6 months old!

Josiah is already a half-a-year old! Where has the time gone? Josiah and I traveled to Minnesota for a few days this last week (sorry to all of you we didn't get a chance to see) and since we have been home Brett has been constantly saying how big Josiah looks and how much more alert he is in just a few days time. I guess I haven't noticed as much but that's probably because I am with him as he grows each day so it's not so drastic of a change.

6 month old stats:

18lbs - 70th percentile
28in. - 96th percentile

we have a very tall little boy which means that if he continues to grow as much as he has every month we will be buying a new car seat by the end of the month. Crazy! Our doctor was showing us what his percentile stats look like if you combine his weight and height and because he is so tall his actual percentile for his weight is around 30%. You would not be able to guess that if you take a look at his cheeks, they are still has huge as ever!

I will post some 6 month pictures soon.

p.s. I found out today that we will probably be able to get internet at our place in 2 to 3 weeks (they are almost finished doing all the digging). I can't wait!

Camping with a baby!

We packed up the minivan or as Brett calls it, "the man-van" and headed off to the beautiful state of Montana early last Sunday morning. We were able to spend 5 days/4 nights in beautiful Glacier National Park. Neither of us had ever been there and we were both blown away with God's beautiful creation. I love, love, love the mountains!

Josiah did so well with all the traveling and staying in a tent! What a blessing! It was quite cold the first few days so he had to be bundled up a lot and was not a huge fan of having so many clothes on but he was such a little champ about it. The first night went really well bundling him all up and putting him in his car seat for the night and he slept right through the night just like he does at home. The second night on the other hand was a bit more interesting. We were up at Two Medicine Lake and had set up camp and gosh was the wind just howling with the temp in about the 40's. Before I was about to feed him his last meal before bed we decided it was just too cold and windy to sleep in the tent so we took everything out of the van and put it in the tent and set up camp in the van for the night. Not exactly roughing it I know but we were sure glad we did it as the night continued to get colder and windier. We packed up the next morning and decided to go to the other side of the mountain to see if the weather would be a little better there and sure enough it was. We took the most beautiful road I have ever been on to get there. Right in the middle of Glacier is a road that goes right through the mountains. I believe it is called Road to the Sun or something like that and my goodness it was beautiful. That night it was beautiful out and we were able to enjoy once again a night in the tent. We headed out of Glacier on Wed. and headed south to Bozeman. We ended up deciding we wanted to end the vacation with a night in a hotel. We ordered in our favorite pizza from McKenzie River Pizza Co. (amazing!) and took Josiah swimming in the pool for his first time swimming which he loved!

To make a long story short camping with a baby is not as difficult as it seems. My only recommendation is to go camping when it's a bit warmer so that during the day they wouldn't have to be so bundled up as well. But seriously any of you lovers of camping should take your babies...what an adventure!

p.s. I was having trouble getting the pictures to upload on here so if you want to see molre pictures check out my facebook page I will try and get them up on there asap.

5 months old

Josiah is now 5 months old (as of the 18th of Aug). I was looking back at pictures from shortly after he was born today and can't believe how much he has changed already...sad but exciting at the same time.

He is now 27 in. in length. I'm not sure how much he weighs since we don't have a scale but he continues to grow and grow and seems to learn new things all the time.

He loves...

-to stand while you hold his hands
-to jump in his jumper and anytime you stand him up
-to chew on his fingers (and anything else he gets to his mouth)
-when we make weird noises with our mouths
-to make his lips vibrate together
-to roll over from his back to his front (but then gets frustrated about being on his stomach and he refuses to roll over from his stomach to his back even though he has done it before)
-cross his legs...he seriously does this all the time (we have a picture of him doing this on one of the ultra sounds too)
-just wear a diaper (if he gets crabby we just take off his clothes and he usually settles down)
-have his arms and legs moved around by us...it always makes him laugh

Here are a few 5 month old pics...

Wyoming Camping

We are heading to Wyoming in a few weeks to do a little family camping/vacation. This will be our first time taking Josiah camping and thus I could once again use a lot of advice if anyone has any. I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a baby sleeping bag but even if there is we don't have one so I'm trying to figure out what is best to use, any suggestions? Should I bring the pack-n-play? If anyone has gone camping with a baby before I would love any suggestions for what to bring or anything else you can think of.

Also, we are still trying to figure out where exactly we are going to go. We are looking to go in the Bighorn Mountains somewhere (but are open to other suggestions). I've been looking for campgrounds but I have never been to the area so if anyone else has and has a great place for us to go let me know. We are wanting to fish (hoping to do some trout fishing) and do a little hiking. Any suggestions anyone?

Senior Pics

My brother-in-law is going to be a senior in high school this year and I had the privilege of taking his senior photos. My wonderful husband made a backdrop holder for me out of PVC pipe and I bought a couple of sheets from Walmart to use as backdrops. Since I was doing this in our house we obviously don't have the best lighting so once again my wonderful husband while holding our dear son held a desk lamp for me to help with the lighting. The pictures actually turned out not too bad...I think? Here are a few of my favs.








I would really like to start doing this for an added income for our family but am having trouble figuring out how much to charge. My brother-in-law said he has a friend who would also like me to take his senior pics as well so I guess I really need to decide how much to charge. If anyone has any ideas for me I would greatly appreciate it. So I guess this is a post that I would love to get a lot of feedback on so give me your opinions.

4 Months Old

Josiah is now 4 months old! I am a bit late at updating this on his 4th month since he turned 4 months on the 18th but better late then never, right?

4 months old and now...

-Weighs 15lbs (50th percentile)

-26inchs long (82nd percentile)

-sleeps without being swaddled (was a bit hard to break him of it)

-still sleeps 10 to 11 hours a night

-rolled over from front to back and from back to front

-talks and giggles all the time

-wears cloth diapers

It's been so fun to see him grow and do new things. He is such a blessing in our lives!

We have had a few more visitors as well. The girls came out and spent 4 days with us. Kaia, Cassie's baby girl who was born the day before Josiah came as well

Megan, Cassie, Kaia, and Anne came to visit for 4 days!

Kaia and Josiah

Last week Brett, Josiah and I took a trip to Minnesota! I had the privledge of taking the pictures for Pat and Trisha Casidy (formerly Elmstrand). We were able to see some friends while we were in the state but unfortunatly we just did not have enough time to see everyone so I'm sorry to all of you who we didn't get to see. Rachel L. so graciously joined me to take the wedding pictures!

Thanks Pat and Trish for letting me take your wedding pictures, I had so much fun! And thank you Rachel for joining me in the picture taking!

recent photos

We've had a lot of guests lately (which we absolutely love) but it has made it hard to get over to use the internet which explains my lack of blogging lately. I thought I would just post some recent pictures of our happenings although I don't have our 4th of July pictures on the computer yet so I can't post those. We spent a magical day down at the river just relaxing, enjoying the company of friends, fishing and boating.

4th of July

calm before the storm...I think he had
had enough of me taking pictures of him

I know he is my son but I just think he is so darn cute!

He absolutly love to be in just a diaper!

sorry I don't have the rest of the pictures with Brett and I. I will try and post those soon!