Seven Months

Finally made it to Utah, yeah!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, holding my first shotgun with Grandpa.

The month of November brought some big changes to the Dean household, and even though we're a month late posting we thought you'd like to keep up with everything we've had going on.  Early in the month Hayden, and I sent Preston off on his second deployment. Then Hayden and I made a cross country drive to Utah along with Trigger and Grandma Holmes.  Who ever would have guessed that Hayden was going to do better than Trigger.  We have finally settled in and are doing well living with Rhianne's parents.  Hayden has grown so much this month, he's gotten his lower two front teeth in, began fully crawling and pulling himself up on everything he gets close to.  Hayden experienced his first Thanksgiving with the Holmes' side, then a day of making gingerbread houses with his aunts. He's usually a very happy little boy, oh did I mention that means as long as someone's paying attention to him.  We are missing daddy but, getting along all the same.

Our Hero

We just wanted to take a moment to send some special love out to our hero, husband, father and friend. We love and miss you.

Six Months

What to say . . . . . . . we can hardly believe that our little boy is 6 months old.  Where does the time go, seems like just yesterday we were heading home from the hospital.  Hayden has turned into quite the wiggle worm these days.  We are getting a kick out of Hayden's attempt to crawl.  He has yet to fully put hand in front of hand but is pulling himself around with his arms and pushing with his feet. This is requiring us to keep a closer eye on him as we are finding items that need to be moved out of his reach.  Hayden has also started eating solids this past month, he's really only tried cereal so far and doesn't really care all to much for it.  Hopefully we'll have better success with his fruits and veggies.  For Hayden's first Halloween we stayed home and simply answered the door and showed of his pumpkin hat.  We figured heading out in the neighborhood was a little pointless as we both knew mommy would end up eating all the candy and we all know she didn't need that.  We're enjoying our last few days together as a family before Preston deploys, we've enjoyed having him around a little more often lately as they try to give them as much time home with their families as possible.  We'll try and keep everyone up to date as we go through some major family changes in the next month.  Wishing everyone a happy holiday season!

Look I found my reflection!

Ewe, what is that?

Oops!  This is what happens when mommy doesn't buckle me in now.

Reading with Grandma Mary during her visit.

 Where's Hayden?

 

Trying to sneak in daddy's duffel bag.

Happy Halloween!

Five Months

Hayden loves snuggling with daddy while they watch some football.

Trigger is such a great dog he never complains about not being the center of attention now that Hayden's come along. We are sure that they are going to be the best of buds.

Another month is come and gone and yet again we are amazed at how fast Hayden is growing. He is always playing either in his exercauser, rolling on the floor or just hanging with mommy while she's getting ready. In fact with all this playing it's getting harder and harder to keep him in one spot for long. We are working on sleeping longer at night and not succeeding to well so, hopefully that will be a better post at a later date. We are so thankful for the chance to be Hayden's parents and loving every minute of it.

Hayden's Baby Blessing

Our Family on Hayden's big day

Hayden with Great Grandpa Alden (who he's named after),
Grandma Shurtz and daddy

Hayden with both of his grandpa's and cousin Gabriel.

Hayden with Grandma Mary

Hayden with his Aunt Brady

Me, Hayden and his Aunt Ashlee

Hayden just loved all the attention he received on his special day.

Grandpa Eric is passing on his love of football early!

Preston with all of his siblings and his mother.

We were able to have Hayden blessed by his Grandpa Holmes while visiting family back in Utah. Hayden was so good, he didn't even make a pep during the blessing and was all smiles most of the day. We had so much fun having all the family there and are so thankful for all the love and support we receive from each and everyone of them. We are truly blessed to have our little boy.

Holmes Family Pictures

While we were back in Utah we had the opportunity to have some family pictures taken. Looking at these makes me excited to see the actual photos from the photographer. We captured these photos on our own while waiting for the others to finish.

Rhianne's siblings: James, Morgan, and Brady

Hayden with his Aunt Brady.

Mom and Dad

Paige and Brady

Our Family Trip to Utah

We were so excited to head to Utah as a family before Preston deploys to Afghanistan that we jumped at the chance, even if we were only given a weeks notice (gotta love the Army). What this really meant was my parents were in the process of moving into their new house and were making temporary residence at my Grandpa's. This made for a crazy few days but, we were so excited to see all of our family and introduce them all to Hayden that we didn't mind. We enjoyed large family dinners, 4 wheeling, playing cards, outdoor barbecuing, Swiss days and just visiting with everyone.

Hayden had a few first on this trip, including his first overnight trip away from home. His first airplane ride, which he did awesome on, in fact the flight attendant even commented that she had forgotten they had a baby on board he was so quite. He also got to meet his great grandparents for the first time, including Great Grandpa Alden Shurtz, which he is named after. Preston and I were also lucky enough to get our first outing out together since Hayden was born. We want to say thank you to all of our family for making our trip fun and exciting.

Hayden napping on his 1st airplane ride.

Hayden with his Great Grandma Dean and Grandpa Eric.
Oh and daddy.

Eating out with family.

Hayden's sitting up just like a big boy with daddy.

Ah, home in my bed at last.