Erik's Birthday Celebration Part 1

Erik celebrated his third birthday this past Friday.   Yea, I know already 3 years old!!!  Here are some pictures of our family get together on Sunday.

Erik's dinosaur cake that Doug and I made for him.

Singing Happy Birthday.

 He really liked his cake!

Erik with Uncle Lehi.  He LOVES his Uncle Lehi!

Erik with Uncle James.

Erik with Grandma.

Erik with Grandpa.

I'm Not Your Little Boy, I'm a Big Boy

This is what Erik said to me today and it about broke my heart, but it is still so true.  Erik will always be my little boy, even though he will be turning three this Friday, aaahhhhh where does time go!  I can remember, wasn't it just yesterday that I held him in my arms for the very first time???  I suppose it is all a part of life.  We all have to grow up and get older.  I suppose that is why, at least for me with my own two boys, that when they reached one I was craving another newborn baby.  I feel like reminiscing a little so here are some pictures of Erik through the years.

Erik Heber, born  November 12, 2007

 

His first Thanksgiving day he

had his newborn pictures taken.

About one month old.

Six months old.

He got into the burp cloths.

Nine months old at the Renaissance Festival. 

One year old.

Two years old.

Brothers.

Last week.

Good times!  I uploaded way more than I planned on.  Enjoy!

Changing diapers for one

I am very happy to say that Erik has started potty training again.  I had tried with him back in April but he didn't quite understand yet.  Over the weekend we had some friends over as we watched General Conference.  They had their little boy over and he's four and when Joey went to the bathroom standing up Erik decided he wanted to try.  He went all by himself and has been doing very well since then.  I've been loading him up with juice and asking him every half hour or so if he needs to go potty.  I am very excited at the prospect of only changing one child's diaper's.  So this week we are staying at home working on potty training.   If anyone one has any words of wisdom or any tricks they would like to share or stories on potty training please comment and let me know. 

What do you think?

So, if you have been visiting my blog recently you may have noticed that I keep on changing the way it looks.  Well, I think I've finally made it look the way that I want it to.  I would like to do something about my header but I'm not sure what.  I want to keep the name but make some sort of decorative border and maybe a photo of some kind to go with it but I am not very savvy with html and I don't know how to use any photo editing programs. 

I want to know what everyone thinks about the new look of my blog.  If anyone has any ideas on how to create a more exciting header please leave a comment!  Here are some pictures of Tristan I have taken this week.  Enjoy!

Tristan's first time in a swing.  He LOVED it!

He laughed when I would grab his feet and pull him and then let go!

I had fun playing with my camera again and I really like this picture of Tristan

I like the Black and White pictures and how this one turned out.

I don't know about you but I LOVE baby feet!

Still in the swing, chewing on his hand.  I think he is teething again.

Tristan's baby blues!

The light is too bright in this picture but I still really like this picture of how he is holding onto

the side of the swing for dear life!

Tristan is 7 months already?!?!?!

TRISTAN turned seven months old yesterday. Where has the time gone!!!!!!

Some little known facts about the lil' guy... He loves to roll around on the floor.  Chewing on anything or putting anything in his mouth is a favorite past time.  Recently he has tried a tasting some lemon.  He actually looked like he enjoyed it!  He now has four teeth.  Here are a few pictures.

My sleeping baby

I may have woken him up while taking pictures

while he was sleeping...

HAPPY SEVEN MONTH BIRTHDAY TRISTAN!!!

Adventures in Potty Training

Over the past month Erik has been getting annoyed with wearing dirty/wet diapers and has started to take them off.  Not so bad, unless he decides to take a poo on the floor!  He always tells me when he has wet or poo'd his diaper and if I don't change it right away he will take it off, as previously mentioned.  I have a potty seat for him, a sea turtle one, (<-------funny story to come about that) and have had him sit on it to get prepared for the grand adventure of toilet training! 

I have had him sit on the toilet every half hour for five minutes or so.  The other morning he pee'd in the toilet and I was so happy for him.  So about the story,  the other day when he was sitting on the toilet he looked at me with the saddest little face and said, " Hurt turtle, sad turtle."  I had to explain to him that the turtle wasn't real.  He continued to say to the turtle, " it's ok, turtle."  I thought it was so funny.

So, if anyone has any ideas or helpful hints or suggestions on potty training a boy please leave a comment.

Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

Erik LOVES having mommy and daddy read him stories.  One of his favorites is Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?  I usually read it to him several times a day.  I actually have it memorized now, lol!  Last night after reading him a few stories, I decide to read my Ensign, a magazine my church comes out with each month.  Erik sat right next to me while looking at some books, one of them being Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?.  As I am reading I hear him talking.  At first I didn't really pay attention to what he was saying, but as I heard him talking I realized he was reading himself the story, "Brow Bear Brow Bear see?  Red Bird Red Bird See?..."  It was a little surprising to see him "reading". 

I love being able to share these precious moments with Erik.  He is such a fun boy at this age, and he is learning so much about the world around him.

So I'm pretty much the worst blogger...

Life has become much more busy since Tristan came along, and I haven't had much time to blog. I am going to try and remedy that by catching up over the next week.

Erik is now 2 years old and is very active. He likes to keep me on my toes. He doesn't pay much attention to Tristan, but when he does he'll say " Tri, Tri,". Today when we got home from church Tristan started crying and Erik came up to him and started imitating his crying, it was pretty cute. I have been teaching Erik his Alphabet, and numbers 1-10. He also knows all his farm animals and some jungle ones too. I can't believe how much he is talking now a days. He hasn't started speaking in sentences but he sure does love to talk! He also really likes Mickey Mouse, since he's been watching the Disney Channel in the morning. He knows all the characters on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He is such a happy boy and he loves to help me around the house.

Tristan will be 2 months old tomorrow. He is such a good baby. He has been sleeping through the night for the past 2 weeks. He doesn't cry very often and he is always so happy. He has started to smile, although I haven't been able to catch a picture of one just yet. Tomorrow he goes to the doctor for his 2 month check-up. Last check-up he weighed 9 lbs., so I'm curious to see how much he has grown since then.

Doug has been fairly busy with work and his calling at church. He is the financial clerk in our ward and since we've started Tithing Settlement he has to be at church every Sunday and Tuesday Night, and right now we have afternoon church, from 1-4pm then he has to be back to church at 6 pm. It will only be for the next 4 weeks. At work he works in the Tech department, which consists of him and another person. He has been able to help the company alot since he started with his new position. He recently wrote up a new program for calculating shipping costs. It should have taken about 3-4 months to write up but he got it done within a month. He is also looking at Bachelor programs at Baker College. He is looking at taking either a Computer Science degree or a Computer information degree.

As for myself, I've been getting used to having a new little one and a new 2 year old! We are also gearing up for the Christmas season. We already have our tree up, we still need to decorate which we will be doing tomorrow night, yay! I want to get some Christmas cards out start making some Christmas cookies. If anyone has any good recipes please post them as a comment on this post. We have most of our Christmas shopping done and I just want to do a little cleaning around the house. Besides getting ready for the holidays I have been wanting to renew my crafty skills, which aren't many, by re-teaching myself how to knit and crochet. I also want to make Tristan a stocking for Christmas, although I don't think he'll have it till next year. I have lots of pictures to post from Erik's birthday and such just have to wait till I get copies of them from my dad. Until next time enjoy these few pictures of my boys.

Erik enjoying his birthday cake

My boys!

Tristan at 2 months

Tristan is here!

September 30, 2009 at 10:48 am, we welcomed the newest member of our family, Tristan Alexander. Weighing 6 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 1/2 in. long. Only a 5 hour labor, and only needing the lowest dose of pitocin to regulate my contractions, things went a lot smoother with his delivery. I have bounced back to my normal self a lot quicker this time as well. I am really happy that everything went so smoothly. When I had Erik I had planned on breastfeeding, well that didn't work out. With Tristan I have been able to breastfeed. I didn't realize how much work it takes to get it down, not to mention how horribly painful it was for the first couple weeks! I am just happy I don't have to buy formula this time around.

As for Erik, he has been doing very well, only occasionally getting upset that he doesn't have as much time with mommy. He is now learning numbers and shapes and colors and is such a smart boy.

37 weeks pregnant....

My latest doctors appointment went well and I am progressing well. I am now dilated 2 cm, 50% effaced and the baby has dropped. I am hoping the baby decides to come a little early since I am so ready to have this pregnancy over with. Today I haven't felt the greatest. I have had a mild headache all day, and I have been congested. We are nearing the end of refinishing our dining room floor. We need to sand it again and put a couple more coats of poly down. It already looks a lot better than it did before. As for my list of things to do, I am still trying to finish it. I have kind of put everything on hold until the floor is done.

