5 Months Old

Yes, I am well aware that this is coming 2 weeks too late! I'm going to make this one quick!

Our little boy has gotten SO BIG so quickly! I'm going to need for him to stop growing up so fast. Seriously, you blink and it's gone. Here's some updates from how he's progressing.

Weight/Length: I have no idea on this. We don't go back until our 6 month check up. I can tell you that home boy is HUGE though! He's already started wearing 6-9 month clothing because he's so tall.

Sleep: We are SUPER blessed on this. We aren't really sticklers on a strict nap schedule during the day so he usually naps whenever he wants to. Sometimes he'll nap during late morning, sometimes it's early afternoon. We usually let him decide. Someone asked me on how I felt about routines/schedules the other day and it really made me think about it. We live by a nighttime routine. I'm not sure if it's for M or more for us. I'd like to think that bath time then reading books lets him know that it's time to go to bed but I'm sure if we skipped one or the other he wouldn't be affected by it. I know a lot of people that depend on schedules throughout the day that work out really well for their children and I fought really hard for this. After all, I love schedules. I work better when I am on a schedule. It comforts me. I've also read that having structure to their day is comforting to toddlers/children. I really wanted him in a routine for nap time and bed time. Every child and parent I know that are on schedules live by them and I was determined that it was best for us. But then reality set in and I learned that maybe this is not what is best for our family or our child. In the big picture, Josh and I have very different schedules that change every day. Our weekends may be in the middle of the week. Those "weekends" are filled with us going 3473829473 different directions, that it is impossible (and trust me, I do not use this word lightly) to stick to a schedule. Because of this, it works out better for us because M is very flexible and adapts to change while we aren't restricted to a schedule. Now, I will say he kind of fell into a bed time schedule. I think this is partly because he takes short naps throughout the day or doesn't take one at all. Every night at 7:00 pm, home boy is exhausted! So depending on how tired/cranky he is, we start getting ready for bed around 7:00 or sometimes earlier. Like I said earlier, we do bath time (most nights), books, then bed and it works out great. I am also glad that he is really good about self-soothing/being in his crib. Once he's put to bed, he'll talk himself to sleep which usually takes about 5 minutes. From then he will sleep until 4:30-5:30 the next morning. After a morning bottle, I can put him back down and he'll sleep until 8:00 - 8:30. Like I said, he's a great sleeper!

Feeding: We've been on formula for a while. He's eating on average 7 ounces every 3-4 hours. He usually goes longer stretches between meals in the morning and on average every 3 hours in the afternoons. We are eating a whole bowl of cereal in the morning. He's starting to get a hang of the spoon now and doesn't make as big of a mess. Or maybe that was just the person feeding him! Next week we are going to start on our vegetables. We're going to try making his food, we'll see how long that lasts!

Firsts this month: He has been rolling on both sides a little more consistently now. He is also starting to sit up for long stretches of time.  He is able to stand on his own while leaning against things. For instance, he will hold onto your hands or the table and stand up for long periods of time. Such a big boy!!

Developments: He's grasping his toys a lot better now. He's more active in wanting to be sitting up to see things instead of laying down all the time. I'm pretty sure he's teething because he's been drooling buckets and everything he gets goes straight in his mouth.

Likes: bath, pooping, waking up, sleeping, eating, looking at a bottle (any bottle really), his playmat, grasping toys, pulling hair, talking, squawking, jumping in his jumparoo thingy, bumbo, crinkly objects, music, being naked (which is good since he's always pooping himself and is mostly naked), pacifier, chewing, drooling, looking at Mommy or Daddy, smiling, laughing, Ms. Dawn, Jenna, Jayda, Collier, Mi Mi

Dislikes: being hungry; He really doesn't have a lot of these. I will say that sometimes he just wants to be left alone. If you're holding him or if you're near him, he'll throw a tantrum and it's because he wants to go to sleep but he doesn't want you to hold him or touch him. He's a diva. He gets it from his father, I say! For the most part, he's a really great kid and loves life!

