Whitley turns 17!

I can't believe that she's 17! One more year and she's off to college. It's scary for us as parents! This is the family birthday party at our house, we had Dan's family over. She really didn't do anything with friends because she has been so busy.

Lizzy, Whitley, Ian & Brian as Whit blows out the candles!

Aunt Lisa with Ian!

Cousin Lizzy with Uncle Richie

Cousins Troy and Brian.......

Aunt Lynn, Lizzy, Roni, and Brian trying to give cousin Sammy a kiss....

Uncle Eddie..........

The whole clan!

Look, I can climb the steps!

Ian has been crawling around the house since he was 9 months, so we decided we would teach him to crawl up and down the steps. We still keep the gates up because he is not totally proficient at it and probably won't be for a while. But it's his newest thing now and because of that he wants to do it ALL the time.

Almost walking

Here are some pictures of Ian almost walking. He still has to use his walker because he is afraid to do it by himself, and he still has a hard time turning his walker, so sometimes we still have to help him with that but he is starting to figure that out too. It shouldn't be long here before he is finally walking. As of now he is 14 months. You can tell here that he still doesn't bend his legs, they are stiff when he walks! It's so funny to watch!

He is also getting a lot more hair, just since his birthday he has really grown a lot of hair. I'm glad because he seemed like he had hardly any for so long. Now that he's getting hair he is starting to look more like a little boy instead of a baby! Time flies by so fast. Pretty soon our baby will be all grown like Whitley!

Ian loves to eat!

Ian loves to eat, but he has also gotten quite picky. He likes almost all kinds of fruit including grapefruit which is funny. He liked it the first time I gave it to him. He loves cheeseburgers and fries, but we try not to give him those too often. He also loves raisins and he eats a bowl of oatmeal and a piece of toast every morning for breakfast, and he even eats cooked mushrooms by themselves. He loves bread, just like daddy and sissy do. Every time I open the refrigerator, he hears it open and comes running! Whenever it opens he has to be right there in it. I'm not quite sure what he is looking for but it is so cute! Sometimes he won't try what you have to give him to eat, he just seals his lips shut, but if I'm quick, if I know that it is something that he will like, if I can get a little on his lip so that he can lick it then a lot of times he will open up his mouth. Today he wouldn't eat pancakes but I put a teeny bit of syrup on his lip and then he decided that it was good. He also does this thing where if he eats something and decides he doesn't want it anymore, or decides that he doesn't like it, he will hold it in his mouth. One time he held some raisins in his mouth for about 40 minutes and wouldn't spit them out. Finally he got mad enough that they were still there that I was able to get them out. He also has almost all of his teeth. I'm still trying to teach him not to bite me when I'm trying to get that food that he holds in his mouth out. I have to bring half the fridge with me when we go to church just to keep him happy.

Daddy was saying for a while that everytime he saw Ian he was in his high chair eating, and that's not really too far from the truth! He's a hungry growing boy!

Tub Time!

Ian absolutely loves the bath! I think he just loves water in general. He doesn't however, like to get his hair washed. He also sucks on everything in the tub. He likes to suck the water out of the washcloth. His favorite toy in the bath is the rubber ducky which there are now many bite marks in. He likes how it squeeks. I have a feeling he is going to love going to the pool this summer.

Ian and Whitley playing...

Whitley loves to play with Ian and she is good with him. They have so much fun together. Here are some cute pictures....

I saw Santa Claus!

These are some really cute pictures of Ian with Santa Claus. I love how Ian is just checkin' him out in some of them. Just the look on his face is priceless.

And more pictures on Christmas Day!

1 year Dr. Checkup

Today Ian went for his one year Dr. appt. Here are his stats:

Height: 31 inches (85th percentile)

Weight: 20 lbs. 14 oz. (25th percentile)

Head: 46 cm (40th percentile)

This little man eats everything. He has gotten more and more picky, but sometimes he eats more than I do at breakfast and dinner. He eats most at breakfast. He acts like he has been on a starvation diet through the night while he is sleeping. Every morning he will usually eat half a cup of yogurt, a bowl of oatmeal, and a piece of toast, and don't forget the water. He doesn't really like milk, so we just mix his oatmeal with milk so he gets it but doesn't know. He drinks a lot of water though. He is a very good eater when he wants to. We have found that he will eat more if you put it on his tray so that he can feed it to himself, otherwise he may get mad and not eat. He has a little temper on him though. He is starting to show it when he doesn't get what he wants. Here is some pictures that we took on his birthday.

Ian is 1 year old!

This year has flown by so fast! We can't believe that Ian is 1 already. At this time, we would like to acknowledge Ian's birthparents, Amy and Justin and tell them that Ian has been such a huge blessing in our lives that it is just too hard to put into words. We are so grateful for your selfless decision. We hope that you know that Ian is loved so much and is being well taken care of. We all adore him! May God bless the both of you and please know that we think of you often.

We had a big party for Ian. There was almost 100 people there. It was a lot of fun to see all those friends and family. Ian loved his "Smash" cake, and ate plenty!

Here is his birthday cake!

Way too much!

Between Ian's birthday and Christmas and Ian being the latest addition to the family tree,.....there was just soooo many presents! As you can tell by the look on his face! :>) But we are so grateful to all of our friends and relatives and it was so good to see everyone!

Christmas Card picture!

The first picture is the one that I sent out with our Christmas cards this year! I thought it turned out really cute with Ian showing a bunch of his teeth and his cute little vest and tie! He is getting to be quite the "poser".

Time for the winter garb!

Here are some cute pictures of Whitley and Ian all dressed up to go outside in the cold. I love his hat, it used to be his cousin Brian's hat when he was a baby!

Cooking Baking Day '08

Every year we all get together for cookie baking right before Christmas time. We usually bake them at Uncle Eddie's catering kitchen. It makes it a lot faster since we baked almost 2000 cookies this year. Everyone comes and has a good time. Daddy gave Ian more cookies than he probably should have had. This was also the day that we found out that Ian isn't allergic to nuts.