Beckett at 6 months

How did my baby get so big!  This kid puts EVERYTHING in his mouth as evidenced by these pictures.  He is constantly chewing on something.  It was sometime around 6 months that he finally  tried a different binky without gauging (the NUK) and actually kept it in on his own.  This was a day of great celebration!  He also tried solid foods a few weeks before he turned 6 months old.  We tried pees first and as you can see he was not such a fan! He has tolerated baby food okay, but prefers to eat what we eat which is fine by me.  He actually hated all baby food fruits and would only eat the veggie packs.  His face was absolutely hilarious when we tried giving him peaches, pears, bananas, he tolerated the apple sauce but it was not his preference.  Beckett loves to be outside and loved feeling grass for the first time.  

His Stats for 6 months:

Height: 28 inches

Weight: 18 lbs

Head: 45.72

We had some professional pics taken of Beckett at 6 months too!

Hayden's End of the School Year

Now I know why moms hate May!  We only have one child in school and other activities and it was a busy month for sure! First off we had Hayden's Let's Play Music Recital.  She just finished her first year and I really loved the program and all that she learned.

Hayden's teacher Mrs. Brandi (who happened to serve in the same mission as Paul) and her classmates

 Singing her songs and getting ready to play her tonal bells.  Hayden played Goodbye Old Paint and did an awesome job.  She was very precise.

Hayden's kindergarten teacher Mrs. Buchholz loves Hawaii so the 3 classes combine each year to put on a Luau.  Hayden learned lots of new songs and learned the Hula.  She loved preparing for the big performance.  Here she is with one of her best friends Lexi.

Next up was her gymnastics show case at Metro Stars: The Road to Rio.  I love watching Hayden perform.  She is always a little nervous in the beginning, but then really gets into it and enjoys performing. 

She loves getting her medal!

Field day was a little chilly and rainy, but that didn't stop us from having a great time.  Reid was SOOO excited to See Mia, Caleb and Hayden.

Hayden's family group that she was in all year 

And finally we have the last day of school!  We celebrated by eating Jimmy Johns in the park, it was a HOT day!

Hayden, Caleb and Mia with their principle that just retired Mrs. Kelly

Baby Beckett at 5 Months

I am kicking myself for getting so behind!  Baby Beckett at 5 months seems so long ago! The only thing that really sticks out to me is that this kid STILL could not keep a binky in his mouth to save his life!  He was still a good sleeper at 5 months and a happy smiley guy!

Rachel's Visit

When Rachel found out Omaha had a lantern festival in April, she contacted me and asked if she could come check of an item from her bucket list.  We always love a visit from Rachel.  As with all our other times spent together, she is fun to talk to and always has lots of well thought out questions and comments.  Among the most exciting things she told me this trip was that she was planning on moving to Peru in the fall!!!  It's been fun to hear all about over the past few months.  We even got to see her again at the end of July as she drove what was left of her belongings to her parents home in San Diego, CA.

When she came out in April we had to take Saturday morning to show her the Omaha Zoo.  It's just so impressive and huge that we usually take all visitors to see it.  

We rested up in the afternoon and headed out to the Lantern Fest that evening.  Sadly after being there for HOURS in the cold, they cancelled the event due to windy conditions and rescheduled it for the following night. Despite the cold we still had a lot of fun roasting marshmallows and introducing Rachel to all of our friends in Omaha.

Sunday we headed to church.  Rachel bore her testimony and shared a neat experience that set the tone for the entire church meeting, I was proud to call her my friend.  We had planned on going to Winter Quarters that day but had to once again head back to the Lantern Fest.  Paul decided to stay home with Beckett, he didn't want to take him out in the cold 2 nights in a row. We did finally get to light our lanterns into the sky, but it wasn't nearly as magical as the year before.  Many people didn't return the 2nd night and the wind kind of blew the lanterns horizontally instead of vertically!

The next morning we took Rachel out for donuts at Lamars and before she departed back to Indiana.  

Thanks for the visit Rachel!

As I mentioned, because she decided to move to Peru, we recently got to see her again on her drive west.  We did finally take her to Winter Quarters for a little lesson in church history.

Appendectomy and 34th Birthday

Last week Paul had been complaining that his stomach felt bloated and hurt.  He went all the way to Iowa for a work trip and talked about his stomach every time he called. I teased him that he hadn't been eating enough fruit and green leafy vegetables but as time went on the pain got worse and settled in on his right side.  I went to pick up Hayden from gymnastics Friday night and when I got home he was in pretty bad shape.  We started reading online and texting my nurse friends about appendicitis symptoms and he fit all except he had no fever.  So Paul headed off to the ER by himself while I got the kids fed and in bed.  Once he got confirmation that his appendix did in fact need to be removed I had Amie Houser come over to the house and I left around 9pm.  He went into surgery probably about an hour after I arrived!  Crazy, it all just happened so fast.  Zach Houser came to the hospital and gave him a blessing and stayed with me during the surgery.  Everything went well, they actually found a hard ball of "debris" inside his appendix, the medical staff said they had never seen anything like it!  We later found out that it was a seed or nut that caused the whole problem!  They also said he has a small hernia and we are a little upset that they just didn't fix that too!!!

Pre-op around 11 pm

Post-op feeling really good on fentanyl around 1 am

Paul had to stay the night and I left and got home around 2 am.  Of course Beckett who hardly ever wakes up at night woke up 3 times the night I go to bed past 2 am!  The kids were all up about 7:30 and I got them all dressed and took them to the hospital to pick Paul up.  The pain killers really knocked Paul out.  He slept all day Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and finally stayed awake a bit more on Wednesday.  By Thursday he was acting more like his normal self.

Picking dad up the next morning

Paul was showered with gifts and cards, he has a lot of people that felt bad for him!

A few days later it was Paul's birthday and it was a bit of a sad day since he slept ALL DAY! I made him one of his favorite breakfasts.  Homemade wheat bread with Havarti Cheese, eggs and Applegate Turkey Bacon open face sandwich.  We watched a movie that morning before he went to sleep the rest of the day.  I made a new cake that looked like it should have been amazing, but it was just so so sadly.  I ground up hazelnuts for the flour!  Anything that is that time intensive should just taste amazing...That night I picked up take out and we opened presents.  His big gift was purchased in March when we bought a Traeger grill.  But we had a few presents for him to open on his "special" day. 

Ever since Beckett was born I feel like we have been in survival mode moving from one problem to the next!  I hope once I figure out my hip issues (I'll write more about that later) we'll get a little break...