What I'm thankful for: I'm thankful that God didn't listen to me when we said we didn't want children. M has been the best thing that has ever happened to us. He has brought so much light into our world. He is the best of both of us. He reminds us every day to be silly, not to take life so seriously, that we are needed, and that we are loved. I can't thank God enough for him. And I know I say this all the time, but I am also thankful for my husband. I know this isn't what we had planned but Josh has been so supportive and loves Mason as much as I do. He helps out around the house, with bath time, with everything. He doesn't judge me when I'm about to lose it, instead he just takes over. He is the best teammate I could ever have wished for and I could not do this without him. God has been so good to us! We are so very blessed!

What I'm looking forward to: I can't wait for M's first Christmas! I know he won't remember it and won't care but I am so excited!! Especially for all the pictures! Then coming up after that is M's baptism! So much room for activities!

Next Pediatricians appointment: Jan 7th

How Mommy's doing: Great. There are moments that I still struggle but I hear that's common. Tonight M was a little cranky and I felt like a failure because I got aggravated with him. I've been really tired but am so grateful to have such a wonderful hubby to take over! I'm trying not to put so much pressure on myself in dealing with this whole Mommy thing. Going back to the lack of schedules from above. I have an idea of how things are supposed to work when I know it's not necessarily what's best for M or for us. That's one of my goals to be better at finding out what does work for us and not living by certain expectations I have put on myself. On happier news, I tried on pants yesterday and fit into a size 6!!! The 6's fit and I didn't have to struggle with the zipper!! But that dang muffin top made me get an 8. Still counts though!!

Here are 789247392384 pics of M's 5 month photo shoot:

Hope everyone has a happy Hump Day!!

The Adventures of this Christmas Season

Hi friends! I know, it's been SO long! Two weeks maybe? I have been terrible at updating lately. I really don't have an excuse other than we've been super busy and by the time I've gotten home I am so sleepy I can't keep my eyes open let alone want to stay up writing. On a plus side, I got a job transfer and have been loving life working closer to home! I LOVE my new boss, and the drive to work is SO GREAT!! I look forward to starting this new adventure. Thanks for all the prayers, friends! Without any more stalling, here's what's been going on lately:

Joshy had to work the weekend (two weekends ago) so we went out shopping with Mi Mi. To start out our morning, we HAD to go to the Dive In to meet Mi Mi and Paw Paw for breakfast. M was such a charmer, all the ladies were loving on him. Here's a couple of pics from our first stop..

After a delish breakfast, we headed over to South Park mall. As we were walking in, I decided this was a great opportunity to change M's diaper before we got started. And yes, this is another poop story. Home boy had ANOTHER blow out in the Nordstrom's bathroom. Why does this always happen at the worst possible locations? Here we are in the extremely nice bathroom trying to get him clean. As one lady walks in (I see her sympathetic Mom look that says "I know how you feel") she sees me & my mother trying to get M's clothes off without getting crap all over him moreso than it already is. Ms. Lady walks into the stall to do her business. As she walks out of her stall, I am bathing/washing off my poop-stained child while my mother is in the next sink over washing out his clothes so they won't be permanently stained. The look on her face was of pure horror as she looked at the poop-cleaning station. Poop clothes were on the changing station, poop on the blanket I changed him on that was on top of the changing station, poop socks, poop on his shoes, and a pile of poop-stained wipes on top of a over-flowing poop diaper. This is all taking place in a Nordstrom bathroom. WHYYY??? It's bad enough that I have just given my child a redneck bath in an expensive store, but now we have no place to put all of his poop soaked gear. My mother, bless her, goes to retrieve a bag to wrap everything up. Meanwhile, M is chilling in his diaper. Again. I swear this kid never has any clothes on due to his blowouts. Thank goodness I packed him another outfit that was way too small for him. And to think we were going for the festive look that morning. As we began our shopping, Mi Mi was determined that M had to get into the festive mood again. Which means she is a total sucker because the next department store we came to M was transformed into another little Christmas elf minus the reindeer droppings:

I'm glad everyone is happy and poop free

On our way home from the mall, we got a phone call from Ms. Dawn asking us to come over to exchange gifts with Jenna. So off we go again:

Look at what M got from Ms. Jenna! He LOVES eating Charlie Brown while reading our stories!

