Christmas with the Grady's

Today we officially celebrated Christmas with the Grady family. We started off the morning with some picture taking and then opened gifts. Here is Grady with Lucas, Addison and Dawson.

Here Grady is taking his afternoon nap with Grandma Jeanette. He started the nap off with Grandpa but then ended up getting to snuggle with Grandma.

After a long day with the family, Grady needed yet another nap before bedtime. Addison, Grady's cousin had received a baby bed for her "child". It was just the right size for Grady, so we decided to try him in there for a few pictures.

Spending the day with the Moseley family

After a leisure morning, we ended up at Grandma and Grandpa Moseley's house for the afternoon/evening. The kids played outside in the snow and then came in for supper.

Here I had just finished feeding Grady and was burping him. His cousins, Lindsay and Oscar wondered why I did this. As I explained it to them, they wanted to share in the fun - here they are trying to burp Grady. It worked...he burped.

Here we are trying to figure out seating arrangements for supper. All the seats were taken, so we ended up putting Grady in the corner in his car seat. He ended up falling asleep while we ate. It was a good way to have him with us even though he could not sit at the table.

Christmas Evening with the Moseley's

Christmas evening we spent with the Moseley's. Everyone was home for the holidays so we were able to spend some great quality time with everyone. All of the cousins were able to play. We had supper and then opened gifts. Here Grady is lounging on the floor in his Christmas pj's and Christmas hat.

Here is Grady - he had a full day and so Grandma is rocking him in her rocking chair that Grandpa Steve redid for her. It was a great Christmas present for Grandma Jean.

Here Grady is finally getting his first pictures with Aunt Jenni. She is preganut and will be having a baby girl in March. We are so excited for Grady to have a cousin the same age even though they will be living in Oregon.

Here Aunt Jenni and Oscar are getting ready for a picture with Grady.

Christmas Morning and Afternoon

This is Grady's first Christmas. We had a lot of fun waking him up and getting him ready for the day. To start the morning off, we went to Dad and Jeanette's for the breakfast (monkey bread and a mexican casserole). Grady enjoyed his morning with Grandpa and Grandma. We then went to Dunkerton and had lunch with Jeanette's family. We had not spent a lot of time with them, so it was nice to see them. He slept a lot that morning/afternoon as you can see but he sure enjoyed his time with Grandpa.

Christmas Eve with the Moseley's

Christmas Eve turned out to be a nice quiet night for the Moseley's! Jon and I had been talking and wanting to start our own Christmas tradition with Grady as they years go by. We decided that Christmas Eve would be a night that our family would spend together. We will make a nice meal, play games with our children and open gifts from each other. That way we can spend Christmas day with our parents and siblings. This year however, our nice meal turned out to be a glass of wine and pizza rolls. Maybe next year the meal will be nicer - although who doesn't love pizza rolls...

This Christmas Eve we went to the Christmas Eve service at 1:30pm. This worked well with Grady's schedule - here he is sleeping through the service. He was tired!

Here we are playing on the floor - sorry, I could not get the picture to turn for you.

Hanging out with Grady

Just a few pictures of Grady as he plays throughout the day. By the end of the day, it was bath time and he sure does love bath time! Sometimes though, he almost falls asleep because he has had such a busy day!

A visit with Santa...

Grady was able to meet Santa today. Santa was at the Target Distribution center so Jon brought Grady by so I could then take him home. Grady does well with others holding him - so this wasn't too bad for Santa (this year - next year, well, we will have to see). I think Grady asked to have lots of milk and maybe a little rice cereal for Christmas. Well - the milk part came true because we have increase his ounces in milk per day, but he is still waiting for the rice cereal.

Stephanie is back to work!

I finally am now back to work...Thursday, December 18th was my first day back. The day before, Grady and I went to lunch with Jon and then went to visit him at work. Betty Hollis loves to hold and talk to Grady when he is there - in these pictures she was making him smile and coo - so I quickly snapped the pictures. He really is such a happy baby!

