The Hammer Family

Melted Hearts

2012-02-10T14:33:00.004-06:00

When I picked Grady up from school on Wednesday, he wasn't feeling well. He had a fever that night, but no other symptoms of a cold or stomach bug or anything like that. Thursday, Josh stayed at home with him because he still had a fever and we let him sleep in late. Thought he was better last night, but then fever went back up to 102. SO, I stayed at home with him today. He is acting like his normal self with no fever... so I do not know what the deal is...maybe a fever virus, or cutting molars???

ANYWAY, I guess if I had to take the day off, at least I didn't have to spend it cleaning up throw-up or visiting the doctor. Glad he is feeling better and hope we are good to go now! Today, Grady and I have worked on his valentines for his friends at school. Saw this idea the other day and wanted to make them...but honestly, if I hadn't had the time to do them today, he'd probably have had to just have Toy Story valentines from Walmart. This was so much fun instead!

First, peeled tons of crayons...

Broke them into little pieces and put into silicon heart baking molds...
Baked them in the oven for 15 minutes... They came out all melted and weird-looking on the bottoms...

But after they cooled and we flipped them out of the molds, they looked really neat on the tops!

Found some cellophane bags in my random craft box and used cardstock to make a little label for each child in his class...

Yes, they are kind of cheesy, but it's for 2 year olds... How cute are these!??!

Grady's Room Makeover!

2012-01-28T23:02:00.003-06:00

The "before" picture...

As you can tell, he had TOTALLY outgrown this crib-converted-to-toddler-day-bed! Look how long he is! No wonder he woke up every single night and wanted to come get in our great big bed with us! He was more than happy to give this bed to Vera!
Saying bye-bye to the baby bed...

Mom and Dad took Grady to the beach for a few days. So while he was out of our hair, we re-did the room. Faye and Josh painted the rooms (Grady's AND Vera's). I was not allowed to paint, so I just worked on "choo choo train art" at Grady's request.

The "after" pictures...

His room sign...

Again, Grady's request was to have "choo choo's" on his walls and on his room sign!

I ordered his letters from Land of Nod.....also got his bedding there. Loved the little boy letters! Grady calls these his "ABC's". They had these vintage-y girly ones as well and I ordered them for Vera's room.

Our first experience with vinyl wall stickers. Josh hung them this morning. Took forever, but Grady loves them! They go all the way across his wall.

Sorry I didn't get an "after" picture of him in his new room. I had to clean it up and take a picture of it this afternoon while Josh and he were playing in the backyard. It doesn't always look this clean...especially if he is IN the room! ha! But he loves his new "big boy bed" and thankfully sleeps SO much better in it!

I promise to post pictures of the nursery soon!

Updates

2012-01-28T22:48:00.003-06:00

I went to the doctor this past week for another ultrasound. My doctor wanted to see how big little miss Vera is at the moment. Or should I say BIG MISS VERA... She is already at 4 pounds and measures 2 weeks ahead of schedule if you look at all of her measurements...the femur bone, the head circumference, etc. So she will be like her big brother most likely. Every trip I've had to the doctor has been a good report so far. No problems with blood sugar, blood pressure, weight gain, anything... I just have big babies! Runs on both sides of the family, unfortunately. Josh was almost 10 pounds when he was born. I was 9. Grady-man was 12 days early and weighed 8 lb., 5 oz. So my doctor is really watching Vera because she doesn't want her to weigh 10 pounds... Neither do I! ha. She told me that she will most defnitely NOT let me go all the way until my due date (which is April 2nd), so it looks like we will have a little girl in March! WOW! That is just around the corner!

We have been working really hard trying to make room in our house for another little person...And with her arrival being practically a month and a half or so away, it's REALLY starting to sink in that things are about to change SO much around here! It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in just a few years of living in a house! Over the Christmas holidays, I parted with TONS of stuff... mainly school stuff from years of teaching Kindergarten. We cleaned out the "office" which is now Vera's room and totally re-did Grady's nursery to make it a "big boy" room. (pictures to follow in another post). We gave away furniture, packed up stuff to take to the GoodWill, and boxed up stuff for the attic. I gave an entire car load FULL of Kindergarten stuff to Grady's school. SO hard to let go of that stuff, but SO happy to walk in his classroom and see his teachers using it with the kiddos! :) Better than it sitting in the attic and getting no use whatsoever.

So needless to say, we have been pretty busy around here getting ready for Vera. Sorry for the lack of blog posts. I am going to post pictures of Grady's room in the next post. We completed it today! Vera's is still "in-the-process" as I am working on some artwork and we have a few things left to hang. Will post pictures of her nursery soon!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-03T17:39:00.005-06:00

Making cookies for Santa at DeeDee's house on Christmas Eve...
(Note...next year, Julie will get slice and bake cookies, or ship Grady to Susan's house!!!)

thankfully Susan stepped in before I lost all of my patience!

the finished products...

Grady did MUCH better this year. Last year, he did not understand that the cookies were for Santa and freaked out when I wouldn't let him eat them. He ended up eating Santa's cookies, well...part of them. We had to put them on the plate with bites taken out of them. But this year, Grady understood WHO the cookies were for and he gladly fixed Santa's plate himself.

We continued the tradition of writing a letter to Santa on Christmas Eve. Grady helped me write his letter this year. He told me what to say and helped me write it...

here's his letter, complete with a "picture" he drew for Santa...

And on Christmas morning, he was excited to find that once again, Santa had written a letter back to him! AND complimented Grady on being a good cookie baker! :) He only left one bite on his plate.

Santa brought WOODY and BUZZ and Grady was all smiles! He is really into Toy Story right now! Buddy-the-Elf must have told Santa!

And the little cook got his own kitchen, too!

Grady got to open his stocking AND Vera's!

Hard to believe this was our last Christmas as a "family of three!" My, how things are about to change around here! Hope you and your family all had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy New Year!

