nice day out!

Grayson and I have just been chilling this week, so not much activity going on...  But, today we went over to the Pitner's house (Kelly is the nursery coordinator and her son is the little boy, Jackson, that LOVES Grayson).  We played outside with her kids for 2 hours!  Grayson had fun sitting in the grass and watching her twin 3-yr-old girls swing.  He was exhausted when we got home and ready for a nap, which he's currently fighting!  So, I'm going to make this a short one and go check on him.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Eight Months, Little Man!

Brandon and I can't believe it... our little boy turns 8 months today.  And we are both happy and sad--happy that he is such a blessing in our lives and that he's a healthy, happy boy, but sad that he's growing up so quickly.  It seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital not knowing what the heck we were going to do with him when we got there!  Cuddling in the rocking chair, watching him take naps in my lap...  gone are those days.  Now I can barely even cradle him in that chair because he's too big!  He is a sweet, sweet boy though.  Just Sunday, he fell asleep in Brandon's arms at church and everyone was proclaiming how cute he was.

So, today I guess I'm feeling nostalgic.  I miss those days when he was a tiny, helpless baby and he loved to cuddle in my arms!  Now he's struggling to sit up and look around when I'm merely trying to feed him!  I'm sure very soon, he'll only want to sit with me when he's sick and otherwise will be running from me!

Oh, and here's the news on the house that we're hopefully buying!!  The sellers have accepted our inspection response, so we are good-to-go for a June 4th closing as far as we know!  We are set to move in the weekend of June 18--anyone wanna come help?!  hahah  Or, maybe just watch Grayson while we move everything?

Enjoy your day kids... mine has started at 6 a.m.  Oh, to be able to sleep like I used to!!

just in case you missed it...

I posted a ton of pics and a new video on Facebook this weekend, but I thought I'd post the video here too since it's so darn cute...



We were up and at 'em early this morning, thanks to you-know-cutie, and ended up running some errands.  The post office, bank, Target, Chick-Fil-A, and Dairy Queen were all stops (had to get Brandon his blizzard so he wouldn't be jealous any more!).  We enjoyed our afternoon and relaxed this evening.  Hope you guys did too. 

the smell of rain...

Yesterday we woke up and I got Grayson dressed in an insufferably cute outfit and knew I just HAD to share it with you all.  It's one that we got from Alyssa (of course, all of our clothes are from her now!) and it just made me melt.  So, I started to take him outside on the deck for a photo op, and to my surprise I opened the door to the wonderful smell of spring rain!  The deck was soaked, so all you get are some less-than-stellar indoor shots...

don't you just want to pick him up and squeeze him?!

He LOVES putting everything in his mouth, and the poor blanket was no exception!

We spent the day playing and then met Alyssa and Carter over at the local cloth diaper store (Barefoot Herbs, Barefoot Kids) and then went for ice cream at Dairy Queen.  They're having an awesome deal right now where you can buy one blizzard and get another for a quarter, so Alyssa was awesome enough to buy me a blizzard!  God bless her!  It was sooo good.  Brandon and I will go this weekend because he felt left out :o(  Poor guy.  :o)

Grayson is still eating us out of house and home and I am at a loss to where it is all going.  Night before last, he drank a 5 oz bottle I had pumped that morning AND then he nursed for almost 10 minutes!!!  He had to have consumed at least 9 or 10 oz in one setting and didn't spit up or anything.  Then, this morning he ate a half cup of oatmeal and 3.5 oz of fruit for breakfast!  Crazy guy. 

We went to RoofCrashers this morning at church and my group was in charge of childcare this morning, so we enjoyed playing with all the other babies.  Kelly was there, the nice Mama in charge of the Sunday morning childcare and her son Jackson LOVES Grayson.  Sunday he asked Kelly to call me to see if Grayson could come over and play with them!  Jackson is 4 I think and they also have 3-yr-old twins.  (I know, brave huh?!)  Next week we might go over and play for a while so Jackson gets his 'Grayson fix'!!  :o)  Kelly's kids are adorable and she the sweetest Mama too.  They've watched Grayson for us before and I think he never even touched the floor the whole time he was there! 

Well, Brandon will be home soon, and Grayson is refusing to nap, so I gotta run.  You all have a great weekend!

