Layton is 6 months!!

Buddy, you are 6 months old!! CRAZY!!! Here is all about you this month:

Your hair is really falling out. You just have a few long brown hairs still left on top that lay over like a comb over. It is definitely coming back in blonde. I think you get this from your daddy. He was a blonde baby. I love your big blue eyes. They are so pretty.

You are still putting everything in your mouth--even biting on your jumperoo! No teeth yet though.

You love bath time. You smile really big and hit the water with your hands when I say "Splish, splash, splish, splash." I love to watch you in the bath. You are very curious when you see the water coming out of the faucet.

You constantly have a scratch or rough spot right in the middle of your forehead as you can see in this picture. I think you may have a little ecsema. You also like to scratch your forehead with your hands when you are sleepy and trying to go to sleep. I have to really try to keep your fingernails trimmed. I can't seem to do this very well, so you always have a scratch on your head. Poor baby.

You have tried all the veggies this month and like them pretty well except for green beans. We went to 2nd foods and you will eat a jar of a veggie at night. I am having to put some fruit in your cereal in the morning because you just don't really like cereal. I even tried oatmeal and you don't seem to like it much better when it doesn't have fruit in it. I haven't really started giving you anything at lunch. I want to make sure you get plenty of milk and am trying to be mindful of my supply. You nurse every 3 1/2 to 4 hours--so about 5-6 times a day. You are very interested in what we eat and watch us closely. We will try some finger foods soon! You are the gasiest baby!! You constantly burp and toot. I don't remember my other kids doing this near as much as you do. I can't figure out if it is what I'm eating or the baby food or what. You still spit up on occasion too.

You still love your feet! You can even put them in your mouth.

You can sit up for a bit now. I still put pillows around you for when you fall backwards.

Sitting up has opened up a new world and different kinds of toys. Fun stuff!

You still want to wake up sometimes around 1:30 or so in the morning to eat. Some nights you don't. I haven't had the heart to let you cry it out yet. We will see what the doctor says about how to get you to sleep longer.

You had a cold this month and had a cough and runny nose. I hate when you get colds!!

You can take your pacy in and out and play with it alot.

You don't like to be left alone. If I put you in the jumperoo, exersaucer, or on the floor and leave the room for a minute, it isn't long before you fuss for me. Some nights after I lay you down to sleep, you will fuss and seem to want me as well. So, I'll rock you for a bit. I love this sweet time.

You pinch the fire out of my face when I pick you up when you try to love on me. You sometimes open your mouth to ours when we ask you to give us kisses.

You are wearing a size 3 diaper and 6 months clothes.

I had to put off your 6 months check-up till January 4th, so I don't know your weight and length yet. You are a healthy boy though!!!

Layton - 6 months

Layton, you are my sweet, happy easy-going boy. I hope you stay that way!!!

Gingerbread!

Leading up to Christmas, the kids and I did some Christmas baking and decorating. First we did our yearly gingerbread house decorating. They each decorated a side. I thing they enjoyed it and there was minimal fighting. :-) This first picture is out of order. I can't figure out how to move my pictures around once I get them downloaded.

I let Hannah try to ice it this year. This is really hard to do. She worked hard at it.

Love her open-mouth-concentration face.

She also enjoyed licking lots of icing.

Layton watched at the table and in the jumperoo. He'll get his turn in a year or two!

Next, we made gingerbread cookies. We have never made gingerbread before, so I thought I'd try it. The kids helped cut out their men.

Then, I gave them icing and they decorated their cookies with it and some red and green chocolate chips.

I did some myself and we took some over to our neighbors across the street. It was fun!!

Layton's First Bible Class

Getting behind on blogging--again. Back in that whirlwind again. I'll get caught up to Christmas eventually!!

I definitely want to document Layton's first time in Bible class. I finally took him for the first time at PV on December 11th. He was almost 6 months old. I had a feeling it would be a little scary for him at first. He doesn't care too much for loud sounds.

After the initial shock, he was very curious as to what was going on.

After a few minutes, he wasn't so sure about things. Doesn't he look just like Hannah? Their cry faces are so similar it is weird!!

It took a few minutes, but he finally relaxed and enjoyed seeing and singing about all the animals God created.

"I'm a big boy, Mom. I can do this."

Layton, my prayer is that this is the first of a lifetime of Bible classes for you!!! I love you and I hope and pray that you grow up to be a faithful, servant of the Lord.

Fundraiser at Hannah's School

Hannah's school had the neatest fundraiser last week. They had a free chili supper with chili donated by Waffle House. Then you could pay $5 and have your picture made with Santa and Mrs. Claus. This got you a 5 x7 picture. The actual fundraiser part was they had each class put together a themed basket of goodies and then they had a silent auction to raise money. This was great because many of the baskets would make great Christmas presents.

After our chili, the kids wrote letters to Santa while standing in line to sit in his lap. I actually forgot to take a picture of Hannah's letter, so I am including one that she did at school. Notice the number one thing on her list is an iPad. Her class has been fortunate enough to be able to have an iPad for the kids to use, so she wants one. Santa probably won't be able to fulfill this request, sadly, as they are much too expensive!!! Other things on her list are bubblegum, American girl doll, pillow pet, dog, paper, cat, Reddy Freddy book (they read about him in class), a school box (???), markers, crayons, and candy.

Lincoln's list. He wants a telescope, 2 pillow pets (not sure why the 2), and a horsey table. Not sure what the horsey table was either. Ha!

They put their letters in the mail box to send to Santa at the North Pole.

Are these not the cutest Santa and Mrs. Claus? I thought the picture turned out so good! Definitely a framer.

They talked to the kids after their picture.

Hannah's class decorated a pink Christmas tree to auction off. Ms. Sondra, the room mom, did a FANTASTIC job on this tree. It was worth over $1,000!!! She got all kinds of things donated. Some of the items were: The Peabody Hotel one overnight stay worth $129, a massage, a manicure, a pedicure, various restaurant gift cards, 7 pair of sunglasses worth $280, and lots of other girly girl type things. That was the theme of the tree. It was awesome and ended up going for over $400! I never heard how much money they made over all but it had to have been quite a bit of money. There were some neat baskets.

Kris bought us a night at the Peabody Hotel and dinner for two at Capriccio, a $350 value for about half the price. We will be using that for our 10 year anniversary in June! Pretty fun fundraiser!! Much preferred over having to sell gift wrap or cookies!

Annual Cookie Decorating Party!

Last week we got together with Jack, Lucy, and Carrie and Eden and Leanne to decorate Christmas cookies. We have done this the last several years. It was kind of sad that Hannah didn't get to be there this year because she was in school.

We went to Carrie's house this year. She fixed us a fabulous lunch--these yummy chicken provolone sandwiches. Leanne is great at making the cookies and brought all kinds of shapes for us to decorate. I brought the icing.

Lucy and Layton aren't quite old enough to participate yet, so they just hung out or napped. Here is Lucy all over Layton! She was checking him out! Ha!

Lincoln was fairly fast at decorating his cookies this year. I think he was ready to get back to playing at Jack's house.

Jack worked very hard on his cookies and did a great job!

Eden was so cute. She really enjoyed it and enjoyed licking the icing off the brushes!

Layton tried out Lucy's exersaucer for the first time. I think it is time for us to get ours out.

Me and my buddy. He can be such a goof ball.

Eden and Leanne

Carrie and Jack

Lincoln's cookies

My cookies. Let me just say, we mommies thoroughly enjoy this cookie decorating party every year--probably way more than the kids. We work SO hard on our cookies and have so much fun decorating them. Thanks friends for sharing this time with us!!