"Helping"

2011-12-18T14:43:00.000-06:00

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...

2011-12-17T09:45:00.000-06:00

...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

2011-12-16T19:14:00.000-06:00

Jenny's Visit

2011-12-15T20:31:00.005-06:00

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

2011-11-28T21:58:00.004-06:00

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

Two peas in a pod...

One last dose...

2011-10-10T17:37:00.005-05:00

...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!

2011-10-02T15:02:00.005-05:00

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

2011-10-02T14:52:00.004-05:00

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!

Book Club

2011-09-29T20:07:00.000-05:00

Me and my hair-brain ideas! I got this idea this summer to do a monthly "book club" with my students. We study a different genre of literature each month and I decided that to get them into the genre and get excited about reading, I would have a book club for them. They can choose to participate or not...I pick out a really neat children's book from that genre and then they can check it out, take it home, read it, complete a book review, and then at the end of the month, all those who participated will be invited to skip lunch in the cafeteria and have a book club lunch in the classroom with me... Who knew the kids would go so CRAZY over this! They were soooo excited about this, much to my surprise (even the little boys!!!!). So anyway, I took my book for this month, Sweet Dream Pie, to none other than my highly creative sister and told her that I needed a super neat creation of treats to go with my first book club! She made the absolute CUTEST little pie cupcakes EVER and I had to share a picture. The kids didn't know they were getting a treat, so they went nuts over these. They were rainbow-batter cupackes on the inside, so all different colors...and topped with all of my favorite candies, then iced to look like little pies... Aren't they so cute!??

Can't wait until next month's book club! :)

Go Dawgs!

2011-09-25T13:22:00.000-05:00

The LA Tech game was Grady's first game of the season. Hmmmm...maybe he should be at ALL the games, considering we pulled this one out! :) He actually made it through the entire ballgame! I couldn't believe he lasted that long. He paid attention most of the time, rang his cowbell, rang Pete's cowbell, and switched laps...from Susan to DeeDee to Pete, mostly. Wasn't that interested in sitting with Mom and Dad when all of those other people are around to spoil him.

Grady was awake (barely) when the game went into overtime... I have no idea HOW, but he fell asleep during all the screaming and cowbell ringing at the final touchdown when we won. Missed the fireworks and everything (which is his favorite part).

Go Dawgs!

Little Salesman

2011-09-20T19:28:00.002-05:00

Grady spent a couple of days in Yazoo City last week so Josh and I could go to the MSU/LSU game on Thursday night. While he was there, he went with my dad to his office one day. Dad walked out a minute and came back to find that Grady had sold three insurance policies. Here he is, speaking with his clients...

Promotion

2011-09-01T18:06:00.002-05:00

Check out Grady-man's new shirt! :)

It's Raining...

2011-07-14T08:51:00.002-05:00

We finally have managed to get some RAIN this week. We haven't had to water our grass constantly as we have in the past several weeks, thank goodness. So anyway, with the drought, I have no idea how Grady has managed to learn this song... there's been no need to sing it! ha. But he LOVES this song and will just walk around the house singing it. I could listen to his sweet little voice singing all day long. In the video, he had a little help, but you get the idea. It's funny, but I can remember when we were little and Jenny was about Grady's age. She would chatter on about any and everything and no one could understand her but my mom. Susan and I were talking about this the other day when she couldn't understand what Grady was trying to tell her, but I could make out every single word. SO...if you can't understand him, he is singing "It's raining, it's pouring" in "Grady language."

Christmas in July

2011-07-14T08:48:00.003-05:00

Happy (late) birthday to my sweet Mama! We went to paint at Easely Amused's Christmas in July for her birthday on Tuesday...and as always, we have a ball!

Must-Read!

2011-07-12T08:45:00.003-05:00

This book was recommended to me by several different people. It's been out for over a year, but I just hadn't had the time to read it until a week or so ago. When you have a two-year-old, your reading time gets cut short! But anyway, I finally got the chance to read it and what an awesome book! I had to pass along the recommendation. If you haven't read it, it's a must-read. It's funny and sad and inspirational and I just could not put it down! You will find yourself literally laughing outloud and rooting for the characters in the story because they are so real. Best book I have read in a long time! The movie is coming out in August, so if you haven't read the book yet, hurry up and do so. The book is ALWAYS 10 times better than the movie of course! :)

The Beach Wears You Out!

2011-07-09T09:17:00.000-05:00

This video cracks me up. We had just come in from the beach for a lunch break and for Grady to take his nap. He played SO hard that morning that he was having major trouble staying awake long enough to eat his lunch. I am a mean mama and got the video camera out... ha!

The Fourth

2011-07-08T13:53:00.003-05:00

My child wants to move to Orange Beach. What a long way we have come from March!!! During that trip, Grady asked to go home the first night we arrived at the beach. This time, we'd ask him if he was ready to go home and he'd say, "No go home. I stay here!" We are so glad that he finally loves the beach as much as we do. Pete has dubbed him a "regular little beach bum." I'm with Grady...wish we could have stayed longer. I don't think I am ever ready to come back home when I am down there! We enjoyed beautiful weather, delicious seafood, awesome fireworks on the 4th, and just good ole relaxing and fun with the fam! I am counting the days until we go back! :)

feeding the fish at Wolf Bay

Grady even decided that he liked to WALK on the BEACH! WOW! Couldn't believe it! A few months ago, he wouldn't even put his pinkie toe in the sand. This time, he begged for someone to take him walking to look for "she-shells" to put in his "buh-kit". We brought home 952 "she-shells"...ha. Well not quite, but he did pick up every shell in sight.

splashing in the waves

He's getting so opinionated. Every day, I'd let him choose which swim trunks and hat to wear to the beach. He is attached to his MSU cap... what a loyal little bulldog!!!

