Old & New

After about a year or more of growing his hair, Preston cut it. I couldn't be happier. :)

This is Preston's sweater from when he was one year old. It keeps Pax really warm!

Pax's newest trick: holding his own banana.

Snow Baby

This is Pax's first snow experience. He wasn't sure what to make of all of it. He mostly just wanted to take his gloves off. But he had a few moments of joy and wonder.

Happy Birthday

Paxton celebrated one year this week! The celebration lasted from Wednesday to Saturday. Here are some pictures and videos of the celebration. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/aimeetippen/FirstBirthday#

Videos here - http://www.youtube.com/TheTippens
The video site includes his first year in six minutes. What changes a baby goes through in 365 days.

A few recent snapshots of our life

We went to an apple orchard last weekend with some friends. The grape harvest has passed, but Pax liked exploring the vines. It turned out to be such a nice day that we had to take his shirt off because he was so hot.

Our life is all about books when we are at home these days. We are already taking trips to the library to check out more books. I wonder if he is too young for his own card?

This is my favorite sweater. A friend knit it for him when he was born. It fits him perfectly now. I picked this little beanie up at a local thrift shop. Our little "granola" baby. :)

The Captain's chair... for the Captain.

This picture typifies our family time lately. Pax gets enough of me all day so when we are all together it is 100% Daddy crush.

Pax looking longingly at the apples. :)

His first apple. He did great!

This is Pax's new favorite pass time. He wakes up in the morning and points for the door to go out on the swing. We are going to have to get creative this winter. I don't think he can go a day without it.

Pax is all about climbing. He climbed the attic stairs all by himself.

Making breakfast with Grandpa.

Erie Wedding

Here is Preston's two sister and me before the wedding. You can't tell from the picture but those shoes are bright orange with 4 inch heels.


Here are the lovely bride and groom. I accidentally copied this twice in this post and I can't delete it for some reason. So enjoy it twice as much!

Where have the last few months gone?

It's been a while since I posted again. These last few months have flown by, with travel and busyness here in Marshfield. The moments that we have had to spend at home, I haven't felt like spending blogging.
September was our wedding month. It began with Colby, my cousin, and Shannon's wedding in Savannah, Georgia, and ended with Alison, Preston's youngest sister and Josh's wedding in Erie. I had the priveledge of being a bridesmaid in both and Preston had the honor of officiating Alison and Josh's. And Pax... got to come along for the ride and flight of both. An adventure he relished at times and despised at times. He loved all the attention from family and the excitement of the events, but managed to have an extreme and first bought of constipation in Savannah and an ear infection in Erie which sent us to the emergency room at 3 in the morning the day of the wedding. Both ailments lent themselves to sleepless nights, which made us laugh at the re-realization that parenthood really is a constant adventure.
Both weddings were gorgeous and more importantly, the love between the Brides and Grooms could be felt. I'll post some pics of the Savannah wedding below. Still waiting on getting pics from the Erie wedding. We didn't take any of our own.

Also, Pax is walking. He still prefers crawling but can walk all the way across a room on his own accord. To see video of him walking and more go to...
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTippens

Since much of our weekend revolved around good southern cooked food, Pax got to try a lot of new foods. We discovered he really likes pickles.


Here is the groom, my little (not so little) cousin and I, enjoying a night out on the Savannah Waterfront.


The rehearsal dinner was at Paula Dean's original restaurant. Delicious would be an understatement. Here is Preston, my mom and I at the dinner.


This is the beautiful bride, along with Jaclyn and I.


Pax was sporting an adorable suit but it was so hot we had to take the suit coat off.

On a not so amazing note, my cousin Colby, the groom deploys for Afghanistan in October. Please pray for him and his new wife.

Playing with my bucket at Church

Having fun at the park

Road Trip

Paxton and I have been enjoying our road trip out East to visit family. We left last Sunday night at 5pm and drove to Chicago, where we met my Aunt Liz and spent the night in a hotel. The next day we braved a 13 hour drive to PA. It actually went amazingly well. Paxton was a little angel and I loved catching up and spending so much time with my aunt.
We stayed in PA for a few days and then repacked the car, along with Nana's (my mom) stuff and headed to Wildwood, NJ; our family vacation destination for the past several years. Pax got his first taste of the beach, an outdoor pool, the boardwalk and well...the Domsohns as a whole. :) He enjoyed all of them! I can't believe how much of a trooper he has been and how easily he has adapted to the many changes. The only thing we are DEARLY missing is "Daddy". We skyped the other night and Pax was getting very frustrated that he couldn't touch Preston. He kept grabbing the computer excitedly and then looking behind it with a perplexed look. We finally had to end the call because he was getting so frustrated. Just a few more short days here in eastern PA and then we are headed to western PA to visit with Preston's side of the family. Preston meets us in Erie on Friday!
These pictures are chronologically backwards.
Pax and Josh, with his girlfriend Autumn. Pax loved playing with his boy cousins. They all got to learn how to hold a baby. None were very fond of Pax's excessive drool. :)

