More Updating and Lots of Pictures!!

Well, brace yourselves...I came across a lot of pictures to let you know what we have been doing these past few months. We have been so busy, it's no wonder the blog hasn't been updated!! It is amazing to see how much Matthew has grown in just a few short months! He is now crawling everywhere and just yesterday he tried to pull up to stand next to the couch. I was enticing him with the remote control (he likes to push the buttons). He is eating all kinds of fruits and veggies. We are practicing eating more solid foods such as banana's, steamed carrots, puff crackers, and raisins; however, Matthew is still trying to get used to the texture. He is babbling a lot and will attempt to repeat what you say to him. Most recently he has started to say "Momma"; however, I'm not sure he associates it with me, probably not yet!

The pictures below start from when he was just 4 months old and go up to our Thanksgiving holiday. Enjoy!!!

Here Matthew is at 4 months old wearing his Southwest Airlines onesie

We visited the Dallas Zoo on June 5, 2009.

Matthew decided he wanted to help me cook chicken salad sandwiches one afternoon

Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma Bellomy (we're not sure what Matthew will officially name them!)

Taken on July 13, 2009

I wanted to get a picture of him in this onesie before he outgrew it!!

Mawmaw (my grandmother) gave Matthew this bear hat before he was born. He was finally big enough to wear it so of course we had to get a picture of him!

June 19, 2009

Matthew's first day in the church nursery. He has so much fun playing with the other kids and being spoiled by the workers!

Matthew LOVES bathtime. He likes to splash.....a lot!! By the end of his bath he's wet, we're wet, and the floor is wet - but it is awesome watching him have so much fun!! If you look closely you might be able to see Matthew's two bottom teeth.

During the Fall season we visited the Arboretum many times. This is a family picture we took on October 24, 2009. I am going to wait to post the Christmas pictures we have taken until our Christmas card is mailed out - I don't want to spoil the surprise for everyone!!

Here is our little pumpkin! Bryan's mom and dad bought him this Halloween costume. Bryan dressed up as a pumpkin when he was little. I'll have to scan the picture and add it to this post later, I'm sure Bryan will LOVE that!!!!!!!

Showing Mawmaw she has a button on her shirt, Matthew loves to play with buttons and other small objects. He has awesome fine motor skills, unfortunately that means I have to keep my floors extra clean!!

This fall we had a great time watching cousin Russell (my cousin) be the quarterback for his high school football team, Martin High School. They played 3 playoff games! We are so proud of him!!

Cousin Russell on the Jumbo Screen in Cowboys Stadium!!

Matthew supporting the team!!

Here is Matthew hanging out with Grandmomie at her house the day before Thanksgiving.

Grandpa Bellomy offered to keep Matthew while I ran some errands before heading out to Abilene for Thanksgiving.

Matthew in his Thanksgiving Day outfit

Matthew enjoyed playing with Uncle Tim (Bryan's uncle)

Matthew wanted to help Uncle Kevin play Boggle

Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma Stone

With all this activity Matthew needs his rest. It's rough being a kid!!

How is it that time can go by so quickly?!?!

Well, my last post was about Matthew's 4 month checkup and he is now 10 months old so....I'm a little behind!! Things have been really busy for us the last few months, here are a few pictures to fill you in on the details....

~ I was able to spend a weekend in St. Louis with my good friends from Pate Rehab., Sarah, Stacey (baby Diego), and Mary. Sarah lives in St. Louis and Mary lives in Oklahoma so it was good getting together and catching up. We enjoyed an art fair, people watching outside Sarah's window, visiting the arch, and good food!!!!

~Bryan got a new job, he now works at TXU. When he put in his 2-weeks notice he had a week off before he started the new job. So we decided to go to.......

ROME!!!

We left Matthew with the grandparents and took off for Italy. It was a once in a lifetime trip - we had the time, the price was awesome, and Matthew was only 5 months old so he wasn't old enough to understand we were gone. We had an awesome time seeing and learning all the history. We visited the Colloseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Vatican City/Sistine Chapel, the Catacombs, and much, much more. It was so much fun but by the end of it we were definately ready to get home and see Matthew!

~Matthew started eating solids. He didn't like it too much at the beginning but he soon got the hang of it and realized there are other tasty things besides milk!

