Ek...

Oh my goodness...

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted anything... Ek! I'm so sorry!

Life sure is INSANE at the moment.

To sum up the past month, we had quite a few weddings in a row, while trying to get ready for vacation. I'm not sure why we planned a vacation right in the middle of wedding season, but a girl still has to get some sun in the summer too, right?! We got back from vacation to hit right back into the weddings, while hosting a house full of family to celebrate the 4th with. Phew... It's been a busy summer so far and I feel like it's almost over. Boo! I guess it's only July and summer "technically" just began a few weeks ago, but still... makes me sad!

But we had a great stretch of weddings, before we headed to the most beautiful place on earth. The couples that we worked with were A-MAZING, as usual. Then we had about 10 days of down time while we travelled to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. What a fun trip! We had a blast and our little guy had a TON of fun as well!

We had lots of first for our little man, this past month as well, as he has learned to sit up in his crib, which scared me half to death when it happened, I went to check on him through our video monitor and he's sitting up trying to hoist himself out of the crib. Then it seemed like the next day, he wants to do more and more dare devilish things, including getting a nice bloody lip that wouldn't stop bleeding, to banging his head against our brick fireplace... I'm sure this is just the beginning! Haha!

But vacation was super nice! If anyone has never been to the Outer Banks, I totally recommend it! Todd used to go every summer as a kid, and I had the oppurtunity to go when we first got married. But this time was even better. It was actually warm, since last time it was freezing, and our little man got to go on his first real road trip.

It felt so good to get some sun and not worry about doing anything except relaxing, which is actually a lot harder than I thought. We went from rush, rush, rush to slow, slow, slow... and that in itself is hard to do.

We did spend each morning walking the beach (both Jackson & my favorite part). He seriously LOVED the beach...



Most afternoons either laying in the pool, teaching our little guy to swim, or playing with lots of people inside, since we all know Jackson wasn't blessed with the greatest skin coloring, he's going to be a burner. But he did great and had fun...





And most evenings playing games, laughing, more walks, and for myself... sleeping! Ha! I'm pretty sure most nights I was asleep before it was dark outside, you can call me either smart or lame, but Jackson was not sleeping well, which meant I was up all night as well! Poor guy and mama!

All in all it was a perfect trip as a family...



Here are a few I had the chance to take with my camera for his 10 month photos...





He sure is perfect!



"What is this I'm sitting in?"



"Mmmm... it's yummy!" Ha!



This is how he claps... he uses his elbow... haha! (See video below)



Wiggling his lips... he's so funny! (See video below as well)



The new tricks he has learned...



But summer continued and we came into our first fever, which was terrible! I felt so bad for him... he looked terrible as well...



He FINALLY got over it, which I'm so thankful for... but then my family made the trip up to visit for the holiday. I was so excited since I hadn't seen them since April. But unfortunately, the trip did not go as planned. My sister came down with some kind of sickness and was pretty much quarenteened for the time she was here, then it rained and fireworks were cancelled, and then they left. Waa Waaa... What a bummer! But I guess you'll have that.

I did get a chance to see these two cuties...





And Jackson had fun playing with them both...



Plus he has since learned a NEW trick...



This is one proud and now even BUSYER mama!

I'm working hard on keeping up on everything, but clearly I've failed miserably. I might just have to do a recap of the sessions we've had to catch up completely!

Happy Holiday everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends!

Just Going with It...

What a week it was last week...

I am learning that once you have children, your life changes... BIG TIME! All for the good, but it's definitely WAY different!

The simplest tasks are not simple anymore, and life gets a bit more challenging. But with each new challenge brings joy and accomplishment. Quick trips to the grocery or to the mall or to anywhere are not "quick" anymore... Ha! And even longer trips, say to visit family in Indiana, have become longer and LOUDER.

This past week, I thought to myself, "What a great week to go visit family and to see my bestest, Stephanie, as she just had a baby a few weeks back!" I could make the quick trip down with Jackson, and we could spend a few days hanging with family. We are going to be getting pretty crazy with weddings soon, and it was the PERFECT time before life gets in full swing chaos. Little did I know that, long trips are super challenging alone. Ha! Needless to say, Jackson broke his screaming record of an hour and a half. I felt terrible, but there was absolutely nothing I could do in the car to entertain him. Oh well... we both survived, even if he's now sick with a cold. I'm pretty sure he would agree it was worth it and sometimes you have to learn to just go with it...

He loved visiting with his FAVORITE auntie...



Lots of playing with his cousins... Miss Izzy B... who he loves so much! Despite this photo, she wasn't trying to hurt him... haha!



And Miss Emmie... they loved playing or I should say, stealing toys back and forth from each other. They both wanted what the other one had... so funny!



