Some of Landon's Firsts over Christmas

Well it was actually Landon's second time going to Charlotte, North Carolina, but he happened to have many firsts while he was there. He turned 11 months old on the 17th and we got pictures with Santa, which I'll have to post later. He had his first Christmas with his Aunts and My Lola and Papa Dirt (Grandma and Grandpa Woodhouse). He got his first 5th tooth (if that even makes sense). He had his first haircut. And he even took his first steps.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

(Landon's Christmas Letter)

January 17th, 2008, was the most glorious day in the world: I was born. Now I'm almost 11 months old and I'm so unbelievably smart that I'm already using words like "glorious" and "unbelievably." I've seen a lot in my short life so far and it has wizened me up to the ways of the world. When I was born, my mommy had a hard time leaving me alone because I'm so darned adorable, so she decided to stay at home with me every day. At first I have to admit I was pretty boring... I don't know why she wanted to hang out with me so much because all I could do was lay there and poop in my diaperJ But now I'm way cooler and my mommy takes me to the park to play on the swings, story time at the library, and even to a play group where I can hang out with my friends! But wait! That's not the best part! The best part is when I see my daddy come through the door after work. He's as tall as our house and he lets me play with these big huge banging things (drums) in his music room. I'm a natural, so they say!

When I was 2 months old my mommy's side of the family came to see me. They were crazy! They kept trying to make me do stuff... but I told you! When I was that young, I only liked to lay there and poop! And have you ever seen 4 red-headed girls in the same room? It was too much to handle at my tender age. My mommy has a mommy and daddy too and I call them My Lola and Papa Dirt. They came to visit with my three crazy aunts. Papa dirt is one handsome guy (but only because he was born fortunate enough to look like me). When I was 5 months old I went to visit all of them in Charlotte and it was so HOT! And since I was so much older I was way more entertaining to them. They couldn't get enough of my cute little tummy or the way I danced in my new "Exersaucer" with all the cool toys on it. Did I mention how many animals Papa Dirt and My Lola keep in their house? WHOA! Every other Sunday, Mommy, Daddy, and I go to Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd's house to play and eat good food. I love going over there and seeing my Daddy's side of the family!

Do you want to hear how amazing I am? I started sitting up the day before I turned 6 months old! Shortly thereafter, Daddy taught me how to crawl when I was only 7 months old. It opened my eyes to a whole new world of mischief! Thanks Mommy and Daddy! Wait, I'm not finished... I started pulling myself up on the coffee table and couch when I was 8 months old, and I've become very experienced with the treacherous terrain and the knee over hand action of these amazing things called the stairs. I'm not really SUPPOSED to climb them, but I've gotta keep Mommy on her toes. I also found a huge white shiny bowl with a lid that makes a really loud noise when you touch the knob (toilet). There’s water in there too, but Mommy doesn’t let me play in it L When I was 8 months old I started swimming lessons with my friend Sutton. I hated it at first when my Mommy put me under the water, but now you might think I'm related to a dolphin with the way I splash around everywhere! At 9 months I got to dress up in the greatest costume for Halloween. I was a giraffe! I loved it! But then, the next morning, woke up with this sharp thing in my mouth... Don't worry! It was just a tooth! And I have 3 of them now!

This month, Mommy and Daddy put up these tall trees with bright lights and shiny balls on them in our house and I hate to admit it, but they scare me! Mommy keeps telling me they're for this thing called Christmas... She sings and plays happy music all the time. I think it might be a conspiracy. How can you be happy with two scary trees in your house? But even if it is, I still get to go visit My Lola and Papa Dirt in Charlotte for Christmas day! Oh... and those crazy aunts...

Love, Landon

On His Way to Walking!

Here are a couple videos of Landon with his walker. I just had to share :)

Landon's First Thanksgiving

Yeah, I know this is kinda late. I hate to erase a whole bunch of stuff on my computer in order to have enough room to upload more pictures. Anyway, we spent Thanksgiving up at my cousin Todd's house with his wife and kids and my Aunt and Uncle. We had a great time. Lots of yummy food and they had tons of toys for Landon to play with. We've gone up there for the past 3 years.Landon loved the mashed potatoes, turkey, and green bean casserole.Playing cards and board games with the big kids
Riding Alia's horsiePlaying with Alia

Here's a cute video of the two of them as well.

My 10 Month Old MOOSE!

Landon is 10 months old already! Already?! YES! Already!!! I still can't believe it. He's all over the place. Getting into anything and everything. He's got 3 teeth coming in. The left one on the top and two front bottom ones. I wish I could get a picture of them, but he won't let me get the camera that close to his face without grabbing it. I'll try again when I can see them better.

A Rough Couple of Days

Saturday was the roughest day I think I've had with Landon since he was born. Daddy was at work until 9:30pm and I was left to take care of Landon. I thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal, since I do it every day during the work week. But this day was dreadful. Landon's teething became so bad that he didn't want to nurse or take a bottle. It was really frustrating because I couldn't get him to eat anything. He kept pushing me away and even though I know he loves me and still needs me, it still hurt my feelings. It was hard doing it on my own all day. He had two major crying meltdowns that put him to sleep in my arms both times.

