Bottle Update

So, I think this whole dropping the bottle thing is going to be easier than I thought!! Maddox was never one of those babies that carried his bottle around with him or requested it. We have always just fed it to him and when he didn't want anymore we took it away. I think that is going to be the key to our success. The past 2 days we have only done one bottle a day right before bedtime and he has done great!! I have done a sippy cup right before naps and he will drink a little bit and then go through his normal nap routine. YAY!!

My only concern now is that the only way I can get him to drink a subsequent amount of milk in one sitting is with a bottle. So right now he does 10 oz. right before bed and then just sips on his cup the rest of the day. Once we drop the bedtime bottle I'm not sure how I will get him to drink an adequate amount of milk each day. He does like yogurt so he has that every morning for breakfast and sometimes a yogurt stick for a snack so that accounts for some of his daily need and then he does drink milk with his meals. I guess we will just go with it and be thankful that it hasn't been a huge ordeal dropping the bottle!!

Once we get rid of the night time bottle we will move on to dropping the paci which I know will be the hardest task of all because he is pretty attached to that thing!! So again, any moms out there with tips on getting rid of the paci please feel free to pass them along!! I'm gonna guess that just quitting cold turkey and working through the extra crying is gonna be the best way for us...or maybe we will start out by cutting it out during the day and then moving to cutting it out during the nighttime. We will just have to see when the time comes!! I can't believe we have a baby old enough to be going through these transitions!!

BTW...Maddox is 13 months old today!!

Bye Bye Formula

As of last week, we are officially formula free at the Packer household!! I started transitioning Maddox from formula to whole milk when I got back from Hungary and he did great!! We started our just doing it in a sippy cup and he wasn't super thrilled about it. That made me a little nervous that the transition wasn't going to go well. So, I decided to try half milk and half formula in his bottle and he took that fine. So we did that for a few days and then I made the switch to all milk and he drank it just like it was all formula!! YAY!! Not we are moving one to getting rid of the bottles completely and then we will do the paci!! The bottle is going to be hard because while he only has 3 bottles a day they all fall right before a sleep time!! He is starting to drop the morning nap somedays so the first of the 3 bottles will be the easiest to drop but the other 2 not so much!! Any moms out there that have tips or tricks for this please do share!! I know the sooner we do this the better so I am trying to get a jump on it and would really like to be weened by the time we go to Texas in September but that maybe be too soon I don't know!! As of right now we are just excited to not be spending an are and a leg on formula anymore :D.

6 Years...

This past Saturday, Collin and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary!! It's hard to believe it has already been 6 years!! I am so thankful to have Collin as a friend, partner in parenting and husband!! We celebrated by having dinner at The Melting Pot...YUMMY!! We had fun just hanging out the 2 of us and were surprised at the end of dinner when our waitress told us that one of our church members had anonymously paid for our dinner!! What a great surprise and special gift from someone at our church!!

We usually don't do anniversary presents for each other but this year Collin surprised me with a Nook eReader that he knew I wanted!! So exciting!! Thanks babe!!

Collin...I love you so much and am so thankful for all the fun and special memories we have gotten to make together over the past 6 years+ years!! I can't wait to see what the next forever years will bring us!! Love you babe!!!

Szolnok, Hungary

So, you might be asking what in the world has happened to Holly that she hasn't blogged about her mission trip to Hungary yet?!?! I know, I'm usually so on top of keeping my blog up to date so it's a little strange that I have been home for over a week and haven't blogged about my fabulous trip yet. Well, here's the thing...I have developed an addiction. When we came home from our trip we had an entire 24 hours of travel so I decided to take that opportunity to start reading my Twilight book that I had bought several months ago but just hadn't found the time to read yet. Well, I got hooked and have been completely consumed with finding out what happens to Bella, Edward and Jacob. Lame I know. But like I said...I'm addicted. I have however, pulled myself away from vampires and werewolves for long enough to share the details of my wonderful trip to the other side of the world!!


We were gone for 10 days total and had an amazing time being with our hungarian brothers and sisters. We were able to attend church twice while we were there and spent Monday-Friday hosting an English Bible Camp for 150 Hungarian children from ages 8-18. It was so much fun getting to know the kids!! I was a counselor for the oldest group of kids. The picture above is of my group!! We also had a day that we got to go to Budapest to see the city and shop!! It was so hot there but we had so much fun and it is a beautiful city!!! I had so much fun getting to know some better of the people from our church that came too. I will say that I missed Collin and Maddox like crazy and was so happy to be home to see them!!! I had an amazing time though and am so thankful I was able to go!! I hope to be able to go back some day to see all of my new Hungarian friends!!

Since it's such a pain to post pictures on here and I have SOOO many I'm just going to post the link to my facebook photo album and everyone should be able to look at them pictures that way. Let me know if you have any trouble viewing them!! Thanks for the prayers for our group!! We had a great trip and hopefully planted some seeds for Jesus in the hearts of the people we encountered in Hungary!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2107247&id=54602204&l=8ba931dcd8

Hungary

Tomorrow night I am heading to Szolnok, Hungary on a mission trip with about 20 others from my church. It is about 2 hours southeast of Budapest. We will be putting on a day camp for as many as 200 kids ages 8-18!! I am super excited about this trip and have been planning for it for months now. I know it is going to be hard to leave my baby boy for 10 whole days but I think it will be a great trip. I don't think I have completely come to grips with the fact that I am actually leaving him and won't be able to communicate with him or Collin very much if at all the entire time I am gone. Collin's parents have come to Denver though to help take care of Maddox while I am gone so I know everything will be fine here. It's just hard to leave him for so long when I have only spend one night away from him in his first year of life. I don't know what the internet situation will be once we get over there so posting will be slim to none for the next week and a half but I will of course post all about my trip when I get back!!

Please be praying for the safe travels of our group and that the hearts of the children and their families will be opened to the message of Jesus we are bringing.