Posted by admin on 18 February, 2009
Anyone who meets Linden usually says one of the following phrases: “What a BIG boy!” “He’s a chunky one!” “Now that’s a BIG BABY!”. I can honestly tell you that I get a little tired of hearing this. It doesn’t really seem like a compliment. I’m so glad to have met someone who understands what this is like. We did pictures of a precious 7 month old boy last week, and his mother was telling me she hears the same thing about her baby all the time. We both agreed that that we love our chubby babies, and wouldn’t want them to be any other way.
With Linden being so “big”, he tends to be mistaken for being an older baby. I took him to his 4 month well visit last week and he is 18 lbs and 27 inches long! He’s in the 95th percentile with weight and the 100th percentile with height. He’s also very healthy in every way. It was really difficult to watch him get his shots. I think every mommy hates that part. But Linden did so good with the shots, he barely even cried. I can understand now, the instinct in mothers to naturally want to protect their children from any pain. I wanted to get the shot instead of him, my poor little baby boy.
Linden continues to amaze us with the rate at which he’s learning new things. He’s is sitting up now on his own….for almost a whole minute. Well, it’s impressive to us, I guess ’cause he’s our son. He’s making slam dunks…on his mini basketball hoop. He’s imitating alot these days, and he’s really into reaching for things. The other day I was holding him and he reached out for his daddy. It meant so much to Matt, he actually started to cry and held Linden for a long time. He said that was the first time he really felt like a dad. It was priceless.
We are really starting to notice Linden’s personality come out these days. He gets frustrated easily….he gets that from Matt. He is very stubborn….that comes from both of us. He is definitely a “people” person… that also comes from both of us. Linden is very social, and loves to be the center of attention…from both of us. He’s truly a sweetheart and is happy most of the time… he totally gets this from me, of course. 
The pictures you’re about to see are of Linden, one session was his little “urban” photo shoot( I figured we take everyone else’s kids pictures in alleys, why not our kid?) and a fun in pajamas shoot with a few of his favorite things: lovey blankie(made by Nana), stuffed monkey(given by Bekka), and bear slippers(given by the Gerbers).
Posted by admin on 29 January, 2009
Linden rolled over for real, two days in a row! Last night he rolled from his back to his tummy, and the night before he rolled from his tummy to his back while we were on Skype with my parents(in nashville, tn). It was so great for my family to see Linden reach one of his milestones! Gosh, I love Skype! Seriously, what a great invention. It’s like being in the same room with my family. We can see them, they can see us, and we just get to hang out. It’s really great for grandparents who live in different cities than their grandbabies. We’re big fans of it.
Let’s talk about lions. I really like lions, or maybe just the idea of them One reason is because they were my school mascot at Christ Presbyterian Academy. Go lions! Another reason I like lions is because I loved reading the Chronicles of Narnia when I was young, and adored the character Aslan, the lion. My husband Matt kind of resembles a lion… and yet another reason why I like lions. Linden is following in my footsteps. He cracks up when we make a lion “roar” sound. It’s really cute because then he tries to imitate us, and he does this baby cutesy roar. Linden really is such a cool kid. He just hangs out with us wherever we go. Like today we did a photoshoot for “Our Town” magazine at the Tifton Medical Center, and he just chilled. We get compliments a lot, about how good he is. But for those of you who are jealous, just know that behind the scenes he can be fussy at times, and we get headaches frequently from his screams. But Linden is a baby, that’s what babies do.
Linden went to his first play group this week, and I think he enjoyed it. I sure did! It was fun being around other mommies, getting tips and sharing stories about our little ones. This weekend Linden’s daddy went out of town on a men’s retreat, so he got to spend some good quality time with mommy! I think that being the oldest of five, doing foster care for infants, nannying and having a background in working with special needs children has made me very interactive with Linden. He loves reading books, playing with toys, singing songs, taking walks, trying to sit up on his own, trying to stand, dancing, listening to music, kicking like crazy, taking baths, and carrying on conversation. We did all these activities about 15 times this weekend, and we also had some good snuggle time, that’s my favorite! Last night(or I guess this morning) when I was up with Linden at 4 am, in my sleep deprived stupor, I stumbled to his crib and rather than be frustrated that he was crying, I feel I had an epiphany. I heard a voice say “Cherish this time. Each moment. He will grow up someday to be a man. Hold him now, while you still can.” Besides sounding like the chorus to a country song, this phrase really spoke to me. I immediately had a visual in my mind, of Linden’s life on fast forward all the way until he was grown. It made me sad, but it also made me so grateful to have him now, in this moment, depending on me for his every need. And as he calmed down in my arms, I hugged him tightly to me, kissed his big, round cheeks and whispered “I love you my sweet baby. Take your time.”
my boys
i love Linden's face here, so funny!
big yawn.
Linden's debut album cover
gotta have drool.