I'm doing double time on kisses.
Pax liked to just plop himself in the sand.
Our stroller showed its worth in gold on the beach. It moved wonderfully through the sand, even the mucky stuff.
Like I said, double time on the kisses.
Pax ponders deep thoughts while hanging out in the pool.

This was at one of our gas stops on our drive to Philly. Pax wanted a turn to drive.

A Few Updates

For my 27th birthday I told Preston I wanted to spend a day canoeing with him. He asked me what we would do with Pax and I told him to figure it out as a part of the birthday gift. He did. We canoed along the Rib River in Wausau. Here we are starting out on our 3 hour tour. A little overcast but comfortable and beautiful. Our paddles had not yet hit water.

Here we are at the end of our trip, soaked, not from tipping (which we did do once) but from the non stop rain storm that started as soon as we pushed off from shore until the minute our canoe hit the ground of our final destination.

We had a great time, despite the rain. We actually laughed through most of the trip just at the shear fact that it was raining so hard and we were freezing. Most of all it was nice to just be the 2 of us. We wrapped up our day with a hot lunch at a favorite deli in Wausau and coffee at a new coffee shop. Mmm... My new fav drink is a Cafe Miel; expresso, steamed milk and honey. Smooth!


This past weekend we attended Assembly Park Camp in Northern, WI. It was such a beautiful camp and area. It was family camp and we were the children's speakers. We had a good time meeting new people and Pax loved all the attention from the grandmas and grandpas there.
While there we had a couple firsts. Pax swung on big swings with Mom and swam in a lake, both of which he enjoyed. We also took him paddle boating and went for a hike to some amazing waterfalls at a nearby state park. Unfortunately in our attempt to remember EVERYTHING possible for a hike and day out and about in a new place, we forgot the camera! The waterfalls were really breathtaking and Pax had a great time stripping down to the buff and wading in the run off from the falls. (A great remedy for a hot baby on a hike!)
Now we are back and all caught up on laundry, and well...just darn cute!

The Grandparents Came To Town

This past week Preston's parents came to visit...Paxton. We had a grand ole time. Paxton really enjoyed the full time attention.

For our anniversary Preston's parents sent us out on a date and while we were gone assembled a wheelbarrow for us. Pax had a fun time "helping". He is really into standing up now so this picture was captured right before his escape attempt.
Pax had lots of time to bond with Grandma. She fed him almost every meal while she was here but I didn't snap a picture of that. I must have been too busy enjoying my time not feeding him.
Here is how we like to enjoy our wheelbarrow best. I suppose at some point we will get some work done with it.
Pax loved playing with Grandpa. He had a whole repertoire of new games, faces and sounds for Pax to enjoy.
While the Granparents were in town we went to a pancake and pea pick at a farm not too far from Marshfield. They are an organic farm run by a young family. The pancakes were delicious and we got to pick peas, raspberries and strawberries. Pax also tried his first taste of homemade applesauce. He was a fan! Pax had a good time at the farm but was exhausted and very hot by the time we took this pic.
Now it is life back to normal....We are missing you Grandma and Grandpa!

Anniversary get away

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary together in Madison. For the first time we celebrated our anniversary on the actual day. we had a romantic get-away with Pax at the concourse hotel (thanks North Ridge Church)!

here is a video of Pax having a great time at the zoo Carousel


This picture we snapped last night after his 11pm feeding. when Aim laid him back in his crib he just stretched out and ended up with his arms like this. It's safe to say he was very relaxed!

scooting & standing up

Getting good video of Pax is becoming more of a challenge. He seems to know when we get the camera out to film and so we have to hide it or sneak it out most of the time. Our latest vids are of him scooting across the room and pulling himself up on the cupboard. The scooting (army crawling) only happens when he is really motivated. His motivation comes usually in the form of irresistible technology.


