Update- finally

What can I say. I have been a blog slacker. There just are so many other things that take priority. But I guess I can give a summary of what we have been up to the past 6 months.

Marcus turned one in May. He is such a joy. He loves to smile and when he hears other people laughing around him, he likes to join in- like he understands what everyone is laughing about. He is such a happy boy. I get comments about that a lot. He loves to wave at people and say "Hi". He started walking at 13 months and now he loves to get all around. Especially when he sees an open door- he heads right for it. He loves to swim and play outside and look at his daddy's fish in the pond. He loves to take the lids off of things and has become especially good at using his teeth to pry things open. He keeps us busy but in a good way. He just brings such happiness into our home

Ross graduated from Nursing school in May. He is currently studying for his boards which he is taking soon and then hopefully he will be able to find a job. Maybe not his dream job, but at least somewhere to get experience right now. He is enjoying this time to be home with Marcus and it has been so nice to have him around. It will be an adjustment when he does start working. I love having him home everyday.

I am still working at John Muir. I just had my 10 year anniversary there last month! I have been picking up some extra hours whenever I can since Ross is home. The last several months have been a challenge getting Ross through school and balancing being a full time mom and working full time. But we were blessed and everything has worked out. I did get a vacation in July and went to Italy to visit my sister Liz. My mom, dad and brother came along too. We went to Rome, Sorrento- Amalfi Coast, Naples and Sicily. It was super hot and with Liz has our guide, we saw more than the average person would in a day. But it was fun to be with family and I love to go to new places. Italy is always a favorite destination of mine.

We did go on a family vacation to Florida in June. We visited Ross' cousins. Marcus loved his cousins there and enjoyed the attention. We did several activities around Jacksonville where we stayed and then we went to Cape San Blas which is on the Gulf of Mexico. We spent 5 days there and enjoyed the clear warm water and white sand. Luckily they were not affected by the oil spill. It was a nice little vacation. We also went camping- which Marcus handled very well. So we have been enjoying our summer. I love that I have so much energy this summer compared to last summer- when I had a colicky newborn! This month we are going camping and then going to Utah for a friends wedding. I just can't believe how fast the summer has flown by.

So we are doing well and I have been relieved how most things have worked out- I remember worrying that Ross wouldn't even get into nursing school. And wondering if my baby was going to be healthy. And how I would survive as a new mom. It was a year of a lot of changes but we are happy to be where we are right now.

(I will get Ross to post some current pictures. )

Featuring Marcus

Our little cutie at 6 months old. Our friend Angela took some Christmas pictures for us. Her boys were in the back trying to make him smile and he was just wondering what all the commotion was about. We have had a busy couple of months. I admit that blogging isn't a priority for me. If I have spare time then my favorite thing to do is get into my warm bed and read a book. It is such a luxury now days to be able to read. Plus there are always so many other things to do as you all know. I even made some new years resolutions but haven't really been motivated to do them. I guess you have to want to make the changes right :) But I am sure I will do a little at a time.
So I am still working and enjoying my time as a mom more and more. It has been so fun to watch marcus grow and learn new things. He rolls all around the room and is starting to scoot around on his tummy. He hasn't quite figured out the crawling motion yet. He still manages to find everything in the room that I don't want him to so we have been more careful with babyproofing. He is becoming a stubborn little guy and lets me know when he doesn't want something. He threw a little fit when i took him out of the bathtub tonight and he really knows how to protest. But he just has the biggest smiles whenever he sees me and we just love him. It is fun to see him become this little person. He really enjoyed spending time with his grandparents and aunts and uncle over christmas. We went down to san diego with my family for a vacation. We stayed in a rental condo next to the beach. Marcus loved the ocean. It was pretty cold when we were there but he still wanted to play in the water. The cold didn't seem to bother him at all. So now I know what we will be doing this summer- lots of swimming. I posted some pictures of Marcus' first time playing in the Pacific Ocean. He still is not sleeping through the night and I am really looking forward to that day but Ross has been so good at getting up and feeding him so I can get more sleep.
While we were in San Diego, my mom watched Marcus and the rest of us spent a day at Disneyland. We had a fun time. I love it there at Christmas time. We also saw some pretty coastal scenery, went shopping and had lots of family game time while we were there. I miss my siblings already.
Ross is enjoying his christmas break from school. Soon he will be really busy. He is starting his last semester of nursing school. The job market is really tight right now so we are hoping he will find a job once he graduates.
I was having lots of back/flank pain last week and was worried that I hurt my back really bad or something- but it turns out that I have shingles. Don't know why that decided to flare up but at least the pain is better now. I have to be off work for a week to let the rashes heal. It has been nice to be at home everyday with Marcus but it does stress me out a little to use up my precious time off hours.
Here are a bunch of pictures of the past month or so.
We let him just get wet and dirty- it was hard to prevent him since he was so eager to play in the water. He didn't like the sand on his thumb so much though
He was just so happy. The rest of us were freezing but he thought this was the greatest thing ever. Maybe he will be a future beach bum. He really loves water.
Marcus and daddy playing in the ocean at sunset. San Diego had the most beautiful sunsets.

