My little lover, Stevie, is 9 months old today! I just want to squeeze him all day because I love him so much! He is my cuddle buddy and I cant get enough of it. He lays his head on my shoulder or chest and will just chill with me even if he's not tired! It makes me so happy!  I hope he never ever stops.

At 9 months old, Stevie is eating all real food (except nuts and honey) and he eats whatever we are eating for any given meal. Not only does he eat with us, he eats more than Ty! I will make them the same amount of food and Stevie will eat all of his and sometimes some of Ty's. It is so funny to me the love he already has for food! (I don't understand it at all... ;) ) He screams and waves his arms up and down until I give him whatever I'm eating. I kid you not, I will be in the kitchen and he will be in the living room and he will hear me unwrap a starburst and will come charging in to beg for some! He says "mm mmm mm!" and licks his lips til it is in his mouth. It is so hilarious! I love it. Good thing he's got a fast metabolism. Well, for now :) He has been able to gum anything I give him and has never had a hard time figuring out how to eat whatever is in his mouth.

He never has enough. He's obsessed with food! He also has this death grip. I can't get anything out of his hands and he always has left over food in them when I get him out of his high chair. Funny thing is, he never chokes on food. But any time I try to give him a sippy cup, he sucks until he is out of breath then takes a huge gasp of air when he is done. I always figured liquids would be easier to swallow! The good news is, yesterday he drank 3 WHOLE bottles!

Learning how to hold his own bottle, this kills me! He is so funny

 I couldn't believe it. I was seriously giddy all day! I can't tell you the amount of relief this gives me. I wouldn't normally push a bottle on a baby but if you read this post: may contain TMI, then you will remember that I have been bit so hard that I was dripping blood and had slits in my nipple! (yikes!)  He would not drink any kind of bottle or formula whatsoever. So for the last 4 months I have been trying bottles, sippy cups, cups with straws, and regular cups (you know, just incase he bit my nipple off and I needed to be done nursing on a whim) and he would never drink more than a couple of gulps of anything. He stopped biting me after that one post but recently he got 2 new teeth on top (how cute are they??)

 Unfortunately, he wanted to test out his new chompers and he bit me a few times. It was nothing too bad until one night he bit hard enough for me to bleed again! It was so painful and I just wanted the freedom of a bottle. The sad thing is, when he bit me, I screamed and jumped and he was so scared and sad that he just bawled and tears streamed down his face. It was almost as if I had hurt his feelings or that he was trying to tell me he didn't mean to. It broke my heart! If he had been biting me and laughing I would have cut him off long ago. But he just didn't really understand. I have loved nursing him but I also don't mind having the option of someone else feeding him. It's also a bonus that I don't have to live in fear every time I feed him! So this was a HUGE milestone! I am really excited about it but there is a part of me that is sad that I'm going to be done nursing again! I can't believe how fast time is passing by.

Stevie is a Super fast crawler and is standing up on everything. Every once in a while he will let me balance him and he'll stand alone for a few seconds.

 workin' it

He has started finding his binky and putting it in all by himself. I LOVE when this happens! It is the cutest thing to watch him do and plus he has become a good self soother. It took a while for me to figure out Stevie's routine; but as a 9 month old, he likes to wake up, eat, play for a while, and then go to sleep on his own.  I never thought Id have a baby that would just lay down and go to sleep on his own (without a bottle or nursing first.)  He also falls sleep in his carseat at church, in the stroller, or on my lap. The only bad part is, if he falls asleep somewhere besides his crib, then when you move him he wakes right up and there's no going back down!

He is finally getting a little peach fuzz on top of his head but from afar he still looks pretty bald. I love it though. He is happy to be held by anyone and looks at you like you're the coolest person in the world! He has a gift. Sometimes he will be playing and will just start laughing. It is my favorite thing. He likes being thrown in the air and tickled and tackled onto the bed by John. He dances when he hears music and loves when we are singing. I get comments from people all the time saying what a happy baby he is. I got the same comments when Ty was a baby. Im so blessed to have happy kids!

silly boy

exploring:

Just chillin at the grocery store

Love you baby boy!

I went back and read through my blog yesterday and sometimes I am such a downer! I want this blog to be real but I also want to go back and read all the good stuff, not all the bad stuff. This summer was so chaotic and I couldn't seem to get over it until now, (welcome fall!! How nice is it being back on a schedule?!) but looking back I really wish I wouldn't have let my life get so out of control! It's so important to take care of yourself first so you can take care of your family properly! I have so many blessings. This post is dedicated to all the good in my life!
I am so blessed to:

-have a husband that works hard and loves me and my kids for who we are. He's so optimistic and never seems to get stressed. That's why I try to be stressed enough for the both of us ;)

-have a house and to have had a house since we were 21! The timing that we bought this house was just perfect. The interest rate was pretty low and the house wasn't over priced. Then thanks to John being a genius we've already refinanced for a 15 year loan and should hopefully have it paid off when we are what? 37? Not too shabby!

