An Update

Grant: attached to me!!!!

Grant smiling for the camera!

What a busy week! I have finally found the time (and energy) to sit down and post on my blog. We had a great time Tuesday evening with Brian's youth group out at our house. I think we ended up with about 60 people here. The kids were great as always and I am glad to provide a place for them to hang out, play some football and volleyball and fellowship with each other. We have enjoyed seeing Brian and the kids this week.

These are a few pictures I have taken recently. The first picture is Grant holding onto my legs. This is what he does at night when I come home from work. I can hardly get anything done because he wants his mama to hold him. It's very sweet, even though I can't move. The second picture is Grant in his rocking chair. He's smiling for the camera. We are going to give the chair a new coat of paint and put in on the front porch with our rocking chairs when Stephen finishes it.

Well I hear Grant fussing about something. I better go and check on him. More to come.

More to Come

I know I haven't kept up with the blog lately, but I have been extremely busy. I am cleaning house tonight in preparation for Brian to bring his youth group out tomorrow. I promise I will post some new pics soon!

Walking Me Ragged

We have been very busy this week at our house. Grant is walking up a storm. He goes no stop until its time to go to bed. It's very exhausting to me. Gone are the days when he would just sit and play with his toys. Oh well...it's a new chapter in his life!

We are preparing for Brian and Liz to visit next week. He is bringing his youth group down to Jacksonville to help out with a VBS at Dean Road. He is bringing the kids out Tuesday evening for hamburgers and hot dogs. This kids enjoy "coming out to the country" and playing football and volleyball. We enjoyed having them last year. We are hoping that it doesn't rain them out.

Weekend Update

The Boys: Joe and Grant

We had a very busy week! I know I have not posted anymore pictures from the beach, but I think I have solved the photo upload problem. Unfortunately for me it involves another step to re-size each picture before I upload it to my blog.

Yesterday we went over to my Uncle Tony's house for a low country boil. My cousin Kristin, her husband Neil, and their adorable baby boy Joe were there for a visit. It has been a long time since I have seen Kristin. We had such a good time I wish we could have stayed longer! We enjoyed visiting with them and letting the boys play. Hopefully we will be able to keep in touch and the boys will get to know each other.

Some More Beach Pictures

I will continue to try, try again to upload some family photos. This adorable picture of Luke took me 20 minutes to upload onto my site. I attempted to upload this picture 4 times before it worked! I keep getting the error message: "Could not connect to Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail." Does anyone else have this problem?

More Beach Pictures

One tired baby boy!

Grant and his Mama

I have had problems uploading pictures onto Blogger recently. Has anyone else had trouble posting? I planned on posting 7 photos, but it has taken 30 minutes to post the two on the page. I am sorry for the delay and I will continue to try later.

We had a laid back forth of July this year. We had lunch with Stephen's family and went to church last night. We saw a few fireworks that our neighbors were setting off. We brought Grant out side to see the fireworks, but he did not pay attention to them. He was not impressed. That's about it. I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July!

Has This Ever Happened to You?

Grant had a very funny episode this evening at church. After services Grant was parading around in the foyer showing off his walking skills when his diaper fell out the bottom of his pants! I am not sure how it happened, his outfit was snapped at the crotch. He just kept on walking. I quickly scooped him up and stashed the diaper in the diaper bag hoping that no one saw him. I then carried him commando to the nursery to quickly put a new diaper on him. Luckily I arrived dry and disaster was avoided! We couldn't help but laugh!

We arrived home from vacation yesterday just in time to change clothes and head into Jacksonville for Stephen's ten year reunion. It was nice. We got to see a few friends that we hadn't seen in a while and catch up on each other's lives. Everyone seemed to be very happy!

Today we have rushed around trying to complete shopping lists, mounds of laundry and lost hours of sleep! We almost need a few extra days to recover from all of the fun we had on our trip. Unfortnately its back to the daily routine tomorrow! I will post more pictures from our trip throughout the week.

Friday: Day 6 at the Beach

Family picture taken last night

Check out those little footprints!

Today was our last full day at the beach. Tomorrow morning we will head home. We have had a great time swimming, playing, soaking up the sun, and making memories. After spending the morning on the beach, we took it easy today and let the kids rest a little while we played cards. We haven't been able to play cards as much as we normally do for some reason. Now we are packing up our condo preparing to return home. We can't wait until next year!

By the way, check out Liz's blog. I inspired her to start her on blog about their family. It is such a great way to keep in touch with what is going on in each others lives.

Thursday: Day 5 at the Beach

Grant LOVES the Beach!

Grant did not want to pose for a picture!

Four Generations

Grant and Mama enjoying the surf!

