Texas Part 1

As I stated early, we took a trip to Texas. We left the Thursday before Thanksgiving and came back Thanksgiving day. It was kind of sad that we were not able to do a real "First Thanksgiving" for Grayson but the money saved on plane tickets by flying home that day was well worth it. The purpose of this trip was to visit our friends- The Bolanders.
We arrived late Thursday night and Cory picked us up at the airport. We basically to to their house and went to bed. The next day, the kids still had school so we took that day to rest and to pick up some groceries.
On Saturday we spent the day playing with the kids. Then the girls went shopping at the mall by the riverwalk. The boys then met us at the church house for Nina's (Terrie's sister) ward Thanksgiving dinner.
Sunday we went to church and then Terrie's family had a get together that Mike, Grayson and I crashed. Here Grayson decided that he was going to be a walker when I was simply holding him in a standing position. He just took off when he saw his daddy.

Monday, we were blessed that the Bolanders had a friend who was able to get us in to the Tower of the Americas for free. It was a lot of fun to go to the top and look at the view of San Antonio. It was very windy up there!

 Cory was nice enough to take a few family pictures on the grounds there. The grounds were GORGEOUS!

Terrie took this picture while Mike was holding Grayson in the air with the Tower in the background. LOVE it!

I snapped this shot of Addison giving Grayson a kiss at the top of the tower. She has grown up so much and is such a beautiful daughter of God.

Tuesday we went to the Riverwalk and La Valitta. We went past the Alamo. We had gone in there before so we didn't really stop, but the grounds there are so beautiful and well maintained. here is a picture of us in front of the Alamo.

And while we were in La Valitta, Terrie snapped this picture of me nursing Grayson. I use a cover (because he is so easily distracted) and you can see where his hand is standing straight up under it. It was so hot and humid that day that I did end up lifting the cover up to let his head get some of the nice breeze on it.

Tuesday was also Mike's birthday so we enjoyed some pizza for dinner. It was a great day all in all. The mosquitoes were the only down side to the humidity that kicked in that day. We both had enough bites on our legs that it looked like we had chicken pox. That night we took in a dollar movie. Grayson did pretty good for his first trip to the movies but I had to take him out and play with him a bit towards the end.

Wednesday we went to the zoo. I love going to the zoo with children. It is so much fun to see their interest in the animals.

Sadly, Thursday- Thanksgiving- came all too soon and we had to pack up and go home. The flight back we were on a much smaller plane where they took our carry-ons that didn't fit under the seats and would gate check them. It was a lot bumpier ride then the bigger plane but it was nice that there were only 2 seats on each side of the aisle so we didn't have to worry about bothering someone else right next to us.

We enjoyed the trip so much and are SUPER excited that the Bolanders are moving closer and we can hopefully see them more often.

I will do a separate post with more pictures later. I have so many to go through it is CRAZY! But now, I am home, trying to get the house cleaned and decorated for Christmas. We have debated whether or not we would put up a tree due to space but I can not see NOT having a tree up for Grayson's first Christmas.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Texan Half Birthday!

We have been in Texas for the last week. During that time- Grayson turned 6 months old. I can hardly believe it has been 6 months! Time is just flying by and he is growing and changing so fast!

So- I realized at the end of the night I had not taken a picture on his actual 6 month and snapped this. Pardon the bad coloring/lighting.

So- here are some tidbits about Grayson at 6 months

He weighs in at 14 lbs 2 oz as of tonight.
He is around 25 inches long.
He is still wearing mostly 0-3 month clothing (except Gerber onesies in the packages)
He is not interested in purees anymore so we are going the Baby Led Weaning route to introduce solids
He army crawls all over and can now pull himself from sitting to standing, He is still working on going from laying to sitting though
He will walk if you are holding him in a standing position. I am hoping this does not mean he will be an early walker.
He still fights naps like none other (Terrie saw first hand what I mean by this...people never understand until they see it.)
He talks when he is tired to keep himself awake
He loves to laugh and make others laugh
He enjoys anything with Mickey Mouse on it
He loves books

Our trip was wonderful but it really threw Grayson off and he had just adjusted to being in Texas when we came home and now he is having trouble getting back into the groove of being home. He got so used to sleeping with us in Texas that he won't sleep even the first part of the night alone. I hope to get a chance to post pictures, etc from Texas soon.

The best news came the day we were leaving for Texas when the Bolanders called to let us know they are going to be stationed in Colorado in May/June of 2011. We are super excited to have them closer where we can hopefully see them multiple times a year.

Army Crawl

A little video of Grayson's army crawl. He gets going really good when not ditracted by a camera.

Busy Busy Busy

So we are super busy in this house. Mike is finishing up school stuff that must be done before we head to Texas in a few days. I am busy getting photo CDs together (I have 6 to get out before we leave), cleaning, and trying to start packing. Meanwhile- my not-even-six-month-old son is CRAWLING!!!! It is an army crawl but he is SUPER QUICK at it. (I will try and get a recent video and post it since the one I have is a few weeks old and he was just starting to get it down.)

