Farmer and the Dell

I thought these wagons were part of the event but it turns out they belonged to a family. They were pretty confused as to what I was doing when they came to use them....oops. Got a cute pic though.






This is when Grady freaked out

Grady and buddy Kellen

kisses from a goat


Wednesday our playgroup met at the Farmer in the Dell event held at Beech Acres Park. They had pony rides, a hay ride, tractors, and different farm animals for the kids to watch and pet. It was a neat little event and many people came out for it. Grady liked looking at the goats most. Well at least he enjoyed watching them until his fingers maybe got pinched a little in between the fence and animal. I did not really see what happened because I was taking pictures. Actually I may have captured the incident on film and it appears as though his fingers may have gotten squeezed. It was kind of funny because he was happy and having a good time and all of a sudden a burst of a freak out happened. Then he would not go near the goats again without being held. Unfortunately Grady and his buddies are still too young for a pony ride and we opted to not go on the hay ride. We went on the swings instead which is a fun activity for all of them at this point :).

Captain Serious

Judging from this picture you would think Grady was looking at a chalkboard with the world's most complicated math problem on it. Never would you think he was looking at cute and fury farm animals. Grady might be the most serious baby I have ever seen, he does not seem to take anything lightly. It makes me wonder what in the world at the ripe old age of 10 months could he possibly be contemplating?! I don't think people believe us when I say he does have a goofy side. He giggles and smiles but it does not come easy. He definitely makes you earn them! Sometimes in his highchair he will randomly get goofy and start laughing. I cherish these moments so much more when they happen because he so serious most of the time. Perhaps he knows this and is using his smiles as a secret weapon against me. He knows that a smile or giggle melts my heart and uses it to his advantage. Or maybe he really is solving all of life's problems! Who knows. All I know is that I love my little Captain Serious!

Happy Fourth of July 09'!

Here comes the parade!

Mimi and Oliver watching the Parade

very patriotic

Grady watching the parade with Daddy


Grady, Emily and Mimi

The girls with our boys

Grady and Mommy showing off red, white and blue flare

Oliver and Grady

We had a huge day celebrating the fourth yesterday! We started out the morning with the IH parade, spent the early afternoon with the Gerwins, and then went to the Blairs in the late afternoon to continue the celebration on into the evening! Of course all I took was photos from the morning parade because I can't locate our camera right now. I am also suddenly doing a really bad job at documenting things. I did have our video camera so I was able to take some pics with it. Grady had so much fun playing with his buddy Oliver, I love when they are able to get together! I think Grady enjoyed his first parade, especially since he has recently taken interest in trucks, dogs, and kids :). He loves playing with his toy trucks (typical boy I guess), and he has a great time chasing the dogs, and whenever kids are around he takes such an interest in them. The parade included all of his favorite things so I am guessing he had a blast! Wish I had continued taking pictures throughout the rest of our day....where is our camera? Ugh. Happy first Fourth of July Grady! I hope it becomes one of your favorite holidays! It was one of my favorites growing up :). Hope everyone reading this had a wonderful weekend and were able to celebrate the fourth with fun festivities!

A parent's worst fear!

Once your baby is mobile the bumps and bruises start appearing. For the most part it is all minor things here and there since the house is baby proofed to prevent the major accidents from happening. However even after you have done everything you possibly can to keep your baby safe, inevitably he/she is going to have his/her first serious accident! As soon as they are mobile it is game on! Our day came yesterday.

Chris had just received some not so great news about his father. His Dad will be going in for a triple bypass heart surgery next week. His Dad's blood pressure had gotten really high so he went to the Dr. thinking that they were going to put a stent in. However the Doc instead found blocked arteries.

The news of his father takes over Chris's thoughts. While he is on the phone telling other family members of the news he goes downstairs to get something. He thought he had closed the baby gate behind him which he may have except that it was not latched! Grady is at the stage of following us around everywhere and so of course he wanted to follow his Daddy down the stairs! It was awful! I was in the kitchen getting ready to make Grady's lunch when I heard the tumbling sound. I knew with in the second what had happened and screamed for Chris louder then I have in my whole life! Luckily our stairs our carpeted. Grady actually seemed ok but we took him to the Doctor right away to get checked out. The Doctor found nothing wrong with Grady other then the obvious markings on his face :(. Phew! The worst part is the little scrape he got on his nose. It is in a bad place so it keeps getting rubbed and the cut keeps reopening :(. What a tough litte guy! I was hoping I would not have to deal with a more serious incident until he was at least walking. UGH I am not sure I am equipped to handle these type of things...they are so scary! I am sure this is just one of many accidents that are bound to happen, especially with a little boy! Please Grady please don't be too wild and rough when you get a little older because I am not sure your mother will be able to handle it! I am hoping our next house will be a ranch. Stairs are awful I don't want them anymore :). Grady, Dante, and Diesel have now all fallen down the stairs!

