10 Months

Well, here he is in all his glory! My little boy is 10 months and on his way to 11. Things are busy, but I couldn't ask for a better kid. He is learning and growing and just having a great time. He loves to stand and bounce and dance, and he is still cruising around using either our fingers, furniture, or other toys that help him balance. I am not looking forward to the walking AT ALL! Already he is giving us a run for our money and he is just crawling!

He is into everything, extremely curious and definitely a DETERMINED child. We are having an absolute blast though. He makes tons of noise and can make the sounds "mama" and "dada" but he still hasn't associated that with us yet. I am definitely looking forward to that.

In true Joyner fashion he is eating EVERYTHING we put in front of him. It doesn't seem to matter what it is or what the combination may be, he loves it! Tonight I may or may not have given him yogurt topped with pureed carrots...DELISH ;) His new favorite thing is getting down from the couch or our bed by himself. It's definitely not graceful, but this boy does not seem to be afraid of anything. I know I am going to have my hands full with this one - I can already imagine him balancing himself on the top of a bookshelf or something.

Things with Jared and I are going well, as always! I am still teaching in the Young Women program at church, which is always an absolute blast, and Jared was just called to the Elder's Quorum Presidency, so we definitely have a lot going on. We still find time for date nights though, don't you fret ;)

9 Months

9 months has been such a fun age for Christian. He is so much fun! He laughs and is learning some independence. He is cruising all around using us and the furniture to get from place to place. I thought for sure that he would skip crawling because he just had absolutely zero interest in being on his stomach, but he surprised me and started crawling one day! I think that Jared posted a video of it on Facebook. We saw him start moving a bit and decided to entice him with Daddy's iTouch to get him crawling. Each day he gets a little faster and now that he isn't resigned to stay in the place I put him, he is a lot more content sitting and playing because he knows he can get somewhere else if he wanted to.

Having Elaine live with us has been an absolute blessing. She and Christian are already thick as thieves and although they steal each other's toys and scream with jealousy sometimes, for the most part they just play and laugh together. I am glad that even though Christian doesn't have a sibling, his cousin has filled a big part of that void for us. She was very influential in helping him learn to crawl, I think, because even though she can walk, she would get down and crawl around Christian and show him how it's done.

His temperament is still happy-go-lucky and that is a huge relief to me. I know now how absolutely blessed I am to have such an easy-going, fun, trusting baby. So far he has shown no signs of "stranger anxiety" that sometimes hits kids as they get older, and I hope that he will continue to be such a joy for everyone he comes in contact with. He is still growing like a weed, no surprise there. At the last Doctor appointment he was weighing about 23 lbs and was a full 33 inches long.

Christian brings us such happiness and I can't wait to see what else is in store for our little family.

Disneyland 2011

We had a great time at Disneyland this Thanksgiving. Having a child, even a small one like Christian, really changed how I viewed the park. I cannot WAIT for him to get a little older so he can begin to appreciate the magic that this park holds for me. 

This is riding the Tram into the park. Can't you see how excited he is!?

 We went with my family and also my Aunt and Uncle Kevin, and cousins Keith, Joel and Karl. They were such a big help to Jared and I with Christian and it was nice to have people to alternate with so that Jared and I could ride the things that weren't kid friendly. We did, however, take Christian on a few things and he was just an absolute perfect kid.

Here we are waiting to watch Captain Eo. Christian is all set with his 3D glasses

We took Christian on Pirates of the Caribbean and he LOVED it! I thought he would get scared with the canon ball fire, but that totally interested him. He was crawling all over me trying to see.

We also took him on the Jungle Cruise. Can you tell he is NOT IMPRESSED by our guide!?

Here he is all tuckered out from a long day.

 We were given two-day passes so on the second day my sweet cousin Shauna watched Christian for us so that Jared and I could enjoy the park together. We rode everything that we wanted to and had a great time being childless for the day.

My husband is soooooo fancy

This is at our favorite restaurant in the park. We just couldn't miss it!

We had such a great time and I am so grateful to the family that helped us get there.

Thanksgiving 2011

I know I am ridiculously late on posting! My work needs to upgrade their browser so I can't post from work anymore! lol I guess that means I have to take the time to do it from home now....which is why I am behind. Somehow there is just never enough time when I am home to do a blog, or facebook or anything else nowadays. Thanksgiving this year was a blast, for the most part. We went down to SoCal to visit my side of the family and also to go to Disneyland!