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Or at least this weekend it was!  Today it's in the 40's so we won't be venturing outside much!  Sunday was beautiful, so after church we decided to make it a good one as a family.  We went out to eat for lunch and then went for a loooong walk!  We went down through the other apartment complexes and then back to ours.  We both agreed that we are sooooo excited to get out of this neighborhood!  But, it was nice anyway.  When we returned from our walk, we drove over to Bruster's to get our free ice cream cones (we got free cards from our Sunday School class about a month ago and hadn't used them yet).  Grayson got to try a little orange sherbet for the first time too!  He made a funny face, but ate it!  When we got home, we just relaxed the rest of the evening and just played in the floor with our beautiful boy.  He's sitting up really well now and is starting to push up on his arms a lot better when he's on his belly, so I think crawling will probably come in the next month or so.  I don't know what I'm going to do then!!  I don't think I'm ready for that at all!

Yesterday we didn't do much, which was nice.  I did diaper laundry and some other housework and Grayson educated me on his new sleep schedule.  He's now waking up about 7:30 a.m. instead of 8:30-9 and taking 3 short naps instead of 2 long ones.  That makes getting out of the house a bit difficult (and writing in the blog!). 

I got to talk to a good friend from Joplin yesterday for a bit too, which was awesome!  She is expecting a baby girl in May and she looks so cute pregnant!  I can't believe how much our lives have changed in the past few years!  We're all married and having babies!  My, how the Lord has blessed us all!  So Jamie, if you're reading this, you were such a blessing to me yesterday!  I hope Cooper's birth goes swimmingly and I know she will be an amazing blessing to your life!!  I can't wait to meet her!

Well, I better go get a shower before my little man wakes up!  Bye!

wow! It's Saturday!

So, for the last couple of days, I've completely forgotten to blog!  We've been pretty busy though, so you'll have to cut us some slack.  Thursday we went to JoAnn's and I got some fabric to make tutus for a shoot that I'm doing today with Brandon's boss' family.  They have triplets!  I hope to take some good pictures, because you don't get many chances to photograph triplets in your life!!  If I get any good ones, I'll try and post some of them just so you all can see their amazing cuteness as well!  We haven't seen them in several months, so I'm sure they're going to look huge to us now!

Friday Brandon had the day off, so we got up and packed a picnic lunch and went to Karst Farm to eat it.  It was SOOO pretty out and we really enjoyed ourselves.  Grayson enjoyed watching the trees blow in the wind.  After our picnic, we headed to the potential new house for the dreaded inspection.  MUCH to our delight, the inspection went FANTASTIC and there's not really anything major wrong with the house!!!!  Our inspector was actually really impressed with the condition.  It has lots of nice upgrades too.  The only thing that we're even going to ask about is the railing on the deck.  Code says it has to be 36" tall and it's only 32".  It's also pretty wobbly, but since the homeowner built the deck, I think he'll probably just fix it himself.  So, God has blessed us again and worked this out!  So, now all that's left is getting our financing in order and getting the appraisal done from the bank we choose.  Then, hopefully we'll close on June 4!   PRAISE GOD!!

This morning started with a bang for us--Grayson woke up about 8 and Brandon went and got him and brought him in bed with us where he nursed and then proceeded to throw up all over me, himself and our bed!!!  So, off to the bath he went!  I'm sure Mr. Quackers (his new ducky bathtub) was surprised to see him so early in the morning!  I think he just ate too much too fast, and he was still probably full from yesterday...  he ate 2/3 C of oatmeal, 3.5 oz of blueberries, 3.5 oz of greenbeans, and a full 6 oz of his favorite apple yogurt last night at our small group!  Yes, he's quite the eater!!  Thankfully, we're all clean now and he's ready for his nap... hope you all have a great weekend ahead!

FREEBIES and Great Deals at Diapers.com!!

Money-saving tips today folks!

3M just released a coupon for $1 off any Scotch-Brite Brand Product, which includes those awesome little yellow & green cleaning sponges that I love for the kitchen.  It also includes the nice blue non-scratch ones great for your glass top stoves.  http://www.3m.com/us/home_leisure/scotchbrite/ultranailsaver/coupon.pdf  Print as many as you want folks!  You can save paper by copy/pasting it into a Word document 4 per page.  AND, IT GETS BETTER!  Kroger has those wonderful little sponges 10/$10 this week, so yes, they are FREE!!!  I just snagged 5 of them yesterday and plan to go back before the end of the week and snag 5 more.

