4 Months!

I just realized that I'm a full two months behind on blogging... whoops.  I never did a post for Thomas at four months so here it is.

Thomas has been getting happier and happier.  He just started "talking" all the time which has been a lot of fun.  Before he would make sounds and laugh a little bit, but recently he sounds like he's having a full blown conversation of gibberish with us.  It's a lot of fun.  He has also become really animated.  I love watching his eyes light up when we walk in the room.  One of my favorite times of the day is when I get to see him after he takes a nap.  He's always so smiley and excited to see me.

Sometimes being a mom can be a little rough, but it's moments like these that make all the little hardships completely worth it.  I have come to love and appreciate the little things in life: baby snuggles and smiles, going on walks, Relief Society meetings without a baby to take care of (thanks to a wonderful husband), and times when I have dinner on the table when Matt comes home.  I am loving this stage of life so much right now and it's all because of this cute little boy I get to hang out with everyday.

Tummy time is still DEFINITELY a chore, but we're working on it.  He's getting better at holding his head up and crying with his face in the floor (at least for the first two minutes). 

Just look at those chunker thighs :) 

Halloween Monsters Inc. Style

When my parents were visiting us after Thomas was born, they surprised us with the cutest little Mike Wazowski onesie and instantly I knew that we had to be the Monsters Inc gang.  It doesn't hurt that I have a serious love for Monsters Inc.  Ever since we bleached t-shirts and bought Monsters Inc. Juicy Juices it's been my favorite.  Anyway, we had a great Halloween.  We dressed Thomas up for three different occasions: an apartment complex party, our tri-ward trunk or treat, and our friends' Halloween party on the actual holiday.  Over all it was a great Halloween.  Dressing up a little guy makes it extra fun, but next year I need to remember how awful I look in pigtails.  I should pick a cute outfit for me and then plan everyone else's outfits around me :).

Like father like son.

Sully, Mike, & Boo

Our little monster in character.  His scream was pretty powerful in this picture.  And yes I took a picture instead of helping him.  Bad mom moment but just look at that sad face haha.

Thomas' Baby Blessing

Somehow I forgot to post this earlier...

Matt and I were trying to decide what to do for Thomas' baby blessing because we wanted to be with as much family as we could, but it was hard for a lot of our family to travel to us.  Finally we decided to go down to Mesa and even though it was a short trip we loved it!  We flew down an Allegiant flight which Thomas did great on!  I was so grateful.  I really didn't want to be one of those families that everyone secretly hates because their child is screaming the whole time.

While we were in Mesa we walked around the Gilbert Temple, ate at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion as part of restaurant week (fancy and delicious), went swimming (in the hot tub) right before a big storm hit, and had a big dinner with our family and friends after being a part of an incredibly special blessing.  

I am so grateful for such wonderful family and friends who are so supportive of our new little family.  I am especially grateful for a loving husband who is a worth priesthood holder and has blessed my life so much.  I love that he's mine forever and I LOVE that he loves being a dad to Thomas.  He's the best.  

September 21st, 2014

<3

The whole Schmidt/Calton clan that was in attendance.  Thanks to everyone for coming!

Will and Thomas were blessed on the same day. 

Cute cousins.  Can you believe they're only three days apart?  Yeah, Thomas is a chub :)  Love it!

  

These are my girls.  They made me who I am.

Besties for life.  I miss them way too much.  Maybe we should move to Mesa...

Tara made Thomas this quilt... isn't it sooo cute?!  We love it!

I love our moms.  They're incredible women.

Thanks Megan for taking these cute pictures!  Find her stuff at snaphappymom.com

Pumpkin Patchin' It

Yesterday I had the idea to go to a pumpkin patch with some of our friends.  I was really excited and had this vision of a green field with tons of bright orange pumpkins and cute photo ops with a tractor or haystacks, but no.  It was yellow,super dead, and pretty ugly actually.  We ended up still having a lot of fun, but next year I should go with lower expectations... or just pick a cuter farm.  Until next year I'll just enjoy my pictures with the corn and my sleepy little boy who was wide awake until I decided it was time to take a family picture :).  

My favorite thing about McCoard's was this duck race.  The guys all got way too into it.  

Group photo.  Did I mention I shot all of these pictures in full blown MANUAL?!  Yeah, I know it's not impressive, but I'm proud of myself.  Too bad the lighting wasn't too great haha.  Oh and too bad Matt doesn't love getting pictures taken enough to let me fix the settings and try again before he walks away... hence the dark photo on top.  Next time.  

