Ok, so April has been here for 18 entire days and I am just getting around to blogging about it, but Ive only been delayed because we've been so busy having FUN that I cant possibly find the energy to upload pics, type it out, and have it all make sense :)
However, I LOVE looking back at the years past, so I know I will want to peek back at these happy moments someday, too.
And HAPPY moments, they are!!
Whitney was SO excited to start the month by opening her very first birthday gift of the year! THANK YOU, Aunt Carol and Uncle Joe, Christen, Chelsey, and Sean!
We celebrated some beautiful weather with some popsicles and a new "big kid" swing on the porch!
Eric had to test it out first :)
More on this later, but we gave Grady a trial run with some gluten and some dairy a few weeks ago. It was a no-go. He clearly didn't feel good and it wasn't worth risking another ear infection or foggy, groggy Grady, so we went back to gluten-free, dairy-free for the Dude. He finally snapped out of the gluten haze and was happy and bright-eyed and smiley again :)
Love these boys!
Grady kicked off the month with some practice wearing his '2' hat from Mac and Gramps!
And we were all SO excited when our new Disney Magic Bands arrived in the mail! We have FastPasses lined up and ready for us!
Grady has been a CHAMP, traveling (sometimes more than an hour away) to meet new doctors and specialists. He is happy and silly and willing to go with the flow, and that makes it all much easier to swallow. Though still not entirely my idea of "fun".
He is seriously my hero.
He's been having fun at Big Sister's soccer games every Saturday morning! He runs around, tries to get on the field, and is all boy!
Whitney's team continues to be undefeated! She likely doesn't have a big future as a star soccer player, but she doesn't hate it. Its good for her and shes proud of her teammates when they win!
She sure does look cute in that uniform :)
After her soccer game, we headed to the grand opening of the train station in the next town over.
Grady was awestruck :)
Whitney is the BEST big sister. She gets SO excited for Grady and the things that make him happy! She just kept asking him, "Bubba, are you SO excited?! Isnt this train awesome?!" It was like the Grady-version of meeting with the princesses for Whitney :)
Grady just kept saying, "Choo Choo! Train!" He thought it was pretty neat :)
In a few weeks, the SunRail will be officially up and running and we promised the kids we were go on a train ride!
And the second Grady gets his hands on my phone, he goes straight to the video we took that day of another Amtrak train flying through the station. He loooooves trains!
The day before, my mom and I visited a health food store and a bakery in an effort to find Grady some foods he would like and eat regularly. My mom made it feel like Christmas in April! She bought Grady fake "cheese" and yummy snacks and even a pizza he can have! The bakery is a great option for GBass, too! They have "gluten free Fridays", so he was able to get a yummy (no, really!) brownie!
When we got home from the train station, Grady was treated to a cheese quesadilla....and he LOVED it! Gobbled it up! It is always such a huge blessing when we find something he likes and that is safe for his diet. Its not cheap, but we are hopeful that things will become more affordable as gluten is quickly becoming an issue for so many in the country.
When Grady took a well-deserved nap, Whitney and I spent some time poolside. LOVE this little girl! I can NOT believe she is going to be FIVE in a few days!
Life is good. For sure.
That night, we headed over to my parents' house to watch the NCAA basketball championship. Whitney was excited to open another birthday card in the car on the way there! She is accumulating quite the stash of birthday and allowance cash, and she excited to spend it at Disney in the weeks ahead! Thank you, Greats!
These two had gigglefest at Mac and Gramps' house. I cant wait for G to start swim lessons, and to watch these two enjoy the pool this summer!
Both kids had the first ears of corn on the cob of the spring/summer season! Bathing suits, wet towels, Mac and Gramps' house, and corn on the cob....does it get better!?
The next morning, Eric ducked out early to go run yet another race. He is a machine! He called us at the end of the race and the kids were excited to facetime :)
Sillies!
That afternoon, I got to work at my sewing machine. Frozen shirts, birthday shirts, Disney shirts....it all had to get done at some point, so I had to ditch the beautiful weather outside to sit at the machine all afternoon. It was worth it though! I know the kids don't care. And I know, for sure, there are more important things in life. But I have always loved having personalized birthday shirts for Whitney through the years, and Ive carried on that tradition with Grady. I COULD have let it go this year, but I was determined. Besides, do you know how impossible it is to find ANY Frozen merchandise?! I knew that my Frozen-loving birthday girl wanted a Frozen shirt, and it wasn't gonna come off a rack. Three hours later...she has an Anna shirt :)
I made it outside to the join the fun when Grady woke up from his nap. LOVE the way these two laugh together!
So far, Grady has had a healthy fear of the pool. But as he watches his sister swim to the middle and retrieve toys, he is getting more interested in following. He starts swim lessons in a few weeks and I have to admit....I am scared. But hopeful.
Grady got a hair cut! I had to really talk to the barber and explain that I did NOT want him to the touch the top mop. I wanted the top to stay long. But I just wanted the back "cleaned up". The nice guy fought me on it, but eventually did just what I wanted. I think we have finally found a barber we can frequent. :)
Grady's speech is steadily making great gains. Nothing super clear or major, but a big deal to us. We have definitely learned to celebrate the milestones when they hit. One of my favorite things he's had mastered for a while is "more!"
Especially when he wants "More!" kisses from Mommy and Daddy!