Erik has been such a good helper around the house lately. He loves to help me clean up his toys and he has learned where his head, eyes, ears, nose and mouth are and will constantly pat my head and say "heada", or he'll point at my nose and say "no", or my eyes and say " eyes" he will also say eas for ears. He is learning his shapes to and knows triangle and oval. It is so fun to watch him learn new things.

Erik's growing vocabulary

Erik is saying more and more words and surprises us everyday with what he knows. Here's a list of all the words he knows and says, plus some signs he does.

* mommy
* daddy
* doggy
* hi
* bye
* bobby (I have no idea who this is,
but he says it all the time.)
* happy
* no
* ball
* here
* more (the sign)
* story (the sign)
* num num, translates to food or yummy food.

He loves to hand us things he finds on the floor. If he doesn't like eating something he will say "ahhh" and try to put it in your mouth. He knows where his belly/belly button are. He loves to give hugs. He loves to wear shoes and gets very sad when we take them off. Well I will post pictures a little later on in the week. Thanks for reading my blog.

Family update

Erik never ceases to amaze me with the things he is learning. Here are a few of the things he has been doing recently.

* He is trying to climb down the stairs the way me and Doug do. I'll usually hold one of his hands and he'll hold onto the railing and step down each step. By the way Doug gets really scared with him doing this.
* He has been watching baby einstein movies for a little while and one of them teaches them sign language. I have not seen him do any of the signing until this past weekend when he asked for "more" using the sign.
* He is more open to trying new foods. For a while he would not eat green beans, but he is now and that makes me very happy! I don't have to worry about him not getting enough veggies!
* When the lady I babysit for comes home from work, Erik knows that it's time to go so he'll wave bye.
* We have been trying to teach him how to fold his arms for prayer and he'll fold them for a minute and then he'll start running around. At least he's got the general idea.
* He has been in nursery at our church for a month now and he is adjusting well. He usually only gets sad when the door opens.


In other news, I've started preparing for the new baby. We are going to move Erik into the smaller bedroom and we are now almost done painting his new room. I'll be sure to post pictures when it is finished. Erik still has no idea we are bringing another baby into our family but I have been talking to him a lot about it. I will tell him to wave to his baby brother and he'll wave, it's pretty cute. I only have till the end of August and then I will be done babysitting! I can't wait to be done. I will then have a month or so to get things finished at home for the arrival of our new little boy. This weekend we are going to finish cleaning and organizing our basement and I need to go through all of the baby clothes that I have and organize them into containers by size so hopefully I'll finish that! As of right now I am 24 weeks pregnant and I already am getting really anxious and excited for his arrival. I'm sure time will fly by faster now that I am almost to my 3rd trimester.

Erik at 18 months

Erik recently turned 18 months. He is getting to be such a smart boy. Sometimes I'm surprised at the things he does.

* He climbs up and down the stairs well.
* Opens doors
* Two words he says are "ball" and "dobby" which is doggy.
* He claps when we say "good job", "Yay", or whenever he feels he did
something good.
* He is understanding better when we talk to him, for example: I have
asked him a time or two to hand me something and he will give it to me.
* He is learning how to drink out of a regular cup, mostly the ones that
Doug and I are currently drinking out of.
* He waves hi, and bye.
* He is learning where to put his shapes in his shape sorter box.

He is learning a whole lot more too, I just can't think of anything else right now. I am so happy to be his mommy. He is definitely a part of my life I could never live without.

Erik's first word

This morning while Erik was eating his cream of wheat he kept on shaking his head no, so I asked him if his breakfast was yucky, than he replied by saying "yucky". It was so cute, and he hasn't repeated it since. It was also great because both Doug and I were here for his first word.

Erik's Birthday Party!!!

Erik with his quilt that I finally finished

Erik's quilt, done!

Erik's gift from Grandma and Grandpa, his cousins
enjoyed playing with it more

Erik looking at his birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa

Erik with his quilt

Daddy and Erik

Erik taking off his birthday hat

Julia and Rachel

Erik's birthday cake that I decorated, I was pretty
impressed with my decorating abilities

Blowing out the candle with the help of Grandma and Rachie

Just before blowing the candle out

Present pile!

icecream...

cake...yum!

Erik and Uncle James

Grandpa and Erik, he was getting sleepy

Grandma and Erik

Erik had a wonderful 1st birthday party. He didn't exactly understand what was going on but he is plenty of years to figure it out. I think he was a little overwhelmed! He still had fun though, I know I did!