We are having a great time this week. We spend most mornings at the beach. We have discovered that we can rock Grant to sleep in the waves. He has taken a nap every morning under Papa's tent. Yesterday, Stephen and I took the kayak out for a while during Grant's nap. It is truly beautiful here. I can't imagine a better place for the family to get together and relax. After the kids wake up from their afternoon naps we take the kids down to the pool to swim. The weather has been nice with only a few thunderstorms so we have spent a lot of time in the sun. Grant even has a tan line now. (Although his cousin James has him beat!) After putting the youngest ones to bed we like to play cards. However, I fell asleep last night trying to get Grant to sleep and I missed out on a good game of Texas Hold'em. I plan on staying up tonight!

Tuesday: Day 3 at the Beach

Family Picture 2007

Sandman!

Walking with Daddy

Grant napping on the beach.

We had a very busy day yesterday. Stephen, Grant and I went down to the beach early in the morning for a walk. the family spent the morning at the beach. We rented a kayak for the next 2 days. Stephen and I went out in it and we came close to some dolphins. Grant LOVES the water. Uncle Steve, Klara and Kristyne joined us at the beach and Granny Field and John came as well. We grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. We took family pictures in the evening which is always a little hectic. After dinner the grandparents watched the grand kids so we could go to dinner with Brian, Liz, Melissa and Chris. We went to Hard Rock Cafe. We are having a good time and I hope to get more pictures tomorrow

Monday: Day 2 at the Beach

Thank you Stephen for the guest post last night. I was exhausted! Here are a few pictures from the beach today. Grant loves the water!!!! We went shopping this morning and spent time on the beach this afternoon. Grant is cutting four teeth this week so he has had sort of a rough time. I will post more tomorrow!

Stephen Posting Day1 at Beach

I am posting for the first time just because Leslie is exhausted and is asleep with Grant. Everyone made it here safely and we have had a great time so far and we all are looking forward to the next few days. Grant enjoyed the beach today and at first was okay with the surf but then decided that the constant breaking waves was a little too much. He was fine going deeper (Leslie or me holding him of course) splashing, smiling, and the wonderful taste of salt water in the mouth. After lunch we went to the pool where Grant enjoyed riding in his car float. He chilled with one arm positioned where a window would be and one hand on the steering wheel. My brother and his wife, Karen, came so Tim and myself enjoyed an afternoon of snorkeling in which found many hermit crabs, fish, sea snails (At least that is what we called them), and sand dollars. I am sure that Leslie will post from now on and continue to add more pictures.

9 Month Check-up

Grant had his nine month check up today. He weighed in at 24 lbs and 30 inches long! He has dropped to the 90th percentile for weight ans is still in the 95th percentile for height. He walked right over to Dr. Garrett when she came in the room. His walking skills are improving day by day and I am sure he will be running in no time! He seems to be right on track developmentally!

We are packing up the house (or at least it feels like it) because we are leaving for are vacation tomorrow! We can't wait to see Aunt Melissa, Uncle Chris, Brandon, Matthew, Uncle Brian, Aunt Liz, James, Anna, and Luke. We are going to have a full house! I have packed six decks of playing cards and I am looking forward to many games of Nertz and Up and Down!

I plan on posting pictures daily from the beach so check back throughout the week.

Just a Few Minutes Ago...

Grant had his first taste a black beans. He seemed to like them. He is beginning to want to eat what we eat instead of his baby food. The only problem is he only has two bottom teeth! I think this is the messiest he has ever been.

Random Pictures

We are busily getting ready to leave for vacation this weekend. We can't wait to see everybody!

Happy Fahter's Day

Me and my daddy on Father's Day!

Good boy Hunter!

Grant showing off his walking shoes!

Smiling for daddy!

We hope everyone had a great Father's day. We had a busy weekend, but I will post more later.

1 Week to Go!

One more week until vacation! We can't wait!

Grant's "Walker"

Grant is walking some, but he is not steady enough to travel the house just yet. However, he uses his "walker", as we call it, to maneuver just about anywhere.

We bought this for Grant a few months ago. Stephen was a little perplexed that it has pink and purple wheels. I am sure Grant doesn't care. It was the only toy the store had like this at the time and I showed it to Stephen in the store and he gave it an OK. Grant enjoys walking around with it and it converts to a ride on toy as well.

Pictures

This is Grant walking!!! more to come....

We Can Walk!!!

I know I know I just posted that Grant officially began crawling, but he has been taking steps by himself all day today. Grant has been able to pull up and cruise around the coffee table, end tables, entertainment center, and couch for a few months now. We knew it would just be a matter of time and he would be walking. This morning Grant was doing circles around the coffee table when he just let go and kept walking straight to me. He probably took five or six steps before I picked him up. He probably would have gone further, but I got too excited and picked him and hugged him. Stephen was next door working on his parents' computer. I called him immediately with the news, but I told him not to get too excited I wanted Grant to do it again. My mom came over shortly after Grant's first steps to pick Grant up today. She watched him for us while we went to the movies. (Pirates of the Caribbean---the first movie we have gone to since Grant was born) He walked to her while she was still at our house! Then she said he walked for Papa while we were at the movies. He has been walking some more tonight. Of course he isn't good enough to walk clear across the room yet, but give him a week or two.

I am going to try to captue him walking in a picture tonight.