Friday, January 31, 2014

Favorites 1-31

So many good times this week, which means lots of favorites so I'll get right into it!

1. Sunday we went to our friends Tom and Amy's house for a get together.We always have so much fun when we hang out with them. It is so great to watch Elliot interact with all 3 of their kids! We are sure going to miss them when they move back to MN in May!!
Old picture of Elliot and Holly(from November)
2. I am loving that we have had weekly play dates with 2 of my friends every week since we have been back from MN. It is so nice having something multiple days a week to look forward to and break up the days.

3. The weather here this week has been not typical winter weather. Elliot and I were able to get out on long walks everyday this week. Some walks he was in the carrier and some in the stroller but it always felt so good to get outside.
Coffee, shopping bags and a walk through the park
4. The following cookie was seriously one of my favorite parts of the week. It was fresh out of the oven at a local coffee place by us. Yes, I ate some before I took the picture. It was so worth each delicious buttery calorie!


5. Elliot sucking his toes. This is just something he started this week and it is hilarious. It is always his left big toe and he doesn't just bite on it he sucks on it super loud!


6. We are going out of town this weekend for our anniversary and I am super excited! Hoping we have some nice weather!!

Have a good Friday!






Thursday, January 30, 2014

Elliot's Baptism


** Apparently I do recaps 3+ weeks after events happen! I need to get better at this!

The Sunday before we came back to the Netherlands we had Elliot's baptism. We had him baptized at the same church Brent and I were married at. It was so nice to have our family there to celebrate this special day for Elliot with us. After the baptism we had both our families over to our house for a small celebration. It was such a nice day!

Such a great moment. 

Elliot kept making Fr. Magner smile/laugh during his blessing
Smiley boy sucking/chewing on his thumb
With my parents
With Brent's parents
                                      
Big boy!


Love that he is smiling in this one

Us with Elliot's god parents

Elliot and his godparents, Missy and Ross

At our house we had to get Elliot and his sweet cousin Hugh in their matching outfits :) 

Mamas and their boys- Thank you to Katie for taking all of the pictures at baptism for us!!

Happy Thursday!!






Friday, January 24, 2014

Favorites

Here are some of my favorite moments/events from the week

1. Tuesday night during Elliot's bath, he was hilarious the entire time "talking" to his duck and then chewing on it. Seriously, Brent and I couldn't stop laughing. Then after the bath when he was wrapped up in his ducky towel he continued his antics. We got a couple pictures that show his silliness.

Kid loves his bath

Squawking and giggling
2. Elliot ha6 his 6 month check up on Tuesday right during the middle of his afternoon nap(not a favorite). He was so tired when we got home that when I took him out of the stroller he laid his head on my shoulder and fell asleep. I probably should have laid him in his crib, but I didn't. I know that he won't always want to snuggle and sleep on me so any chance I get I am taking it :) 


3. We had an afternoon get together with some of our friends last Saturday. Since 2 of us have babies we all got together at 3 and were home by 7 for Elliot's bedtime :) Elliot was eyeing up the bacon covered dates, soon little buddy, soon. 

4. Brent and I have been making an effort to spend time together when Elliot goes to bed. It is super easy for both of us to get caught up doing other things (work, house stuff or just on our computers). One night this week we waited to make and have dinner until Elliot went to sleep. It was nice to have conversations without any distractions. Definitely something we need to do more often!


Have a great Friday!










Friday, January 17, 2014

Favorites from the week

Happy Friday! I'm going to try checking in on Fridays with some of my favorite things from the week. Hopefully I can stick to it!

1. Elliot has been saying "mum" all week. I keep telling Brent he is trying to say mom, but he thinks that he was born in Great Britain and not the Netherlands :) Either way it is super cute and every time he does it I smile.

2. Last night I got to have a night out with my friend Melissa.  We went to the same place we went to my first night leaving Elliot after he was born, which meant I got to have some of their awesome sangria again! It was so nice having a couple hours to myself.  Elliot did great for Brent and stayed asleep most of the time I was gone. 

Old picture but same delicious sangria!(this was before I cut my hair! I forgot how long it was!)
3. In Wednesday Elliot and I had a coffee date with my friend Daina and her daughter Bente. 
So much fun having another friend here with a little one! We have plans to have weekly meet ups until she goes back to work!

