Layla at 5 1/2

Time is once again flying.  Layla is halfway.to.six. 

How in the world is this little girl going to be six in six months?!?

 

Here are the results from an interview with Layla at 5 1/2:

 

 

 

Layla had a big month in November.  She won "Student of the Month" in her classroom and had her art entered into the district art show.  Layla was so proud of herself about the art.  She barely blinked an eye at the "Student of the Month!"

Layla at the art show!

 

Layla and her beautiful sun art

Grady wanted to pose too!

 

Layla still loves her crafts too! 

Here Layla and Grady were working on some Christmas ornaments.

 

And she sure loves her cousins. 

Layla and Liam are really good buds. 

 

And the child loves to see any sign of growth. 

I keep telling her no more sleep for her...and then the

growing will stop.  She always checks to make sure I am joking :)

 

Layla was a huge help the day before Thanksgiving.  She helped me make the stuffing, rolls and the apple dumplings.  She worked the toaster like a pro.

 

Layla has started writing a bit more too.  She has found more confidence putting her pencil (or more likely a marker!)  to paper.  Her phonetic writing is pretty cute to read.

 

Below is a small sample of her work from "Teddy Bear Week" at school last week.  Layla wrote down that Big Papa (my grandpa who passed away almost three years ago) gave her the bear.  Ryan and I cannot remember if he did give it to her.  But Layla honestly probably remembers better than us.  I was just so stunned that she wrote of him without us prompting or helping her recall him.  I hope the memories continue to stick.

 

And that is Layla in a nutshell at five and a half. 

We are lucky to raise this sweet and sometimes quite spunky little girl!

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year.  We hosted again with nineteen adults and five kids.  We ate lots of food and a tremendous amount of desserts, visited with family and snapped lots of pictures in the homemade photo booth! 

 

I have pretty much decided the cooking necessary for Thanksgiving is a bit beyond me.  I am not quite sure what happens.  I have everything under control and then poof! the last hour is complete craziness :)  I am thinking next time I host Thanksgiving, more crockpots and less yeast will be involved :)

 

 

Layla and Grady had a fabulous time on Thanksgiving.  Layla woke up early to see everything set up for the big day.  Ryan had made an early morning run to the store and Layla was waiting in the window for him when he returned.  She was wondering if her Thanksgiving outfit was ironed :)  Layla loves a holiday and sang her "Happy Thanksgiving" song many times over the course of the day.  As Ryan carried up the kids for baths at the end of the night, Layla was still singing "Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving" with a hoarse little voice :)

 

 

Here is a picture of the start of the food craziness!  Here Ryan was trying to plug the roaster in behind the washer.  The roaster did not work properly and our ham was still very cold after being in the roaster for over an hour.  I decided I was thankful we decided to put the turkey in the oven and not in the roaster :)

Turkey cutting time!

My mom dealing with the excess of potatoes.  I made 15 pounds. 

WAY too many for the crowd.  A pound a person for turkey...not for potatoes!

How cute are these two?  Our newest little guest was pretty adorable :)

 

And now the hit of the day...the turkey day photo booth!  Shea enjoyed playing photographer for the day.  He was very funny behind the tripod and was the main reason we have so many pictures.  He really lured everyone over for some snapshots.  And how do you say no to Shea?!?

 

 

 

After Thanksgiving was cleaned up, we started to decorate for Christmas.  Layla was up early on Friday, excited to put up the decorations :)  Grady loved playing around the decoration chaos! 

 

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

We are really excited for the Christmas season around here!

Grady at 2 1/2

At two and a half, Grady is a fun and sweet little boy. 

 

He loves to play.  Grady loves to play tractors, planes, cars, trains, Play-Doh and anything Layla is playing.  The two have hit a nice groove playing together lately.  After school they typically play house, school, vacation or library together.  They still have their battles at times, but for the most part (knock on wood) they are becoming good play buddies.

 

I really do miss the baby and toddler stage with Grady, but I am thankful that his frenetic stage has slowed a bit.  Don't get me wrong, Grady is a very busy little boy.  But now we can go to the library without all the books coming off the shelves, he is beginning to understand the real dangers of parking lots and streets and Ryan even lets him walk in stores with no cart.  My parents even gave him his own mini shopping cart at the grocery store.  I am not so brave yet!

 

With Layla starting kindergarten, Grady and I have lots of one-on-one time together now.  We have really enjoyed it.  It took some adjusting for both of us in the beginning because the house was so quiet with only one child at home and our schedule wasn't booked with preschool, but we have fallen into a nice routine together.  I feel really lucky to have this time with Grady.  We do miss Layla during the days though and we are so excited to have her home for a nice LONG Thanksgiving Break.     

Grady continues to have weekly speech therapy and steadily is growing in this area.  Grady still has not had a huge language burst, but he is consistently adding words and phrases to his vocabulary.  Words do not come out easily for Grady, but he is so proud of himself when a new word comes.  We are really proud of him too.  Grady loves his therapist and speech time.  Honestly, therapy looks like playtime.  While the three of us play together, his therapist listens for new sounds and words and then encourages sounds and words that she hears.  We are currently working on Grady's name.  I cannot wait to hear him say his own name! 

Grady is a music lover.  He loves to listen to music, play instruments, dance and put all of daddy's guitar picks inside his guitar.  We took a music class this fall and attended the library music class for the month of November.  Ask him to do his booty shake next time you are with us :)  It is very funny.

 

Grady's current favorite show is Bubble Guppies.  He loves his t.v. but he is very picky with what shows he watches.  We watched a movie last night as a family and Grady was not so interested so he did pacifier tricks during a lot of the movie.  (Yes, Grady still has a pacifier while he sleeps and during movie nights!  Layla had her pacifier for a really long time too.  I have memories of my pacifier...so they come by it honestly!)

 

Grady loves his potty jokes, but has no interest in potty training.  Layla taught us that there is no rushing the potty training.  I will give it a try a bit before three, but we will not push it unless we are getting close to preschool starting.   Grady is still in cloth diapers most of the time.  He just gets one disposable at night time.  We put a cloth diaper on him to sleep a couple nights ago and it just does not agree with his skin to be in the same cloth diaper for an extended period of time.   

 

So Grady's first six months of two have gone well.  He has a meltdown here and there, clenches his fists from time to time and wants his own way a lot (mostly regarding fruit snacks and sippy cups and high chairs) but for the most part Grady is a good and happy little boy.  We hope as the year moves on that Grady continues to grow in height and also in conversation, but we also sincerely hope that his crazy little personality keeps on shining as we march toward the threes. 

Photo by my friend Stephanie (and many others were taken by her in this post)
If you are interested in photos, I have two good friends who take beautiful photos. 
Contact me if you are interested and I will get you their information!!