So......

Who are we kidding?  We suck at this blog thing.  I'll just cut to the good stuff.  Here are a bunch of pictures of the boy.  Who is now standing on his own, thinks "uh oh" is a universal word for anything, loves Mickey Mouse, climbing stairs and slamming doors.  Enjoy....

Excited for my FIRST swing!

Over it.

Cold out here.

Yes, to answer your question, I can sleep like this.

Watchin the Cats.

My favorite spot.

Pre-game nap.

Try to put this face to sleep.

Yeah, not sure about this dad.

Made it down alive.

You guys have no idea I'm pooping right now.

So many to choose from.

I'll take these, thank you.

My cuz, lil Jae.

Love mirrors.

Roadtrip!

"What's your name he'll write it on the wall" - Big Daddy

Uncle Michael And Aunt Kasey's wedding with mom and dad.

Love mom.

I guess this is ok...

Dad, got your candy...

Let's see what Grandma has in the fridge :)

Busted.

Eating in mommy's baby chair.

Christmas Decorating!

Family Photos

Some of you have probably seen these on facebook, but we wanted to post our family pictures here as well.  We took the opportunity to get Ames's 6 month photos and our family pictures at the same time.  Every day we comment about how fast he is growing up.  All you want to do is slow time down because you feel like it's going by too quickly. 

Here's a quick update on Ames - he's learning to crawl.  He gets around pretty easily right now but it's mostly rolling, shifting, sliding, etc.  He just can't quite grasp the crawling.  He knows what he wants to do, just can't quite get there yet.  Most of the time, he'll end up going in reverse.  But soon he'll be moving and creating more havoc around the house.  He still loves Isabella.  He seems to like Manney more.  He is eating baby food - loves veggies but is just ok with fruits (go figure).  He does, however, HATE peas.  That's my boy.  He screams.  Loudly.  If it's on his high chair table, it's being thrown on the floor.  He loves stroller rides.  He loves our bed.  Apparently it's more comfortable than his.  That's Ames in a nutshell.

Happy Mothers Day

Again, it's been far too long since our last post.  Figured this would be a good day for one. 

Ames has been such a blessing in our life and we're happy to be celebrating our first Mother's Day.  It was a good weekend for Suzanne as she spent some much needed family time in Omaha with the whole family.  Not too often recently that they are all able to get in some quality family time. 

I am happy to have a person like Suzanne in my life.  She is a great mother and an amazing friend.  We look forward to all the memories we will make as a family and all the future Mothers Days we get to spend together.  I couldn't ask for a better person to mother our little boy. 

Now for an update on boy (I'll try to include anything I can):

- Ames loves Isabella.  He will smile at her and follow her everywhere she goes.  Isabella shares the same feelings with Ames.  Anytime she is let out of her kennel or room, the first thing she'll do is run to find out where he is and make sure he's ok. 

- Manney is a different story.  Ames and Manney are merely aquaintances. 

- Ames has learned a few things lately - he can yell.  It's like it just hit him one day.  He realized he could yell.  And he loves it.  Sometimes he'll just lie and yell.  Apparentely it is fun. 

He also learned that he can touch his feet.  Most the time on his back is spent with his hands gripping his feet.  Wish I could be as flexible.  And lastly, he learned that tummy time sucks.  So he'll just put an end to that by rolling over.  His first roll startled him.  But once he realized this is how you get off your tummy, it seems like he's been fine tuning his skills.

This is as happy as you'll see me when I'm on my tummy.



- Ames has been sleeping through the night more and more often.  Not every night.  But we'll take what we can get.  He is getting into a pretty good routine with naps and sleep time. 

Good morning.  And by morning, I mean hello at 3:00 am

- And, we have teeth.  Boy just cut his two first teeth this last weekend.  And it looks like there may be a couple more not too far behind.  It's just a scary reminder of how quickly they grow up.  He's only 4.5 months old, and to most people that is a brand new baby.  But to me, it feels like he's no longer a baby.  It's crazy to see the changes me makes over just a couple days.



- At his 4 month check up, it was verified.  Ames is a big boy.  His percentiles are 80th for weight and 70th for his length. 

Here are some other pictures to get us through to our next post:

Chilling in Grandma's sink while mommy gets ready.

Taking over Spencer's chair in Grandpa Schreiber's RV

Where's Isabella?

Skyping with Grandma

Baptism

On Sunday February 12th, Ames Stephen McFadden was baptized into the Catholic faith. This was a very proud moment for us as parents. It is a very special event that was even more fulfilling than we could have imagined. God is very important to our lives. Our relationships - with each other and with our families - are rooted in God's love. We pray nightly for strength for ourselves and strength for our loved ones. While we might not always understands God's plan, we trust in his infinite mercy and love. And know that someday we WILL understand. We want our children to know and to love God. So this was a big day in that life long journey. Beth Miller and Spencer Schreiber are his god parents and we could not be happier. Here are just a few quick pictures Jenny sent us. I will try to get some more Baptism pictures uploaded soon because there are plenty of good ones.

Weight Gainer 4000

Yet again, it's been a while since our last post. We've been busy trying to keep up with our big boy. It's amazing how quickly your baby grows right before your eyes. We feel like our little baby is already gone. As this post references our baby boy has been on a steady diet of HGH, or so it would seem. Overnight his cheeks filled up and he started to take on a bit of a personality. If we were to fill out a personal profile for Ames, it would probably look something like this:

Name: Ames Stephen McFadden

Interested in: formula, frequent poops, sleeping

Love: bathtime

Like: 3am sportscenter, my swing, cooing, napping with mommy on couch, rocking to sleep

Dislike: taking the bottle out of my mouth

Hate: tummy time


We are really enjoying our time with Ames. It goes too quickly. Here are just some quick pictures we'd like to share.