First Sleepover

Last week during our week of ER visits Grayson was well take care of by our friends.  In fact he had his first sleepover.  During our time at the hospital Kim would send me pictures via text of what Grayson was doing.  I love that she does this for me.  It eases my mind and I have a feeling that all is okay.  We greatly appreciate our friends Kim, Brad, Kendall, and Kelsey for taking great care of Grayson last week.  He is so loved by each of you...just like he belongs in your family. 

Here are the pictures from his stay!  The first set of pictures are from August 23rd, 2011.  Which was the night he had his first sleepover!

 Grayson slept all night and did great!  We are so proud of him!

Grayson eating dinner with Kelsey on our second trip to the ER, August 25th, 2011... 



Thank you for your prayers!  Chad is doing better and now armed with new antibiotics again he is starting to heal.  We are hoping that by the weekend he will feel 100% better. 

I didn't think that this would be the way he would have his first sleepover, but we are so blessed to have many friends that will help take care of our little guy! 

Thanks again Kim and Brad!

15 Months

I hate that I am several days/weeks behind on doing Grayson's 15 month post, but life happens.  I just finished taking his pictures yesterday.  It was difficult taking pictures because Grayson was more interested in taking the sticker off.  Note to self, put sticker on his shirt before putting it on Grayson. 

Highlights at 15 Months Old:

Grayson your personality is showing and shining through each day!  You have a LOVE for climbing.  You climb on your turtle in your playroom, your coupe truck, and your Grayson chair.  You also love standing on the couch or our bed and running around.  I have taught you how to get off the bed and couch by sliding on your belly and you do very well. 

You communicate to use by pointing and screaming or talking loudly at us for what you want.  Sometimes you also start crying and laying on your belly and putting your head on the ground.  I try not to give into you during these fits as I don't want you to think this is the way to get what you want. 

You finally call me Mama.  Instead of Dada! 

I LOVE IT!

Your favorite movie is still Finding Nemo and you love reading books! 

Mornings:  you wake up each morning between 6:30AM or 7:30AM.  We usually go to our room and watch cartoons and snuggle for 30 minutes.  During this time you have your morning milk.  We have breakfast around 8AM and we are off to school around 8:30AM during the work week. 

Bedtime:  now that you take a nap at school you are ready to go to bed between 6:30PM or 7PM.  You have milk before bed and we read books.  You drink your milk and than we put you in your crib and you either fall asleep quickly or you play for a little bit before you fall asleep.  I am so happy and blessed that you do not fight bedtime with mommy or daddy.  You sleep 12 hours each night!

Meals/Solids:  You LOVE food.  In your new classroom you have moved from a highchair to sitting at a table with a chair.  Your teachers say that you do GREAT.  You really are not picky when it comes to food.  You won't eat chicken or any other meat at home, but your teachers say that you eat it at school.  Your favorite fruit is blueberries, your favorite food is spaghetti, and you only drink milk or water. 

Developmental Milestones & Firsts:  You say mama and know that mama is me.  It is so cute.  You know who Bella is and you say Bella.  When you are hungry and I show you what you are going to eat you rub your belly with your hands.  You wave and say Bye!  Also when you wave you walk to the back door like you are ready to go!  You can blow bubbles in the bathtub.   

Learning:  You are doing great with putting your shape blocks in the correct spot.  We are also working on puzzles.  You love to dump them out and I try to get you to put them in the correct spot, but you usually just watch me do it!  You are also doing great at listening and learning about things we say to you.  For example if I say let's go take a bath you know what I am saying and you run to the bathroom.  Or when I say let's go outside or go to school you run to the door to outside.  And finally when I say it is time to go to bed you walk with me to your room.

Favorite Toys:  Reading books and playing with your plastic balls in your turtle pit. 

Sizes:  You are wearing size 12-18 month clothes, size 4 diaper, and size 5 shoe. 
Weight - 21 pounds 2.5 ounces
Height - 29.25 inches 

Loves:  You have a strange love for lotion.  You love to carry the bottle around the house.  You also like to lick my hand when I put lotion on your face.  I think this is just a phase...

You also still LOVE your paci wubbaNubs.  

We are still going through separation anxiety.  You hang onto my leg or neck and it is very difficult to get you to let go.  At school the teachers help by getting you to come play with them.  At church we have a few tears, but shortly after I leave you stop crying.

You still LOVE water!  You are our water baby!  If you see water you want in it and if you can't get in you through a fit. 

