4 Months... Where has the time gone?!

Tyson had his four month appointment on May 21st.  He is 26 inches and 16 lbs.  He is healthy as can be and got his 4 month shots!  Our Dr. said he was ready for rice cereal so we have started adding a little to his milk during the day.

His hair is still continuing to grow like crazy (we're actually considering giving it a little trim over his ears).  He's smiling, laughing, gaining great strength in his neck, and wearing size 9 and even some size 12 clothes.

We are proud parents of our Tysey!

Play Date #1

I am so blessed to have met 5 wonderful girls who had babies around the same time I did.  I met them at Mommy and Baby group at the hospital and as we slowly all started to go back to work from our maternity leaves, we planned to have a get together so we'd stay in touch.

On April 29th, we had our first play date at Kim's house in Bonney Lake.  It was so great to see the girls again and see how much the babies had already grown.  We talked about what was going on in our babies' lives and snacked on some delicious treats.  The babies were sitting up, doing tummy time, and falling asleep in our arms while we chatted about motherhood.

The babies were all born between October and January, Peyton (Shelly's daughter) is the oldest and Tyson is the baby of the babies!  The other babies are Molly (Kelly's), Isaac (Kim's), Isla (Melinda's), and Ayden (Janelle's).  I am thrilled Tyson has already met such wonderful friends and hope he is friends with them forever.  I am also greatful to have made some new mommy friends and look forward to many playdates in the future (and possibly a mommy's night out).

Our next playdate is June 23rd, I can't wait to see how far our babies have come!

Tyson's a Talker

This video was taken over a month ago but I thought I'd share with you our little talker...  you should hear him now! This is nothing! I need a new video.

My Oh My! We took Tyson to his first Mariner's game!

From the moment we found out we were pregnant, one of the many thing we were really excited about was bringing our baby to Mariner's Opening Night.  Adam and I have made going to Opening Night a tradition and have gone every year since we've been together.  This year was especially special for us because we got to bring our 3 month old son.

Adam worked that day and I was on Spring Break from school.  We were both SO excited for the work day to be over so we could get what we had been waiting so long for started.  I bought Tyson a Mariner's hoodie a month before the game and couldn't wait to put him in it.

We weren't really sure how it was going to go with a 3 month old.  It was the furthest we had driven him (from Bonney Lake to Seattle).  He is generally really good in the car but not driving a constant 45 minutes before made us wonder how it was going to go.  The unknown and firsts are always kind of scary and having your first child means there are a lot of unknowns and firsts.  Tyson did great, he slept most of the way there and talked to us for the rest.  He is quite the talker!

Adam packed him into the stadium using our Baby Bjorn for the first time. Adam and Tyson both looked so cute together, there's just something so special about seeing a father and his son at the ball park.   We sat with Staci and her boyfriend Brett.  Staci surprised us with giving Tyson an adorable little Mariner's hat for Tyson's first game.  It's a little big now, but I can't wait until he grows into it.

The game went great.  We sat in the Club Level, hoping it would be a little calmer, but we just so happened to sit next to a couple really loud, young guys.  Every time Tyson fell asleep, they would yell and wake him up.  We had know idea how loud a Mariner's game could get!  We learned our lesson and bough earphones for the next game.

Tyson is going to be one spoiled boy.  He will be going to the Mariner's game to celebrate his Auntie Marci's birthday at the end of the month.  We rented a suite for the night so Tyson's Mariner's game experience will be in Club Level seats and Suite Level seats so far.  We hope Tyson grows up loving the Mariner's as much as we do. 

Tyson's First Easter

We celebrated Tyson's first Easter at the Jensen's this year.  It was a beautiful day as we were surrounded by our family and Brian's family.  The kids had an Easter Egg hunt in the front yard, and we all sat in the back yard and soaked in the sun.

Because it was Tyson's first Easter, we had to have him get his picture taken with the Easter bunny.  We were a little nervous of handing our son over to a person in a scary bunny costume for fear he would scream but it was a pleasant experience. Tyson fell asleep in line, rather than waking him up, we decided to let him sleep.  So here you have it, a sleeping Tyson with the Easter bunny!

My brother also had an Easter Bunny/Egg Hunt up by his Emerald City Smoothie so Tyson and I went up to support my brother and enjoy the festivities.  Tyson got his picture taken with his cousin Ava with another Easter Bunny while he was there.  This Easter Bunny experience was not as successful as the other.

Tyson and Ava's Baptism

Tyson was Baptized on April 15th at Trinity Lutheran Church in Enumclaw.  I know most churches, even the one Adam and I attend (when we go), baptize when the baptizee (sp?) is able to choose but we really wanted Tyson to be baptized as a baby.

I was baptized at Trinity Lutheran, as were all my siblings.  We grew up there and even got confirmed there.   We attended church every Sunday but when we got older, my parents stopped taking us because they wanted us to choose where we wanted to attend church.  I found a great non denominational church in Sumner that I absolutely love.  The pastor is extremely engaging and I found myself really looking forward to going to church every Sunday, it's also much closer than Enumclaw.

My Grandma Hahto was a member at Trinity until she passed in January.  My parents also were married there.  I wish my Grandma Haugen and Grandma Hahto who are both Lutheran could have been there for Tyson's special day, but I know they were watching from Heaven.

Tyson shared his day with his cousin Ava.  It was a beautiful day and Tyson was lucky enough to have 4 families as his sponsors.  They are, Brian and Melanie Jensen, BJ and Nicci Haugen, Marci Haugen, and Keri.  The church was filled with family and friends there to support Tyson and Ava. Tyson slept throughout the entire sermon, and woke for his actual baptism.  He was a perfect angel and didn't say a peep :)

We had a wonderful reception at my parent's house.  Everybody came to eat, socialize, and celebrate the baptisms.  We really appreciate the support from our family and friends.

It's Been Awhile!

If you are reading this, you can thank my Aunt Marilyn for kicking my butt back into Blogging!  It's been so long and I have so many blogs to post.  Where did I leave off?

I returned back to school on April 2nd.  I considered calling my principal on April 1st and telling him I wasn't coming back for the year as an April Fool's Joke but decided he might not think that was very funny (even though he's the coolest principal in the world).

My first day back felt like the first day of school all over again!  I was nervous and was worried the kids weren't going to like me :(  I made the decision to choose a young long term sub for my position, fresh out of college.  She was amazing and the kids LOVED her!  They called me Ms. Pries for the entire first week back.  I'm sure Ms. Pries got called Mrs. Barker for quite awhile while she was there.  Anyway, the kids were so welcoming which made me feel great!  They gave me hugs, told me they missed me, a couple of them even brought me gifts!  They made a difficult first week back well worth it and not so difficult. 

My friends and family also made me feel happy to be back.  My wonderful husband sent me flowers, as did my sisters.  My girlfriend Dianna who teaches Kindergarten brought me in some flowers and a mother of a student I had last year also sent in flowers as well as a picture frame to put a picture of Tyson in.  I feel so lucky that so many people cared about me, my classroom looked and smelled like a floral shop. 

I planned my return perfectly because after working 5 days, I was on SPRING BREAK for 9 days and back holding my baby every day :)  I look forward to ending the year with such a wonderful class.  I love my students.

Ps. I only called home twice on my first day.  Pretty good I think.