Pumpkin Carving Party

We had our 5th annual pumpkin carving party last night and it was a huge success....except for the rain! I've come to the conclusion that I just have bad luck with weather and from now on I should just plan for rain no matter what month we're in. Anyways, we had a great group of people over and had a fun time visiting, eating and carving pumpkins!

We had the kiddos dress up to show off their costumes.

Dawson makes a very cute fireman!

Grady didn't stink at all in his skunk costume :)

On Halloween Grady will be a dalmation to go with Dawson's costume.

Cash wanted to play ball with the skunk.

There's always plenty of kisses from Dawson.

Ryan, mom and Grady (the skunk got a little warm).

A happy little pirate with his mom and Owen.

Dawson reached right in to pull out the guts but instantly after feeling it on his hands he said "Daddy do it".

Luckily we had a canopy to carve under to stay dry!

Dawson and Aiden intently watched Shane carve his pumpkin.

Working on my masterpiece...with a spider on my head.

It cracks me up every year when Dan pulls out the rubber gloves.

That's cute lil' Iris in the dragon costume.

Pumpkins!

My finished product.

6 Months Old!

It is so hard for me to believe that Grady turns 6 months old today! Where did the time go? I guess it flies by when your having fun...or maybe when your super busy. As much as I try to cherish these "baby" stages though I do look forward to Grady getting a little older so him and Dawson can play together. I can't even begin to imagine how much fun they are going to have in the years ahead.

Grady is definitely still a mama's boy! It makes me feel good to know he loves me so much and just wants to be around me all the time :). He's (usually) always full of smiles and loves to watch his big brother do anything. We love our Grady cakes and are excited to continue watching him grow...

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

A Lazy Day in the life of Dawson & Grady...

After another night of little sleep because of our sweet Grady boy I decided not to make any plans and enjoy a lazy day with my boys. When I went to get Dawson out of his room, I peeked out the slider and this is what I saw: BEAUTIFUL! This is what I came back to in the bedroom. So sweet but can you tell he's still very tired?

One of my absolute most favorite things is when me and my boys snuggle and play in bed together in the mornings.

Dawson always has to put on my chapstick.

Once we decided to drag ourselves out of bed we layed around in the living room for a while...

Dawson watched some cartoons...

I swaddled Grady for a nap and Dawson wanted to be swaddled too...

while Grady napped Dawson and I made some pancakes... Grady's awake!

Dawson used the potty (he does it multiple times during the day now!)

Grady played with some toys...

We read books before Dawson took his nap...

I tried to nap with Grady but that only lasted 30 minutes so then Grady played in his new jumperoo...

Dawson took a 2 1/2 hour nap, when he woke up we colored then made rice krispy treats...

(his face looks kinda funny in this picture-he was in the middle of saying "cheese")

Daddy's home from work-Yay!

Grady's bath time then Dawson showers with Daddy.

After getting all clean it was time for dinner. Then Grady got to have his first rice cereal (see the next post). Bed time! Lazy, lazy day that nothing got accomplished but I think those are necessary every now and then.

Grady's First Rice Cereal

We've been waiting to give Grady his first taste of rice cereal until we pin pointed some of his allergies. We found that babies are rarely allergic to rice so we got the "go ahead" to give it a try. The only reason we've been so anxious to try this is we're hoping that it will make him more accepting of the bottle if he's doing something besides strictly breastfeeding. And this will make it easier for babysitters to feed him until he takes the bottle.

He made a little funny face on the first bite...

...then he was grabbing for the spoon and bowl anxious for more!

A success - YUM!!

Stoney Ridge 2010

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Finally, an answer!

As some of you know, we have been dealing with trying to figure out what is making Grady's skin so horrible for the last couple months. It's such a sad and helpless feeling to see his skin break out in red rashes and not know what is causing it or how to make him better. It was obvious that it was making him miserably uncomfortable. Our doctor first referred us to a dermatologist that diagnosed him with severe eczema. That helped a little but didn't give us any answers on how to make him better. Our next step was seeing an allergist. Originally our referral appointment was over a month away until I decided to call Dr. Elkayam (who is ranked in the top 10 allergists in the country!) last Friday just to see if there was any possiblity of getting in with him. That was our lucky day! The receptionist had just gotten off the phone with a cancellation and if we could get there in 45 minutes the appointment was ours. It broke my heart when I stripped Grady down and even the doctor was surprised by how horrible he looked :(. Long story short, after a 3 hour appointment we discovered that Grady is severely allergic to eggs and slightly allergic to milk and nuts. Initially I felt even worse that he had been constantly getting all of those things through my breast milk and it was because of me that he was in so much discomfort. I just had to remind myself that I had no way of knowing...until now. In this last week Grady has been on an oral medication as well as a few prescription ointments to try to get his skin under control. Obviously I have had to drastically change my diet as well. I never realized how many things had egg in it until now that I have to read the labels on everything! It is amazing how much of a difference there was in just the first couple days. His skin looks perfect, like a little 5 1/2 month baby's should and he has been SO much happier. I am going to do the absolute best I can to cut those foods out of my diet but the doctor highly recommends switching Grady over to formula so my accidental slip ups won't effect him. So, our next step is to try to get Grady to start taking bottles :). In the meantime I welcome any tips, advice and recipes for egg & dairy free foods (especially desserts!).

This was a picture of Grady a few days before his appointment :( And this is a picture of him a few days ago, a happy healthy sweet baby boy!

A Day in Federal Way

We went to a World Sand Sculpting Competition over the weekend. I had heard about it on the news and thought it might be kind of fun. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting...mainly because it was just in a big empty parking lot, but it was amazing to see what people were able to create from a pile of sand.

The is the only one we saw in progress, the rest had already been completed in the week.

There were a lot of them but here are a few of our favorites: Look at the detail in the Indian's face - amazing!

This sweet face melts my heart!

Afterwards we had no idea what else there was to do in Federal Way but luckily someone pointed us to a beach. We walked out on the pier and watched people fish.

Of course Dawson couldn't just "look" at the water, he had to test it out. Notice in the following pictures the outfit change. To no surprise Dawson ended up soaked head to toe.

There was a playground right up the street that we stopped at to play before packing back into the car.

In this picture Dawson is telling me to turn the camera "off". Do you think he's finally sick of all my constant picture taking? :)

We took Kate's recommendation on the way home and stopped for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. I haven't been to one in years and forgot how fun of a restaurant it is! Dawson was a little hesitant at first, it could have been the chomping alligator out front or the snake hissing above him but he did LOVE the huge fish tank.

We got seated at a great table right next to this water feature - a great distraction for Dawson and Grady.Every so often the restaurant has a "storm" and the lights flicker and apes near our table danced...Dawson was so quick to grab onto Daddy!

Daddy & Grady monkeying around.

Mmmm...the food was delicious.

Despite it being way past bedtime, Dawson was so good and our day in Federal Way was a huge success!