This morning Grant and Stephen were playing around on the bed. Stephen had his glasses on, which is not a common sight around here. Grant thought they were funny and wanted to play with them. I hope these aren't in his future! (maybe he inherited my good vision---not his daddy's!)

I went shopping today at the outlet mall. Grant was in desperate need of new shoes. We had his foot measured and his new size is a 6 1/2 XW!!!!! I think his nickname should be Bigfoot. Thank goodness for the Stride Rite outlet. I can't imagine having to pay full price for his shoes every two months.

I also got him some cute jon jon outfits at the Strasburg store. They were having their Labor Day sale and the clearance items were an extra 30% off. Unfortunately, the store is closing in St. Augustine this week! Too bad I don't know if the next baby is going to be a girl! I could have done some major shopping in there!

Over all, this weekend has been productive. Stephen has been able to work on the front porch some more. Hopefully, it will be finished in a month.

Sippy Cups!

As Grant is approaching his first birthday, I am trying to get him to use a "sippy cup." It isn't going as planned. As you can see from the picture, I have purchased a wide variety of cups hoping to find one that works for him. Unfortunately, he does not like any of them! I began giving him a sippy cup with his meal a few months ago. I showed him how to hold it in order to drink from it. He has been unsuccessful. I have even tried taking the no spill valve out of the cup so that he will realize that he can get something to drink out of the cup. So far, no luck! He is simply not interested. He does prefer to drink out of a cup the same way we do---no lid, no straw, no "no spill" contraption. He is mastering this skill fairly well. However, it is not convenient do to the potential mess it can make and it doesn't travel well. I know that he won't be drinking from a bottle forever, but I would prefer sooner than later!

Enough is Enough!

This was the scene in our house last night. Grant, in the bath tub, with his most favorite thing in the world...a balloon. I let him take it into the tub thinking that as soon as he saw his bath toys he'd forget about it and play in the water. However, Grant was not giving up that easy. I took a quick snapshot before I took it away from my screaming baby. He is very stubborn! I was trying to wrangle Grant back into a sitting position in the bath tub as he was stomping his feet and arching his back. I finally got him seated and gave him his bath. He began to play and forget all about the beloved balloon. Apparently, Hunter had had enough of the balloon toting because he ever so quietly snuck into the bathroom and stole the balloon. I heard him wrestling around with something in the living room when it dawned on me...."Hunter has the balloon." I called to Stephen to rescue the balloon, but it was too late. Hunter had popped it and was pretty proud of his accomplishment. Stephen threw the balloon away and that was the end of Grant's balloon.

One Boy's Balloon

This morning I was switching out the laundry when Grant became hysterical. He was crying uncontrollably. I could not figure out what was wrong with him. He had just finished breakfast, so he couldn't be hungry. He wasn't dirty. He wasn't hurt from what I could tell. It was too early for nap time! I took Grant (still crying) and the laundry to our room to fold the clothes. He kept on and on, so I opened the bedroom door and let him go. (I had closed it to keep an eye on my little guy. He's fast!) He continued fussing. After I had finished putting the clothes away I went out to get him. He was sitting on the floor in the kitchen crying and looking at the ceiling. I looked up and realized what it was. When I went to the baby shower a couple of weeks ago, they gave Grant a balloon. We played with it that day and ever since it has been tied to a kitchen cabinet. Well, it caught his eye today and he wanted it bad! I reached up and retrieved the balloon. Grant stopped crying immediately! All of the for a balloon. He played with the balloon for the next hour or so. Of course, for those of you concerned about choking hazards, I was there with him. He was supervised. As you can see in the picture above he did not even let go of the balloon for his bottle. I had to take it away when it was nap time. He wasn't too happy about it, but he was so tired that he fell asleep quickly. He is up from his nap, but he hasn't remembered his balloon yet!

Like Father, Like Son

It's been a crazy weekend here at our house. We were extremely busy. It started out with a devotional at Jon and Amy's Friday night. We do them every Friday night and I have enjoyed the chance to get together and study God's Word with my friends.

Saturday our church had VBS. It isn't like the traditional VBS that we had growing up. I miss those days! For the past few years our church has done a Super Saturday VBS. Stephen and I were "shepherds" for the 3-4 year old class. The kids go from room to room viewing a puppet show and doing a craft that pertains to the lesson taught in the show. In theory this could work, but it is my experience that the kids really don't get much out of the day. The puppet shows, although well written, were geared for a much older audience, say 4th grade and up. My 3-4 years olds just looked ahead in confusion. The skits were based on the parables of the prodigal son, the great supper, and pearl of great price. After talking with several people that organized the VBS, it looks like we are going to aim for a traditional VBS next year that is Sun-Wed. I am excited about this and can't wait to plan it. Several of us have realized that it is up to us to make the program good for our children. We just can't sit back and complain about it. It's time for our generation to step up and take an active role in the Church. It's very important.

