6 Months

Our baby boy is 6 months today! We are overjoyed to celebrate half a year with this little guy.....after all, he's the best thing that ever happened to our family!

Our little guy is as happy as can be. He's growing great (we head to the doctor next week, so stay tuned for the exact numbers). He's crawling backwards, sideways, and almost the right way! He's sleeping very consistently 11 hours a night...woohoo! He's eating rice cereal and some yummy veggies (I'll post some pics of me making the baby food{thanks Elizabeth and Faye}). He seems to be enjoying life, and we are so incredibly grateful for that. I think we've all figured out what works...until we start another chapter of changes!

Thanks for keeping up with our growing family. We love getting the texts and emails about the blog. We are always happy to brag about our little guy and it's nice to know everyone else isn't totally over hearing it! We truly love you all. XOXO!

So big!

Ty is happy, healthy, and growing like a weed. The Bowman house is full of laughter and squeals these days. It's hard to remember the days before Ty because it feels like life began once we had him!

Thank you all for your continued love and support. We are grateful Ty is surrounded by so many amazing people.

Love to you all. XOXO!

5 Months and More Firsts

Ty is 5 months! Every time I post, I find myself saying how can it already be, and here is another example....where has 5 months gone?!?! Here's Ty on the "big" day with Nona. She braved the snow to keep Ty on Saturday, and help ring in being another month older!

Our little busy body is refining his motor skills he's able to pick up toys, move them from hand to hand, and put them in his mouth (of course, he puts everything in his mouth!). PS-part of the mouth thing is another tooth...who could imagine a third tooth already?!?!

Another something new....rice cereal! Ty had his first "food" last night and did great. Many of you know all the recent tummy issues for little man, but this may be the perfect piece of the puzzle in figuring out a solution.

At about the 3rd spoon full Ty figured out how to "eat." Now he leans in for every bite...he's a little pig!

It was a fun first, and a great look at the messes this kiddo is going to make in the kitchen. There's nothing clean about the way he eats!

A couple of fun notes, he ate his first meal with Beth's silver spoon from when she was a baby (a gift that got me very teary eyed when my mom gave it to me at Ty's baby shower)! He ate out of his first dishes from Christmas (thanks, Santa), and he greatly enjoyed finally getting to use his high chair from Diane Gordon (a wonderful, amazing woman who has been a dear friend, mentor, and supporter).

Lastly, Ty's first trip out to the snow! It lasted maybe 3 minutes, but we caught a couple of quick pictures of him. After all, we had to get some shots of him in this precious little white bear outfit from aunt Lauren and uncle Brent. Thank goodness he was sick or I think Jeff would have taken off with him on the sled...gosh help us next year when it snows.

Stay tuned....we're sure there's more around the corner! Hopefully, all good around the corner!

Love to you all. XOXO!

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe 2010 is gone. It's definitely a little sad for us, but we are excited to see what 2011 ushers in. In thinking about the last year, we can't help but reminisce about the event that changed our lives. On January 20, 2010 we got our first glimpse of "baby Bowman", and our lives have never been the same.

2010 was a year full of celebration and anticipation of Ty. Amazing that our little 5lb. 12oz. bundle of joy could impact and change us the way it has. Jeff and I waited so long to expand our little family, and when the time was right a miracle happened.

2010 is a year that will always be celebrated and rejoiced (most especially August 8, 2010), but we know 2011 will hold every bit the joy, excitement, and anticipation as we what Ty grow and develop.

So here's to 2011 and the friends and family who enrich our lives. We are so grateful to everyone who loves us, worries with us, and celebrates with us. We could have never survived the transitions of 2010 without you. May 2011 be the year we are able to pay forward our appreciation and love to you all.

And to Ty Jacob, may 2011 be the year that you begin to understand just how loved you are! We love you to the moon and back!

XOXO!

Ty's First Christmas

I can't believe we just celebrated Ty's first Christmas! It was definitely the most magical, fun, and eventful Christmas ever. There really are no words to truly explain how blessed Jeff and I feel to celebrate and share the season as a family. I think the holidays always make you feel happy and thankful, but this year it was amplified. Even with all the ups and downs of the year, we are humbled and grateful that God blessed us with Ty. Our little man is into everything! He's almost figured out the crawling thing. I feel certain we are within a week or two of Ty taking off. He came into this world early and I think he may just do everything early....there's no slowing him down!

Our Christmas involved another hospital visit. Unfortunately this year has been plagued with scares, illness, and poor health for Ty. We are hoping we have gotten through all of it and our little guy will be in the best health for the coming year. Here's how we spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day morning.

I love now that mine and Jeff's pictures all have a wonderful addition of a third person. We're a little family and I never dreamed how life changing, how wonderful, and completing having Ty would be. Every day Jeff and I tell each other how much we love Ty. I'm not sure what we did before him because our life definitely revolves around him now!

