Our Family

Saturday, December 20, 2014

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.

Friday, December 5, 2014

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!

Friday, October 31, 2014

Pumpkin Fun

We have had a jam packed October celebrating fall with family and friends.

Last weekend, we celebrated with our local pumpkin festival!

We kicked things off with a trip to a pumpkin patch that Cassie and I went to as kids. It sadly has gone downhill since we were kids and is currently for sale. The kids loved it though!

YMCA Halloween party

And of course we made pumpkins for the pumpkin contest! Grady wanted a Lightning McQueen pumpkin. He definitely helped but he was a bit more interested in couting beans and drawing on the tablecloth this year!

Batman Grady and his pumpkin...

which ended up winning FIRST place! We have never placed before in our 7 years entering pumpkins. I was shocked this guy was a winner because he was a little bit crazy looking but we were really excited to have a winner! My bets were on Arthur (next to McQueen) because he was so cute. Arthur was Liam's pumpkin. Yep, Shea and Liam entered in pumpkins all the way from Iowa :) Grady won $10 and an ice cream cone. He gave Layla half the money which was pretty sweet.

Layla was really excited for Grady and his win.

Layla made a house pumpkin this year. She planned the entire thing first with a drawing and I thought it ended up being so cute! She learned to spray paint and use the glue gun this year. We have learned that spray paint is the way to go with pumpkins if you want the paint to last through the weekend!

Batgirl Layla and her pumpkin!

Downtown trick-or-treating with friends

Joan was here with us all day on Saturday.

We enjoyed our day with the pumpkins, rides and craft shows!

Checking out all the pumpkins!

Sunday I ran in the 10K with my good friend Jessie. It was a beautiful morning for a race and Ryan, Kelsey and the kids were really sweet to come and cheer me on. Kelsey was here with us all weekend and I do not have one picture of her. I think she was snapping lots of pictures at the same time with her camera.