Birthday Boy

Here are pictures from all of our parties for our Birthday Boy.

Friday night was spent celebrating cousin Rachel's birthday and Denver's

Daddy and Denver opening up gifts

Mommy and Denver

Denver didn't know what to think about his cake Friday night.

Sunday afternoon was with Denver's greatgrandparents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

Denver with his birthday hat. We did a cow (and animal theme).

Denver wanted to get the candle!

Denver enjoyed his cake a lot more on Sunday. He started off with little dips of his finger into the frosting.And then he got messy! He doesn't like dirty hands though so when the frosting got on his hands too much he shake his hand to try and get it off and he'd make frosting fly all over including the wall! What a messy boy! In the tub he went with a change of clothes before opening presents.

By the time we opened gifts Denver was ready for another nap, but once he found TOYS he wanted to play and got his 2nd wind.

Monday was time for the 3 of us (Denver and Mommy took Daddy and his co-workers cookies to celebrate and then we had some time together when Daddy got home from work) and then we went to Chuck-E-Cheese with cousin Paula and Tom and Evan's friend Jordan.

In the morning Denver and Mommy just hung out at home and played with all his new toys. He spent lots of time playing in his new wagon and with his farm set. He just didn't know what to play with...he'd go from one to the next to the next. It was super cute.

We got Denver a little 4 wheeler for his birthday. He thought it was great! Denver even figured out how to get on and off it all by himself.

Fun at Chuck-E-Cheese

Fun in the tub with his new basketball hoop and balls. He loves throwing the balls in the hoop.

Happy 1st Birthday Denver!

It's hard to believe that our baby is 1 today. A year ago our lives changed in ways we could have never imagined. We are so grateful to God for blessing us with such a wonderful, handsome "baby" boy! Denver has brought so much joy and purpose to our lives.

Here are Denver's 1 year pictures.

Denver continues to work on his walking skills and increasing his vocabulary. I'm trying to remember all of his words...this is what I can think of now that he says..."dada", "mama", "daddy", "hot", "nana" (banana), "uh-oh", "moo", he's said "meow" a couple times. He found a banana in one of his books and quickly pointed out "nana". You can't go anywhere close to where the bananas are without him asking for one...or ask him to say banana without the willingness to sit down and feed one to him. Also, after my last post I realized I never explained the banana...we give him a banana with the peeling on it, but cut of part of the peeling on the top so he can hold it and feed himself, but not make a complete mess either.

Denver has never been very shy, just doesn't like to leave Mom and Dad's arms very often when there are other people around. This past week he's started to get shy. He will dig his head into our shoulder when people start talking to him. He will then peek back and bat his long eyelashes and then put his head back into our shoulder.

He still just has his 3 1/2 teeth! I say half because that top right tooth just doesn't want to come all the way down. His poor gums get so swollen at times which has made me think the one next to it is trying to come down too, but I haven't seen the one yet.

Denver loves to eat. He's not a very picky eater (unlike his Mommy...thank goodness!), but there are some things you have to encourage him to eat or disguise a little with some cheese or something. Denver loves bananas, yogurt, meat of any kind, tomatoes, and I'm sure there are some other favorites that I'm forgetting at the time. Today we cut out 1 of the 2 bottles that he was getting a day. He now only gets a bottle before he goes to bed. Denver never complained this morning that it wasn't a bottle and still drank the whole thing! Let's just hope the last one can be removed from his routine as easily. I think we will give him about a week of just the 1 and then try to get that night time one out as well.

Play, play, play! Denver loves to play and read books. He will spend hours playing with his toys and looking through his books or bringing them to us to read to him. Denver loves his tractors, trucks, and cars and loves anything that has to do with the farm...especially cows! He also loves his Baby Einstein movies which have been great for long trips and when Mommy needs to take a shower and there's no one there to entertain him.

I think that's about it. If there's something you want to know about Denver that I didn't think to include leave me a comment and I'll answer you! :) There will be a post with all of Denver's birthday endeavors lately. I didn't want to make this post forever long, so I figured I'd do that one later tonight or another day depending on the amount of time I have to get it done. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers you have sent us in the past year. We greatly appreciate every one of them and will need them in the months to come as we prepare for baby number 2 and getting Denver ready to be a big brother. God has truly blessed us with a wonderful little family....extended family and friends!

