Has it really been 12 months??

The more I think about the upcoming week and the milestone that it brings the more I start to think I may have an anxiety attack. I can not believe Kinsler will be 1 on Friday. It seems like yesterday I was sitting in my Wednesday morning Senior block class freezing my butt off at 40 weeks pregnant. The following day I would be going in for our induction. I remember my professor dear ole Dr. K saying "I didn't think I'd be seeing you today." when I walked in. My response "Well, figured I needed to come." Ha. Following his birth came the first milestone of leaving him for the first time with a sitter while I went back to class. Thank goodness for Auntie Ang and Paxton. Bless her...she got him on a schedule and everything! Not to mention I had no worries when he was with her. To this day he is all smiles when he sees Ang.

Then May was here and I was accepted to the Graduate school at U of A and I graduated with my Bachelors. We spent the majority of summer at home hanging out and in the pool with Deena and the girls (of course Bill was around too :) ). Summer school started and was over in the blink of an eye.

The next milestone was around 6 months old, sending Kins to Mrs. Jeannie's, who is our babysitting savior. Kinsler loves Mrs. Jeannie and all the kids at her house. She is an amazing woman who loves my child as much as I do. We'd probably be up a creek without her. I also started my internship and second semester of Grad school taking 15 hours and thinking how in the world am I going to do this. God knew exactly what he was doing, his timing was perfect (duh, didn't I already know this!?), my acceptance to Grad school has been doable (duh, all things are possible through Christ). I made a 4.0 for summer session and a 3.8 this past fall (toot toot). Why, oh why, did we worry. I have been paired with amazing mentor teachers who are completely understanding and who are a big help to me with school projects.

Next, Kinsler's first Christmas! We had a blast celebrating with all our family and eating lots of food. Chris gave us the best gift of all...he has started his quest for a healthier lifestyle. He began running and as a family we have started to do our best and eat better. To date he has lost 18.2 pounds and since he started his journey he has run everyday but 4 or 5. We are so proud of him!! (Check out chrisdoinglife.tumblr.com to read about his journey thus far.)

January came and with it Kinsler learned how to walk. Now he doesn't slow down for anyone or anything... unless it's food. Our baby boy is more of a toddler now. I also started my last semester of Grad school and with it my research project began. Chris also had a milestone this month, you may ask him personally about it but we are super excited at what this next year holds for him.
Now it's the very end of January and in less than 7 days he will be 1 year old. God has blessed us with a sweet, loving, happy, and handsome son. We have definitely learned that God is fully in control and knew what he was doing when he planned for us to be pregnant before we thought we were ready. He placed both of us in families that love and care for us and who wanted to see us succeed in parenthood. With their help we are doing it.

 Kinsler, we can not wait to see what this next year has in store for you and us. With that sly smile anything is possible. We love you. - Mom and Dad

11 months and counting

Well, Kinsler is now 11 months old. I absolutely can not believe it has been that long. I am trying to get some ideas lined out for a birthday party for him but it is going to be hard to get things done with school starting back for both of us and Chris will start softball practice this week. Kinsler has also decided he likes walking. Just in the past few days he's really taken off on the whole walking thing and now attempts to walk to toys or objects before crawling. I suspect that by the end of the week we'll have a full fledge walker on our hands. I most definitely am scared about this. I have video of him walking I will try and post soon.

Here's my little cheeser in all his cuteness. Happy 11 months Kins!

4 days to go and still no tree...

Well Christmas is in 4 days and I have yet to wrap a single present. It has taken a long time for me to get into the commercial Christmas spirit. We haven't put up a tree, haven't decorated, and we didn't buy a single gift until this past weekend, and like I said none of those are wrapped. It's so hard to spend the time (3+ hours to put up our tree) decorating when I know all I'm going to be doing is corralling Kinsler to keep him from pulling the whole thing over, he's a monster! :) We are also going to spend 4 days away from home to see family so all I can think about is the time spent decorating and then not even enjoying it on the holiday.
I am slowly but surely getting into the spirit but I have never forgotten the "reason for the season". Our Father blessed this world with the perfect gift and I am so happy that I can call him my Savior.

I will leave you with a little present...

Isn't he the most handsome thing you've ever seen? He was growing tired of all the picture taking.

Me? A mom?

It is often times hard for me to think of myself as a mom. Every time I think about being called mom I think  that it can't possibly be true. Yet, all I have to do is look at this precious baby boy and realize yep, that's me...a mom. Then I count my blessings and praise God for the greatest treasure I have here on Earth.

Kinsler, mom and daddy love you so much. You are more than words can describe. You are our everything.

Wave "Hello"

Chris pointed out that it was "Momma" and "Dada" in the pictures so Kinsler thought it would be sweet to wave "Hello" to us. That boy is just precious! He has captured both our hearts.

The grind...

We haven't been up to much these past few weeks. I have been focusing on school and am finally to a slow point which is great!!! This is my first weekend all semester that I haven't been stressing to finish a paper or project for class on Monday. Chris is finally done with volleyball so we've been enjoying a little more family time this past week. We even made it out for several walks this week!! We bought a new jogging stroller and Kinsler loves it! No crying for him when we head out! (Unlike the old stroller where he would cry in less than 5 minutes of being strapped in.)

No pictures today...my computer is being slow and does not want to upload the ones I have picked out. Sorry. :(

A month of milestones…

Wow… who knew turning eight months old could be so busy!

Kinsler is now taking baths in the big tub and loving it!

He is now crawling at an unfathomable speed. He is pulling up and reaching for other objects close by as well. I’m sure he’ll be walking before we know it. Not sure how I feel about that. He’s already into everything as it is. 

The biggie for mom has been the process of weaning. I had no idea I had become so attached to the idea of nursing but it is time. Kinsler now has 6 teeth and has the tendency to bite so, we have been introducing formula for about the past week and a half. (Thank goodness he’s used to bottles already.) Hopefully by the end of the month we will be a breast milk free home.

 

The biggie for Kinsler is putting himself to sleep for naps and at bedtime! For about the past 3 days we’ve been working with him on putting himself to sleep. He’s doing so well!!! Continued prayers for this feat would be lovely!