One Fish, Two Fish. . .Patton loves ALL Fish!

At the beginning of this month we headed to San Jose for Sam's Grandma's funeral. We were excited to see some of Sam's family and for them to finally meet Patton. We had a good time, but it was a quick trip! Since the drive is so long, we decided to break it up into 2 driving days on the way home, and stop in Monterey.

And of course we had to head to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. . .which was absolutely AMAZING, I might add!

Patton was SOOO excited about the aquarium that he was literally running in his Baby Bjorn all the way to the entrance of the aquarium. He was so mesmorized by all the fish, and he absolutely had to have an entire conversation with every fish that he saw! It was pretty entertaining to watch him!
Ok, so I have this absolute fear of sharks, but I'm completely fascinated by them, especially great white sharks. When I found out that the aquarium actually had a great white shark in their aquarium, I KNEW I had to see it. It was only a juvenile, but it was still amazing to watch!

Isn't this the most awesome picture of the sea turtle? I'm pretty proud of it! :)

Patton enjoying the bay outside the aquarium.

One of the best things about this aquarium (other than the great white shark) is that it is so kid friendly. They have all these touch tanks for the kiddos to get their hands into. Patton is grabbing some sea weed in this pic, which he of course immediately put into his mouth. My curious little one!

This is seriously how he was the whole time we were at the aquarium. Fingers in the mouth and completely glued to whatever we were looking at!

My two boys are having a blast!

It started misting on the way home, which made the shore look incredible with the waves crashing against the rocks! We decided to stop at the best bed and breakfast about 2 hours south of Monterey. I'm sad that we didn't get any pictures of our B&B, but the food and location were wonderful! The next day we headed home from our quick trip! Sam had so much fun on our little vacation that now he wants to travel up the coast of CA this summer. That would be awesome!

October Festivities

This has been one busy month, but we're really enjoying this Fall season! A few Saturdays we went to Riley's Farm. I've been there on field trips with my students, but Sam (and Patton) had never been there before. We had so much fun!

Sam and Patton all excited to find our pumpkins!

The Riley's Farm market! Isn't it super adorable!? While we were there, we gobbled down some caramel apples and an apple turnover, all while listening to a good ol' fashioned ho-down! YEEEEHAAAAAWWW!

The pumpkin patch! It totally reminds me of Charlie Brown's the Great Pumpkin Adventure. Haha! We found two absolutely perfect pumpkins for our family!

Here's Patton's little pumpkin! Our family pumpkin looks the same but much bigger. I forgot to post a picture of it, but I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like.

It was also time for Pattons' first hair cut! That boy has so much hair, which is so ironic because Sam and I also have lots of hair. LOL. My hair dresser, and good friend, Liz did the honors of Patton's first hair cut. He did really well with the buzzer, but hated the scissors.

Our new hair cuts and our fresh new looks!

It's All About Patton!

Happy Fall Everyone!!

I can't believe that Fall is already here! It's my favorite time of year . . . the cooler weather, I get to wear my cute boots & scarves, mine and Sam's birthday, Halloween, pumpkins & apples . . . I just love it!! :). Well, here's what we've been up to!

Have you noticed that ever since Patton came along, Sam and I no longer exist? My blog and all my conversations always seem to revolve around Patton. I love it! :). Well, Patton will be 8 months next week and I just can't believe it! I've REALLY loved these last few months with Patton. He just seems to have really developed these last 2 months! Here are some things about Patton:

Favorite Foods:

Carrots, squash & sweet potatoes

Least Favorite Foods:

Peaches and pears. Correction, he actually ate the pears, but the result is in

the above picture. As for peaches, he won't even eat them. He spits the peaches on us and then clamps his mouth shut.

Favorite Things to do:

SPIT all over us

Play with Daddy

Meet and talk with new people - he is VERY notorious for talking loudly to every person he sees at the store and when they don't acknowledge him, he gets louder and louder! That boy is a social butterfly!

Roll all over the place- he learned to roll all the way over, and now he rolls all over the house. He loves it!

Hold on to the back of the couch and stare out the window.

Go on walks with Mommy and Daddy.

Splashing in the water- he recently discovered faucets, so every time I'm holding him and I go to wash my hands, he tries to leap out of my arms and play in the water.

Grab and touch EVERYTHING! If he sees it, he MUST touch it!

Be read to (which I love!!)

Other Things About Patton

He now has 2 bottom teeth. I think he's working on getting his 2 upper teeth.

He isn't crawling yet, but is perfectly content rolling all over the place to get what he wants.

He's sitting up pretty good on his own now! Woohoo!

He recently outgrew his baby bath, so we bought him this inflatable bathtub. It's bigger than his baby bath and it fits inside out giant bathtub. He loves it!

Patton HATES to be left alone at all, even if I'm talking to him in the other room! He always has to be able to see what I'm doing.

We love him LOTS! :)

6 Month Check Up

Well, Patton had his 6 month check up in August. His normal doctor was on maternity leave, so he saw another physician and she told me that he was absolutely perfect. What parent doesn't love to hear that?! The nurses loved him too. They kept telling me that he has such a personality and was so funny. Ah, the class entertainer. I'm in for it! Haha!

