"Who hears these words of mine & puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, & the winds blew & beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine & does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, & the winds blew & beat against that house, & it fell with a great crash."

Matthew 7:24-27

Monday, April 12, 2010

One Year Old!!!

Kyler is one year old today!!! One year ago today, I had been having contractions since about 6 am the previous morning. I had hardly slept at all the night before because of the contractions and we finally decided to head to the hospital about 3:00 in the afternoon. We got there and found out that I was 4-5 cm dilated, were admitted to the hospital, and about 5 1/2 hours later this little guy entered the world!

Kyler Erik Blanchard, about 1-2 hours old

3 months old

6 months old

9 months old

One year old!

Hi Mom!

Soooo big!

Happy boy

Give me the camera!

Hard to believe our little man is one year old today! There were times during this past year that I thought would never end; however, looking back on them they are done and gone! Other times seem to have gone so fast as we are already at 12 months and the days of Kyler sitting in one spot in one room are long gone! Our little boy continues to be such a blessing in our lives. He is on the go all the time! He is not walking yet, but he crawls everywhere, including up the stairs multiple times a day. He pulls himself up on everything (including the toilet) :) and will walk from one thing to another. He loves to walk with you, but has to be holding on to you with both hands, he doesn't like to go one-handed and gets mad if you make him do it, even though he will stand next to something and hold on with one hand or he will lean against it with no hands and play with something else... :)

We have been working on doing more and more finger food with Kyler. We have been giving him some things for a while now, but are working on making his whole meal finger foods. He's not quite sure about this as he loves to be able to just "suck down" his food and not do any work to get it to his tummy. :) Another thing with eating is that we have sucessfully made it one year with breastfeeding!! I feel like this is something to be proud of, I know it doesn't work for everyone, but we made it the full year! Kyler is down to just a couple feedings during the day that we will be slowly eliminating over the next couple of weeks. I am kind of ready to be done, but again hard to believe that this "stage" is over. :)

Kyler has been doing a lot more talking this month he has been pretty vocal for a while now, but I think it has definitely increased this past month. He has discovered his "n" and "d" sounds and almost has the "g". His favorite words are "ba ba ba" or "bop bop/bob bob". We joke about "who is bob?" "what bob are you talking to Kyler?" around here. :)

We love you so much Kyler! You are such a blessing to us! Happy 1st Birthday!!!!
Love,
Daddy and Mommy

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Easter Sunday 2010

We had a great time celebrating Easter this past weekend! Friday night we went to the Good Friday service at Naz that the students put on every year. I always like hearing about the students' lives and their different growth stories. Saturday we didn't do much, Erik had to be at the church for a while to get ready for Sunday, but we did get our refrigerator moved back!! (I'll post more on that later). Then on Sunday we went to church at 9:00 with my (Ashley's) family and then after church, we headed up to Denver (Iowa that is, not Colorado) :) to my aunt's house to have dinner with my mom's side of the family. It was such a nice day, the kids got to be outside and play. This was our 2nd Easter as a family of 3! Kyler was born on Easter Sunday last year, so we spent the day in the hospital, it was nice to be with family this year!

We are so thankful that we have a God that sent his Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for our sins. And, we are also thankful that He rose from the dead and is alive!! We hope you also had a great day celebrating Jesus' resurrection!

Our family!

Happy Easter!!

Hmmm, Mom, enough pictures....

These eggs taste pretty good!

Hanging out with grandpa

Ashley's cousin, uncle and brother.

Ava and Ryan playing with bubbles.