Happy 15 Month Birthday Grayson.  We love you and you amaze your mommy and daddy each day.  I could write and write about you all day long.  I look forward to watching you continue to grow and change each day!

Hi

Not sure what to title this post since I haven't blogged in two weeks.  YIKES!  So I will just title it HI and say...

HI TO ALL OF YOU!

I hate that I haven't blogged, but I really haven't had much time too.  We have had a lot going on and by the end of the day I just want to go to bed.  So I do!  Grayson is SO BUSY!  He keeps me going all day! 

With that I will highlight a few things:

Over the past two weeks Grayson started a new class room at school and even though we had a rough few days at the beginning, which in fact brought on another classroom change.  We love Grayson's new teachers!  They are wonderful in just the few weeks we have been going to this class.  I am HAPPY to report that in his NEW classroom that he NOW takes a 1 to 2 hour nap each day!  This is an amazing blessing to me!  I now have a happy toddler when we go home each day and we get to play and enjoy the afternoon together before bedtime! 

The only other news that has kept me away from blogging is Chad has been and is still really sick.  I haven't said much on here, twitter, or Facebook.  I just ask that you keep him in your prayers.  We really hope that he starts feeling better this week.  Having a sick husband is tough and I really want him back to 100% soon.  Thanks for your prayers!

I hope that this week is a better blogging week for me and that you will continue to read.  I have kept up with many blogs by reading on my iPhone while I snuggle with Grayson in the morning or when Grayson is napping during the weekend.  Other than that I am busy keeping up with the house, taking care of and playing with Grayson, caring for Chad when needed, and of course working.  It has been a crazy few weeks, but I hope over the next few weeks all will be calm.  Wishful thinking I know!

I would like to end this post with telling all of you that I am so ready for the FALL.  We are suppose to have high temps again this week.  Yuck! 

I finally took Grayson's 15 month pictures so I will have that post up soon!  Hoping for tomorrow. 

Happy Monday!

free falling friends

Our Weekend was SO BUSY...

but first here is an adorable picture of Grayson with his buddy Kelsey!  They are watching toy story together.  Kelsey just adores playing with Grayson and I think Grayson feels the same way! {this was on Friday night}

It started early on Saturday morning! 

Chad and his buddy Brad went SKYDIVING!  Yes you are reading this correctly they went SKYDIVING!  Chad agreed to do this with his friend for his 40th birthday.  He was nervous and ended up going first because he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do it if he didn't go first! 

What a great buddy Chad is for doing this... next year on Chad's 40th Birthday he has decided that Brad will have to run a full marathon with him.  We will see if that happens! 

Here are a few pictures!

Chad said it was a great time, but he would NEVER do it again!

The moment Grayson got in the car he was sleeping... it was a long morning outside playing with friends! 

He got a short nap before we went to lunch with everyone that was at the skydiving event! 

I love this picture of Grayson sitting at the kids table! 

 We quick ran a few errands before we headed to Grayson's school to meet his new teachers!  We were briefly there and took no pictures.  We wanted to run home to get Grayson to take a nap before we had to go to a birthday party.

It was a swim party and Grayson loved every moment!

Grayson was asleep minutes after we left the party! 

Our Sunday consisted of going to church and attending the BIG 40th Birthday Party for Brad!

I took this picture of Grayson at church.  He was more interested in the doors than anything else that day. 

I didn't get any pictures at the party because I was so TIRED and busy running around after Grayson! 

Our afternoon was spent at the house relaxing! 

That was a brief summary of our weekend!

a walk

a walk down memory lane

grayson and mommy just a few days old

2 months old grayson and mommy

4 months old grayson and mommy

6 months old grayson and mommy

8 months old grayson and mommy

 10 months grayson and mommy

12 months grayson and mommy

14 months grayson and mommy

I was inspired to do this post to share moments I have had with grayson over the past 14 months.  Each picture is a sweet moment that we had together just the two of us! 

Capture these moments I hope to be better at capturing more moments together as I feel I am the one always taking pictures.  So if you are a new mommmy take the moment to have a picture with your little one you won't regret it! 

Happy Wednesday!  

airplanes

Yes we have been home from our trip for about two weeks, but I wanted to take the time to document Grayson's 1st Plane Ride!

Now that Grayson is FINALLY feeling better I am playing catch up with everything! 

Grayson's 1st plane ride was on July 23rd, 2011 to go to Montana!

