Hitting More Milestones!

This kid is growing wayyyyy too fast for my liking.  I got home from work today to the news that Kaelan had officially rolled over.  Nick had him on his back, walked out of the room for a minute, and when he came back Kaelan was on his tummy!  I, of course, had to immediately test it out and sure enough, my baby is rolling over just 3 days shy of his 5 month birthday. 

I am so excited to see him move into each new phase of his development, but I must admit I do miss that tiny 7lb 13oz baby I held in my arms not too long ago.  Love him so much!!

Kaelan's First Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone!  First, let me apologize for the length of this blog, but I have a lot to post about! I had off on Good Friday this year... my little man and I had a fantastic day together.  We went to Mercer Arboretum, a first for both of us. I only had my phone with me so here is the best photo I was able to get.

Kaelan enjoyed looking at all the different flowers, but his favorite by far was staring at the water fountain. As I moved, he would move his head as not to let it out of his sight!  I sat with him and let him touch and feel different plant textures.  I've done this in the yard with him (thank you Jessica C for this little tip!) a few times and he gets so excited, so I'm glad it was a hit at Mercer as well.

Friday evening I can proudly say (again) we had our first big belly laugh.  Music to my ears readers... music to my ears.  As Nick told me last night, hearing that laugh makes all the late nights, early mornings, poopy diapers, spit up, pee, and tears so completely and totally worth it.  I'm happy to say that by "hiding" and saying "BOO!" this evening, we elicited more big belly laughs. :)

Saturday we watched our good friend's (Kristin and Adam) little diaper dude, Hayden.  He was so good... he watched Caillou, laughed at Sully, played outside, ate lunch, and napped.  We had a great a time and I am definitely looking forward to chasing an older Kaelan around the house.  Here he is - eyes only for Caillou ;)

Last night Kaelan and I dyed Easter eggs (yes I use alcoholic beverage containers to dye eggs :) ).  It was mostly me doing the work and Kaelan looking adorable as always.  You'll see he's just learning how to sit up on his own.  I can't believe how much he has grown and developed.  My little man will be 5 months old in 5 days!

Now on to the title of my post... Today was (obviously) Kaelan's first Easter and we had a great time!!! The Easter Bunny came this morning to drop off lots of goodies...

...and Kaelan discovered them this morning! He was very excited to hand over all his candy to mom & dad, hug and cuddle his new stuffed animal, and can't wait for mom and dad to read him his Easter books!  Nick is very excited that Kaelan handed over his candy ;)

After checking out his Easter goodies, we picked up Great-Gamma and headed to Grandmere and Pepaw's house for Easter breakfast, pictures, and church.  Kaelan had his very own Peter Rabbit china on the Hopkins' family high chair.  This high chair was my mom's, all her cousins used it, my brother and I used it, and my mom's cousin's children used it.  It truly is a family heirloom. :) However, as you can see, we had to belt Kaelan into it given that there aren't any straps or bars. He was a good sport for the most part.

Before church, the outdoor pictures commenced. Unfortunately, Kaelan was NOT cooperative.  Smiles were limited and he spent most of the time looking at the dogs! He was pretty good in church.  He slept through the Hallelujah Chorus (amazingly) and then smiled a lot at the family behind us.  Towards the end he (and about 8 other infants) got restless so he headed to the lobby with Nick where (I'm told) he was a huge flirt and had lots of fun until the service was over.  Here are a few of the pics we got before church:

All dressed for pictures!

Kaelan (looking at the dogs) with his Grandmere

Great-Gamma, Grandmere, Mom, & K-Bug (looking at the dogs...)

Pepaw, Kaelan (looking at the dogs of course), Mom, Grandmere

After church we were headed to Nick's Mom's house (Grams) for lunch, however, an unexpected change in plans had us back at our house. Grams' A/C broke.  Since most of my readers live in Texas, you understand in 90 degree heat, a broken A/C is not something anyone wants to deal with!  So the group headed over with lasagna, champagne, and dessert.  I wanted a few pictures with Kaelan in front of our oleanders and this turned into a great photo op.  Kaelan mostly looked at Sully, but with all the people there we were able to cajole a few smiles at least!

I am so in love with my little family :)

Grams with Kaelan

Aunts Chelsea & Camille, Grams, Stud-Muffin, and Aunts Kayla & Bree

Aunt Kayla

Aunt Chelsea 

Aunt Camile 

Aunt Bree

Sweet boy making faces at his daddy

The miniature love of my life

The two loves of my life (Kaelan? not amused! :) )

I truly hope that every one's Easter was as great as ours.  Having Good Friday off with my little guy, spending all day Saturday, and all day Sunday with him and with Nick was truly a blessing.  While our lives are by no means perfect, I'm happier than I've ever been and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us.