A new development is the word "cheese!" For a kid who cant have cheese, he sure does know how to cheese it up for the camera!
He's such a happy Dude.
I am seriously one of the most blessed people on the planet. These two beautiful kids call me "mommy", and I get to snuggle and cuddle them, read to them, and pray with them. Bedtime prayers and books are a dream come true for me. These two little people are amazing!
Grady had his very first school pictures last week. Hilarious. He was sorta upset when I dropped him off that day, but when I picked him up, his awesome teacher said, "You are gonna have a HARD time choosing which pictures to buy!" Apparently he was a little ham, posing and crossing his legs and leaning on the chair and smiling for the photographer. Im SOOO excited to see how they turned out!
I feel like he's a mini Conan O'Brien!
We got a new card for our "real camera", so theoretically I should be uploading more "real camera" pics and fewer cell phone pics. Maybe. When I remember. It links directly from our camera to the internet. There really is no excuse....except that I forget. And my cell phone is like an appendage on my body, never to be forgotten.
But when I snap quick pics like this? Totally love the real camera.
At the beginning of this month, I took this little girl to (gulp) register for Kindergarten! I cant believe how quickly the last five years have flown by! They gave her a placement test and the teacher was nice enough to share her results with me. No shocker that this smartypants scored in "the high group" :) She had to identify shapes and colors and letters and numbers, and then she had to read sight words, and a short paragraph. She did a great job!
She is such a cool kid and I have a hard time imagining her in a big school with NINE Kindergarten classes. But I know she will do great and will love it!
Grady heard us talking about how smart his big sister is, and he wanted to look smart, too :)
Just to prove that he can score "in the high group" on tests, too, Grady aced his hearing tests last week! The ENT seemed to suggest that Grady would not be able to sit still and cooperate long enough for them to do the detailed testing, but the Dude rocked it! He sat still and quiet and responded to the sounds perfectly!
His tubes look like they are starting to emerge, so we are really hoping that he will be able to avoid ear infections when the tubes finally fall out.
We stopped by Mac and Gramps' house for a quick golf cart ride :) Grady's favorites.....
Gramps and the golf cart :)
Last weekend, we kicked off the birthday celebrations with a small party for Whitney's close girlfriends. I will post the cute pics in a little bit, but this was the end result as we drove out to see family 45 minutes away after the party. She was wiped out!
We got to go see Eric's brother's wife who was in town for the weekend for a mini-getaway before our new nephew arrives! It was great to see Aunt Tina, and we had fun watching the cousins interact and catching up with a few of the other siblings.
Grady got to know Buddy Dog while we were at Daniel and Crystal's house. I REALLY wish we could have another dog because I know Grady wont have any memories of Bailey, despite loving him while we was here. And he really loves dogs. :(
As soon as Grady is potty-trained, we are heading to the dog shelter for a pup!
Last weekend, our church did a really cool thing. They invited all married couples to renew their vows, to include their children. There was no child care or children's church for the service, so in an effort to avoid having "those kids" in the quiet church service, we called in the help of technology.
It was a nice ceremony and they had a professional photographer take family pictures, and then a nice wedding luncheon afterwards. It was a really nice thing to do, and a good reminder of the values and goals we have for our marriage and our family.
That afternoon, we got to enjoy another poolside afternoon as Eric put together the new pirate water table for the kids! THANK YOU, PAPA and MS. MARTHA!!
LOVE their bond. :)
Our pool has been a chilly 76 degrees for a few weeks. Eric did some research and found out that a "blanket" might raise the temp by 10 degrees. We were very excited when the temp went up 2 full degrees in less than 24 hours!
That night, we all headed to dinner with one of my favorite friends on the planet! "Aunt Deedeedee" was celebrating her birthday at our favorite Mexican place. Whitney was so excited! When she got dressed, I said, "Whitney, go look in the mirror. You look 17!" She rolled her eyes and said, "Really? Mommy? 17?"
Then she walked to the mirror and said, "Wow. Mommy youre right. I do look 17!"
We recently had fun planting some flowers in the front yard. Both kids enjoyed helping, and Whitney was VERY excited to hang out with some worms we found along the way :)
Grady helped mow the lawn...which is funny because Eric hired a lawn service to do our lawn a month before Grady was born two years ago. So Grady has never even seen Eric mow the lawn, but the Dude knows what to do :)
A worm and a snail! And the prettiest girl in the world :)
Then it was Whitney's turn for Picture Day at school :)
seriously, she is even more beautiful on the inside....and she's crazy beautiful on the outside!
Her teacher texted me this picture and I got tears in my eyes. I really, really feel like we JUST got in the car with an empty car seat, headed to the hospital to pick up a baby girl. She has made all of my dreams come true. She makes me SO proud every single day. Really, on a daily basis, she does something or says something that makes me stop and think, "Wow. This kid is awesome."
"Horsey rides" on Daddy's legs before bed = the best.
And on Thursday at school, I dropped off a four-year-old and a one-year-old for the last time. Sniff, sniff. Next week I will officially drop off five-year-old!! and a two-year-old!! :(
The best.
Today, at 9:48am, Grady turned two years old! Tomorrow is Easter! And Monday, Whitney turns five! We have a busy couple of days but I am hoping to blog the cuteness of the birthday kids in the next few days so I can update with Disney stuff soon!
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