Nine Years

Happy Anniversary to my love! Today we’ve been married nine years.j

It feels like a lifetime ago that we got married, and yet it hardly feels like it’s been nine years.

This man is my rock. My best friend. I love him with my whole entire being and love the life we’ve built together. He makes me laugh. He sometimes makes me cry. He drives me crazy. He knows what I need without telling him. He’s a fantastic partner. I truly couldn’t have hoped for a better husband.

Zach, I love you, and I love the life we are living together. Thank you for loving me at my best and at my worst. Thank you for being there for me no matter what and for sharing your heart with mine. I am so proud to be your wife – from the way you love our kids, to the way you serve at church and school, to the way you lead our family and the way you trust Jesus and remind me to do the same. Happy anniversary, babe – can’t wait for a hundred more!

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday Zach and I went to the kids’ school to have lunch with them for their family thanksgiving feast. Reed was so happy to have us there to eat with him.  When we walked past the drinks, he was so cute and held out his little hand and said, “Here are some tea and water if you want some.” Precious boy. Ava was excited, too.  

Reed has been practicing writing his name at school and we worked on it this weekend, too. He is so proud that he can write it and spell it.

Zach was gone most of the day Saturday. The kids and I had a quiet lazy day at home. I cleaned the house and while Grant took a nap, so did I!

Reed told his teacher last week he wished I would let him hold Grant more. He’s never really asked to hold him before so I told him to just ask me when he wanted to. Then he said he just wants to hold him alone. So we let him do that a little this weekend.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church. I wanted to run to Target afterward because I needed to look at a couple things. Reed went with me and I got him a hot chocolate at Starbucks. He was pretty excited! We had a good little time together.

I decided that since the house was in good shape, I wanted to go ahead and decorate for Christmas. I want to be able to enjoy my four days off without having much to do. I’m so glad it’s done and it didn’t really take all that long. I had a lot of extra help with the tree this year. :)

I am so grateful that this is a short work week. I can totally handle three days. I’m also thankful my work closes both Thursday and Friday! I’m looking forward to having an enjoyable and hopefully a little restful weekend!

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Grant!

My sweet baby boy. How in the world are you six months old? I feel like we just met you! 

And now here we are: you are half a year old! And you are wiggly so you are blurry! :) 

You have brought so much joy the last six months. It’s hard to remember what life was like without you. I always tell people you are my BABY. All of my kids are, but right now I’m just soaking up these special moments with you as my sweet little baby. The past six months have seriously FLOWN by. You’ve grown so much and are such a joy!

Here’s what you are up to at six months old!

• You just started sitting up!!!!!!  
• You still love your sleep. You typically go to bed between 7:00 and 7:30 and sleep until about 6:15 during the weekdays and about 7:00 on the weekends. Your naps are scattered, especially at school, but you usually take one long nap on the weekend.
• When you are ready for bed, we lay you down in your bed and you wiggle around and then suck on your fingers and go to sleep.
• You nurse in the morning when you wake up and at night before bed. During the week, you have three 5 oz bottles at school. You nurse and have an occasional bottle during the day on the weekends.
• We have tried giving you a few things of food, but you haven’t shown much interest. We’re slowly going to introduce foods to you.
• You wear a size 2 diaper and are wearing 6 and 9 month clothes.
• When you went to the doctor on Nov. 11, you weighed 17 lbs even. I can’t wait to see how long you are.
• You love to babble and are starting to make sounds that sound similar to words.
• You love to laugh and are extra smiley in the morning.
• You have started pushing yourself up and getting your chest off the floor. 
• You love laying on the floor and playing with a laptop toy that lights up.
• When you are laying on your tummy, you get excited and raise your legs and arms up in the air and your belly is the only thing touching the ground.
• You also still love to suck your middle three fingers. It’s how you soothe yourself and how you put yourself to sleep. However, you will not take a paci.
• You still need a nap some evenings when you come home from school.
• You love playing in your jumper.
• You give the biggest smiles when we pick you up from daycare.

My sweet little guy, words cannot express the love I have for you. I feel so blessed to be your mommy. My heart could absolutely burst from the happiness you bring. I am sad that you are growing up so very fast, but I am so proud to watch you grow and experience new things. You are a treasure, Grant Thomas!