I was excited to go back to work, but I was also very sad! I only cried that night before when I fed Grady his bottle and put him to bed and as I was falling asleep. I dropped him off at Steve and Jean's Thursday morning and cried all the way to work too. Other than that - I have been perfectly fine. Here is a picture of me leaving for work...see how sad I am!

Grady had a good day with his Grandma Jean though. Here she is rocking him to sleep. He isn't much of a napper for her (or for me either). :-)

When Grady is at the Moseley's he gets to come home with daddy - which means he gets to ride in a stinky truck. :-) This is fun for Grady because he gets to ride right next to Jon. Here he is in his first truck ride home.

Yea! I am finally home and Grady is home and we are able to snuggle with our boy! Although he was wanting to play on the floor...all I wanted to do was hug and love on him.

Keller Christmas

Each year Jon's aunts, uncles and cousins (from his mom's side) all get together and have a Christmas gathering/dinner. This year it was in Dallas Center so that his Grandma Anna could make it. It was to be in Hudson this year, but Grandma Anna fell and broke her hip - so the trip to Hudson wouldn't be possible. It was a fun time to see family and for many, it was their first time to get a hold of Grady! Here is Grady and his Great-Grandma Keller.

Oscar, Grady's cousin kept asking Jon lot's of questions about Grady. This was also Oscar's first time to get to meet Grady as he was visiting with his parents from Oregon. Up until now, Oscar only had girl cousins...so now he has another boy to play with when he comes to visit Iowa.

Grady and Konner are about 3 or 4 weeks apart. Konner belongs to Jon's cousin. It was fun to see the difference between the two. Grady is such a big boy! :-)

We also tried to get family pictures for Steve and Jean's Christmas card with the grand kids. We ended up taking with with all of us and not just the grand kids. Here Steve and Jean are with all of their Grandchildren...don't they look like happy grandparents!?!

Grady on his way home from his Des Moines trip. He was such a tired little boy! Here he is on the car ride home. He slept the whole way!

Hotel fun!

This weekend Jon, Grady and I headed to Des Moines to get together with Jon's aunts, uncles and cousins - also known as the Keller Christmas. We decided to go down a day earlier to spend some time with friends and ended up staying in a hotel because at the house we were going to crash at, the kids were sick - we were not sure how Grady would do, but I think we were more on edge then he was. Here is Jon and Grady playing in the big king size bed...we gave him a lot of "naked baby time" because he loved sinking into the mattress and it kept him warm.

Here is a quick family shot!

With "naked baby time" came the "peeing all over myself time" - so we needed to give Grady a bath. I ended up having him come into the tub with me and was I nervous! He was such a slippery little guy, but we made it and he got all clean! Whew!

That night, we set up the pack-n-play up in a corner and wondered how we were ever going to sleep. Other than Grady's first night home, he has not slept in the same room as us. We wondered if snoring would keep Grady awake or if Grady's nightly noises would keep us awake. We also wondered how he'd do without music playing...so we found a classical station on the clock radio and put it by his "crib". He slept really well! That morning - I had put him down for a short nap while we were getting ready and I put him on his tummy when I went over to check on him, he was on his side and then rolled to his tummy! He has only done that a few times and it has always been from his tummy to his back. He is such a big boy! Here he is right after he rolled over.

We were getting ready to leave for our Christmas gathering with Jon's family and had to get him all bundled up because it was so cold! I just think he is adorable!

Mommy's new hair

Mom's new hair - TAKE 1

So for Mother's Day this past year, my parents gave me a gift certificate to the place where I get my hair cut and colored. I decided to save it for after Grady was born so I could feel new and fresh as a mom. Well - I took a few pictures in and here is how it turned out.

Mom's new hair - TAKE 2

The color was very dark which I did not mind, but the cut...well I just could not get used to it. I felt like it was a wig and I just was not feeling like a "pretty" mommy. It was just too close to my face and since it is so thick, it just framed my face so much that I felt wierd. So after a week of decisions, I decided to get it recut again! The pictures don't really show it off, but you get the gist. It does look much better on me than the first one. Trust me! Here is the new hair cut...