Bristol is 6 months old!

I'm behind on several other posts, so this one is a little out of sync, but I wanted to get it done first... before she ends up being 7 months old - lol!  :)

Our baby is already 6 months old!  How is it possible that she's half a year old?!  Time sure is flying. 

Bristol had her 6 month well-baby visit on December 27th.  She weighed 13 pounds, 15 ounces (10-15th%) and was 25 inches long (25th%). Still a peanut, but she is growing consistently, staying in the same percentile range, so that is good.  She is meeting and exceeding all of her developmental milestones.  Dr. Akrawi was impressed with her strength and determination.  ;-)  She is quite strong-willed and likes to do everything on her terms.  She did not want to bend her legs to let the doctor check her joints and he had a heck of a time getting her to bend them.  She just locked them and held her ground.  But she finally decided to bend them so he could finish the exam.  She was so good and happy, watching every move Dr. Akrawi made, wanting to touch every instrument.  She even had a little conversation with him.  She loved Dr. this time.  She had another round of vaccinations, which she wasn't too thrilled with. But she calmed right down as soon as I cuddled with her. Unfortunately, she didn't tolerate them too well again.  She always has a pretty rough 24 hours or so after she gets her shots.  Poor girl.  

Bristol is such a joy.  She brings us all so much happiness.  Carson still just adores her and is such a doting big brother.  Lately he has been telling Kevin and I how hard it is to be such a good big brother... to set a good example, to give so many hugs and kisses, to watch out for her so she doesn't get hurt, to play with her, and to hear her cry.  LOL!  But he always says there is no other way to be.  And he really is an amazing big brother.  He and Bristol are still each others' favorite people.  

From 4 months on, I think babies are especially fun.  They just learn and absorb so much so fast - and it is so awesome to witness. Bristol is very expressive with her facial expressions, tones of voice/babble, and emotions.  I think she takes after her mama in that respect.  ;-)  She gets quite loud when she is playing... especially in her exersaucer.  She sure loves that thing!  She seems to be our rough and tough child, too.  Carson mostly played gently in the exersaucer... not Bristol.  She is already jumping in it and just makes so much noise while she's in there.  She's just learning so much so fast, too.  It just amazes us how much she changes and learns from week to week. 

Bristol is rolling both from front to back and back to front and has been for a couple of months now.  But she's not like Carson where he would roll all over the place.  She just goes one way or the other and is satisfied.  She is able to scoot/army crawl around some... she mostly scoots backwards right now, though.  And she is trying so hard to get her knees up under her.  We are thinking that crawling isn't too far off.  Bristol sits quite well now, too.  She rarely tips nowadays and is quite stable.  She also loves to stand.  She is trying to pull herself up on a few of her toys and loves to hold on to your fingers and take steps.  She is definitely very interested in learning to walk... but we're totally ok if that takes awhile still!  With Carson, we were so anxious for him to be mobile... but with Bristol, we're hoping she isn't mobile as soon as Carson was!  :) 

We've started some solid foods with Bristol recently.  We're just taking things very slow.  With her sensitive system, we figure we're better off safe than sorry.  We're taking a different approach than we did with Carson.  Rather than starting off with baby cereals, we decided to skip those (and all grains, for that matter... until her 1st birthday) and start right with some vegetables.  And we did not start with the pureed veggies in jars, I just mashed up some sweet potatoes that I'd cooked with a pot roast for her first food.  No pureeing, just mashed up.  She didn't gag once... and she LOVED them!  She is quite an impatient little eater.  She wants the food shoveled in.  She's very good at eating already and keeps most of it in her mouth.  So far she's had sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, chicken broth, and prunes.  We had to break out the prunes last night to see if they will help her poo.  She went from pooing several times a day (the messy, liquidy breastfed poo) to not going for 4 days now.  She doesn't seem to be in any discomfort from it, but it is concerning me.  

Bristol loves her bathtime.  She gets very excited when she sees us getting her tub out.  She can hardly wait to get in the tub before she is splashing in the water, making quite the mess.  I think its time we move her from the kitchen sink to the bathtub.  