Quiet week

I just don’t seem to have a lot to write about these days. We’re living life but things are pretty mundane for the moment. We don’t have a lot of “extras” going on currently so we’re just at home when not at school or work.

The kids are thriving at school and learning a lot. It’s amazing how Ava’s reading has taken off even more this year. And Reed? Well, he’s quite the casanova – or rockstar according to himself. Grant came home Tuesday evening just not himself and feeling bad again. He woke up in the middle of the night and wasn’t happy unless I was holding him, which is very unlike him. 

We took him to the doctor on Wednesday for his first sick baby visit and found out he has bronchitis. Poor boy. He stayed home the rest of the day Wednesday and is slowly getting better. His cough still sounds rough, but he’s definitely improved.

Zach didn’t have any week night school commitments last week so we got to have dinner together every night! WOOHOO!

And another #rockstarreed photo. This kid is a trip. He asked to wear these because his friends like them when he wears them because they think he’s a rockstar.

So, see. Just not that much going on here right now. Until life is more interesting, posting may be sporadic, but I’ll do it as I have stuff to share!

Last week’s rewind

Last week was another super busy one. Thankfully this week, Zach doesn’t have any evening commitments until Friday night, and at least then, I don’t have to have things ready for the next day.

I can’t believe Grant is already old enough to be playing in toys like this. He’s growing up way too fast.

It seems like he is always fussy on Monday nights, which happen to be gymnastics night. It makes it difficult to get dinner and everything done because he just wants to be held. I don’t mind holding him, but when I’m the only parent home, I can’t always just sit and do that. However, last week, I had dinner in the crockpot, so I just sat and held him. The minute Zach walked in the door he quit crying, of course, so I told Zach he’d never believe Grant cried the old time they were gone. :) 

Zach had to be at work on Tuesday night. My mom had picked up the kids that afternoon and took them to my grandma’s house. When I picked them up, I guess they felt sorry for me since Zach was gone, and they sent me home with a variety of food for dinner. I didn’t hate it. 

Grant has decided his toes make a pretty tasty treat!!  

I seriously wish I could bottle him up and keep him like this for a long, long time. He is just so sweet and happy and I just wish time would slow down. He still puts himself to sleep just by putting his fingers in his mouth. Sweet love. 

Reed’s class was learning about the letter I last week and they had an ice cream social one day after naptime! He sure enjoyed it! 

Friday morning Ava got to carry up the offertory gifts at their school Mass. She was very excited. Zach and I both went and she was happy we were there! I can’t believe how old she is getting.   

Friday I went to pick up Grant from school and I was walking down the stairs and this jumper sits right in front of the door, and first thing I saw was this sad face! I’m not sure what was upsetting him but that’s a cute sad face!  

These two sure love each other. I sure hope it stays that way!

I just love Friday night snuggles. Grant was so happy before bedtime and we just hung out talking and laughing on the couch!

The weeks just fly by anymore! I can’t believe 2015 is almost over!

Randomness from the last couple weeks

One morning I went to get Reed out of the car for school and he hopped down like this. He wore his sunglasses inside with his jacket collar popped and when he walked in his classroom, all his classmates laughed and he whipped off his glasses like Joe Cool and then he got embarrassed so he put them back on!

I got Reed and apple to eat the other night and I came back to the kitchen and saw them lined up like this on the table. I just wanted to remember this because these are the little things we forget so easily.  

This sweet boy loves his bath!!! He’s getting too big for this little bath tub! 

One of the nights Zach was working last week, I had Grant laying on my bed while I was folding clothes, and he stuck his fingers in his mouth, and fell asleep!! Sweet boy. 

Sometimes these two can play so nicely together. It doesn’t last long though. 

Last Thursday night we were on our way home and I told the kids we should drive by to see how the new playground by our house was coming. We were so surprised to see that it was finished! Sometimes life should be interrupted to play on a playground so that’s what we did.

Sunday morning I was getting ready for church and Grant was fussing in his bed. I told Ava to go turn on the light and talk to him, and when I went to get him, this is how I found him! He’s a good sport!

And finally, we had our family photos done on Halloween morning and this was a preview of one our photographer shared. The rest of them are just as incredible and I will share them soon!!

Are y’all as glad as I am that tomorrow is Friday??!?!