7 Months!

Our darling little guy is 7 months old.  I can't believe it!  He is looking more and more like a "big boy" and less and less like a baby.  We love him to pieces.  He is my little buddy, truly the light in my life.  (Cheesy, but incredibly true. )

• Still super smiley.  
• Still LOVES his Johnny Jump Up.  He cracks himself up and gets so into it.  He tries to jump everywhere now, even when he's just in our laps or something. 
• Still loves to swing at the park.  And go down the slide.
• Likes walks again.  Yay! 
• Is huge.  About 21 lbs.  In 12 month clothes now.  
• Loves to sing primary songs with mom at the piano.  (Or is it just me that likes this?) 
• Likes to sit in his new high chair.  
• Sometimes likes to eat oatmeal cereal.  He is very patient when we feed him--he puts his hands up in the air and just waits with his mouth open.  
• Makes the funniest face ever when we try to feed him something more adventurous like applesauce.  You would think we were feeding him lemons! 
• Loves his toys!  Especially his baby einstein ones that sing.  
• Has no interest in crawling.  I seriously wouldn't be surprised if he skips this altogether.  He still hates tummy time with a passion.  You would think we were torturing him by the way he screams.
• Can stand up and hold himself by grabbing the couch.  
• Must have someone in his view at all times.  He cries if he can't see anyone. 
• Still wakes up 3x a night.  (HELP!!!) 
• Still not the best napper, but I'm coming to terms with this.
• Is getting a bit better at entertaining himself.  I think he can use his hands and body a bit better, so he's less frustrated overall.  Usually, he's happy to sit on the ground and play with his toys for 30 min. or so.  Yay! 
• Is starting to like books!  Though he usually is mostly excited about trying to eat them, he does enjoy lift-the-flap books.  His favorite is called, "Where is Baby's Belly Button?"  He looks so surprised whenever I lift the flap.  Darling.  
• Got a big boy carseat and loves it!  It's so nice he doesn't scream when we buckle him in now.  
• Loves to be turned upside down! I say "uh oh!" a few times before...he knows what's coming and gets so excited.  
• Likes to be tickled and has the cutest giggle to go along with it.  
• Loves to spit and blow bubbles.  
• Still loves bath time!  He likes to play with toys in the tub.  He screams when we take him out now.  I think it's because he misses his toys?  
• Loves to play airplane and being thrown up in the air.  
• Has the sweetest blond hair.  It looks buzzed. 
• Has the most beautiful eyes and lashes.  People are always commenting on them.  
• Thinks it's hilarious when I throw my bun from side to side.  Or do anything crazy with my hair. Or do anything crazy in general.  He's probably the only one who enjoys my dancing.
• Loves peek-a-boo, patty cake, if you're happy and you know it, and itsy-bitsy spider.  
• And the big news: is getting a cranial band to help re-shape his flat head.  He'd better thank his kind parents one day for spending such an outrageous amount of money on a piece of plastic. 

He is so incredibly sweet and good natured.  We love him so much we can't believe it!  Picture overload:

 Oatmeal face!

 Playing with his buddy Charlie: (or more like staring at him)

 He loves when daddy comes home!

 His two favorite toys:

 Playing piano with his buddy Amelia: (he kept pulling her hair)

 Day at the park:

At the zoo:

 His favorite swing! Makes him happy every time.

2011 In Review

I know this is late, but I wanted to do a "year in review" post! We called it our year of changes. We went from students living in Provo to Texan "real adults" with a baby and a real job. Our year looked like this:


January
We found out we were expecting a BOY! I was still super sick, began my last semester at BYU, taught a ton, and started studying like crazy for my orals. Cam also started his last semester and took good care of his sickly wife.

February
I finally started feeling a bit better! Cam worked hard in school, I studied constantly, and we took a fun trip to Vegas with Cam's family to watch BYU play.

March
I passed both my orals! This was such an accomplishment for me; there were many times I literally didn't think I would pass. It felt so good to have them go so well. This is the month when Cam and I really started to wonder if it was the right thing for us to go to Palo Alto and for him to work for Ernst & Young. It was a really stressful time for Cam as he started looking around for other options.

April
I went on a super fun cruise with my mom, dad, Abby, and a bunch of my dad's family. It was SO FUN. The only downside was that Cam wasn't there. We stopped in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta. It was so nice to relax after all that studying!

While I was on the cruise, Cam got an offer to work for Dell. This was such a blessing! It really was an answer to our prayers. We knew it was the right thing, so we planned on moving to Austin, TX in the fall.

We both graduated with our Masters Degrees!

We moved out of our Provo apartment, our first home together, and moved to my Grandparents' basement in Holladay, UT. This was such a special time for us to spend time with them and get to know them better. They were so generous to let us stay there rent free.