The other tip I have for you pretty much is great for us Mamas!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE diapers.com  I don't know if any of you use them, but they always have a $10 off a $49 purchase coupon code out (NEWBIES) and they also always have a 10% off code out (10percent)...  the best thing?  You can use them together!  The Newbies code has to be used in conjunction with a diaper purchase (we cloth diaper, but it's always good to have a pack of sposies for sitters) and the 10% off code is only on non-diaper products.  They also have a great clearance section.  An even greater thing?  FREE SHIPPING.  For all of us Moms who find it difficult to get out of the house to shop sometimes, diapers.com is your best friend.  Use it.  Love it.  :o)

our busy, mostly fun day

So, as I said yesterday, we went over to the King's to play in the water with Carter.  We got there right around lunch time and Alyssa and I shared the leftover homemade BBQ pizza I had made the night before.  It was surprisingly still pretty good as leftovers!  Carter took a nap while I fed Grayson his lunch.  Grayson wasn't too keen on nursing all day, and now I'm afraid that he's going to ween himself before we even reach a year old!!  He's getting better at drinking from his sippy, and can hold his own bottle now too.  My little man is growing up too fast! 

After lunch was all done, Grayson, Alyssa and I went out to swing until Carter woke up.  We had about 30 minutes before his nearly 3-hr nap was over (I WISH Grayson would nap that long!!!) and then we all got ready to play in the water.  I put Grayson in his new swim trunks and sun-protective shirt and we loaded both boys down with lots of California Baby sunblock.  Our boys were NOT getting a sunburn today peeps!!  Grayson actually eventually figured out that he could 'grab' the water when it sprinkled out of the little containers, but my Flip died before we got that... boo.  Anyway, he's some of the fun:



 





As always, Grayson took a good nap in the swing, and then we took the boys for a wagon ride down to see the cows (Alyssa's next door neighbor has a farm).  It was Grayson's first wagon ride ever!!!  (Forgive me for the quality, they were from my phone!)

The cows had all huddled up under a tree in the only shade in the entire pasture, so we couldn't see them too well... but who could blame them?!  It was over 80 out!  We decided to put the Boppy around Gray to protect him if he bounced over against the sides since it's a pretty bumpy dirt/gravel road... instead, he just decided to lounge!  But, who could blame him?!  Soft, comfy pillow seat...

We had an awesome time at their house... but then when we got home, I noticed that Grayson felt really warm.  But hey, we'd just been outside all day right?  Wrong.  I should have noticed these as the symptoms we had after his 2-mo shots, but I didn't :o(   Refusing to nurse... check.  Low grade fever... check.  Projectile vomiting up his dinner...  CHECK.  Ya, so 5 oz of green beans and a blueberry/apple mix ALL over himself and the highchair.  Poor guy.  But, he laughed as soon as it was over, even though he was sitting in a PUDDLE 2 inches deep!  Ugh.  Brandon immediately rushed him into a bath while I cleaned everything up and tossed his high chair cover into the wash. 

Thankfully, he's good as new this morning!  Even down to his 30-minute nap.  Boo.  Gotta run!!

fun day ahead!

Yesterday, I went in to get Grayson and this is what I found:

He must have been inspired found strength in his new fireman pajamas (courtesy of Carter!)

So I decided that it was DEFINITELY time to lower his crib mattress since he's trying to pull up on the bars!!  So, last night when Daddy got home, his first order of business was to lower it.  This morning, Grayson approved:

AND, showed off a little plumber-butt, baby style!!

SOO cute right?!!  In another pair of cute pajamas with a matching green diaper!  He also had to get his flu booster shot yesterday afternoon, and he took it like a man!  He only fussed about 1.5 seconds and then went back to his smiley self. 

Today we are heading over to play in the water with Carter again.  This time I will take the Flip and hopefully have some cute video for you tomorrow!  Until then... enjoy your day!

it's raining baby clothes!

