Hello Crew: 9 months old

Age:

9 months old! 

Stats:

on 12/7/15, at 9 1/2 months he is.. 

28.5 inches long

and 18.5 pounds

Favorites:

• Loves standing more than sitting. He is always pulling up on things. 
• Loves the FaceTime ring and seeing himself in the phone. He always gets so happy and smily.
• Loves climbing all over me and pulling at anything I have, like my hair, hand, glasses, you name it. If I have something in my hand that he wants he does anything to get it. He pulls and pulls and reaches and reaches. 

Least Favorites:

• Hates being separated from mom. It's adorable and yet so exhausting. Is that bad to say? we are working through major separation anxiety.. and when you have been with someone all the time for your whole life and then they try to leave for a little while, I can see why that would be terrifying. 
• Doesn't like when you walk away from him.. he gets mad and usually crawls after you. If he is distracted with something else he is fine but if not he is like a little shadow. 

Sleep:

Exhausting. You would think three times the charm for sleep training but it doesn't seem to be so. We are taking a different approach now and we will see how it goes. wish us lots and lots of luck because apparently we need it. 

He stands up in his crib now. Luckily he doesn't do it too much at night but it was a shocker when he first did it. 

Eat:

• He is a snacker. Always hungry. always wanting to eat. never really eats enough that he is satisfied for long periods of time. Does great eating baby food for about five minutes and then he is over it and wants to get down. Still no bottle or sippy cup. Which makes me wonder what will happen when nursing ends..maybe by then we will just go straight to a cup. HA 
• He has gotten really good at picking things up with his pointer finger and thumb. So good that if any little thing is on the ground it goes straight to his mouth. and half the time I can't even see it when I am standing so it makes that fun. I have gotten better at keeping the floors extra clean...kinda.
• Gets really mad when we have food and we don't give him any. He starts making noise indicating that he wants some. 

Play:

He is officially, official crawling. He even knows to duck his head to get under something. 

Always on the move. finding new things.

He loves watching other kids. They are fascinating to him. I think we just need to make friends so that he has other kids to play with. 

We went to a Christmas fair with my sister Kjerstin and her daughter Haizlee. They were loving Crew and Crew loved playing with them. 

During Crew's 9 months...

He took his first trip to Kansas. It was quite the adventure getting out there. We had a connecting flight going through Dallas and the same weekend there was a hurricane going through Texas. The night before we were supposed to leave I got a call at 3:30am saying that the flight was cancelled and I am rescheduled to fly out on Sunday morning instead. I woke up to feed Crew so I ended up waking Andrew up and saying we weren't going to be able to go in the morning (He was headed to Idaho so after he dropped me off he was going to go straight there). I also texted my parents and told them the flight was cancelled. The problem with it changing a whole day is that I was going specifically that day to go to the ward Halloween party and then the next day was Nathan's Allegro concert. A few hours later I wake up to my parents calling saying they may have found a new flight. Although this one would only give me 29 minutes in my layover, now in Denver. So it was either take this flight and potentially miss my connecting flight and get stuck in Denver for the night or wait until Sunday to get to Kansas. I decided to take the risk and schedule the new flight. The other crazy thing is that when I got the confirmation it said the actual flight cost $5 and then there was $30 in fees...they were REALLY cheap flights.. cheapest we have ever seen. 

Crew got his own seat on one of the flights home. SO NICE! 

After we made the decision to go we had to rush out the door so that I could get to the airport in time. However once through security I learned that the fight was delayed a little, so I had plenty of time. Crew was doing great through all of this. He loves people watching. We left about 30 mins late and got to Denver right when my other flight was supposed to be leaving. I had to wait for the stroller and carseat so I was sure I had missed the connecting flight. I quickly speed walked to the gate. The gate was closed and it was completely empty except for two people working on the computer. I asked if there was any way the flight to Kansas was still there. They said well the gate is closed but we are still trying to get the paper work to go through so we will let you board!!! 

I was shaking at this point from the adrenaline. And kept saying thank you, thank you, you are amazing. I was shocked. They never open the door once it has been closed and they did for me!! 

I was really amazed that I had made it to Kansas at the time I planned. It was a miracle!

The week was awesome. I loved going to Nathan's concert. I was in Allegro all through high school and this was the first time I was able to sit in the audience and watch/listen. It was beautiful. I love music and am so glad it has been a large part of my life. 

Crew and I loved hanging out with my mom and dad and brothers, Nathan and Aaron. We had a fun time relaxing, shopping, and eating really good food that I miss and have to have every time I go home. It was nice having just hang out time with my family. Nothing really planned but just seeing how everyday went.