Josh built Grady a sand castle. Mom and I had to take Grady for another one of those "she-shell" walks to distract him during the building process. During our last beach trip in May, we taught Grady to tear down the sand castles we were building...just in hopes that we could get him to like the sand and not mind standing in it. But now that he is a beach bum, I'm sorry...he's GOT to learn the Fulton Family Rules of respecting all sand castle creations. There is no tearing down of the sand castles... When Susan, Jenny, and I were little, we'd guard our sand castles from destructor-kids and watch like hawks to make sure no one bothered them. I can remember even watching from the balcony once Mom and Dad made us go inside...just to see if it was still standing. I also remember one time watching (from the balcony) a group of kids tearing down our castle and wanting to run down to the beach and give them a knuckle sandwich... ha. SO... Grady is being tutored in the lessons of sand castle etiquette. ha. He did good for his first lesson and this castle stayed in tact while we were on the beach!

Happy Birthday, America!

I scream, You scream...

2011-06-27T17:06:00.003-05:00

....WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM!!!

Grady caught Josh eating out of the ice cream container...

Move over, Dad!

Monkey see, monkey do!

mmm, mmm, good!

Picture of the Day

2011-06-23T08:51:00.004-05:00

Susan sent this picture to me. I thought it was too funny and had to share. It was from Grady's birthday party. He HATES leaving the children's museum and pouts every time we are there and it's time to leave. He and I visit often. Just yesterday when we were there, I convinced him to leave by talking about lunch...sandwiches and apples and so on... A little bribery in the form of food usually works well on my child. ha. Well we got outside and were walking down the sidewalk to the car. I called Josh to tell him where to meet us for lunch and Grady apparently decided he wasn't hungry anymore and wasn't ready to leave, so he pulled a typical toddler moment and laid down on the sidewalk and started crying and saying repeatedly, "Children's Museum, Children's Museum!!!" (in his own pronounciation of course!)

So anyway, this picture cracked me up. It's the typical response we get EVERY time we go to the children's museum and it's time to go. HA!

"It's my party, I can cry if I want to...

You would cry to if it happened to you!"

Growing Up

2011-06-22T08:32:00.004-05:00

Grady had his two-year appointment with his pediatrician recently. He is growing up WAY too quickly! Here are his "stats" from his appointment. Not anything surprising...he's still a BIG boy! (Remember, the "percent" is for comparing him to children who are his age...so for example, he weighs more than 82% of kids his age...ha!)

Weight: 31 lb. 4 oz. (82%)

Height: 38 inches!!!! (greater than 95%)

Head Circum.: 20 1/2 in. (greater than 95%)

This summer is already flying by! Can't believe we are almost at the "half-way" point (well, I am at my half-way point before school starts, I guess you'd say). We made the tough decision to switch Grady to a new "school" this fall. Telling Granny Gail and Aunt Amanda that Grady was going to a new school was the hardest thing EVER. They have kept him since he was about 8 weeks old and he loves them dearly....and so do we! We wanted him to be able to be in more a of school-type setting and able to be in a class with kids his own age. When an opening came available, we took it. So he has started to go to "school" 2 or 3 days a week to help him transition to the new setting before we start full-swing in August. It's been hard on the little guy to leave such a familiar environment and switch to something completely different, but he is already learning things and I am excited to see how much he really takes off over the next few months. In his class, they do not use sippy cups anymore. So we have been working hard on using a "big-boy-cup" at our house. He's doing great after just a few tries... Here's a quick video:

Sand and Water

2011-06-18T08:21:00.001-05:00

When we went to the beach in March, everyone said it was my fault that Grady was afraid of the sand because I am such a neat freak and thus my child is becoming a neat freak because he never gets dirty. Maybe so. I am trying to change my ways. ha. Grady got a sand and water table for his birthday from my parents. I am learning not to care when sand gets all down in his shoes, under his fingernails, and tracked inside my house. In a catalog, I found this cool little bucket shaped like feet for you to sit outside on your patio by the back door for little ones to wash their feet off before coming inside. When I told Josh, he said I was being a wuss. So we didn't order it. I am learning just not to care... This is what happens when you grow up with all girls in the house and no brothers. But I am learning to be the mom of a BOY! :) Hee Hee!

Grady-man LOVES his sand table dearly! Here are a few pictures of him playing and happy to be dirty! We are making progress!

Boy's Best Friend

2011-06-16T08:17:00.001-05:00

It seems that everyone we know...friends and family both...have dogs. And Grady loves them. But we do not have a dog. Nor do I want one at this point. Number one: Anyone who knows me well knows that I do not want an inside dog. Like them, but like them outside. Which brings us to Number Two: We do not have a fence in our backyard. Nor do we want to build one at the moment. So therefore, we do not have a pet. For now, Grady must spend time with dogs at both his grandparents' houses. AND pretend with Frank. Who's Frank, you say? Ha... Frank is his pet dog. DeeDee brought this little stuffed dachshund one day named Frank and Grady LOVES the little dog! He goes all over the place with us...to Kroger, out to eat, to Dudy Noble, on vacation. Grady likes for Frank to ride in the car with him as well. (See Frank and Grady-man below...)

I know it's just a matter of time before Grady will begin to want a real dog and will start to ask for one. Until that day comes, though...Frank sure is an easy pet to take care of and clean up after! Thanks, DeeDee!

First Boat Ride

2011-06-15T09:05:00.002-05:00

Grady's first boat ride on the reservoir... So much fun! Thanks, Grana and Pops! We will have to do this again soon! And maybe conquer the fear of the swimming pool...

Steak and Picasso

2011-06-14T11:09:00.004-05:00

For our anniversary on Friday, Josh took me to Shapley's for an early dinner. My last visit there was the night he proposed! We joked that it will probably be another 5 years before we go again. I hope not...it was outstanding and such a treat!

Then, much to my delight, we went to Easely Amused for "date night portraits." I've been to Easely Amused several times already and had seen this class and wanted us to go, but Josh never seemed too thrilled about that. Surprisingly, he signed us up on his own... We had a lot of fun and I thought these pictures were worth sharing...