Ms. Jenna and Ms. Dawn gave M some super cute Christmas books along with Snoopy and Charlie Brown. We LOVE reading them!! 

And we (Josh and I) got a super cute Santa and sleigh to add to our Christmas decorations.

Our names are even on Santa's list! 

Later on that night, we went to Nae Nae and Uncle Jeff's annual Christmas party. It was past M's bed time so I wasn't sure how he would do. In the beginning, he got a little overwhelmed so I laid him down on Nae Nae's bed to see if he would fall asleep. I went in there five minutes later and he was playing with his feet and squawking at the fan, ha! Since it was obvious he was not going to go to sleep, up we went to go visit. Here are a couple of pics with Jay and Becca:

We LOVE Jay and Becca and can't wait to see them again!

We're going to flash forward to the next weekend. This was the weekend that I have been waiting on since this past July. We had been planning to go to the Polar Express at Pullen Park in Raleigh. I was SOO excited for this. I knew that M would never remember it but this park is just the coolest and I couldn't wait to take pics! I keep telling people that we need something like this in Charlotte because it makes so.much.money. Anyway, I was beyond excited about it  until I looked at the weather report which said it was supposed to rain all.freaking.weekend. FAIL! We had tickets for Saturday night which was supposed to have the worst weather. Friday afternoon we received an email saying due to the weather, we could use our tickets to go to the Friday night or Sunday night park. DOUBLE FAIL since we couldn't leave until 6:00 pm Friday and we were leaving Sunday morning to come back home. So instead of packing up and rushing, we just decided to stay home and sulk. Since I was waiting for M to meet Santa at the Polar Express, we had not gone to see him yet. So that Saturday morning we went to the mall to stand in line for Santa pics. I will say that it is HIlarious to watch all the children get their photos taken with Santa especially those that scream. We weren't really sure how M would react to him and let's be honest, he probably doesn't care won't even remember it. After about 30 minutes, we finally got to Santa. At first, it was a little shaky and we were sure that he was going to scream but then he recovered:

We had a better picture from the lady but it still wasn't the best. I would like to say that I was extremely disappointed with the South Park lady taking pics. Their policy is that you can only take your own photos as long as you purchase their photos which I informed her that we were doing. I wanted to take some with my camera so it would be easier to upload on here. Well that biatch lady was so rude. When we sat him on Santa's lap, I started taking pics with my camera and Josh was taking with his phone and she very rudely said, "um, please let me get my pictures first". So we did. And there were several moment where M was laughing and she didn't get ANY OF THEM!! Listen bia lady, I have no problem with you taking photos but you were not only rude to us, but you didn't even get any good photos!! Then once she was done taking her photos, she rushed us with an attitude on her face while I took 1 photo. She used the noisemaker for her photo and then rushed us off without helping out with ours. 1 photo!! I was SO frustrated with her. I really wanted to rip off her stupid Christmas hat, throw it on the ground, step on it and then punch her in the throat while telling her that she should be fired as Santa's helper because she was not helpful at all and didn't deserve the "Santa's Helper" sticker that she wore on her shirt!! She was obviously an angry elf FROM THE South Pole tell her that she was really being unprofessional and needed a lesson in good customer service. Santa even felt the tension mounting. Santa knew she was being rude and he put her on the naughty list!! Take that you Scrooge!!

After we got pics with Santa, we came home to clean and get ready for the Nester Tacky Christmas Party. This is probably one of my favorite things each year. Josh and I LOVE getting dressed up for it. We didn't think we would be in town because we were supposed to be in Raleigh, so we thought it would be a nice surprise for Josh's bestie, Lee, to make an appearance at the party. Also, since we weren't planning on going, we didn't prepare for it. This is a shocker because we LOVE dressing up each year and pride ourselves on having great outfits. So this year, we decided to trade outfits from last year. The results were...

