6 months

First things first. Smile update: Though he's not giving them out right and left, they've been a little easier to come by in the last couple of days. I caught a couple the other night...(as you've noticed, he does his best work at night)
Dad and Kanyon catching up on the days events
Its not a real grin, but it looks like it and I think its so cute.
Relaxing after a long day

We had a first Tuesday night! I love this expression "What do you think you're doing with that stuff?"
He did pretty good. It was very liquidy and he eventually got frustrated with me because he wanted more food faster. For the first time, I'd say he gets an "A".
Check out this beefcake
His arms were going crazy and kept hitting my arm which knocked the stuff out of the spoon.

As of yesterday, we've had this little boy for 6 months! I really really really can't believe it. I keep saying "THAT'S HALF A YEAR!!" What a half-a-year it has been. We're all so different from what we were 6 months ago. This is the little man at about 2 weeks. He was still under 2 lbs.

And here we are at almost 11lbs.
We thought we would try another pose. Kanyon obviously prefers the first one.


Have a great weekend!

Smiley

We've had a few exciting things happen this week so as usual, I'll tell you with pictures.

First of all, on Thursday Nurse Melissa (and her baby-on-the-way Katie) came to visit. She hadn't seen Kanyon since we came home, so that was fun. He LOVED seeing her and hearing a familiar voice. He was also happy to "see" Katie even though she made it hard to cuddle with Nurse Melissa! :)
Kanyon finally got to meet his friend Addison. She was born a couple of weeks ago and is one of his first friends that is smaller than him. He felt so macho. Addison, as you can see, wasn't so sure about Kanyon. She obviously thinks Kanyon has cooties and is repulsed by him touching her.
She warmed up to him some and was fascinated with his hair (or lack there of). She was wondering why he doesn't have a cool mohawk like her. Thanks to his shunt, he has a tiny side spike...those are still cool, right? They sure were when I was in Jr. High. Kanyon is bringing them back.
We kinda let Ollie meet Kanyon. We're not ready for him to be in all the time or be all over the place, but we figured he needed to start realizing there was something new in the house (the whole reason he's been ignored the last 6 months!). He will pretty much ignore Kanyon and then its like he catches a smell or hears him so he goes over to try and figure it out. sniff sniff sniff.... and then he just stares.

The biggest funnest happiest giggliest giddyest bestest news is that Friday night we saw THIS for the first time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We were about to leave our friends' house and I was kinda playing patty cake with him and I guess he thinks its hilarious because he smiled HUGE!! I freaked out! Our friend Drew shared the moment with me and then Kory, Mark, Amy, and Jill ran over to see it. Three cheers for Drew and his iphone for catching this priceless moment!! The first couple were BIG smiles then they kind of got smaller and smaller. We were just loving it. What a surprise, I wasn't even trying to make him smile!
Here we are at who knows what time in the middle of the night and I was trying to get him to smile again...nope. Now that I'm trying he's holding back!

Our friend Leigh Ann and her husband Jason came to town so they got to meet Kanyon. It was so fun. Leigh Ann is kind of responsible for Me and Kory meeting so I guess that means that she's kind of in a round-about way responsible for Kanyon.

Gangsta Kanyon is back....he says Pop ya colla'
We are trying not to put too much pressure on the man to smile again, but we're addicted to it..so Kory was trying to coax another smile out of him today.
"Nanna Nanna boo boo you can't make me"
"I'm tired of this, will you leave me alone?"
I'm sure I'll keep that camera in his face until I catch another smile. I'll let you know when I do!

Tummy Time and Dr. Visit

Here are some funny pictures of Kanyon ignoring my attempts at getting him to raise his head up. I have this fantastic ball that lights up and sings that I thought would motivate him to look up. Not today. He does work hard when he's on his tummy and it starts to wear him out....
And then completely gone. Hard work makes you very sleepy.
We went to the Dr. today for our 6 month visit...it was a great visit. Dr. Chris said everything was great and was very pleased with how he looked, his weight gain, his muscle tone, head control, and of course he thought he was pretty cute. 6 month stats:
Weight: 10 lbs. 8oz. (the picture was snapped before the scale was done)
note that Kanyon is now 10 times his birth weight....it takes most kids like 10 years to do that!
Length: 21 1/2 inches
Both of these are 50th percentile...up from his last check up where he was in the 25th. He had gained 3lbs and 2 inches.

