Mother's Day Weekend

Wow! What a weekend. I have been showered with love and appreciation. I just feel so blessed. Saturday, Kenny and Grant went shopping with me. I got 6 new shirts, we had lunch at La Madeline and we went to Target. What more can a girl ask for? Saturday night we met Kim, Doug and Levi at Outback. We wanted to treat Kim and her family for Mother's Day. Although Kim is not my mom, she fills that role in many ways. She is a wonderful Mom to Levi and I feel so blessed to have her as my sister. It was so fun watching Grant and Levi play. Kim gave me some bath stuff from B&B Works, a lovely "Sister" picture frame with a picture of the two of us. I gave Kim a willow tree figurine of an angel holding a child by the arms, helping him walk. Kind of reminds me of the phase we are getting out of with Grant, but I love the title "Guardian Angel." Reminds me of how God holds us up by our arms when we truly let him take control in guiding us.

Today we went to early church. This was my first time to go to church on Mother's Day since Mom passed away. At the beginning of the service when they were describing mothers, I broke down, and of course, Kenny just held my hand and loved on me. There was a point that I thought, "Lord, I am not going to make it through this, I do not want to be a blubbering idiot sitting in church." I felt such a calmness come over me. I just know He too was holding me. So, we made it through church. Whew! So glad I made it and didn't cry the entire time. That was the Last thing I wanted and it was the one thing that I feared the most for today.

Kenny, Grant and I ate lunch at home. I think it was the first time we have eaten at home since last Sunday. How horrible is that? I announced that we are eating at home all week. I am so sick of eating out and it's not good for you!

Tonight, Kenny's parents came over along with brother-in-law, David and nephew, Taylor. Kenny grilled BBQ chicken and potatoes. It was such an easy meal, but it was good! David brought flowers and Richard and JoAnn gave us patio furniture. Part of it is Ken's Father's Day present - he has to remember that! This truly was a wonderful Mother's Day weekend, I feel so spoiled. Kenny got me a hot pink IPod Nano and a gift certificate to Coldwater Creek Spa. Aside from the gifts, I loved being with my family.

Grant got fed some ice cream for dessert and got all hyped up, I have included video of Grant walking around like a crazy head.

I love being a Mom. Some days it is down right hectic, it can break your heart and sometimes it seems too easy to be true.

I also love the Mother I had. She was such a nurturer, always put family first and she loved with all she had. She was the woman who led me to the Lord, the woman who was by my side during illness and surgery, the woman who held my hand and cried with me when I had my first heart break, the woman who saw me off to College, the woman who helped me plan my Wedding. She is the woman that will be at Heaven's gates to welcome me. During the last Mother's Day with my Mother, I had the privilege of sharing with my mom how much she meant to me. I can remember sitting on the couch with her like it was yesterday. There is so much comfort in knowing that she knew exactly how I feel! That is something that can never be taken away.

"Her children rise up and call her blessed…" Proverbs 31:28

Where has the time gone?

The past few months have been busy and fun! Grant is just doing new things all the time. I have to say the babbling is just precious. It always seems to melt our hearts. He is a really good baby and he has had a better time health wise. We have met our quota on Ear Infections and we are visiting an ENT next week to see if he needs tubes.

Grant turned ONE YEAR OLD on March 18th. We had a party for him at the house the weekend before with lots of friends and family. My Dad was even in town and got to be here. Grant dove right into the cake, and I think he loved all the attention. It was very cool to see him experience Balloons for the first time and of course, the cake mess!

On Grant's actual birthday, we took him to Cotton Patch with Ganma and PaPa. He ate really good, he loves green beans, mac 'n cheese and of course, bread! I think we all enjoyed his birthday.

Kenny and I have always celebrated St. Patty's Day, so...since Grant was around this year, we decided to get him involved in the green fun!

And Meggie too!

Our weekends seem to be always full of something to do or someone to go see. We took a trip to the lake to visit Ganma and Papa. Of course, Papa had his John Deere mower out and had to take Grant for a spin. Grant had alot of fun being with Papa!

Easter was fun this year. I had fun making Easter Baskets and filling the eggs with lots of little Gerber treats. Grant hunted eggs at Aunt YaYa's (Kim) house on Saturday and we spent some time with their family. Grant was in his jumperoo outside, but refused to put his feet down on the grass, I guess he just didn't like the feel of it. Uncle Doug went in and got a rug to put under his feet so he would be comfortable. Can we say, Spoiled much?