4. Last Saturday(i know technically not this week) I went to a hot yoga class with one of my friends. I haven't been to a yoga class since I was 7 months pregnant and it felt so awesome to do a class again. They have a class during one of Elliot's naps so it is perfect since one of us would have to be home anyways! I'm hoping to make it a regular thing so stay tuned! (no pictures of this because I promise nobody wants to see how sweaty hot yoga makes me :))

5. On Monday, Elliot and I went for a nice walk with my friend Lindsey and her 2 daughters. Her youngest daughter is 5 months older than Elliot and her oldest will be 3 in a couple weeks. The 3 year old LOVES Elliot and loves "watching" him for me :) 

6. Elliot finally getting over his jet lag. Let me tell you it was a rough few days when we got back from Minnesota. Thankfully we turned a corner this week and little man is back to sleeping all night again! 
Playtime when he was jet lagged ended like this many days


As you can see we had a pretty busy week with lots of get togethers, which has been great! It's nice to have some things to get us out of the house during the chilly months.

And just because this post needed another picture of Elliot! Seriously he looks like such a big boy!

Have a good weekend!

Mindy

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Christmas Recap(Only 3 weeks late)

We had quite a few Christmas celebrations this year. The weekend before we headed to my parents house in Melrose to celebrate with my family. We of course forgot our camera but managed to get a few pictures of Elliot opening presents on our phones.
First present-mama got a little emotional :)



Elliot got some great gifts from my parents and my sister(his godmother) and of course at first he was more interested in the wrapping paper :) We exchange names with my parents and siblings(and in laws) . A few years ago we started a no gift card policy and its fun to see what everyone comes up with for each other. I got a shirt that I love from my sister in law and Brent got a new shirt for soccer and toiletry travel bag from my mom.

On Christmas Eve we went over to Brent's parents house to celebrate with his family. We had the traditional Anderson family meatball dinner, the Christmas play and presents. Elliot got to be baby Jesus in the play since little baby Hugh wasn't there. It was pretty cute.
Litte E and a big tree

William, Sam, Elliot and Ryan

First Christmas as a family of 3!

Getting ready to be baby Jesus

Looks like he is waving

Baby Jesus didn't want to be in the manger anymore


Elliot once again was given great gifts from Brent's parents and his cousins who had his name. He got pretty tired during present opening and crashed until we went home. Next year he'll be running around with all the other kids!

Christmas day we drove up to my grandpa's for lunch and came back home to our house after for dinner and present opening with Elliot. Santa was very good to him this year. He got a personalized suitcase, a monogrammed chair and some smaller things in his stocking.
He loves his chair! Such a big boy!

He knew exactly what to do with the toothbrush in the package, so advanced :) 

Loves his links too!

We had so much fun celebrating Christmas in Minnesota with our families this year. It is such a different and wonderful experience to have a child when celebrating the holidays. It really has become about making memories and all these times special for him, with a few goodies in there for us adults too :)

Have a great Tuesday!



Sunday, January 12, 2014

Elliot 6 months

6 months!! How did that happen??


He's come a long way in 6 months lets take a look

 
 

This past month has been great! We traveled to Minnesota for Christmas and Elliot's baptism(more on that later) and he did wonderful. His personality is really coming out and he gave lots of smiles and giggles to everyone. We didn't know how he would do being around so many people and so many new people, but he did great! 

He also started sitting right after 5 months. He was pretty unstable and once we were in Minnesota he became a solid sitter. He is definitely getting the itch to start moving though. If something is just out of his reach when he is sitting, he will pull himself onto his stomach and either roll or use his feet to inch his way to get it. It won't be long and I'm not ready for a mobile baby!!!
Sitting like a big boy at his 6 month pictures
He loves eating! We have been feeding him solids now for about 1.5 months and it has been great. We started 2 meals a day a little over 2 weeks ago which is when we added fruits in as well. Fruits for breakfast and veggies for dinner. He definitely prefers veggies, with peas, green beans and avocado being the ones he goes crazy for.

Trying to help me get the avocado to him faster
Such a big boy in his seat

He turned a corner with his car seat this month and started disliking it a little less. We had successful trips to Melrose and many other trips with no tears.  He still doesn't love it but we are going to take any progress we can get!


We are half way to 1 which seems just crazy! Although, I think now it is acceptable to admit that I already am working on ideas for his 1st birthday :) If these first 6 months are any indication these next 6 are going to fly by. He is learning so much everyday and getting busier all the time. I have a feeling these next few months we will have lots of firsts to report on!