Charlie- 12 months old

I'm a month behind on blogging- today Charlie is actually 13 months. Oh well, it's busy around our place recently!

I received the photos from Katie Dudley and I'm still just totally in love with them. Charlie was being pretty serious for her, but I think she captured that side of his personality perfectly. Grandma T says when Charlie acts like this she's reminded of John at that age- they called him The Judge because he wouldn't smile for anyone but his mom.

My favorite one!

We got one smiling photo and I love it- it's just so Charlie!

Right before Charlie's first birthday he got his first big scrape. He fell off the bed (luckily, not a far fall) onto his nose and forehead, getting a scraped nose and goose egg. The wound healed very quickly but his nose is still a little red. Most of the pictures from his 12th month have that little scraped up nose- he looks like a little tough guy. (In fact, Katie did us a favor and edited his little nose so it looked healed!)




Charlie spoke his first sentence on his birthday. He looked at me and said, "Ba, uh-oh." (Translation: Ball, uh-oh.) I was on Skype with my parents so I had witnesses! He kept saying it and then he took his silver ball and pushed it under the armoire and looked at me expectantly. I finally went over and looked underneath it where his blue ball was stuck! He was trying to tell me that his blue ball was stuck and when silly mommy didn't get it, he illustrated with his silver ball! (These are the moments that make me think my baby is a genius.)

He's surprised us with a few more words, very sporadically. He's said the following at least once and is getting really close to being able to say them more regularly: more, outside, James, Sam, Grandma, Cat and hot. His solid words are: ball (bao), hi, mama, dada, uh-oh, ohh, and bottle (ba). He's getting better at doing "tricks", too. He can do "so big" when I ask how big is Charlie and mimic an elephant when I ask him what an elephant says.

He's getting so close to walking! He loves to push things around the house walking behind them- chairs, the big yoga ball, laundry baskets, and the little walker toy at Grandma T's house. He can stand for several seconds at a time and even pick things up off the floor and then stand back up without falling!

Concentrating hard on pushing the chairs around


His stats at his one year appointment:

weight- 25.5 lbs (81st percentile)
height- 32.25 inches (96th percentile)
head circumference- 18.9 inches (87th percentile)

He's still a big loveable lug!

Catherine's Maternity Photos

My beautiful sister is going to be a mother to a baby girl this summer. I was so lucky to have her visit for six weeks (!) recently and I miss her like crazy already. While she was here, I had to take some maternity photos of her. She's just stunning! Thanks for being my model and more importantly, my sister. Love you, Cat!

Someday, (hopefully soon) I will...

... update my blog with fun pictures and stories.

... socialize with friends.

... plant my vegetable garden and weed the front yard.

... start training for the pioneer trek in July.

... clean (really clean) my house.

... go on a date with my husband.

... help my sister-in-law recover from surgery and help my other sister-in-law when her kitchen floods.

... take Charlie on fun outings.

... take photographs.

... visit friends who have new babies (hello, Allison, Amy, Catherine, and so many more!)

... go grocery shopping and cook dinner.

... READ! Oh, how I miss reading!

Of course, first I must get through finals week (a total misnomer, by the way. It lasts much longer than a week!!) Wish me luck and enjoy the beautiful Spring for me!

Charlie videos (12 months old)

Charlie had some great visitors right around his birthday- first Grandpa Mark and Catherine arrived, then Grandpa left and Richard came! Charlie had so much fun playing with Cat and Richard- one day we went shopping at the outlets and while Cat and I shopped, Richard went walking around with Charlie in the backpack. Fun was had by all!

It was so cute to see Richard and Cat interact with Charlie- they are going to be such great parents to their little girl (due in about 2 months!)

GLEEful

I, like everyone else in the world, have fallen in love with Glee. I love the music, the snarky humor, and that the underdogs band together! One of my life goals is to a part of a flash mob- to be in a Glee one would be awesome!! The spring season premiere is tonight!

Catherine's baby shower

I hosted a baby shower for Catherine (and my cousin, Sara) while she was in town. It was great to catch up with everyone! I left my camera at Grandma T's house so all I had was my iPhone to document it- too bad. But you get the idea and the moments were captured.

Charlie's Birthday Pictures

With our giveaway we won from the awesome Katie Dudley, we decided to have Charlie's 1 year pictures taken!

We could not have been more pleased with Katie! She had a sweet in-house studio with great lighting, fun props, and versatile backdrops. And she was so wonderful to work with- I loved her ideas and I loved how relaxed and patient she was with Charlie. It's hard to get a 1-year-old to sit still!! Her little boys were so darling, too, and Charlie really grinned at them!

Please click here to visit her great blog to see a sneak peak of Charlie's photos- you won't be disappointed!!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa

We love and miss you! We were glad to Skype with my dad yesterday on his actual birthday and we're so lucky we got to see him earlier this month!

Charlie loves to look at pictures of his "Papa" and lights up every time we pass the family portrait in the hall- he looks straight at Grandpa and smiles!!

Charlie is 1!

I can't believe I've already had one whole year of being this little guy's mom. I am so lucky.

John and I turn to each other EVERY DAY and say how blessed we are to have Charlie in our lives, how wonderful he is, and how much we love him. I'm so grateful to have a co-parent because I have another person who gets it- who understands how completely I am enamored with this child. That guy- we love him!

(He looks SO much like my dad in this picture!)

Happy Birthday, baby Charlie! We love you!

John to the power of 2

We spent the weekend celebrating John and his 32nd birthday! He was most excited that he was turning a power of two (2 to the fifth power to be exact). Love that geeky boy!