On Sunday we headed to the lake to have Easter Lunch w/Kenny's parents. Again, Grant hunted eggs and got more Easter Goodies.

We dressed Grant up in a little bunny suit. He was just the cutest little bunny I have ever seen. I have been getting some grief from co-workers on always dressing Grant up for the occasion, so perhaps he is now old enough and I can stop. We'll see...I just can't help myself!

Grant has been "cruising" around furniture since December and we have been waiting for him to "walk," Well, this week, he finally did it...he has started taking about 4-5 steps on his own and will stand in the middle of the room without holding on to anything. It's alot of fun. This week also brought his first bite marks from a classmate. We knew it was only a matter of time. So glad that he was the one bitten and not the biter! And...we now have breakthrough at bedtime. For the past several nights, he has been going to bed in his crib without fussing. It is so nice. My sister told me that one of the things that Grant needs from his parents is consistency, and I believe that is all so true. He is consistently going to bed by 8 p.m. and we got to have some free time. It's wonderful. Who knew being a parent would be this great?

Where did February go?

These last few weeks have been very hectic and not normal. I like normal! However, I really think I have forgotten what normal is!

Let's see...tax season came and went. We started working late around mid February. I got home most evenings around 7:40ish. Sometimes to find that Grant had already gone to sleep or that he was fussy and ready for bed. Its amazing how much I felt like I missed out on him during that time.

Around Valentines Day, Grant started getting sick again. While I was at work, Kenny took Grant to the dr. only to find out that he had Roseola. Roseola? What on earth is that? Well, its a stinkin' virus comes with high fever and a rash. Kenny's mom is usually our back-up for when Grant is too sick to go to daycare, but my in-laws were out of town on a Cruise! Good for them! Bad for Kenny! We were extremely fortunate that Kenny was allowed to work from home that week to care for our little guy. I felt very un-useful. I know that Kenny was tired from working and taking care of Grant, it all takes a toll. Kenny was such a trooper and he will never know how much I appreciate him for all that he does for this family.

Grant went and had his 1st haircut. After being home all week with Grant, Kenny noticed that Grant would pull at his ears and he thought it was because his hair was touching them. So, we went off to get his haircut. He did really well until they turned on the clippers. He looked so cute!

Grant got well, was in daycare for a week, when they showed Kenny a new rash. Oh, that's just lovely! Over the weekend, Grant acted okay, but not his usual self. Sunday night he started getting sick...here we go again. I took him to the doctor and the doc said he has Adenovirus. I could not help it, but when the dr told me that, I giggled. How ridiculous I thought!!!! I did ask about Grant's immune system and he said that it is perfectly normal for a baby that is in daycare. I said, "then why is he getting all these weird viruses?" He said that these were common viruses and that if Grant's immune system was not functioning correctly then there would be some strange things to come his way. Huh?!? I thought these things were strange. Let's see...Roto-Virus, RSV, Roseola and now Adenovirus. Okay, doc! I hope I am not a fool for believing him!

Well, this Adenovirus is very wicked stuff! If you know anyone going thru this...run for the hills! We have all been sick and it seems that it will just be passed back and forth until eternity. It is not easy caring for a sick baby when both parents are too sick to even feel like dying! And no one can help because they caught it too or they don't want to come around for fear of getting sick. Yesterday, there were lots of exploding diapers (we have never experienced this until this weekend!). In fact, one time, we were changing him, unsure of whether to keep him standing or lay him down due to the severity of the blowout, so we left him standing, I ripped off the diaper and started gagging! I paced back and forth a few times and then Kenny yelled at me to leave the room! So, I go get the bath water ready and Kenny informs me that Grant had another blow out while standing and that poo was all over the wall and he managed to pee all over Kenny. It was so caotic that I don't think we even knew what we were doing! I was unable to sleep last night, Grant was up several times, I think it was around 3:30 when I finally told Kenny that I couldn't do it anymore and I went to sleep!

Today things seem better! No bad diapers so far and I actually feel like living! I am keeping my fingers crossed that tonight will be wonderful and that Grant can return to daycare tomorrow and we can resume some NORMALCY! Yay! That would be so nice!