After coming home Saturday I guess it took a lot out of me. I was VERY sick all night and I had a migraine on top of that.

Sunday, I felt much better! Our life group had fellowship after church. Then Stephen, Grant and I went to visit one of the shut-ins at our church. It had been a while since we had visited her. (She hadn't even seen Grant before--that's how long it had been!) We always enjoy visiting her after we have been. She really enjoyed to playing with Grant!

After church Sunday evening we stayed after to sing with the youth group. They are trying to learn some new songs. We had a good time. We finished up with dinner at Mac Alister's Deli. Whew!!!! What a busy weekend!

The picture above is of Grant playing on a spare keyboard while Stephen worked on a friend's computer for him. Grant took the keyboard into the living room and stashed it with his toys. Why do we buy him toys?

Flashback!

Grant in his cradle "Old Papa" made for him.

Grant the day he was born.

Tomorrow Grant will be eleven months old. Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday he was a tiny newborn baby. I thought I would share some sweet pictures of our Grant during his first few days of life.

Some Fun Pictures

Sweet Baby Boy!

Grant running around the house last night!

Aren't those size 5xw cute?

Hunter got in on the action too!

Cravings vs. Aversions

I can honestly say that I did not have any cravings when I was pregnant with Grant. I could barely eat, that was hard enough for me. This go round I seem to have developed a liking to apple juice. I can't get enough of it. I can drink two bottles of Mott's Apple juice in 2-3 days. I never really drank it before I was pregnant.

On the other hand, I had an aversion to meat with my last pregnancy For some unknown reason I couldn't stomach the stuff. This was hard on Stephen because I couldn't even cook it. Well, it seems the meat aversion has returned. I can handle ground beef mixed in a meal (for example--tacos or spaghetti). I think it is the texture not the taste that gets me. I know that it will fade away after the baby comes and I can once again enjoy a good steak. So for now I apologize to my husband for the lack of variety in our diet.

Here We Go Again!

Yes, we are expecting again! Stephen and I decided that it is time to finally put our news in writing. We are due February 29th, 2008----leap year! We didn't want to share our news until we were sure that everything was going to be OK. For those of you who don't know I miscarried our first baby at 12 weeks. We had struggled for over a year to get pregnant and then lost the baby. Fortunately, we conceived Grant the month the doctor cleared us to try again. So you can imagine our surprise when we got pregnant this time. We were shocked, but extremely happy. We love being parents and we can't wait for the next one.

I was extremely sick with Grant I would throw up 4-5 times a day. I was losing weight and unable to eat when my doctor finally put me on Zofran (the wonder drug). This time I got a script from the get go. I am still sick, but not nearly as bad as I was with Grant. Now I just throw up 4-5 times a week. Life is much better. Pregnancy is different when you already have a little one running around at home. I am so tired, but I don't get to sleep much between work and running after my ten month old. (who still wakes me up several times a night).

I went to the doctor yesterday and we were able to hear the heartbeat. I was surprised and Dr. Powers was too. Neither of us thought we would pick it up this early. It was honestly a relief. So, things are looking good. We will have our next ultrasound at 16 weeks, so mid September we should know what we are having. I will keep you all posted as things move along!

The Finished Product

Well, as you can see I ended up not putting a ribbon on the diaper bag. My original design was to line the bag with the striped fabric and the outside was going to be solid green with pink and white polka dot ribbon. The fabric matched pretty well in the store, but when I got home the greens did not go together at all! So... this is the result. I ended up lining the bag with a light green cotton. It still turned out cute. I was satisfied with it.

Diaper Bag Dilema

I know I keep saying that I am going to get better at posting on my blog, but I just can't seem to find the time. We have had a busy week. Stephen has been swamped with work more than usual this week (can you believe that?). I didn't get home from work this evening until 7 pm. I hate Thursdays because it's the one night we work late. Tonight Stephen graciously came by the office and worked on all of the computers. We have expanded the office and with that comes more computers. (For those of you who do not know I am a dental hygienist---so I work in a dental office.) The practice is growing by leaps and bounds which is great! On the other hand, we are super busy.

After I had dinner, which Stephen's mom so graciously had waiting for me (Thank you, thank you, thank you!) I took Grant home. He was so tired that after his bath and bottle he had no trouble going to sleep. Stephen was still at the office so I decided to work on a diaper bag I am making for Stephen's cousin. Her baby shower is Saturday! I have procrastinated once again. I am at a stopping point because I can't decide whether to trim it with ribbon or not, and if I choose ribbon should it be solid or polka dots? So instead of making that tough decision I am writing on my blog. I am running out of time. Nevertheless, I will finish it on time. I will post a picture of my creation after the shower.

Well, Stephen just got home. I will post more on the diaper bag later. Stayed tuned!

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!