Birthday Festivities

Colin's birthday took place over a few weeks, lucky boy!

When Grandma was here for Thanksgiving she gave Colin his presents!

First, an explanation.

For months, Colin has been asking for the most random assortment of things for his birthday.  

Here is his list: a dark red suitcase, a lucky coin, a police badge, Legos, and a red watch.

What did Grandma get him?

A dark red suitcase, a red Spiderman watch, and police badges! That's one happy boy!

Colin requested a "chocolate dinosaur cake" and I think I did an awesome job delivering!  

For Colin's actual birthday, we gave him his present - a Lego table filled with Legos from Nana and mommy and daddy! Instead of an actual party, we had lunch at McDonald's with all of his buddies. A perfect treat for a bunch of four year olds!

Colin is Four!

Oh man - this boy!

He keeps us on our toes, that's for sure!

Colin is such a wonderful little guy who has so much personality and such a big heart.

He is bright, funny, quick witted, independent, strong-willed, and very observant.

Of course, he is also incredibly hot tempered, but that's just how us Gradys roll!

About Colin at Four:

• Colin loves his little sister so much and has a great time playing with her! Of course this means she follows his good and bad example!
• Colin is constantly reminding us how smart he is. He remembers the craziest things and makes some amazing connections between things. If he has driven anywhere and then goes there again, he remembers and will tell me where we are in the metroplex.  For example, a few weeks after we bought our minivan we drove past the dealership and he exclaimed "Mom! There's the van store!" He does this all the time and sometimes it will have been months since we have been somewhere and he will remember.
• Colin has a great imagination.  I love to listen to him play when he doesn't know I am around.
• Colin loves to play with his Legos, draw letters (especially his name), ride his scooter, dance, and be crazy!
• Colin tells the silliest stories! He loves to make others laugh so the sillier the better.

We love this boy so much! He turned us into parents for the first time and we love having him in our family. He makes us laugh and he makes us want to tear our hair out! Man, we love this kid!

Thanksgiving

Colin is so funny these days! He won't perform on command (nothing new here) but he also gets weird about events. For example, he threw the biggest tantrum about attending his Thanksgiving feast! I don't know what it was, but the only way to calm him down was to have Reagan wear his cute Pilgrim outfit! this suited Reagan just fine!

Grandma and Grandpa flew down for Thanksgiving and we had such a great week together! Karen was kind enough to host Thanksgiving dinner and we had fun hanging out, eating, and watching the kids play together.  These cousins have so much fun!

Grandma helped the kids make their cute turkey oreo place settings, which were really just an excuse to eat candy and cookies.

Before dinner we enjoyed the warm day and headed to a fun park!

This cute fire truck is on springs and daddy bounced it all around!

The next day, we went to Urban Air Trampoline Park and had the time of our lives playing dodge ball, jumping into a foam pit (even Grandma!), shooting hoops, and running/bouncing up and down the trampoline court! In fact, we were having so much fun we didn't take any pictures!

While the adults were napping, the kids played with our magnetic dress up dolls and colored.

That night, Dylan spent the night and that morning we went to Bass Pro Shop to shoot guns!

Saturday afternoon, Grandma watched the kids while we all went to the movies! Free babysitting is the best! Thank you Grandma!

November Fun

I just love our little family and all the fun we have!

November started out with a bang at Colin's preschool's fall festival complete with carnival games and train and pony rides. You can just tell Colin is having the time of his life!

I love watching Reagan eat! She gets so much joy out of it and who doesn't love scarfing down corn on the cob two fists at a time?

Even though Colin and I spend a fair amount of time at odds, he is still my favorite little guy and I love when he asks for a hug or a snuggle! Any time, buddy!

While Kevin was out of town for a business trip, I painted my craft room ALL BY MYSELF!!

This was huge for me because normally I pay for someone to paint or my mom does it.

To be honest, I have always been intimidated by the process and too afraid to screw it up myself.  So many of my friends are amazing DIYers and so I thought that if I was ever going to learn, I had to give it a go! So, I taped, painted, and learned so much along the way! Like for starters, painting a ceiling is tough and so messy! You even get paint in your eyes! I also learned that you don't have to tape before you paint the ceiling, just after!

Seriously, I was getting paint out of my hair for weeks!

I am still working on decorating, but it is coming along! And because I have done almost everything myself (chose, bought, and built the furniture and painted the walls/ceiling by myself) I can truly claim it as my own! Sorry, honey!

Riding scooters is a serious business at our place!

We got our family pictures taken and this one is my favorite! It just sums up their relationship so well!

Mary Kay rents out Six Flags for a family picnic every November and we were excited to take the kids! They had so much fun on all the rides! We probably would have stayed longer, but it was freezing that day!

With all of Reagan's new coloring books and art supplies, the kids spend a lot more of their time coloring! I love it!

Colin can even spell his name!

(It looks like he drew an animal but that is just coincidence and is just a very long squiggly line!)