It looks like Ty is developing a thirst for knowledge (to his mommy's delight)! He LOVES books. We spend time every day reading and he seems to enjoy soaking it all up.

The holidays were spent with family (in some cases briefly since Ty was sick enough to warrant a trip to the ER). It warms our hearts how much everyone loves Ty. He was spoiled rotten during his first Christmas, and we are grateful for people who have taught Jeff and I how to be great parents.

Here's Jeff and his brother and mom (Nana) with Ty. It was such a great family moment. I know Ty enjoyed every second.

Speaking of spoiling Ty rotten; no one does it better than aunt Lauren! Not sure which one of them loves the other one more!

There really are no words for moments like this....I only hope that Ty will grow up to be as wonderful of a man as his Poppy. With guidance like this how could he not.

We tried to start of few of our own traditions with Ty. This year we purchased Elf on the Shelf for Ty and adopted Elfie to watch after him. Every night when he went to the North Pole, he must have reported what a good little boy he was because Ty got more presents than he deserved!

This year we wrote to Santa for Ty, but we can't wait to post in the years to come what Ty writes on his mug to Santa....we can only begin to image!

Even though we were up all night at the hospital, it didn't take an ounce away from the magic of our first Christmas morning as a family. Jeff and I both remember how special our childhood Christmas mornings were. We hope we started off Ty with that same wonder, joy, excitement, and life long memories of Christmas.

As we look at Ty now, Jeff and I are both realizing he's not a baby anymore but more of a little boy. He's developing his own personality and traits that are so fun to watch. In the words of Alissa, he's JJ (Jeff Junior) through and through!

More spoiling! Darlene and Megan were sweet enough to come down and keep Ty one day so I could work. They brought him the sweetest present, and he was happy as a clam all day. I love that he got to spend some quality time with them....again, wonderful influences.

And one more great influence to round it out! Ty enjoyed a fun visit from his Pa during the holiday season. I think it's safe to say he's a pretty loved kiddo!

That about covers Ty's first Christmas. Of course, I could gush and gush and post more and more pictures, but we will keep it at this. Merry 1st Christmas Ty. You have been the best present your dad and I could have ever asked for. We love you more than you could ever begin to understand, and we can't wait for all the fun Christmas celebrations that we will share in the future.

4 months of bliss

Our little boy is 4 months today. Here is a picture of the "birthday boy" on his big day! He wanted to pose with his friends the sock monkeys who were given to him by his favorite aunt Darlene.

On this day we are thankful for a happy, healthy, growing baby boy. We are overjoyed to celebrate you today and every day that we get to spend with you. We love you son.

Too long...

It's amazing how fast time flies now! And that means my poor little baby blog is getting neglected. Here are a few quick updates. Ty is sleeping through the night.....yay!!! We are getting between 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep a night. I forgot how wonderful sleep was! But, I will say every sleepless night was worth having this little guy. He has blessed Jeff and I so much!

Ty's first "arts and crafts" project. It's a footprint ornament for the Christmas tree.

Ty had a nice visit from his Nana (Jeff's mom) a couple of weeks ago. It had been a while, so I know he enjoyed getting to spend some time with her. As you can see he was "kicking it out" and showing off on his playmat for her!

We also celebrated our first Turkey Day with Ty. We had an amazing day at Nona and Poppy's house (Beth's parents). The Hubbard clan joined this year and it was truly a day of thankfulness. We are so blessed this year to have Ty and amazing family and friends who love up and support us with unconditional love. I love how each holiday has a whole new meaning now! I won't bore you all with tons of pictures from the day.....even though I really want to!

I finally gave in and got Ty a bumpo seat, and he seems to really love it. I know he's enjoying having a new activity to do. He is so active, we have to get creative to keep me occupied. So, needless to say, Jeff and I spend a ton of time on the floor playing with Ty....and of course, we love every second of it!

And, Ty is spending lots of time on his tummy getting ready for crawling...gosh help us when this kiddo takes off. He will be into everything!

On the tooth front, we have 2 full teeth on the bottom now. At this rate, we will have a mouth full before his first birthday. It's crazy!

So, I went a little overboard buying clothes for Ty's first Christmas, so he will be wearing nothing but Christmas clothes from here until Santa comes. I just love them, and after all, I will only get to dress him for such a short while. I know he will die about this when he gets older!

I promise to post tons more soon. I'm trying to do this blog not only for friends and family but as a scrapbook of sorts for Ty. We just love this little guy so much, and we love that he is getting such a fun personality now. Having Ty is truly the best gift Jeff and I could have ever gotten. We are so lucky that we get to shape a life, and we are trying to make sure we don't take a second of that forgranted. Every time we're rocking him to sleep and thinking about the 800 other things that we both need to be doing we try to stop and remind ourselves that he's only this little once. And of course, that puts it all in perspective...there's nothing either of us would rather be doing than spending every second with Ty. We love you more than you could ever possibly know son. Thank you for enriching our lives and teaching us to slow down and enjoy it!