Whoa! Whoa! Am I ever late with this update huh? Life has been SO chaotic lately and the lack of sleep has REALLY been affecting me lately so truth be told...my life is sort of falling apart. One little micro at a time. I'm trying to hold it together...get ready for the holidays...run my Young Living business...make it to work on time everyday...find a daycare...pay bills...and entertain the kiddos and lately I just can't seem to do it all AND keep my sanity. I keep reminding myself that "this too shall pass" and some days these ever lasting days of exhaustion will be over...someday.
Taking photos of our little peanut sure is getting more difficult and this month was a HUGE challenge! He wiggles, giggles and is FAR more interested in being on the move. So...month eight photo is a little lack luster but it shows the stage we're in perfectly.

Update: Talk about on the move! He is not a sit still child, much like his big brother! He's crawling, wiggling and standing (sometime on his own) ALL the time now and there's no slowing him down! He loves to play chase with his big brother and hearing his little giggles and hands pat the floor as he crawls nearly faster than his knees can go is adorable. They really are the best of friends.

Stats & Recent Appointment: While we don't see the pedi until the end of the month, for his nine month check I attempted some home measurements on day. While they never seem to be very accurate I weighed him at around 18.2lbs and he was about 27.5inches long. He's definitely still our peanut, based on measurements as Garrett had measurements comparable to those around the age of five months.

Features: The crazy, curly hair continues! Ha! It certainly is lighter these days and his eyes are starting to look more green than blue...can you say momma look alike??

Teeth: We almost have a tooth!

Sleep: Naps are fairly consistent and if we get a little off schedule he turns into quite the little bear. Generally his first nap is around 8am/8:30am. He'll nap for about 30-45 minutes at that point. His afternoon naps falls around noon and he generally naps about two hours then. He'll nap then again for 30mins to 1hr around 4:30pm. Bedtime however, is another story! We'd been doing pretty good most nights (only up 1-2 times) until the nasty teething monster made an appearance and now we've been up nearly all night, every night. I've been averaging 1-3 hours of sleep per night (I'll let you just imagine what kind of mood I've been in...)

Eating: Well, I may breed non-sleepers but they sure are good eaters! Gannon will eat almost everything you give him, though veggies are NOT his favorite! He still has a bottle about every 4 hours, 4-6ozs at a time.

Diapering: Size fours.

Clothing: We're outgrowing our 9 month stuff so we've moved into 9-12m and 12m clothing!
Social: My littler watcher of the world! Gannon is simply not content to miss a beat and you'd better make sure to keep him involved! He loves to smile and "talk" to just about anyone and he plays a mean game of peek-a-boo. It's quite cute honestly. When I'm holding him he'll smile and talk with someone for a bit and then bury his head into my shoulder, all shy like. A minute later he'll peak up and do it all over again. Freaking cute.

Nicknames: Monkey, monkey butt, squirtchunk, big boy, little love, Mr. Magoo, Gannie, Gan-Gan, Gannie Mc Fannie

Likes: Eating, bath time, being outdoors & his big brother! Music, anything electronic & being able to see the world.

Dislikes: Being warm, sitting still, having his hair dried, getting dressed, sitting still, being stationary in his car seat & getting his face wiped off. If you really want to see him squeal take something away from him...you'll hear him roar then!

Halloween 2016

Halloween 2016 is a prime example of how my life is in complete disarray at this point and time. In fact, if you where to ask me leading up to Halloween what the boys where going to be my answer was for sure "I have no freaking clue" because I didn't. It wasn't until Saturday...the very day before trick or treating that we ventured to find costumes. It was also then that I learned something...if you want a variety to pick from don't wait to costume shop until the day prior.



Thankfully, by God's dear grace there was plenty of Spiderman costumes left. Garrett had changed his mind a bunch of times but about the week before Halloween he came up with Spiderman and was insistent that's what he was going to be. I nearly lost my mind when we walked into Target to find a ridiculously small handful of costumes left as I knew there was no way, not one that we where making it out of there alive if they didn't have a Spidie costume for Garrett. Let me tell you, the wrath of my three year old is real and true and something to be feared.



For real.



Luckily, Spidie seemed to be in excess this year so we had no issues there. Our issue came for our littlest, Gannon. I searched and searched racks but found not a single costume for him. Not a single one. It wasn't until I nearly admitted surrender that I found the cutest little bluebird costume tucked in the very back of one rack.



Thank God!



The bluebird costume was made for 0-6 months so I was concerned it wasn't going to fit. We rushed home to try both of them on and literally breathed a breath of relief when they both fit, just fine.



Trick of treating was Sunday around these parts. Steve and I actually snuck away for the night (see yesterday post to swoon over the most gorgeous building EVER!) so after picking the boys up & a quick nap we threw on their costumes and headed out.