Hello peeps!  It's been a wonderful weekend here in Bloomington!  Friday night we went attended a Progressive Dinner with about 25 other couples and it was a blast!  We got to know a few more people and enjoyed learning about some of the elders from our church.  Three separate families hosted all 50+ of us in their homes and fed us!!!  At the first house, we were at one of the Elder's homes that helps with our Young Marrieds' Sunday School class and we had some wonderful appetizers.  At the next elders' home, we had our main dinner and it was awesome!  At the final home, our pastor's house, we had dessert.  At each home, there were additional elders' and their families (which were all REALLY young to be 'elders' I thought!) helping serve all of us.  Our Sunday School teachers (our usual babysitters, Mark & Marilyn) asked each couple to tell us how they met, how they proposed, and a funny story from their honeymoon.  Several of their answers really surprised us and had us all laughing wholeheartedly!  It was SO fun getting to know all of them.  Grayson stayed at Kelly's house (the nursery coordinator at the church) and he LOVES her!  He had fun and was sleeping on her when we picked him up.  She spoils him rotten! 

Saturday we didn't do much... just a few errands and enjoyed each other's company.  Today we went to church, came home and cleaned!  Alyssa has been AWESOME and is letting us use Carter's summer clothes from last year and since they're all 6-9 months, they should get us through most of the summer.  We might need some bigger stuff towards the end of summer, but for now, we're set!  He's got more clothes than I do now!  It's so nice of her to let us borrow them, and in turn we're 'storing' them for her! 

Grayson is now eating yogurt and it might just be his new favorite thing!  And, we learned he likes bananas if they're pureed and mixed with blueberries!  He won't eat them by themselves though.  He had a good bath tonite and his kicking in the tub is getting even more forceful now that he can jump in Carter's Jumparoo that they let us borrow.  I don't know what we'd do without them!!  Thank you God for placing them in our life.  What blessings we've been given!!

the Flip came home!

You have Gigi (Grayson's paternal Grandma) to thank for tonite's specials:

Grayson's favorite song is The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Brandon and I have learned that there are several more verses than what we learned as kids...



This one is from our small group last week.  They are learning to share (well, at least Carter is)!!



These last two are from today.  Grayson loves to 'help' us type on the laptop!  He loves to push things and then I don't know what to do to fix it!



He's gotten REALLY good at sitting up now and sat up today for over 10 minutes completely by himself!  Our little man is growing up  :-(



Good night everyone!

teeth. argh.

I am soooooo ready for Grayson's gums to just give up and let his teeth come through!!!!  He's been super-cranky today and refused to nap anywhere buy my arms...  for 45 minutes.  So, now that I can barely hold up my arms, I'm taking a break and typing. 

Yesterday we didn't do much of anything.  Grayson was up FIVE times during the night, so I didn't feel much like leaving the house.  We just played all day mostly and I got caught up on my episode of 19 Kids and Counting.  This morning we went to my Roof Crashers Bible study and then stopped at WalMart on the way home to pick up a fan for Grayson's room.  With summer coming up, he's going to need it!  And, I'm hoping that the white noise will help him sleep better.  He's been pretty fussy this afternoon, and tonite Brandon & I are planning to attend our Sunday School Class's "Progressive Dinner," so the nursery coordinator, Kelly Pitner, has volunteered to watch Grayson from 5:30 until 11 when it's over.  Hopefully, he'll be his usual 'beauty' self and not this 'beast' that he's been this afternoon!!! 

Anyway, I better get off here and go check the mail.  Gigi is sending our Flip video camera back to us since we forgot it this weekend.  I'm excited to get it back so I can post some video!

Good night all, and we hope you have a great weekend!

a little bonus...

Today we missed our library class because Grayson was sleeping... and we all know "never wake a sleeping baby"!!!  I don't think the 10 o'clock class is going to work for us anymore since Grayson is usually napping then now that he sleeps through the night.  Not that I'm complaining about that though!  This afternoon we met Amy and her kiddos at the park so I could give her her photos of Maggie's ONE shoot.  Grayson got to swing again and Gavin (Amy's 3.5 yr old) had fun making Gray laugh.  It was so cute.  :o)

Speaking of cute, Alyssa sent me the pictures of Grayson sleeping in his swing yesterday and I just had to share:

Poor guy was just tuckered out from playing in the water!  We have to use a towel in his swing because his bottom slides out!  It's too slick for him!  I guess he just got really comfy!

Hope you all had a good day too...

whew.

