It's our Anniversary!

Today Tim and I celebrate our 5th and 6th year wedding anniversary. The first wedding didn't take, so we had to do it again. Haha!! 6 years ago, on November 1st, Tim asked my dad if he could marry me, and 20 days later we were at the JP getting hitched! You see, at that time, I was working for USAA in San Antonio and Tim was in his last year at Ball State and in the National Guard. He got orders to deploy to Bosnia in January, so he wanted us to be married before he left to make sure I was taken care of. Well, long story short, his orders were canceled and he wasn't deploying to Bosnia. He hadn't registered for classes and had given up his place to live. At that point we weren't too good at problem solving and were floundering and decided he should move down to San Antonio and join the National Guard unit down there. A few months later he received another set of orders to deploy to Iraq with the new unit and would be leaving shortly after our "real" wedding. So, needless to say we were married twice; once by the JP and once by my dad, Deacon Dan.
We have been through a lot in our marriage but have done it all hand in hand. We have weathered 2 deployments, 3 cross country moves, 2 child births without pain medications, the buying and selling of a business, some really great vacations and road trips, squeezing 2 adults, 2 rambunctious boys, a dog and a cat into a 2 bedroom apartment and now LPN school for Tim. It has been a wonderful journey thus far and I can honestly say that I fall in love with Tim a little more each day. He is an amazing man and I am so thankful that he picked me! Here are some pictures from our big church wedding, 5 years ago. I don't think I have any on the computer from the JP wedding.

Happy Venterans Day!

Today is veterans day, on a side note it is also my brothers birthday-Happy Birthday Doug! The army has so kindly given Tim the day off, so he is home with us today. We had made plans to go downtown to visit some memorials and go to a museum, but the weather is cold and rainy and we decided to stay home instead. So, of course me being me, I decided it would be a great day for chores. I tasked Tim with occupying the kids while I clean and as I'm elbows deep scrubbing the bathtub I was thinking how great this was that I can get the bathrooms cleaned lickitey split with Tim home! Then I thought back to all the time that Tim has spent over in Iraq fighting this war and I couldn't help but think how thankful I am to have him home-not just today, but every day that he is here and not deployed. He has been deployed for 2 1/2 of the past 5 years leaving for his second deployment when Brady was 6 months old and coming home when he was almost 2--20 months old! It is really exciting for him to be home now to experience all of Graysons first year milestones and not to have to experience them through photos and movies. We have now been together in the same house for a year and a half which is the longest period of time of our 5 year marriage we have been in the same house together! I am now figuring out how handy he is! This guy can fix anything from a lamp, to a bathroom sink to a car! He's amazing! I am so thankful for him to be a veteran twice over but to have had him come home safely to me and our family. I still can't imagine how he could so selfishly put himself in harms way twice and think nothing of it except for that he was "just doing his job". But as I sit here and write this I cannot help thinking that another deployment is inevitable. And I just continue to live in the moment each day we have as a family and continue to be hopeful that we can always be so lucky. What a lucky Army we have to have him serving our country. Have you thanked a vet today?

Grayson Baby

I noticed recently that I haven't posted much about Grayson. Believe it or not he will be 6 months old on November 13th. I can't believe it! He has changed so much in these past 6 months, but one thing has stayed the same...he is such a good baby! He really has made it very easy to go from one to two kids. Some of his favorite things include:

1. eating-the kid never misses a meal!
   
2. sleeping-this comes in a close second as he is known to pass up a meal for more snoozing
   
3. his big brother-Brady was the first person to bring out his big belly laughs and he never gets tired of watching him and interacting with him
4. his hands and feet
5. his exer-saucer
6. splashing around in the tub

At this point he has accomplished many milestones:

1. rolling over-front to back and back to front
2. he has discovered his hands and his feet which are both always in his mouth!
3. he can hold onto his toys and play with them now and is in-as Tim calls it-"Operation put everything in my mouth" mode.
   
4. he has his 2 bottom teeth
5. he is sleeping in his big boy crib
6. he is sleeping through the night-from 8 pm-8 am and has been since 6 weeks!
   
