Happy Birthday Adam!

Is it really true? Is it really possible that this once 7lb 6oz newborn baby is now a monstrous one-year-old? I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. It seems to get worse the older you get. Well, Adam is officially a toddler now. I can no longer refer to him as the stinkiest baby of all time. He is the stinkiest toddler now. His birthday was so much fun. Mom and Dad came out for the weekend and Adam had a wonderful time showing off his new skills, such as pulling all the pots and pans out of the cabinet, climbing up and down the stairs with grace, and of course taking a few steps all by himself (which he first did when Mom and Dad were here).

Despite a runny nose and a bad cough, Adam was in relatively good spirits for his birthday. We had a joint birthday party with our neighbors, the Hallows. Their son Barec (Adam's best little friend) turned one on Thanksgiving Day. We invited all of their other little friends from church and it was a bit of a madhouse. We bought tiny little pilgrim hats for all the kids. Juliana and I made cupcakes for everyone but the Adam and Barec got giant cupcakes with special candles that spelled their names. Unfortunately there was a bit of crying from Adam when I put the pilgrim hat on his head and we starting singing happy birthday, but all was well as soon as he starting eating the cupcake. The mess he made was rather impressive.

Adam says Thank you for all the wonderful presents. He now has a completely new stash of toys and clothes. We wish you all could have been here to celebrate with us. Now we wait to see if we can survive the coming year. We'll let you know next November.

Fall in Indiana

Happy Fall/Halloween everyone! We took a trip to a pumpkin patch way out in the middle of nowhere. They had a petting zoo, corn maze, soybean maze for kids, farm-type foods, a 2 story slide, lots of old non-functional tractors, a hayride, and lots more. We've also enjoyed the colored leaves - southern indiana has lots of nice maples and oaks, and tons of forests. We did have quite a drought here this summer, so the grass was brown, but that didn't affect the leaves.

Adam is recovering from a 2-week stint with some kind of virus, and is just starting to eat more normally again. Lauren was really worried for a while, but Adam was always very chipper, even right after puking or having some nasty diarrhea. Our biggest worry was that he wasn't eating or drinking very well at all, but we bought popsicles and pedialyte (which he didn't like - even when we made it into jello).

Tonight our ward had a chili cook-off & trunk-or-treat. Some of the kids costumes were hysterical. Some friends of ours had their kids dressed as wendy & peter pan, and the parents were dressed as a deviled egg (she's pregnant) and Mr. T (head shaved just like Mr. T). We didn't dress up, but Adam wore a dragon costume the Walkers gave us. Someone asked me if I was dressed as Steve Jobs for halloween because I was wearing sneakers, light jeans, and black long sleeve shirt. I told the person I'd need a turtleneck.

Enjoy the pictures!

Trunk-or-Treat at the church today (thanks for the costume Amber & Marshall!):


Brady Atwood (remember the Atwoods?), his wife, and their son


Our pumpkins: Yoshi, Boo (missing an eye - thanks Adam!), and Goomba


The one picture we have before Adam took Boo's eye


Adam playing in a cornbox


At the pumpkin patch/corn maze


Before all the leaves fell


Adam looks at rabbits (or goats or pigs, we can't remember)


Adam views goats


Adam smiles in front of turkeys


The pumpkins we picked


Looking for pumpkins


Adam plays by the street


Adam and his friend Barec


Adam shows Barec the piano

More Pics

So they have a limit of like 5 pics or something and I have more. The pics in the first post are from camping with Becca. Just gorgeous and loads of fun.
Here's a mish mash of camping,home, Meg after some time next door,a great horned owl that was at the mini vet school (he actually hooted sooo cool), mom and dad being cute on their anniversary date, mike and meg hahahahah

A Long Catch-Up

Well I have thought about doing this for a long time, but always became overwhelmed with all the information I felt I had to cram into a post. So it just kept getting put off and off until Lauren reminded me that some things in life should not be forgotten, like my family. I think about you all everyday and wish I could see you and start our own colony, but somehow communication is not my strongest suit.
Anywho to begin I started school in early September. It feels great to finally be heading in a specific direction with a specific goal. It wasn't too bad getting back in the saddle. However, unlike my previous degree I am definitely out of my comfort zone. I am not naturally talented in the maths and sciences and I work everyday on homework and such just to keep up. Whereas in anthro I could read a chapter once and remember everything and understand it. Now I spend most of my evenings rereading and doing practice problems or creating ways to remember details of cell membrane fluidity or how to convert moles to grams etc etc. However, I am so excited to be doing this. I keep thinking of all the directions I can take this and can't wait to put my training into use. I am taking extra classes (sort of) through UB. They have a mini vet school where they bring in guest lecturers. So my days are busy busy busy.
However that doesn't mean I don't make time for friends, family, or fun it just doesn't happen as frequently anymore. I finally had time this week to play some Halo Reach with Mike last night and it felt great to mindlessly shoot aliens. Also saturday after I spent my morning and afternoon volunteering at the vet tech club dog wash I went with my friend Rebecca to her cabin near Attica. We had a blast out in the middle of nowhere. Don't fret I was safe, Rebecca knows how to use like 50 different guns and had a bag of knives haha. It was super I mean when else can you eat s'mores and dorritos for breakfast? Anyway I miss you all so much and can't wait to hear from you hopefully in some fashion. Here's some pictures from the last few months.