I'll be honest and say that in the 45(ish) minutes we walked Garrett was excited and into it for about 10mins...tops. He was more into walking along for awhile which turned into stroller riding after some time. He had a little cold brewing at the time and I think that was really tuckering him out. Gannon (of course) was far to little to understand but did fully love the time outdoors! Any bad moment in that boy's life can be made better by two things...going outside or a baby carrot.


No lie.


So, we headed back to the truck as it was a bit chilly out that day and both boys where just over the whole trick or treat thing. We'd gotten plenty of candy (as we don't  actually let Garrett have candy all that often (our small handfuls are bound to last us quite some time...even with my sweet tooth in the house!)


In other Halloween news...


I made sure to keep tradition alive and stuck Gannon in a pumpkin. He actually didn't mind it for quite some time and then was rather content to chew on it. When we told him that he couldn't chew on it he started pouting which led to a full on scream...then the baby in a pumpkin was over. Ha!

Speaking of carving pumpkins. Garrett refused to help scoop the goop meaning I had my hands in WAY more pumpkin goop than I bargained for. Steve won the carving contest (per Garrett) as he carved Spiderman which turned out to be Garrett's favorite. We let Garrett pound a nail in a pumpkin, which made his day as he's a bit little to play with the carving knives. He told me next year he'll be big enough to "cut my own pumpkin". We'll see little man, we'll see.

 

And, for a few more of my very favorite Halloween photos...

 

A Night To Ourselves

Steve and I had been trying to plan a little get away for awhile now. After one failed attempt we where more desperate than ever for a solid night's sleep, a hot un-interrupted meal and a chance to lay around in bed in the morning. We're really not hard to please are we?

We'd talk about different places we could go which kind of makes me laugh because every time we try and figure out somewhere to go we end up at our favorite spot, The Audubon Inn.

The Audubon holds a special place in our hearts as it's where we held our rehearsal dinner and where we stayed the weekend of our wedding (and our wedding night). It's in a tiny little town about a half hour south of us with a whole 5,000 (ish) people in the town. It's small, quite and absolutely quaint. If I had my way I'd likely live there.

It was sold a few years back now and the new owners have been making large improvements...revamping the restaurant, adding in an outdoor patio, theater and such. It certainly looks a great deal different than it did back then but I do have to admit that I love the improvements.

My parents agreed to watch our non-sleeping boys and we dropped them off after naptime, around 3:30pm. We headed straight to the hotel where we where greeted with champagne as they'd remembered we got married there. Steve showered quick while I got ready for dinner. I have to tell you...the food at their restaurant is INCREDIBLE! We have NEVER left hungry or unsatisfied! We started dinner with drinks (Hurricane for me and beer for hubby) and fresh brick cheese curds. So amazing! Steve choose the Atlantic Salmon with wild rice covered in an cauliflower-chickpea thai curry. I ordered the Red Goat flat bread pizza which was AMAZING! It had a red sauce, garlic, sun dried tomato, red onions, mozzarella and goat cheese. Talk about rich and divine! I was stuffed after just a few pieces. We ordered dessert to go - New York Cheesecake with Italian Amarena cherries for Steve and fresh, handmade Pear Sorbet for myself. We dropped that in our room and headed out for a little walk.

We enjoyed our desserts while watching a movie and dozed off after a little romance 😉 The next morning I love laying in bed until 8:30am followed by a long, hot, un-interrupted shower. Talk about making me a happy momma! We packed our stuff then and grabbed breakfast on the way back to my parents. While we would have loved a bit more time to ourselves it was Halloween and we had some little cuties to get ready for trick or treating!  

Hey There, Hey!

There's many moments where I think life couldn't get any more hectic...and then it does. Truth be told, I love it though. I'm loving this season of life even though it brings WAY too many sleepless nights, stressed out mornings and all. But those silly giggles, crazy toddler stories and sloppy kisses sure make up for it. Garrett and Gannon are becoming SO interactive with each other that it really makes me glad we hopped on the baby train again, so soon. I love knowing that they'll always have each other. And through out life they'll never be too far apart in life events.

In other news. We've really been soaking up the warm parts of the day lately as it slowly gets cooler and cooler. Gannon's snowsuit and hat made their way out as it's simply easier and insures that he's toasty warm. We're struggling with the nude-obsessed toddler in the house though. He NEVER wants to wear clothes but because it's getting cooler he seems to know he has to...so he's slightly agreeable...to shorts and t-shirts! Crazy kid! He literally ran outside one day at 38* to play in shorts and a t-shirt. Then promptly turned around and came back inside saying "momma it's freezing out there!"

Well duh.

Gannon is becoming more and more mobile which just stuns my momma heart. He's crawling, standing and even walking along furniture. How'd that happen so quickly?! Before I know it he'll be running right behind his brother! He also has the CRAZIEST head of hair! He's lost most of his baby hair on the sides and in the back and it's SP straight in those areas but the top is SO long and curly! It makes me laugh at least ten times every day.