"The reveal"

(you have to sit across from your date and you do not see each other's paintings until you are done... You are supposed to paint a Picasso-inspired portrait of your date)

Sweet Treats by Susan

2011-06-13T13:03:00.003-05:00

Hurray!!! Susan started a blog! Click on the link I've added to my sidebar to check out her yummy creations!

Today marks...

2011-06-10T13:26:00.003-05:00

5 years!

June 10, 2006

For Aunt Sue

2011-06-09T13:18:00.005-05:00

Grady apparently has seen the light and decided that CAKE is YUMMY! For the past couple of months, we have gotten to sample lots of Susan's goodies as she has been baking away. She would bring over the most elaborate cakes and cupcakes and Grady would just look at them, but not eat them. For his birthday party, Susan made the CUTEST animal cupcakes.

Again, at the party, Grady wouldn't touch them. He played so hard at the museum that when he got home, he was starved. I gave him a left-over cupcake and he devoured it in three seconds. Guess that was all it took to realize that he does indeed like cake. ha. Now he will ASK me for cake.

Anyway, these pictures are for you, Susan. Thanks for making his cakes. They were beautiful! Hope these make you smile! :)

The calm before the storm...

Two Years Ago Today...

2011-06-08T21:58:00.003-05:00

the sweetest little bundle of joy entered our lives and it has not been the same for one single moment! We are completely blessed beyond words and I thank God every day for bringing this little man into my life. My, but he has come a long way! The photo below shows how small he was the day we brought him home from the hospital. It's hard to remember holding something so small now that we lug around a huge little boy!

And today my man is TWO!

I told someone the other day that I see why people call it the "terrible twos." It's not really that they are terrible, but just curious. Much more so than the infant stages... Which makes them get into EVERYTHING, hence parents get frustrated and say they are terrible. I will remind myself of this repeatedly when I get frustrated over the next couple of years. ha. He is full of curiosity and I love that about him. Yes, it can be frustrating at times...like when you walk into his room and find that every single wipe in the baby-wipe container has been removed from the box and strewn all around the room. Or when you find that he has turned the garbage can upside down and dumped out all of the contents just to see what is in there. Or even perhaps when he tries to taste everything in sight...sponges, hair on a stuffed animal, carpet (yes, carpet), baby-wipes, soap, and so on...

But it's just a part of being two, I guess. And with all that curiosity comes lots and lots of laughs and smiles that I wouldn't trade anything for.

How sweet he is!
Happy Birthday, dear Grady!
You are a very loved little boy!

We celebrated Grady's birthday at none other than my favorite place...the MS Children's Museum. Unfortunately, I didn't get that many great pictures because he is so darn busy and all over the place. He never pauses for a good shot. But then again, every kid there was like that!

My family had a second little "family party" for him because my grandfather was unable to come to the birthday party at the museum. Plus, Jenny flew home from Idaho to be with us, so she wanted to steal a bit more time with Grady-man as well. So Aunt Sue made another cake and Grady got to blow out candles for a second time. Here's a video...

Cake

2011-06-01T13:10:00.004-05:00

I have to brag on my sister, Susan... she has gotten into the hobby of baking and cake decorating and her stuff is just so cute! She is working on a website and when she finishes it, I will post it so you can see more, but here are just a few pictures that she has sent to me of some of the things that she has made in the last couple of months. She started as kind of a hobby, and through word of mouth at work, she's really kind of made it into a little business! She has an order or two every week! She is making Grady's birthday cupcakes and they are going to be SO cute! Can't wait!

Easter Egg cake

baby shower cake
and cupcakes for the same baby shower

a Nascar cake... ha!

graduation cake...

I think she had an order for a USM graduation cake right after she made this one. So now she needs to make a bulldog cake just because...

birthday sheet cake...Thomas the Train

Beach Trip, Take Two

2011-05-31T14:10:00.004-05:00

We spent the last several days in Orange Beach, celebrating Memorial Day and relaxing! This trip was SO much better than the spring break trip that we took in March. For one, the weather as close to perfect as you can get. It was so warm, but there was a constant breeze blowing. Also, Grady really warmed up to the sand this time. He played and played! Pete taught him to build crab houses (and then they turned into alligator houses, frog houses, etc.) He was all about tearing down sand castles that we built for him. That's okay for now of course, because the whole point was to get him excited about playing in the sand. But the child is going to HAVE to have some "respect-the-sand-castle-creation" lectures soon! ha! He still isn't too wild about the water. I was just glad that we conquered the sand this trip, so we'll work on water when we go back in July. Susan, Jon, and Jenny...we REALLY missed you and wish you could have been with us!

Wolf Bay

We rode the ferris wheel at the Wharf

Ahhhh....the BEACH! (And please note...Grady is not sitting on a towel OR in his duck chair, but IN THE SAND!!!!!)

snack break...

Hey Pete, what kind of house are we going to build next?

Mom just thinks that I am going to learn to respect the sand castle creations... She's got another thing coming! I am the DESTRUCT-OR!

and my favorite picture of the trip:

Summer...it's almost official!

2011-05-21T14:07:00.001-05:00

Ahhhh...the end of May. It's here! One more half-day of school and a teacher work day after that and I am officially on a break for summer! I'm so ready to get to hang out with Grady-man more. I am totally obsessed with the Children's Museum and Grady is loving it, too...so we plan to visit quite often this summer. We took him this morning for a couple of hours. He had a blast as usual. Wish they would have had a place like this when I was a kid! The last two visits, I either had a dead battery in my camera, or forgot the memory stick and was limited to my picture-taking. But I went prepared today, so I got lots of cute shots!

THE GEARS STATION

LEGOS
INTERACTIVE MAP OF JACKSON

STRONG MAN

WEIGHING CATFISH

ROCK QUARRY

BUILDING RAMPS

YEE-HAW!