Early Fall Post

I (Sean) wanted to add something to Lauren's post, but I figured I'd just do one myself instead. Adam has 5 teeth out, and a sixth on the way. He can stand by himself as long as he doesn't know he's standing by himself. He walks with a little walking toy and climbs stairs quite quickly.

Adam has had a bit of a cold. Just this morning he ate 8 oz of formula, had a coughing fit, and puked out all 8 oz (and maybe a little more) all over everything, projectile-style. He and I were both soaked. I thought it was funny, so I laughed, and he took the cue and laughed too. We think he is getting over the cold.

School is good. I'm taking 6 classes, which is way too much, but so it goes. My courses are crammed into Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Monday I pickup Adam from daycare, the girls there are very good with him. I do homework after class Tuesday and Wednesday, then I stay home Adam Thursday and Friday. Saturday is for homework and odds & ends, Sunday is for executive secretary stuff. I'm taking bankruptcy, 1st amendment law, internet law, federal income tax, products liability, and "representing the state."

Lauren ran a 5k again and her time improved by several minutes from the last one she ran. She's considering another 5k later this fall. She is the secretary for the relief society, so that keeps her busy. She still likes work, and they're great to work around our schedule. She'd never tell you, but doctors request to work with her because she's very efficient, as well as fun to be around.

Enjoy the pictures & videos!

Adam climbs stairs all by himself! I've tried teaching him how to get down, but that seems trickier.

This is Adam's walker we got second hand at Once Upon a Child. He will walk with it, but he prefers to sit and spin the wheels.

Adam enjoys feeding himself, and here he's eating some delicious blueberry & blackberry pie that Lauren made. I gave it to him without Lauren's knowledge or consent.

Lauren's running team for the 5k.

Adam fell and cut the corner of his eye on a shelf, so he got glued up. He screamed during the gluing but didn't seem to mind the cut. The eye is fine now.

Adam enjoys Mr. Rogers, despite the absurd amount of clutter on our desk.

Make sure to check out Lauren's post too!

Beach & Starting School

We hope people are getting back into the swing of things now that summer is coming to and end and school is starting back up. We had a great time at the beach (despite our cranky child) and were glad to see and spend time with everyone. Sean has been plugging away in school and so far enjoys several of his classes. Adam went to his first day of daycare a few weeks ago. He survived but I don't think he was terribly happy with us for leaving him there. He is only going one day a week on Mondays. He actually hasn't been back yet because they were closed on labor day and he was sick yesterday so I didn't take him.

Adam is very mobile now. He is cruising the furniture and can crawl incredibly fast when he has the right motivation (like running away from Mom and Dad). He is very curious and gets into EVERYTHING! His favorite past time is to open the drawers of his dresser and pull out all of his clothes. Sean and I are obviously not fans of this activity. He has finally started sleeping consistently through the night which has been lovely. Adam is rather chatty, especially in the car. When he is quiet, we know he is doing something he shouldn't, like putting an item in his mouth that does not belong there. The other week he ate a potato bug!

Overall things are going well. I am excited for fall and some cooler weather. It is still hot and dry here in Indiana. We need some rain desperately! So send some our way! Here are a few pictures from the Beach. Enjoy!

It is all fun and games until someone gets in the water.

This picture has a nice 70s quality, I believe Sean's father took it.

Adam's Tooth

Just a really quick post. Adam is still just army crawling, but he's quite fast and he can get up on his hands and knees easily. He's got a lone tooth coming in on the bottom, it has just broken through, and it explains why he's still not sleeping through the night. His favorite thing to eat right now are these little rice puffs he can feed himself. His least favorite thing to eat right now is a jar of chicken in chicken broth. I don't blame him, it reeks. No pictures of the tooth, he's not keen on showing it off.

That's all!

PS: I accidentally posted as Lauren, this is actually Sean.

We went blackberry picking

His waist is the same size as his head

Adam cares not for chicken.

Adam still cares not for chicken.

Our container garden

Everything is doing pretty well

This picture identifies everything growing. You should be able to see this a little more clearly if you click on it

Adam crawls


Adam eats puffs

PS: As a brief follow up, Adam can get into a sitting position from lying on the floor, and now he's crawling the right way. We have rough berber carpet downstairs, and today he wasn't wearing a shirt. After a few feet of army crawling scratched up his belly, he started crawling the right was, as if he knew how all along, but just didn't see why he should do it. I guess the next "milestones" are standing up, and walking. Also, I downloaded a bunch of Mr. Rogers, since we don't get TV & no one was selling Mr. Rogers DVDs, Adam seems to enjoy watching them almost as I do.

- Sean