Valentine's Day

Charlie and I were in Las Vegas for Valentine's Day watching my siblings and Daniel was at home in Austin going to school. So I didn't have high expectations for Valentine's Day but it ended up being great. Daniel ordered me chocolates and the book The Hobbit for me do I would get my present on Valentine's. It was such a great present. It is a gorgeous book with beautiful illustrations inside. For Charlie I got him the cutest little knit zebra stuffed animal.
Since my parents were out of town I set up little gifts for my siblings and blew up tons of balloons and put them all over the floors of their rooms. Charlie loves the balloons and chases them all around the house for days. It was sad to be away from Daniel but nice to be with my family.
Once I got home Daniel planned a little party for us to celebrate Valentine's. He built an awesome fort over our bed and got lots of different treats to eat. It was fun to be back with him and Charlie loved the fort!

9 months!

Charlie turned 9 months old yesterday! I can't believe how fast it's gone. He is such a fun little boy. He is VERY active. He never stops moving. He started crawling when he was 5 1/2 months and hasn't stopped since. He loves to stand up and now can stand up on his own without holding on to anything. He LOVES to eat. The only thing he doesn't like is peas. He has begun to take steps on his own but doesn't seem very interested in walking. His favorite thing to do is pull anything he can off shelves. He also likes to suck on everything. And lately he loves to sneak up on me and bite my toes...so weird. He also loves to give kisses with his whole mouth open. He has started to sleep through the night more and now only wakes up once or twice and cries for about 5-10 minutes then falls back asleep. The other night he slept for 13 hours! It was awesome. He also takes 2 naps a day which are each 2-4 hours long. Charlie loves to play peek-a-boo and listening to music. He laughs all the time. Especially when I kiss his hands. Charlie is also SUPER ticklish! He loves to play with his daddy and gets so excited everyday when Daniel gets home from school. He is such a happy boy and hardly ever cries. This last week he has started wanting to be held ALL the time. We love our little Charlie boy! He is so much fun!

Our Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was so fun! On Friday once Daniel got home we had a relaxing night at home.  We watched documentaries and ate treats.  I found these 4 documentaries that I loved about the Ancient Kingdoms of Africa.  They are really interesting.  I love historical documentaries.  On Saturday morning we got up and went to a pumpkin patch here in Austin.  It was so fun! Charlie loved looking at all the pumpkins. It is so fun now that he is developing a personality.  He loved to explore and touch everything.

Later Saturday night made apple crisp and carved our pumpkins.  We spread out an old table cloth on the kitchen floor, stripped Charlie down to his diaper and sat on the ground.  Making the mess was more fun when I knew it wasn't going to be hard to clean up!  Charlie loved playing with the pumpkins and reaching his hands inside to feel the slime.

 By the end Charlie was exhausted and absolutely covered in pumpkin guts!  We gave him a quick bath to get him all clean and he fell right asleep (after playing with his favorite alligator for a minute, of course).  Sadly he fell asleep before getting to see the pumpkins lit up.

 Daniel carved the pumpkin that says Charlie.  After Charlie was in bed Daniel and I hung up bats over the kitchen table to decorate for Halloween.  Then we ate our delicious apple crisp and watched Back to the Future.

We had a lazy Sunday morning.  And got to sleep in a bit because church isn't until 11:30.  Charlie loved the bats!  Church was wonderful today.  I love going to church and feeling the spirit there.  It is a wonderful start to my week!  We had a delicious breakfast of eggs, hash browns and a yummy smoothie!

 After church Daniel wanted "Wazoskies" for dinner.  This is a dinner that we made up and Daniel made up the name and now it's stuck forever! We make a recipe of french bread and roll a bit out.  Then we fill it with whatever we want (pretty much like a calzone).  Today we filled them with chicken, bacon and ranch. So good!  We also had peas, salad, grapes and kiwis. 

 After dinner it was time for Charlie's dinner.  He played with his giraffe and his dad while I got the food ready.  Charlie had brown rice cereal and carrot which he loved!  We also skyped with Daniel's parents, which is always wonderful.

Charlie loved the carrots! Then he got tired...

 And more tired...

And then he actually fell asleep! Twice!