December!

We are pretty excited over here that December has finally arrived! This month will be full of excitement... Mr. Jordan's birthday is coming up (the big 3-0!!), his 12 hour day shifts are finally ending (and going to 10 hours... oh well, beggars can't be choosers), we are heading to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville for a little sightseeing getaway, AND we get to go to both Utah and Arizona for Christmas/New Year's. Woo hoo!

We have been pretty busy settling into life with the little man, and poor Jordan has been working his booty off. Once 8PM and the weekends roll around, we are all just happy to get to spend time together as a family!

We have spent the past couple Saturdays going on family outings downtown, taking advantage of unseasonably warm weather, buying a new camera (hooray!), and hunting for a possible new (used) vehicle. Other than that, life has been pretty uneventful. Sorry.

To hold everyone over for a little while, here are some recent-ish pictures of life and Jonah man! Pardon us if some of them are less than stellar... we (me) are still getting used to ISO's and aperture and dinglehoppers and what nots.

  

Snuggling with Dad (and his manly chest hair... Meow!) on a chilly evening

 Pedestrian bridge downtown (Where's Jonah?)

 Our precious, drooly little guy!

We just love little baby man so much. He is so fun and we are kind of enthralled with him :) At his 8 week check-up, he was 12 lbs 3 oz and 24 1/2 inches tall. I swear he has already grown much more than that; our little Hulk feels heavier by the day. He has just started to smile a lot more and coos, ahhs, and gasps all day long. He has also started to lift himself up on his arms (mini push-ups), has much better head control, and can stand up and bear weight on his legs if we hold him. What a fantastic cutie guy!

6 Weeks

Our little buddy is six weeks old today! We love him so much, and he brings such joy to our small family. Jordan and I are pretty obsessed with him and just talk about how adorable he is all day long. Ha. Everyone else does it with their babies, too, right? We had a little photo shoot during his tummy time/diaper change, and I wanted to post more pictures and a video for our families and friends :D

Check out that Buddha belly!

More Pictures

I (Alyssa) am back! We will try to keep updating as much as we can; blogging has just taken a bit of a back seat to Mister Jonah man and everything that goes along with him. These are kind of a hodge podge over the past month and a half... my phone has been absolutely taken over by pictures of him, so I think it is time to share some!

Be still, my heart!

 

I can't even handle the cuteness that are his little lips and chubby cheeks... I probably smooch them about a hundred times a day. I'm sure if he could talk, he'd be like, "Really, Mom? Again?"

Jonah and Dad dancing 

Baby's first manicure!

 

Jordan's doppelganger

 

Our little punkin' head

 

Last but not least, we started sleep training today, and this is how Jonah feels about it. Hahah

First big adventure

So we went out to the mountains to see some leaves since our little dude has been a little better since the formula switch. It was about 2.5 hours away but he handled it well for the most part. Everyone that saw him told us that before we know it he'll be a geriatric - that was nice.

He was starting to get fussy in these pictures, it was a bit of a struggle to take a good picture.

One month

He's a beautiful child, as is evidenced:

But seriously, he is a cutie. Here are some 1 month old pictures:

And here's a little bath-time fun video

Grandparents

Grandma Mabry, Aunt Robin and Grandma and Grandpa Rose came and visited. They loved seeing Jonah and he said afterwards that they were all a lot cooler than he thought they would be. He was worried that they would be crotchety old folks but he said he didn't mind them at all.

Catch up

So it's been a long time... This is Jordan by the way. Alyssa is kind of busy with a very attention-hungry Jonah so I'm taking over for a little.

This was 3:30 AM on September 20th, before heading out the door to get that lump removed from her lower torso region. She has no idea what she's in for...

31 Weeks Baby Update

It is hard for us to believe that Baby is in the "30 Weeks" range and we really only have about 2 months left. Summer has been breezing by and for a while we felt pretty unprepared, but we have had a little more time lately to plan for him.

We finally got our stroller and car seat, and now there are actually some diapers and wipes up in his closet. It's a miracle! There is definitely still a lot more that needs to be done, but we are slowly moving along over here!

 Week 30/31

Little man is doing great. He is most definitely a mover; some days are more calm than others, but for the most part he likes to break dance in my belly all day and night. We are starting to be able to feel harder body parts from the outside, even though we can't distinguish which ones they are.

I am starting to get pretty uncomfortable, just mostly in my back, and some of the nausea is coming back now and then (probably because my stomach is smooshed). Other than that, feeling pretty good! Except when the aforementioned "uterus break dancing" occurs throughout the night while I am trying to sleep :)

Lots of people have been remarking on how big my stomach is getting and how I look like I am "ready to pop" (isn't that always fun!?;) so I guess he is growing quite nicely. Also, my belly button looks like it was experimented on by aliens.

Baby also has a NEW COUSIN! Congratulations, Amy and Matt, on sweet baby Tyson! We are so happy he is here and excited to see you all in August!

 

Nursery Prep

The dressers are finally finished! They still didn't turn out exactly as I wanted, but after working forever on these things, I am happy to throw them in baby's room and never touch them again :) They were my first larger furniture project, so I am excited to try something new in the future and improve on what I've learned.

I ended up going with a two-tone color scheme (Olympic: Heirloom Lace and Puppy Paws) and kept it pretty neutral, since a lot of the decorative things I am finding will have some color. I was originally just going to keep them the way they were after painting them, but thought they looked kind of boring, so I distressed them and roughed them up a bit. I found the hardware for half-off at Hobby Lobby (holla!) and voila!

The nursery is coming along a little bit better now... We just have to decide on the right moment to take down poor Jordan's drums so we can move all of the furniture into the right place.

We scored an almost new and super comfy glider rocker on Craigslist, and after a few more projects, ordering/hanging of some decorations,  and getting the rest of his bedding, it will be finished. Hallelujah!

Other DIYs...

 I "borrowed" an idea from Urban Outfitters and made a wooden letter to hang on the little bear's wall. After ordering free highway maps from the Tennessee DOT, making Modge Podge out of glue, and getting the letter with my HL coupon, this puppy cost about three bucks. Bargain!

 Since moving into our new place, I have been trying to figure out what to do with this old thing from Target. It gives off a good amount of light, but the shade is plasticy looking and doesn't go with anything. I found burlap that matches his quilt, so the shade is getting a makeover and being turned into the perfect nursery lamp! Woo hoo!

Once the place is finished, we will post some more pictures. 9 more weeks!

Savannah

On the way home from the beach, we decided to stop for a night in Savannah. We have been wanting to spend a weekend there for a while, but haven't been able to get out that way and don't foresee it happening again any time soon.

Yet again, it was super hot, sweaty, sticky, and uncomfortable, but we took a trolley tour and made the best of it!

 I call this one "Great with Child on Cobblestone Streets"

 We walked down by the river for a while and took in all of the old brick buildings and factories

 I apologize for the next few off-center/terrible quality photos... after being out in the heat for too long, we decided to just enjoy some of the beautiful squares from our car :)

 It's hard to tell, but this hotel was NUTS. It was rated four diamonds (I don't know anything about the rating system, but that sounds pretty snazzy). It was huge, and you could see tons of sculptures and amazing chandeliers inside from the windows.

 

More from instagram...

 Trolley nerds!

 All tuckered out... My precious lamb :)

 Wigs a'plenty

All in all, it was a wonderful week, and we are so glad we got to take our last big road trip together before the little sugar bean joins us!