6 month check up

sam had his last round of shots for the next 6 months last week!

i can't tell you how happy i am to be done for the nest little while. 

he did great though! the nurse told me that at this age they start to understand that it is the nurse who is giving them the shots and not mom. 

which was nice. when i picked him up after he had his shots he stopped crying and then immediately whipped his head around to find out where the nurse went. as soon as he saw her he lost it again. i felt so bad. 

luckily our pediatrician has the sweetest nurse who is so gentle and loving with sam. (even though he's still not a fan of her). 

6 month stats:

height: 26.5 inches

weights: 15 pounds 6 ounces (which apparently is tiny)

head circumference: 43 cm

the doctor said he is physically and developmentally right on track. 

:)

little surprises

sammy boy was blessed back in november just after thanksgiving. 

ben gave the most beautiful blessing i had ever heard (obviously i'm biased, but still.)

it was one of the most perfect moments of my life and i will forever remember the feelings that i felt in that moment. 

however, the day was pretty dang stressful. 

my entire family was in town from fresno, my extended family was in town from utah, and ben's entire family was there including his grandparents from utah. 

i had major anxiety about hosting everyone at our house after church and making sure everyone was taken care of. 

i wanted the day to be absolutely perfect so when the power went out in most of southeast idaho that morning i went into panic mode. 

ben and i got on our phones and were using every resource available to us to find out when the power would be back on. 

finally we learned that it wasn't scheduled to come back on until 2pm (church started at 1pm). 

i was so sad. 

i had been looking forward to this day for so long and thought we would have to postpone his blessing. 

we continued to get ready, though, in the hopes that the power would be back on in time. 

finally, my parents called and said that the power was back at the hotel they were staying at in rexburg. 

so i drove all the way to rexburg to blow dry my hair while ben continued to get sam ready at home. 

ben later called letting me know that the power was back in rigby (yay!)

after many many prayers the power was back to sam would be able to have his special day in front of friends and family. 

anyways, amongst all the stress leading up to church i completely spaced asking someone to take notes during sams blessing. and even forgot to take pictures. (you don't even know how sad i am about this. i don't think i will ever get over that.)

i knew that i would lose it during his blessing and would probably soon forget bits and pieces of his blessing. 

later that night i tried to write down as much as i could from his blessing but knew there were parts that i was missing. 

fast forward four months. 

yesterday ben and i found this in our mailbox. 

our bishops wife had quietly taken noted during sam's blessing, typed them up for us, and delivered them to our mailbox. 

i can't even describe how happy i was to receive this. 

it is one of the sweetest things that has even been done for us and i am unbelievably excited to have this and am so grateful for that little act of kindness. 

(the possibly the sweetest idea ever? i told ben i want to start doing this for others)

i still can't read through his blessing without getting teary eyed. 

it reminds me of all the potential that our sweet boy has. 

i love thinking about all the opportunities and experiences that sam will get to have throughout his life. 

i have no clue what sam will eventually become but i do know that the sky is the limit for him. 

nothing that he may want to accomplish is out of reach. 

however, being a mom is tricky business, because my natural instinct is to want to protect him for anything that might possibly cause him harm or sadness. but the truth of the matter is that just as i know sam will experience joy and happiness i also know that life brings difficulty, pain, and heartbreak (heaven help the girl who tries to hurt him). sam will experience trials and there is nothing i can do about it.  

my greatest desire for sam is that he will gain a knowledge and testimony of his heavenly fathers gospel. and that he will develop a love for the lord. that he will be caring, respectful, giving and kind. and with these things i know that he will be able to get through any trials that he may face. and that his potential in limitless. 

that got off topic pretty fast. 

and may not have made sense. 

but i love my little man and can't wait to see the person that he one day becomes and i will always be his biggest cheerleader. 

unplugged

i love reading small fry blog. 

it's the cutest little children's lifestyle blog created by three moms of all boys living in utah. 

they started something called "unplugged week". 

taking on the challenge of going "unplugged" for a week by turning off the tv and video games for one week. 

i loved this idea. 

even though sam is only 6 months and we aren't into video games at all, i still thought it would be a good idea to work watching tv less often. 

i don't watch too much tv during the day to begin with but i have noticed that when i am watching the news in the morning sam is fixated on the screen. i'll somtimes say his name and he wont even take his eyes off the tv to look at me. 

as he grows, i want to practice the habit of getting outside or doing hands-on activities much more often than turning on the tv as a way to entertain him. i want him to grow up playing outside with his friends, playing sports, and participating in activities that will challenge him and help him grow, instead of indoors playing video games. ben and i have already agreed we won't be having any sort of gaming system in our home.

so for the past couple of days we have been enjoying the warm(-er) weather by taking lots of walks together, reading books, and playing with his toys. he is starting to grasp the concept of object permanence and loves to find one of his toys when i hide it under a blanket. the look on his face when he finds his toy is priceless. 

i have noticed that i have also been able to get a lot more done while he naps by not having the tv on. 

i have been able to finally start this book for my book club, finish sam's birth-three months photo book, and actually got all of sam's clothes that don't fit him anymore folded and stored away. 

anyways, 

hopefully this can be a good kick-start to a more tv-free zone. 

sunday afternoon photo shoot

sam and i had a little impromptu photo shoot this afternoon after church. 

i literally never stop taking pictures of sam. i can't help it. 

i tell ben all the time how grateful i am for modern technology that allows me to have a phone nearby at all times to take pictures and a camera that i can whip out whenever i want to capture small moments with my boy. 

it worked out that we were able to take these on his six month birthday. 

we love that smile more than anything and will cherish all these pictures forever. 

sam has recently become obsessed with this stuffed owl we got him while i was pregnant. we named him earl. 

apparently he's sam's new bff and i was the third wheel. 