She is a pretty good sleeper.  She's been routinely sleeping through the night for awhile now - though she does wake once during the night at times.  But mostly she is sleeping through.  She is still our night owl, though.  She does not like to go to bed for the night before 9:30/10:00.  If she falls asleep before then, she'll only sleep a short time (10-15 minutes) and then be up until after 11:00.  So if all goes well, she goes down around 9:30/10:00 and she'll then sleep until 7:00am, at least... and even then she's not ready to get up for the day.  She'll only be up for maybe 10 minutes - just long enough to get her diaper changed and have a snack.  Then she's out till 9:00/9:15am.  If she wakes during the night, it's usually around 2:30/3:00am.  She wakes on nights when her teeth are bothering her especially.  She just goes in streaks with it.  

I could keep going on and on, but I figure this is enough for now.  I'll be back later this weekend (I hope) with a few catch-up posts (November, Disney trip, December, and Christmas).    

Winter Bucket List

So I realize I've missed the start of winter by a few weeks... and we've actually already done a few of these already... but I figured I'd post this anyway.  I've had the post sitting in draft for over a month now.  Sorry I've been so bad about posting regularly!

1.  Celebrate Christmas!  Convey the true meaning to our kids (though we do Santa, as well... but with a very limited focus).  Spend time with our families at our Christmas parties.

2.  Build a snowman.

3.  Go sledding.

4.  Teach Carson to ice skate and/or ski. 

5.  Drive around neighborhoods to admire all of the beautiful Christmas lights.

6.  Meet up with family from the west side in the Lansing area.

7.  Make snow angels in freshly fallen snow.

8.  Have a snowball fight.

9.  Build a snow fort.

10.  Do some snow painting!

11.  Make Christmas ornaments.

12.  Go to a snow/ice sculpture festival (Frankenmuth?).

13.  Pop some fresh popcorn, get the sleeping bags out, and have a family movie night/camp out in the living room.

14.  Attend at least one Calvin basketball game.

15.  Celebrate Carson's 5th birthday!

16.  Celebrate birthdays for Papa, Grandpa, Daddy, Grandma, and Nana. (As well as some cousins' birthdays, too.)

17.  Take Carson to see a movie in the theater.

18.  Attend a live show (Wharton Center family series?).

19.  Install new kitchen floor.

20.  Pursue photo business branding, new website, Valentine's Day mini sessions, etc.

Fall Bucket List - How Did We Do?

Playing catch-up here... hopefully you'll see a bunch of new posts here in the next few days...

1.  Go to a MSU football game.  Check!  We were given some free tickets, so went to the MSU-CMU game up at Central.  We invited Aunt Julie, Anna, and Kevin's late friend's dad to go with us.  We had amazing seats in the 4th row on the 40-yard line, right behind the Spartan bench.  MSU won and Carson and Anna got to meet Sparty!  It was such a fun day!

2.  Tailgate for MSU Homecoming.  We decided not to tailgate for the game since we'd have had to be there by 6:30am to get in line... and it was in the 30s that morning.  I didn't think that sounded very fun with an infant.  :) 

3.  Go to an apple orchard.  Check!  We went to Spicer's.

4.  Drink apple cider.  Check!  Many times!

5.  Go to a pumpkin patch.  Check!  We went to the pumpkin patch at Spooky Trails Farm with our neighbors. 

6.  Go to Spooky Trails Farm in Gaines.  Check!  We did this with our neighbors.  We went through the corn maze and took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins.  The pumpkin blaster guns were out of ammo when we were there, though, which was a bummer! 

7.  Do fall leaf crafts.  Check!  We didn't do as many as I had hoped to do, but we did do some leaf rubbings and made some fall placemats like we do every year.

8.  Carve jack-o-lanterns.  We bought pumpkins, but never carved them... :(

9.  Go on a family hike at least once every other week.  We did well with this in September and early October, but with the cooler temperatures and shorter daylight hours in November, we stopped going. 

10.  Go through a corn maze.  Check!  At Spooky Trails Farm.

11.  Spend a day (or weekend) in Grand Haven.  Check!  We went to Grand Haven the last weekend in October.  We stayed at a hotel, swam in the pool, went to the Imagination Station playground to meet up with some friends, and got to have dinner and play with some of our family! 