We love the dancing room with all of the hats and mirrors and the big jukebox!

Zoo

2011-05-14T17:54:00.001-05:00

A chilly trip to the Jackson Zoo... Who knew it could be so cold in mid-May??? (Obviously not us, as you notice we all wore shorts and tshirts and almost froze during our "picnic." ha!)
Grady seemed to be more interested in running around and climbing on things instead of looking at animals.

A baby giraffe was born at the zoo on May 3rd. Grady was fascinated with the giraffes. They were definitely his favorite animals of the day!

Sweet Story

2011-05-04T17:29:00.004-05:00

In some ways, third grade has started to grow on me. There are still days that I miss kindergarten SO much and wish that I could go back, but there are things that I like about third grade that I couldn't do with younger kids. One in particular is read-alouds. I would read to my Kindergarten kids nonstop, but it was mostly silly rhyming stories and short little tales. Now I get to read stuff with so much more depth to my third graders. Especially the class I have this year...they are SUPER listeners and have grown to love reading as much as I do! We've read some great books this year. I wanted to share this one in case you haven't heard of it. If you like those classic dog-type stories like Where the Red Fern Grows (yep, read that one to my kids, too...I cried and they cried as well...) and My Dog Skip, then you will like this one, too. It's called Because of Winn Dixie. And it is SUCH a sweet book!
But if you are not a book lover like me and would rather watch a movie, then you are in luck because there IS a movie! My students watched it at school this week because we had finished the book. It is a cute, cute movie as well! Jeff Daniels is the dad and Dave Matthews also has a role in the movie. I am making Josh watch it soon! :)

All of this reminds me of being in fourth grade and having Mrs. Wilburn read aloud the best books to us! If any of my Yazoo friends are reading this, I'm sure you remember as well...she would read Willie Morris books to us and say the cuss words and we'd all freak out. Her reply was always the same... "I didn't say it, the BOOK said it!" And when she read Where the Red Fern Grows, we got such a kick out of the dogs' names (Ann and Dan...two of our classmates!).

So anyway, when I "grow up," I think I want to be a children's book author...

Random, I know... just my thoughts for the day.

But seriously, you should at least watch this sweet little movie! It's worth seeing whether you are a third grader or not!

Grady's First Skype

2011-04-28T22:06:00.004-05:00

Dear Aunt Jenny,
I miss you! I am going to have to talk my parents into getting a camera for our computer like Pete has so I can talk to you more. That was really fun! Don't worry...I'm going to convince them to get me one! I can't wait to see you in June!
Love, Grady

Easter

2011-04-27T20:02:00.000-05:00

Easter Bunny's goodies...
BUBBLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

checking out the new crayons...

After church, we had lunch with Josh's family at Aunt Vonnie's house. Grady had a BALL hunting for Easter eggs! He was a little pro!

Happy Easter!!!

***Disclaimer: My corny husband decided to make a post on the blog under my name without telling me (see previous post about dyeing eggs...) NO, I would not describe the color of the ruined eggs the way that he did on a blog post for all to see. In the future, Josh will have to sign in as himself if he would like to post! ha!

Dyeing Easter Egg Experiment

2011-04-25T23:39:00.001-05:00

This year was round 2 for dyeing eggs with Grady. We had to restrain the poor guy in the high chair, or the cups with dye would have been empty before we started. We tried to avoid a mess, but ofcourse, Josh ruined any chance of that. Josh splashed one all over the eggs and a few ended up the color of terd brennel. We survived the potential disaster and managed to keep the cups from being toppled over on us.

Momma, I promise I won't break them!

The new meaning of egg drop soup.

Evidence of minimal mess

Some eggs just never make it to Easter.

Backyard Baseball

2011-04-19T20:31:00.005-05:00

Dad and Erin, these are for you...

3rd Grade Cafeteria Conversations

2011-04-11T17:35:00.004-05:00

Kids say the darndest things. When you are a teacher, you hear so many funny things... The first year I started teaching, someone told me that I needed to keep a little notebook just to write down the hilarious stories. I have had some GREAT ones over the years... WHen I taught kindergarten, I definitely had more stories than I have in 3rd grade.....but still, I get a few every now and then that are just moments that crack me up... So here's one from Friday in the cafeteria:

Most of the time, my kids want to talk my ears off at the lunch table, but sometimes, they are so involved in their conversations, that I'm not even noticed even though I'm squashed in on the end of the bench like a sardine... oh, the joys of eating lunch in a school cafeteria every day! ha!

Well Friday was one of those days that they were chatting away to each other and I was just taking up space on their bench. ha. I returned to the table from heating my lunch in the microwave and found within 3 seconds of listening in to them that they were discussing how old their mamas are... Here's the conversation that made me bust out laughing:

Boy: Hey, how old's your mom? Is she 25?

Girl A: No, she's 32.

Boy: (shaking his head...) MAN! 32! (turning to another girl...) Hey, is your mom 25?

Girl B: No, my mom's 41. And my dog's 42...in dog years.

Boy: (eyes popping out of his head and shaking his head like he'd heard some awful news...) MAN!!! Old dog and old MOM!

I couldn't help it...I busted out laughing... They were dead serious. I guess I am ancient to them! ha! Funny what kids are thinking about.

