Lots of Milestones: Pierce at 5 months

At 5 months, Pierce tried food (baby oatmeal) for the first time. He loved it at first, but the verdict is still out. Sometimes he gobbles it up and sometimes he's not interested at all. He still just loves to nurse!

He played a little Guess Who with dad. It was hilarious to watch Mike play for both of them and use a baby voice for Pierce's requests :)! I can't remember who won.

He got in a pool for the first time and LOVED the water. He's always loved bath time so we weren't surprised, but look at this face! He was so interested in splashing and didn't mind a bit getting his face all wet. We spent the day at an indoor water park and he was an absolute angel. He really is the nicest baby...he just comes along to all of our adventures, naps and eats when he needs to and is always so happy.We are so lucky!

He found his toes!! Since he's a Michigan winter baby, he hasn't had many chances to play with his naked toes, but when he did, he was crazy about them! Now when he gets a little grumpy we just pull his toes out! It's so cute.

He's still just busy smiling, smiling, smiling. When I go into his room in the morning, he just grins and and grins. Honestly, he is hardly ever fussy, unless he's tired (because he won't put himself to sleep). I've never had a baby like this, especially because he's also been incredible healthy, not sick yet! (Both Parker and James were nice babies but had chronic ear infections, so it was hard to stay happy.) He has so many people around him giving him love, no wonder he's happy. The only downside is with all this attention, he does not like to be alone...so he's pretty much held or played with and talked to all day long because no one can stand to see him sad. We're all suckers for him.

He sits up! He won't do it for a long time, but he can actually sit on his own for a minute or two. Leave it to the boys to discover what he is capable of :)! He's a strong little guy and will be sitting soon.

In case you couldn't tell, we're all still pretty crazy about him :)

New Years Resolutions

Now that it's the end of February, I figure I should write a New Year's post. I've always been a crazy goal setter...unfortunately, I don't keep them as well as I set them. I vividly remember one year, driving to Arizona from California and I made a list of 24 resolutions I wanted to keep. You should have met the person I was planning on becoming, wish I'd met her. By February, I had failed at all of them and decided to just wait until next January to do better. Not ideal.

This year I spoke in church on New Year's Day and it was such a blessing to reflect on why we make goals and resolutions and how I can be better at keeping them. What I learned basically came down to the following: we should make and keep realistic resolutions that bring us closer to Jesus Christ, allow us to become more like Jesus Christ, and allow other people to more fully feel His love in their life. The talk I got most of my material from was this one by Elder Joe J. Christensen.  One quote about goal setting I found especially insightful was:

Only one verse of scripture in the entire King James Version of the New Testament suggests what the Savior did to develop himself from age twelve until he began his formal ministry at age thirty: “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52; see JST, Matt. 3:24–26). In other words, the Savior developed in the same areas indicated on the poll: intellectually (in wisdom and knowledge), physically (in stature), socially (in favor with man), and spiritually (in favor with God).

While talking to Mike about making goals, he said something that changed the game for me. He said, "In companies, they often set 3 levels of goals...the absolute minimum that must be met, a level of achievement that is realistic but difficult, and the insane ideal of hoped for, almost perfection."

With all that inspiration flowing through me, I was motivated to set goals this year in a way that I could stick with them. Some I set in levels, others I just set. They are:

Spiritual: I've set the same spiritual goal for 10 years and always fail. This year, that will change. I will read my scriptures!
Level 1: Read something from the scriptures every day (So far, I've accomplished this, everyday. Some days I read a lot, some days just a verse, but I have not failed or felt the need to start over!)
Level 2: Have meaningful scripture study twice a week (this has happened only a few times, but since I keep meeting level one, I have not given up).
Level 3: Do the first 2 levels and also be prepared for Sunday School and Relief Society each week (hasn't happened yet, but it might by the end of the year.)