(John sporting his sexy moustache leftover from his winter beard)

I love this man. He is good, kind-hearted, hardworking and loves me and Charlie a lot. What else could a girl want?

Charlie signs "more"

We've been teaching Charlie "baby sign" for awhile and finally one of the signs clicked! He now signs "more" and "all done".

Amy's baby shower

A few weeks ago, I had a fun get-together for my dear friend, Amy, who is expecting a baby girl any day! It is so fun to share these big life moments with each other! It seems like just yesterday we were planning dances and dates!

Charlie- 11 months

Whoopsie! I just realized that I never posted an 11 month update for the little Cheby.



Here's part of a letter I wrote recently to his Uncle Sam, currently serving a mission for our church in Louisiana.

Little Charlie is becoming more independent and curious! He's been really interested in opening cupboards and drawers and exploring this big house. He just found the sewing cupboard, for example and thinks it's so fun to open and shut that little door (just his size!) He's also tall enough to reach things on the kitchen table, so I need to be more careful about what I leave sitting out!

He's a fast crawler still and his standing is getting much better! He can sit down now without falling- he just slowly lowers his little bum down. Darling. And he's a champ on stairs. Especially at Chelsea's house where they are in plain view- he and James have little races climbing up the stairs. (Still learning how to go down, that's trickier).

Yesterday I went to pick him up from Grandma T's house where he had been while I was at school. As soon as he saw me, he dropped what he was doing and started crawling for me and said, "Mom." It was the first time he's said Mama without crying! It was so purposeful! He's also getting better at "talking"- he babbles in conversational tones. Yesterday, Grandpa T was playing with him and then left the room. Charlie stood up against the couch and started "calling" out to Grandpa in little baby babbles. It was so cute!

He loves to play the drums, have someone chase him, playing ball, and taking baths and showers. He's very interested in watching the cars outside and unloading the dishwasher, too. He's decided that baby food is gross and will only eat "real" food now- toast, cottage cheese, cooked veggies, crackers, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, etc.- and he especially loves eating off of our plates.

We so enjoyed having my dad come visit, and now Catherine and Richard are here, too. We're enjoying the warmer weather and have been working in the yard a little bit here and there. Charlie loves to be outside but has forgotten about grass, and is a little apprehensive about it!

We had a pretty good month without sickness (until this week) which was such a relief! Charlie has become absolutely smitten with other children and babies- he loves them so much (maybe even a little too enthusiastically!)


Here's some more pictures and highlights!

-Enjoying every second of Grandpa's visit! By the end of dad's week-long visit, Charlie even said "Papa" once!






-Figuring out through trial and error that his hamper is not a tunnel...



-His teeth finally broke through- now he has two top and two bottom! We affectionately call him our little Snaggletooth!


-Eating his latest food conquest- small veggies! He loves to pick the lima beans out of the mixed vegetables- just like his Aunt Catherine did as a baby!



We love our little guy! I can't believe he's almost one! Where has the time gone??

Baby Harvey!

Rachel is one of my oldest and dearest friends since our days playing on Logan Avenue as kids. While she was in town visiting, I got to take some pictures of her little baby Harvey! It was so much fun- thanks guys!

Sam is 6!

We celebrated Sam's birthday this month- I can't believe my little baby nephew is 6 years old! Where has the time gone? Charlie loved having the kids over to play with a few times and Sam and Lily were very sweet to him. They're learning how to play with a baby (Sam is great at it, while Lily doesn't understand why Charlie doesn't get in trouble for not sharing!)

The Birthday boy

Sam and Papa Mark sharing a high five- Sam was ecstatic that my dad's trip coincided with his birthday!

Sam showing off the cool modern art painting that Catherine gave him

We had to get a few shots of all the grandkids together

Cat got Lily to sit still long enough to get a "princess" braid, Cat's specialty. Lily is our great little model- she loves to pose for the camera.

Sam enjoyed playing the Wii and Charlie "helped" him.

It's so fun to celebrate with family! We missed you, Richard, Mom and Aunt Barb!

Diabetic Connect

Hello all!

It's JohnnyT here.

So the super cool company I work for - Alliance Health - has a great website for anyone who knows "what it's like to live with diabetes".

From the homepage:

We're all friends here—friends who
know what it's like to live with diabetes.

We make it easy to start conversations, share recipes, ask questions about diabetic products, and much more. Our hope is to give you the support and information you need to live a long healthy life with diabetes.

I'm happy to be working for a company that is able to provide all of this knowledge to anyone who needs it.

So - what does this mean for you?

Well - first off - if you fall into this group above - check out out the site - I think you'll like it.

Diabetic Connect

And we just started a Facebook fan page for diabeticconnect.com. So if you also are the Facebooking type - please friend diabeticconnect at

The Diabetic-Connect Facebook Page

And with that - its JohnnyT signing off.

Busy, busy

I've been pretty busy the last month with

-visitors (Richard! Grandpa! Cat! Rachel and Harvey!)
-school (10 hours is practically full-time!)
-baby showers (for Amy! and Cat!)
-photo shoots (Baby Harvey!)
-playing with Sam & Lily (Charlie is in love)

so I haven't been posting to the little blog very much.

I owe you lots of updates on Charlie and all those fun things.

In the meantime, here's a few photos of our fun visitors!

Look for some more updates soon!

Incredible Giveaway!

Want a chance to win a Canon 5D Mark II or a $2500 gift certificate to Southwest Airlines? Me too! Visit Have an Epiphanie and you could be the winner!