Festival of Trees!

My Mom, Grady and I went to the Festival of Trees. We had a nice time looking at the trees and eating yummy treats. Grady loved the lights but soon tired out and took a nap. I hadn't been in awhile so it was nice to go with my Mom.

Grady and his Grandma. He loves his Grandma! She is always so fun.

The reason we went to the Festival this year was to see this tree. My sister helped decorate the tree for her dear best friend Chelsie. Chelsie passed away in a car accident in September. It is heartbreaking.

Classic Grady

This is Grady's classic face that he pulls. We get a kick out of it. He is our little muffin.

MoTab

Every Sunday we watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at 9:30. We love to turn it on and listen to the music and enjoy Sunday. Ever since Grady was a baby he has loved this tradition! He loves to watch the choir. He gets mesmorized by the music and he loves all the pictures they show. The funniest thing is when Lloyd Newell (the guy who narrates) come on Grady gets the biggest smile and laughs. He loves him! It is the cutest thing. So I will be sad that we are moving to 9:00 church and will miss the program. Grady most of all.

Go Cougars!

I know they lost but we are still BYU fans! Grady loves his Daddy and looks for him whenever I say "where's daddy?"

Thankful!

Thanksgiving this year was spent at the Nordgren's. We had a wonderful time! We were so excited for our first thanksgiving with our Grady man. I have so much to be thankful for! I am blessed everyday with loving husband and a sweet little boy. I made a killer coconut cream pie from scratch. It was amazing! I already have requests to make it again. So worth it to make the real thing. That morning we had it planned out to the T when Grady would take his nap and we were right on track. We put him down and he woke up 25 minutes later! What?? He is usually the best napper and sleeps at least an 1 1/2. I just about had a freak out because I knew that it was going to throw the whole day off but I had to take deep breaths and just go with the flow. He did great! A little tired but so happy to be with his family.

Grady loved eating Thanksgiving dinner- turkey, potatoes, beans, corn, stuffing and rolls. You can see his tired eyes. He went down for a nap right after this picture!
Grady played and played with his cousins! He loves his cousins so much and lets them pretty much do anything with him.
The beautiful set up by my wonderful Mother in law.

This is what I am thankful for this year!

Fall is here!

On monday we decided to go the pumpkin patch that is just around the corner from our house. It was so cute. I think there is nothing better. Even better is that it was Regan's idea. Grady loves being outside so this was a win for him. And I couldn't believe how cheap it was. We will definitely be going again. They had a hayride, a corn maze, tons of old tractors and lots of pumpkins! Grady is our little pumpkin and makes everything more exciting!

Grady is 8 months old!

• Grady is the best snuggler! He gives such good loves and kisses. Whenever I pick him up or if I haven't seen him for awhile he gives me the biggest hug and kiss. He is very sweet.
• He loves people. He is such a little charmer.
• He is very chill and serious. Sometimes we call him serious sam. Mostly it is because he is a thinker.
• He loves his family!
• He finally loves baby food! He loves bananas, garden vegetables and cereal puffs. He gets so excited when we bring out the puffs and shake the can!
• He scoots when he is sitting up and can get pretty far. It is pretty funny.
• Still no teeth.
• He trys to pull himself up to standing.
• He loves to stand and thinks he is so big when he is standing!
• He pounds his chest like Tarzan. It is so funny.
• He loves books!
• His favorite toy is a little monkey. He gets so excited whenever he sees it.
• He is a great sleeper.
• He doesn't fit into his pants because of his thighs. So we have had to go up to 12 months pants even though they are too long.

Everyday we just can't believe how lucky we are that we have this little boy in our lives. He is the highlight of our lives.

This is the sweetest boy

One word to describe this little boy is SWEET. Oh how I love him!

First Swim

Grady's first swim was a success! For his first swim we had to go to the Winder Pool. It really is the best. Grady loved the water, even though it was freezing! I was too chicken to get in, thank goodness Regan loves the water. He get's so serious and chill when he is in the pool. We have been a few more times.

Let Freedom Ring

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I love that the holiday felt like 3 days long! On Saturday we woke up bright and early and went to The Brighton Breakfast up at Brighton ski resort. This was my first time going but it is a Winder tradition. I loved it! Nothing is better than being in the mountains. It was beautiful and breakfast was really good too. Grady couldn't have been happier because he LOVES it outside. He gets so serious when he is outside and just takes it all in. Then we walked around Silver Lake and went to the cabin to ride the zipline. Then we headed back to West Valley and hung out with my family. It was nice to just relax. After that we headed over to the Winder pool and had dinner with Reg's family and watched the kids swim. It was a nice evening. Reg didn't feel well ( more on that later) so we headed home and watched a movie. No fireworks this year :( On Sunday we had a BBQ with family, had a fire and roasted marshmallows. I love summer weekends.