Some of Denver's Cute Words

Wow are all of you ever lucky this week with all these updates I've done! :) I have finally had a little time, but not quite sure that I really have....maybe it's just I've made time and haven't felt the best lately so I've been doing things that are a little more low key; like holding a camcorder and sitting on the computer. Yesterday morning I got the video camera out while Denver was eating breakfast. He absolutely loves bananas. He was also so kind to say some of his words for the camera. Denver is always asking for nanas. We also just love how he says hot so he gets asked to say that many times throughout the day.

Otherwise not much else is new here. We had a birthday party for Denver last night and are having a small one tomorrow so there will be pictures coming, but probably not until Monday...the big day! I can't believe it's almost here. When I think back to what we were doing a year ago it just blows me away how our lives have changed and all the more love that we have in our lives now because of Denver. We hope all of you have been touched by our little man as much as we have been!

Don't forget to vote for a baby sister or baby brother for Denver! I know there are lots of you who read this that haven't voted.

Walking?

Here's the "news" that everyone has been waiting for today. It's been kind of funny how "antsy" some of you have gotten about the new "news". Sorry if I disappointed anyone, but it's big stuff to us first time parents! Denver finally has decided that walking is fun! Before he'd take steps here and there and in between furniture and stuff, but never wanted to anymore than that...he'd rather get down and crawl. Well, this week he started taking off. Of course every time you get out the video camera he only takes a couple steps and falls down. Since every one was getting so antsy about the news I decided this video was good enough. Enjoy!

In the Pantry

Denver LOVES to get in the pantry, the linen closet (that's full of other goodies as well, extra shampoo and that sort of thing), and in the fridge. Here are some pictures from the end of October when Denver got in the pantry without me knowing it at first. All of a sudden I hear boxes being emptied and turn the corner to find Denver making a mess!

I hope to have another post later today as we have a little news to share, but I don't have the post "together" yet.

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Once again we've been running like crazy. I finally have some peace and quiet here at home that I can quick update everyone on our busy (and maybe exciting, as well) lives. On Halloween Evan and I got to see Baby #2 for the second time. Of course it was amazing to see that little baby inside me, moving all around, and of course his or her hands were right by his or her face. We're wondering if we have another thumb sucker on the way. It's another active little baby and I can't wait to start feeling him/her move around. I think Evan was amazed at how much this little one is moving around and that I couldn't feel it. I think they told us how long the baby is, but of course I can't remember what they told me and I don't think they gave us a weight. Every thing looked great at this appointment. The baby's heartbeat was 167 beats per minute. We keep getting more excited about this new little bundle of joy and know that God really did know what He was doing when He thought it was time to add some more love in our house!

Here is a picture from our ultrasound of our baby! He/She is looking right at us with his/her hands by his/her face...we like to think that little left hand is waving at us saying "Hi Mom and Dad! I love you!"

The rest of our Halloween day was kind of crazy. My doctor was way behind in the clinic as she had a delivery she had to go to, so I was at the hospital from 9:45a.m. until 1:10p.m.! (They did let me leave the clinic and run and do some things for work and a quick trip to Target while I was waiting so I guess it wasn't completely at the hospital.) After that it was time to get laundry and packing done (as Evan went deer hunting with my Dad and some other people...he left late Friday night and came back late Sunday night; and while Evan was hunting Denver, my Mom, and I went to Omaha to help my sister get ready for her baby...sorry we forgot to take a picture of Denver and his Aunt Kim with her big belly so no picture to post for those of you wondering how big that baby is getting...we just need to find her some extra time so she can do a blog too!), and an oil change on my car besides finding some lunch and picking up Denver from the neighbors. After we got every thing done the 3 of us jumped in the car and went to Freeman. We put Denver in his Halloween costume (pictures below) and quick took him to see Great Grandma Mabel and Great Grandpa Melvin and then Denver decided he had enough and needed to eat supper as it was getting late. After we ate supper we took Daddy to Great Uncle Loren's and Great Aunt Carolyn's (and of course cousin Drew's....which it was his birthday...Happy Birthday again Drew!) where we dropped off Daddy to leave for hunting and then Denver and I headed to my Mom and Dad's so Mom, Denver, and I could leave for Omaha. This was perfect as Denver slept most of the way there and made the drive wonderful! Unfortunately, I craziness during the day prevented us from taking Denver to see all of his other Grandparents/Great Grandparents/ other family members/and friends in his costume so if someone really wants to see him in person in his costume call us up and we'll see what we can work out. Hopefully next year we won't be so busy and Denver will have more energy for trick or treating...but we'll see how the baby does...ah, never ending. :)

