a big belly

it seems like tripp's belly has just been growing a lot these days. i was taking some pictures of him in his outfit from his aunt steph the other day and one picture just totally emphasized his belly! looks pretty cute if i do say so myself!




here it is normal so no one needs to worry :)

family photo shoot

we had a family photo shoot after christmas. the traditional pics turned out well, but this is my favorite one by far:



(james- would you like to explain yourself??)

ego-centric

Tripp takes any chance he can get to look in the mirror. so since his exer-saucer has one, he will do whatever it takes to look in it. i wish you could see how far he is bending over to do this, but i love that you can see his little eyes checking himself out!

christmas gifts

one of my favorite christmas presents this year was a dutch oven. and for the first use, i decided to make some real, Louisiana jambalaya. unfortunately for those that may read my blog, i can't share the recipe because according to my brother i can "only make it for those who will truly appreciate it and share it with those who will make it right." and i don't know if all the readers of my blog will truly appreciate it or make it right. so instead, you can just look at a picture of it and feel your mouth water.

a great christmas

james and steph were here for christmas this year and we all had a great time. we laughed, ate, played games, and just hung out. of course tripp loved it all, especially being with his aunt and uncle!


enjoying a new present


my dad enjoying his quilt from steph and me


getting ready to play in the snow


christmas eve


loving life


tripp in his christmas outfit (that lasted for about 30 mins until on the way to church he had a blow-out diaper and caused an early end to the outfit and socks that went into the trash)


and to all, a good night.

avacado

I was all excited to have Tripp try some avacado. It is such a good food for you that I thought it would be great if he liked it. Instead, this is what happened:


"what is this weird stuff you are putting in my mouth?"


"i am not sure i like it"


"ok it's making me gag"


"you better not try to feed me that ever again. and i'm not even joking"

this is our life...

you can tell a lot about a person's life by their 7:30 on a saturday morning grocery purchases. here is ours:

sweet face

i really love this sweet little face

experimenting part II

I did some more experimenting today with nelson's camera (after i got in a fight with it which made me bleed-do not worry, i am ok. i just have a cut and bump on my forehead. the camera clearly won the fight). with some help from the neighbor, i got a few good pics of Tripp!

experimenting

nelson got a new camera lens for his birthday so naturally i have been using it lots too (thanks babe!). i did some experimenting tonight and came out with these two pics that i liked. i wanted to sneak into tripp's room and get a few sleeping shots, but i just really did not want to risk waking him up. i will get some cute shots of him tomorrow instead!

a walk down a short memory lane

yesterday i was looking in Tripp's diaper bag for something and i found two packages of snacks that were from the hospital when he was born (they were teddy grahams and animal crackers- so not gross or anything). this wave of emotion came over me as i fondly remembered him being born- just a little over 7 months ago. it seems like so long ago and also seems like yesterday. while this has been probably some of the hardest 7 months of my life, it has also been the best- this little boy has brought so much joy and laughter to our home!

world of couponing

i used to not worry with coupons- it seemed like too much work and i figured if i just bought the store brand of things, i would save just as much money. well, recently, a good friend of james and steph's introduced me to the world of couponing. i have started slowly and have already gotten some amazing deals. today at walgreens i saved $13 and got $7 in register rewards. at target today i saved $31. yes that's right, $31. i also got our christmas cards for free. at babies r us last weekend, we saved $36. and we have a $10 gift card for the next time we go. i am not sure why i did not embrace this a long time ago, but as i get more and more into it, it gets more and more addictive and like a game to see how much money we can save. i am not even into it full force yet. there is only so much i can learn at a time. i just want to encourage anyone out there who might be on the fence about using coupons, it is worth it. read the coupon blogs and get started. you will never look back!

7 months old!

I can not believe how fast time flies when you have a child! Everyone always told me that everything would go by quickly but I did not understand until Tripp was born. My nephew, who I vividly remember holding when he was only days old, is already walking and almost a year old and our own son is 7 months old! Crazy! I am trying to soak it all in and am getting very excited about his first Christmas. I can not help but get overwhelmed when I think about Christmas now and what it means that God knowingly sent his son to be born just so he could die for us and our sin. I think about how much I love Tripp, and that I could not possibly let him die for people who love us, let alone for people who are my enemies. God's love for us is so great, and through having our own son, I have been able to comprehend it just a tiny bit more.

look at this poor face...

and just so you don't think he is now always like that, this picture was taken a few seconds later:

a great time in the big D

we just got back yesterday from a great week in dallas. we had lots of good laughs,

ate good food,







and just enjoyed being together.

i am pretty sure weston and tripp had no clue the other one even existed but hopefully in the months to come, they will realize that they can be best buds!

it was also nelson's birthday while we were there so we celebrated that too!




(the messed up icing is Tripp's contribution to the cake)

cousins

love these little boys

quick quilt

i want to make a quilt for Tripp's one day twin bed but i thought i better practice first. so over the past few days i have been making a little quilt for Tripp now. i used some extra fabric from Tripp's curtains and bumpers plus another random bit of fabric i found. i am almost finished except i was having a fight with the sewing machine on the last part that i needed to do so i am taking a break for now. but here is an almost done quick quilt.

saying goodbye...

our good friends corey and janet and their boys are moving to indianapolis in a few weeks. while we are really sad that they are leaving, we are excited to see what God has in store for them there. we hung out this afternoon and had some good times together. we will miss you guys!!

new high chair!

I have always wanted a wooden high chair for our kids. We found one at Target but it got really bad reviews so we did not get it. I did not know what to do or where we would find one. My mom has the one we used as kids at her house (see pic in previous post) but we needed one at our house. So I stopped by our old faithful Once Upon a Child today and found one for him. It was a great deal and I had a 20% off coupon too! So I just need to find a pad (or make one, depending on what we see out there) and Tripp will be all set. As you can tell, he loves it!

love this little boy

a great night out

While Nelson's mom was here, Nelson and I got to go on an overnight date. It was so great. Almost indescribably great. Just to be together, the two of us, without any responsibilities was just what we needed. We went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, walked around the mall, then went to stay the night at a hotel. We finished off the date with some breakfast at First Watch. Thank you so much to my amazing mother-in-law for watching Tripp while we got to enjoy a night out!