Sunday he did perfectly fine, like as if Saturday never happened. We were late for church because Ben was so exhausted from his 2 full time jobs and because Landon was napping. Landon took a bottle just fine at church and took a short nap during the last hour. Then we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd's house for dinner to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. We watched Madagascar... I REALLY want to see the 2nd one so badly.

Being that Sunday seemed like a much better day than Saturday, I wasn't aprehensive for Ben to go to work on Monday. Little did I know that it was going to be a repeat of Saturday. He wouldn't nurse or take a bottle again. I tried putting formula into a sippy cup because when I gave him the sippy cup with water in it, he would drink it. But once he noticed it was formula and not water, he pushed the sippy cup away. Then I tried giving it to him without the bottle top on, like as if he was drinking out of a glass. He drank some, but most of it went down his front and I realized that I wasn't able to gage how much he was drinking because he was wearing most of it. I put him down for a nap and it took him almost an hour to fall asleep. I went upstairs to check on him and this is what I found. Notice that he no longer has on the socks and jeans that he was wearing when I put him down.

My friend Shellee came over to hang out for a little bit and so that Landon and Sutton could play. Sutton and Landon are at the stage of grabbing at each other's faces (they're only 2 weeks apart). But they still love each other. Sutton has a REALLY strong grip too and totally attacked Landon. I thought it was pretty funny, but sad at the same time.After Shellee and Sutton went home I finally just decided to make Landon some rice cereal mixed with turkey dinner. He ate that, which made me happy. Then we went upstairs and I gave him a bath. He loves splashing in the water. Then it was time for him to go to bed and he was very cooperative and went down just great.

Today has been awesome so far. He nursed this morning and at lunch and he even took a bottle. I love that little monster with all my heart.

Landon's First Halloween

Things have been busy this past week and I've been meaning to post Landon's Halloween pictures. Here are some of this pictures I promised.

He had a great time on Halloween. Landon was obviously a giraffe and Ben and I did Grey's Anatomy again because we didn't have time to do our makeup to be vampires from Twilight this year. Maybe next year. Here are our pumpkins that Landon and I carved (well, I really did all three of them).

We went trick-or-treating at my old office to visit our friend Amanda.

Then we had the "Trunk-or-Treat" at our church. Grandma and Grandpa came too. Landon loves spending time with them.He even got a picture with "Smurfette"...I still don't know how Leona got all that blue off her face the next day ;)I know, I'm such a bad mom. I let Landon try some of his Halloween candy. I couldn't resist. He kept watching me put Dum Dums in my mouth so I let him try one. It was hilarious.

Play Group Halloween Party

This year I decided to have a play group Halloween Party. There were TONS of kids in my house, but it was fun. I decided to make cupcakes with bugs on them and little smokey hotdog mummies. It was great. Here's how it all turned out.

Dirt got tracked around the house from our tree that's in the corner and the kids had fun taking apart the alphabet play mat. Kind of made me nervous but I soon got over it. I guess the're just getting me ready for what Landon will be capable of when he gets a little older. Clean up was easier than I thought it was going to be. Thank goodness for my Dyson vacuum. I LOVE that thing!!!

Our friend Dena surprised us with her presence and her two wonderful kids. She moved to Utah this summer and it was so sad to see her go. We were happy to see her again.
Landon and Kaile played well together. She used to beat Landon up...but he can hold his own now.

Landon and his best bud Sutton. They're so cute when they get together.

Baby Kate in her tutu. She was soooo cute!

9 Months!!!

Our little monster is now 9 months old. I seriously can't believe it. I guess I always say I can't believe it every time a month goes by. Time just goes by way too fast...especially when you have a kid. We had some pictures done on the day he turned 9 months. We had some Halloween pictures done too, but I'm going to post those a little later.

Landon can now stand up at the couch or any table...holds onto cupboards and the dishwasher...crawls everywhere....even up the stairs...he can feed himself finger foods like yogurt bites and stars and cheerios. He is fully sleeping through the night too. Sleeps from 7pm to 6:30am. Still no teeth yet, but you can see the little buds in his gums where they're about to come in.

I seriously love this kid!!!

Our Little Drummer Boy!

Landon LOVES playing the drums. Ever since he was about 2 months old, Ben would sit Landon on his lap and let him try to hold the drum sticks and then motion for him to play. He's sure come a long way. Watch.

Awesome Hair

Landon's hair is getting so long. It's fun to play with. I love these pictures.

Cracking Up

I love watching him laugh.

8 Months!!!

Our little booger is 8 months old today. Gosh he cracks me up so much. He's crawling and can now do a raspberry with his lips. He loves cuddling and playing "pat-a-cake" too. He is seriously the BEST little guy in the whole world. I love him SO much!