Here are his stats:

Height: 27.25 in (70th percentile)

Weight: 18 lbs, 2 oz (50th percentile)

Head circumference: 17 in (50th percentile)

With his 6 month check-up, he also had another round of shots. He usually vomits for 3 days after his shots, but he did really well this time. I'm just excited that he doesn't need anymore shots until his 12 month check-up, which surprisingly is coming up too quick! *sigh*

Patton had a major accomplishment this month: rolling over from his stomach to back!!! Hurray! I'm anxious to see what else he does in the upcoming months!

We've Been Busy. . .

Well, I knew that August and September were going to be pretty hectic, which they were. But surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. Here's what we've been up to:

We finalized Patton's adoption! Woohoo! We never feared that our birth mom or dad would take Patton away. I always feared what the state of California would have us do next. "Actually, you now need this certification. . ." It's nice to not have to worry about that anymore. On a side note, obviously the man next to Sam was our judge/commissioner. The lady next to me was the Deputy Clerk, who happened to be my Primary teacher when I was little. So we invited her to come to Patton's finalization. What a small world!

Now for the big event. . .Patton's sealing!! *Angelic choir sings* We did Patton's sealing over Labor Day weekend and it was PERFECT! What really helped to seal the perfectness was that because Sam's Dad was recently baptized, Sam's parents were also able to be sealed, and then have Sam and his siblings sealed to them. I was a bawl baby through it all! It was wonderful!

It's official now! Patton, you can't get rid of us! Muahahah!

Family kiss!

Most of the people in the sealing room. We both have LOTS of family! It was wonderful to see everyone's love and support!

Since family was in town, we did lots of family stuff. . . like Disneyland! My family LOVES Disneyland! So, Patton and I went with Jeremy & Valerie. This was outside Patton's first ride, the Buzz Astroblaster Ride. Patton loved all the lights, but hated the loud noises!

The happy couple!

Us on the Jungle Cruise. Patton LOVED the water rides- Small World & Jungle Cruise. He kept trying to reach down and touch all the water. That boy loves water. . . he so got that from Sam!

Patton also loved watching all the people and the sounds. He's very intently watching the parade in this picture. I couldn't pry him away from the parade. That boy is such a social butterfly!

On one night in September, Sam was feeding Patton and Patton was ALMOST asleep when he completely vomitted the entire contents of his bottle all over himself & Sam. Patton thought it was pretty funny. . .we weren't as amused. Ah, the joys!

Patton and I also went to Disneyland with my parents (I told you my family loves Disneyland). I love both of their expressions in this pic. We had fun hanging out with my parents, riding all the rides, and eating churros. I'm obsessed with the churros at Disneyland! Yum, yum!

Mom & Patton also had a blast together. Patton LOVED to jump all over Mom's lap. . . he's an active boy! :)

We were finally able to get Sam to take a day off from work! Woohoo! So, Dad, Sam, Patton & I went to the Reagan Presidential Library. Sam & Patton are preparing for their upcoming Presidential race. Haha! Yeah right!

Well, I think this post is long enough. I'll do another post about Patton's stats/achievements on another day. I'm blogged out!

July Stuff. . .

July was our annual Tahoe trip. Sam's parents have a cabin in Lake Tahoe and they go up every year for a week or two and hang out up there. We always have a really fun time! But, since I switched schools and they started earlier, we haven't been able to go up to Tahoe for a few years. Now that I'm no longer teaching (woohoo!), we had the opportunity to head up there for a week.

This was obviously Patton's first trip up there, and here are some of the things he enjoyed:

Spending time with Grandma and his cousins Liam & Layla. They were obsessed with him, and they see him every week at church. They kept pointing at him and saying, "Baby Patton. Look at Baby Patton!" Kids are too funny!

Wiggling and eating the dirt on the beach. That made for some interesting diapers!

Splashing in the 50 degree water (the water was SOOOO cold this year!).

Stealing our Wheat Thins. A kid after my own heart!

Watching Liam & Layla play in the shallow pools, knowing that he'll be playing in them next year!

Watching Daddy act like a cowboy with a straw hat (?!) while we were in Virginia City, NV. I love that Sam has his knee sticking out in the right side of the picture. It really captures the moment, don't you think?!

Smiling and giggling lots (like always. . . he's a happy boy!)

Snugging with Momma on the beach. Perhaps this was my favorite thing too! :)

Coming home and experiencing his first taste of rice cereal. Yum yum! Well, it lasted a week. Once I introduced carrots, sweet potatoes & bananas to him, he no longer had any interest in rice cereal. And honestly, I can't say I blame him! Currently, his favorite food is carrots. I'd prefer the sweet potatoes, but that means I can steal a bite of his sweet potatoes every now and then!

We have some VERY big things happening this month (Patton's finalization, sealing, blessing, family vacations), so I probably won't be posting until September. But expect photo overload then!