January 2012

January was pretty low key.  This month Grady’s talking increased exponentially it seemed.  Some of our favorite quotes were saying “Ha Ha” when he found something, “don’t touch” when he didn’t like what we were trying to get him to do, “Woo Hoo” when he was excited, “Yep” for everything, “I cry” after getting upset, and he switched from “Ma-Ma” to Mom-meee”!   His favorite car riding song is currently “we are the dinosaurs” and he is now in a big boy (toddler) bed.  He is sleeping a lot better too…I think he hated being trapped in the crib!  He has also started potty training and is doing great.  We just need to transition to the big potty and take it public, and I think we’ll have it pretty much done!

Averie also loves singing in the car and she has started telling jokes too…she is pretty funny these days!  She has learned the months of the year and can write names like Averie, Grady, Lala, Pop and Lexie without any help now.  She loves writing to her pen pal, Lexie, and has also made a new friend, Ava, at school.  They hit it off immediately and are almost inseparable. 

The other big news this month was that we finally sold our house in Houston!  Woo Hoo!!  We also celebrated Lala's birthday and Lala and Pop's 30th anniversary!

Averie introducing Grady to the potty chair!

Warm enough to ride bikes in January!

Nice to get outside!

Averie loves to paint!

Grady's having fun too!

Shhh...I'm wearing underwear!!

My Valentines!

December 2011

We started out December on a sad note.  Great-Grandad Heald (aka Woo Woo) passed away on December 5.  We were all very sad to see him go but we did have a great celebration of his life.  It was wonderful to see so many family members that we hadn’t seen in a very long time.  The best part was seeing Averie with the other ’07 kids.  She really hit it off with Lexie and it was as if they had know each other their whole lives.  They are now pen pals and having lots of fun keeping in touch!  I know their great-grandparents would be so proud of them!

Lexie and Averie

Dancing

Hudson, Parker, Lexie, Averie, Ashton, Sami, Tatum, Grady, Weston

On Monday, December 12th, Grady turned 2!  It’s amazing how fast these 2 years have gone.  We celebrated with friends on Saturday at Gymboree where he had a train themed party, since Thomas the Tank Engine is his new favorite thing.  We also had a family lunch at Red Robin and then lots of presents.  He and I had a pretty low key play day on his actual birthday…we were worn out from the weekend!  Grady got a nice train set and lots of Thomas (“Tomo”) and James (“Jim”) trains.  Now, he wants to play with the new train set all the time and has taken over the front room, now known as “The Train Room.” 

Excited for his big day!

Thomas Cake!

Birthday Boy!

Party at Gymboree!

Happy 2!

Loved playing balloons!

Grady's 2nd Birthday!

Grady's 2nd Birthday!

Part of Grady's train set.

Good Morning 2 Year Old!

Happy 2nd Birthday Grady!

Both kids were super excited for Christmas.  Grady was constantly pointing out the Thomas and Mater tree ornaments and Averie couldn’t stop talking about Santa coming to visit and bringing her a princess castle.  They loved finding Dee Dee, our elf, every morning but Averie was not convinced he watched everything she did and reported back to Santa because “Dee Dee can’t even turn his head!” 

Neither of them would say a word to Santa but we did take a picture with him.  We also had fun building a gingerbread house, making cookies for Santa and reindeer food.  Santa did bring Averie’s castle and Grady got a workbench.  We all had a great Christmas and loved being at home!  After Christmas we went to see the light display in Yukon and had fun there too!  Now, on to 2012!!

Making the Gingerbread House

We did it

Cookies for Santa!

  

Merry Christmas!

Wow, Santa's really coming tonight!

Chrstmas Eve at Great-Grandad's house.

Look what Santa brought!!!

Grady's building a birdhouse!

Averie is lost in her castle!

Looking like a 2 year old!

Family pic!

Christmas lights in Yukon!  We even rode the train!!

November 2011

This was the first month it felt like we were in some sort of routine.  Averie has been learning about money at home.  She doesn’t quite get it yet but likes getting paid 10 cents for little chores around the house.  Her piggy bank is getting quite full!  She has made lots of new friends, some of which she sees outside of school now too.  Her favorite quiet activity is “reading”.  However, she actually “reads” out loud to her babies and she does it very loudly!  She is happy to have a “more beautifuler” room now that we painted it pink and she can now swing completely by herself!  She turned into a pro the day before Thanksgiving!  Her school took a field trip to the grocery store where they purchased a Thanksgiving dinner for a needy family and then donated it.  She is also getting really in to singing any song she hears…our favorite is singing “Mean” by Taylor Swift every morning on the way to school.

