{A day at the park}

Kenna came to play last week. We always love it when she comes to play, Crew absolutely loves his 

cousins! We had such beautiful weather, we decided to go to the park!

Kenna wanted her picture taken doing EVERYTHING. 

She even crossed her legs on the swing for me to take a picture. :)

Crew loved swinging as well.

Crew just loved the taste of the wood chips, grass and leaves.

Looking at the ducks.

I love this picture! Kenna is so sweet with Crew and he is turning to give her kisses.

His tummy rolls help too...

Here's to a full summer's worth of days at the park!

{my little buddy}

Crew's development has absolutely exploded in the last 2 weeks! 

It's incredible how quickly he will figure something out and never look back.

His recent favorites:

trying new words- his latest are banana ("bahmama") and duck ("duh!")

singing (any song will do)

bath time and his rubber ducky

pulling himself up on furniture and in the bath

eating anything and everything we give him

reading

What can I say? I am completely smitten by this sweet sweet baby. Lance and I both are.

I know that I'm the mommy but he has really become my best little bud.

We do everything together, he and I. We have our own little inside jokes, 

we are super silly together, and we just plain enjoy being together. And the

favorite part of both of our days? When daddy gets home!!

 We did a mini 10-minute photo shoot on the porch this morning to get some 8-month shots.

Thanks for your help Dawn!

Love his striped cardi and plaid pants.

Playing peek-a-boo, his favorite game.

Being silly.

His two bottom teeth are my favorite. He just got 4 new teeth on top and has 2 more coming 

in on the bottom. He's really good at growing teeth. Hair? Not so much.

We sure love you, our handsome little redhead. 

{Swimming}

Tonight was our last swimming lesson for Crew. Even though it was a huge hassle to go 

(try to get a 7-month-old and yourself ready to swim and dressed afterwards, then outside into the 

freezing cold) I am really sad they're over. Crew gets so antsy being stuck inside all day- 

and I don't blame him. So even though there were usually some kind of tears involved, 

he was so happy to get out and do something active.

Cheesin it for the camera :)

I feel like he doesn't look anything like me...

Look at the adorable suit that grandpa Walker got for him!

Getting his all-time-favorite - the rubber ducky!

Got it!

McKenzie, Ady (12 months), Me and Crew 

(Try to ignore the weird look from Crew :)

McKenzie and I have grown up together so it was really fun to be in a swimming 

class together with our kids! Thanks for the invite! 

The only question is, what do I do now to keep him busy?

{growing}

This sweet little boy is growing up much too fast.

He outgrew his other car seat so I got him this adorable one from target.com. 

SO cute! Lance jokes that I'm going to turn him metro.

He loves the new seat. And pretty soon he'll be facing forward which he'll love even more.

Isn't he the cutest?!

Our Crew guy brings us so much joy! And he has changed and grown so much,

just in the last week. Here are some of his newest feats:

1. First word! Crew has said "mama" and "dada" for a long time but he never connected them with us. It was just vocal play. But this week, he figured out that "dada" meant Lance. It's the cutest thing! He'll say "dada" on command and when I ask him where daddy is, he'll look right at Lance or look for him if he's not in the room. 
2. No He also figured out the meaning of shaking his head "no". When he's finished eating, he is so pleased with himself that he can let me know. 
3. Crawling Our sweet little guy has figured out how to crawl! He gets around really well. He's so curious about every little thing that he tires himself out in 20 minutes because he's going going going the entire time. 
4. Claps his Hands He figured this one out about a month ago but it's still just as cute. When someone says "yay!" he'll get a big smile and clap.
5. Mmmm He loves his big boy food and every time he takes a bite he says, "Mmmm!" 

I was reminiscing last night about the day I gave birth to him. It's hard to believe it's been 7 1/2 months since then. It's hard 

to imagine life without him. He brings us so much joy and Lance and I are always cracking up at his feisty little personality.