We were there while the Royals played in the World Series. It was really fun to watch the games with my family. They were so excited and it was fun to see everyone around town get so excited. I have never seen my mom get so into any sport. It was hilarious. 

It was Crew's first Halloween. Although he had no idea what was going on, he was adorable in all his costumes. He dressed as a skeleton all day and a puppy for the ward Halloween party and then a few pictures Halloween night. He then went to bed early and we passed out candy and watched the Royals game.

My mom, Crew and I went fabric shopping in Lawrence one day. It is such a cute town with some fun fabric stores. We could have spent hours in them if Crew hadn't gotten a little grumpy. We got some great ideas for future projects though. Then we went to lunch at a hamburger place and had the BEST onion rings of our lives. Yes, they were that gooood. and they were huge.. yum. 

Crew loved crawling around the house, chasing chester, and playing with all of grandmas toys. He got so much love, although he was afraid of everyone, especially when mom left the room. He definitely warmed up to everyone though. 

It was a wonderful trip. Luckily the trip home was much less eventful than the trip there. 

It was a busy and fun 9 month. 

We have so much love for this little boy! 

love, alex&andrew

BYU Homecoming 2015

On October 9 & 10 we celebrated BYU Homecoming. I had really wanted to go to the BYU Spectacular, which is dancing and music, this year they had David Archuleta as special guest, but I was nervous about taking Crew because his bedtime is between 8-8:30. Andrew got him some headphones for the football games so I figured that if he wore those and if he got really fussy we could walk around with him. Two days before the event I got on and got tickets. They had a disclaimer saying these seats were to the side of the stage so it would be hard to see but you could still see the big screen. That was perfect to me because I really just wanted to hear David and Vocal point (BYU's acapella group) sing.

Well night of the event we are going to our seats and yes they are on the side but it is the second row from the stage on the side. We kept thinking well maybe we are in the wrong seats, but sure enough they were the right ones! It was awesome! Since it was the side of the stage they also had no one sitting next to us so Crew had a little more room to wiggle around and even got to sit in his own chair. Crew did great the first half of the show. He loved watching all the dancing and the lights change colors. Then he started to get a little fussy because he was sleepy so I just walked up the steps to the top and stood in the dark door way and rocked him. Because he had his head phones on and the lights were dimmed he fell right to sleep. I was then able to just take a seat and rock him while watching the rest of the show! It was perfect! Those headphones were amazing because Crew can't fall asleep with any noise. He is really picky like that. If he hears anything he wakes right up. But even when the crowd went crazy for David and for Vocal Point he slept through it.

It was an amazing performance. As we were leaving I told Andrew that I want to come to this every year. We can do this show and the football game! A perfect combination for us. I loved when David and Vocal Point sang "Nearer my God to Thee." (here is a version of Vocal Point and BYU men's choir singing it. It is a really good version too) It was absolutely STUNNING! Ever since having Crew I have been a tad more sensitive and it made me tear up. It brought such an amazing spirit into the Marriott Center. It warmed me with an overwhelming sense of peace. I just love Davids voice and whenever he sings gospel songs it really makes me feel closer to God. I love it. I'm already looking forward to next year.. as long as we are in this state at least.

The next day, on Saturday, we went to the football game. It was the first game that was early enough for Crew to be able to come and not mess with his bed time too much. It started at 5:30 so I dropped Andrew off a little early to get seats and then Crew and I came right at kick off. Again the headphones were amazing!! The first quarter the sun was right in our faces so I stood behind the stands in the shade, which I actually enjoyed more too, and we watched the big screen. Second quarter we were able to watch the game then during half time I tried to find somewhere to feed him that was a little more private. I was SHOCKED to find that one of the bathrooms actually had a place for moms to go. They had a couple changing tables and chairs to feed in. It was perfect. There were a lot of moms in there feeding, comforting, and changing babies. Thank you BYU for being so considerate!

Afterwards I was able to walk around with Crew in the carrier and with the head phones on and he fell asleep. FOR THE REST OF THE GAME! I'm telling you it was awesome and I'm a major believer in those head phones. I'm so glad it went well. It was a great game. BYU won so it was perfect!! Overall it was just an awesome weekend and I thought I would finally blog about a specific event! Love stuff like this. We are so happy to be here in Provo and be able to attend so many awesome events. I love showing Crew all the wonderful things in this world!

love, alex&andrew

Hello Crew: 8 months old

Since we are 10 days away from celebrating Crew being 9 months old I decided I really needed to do a post on him being 8 months old. SO much is changing in the past few months. He is really growing up and it makes me so sad and so happy. This little boy is adorable, wonderful, and all sorts of fun. 