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire?? 

Merry Christmas from the Kellers

A little background on Joshy's skirt "kilt" he is wearing. This was the heinous skirt that I found at Kmart last year. At first, Josh was all about wearing the "kilt" but as the afternoon/evening went on he was starting to chicken out. BUT it was SOO funny. In order for him to wear it, I told him that he could drink however much he wanted and I would stay sober and drive.... I should have let him wear the pants. I'm pretty sure that the babysitter thought we were nuts.  At least we're fun?? Or just creepy... The party was a success though! And Joshy's bestie was SO surprised that it was totally worth it!

Sunday we got a visit from Grandma Debbie & Pop Pops to see M and to also bring down our Christmas present. A few weeks ago, I sent Pop Pops a couple of ideas I had for our living room. If you don't know this, we live in an old mill house. These houses don't have any storage (there are no closets in this house) and  having zero storage is tough since we have so much stuff! Now that M is getting more aware of his surroundings and we will start getting more toys, we won't have any place to put them. We could always stuff him in his room, but his room is tiny and it would be more crammed than it already is. Also, why would we put his toys in his room? I am never sitting in his room while he rolls around on the ground plays. Instead we're always in the den. Like I said before, we don't have a lot of space in this house for much so I was looking for a way that we could kill two birds with one stone sorry birdies! by having a storage space but use it as a table/bench too. Where do you go to find all of your household ideas?? Pinterest of course!! So I got to looking around and found these really cool corner benches that double as storage. I sent some ideas to Pop Pops and he began designing. So when I found out it was coming, I was SO stoked!! It is absolutely GORGEOUS!! I knew it would be, but Pop Pops outdid himself again!

Special thanks to Grandma Debbie for making the cushions to go on top of the benches! 

And there's our storage! YAYY!!! 

Isn't it just beautiful?! Thanks again Pop Pops and Grandma Debbie for all that you do!! Y'all are AWESOME!! 

Okay, I think I have babbles enough tonight. Here are some other photos of what we have been up to:

Ms. Dawn spoils M so much! She got him this book that she recorded reading. I cried. We listen to it every night! It is hands down one of the favorite gifts I have ever gotten (and it wasn't even for me!).

"Yess surr, he's a teethin'"

I love this pic. These are the moments that I treasure! Naps with Granny are the best!

M was feeling extra clingy one night and I was attempting to be domestic by making dinner since Joshy was working late. So instead of laying him on the kitchen floor to let him watch me cook, I just strapped him on! He LOVED it. He did manage to almost pull one of the mixing bowls off the counter but we saved it. And the dinner was delish and edible!

M with his bestie Jayda!

He has been the biggest wiggle worm! I set him down in his bouncer and when I turned back around I found him like this, ha!

Passed out while burping

I always made fun of Mom's that dressed their kids up in Christmas sweaters. This will be one of the moments when M gets older and makes fun of me. 

Loves his Grandma Debbie!

Eating his Daddy's shorts and Mommy's shopping receipt.

I leave you with this Christmas tree that M (Ms. Dawn) made. 

I can't thank God enough for everything that he has done for us. I cannot wait to see what else he has in store for us! I hope everyone has a very great Christmas! Safe travels! 

App/Turkey Day Roundup

Hi friends! We have been so busy lately that I have not had the energy had the chance to catch up. So this is going to be a very long post with about 23894723498573489 lots of pics and videos. Two weekends ago, we went up to Boone to celebrate the opening of the cabin and also to watch the ASU/WCU game for the last Battle for the Jug. We woke up that morning and it was FREEZING!! So we made sure to bundle the kiddies up extra warm. My BIL Danny had a friend that was working and allowed us to take pics on the football field. Here are some of those:

This is prob my favorite pic because of L's face. Priceless!! 

It was wayy too cold for us the kids so we only stayed at tailgating for about an hour before heading back to the cabin. However, the boys did manage to get hammered stay until halftime and my mom went to go pick them up. On Sunday we woke up early and stopped by Hickory to see Josh's parents before heading back home.