 He's figured out that crawling through the furniture is must faster than crawling around it.

We love you Crew guy!

{almost crawling}

Excuse the low quality of the video. My uncle Don took this on his phone when we were visiting.

It just drives him crazy that he can't crawl yet. I'm thinking it will happen in the next couple weeks.

I love how he tries so hard!

{giggle}

Crew has about the cutest baby giggle I've ever heard. You can't help but laugh along with him! He gets the most silly before bedtime and since we live downstairs, my family is usually in on the fun. I can't tell you how many countless times we've all been gathered around him at night while he giggles his little heart out- sometimes for 20 minutes straight or more!

This was Christmas night and the pooh bear is one my mom had given Crew for Christmas. He was completely captivated by it.

I promise it's not always smiles and giggles around here. We have our fair share of tantrums and tears as well. But I treasure these moments! Enjoy :)

{4 months}

 This adorable little boy is 4 months old! (plus a couple of weeks)

He is an absolute joy to have in our home. I simply can't remember life without him.

He is 75th percentile in height and 60th percentile in weight.

A big boy! Which is funny considering he was a little baby.

It's crazy to think he has gotten everything he needed to get that big from me :)

As you can see, he is such a happy little one. He will smile at just 

about anyone that will pay attention to him. He is also extremely active! 

It's gotten quite hard for me to keep him entertained during the day because

he is so curious and it just kills him to not be able to get around on his own.

Most mothers say I should enjoy this time that he can't get into anything but I am very much 

looking forward to him crawling and exploring his world. 

Look at those big feet!

We just adore our sweet little Crew. 

Lance has already got such a soft spot for him and Crew loves his daddy.

We just feel so lucky he's ours. :)

{one more}

Just a couple of things about this sweet baby of ours

• He is a complete cuddle bug. Favorite cuddle position? Forehead to forehead 
• He always curls his toes when he is eating. Hehe. This is my favorite. 
• He is such a good baby. We feel pretty spoiled with his cheerful disposition and constant smiles.  
• He will go to sleep every night with almost no fuss.
• He hates getting dressed, its his least favorite part of the day.
• He is so fascinated with my camera that every time it comes out his smiles disappear. (Dang it!)

I love seeing him grow and reach new milestones! His cute little personality gets more apparent every day.

{Crew's Blessing}

We blessed Crew this last Sunday. He wore the same little blessing outfit his daddy wore almost 25 years ago. Grandma Merrell crocheted the beautiful white afghan for him.

It has been on our minds all week what kinds of things we want and hope for our sweet little boy. As a parent, you of course dream of the wonderful things your child will do and the man he will someday become. It's a little intimidating to think that the responsibility of teaching him everything he needs to know rests on our shoulders. It is reassuring to know we have a loving Father in Heaven who loves us the same sort of way and only wants what's best for us. 

Lance gave a beautiful blessing. Afterward, we headed to our place for visiting and a BBQ. It was quite the event and such a lovely day. It was the largest party I've ever hosted and I was a little nervous but it ended up being great with about 65 people here!

My beautiful Trishy!

YUM! The dessert table.

Crew with his uncle Jake.

Avonlea loves her cousin Crew and is constantly giving him kisses and loves.

Even Mark and Tiff made it up from Cedar City. Thank you to all our friends and family who traveled to be there!

Sleepy little one in Mitch's arms. Yes, that is a heart binky (much to Lance's dismay).

Aunt Chris and cousin Andy

We got a group shot at the very end after almost half of everyone had gone home.

Thanks for taking pictures Tori :)

What a wonderful blessing day for our sweet little Crew. 

{sweet baby}

Make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and turn off the music before watching. 

{LOVE}

I didn't know love like this existed.

{newborn shoot}

Here are a few of my favorites from our newborn shoot with Crew.

He is so precious!

My sweet baby

I cant wait to get these printed on canvas and up in the nursery :)