So that's our life this past weekend in a nutshell (well, sort of, I guess). Evan did not get a deer. The weather was too nice that they barely saw any deer. Denver and I took Evan to the airport on Tuesday. Evan is in Las Vegas until Saturday evening where he is attending NACE (an auto body convention for work). Tuesday night he got to go to the Nascar track there and ride in a car and today he got to meet Archie Manning in person. I sent the little camera with him so hopefully he'll have some pictures to share.

Denver's still working on walking. He's still convinced it's way faster to crawl than walk. He will take steps here and there on his own from one thing to the next and he will walk between people at times. Also, I don't think I ever shared we were able to stop giving Denver his Prevacid (his acid reflux medicine). We quit this at least a month ago probably and he's been doing great! His vocabulary continues to grow every day. His favorite word is hot. Every thing is hot, but he does really know what it means as he'll pick up some food that is hot and say hot and throw it back down or when I'm getting some thing out of the toaster, oven, etc. he says "hot". I think that's it for now. His big birthday is coming soon so there will be an update then if not before.

First Bubble Bath

Denver has his first bubble bath this past weekend. We continue to struggle with his little bottom. I called dermatology again last Friday and they decided we should go back to the last cream they had prescribed and do it twice a day for 2 weeks along with the Aveeno baths that we also had done before. Several of the girls I work with swear by soaking babies bad bottoms in a little Dreft. So, Saturday night I said let's try some Dreft in Denver's bath along with his Aveeno bath. Believe it or not, Sunday Denver's bottom looked great again. Now we started his cream on Friday again, plus I've also been using A&D which I've never been a believer in it, but we had gotten some free tubes of it and when I was looking at the tube the other day I noticed it said to use for very dry skin. What was it that made it better, I'm not sure, I'm just happy it looks good again. I hope that it stays this way even after we're done with our cream for 2 weeks.

Here are some pictures of Denver in his 1st bubble bath. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it. He would try to eat the bubbles and Daddy was worried that he'd get it in his eyes and that it would hurt so he actually didn't soak in the Dreft (and bubbles) very long. We've also cut down on baths for the time being to just every other day. Our routine had been every night before bed, but we thought that might be drying his butt out as well.

Denver also said a new word today. I made some HyVee waffles this morning in the toaster oven and when I took them out I said they are "hot" and in return Denver said "hot, hot, hot". Of course when I could go get the video camera he wouldn't say it anymore, but it was super cute.

Denver loves to play in small spaces and to hide and play peek. He'll be playing in the living room and all of a sudden his face will light up and he'll quickly crawl over by the couch where he can hide by the side of the couch and then pop out and play "peek!". He also loves to crawl underneath his high chair and to play there. Thank goodness he has finally learned how to get himself back out after he gets under there as he used to the be stuck and would cry until you'd come help me back out.

What does the cow say?

Denver loves to go to the farm or to be outside where he can hear the dogs barking. When Denver sees Grandma Verni he usually starts looking around and mooing. He knows he goes to see the cows with her. One of Denver's favorite words it "moo", except it usually comes out "boo". I called Evan from work one day to check on them and he said every thing is "boo, boo", what's with that and I laughed and reminded him that Denver was looking for the cows!