This year we actually had Thanksgiving at my Aunt's church building because there are just TOO MANY of us now to fit in her home. I thought it would be kind of weird to have it there, but in true Stokes fashion, they managed to transform the cultural hall into a Thanksgiving feast. My aunt carted in all of her fine china, silver and crystal for the event and made it extremely homey and welcoming. Since there are so many kids, we also had a tv set up with movies and room to play basketball for all the guys. Dinner was fantastic, as usual, and so was spending time with everyone. I am so grateful for my wonderful family and everyone making the effort to go down to celebrate together.

My two boys - Love them

Brooke and I - coordinating for family pictures that would come after dinner

My cousin Erin (doesn't it look like we should be sisters!?) and our boys :)

Erin's middle daughter. She is absolutely stunning.

An up-close view of the table settings.

I really wish that I would have taken more pictures, but I guess I was just way too busy having a great time!

My First Official 5k!

Here's my little boy before the big race. Doesn't he look excited!?

Excited to begin

Ready to run!

I think this was taken in Mile 1. I made Jared turn around and run backward so that I could get a shot of him!

Running hard!

Jared was trying to get all three of us in the shot, but it didn't quite work

Can you tell that I am excited? I think this was still Mile 1

After the race

It was a really cool experience to finish the 5k. I was so glad that Jared and my sister in law Morgan were willing and happy to come and participate in it with me. It is definitely a day I will never forget!

8 Months!

Do you see the size of those feet!?  I think they are as big as his face :)

Another month has gone by, and I can't believe how much my little Bubba has changed. He is so much fun right now. I can see why moms always say how FAST babies change. This is one of my favorite pictures to date. He is such a big boy! I have actually heard a lot recently that he looks like a toddler. I am not sure how I feel about that. Of course, anyone who knows me or Jared knew that our kid would not be small. With that being said though, I am afraid that he will get a complex about it! Already, people are surprised that he can't walk yet because they think he's like 18 months. I feel bad for the poor kid!

Christian is a giggler - especially when his Dad tosses him in the air or tickles him with his beard. In addition to rice cereal and baby food, he is also becoming a pro at eating rice cakes or husks and other things that he has to hold in his hand and feed himself. He still isn't crawling yet, but he is getting a lot better at getting from a laying position to a sitting position, or from a sitting position to his belly. Unfortunately, he hates tummy time and screams like a banshee once he gets on his tummy - even though he knows how to get from his stomach to his back or sitting up again. I don't know what his deal is! It's almost like once he gets on his stomach he just gives up; he hates it that much!

I don't think that you could ask for a more well-behaved baby. He will go to anyone, smile and laugh for everyone, and is all around pretty relaxed. That is, until bed time! Hopefully one day he will decide that going to sleep while other people are still awake really isn't that bad. He naps totally fine, it's the sleeping at night that he's having a hard time with! If Jared or I are up, he wants to be up and see what we are doing. If he hears his Aunt Brooke's voice or cousin Elaine, he wants to be hanging out with them! Even though sleep would be nice, I will take a happy baby with no complaints!

Halloween 2011 Part 3

Alright - It's time for...HALLOWEEN NIGHT! I, personally, am completely on board with moving Halloween so that it is always on a Saturday because coming home from work and trying to get ready for trick or treaters and make dinner and all of that madness was pretty stressful! I can't imagine getting your kids ready to take out trick-or-treating on top of that.

Since Christian is so little and I didn't want a bunch of candy around the house, I decided to skip trick or treating this year. Instead, I picked up three homegrown pumpkins, courtesy of Elena, and brought them home as a surprise for Jared. Apparently, he loves carving pumpkins...something I didn't know about him! We carved pumpkins, ate homemade tomatillo enchiladas and passed out candy to our cute trick or treaters. It was the first year that I have lived in a house since I moved out of my parents'  house, and we got TONS of trick or treaters...SO FUN!

Christian was helping me get the newspaper ready to lay out for pumpkin carving!

He picked his pumpkin!

"Seriously Mom? You are such a weirdo"

"Okay, I changed my mind, I want to play with it"

Like Father, Like Son

Christian pretty much liked the newspaper A LOT more than carving pumpkins.

Here's the first finished pumpking

Daddy hard at work

Here are the finished products!

After we were all cleaned up from carving the pumpkins, Christian helped me hand out candy to the trick or treaters

I absolutely LOVE these pictures! Don't worry - I didn't give all the melted, slobbery ones to any trick or treaters ;)

All in all, we had an absolutely WONDERFUL Halloween. I have noticed that holidays are a lot more fun when you have kids, and now I can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's hard to believe that they are just around the corner.