We got our first "snow" of the season (it was just a dusting that didn't stick, but we enjoyed it nonetheless).  In fact, it was so cold in Dallas that when Kevin got home from his trip to Moscow, it was colder here than there!

This is what we call, trying to get a rise out of your wife.

What do a bunch of happily married men do when they go to a hockey game together? Dare each other to take picture with cheerleaders and send the pictures back to their wives.

And what do the wives do? They pretend that it doesn't bother them and then secretly get revenge! Mwhahahahah! 

 

We love going to games with friends and have been  blessed to be invited to so many! Thank you guys!

Guess what? It was also our anniversary! Nine years! Goes by so fast!

We went to see Interstellar which was the first movie we had seen in six months! 

The movie was fantastic but the company was better.  I am really am so blessed to have married as well as I did. Kevin is such a great husband (when he isn't taking pictures with half naked cheerleaders) and an amazing father. He is my best friend, my confidante, and my favorite person ever. He is smart and funny and I love him very much.

Reagan is Two!

Reagan turned two on November 16th and to celebrate this little girl got a whole new wardrobe full of clothes that finally fit her! Between the change of seasons and the fact that she is growing like a weed (as evidenced by her astounding growth chart topping stats!), she had nothing to wear besides shirts that revealed her adorable, yet immodest, tummy worn over onesies that gave her wedgies, I am sure, and pants that acted more like capris! 

Reagan is wearing her new birthday dress, shoes from Nana, and accessories from Grandma

So Reagan and I had our first mother-daughter shopping spree at the outlets and it was so much fun! Normally, I pick up a few items of clothing here and there, so it was nice to get it all at once!

Plus, I can't keep this girl in shoes that fit, so thankfully Nana sent several pairs of adorable shoes for her to choose from every day!

Two Year Old Stats 

Height: 38 inches (well above 98%)

Weight: 31.5 lbs (95%)

Head: 49 cm (90%)

About Reagan at Two:

• Reagan has developed the most adorable lingo for everything and is beginning to speak in short sentences.  My favorite sentence right now is "Cahgah bapple goo" which translates to "Colin's apple juice" and "neemo bapper poo" which means "Nemo diaper for the pool" (referring to her Nemo swim diaper)
• New words include "mah-hoe-nee" (macaroni) which used to be called "chee pot" (cheese pot, or mac n' cheese in the pot)
• Favorite phrases: "Hey mom-my, hey!" "See you, mom-my!" (when she sneaks behind something and then peaks out) "I-nee-dit!" (when she wants something) "I-di-dit mommy!" (when she accomplishes something)
• Reagan is still as clumsy as ever! I swear she runs into everything! The poor thing runs everywhere but never looks where she is headed! Plus she trips over herself and always seems to be right behind me as I step or turn. I think half the time I am injuring her and the other half is her!
• Reagan is still in a mommy stage and demands a "nuggle" (snuggle) session before bed where we sit and rock for a minute in her dark room.  I love this little ritual but daddy feels quite left out.  Thankfully if I am not present, she goes to bed just fine without it. 
• Reagan still loves her accessories and getting all dressed up
• Reagan has started saying prayers and is so sweet to listen to as she repeats what we say
• She has started getting into trouble recently and has joined the ranks of kids that go to time out. Unfortunately, she also thinks this is hilarious and although she sits in her spot (on the bed in the guest room) she doesn't look too put out about it (You would think Colin were being tortured. When she is done, she walks right out of there calmly and says her required apologies without any fuss.  It is almost a pleasant experience! Of course, when Colin is in timeout, she usually ends up joining him for fun and vice versa.
• These kids love each other so much! Reagan has started calling Colin "My Cah-gah!" 
• Reagan still wears a diaper ("bapper") but she recognizes when she is "Nee-Nee" (stinky) and when she is "wet!" because she "peet!"
• Just like her brother, she loves to read books ("buht") and especially loves her dinosaur books (How Does a Dinosaur...)
• Reagan LOVES art! For her birthday we gave her lots of fun art supplies inside an adorable black and pink polka dot suitcase.  She loves to "co-wher" (color).
• Reagan is still learning her animals and sounds and for some reason even though she knows what they are, she calls most of them cows! A horse is never a horse, mind you, but always a cow!
• Reagan loves it when we jump out and spook her and will say "Kare me!" (scare me)
• On the other hand, she is afraid of one thing right now - shadows! One day she saw hers and Colin's shadows under the jumpoline and was afraid, and ever since then we have been working with her to see that they aren't scary. One day while facetiming with my mom she noticed her shadow  ("kared!"), and so I had my mom make shadow puppets to show how silly they can be.  Since then, she notices them but doesn't cling to me and cry "kared" like she did.

I cannot even express how much we love this little girl. She brings such joy into our life and we adore her to pieces! She is brave and silly and so charming! Her laugh can make your day brighter and her tears can bring you to tears too.  Stop growing, Reagan! I can't have my little baby growing up so fast!

What happens when daddy tries to hold her for a picture! Ha!