Here is a short video of them playing together... it's so funny to see Miss Emmie get so upset that Jackson has the remote, but then gets so giddy when she gets it from him. (Emmie is very vocal compared to Jackson... he barely says a peep! Ha!)



Making a quick visit to Indy to see my bestie... Miss her mucho!!!



And her kiddos... Landon is such a great big brother!!!



Happy Monday... it feels good to be home!!!

Happy April!

Oh wow... I'm the worst blogger EVER!

I guess by now just know I'm trying to find time to fill you in on all the wonderful people we have been working with! Just trust me... they have been amazing!

I can't believe it is April now... APRIL! It's insane how fast this year is flying by!

We had a great Easter and our little love muffin has been nothing but pure joy to us... I say this since it's during the day right now, but at night is another story! Haha! He is getting his bottom two teeth, so it's been a bit of a crazy town here since his mama is all he wants at night. I feel bad for him, but these FOUR hours of sleep each night are not helping my fog during the day. I know he's worth it... EVERY sleepless night!

Over the next couple weeks, I am going to do my best to fill you in on the A-MAZING COUPLES we've been photographing, but until then you can get a few of our Easter boy!

This is one of his favorite toys... and of course it goes straight in the mouth! Haha!



Haha... he makes me smile!!!



Happy April!

The Plague of March

I tell you what...

March started out to be a little rough...

I thought it was going to be great, considering the weather has been turning out to be fabulous, and who doesn't love fabulous weather?!

Well March 1st came and I was hopeful. But I started to come down with a slight sore throat. I didn't think anything of it because I don't hold onto many bad germs too long and I like to think I have a great immune system.

Well sure enough, that sore throat turned into a stuffy nose, but nothing too terrible until Sunday rolled around and I was not feeling 100%. I decided a few Vitamin C packets were in order. The only problem... I think I took way TOO many Vitamin C packets and Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, and again Wednesday night, my body was WIRED! Seriously wired... my mind was racing 90mph and I would close my eyes to drift off to sleep, and the minute I would start to daze I would have a surge of adrenaline that would cause me to stay awake all night long... literally ALL NIGHT LONG! Most of those nights, I would eventually fall asleep around 6am. only to get an hour or two for those nights. I decided after the firsts two nights, I would try all the "natural" remedies to get to sleep... warm bath, hot tea, warm milk, bananas... you name it, I tried it and NOTHING worked. How frustrating. Needless to say, no sleep equals a poor immune system, so this "slight" cold was holding on a bit too long. I decided a trip to the doctor was in order. So Wednesday I got the first appointment available, and off to the doctor I went. But what a waste of time... they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know and couldn't do much to help. Bummer!

So I tried to go on with my life as I was a walking zombie all week. Thursday night I finally got a few extra hours of sleep, so instead of the 1 - 2, I got about 4. I thought I was smooth sailing, until Friday rolled around... Dah dah dahhhh!

Let me back track... Wednesday night was a bit interesting as Todd was up all night with what we thought was food poison. But sure enough, Friday night I was up throwing up so it must have been a flu bug. So Saturday and Sunday was a bit of a downer... I felt so sick... I couldn't move much. I was starting to think that March was full of the plague...

But I woke up this morning, feeling much better, not 100%, but almost all the way put back together. Now if Jackson would just learn how to sleep through the night already, or at least not wake every couple hours to eat, I would actually be normal again. Haha! But I'm sure that will come with some more time, right?! I guess he just LOVES to eat!!!

Speaking of Jackson...

My boy just turned 6 months old... Can you believe it?!

He's getting to be so BIG, guess it's all that eating, and he's such a little sweetheart... He's so smiley and funny, and can make your heart melt!

Plus, he can do all these fun tricks now, like stick his feet in his mouth... that's talent right there...



He rolls all over the place...



He smiles like crazy and it is so contagious...



He's starting to sit up a bit... not all the way, but almost there...



And we can't forget those BIG BLUE eyes he's been blessed with...LOVE HIM!



Happy 6 months my love... I know it's a few weeks late!

That's ok! He'll never know! :) Hehe!!!

Happy Leap Year!

What a rare occasion to celebrate today... the fact that we get 366 days instead of 365 this year. Woohoo!

What a crummy day it is here in Michigan... rain, mud, gloom! Such a bummer of a celebratory day! Oh well...

Something to celebrate, though, is distractions... or I should say "more" distractions. It seems we have a lot more distractions here at the Veldman house with a growing "active" baby and I realize my blog here has suffered the consequences. I apologize and I promise I'm trying to stay on top of things and get caught up, but with a new roller in the house and the fact that I find myself looking at the clock and wondering how in the world it gets to be 5PM so quick, I barely got a chance to sit down for a few minutes makes for great distractions. Haha!

But we had a few great distraction come in town for a few days this past weekend. Lots of extra babies in town to love all over, which will never get old, especially when each time you see them they are growing and changing. It's crazy how fast time flies by...

