"Helping"

If you ask grady what he wants for Christmas, he will immediately tell you..."a kitchen!" I hope Santa will bring him one! He wants to "help" me in the kitchen. How much easier would it be for him to have his own and me to have my own!??

Here's a few pictures of the little "helper" assisting with creating rice krispie trees for his class Christmas party. Well, he actually did more "sampling" than "helping" I guess. But we had fun anyway.

Aunt Susan, do you need an assistant???

Thanks to Fisher Price...

...my porcelain manger will be intact for the next few years... It's in its box in the attic. I found this great one made by Fisher Price all for Grady to explore! We set it up on a little side table in the living room so he can play with it and we can attempt to teach him the real meaning of Christmas. I was such a proud mama on Sunday when we picked him up from the nursery at church. The teacher told me that they had been talking about the Christmas story and that Grady was the only one in the class that knew who all of the "people" in the story were... Yayhoo for the Fisher Price Nativity set! :)

Little Elf

Jenny's Visit

Sad that these are the only pictures I took in a whole week of Jenny being here to visit! Even more sad that she won't be here for Christmas!!!

Grady misses you!!! He wants you to go to the movies with him. Tried to explain that Idaho is a bit too far for you to come to go to the movies! :)

New Favorite Toy

"Hey Jenna, how do we get this thing rolling?"

Two peas in a pod...

One last dose...

...of the beach!

We were supposed to go to the beach for Labor Day, but the tropical storm changed our minds. So we scheduled another trip to make up for that weekend that we had promised Grady. He reminded us often of our promise! And we wanted one last "dose" of the beach too!

Cannot believe this is the same child we took to the beach in March! He has totally changed his opinion of the sand. LOVES it! Told Josh he wanted to sleep in the sand! Ha!

squishing Daddy

We got to witness "Thunder on the Gulf" (quite interesting...a national speed boat race...) Josh took a video, but I'll spare you... Grady liked watching the boats from the balcony.

Football on the beach at sundown! To me, the sweetest part of the trip...just relaxing and being just about the only three people on the beach, watching Grady and Josh "play football"

Pete, you would be proud... We attempted Putt-Putt for the first time. Rather interesting with a 2 year old! ha! Uncle Jon, Grady needs some in-depth training!

Although we did eat a LOT of seafood, we HAD to stop at Lambert's for some "throwed" rolls on our way home. This is Grady's favorite restaurant ever! He gets so excited over the "throwed" rolls and just the whole atmosphere! He is also a little obsessed with the wooden trucks and train outside the restaurant!

...until next summer!

Loving this Weather!

Grady enjoyed playing outside yesterday afternoon. He is ALL smiles when he's playing in the yard. Being outside is his FAVORITE thing and we are LOVING this weather! Hope it sticks around for a while.

Pumpkin Patch

Mom and I took Grady to the Nichols-Boyd Pumpkin Patch yesterday. As always, they do a great job! He had even more fun than he did last year. LOVED all of the animals, especially the cows! He was quite picky with his pumpkin when we got off the wagon to pick out the ones we wanted. Last year, he didn't care, but this year he was kind of choosy! He was determined that he wanted a little punkin and if it didn't meet his specifications, he was quick to tell us...and on we'd go, searching for the one he wanted! It was perfect weather! Hope this weather will stick around for a while! Happy Fall!