While Daddy's Away...

Warning: Marathon post :)

The mice will play! ;) Kidding, we missed him terribly! Beau was out of town for almost 2 weeks (this time Atlanta for a few days; then Dublin the rest of the time.) And 3 of those days, my parents were in Austin for Andrea's engagement party! It's not often that it's really just Grayson and I for that long so I made sure to come up with a rough schedule of activities so that the time would fly by. And it worked! Even though we didn't get to everything. I already posted about a few of the things we did while Beau was away (visiting Santa, Christmas program at school, etc) but here are some others...

Patton's Sip and See - We had an Open House-style party for Lori and Allan's new baby girl, Patton Reese over at their house this past Saturday. Everything was lovely and that little girl is beautiful! Grayson wore his best pink for the occasion. ;) I can't pull any of Lori's pictures for some reason. Boo.

Smashing in pink!

Cookie Making - Oh boy, did Grayson have a ball! We made sugar cookies and it was definitely a fun afternoon. It was our first time to really take on a project like this and I think he did really well! The cookies were for his Daddy's Welcome Home party and they were definitely a hit! :)

He enjoyed rolling but definitely needed help :)

Cutting out was his most favorite part. I had to keep telling him to slow down!

And then re-rolling the dough. Okay, he loved all of it.

He cut out all of these - not bad! 

Mommy/Grayson time!

Nursery Wall Decor- We're doing a photo frame collage over Walker's crib and I thought having Grayson do a painting for one frame would be a cute idea. So, here we are with a toddler and WALL PAINT. Not washable, finger paint. Wall paint. It turned out okay but this was definitely something I had to sneak around to do because I would have heard about how DUMB this was. ;) 

Just a toddler, his paper, paint brush and WALL PAINT.

It turned out FINE. :)  But it was a little stressful. 

The 16-hour fever - We had plans to go to movie night at St. Philip's this past Saturday. The kids got to wear their PJs and it started at 6pm - ideal for us! However, Grayson just wanted to lay in my bed and watch George. Sure enough, he had a low fever starting at about 4:30 and slept most of the time until the following morning. I loved the cuddles and the best part, he woke up fever-free and back to himself on Sunday!

So lovable.

Mimi and Pop return from Austin!

Precious boy! He pulled up this chair and waited for Mimi until she pulled into the drive! Shelby too. :)

Why, you ask, would he be waiting like that? Because Mimi and Pop are way more fun than his Mom! Here's Grayson making spiced pecans and icing for the sugar cookies we cut out the weekend before. 

Make-shift apron. Maybe Santa will bring him one for Christmas...

Mimi in her monogrammed apron - I want to be more like her.  Her baking skills, I mean. Okay, and with a monogrammed apron. ;) 

Doctor Appt - I had my last appointment of the year, last before New Orleans, etc. We'll go again in 3 weeks (b/c Dr. will be on vacay) and then just a couple more appts until the baby is here! Everything looks great still - yay! Funny story - I heard from a friend that also goes to Dr. Jacoby that he's kind of THE guy to do your son's circumcision. I didn't know this was a thing but sure enough, I asked him if he'd ever heard that before. He's such a funny, quiet, quirky guy. He just blushed and shrugged his shoulders and said that yes, he has heard that about himself. Ha! What a "thing" to be known for ;)

Christmas Program: Day 1 of 2 - I didn't capture the first day in my last blog post so here you have it. I just loved those hats! The kids were able to have sweets with us before they returned to their class rooms. 

MOPPETS Christmas Party - The MOPS girls did a great job with this party for our little ones! Each room had a different craft station or two and we ended in the movie room - full of bean bags and snacks. A fun day with his friends!

They had a cute, little photo back drop set up :)

Beau's Welcome Home Party - I thought it would be fun to throw Beau a 3 person (and 2 dog) Welcome Home party yesterday. It kept Grayson and I busy (you know, b/c Christmas time isn't busy at ALL) for several days prior while we were planning the menu, a special coupon book, a Snapfish photo album and of course, making the sign and picking up balloons! 

Grayson ran to his Daddy when he pulled up!

I had to include this one b/c Shelby is suspended in mid-air and a weiner dog hanging from my husband is just funny.

Our set-up. Nothing spectacular but he was surprised! Sat down and had a Shiner with some chips and salsa. Good to be back in Texas, I guess! 

In exactly one week we leave for New Orleans! 

Laters!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Half of me wants to rush through these weeks to get Beau home, be with my family and Andrea at her wedding and then have a baby here but the other half of me just loves this time of year! I love receiving Christmas cards from family and friends, the lights and decorations, being with family, friends in town, the hustle and bustle of it all and YES, I love the real reason for the season, of course. We had a great speaker at MOPS last week about keeping Christ in Christmas for your family. She was awesome and I got a lot of good ideas for Grayson! But in the meantime, that's not what this post is about. :) We've visited with Santa, eaten some Christmas cookies and had a Christmas program at Grayson's school! Here are some pictures to capture the cuteness:

My "baby" is just SO. TALL. I knew my kids would probably struggle with high waters like I did.
But at TWO years old?! Seems a bit early. This is a size 3T!

Thanks Aunt Andrea for the "Grayson" corduroy longalls! The choo choo train was a huge hit! 