Posted by admin on 16 January, 2009
Linden is continuing to amaze us with his rapid growth and development. He is halfway sitting up on his own now. He also is batting and grabbing at the toys on his play gym mat. His favorite toy is a pop-up farm toy from his Nana and B-paw. He blows us away at how he can hit, push, turn and twist the buttons to make farm animals pop-up! He also LOVES reading books! He even helps turn the pages! He’s started blowing bubbles which is pretty cute, and we think he’s saying “hey” these days….well to us it sounds like he’s saying “hey”. Linden is still working on the push up thing, and he’s almost got the roll over worked out.
So what’s new with our little family these days? If I could sum it up, I would say cooking and DVR. I have finally convinced Matt that it’s better to eat at home, than out. Especially in Tifton. Sorry, but I am NOT a fan of greasy fast food or country fried buffets. I do, however, LOVE to cook, and the food I cook is way better(according to Matt) than anything we could eat here in Tifton. Plus, it’s cheaper. We’re all about saving money.
Part of the reason Matt has agreed to eat home, is because he’s gotten in on the fun. He cooks as much as I do now! The secret to getting your man to cook? Buy him a deep fryer and a NuWave Oven(so easy even a man can do it). I bought him the fryer(even though i opposed it) and his parents bought us the NuWave oven. The NuWave cooks up to 50% faster than conventional ovens and uses 85% less energy. It also removes up to 250% more fat drippings! We actually had a NuWave party the other night at Matt’s parents house, and his brother Jeremy and family came over too and we all used our own NuWaves. We were thinking we should do an infomercial for them. Ha.
I can proudly say that we cook at home almost every night. Matt loves eating meat, I love veggies, Linden loves milk! If Matt was a food and beverage he would be a chicken wing and a Dr. Pepper, I would be a caprese salad and a water. It’s really a lot of fun cooking at home together, Linden even helps!
Besides the fact that you can record all your favorite shows with the DVR, we really love that you can rewind back to weird, funny things, and also fast forward through dumb commercials. Matt’s shows are usually “Destroyed in Seconds” or “World’s Most Shocking Moments”, typical guy shows. I enjoy Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, and anything HGTV or Food Network. Our guilty pleasures: “What Not to Wear” and “American Idol” and “Biggest Loser”. Linden doesn’t watch TV but if I’m in a bind he loves watching “Yo Gabba Gabba
and we kinda do too. Actually we like it ALOT. It’s the coolest show for kids(and parents) that I’ve ever seen. It’s a cross between retro and modern. We love the set they use, the fun colors, 80’s arcade segments, and excellent list of guest stars like Jack Black, Elijah Wood, and Tony Hawk. Most of the guests are musicians(the guys who started the show are musician daddies) and they include groups like the Shins and Mates of State. It really was a brilliant idea to create a show that kids enjoy and parents can actually have fun with it too. We have enough cheesy, annoying songs to listen to with all of Linden’s baby toys, why not have well written and groovy tunes to hear while hanging with your kid?
There you have it, that’s what we do in our spare time these days. Business has been booming, especially with all the wedding engagements over the holidays. We’re really having alot of brides contact us to do their weddings. We also are getting contacts from all over Georgia and Florida! Pretty cool. We still are getting over the fact that people want to hire us to take pictures. It’s still seems crazy to us because we’re just having fun and doing what we love. We are so blessed.
The pictures for today are of Linden’s first trip to the park/playground and some random pics at work.
First time on the swing
Weeeee!
Fly to the sky with Daddy
Daddy gettin' some sugar
First time on the bouncy, rocky, chair thingy.
Upside down. Check out those chubby arms!
Just hangin'
Stripes
Kickin' it.
Linden's starting to be ticklish, I got him here!
So dang cute.
Posted by admin on 5 January, 2009
Hey everyone! Hope that the holidays were a wonderful time of joy, laughter, good food and family time. We are back in town from our big trip to Nashville, TN and Tiger, GA. We had a wonderful time, but it is good to be home. Linden was such a good boy on our journey. He slept most of the time in the car and enjoyed visiting with all our friends and family. He will be 3 months old tomorrow! Can’t believe it. He had a great Christmas and a sleepy New year! I will post those pics soon, but for now enjoy some pictures I took at the office. He is in his Bumbo seat from his Pops(his thighs are almost to chunky to fit!) and he’s wearing a onesie that I embroidered for him. You will also notice that he has discovered his hands. He loves chewing on them, and boy has he been a’droolin(that’s the tifton coming out in me, making up words).
um, um good.
so yummy
grrr-licious
the tree i stitched for Linden before he was born
happy tree
aww, drool on the shirt
Posted by admin on 18 December, 2008
Yesterday Linden got to visit some sweet elderly folks at an assisted living home. I was asked by our friend Margaret House, to accompany her on piano while she played violin. We played Christmas carols and any requests that the old folks had…which wasn’t much cause I don’t think they could remember any songs. But we had a blast and they seemed to enjoy it too! Gigi came to take care of Linden and she passed him around to all the residents. He brought a smile to all their faces. It’s amazing what joy a child can bring.
Then last night we went to see our 4 year old nephew Judah in his Christmas program. He was a wiseman and he did a wonderful job. That role fits him because he’s such a “wise guy” anyway. He always has the funniest things to say. Matt says Judah is his role model. It sure seems like it cause Matt acts like he’s 4 alot of the time.