The Paci-Thief

2011-04-04T17:03:00.004-05:00

I am a bad mama. Grady still has a paci...but ONLY in his crib when he goes to sleep at night. That's it. I know, I know...I need to get rid of it. But mamas will do ANYTHING to get sleep, it seems. When I was Grady's age, my mom told me that the Easter Bunny needed a paci for her baby...and according to Mom, I just accepted it as that, no questions asked...and that was the end of the paci for me. Hmmm....... Josh wanted to do this at Christmas and let Buddy the Elf take it to Santa for an elf baby somewhere. But I didn't think that would fly with Grady-man, and so we didn't. So now, Josh has told me that I have no choice...the paci is going bye-bye. SO, Grady and I have been having some "talks" about it at night when we are doing the bedtime routine, getting out of the bathtub, getting his pj's on, etc. I told him all about the Easter bunny and all of the baby bunnies around the world that need paci's from big boys and girls who don't need theirs anymore... (Meanwhile, Grady listens to every word I am saying very carefully with wide eyes...) I am feeling good, like he's paying attention and might be possibly comprehending just a portion of what I'm saying. And then I ask the question... "Grady, are you going to be a big boy and give the baby bunnies your paci?" He looks straight at me and says REALLY loud and emphatically as he shakes his head, "NO!" Ok, so he DOES understand me... But the boy has a mind of his own for SURE! Lately, we've figured out that his favorite word on the planet is NO. But we've also realized that it's our fault... we say it to him all the time, so he's quite used to hearing it and knows exactly how to say it himself. ANYWAY, maybe he'll change his mind about the whole give-the-paci-to-the-bunny-thing. We'll see... Here are a few of his "bunny pictures"... He would NOT let the bunny sit in his lap, or on a bench near him. He liked it "over there" but not up close and personal. Poor kid...he was probably thinking this was the paci-thief and didn't want to get too close...

Back to the Beach, Part Two

2011-03-17T13:40:00.003-05:00

When we were driving in to Orange Beach, I was rambling on to Josh about some story of something I remembered from a beach trip with my family when I was a kid... there are TONS of those stories to tell and I'm sure he gets SICK of me telling them at times. But I have the sweetest husband and he listens to me tell them over and over. Anyway, I was all into my story and he looked over at me and said, "Julie, this place is full of memories for you, isn't it?" And he was so right. Everywhere I look when I'm there makes me think of something in the past...some "memory" that makes me laugh or smile. Being in that place makes me feel like a little kid again sometimes and I think back to all of the fun that I've had there over the years. How blessed Susan and Jenny and I were to be able to go on beach trips 3-4 times a year! Maybe it was the fact that I had not been to the beach in two years and missed it terribly...or maybe it was all those commercials on tv and ads in magazines that I've been seeing about "coming back to the beach" after the oil spill...or possibly just being there for the first time with my own little boy...but for whatever reason, I was just incredibly glad to be there and it got me to thinking about some great times we've had there over the years. SO, this is a truly random post, but one that's dedicated to Mom and Dad...to let you know how grateful I am for these memories...and for Susan and Jenny...for you two are in just about every memory, right along beside me!