He said he's ready to start rice cereal and level one baby food. I'm too big of a chicken..I'll start with the cereal (they told me I could do that 2 months ago, but I just couldn't) and we'll do the baby food later.

Pardon the nudity in the picture..don't tell Kanyon, he'd be so embarrassed.

Chillin' in the room..he was in such a good mood kicking and playing...until the shots!! YIKES! He got 4! We go back in a week to get his flu shot and then we'll start his RSV shots for the next 6 months. Poor guy.
For some reason Kanyon got really bent out of shape right before this picture, I look sick and poor Dr. Chris is trying to figure out why he's crying. Oh well...
We are thankful for a good checkup.

The best gals in the world

The title of this blog is referring to my awesome AWESOME sister in laws! I really do have the best ones...ALL 3 of them. I have thanked my brothers on mulitple occasions for marrying Maurine and Rachel and then I just got totally lucky with Sydni...she was in the family before I was. So, here is my little tribute to the best sister in laws in the world.

I'll start with Maurine....she is Clay's wife. Maurine is responsible for the BEST thank you notes in the universe. We had designed a thank you note for the babies a while before they were born. After everything happened, the others weren't really going to work anymore. I wanted to include Jayde and Kanyon somehow without being over the top. So, I came up with this and Maurine worked so hard on these to make them perfect. These are their real footprints. She figured out a way to make them true to size on the card..AMAZING. She is so smart and computery (yes that is a word)! Kanyon's feet are bigger because they didn't do his print until he was a month old. So, if you got the thank yous you may or may not have seen the note on the back explaining it, but those are their feet. (If you live in Paris, you probably didn't get these thank you notes because I didn't have them ready yet at that shower.) Thank you Maurine for working so hard to get these just right. They really are so special to me.

And this is what else Maurine (and Clay too I guess) gave me..AVERY!! Talkative, soft, curious little Avery. And I already thank them for the new baby that is growing in her tummy.

Next comes Rachel (Clint's wife). She is also very computery and she made our "coming home" announcement. I didn't really want to do a birth announcement, but I wanted to do something. I sent her some pictures I liked and this verse and she had this done in no time. Click on it and read the verse...it seemed so perfect for the answered prayer of bringing Kanyon home..the mighty works that GOD did. The pictures kind of span Kanyon's time in the NICU, the first one has Kory's ring on his wrist. The second one is Kory's ring not fitting on Kanyons' fingers (that was probably at least a month before we went home, we should've taken another one). We did not send out a ton of these since it would cost a billion dollars to send one to everyone we wanted to, so click on this and enjoy it up close (and marvel at Rachel's handiwork). Thanks Rach! Of course an even bigger thank you for my little Roselyn. She's kind of a mini-me. She really does look just like I did when I was a baby. (FYI: Avery and Roselyn are really our family's first set of twins. They were born on the SAME day back in October about 5 hours apart...how funny is that?!)

Now for Sydni. I can't claim that I had anything to do with adding Sydni to my all star line up of sister in laws. Kory's brother Clint gets all the credit for her and I get to enjoy his excellent choice! Sydni is so creative and talented. She made Jayde and Kanyon the most absolutely UNBELIEVABLE quilts. They are perfectly done and so beautiful. The first picture is of Kanyon's cowboy quilt. Such beautiful colors and fabrics. Perfect for our little cowboy.