Denver has gotten really good at climbing up the stairs. I haven't ever timed him, but I'm sure he can get up all the stairs from the basement to the upstairs in less than a minute. Denver has also been fighting a cold off and on since he turned 10 months old. We had finally been runny nose free for a week or more and then he woke up with a runny nose again. He's been a good sport about it. Today he acted like he didn't feel good, but just kept on going and still had a great appetite so I'm thankful for that. Daddy has a cold too, so Mommy's hoping she can steer clear!

Denver's 4th tooth popped through last week. This one has been even slower at coming through than his 3rd one. I kind of think this one has bothered him the most too. He has times that he just seems in pain and he chews so hard on things. The last couple of nights he's gotten up during the night...which we think is because his tooth is bothering him. We give him some Motrin or Tylenol and then he goes right back to sleep. He seems to know that once he has that it will get better! Smart kid!

I put a poll on the side by Denver's picture and age ticker. Please take the time to vote if you think Denver will have a baby brother or a baby sister. We do plan on finding out in advance again. Evan is very anxious to know, but we have quite awhile to wait so during that waiting time we thought it would be fun to see what everyone else thinks.

God's Plans

Isn't it funny how we can have our own "plans" made, but then God intervenes and makes His plan happen! About 5 weeks ago we were once again reminded that God is in control and He has different plans than us. Some of you may be wondering what this "change in plans" was for us, while several others of you have already heard God's big plans for us. Well ready or not....just like us....God thinks we need a bigger family....yes, already! Denver is going to be a big brother some time the middle of May 2009! This will make the kids about 18 months apart. After reading everything you just read you know that this wasn't exactly our plan and you probably have guessed right...it's taken us a long time to absorb this information (as it has and/or will be for most people), BUT we couldn't be HAPPIER. There are lots of "details" that are overwhelming us, but the thought of Denver having a little playmate every day is exciting. We are also excited and curious about how the 3 cousins (my sister's little boy that should be here in a little over a month!) will get along and what they will scheme up! During this time we ask you to pray for us and God's guidance upon us. May God keep His hand upon us and our little miracle on the way; and make this baby grow strong and healthy. Also, to keep us all healthy, as Mommy has been extremely tired (attemping to feed 3....I've been given the okay to keep on nursing through my first trimester, but we've been working on cutting back for my sake and for Denver's as he has enough change coming in the next 7 months) and not feeling the best which in turn has created more work for Daddy (as if he doesn't work hard enough!) and Denver who I think some times wonders "Why doesn't Mom play with me as much as she used too? And why does Daddy run around and do so much, that he doesn't have as much time to play with me either?".

Daddy was so excited about sharing the news he did some photo-shopping and sent this out to his co-workers (and just waited at his desk for responses from people) and some friends.

See our new little miracle's ticker at the bottom of our blog (it was too big to go on the side by Denver's and our anniverary one and I couldn't make it any smaller so that's where it had to go). It will keep you updated on how old this little baby is and about how many days we have to wait until to we get to meet this new, special addition to our family!

Our Lil Pumpkin

I'm not sure that I'll have time to update towards the end of the week so thought I'd get this blog done now. Denver will be 11 months on Friday! Where has the time gone? We've had so much fun with him and watching him learn new things, but at the same time I'm sad to see my little boy get so big! We'll see how that BIG birthday goes in a month. I will just savor all my time with him now as I know it will just go faster as he gets older. There isn't much new to update on Denver. His butt had been all clear, but now it's been acting up a little bit again and I'm at a loss of what to do. We'll see what it does in the next couple of days and see if we need to go back in for it or not, but please pray that it just heals and we're done with it. I hope to have some more fall pictures later, but maybe those will be his 1 year pictures, but for now here is Denver with his pumpkin that Grandma Verni thought he needed! :) We had wanted to go to the Pumpkin Patch with him as well, but on our way out there on Saturday it started raining so we never went and I work the next 2 weekends so I'm not sure that we'll make it this year.

Sleepless Nights?