12.  Take a drive to see the fall colors.  Check!  We took several of these, the colors were just gorgeous this year! 

13.  Pick fall raspberries at a local, organic farm.  We did not get to do this, unfortunately.

14.  Take pictures and jump in a big pile of fallen leaves.  Check! 

15.  Have or go to a bonfire and make s'mores.  Check! 

16.  Go on an autumn nature walk.  Check!  We took several of these in October on the days I was home with the kids.

17.  Go trick-or-treating.  Check!  Well technically we did trunk-or-treating at church.  We did not go trick-or-treating in a neighborhood this year.

18.  Have a picnic.  Check!  We did this several times - on Labor Day and on a couple of park outings and playdates. 

19.  Start preschool!  Check!  Preschool is going really well again this year.  Carson just loves his teachers and looks forward to going to school everyday. 

20.  Have a playdate with preschool friends.  Check!  We have had several!

21.  Camp in a tent in the backyard... since we didn't get to do it this summer, we'll see if we're able to this fall.  Never did do this... next year!

22.  Meet up with family from the west side of the state in the Lansing area for playtime and hanging out.  Well, it didn't work out to meet up in Lansing, but we did get to see them while we were in Grand Haven, as well as on Labor Day and at Bristol's baptism. 

23.  Fly a kite.  Didn't happen.

24.  Visit a local park that we have never been to.  Check!  We went to a new (to us) park in Holly one afternoon.

25.  Go play miniature golf.  We never did get to do this.  We had plans to twice again, but it didn't work out.

26.  Visit a friend or family member we have not seen in awhile.  Check!  We caught up with a couple of friends we hadn't seen in quite some time, as well as had some of my cousins over that we hadn't seen in a year.

27.  Make or buy Halloween costumes.  Check!  Made one (Bristol's) and bought one (Carson's).

28.  Take a trip to the Grand Rapids area to visit Kevin's grandparents and other family in the area.  Check - sort of...  The closest we got was our weekend in Grand Haven, which we did get to see my SIL, BIL, niece, and nephew... but no grandparents. 

29.  Go to our nephew's football game(s).  We never got a chance to see Joel play.  :(  On the days we could go, the weather was really crummy. 

30.  Go to Disney World!!!  :)  Check, check, check!  (Post to come soon, I hope).

October Craziness!

We had an extremely busy and fun-filled October this year.  Not only did we do lots of fun things together as a family, but my photography business really took off in October with all the beautiful fall colors this year.  It was a lot of fun.  I learned a lot.  And I’m even more excited to see where this adventure leads during the next year.  But I’ve also been enjoying a little down-time the last few weeks, too.  I had to put a lot of extra stuff aside since I was so busy with the business, so it has been nice to get back into those extra things (like making some Christmas gifts and working on some small projects around the house). 

Even though we did so many fun things, I realize now that I didn’t take that many pictures.  Since having Bristol, it’s tough to take as many pictures as I used to at family outings and functions. 

We had several playdates with a few of Carson’s preschool friends, which were always a lot of fun.  The kids always have so much fun playing together and I have really been enjoying getting to know a couple of the other mom’s a little better.  I just love making new friends!  J  Kevin and I have been getting to know the parents of one of Carson’s friends on Tuesday nights, too.  They’re also in the Life with God class with us.  We’ve been out for coffee (or in my case apple cider ;-P) with them a couple of times, too.  After the holidays, we’re hoping to have a chance to get together as families and do some fun things, too. 

Our nephew, Jonah, turned three at the beginning of October and had a really fun superhero birthday party.  Aunt Julie made all the kids who attended some superhero capes.  Even Bristol got one!  They were all so cute! 

We had some family photos taken by my friend, Stephanie, of Bellabu Photography in mid-October.  The kids were so cooperative and we got some really cute photos.  It was a lot of fun, too!  It was nice to be on the other end of the camera.  :)  We received over 40 images, but here are just a few of them.

We also hosted some of my dad’s family (the Moores) for a dinner in mid-October.  It had been a long time (over a year!) since we’d all been together, so it was long overdue.  We had a great low-key meal of goulash, salad, fruit, cornbread, homemade bread, and dairy-free cake for dessert.  It was so nice to see my cousins again and get the great-grandkids (Macie, Tyson, Carson, and Bristol) together (though I totally forgot to get a picture of the four of them!!). 