Just a few updates- Mike is healing well from his wreck but he is still SUPER sore. He will not be up for normal Mikey play when we go to Texas- yet, I don't think he will let that stop him. I am sure he will tickle, wrestle, chase, and more. He has already promised Vigo non-stop tickles.

Grayson had his six month appointment. He wieghed in at only 13 lbs 7 oz (although right before leaving to go I weighed him on the baby scale at 13 lbs 15 oz and my scale is usually UNDER the drs). His length was 24 1/4 (or maybe it was 3/4)". His head was 17 1/2". So- His head is in the 59th percentile, while both weight and height are in the 3rd percentile. According to his doctor he is PERFECTLY PROPORTIONED! I was worried because we can not get him to eat any more than 22 oz of breastmilk and formula combined in one day. The pediatrician assured me that he is getting plenty and if he ate too much more he would probably be overweight for his height. This doctor has started going by the WHO guidelines which take the weight by height into consideration. Grayson was too young to get the flu shot, but I was not going to have him get it anyways since I am still breastfeeding.

On the solids front. Grayson was very interested in them at first. We got through quite a few foods. Now he doesn't seem interested. So, I am kind of excited. Knowing he does not have allergies we are going to be able to really explore Baby Led Weaning. (Not weaning from nursing) Also, Grayson is quite distracted during the day and as such, he was not nursing well. I developed a few clogged ducts over the last month or so and the last one was in the "beginning stages of mastitis" according to the LC. I spent Tuesday and most of Wednesday sick with a fever, chills and more. Luckily, I was able to catch it early enough to treat it with natural healing methods. Grayson is now eating more- but at night. He is waking every 2 hours again! This is known as reverse cycling and I don't mind it too much right now but I am not sure if I will want to keep this up for too long.

I had a birthday last week....Mike and I are using Texas as our presents this year and so my birthday was pretty low key. My sister had a candle party on my birthday and so I went to that.

Finally, this week Grayson enjoyed- for the most part- his first Hockey Game. He did really well for the first part but then the noise, etc seemed to get to him. We got to see one really good fight but the score was zip to zip when we left 10 minutes early.

I hope to get on and do a few updates from Texas. Especially since we will have Grayson's 6 month/half birthday when we are there, Mike's birthday, and so much more.

The Ol' Pen

Today I went out to the Ol Pen to take some photographs for a gal I used to work with and her boyfriend. I had never gone out there before and I really enjoyed it! Here are two of my favorites!

I loved the walls in the Women's Block. They were sea foam green. The light coming through the window made for a picture that fit this couples personality and style perfectly.

I have a lot of fun doing photographs for people in the area that may not have the money to afford an expensive session. It has helped me develop a hobby and learn a lot.

First ER Visit as a Mom---

And it wasn't for Grayson!
Around 8:30 last night I heard sirens right by our house. Knowing Mike was on his bike, and knowing how often bicyclists are hit by cars in Boise, I was worried it was him...I just knew it was him.
Well, I walked outside to see if it was where I could see it...nope. Right as I walked in, my phone rang. It was Mike telling me I needed to go meet him at the hospital. He was only on the other side of the gas station that is next to our apartments when he wrecked, hit his head, got knocked out, and didn't wake up until the EMTs were there.
Luckily, someone saw him wreck. We think he slid on some loose gravel...
Here he is after his CT Scan and before they cleaned him up....

So, this all happened right as I was getting ready to put Grayson to bed. So, he instead, got put in a car seat- which he hates when tired! Dragged to the hospital...where he wouldn't nurse because I forgot a cover and there was so much interesting stuff to look at. Luckily I thought ahead and grabbed a bottle. He hung out with me there, my parents came up. We decided after knowing Mike was not too injured, that I would take Grayson home, put him to bed, where my parents would stay with him.

I went back to the hospital and got home around 11:30 to find Grayson had woken up at 11:00 for a snack and was not happy to wake up to Grandma and a bottle instead of Mom and a nursing session....poor lil man.

He was back in bed after a good nursing session by 12:30 and was kind to me and slept until 8:30 without waking. He is quite clingy this morning...

Back to Mike- he had to have 2 sets of stitches. 4 below the brow and 6 above. He has some good bumps and scrapes but is ok. He even went to work this morning. Not sure it will last all day but he is trying.

Who would have thought my first ER visit as a mom would be for Mike.....

Grayson's 5 Month Portraits

As I stated previously- we took Grayson to get some professional portraits by a gal in my ward. These are a few- but we are purposely not showing our 2 favorites because they are going to be used in some Christmas gifts.

Thanks to Sue Anderson- Reflections Photography- for these WONDERFUL portraits!

It was impossible to get Grayson to look up from the pumpkin if it was between his legs....LOL!

He got the stem in his mouth once or twice too.

We used some different props for the other portraits, but like I mentioned- we are using those pictures for Christmas presents so they are not being shown. Sorry! I will add them after Christmas maybe.