Our facility was closed last Thursday and Friday. Needless to say I was counting down the hours on Wednesday until I had my 4 day weekend. It was much needed! Thursday morning we were heading to Asheboro to have Thanksgiving lunch with my mom's side of the family. Here are some adorable pics that we got:

M and Papa

M & Granny

After 62 years of marriage, these two are closer than ever! An inspiration to us all!

Uncle David loves him some babies!

L and her MiMi

Our big boy tried out a high chair for the first time and loved it!

He was enthralled with himself in the mirror

Bless it. 

Once we were done with lunch, we made the hike up to the cabin to spend a long weekend there. It was SO nice just to hang out with everyone. We are always so busy running all different directions that we never get to enjoy each other as much. Needless to say there was a lot of beverages consumed mostly from our husbands and card playing. The perfect weekend! Friday we pretty much hung out, but Saturday we went to go get our Christmas tree before going to see the my husband, Liam, play Gale in the Hunger Games.

Pretty nice pic of the cabin

He loved the hay ride! 

Saturday night we had the kids sleep in their matching pajamas the Aunt Sarah had gotten for them. I'm not sure you can handle the cuteness that follows:

We had a BLAST this past weekend and were so sad that we had to come back. Here are some more pics and videos of the past couple of weeks..

Here's what has been happening with Ms. Dawn:

Aren't these the cutest? It's of his little feet!! 

Ms. Dawn says that he loves this walker and I'm so glad since it's one of his Christmas presents!! 

I couldn't figure out how to turn the video on this one. Oh well! But please take a moment to look below:

See the bowl?? He ate all.the.rice. WHAT THE FRENCH TOAST, M?! We have been trying to get him to simply eat the rice for weeks now and he just spits it back out at us or give us an ugly cry face/tantrum. I can't get him to eat but maybe a couple of bites.One morning it was so bad that it looked like someone had planted a rice bomb in my living room. It looks like it snowed. He was caked in rice, his nose was filled with rice, in his hair, in my hair, all over the table, all over his pants, on his shirt (which how does it get under his shirt?? He was wearing a bib that covered his entire upper body?!?!), on my clothes, on the floor, on the Bumbo that he was sitting in, on the couch, on our new carpet, on our wall. How did it get on the wall you ask? Because the little Poop Magoo would put his fingers around his mouth (because it's obvious no rice was getting inside his mouth due to him spitting it out everywhere) OR while I was trying to concentrate on saving the rice from falling everywhere he would grab the bowl, coat his fingers with rice and begin slinging said rice infested fingers all over the place. I'm pretty sure he may have eaten one spoon of rice and the rest was everywhere else. Every time he eats I put on a rain poncho. And Josh won't even attempt to feed him. WHYYYY??? So we have decided. The only reasoning why he will cooperate with Ms. Dawn is because she is a Saint/baby whisperer. And it's not just with the food. Mase always cooperates with her and never pitches a temper tantrum. I'm being serious. She called one day last week to tell me that she got to witness one of his tantrums. He's been staying with her for almost 4 months now and this is the first time???? He does it at least once a week with us! Please teach us your ways, Ms. Dawn!! We are so blessed to have you with us and M does not know how lucky he is! But we will for sure remind him!!

Here is some more cuteness for you:

His laugh is THE CUTEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD!!!

We got him this jumper. Best.investment.ever. He LOVES this thing. He will sit in it for hours!! And you can get them wayy cheap on Amazon.

Last week we were finally able to stop by and say "hello" to Carla. Doesn't she look so good holding that baby Casey??? 

She NEEDS one. Or you can just borrow M, too ;-)

Look at those kicks! Love them!! 

And then it happened... Today, he FINISHED his entire bowl of rice for me.  AND I didn't even have to wear my poncho. SUCCESS IS MINE!!  

For more pics of the round up, hop on over to my sister Sarah's Blog! I'm really going to try hard not to have two weeks in between! Hope everyone has a Happy Tuesday!!