Here is our big guy waiting for our plane to arrive so we could get going!

finally on the plane first stop Chicago Airport

I was really nervous about how Grayson would do with the pressure and his ears so between the paci and the bottle of milk I had ready he did GREAT taking off.  He slept about 30 minutes of the first flight and than he woke up.  So glad he LOVES watching Finding Nemo I was able to entertain him with Finding Nemo and also a sucker before we landed in Chicago!

once we arrived in Chicago we were delayed for about an hour or so before leaving to our final destination Montana. 

We did a lot of walking around the airport, chasing after Grayson, and playing with new things around the airport.

the second flight was horrible!  Grayson was extremely tired did not want to sleep on me...he wanted his own space.  About 30 minutes remaining in the flight Grayson finally fell asleep.  Than we started descending to land at the airport and Grayson woke up and screamed for what seemed like FOREVER.  We didn't arrive in Montana until midnight I was tired, Grayson was tired, and Chad was just glad to be off the plane!  When we met up with my sister and mom I decided that flying was not fun with a 14 month old.  After our first flying trip I was not looking forward to the flight back home in 5 days. 

However MUCH to my surprise GRAYSON did wonderful on the way home! 

Here he is at the Montana airport playing

He slept the entire 1st flight. 

once we arrived in Denver we had a 3 hour layover so we enjoyed lunch with my sister Meahgen before she left too for her trip back to Hawaii. 

Meahgen gave Grayson her pickle and he LOVED IT!

we let Grayson walk around every where at the Denver airport so on the last flight home he would sleep again!

and we got lucky he slept again...

so the flight home was 100% better than the flight to Montana!

I would also like to mention that all and all Grayson was a trooper given the fact that the morning we left until this past weekend he was sick with Rotavirus!  15 days of that nasty stuff! 

I am so glad Grayson is FINALLY better!

What I learned on our first flight

~ bring a sippy cup or bottle with water or milk

~ suckers are a lifesaver

~ paci works great when taking off and landing

~ bring books

~ load iPad with Grayson's favorite movie

~ if sits are empty on the plane and you don't have kids, but are sitting next to a family that does offer to move so they can have the three seats.  That would have been nice if that happened, but it didn't! 

Our GO to Recipe

Welcome to the "Go To Recipe" Link Party!

I suggested sharing our GO TO Recipe ideas with one another and at the end of this post will be a link tool that you can add your recipe to share with all!  When you enter your title please remember to say what the recipe is so it can give each reader an idea of what you are going to share on your blog.  Also PLEASE list the POST in your blog address so when people go to your link that it takes it to the Recipe Idea. 

Now for "OUR" go to recipe idea:

Thai Chicken Pizza

I got this idea from my friend and we love it!  It includes Peanut Butter and is a different taste so you might not like it.  But if you like peanut butter I say give it a try. 

Ingredients

1 pizza dough, any brand {I make our own pizza crust}

1/2 cup duck sauce or plum sauce {you can find this in the Asian Section at Walmart}

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 package (2 cups) shredded provolone or Monetary Jack cheese

1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 rounded tablespoonful peanut butter

2 teaspoons hot sauce

2 teaspoons grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning) eyeball it

4 chicken breast cutlets, 1/2 pound

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar

1/4 seedless cucumber, peeled and cut into matchsticks

4 scallions, chopped

1 cup bean spouts, a couple of handfuls

Palm full cilantro leaves, chopped

1/4 cup chopped peanuts, 2 ounces

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Form pizza crust on pizza pan or cookie sheet. Top with duck or plum sauce - spread it around like you would pizza sauce. Sprinkle the pizza with some crushed red pepper flakes then top with cheese and peppers. Bake until golden and bubbly, 15 to 17 minutes.

Preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Combine vegetable oil, soy sauce and peanut butter with hot sauce and grill seasoning. Use the microwave to loosen up peanut butter if it is too cold to blend into sauce, 10 seconds ought to do it. Add chicken and coat evenly with mixture. Let stand 10 minutes then grill chicken cutlets 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until firm. Slice chicken into very thin strips.

While chicken cooks, mix honey and vinegar and add the cucumber. Turn to coat evenly.

Top the hot, cooked pizza with chicken, scallions, sprouts and cilantro. Drain cucumbers and scatter over the pizza. Garnish pizza with peanuts, cut into 8 wedges and serve.

Take note I don't put the scallions, sprouts, or cucumbers on it...I don't like them.  So you can top as you want!

I hope you enjoy as much as WE do!

Looking forward to hearing all your GO to recipe ideas! 

This post will be up all day Thursday and Friday!