Oops, we didn't realize that the tide was coming in while we were posing for the picture. My tennis shoes were soaked!

Aren't they so cute :)

Marcus loves paper. He eats anything in site. We are touring the USS Midway- an aircraft carrier ship. It was pretty cool
Look where Ross put him. I am right below him so don't get worried that we just stuck him there

Checking out the cool planes on the USS Midway

We hiked along the coast and checked out some tide pools. Marcus sure has big feet huh :)

Marcus and the great Pacific Ocean

He loves to explore anything. Checking out the beach/ice plants

My family

Tide pools

Marcus playing in the tide pools. Like I said, he is so happy to play in any sort of water

Amanda and Marcus

Our tired little boy. He was a good sport to be hauled all around san diego

Marcus and me. Not so cute of me but I guess Ross likes this one cause Amanda is posing in the back like a crazy lady

San Diego coast- view from Point Loma

Marcus is trying to eat the sign

Our future junior ranger.

Marcus is so happy to be surrounded by so much paper! He received many great gifts for christmas

He loves to sit crosslegged. It is so cute. He likes to just sit in his chair and watch me do stuff in the kitchen

Our happy boy right before Christmas

Visiting with Ross' relatives on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving with Great Grandma and grandpa Hawkes and Grandma and Grandpa Hawkes

He loves bath time and his favorite toy is one of my measuring cups. Don't try to take that away from him!

Dinnertime!

Ross sent a request for the White House to send a congrats on Marcus' birth so we were excited about our letter from the Obamas.

I hope everyone is doing well. Happy New Year!

Halloween, the ER and more...

Baby Monkey in its holding cell

Filipino monkey trainer with his baby monkey

I am behind on blogging- and pretty much everything else. I started working full time again at the beginning of October. We are doing well but it takes some juggling of schedules and help from others to make it work. Thankfully Ross has some days off from school and my schedule is flexible. The first few weeks were rough as I was getting used to the long crazy 12 hour shifts plus my 24 hour shifts as a mom. Plus Marcus had a cold and then his reflux started acting up again so he wasn't sleeping at night anymore. But we have him on a new medication and he has been a happy boy again. And he is even getting more friendly with new people. He actually let a "stranger" hold him during relief society and he was laughing and talking- or squealing I should say- with her. It is so nice that he has grown out of so many of the painful things that were bothering him as a newborn and he is just a happy guy nowadays. He loves to make sounds and grab everything he can. He has lots of cute toys but of course his favorite is paper. He loves to rip the paper and chew on it. He is figuring out how to roll all around so any day now I am going to put him down and find him on the other side of the room. That means childproofing is next on my list of things to do.

I had to work on Halloween but Ross took Marcus to the Stake party. He was dressed as a little monkey. I will have Ross post pictures. He was very cute. He even got a little sticker for cutest costume- although he ate most of the sticker so I only have a little piece left for his baby book. He started eating cereal and has moved on to a few different fruits and is doing well. He makes the funniest faces sometimes with the new tastes but he is a pro at eating now. I can't believe he is going to be 6 months soon! I feel like I deserve an award for surviving those first few colicky months. Ross too since I wouldn't have made it without him. I am really enjoying the age that Marcus is and don't want him to grow too fast!

Ross is doing well in school and almost done with the semester. Then one more semester and he is done! We are waiting to see where he will do his preceptorship for the last semester. I had a week long neuro refresher class at work. I enjoyed the learning although it meant 4 straight days away from Marcus which was hard. And then on friday AM I work up with the worst headache I have ever had in my life. Plus I was nauseated and throwing up. I was scared about what was going on. I tried to see my doctor but he was not in the office so they sent me to urgent care who then sent me to the emergency room. I have never been a patient there before so that was interesting. I had labs and a head CT plus a lumbar puncture which wasn't so fun. But everything ruled out so I wasn't having a bleed or anything. But I still don't know what caused the headache. It took a couple rounds of drugs in the ER to get rid of the pain and nausea. And wiped me out the whole next day. They were thinking maybe it was a migraine. I never get headaches. I guess having a baby changed my body or something. It really has been a tough year for me in regards to health.

So that is the news here. I will see if Ross can post the video we took of Marcus eating cereal for the first time. And some other cute pictures of him.

YouTube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfW_DWaWkz8

Family Pictures

Mr. Spastic Boombastic