* Please excuse the laundry. We don't live like slobs. We were in the middle of folding it when we took this video. :)

This Sums Up Our Life

We spent Memorial Day with a bunch of friends on a farm, helping them plant their garden and then sharing in a huge potluck feast. It was a great day, with great weather. A friend shot this picture. In my opinion, this picture sums up our lives right now. Baby drool on the shoulder, dirty baby hands in our faces, snotty kid in arms...but still we can't help smiling.

It's been too long

Well once again it has been too long since I have written last. We have had a couple of exciting events take place since the last time I have written.

The picture above is of a dinner we had the other night with some friends. It has a bit of a special place in my heart because these newfound friends are natives to Uganda and hope to return there soon after finishing Residency at the Clinic. Our good friend Carrie introduced us. It was such a special treat for me to talk with Ugandan's (I spent a month there in college.) as I have had very little connection to my experiences in Uganda since returning. On a side note, Pax broke his first dish at this dinner. Go figure it was at someone elses home and not our dish. I had him on my lap and was just about to dig into a creamy homemade custard and raspberry sauce dish when he reached out and flung the dish across the table and onto the floor. Awesome :)
For Mother's Day and Preston's Birthday we took a few hours away from home and Pax, and checked out a local park we had never been to before. The picture above just cracks me up because you know you live in WI when you snap a picture and there are cows in the background. Ironically we went to a park, even without our child. But that's what Pres and I enjoy doing. It was fun to act like kids again and take a momentary break from the parent role. We biked, walked, see- sawed, swung, and found our next camping spot.
Pax is slowly graduating to solids. He eats cereal regularly now and has tried avacados and bananas. He really likes to be a helper when eating. I try to get a few solid bites in without his help and then just let him "help" as much as he can. That is why he ends up looking like this.

Here is us at the park.
For Preston's Birthday Pax got Preston an iPad. Pax seems to be as enamored with it as his Daddy. His favorite things to do with it is watch it with his mouth hanging open, drool on it, and bang on it.

Pax has also cut his first tooth and is sitting up on his own. I will try and get a picture of both of these milestones soon.

I'm Such a Sap

If you have followed our blog from the beginning you will recall the antique dresser that Preston and I refinished for Paxton while I was pregnant. We use it as our staging area for changing him. Well today he "discovered" the dresser. While getting dressed, changing, and playing in his room, he has never before really noticed the dresser. I was dressing him on the floor today and as I stood him up his eyes locked on the dresser and he squealed. He continued to just stare at it with a big smile, taking it all in. I put him up to it and let him hold onto the handles with one hand as he took his other hand and ran it back and forth over the cracks, cooing in delight. You would have thought he was once blind and this was the first thing he saw after regaining his sight. I am not really sure what was going through his little head but it was precious. I got all teary eyed. He was actually enjoying the one thing we both worked hard on to make for him in preparation for his birth. I got to tell him that we made it for him. (I am not so delusional as to think he understood that, but I still liked telling him.)
Anyhoo, it was a precious little moment that was unexpected.
On a side note, I noticed today that allowing him to grasp the knobby handles is great fine motor practice for rock climbing. Even reached for the higher knobs as he got a good hold on the ones eye level to him. We may have a rock climbing prodigy...

Racing Family

Pax competed in his first race this past Saturday. Well, to be fair he was around for a Duathalon that Aim and I did together as a team. (However, he wants me to tell you that he did cross the finish line first, beating both mom and dad, more on that later).
We decided to register as a mixed team for the Woodson YMCA Duathalon (click to see results) as a way to get ourselves into shape. Nothing like a goal of being able to be competitive on a 5K run- 32K bike - 3K run race course to motivate both of us to work out and get into shape after having a baby and going through winter!
Needless to say, we didn't do that best at training. I only biked once before the race (and only 16 miles) so I was a bit nervous at how my legs would hold up. Aim ran a bit more than I but not as much as she had hoped and never 8K in a day. So with Pax in his jogging stroller and our running shoes and bike all tuned up we set out on this adventurous course.
Aim was up first and ran a 24:27 (7:53/mile pace, very good for her). Then Preston took off on the 20 mile bike finishing the windy course in 1:05 (averaging about 18mph). After the bike Preston tagged Aimee who took off on the 3K run. Pax and Preston joined her halfway through and finished the run as a family (this is where Pax got the most cheers and crossed the finish line ahead of us because the stroller was in front of us both!).
The biggest surprise came after the race when we looked at the results as saw that we had won the mixed team division (to be fair there was only 1 other team, but the win was kind of cool.)
We hope this is a first of many family races, only we hope to be in better shape next time!

more spring pics here