-have family SO close by. Walking to johns parents house takes 3 minutes and walking to my parents house takes like 10! If you are talking drive time it's even faster! I love that when we are bored we can get together with family and just hang out any time we want!

-have 2 running cars. We used to share a car back in the day and the other day it hit me again how lucky we are to not have to work around each other's schedules and see who needs the car that day. I take for granted how easy it is to get in the car and go somewhere anytime I want or need to!

-have temples so close by. I KNOW I take this for granted. We are 10-15 minutes away from a temple in either direction. We are so lucky to be so close and to be able to go so easily, really anytime we want.

-have grocery stores so close by. We used to go to maceys like 4 times a week! We've been a lot better at only going once a week, sometimes less. But I will always have fond memories of going to maceys! Ty already knows when we go there that they have ice cream cones and treats at the check out. I think he will have fond memories of that place too! Sounds silly, but grocery shopping is one of my favorite things to do as a family!

-have so many good examples in my life. Im so grateful for all of my friends and family who have always been there for me!

-have such amazing, beautiful babies! They are the light of my life! One time a lady I visit taught said that life doesn't even start until you have kids. I didn't have any kids and was like, sure sure. I was married at the time and felt like our life was pretty happy. And it was. But giving birth to our babies has been by far some of the coolest experiences we've shared together. (Well at least I think so!) I've never experienced as much joy as I have since I've become a mother. It has brought our marriage to a whole new level and I'm so grateful to have been able to share these experiences with John and become even closer to him. The day Ty was born was so cool and I couldn't imagine life without him (still can't, and don't want  to!) & I wanted another baby in no time! But I was afraid having another baby would ruin the love I had for Ty. How could I love another baby as much as I loved him? I don't know how, but your capacity to love just grows. It's amazing the love I feel for both of my kids! The reasons I love them are so different, but the amount of love is the same! Being a mom is the most amazing thing in the entire world.  I think it gives us just a glimpse of how Heavenly Father could love all of us. I'm already baby hungry and my baby is only 9 months old. How does that happen? There is something really special about being pregnant and giving birth. I feel so blessed to have been able to experience it twice so far!

I've been thinking a lot today about my role as a mother and how incredibly grateful I am for my babies and how much I've been taking them for granted lately. It's Interesting what stress and chaos will add to your life and do to your brain. I've been craving more order in my life and now I think I understand why. When I stop letting myself feel stressed and start counting my blessings instead, I feel overwhelmed by all of the many  blessings I have and then I feel awful for not recognizing all of my blessings during the stressful/hard times. Yesterday I took more time to hold Ty instead of making him walk everywhere or having him sit on my lap instead of next to me on the couch and I'm surprised how quickly his attitude changed from a couple of days ago. He kept coming up to me in sacrament meeting today and saying, "I want mommy." And he just sat and colored with me and laughed (I've missed his cute laugh!) and he didn't want anyone else.  I'm sad I haven't taken more time to just be with him the last few weeks. He's a different kid when I show him more love. And then there is Stevie. That kid is so sweet and has always loved me so much. He already wants my approval. He's so connected with me through his eye contact, he knows how to read me already.  He looks at me before doing things and when he makes me laugh it makes him so happy. He was playing with toys in relief society today and kept banging one on the wall and looking at me and laughing and one of the women sitting next to me said, "Look how much he loves you." And it's so true. He loves me despite all my imperfections.  He's so loving and sweet and laughs all the time! It's the cutest sound in the world. It's interesting when my life is crazy how hard it is to calm it down and see all the sweetness around me but once I get over that hump I can't understand how I couldn't see or feel it the whole time! I'm grateful to have the gospel in my life and for the peace it brings and the understanding I have of a Heavenly Father that loves me unconditionally and has sent me children who help me understand His pure love a little bit better. I can't imagine my life without these sweet spirits and I'm excited for a time when I get to meet even more of them! I needed the peaceful spirit I felt today and  just wanted to write down how Im feeling because my heart is full and I want my kiddos to always know how deeply I love them and I wouldn't change anything about either of them, good or bad. They're the best! Love you boys.

cuddling with my arm on different occasions. I love their cute little hands