I thought once you got through the sleepless nights stage it was basically over other than an occasional night here or there. Well, boy was I wrong! The occasional night here and there is several nights in a row here and there (which recently seems to be quite often)! When Denver's butt was so owie he started getting up during the night...we're guessing because he was itchy and in pain. Now he's been doing it again. First, we thought it was because he kicks all of his covers off and rolls all around in his bed so we went and bought new jammies yesterday so he wouldn't freeze (they are fleece WITH feet so he should stay warm, right?), well once again a little before 1a.m. we hear a "waaa, waaaa" coming from Denver's room. Daddy went and saw he was still wrapped up so at least last night it wasn't out of being cold...and then told him it was still "na-nigh time", but he continued to scream frantically. I went and got some Motrin, gave it to him, wrapped him up (because now he did have the covers off), and immediately silence! Now we think it's those silly teeth. When you look at his gums you can see white all over so I'm guessing it won't be long and this kiddo will have a mouth full of teeth! I'm pretty sure the other top front tooth is really close to popping through. Then again at 5a.m. came more crying. We gave in and let him eat, he ate and went right back to sleep. That's such a dilemma....when you're tired and just want that last little bit of sleep and you know if you feed the guy he'll go back to sleep that's all you want to do, but then you wonder if we feed him is he going to keep on getting up this early in the morning and wanting to eat? We've also been trying to cut back on the nursing and switch to the sippy cup. We've struggled here as well. Denver will drink some milk out of his sippy cup, but he won't consume the amount of milk in a day that he's supposed to unless he nurses! Anyone with any advice or suggestions we'd gladly take them. (You can even leave a quick comment at the bottom of this "Sleepless Nights?" blog by clicking on comment! Hint, hint....are people scared to leave comments...seems only people who have a blog ever leave comments on anyones blog.)

Denver showing off a pair of his new warm jammies!

It was my birthday yesterday and Evan invited a couple friends over for supper. It was nice to hang out at home, but do something with some of our friends. We're at the time in our lives where almost all of our friends are either pregnant or have a child or too. Denver loved being able to play with some of his friends at his house. It was so cute watching them play together. At one point all 3 of the little ones were back in a little corner. I didn't get to my camera fast enough so I didn't get a picture of it, but it was pretty funny. Denver is always finding the tiniest places to crawl into. He likes to trap himself behind his jumperoo (which we found out can be dangerous...Daddy was napping one day while Mommy was at work and woke up to Denver crying because his head was stuck in the railing!! Don't worry Daddy got it right out, but it sure scared Dad and I don't know that he'll fall asleep while Denver's roaming around anymore!), he also loves to crawl under his high chair and to play under there...the problem is figuring out how to get back out of all these places.

Here are some more pictures of our little man:

Denver loves to crawl in the closet and play in there. Typically he gets himself into trouble in there because he always pulls the little scrubber off the swiffer and chews on it (GROSS!). He'd play in there for hours if you let him.

Here's Denver walking to Mom. He still won't take more than 6 steps and then decides its faster to get down on the floor and crawl. Evan thinks he'd win a crawling contest for speed. If you open the fridge door you can bet he'll be there in a couple seconds no matter where he was in the house before you opened the fridge!

New Things

Denver keeps on learning and doing new things. He also had his first cold, which I forgot to include in his 10 month blog. The day Denver turned 10 months he came down with his first cold. He had a runny nose and a cough and his lungs sounded terrible. I bulb syringed his nose tons during that week which he absolutely hated. It was finally better and now he's working on his top left front tooth and this in turn has caused a runny nose too! The poor guy. He hasn't been to fussy with this tooth coming in, but the other night when I had to go to work I think it was bothering him and he just wanted me to sit and hold him...it was very hard for me to walk out the door! Here are some pictures I took of Denver the other day. If you notice his pants are a little big, it's because we moved up a size. His jeans that are 6-12 months are too short, but these 12-18 month are pretty big yet too! I wish they didn't put such a big span between sizes; oh well at least he can wear these for a LONG time. Evan was shaving the other night when he gave Denver a bath and when he was done he put his face in the tub to wash off his face and blew bubbles. Denver immediately picked up on this and started doing it too. Here's a video of him, it's too cute!

Here's a video of Denver when I walked into his room to get him out of his crib after his afternoon nap. He typically wakes up happy and loves to play around in his crib before he starts hollering for someone to come and get him.

This is an older video of Denver playing in the tub. He loves to make "noises" in cups.