With Mimi in the Snow Globe waiting to see Santa

With Mommy

No tears! And so stoic! In hindsight, we told him to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas (which he did! TOOLS.) but we didn't tell him that he doesn't get the gift right then. So he was pretty confused. He even ran back to Santa and for the 5th time said, TOOOOLS. Still, nothing. Sorry buddy! Gotta wait for Christmas :)

Linin up for his school's Christmas program! 

Ringing their bells

A video of Jingle Bells. Then they sang Away in the Manger. Grayson was silent for both :)

BUT (and this is my favorite), before they sang "Happy Birthday Jesus", Grayson moved his dot up so that he could stand in front of his classmates. I guess he knew he was going to sing the loudest? Adorable!

Making friends with the Gingerbread Man! Before he bit his leg off :)

32 Week Pregnancy Update

This picture helps me to understand why I'm being battered & bruised from the inside every minute of every day! :) He just doesn't have a lot of room in there! Especially b/c he's an estimated pound heavier than average and probably a bit longer too. He is head down, kicking way up in my ribs and must have jazz hands with the pounding on my bladder ;) The only update I have is about increased discomfort, which I just can't complain about. I really can feel the size difference from last month, have a difficult time sitting or laying in one position for long and standing is something I have no interest in doing. My energy level is still okay but all the stuff I just said makes that null and void! 7 weeks and counting! Now to really drive home the fact that I haven't even experienced discomfort yet, here's the write-up from Babycenter about how much growing this baby still has to do! :)

How your baby's growing:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

No fruit picture this week b/c I'm running out of motivation for that so here's a self-taken (swore I would never do this!) picture of the baby bump.

The Polar Express!

Grayson is so enamored with trains and The Polar Express lately so we couldn't resist when the Seemans invited us to tag along to their family Polar Express trip in Grapevine! We all had a great time but perhaps Cole and Grayson had the most fun together, which is awesome to see. They're growing up so fast! And Finley isn't far behind, mimicking most of the things they do. She's such a smart girl. 

The day in captions...

Those 2 only have eyes for each other (behind big brother's back) ;)

Everyone in their PJs and coats for The Polar Express!

Harsh lighting is a pet peeve. But it's a family photo so I'll take it! 

They had snow machines! Made the walk to the train kinda magical. :)

The boys really loved the train experience

SO thankful we didn't believe Annie that Dads were supposed to wear PJs too! Whew!

I was a little disappointed when the train conductor didn't do a crazy hole punch like in the movie. ;)

They wanted to sit together

Nick, Annie & Finley. And behind them: Tracy, Dennis, Emily and Blake

I love that the benches move to face each other so that Beau and I both got to see his face :)

They were so cute together! And I love shoes with PJs - too cute.

Santa is coming!

Hopefully this will warm up Grayson to the idea of sitting on Santa's lap tomorrow!

Bells for all the children! Even Walker got one :)

We were sad to pass on dinner with everyone but have enjoyed our last night with Beau before he leaves for 2 weeks tomorrow!

In fact, we didn't make it out of Grapevine before this happened! ;)

Starlight Flight over Dallas

Beau and I had a really cool date night last night. This was my Christmas gift to Beau - a tour of the city's Christmas lights and dinner after. It occurred to me yesterday that he will be on 8 airplanes from yesterday through the end of December and this was probably the worst gift I could give a seasoned traveler. Between that and my realization that both of Grayson's parents and his unborn brother would be up in a tiny airplane and that he could lose all of us in one fatal crash, I was a nervous wreck yesterday. I prayed harder than I had ever prayed before. Fortunately, we're all here to tell the tale AND Beau was really excited about it and he did think it was special. Thank goodness! Win, Win all around. :)

After one brief hormone-induced tantrum on the way down there (in rush hour traffic.) (when we were already running late.) because I forgot the gift card they insisted I bring (my parents once again saved the day on this one), we arrived at Million Air at Addison airport to meet the pilots. My favorite part probably wasn't the flight itself but was the experience of walking through the hangers and on the tarmac at night surrounded by all those planes. What an experience! There was also a courtesy Rolls-Royce they keep on hand for their clients (the equivalent of a taxi for the rest of us folks.) We're talking the old-school style with the huge winged hood ornament and all - the shiniest white car I had ever seen. (Side note: Beau's co-worker's nickname for him is actually Rolls-Royce Reynolds - Ha! I digress...) I decided keeping my cool was more important than taking a picture of it b/c after all, what would I DO with a picture of someone else's fancy car?! Post it to my blog of course! Ugh. I digress again...

The night was clear and still and perfect for the flight. Through the headphones we could hear ALL the chatter between the pilots and air traffic control. This is when I became pretty scared - it was just all so official sounding. Beau reminded me to breathe a couple of times :) The flight itself was textbook perfect, including take-off and landing and I highly recommend the company and the pilot! Starlight Flight, if you're interested :)

Do you sense the fear?

The famous Dallas skyline with the really cool new Omni Hotel!

It was such a cool experience to see the city from this view! We were much closer than your typical commercial flight so it was still special for Beau :) 

Flying over the Trinity River. I think.

Oh 635, you're so much nicer from the air! ;) My least favorite freeway in all the world but those brake lights are beautiful from the sky!

That was one tiny plane!

We capped off the evening with a delicious dinner at TruFire. I kept forgetting to make reservations for a restaurant in Addison, which led us to driving aimlessly on Friday night at 7:30. But this worked and we had a great time catching up before his 2 weeks away to Ireland starting Monday. On ANOTHER PLANE. ;)