 

Fall Love

I am loving this fall weather.  It hasn't gotten to the cozy, sweater wearing weather quite yet, but the leaves are changing, it's gorgeous outside, and my house has a yummy fall scent that makes me feel happy inside.  Happy fall, ya'll.

Aaaand... this is how the boys really felt about taking pictures.  Like father like son.  

3 Months

Happy three months, little dude.  We love you more than you will ever know.

Recently Thomas has been a lot of fun.  He's smiling a ton now and it's so fun that he responds to silly things we do.  We have lots of fun singing songs,reading, and playing outside during the day, but he also loves hanging out with Dad when he comes home.  Thomas loves sitting on the couch with us and looking around.  He's growing up so fast and it's crazy!  The other day he STARTED getting a laugh.  He makes all sorts of noises, but that tiny laugh is my very favorite noise ever.  If you can't tell... I'm a little obsessed.

The little guy finally started liking his crib (and his mobile) and he's getting to be a pretty good sleeper.  We put him down at 7:30 now and he usually wakes up twice (or once if we're really lucky) during the night and wakes up for the day around 8.  Another one of my favorite things now is going in when he wakes up and seeing that smiley boy staring at me.  It totally makes my day.

Thomas is starting to get really big.  And I do mean really big.  We were at the doctor the other day getting him checked because he was sick and they weighed him at 15 lbs and 9 ounces.  The doctor said he is VERY healthy.  I didn't realize that people used more polite ways to say your baby is fat at such a young age, but they definitely do. That's ok. We like him fat and happy.  We like those chubby cheeks too.  I'm finally beginning to understand why grannies always want to pinch people's cheeks.  His cheeks are too cute not to play with.

I love how bald he looks.  I swear he really does have hair.  He has cute red hair, but mostly in mullet form.  He rocks the old man mullet. 

This is my view a lot of the time.  He LOVES singing with me.  It's kinda my favorite thing ever, but have you ever tried to take a picture of a baby while trying to move their arms and legs so they laugh?  A little tricky.  This is the best I could get.  Also, please ignore the mess.  It was laundry day and I was mid-basket.

2 Months

Ok I was good about blogging for like... a week and since then I've been awful again.  So needless to say, Thomas is not two months old anymore even though today's the day I'm actually getting around to blogging about it.  Somehow I don't have any extra time.  A lot of people told me that I was going to be bored as a mom because I'd have so much extra time.  Yeah, sometimes it's repetitive, but I haven't had enough downtime to get bored yet.  I live for nap times. Aww nap time... the only time during the day where I get to clean up instead of make more messes.

I wouldn't change being with Thomas for anything, but sometimes I'd take an extra hour (or four) of naps :).

So here's the update of our little guy at two months old...
Thomas is becoming a really cute, smiley little boy.  He loves lying on his play mat and going on walks outside.  Thomas and I go on walks almost everyday and sometimes he even comes to Zumba with me at BYU.  When I first brought him with me he'd sleep the whole time (or cry when he woke up), but now he just lays in his carseat looking around as he "jams" to the music.

Thomas also loves to eat.  Seriously... this boy is a little bit of a chunker :).  Luckily I've always wanted a chubby baby.  It's funny to me to see him around babies that are his same age because he's got a massive head and he's usually a lot bigger than the other babies.  I always thought Matt and I would have big babies, but it's weird to me that he's not that tall yet... just chubby.

Thomas really likes listening to Michael Buble radio with me on Pandora.  I'm pretty sure it's his favorite.  He is starting to become a busy little boy and doesn't love to be held like a baby anymore.  He'll still snuggle with us, but he prefers to be held so that he's sitting and can see what's going on.  I'm pretty sure that if I let him he'd sleep soundly on his tummy, but oddly enough he hates normal tummy time.  Maybe it's that huge head of his that's hard for him to hold us when he's laying down.  You know... the head that gets stuck in his shirt holes and makes him cry?  Yeah... getting his clothes changed is not his favorite part of the day haha.

I had to add this one. Just look at those chubby little legs!

STATS:
Weight - 13 pounds 7.5 ounces  (83rd percentile)
Head - 16.25 inches (98th percentile)
Height - 22.25 inches (21st percentile)


Anyway, things are going great with Thomas.  We love spending our time with him and it's been great for us to become parents.  I know we aren't pros yet, but we definitely learn new things everyday and I'm glad we're starting to get better at this whole parenting thing.  I am so grateful that God blessed us with one of his children.  We are so happy taking care of our little boy.  Life has changed a lot for me in the past few months, but I honestly wouldn't change a thing.  I am so happy being the mother of this little man.  He brings so much joy to my life.