Age:

8 months old!! 

Stats: 

Since we haven't gone to the doctor I haven't been good at figuring out his stats... especially because one month I was off on his weight..Sooo I just figured it wasn't a big deal to know exacts. He is feeling heavier and looking longer. Hahaha so perfect!! 

Favorites: 

• Pulling up on anything and everything so that he can stand. He gets so excited once he is standing. It is adorable and scary all at the same time! He is very wobbly so we have to watch him like crazy. We have already had a few tumbles resulting in tears. It's so sad and I feel so bad for not catching him. 
• On October 1st we felt his first tooth poking through on the bottom. Then a few days later we felt the second tooth, right next to the first. I put this under favorites because I feel like when the teeth finally break through the little guy gets a little relief. At least thats what I hope. He now has some sharp daggers that you do not want to get your finger too close to. 
• Army crawling over to our pumpkins and chewing on the stems. haha he LOVES it. yes I have tried to stop him from fear that it will really hurt him but after a while I decided it wasn't hurting because he kept going back to it and wasn't crying. Pumpkin stems = awesome teething toys. 
• Loves being able to go wherever he wants, which means EVERYWHERE. He army crawls most of the time and then crawls for three feet and then goes back to army crawling. At this time army crawling is faster so he prefers it.
• Have I ever mentioned that he loves to shake his head back and forth? Like he is saying no. It is adorable and hilarious. He did it a lot when we was 4-5 months old and then didn't do it as much.. Well lately it has been coming back. It's hilarious when people ask him a question and he does that. It's like he really knows what they are saying and is responding. 
• Loves being outside. 
• Watching/looking/staring at people. He will stare you down and give you a very serious look the whole time. 

Least Favorites:

• Well we did the sleep training thing and it helped. A LOT! and then he got sick, was teething, and such and it started going back to bad again. It is ALWAYS a work in progress. He is just not the greatest sleeper. He is a SUPER light sleeper. If I just open the door to his bedroom it wakes him up. If I'm laying next to him and try to sneak away it usually wakes him up, I do get lucky sometimes. Naps are also still difficult. He still sleeps in my arms. Part of me loves it because I just sit and read or catch up on social media. Other times I don't like it as much because I know I could be getting so much more done while he sleeps. I figured once we figured out nighttime we would work on daytime but then nighttime went back to bad....soooo work in progress. always. 
• His carseat. He hates getting in. Gets so excited when we open the door to get him out. BUT he usually calms down once we get going and aren't messing with trying to get him in there. 
• He is starting to show some separation anxiety signs. It makes sense since he is with me 24/7 pretty much. 

Sleep:

Read above. haha. 

Eat:

Loves breastfeeding. I know it is so comforting to him when he is teething or isn't feeling well. I love that. I love that I am his comfort. He started not liking being fed real food as much so I have been trying to experiment with ways to feed him. He is still working on picking food up and successfully getting it in his mouth. He loves food but seems to hate it at times. Another work in progress I think. 

Play:

Always wanting to be on the go. Always going after Zoii's antlers (she chews on antlers instead of bones). He always tries to put them in his mouth and chew on them himself. EW. Always going after Zoii's water and food bowl. Always trying to pull himself up, on the coffee table, the TV stand, the couch, the chair, mom, dad, zoii, everything, then stand, and wack whatever is closest to him. He is so proud of himself when he does. SO ADORABLE!! 

   In month 8 Crew...

went to his first BYU football home game

Attended BYU Spectacular

picked pumpkins at the pumpkin patch

swung in a swing at the park for the first time

Every month just keeps getting better and better. Crew is the sweetest little boy and we just love spending time with him and watching him learn and grow. I love being his mom!

love, alex&andrew

Hello Crew: 6 & 7 Months

Age:
Right now he is 7 1/2 months old but for this post I'm going to talk about months 6 &7

Stats: 

At 6 months:
15.8 pounds
27.25 inches long

At 7 months I never took the stats. woopsies.
We think he is around 17.2 pounds

Favorites: 

• He learned to sit up all on his own (we are still cautious of him falling over but by month 7 he is doing great!) and he loves it. I think he loves having a new view and sitting up like a big kid!  
• He started to scoot around. He pulls himself with his right arm and pushes off on his big toes. It is so cute. He also loves that he can now move and go wherever he pleases. Now we have to watch him like a hawk! 
• We have started feeding him food, real food and baby food. We have done a mixed of feeding him with a spoon and baby led weaning. He is loving food. Especially bananas and avocados. It has been fun introducing him to new foods and showing him all the good stuff that is out there. He loves mashing everything in his hands and trying to feed himself.  He is such an independent little boy. 
• He is very ticklish. Rubbing his legs lightly or his back makes him start laughing and it is the cutest thing! I love making him laugh.  
• Loves spending time with family! He loves his cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles! 

