Bear Update

Eleven Months

Once upon a time, (September 7th, 2015), Russell turned 11 months old. Only one more month until the big 1 year!

It was quite the month for our little guy. He had to say goodbye to the house he'd been living in for almost his whole life, plus goodbye to his friends living there. Good thing we will only be 20 minutes away! He is loving having lots of new space to explore. A we are ALL loving that he has his own room. Hello 10-12 hours of straight sleep for this little guy at night. It was the miracle we had all been waiting for. He woke up once the first night around 4am, then slept through the night every night after. I am one happy mom.

Here is a photo recap of the past month for us all to take a trip down memory lane:

Saying goodbye to his favorite place at GBear's house

Oh, it's alright. I have a tub here too!

Wow this house comes with new toys!

So happy to finally be in our house!

Finally able to ride his house from Great Grandpa

I claim this ship for my room...

Books, books, books... aka Russell heaven

My crib in my own room... 

okay I will sleep all night

Already comfortable enough to 

put his feet up on the dinner table

Making a mess in his room, and that is awesome!

Joining Grandpa K at the stake swimming party

The water in the kid pool was freezing!

Figuring out this self-feeding thing

I can keep all my toys in here!

Lightsaber and hammer= ready for business  

Hello Handsome

Reading his book to remember all his family

I like to stand up on things!

Why is there a gate keeping me from

falling down the stairs?!

Adorable cookie monster

Not impressed by the lake at the end of our street

Cousin Party in Maryland

Apparently every year there are cheap tickets to Maryland in September. Kenna went last year, but since I was fat and prego, I didn't get to go. This year we had quite the party with 6 adults and 6 kids most of the time! 

It was an adventure that started at  4:30 in the morning...

Chilling at the airport waiting for our morning flight

Got to bring his car seat on the plane. I thought

he would nap during the flight since we were up

so early... not a chance. Luckily he was well behaved.

Russell's Maryland adventure started with

Mom trying to slam his foot in the van door.

Luckily the only damage was a nice bruise. 

Quickly Russell David and Aaron Russell

developed a nice bond. Sometimes it involved

following each other...

Most of the time it involved food. These little boys

can eat!!

Aunt Megan had these awesome magnet 

blocks that everyone loved to play with. 

Russell was an expert at knocking the towers

down. Maybe Santa needs to bring him some!

Another cousin commonality- taking tubs!

Grandma Cathy came and was in grandkid heaven! 

We went to one of the parks and went on the 

swings. It was still scary at first, but then he was

happy, as long as we didn't go too high.

We went to lunch (twice) at Broom's Bloom and got

some delicious crab soup and farm fresh ice cream. 

They also had a nice field full of giant sunflowers.

Russell wasn't super impressed with the 

flowers, but enjoyed the ice cream!

Sun flowers everywhere!

We got to enjoy some most yummy Rita's

Italian Ice. Mmm how I missed it.

Oh look, Breydon came too... And stole 

Seth's Creeper. He was up the latest and 

got lots of quality time with the aunts.

Grandma is awesome and took everyone to the zoo.

Sadly, Russell was a tired, grumpy face most of the time.

But he was sooo happy when we stopped

for a 'Feed Breydon' break and he got to help

the zoo with their landscaping. Little boys

love their dirt.

Russell the monkey and an ape!

Rode the carousel... he did great, until the

very end, then he started getting scared

of how high he was going on his elephant.

Three little boys in one tub... Sorry Seth, 

you're too big!

Look at all these little readers. We are 

raising then right! Thanks for all the 

awesome books Grandma Cathy!

We took a hike to Kilgore Falls. Russell

got to ride on my back down the falls! 

He was kind of grumpy, but had fun playing 

in the water. A beautiful dog showed up and 

he liked watching it fetch a stick in the water.

Poor guy... we made him miss his morning 

nap to go on adventures. To make up for it, 

he took a few mini naps in his car seat in the 

way home. 

Sometime the oldest cousins lock themselves

in a room to play on the Ipad, so we get to entertain 

poor Adleigh. She got to FaceTime herself!

Russell destroying a princess tower.

.

We adventured to Amish country one day.

We explored a grocery store and bought too

much candy. Then we went over to enjoy a 

Smorgasbord of food. Russell was in his happy 

place, as was I. We had mac & cheese, mashed 

potatoes, veggies, cheesecake, cake, a brownie, 

ice cream, and much more! It was awesome!! 

Hanging out in Amish Country!

The gift shop under the restaurant had a 

huge Coke section... and one Pepsi sign. 

A picture of Russell being nice to Breydon, not trying 

to conquer him and poke his eyes! 

It was such a fun trip! Russell loved getting to play with his cousins since he was a lump last time they were all together. Thanks Megan for housing and feeding all of us! Can't wait until Christmas time!

P.S. We went on other adventures, such as the beach, which I didn't take pictures of. Luckily my sisters have nice fancy cameras that they took picture with, so look out for their blog posts about the trip!