We are all doing quite well. cort is getting bigger every day. He was 14lbs and 4oz at his 5 month checkup and 25 inches long. We do have to take him to a doctor soon to see if we need to get under his tongue clipped since he is tongue tied and it could cause speech problems later on in life. Clif has been bottling like crazy for the last month with his brother and brother in law, I am not much help since I am always taking care of Cort. He doesn't mind though, he is up to like over 250 bottles of food so far and still going. Other than bottling Clif is mostly just working, the busy season for propane is slowly approaching. I stay at home with Cort most of the time. I enjoy watching him grow and learn. I do some printing jobs and we get them and I am currently busy trying to practice the piano lots since the primary program is in a few weeks and as the pianist I am not all ready yet. I still have a few songs that need some improving. I am also currently working on my annual family Halloween Party.

yummy spoon!

our first cereal meal ar five and a half months.

5 months old

Corts started to enjoy playing while sitting up

mommy has her keys, and Cort has his

Big smiles for mommy,I must have been doing something pretty silly.

4 mouths apart, cousins Cort and Camry

ooohhhh whats over there? it moves!

Mommys big blue eyes have been passed on

Wow, kinda looks like a turtle

During diaper changes he gets bored and looks for things to grab and play with like this lotion bottle.

He has gotten pretty good at grabbing his binkie and pulling it out to play with, sometime he can get it back in his mouth the right way too.

Whenever I put him in his bumbo chair he gets pretty frustrated trying to use his sitting up muscles.

Tummy time is getting to be not so painful as it used to be.

August

I have to brag on my husband for this one, he came up with this idea to decorate this cake and I thought it was pretty cool!
Cort sticks EVERYTHING in his mouth

daddy and cort, they both look so happy :)

cort still practicing steadying his head

I thought cort was pretty cute in these pants

these pics are all from about a month ago, I will take and post some new pics soon!

New Photos of Cort

Blessing Day

This is the only picture I have of the three of us, taken on Cort's blessing day in May.

I have been pleasantly surprised lately waking up and realizing it has been seven or eight hours since I last fed him, Yeah!! Cort is doing good, smiling more and more, kicking lots, talking more, crying more too :(, and getting big.
Clif is doing good too, enjoying being a dad even if he does avoid diaper duty now. He is struggling to get his garden going since he is busy and working on so many other projects right now. The garden is all planted though and twice the size of last year.
I am doing good. I enjoy being able to slowly start doing more and more of the things I did before Cort was born. I love the feeling of when I actually get my dishes washed, or my laundry put away, or dinner made, etc... I am excited to have two of my sisters home for the summer and look forward to doing lots with them. I am enjoying summer and the warmth and green things.
I need to put some pics up but it will have to be next time, sorry!

I love being a mom even if it is hard. It is always rewarding though despite the hard work. Lately Cort has developed a new habit. After he eats I will set him on the couch next to me while I pump and during that time he will start kicking his legs over and over and over and smiling up at me as if he is trying to show off how smart and talented he is. It is so fun to watch and every now and then he will even give me a little laugh along with the smiles. It is so sweet and probably one of my favorite parts of the day now! He and I are spending a lot of time together right now since his daddy is gone for four days on our stake's pioneer trek taking pictures. We miss him lots. I got to go up and see him a little yesterday which was fun but it was sad to hear about so many of the youth complaining and getting really upset that first hard day. I am hoping that as they finish up the experience their attitudes will improve and they will come away from it glad that they went instead of complaining about how hard it was. Life is hard! They need to learn that and do the best they can at each task it throws at them.

New Pictures-Seven Weeks Old

May is Here

May has brought me a couple things:

My one year anniversary on the 1st. Clif and I went on a mountain drive and went out to eat.
My postpartum depression "junk" started going away the first few days of the month, YEAH!!
My son turned one month old on the fourth.
My nieces dropped flowers off on my door step and ran off. (I am not supposed to know who it was but I couldnt' help peeking)
My body has almost completely healed from both labor and gall bladder surgery.
My son is getting blessed on my very first mother's day.
My husband in gone on a four day pack trip so I moved in with my parents for the time he is gone.
My backyard got flooded thanks to the big ditch carrying a bunch of junk down and clogging it up, luckily my dad and my neighbor were around to help clean it out.
My siblings, some of them, came down to visit and for the baby blessing.

Sorry, I haven't done much, been a little busy. Cort is doing great, mommy is a different story. The second week after Cort was born I had horrible pain and ended up in the ER then sent to the hospital in Show Low to have my gall bladder taken out the next day so now I am recovering from that too. On top of that I had the stomach flu and thanks to my breast pump I am sore in areas that I would never have imagined :( ! Despite it all, I really am not doing too bad, just taking my time getting back to normal :)!

You always hear that being a mom is hard but now I know for myself. I can't really complain either since besides cort not nursing, he isnt a hard baby at all. He hardly ever cries, when he is hungry he will either make smacking noises and/or make short wimpering noises. He didnt ever cry when we took him in to get circumsized, that made me feel so much better and happy that he was such a brave little boy. But I have come to realize how much of my time he now occupies. I feel like I am constantly feeding, pumping, and changing diapers. He isn't too bad at sleeping, I usually get at least two two hour stretches of sleep at night, sometimes three and then at least one nap during the day. Not being able to nurse it hard on me, it takes time to pump and clean up after each pumping and it makes me sad which isn't good with the whole hormonal changes going on in my body. I cry a little here and there when I am frustrated but I hear that is normal right after having a baby. I really am doing quite well and so isw Cort, it will be nice to get past the hormones and always be able to remember how blessed I really am that so much has gone so well for us. Its an exciting, fun, and worthwhile adventure becoming a parent!