Last night was the first night Linden slept in his crib! He slept about 7 hours. Pretty awesome. Compared to his usual 10 hours a night, that’s not bad. We are working on moving all his stuff into “his” room. i’m sure we’ll still have the occassional diaper, sock, and paci lying around in our room. We want our room to be “ours” again…but actually the truth is, Linden is beginning to take over the ENTIRE house. His stuff is everywhere you look. I always wondered why people with kids had the kids stuff in every room, I used to think it was tacky. Tacky-shmacky. I’m one of THEM now!
Today was a good day, starting off with a photo shoot this morning with a 9 month old boy. His sweet mommy gave us some paci’s that they never used. Our favorite kind: Soothies. If you’ve ever met Linden, then you’ve met the “soothie”. It’s this green gelly big pacifier looking thing. But we love it! It’s the only paci Linden would take. And our client also gave us a Wubbanub and a Pacimal. They are these cute stuffed animals that have a holder for the soothie and help keep it in baby’s mouth, plus give him something to snuggle with! Great idea! I also stumbled across a sister brand called “gumdrop”. They have a website at www.gumdroppacifier.com
Here are some more pics of Linden. This was another mini shoot I did at the studio. These pictures are fun because I was able to get alot of Linden’s expressions. He’s really smiling and laughing alot these days! The ones where he’s laughing I was standing over him with the camera and jumping up and down slowly and saying “ahh-boo!” which I don’t know what that means, but he liked it! Enjoy!
getting his diaper changed
ohhh! stretching SO BIG!
let's change this thing!
a little happy...
a little more happy...
a lot of happy!
so happy!
oh we're naked...
i'm really tryin
bare buns!
i love those baby butt dimples!
just hangin'
ahh double chins...
sittin' in a winter wonderland. ( this is in our window display)
Posted by admin on 15 December, 2008
It was really fun reading over my blogs from the pregnancy. It’s so hard to even remember what life was like before Linden. Some of you know of the difficulty I had during delivery and that Linden may not have made it. He is a miracle. All of life is a miracle.
The reason I named this blog “our baby tree” was a secret code for his name. Since we didn’t announce his name until he was born, this was my way of giving a clue, because “Linden” is a type of tree. If you look it up online you will find that the linden tree is used for everything from music, to healing, truth and love. This is our Linden. He is the song that we now sing, he is the healing of new life in our family, he represents what is true to us, and he is an expression of love, he is our new love.
I have made it a goal and new year’s resolution if you will, to blog weekly, maybe even daily(if we’re lucky)! Bear with me as I am adjusting to the life of motherhood and meanwhille trying to run a successful photography company with my hubby. Life gets crazy busy, but I want to take time to reflect and journal about our son and life as a family.
There is so much to write, so much to catch up on! Linden is 10 weeks old tomorrow and he is smiling, cooing, gaaing, holding his head very well(even though he looks like a bobble-head), he sits in his Bumbo seat by himself, he makes great eye contact, very alert, he can push up when on his tummy, and he had his first real laughing fit the other day! He’s finally loving bath time, he used to HATE it! At his 2 month check up….get this…he weighed 15 lbs. and is 25 in. long! Amazing right? Oh yeah, and he’s sleeping really good at night, like 10 hours good!
I am so excited about his first Christmas! We’ve already spoiled him so much, but that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? This is the stocking I ordered for him from Pottery Barn kids. It will have his name embroidered on it. Very cute.
So during my spare time( which translates to when i’m nursing Linden or he’s napping) I enjoy reading. For fiction I’ve been sucked into the “Twilight” series(thanks to my mom) and for non-fiction I’m reading “The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus” by Brennan Manning, who I love. He includes in his intro, Psalm 46:10 from the Jerusalem Bible translation “Pause awhile, and know that I am God.” I really like this translation. I think we can all relate to it. We get so busy, too busy to slow down and reflect, too busy to acknowledge that God is there, too busy to let ourselves be loved by Him. So during my busy days this holiday season, I’m going to pause awhile and know that He is God. I love Linden so much that sometimes I feel like I’m going to explode with love for him. I can’t believe God loves us that much and much more.
Here are the newest pics of Linden Kale Hobbs. They can only be seen here. I did a little mini session with him at our studio while Matt was working on some orders. One of the pics is of our trophy that we won at the downtown Christmas parade for “most original store window”. We’re very proud. And be sure to notice the close up of Linden’s drool, he’s just started that now. Oh, and in the picture with the candy canes he’s REALLY ticked at me for making him hold those dang things. Hehe. Cutie.
Posted by admin on 15 December, 2008
Yesterday was our first full day at home. Of course we are exhausted but it is SO worth it everytime we get to look into our beautiful baby’s eyes. It was fun to try on some of his different outfits. We had a little photo shoot with Linden last night. He was a little camera shy but he did a great and we had such a blast. We can’t believe how blessed we are to have such a healthy wonderful baby. Please continue to pray for Shayna’s recovery. We hope that you enjoy these photos from Lindens 4th day.
-Matt
Thug life.
Hanging out in Linden’s nursery.
My sweet baby boy.
I don’t think he can read yet.
Our sweet little punkin’