Here is are a few photos from the weekend...

My sister and I's kids... Despite their faces in this photo, they did have fun. I think they are all in their own world and between schedules and nap times, we had a hard time getting a few of all of them together. Haha!



Lots of sister love was had...





And little Miss Emmie turned 6 months old a few weeks back... so we got some fun shots of her while she was here (Jackson's 6 month debut will be taken this weekend)





She was not a fan of the dog though... Haha!









Now I know why they call this yoga pose "Happy Baby"...



I hope you find a way to enjoy this EXTRA day somehow in your own special way!

Happy Leap Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!!

How exciting it is to share this fun day with the cutest little LOVE muffin in the world!



I'm pretty sure he gave me the best gift he could have given me:

SLEEP!

Oh yes, Jackson decided last night he would give his mama 8 wonderful hours of uninterrupted sleep. My body didn't quite know what to do and woke up a few times wondering when he would be making those little moans that I have learned to interpret as "Mama, I'm hungry". But I never heard a peep and I quickly fell back into dreamland. It was GLORIOUS!

Although, someone told me early on to just enjoy those late night feedings because when they are over you will really miss it and the time you were able to spend with them, just you and them! So ever since then, I have actually learned to just appreciate those little moans and wake up calls because I know it's not going to be like this forever.... and I TOTALLY agree with them, even though it's not the easiest of things, it's so worth it!

Who said being a parent was easy? Right? It's rough and you do a lot of things for them that don't think twice about... and we're not even in the stage where he can talk back to me yet. Ek... not quite looking forward to those days, but each day is an adventure and today is a successful one!

I hope everyone else has a wonderful day as well... however you decide to celebrate or not celebrate! Hehe!

Fast forward... 2 Weeks!

Fast forward two weeks...

Haha!

I think we've entered the teething world and it has not been the most enjoyable. Anyone who has been there can understand the fog I'm in. It doesn't help that we have a total mama's boy, so his mama is all he wants. Thus leaving me little time to keep you guys in the loop on what's been going on.

We'll start by showing you how chunky our Chunky Monkey is getting...



Haha!

And show you a sneak peek of what's in store...











Let's hope we get through this phase quickly... so I won't be so LAME! HAHA!

Happy Tuesday!

Vacation is OVER...

All good things must come to an end at some point right?

I'm so happy that it's a new year! It was fun to enjoy some holiday music, holiday shows, a few snow flurries, lots of laughs, lots of smiles, no workouts, and all-in-all a great end to one of the BEST years of our lives. But I was ready for the new year to be here, so we can get closer to SUMMER!!! Woo!!!

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm craving some warm sun on my face...

But the holiday was nice!

I can't tell you how great it was to just relax a bit with family and friends, and of course, our little love muffin. Jackson's first Christmas & New Year's holiday was a success! I think any year compared to last year would be a success though. I still have not been able to a eat veggie omelet since then... YUK!

But we started off our holiday by visiting my family in Indiana. Jackson and I spent a couple extra days before Todd was able to come down to share in on the fun. We had lots of fun times with these little ones...

Miss Emmie...



And Izzy B...



Yes, they both LOVE each other so much!!!



It kind of reminds me of when my sister and I were little... Haha... Fun times!



But Jackson got lots of love from the whole family, especially Izzy, she LOVES him so much... here are a few I took with my phone... along with a little video... (Sorry they are all dark, I hate using flash in their faces)





Tummy time for TWO...



Best babysitter EVER...



She had fun tickling him...



I snuck away for a little while to take some photographs of an awesome family that I have not seen since high school... those are to come soon enough. But what a BLAST that was... let's just say there were LOTS of laughs and LOTS of smiles!

After all the fun times down in Indiana, we then travelled back home to Michigan to enjoy some of our own little family time. We even formed some of our own traditions, including making these on Christmas morning...



Yes, they were as good as they look... YUM!!!

We then enjoyed some family time sharing our gifts for each other





And some fun with Todd's family... I actually forgot my camera later in the day so the rest of Christmas was undocumented, but you have my word that it was a great time! Ha!

The rest of last week was spent AWAY from the computer and enjoying baby laughs, smiles, cries (Yes, he's turned into quite the mama's boy), and snuggle sessions from both my boy's. Only one of those boy's will let me take photos of them though... haha! I did take some time to get some shots of him since he turned 4 months old... he's turning into such a fun little guy! Oh I just love him more and more each and every day...

Happy 4 months big guy!



He usually has both his fists in his mouth at the same time... haha!



I'm trying to teach him a thing or two about the camera... I think he's a natural...





I hope everyone else had a Happy Holiday and get ready for lots of posts this month as I'm catching up on the end of last year and all the fun sessions we finished it off with.

Happy 2012!!!!