Favorite time

This is one of my most favorite times of the day. The kids start settling down for night time and drink their milk together.

Cute little milk buddies. :)


This is another random pic I took earlier in the evening. Love the looks they are both giving their mommy. ha!

Ryane's 1st fishing trip

Ryane got a princess fishing pole from her Uncle Shawn for Easter. She has been practicing regularly her casting techniques in the yard so we thought it was time to head to a pond. We traveled down to my parents house/farm this past weekend. Grandpa took us all out to a pond and found the perfect spot! In no time, Ryane had caught 2 fish on her magical princess pole leaving everyone else speechless and perhaps a little jealous.... :) All in all, she reeled in 4 big fish. Such a good first trip for her. It ended up being perfect as we didn't go very long (especially for her 2 yr old attention span) and ended up bringing home 14 fish total.

Ryane's comment of the trip was when her daddy was talking about putting the fish on a stringer (as the bucket was filling up) and Ryane spoke up saying "I don't want to put them on my finger!"

Walking on Sunshine......

There are some things a picture can't show....so, we have another video. Grady officially took his first steps. He's been standing up for awhile now on his own and we have been completely unable to persuade him to take a step at all. In another attempt tonight, Grady took his very first step and then 4 more immediately following. He walked from me to his daddy---awwwwww. Here is a video of what is technically his 2nd time walking as we grabbed the camera. Excuse the videography a bit as I set the camera on the windowsill and let it run. :)

He struck again

Recognize what this is?

Maybe this will give you a better clue!


Yep--it was his diaper cover thrown down on the floor. I come into his room after his nap and see it along with his beloved Zebra on the floor. UGH! This makes the 3rd time he's taken off his diaper. The other two times it was a disposable and a different cloth one that both left him neky boy. Thankfully this time, he still had the diaper part on. SO, this boy will not be wearing just a diaper on his bottom during nap or bedtimes going forward.

Dr. Howe....paging Dr. Howe

I know the quality of this picture isn't great, but Ryane saw how much attention Grady was getting over the glasses, so she wanted a turn.

Nana Requested

So, the kids' Nana, my MIL requested a couple prints awhile back to hang on the way. WELL, this made me realize that I haven't taken many pictures of Ryane for awhile that is all by herself, especially not since she has shorter hair now. She isn't the most cooperative either, so that makes me not want to try so hard. She does good at smiling, but is usually looking off somewhere else. :) Well, tonight, I asked her if she would take a picture for me for Nana and I got these two cuties:

Grady 11 month birthday

My little man is 11 months old already. Lately, he is really been into seeing what fits inside another object. He can set for 10 minutes straight just playing with his stacking cups, then eventually gets mad and frustraited when one doesn't fit right. When I go to get him milk - he'll take the lid of the sippy cup and try to put it on while I'm pouring the milk in as he knows that is where it goes. You can just see the gears moving in his head as he is figuring things out. We are working on the walking part, but Grady is not there quite yet. He can stand for looooonnngg periods of time, but just won't take that first step on his own. I'd love for him to be able to walk at least a little before we go to Sea World in TX in a couple of weeks. He'll be in a stroller and held plenty, I want him to be able to get out and stretch and move some too without having to put him down on the hot concrete. Grady has 5 teeth now and just this morning I see the gums are starting to split open for the 6th one to start coming through.

As always I took some photos of my little man. I've been looking forward to taking these for a couple of months. I love the simplicity of blue jeans, bare feet with a white backdrop.




playing around in photoshop more...I love how smooth and creamy his muscular body looks. :)

Now, are there any blog readers out there there don't have a facebook account? It's for me to know as I only know those who leave comments are the ones reading this. I've been doing facebook for some time now and really like it. I feel like I'm duplicating uploading pictures and sharing things about my family doing facebook and this blog. I'm considering dropping this blog. SO, if you have a strong opinion about it, let me know. Otherwise, I'll probably discontinue this blog after Grady's 1st birthday at the end of June and just update everything once on facebook.

FINALLY - a little help :)

Once she got her hands on a vacuum her size, there was no getting it away from her!

The customary baby pics

Everyone takes these pictures of their babies eating spaghetti. :) Grady does really good at feeding himself and will eat most things.

Little Helper

Matthew got his mustang delivered back to the house a few weeks ago. To make it a short story - the body shop has had it since last July and had barely gotten any work done on it. They had lots of excuses to share with Matthew each time he checked on it and perhaps a couple lies that Matthew caught them in. In short, we do not recommend Advance Auto Body to anyone. :)

Now for the fun part - since it's back in the garage, Matthew has his baby back to go out and tinker on. He also has a daughter that LOVES to be in the garage and tinker as well. So, out I went with the camera to find this.

Safety first I suppose....

I still can't believe he was letting her write on the car with a permanent marker. Yikes!

Onto using the tools

Daddy has a screwdriver so Ryane found hers to help out.

Where did my baby boy go?

Lately, it seems like Grady is growing up really fast. Where did my baby Grady go? I just look at him and see he is turning into a little boy now. I definitely think he acts older and is looking older. I'm sure the cute summer 'big boy' clothes help with the looking older. He is constantly on the move and is very very close to taking his first step on his own. One of his current favorite things is to be up on his head and feet. :) As if he is going to do a sommersault. I think he's been keeping a close eye on his sister's tricks. In some ways, it doesn't seem that long ago that I was still pregnant with him. Sure doesn't seem like I should be starting to plan his first birthday party already! I sure do love my little guy and can barely remember our family without him!!