At the Brighton Breakfast

Silver lake. My cousin Katie stayed with us and she was so helpful with Grady!

Mr. Serious

Uncle Jared

Grady loves is Uncle Jared or as we call him Uncle Jerry! Jared is such a good uncle and it is so fun to see my little brother take such good care of him. Jared loves to play, hold, and do tricks with Grady. I can already tell they are going to be best buds.

Grady and Jared (1 week old)

Grady, Jared and Jared's mustache on Grady's blessing day.

Jared's Graduation!

Jared put Grady in the guitar case and he loved it!

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig

Regan is coming home tomorrow!!! He has been gone for 2 weeks for work. Bless his heart for working so hard. I sure love him! I cannot wait for him to be home. 2 weeks is LONG! I couldn't have done it with out my amazing family. They helped out so much.

Having Regan gone for so long made me really appreciate having a husband, partner, best friend, etc. It made me grateful for cell phones, texting, and skype!

I tried to be really strong while he was gone and for the most part I did pretty good. I had a few bad days but it was just because I missed him so much. He truly is my best friend.

While Reg was gone Grady and I got to have lots of mommy time. We played and played. It is hard being a mom without a spouse there to help. I really have such respect for single mom's and military wives. But when you have moments like this it makes it all worth it. I was dancing around and singing for him and he loved it. He thought it was the funniest thing ever (which it probably was). I will do anything for a smile!

Also, today he was laughing so hard at me whenever I took a bite of my dinner and said yum. He thought I was so funny whenever I would take a bite. It cracked me up.

The Doublee

Grady's double chin or as Aunt Jamie likes to call it "The Doublee" pronounced doob-lee.

My First Mother's Day

I feel so blessed to be a mom. Mothers day was a little different this year than I thought it would be. Regan was out of town for work which was a huge bummer but it made me really appreciate being a mom. I found joy in doing those motherly tasks that would have been done by Regan if he was home. I made myself a yummy dish of baked oatmeal, changed Grady's blow out, put him down for his naps, fed him, changed him, took him to church, held him and comforted him when he was fussy, etc. Even though I didn't get pampered or get a break on Mother's Day, it was a still a special day because I am a mom to my little Grady man and that makes it all worth it. I really love being a mom and a wife. It is so easy when you've got such a cutie pa tutie for a son and such a handsome/sweet husband.

Regan didn't forget about Mother's Day though, even though he was gone. Oh no, he didn't. He called me and told me where I could find my present. He had hidden it in the garage before he left. And he truly got me what a really wanted! An entry way table. I love him! I am so excited. He also sent me the sweetest card. It made me cry because I miss him so much. He did good :)

Our little Grady man is 3 months old!

Wow time really does fly by. Each day brings something new for us and our sweet little man. He continues to be the light of our life and is growing so fast. He seems to change everyday. We are so mesmerized by him and he is our best source of entertainment.

• Grady loves to play! He is starting to like toys and loves the noises they make.

• Sometimes he would rather lay down and play rather than be held and cuddled. He loves to shake the chain that he is holding onto in the picture.

• He has a love/hate relationship with his hand. He loves to suck on it but hates when he pulls it way or pokes himself. It is usually is left hand that he sucks on.

• He has so many funny faces. Strike a pose!

• He can sit up really well and has a super strong neck.

Here are some other highlights:

• He blows bubbles.
• He loves to dance and kick his legs.
• He loves to be sung to.
• He thinks his Dad is so funny.
• He has the cutest smile and Reg and I will pretty much do anything for a smile.
• He goes to bed at 8:30, gets up once to eat and then goes back to bed till 7:30.
• He coos and gurgles.
• Oh and he loves that darn binky.

Happy Easter!!

We had a very nice Easter and ate way too much food, sugar, candy, etc! We listened to General Conference and I just can't get over how good Conference was. So grateful for the messages that were shared. Regan made the most delicious waffles for breakfast. Then we went to my parents during the break and had a nice Easter Dinner. We also looked for our Easter baskets. Regan's, of course was hid the hardest. He looked for a few hours before he found it. It was in the ceiling tiles in my room. Reg is such an easy person to tease cause he doesn't get mad and is such a good sport. Then we went to Reg's parents and visited with the family.

Grandma had to read Grady his Easter story in her new reading room.

My parents gave Grady the cutest little blue rocking chair with his name on it!