Ayden's first snow

Today Ayden got to see snow for the very first time! He loved looking out the window at the giant snowflakes. We got just enough snow to lightly cover the ground, but any amount of snow is pretty! I took Ayden out just long enough for quick picture!





Back inside where it's warm, ready for some sun!

Polar Bear Plunge!

My brother Nick, aka Rham Cunningham, will be taking the Polar Bear Plunge this Saturday at World Class Fitness in Fort Smith to benefit Arkansas Special Olympics. If interested in sponsoring him visit http://www.firstgiving.com/rhamcunningham
Thanks!

Video: Funny Noises

Here is a video of Ayden making some of his new silly noises. He was cracking us up!(pause my music at the bottom of the page)

More new pics

New pics!

Playing at Papaw and Memaw's house

Getting ready to tell Papaw bye

Ayden's new rocking horse from Papaw & Memaw. Ayden can't wait until he is big enough to ride!

Snuggles with Grandma

What a pose!

Anderson Look-alike Meter

Most people still think Ayden looks more like Chris than me, but here is some face recognition evidence that the opposite may be true!

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Video: Rolling Over part 2

Video: Rolling Over

Ayden has been rolling over for awhile, but he is very stingy with who sees him do it! The only person who has seen him do it besides me is Chris, and he has only seen it once! I finally caught it on camera for everyone else to see!

5 months old!

Ayden is 5 months old today! I can't believe this time last year I was in my first trimester of pregnancy! He is growing and changing so much and I am so grateful to have been able to stay home and spend so much time with him. Here are a few of Ayden's favorite activities, as well as other things I don't want to forget!
-Ayden loves to jump! He enjoys playing in his jumparoo or jumping in your lap.
-He can make lots of funny sounds, including growling, squealing, razzing, and various babbling noises, including something very close to "momma" :)
-He becomes excited in response to his name
-He absolutely loves watching Andy and Jack, and sometimes gets an uninvited "kiss"!
-His eyes follow us when we leave the room, and then he hollers in protest!
-He rolls over both ways
-He can reach for and hold a toy with both hands or one hand
-He can take his binky out of his mouth, hold it out in front of him, then place it back in his mouth
-He laughs out loud when playing peek-a-boo
-He laughs out loud when I play music and sing and dance for him (who wouldn't? :)
-He sleeps 6-8 hours through at night, and has even started sleeping in his own bed in his room at night! We actually discovered he sleeps much better without the distractions of sleeping in our room, because he is a relatively light sleeper.
-He becomes easily distracted while nursing now, frequently pulling away to look around and see what he might be missing!
-He gives his daddy the most precious smile when he gets home from work every night
-He splashes in the bathtub
-He enjoys riding in the car now
-When you say, "give me kisses" he leans in to you with his mouth wide open and bats his eyelashes on your face.

Here are some snippets from Ayden's life as 5 month old!

Playdate

Today Christy and Tanner came over so the babies could play together. Tanner will be 9 months old next week and is getting to be such a big boy- he is crawling and pulling up! Ayden watched with amazement while Tanner zoomed all over the living room. I can't believe that will be Ayden in just a few months! Here are some sweet pics of the babies playing together.


Hey up there!

Where ya goin'?

And he's off!

Watching Tanner go!

What a big boy


Give me those fingers!

Yum!

Holding hands

Tub time

I have moved Ayden's baby tub into the big tub since he loves splashing so much now! The kitchen floor and walls were getting soaked! Here are a few pics of the little man in his tub.

And on the 9th day...my muscles ached!

We are now 9 days into the healthy eating and exercising plan and I am proud to say that between the 2 of us we are 15 pounds lighter already! We have a long way to go but thats a good start! We feel so much better and have so much more energy. Chris put the elliptical machine together Wed. night, and I used it right away. The first night I could only handle 10 minutes, yesterday I did 15 min, and today I worked out for 25 minutes. Every muscle in my body is sore but its a good kina sore! When I am huffing and puffing after only 5 minutes of exercise, its hard to believe I could once run a 7 minute mile! But that girl is in there somewhere and I am going to find her if it kills me(and it just might! hee hee) Ayden is great motivation while I'm working out, he jumps in his jumparoo and watches me on the elliptical in complete amazement. We also play peek-a-boo while I am doing my crunches on my exercise ball and his little giggle makes me want to do more reps! Anyway, here is a pic of the machine and of course I couldn't help but to post yet another cute pic of my boys. :)




My legs start burning just looking at it!



Real men wear stripes :)

Pics

Just a few pics of Ayden from the past week. He is growing so fast!

Filling out a size 6-9 month outfit!

He started out in the middle of the crib on his back, and this is how he ended up! I guess this is just more comfy :)

I found him laying in his crib playing with this monkey which was on the other side of the crib when I laid him down!

Intro to our Weight Loss Journey

Okay so most of you know my main reason for this blog is to post pics and updates about Ayden but now it is also going to serve as my weight loss diary. Feel free to read for motivation or skip right over for stories about Ayden! I have always loved to write and would love to someday have a book published. Another reason for blogging about my weight loss efforts is for accountabilty. The more people who know that I am trying to change my lifestyle, the more inspired I will be to not fail again!

