Grady's 1st Birthday Party

Click here to view these pictures larger

Grady's 10 Months!

10 months already....really?! Grady grew up A LOT in his 9th month and is getting more of a personality every day. Let's start with his milestones: Grady can say "Daddy" and "Mama", he still always says "Yeah" and makes it sound like he actually knows what he's talking about because he'll say it after we ask him a question. He started pulling himself up to standing almost immediately after he started crawling and quickly after that he's able to walk along things (tables, couch, etc) while holding on. Grady also started waving and clapping. Now on to the personality: I think he's finally gotten tired of Dawson stealing his toys, now when this happens Grady will let out a loud yell/scream/grunt and hold on so tight to the toy but if Dawson still manages to get it away Grady will either throw his fists up in the air or pound them on his lap. It's hilarious! The best thing is that Grady is so happy all the time. He's full of smiles and is always jiber jabbering. He loves if anyone will play with him but is also just as happy by himself standing against Dawson's toybox and pulling out one toy at a time. My absolute favorite thing are Grady's hugs. He's been doing this for a while now and if you've ever gotten one from him you know what I mean. He wraps his arms all the way around your neck, presses his cheek tightly against yours and squeezes so tight. It's priceless.

Happy 10 months Grady cakes!

Happy Valentine's Day

This year I got to spend Valentine's day with my 2 sweethearts. What could be better than two shirtless cuties? Dawson and I made lots of heart shaped sugar cookies that we delivered to the ones we love on Valentine's day.

For our Valentine's dinner, my 3rd sweetheart came home and I made heart shaped pizzas for all of us.

Dawson's Valentine's Day present.

Hope everyone got a little extra love for Valentine's Day!

Like Mother...Like Son

I know that's not the way the saying traditionally goes, but both my boys have a physical trait just like me :)

Notice Grady's hair that sticks straight up...

So did mine when I was little!

(It's kinda hard to see, taking a picture of a picture, but we really do have the same hair style) Dawson and I have a matching birth mark!

Both on our left foot, 2nd toe, can you see it?

9 Months Old!

Grady turned 9 months on the 24th. Hard to believe in just a few short months my sweet baby boy will be one! Right now Grady's favorite toy (besides anything of Dawson's) is this blow up toy from Uncle Shane & Auntie Lynn. He bats it around like crazy and thinks it's hilarious to look through it.

Oh, and did I mention Grady's crawling now? He started on January 3 which basically means I've barely sat down for the last 3 weeks. And yes, he quickly figured out how to climb stairs as well.

The greatest thing I have to say right now is we are a happy household!! Grady is finally sleeping...a lot! He's getting between 11-13 hours a night and taking two solid naps which means he's a happy baby, I'm a happy mama and in return that makes Dawson & Chad happier too.

Grady is also starting to be more accepting of solid foods, his favorites are carrots and bananas. We tried peas today and that didn't go so well...but really, who does like peas?

It's been so fun watching Grady's personality develop and grow every day. Him & Dawson are going to be the best of buds and they can not seem to get enough of each other. Now we just need to work on them not stealing each other's toys all day long!

Our Year 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Mama's Boys

Not much to say...except I LOVE my boys!

Dawson & Mommy Day

Dawson and I were in need of some time with just the 2 of us so Grandma watched Grady and we headed to Jungle Playland in Mt. Vernon.

Dawson took a ride in the Bat mobile.

Jumped around in the ball pit.

Going through the obstacle course.

Over the suspended bridge.

My FAVORITE thing about this place is the adults are allowed to get in there and play too. We had so much fun crawling thru and over and sliding for hours.

Playing the drums.

Went fast down the slides.

Now Dawson and I are going to be sure to have a "date" at least once a month because it was so special spending that time together!

Happy New Year!

Chad and I rang in the New Year at Katie's new house. We enjoyed a night out together while Dawson and Grady stayed at Grandpa & Grandma Gartner's house.

Some of you may recognize this picture of Katie...we had to update the one taken almost 5 years ago.

Katie & Ruben supplied a champagne toast for everyone at midnight.

This was Katie telling everyone to be quiet before giving one of her infamous speeches.

S-P-O-I-L-E-D!!!