Super Bowl Weekend

We have had a great weekend. Saturday we just stayed at home, ran errands and cooked. Today, we tried really hard to make it to the 9:00 a.m. church service, but we were so sleepy. So, we slept in until 9:00 (Grant slept in too - its a miracle) and went to the 11:00 service. It was really good and we are so glad we went. On the way home, we saw tons of smoke from behind Walmart. I kept telling Kenny that I thought the new elemetary school or high school was on fire. He kept telling me that I was wrong and we kept going back and forth, when we arrived in our neighborhood, we saw that it was a huge grass fire just a few streets over. Sure does make you appreciate the fireman (paid and volunteer). We see this stuff on the news but this time, it was just a little too close to home. We could see the flames and that it was widespread. It was a very windy day and we were so thankful that the houses were spared. We heard on the news that it destroyed 100 - 150 acres. Yikes!

Tonight, we went to Kim and Doug's house for a Super Bowl Party. We had a great time. Kenny is happy that his team won and mine lost! Grant had a good time being right in the middle of everyone.

On the way home as we were pulling into our neighborhood, we saw a firetruck go by with the lights on. I told Kenny that my heart sank a little bit and he said his did too. We drove back over to the field and could not see any flames. We are hoping that the firemen were there as a precaution. Sure hope so!

Ice Day in January

You know how you have a day (especially an ice day) and you think, oh, a simple day at home. Well, not happening today. We woke up to find that our TV that is barely a year old and has the red led light bulb burned out on it (we think) - no one will come to Forney to fix it and when you have a ridiculously big screen TV like we do, its hard to take it in. However, that will have to be the case and I have a feeling that it won't be cheap! So, Grant is watching Sesame Street with no red color in the picture. We are wondering if he can tell the difference.

Kenny has called several places and they say they can come out to fix it and when they ask where we live, they say, oh, Forney...yeah, we don't come out that way. Of course they don't. Kenny said, "why on earth did we move to Forney?" All I could do was laugh. Sometimes you just have to laugh it out.

Grant was unable to go to daycare since they are closed due to the weather. I am home with him today and NOTHING seems to be easy. Every time I have fed him today, I have ended up wearing half of the food and during lunch he grabbed the spoon and the food went all over him. He is refusing to nap and when I put him in his toddler chair, all he wants to do is hang upside down. I give up on thinking that I am going to get anything accomplished today. We are working on the whole sippy cup thing instead of the bottle and I am done trying for today. Milk seems to go everywhere or Grant just sits there and fusses because he is refusing to drink from it and he wants Milk! Its only 2:00 p.m. - somewhere in this day he has to sleep. And then I will be able to get something accomplished. (As I am finished typing this, I look over and he is asleep - aww, he's so cute!) Whoo hoo! Now I can do what I want!

We will keep you posted on the TV ordeal and the sippy cup progress!

January

We have had a pretty good month. Grant has recovered from his RSV. Seems like he always has a runny nose or cough, but I think that is the life of an infant in DayCare. We spent the first two weekends keeping Grant at home and away from being out in public. We felt like the longer we could keep him home, hopefully the better he would get.

Levi spent the weekend of the 16th with us. We had so much fun and was really glad that he wanted to be with us. He helped Kenny finish the "sand box" in the back yard. No, it's not a Sandbox, it is how Kenny leveled the back yard so we could have (another) above ground pool this summer.

We met Crystal and Aaron at Snuffer's that Saturday night. Crystal is one of my oldest and dearest friends, I just NEVER get to see her. This was Aaron's first time to meet Grant and it was Crystal's second time. We had a good time, it was way past time that we got together. Hopefully, it will not be another 10 months until we see each other. The rest of the weekend was spent with Levi and Kenny mainly playing Wii during every waking hour. I have no idea how many stores we went to just to find the game Mario Kart. Sure glad we FINALLY found it!

This past weekend was pretty low key. Sunday the Proctor family came all the way to Forney for a visit. We love having all of them at the house. They even brought their Lab, Jersey. Grant loved being with all the girls and Aunt Angela got to squeeze her baby! The girls brought Grant his Christmas present, it was his very first "build a bear" - its a soccer player and they named him Robbie Rabe! You gotta love that!

Major Update

It has been a REALLY long time since I have posted anything here. I have received a few comments about me not updating my blog. Well, I really want to keep this up to date but the truth is...life happens!

So, I want to do a little re-cap of what all has been going on since the last time I blogged. Let's see...

