{twinkle twinkle} our little star...

Those of you with kids with winter birthdays get this, but planning a January birthday party is hard! I have been lucky with the other 2 kids having spring birthdays that we can have lots of friends at our house, throw the kids outside and enjoy. Having all those kids INSIDE our house is just not as easy. I looked into having it somewhere else, but it just wasn't my thing and didn't make sense to pay tons of money for something Grayson wouldn't even enjoy. But we needed to celebrate, I mean this kid needed a first birthday! So I decided at the last minute to do a brunch with just a couple of our close friends. I told everyone (and myself) that I was keeping it simple, which I did in my terms on that word. But I still had to make some fun stuff for my baby, you only turn one once right? I thought the star theme was really cute and it turned out to be really easy to execute... LOVE!

The party was perfect, low key, lots of food and catching up and laughing. And Grayson was a trooper, skipping his morning nap to participate. Saying he loved his cake is a bit of an understatement as you can see in the pictures below... So much fun... He went all in with frosting matted just about everywhere. But that's what you do on your first birthday right???

{one} year old...

Our sweet baby boy turned one years old last Friday... Words cannot express how quickly this past year has flown by. I am in awe that he is one, but at the same time I feel as though he has always been around, always part of our family... One is such a huge milestone in so many ways, one that is bittersweet for me though. I am thrilled to be done with the bottle and formula and this seems to be the transition out of the baby stage. I love that he is walking and can do things now, the sky is the limit when it gets warm out. But it is so sad to think this is our last first birthday, last bottle to give... Such is life, you must move one right? Enough of my babbling... Grayson had a fabulous day with our nanny and Chase and we ended the day with cupcakes and presents, sounds pretty good to me! He is in love with cake, or maybe just frosting, but he devoured his cupcake very quickly...

Happy Birthday Grayson James! I love you more than words can express and am truely blessed that you entered our lives one year ago... Here is to many many more birthdays!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas...

We are off tonight to drive 12 long hours to be with my family for Christmas and I couldn't be more excited. Granted I will be more excited once the packing and drive are over...The kids are SO excited about Christmas this year it is going to be so much fun. Plus our baby will be celebrating his first Christmas which is extra special...

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas!

{light} up my life...

These kids certainly do... I've been wanting to get pictures like this for years, everyone makes it look so easy on Pinterest but it is not. Some how this year they all humored me and to my surprise I used my normal setting on my camera and really I couldn't be happier...

PIcking out oh Christmas Tree 2012...

We went and got our Christmas Tree last weekend which is the official start of the Christmas season as far as I am concerned (the kids think it is the elf's arrival, they are usually close:)... We don't have the most exciting tradition of getting our tree but it is tradition just the same. We get in the truck, drive down the street and pick out a tree. I pretend that the kids get to pick it but it is really me who has the final say because it needs to be perfect right? And we did good this year just wait and see...

{ten} months old...

Here we are already, 10 months have flown by... He is fondly known as "wrecker crane" on our house, because he constantly wants to be part of the action and is known to crawl into say a train set up and knock the whole thing down. But that is one of the many things I love about him! You can tell he is the 3rd, he does not like to be left alone for fear he will miss out and absolutely loves his brother and sister (even though they are a little rough on him)... I am shocked that he is not walking yet, he is very sturdy on his feet and pushes anything he can find around the house (laundry basket, boxes, chairs, you name it). He still eats like a champ. I have been trying to feed him what Charlie and I eat for dinner and he usually loves it. His favorite has been hamburg soup, I think he had 5 helpings the other night! He finally got his 2nd tooth, which again doesn't seem to bother him with his eating but seems crazy he is this old with only 2 teeth... We found out some news this week about his poor ears. We took him to be re-checked for the ear infections he has had and found out they are still there in both ears. The poor kid :( The doctor mentioned we should probably take him to ENT doctor to see if they think he should get tubes. Not what we wanted to hear, but we also don't want him with ear infections all winter (it is only November/beginning of December!). So we will see how that goes... Until then we are preparing for this babies 1st Christmas and trying to figure out what to get the kid that has everything already... Wish us luck!

{nine} months old...

This is REALLY late but I wanted to do something quick for Grayson's 9 month post... We just had his 9 month check up yesterday due to re-scheduling several times to work within Charlie and I's work schedule, blah... So his stats are 23 lbs (just under 90th percentile) and I think we was 29" (it was 95th percentile). So he is smaller than Chase but still a big boy :) He did get his first tooth finally this month which is a big deal! I swear he has been teething forever. I'm shocked the other ones haven't popped thru yet, but I'm sure they will soon enough. And I'm sure he will smile when they do. This kid could not be any happier... We went in for his check up to discover that he had an ear infection in both ears (we think that one hadn't cleared from the week before) and was wheezing away and you would never know it other than him being a little clingy the past couple of days...

His 10 month birthday is next week so I will do a real post then...