Happy Easter 2011!
oxoxo! Ashley, Nick, & Kaelan

Jumperoo Time!

Kaelan is officially using - and loving - his jumperoo. Thank you Aunt Marcy and Uncle Brent!

Also, today, Good Friday... April 22, 2011 was the first day Kaelan officially laughed a big baby belly laugh.  Nick and I about died with excitement... and I *might* have teared up at hearing it.  Man I'm such a sap!  Nick was holding him and I was talking to him just being silly and out of nowhere he just started full-on belly laughing.  It was one of the most amazing things I've heard.  I can't wait to hear it again! Hopefully this time we'll have the camera ready. :)

Happy Easter Everyone!
Nickolas, Ashley, & Kaelan

Kaelan's Baptism Invites

Kaelan's baptism invites came in today... I'm so pleased with how they turned out! Shutterfly never ceases to amaze me.  Just wanted to share these with you everyone! :)

Baptism Baroque Navy Baptism Invitation

Create personalized greeting cards and invitations at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Easter Week!

Kaelan's first Easter is coming up - I am so excited!  I've had his Easter basket goodies for over a month now... pretty much the day Target stocked the shelves, I was there buying.  I missed out on getting a personalized Easter basket, but I'll definitely be ordering one for next year.  We didn't make it to church today for Palm Sunday, but we did take some pictures.  I'll admit, they aren't as good as the Valentine's Day photo shoot, but we got a few good ones.  Enjoy!

Getting a lick from Sully

Not toooo sure about all this...

He HATED this hat. Oh well. :)

Contemplating my demise for making him wear the ears, I'm sure ;)

As you can see, I think we have a finger-sucker on our hands.  He actually has a blister on one finger... didn't even know that could happen!  It was a constant struggle during these photos to keep his hands out of his mouth!

This totally reminds me of an Easter-Baby edition of Rodin's "The Thinker"

With his new Easter bunny

Again, with the fingers...

Finally! A *real* smile :)

I apologize for the photo overload... being Kaelan's mommy, I think all his pictures are fantastic and I have a REALLY hard time picking and choosing :)

Photo Bomb!

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately... We've entered a new element to our evening routine that takes up some of my time: evening walks. The weather has been so nice lately and Kaelan really seems to enjoy them. Our routine nowadays seems to be something like this: pick up from Paula's around 5:15, home and plays with Nick while I rush home, I feed him a bottle around 6 while Nick gets dinner started, sometimes a small 10-15 minute catnap follows, then we head out into the neighborhood.  We've met a few more neighbors by doing this... including one couple who thought Kaelan was a girl b/c of his name.  No matter the fact that he was in a BLUE outfit with TRAINS on it.  Come on people... if I had a girl, she would be covered from head to toe in pink, fluff, and lace. Anyway. Kaelan really seems to enjoy the walks... my cheeks hurt from smiling back at him so much... his favorite thing to do is stare at the trees overhead.

Here are a few photos... some recent and some dating back about 3 weeks.  I haven't been AS much of a picture taking fool as usual.. I'm hoping to fix that this weekend ;)

First time in his high chair - he did really well!

Perhaps a little agitated? :)

(***Disclaimer: there was no diet coke left in the can, no babies were harmed during the taking of this photograph).  Taking after his mommy and daddy - we LOVE Diet coke around here!

Playin in his crib

This was last week. Kaelan was so tired he fells asleep in the tub, during lotion time, and during diaper time.

Best. Husband. Ever. He cooks AND takes care of the baby!

This was last night - fell asleep in the tub again.  We're seriously contemplating moving his bedtime up some. Selfishly though I'm resisting it... as it is I only get two hours with him once I'm home from work.

I've been playing around a lot with comparison photos using Photobucket.com.  Here are a few I've made.

This was his "going home from the hospital" outfit. On the left he was ~5 weeks old, this was taken the day of the Cotton Bowl. On the right, he was 2 days old. Look how baggy the onesie is!! Man... where did my tiny newborn baby go?

Funny faces after bath-time. We have nicknames for him depending on what hooded towel he is in.  If he's in the shark towel he is "Shark Bait Ooh Ha-Ha" (yes, from Finding Nemo) and if he's in the froggy towel (there is a crown on the top) he is "Frog Prince Kaelan." Oh the silly things parents do... 

This is my now and then... the photo on the left was taken a few days ago while the photo on the right was taken at about 1 week old.  He has grown so much!

That's all the photos I have for now... I hope everyone is having a great week! I am headed to College Station this Friday for the Aggie Mom's Boutique.  Last year I wasn't sure if I was having a boy or girl, however, this year I have a feeling I might go a little overboard with the baby items! ;)