Do you ever get sooo behind on something that you hesitate to even start because you know it's going to take so long to get caught up?!  Well, that's how I feel right now!  Many of you have expressed your concerns over our missing blog days, so it's time for me to step up to the plate!!  It definitely hasn't been because we've been too boring... it's because we've been SUPER busy!  (heheh  I accidentally typed 'busty' instead of busy right then, and SUPER busty is definitely something that we're NOT!!  lol)  Anywho...

So catching up...  last Wednesday, I had a photoshoot over at the IU campus with the Bolam-King family.  They consist of Dad-Brenden, Mama-Sidney, and their cutie-pie 1-yr-old, Theo.  We had a wonderful time and Grayson was a rockin awesome baby the whole time!!  He just laid on his little blanket and watched the trees and birds.  Thanks to his goodness, here are a few of the moments I snapped:

Thursday and Friday are sort of a blur now, but I know we played outside on our back deck for a while on Thursday...

 

Where Grayson is, Mortimer is not far behind!

Can I fit my whole hand in my mouth!  You bet--I have no teeth yet!! My other best friend... my thumb! "What's that thing Mama!  And why is it always pointed at me?!"

Friday we played with Carter and I had another first... my first ride in a swing!!

I LOVED IT!!!  Carter got to swing with me too!!

We were going REALLLLLLLY fast guys!!

And just in case you're wondering what Alyssa looks like...  she kind of looks like Mommy!  They even have the same middle name--Dawn!  God works in funny ways sometimes!  

Saturday we drove down to Louisville to spend time with Brandon's family.  His younger brother, Tyler, was graduating from college at 11:30, so we got up bright and early and drove down for that.  Other than deciding to talk right in the middle of the graduation, Grayson did GREAT (and looked adorable, as always)!!  

 

We are very proud of Uncle Tyler!!

My husband LOVES to jump in my pictures!!
  At least I got a good one later...  :o)

Finally, at 3 pm Saturday, we went to the Southeast Christian Church Easter Service.  That's the church that Brandon's family regularly attends.  It's HUGE!  We had a wonderful time and it was a great message about the power of God.  We were reminded that the power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead is alive in all of us and can empower us to overcome any obstacle.  What a great message!

Sunday morning, Grayson got to open his easter baskets...  He had a great time and opened his baskets all by himself...

In Grayson's basket from Mom & Dad, he got a ducky (which the dog chewed on, so he has to be washed!).  He also got a bunch of plastic eggs (which turned out to be his favorite thing of all--I don't know why we spend money on toys!!), Toy Story I & 2 (see previous posts about the deals you can get!), and 3 books--The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Guess How Much I Love You, and Daddy's favorite, Harold and the Purple Crayon.  We were amazed at how our little man looks just like Harold!! 

In Gigi & Grandpa's basket, he got some new clothes, a stuffed bunny, and the basket itself was a pail and a shovel to use in the sand!  What a great idea!  Grandma Glenda in Missouri send Grayson a telephone rattle (which is his new favorite) and a stuffed bunny, along with some money to put in his savings account.  Grandma said that the rattle is just like one that I used to have, only mine was pink and his is red.  She said that I also loved it.

Monday, I spent most of the day editing pictures from the shoot above and Grayson was a beast.  I think he was tired from the weekend and was just out of sorts because his routine was off.  We also had our first "accident" on Sunday morning--Grayson fell off the bed.  He cried a lot, but didn't even bruise anywhere, so I think it scared him more than anything.  We all learned an important lesson though--Grayson can't be left alone even for a second now!!!

Yesterday, we played over at Carter's again and Grayson had yet another first--he played in the water outside for the first time!  Alyssa even let us use one of their little swim diapers and since it was 86 out, I slathered the sunblock on him and he had a merry time!  He splashed so much he got Alyssa and I wet too!  He wore himself out in the water because as soon as I put him in the swing, he fell asleep!  Alyssa got a picture that I'll try to post soon.  Since Gray was sleeping when we left, I ran to Target to pick up a few things and got Grayson his first pair of big boy swim trunks!  They have little surfboards on them... we can't wait to try them out!!

On another non-Grayson front, we have finally accepted an offer on the house!  If all goes well, we close June 4th and move in June 18th!!  It's far from over, as we still have the inspection to go.  Since we are giving them 98% of their asking price, we will be asking them to cover anything and everything that comes up in the inspection.  I know God is answering our prayers and will continue to take care of us...

Well, little man is awake from his nap, so I gotta run.  Please remind me if I've left something out everyone!!

Take care...