Physical: I will wake up early each day. Now, not crazy early like many of you out there or like my hubby, but I do still have a nursing baby who loves waking up at night. I need to be up early enough to make breakfast (yes, we do a real, hot breakfast almost every morning), read a few scripture verses and say morning prayers on my own, make lunches, nurse the baby and make sure everyone is ready for school without feeling rushed or annoyed. This also gives me motivation to go to bed a bit earlier and allows us to have smooth, happy mornings. I've been okay so far, but could do better. When my baby starts sleeping through the night, I'd like to get a quick workout in too before all the chaos begins.

Social: I will serve someone every week. Going well, but I would like to make this more deliberate and involve my family more.

Intellectual: I will read aloud to my kids. Now that they can all read on their own (except Pierce, of course), it's easy to never read aloud to them. So, we re-discovered reading as a family and we have all LOVED it. It has brought us closer together, given us shared knowledge, given us a new family activity, and reminded my kids of how much fun reading can be. There is nothing I love more than hearing them beg me for "just one more chapter!" When Mike misses the book, he asks me what happened that night. It's been lots of fun. A few of the reads we've especially enjoyed together are: The Tale of Desperaux (good for ages 4 and up), Matilda (good for ages 5 and up), and Gregor the Overlander series (I'd say 6 and up, though James loves it too). If you have boys, try the Gregor series...it's awesome!  It's a goal I'm so glad I felt inspired to set.

So, writing about goals at the end of February seems kind of funny, but maybe more appropriate since this is about the time I usually give up and save my list for next year. Amazingly, we are still going strong! Do you have any great goals this year?

Family Photos 2011

I'm crazy, I know, but we decided to have family pictures taken by my darling friend Janelle when Pierce was 5 weeks old. My only hope was to get ONE good family picture I could use on our birth announcement/Christmas card.

The day for the photo came and do you know how hard it is to get 6 people looking decent, coordinating and clean (let's be honest, how hard it is to find clothes that fit and get me looking even passable in a photo) and a baby fed and happy when you are 5 weeks post-partum? Not easy. The day was rainy then sunny, then cold, then windy, and then sunny again. We thought about cancelling, but it was our only Saturday without a bazillion other things, so we rolled the dice. As we pulled out of the parking lot, it started sprinkling and I almost started crying (I really might have if I weren't so worried about my mascara smearing). I decided we'd do one family picture under an umbrella if we had to.

Turns out, when we reached our destination, the rain stopped for about 30 minutes (tender mercies), the sun even peeked out at the end and we did a speed photo shoot. Pierce was amazing and the boys cooperated and Derek and Janelle were miracle workers. I ended up loving a bunch of the pictures and being so grateful to have our life captured again. Thank you, thank you Osbornes! Here are a few of the best!

Pierce: 4 Months

Our little Pierce is so fat and happy. We are so glad he is part of our family! These 4 months have gone entirely too fast.

Classic interaction.

At 4 months Pierce is 25.5 inches in the 68th % he is ___pounds in the 63rd% and his head is ____inches in the ___%

Pierce is a big fan of: 

waking up in the morning, nursing, laying on a blanket and kicking at toys, his bird on his car seat, his brothers, his mom, his dad, being held, sitting in the Baby Bjorn, music, singing, mom saying, "I love you one, I love you two," Eskimo kisses, facing out, smiling, giggling, getting his diaper changed, bath time, his tongue, zerberts, biting people's fingers, pulling hair, patty cake, crazy arms, being snuggled in bed in the morning, grabbing paper, grabbing necklaces, grabbing anything, neck kissing, spitting up, being held standing up, being outside, going on walks

Pierce is not such a fan of: 

Putting his clothes on, anything covering his face, car rides in the dark, nursing under a blanket or cover, brothers yelling in his face or getting too close for too long, tummy time, sleeping through the night, long naps, the swing, too many errands, babysitters, getting boogers out of his nose, saline solution, shots, James holding him, being left alone for more than 3 minutes

We are a fan of:

Everything about him! He even just rolled over for the first time and the whole family celebrated. We can't get enough of this little boy and we're trying to take it all in. Let's just say, this baby is one loved little man.