Averie's pink room!

Thanksgiving Feast at school!

We got the Rapunzel ornament!  (barely!)

Grady is obsessed with the color blue.  He plays with blue cars and blue trucks, eats blue food, only wants to wear blue clothes and points out anything blue he sees all day long.   He can also identify several colors besides blue…purple, green, red and brown.  His favorite saying is currently “oooh no” and he says that and “again” a lot!   He also renamed Great-Grandad Heald, “Woo Woo” in honor of the little game they play together.  He loves to go to “Woo Woo’s” house to play cars and see Ernie the Cat!  Also, we painted his bedroom blue but he wasn’t as excited about it. 

Grady's blue room!

Decorating the tree!

It was great living in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving!  We got to see everyone but not get worn out traveling! 

Helped decorate Great-Grandad's tree!

Watching a beautiful sunrise!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A little after lunch drive...

Happy Thanksgiving!

October 2011

We started off the month by taking the kids to the OU vs. Ball State game and had a great evening.  It was Grady’s first OU home game!  The next weekend we all went to Dallas for the OU/TX game.  We had lots of fun eating at Campisi’s and playing at the State Fair before and after the game.  Grady was even big enough to ride some rides with Averie this year.  Life is getting much more fun these days!  When we returned, we celebrated Great-Grandad’s 92^nd birthday and my 33^rd!

Grady's First OU Home Game!

State Fair rides before OU/TX game!

State Fair rides before OU/TX game!

OU/TX Game Day

More rides after the game!

Relaxing at the Anatole!

Mommy's birthday lunch at The Mont

Raleigh had a week long field trip to the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area and the kids and I stayed busy getting ready for Halloween.  Averie had a school fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch.  Then, I took them both to one outside of Norman.  We had fun picking pumpkins, petting animals, climbing the giant haystack and going on a hayride.  None of us particularly enjoyed the corn maze…getting lost is a little scary!

Fieldtrip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Corn Maze...at the beginning!

A boy and his pumpkin...

Hayride!!

Halloween was a bit more like Hanukah…I think we had 5 celebrations.  The first was a family Trick-or-Treat party at Devon.  The kids had a blast trick-or-treating at all the offices…a good warm up!  Then, Averie had a school party and we all attended a party at Gymboree that night.  On the 30^th, we did a little long distance trick-or-treating by visiting family around Norman.  Finally, Lala and Pop and Gigi joined us for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.  We all had fun and the kids were so funny.  Grady wasn’t shy a bit once he realized he got candy…Averie had to keep up!  We were all worn out!

Rapunzel and the Pirate are ready for Halloween!

Trick-or-Treating at Devon!

School Halloween Party...lots of princesses!

Trick-or-Treat Great Grandad!

Trick-or-Treat Pat and Chelsea!!

Ready to tackle the neighborhood!

Lala helping the little guy make the whole evening!

Other things of note this month were Grady cutting his canine teeth, finally!  He started learning colors, particularly purple which he said “pickle.”  He carried a toy train around for a couple weeks, even slept with it a few times!  He yelled “Ma” over and over anytime he lost track of me in the house and at restaurants he immediately asked for dip and chips upon arrival. Mexican is his favorite!  He also loves parachute time at Gymboree.  And, in a couple funny bathroom moments, he peed on the floor after bath and jumped back, pointed and said “DROP!”  He also peed on Averie’s foot one night, she freaked and insisted on getting back in the bath. 

Averie loves doing dot-to-dots these days and is recognizing all of her numbers.  She is quite the helper shopping these days…she can dig for the right size now!  She got upset over outgrowing her pink cowgirl boots from the Houston Rodeo last year.  She also decided she was never going to grow up so she could get Halloween candy every year.  In a sweet moment, she told me she picked a good brother out at the hospital…she is really quite good to him.  A funny moment was when I told her daddy would be home a little late because he was “stuck in a meeting”.  After thinking a few seconds she asked “when daddy finds his way out of the meeting, will he come home and eat with us?” I laughed so hard!