The last few months

Yes, I have gone a while again without an update, so here's for another smorgasbord of photos that aren't really related to one another, but give a taste of what's happened the last couple of months.

My two babies - approximately the same age. I'd say they look pretty similar - besides their hairlines and coloring...

These next few photos are to display two things, but I'll tell the first here and the second below. This is the "after photo" of the haircut Matt gave Levi....without telling me. I got home and found a baggie labeled "Levi's first haircut" with quite a load of baby hair. I was shocked to say the least. Not angry, just shocked and a little disappointed that I wasn't there.
The second thing is to show that we've started rice cereal. More out of necessity than desire. At Levi's 2-month appointment he weighed 10 lbs - between 15-25% on the charts. At his 4-month appointment he weight only 11lbs - not even on the charts. So, we've been working with a specialist trying to figure out his allergies/weight gain problems. I don't think I ever mentioned on the blog before that back in November he was having bloody diapers caused by allergies so for two and half months I went without any products that had dairy, soy, wheat, eggs or nuts. Yeah, these holidays were the healthiest I've ever had. However, just Wednesday I started back on with wheat, eggs and nuts so now it's the waiting game to see if his system takes them back in alright. If not, I'll have to eliminate foods again. Anyway... Levi WON'T take a bottle. He just kind of chews on the nipple, but won't suck. So much for my grand idea that if I don't give him a bottle we'll succeed in strictly breastfeeding. So now we feed him rice cereal with a scoop of hypoallergenic formula a couple of times a day. He's starting to gain which is exciting - now we're just working through the transition to solids and constipation. Poor kid. However, through it all, he's been a sweet and adorable baby. He's my little pal.
So you can see in this photo that his hair really was too long and looking like an old man comb over. Even though I didn't know if I completely liked the idea of a 4 1/2 month old getting a haircut, I really do like the shorter version better. His smile here and above make me grin every time I see the photos.
For Christmas Santa brought Hailey her doll "Zoe" with a stroller, crib, highchair, bottle, diaper, etc. Hailey was practicing on Levi. However, we decided that after Levi was gagging with the bottle in his throat that we wouldn't do that anymore. :)
Last year we had a couple inches of snow that we tried to sled on and Hailey hated it. Obviously the smile in this photo tells you that she LOVED this year's experience with her cousins.
Levi in Grandma Butler's boots. I guess here would be as good a place as any to say that the reason we have photos with family during the holidays is because we got a surprise trip to see everyone. We were so excited. We got to play surprise tricks on our siblings and had a great time doing it. Besides seeing family, the most exciting part was to get the photo you'll see below of the four Jays.
Santa brought Hailey a microphone for Christmas. She loves performing with it.
Levi camped out on Grandpa Butler's lap for Christmas morning festivities - obviously very happily. It was sweet to see their friendship grow over the week. Levi really is a pretty likable little guy.
Daddy & Hailey on Christmas morning. The toy she's playing with is this cool beading set. I got it for several reasons, but education was one of them. She now recognizes cylinders - even when their drawn on paper (by me - now that's an extra bonus considering my drawing skills, or lack of).
The four Jays. I would have made the trip for this photo alone - and that's saying a lot considering our hilarious plane ride that included a blowout diaper in my lap, Hailey soaking through to her ankles, spilled apple juice, etc. Oh, and did I mentioned that Matt had to sit across the aisle. :) Thank goodness it was a direct flight.
Levi meets Santa. My hometown had a Santa meeting with really nice gifts and festivities. I was really impressed. That's small town celebrating for you.
Hailey didn't scream at Santa this year! She still wouldn't touch him and definitely wouldn't sit on his lap, but we coaxed this half-smile out of her at least.
Levi met his cousin for the first time that is close to three months older than him. Yeah - the meeting didn't go so well. Hopefully they'll play better together in the years to come.
We had our own Christmas morning the night before we left so that wouldn't have to pay luggage fees to bring out gifts. Hailey loved her new coat/boot set from her aunt and uncle. I felt bad though because I really over-estimated on her shoe size and she kept falling on her face. Oh well - they'll be cute in a couple of years. She loves the coat now anyway.
She LOVES Zoe. Santa really hit the jackpot with this gift. She really had to be coaxed to open her other gifts.
Levi was happy for our little celebration.
I took this photo because we have on of Matt and his two sisters like this. I'll have to post them together sometime.
One day Hailey was jealous that Levi got to ride in my wrap so to appease her I made one for Sandy (her bear) to ride around. She thought it was the coolest thing. I love Levi's funny face.

He's such a happy boy. He's not giggly, but Hailey wasn't either. We've gotten a few laughs and they are so cute. He gives so many smiles though.
Hailey is very observant - obviously.
Oh - this shouldn't be hidden among all these random photos, but it is. Matt ran his first half-marathon and finished it under two hours! He came in at 1:50. Great job babe!
Hailey's hair is getting really long and I've had fun doing crazy things with it. Sometimes they aren't finished as I had originally planned because she gets bored, but other times we finish with things like this.
We had our own Thanksgiving dinner because I didn't want to impose my crazy allergy-baby diet on anyone else. We had a great day. One favorite thing was learning from a neighbor how to make the most amazing southern-style sweet potatoes. They've made it onto our traditional food list.
Hailey and I making traditional cranberry salad - yum!
You'll notice from our updated family photos along the side that we had family photos taken in November by an AMAZING photographer. (Any locals want photos? Make a comment and I'll send you her information - she is incredible and very reasonably priced.) We actually were going to go one day and the weather turned on us so we rescheduled. However, I finished Hailey's hair for the fun of it and we did our own little backyard photo shoot.



Matt had the week of Thanksgiving off so we went with some friends to Nashville for a couple of day. We had a great time. One of the things we did there was visit the Opryland Hotel. It was INCREDIBLE! They were all decorated for Christmas and the decorations were gorgeous. I loved the poinsettia tree....
My sweet kids. They really like each other. Hailey loves to hold Levi and has tried several times to pick him up which always ends with him crying. She just loves him. He loves to watch her and smiles and coos at her all the time. I'm excited to see them play together.

I love my baby's blue eyes.
When I see photos like this I still miss his funky little hair.
Obviously he loves Matt. It's funny to see Matt carrying Levi around - especially with his new haircut. He's a little mini-Matt.
Even though his tininess has been a little bit of a challenge, we've had some fun with it too - like putting him in Hailey's doll stroller. We had a fun Halloween. For the ward party that night Hailey was a bumblebee....
But when we went to visit Daddy at school she was a turtle and Levi was a pea in the pod.
And Matt??? Well.....he grew some hair.

We actually made this the night before. He came out with his blue glasses and headband on and asked what he could make based on the two accessories. I told him he looked like a hippy and that started the creative juices. A whole skein of yarn and a couple hours later - Matt's new hair. It looked insanely real.