Recently, Matt and I have been talking about families for Family Home Evening lessons.  We have read several talks together and have been discussing what type of parents we want to be for our children.  Thinking about families and parenting recently has made me realize how grateful I am for my family.  Matt and I grew up in remarkable families and I am so grateful for the wonderful influences I have and the people I have to look up to.

Add my sister Sarah and my brother Nate's wife Elisabeth and two kids

I just couldn't leave her out :)

This is two years old now so we're missing some of the grandkids 

1 Month

I'm a little behind on my blog but I never did a one month post.  Here's our little Thomas at one month old:

- Loves to snuggle.  It's a good thing too because we can't get enough of his cute baby snuggles.

- Still has skinny little legs but his cheeks are starting to fill out

- Loves sleeping pretty much everywhere (well except maybe his crib).  He takes naps in the Bjorn, the stroller, the car, in our arms, and in his sweet rock n' play.  We haven't tried putting him in his crib much yet but he moved to his own room at 2 or 3 weeks because mom wasn't sleeping enough :)

- Poop machine.  Seriously... one time he got it all over me and the curtain.  Hopefully when his legs chunk up his diapers will fit better and we won't have as many blowouts.  

- Successfully went to his first full day of church.  He was a trooper.

- Sleeps pretty well... usually wakes up every three hours or so to eat

- Has old man hair.  Oh and he just got over having a little cradle cap and that weird peely skin babies have.  He's getting cuter everyday now.  Poor newborns... as much as we love them, they're a little awkward looking.  

- Great grunter.  I swear he makes the weirdest noises.

We love our little man so much, but seriously... what's not to love?!

Coronado Getaway

Every year my family meets up in Coronado for a beach trip and I REALLY didn't want this year to be different.  Before we had Thomas I was pretty convinced that we'd be able to go as long as he didn't have any health problems, etc.  Matt was a little harder to convince.  After spending some time at home adjusting to our new lifestyle with a baby, we were ready and excited to get out of the apartment for a little bit.  We weren't pros on being parents to a newborn by any means, but we were ready for an adventure.  So when Thomas was just over three weeks old, we took him on his first road trip!

Our first stop was Stacie & Seth's house up in the LA area.  Matt's sister is awesome and we love visiting her family.  Luckily they were very patient with Thomas' crying at you know... 2 and 4 in the morning :).  It was great to see them.  Their little girls are so cute.

Our next stop was Thousand Oaks, CA.  About a year ago, Matt went to an Acoustical Society of America Conference in San Fransisco.  While he was there he met a lot of great, influencial people including one of the founders of the acoustical consulting company McKay Connant Hoover.  Since the conference, they have been in touch and we were invited to meet up with them in Thousand Oaks on our way to San Diego.  We met Tony Hoover and he was great!  We got to tour the office and go to lunch with him and another man that works there.  Matt and I were both really impressed with the firm and I THINK/HOPE they were impressed with Matt too.  Matt said he'd love to work for them or another similar firm.  I guess we'll see how things pan out in two years.

Finally we made it to Coronado.  It was really fun to see all of my family... especially because most of them got to meet Thomas for the first time :).  We had a blast!  Thomas LOVED the beach!  He slept a lot and seemed to love the nice weather.  It was so nice to have a break from the craziness of normal life and take a time out for some fun.  We had tons of fun playing on the beach and eating... and eating... and eating some more.  Mm!  I'm already excited to go again.

Our Little Family on the Beach

Some of my cute nieces...

 Moo Time.  We might have gone twice in less than a week :)

Coronado Bay and Bridge

By the San Diego Pier at Anthony's Grotto

In front of the Hotel Del Coronado.  We only took a couple pictures with the little man because usually he was cozied up in his carseat but we had fun with the little fella.

I know a lot of people must think we're nuts for taking our newborn on a trip, but I am so glad we did!  Being a new mom is exhausting and it was really nice to have some help.  Going on vacation also helped me learn how to get out of the house.  Before that I had only really gone to Target and Costco with Thomas, but the trip helped me become more comfortable spending time doing errands and going out.  I am so grateful for everything right now... including the awesome trip we got to take before Matt started grad school and things got busy again.