new arrival :)

My sister's sweet baby girl, Ellsie Ritter was born on Monday, May 16th- 7 lbs exactly and 19 inches long. She is a beautiful baby and sooo little. I got to meet and hold her last week and she is an absolute sweetheart. (I didn't take any pictures of my own cause I forgot my camera! But, I managed to steal these pictures from BreAnne's facebook. :) )

Isn't she precious!

 And just look at that proud big brother!

I just love this picture! (Oh man, sadly I was already baby hungry before Ellsie came along, but now... it's real bad... there is just something about a newborn baby that always melts my heart.)

Our trip to the zoo and Keaton is 9 months old!?!

On Saturday, May 14th, Justin, Keaton and I packed up our stuff, bought lunch at Subway, and then headed to meet my mom, Hunter and Maddie, BreAnne, Adam, and Maccoy at the Hogle Zoo. (I hadn't been to the zoo since my senior year of high school and Justin said he hadn't been since elementary or something like that, so we were way overdue for a visit. :) ) It was actually BreAnne's idea to go to the zoo, being 9 months pregnant and just waiting to go into labor she hoped keeping herself busy at a place like the zoo would help. :) Anyways, it was a fairly nice day, and we had a lot of fun walking around together to show Maccoy and Keaton all the animals... okay, so mostly Maccoy, but Keaton had a lot of fun just sitting in his stroller. He's a real trooper when it comes to doing things like this. He is always such a happy baby, I am one lucky momma.

The bird show we went to was by far my favorite part of our visit to the zoo. And this bird was especially cool looking. You should have seen it walk, it was hilarious. (I also really like the big owl that they have too- they even played Harry Potter music while they were showing it off. What could be more exciting than that, really? :) )

My sweet, chunky baby. He fell asleep while I was holding him during the bird show. Oh, doesn't he just look so stinkin' cute?! And goodness, he really is getting so big!


And since today is May 24th, that means that Keaton is now 9 months old! Seriously?! I find that really hard to believe. I mean, developmentally he is really only about 7 months old, and he acts way more like a 7 month old than a 9 month old, but... everyday he is growing and learning so many new things- (Keaton's doctor appointment isn't until next week so I am not sure how much he weighs and such yet...secretly, I am hoping for 16 lbs or more, we'll see...) but, he still HATES laying on his belly, so he won't be crawling around anytime soon... we are practicing sitting up a ton too lately and I think it won't be too much longer till he will be able to sit up on his own, he has become a champ at eating and loves it when I feed him both vegetables and fruits -yah!- , he won't let me (or anyone else for that matter) hold him while he drinks his bottle anymore, for some strange reason he prefers (and eats sooo much better) if we lay him in his bouncer/swing/carseat/stroller etc. and prop his bottle up for him to eat (silly boy), he loves to- giggle (he is getting to be quite ticklish!), yell, play with and eat my hair (yuck!), kick, kick, kick in the bathtub, eat those Gerber puff treats and yogurt melts, take naps ONLY in his swing NOT in his crib (which is weird since he sleeps just fine 12 hours each night in his crib!), play in his jump-a-roo that we borrowed from my sister (see the picture below, isn't it so cute!), and, of course, he still loves to play with his toys, go on walks, and just is always so easy-going with whatever Justin and I decide to take him to go and do with us. All in all Keaton is a very happy, super content, always smiling baby boy. And Justin and I just love him oh-so-much!

the Tulip Festival and ROUND 2!

I'd been wanting to go to the Tulip Festival for over a month and so finally, on May 4th, my Grandma Patsy called me up saying she'd heard I wanted to go and that she wanted to go too! So, I packed Keaton up and we met my Grandma out at Thanksgiving Point.

I had told Justin before we left that I felt bad because Keaton didn't get a very long nap that morning and now he wouldn't get a very good afternoon nap either, but Justin told me that Keaton had told him that he really wanted to go to the Tulip Festival, NOT take a nap! Ha, ha, and doesn't he look pretty darn excited? Ha, ha, he might just mostly have been excited to see Grandma. :)

The flowers were absolutely beautiful and it was a pretty nice day outside too, so for a couple of hours my Grandma and I walked around with Keaton in the stroller and just "oohed" and "awwed" at all the pretty and different kinds of tulips. Then, once we were done we shared a yummy mint truffle from the gift shop. Hope you enjoy our pretty pictures!

And then, on May 5th, ROUND 2 of eating solid foods began! And I have to say Keaton has been going strong ever since! We have now tried sweet potatoes and green beans (We have given up on the rice cereal for a bit... he really just didn't like it AT ALL.) and I think we might try carrots or squash starting tomorrow. Pretty fun stuff. Keaton makes an ABSOLUTE mess cause he really, really wants to help with the spoon, so who knows how much he is actually eating... but oh, well, atleast he isn't crying anymore about it!