Happy Birthday, Grady!

Graden Matthew is officially 4 months old! We weighed him and he's about 15 pounds...wow!

Ainsley LOVES birthday parties and loves cake even more, so we had a little party for Grady. He had a puppy dog cake. He just stared at Ainsley like she was crazy. :)
Right after this picture, he drooled on the cake plate. I guess he really could have put the candle out himself!

My sweet kids after church....precious!

Guess who?


Ainsley was 4 months here and Grady was 3 months 3 weeks. It's obvious how much lighter Grady's eyes are than Ainsley's. They're still very blue. Ainsley came out with black eyes and they just keep getting darker! :)

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. As much as I enjoy all of the Fall activities, I really hate all the busyness. I know at some point I just need to stop putting my kids in every activity available, but it's so hard to choose which one to keep! Right now, Ainsley's in school twice a week, dance, swimming lessons, and Toddler Toes. I'm going to women's bible study, home group (which involves a lot of cleaning!) and I started back to choir this week. Then Clint has Impact on Tuesday nights and choir/praise team on Wednesday nights. It gives me a headache just thinking about it! I think I might have to cut something out. Last week I worked 2 days in addition to all of that....if you could see my house right now you'd believe it! Plus, it's getting hard on Grady. I need to be home more for him to get some decent naps in instead of cat-napping in the car. At least my soccer mom car is being put to good use!

So, this is random, but the other night Ainsley looked at Clint and said, "Daddy, can I watch the Tit-munks?" He kept asking her to say it over and over. It was so funny! Maybe it's just the age, but she also plays with the oddest toys. Yesterday she played the ENTIRE day with a little cup full of hair clips. They were all different colors so she had a daddy, a mommy, a teacher, a kitty, etc. She took them in the car and everything. She's also WAY into Peter Pan. We got her the "Return to Neverland" movie for Christmas and she's watched it probably once a week since then. But a couple of weeks ago Clint came home with the original Disney Peter Pan and, no lie, we watch it at least twice a day. It's not a bad movie at all so I really don't mind too much. She gets all of her toys and fairies in the floor and acts out the movie with them. Then when it's over, she makes up new stories about Peter Pan's adventures. As a result, everything, including her sandwich, can fly with a happy thought and a little pixie dust! She even lays in the floor and tells Grady that he can be a "lost boy" when he grows up. :)

Grady is still growing like a weed! As of last week, he's officially in 3-6 months and just yesterday we moved up to size 2 diapers. He's rolling over from his tummy to his back, and from his back to his side, but that's as far as he gets. I think Ainsley was probably rolling much more at this point, but then again she had much more opportunity. I don't put Grady in the floor much because he might get squished! Yesterday I left the room for 2 minutes and when I came back he was wearing a cinderella hat and chewing on a barbie dress! I will be SO surprised if he doesn't get some teeth real soon! It still amazes me how much the kids are alike too. They both LOVE to cuddle and sleep best when they're next to me. Grady even likes to play with my fingernails to go to sleep just like Ainsley did. Oh - we finally got a video monitor too and I LOVE IT! I'm a little addicted to it though. With any little noise at night, I find myself watching it. It was supposed to help me sleep. Ha!

I'll close with a little video of Ainsley's first tap lesson. She was as graceful as a 3-year-old can be!

First Day of School

First of all, isn't this the cutest little boy you've ever seen? :)

Ainsley had her first day of school today! She's going to a pre-pre-K program 2 days a week. She was very excited about her new school! There were a lot of changes this year because they moved to a new facility. One of the changes was that they no longer provide a hot meal so we had to pack a lunch. Ainsley thought that was especially cool!

Ainsley with her teacher, Mrs. Loretta. She looks scared here, but I promise she wasn't. She loves school and threw a huge fit when I picked her up because she didn't want to go home! She really loves Mrs. "Loweda" too!

That kid has really been cracking us up lately! First, Grady was in the bouncy seat in the bedroom. When I turned around, he had 3 naked Barbie dolls laying with him. So, I sat them to the side and transferred him to the swing in the kitchen. A few minutes later Ainsley comes running in screaming, "No, no, no! No ma'am! You say sorry!" I had NO clue what she was talking about until she came running back into the kitchen and placed all 3 naked Barbies back in the swing with Grady. (That poor little boy!) She never let up until I said I was sorry and insisted that "Gwady wants his Barbies!"

Then she decided she'd set the table tonight. Just out of the blue, she went to the pantry and got a handful of napkins. She said, "I just got us 3 napkins for Ainsley, Mommy, and Daddy. Ok?" Then she says, "Forks, Mommy?" I tell her that yes, we need forks, so she got plastic forks and laid them on the napkins at each place setting. She even tried to cut up my food for me! It was so sweet!

She always has some wild prayers, but tonight was just ridiculous. "Thank you God and Jesus..." (She's started that on her own...maybe starting to understand the trinity?) "...for my family and for lots of Never Land, and my heart, and thank you for my best friend Peter Pan, and for pixie dust! Amen!"

Too "Wittle"

I was changing the sheets on the bed today (hence the pillows all over the floor) so I decided to try Grady out in the jumpy thingy. He's holding his head up pretty good these days, but I think maybe he's not quite big enough. He seemed to enjoy it for a while, but his big 'ole head kept falling over and he couldn't lift it back up. Ainsley kept saying, "I think he too wittle, Momma! It's only for big boys."

Grady's First Giggles

Of course, he was laughing hysterically before we got the camera out...that always seems to happen. Nonetheless, you can still watch me making a fool out of myself! :)