(as soon as the socks come off, the toes go straight into the mouth)

six months

sam, 

where do i begin? i cannot even believe how much you have changed and progressed just in the past month. you are now rolling over both ways (yay!) but this is resulted in  you trying to roll away from me while i am changing your diaper. you are such a ham. you are always either laughing or smiling or trying to get our attention so that we will watch you make your silly faces. 

it might sound crazy but your personality is so evident even at such a young age. you will be such a great older brother to your future siblings. you are calm, so sweet and have a peaceful spirit about you. you are just an all around happy little guy and we love you to pieces. 

at 6 months sam:

- according to our scale at home weights about 16 lbs. (i weighed more than that at 4 months so i guess you're just a little guy:))

- wearing 3-6 and 6-12 month clothes.

- have started sweet potatoes and love them! (prefers them mixed in with  his oatmeal)

- still sleeps 8:30 to 7:50 (on the dot, my trusty little alarm clock)

- consistently taking two 2-hour naps and a 30 minute cat nap just before bed. 

- obsessed with the jumperoo! he jumps so intensely that his toes have poked holes through almost all of his pajamas. 

- cries when he is hungry. or when i stop feeding him to burp him. and that's about all. 

- still loving his soothie pacifier but starting to not be as dependent on it. 

- loves taking pictures and knows how to cheese it up for the camera. 

- loves to cuddle with mom at church. i live for the moments he falls asleep in my arms during sacrament or primary. 

- so outgoing and smiley for mom and dad at home but has started to become a bit shy around others. just loves to observe and people watch. 

- is now sitting up!

- loves to have dance parties with mom and dad in the kitchen. 

- will let mom kiss on his thigh rolls all day long without a fuss. i can't stop. 

- will grab at anything in sight so we have to be super careful about what we leave out around him. one too many knocked over drinks. 

- loves his sophie giraffe and rubber blocks and loves reading time. 

- fascinated with his reflection in the mirror

water baby

bath time has quickly become sams favorite (and my favorite) time of the day. 

this boy loves the water. 

we recently switched him from his little bathtub to his big boy seat. he's still a bit small for it so we put towels all around him to help support him. 

i usually bathe him just before ben comes home from work and before i start dinner. it's such a relaxing and fun time for both of us and i just love watching him splash and chew on all this bath toys. 

i love this boy more than words can express and truly can't imagine our life without him. 

i loving hanging out with my little boyfriend each and every day. 

//those back rolls right there kill me//

currently

i should probably update this blog with more than just updates on sam. 

it's just so hard to find time. 

however, sam man is napping right now so it's the perfect opportunity. 

- ben is currently preparing for an MBA program which begins next year. this all happened so fast but he is so excited. this has actually been a huge blessing because he is doing his program through the University of Utah at a satelite campus up here in utah so he can continue to work full time while completing his MBA. win/win. i am so proud of him!

- i have been a little bit of an emotional sap lately. i was completely unprepared for how fast sam was going to grow. he is at such a fun stage but sometimes i look through photos from the day he was born and the first week of his life and completely lose it. as my husband will tell you, i have a tendency to be a bit dramatic. one moment i'm thinking about how quickly the past 6 months and flown and the next time crying to ben about how tomorrow sam will be walking and the next day he'll be leaving on his mission. when, in actuality, i have, oh i don't know, 17.5 YEARS before i have to worry about this. but this is just how my brain works people. my heart just can't handle thinking about sam leaving me one day. 

- i'm currently in the middle of jillian michaels 30 day shred. and it's killing me dead. losing baby weight is hard! and takes a lot of patience. 

- having a baby changes a lot of things, obviously. but one thing that has been hard is finding time for ben and i to have a date night to be with just each other. it has been so hard for us to leave sam at all. we had just been taking him with us on out dates. a few weeks back i was telling ben i felt like we just needed some alone time. he and i and no one else. baby free. but i told him i was scared of actually leaving sam with anyone else. that weekend he told me he had told his brother that we would watch their kids while they want to a church function. i was totally fine with that (their kids are complete dolls) and when we got there he told me that they were actually watching sam and we had the night to ourselves. i can't even put into words how excited i was, and completely surprised. i knew sam was in good hands and i was so excited to be alone with my husband. it was perfect. 

- shopping for clothes for sam has officially become a problem. it is so much FUN! i would much rather shop for sam than for myself. and whoever said dressing boys wasn't as fun was full of it. 

- i need summer. so bad. we are do done with the snow over here. i can't to buy sam some cutie little swim trunks and a mini beach towel.

- ben got a week off  of work at the beginning of april so we are going to fresno and can't wait! it will be such a nice break and i can't wait to take sammy boy to fresno. we're planning a day in san francisco and are counting down the days. 

- sam isn't even six months and i am already baby hungry. true story. i mean, i don't know if i could actually handle another one just yet. but the thought of sam having a little brother to play with just makes me so happy. 

-also, i finally have my camera back! it has been at canon being fixed for months but it is back and i have been going a little overboard on the pictures.