Farewell 2013

I have  a lot of blogging to do to catch up on some pretty awesome trips and a fabulous Christmas.  I try not to get ahead of myself on this blog, but tonight I am feeling nostalgic so I am going to bid farewell to a wonderful year through the pictures of my life.   We have a lot to be grateful for this very Gradyful year (yes, 95% of the pictures I take are of my one and only Grady).  We were blessed with much love and laughter and that is about all we can ask for.  Thanks for being so good to us 2013.  Wishing all of our friends and family a happy new year - Cheers!

It is beginning to look...

. . . a lot like Christmas.  It is definitely Christmas time around here and all signs point to full festive mode! Life is busy and good.  I never love our house more than when there is a big beautiful Christmas tree right in the middle of it. Grady's broken ornament tally is at 3 and climbing steadily (I swear he grows taller every night). Grady's  love of Santa tally is at a .5, he loves him on his placement and proudly moves his plate to uncover Santa and say "ou ou ou", but the big guy in person might as well be the devil to him.  Above all else Gradyman is in to sledding.  Even in our freezing cold temps, he is loving being pulled around in his sled and will even sit in the sled inside hoping to get pulled "outsigh", said while pointing (or pounding depending on the mood) on the door.  When you remind Grady that Jesus is the reason for the season he repeats "G", "G" and points to the G in his room.  Oh Grady boy, enjoying this season with you is so much fun.

Picking out the tree, he loved roaming the grounds and making sure everyone knew the campfire was "hot hot hot!"

In all her glory (insert happy sigh here).

Inspecting the tree with . . . 

. . . and without clothes has become a daily ritual.

My other favorite tree, the new addition to our BACK yard.  I would highly recommend backyard lights, it makes the house seem even more festive from the inside.

Whenever I notice these two are matching, I cannot help but force a picture no matter how bad it turns out.

There is lots of the white stuff to make the Christmas season look like it should!

Nothing will stop the jumping G!  A trampoline with snow = more fun.

"Mo mo mo" sledding all day long if he could.

I cannot wait to visit Santa in his cozy house again next year! Heck, I have contemplated going back this year for a better picture.   No line here... not one single person.... but the line was also outside and it was 10 degrees.
 

Grady was so terrified, it didn't even look like him.

100 Things 2013 & Thanksgiving

In keeping with tradition, here is my list of 100 things that I am grateful for.  Some are big, some are small and they are in no particular order.  I didn't read the lists from prior years, but now that this is done, it will be fun to go back and see how my perspective and life has changed.  Here are the links to the previous year's lists: 2011, 2012.

1. Mrs. Rachel - heaven sent, seriously
2. The village that is helping to raise our son
3. Our little family and our big family
4. My 801 girls
5. Watermelon sorbet with fresh fruit on a hot summer night
6. NPR, especially Story Corp.  
7. Our armed service members who sacrifice so much for the freedoms that I admittedly take for granted more than I should 
8. College football
9. The privilege of being a mom
10. Visits with friends from near and far
11. Sound advice and good laughs from other moms
12. Our BSU Broncos, still love you guys!
13. Watching a game from the skybox, so exciting for us!
14. Hot dogs - Grady loves them and  I have found a new love for them as well
15. Chapstick 
16. The first morning frost
17. Hot air balloons and the magic they bring to all
18. The Piano Guys 
19. Amazing coworkers who are my friends and my daily support
20. The Whitfields moving to Boise and that Grady having local cousins
21. Bubble bath
22. The Blacklist - you should watch if you can tolerate it
23. The tradition of birthday streamers and mocking signs in our house
24. Being able to build our dream backyard
25. Swim days
26. Spring flower bulbs
27. Peonies  - I was jealous of all the pictures I saw this year so planted my first one.  Fingers crossed it actually grows.
28. Seeing how much Grady's grandparents adore him and how much he adores them
29. The fun we had at the Sawtooth Relay (and the fact that I survived the race)
30. Our health
31. The happy folks at the Starbucks drive through, I always drive away feeling grateful for them and remembering to be kind and joyful
32. Coffee
33. The joy of rediscovering children's literature like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlotte's Web, and James and the Giant Peach
34. Grady's new affinity for YouTube (Baby Einsteins and Elmo's world) and the time it can buy me :)
35. Morning chats with my sis
36. Watching my baby grow every single day
37. Little Gym and our wonderful teacher Mrs. Nicole
38. The Tokyo Salad from Lucky Fins - highly recommend it
39. Hot cider on a cold day
40. Our crazy Bella dog
41. Aviccii -Wake Me Up When its All Over 
42. Bacon
43. Pumpkin patches
44. Bath time splashes - they are big and boisterous in our house I don't mind that my floor is sopping wet every night
45. My Christopher - the best father and husband we could ask for 
46. Two Erickson visits this year!
47. Zoo Boise
48. Watching our crazy Bella dog become an expert swimmer this summer
49. Watching Grady fall in love with Priest Lake like we have
50. Tolerant, gracious, kind, good listening friends
51. Christmas lights
52. Seeing FUN in concert
53. Seeing Zac Brown Band in concert and going to the Eat and Greet - so cool!
54. Date nights!  Halleluijia
55. Hand-me-downs
56. Little boys in hats
57. Grady's red baby cheeks, I could kiss them all day long
58. Costco wired ribbon
59. King Crab with hot melted butter
60. Fresh unmarked snow
61. Our Kuerig
62. Hearing Grady say a new word for the first time
63. Mint Oreos dipped in milk
64. My ailing camera, you have been so good to me little camera
65. The pure joy of watching Grady smash cake into his face 
66. Chicago Connection pepperoni and pineapple pizza
67. The special scoreboard message to Grady at his first Giants Game - what a treat!
68. Going back to the SCU campus for the wedding of a dear friend
69. Our trampoline, perfect for our jumping boy!
70. Lunch dates
71. Hot breakfast, I cannot name a cold breakfast that I really like
72. NBC Nightly News
73. My new mommy magnet board
74. The Greenbelt
75. Public parks
76. Boise's gorgeous autumn season
77. Perfect strangers who try to entertain a fussy toddler on planes, in stores, etc.  Thank God for you you precious souls.  I wont' comment on the other type of folks.
78. Free 
79. Dan Patrick morning radio show
80. The River 94.9, streaming live
81. Mountain air
82. The sound of Quaking Aspens
83. Sharing a drink in the hot tub with my huz 
84. Walking down from our house to get breakfast, my idea of a perfect morning
85. Picasa online photo-backup, without it we would have lost everything this year
86. The beautiful North Carolina beaches
87. Mindlessly thumbing through paper catalogs
88. Good Bye in Her Eyes
89. My new work bag and the capacity it has to hold more stuff
90. Randomly finding suckers and the random kid toys in my pockets
91. Free babysitting from my mom
92. Sushi
93. 60 Minutes
94. Waterproof mascara
95. Chocolate covered strawberries
96. Colored athletic socks
97. The way my Uggs feel when I slip into them for the first time each year
98. Snowberry scent from Scentsy
99. Soaking off a tough day in my bathtub
100. Cuddling with my baby boy in his rocking chair, the one and only time I get to cuddle with him

