Diamond's Are Forever

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Fourteen Months

Over the past few weeks I have been amazed, yet again, at the rapid pace Drayze has grown and learned. He is a few days shy of 14 months old. I can't believe it! My baby has transformed in to a smart, funny, fun loving, handsome little boy. He has added several new words to his vocabulary; cookie, uh-oh, doggy, fishhhhh, Ty-Ty, "Denny," stop it, and he can even say "more" in sign language. He knows what the dog and cow say, he can find his mouth and his nose, and blows kisses. Speaking of kisses, he gives the BEST kisses! Often times he comes at us with his mouth wide open, but we take them however we can get them. His kisses are even completed with the "mwah!" He can stand up all by himself and has even managed to jump on the bed without holding on to anything. He still, however, refuses to walk. We think he is extremely close to that milestone though! He eats all regular table food now, and we are working on eliminating the bottle completely.

Even though it makes me sad how fast our boy is growing up, it is the most amazing process to be part of. Before he is no longer tiny, we decided we needed to get some professional pictures done of him. {To add to the 12,000 picture gallery we already have of him} Here is a peak at some of our favorite ones.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Adventure Time

I had been begging Zac to take us camping since the weather turned the slightest bit warm. After several failed attempts to make the camping adventure work with our schedules, we were finally able to go! We have always enjoyed camping, but this year we were extra eager to hit the mountains as we knew Drayze would love it just as much.

Friday finally arrived. We spent most of the day loading and preparing for the adventure. It's a lot more work preparing to go camping with a baby. I wanted to be sure we had everything we might possibly need. This resulted the the cruiser being slightly overpacked. By the looks of things, you would have thought we were going for at least a weekend. We decided we would just go one day to see how Drayze would really do.

With everything loaded up, we headed out on our adventure. Scouting out the perfect spot can be half the fun. Luckily, it didn't take us much time to score a nice little spot tucked back in some trees. It had a cute red picnic table, a cement slab with a built in fire pit, and a perfect level spot for our {extra large} tent.

Drayze played in the dirt with his trucks and ate cookies while we set up camp. It took all but ten minutes before he was absolutely filthy. I had mentally prepared myself before we left for this. I told myslef, just let him get dirty, boys will be boys. Plus hey, he was having a blast!

Once our camp was all set up we were able to just simply be together and enjoy being outdoors. Drayze kept Zac and I entertained and on our toes. He did very well staying away from the fire, which was our main concern. Having so much fun did wear the boy right down so putting him to sleep was far easier than we had anticipated. He had his very own tiny blow up mattress complete with plenty of blankets and of course his blue teddy bear.

Once our sweet boy was tucked sound in the tent, Zac and I were able to spend some much needed quality time together. Life can become so hectic that it's easy to almost forget how nice it is to just be together with no distractions. Conversation, laughs, and reminiscing next to the camp fire is how we spent the remainder of the night. It couldn't have been any better. Such simple pleasures we often take for granted.

We slept together in one tent as a family. To our surprise we got a better nights sleep that we had imagined, and Drayze did amazing through the night. We all had an excellent time. Now we know what to expect camping and sleeping in the tent with Drayze, next time we will plan to stay longer. Can't wait for next time, adventure is out there!