Merry Christmas to All

We had a wonderful Christmas in Utah with both of our families.  Brad's brother Ryan bought a house in my hometown so we were literally 3 minutes away from the Packers.  Doug and Janet were able to fly out for Christmas and we loved seeing them.  Even Grandma Packer made it down.  Nathan loved meeting her for the first time.

 Alissa's amazing Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas was everything it should have been.  We had our white Christmas.  I was able to go see my best friend and her new baby.  I even snuck in a visit to see my old work friends which I wasn't able to do last time I visited Utah.  There was oodles and oodles of delicious food.  We got to spend lots of time with our families.  We do this every year, but I will say, Christmas was definetly better this year with Nathan.

Longwood Christmas

Christmas Baby

6 Months

I keep looking at my baby and realize he's growing up.  Six months ago he was this tiny, helpless, little infant.  Now he's so big.  He has his own little personality.  He's starting to do things for himself, like moving and deciding what he wants to play with.  He has his likes and dislikes.  He knows and loves his mommy and daddy.  I can't believe how much he really knows and how fast he's developing.  But for right now:

- This kid loves attention.  If a stranger comes up to us and talks to him, he will just smile and put on a show.  Even if he's grumpy, he'll perk right up.  It's a little comical to go from a crying little boy to smiling the next second.  Silly boy.
- This also applies to sitting in front of the mirror.  He could entertain himself all day long just smiling back and forth with his reflection.

- After getting no reaction, Nathan finally giggles when we serburt him.
- He has started to grow more hair.  He has lots of little blonde hairs sticking straight up all over his head.

- Has started to blow raspberries.  Particularly when he has a lot of spit.
- His 6 months stats: 16 lbs 3 oz (22.51 percentile), 26.25 inches long (30.51 percentile), and 16.75 head circumstances (23.33 percentile.)

- Started on the solids this week.  And so far, I think he likes them.  He finished his serving of oatmeal cereal tonight and was doing a pretty good job of getting the food into his stomach and not on the bib.
- Zantac has saved my sanity.  After trying the dairy-free diet with no improvement, we started the medicine and Nathan is so much happier.  And he's back to taking all of his naps.  Without the crying. Or waking up in the middle of his nap crying.  It's a wonderful thing.

- Oh how he loves his daddy.  Nathan gets so excited when he sees his dad. And no one can get him to laugh like Brad does.
- Everyone comments about his fingers.  That kid would suck on his two fingers all day long if I let him.

- He is just the happiest kidlet and we love that he's in our family.

Bahamian Thanksgiving

It was Janet's 60th, I mean her 50th (wink, wink) birthday in November.  And we thought that we should do something worthy of such a momentous birthday.

Now, there is something you should know about the Packers.  They are OBSESSED with Duke basketball.  What if we could go to a Duke game for Janet's birthday?  Well, it just so happened that Duke was going to be playing in a basketball tournament over Thanksgiving.  That would be perfect!  Oh, and did I mention that the tournament was held in the Bahamas?

So the whole Packer family, all 15 of us, went to the Bahamas to celebrate Janet's 60th birthday and to watch Duke play.

Getting to the Bahamas wasn't too bad.  Since Brad still had school on Wednesday, I flew by myself with the baby.  Nathan was perfect on the first flight and I got confident.  I could do this.  The second flight was bad.  Nathan didn't want to eat.  Instead, he was screaming all through takeoff.  And then he pooped.  I tried changing him in the bathroom, but there was no changing table.  I did manage it and he finally settled down.  But then during landing Nathan had a blowout.  It was all over him and all over me.  Good thing I had extra clothes to change into.

We finally make it to Atlantis.  I arrived a couple hours before everyone else.  It was kind of funny since everyone kept asking me if I was on vacation alone.

But eventually everyone did make it to the Bahamas.  Brad joined us on Thanksgiving.  I've never had a Thanksgiving with all of the Packers.  It was really nice to have everyone together.  Nathan's cousins adored Nathan and he loved all the attention.

Thanksgiving also was the start of the Battle for Atlantis.  Along with being thankful for our family and for being together in the Bahamas, we were also grateful that day that Duke won.

The rest of the week was spent with more Duke basketball, walking through the aquarium, playing at the waterpark, and spending time as a family.

Nathan got to go to the beach for the first time.  He was tired and fell asleep soon after we got there.

It is also worth mentioning that I went down the Leap of Faith.  It's just a waterside were you plummet through shark infested waters.  No big deal.

Of course we had to take family photos while we were there.  It's not very often you get the whole family together.

But what really made the trip?  Duke won the Battle for Atlantis!  We have to count what's really important here people.

All jokes aside, what made the trip was that everyone was there.  It's not very often that we all get to be together.  And I'm so glad we got to celebrate this wonderful lady.  Janet is the most amazing mother-in-law.  She really deserves to be celebrated and appreciated for all that she does. She doesn't hear it enough, but we love her!

5 Months

This little boy is getting so big!  I love seeing him grow and develop everyday.  He's changing so fast and learning so much.  Right now, at 5 months:

• His favorite toy right now is his rings.  He will sit and chew on those all day long.
• He's had some trouble with acid reflux, poor little guy.  As recommended by our pediatrician, I'm trying a dairy-free diet for 2 weeks to see if things improve.  This means nothing with any dairy for me.  Dairy is in everything!  Even our bread has dairy in it.  And it's no fair that there were leftover Halloween cookies and chocolate.  Boo.  But if it helps Nathan, it will be worth it.

• The tired face.  Two fingers in the mouth, the other arm covering his eyes.  It's his way of telling us he is ready to go to bed.
• Starting to giggle more and more.

• He's learning to sit up and can actually go for a little bit all on his own.
• Stinks at taking naps, but hopefully once we get the acid reflux under control that will get better.
• He's a champion at moving himself in circles during tummy time.

• Speaking of tummy time, I came in yesterday morning to find him like this.  When I came in after his next nap he had figured out how to get his arm out from underneath him and into full push up position.  I guess I'll have to watch where I set him now that he can roll both from front to back and back to front now.
• Nathan's new favorite time of day is right before bedtime.  This is usually when we can get him to giggle.

*It should be noted that I took the photos in this post since Brad was at school.  So that's why they are either from the iPhone or blurry.

Malinda's Visit

So, my coolest middle sister came to visit us.  Malinda is leaving in less than a month to serve a mission for our church in the Indiana, Indianapolis Mission.  We're so proud of her!

I had a lot of plans of things to do, but most of them were spoiled by Hurricane Sandy.  We were still able to go to the Morris Arboretum and Longwood.  And the rest of the time we just enjoyed spending at home with each other.  We talked, played games, made cookies, crafted, and even had a little Halloween fun.  I'm so glad we were able to spend so much time together before her mission.

Halloween

Calvin and Hobbes

First Giggles

Nathan was being so cute while I was getting him ready for bed tonight.  Happy and cooing.  And then he started laughing.  He's been so close to giving out a laugh for a while, but tonight he let loose for the first time.

Morris with Dentography

Brad's photography club, Dentography, had another club activity at Morris Arboretuem.  We had a great time enjoying the fall leaves.

We saw this amazing trail on our way to the Morris Arboretum and had to stop on our way home to grab a few pics.  Next time we will have to spend more time exploring it.