Santa came early in Texas...

Since we are headed to Michigan for Grayson's first Christmas, I asked Santa if he would come to our house in Texas a week early -- luckily, he agreed! We had such a fun time opening gifts with Grayson -- made me even more excited for our second Christmas next Sunday in Michigan. We're sure that she has been so "good" this year that Santa will have more gifts for her next week too!
Grayson's stocking....

Helping Herbie with his stocking...

A new wagon!!

She really likes this sing and play puppy!

Glow and sing seahorse...reminds me of the glow-worm that I had as a little girl.
First set of blocks....

Dad's favorite book!

Daddy reading me a card

Check out this bow!!!

Christmas Party at School

Yesterday was a big day for Grayson - her first holiday party at school, Cookies with Santa! It was fun for me to get to meet all of Grayson's friends and some of their parents. For the second time, Grayson loved sitting on Santa's lap! I can't say the same thing for some of her friends....enjoy the pictures!

Here were some pics from before she went to school:

I thought the little shoes were SO cute!

5 months!

This past week Grayson hit her 5 month milestone....I have to admit, I took these pictures three days late (hopefully she didn't change too much in the past 72 hours!). With the holidays upon us, life has gotten busy, busy, but I am loving the hustle and bustle....never a dull moment! Here are some of Grayson's highlights of the past month:

• She started school at the Lake Breeze Academy. Grayson seems to love her teachers and she is so happy being around other little ones. They said that she transitioned like a champ and that they have never seen a baby who is on such a schedule ---- like clockwork they said. (Thanks to the hard work of the Grandmas....and Babywise too of course!!)
  


• Typical school day is: getting up at 6:30 to eat, mom leaves a little before 7:00, dad takes to school at 7:30, takes about a two hour nap around 9:30, then has 8 oz bottle, then another 2 hour nap around 1:30, then another 8 oz bottle, takes a shorter evening nap either at school or at home depending on what time mom picks up, another 8 oz bottle around 6:00, followed by some baby food (we'll get back to that!), then a final 7 oz bottle around 8:30 and then off to dreamland!
  


• Grayson LOVES vegetables and HATES fruits! It is the most bizzarre thing ever! I ate SO much fruit when i was pregnant and eat SO much fruit now, so the only thing i can figure is that had the reverse effect on her. I plan to stick with it and try introducing various fruits again over the next month or so. I guess the good news is she is getting her veggies!!



• She has become a little rolly-polly....it was funny though, she mastered rolling from back to stomach a few days ahead of stomach to back. Dad was VERY nervous when she started flipping to her stomach to sleep since she couldn't get back. All is good now though and she loves sleeping on her side and stomach.
  


• Took her first trip on an airplane to go to AZ to see mommy's family -- she did great!

Here are some of my favorite 5 month pictures!

Biggest "Fans"

When we visited my parents in Arizona, my mom threw a little party for a few of their friends to have a chance to come over and finally meet baby Grayson and baby Ryan. Many of my parents' friends have been following the development of the babies via the blog and Facebook so they were all very eager to finally get a chance to hug and squeeze the little ones in person. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a couple great ones that I got with Grayson and a few of her biggest "fans"!
Here is Sharon giving Grayson her bottle...she claimed that she hadn't done it in years, but she seemed like an old pro to G!

Mike just loved loving on Baby G

Meeting Santa

Everyone knows that Santa starts making his rounds the day after Thanksgiving, so we were pretty lucky that him and Mrs. Clause made a stop at my parents club when we were still in town. I was worried that Grayson would be scared of the big man in the red suit, but she seemed to think he was pretty neat. She really liked meeting Mrs. Clause too. :-) After posing for pictures, we had a great brunch! Yummm!!

Great Grandma Jean's 90th Birthday Party

Over Thanksgiving, my dad's whole family got together to celebrate Grandma Jean's 90th birthday. Grandma Jean is such a wonderful mother to three, grandmother to 6 and great grandmother to 6. Her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are so lucky to have her! We celebrated with a yummy lunch at Maggiano's.

Picture with all of her Grandkids and Great Grandkids

Our family

Daughters with mom and dad

Grayson was wonderful for the party -- she socialized for a little while, then took a nice snooze while we ate

Thanksgiving

My mom hosted Thanksgiving dinner. Along with my parents, sister Jaime, brother-in-law Chris and nephew Ryan, we were joined by my Aunt Sherry, my cousin Casey and her three daughters, my Grandma Jean and a lifelong family friend (and my God-Father), Ron. We were then joined for dessert by my dad's brother and his family. One of the highlights of the day was Grayson getting to meet her Great-Grandma Jean.

In typical AZ fashion, the November weather was beautiful!

Hanging with Daddy

Uncle Chris, Aunt Jaime and Cousin Ryan

Grandpa Wayne and cousin Ryan

Meeting Great Grandma Jean!

Playing with my cousin Maddie (mom's cousins daughter!)

Feeding time with Great Grandma!


Cousins Mark, Maddie and Sara