Layla 6 1/2

Layla at six and a half is one neat kid.  She is a dreamer and planner.  She loves to take pictures of herself and others.  She loves to FaceTime family members and put together Lego sets.  Layla loves animals, both real and stuffed.  With Layla's persistent urging, we now are official volunteers at the animal shelter together.  She is a Daisy Scout and loves it.  Layla craves a lot of downtime at home to play with miniatures, draw, color or run around with Grady.  First grade has been a success and she enjoys school each day.  She listens and takes in everything around her.  Not a whole lot gets past Layla.  She loves her family.  She loves to give lots of hugs and tell you how much she loves you.  She is one sweet kid.  

I just can't believe in six months she will be seven.

  

 

Thanksgiving 2014

 

When will the guests arrive?!?

Thanksgiving this year was nice.  As promised after last year, more crockpots and less yeast.  The cooking was much less stressful but a little bit drier.  Ha!  A few pictures are below.  The photo booth lost its camera for quite some time so we didn't end up with as many photos as last year!

  

 

  

I found this picture on Layla's camera.  We had a little old school Nintendo tournament.  

 I love the original Nintendo and I may have been the winner!

 

Love these photo booth pictures!!   They make me laugh :)

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving (last month!).

Grady-3 1/2

Layla wanted to surprise Grady with a cake for his half birthday.

  

Back in November, Grady turned three and a half.  This was a big milestone for our little guy.  

He has decided now that he is "free and a half" he can come out of his room at night (he had never even gotten out of his bed before this!) and go into preschool like a big boy.

Grady is a charmer and loves to work a room.  He has a lot of energy and spunk.  He has quite the personality for a three year and loves to make people laugh.  He is my little buddy and we enjoy hanging out each day together.  Grady is a great grocery shopper now but does seem to have a three store errand running limit.  We love to play memory and go fish together.  He continues to receive speech therapy.  Grady really enjoys going each week with a new buddy and he is making solid progress.   

  

Grady loves when Layla comes home each day.  They do tangle from time to time but they are really good buddies.  In this picture, they are watching a new Paw Patrol episode with the debut of a brand new pup.  The dog bowls were new and clean from the dollar store :)  Howie looks like he is watching the show too.  I am sure he is there in case a piece of popcorn dropped out of the bowls. 

  

Grady adores his cousins.   I love that he calls Shea and Liam, SheaYiam. 

  

And Grady loves nothing better than to stay at home in his pajamas and play all day.  

He loves Paw Patrol toys, Rescue Bots and monster trucks right now.  

 

  

Desserts and grandparents.  Probably Grady's favorite combination!

I love a preschool performance.

Even after a bow tie malfunction and exiting the stage, Grady went back on the stage and finished the show.  

We were proud of him and loved his dance moves to "Feliz Navidad" :)

 

3 and a half has come quickly.  I know the next six months will be huge for Grady's development and he will seem like such a big boy at four.  I will try to remember to breathe through the occasional tantrum and wildness that will occur and I am going to enjoy these next six months and take in all the sweetness and incredible amount of potty jokes that come with Grady at three.

Rewind: Halloween 2014

Halloween was awhile ago, I know!  Grady and I got sick and the blog fell completely off my radar.  And then Thanksgiving came, and Christmas sewing projects and shopping.  But the Halloween pictures must go up before Christmas!!

  

Grady did really well for his Halloween sing at preschool.  He stayed with the class, sang a bit and even did a few very cute moves.  Grady has been making significant progress with his drop-off anxiety and is really enjoying preschool.  I have been thankful for very patient and understanding teachers who were willing to think outside the box for me! 

  

Grady adores a couple kiddos in his class which also makes me thankful, because it helps get him to school.   Here is a snapshot of Grady and one of his good buddies.

 

Then came Halloween trick-or-treating!  Grady was actually really sick with a cough and cold in this picture.  He sat in the car with me and watched Layla trick-or-treat.  Grady actually ended up tossing cookie (tossing candy?) later in the car.  That officially put the fork in tricking-or-treating for 2014!

 

Layla and buddies watching a Halloween movie at a nice little Halloween party that good friends hosted.  Grady stayed home!

 

As we were putting away Halloween decorations, Layla FaceTimed a bit with Shea and Liam.  I thought she was pretty cute giggling on the Halloween bins with her cousins.  

Another Halloween complete!  I love to keep one picture in a frame from each year of Halloween. 

Fast forward.....Thanksgiving post coming soon!