Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Grayson turned 1, Christmas happened twice, and I just had a birthday!

Pallows (pillows), honeys (undies), Eggo (Diego), dinky doo (pinky dinky doo), I think I can, I do it, icky poopoo's, OOOH budder (brother), pretties, rite dare, stwower (stroller), I needsta help, boots, choc-oh-late, helmit (remote)...

I love listening to Lydia talk. I absolutely love her sweet little words and how she says each of them in her own little accent. These are just some of my favorites... some of the ones I hear the most. She's given her own names to so many everyday things that I often forget that it's not what other people normally call them. I'm teaching myself how to not speak her language back to her, though. I know it doesn't benefit her when it comes to teaching her the correct pronunciation of things, but my goodness it's hard not to say silly sentences like "I needs lots is a more of dees ones" when she's usually the only little human I talk to all day... everyday.
That and yes, I want to keep her little a lot of the time. I don't want her to grow up. It's so dear to my heart to hear how she's developed her own language to describe her little world... I feel like I see my world differently just from the way she has described it to me in her words.

Grayson's birthday came and went and with not TOO many tears... We celebrated with family the weekend before Christmas. It couldn't have been better. He loved being sang to so much that we sang him happy birthday twice! He ate more cake than I'd like to admit, but it was so extremely cute and I just wanted him to enjoy it. My mom made him a beautiful little sock monkey cake (hopefully I can find and add pictures!). You could tell he knew EXACTLY what it was and who it was for by his sweet little squeals the moment he saw it! He has loved his sock monkey from the moment he received it and it has been his favorite lovey since. Besides his train... it's by far his favorite thing in this house.
I hope that we get to celebrate his birthday with family like that every year. What a blessing!

Christmas with my family was celebrated that same weekend. I don't think I can remember having a better Christmas! All of the kids did great and had such a wonderful time! It was more relaxed than any other Christmas and I really think that everyone there could agree that we all left with full hearts and truly enjoyed our time with each other. We opened presents Saturday morning (my goodness every child was spoiled!). I was able to cook my favorite meal, breakfast, and then the kids played with all of their toys all day. We got everything prepared and cooked for the 'big dinner' and family all slowly arrived. We visited, opened beautiful stockings (just wait until you see how huge mine was! hahaha), and shared gifts that we had chosen for each other. We draw names every year and it's always fun surprising them with something unique and personal! The dinner was amazing and the deserts were even better! We sang birthday songs to my Uncle, Grayson, and myself, opened more presents, and then everyone went their separate ways. Jacob and I had planned to leave the next morning, but after some discussion... we decided it would be safest to leave that evening.
The kids are still loving all of their gifts from santa and I am too!!

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with just us as a family. It was such a sweet time! I read a book to the kids regarding the birth of Jesus, which Lydia loved, and we celebrated Christmas as a tribute to Christ's birth. Lydia is STILL singing 'Happy Birthday baby Jesus' around the house!
We opened presents, nothing big, but just a few things special that we had got for each other, and had our friends for dinner. All of the kids played well together and had a great time as did we. It was such a wonderful Christmas this year!

The day after was my birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!! I'm now 24, be amazed, I know. I'm getting so stinkin old! Jacob came home and brought me beautiful flowers and a yummy peppermint starbucks! It was wonderful :)

So here comes the new year! I'm excited to be starting a new year full of new adventures! I haven't fully thought of any new year resolutions, but I'm sure that I will. Probably some new plan to build some muscle on these bones, learn a new craft, play more music, or finally sew Lydia's quilt that I started BEFORE she was born :/. I'm not sure yet, but when I know... you'll know.


Jacob and I hadn't planned on being in this picture, but neither of the kids wanted near Santa! :)

Grayson in his sock monkey little get up with his lovey


Me and my GINORMOUS stocking full of goodies!


My mom had a wool sock monkey dress... of course I had to put it on! haha... (ignore my lack of make up!)


A photo of all of the stockings together.. you can tell Jenna and I are the favorites here! ;)


Grayson seeing his cake with his cousin Autumn (otter pop)


Want some??


So handsome!!!


Lydia concentrating on opening everything in her stocking :)


The adorable cake and cupcakes!


MY beautiful cake my mom made me...  COMPLETELY dairy and gluten free!!! <3

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Oh baby Gray...

Thanksgiving went well! It was so very wonderful to have my house full of family and smelling of yumminess. I already wish I could have them all back again! I'm not sure that I'll be doing it again for a long while though. It is just such a long drive to my house for everyone that came. They all arrived early to be able to spend more time with each other, but that's when I'm in the kitchen the most. It made it hard for me to spend time with them. Then they all needed to make the long trek home early enough to avoid freezing roads, which meant for only about 4 hours spent with them total... most of which I was either in the kitchen or cleaning up. Don't get me wrong, I had a FANTASTIC time! I LOVED doing the cooking and serving my family. I even loved trying to squish that many people into our little kitchen and dining room.
I keep trying to convince them all to move here, but they're just not having it! :)
So next year we'll most likely be spending it at my mom's beautiful home and I'll just have to talk her into letting me come a day ahead and we can cook our little fingers off together again.
That was definitely the part of Thanksgiving that I think I treasured the most, spending time cooking with my mom. We work so well together weaving around the kitchen and never even knocking into each other despite the small space. We are a well oiled machine and once we get started then there's no stopping us!

