7 months and still growing...

Okay so I have been horribly bad about taking pictures of my son. I used to give my mom such a hard time for having about 10 pictures of my childhood and now I just think well our third may only have 10 pictures too.. So needless to say I have been trying to get better at taking pictures of him.
He just turned 7 months on the 12th of this month and I have a BIG boy on our hands. He is weighing in at 22 pounds and I actually can't remember his length, but he is in the 98% for weight, length, and head. The doctor just laughed when he took his measurments and states "Well you have a proportionally BIG baby." I laugh and think yup I am pretty sure I realize that since I am the one who carries him around all the time... but it is a great workout!
He is turning into such a great little boy. Once we settled into our house he has been so fun. He LOVES his sister. She acts as if he is a doll and dresses him up while he just sits there and laughs. The other morning I walked into the kitchen where Jake was playing with his toys and Allie had put a boa around him, a crown on his head, and a bracelet on him and she is saying to him "you're such a pretty little girl". Well I guess we all know what she wishes jake was :) So I am trying to put sports balls in his hands as much as possible :) He is eating solid foods now, I have made him, Sweet potatoes, peas, broccoli, squash, and applesauce all of which he scarffed down, not surprising! He definitely loves baguettes and any type of roll he can pull his direction. He is also a crazy scooter. He can scoot himself anywhere at this point. He finally figured out how to get from a sitting position to on his belly and he is very happy about that. I have got him and his sister on the same napping schedule, which makes this mama VERY happy and he is sleeping a solid 12 hours at night. I think my body is making up for some seriously lost sleep and I am enjoying getting a solid 7 to 8 hours of sleep now. Some cute jake-isms : He is doing this cute thing where he wraps his hands around my face and gives me this sloppy drooly kiss, it cracks me up every time he does it. So crazy cause the other night we were sitting at the table after dinner and playing peek a boo with Jake and he looks at me picks up his napkin and puts it over his head and we say peek a boo! and he puts it down and laughs. Rob and I looked at eachother in amazement thinking theres no way he just did that.. but sure enough he continued to each night after dinner. too funny.

I feel so blessed to have two healthy beautiful children. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for His blessing. There is always some rough days, rough moments, rough hours, but there is always a time to be thankful to kiss those big chunky cheeks and to feel honored that God called me to be his mother.

Our trip to Ghent, September

Ok so if you ever come to Belgium you definitely have to make your way to Ghent. Its about an hour and fifteen minute drive from our house and what a beautiful city it is. It was just a great day that the whole family loved. I have decided that when it comes to touring a city Allie is certainly not my daughter and is definitely Robs. She LOVES to site see. Through the whole city she would walk through a church like a cute little old lady looking at all the pictures and stained glass with an amazed look on her face as she would ohhh and ahhh over everything. As we would leave one church it wouldn't be a minute later before she would say "Can we look at another church momma?" or "Can we look at another building momma?". We spend about 4 hours walking the city and never once did that little girl complain. I am always shocked at how much she loves to tour a city. I'm only shocked because I vividly remembering as a child hating to tour places and just wanting to play, so it makes me so happy that she enjoys site seeing. One funny story: So we are walking through one of the beautiful churches and Allie stops at a painting of a bloody Jesus laying in Mary's arms. She is looking at it rather thoughtfully and about a minute later she says "Momma this a beautiful painting. I think it would look great in our house." I laugh to myself thinking yeah that painting would be quite a conversational piece as I say "Yeah Allie is would, but its not for sale". "Bummer" she says and walks to the next one.
We had a lovely meal on the canal or crepes, sandwiches, and rob enjoyed a Belgian beer. Allie was VERY excited that there was a castle in the downtown of the city. It really was beautiful. I told her we would go tour inside when people come visit, since I was guessing we would be there a bunch, she was a little sad but just kept saying "I just want to see where the princesses live." (she is a TAD bit princess obsessed), but we moved on to the next building and church. There were horse and carriages riding around the city giving tours (another thing we'll have to do when guests come in) and Allie was loving watching the carriages, you know since princesses ride in them :)
We were pleasantly surprised by Ghent and really loved it. Its so fun to find such great cities not too far away. A great day trip.
Like I said before I will take house pictures soon and update on the house, preschool, jake man etc early next week! We are hoping to have Brittany in to visit on monday or tuesday!!!

A quick picture update!

I will write more later and update I just wanted to get some pictures up to show you some of the happenings around here. We haven't taken any pictures of the house yet, but I will soon I promise. We are doing great. Loving our new home. We have officially unpacked all our boxes, but I am still trying to get it to feel "homey" I have to make a big trip to IKEA to fill some holes in this spacious abode. Allie is loving her new playroom and her large fenced yard (ok maybe its me that loves the fence!). The pictures are of our trip to Germany last month to the wine festival in Bad Durkhiem. What a great time. We are loving all the great festivals around here. It is such a fun way to experience the different cultures in all the little towns. What fun. Then there is a picture of Robs latest 'accident'. I guess he decided he hasn't destroyed his face enough to he had to spash into a guy playing flag football.. So we had our first experience of a Belgian ER. Robs doing well though. healing well.
Like I said I will update more later I just wanted to post some pics now that we are finally hooked up to the internet. thanks for all your prayers as we transitioned here! I am still processing all the things the Lord has taught me through this whole process... man what a teaching time it has been for this family. Jake is thankfully sleeping MUCH better. He is now sleeping from 8 to 8 solid. Praise the Lord cause this momma was sleepy! I am gonna do a 7 month update on him in a week or so cause he is getting sooo big and doing such cute things!