It's no secret that I, along with lots of other people, have attempted to lose weight many times. What's so great about this time is that, for the first time ever, my support system has never been stronger. It seems just about everyone I know is embarking on the same journey. Of course, it's January, so I am sure a large percentage of the American population is on a diet right now. But I like to think I am not just part of a New Year trend. Okay, so yes, I waited until the New Year to start this, but, hey, you have to start sometime! So many of my family and friends are joining me in this weight loss effort, and just about all of us have significant amounts of weight to lose. My brother is doing a highly publicized, media-focused weight loss challenge (check out his blog- Rham's blog at http://www.1027thevibe.com/) . Two years ago he lost 93 pounds in 93 days while working for the radio station KISR 93. He gained all the weight back and he admits that while his intentions were good, he went about it all wrong. He basically crash dieted for 3 months. This time around he is focusing on a lifestyle change. And thats really what it is all about.

Chris and I took a long, hard look at our lives after Ayden was born. We ate a lot of fast foods, fried foods, and sweets. We never exercised. Chris takes high blood pressure and high cholesterol medications at the age of 26. Both of us have a family history of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, and everyone knows the problems we both have with our backs. And to be honest, we feel like crap most of the time! We realized this was no way to raise a child. We don't want Ayden growing up with obese parents and possibly become an obese child. And lets face it, with our lifestyle and family histories, the odds are against him. So all that, along with the personal desire to feel better, have spurred us into action. Chris wants to lose 80 pounds and I want to lose 100 pounds. We would like to acheive these goals within a year, although I am not setting any stringent time limits. We officially started on January 2nd. We don't like to use the word "diet" because we have failed at so many diets in the past. We just are trying to be healthy. We are avoiding fast food completely, eating fruits and vegetables in the recommended amounts, drinking water, and making smarter choices. Chris likes to call it "The DUH diet"...like "duh"...if you eat chili dogs and sit on the couch every night you will be fat and "duh"...if you eat healthy and exercise you won't! It's not going to be an easy journey, we know that. Chris and I love food. Sadly it has been one of our favorite pasttimes in our marriage! We just are hoping to replace food with healthier behaviors. I highly recommend to anyone wanting to lose weight to read Dr. Phil's "The Ultimate Weight Loss Solution." Of all the diet books I have read (and believe me, I have read plenty!) this one really hits home with me. It is a great source of personal motivation. Well, this is all I am going to write today. We would like to say good luck to anyone else out there who is going through the same thing!

Video: Splish Splash!

Here is a video of one of Ayden's favorite new games- kicking and splashing in the tub!

Mommy and Daddy's Day Out

Today Chris and I had a lunch and movie date. I have not been anywhere without Ayden aside from quick trips to Wal-mart since I worked my last 2 weekends in October. My parents were kind enough to come babysit for us and we had a great time. We went to the movies and watched Juno, which I highly recommend! It was a very funny, feel good movie, not at all a "chick flick" which Chris was sure it would be :) Anyway it was nice to have some time alone but we missed Ayden and were very happy to come home to his smiling face!

Pretty day!

Today it was a beautiful, sunny 70 degrees and we took advantage of the nice change in weather! It has been extremely cold this past week, (in the teens in the mornings and only warming up into the 30's) as most of you already know! Ayden and I both jumped at the chance to get out for some fresh air. After a trip to Lowe's and a visit to Uncle Nick and Aunt Cara's house this morning, we went for a walk through the neighborhood. It felt good to get some exercise. Chris and I are on day 4 of our new healthy eating plan and so far we are doing great, keeping each other motivated! We are planning a trip to Destin, FL in August so that is great motivation to get in shape! Hope everyone else enjoyed the pretty weather too!


Ready for a stroll!

Such a big boy!

Ayden has changed so much in the last week right before our eyes! First of all, he rolls over now like its nothing. He rolls belly to back and back to belly with ease. The only time its a problem is when he is asleep on his back in his crib and he rolls over in his sleep to his belly, the roll wakes him up and causes him to fuss because he doesn't like to be on his tummy. He is making lots of new sounds, including a very funny low "growl". He is noticing the dogs more and more and watches them very intently, sometimes laughing at them. He is very active and wants to change activities about every 10-15 minutes. He also is reaching for toys and pretty much anything we are holding, such as our phones or silverware. Although I haven't officially started him on solids yet, today I decided to experiment with giving him a little rice cereal with a spoon. He was definetely surprised! He was much more interested in the spoon itself than the actual food- most of which ended up on his face and bib! I can't believe how big he is getting and how interactive he is becoming- he is so much fun! He is all we need for entertainment these days! He is growing so fast, but he is for sure still mommy's baby boy :)
Here are some pics from his first feeding of rice cereal:

Video: Laughing with hiccups

I finally got a video from the camcorder to upload! Yea! This is a video of Ayden laughing at his Aunt Jenny. He also has the hiccups- it's really cute!

Jumparoo Video

I have spent a large amount of time today trying to upload videos of Ayden from our Sony Handycam, and I have ran into a number of roadblocks with the software and with You Tube...but to make a long story short I was finally was able to upload a video taken with our digital camera. The quality isn't nearly as good as with the Handycam and its a little dark, but its still cute.

Ayden absolutely loves his new Jumparoo! He is a little short for it so we put a stack of books beneath him. He knows exactly what to do when you put him in it! He jumped for about 30 minutes non-stop tonight, then yawned once, and passed out. It was hilarious! I hope you enjoy the video- feel free to tune out my silly mommy talk, but listen towards the end when Ayden starts laughing at Andy for no particular reason. It's very sweet! (you can scroll to the bottom of the page and pause my music so you can hear Ayden laugh)



Worn out!

Go Razorbacks!

Ayden is all geared up this morning to watch the Cotton Bowl. I looked back at a picture we took of him on the day of the first Razorback game of the season- I can't believe how much he has changed!!

Ayden 2 weeks old




January 1, 2008