Here are some snapshots I took yesterday that I think show how he is growing up.

Sibling Love

Short and SWEET! I'd just gotten done telling Grady no pulling hair. :)I'm loving it when the kids are loving and wrestling on their own. They do it frequently in the mornings; however, when I get to video camera out they usually stop and pay attention to what I'm doing--case in point:

Too raining

It's still morning here and Grady is down for his nap. I see that it started to rain, so I ask Ryane if she wants to take her umbrella out. Ryane loves her umbrella and is always asking to use it. Her umbrella is always on her mind. Just last week, she yells for me at 1:30am. I go into her room to hear her say "It's raining, I don't need my 'brella". Alright! Thanks for letting me know this as I was sleeping away. :) Back to this morning--we get her dressed in her lady bug rain jacket, get the crocs on, open the umbrella and out we went....




After she comes back up the stairs, this is about the time Ryane informs me "It's TOO RAINING!" So, back inside we came.

...but wait, I need one last picture first! :)

Now, I wonder how long this 'umbrella fix' will last her. I give her a good 4 hours. :)

sneak peak

We headed outside for Grady's 10 month photoshoot. Just thought I'd give you a quick sneak peak. I took plenty more, I just need to proof client's photos first. :)

Are they twins? :)

Aunt Sherry showed up with matching shirts for the boys this weekend. Totally unplanned, we both brought matching pants. I love how it all worked out. Who couldnt' resist a cute "twin" picture together. This is moving up to be one of my most favorites of Grady and Gavin together. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can even see Grady's one top tooth on his right.

Overalls

Grady finally had his first outside photoshoot. We visited the park on our trip to Wamego to get his first haircut. They have so many cote little photo places there. We'll definitely be going back in the future.

First haircut

Grady's 9 month Dr. appt.

I took Grady in for his big 9 month Dr. appointment yesterday. We went in early to change insurance information again. This poor kid has had 4 different insurance changes since he was born! Anyhow, back to the Dr. appointment. Grady tipped the scales at 20 pounds 2 ounces (45%) and measured 28.5 inches (62%) and his head continues to measure in the high percentages as it always has. Big brains take up lots of room! The Dr. said Grady is growing and developing nicely and right on track. Grady showed the nurse and Dr. plenty of his vocal skills while we were there with his high pitched squeels. After asking specifics questions on how much milk he should have and food at each meal, we were given the advice of cutting back on how much milk he drinks and make up the difference in food to help satisfy him. We were given the go ahead on the whole milk and table food that we've been giving him.

Grady is now beginning to clap; however, his hands still don't always connect. Pretty cute! We are slowly integrating the sippy cup. I don't think he gets that he has to tip it up all the time yet. He won't even do that with a bottle either if he's sitting up--frustraiting for me really! I'm still working with him on saying his sister's name, but we aren't there yet. A couple days ago, it sure sounded like he tried to say Zebra, which came out more like "Bra" as he grabbed his zebra lovie. So, for now, his vocab is Momma, Dada, Bye-Bye and maybe 'bra. :)

We have a singer! :)

The kids and I have now been to each weekly library storytime since I became a stay at home mom--which is almost 2 months. Today was the day Ryane broke out and started singing her heart out. Very entertaining to me! :) Each week, we sing the same 2-3 songs to start it off. This morning, Ryane was on top of things and singing away. Now, the more entertaining part of it is that she wasn't always right on time with her words, but the joy she put in them was making a few of us giggle. Best of all, we sat right next to the lady leading the songs and stories so it was like she was trying not to laugh too hard at Ryane and stay on track. You know how it is to keep a song going when a little kid seems to be doing everything to make it go at their pace. Ryane was my little singer today. I'm so happy when she is more outgoing. She sang like nobody else was in the room. :) Kinda like she does when she is "supposed" to be taking a nap or going to bed at night.

He's now MORE on the move

Grady amazes me at how quickly he is hitting some milestones. I thought perhaps since he was getting faster and faster with his furniture cruising, I'd see how he did walking behind a toy. He amazed me and did it the first time. Out came the video camera to capture his 3rd trip behind it. I think he looks so little behind the toy. It's like he's that little kid that is old enough to drive, but can't quite see over the steering wheel. :)

Grady - 9 Months Old

Life is flying by! I can't believe my little man is already 9 months old! Is he not the cutest boy EVER?! :) He is more active than ever. He pulls up on everything and is starting to furniture cruise slowly. He is also doing the cutest thing of setting back on his heals to play - so cute! Also, just today I saw him go from crawling back to the sitting position. He still only has 2 teeth. We saw one top one just about to break through last week and now it's gone. Guess the tooth felt it just wasn't time. We take Grady to the Dr. next week for his 9month checkup and we'll share stats then.

Now, I wanted to share pictures I took of the kids together. They both just got baths--hence, Ryane's hair is still pretty wet, but she INSISTED on pictures together. I should have known! I still think I got some keepers.