100 Memories in Orange Beach to make you smile:
(note...I thought of 100, but there are 1,000 more I'm sure! And these are in no particular order)
1. playing follow-the-leader in the sand dunes (wouldn't that be considered illegal now???)
2. walking on the beach and dragging sticks behind us
3. susan dropping the stick and an old woman picking it up to copy the dragging game we started
4. trying to walk, run, and jump in daddy's footprints down the beach
5. scrambled eggs in the sand
6. feeding the seagulls old bread
7. dad's "counting contest"...some things never change. (Susan, I just wanted you to know that he still was counting on this trip, despite jenny and me rolling our eyes!)
8. laughing at old men in shorts and black socks with metal detectors
9. speaking of black socks...remember papaw's beach attire???
10. and Mamaw's "beach cooking"...country fried steak???
11. swimming in the indoor poll on all those cold spring break trips
12. staying at the Phoenix, but going to Seaside to ask if we could swim in their indoor pool...I think that's what sold Dad on good 'ole Seaside
13. And from then on, it was Seaside. I remember us all saying "I See Seaside" every trip whenever we were first pulling up and could see the name on the building.
14. driving past the "crackerboxes" and glad we weren't staying there (actually kind of sad they are not there anymore)
15. OH, the sandcastle building!!!!
16. and the guarding of our prized castles once they were built
17. wanting to beat up the sand castle destroyers that we watched destruct our creation from the balcony
18. dad helping us build moats (every castle is not complete without one of course) and us trying to fill the moat with water
19. glowing from ear to ear as people walked by and admired our creations
20. all of dad's sand animals...the turtles, the alligtors, etc.
21. burying each other in the sand... wait, that was always ME!
22. finding all of those sand dollars
23. the initial trip to the grocery store where mom dished out items on the list and we all split like a football team ready to tackle the groceries... we usually ended up with two shopping carts.
24. getting kicked out of the card shop next to the grocery store. the single most embarassing time of my life. thanks, susan.
25. "COME ON BACK TO THE RV NOW, SUSAN!" (susan's most embarassing moment at the beach...had it actually have happened, that is!)
26. playing laser tag
27. Daddy getting creamed by a 4 year old girl in laser tag
28. breakfasts at Hazels...oh, those omelets!
29. the story about the state park ranger and the python from the zoo
30. Bunny Lane....and the Bunny Relief Fund... We should write a book about that one day. Dad, it's all yours!
31. Speaking of Bunny Lane, remember mom's run-in with the scary biker-dude at that intersection where Bunny Lane meets the highway? Gosh, I thought for SURE we were going to die.
32. CRAB HUNTING at night!
33. Dad kicking sand on us while we were crab hunting
34. Me screeching while crab hunting (hmmm, and I wonder where grady gets it from???)
35. turning the crabs loose on our demolished sand castles
36. riding the waves in our intertubes...mine was turquoise, jenny's was pink, and susan's was a fake-tire. we HAD to have those exact ones.
37. running down the boardwalk/steps to sink our toes in the sand for the first time on each trip
38. the "Mountain"...jenny beating the guts out of it
39. walking to the mountain with dad while mom went shopping
40. playing at zooland for free...dad made us play until we got free games for the next visit, so it was free again the next time, too. man, those people had to have hated to see us pull up in the parking lot
41. dying of thirst at zooland, but dad was determined not to pay one cent...for a game, OR a drink. ha
42. susan singing with her putter as the microphone, to Eric Clapton and Red Hot Chili Peppers at zooland
43. going bowling in foley when it was too cold to get on the beach
44. going to the movies in foley when it was too cold to get on the beach
45. playing cards in the condo for hours
46. the OUTLET MALL!!! (and Dad's benches)
47. fighting over who was going to read the guest book first
48. every member of our family running into the glass sliding door, thinking it was open
49. "I don't want to look like a DORK!"
50. speaking of DORKS, Julie's ladder exercising (and Dad acting like he didn't know me)
51. the mardi gras parades on spring break
52. the trip with the Mobleys
53. the trip with the Fishers and Pierces
54. chicken fighting in the pool
55. playing "Spoons" at Wolf Bay
56. remember the mean waitress at Wolf Bay who liked Michael Pierce??? ha!
57. remember when the bridge went out and we drove like 4 hours just to go eat at Wolf Bay? that lasted for about 3 years!!!
58. Wolf Bay gumbo. um, um good.
59. Wolf Bay cold boiled shrimp. um, UM, good!
60. The old Perdido Pass... we were so sad when it was gone
61. winning some coloring contest at Perdido Pass
62. Henny Penny, Sammy Shrimp, Spotted Cow, Pepe Pizza, and Freddie Fish
63. Susan begging Daddy to dance with her at Zeke's at the snowbird ball. ha.
64. "GLINK" (and by the way, it just beeps now...bummer!)
65. Dad forcing me to "train" in the sand for track during cold spring break mornings... yeah right...some good that did!
66. shopping for condo furniture for HOURS at Hollis furniture
67. our dream...THE BLUE HOUSE!!!!
68. the four feathers. ha. HAAAAAAA!
69. the brown blanket (that thing was so big...i think our whole family could fit on it... man, we must have looked like rednecks!)
70. remember when we rode out the hurricane? mamaw and I were determined that we were going to get blown away. Dad refused to leave and sat on the balcony watching the storm.
71. watching the SEC tourneys during spring break...and even better, watching the DAWGS WIN it in '96 the year we went to the Final Four!
72. The Fulton Family Bracket Pics originated at the beach. we'd watch the selection show and dad would get copies in the office of the bracket for us
73. shuffleboard tournaments
74. dad grilling
75. remember the big green grassy area by the pool?
76. remember SCRAM-BALL???
77. chicago pizza on the last night.... "It's Tradition" Dad would say as mom rolled her eyes in disgust! ha!
78. the beach pics in all white... still some of my favorite pics today! :) remember chief jerry holding the sea oats?
79. racing down the stairs v.s. the elevator
80. fireworks on the fourth
81. THROWED ROLLS!
82. spending all our money on junk at souvineer city
83. susan spending her life savings on fudge at souvineer city
84. susan eating boiled peanuts on the back seat of the van
85. buying hermit crabs
86. dad waking up at the crack of dawn to stake out our spot on the beach
87. paddle ball on the beach
88. getting stung by jelly fish
89. the traffic jams on the holidays....
90. HEEEEEYYYYYY UNCLE TOMMYYYYYYY! (I thought he really lived in the tunnel.)
91. scoops
92. burning so bad we couldn't stand it...putting the blue ice gel in the freezer and lathering up with it
93. susan and jenny's hairspray-sunscreen
94. playing bocchi ball for hours with josh, jon, and dad
95. watching the tradewinds be built and worrying that our view was going to be destroyed
96. cramming as much stuff as we could into the closet every time we left the condo
97. dad paying us a dollar for every hole-in-one. man, i thought i was rich!
98. the shrimp festival that year during spring break
99. remember those multi-picture-frames that we kept on giving mom and dad EVERY SINGLE YEAR to hang in the condo... bet they LOVED those... yet, they never said anything and always hung them up because they were so sweet!
100. And finally...taking Grady to the beach for the first time and having his grandparents there to share in the experience...

Ok, if there are any readers left at the point, bless your hearts. I ramble. I hope there are 4 of you in particular that are smiling right now! Can't wait to have many more years of memories...

Back to the Beach

2011-03-17T13:11:00.005-05:00

The last trip to the beach that I took was exactly two years ago this week. I was SO ready to get down there again! We had hoped the weather would cooperate and be warm enough for us to make a trip...Grady's FIRST trip...to the beach for spring break. Fortunately, the forecast was GREAT for this time of year and we headed out to Orange Beach as soon as I got out of school on Friday.

SO...the beach. Hmmm... Grady's reaction wasn't exactly what we'd hoped it would be. I guess I just thought he'd be like his whole family and fall in love with the beach immediately, squishing the sand between his toes and running around all over the place, digging holes and building sand castles. Not so much! He was all smiles as we walked down the boardwalk to the sand and for whatever reason, I made the mistake of taking off his little water shoes so he could walk in the sand. Mistake number one. He FREAKED OUT when his little toes hit the sand. Started screeching at such a high pitched level that I'm sure glass broke somewhere nearby! Got that whole episode on video and plan on using it to embarass him when he's older.

Thank goodness Mom had seen a little duck beach chair at the grocery store when she got to the beach and bought it for Grady to sit in. He parked his little rear in that seat and didn't budge unless forced to pry his arms from the chair's arms with more screeching. Ha. It reminded me of my DaddyBill. Most kids are running around playing in the sand and MY child is glued to his chair like a little old man. hee hee.
Of course the water was cold this time of year and with the reaction to the sand, we didn't evern ATTEMPT to have him get in the water. You can tell by the wrinkled up nose in the picture below that he wasn't ABOUT to let go of Pete and put his feet in the water.

When DeeDee came down to the beach, she finally got Grady to sit on a towel and he warmed up a little to the sand. He was fascinated with sea shells. This picture cracks me up...notice how he makes sure his feet are not hanging off the towel one centimeter... ha!

After he warmed up a bit, he kind of enjoyed digging around in the sand with his rakes and shovels...but all done from his planted position on the towel. By the second day, he was actually touching the sand and helping build castle towers. Have a cute video of that, but it's too long to post.

