justus 1.5

He's so peaceful when he wakes up, when he has his precious thumb

When he wants to turn on the charm, there's plenty to go around.

This is what his face looked like after a weekend with Dad. He plows through life with a good amount of reckless abandon.

 

Yes, that is a hot pepper in his hand and he was eating it.  Don't even think about taking it away from him.  A hard thing about Justus is that as much as he might love whatever he's doing (taking a bath, eating rocks, writing on furniture with permanent maker, etc), the expression of his disdain for concluding said activity dwarfs that love in duration and intensity.

J-Bear always has a smile for the camera. 

And some piercing blues to draw you in. 

Can you smell what Justus is cooking? 

what was I thinking?

From a recent discussion that took place in my head.

"Oh good! My toddler is happy. He can sit in this chair beside us. We will get all sorts of wonderful school work done while he is happily sitting in this chair. Oh he has a green marker.  Well, normally I would not allow him to have a marker but he is obviously thrilled with the idea of coloring the paper with it which will allow us precious more minutes for grammar, math, reading and language... Hooray for a toddler who can be content!"




30 seconds later....






oh man; my littlest man

Can you believe this guy?  He is so squishy and delightful. 

Justus is a complete momma's boy and always wants to be right where I am. 

This is one way that I have found to keep him occupied so that I can get the dishes done or make a meal.

My J-bear.  Busy, busy.  Learning to walk, communicate, make messes, command attention and show love.  {And take really great pictures!}

happy birthday justus beric

This is what I was doing a year ago today. Waiting to meet my sweet Justus.

Even beautiful scenery could not hide the fact that I was done providing a home for this baby (not to mention bloated and uncomfortable). Every day of those nine months was worth it because this boy is such a treat.


We love you j-bear!

friends for a year

These two. The pictures in which our friend's daughter Xochi and Justus are wearing green were taken three months ago. I can't believe how much their personalities have changed in just three months!


Being able to get around changes things a lot for a baby.


Justus and Xochi have been friends from birth. Cutzi and I love to compare and contrast their bodies and personalities, something we've had a lot of experience at with our girls.



The non-green set of pictures are from Xochi's one year birthday party. They sure did interact with one another differently. It is like they finally noticed each other. Xochi, in true girl style is interested in communicating.


Justus on the other hand, as most boys I know, is more interested in wrestling!

Sorry about that Xochi.

my baby

Justus aka (J-bear) will be turning one at the end of next week. I know all moms say this, but I really, truly can not believe that a year has gone by already. At the same time, I can not believe that just a year ago he was not part of our lives!


Anyway, I need to get some pictures of this guy up here before he changes much more.

He is quite possibly the cutest baby boy ever.


I am so incredibly grateful that he is such a cuddle-er. I have had baby boys who would not stop to cuddle because they were so busy. J-bear is a busy and active guy but he always has time for a cuddle with momma!


And we will probably be sorry one day but for now the sight of him sucking his thumb is adorable.

Mike and I joke that we don't hold/carry Justus, we wrestle with him. And it does not make it any easier that he is a very big & heavy boy. We don't think this will change much as he eats a LOT!

Justus gives us so much to laugh about and we are truly thankful for the incredible blessing of being a part of his family.

thanks

Thank you Cutzi for the hat you knit for me.
Mom and Dad think I look really cute in it.

It might even cause one to drool.

more baptism

I love it that Mike enjoys photography so much. And I really love it that he is so good at putting together blog posts for our family scrapbook. But sometimes he does not add pictures because the lighting is not good, the focus is off and something about bokeh. And sometimes he doesn't include a memory if we don't have pictures to go with it.

Like this picture.
I like this candid of two of my men enjoying the afternoon at our BBQ. It was such a nice time hanging out with good friends in the sunshine celebrating God's goodness.
This picture of Adia was not included in our last post. I know the lighting is off and all, but look how cute she is! I loved seeing our friends all dressed up as we are usually more casual around each other and Adia was darling in her dress. See her wild hair? The kids all had a grand time playing together (there were 17 friends age 8 and under who attended Justus' baptism! He will never be in want of a friend!).

I don't want to forget the food.
Mike mentioned the great burgers but we also had tons of yummy sides lovingly prepared by friends and family. Everyone contributed. We had pasta salad, pico de gallo & chips, melon-fruit salad, amazing fresh berries, I made a chocolate-espresso-banana cake and of course their was ice cream!


Is it OK if I remember the incident where a certain Papa had a certain situation with a certain substance ALL over his hand causing him to call out, "CUTZI, I NEED YOUR HELP HERE." Hilarious.

This is only made funnier by the fact that we Hollisters had our own version of an incident earlier that day.
About 10 minutes before the end of Pastor Kevin's sermon after which the baptism would take place Justus began to stir in his car seat. Upon taking him out, I felt that he was wet. Unsure if it was sweat or one of two other substances I lifted his backside to Mike ans asked, "Is it bad?" His answer: "REAL BAD!" I rushed to the bathroom and gave Justus a complete wardrobe change (he even needed his socks changed!). Justus and I walked out of the bathroom just as Pastor Kevin was asking the family to come forward. We came from opposite sides of the church and met in the front giggling at our shared joke.

This next picture is also not good, picture wise.
If I knew how to crop, I would cut the adults out of the picture and make Xochi bigger. But I don't (with Mike's fancy program). But that's OK because I want to remember sweet baby Xochi's face (and getting good pictures at this age is hard). I want to remember that I am (almost) always nursing Justus these days. And I want to remember how nice it was to do so in the sunshine with friends that day.

After the BBQ most of us did a little of this:
And this is the best picture we got of the main man of the day:

Maybe not a perfect portrait, but enough to sufficiantly see how preciously sweet is Justus.

two weeks of justus

We have had many requests for more Justus pictures. And rightly so, he is such a sweet baby worthy of many pictures! We just have trouble finding the time to upload and post them.

But here are a few shots of some of what our littlest man has been up to lately.

Here he is napping in his bed.

Taking his first bath at home.
I love it when they are still small enough to bathe in the sink!

Here he is napping by the pool while the other kids are swimming.

Napping is definately Justus' second favorite activity, nursing is his first.



And another frequent activity: being loved on by his siblings!

We are so thankful for the ways this sweet baby has enriched each of our lives!