We took a trip to a local farm with our neighbors one chilly afternoon.  We went through a corn maze and took a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins.  It was a lot of fun!

We made time to play in the leaves quite a few times during the month!  Carson loves jumping into the big leaf piles.  Bristol wasn't too sure what to think about it, but she did enjoy them a little, too.  :) 

Uncle Dan celebrated his 30^th birthday on October 14^th.  We had plans for all of the Hollebooms to meet at PF Chang in Lansing for dinner to celebrate, but unfortunately, the flu got the best of some.  So the east-side Hollebooms all went to dinner at Lucky’s in Fenton so that Danny could have his delicious steak dinner.  It had been awhile since we had been out to eat, and the meal was great!  We’ve never had a bad meal at Lucky’s, though. 

In all my spare time J, I also organized an Odykirk family dinner on a random Wednesday evening.  We had family travel over 3 hours to make it – it was so great to see everyone!!  We ended up with quite a large group, spread out amongt a few large tables, and had a good time catching up with all the cousins and great-aunts.  The restaurant of choice by the majority ended up being Olive Garden… which is definitely not a dairy-free friendly restaurant, but I figured I could find something there to eat.  After talking with the waiter and manager, I was assured that the grilled salmon and vegetables could be made dairy-free.  So I went with it.  And Bristol ended up paying the price for it.  :-/  She had a rough bout with gas and spitting up, plus some poo issues.  And it was all finally confirmed at the pediatrician a few days later that she is, indeed, allergic to dairy.  Up until that point, we did not have official confirmation, but we do now.  So no more placing myself into compromising situations food-wise for her sake. 

Bristol’s 4-month check-up went very well.  Dr. Akrawi was happy with her weight gain – though he would have liked to see a tad bit more, but said she is doing much better than she was.  So we do not have to return for any weight checks any time soon!  She is in the 25^th% for height, and head circumference, and between the 10^th-25^th% for weight.  She’s still a little peanut, but she’s growing very well and surpassing all of her developmental milestones.  I’ll update more on Bristol’s development in a separate post. 

We went over to Aunt Sharon’s house for a family day and to watch the big MSU-UM college football game on October 20^th.  Unfortunately, MSU lost, but it was still a fun game and a fun day.  Carson, Mackenzey, and Brooklynn had so much fun playing together.  It had been quite a while since they’d seen one another, so they were all so excited!  Jorie finally found a house and it is only about 4 miles away from us, so hopefully we’ll be seeing lots more of Mackenzey and Brooklynn from now on! 

Our church hosted a Trunk-or-Treat a week before Halloween this year.  It ended up being an incredibly nice, mild day… absolutely perfect!  We took the kids dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse and enjoyed seeing lots of friends.  Everyone thought the kids looked adorable together and I’m sure there are so many random pictures of Bristol out there on facebook some where… so many random people stopped us and said they had to get a picture of her.  LOL! 

We spent the last weekend in October out in Grand Haven.  I had two photo sessions scheduled out there – a family shoot and a senior shoot – so we figured we’d make the most of it and spend the weekend out there.  We drove out on Friday night after work and we managed to do some fun stuff in between photo shoots.  We met up with our friend Rachel and her kids at the Imagination Station playground.  It’s a huge, awesome wooden playground.  Carson loved seeing Noelle (and Noah, Emery, and Avery, too!) and had so much fun!  Then Aunt Mary, Uncle Justin, Rebecca, and Abram came to visit us at the hotel that evening!  The kids had a blast playing together and then we all had dinner together at the hotel restaurant.  It was so nice to see them all and we are so glad they came to see us!!  We also spent some time swimming in the hotel pool and just relaxing and having fun.  It was a great weekend!

