What We've Been Up To

Since it's been so long since I've updated the blog, I thought I'd try to give a quick review...

In November, Hadley and Grady both had surgery to repair their umbilical hernias.  They both did great and recovered really quickly! 

 At Christmas time, we snapped some family shots at the church.  This was the best we got out of a bunch of tries...I'm trying to decide if it looks like I'm smiling really big or clenching my teeth.

Grady discovered his favorite activity: vacuuming!  We had to hide the vacuum for awhile because he knew which closet we kept it in and would constantly ask for it!

We took a trip down to Nashville in February and had fun with the cousins at a Children's Museum!

 (trying to capture a picture of 3 17 month olds is hard!)

We had a follow-up appointment with Drake's neurologist in March so we stopped off at the zoo while we were in town.  

Hadley, Grady and I have been a part of some fun playdates through the church this winter and spring.  They are usually twice a month and gives the kids some great time to play and moms to chat!  This one was at the Illinois State Museum here in town. 

We re-painted our living room and had the kids add some artwork.  Drake had made a cool fish in art class at school, so we framed that and then had Hadley and Grady paint some canvases to add to it. 

 

Hadley wanted to get her hair cut so she got a super-cute new 'do!

We bought a season pass to our local zoo in town and have already made several trips there.  The kids liked the new wooden bird wing display where you can see how you measure up to the wing-span of different birds. 

This is a perfect picture of Drake's personality with Grady.  Drake is SUCH a good big brother and is such a big helper with Grady.  Drake will even let Gabe and I sleep in sometimes on Saturdays and will get Grady out of his crib and feed him breakfast before we even know he's up.  Yeah, that's pretty much awesome.  

My girl and I enjoying the sunshine this spring watching Drake's soccer practices.  

Hadley had her first swim lessons this spring.  She is not my water-lover so this was a bit (or a lot) out of her comfort zone.  She made little strides of progress but we'll be taking more lessons this summer to try to make more progress.  

Life with 3 kids is busy but oh so fun. Parenting is the most challenging and yet rewarding job.  The challenging seasons are just that, challenging but there are glimpses of the fruit of our labor as well.    Gabe and I have been through a lot of struggles over the last year with medical issues, extra expenses and parenting woes but with it has come spiritual growth that is challenging us to broaden our thinking on a lot of issues.  We're excited to see how God's plan unfolds in our lives and our family over the next weeks, months and years to come. 

20 months

Wow, I've been a real slacker on the blog.  Grady is talking more and more and has such a funny personality.   He's such a little ham with his dancing and prat falling.  He loves to make people laugh and has even started attempting his own knock knock jokes.  He seems to say more words every day, still a lot that only we understand, but I would guess he says at least 50 words now.  His hair is still what gets commented on the most.  It has gotten so curly and is especially curly in the humidity.  He's my solid little man, weighing in a little over 30lbs at his 18 month check-up.  He is a busy-body and loves to be outside kicking a ball, shooting a basket or mowing.  He also still loves the vacuum and general janitorial tools and tasks.  He's our future janitor (or at least a great husband!).  He definitely has an onry streak too and is at the "testing the limits" stage.  He is what you might call an "obvious" pooper, which in some ways is good, because I can usually tell when he is about to go.  So, lately I've been putting him on the potty when I can see it's coming and he loves the attention and applause he gets when he "produces" on the potty.  He is now getting used to sitting on the potty and will almost always go when I put him on it (usually before bath-time).  It almost makes me want to start potty training but he's still so young and since his speech isn't always intelligible by others I'm not sure if that's the best idea, but I do love that he loves to sit on the potty!  I can't believe he will be 2 in a few months, it is going by so fast!!  He is such a fun part of our family.