Date night!

How have we lived in Duluth for SIX years and never went mountain biking??  We decided for our anniversary that we wanted to get a babysitter and do something that we can't do with Gideon… mounting biking would be a little tricky with him!  Duluth is a mountain bike mecca with almost 100 miles of single track in town.  We literally drove 4 minutes from our house to get to a trail and it was so so so awesome!  After our first ride I might have a slight obsession and can't wait to get out again!  We packed a picnic and after biking we hiked up to a lookout and had dinner on a giant rock in Hartley Park.  It was my kinda night... no make-up, no noise, no people… just us (and the mosquitos).

Ummm chocolate merlot wine fudge on top of strawberry shortcake with homemade whip cream… YES PLEASE!

We also had our very first babysitter!  Taylor goes to our church and is my friend Anna's babysitter.  Anna has THREE boys and a girl… so if Taylor can handle that she can handle anything. haha.  She did awesome!  She is the sweetest girl and has such a fun personality.  Gideon loves her already!

Growing Boy

Agh - I need to get better at blogging!  A post a week.  That's my goal. Don't hold your breath.

Here is Gideon at each month.  He is such a great baby and changing so much right now.  He hugs me now, I mean c'mon lay off the cuteness Gideon!

My little 4 month dude boy

My baby is 4 months!! Where does the time go??  He is already in 6 month clothes and some pieces are even 9 months!  The little chunker.  He's is only in the 46% for weight though so I think they need to makes baby clothes bigger! Right?!  He is in such a cute stage… smiling, cooing, playing with toys and he LOVES getting his diaper changed which is fun until somebody gets pee'd on (me!).  We are still doing cloth diapers at home which I love (mostly I just like NOT buying diapers!).  We follow the babywise program (which I also love!!) and are just starting a 4 hour schedule which is a breath of fresh air!  We have been working hard at sleep training and he's been sleeping 11 hours at night for over a month now with few issues which has also been awesome for the entire family (including Kenai :).  I love my new job as a stay at home mommy and can't imagine leaving him everyday.  It's seriously even better than I imagined.  I have a bunch of friends who also stay home or work part time so we have plenty of play dates and walking buddies.  Here are some pics of the dude!  It's super hard to get a picture of Gideon smiling.  As soon as I put the camera up he gives me the "Gideon look" as seen below. :)

One, Two...

Two Months Old!  My little love bug button duck…

Happy Happy Happy

Gid the Kid

We got a video monitor for our nursery that is wireless and connects to our IPad.  I REALLY love it.  Gideon always sleeps/naps in his crib and sometimes (okay all of the time) I just want to peek in there.  This way I can spy on him as much as I want and from wherever I want.  I also have night vision (i've always wanted night vision), I can hear/talk to him, I can pan the entire room (to see if Robby is spying on him), I can take video's & pictures.  It's basically awesome and i'm addicted to watching my baby sleep (okay he might cry a little too).

Here is me spying on him.  This is his first time napping outside of his swaddle.  He's a FREE man and his loving his awesome sleep sack from baby Dane!  I'm not sure he's ready to be out of his swaddle yet because he is SO squirmy… time will tell.

Okay five minutes later - here he is awake.  Gideon, I'M WATCHING YOU!… Muhahahaha.

Also, we got a flower bath thing for our kitchen sink.  I'm in love with it's cuteness.  We have a small kitchen sink to it works perfect for us.   The Balgaard kids were all bathed in the kitchen sink (minus the fancy cozy flower - we probably bonked our heads a few times).   Isn't it CUTE?!

Walking with a bear and a wolf

It's been so nice out lately that we have been able to take our little bear out for a walk.  We put him in his bear suit, sling him under a coat and off we go.  Kenai  our little wolf dog loves it too!  Finally temperatures above zero!!!

 I had to take a picture of this mail box.  They had to shovel out their mail box.  ha!

Anchor Point Friends!

The girls at church put on a baby shower for Gideon.  It seriously could not have been any cuter!!  We had coffee and dessert, my friend Anna did a devotional and led us in prayer and then we colored these cute little pictures to make an alphabet book for Giddy.  So sweet!  It was really fun and such a lovely group of ladies.

Update.

We have A LOT of snow.

AND this boy is 6 weeks old on Thursday!!

Our sweet baby BOY!

When Robby said "its a boy!" I had to check to make sure.  I was so sure it was going to be a girl that I was a little in shock.  I'm totally loving having a baby boy… he's feisty yet sweet and his chubby cheeks are getting chubbier every day.

Overall everything went great with the delivery.  Gideon was pinching a nerve in my back causing me to be in SO MUCH pain that I got induced on my due date.  I was scared to death to get an epidural… but I ended up getting one to help me sleep before delivery and it was the best decision I could have made.  It was amazing and I don't think I could have a baby without one now.. haha.

Our life has changed quite a bit now that Gideon is here.  It's been fun, challenging, exhausting… and every time I look at him my heart melts.  It's such an unbelievable feeling and an unexplainable love.

We've been so blessed by all of our friends in Duluth.  We have had meals dropped off almost every night for three weeks…. I haven't had to cook.  It's been such a blessing because the last thing you want to do with a new baby is cook.  Also, we've had friends shovel our driveway, run errands for us and the list go's on.  Seriously, such a blessing!

Here is a fun little glimpse at all of the fun visitors we had at the hospital!  It seems like so long ago already!

And here is a glimpse at all of our Skype visitors…

 The Headricks!

We also have had a ton of visitors to our home…

Fun With the Frey's

My little love boy!!