Many celebrations!

Bubba where oh where is your hair??!

I'm not really into the cheesy sayings on shirts but I have to admit this one is kind of funny. Chris's best friend Dave gave this onesie to us so I thought I would surprise Chris with it on Father's day morning as a joke. Don't worry Grady did not stay in this outfit for long and he will never be wearing it in public! Click on the image if you can't read what it says. It is a blurry picture but you get the point. It is said out of love because it is not true.....well maybe on rare occaisons :).

It seems as if the reasons to celebrate keep piling on! This is fine by me as I love reasons to celebrate, sometimes I don't even need a reason :). First we celebrated Father's day in KC. Chris took Grady to KC last Wednesday and I joined them on Friday for the weekend. Chris and his father play in an annual golf tournament that usually falls over Father's Day weekend. They were doing well in the tourney until a team in their flight decided to turn up the heat and smoke everyone! Oh well there is always next year. I am hoping one year they will win as it is a nice chunk of change to walk away with!

Chris has been trying to get into Xavier's MHSA/MBA program and was scheduled to go for another interview the Monday following our return from KC on Sunday. We have been biting our nails the past few weeks because it seems the program directors were hesitant about accecpting Chris. He went into the interview on Monday and it went well! They have accepted Chris into the program! I am so proud of him! He has put in a lot of work to get into this program. I am excited for him and for us! Our future has now taken a turn and I believe for the better!

Three years ago yesterday Chris and I got married! I can't believe it has been three years. I love thinking back to our wedding day. It is a day I will relive in my mind forever! It was such a magical night full of natural smiles! We celebrated our 3 year and Chris's acceptance into Xavier by sending Grady to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the night and enjoying a nice dinner at Daveeds. Yum! It has been awhile since we have been to a nice restaurant with just the two of us. It was great to have a relaxing meal and enjoy one another's company.

Note to self: Please start taking more pictures! You are really slacking!

The Farm

We celebrated my Uncle's birthday with a trip to the farm. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of the trips we would take to the farm. The drive to Blanchester seemed like an eternity back then but now it does not seem like too bad of a drive. When we were young our grandpa would take us on tractor and dune buggy rides, then we got to drive the four wheeler around when we were old enough. I still love driving the four wheeler and get excited to hit the trails on every visit to the farm. It is such a nice escape from urban life. I love going to the farm and just relaxing. This time around we talked PawPaw into letting us all bring our dogs so it was a bit crazy with 5 dogs running around but it turned out ok and was so much fun! Ever since having Grady I have found I am becoming more and more nostalgic and want Grady to be able to experience all the things I did growing up. It is very hard on me when a family tradition is let go because they are such great memories. The farm has already been left to an agricultural society which breaks my heart. It would have been so nice to keep the farm in the family and continue to take trips there. I am hoping we will still be able to go. If there is one personality trait I wish I could change in my grandfather it would be that he would actually want to keep things in our family; That family and keeping traditions would actually be more important to him then making charity donations. It really makes me very very sad, I am a big sentimental sap.

WARNING: It is true!!

When Grady was a newborn I frequently would hear, "Enjoy it now because they grow so fast!" I still hear this sentence a lot and I would like to stop hearing it. The first three months I hated hearing it because things were in slow motion and I felt like he was never going to sleep through the night. Now I hate hearing it because it is true and it gives me mixed emotions. I get super excited to see him learn and grow but then get sad that he is growing up and fast! Time really has flown by ever since he started sleeping through the night! We thought he was going to skip crawling because he really only seemed interested in wanting to stand but suddenly a couple of days ago he decided to crawl! Now he is all over the place, and getting into everything! He is pulling himself up on the side of the bathtub on his own and standing. What happened? I suddenly am already asking myself, "where did my baby go?" He is becoming little Mr. independent. He is so proud of himself for being mobile now and a much happier baby. He was getting so frustrated because all he wanted to do was move around. Well now he has done it! We knew this day was going to come and we kept saying that we needed to baby proof the house before he was just everywhere. Well guess what? The day has come and we are not prepared! We are running around quickly and trying to make this house a safer environment for him to explore. YIKES!

Another sentence I would like to stop hearing is, "wow what a fat baby!" Seriously I am really getting a complex! Please stop acting like my baby should be a carny because he is so fat. At the pool today an 11 year old said, "Oh my god that is the fattest baby I have ever seen!" He said it like Grady should be a circus act. My feelings were actually a little hurt. I wanted to tell the boy that he is a fatty fat head and that he should go find a snickers. Really is Grady that fat? Should I be feeding him less? Does he need to diet? I don't see it. I feel like other babies are just as big and bigger! I know he has a ridiculously large head and maybe that is really what the problem is. I don't know whatever. I don't really care what people think I love my chunky bubba!