Least Favorites:

• Only naps in moms arms. He gets really mad and wakes up and screams until you pick him up. It has been rough but at the same time I try to enjoy it because I know he will grow out of it and won't be my cute cuddly boy anymore. 
• Has a little separation anxiety every once in a while when I leave the room. Some times he does great but other times he gets really sad. 
• He is getting two teeth in (just started seeing them on October 1st). Overall he is doing great with it. I have seen a little pulling of his ears but he is still so happy! It is the bottom front teeth. 

Sleep:

He hasn't been sleeping too long. We are working on getting him to sleep longer at night. Sleep training here we come! Wish us luck! 

Naps are also a little iffy as well. The first nap of the day he will sleep in the crib but other naps he won't so we are going to work on that once we get nights down. 

Eat:

Like I said above he is loving food. Still nursing and still loving that, I feel like he could/will do this for as long as possible! But he is also eating food and loving that. 

Play:

Scooting around everywhere. Loves to crawl to try and get Zoii's food and water bowl. He loves playing with anything that makes noise and loves to feel all different textures. His hand is always going in and out feeling different textures. 

Crew went to his first BYU game. It was in California against UCLA. It was a little late at night so he wasn't too into the game. Haha, we will try again when its a little earlier in the day. 

This beautiful little boy is the light of our life. I love him so much and would do anything for him. He is so happy and just an overall great kid. 

In month 6 and 7... 

attended dad's graduation

spent lots of time with family

moved to Utah 

spent most of September traveling 

attended Uncle Stacey's funeral 

Went to California for the first time. 

I love you more than you will ever know little boo. 

love, mama

Five Amazing Years

Five years and one month ago today, Andrew and I went to the Los Angeles LDS Temple and were married for time and all eternity. It was the greatest day of our lives.

It is amazing to think back on all that we have gone through and where we are today. My love for Andrew has grown so much more than the day we were married. He has my heart for eternity.

Marriage is not easy. It takes work, effort, communication, respect and so so so much more. We have grown so much closer together and have been able to work on all of these traits together, building each other up. I love having Andrew by my side helping me grow and learn. He is my rock in this crazy life.

Looking back on this year we have so much to be grateful for. I love our life. It is amazing.

In year five we...

• Andrew started his last year of school at BYU-Idaho. 
• Andrew worked at the Straw Maze, scaring people every weekend. 
• Alex worked at Down East and as an assistant at a fabric company. 
• We found out our little baby was a BOY!! 
• Justina and Curtis had our niece, Ava Marie! 
• Andrew turned 26! 
• Alex stopped working to prepare for baby. 
• Spent Christmas in California with the Sorensen's 
• Alex made lots of Youtube videos and baby stuff. 
• Got ready and organized for baby to arrive. 
• Had a baby shower for our little guy!
• Welcomed Crew Ray Sorensen into the world on February 20, 2015. 
• Blessed Crew in April 
• Celebrated having our puppy Zoii for 1 year. 
• Took many trips to St George. 
• Alex got her wisdom tooth out. 
• Took Crew to Yellowstone a few times. 
• Andrew completed his senior project
• Andrew Graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho in July! 
• Alex turned 24
• Spent lots of time with family! 
• Moved to Utah
• Andrew got an amazing internship with KSL & BYU sports for January 
• Celebrated our five year anniversary!! 

WOW five years! CRAZY. I love him.

Here's to another five years and more!! 

love,alex&andrew

Hello Crew: Five Months

Age:

Five Months old!! Where is the time going??? 

20 weeks in, 20 weeks out!

Stats: 

16 pounds 2 ounces

26 inches long 

Favorites: 

• Starting to take interest in the binky.. although sometimes he just chews on it.

• Loves to roll over onto his belly, which is great for getting those air bubbles out!
• Loves when we sing songs to him. He opens his mouth really wide and gets a giant smile on his face! 
• Loves to be in water! Whether it is the bath or the pool he loves it! He is splashing a ton in the bath tub. We have to keep extra towels around to dry things off, like the counter, the mirror, the floor, ourselves..haha it is so fun though! 

• Crew loves to watch his cousins play and talk. He always looks so interested in what they are doing. 