May
Cam began studying for his CMA (Certified Managerial Accountant) and CPA tests! This was his major summer project. He passed the CMA first, and took 3 out of the 4 tests of the CPA the proceeding months. (He'll take the fourth one sometime soon.) He passed them all with flying colors! I am so proud of him--he had to juggle so much with having a new baby (that didn't sleep) and an emotional, needy wife.  I spent this month nesting and such. Our new doctor (the same doctor that delivered me!) was much more on the cautious side. He was pretty concerned about Andy's small size, so I spent the month going to lots of non stress tests and ultrasounds!

June
Cam went to Hawaii to sell security systems for a couple weeks. We were nervous the baby would come early. I think he got home the day I turned 38 weeks? Here I am at 38 weeks:

Then, on Monday, June 20, we experienced the birth of our beautiful little boy!

July
This month was spent trying to adjust to life with a colicky baby. We didn't sleep much. The month was also spent trying to help Andy learn how to nurse. It was such a relief when we could finally nurse confidently by the beginning of August!

August
Our month of celebrations! Cam and I both turned 26 and we celebrated our two year anniversary.

We also took a super fun trip to Jackson Hole with my family.

September
We began the month by blessing Andy on Sept. 4 in my parents' ward in Bountiful.

Then came the big move to Texas! All within a few days we moved to Round Rock, scrambled to find some furniture, and Cam started his new job. We feel so blessed. We love our apartment, our new friends here, and Cam loves his job.

October
I don't know if any main events really happened this month. We continued to adjust to Texas, our new home, Cam working, and me being a stay-at-home mom. Also, we took a Saturday trip to College Station to visit Cam's cousin. So fun!

November
We hosted Cam's family and cousin's family for Thanksgiving. It was a blast! We had so much showing them the Austin sights.

December
Most of this month was spent in Utah enjoying the Christmas season with family.

We had such a wonderful year, filled with incredible blessings from our Heavenly Father. We look forward to all that 2012 will bring!

The Annual Gingerbread Man Contest

You may or may not have heard of the Messick family annual gingerbread man decorating contest. It's a pretty big deal! :) We all take it very seriously. (Sara cried when she lost last year. Ha ha.) It's not one of those competitions where everyone is a winner. We usually get a neighbor to come over and judge and they MUST pick a 1st place, 2nd, 3rd, etc., all the way to last place. I am usually a top contender.

I think I won 2nd place in 2009:

In 2010 I think I did pretty well:


Now comes the great disappointment of 2011. (I still think it's because our judge was a 17 year old boy. Of course he would choose Avatar.) Also note that I only bothered to pay attention to the places of those who beat me. Ha ha. Aren't I mature?





This is Cam's first time not taking last place:

I think Ben did pretty well for his first year!

All of us working:

Christmas Day

It's time for a belated Christmas Day post. We had the best Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at my family's house. We woke up and went to church and got to listen to Pres. Eyring speak. (He's in my home ward and usually speaks the Sunday before Christmas.) It was the perfect way to start Christmas day and helped us remember what Christmas is really about.

Then, we opened presents! It took forever (which is so fun)--there are getting to be so many of us and we take turns. A highlight from the day was when Christine opened a gift from Ben--a pair of scandalous underwear. (Okay...this was actually a joke I played...)

Andy opening his first present, a darling blanket Aunt Abby made for him:



We packed up in the afternoon and headed to the Lee's for Christmas round 2! We had a delicious prime rib dinner prepared by Grandma Liz and then opened up all our presents. Greg and Kathy (and my parents) are so generous and gave us so much!

I certainly can't remember everything we got, but here are some highlights:

Andy
new blanket (aunt abby)
johnny jump up and night light (grandma liz)
lots of books and new shoes (my parents)
lion king and a high chair (us)
a new shirt (ben and christine)
new clothes (uncle brendan)
lots of new toys, clothes, and stuffed animals--his fav. is giraffe sophie (cam's parents)

Cam
a massage gift card and new clothes (my parents)
sweat pants (andy)
toms and music to the ravel mother goose suite for us to play together (me)
scriptures, primary song book, true grit, and tools from (his parents)
stylish new shoes (Brendan)

Me
nordstrom gift card and clothes (my parents)
a label maker, 2011 blog posts in a book, a mommy hook, and a movie (cam's parents)
a sweater-- which was first opened by Grandpa Harlie. He thought it was his. Ha ha. (brendan)
from cam: a massage gift card, finale music software, tickets to see the Austin Symphony with Emanuel Ax (YAY!), and the cutest coupons that included lots of foot massage coupons and fun things like "a free night out with the girls," "one saturday where I won't check my phone or computer all day," and "one listening session where I won't play devil's advocate." :) I'm a lucky girl!

As a family:
money (my parents and cam's parents)
restaurant gift cards (ben and christine and cam's parents)
a costco gift card (grandma liz)

We are so blessed to have so many generous family members! We had a fantastic Christmas and we're so grateful for all the wonderful gifts we received.