25 days to Vacation

Melissa and Matthew enjoying an evening walk on the beach!

Happy Memorial Day

We hope everyone had a great weekend!

Grant at Blue Mountain Beach

Grant's first trip to the beach last year! (OK....he wasn't born yet, but he still he a good time!) I was 27 weeks in this photo.

Crawling?

Grant hasn't accomplished "crawling" the way most babies crawl. Instead, he uses a combination of lunging, rolling, army-man crawling, and crawling like an inch worm (you just have to see it). These are the steps Grant took to get to the coffee table this afternoon.

step 1

step 2

step 3

step 4...this is hard work!

step 5

step 6

Almost there.....

Success!

Grant's Tugboat Sandbox

Grant at the captain's wheel!

Daddy is showing him how to play!

Grant's finally decided to try out the sand!

Grant would rather play with real dirt! He kept crawling over to the edge and picking up leaves and sticks. Who would have thought we could have skipped the whole sandbox thing and let him play with the "real" dirt!!!

Today is also our wedding anniversary. We have been married seven wonderful years!

It's amazing to see how much life has changed over the years. We are so blessed to have Grant here this year!

Our First Play Group

Today I took Grant to his first organized play group. We went to Jeni and Kate's house. Kate shared all of her toys with Grant, Rylie and Conner. (These are all babies from our church.) We had a good time playing with all of our friends. We are going to try to keep this up and meet every other Friday. Next time we are going swimming!!!! Grant will really enjoy that!

We have had a busy week. I have been off since Wednesday because my office is expanding and we had to shut down for a few days. I told Stephen that I was really getting used to a two day work week. I haven't really worked on Thursday all month. I had to take the first week off because Grant was sick, then I was sick and now there's construction going on. I am still devising a plan to cut my hours back at work!!!! I have enjoyed having the extra time to do housework, shopping and I have been able to sew some! I haven't been able to do that in a long time. Grant likes his mama being home too!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Random Beach Picture

Luke was covered from head to toe with sand last year! He was so cute playing with his favorite shovel. I bet he will teach Grant a thing or two this year!!!

My First Mother's Day

We had a very busy Mother's Day weekend. Stephen came home Friday from Cleveland. I was so glad to have him home. (He's not allowed to go out of town again for a while!) Saturday Grant and I went shopping with my mom, Granny, and Aunt Vicki while Stephen worked on the front porch some more. We had my family and Stephen's family over Saturday night for some homemade BBQ!!! We celebrated Saturday evening rather than try to do it Sunday after church. Grant put on a show for all of his grandparents!!!!

I had a great first Mother's Day. Grant sent me tulips and a box of chocolates. He knows his mommy well! I am so thankful for my little boy and I am proud to be his mama.

Blue Mountain 2006

Here's Miss Anna enjoying the water!

PS--I had a 2nd round of the stomach virus last night. I was up the entire night and Grant for some reason thought it was a party. He was awake from 1:30 am- 4:30 am!!! I am feeling a little better now. I hope Grant doesn't get a 2nd bout of this!

Grant's Sunglasses

This was the new silly face that Grant started doing this weekend!

Grant is wearing his new sunglasses that Mimi bought him. He actually will wear them without taking them off when we are outside!

(NOTE: We normally don't let our child run around in just his diaper, but he had just messed up his fourth outfit of the day and we were next door without a change of clothes!)

The Stomach Flu

Well, I haven't posted in a day or two because Grant gave me and Stephen a stomach virus. Yes, what we thought was an adverse reaction to his antibiotic seems to really have been a stomach virus. Grant is doing much better and he is back to his normal little self.

Yesterday morning Stephen and I both woke up feeling nauseous. He had already left for work when I got sick. Stephen left yesterday for Cleveland and he will be gone all week. He got sick at his office, and then spent most of his flight in the restroom. Poor guy! I went on to work and suffered through the day. For those of you who remember this is nothing new to me. I spent my entire pregnancy much sicker than this made me. It must have been just a 24 hour bug because we are both feeling better today!!!

Stephen took my camera with him to Ohio so I won't be able to post many new pictures. However, I do have a few that I took this weekend. I will post them soon. Hope every body is doing well!!

Happy Birthday Hunter!