And these pictures were taken before we celebrated Christmas with the Bennett's!

Christmas 2010

Click here to view these pictures larger

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! I took way too many pictures to choose only a few for the blog so anyone who wants, and has the time...enjoy them all! :)

Let it Snow

We had such a good morning. The boys and I slept in until 9:00 AND when we went to go get our milk and coffee we saw a beautiful blanket of snow on the ground and still more falling. We continued to watch it as we ate breakfast and then quickly put Grady down for a nap so Dawson and I could go play.

He started out by raking the snow. Made me think it will be nice when he's old enough to send outside to shovel the walkway and driveway.

Then we made snow angels.

Proof that I made one too :)

A little more playing before we headed in for Dawson to enjoy his first hot chocolate.

8 Months Old!

Grady turned 8 months on Christmas Eve. I didn't think it was possible, but time is flying by even faster the second time around. First, here is Grady's 7 month picture, since I never had a chance to post it. Here he is at 8 months :)

(I just noticed that he actually looks older in the above picture) Grady is doing great! We seem to have gotten all of his allergies identified and I've continued to keep those out of my diet. There is hope that he will grow out of the potato allergy very soon and they expect him to grow out of the egg, dairy and nut allergies before too long which is wonderful. Although, I'll admit that I haven't minded this way of eating. Of course there are times that I have a craving for cheese, caramel or a Reeses but at least I'm still able to make a lot of yummy baked goods just using a little different ingredients than I used to. Grady's eczema is also staying under control. He looks so good! It's such a comforting feeling getting to see clear smooth baby skin when I change him rather than the itchy dry rashy skin my poor baby had to deal with for so long.

I'm not sure if this counts, but Grady's first official word is "Yeah". He says it all the time! It comes out more like "Yee-aH". If we say it right back to him it will go back and forth for awhile and it's adorable. Grady has 6 teeth and the 7th is in the process of breaking through. He still isn't actually crawling on all fours (which could slightly be my fault for discouraging it when he looked like he was going to start early) but he manages to get around wherever he wants to go. It's a combination of rolling, scooting backwards and the army crawl that he's mastered. Grady is getting quite a little personality too. By that I mean that he's got attitude. If he doesn't like what we're doing he'll do this loud grunt and bat at our hands. He's getting better with sleeping, we get 4-6 hour stretches now and we're going to work on him falling asleep on his own soon.

Decorating the Tree

Dawson and Aiden got to help decorate Mooma & Poopa's (aka Chad's parents) Christmas tree this year. I'll admit, I decorated our tree while Dawson was gone so I could have it just the way I like it so I thought Beth was a little crazy when she asked for their help....but I was pleasantly surprised by how cute the tree turned out! They both took it very serious :) Putting on the beads and garland was...interesting.

Beth had a bunch of candy canes for the boys to put on the tree too. Dawson kept taking all of his and hanging them in the same spot over the side of the barrel.

I just now realized that I only took a picture of the "final product" with my phone and not the camera. Trust me, it turned out beautiful. Thanks Mooma & Poopa for starting a fun new tradition with the boys!!

It's Real!

Yes, that's right. We got a real Christmas tree this year! Chad's been bugging me about my fake tree for years but it's so much easier. The lights are already put on perfectly and if you want an ornament in a certain place, you just bend a branch to make it work. But I caved in this year mainly because I want the boys to have memories of going out and choosing our very own tree to cut down and bring home. I was also really looking forward to that wonderful smell a live tree puts off...but for some reason our tree doesn't have that.

On our way to the tree farm I knew I wanted a "Charlie Brown-ish" tree. I love the way they look and I figured that the more I can see through the tree, the less bugs that can be hiding in there. This was the first tree I saw when we got out of the car, right up front. After about an hour of walking up and down aisles of trees we ended up back at our first choice.

When I asked Dawson to pick out a tree he wanted to bring home, this is what he chose. Now I wish I would have asked the people to mark it for us and we could have got it in a couple years!

Shane, Lynn, Aiden & Owen with their Christmas tree.

Aiden & Dawson helped Chad carry our tree.

Dawson thinking he was totally helping by carrying the very tip of the tree.

Too short to put the star on this year.

I LOVE our REAL tree!!