Least Favorites:

• Doesn't like rolling from belly to back.. or he just gets stubborn and doesn't do it and cries instead. 
• Still a little unsure of his carseat at times. I think he just doesn't like being in the back alone. 
• Does not like loud screaming, like from his cousins! Haha 

Sleep:

Sleep is so random. One night he does great and only wakes up 2 times and other nights he wakes up every two hours. This morning he woke up at 8 but came and snuggled with me in bed and ate and he went right back to sleep until 9:30 then we switched sides and he ate/slept until 11. That was crazy to me because he never sleeps that long without needing to be awake for a few hours. Some nights he even wakes up and doesn't want to go to sleep for an hour or two. Thats always a little frustrating! Lately he does not like to nap anywhere but moms arms. Which means he doesn't nap for very long which makes him very tired by 4pm and then maybe, possibly, hopefully he will lay down somewhere other than moms arms to nap. Most days I just try to enjoy it because I know he will only be this little once and before I know it he won't want to nap in my arms or nap at all. 

We did transition him from the bassinet in our room to the crib in his room. It has felt really nice to have my room back for some reason. I guess it feels more like my relaxation space again. We just decided that since he was getting so long and rolling so much it would be safer for him to be in the crib and I think he is really liking it and for the most part he is doing really well!
Even though I realllllly dislike getting up early, I love when he wakes up for the day and I go in there to get him and he greets me with the biggest smile. It makes my heart burst and makes the lack of sleep so worth it! 

He likes to eat my hair sometimes! 

Eat:

We are still exclusively breastfeeding. I love those moments in the day where he needs to eat and it just reminds me to sit and relax with my little guy for a few minutes. It is our time to bond and connect. I especially love when right in the middle of eating he stops, looks up at me with those big blue eyes and gives me this shy/sly little smile. Its almost like he is saying hey mom I love you, thanks for feeding me. It is one of those heart bursting moments again. 

Play:

• Crew has started to try and pull his knees up like he is going to crawl. It blows my mind that babies are inherently born to know how to do these things. He has never seen anyone crawl but he just knows that is what he is supposed to do and that is the next step in trying to move. 
• He also stands on our legs as we hold him up and just loves to stand and look around. Andrew has leaned him agains the table in the living room and he will just stand there and hold himself up. It's amazing to me how strong he is! He has and continues to progress so much and it is amazing to watch as a parent. 
• He has started to grab and reach for Zoii more. He usually will just watch her and see what she is doing but now if she is close enough he will try and touch her fur and even grab it. Which Zoii isn't too fond of so she just moves away from him! Little does she know what is coming! haha poor dog. She is pretty fascinated with him too. Always trying to lick him or see what he is playing with. Zoii was licking Crew's foot the other day and he actually started to laugh at her! It was ADORABLE!! ah heart burst again. I swear this kid is going to make my heart explode, and I LOVE it! 

• A few times he has blown bubbles and I even got him on video mimicking me doing it. I love to blow bubbles at him and he has now learned to do it back. Could he be any cuter? 
• He still LOVES staring at his dad. Andrew will just be sitting on the couch, we could be watching TV, eating dinner, or just talking and we will catch Crew staring at him, sometimes he will even be smiling. Crew loves his dad a whole lot! 
• At the end of June Andrew's dad, Richard came out to Idaho for the weekend. It was actually his birthday so we all decided it would be a lot of fun to go to Island Park and rent a can-am 6 seater and just ride around for the day. We found the best little camp site and just hung out for the day taking turns riding and watching babies. Crew loved being outside all day and did great just napping in the carrier or in the car seat. He just LOVES the outdoors. I made a little video of it, if you want to watch it just click here. 

• This past month we went to St George again. This time for the Fourth of July. It was a LONG drive. Now that Crew is getting older and not sleeping as long this drive is hard! He does not like being in his carseat for so long! and this time we brought his cousin Ryder along. Ryder did great watching movies but if Crew was sleeping and Ryder made a noise or screamed Crew did not like it! I guess we don't make high pitched screams enough at our house ;) haha. but overall it was a lot of fun. Crew got in the swimming pool for the first time and did awesome. He just floated around with us and was so relaxed and chill. He also did awesome with fireworks. He never got scared his eyes just got huge watching them. And then he got fussy because it was way past his bed time so off to bed he went! It was a great first Fourth of July for him! I actually made a video of this trip too so if you want to watch it just click here. 

• If you want to see the CUTEST clip of Crew laughing at Andrew's hiccups you can click here as well. Haha I like to get lots of video and I really like making these videos of the things we do so stay tuned for lots more since all of our family is coming to visit! 

Crew you are the chillest best little baby ever, and I love you more than you will ever know!! 

love,mom/alex 

p.s -today was Andrew's last day of class for his bachelors!!! YAY we are so excited for him and proud of all of his hard work. Way to go!! We love you!!