Our Eight Month Old Big Baby Boy!

Chance is the light of my life! He keeps me young even though I'm starting to feel extremely old!

These are his 7 month pictures, and I'm obsessed with how cute they turned out!

I just laid a blanket over the back of the couch, opened the blinds, and let him do his thing while I snapped a few shots!

I absolutely adore his smile! It's the cutest, sweetest smile in the world!

(at least in my opinion!)

This is the look he gives me that just melts my heart. He is such a sweet baby!

At eight months old Chance loves:

-Anything we put in his mouth. I mean ANYTHING!

we don't give him anything and everything, but all the baby foods and snacks

we offer he absolutely loves!!

-To crawl!!

About two weeks before he turned 8 months, chance started crawling EVERYWHERE!

He is always finding something new to get into

no matter what we do!

-He is SO close to being able to stand up all by himself!!

-Chance LOVES climbing up furniture.

he will crawl over to the couch or a chair and just stand right up!

I'm so proud of him!

-He knows where his toys are kept!

I have his toys in the front room under a table.

All I have to do his set him down and he zooms over to play.

-He follows me and Shadoe EVERYWHERE!

whoever was the last to hold him, he chases around.

It's really cute!

-He says da da, pa pa, and ba ba. AND SOMETIMES MA MA!

Believe me, he knows what he is saying.

If we don't give him his bottle when he says "ba ba"

he has an instant freak out.

& if Shadoe doesn't give him attention after he says "da da"

he has the same reaction!

-Chance loves to watch "Bubble Guppies" and "Baby Bach"

They are the only two shows he will hold still for.

But, even that doesn't last long!

He loves moving around way too much to hold still for a whole 15-20 minutes.

-He can pick up food and put it in his mouth!

Such a HUGE accomplishment because he would only

pick up and eat things he wasn't supposed to.

like our cell phones or keys.

He still eats those too, but at least he can eat snacks on his own!

-Chance has FUZZY dirty blonde hair with a red tint to it.

-We have decided his eyes are HAZEL.

They are different EVERY DAY!!!

Some days they are the same color as my dad's - this really light brown with green

some days they are just green

some days they are just brown

and my FAVORITE some days they are brown outlined with dark blue.

WE LOVE CHANCE SOOOOO MUCH!

lake powell.

me & chance went to lake powell with my family for a couple of days. it was soooo much fun!!! chance LOVES the water but he hates wearing his life jacket. the poor thing, but i know how he feels. chance finally got to meet his uncle brad and they absolutely loved each other! chance mostly enjoyed spending time on being a beach bum, and made a really cute one at that! we camped on the beach and he did surprisingly well. he loved boating and camping!!

fight night!

due to some amazing movies that

have come out recently,

i have developed a love for watching

FIGHTING!!!

shadoe took me to the CFC (crown fighting championship)

in st george this last weekend,

and i LOVED it!!

his friend cris rogers is a fighter so we enjoy watching him

win every time! he's AMAZING!

i love getting to spend time with shadoe

in an environment we both enjoy!

the fights didn't end till around 11

and then we went out to eat at applebee's afterwards!

as a result, we didn't get home until 2:30 a.m.

and it nearly killed me!

i was sooooo tired. and now i remember why i don't stay up late anymore!!

chance is 5ive months old! WARNING: photo overload.

WE LOVE OUR SON!!

seriously. we do.

here are a BUNCH of pictures of him!

chance has decided he prefers to sleep on his side.

here he is holding onto the crib to do so.

me and chance hanging out in our sweats on a chilly day.

oh i just love him. sooo much.

i loooooooooooooove this picture!!!

classic bath picture. :)

he's adorable huh??

my favorite picture of chance so far!

this is the monkey aunt diondra gave him

& he loves it!

this is me and chance beating the heat.

we went swimming in the bath tub!

well... we mostly just sat down and splashed.

i have a model baby. :)

sean's graduation!

i had the amazing opportunity to take sean's senior pictures,

and put together his graduation announcement.

so here are my favorite pictures!

and here is the FINAL graduation announcement...

took FOREVER! because i was making it in Kanab.

so it was difficult, but it worked!

so.

as hard as i try to get my mom to send me pictures

(by trying i mean asking once and never asking again. my fault. not hers.)

she doesn't.

so here are the two pictures i have of us visiting for Sean's graduation!!

me and shadoe taking turns holding chance!

chance was really great during graduation.

he loved getting to see aunt jenna, grandma sherry, grandpa thom, aunt lyn, and uncle jim!

he loves his family!!

after graduation we dropped jenna off at school

(it was her year book signing day!)

and went to iggy's with everyone else.

we had fun playing a little trivia game lyn came up with

and enjoyed great conversation.

we were lucky (thanks to my dad) to get a bunch of stuff fixed on our car

for a total of $110!!

we got two new tires, new brake pads, and an oil change!

i love that my dad has all the right connections for cars.

i love my daddy!

.recipe.

SUCCESS!!!

i cooked something Shadoe loved!!!

Shadoe's mom is an amazing cook, so the pressure is always on for me.

not really though.

i just get jealous when i see how much he loves his mom's cooking compared to mine. so i got to work to find a recipe that would steal his heart!

&& I FOUND IT!!!

while watching my favorite show:

The Nate Berkus Show.

haha it's a simple casserole recipe, but extremely tasty!

so here it is!

the BARBECUE CHICKEN PENNE MELT.

Barbecue Chicken Penne Melt
Ingredients
1 pound mini penne
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups diced onions
4 to 6 cups shredded store-bought rotisserie chicken
1 quart bottled hickory-smoked flavored barbecue sauce
12 slices bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled
½ cup chopped scallions, white and green parts
1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions
In a medium saucepan, cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente. Drain, do not rinse, and set aside.

In a medium skillet, heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat and, when hot, add the onions and cook, stirring until softened and starting to brown, about 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease an 11 by 9-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, toss the pasta with the chicken, 3 1/2 cups of the barbecue sauce, the bacon, scallions, and cooked onions. In another bowl, stir together the cheeses.

Spread one-third of the pasta mixture in the prepared dish and top with one-third of the cheese. Make two more layers of the pasta and cheese, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the cheese is browned. Remove from the oven, drizzle with the remaining 1/2 cup barbecue sauce, and serve.

Shadoe and I found it quite tasty to mix green beans in as well. We also just used chicken breast that we made at home ourselves and it worked perfectly!

If it sounds delightful to your taste buds, GIVE IT A TRY!

i'm certain you'll love it!

four month old chance!

he is BIG and HANDSOME and we love him!!!!

at Chance's four month appointment we got these results:

90th percentile in weight at 17.4 pounds.

90th percentile in height at 26 and 1/2 inches.

he truly is a big boy!!

Shadoe LAUGHED at his shots, and as usual,

I teared up at seeing my baby boy in pain and distress!

here are some of my favorite pictures we have of our BIG boy!

Chance having tummy time on daddy.

This usually results in Shadoe getting covered in spit up.

Chance is a sleepy boy!!

We always find him sleeping in the CUTEST ways.

Chance in his SUN HAT and BIG boy shoes.

He hates having the sun in his eyes so i'm happy we got him this cute sun hat that has a crab on the front from carter's! best baby store ever!

& his shirt says "i still live with my parents"

haha i got that from target and i think it's hilarious!

this is CHANDSOME HANDSOME!

he is such a SMILEY guy.

we loooove him!

SUNGLASSES! he surprisingly loves these!

snuggle time with mama.

I love snuggling with him.

He has definitely started to outgrow cuddling,

because he loves stretching and sprawling soooo much.

So i'm always thankful for the moments he will cozy up to me!