage!!), but there is another code you can get from this website that will let you order another 50 free (not sure if you can use both codes in one transaction though-just login again and order 50 more with the next code).

As you can see in the picture above, Calin has an adorable smile! And he has been smiling ALL the time lately! If you give him a big smile and chat with him a bit, he'll smile right back usually with a cute little laugh. And if he really likes you, he'll even chat back and try to contribute to the conversation a bit! It's so fun! He's been responding with these big smiles for about a month now. I love it! Usually the only time he won't smile back is when he's about ready for a nap. By that time I guess all his smiles have been used up, but with a little rest his smiles come back! Oh and he loves showing off his cute little tongue :-P

I know he's not smiling in this one, but it's so cute with his little tush, haha.

The Next Chapter - NEW MOON!

I can't believe New Moon comes out next week! This year Jordan is staying home with Calin so I can fully enjoy the experience :)

But if Jordan doesn't come with me, who will????!!! Anyone Anyone??

Well, I think we should make it a GNO! My cousin Alicia calls this (girl time) "Cupcaking" - cute huh. So if you have kids, the dads can watch them, and us girls can get together for some New Moon Cupcaking! I'll even make dinner for everyone before hand (umm, does that sounds like a bribe? Would bribing make you more inclined to come with me? If so, maybe this is a bribe, haha) :-) Anyway, it will be tons of fun, and the movie is going to be great!!! Just check out the trailers! Let me know if you want to come!!

Fall Family Pics

On Halloween Kelly and I did a trade. She took some pictures for me, and I took some for her. Calin didn't smile at all, but he did great at looking at the camera!

Here are just a few of them.

Click here to see N & K's fall family photos

Spuds

Potatoes have been only $.15/lb the past couple weeks, so I have been cooking with them quite a bit. Here are a few of my favorite recipes:

I LOVE potato soup! Click here for my favorite recipe! I don't use ham, though I'm sure it would be tons better if i did, instead I sprinkle bacon on top. I also double the recipe and add 2 carrots, and sometimes some finely chopped celery. Oh, and of course some cheese on top! I've made it with chicken broth and also with chicken bouillon, and I can't tell the difference, both are delicious!

And for mashed potaoes, this recipe is so scrumptious!! It is a great recipe for a big gathering where you need lots of potatoes. I like to make them the night before and just mix everything in the crockpot, refrigerate them overnight, and cook them on low in the crockpot the next day. That way I have plenty of time to cook everything else, and I don't have to worry about the potatoes at all. This recipe calls for red potatoes, but I always use russet since they're cheaper. I don't usually put in chicken bouillon. for 5lbs I use 16oz light sour cream, 8oz light cream cheese, and only 1/4 c butter.

Well, there are a couple of my favorite favorites. I'm thinking about shredding some and freezing them so we have some cheap hash browns to cook with too. Anyone else have any favorite potato recipes to share?

Thursday Thanks

Isn't it great when you get wonderful unexpected surprises! The past few days we've had lots! I have definitely started out this Thanksgiving month with much to be grateful for! Here are a few of them . . .

We just noticed on Jordan's school account that he received a scholarship this semester! He never applied for one, and when he went to the scholarship office to see what it was for, they said there weren't any notes on the account so they weren't sure, but probably grades :) Way to go Jordan!!


Jordan "misplaced" his car key almost a year ago. So we have been dealing with only one car key for quite a while! They are just so expensive to replace (ours is the kind you have to get from a dealer with that dang chip) so I have been putting it off. But recently I felt we really need to get a new one just in case. But I reminded Jordan to check the lost and found at school before we did. THEY HAD IT!! That saved us lots and lots of $$$. (And that same day we somehow ended up locking the keys in the car with Calin in the back seat. Good thing Jordan had that other key in his pocket!!)


This past weekend we received a package in the mail from Jordan's grandparents. His grandma made copies of Jordan's mom Holly's journal entries and sent them to all the boys. What a priceless gift! We still haven't had a chance to read through all of them, but have already learned so much about Holly! We've been praying for ways to make her a bigger part of our life especially for Calin, and ways we can get to know her better, so this was definitely an answer to our prayers! She was a wonderful woman with so much love to share! She loved the gospel and had such a strong desire to share it with everyone she could. Even through her writings she provides a great example to those who read them!


Calin slept through the night 3 nights in a row! The past couple nights he hasn't been feeling too well so he actually was up twice during the night. I doubt the sleeping through the night thing will stick, but maybe?! He's a pretty good sleeper, so hopefully he'll be sleeping through the night on a regular basis soon!

2 Month Stats

My little boy is growing so fast! I remember when he was 1wk old and his 3 mo old cousin Ty looked HUGE! Now little baby Calin is almost that size! Wow! He had his 2mo checkup today. The doctor said he is very advanced for 2 months and doing really well. And I think we were all surprised at how much weight he's gained. Jordan and I were concerned with the dry skin on his head and face, but he gave a few suggestions of things we could try so hopefully they will help! He got 4 vaccinations today - 3 shots and one drink.

Here are his stats:

2 wk. appt - 8.8 lbs 45%
2 mo. appt - 12.7 lbs 71%
an increase of 3.9 lbs and 26%

2 wk. appt - 20.5" 37%
2 mo. appt - 23.25" 59%
an increase of 2.75" and 22%

2 wk. appt - 14" head circumference 18%
2 mo. appt - 15.25" head circumference 20%
an increase of 1.25" and 2%


Isn't his wink so cute! ;-)

I was trying to snap a pic of him stuffing his whole hand in his mouth, but lately it's only been his finger that he sucks on. I read in a book that sucking your fingers is most likely linked to genetics. Hmm, not sure if that's true, but then again, how many kids do you know that suck their finger like this (I guess it's more like his proximal interphalangeal, haha - he doesn't sraighten his finger), well it's exactly how I sucked my finger when I was little, so maybe it is? We'll see if it continues.

We did get around to making caramel apples last night :) They were delicious! They're not too extravegant since it was our first time, but they sure do taste yummy! We used Butterfinger, Oreos, brown sugar and cinnamon to roll them in.

1st Halloween

It was so much fun dressing Calin up in his costumes! He was just so cute!

Thursday we carved pumpkins. (Do you see a bat or a moon??)

Friday we went to our ward Halloween party. Everyone had such great costumes!!! Can you tell what Calin was dressed up as? (I think he could be a number of things if you only see him from the front. We were pirates (yes, again), no creativity this year.

How about this picture - Can you tell now?

If you guessed a turtle, you're right!!

Adam and Shanna are in our ward and were the cutest nerds ever :)

Nate and Kelly came up on Halloween to visit. We took family pics during the day then they went trick-or-treating that night. I tried to get some pics of Calin with his cousins while they were all dressed up, but Calin was hungry and grumpy. Or maybe he was just playing his part and ROARing :) So cute how Dallin and Tanner are trying to comfort him though! Such sweet cousins!

I took these at different times when he was a bit happier. He usually loved being in his costumes cause they were so comfy and cuddly.

Tonight we're making caramel apples!! Something I wanted to do this weekend, but we ran out of time. So I can't wait :)