For Halloween, Grant was a Monkey and our dog Meggie, was a Banana! We had a great time with the both of them. We took them to a few houses close to home.

Halloween weekend Aunt YaYa (Kim) stayed with us and we had fun shopping and hanging out. It was this weekend that Grant got his 1st tooth! How exciting!

The 1st weekend in November we hit the road on our first Road Trip as a family. We went to Mena, Arkansas and drove the Talimena Trail over into Oklahoma. The fall foliage was simply beautiful. Grant and I got our picture taken with some biker dudes who were very friendly. We drove on over to Dad's house and stayed the rest of the weekend with him. Grant got to go visit his Great Great Uncle Archie and Aunt Ethel. I know they were thrilled to finally get to meet him. Grant started crawling a little bit right there in their living room floor. We made it home late Sunday.

Grant attended his very 1st Birthday Party. His little buddy Stephen turned 2 years on November 25th. Stephen is my best friend, Rachel's little boy. It is so neat to still be close friends after 14 years of friendship and now we get to figure out together this thing called raising Children. Such fun.

Grant's 1st Thanksgiving was very good. He had his own Turkey Dinner, Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans and some of his Mama's homemade Banana Pudding. We spent thanksgiving with Kenny's family. And of course, I met up with my Sister and went shopping on Friday. Grant and Kenny got to sleep in while Mama was out spending money! Yay!

Visit to Santa! Aunt YaYa, Uncle Doug and Levi kept Grant one Saturday and Saturday night while Kenny and I went on a date to Dakota's resturant and then to the Dallas Symphony to hear the Christmas Pops. While Grant was with Kim and Doug, they took him to see Santa. Grant was not scared, just good and happy as always. Levi was such a good sport, he even got in the picture with Grant! Levi is such a sweet little man. I am looking forward to Grant learning alot from Levi as Grant grows up.

December flew by and before we knew it...it was Christmas time. On Christmas Eve we went to church. Kenny's parents came with us and they got to see the church that we have recently joined. We are so thankful to have a church home. After the Christmas Eve Service, we headed to Richard and JoAnn's house for Chili. We ate Chili for Supper and Birthday Cake for dessert.(Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting - according to Kenny - that's the cake Jesus would eat on His birthday!)

On Christmas Day, Grant woke up to find that Santa had been here. He got a big fluffy dog, an outdoor swing, a walker/car to ride on, several DVD and an activity dashboard for the car seat.

Obviously Grant does not know who Santa is or what it is all about but...Mommy and Daddy do and I think this was simply the best Christmas that I have had in years!

Around noon the Rabe family made their way over to our house and we had our Christmas together and snacked and just enjoyed being together. Our nephew Taylor and Grant are really quite a pair together. We can tell that Grant thinks Taylor is pretty much it! David and Taylor gave Grant his first soccer ball and cones. So, as soon as Grant is ready he can begin learing to dribble. Grant was dressed in a Santa suit and looked oh so cute!

Saturday after Christmas, my family came over and we had our Christmas with the Rivers family. Kim and Doug made sure that they gave Grant plenty of toys and that all of those toys made noise. They kept saying something about payback. I can't imagine that as a teenager, I would buy my nephew toys that made noise. Dad and Eve came here from Oklahoma. Grant got a Jeep Wagon from PawPaw. Levi got a Wii from PawPaw and EVERYONE loved playing with it. Our time with our families sure did seem to go by fast!

Grant has been battling colds, ear infections, etc. It seems like we can't get him well and keep him well. On December 30th, we took Grant into the Pulmonologist because he had developed a cough, runny nose and fever. They did a little test and determined that he has RSV. RSV is a Respiratory Virus that affects the lungs of young ones. They say it is really hard on them to get over this stuff and that it is highly contagious.

We spent New Year's Eve at home, doing nothing and ringing in the New Year with a Breathing Treatment. Grant has been really good at doing all of the breathing treatments and as of Sunday, I finally feel like he is getting better. Grant will be out of daycare for a total of 3 weeks before he returns. We really need him to get well and stay well. This little guy has been through so much stuff lately and everyone tells me that the first year is difficult when they are in day care because they are building their immune system. I sure hope they are right! I am ready for this year to be over with so we can move on!

Here is a picture of Grant taken this evening, 1/12/09 showing off his happy self and his teeth!