Great Holiday!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our long holiday weekend.

Ryane having fun with Papo.

I'm sure everyone ate wayyy tooo much turkey?!

Two smiling babies at their first Thanksgiving. :)

Grady - 5 Months Old

Look who is sitting up in time for his 5 month birthday!! Today is my little man's big day! We have been working with Grady on getting him to set up and yesterday he decided he was ready to go solo. I'm so proud of him. Once again, Grady has been busy doing new things. He now plays laying on his tummy reaching out for things and scooting himself in a circle. He has moved onto eating more food. So far, he's had banana, avacado and squash along with his usual cereal. His motor skills with his hands and arms are well developed. He can grab for what he sees in front of him perfectly. He even has that darn strong pincher grip down when it comes to grabbing/pinching my neck and trying to eat (alright, maybe kiss) my face. Love the little guy, but he can be pretty aggressive. So, if you see some WT hickies on my neck - those are from Grady's pinches. ouchy! Oh, and the drool is starting to just fall out of his mouth onto whomever or whatever is around. :)

These are Grady's 5mo. pictures we took last night. I think this first one shows Grady the best. With that ornery grin and his head slightly tipped down, so he's looking up at you. We joke that he likes to look at people through his eyebrows rather than lift up his head. Silly boy!

Get those toesies!

I go to change Grady's diaper and look what I saw for the first time yesterday!


Grady has officially learned to grab for his feet and toes. He was trying to bring them to his mouth, but he's not quite there yet. I just love it when babies learn this, so I'm pretty excited about this stage. Also when changing his diaper, he loves to get a death-grip on your arm and not let up. Makes more fun times trying to get a new diaper on with one hand, especially those cloth diapers.

Also, here's a picture I took yesterday of the kids together. I feel I need to get as many as possible while Grady is still relatively immobile and can't run from me. :)

Sick 1, sick 2, sick 3

Ryane's Dr. Suess' Cat in the Hat book with Thing 1 and Thing 2 makes me think of our home lately with Sick 1, Sick 2, and Sick 3. Ryane, Grady, and I have all three been sick with a cold. It started out with Ryane, then she shared it oh so kindly with Grady and I. This is Grady's first cold and it makes me sad to know he can't breathe that great and has a little cough. I am definitely not his friend when it comes to using the trusty blue nose sucker. Thankfully, Ryane is a good nose-blower.....well, since we have to do that every 5-10 minutes. A couple mornings ago she wakes me up at 5:45am yelling from her room "Tissue mommy, tissue". Poor girl! :(

I know it's that time of year and cold season is upon us, but I'm ready for spring already! Each time I start to think the kids have turned the corner and are getting better, they wake up the next morning all congested and coughing. Hopefully, everyone will have time to get better before all the Thanksgiving traveling.

Ryane has pets...

These are the perfect pets - they don't need house trained, you don't have to feed or water them, they don't shed, they always mind, perfect!



Ryane really loves playing with her play doh. These little containers are one of the best things she got while trick or treating. I made a kitty cat one time for Ryane, so that is all she asks for now. I can only make so many cats, so I've branched out and made horses and dogs as well. I need to think of more things for her, but my creativeness is gone when it comes to animals to shape and mold. Any ideas?

Friday night, we went to watch the ESU volleyball team become the MIAA champions. Even though I went to Emporia State, I had never been to an ESU volleyball game. So, it was Ryane's, Grady's and my first ESU volleyball game. Seamstress Nana sewed Ryane up the cutest little cheerleading costume and it was her first opportunity to wear it. She was just so darn cute wearing it and cheering on the hornets repeating "ESU, ESU, ESU!!" and shaking her pom-poms.

Picture after arriving before the game started.

I asked Ryane to smile and this is what I got...


Ryane is using Grady to practice her base skills for cheerleading stunts.

Proof that we were really at a volleyball game

All that cheering made her hungry. This little girl would only eat Raisins and popcorn if we'd allow it.

Love this picture

Just sharing a picture of my boy. I love it as you can tell he is really growing up. He was busy chewing on yet another toy and he looks like I was really interrupted his busy schedule.

Sibling Play

Ryane sure loves her little brother. She's really into talking to and playing with him now that's he is more interactive. It's so cute to watch them together - melts my heart everytime. Lately, Ryane has really been into having Grady ride her back as she pretends to be a horse.


Looks like Grady really got into the pretend play and found some reins! :) It's one of those situation that I don't really want Ryane to get hurt, but Grady does need to get some paybacks in.