This is Jayde's. It is Olivia (if you read kids books, you know Olivia). She is a cute little pig with a funny, sassy personality. The books have the cutest expressions and this fabric has all of the different Olivia poses all over it. SO CUTE. It is funny because in my mind, Jayde would've had the same little spunky personality..so Sydni chose the perfect "theme" without even knowing it. These quilts really are incredible. She is a professional. Maybe one day she can teach me! Thanks Sydni...these are very very very special to me (and so are you).
And the oldest of my sweet nieces....Sayler. She has the sweetest little personality and she is such a smart little one. I miss her and can't wait to spend time with her at Christmas.

YEAH FOR MAURINE, RACHEL, and SYDNI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now just a few little pics of Kanyon before I end the post:

Kanyon's great aunt Nancye gave him this shirt so I was trying to get a picture of him in it...this face cracked me up.

Crazy things happen in a swing. Somehow his burp rag got over his head and ended up like this. He slept through the whole thing. These pictures make me laugh out loud.

Here he is all ready to go to church this morning. We went to our church for the first time. He was very excited to meet all of his Alpine friends that have prayed so much for him. One of the elders was making announcements at the beginning and he said, " and if you ever want to know if your prayers are working, look right over here to the right and you'll see that our "son" Kanyon Phillips is here!" I held him up Lion King style and everyone got to peek at him. It was so good to be there. We had several people bring their young children up to us to see Kanyon because they had been praying for Kanyon all this time. I was so glad they got to see him. We are so thankful that people taught their children to pray for our baby. I hope the people at Alpine know how much they've meant to us.

Katching Up with Kanyon

We had a good week last week with lots of the normal fun stuff and some not normal fun stuff! So...the week in pictures:

I mean this just makes me laugh...is there anything cuter?!
When Kanyon was in the NICU, we posted a picture to show you his double chin. Here's an update on that double...well, maybe triple chin.
I love this picture. I see this expression on his face all the time. Glad we captured it.
Our friend Amanda has been wanting Kanyon to have a muscle shirt since he was a tiny tiny tiny baby. She tried to find the shirt that looks like a man without a shirt on...you know with pecs and a six pack...she couldn't find it, so she made this one herself! It says "I'm all muscle!"

Saturday night Kanyon slept in his bed for the first time overnight. We had to pass on the traveling bassinet to our new friend Addison. He of course did fine. He never bothered me in the bassinet in our room. Once he goes down, he's a good sleeper, so he didn't ever keep me awake or anything. When I layed down that night in my bed and he wasn't right there, I felt like I missed him. But I also felt like I was sleepy, so I commented to Kory that I missed him, Kory told me that was crazy since he was right across the hall, and I went to sleep.
Wednesday was a big first...he went to CHURCH! An equally big first is that that meant me and Kory BOTH got to go to church. We thought Wednesday night was a good time for the maiden voyage. Not too many people and not very long. He did pretty good other than making some "embarrassing noises" so I was standing up in the back of the class with him most of the time. The events of Kanyon and Jayde have kind of robbed me of (or postponed) some of those things that make you feel like a mom. You know, like having your baby and them handing it to you, changing diapers, holding them, feeding them in the middle of the night (yes I looked forward to that), riding in the car with him, looking at your new babies through the nursery window...ok you get the idea. Some of those things I will never have with Jayde and Kanyon, some I had to wait on, and some are still to come. Taking him to church was one of those "mom" moments. It was nice.

Kanyon attended his first birthday party on Saturday. His great grandma Nanny Lou turned 80. So he got all dressed up (for him that means something more than just a diaper or a onesie) and went with us to Johnny Case's for the dinner and then back to Gilmer for cake and fun with family. He was a trooper.

Another expression I see quite often.
Check out those lashes. So long and curly. His sister had the same ones.
Over the last week, Kanyon has made a new discovery...his tongue! It is so funny to watch the faces he makes. I got a little carried away with these, but I couldn't help it.


We went to church again Sunday at Nanny's church in Gilmer. It was fun and he did good. I was glad because to get out I would've had to walk up a center isle and we were on the front row. It was so good to see so many people we love at that church that have been so good to us. And to top it all off, everyone was very good about not being all over him and in his face and touching him without us having to say anything (I hate confrontation, so I'm so glad I didn't have to worry about it). Total mom moment.