My sweet little family and I just returned from a trip to Grammy and Grandpa Buddy's house in Grants Pass. We brought Uncle Seth along with us too. The crazy kook volunteered to hold Juneau the entire drive down! June surprisingly did REALLY well, but we had no idea what to expect. Praise God for no puppy accidents in our car! Anywho, back to talking about Grammy's...
Can I just say I love it there?
They have such a wonderful place and we love spending time there with them. The kids and Juneau had the run of the place, which Grammy and Bud so sweetly baby proofed, and they had a blast! Grayson had a ton of fun toting around all of Grammy's potatoes and trying to eat them raw. Lydia entertained all of us, as always, and June... well she's June! She played well with Gray and entertained us too with all of her sweet puppyness. Jacob, Seth, and Bud watched endless hours of football and I even got a chance to read a book! It was wonderful! I'm glad that Grammy and Bud are here for the winter and I hope that we get to go see them again soon. They're so full of love and are a joy to be around and the kids adore being with them too!

Now starts the week of trying to get back on schedule, grocery shop and meal plan for the next two weeks, unpack from our trip, do laundry, and plan for Grayson's birthday!

EEEEEEK!!!!!! I can't believe that his birthday is only a week away!
I had big ideas planned for his birthday. I wanted it to be just as fun and decorated as Lydia's was. I wanted to make him a beautiful cake just as well thought out as Lydia's castle cake was, and have a lot of friends over to celebrate him too. I know that he won't remember it. I know that he probably could care less. He probably wouldn't even notice the decorations much, might even get overwhelmed if there's too many people here, and will probably care less what his cake looks like as long as he gets to eat and his sister doesn't steal any of his ;).
As silly as it is, though, I still want to do it for him. This 1st year mark is huge to me. It's celebrating making it through all of the hard sleepless nights, watching him grow from my sweet little 6 pound 9 oz newborn to my toddler that's trying so hard to keep up with his sister, and remembering every little stage he went through to get here. Every moment of his first year is engraved into my heart and I just want to celebrate it!! Can you blame me??
I know that there won't be a HUGE party, but I'm going to try and put something together for him. I hope that he'll have another little friend or two here to play with, some fun and shiny decorations to look at (and I'm sure tear down), and a cute cake to dig his sweet little fingers into.

Grayson,
I love you so much my sweet baby boy. From the moment you were born we have had such a strong bond. You were such a sweet and snuggly baby. When you were a newborn and I had to sleep with you on my chest you would squirm your way all the way under my chin. You wanted to be snuggled up as close as you could to your momma. Your adorable little fingers would hold a death grip on my shirt so that I wouldn't put you down, I didn't. For four weeks I slept on the couch while you slept on my chest and hardly left my arms. I didn't want to be away from you either! When other moms reveled in their little ones sleeping through the night, I do admit I was a bit jealous at times, but as soon as I would go in to nurse you.. you'd curl up under my chin again. I still wake up with you... not because I know you can't sleep through the night without it if I tried to teach you, but because I simply treasure rocking you when you sleep. I find myself fighting to get back into my own bed as I hold you, but knowing I have to give in or I won't be able to keep up with you during the day too! You have such a beautiful little grin, these super cute little stinky feet, and the best little chubbies on the planet. You're constantly getting into 'trouble'. You climb everything, go through all of my cupboards and drawers, and eat anything in your path.
I really don't want to know some of the things that have made it into your mouth :|
Your sister is always getting you to do her dirty work while knowing full well that you'll get in less trouble than she will- I'm working on that-. How can I punish you when you give me your cute little squinty grin?? I definitely don't want to see your sad face, oh how it instantly breaks my heart!
You are starting to learn what fits are, surely from your mischievous big sister, and I'm learning how to adjust. Your favorite toys are anything you can pull, hit, smash, makes noise, or you can make sound effects to. Either that or my phone, that works too.
You love talking on the phone/skyping with your nana or dada. As soon as I get a call on my phone you're already at my feet tugging on me jabbering to talk.
My boy you can dance! You've got the cute little bounce down and you're learning how to wink... what else do you need?
You're just a joy to be around and I love you. I am already missing my sweet little newborn with those beautiful little eyes looking up at me, but I'm excited to see who you become and to enjoy the adventure along the way. I will forever celebrate this first year that we have spent together. I love you baby bear, Your Momma