7. he is down to 3 feedings/day and is still nursing
8. and most notably started eating solids 2 1/2 weeks ago and is doing awesome! He has rice cereal 2 x/day and apple sauce (made from the apples from the orchard I might add) 3 x/day. At first he didn't like the apple sauce and made a funny sour face and shook his head. But he quickly decided they weren't so bad. Next week we will start vegetables. I'm making all his baby food and got this really cool steamer/blender called Baby Cook by Beaba. I love it! It is so easy!
   

This past 6 months has really flown by and I just can't believe how quickly they grow up! He is such a love and so much fun to hug, kiss and cuddle and Brady absolutely adores his little brother still! I say little brother, but I must tell you that our little butterball is not so little. This kid is growing by leaps and bounds. He was just in the Dr. for a sty on his eye and they weighed him and was at 16 lbs 12 oz! He has his well baby next week and I am very interested to see where he is at on the growth charts. At 4 months he was in the 75th %-ile for height, weight and head circumference. He is now wearing 9 month size clothes! We keep joking that he is going to be the line backer and Brady will be the quarterback! Haha! So here are some fun pics of our little guy that just haven't quite made it to the blog.

He was only 3 months old here so I didn't have him buckled in. The longer he swang the further he slid down. His arms stuffed behind him crack me up.

I went in to check on him one evening and this is what I found-check out his big toe!
Wouldn't this drive you nutts?! And he just sleeps away!

Cute little outfit from my Aunt Cindy. He was 3 months old here and this is a 6 month outfit.

Hangin out in his football duds watching college football. Go Notre Dame!

He has such a soft heart. Brady was making roaring Lion noises which scared Grayson and made him cry. So cute!

He gets so excited when he gets in his exer-saucer!

Brady was pushing all the buttons and dancing for Grayson and it was just cracking Grayson up!

Hangin out looking cute while brother and Daddy carved pumpkin.

His newest trick in the bouncy seat. He tries to roll over and escape!

Second time in the swings at the park. He giggled and laughed the whole time!

First solids.

Spooky Halloween!

I started asking Brady about a month ago what he wanted to be for Halloween and he kept saying a ghost. I thought he was just being silly, but when the time came to actually pick out a costume, sure enough, that's what he wanted to be. I found that ghost costumes are in short supply and I knew he wouldn't wear a sheet with eyes cut out over his head. So we got creative. I came up with the "design" and got the materials and Tim put it together for me- such a good Daddy! I think it came out pretty dang cute. He got to wear his costume to school on Thursday and they had a cute little parade. Then on Saturday for trick or treating our family friends, Dan and Cathy, invited us down to their house in Northern VA so Brady didn't have to trick or treat in "the ghetto". Heehee!! She made a favorite dish of Brady's-macaroni and cheese and turkey dogs before he headed out for some tricks or treats. Both boys had a blast! Brady got a bucket full of candy and Grayson squealed and kicked his legs and blew bubbles the whole time! And where was Tim you ask? Well I surprised him with tickets to the Notre Dame game in San Antonio at the Alamo Dome. So, while me and the boys were out trick or treating, he was down in TX at the game with my dad. They had a great time and tried to drink all the beer in the stadium! They were both a little drunk to say the least! Tim was a little "under the weather" the next day. How embarrassing he says!

Carving pumpkins. This picture cracks me up because he still has chocolate all over his face from sneaking into his candy from Mimi!

Mommy and Daddy's pumpkin. We shared one this year.

Putting the monster parts into Brady's pumpkin.

Pumpkin according to Brady.

Pumpkin according to Daddy.

Daddy the seamstress.

Finished product--Spooky ghost! He was saying "Booo!"
Halloween parade at nursery school.
Half class photo. Trying to get 12, 3 year olds to stand still for a picture was pretty comical and impossible!
Jack-o-lantern cookies I made for Brady's friends at school.

Painting his face a ghostly white before heading out for tricks or treats.

Heading out for tricks or treats! It sprinkled on us a bit, but it was nice and warm so it wasn't bad.

Brady and his bucket o candy. On the way home, he says "Thanks for taking me to trick or treat mom", totally un-prompted. It just melts your heart!

My handy work. I made an apple pie with the apples from the orchard. It looked so pretty-I had to take a picture. :)