We had a pretty darn good Thanksgiving too.  I started the morning by taking a picture of our little turkey reminiscing about how Thanksgiving morning two years ago we were happily surprised to find out that Grady was on his way. I love that Thanksgiving will always remind me of that exciting time in our lives and I am so happy that this little man is ours.  We thank God every day for blessing us with the little boy who we know was supposed to be our son.

 We continued the morning with a fun game of flag football and some exploring adventures for Grady in the coolest backyard in town.

Then we stuffed our faces and Grady discovered just how much he loves Jello jigglers.

We headed to McCall where we continued to stuff our faces, enjoy good family time and bring in the Christmas season with the official tree lighting in downtown McCall.

We are thankful.

Jumping G

We've been enjoying the last days of no jackets and our jumping bean has used them to perfect his new "feet off the ground" jump on the trampoline.  He has also perfected this skill in his crib, on the couch, and on pretty much anything that will give him a little bounce. 

This so captures our son.

He's also been perfecting his sliding, running, and tether ball skills.  I think our baby is officially gone and our little boy is here!

Gradysaurus

This year our little Gradyman was a Gradysaurus for Halloween.   I took some costume pictures the weekend before Halloween and I think I will have to remember to do that every year, because I didn't take a single picture on the actual day of Halloween.  We participated in Boo at the Zoo and we lasted in the huge crowds about as long as it takes to pet the goats and then headed over the adjacent park for some crowd-free play and pictures.  Even though Grady's costume took on the flavor of an alien from some perspectives, I still thought he was the cutest dino out there.

The actual day of Halloween 2013 didn't live up to all my expectations.  The day of Halloween was met with work projects that demanded more time than we'd like, a cranky dinosaur, a broken camera, and just one too many things that shouted in our face, "just surrender all those hopes and dreams of a festive Halloween night and move on."  So we did.  Next year I vow to lower expectations and plan a much lower key day.   Happy Halloween! :)

In other news we've been on the hunt for red October with walks by the river and watching our maples show off from our own house.  October is hands down the prettiest month in the city of trees.

Chris may not have the same fondness that I do for October.

Cozy little walk by the river with the gang. . . . .

Two kids were great on this walk, one made it very clear to his parents that he is not ready to give up his morning nap.

We also made time for some hasty pumpkin carving.  Grady was obsessed with the actual carving process and refused to walk around the house insisting instead to sit on the island and watch the pumpkins come to life.  Next year, I think I will have to up the pumpkin carving ante based on the awesome designs we saw from others. 

Happy end of October, from our gang to yours. 

(PS - we learned this week that Bella may be benefitting a ltitle too much from cleaning up after Grady.  She gained 10 pounds this year!)