Yes, today is Hunter's fifth birthday. It doesn't seem like its been that long since we went over to Mr. Compton's house to pick up that tiny six week old puppy. He was so cute! Hunter immediately stole our hearts.

I have always been a lab lover. I was raised alongside Alex, our black lab brother for lack of a better word. He was very close to me, the youngest. He followed me everywhere I went and chewed up every backpack I owned as well. He was a great dog. I was in high school when Alex passed away. It nearly broke my heart and it wasn't long after that we got Zack. My parents yellow lab. Zack had an extra long puppy hood. He is 10 years old now, and finally calmed down except when Stephen happens to come over. You see Zack LOVES Stephen. He nearly does back flips when he walks in the door. We call it break dancing, although I am afraid he is going to break himself one of these days.

Stephen and I had been married about six months and I desperately wanted a dog. Not just any dog, but a lab. My sister in law, Liz, called us up and told us that her dad, a breeder, was looking for a home for one of his male dogs. His name was Bennett and he was five years old. We were excited and brought him home to live with us. He was a great dog. He was huge!!! (Built like Hunter) Bennett quickly became part of the family. Unfortunately, Bennett had kidney disease and despite ours and the vet's best efforts Bennett ended up with a malignant tumor in his spleen. He had been through some pretty intense surgery in the days proceeding the tumor and he was just to weak to take it anymore. Bennett was only with us a year. After Bennett's passing we knew we needed a new puppy. Mr. Compton chose Hunter out of his next litter. He said he was the "pick of the litter!"

Hunter has become a beloved part of our family. We joke that he is our firstborn, and with the arrival of Grant this past fall he has become a big brother. I am so glad that Grant will grow up alongside such a wonderful dog. He's not perfect. He still misbehaves every now and then. He loves to steal stuff. Anything he knows he's not supposed to have. He runs around the house begging you to chase him It's all a game. He never chews anything up. That doesn't mean that we didn't have any destruction of property during the puppy stage. It happened, but it goes with the territory. Hunter is a loving, faithful companion that helps make our family complete!

Labs our wonderful dogs. That is my biased opinion, but I am entitled to it. Recently, I was talking to a patient who had just gotten a new lab puppy after putting his 13 year old lab to sleep. He recommended that I read Marley and Me, by John Grogan. I had picked the book up several times before at the bookstore, but put it down because I knew what would happen in the end. He urged me to read it, so I did. It was fabulous. For any of you that have owned a lab you will laugh at the author's stories because you have been there too. Even if you haven't had a lab, but are a dog lover I think you will enjoy the book too.

So happy birthday boy!!! We love you very much!

Ear Infection Update

Unfortunately, Grant doesn't seem to be much better since Tuesday. The medicine that he is taking (Omnicef) is making him sick. He has an upset stomach and is vomiting. I took him back to the doctor today because I was afraid he might become dehydrated. (Which I thought was a valid concern---although they didn't seem to be concerned). He is only able to take 1/2-1 oz. of pedialyte at a time. I have to force it on him which makes for a rough day besides the fact that he is just irritable because he's sick. The doctor did tell me to hold off on the Omnicef until he quits vomiting. Hopefully, I can get enough fluids to stay in him that we can resume some formula tonight.

He's sleeping right now and I think that I will try to nap too!

Random Beach Picture

Here's Brandon and Matthew flying a kite last year at the beach.

Grant's First Ear Infection

Grant woke me up Tuesday morning about 12:30 with a 102.9 degree fever. It just came on all of a sudden. He had recovered (or so I thought) from the cold he caught Easter weekend and we had just finished up the antibiotic his doctor had prescribed for him. I immediately went into mom mode and spent the rest of the night trying to bring his fever down and comfort him. Unfortunately, my schedule was slammed at work and the two hygienists that we use as temps have moved so I had to go to work. Luckily, Stephen can take off whenever he needs to (I promise I won't complain when you work all kinds of crazy hours---at least for a while!). Stephen took Grant to the doctor yesterday morning and she prescribed a stronger antibiotic. He continued to have a fever ranging from 100.7-103.0 for the remainder of the day. Sometime in the middle of the night his fever broke! Yea! He is definitely feeling better except for the tummy upset caused by his medicine. Now if I could only catch up on all that sleep I lost!