We closed out the month with Halloween!  Carson had a party at preschool in the morning.  I took the day off of work and took Bristol in to the party with me.  We got to see the kids parade through in their costumes, sing some songs, and eat some yummy treats.  Carson decided he wanted to be Cat in the Hat (his costume from last year) for his preschool party.  I guess Mickey Mouse just wasn’t cool enough.  ;-P 

We did not end up going trick-or-treating on Halloween.  The weather was really crummy – cold and drizzly.  Plus, Kevin got home late from work.  So we decided not to go over to Aunt Julie’s house like we normally do for trick-or-treating.  Instead, we enjoyed a night at home together.  We did some Halloween crafts and watched the Peanuts Halloween cartoon and had a really nice time.  J

Bristol's Baptism

We had Bristol baptized back on September 30th at Faith Lutheran Church in Grand Blanc.  Much of our family joined us to witness her baptism.  After which, we hosted a luncheon at our house.  We asked her Aunt Julie and her Aunt Mary to be her Godmothers.  They are both such wonderful examples of strong, Christian women and we are fortunate to have them pray for Bristol regularly and help Kevin and I provide guidance to her in her Christian upbringing.

Bristol wore the baptism gown that I wore as a baby when I was baptized at Hope Lutheran Church in Linden.  It was a little big on her, but she still looked so beautiful in it.

Bristol did so well during the baptism.  Pastor Biermann held her facing outwards (she likes to see the world and know what is coming), so she was happy as could be and did not fuss at all.

After church, everyone came back to our house for lunch.  We did a soup and salad bar and Aunt Mary made a dairy-free cake.  Everything was delicious!

Thank you, everyone, for celebrating with us!

But Jesus called the children to him and said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.   (Luke 18:16)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  (Jeremiah 29:11)


And finally, here is the invitation I had printed for her baptism. 

September Shenanigans

 I’m a little behind on the blog… sorry about that.  I’ll be trying to catch up here soon so I’m not too far behind as we head into the holiday season.  Let’s start with September… 

September seems like so long ago now.  Let’s see if I can remember what we did. 

We started out the month with a fun Labor Day weekend.  We spent time with lots of family.  On Sunday, we went over to Nana and Papa’s house after church for a family party.  It was quite warm, but we enjoyed visiting with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. 

On Labor Day Monday, we met up with Kevin’s family at Crossroads Village.  It was HOT that day.  But we had a great time!  The kids all had a ton of fun together and it was nice to see Crossroads Village again.  We got some cute pictures of the cousins all together.  I think this may have been our first shots of all of them together now since Bristol has been born.  After checking out the Village, we had a nice picnic lunch and the kids all got to ride the carousel and other kiddie rides.  They all had a blast! 

Kevin and I started up a class at our church on Tuesday evenings called Life with God.  It is basically an adult confirmation class for those interested in joining the church.  It runs for 12 weeks, every Tuesday evening from 7:00-8:30.  Nana comes over to watch the kids each week so that we can go.  At first we thought it’d be tough to make all of the classes, but we’ve actually really been enjoying them a lot. 

On September 8^th, we made the trek up to Mount Pleasant for the MSU-Central Michigan football game.  Kevin got six free tickets from a friend of his, so Kevin, Carson and I decided we would go.  Nana watched Bristol.  We invited Aunt Julie and Anna to go with us and we gave the last ticket to Ron Sambaer (Kevin’s late friend Jeff’s father).  It was such a fun time!  Carson took a catnap in the first quarter because he didn’t rest in the car on the way there, but then he was ready to go.  He and Anna had a lot of fun together and got to see Sparty up close and even get a picture with him!  Our seats were amazing – 4^th row between the 40 and 50-yard lines right behind the MSU bench.  The weather was great, too.  We couldn’t have asked for a better day or time!  MSU won, too!  :)
(NOTE:  These are currently just my Instagram pics from my phone.  I'll be updating once I get the pics off the point-and-shoot camera).

The following Monday was Carson’s first day of 4-year old Preschool at Faith Lutheran in Grand Blanc.  He was so excited to start school again and see many of his friends from last year.  All four of us went to school on the first day.  Carson was a little sad to leave his sister – he wasn’t sure how she would manage without him.  He was relieved to hear that she managed ok when we picked him up after school.  J  Carson had a wonderful first day and has been doing awesome at school!  He is learning a lot and has begun to read quite well already! 

We made an attempt to get out and walk, hike, or bike whenever we could.  We figure we had better make the most of the nice weather we had for most of the month.  Kevin and Carson enjoyed biking on the off-road trails through the woods at Bicentennial Park, as well as biking on the paved path while Bristol and I walked along with the stroller or wearing Bristol in the Moby or Ergo. 

We ended the month with Bristol’s baptism, but I will do a separate post on that a bit later.