Axl is seven months old today!

Wow. I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. Another month has flown by and we're still alive. I'm back at UK and having a little more time to spend with Axl has been welcomed with open arms. He's growing like a mad man; when Tyler and I took the pictures this month he said he thought this month he had grown the most so far by far!

He sure is a chunky little guy that absolutely LOVES to eat. I'm still pumping every day at school, but he gets a bottle every four hours now so I only have to pump once while away, which is nice. I still pump the morning bottle, though, so he can sleep in a little later and eat when he gets to the babysitter's. He still only eats solid food twice a day, but I plan on bumping it up to three times daily when I get out of school for the summer--which is SO close, by the way!! He eats cereal and vegetables in the afternoon and cereal, vegetables, and fruits at night. He gets quite a few snacks throughout the day which consist of "Baby Mum-Mums" (a fun little rice cake thing), and some yummy foods (mandarin oranges, plums, bananas) in his Munchkin fresh food feeder, which he LOVES! He still drinks quite a bit of juice and is SLOWLY getting the sippy cup thing down...(I'm probably being optimistic...he just thinks it feels good and gnaws on the mouthpiece...occasionally getting a couple drops out).

Mastered baby foods:
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
Green Beans
Plums
Prunes
Pears
Apples
Bananas
Rice Cereal
Oatmeal Cereal

Axl is still taking three naps a day. From what I've heard, this is really weird...but with me not being with him all day, I haven't been able to switch it to two--another thing I'll be able to do when school is out. They range from 1-2 1/2 hours which is very nice! He doesn't eat at all through the night and sleeps essentially from about 8:45pm to about 7:30am; though we do have to plug him with the yummy occasionally in the night.

and here they are...

1 month old 10/19/2008

2 months old 11/19/2008

3 months old 12/19/2008

4 months old 1/19/2009

5 months old 2/19/2009

6 months old 3/19/2009

7 months old 4/19/2009

Easter Festivities

We participated in quite a few activities this Easter. Like Axl's first Christmas, I kind of wish he would have been a little older so he knew what was going on--but I think he had a good time, nonetheless.

The Tuesday before Easter we had an Easter Egg Hunt downstairs for family night. Axl loved all the eggs! We've been using a football shaped egg he "found" that night as a cheer-me-up toy all week!


On Saturday afternoon we went to Paris to celebrate with my parents. We had a wonderful lunch and then had an Easter Egg hunt...which was quite humorous considering Madison is the oldest grandchild at 2. Though the adults and babies enjoyed it just as much as she did.










Axl woke up and the Easter bunny had visited him for the first time!! It was a pretty sparse basket, but he enjoyed it anyway. There were two books--a BIG board book version of Goodnight Moon (we read it every night), a wonderful book called If the Savior Stood Beside Me (a picture book full of Greg Olsen's artwork), pacifiers and the set of Children's Songbook CD's. Out of everything, he liked the grass by far the best.




On Sunday, we came back to Paris for church and then returned to our house for a Hamilton Easter lunch. Brooke made a wonderful meal and we had lots of fun with Karen and her family who were visiting for the weekend!



Happy Easter, Everyone!

April Conference

April conference this year was a really GREAT time...We went to tar fork as per usual, but were joined by some extras! Staying up late and acting crazy with some other girls seriously made me feel like I was in middle school again--I didn't realize how removed I was from this carefree time...anyway, it was so much fun! We played pranks on people, Indian leg-wrestled, did P90X at 2 in the morning, and got in some much needed relaxation! Thanks everyone for such a great time...I definitely needed the break from school!

Chalice and Chloe

Elizabeth and SaraAll the kids...wow.Tyler and Axl obviously got a LOT out of this session...Indian leg-wrestling--Tyler and I went against each other and I almost died. The story is so traumatic that I'm not going to share it, ha.
Axl's mohawk--I'm not a fan.
I really enjoy this picture :)

My New Present!

Several of you know that so far I have been able to make all of Axl's baby food. Up until now, I have been using this.


The soda can is conveniently placed to show how extremely small this processor is. Needless to say, one batch takes FOREVER!

With a little babysitting money I earned recently, I decided to buy a new food mill! This little contraption is awesome! I can make a much bigger batch in here and it keeps most of the skins and strings from getting into the final product! It was a GREAT investment!


And for anyone who is interested in making baby food--it is super easy and I have considered it such a blessing. My life is SO incredibly busy right now and the time I take each week to just let it all go and make food for Axl forces me to get things in check. ...and thanks to my mom for picking up the book about it at a yard sale before I even had the little guy. :)


*The time factor is not helped much, however, so pretty soon I'm hoping to purchase a large food processor for foods that don't need to be strained of anything...but he'll probably be done with baby food by then...anyway.

Six Month Stats

Axl's six month doctor appointment was April 1st. He had more shots, of course, but did quite well and the nurse recorded the following.

Weight: 17 lbs 1 oz
Height: 27 inches

Not a very eventful appointment, but the good news is that we don't have to go back for another three months and he probably won't have to get any shots!