Bitter Sweet

Our last day in the town home was happy and sad, but mostly happy by the looks on our faces, we were ready. The sun was shining and we were going out with a bang! There is a large grass area outside our back door that we share with other families. Lots of room to run around and play.   Although, as we were goofing around I couldn't help but think how happy I was going to be, doing this in our own back yard on our own grass that I didn't have to share. (I'm pretty stingy, huh?) We had so many good memories there and feel so blessed to have gotten to know and share those 2 yrs with great people in our neighborhood.

Picked a "flower" for mommy

I bet that dandelion smells real nice, Gray! 

He got a hair cut that evening. Long over due!

Makes me happy more than words

Dax was SO happy! Not sure what he was doing besides just being silly here.

Love <3 td="">

Gray's Birthday Week!

Grayson had a birthday week or even longer. We celebrated with many cake smashes and different family and friends through out the week.
Gray was sugar wasted pretty much all week and I was feeling pretty blessed that so many people cared enough to make his 1st birthday memorable.

The morning of his actual birthday we had birthday waffles, just like I did with Dax when he turned one as well.
Grayson was super happy and thought the candle was great.

 For his birthday, we went to Sweet Tooth Fairy for some cupcakes and headed off to the big park in Draper. That afternoon after his nap, we decided we would hit up the aquarium. It was an unforgettable day with my birthday boy and his older brother.

Mckay got home late, so the boys and I had dinner, then waited for Mckay to get home to sing happy birthday and smash his cupcake.

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My Mom and Dad had a Birthday party at their home for not only Grayson, but my niece, Maggie and my two nephews, Jacksen and Dylan. All 4 of their birthdays are within 4 days of each other. It was so fun and pretty special that we get to share their special days.

Notice the slight black eye Gray is sporting? Learning how to walk was hard on this kid. :(

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Grayson's Party was that next Saturday. We all went bowling, came back to our place for dinner,  presents, and tons of treats :) 

Jacksen and Dylan. The ones that teach my kids how to be tough. :)

Gray's Aunt Angie and cousins, Treyson, Whit, Jordan and River.

I always have lots of fun getting decorations and the details put together. Lots of work, but totally worth it. Instead of a cake I had sugar cookie bars with lots of other yummy bars for dessert. I thought I'd break out of the normal cake.

Birthday sugar cookie smash.

Digging in with some of his cousins and big brother

Yum...

My nieces gave Gray a bath after the party and they left this little note on the tub wall. I loved it.

While we were in St. George, Grayson's cousin, Cache who is just 2 weeks older than Gray, shared a delicious chocolate cake after we sang happy birthday to them. It's so fun having these two close in age.  I have to add that even though Cache is larger than my skinny little twerp of a kid, Grayson dominated that cake while Cache or "Beef" as they call him picked away. Really Grayson, why cant you put on some weight?!?

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Off to the bath with our filthy but adorable babes.

 Talk about turning ONE in many different ways! See, I wasn't kidding when I said we celebrated Gray for a whole week, or longer! He's totally worth it!

Baby Gray is a baby no more. (12 months)

(Clearly, I have slacked on updating the blog from our big move, so here are 3 posts and more to come. All stuff I hope to never forget or feel the need to document.)

 My baby is growing up too fast. He's doing things well before I'd like him to, but watching him learn and grow makes me melt. He has ALWAYS been such an easygoing baby, never fussing much or causing me a lot of stress. That is quickly changing. He is still a pretty easy thing, but rapidly getting an attitude. With learning and getting smarter, comes understanding how to get attention and comprehending emotion a lot more. 

      

   I call him " A Flopper" because when he gets upset he flops on the ground faster than any child I've ever seen, while looking out of the corner of his eye making sure that I'm watching. I try so hard not to laugh and pay attention to it, but its pretty funny most of the time, like when we are home. He has also learned to hit, although, most of the time he is hitting, he is smiling and not doing it in an aggressive way.

   

 His new nickname is "Squirrel. “He stashes everything! He got it because one day I was walking around the house aimlessly looking for one of his 20 binkys we have bought for him, thinking to myself that we are going to go broke buying this kid binkys and WHERE the HECK are they disappearing to?!? Then I looked down into a box that I was packing for the move and found 2 of them. 

Then another day, he had one in his mouth and one in each hand, walks over to the garbage can, drops all of them in the trash, even the one in his mouth! Needless to say, once we figured that one out, we started looking in all the trash bins randomly as we would walk by. Sure enough there is a binky or another random object that shouldn't belong in the trash 90% of the time. We find the most random things is cupboards, shoes, drawers etc.... Its kinda funny except when it’s my keys or phone.

Waiting for his 12 month check up and shots

Happy kid doesn't even know what's about to happen. Ouch!

He started practicing walking at 11 months, gave it up for about a month, then decided to take it serisouly again at the end of the 12th month. That was the same age to the week when Dax started officially walking too. Kinda fun :) 

Grayson is a big eater, even though his skinny body doesn't say it. He eats double what Dax does and will try most things. His favorites are. greek yogurt, noodles (he actually slurps them up) strawberries, animal crackers and chocolate chip pancakes.

He is talking so much these days. I have mixed feelings about it, since Dax is slightly behind in his speech. When the speech therapist is in our home and trying to work with Dax on a specific word, Gray is in the background spouting that word off like a pro. See what I mean about it being sad too? I love that he is able to talk so well so soon, but it breaks my heart thinking how Dax stuggles with something that is coming so easily to Grayson. 

His usual words are:

truck/ duck (kinda sound the same)

dump truck

outside

ball

dog

mom

dad

what's that? (wazzz dat)

sam

dax sound like da...

cookie

cracker

on top (he says this when we stack blocks)

no

uh, oh! ( he adds many uh's sometimes)

Uh, uh uh uh OH!!!

And my favorite is when I'm calling his name, he responds correctly by yelling back "Huh?" I then say something like "Are you getting into trouble?" and he says "Yeah!" Its awesome. 

I have been blessed with this beautifully sleepy baby from day one pretty much. We've had our bumps along the way, with him testing us, being sick or teething. This boy loves his crib, his naps and bedtime.  Gray almost always wants you to lay him down in his crib, so he can get comfy and crash. This is why I soak up any snuggle time that he is willing to offer. We don’t have many pics of Grayson sleeping on anyone, but we have lots of him sleeping in random places. Like.......  

On hotel floors...Yuck!

Car

On the couch

In the middle of the floor

In a swing

My favorite and rarely in my lap

This was in St. George the week before he started walking. 

Climbing, always climbing.

He loves books as much as his big brother does. If its silent, I can always count on finding him reading his books. If hes not doing that I should start worrying that he's getting into trouble somewhere.

His new favorite games are: walking backwards, pushing Dax around on his bike, kicking the ball and throwing the ball for Sammy. Also, being chased is a big hit right now. He loves it when I growl really loud and stomp on the ground while running after him. He screams and laughs harder than ever when playing this game. While on the topic of him running away from me, if you bring out a diaper or a change of clothes, he is OUT! This is when he runs the fastest of course.

I guess I should add his stats too. He was a whopping 21 lbs and 30 inches tall, basically tall and skinny. This is pretty much the trend I am seeing with my boys and I have to look forward to with future babies.

We sure are loving this little Grayson of ours, especially now with him breaking out of his quite shell, thinking he can be mean and tough all of sudden. His opinion is really starting to matter around this household now. 

We love you so much sweet baby, Grayson.