RICE CEREAL

VEGETABLES

FRUIT

~We have had several trips to Abilene to visit Bryan's parents and our good friends Stan and Jessi Bailey. Matthew enjoyed playing with their two sons Brayden and Boston.

~Matthew experienced his first ACU Homecoming!! We had so much fun hanging out with Bryan's college roommates and their families; however, we are missing one roommate and his wife who live in Norway. Here are a few photo's from that weekend...

Our traditional "Family" photo after the parade. I LOVE these people!!!

The kiddos! Helen, Isaac, Brayden, Julianna, Boston, and Matthew. It took a whole lot of singing and dancing to get these poses, they are such troopers!!

The boys: Nic, Bryan, Jason, Stan, and Jake

The girls: Me, Ashley, Angela, and Jessi

Me and one of my favorite little girls, Helen

Okay, well, it's taken me a lot longer to post this than I had planned. I am going to have to finish updating tomorrow. Stay tuned for pumpkin patch pictures and pictures over the months with the family!!

Four Month Check Up

Matthew had his 4 month check up on Tuesday and his pediatrician was excited to see how well he is doing! Matthew now weighs in at 16 pounds and 13 ounces (90th percentile) and he is 26 1/2 inches long (97th percentile), which explains why we are wearing 6-9 month old clothing. Dr. Blair referred to him as "chunk" and I agree with that statement!! Can you believe we were so worried about his weight gain during his first three weeks?!?! Dr. Blair also said we could start experimenting with eating rice cereal and veggies, which I have mixed emotions with. I am excited for this next stage in his life but am sad because it means he's not my "little" baby anymore, he's growing up.

Speaking of growing up, Matthew is learning new things everyday. He is grasping objects tightly now and he is purposely grabbing at things. This morning I watched him take his pacifier out of his mouth and try to put it back in, he's getting so close but can't quite put it in correctly yet. He has discovered one of the buttons that plays music on his activity mat and will push it and smile at it while it plays the music. He recognizes his bottle and will open his mouth when I put it infront of him. Matthew hasn't learned to roll over yet because he HATES tummy time but we are working on this!! He has pushed up on to his side...but only once. He continues to sleep 10 to 12 hours a night; however, his naps during the day are getting shorter which means I get more time to play with him!! And my favorite is he is smiling, laughing, babbling, and he recognizes his mommy and daddy!!

So enough talking, here are some pictures of our "chunk":

Matthew's first Ranger's game, May 12th

Watching the Maverick's game with Pawpaw

Hanging out with Daddy outside

You Can Now Subscribe to my Blog!!

Hey Everyone, My buddy Ben informed me of a cool feature for our blog and I wanted to share it with you guys. Normally the process of blogging would entail me to send out a mass email once I updated our blog letting you know there is new information and for you to check it out. Well you can now subscribe to my blog, which would eliminate the need for a mass email! Less emailing means more time to add pictures and stories to the blog, right?!?!?! If you would like to get email notices when I update our blog click on the link on the right side of this page titled "Subscribe to Stone's Stories by Email" (duh!). You will enter your email address and type in a string of letters to ensure your not spammin'. Then you will get an email where you will confirm you would like to receive updates. Yea!!

And So It Begins...

Well, I have finally given in to "blogging", whatever that means. My good friends are probably laughing as they think "How is she going to keep up with her blog when she is horrible at checking her email". I know my family is thinking "Journaling...yeah right". My grandmother tries so hard to have each of her family members keep a journal and while I really like the idea, it's so hard for me to take the time to write down my thoughts. So you may be wondering why I am doing this whole blog thing?!? I am making this page to update you all on things going on with our family. Matthew is getting bigger everyday and is starting to learn new things. Instead of emailing different people different stories and different pictures I thought it would be easier to put all of them on here and you can just read it as you wish. I will update this page as often as I can but please be patient with me and please, please, please overlook all my grammatical errors (e.G, and i;e: Stacey and Mary!!) (For all you non-Pater's, Stacey and Mary were my clinical supervisors at Pate who had the privilege of reading my therapy documentation before it was sent to the insurance companies...man did they have their work cut out for them, I definitely made sure they had plenty of work!!)