Again...the wrinkled-up-nose-expression is still present in the picture with Aunt Jenny. That expression seemed to be glued to his little face!

SO...guess this was our breaking-in session. Hopefully we will have better results this summer! Thank you DeeDee, Pete, and Aunt Jenny for hanging in there with us! I'm still counting on Grady-man falling in love with the beach soon!

Building

2011-02-20T14:47:00.004-06:00

Grady and Josh are really into building "giant lego towers" these days (well actually, JOSH is really into building giant lego towers. Grady assists a LITTLE bit and succeeds in knocking down the finished product with glee! ha ha!)

Getting Organized!

2011-02-08T16:54:00.005-06:00

Before Christmas, our house was such a wreck... Grady's toys owned every room of the house...and it was totally our fault... we just let it be that way. It looked like a toy store threw up in the living room for sure! It drove me nuts, but I was too tired to come up with a solution. Josh decided that it was BEYOND driving him nuts! We figured that Grady better start learning to pick up his stuff or we'd be doing it forever! Mom asked if we wanted something for Grady's room to organize his toys... SO....

My parents got Grady the CUTEST jungle animal cube shelf for Christmas! It has been a LIFE saver in getting all of his "stuff" organized and neat in HIS room and not all over the house! Thank you, DeeDee and Pete!

I am so impressed that the little man has caught on to it so quickly! I should have gotten into the organization thing earlier in his career! I think he's going to take after both of his perfectionist-parents. He already knows how to sort the toys into puppets, balls, blocks, cars, books, etc! He gets most of it out every afternoon when we get home, but at night when it's bathtime/bedtime, he helps us put it all up in the right places! (Makes the former-kindergarten-teacher-mama SO proud!!!)
We're working on putting his "bags" (that's what he calls his diaper bag and lunch box he takes to day care) in a certain place when he gets home. When we get home, we take off shoes and he goes to his room and puts them in the "shoe basket." Getting ready for a bath, he helps put his clothes in the laundry basket. What a little organizer! Makes me smile!

On another note...this is a late posting, but here are the big man's latest stats from his 18-month checkup (which we actually went to at 19 months). Grady is actually 20 months old TODAY! He is still a VERY big boy!

weight: 30 lbs. 6 oz. (90th percentile)

height: 35" (95th percentile)

head: 20 " (95th percentile)

Baa-kee-Ball!

2011-01-30T17:51:00.003-06:00

We took Grady to his first MSU basketball game at the Hump yesterday and he had a ball! It was my first game to go to since Grady's been born. Great to get back to the Hump and GREAT win against Florida! Whoo hoo, GO DAWGS!
Grady loves basketball. We can be flipping throught channels on t.v. and Grady will see a basketball game on and point to the t.v. and say "Baa-kee-Ball!" He has an MSU basketball and knows exactly what it is. Maybe he'll take after his Aunt Jenny and be a basketball player! He definitely has the height! :)

Field Trip

2011-01-04T12:56:00.004-06:00

Today's my last day of Christmas Break. SO not thrilled about that! It always goes by too fast. Grady, Mom, and I decided to go and check out the new Mississippi Children's Museum this morning.

OH.
MY.
GOODNESS.

I cannot brag about this place enough! It was so wonderful! I wasn't sure if it would be too much for Grady, but it was actually perfect. The neat thing to me was that it is perfect for a wide variety of ages. I could take my third grade class there and they would have a ball and learn a LOT from the different exhibits. From an educator's standpoint, I give it two thumbs up! Mississippi was in such need of having a place like this. I am so excited that it is finally here and that Grady will be able to enjoy it throughout his childhood. I had fun being a kid again today, too! SO, if you have kids, you MUST make a visit soon! If you don't have kids, you can rent Grady (and me...ha!) for a day and we'd be happy to tag along!

Here are some pictures... Josh had taken the memory stick out of the camera and I wasn't aware of it until I took a few pictures and it told me the internal memory was full. So, I do not have pictures from lots of the exhibits. There was SO much to do there!

Here's Grady in the "Health and Nutrition" station. He's exploring the kitchen... He loved that he could get into the cabinets... Not so at HIS house! ha!

Buttering the bread...

driving the produce truck...

checking out all the healthy fruits and veggies in the produce truck...

In the "Literacy" station, they have this gigantic scrabble gameboard and foamy letter tiles. Grady LOVED this. Of course he had no clue he was playing with letters, but SUCH a great idea for older kids.

For some odd reason, this was his FAVORITE exhibit. One station is a climbing map of Mississippi where you learn all about different resources in our state. This particular thing was a rock quarry and he LOVE putting the rocks on the chute and cranking it to watch them go up through the tunnel.

Digging for fossils/dinosaur bones...

Learning about cotton...

Yeaaa for the Mississippi Children's Museum! We'll be back soon to visit again!

GO DAWGS!

2011-01-01T23:14:00.002-06:00

It is a great day to be a bulldog!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-28T13:35:00.004-06:00

Being the first grandchild = one spoiled rotten child! (I was once that little girl, myself!) ha! Grady is one lucky little boy to get so much attention and SO many presents! He became a PRO at opening gifts this year and loved every minute of it! We spent Christmas Eve-Eve in Yazoo and most of the day on Friday.

Uncle Jon and Aunt Sue gave Grady-man his first set of golf clubs! Hee Hee! It was an instant hit! Now he just needs some lessons from Uncle Jon! He carries his "clubs" around everywhere and half-way understands that they are for hitting the golfballs. He whacks at them in his own little funny way and it cracks me up!

Playing his drum from Aunt Jenny... Don't we all just LOVE noise-makers! Ha!

He even got his own cell phone to talk on! And knew JUST what to do with it!

my sweet Papaw with his granddaughters (minus Elizabeth, who I missed seeing on Christmas Day) and great grandson

four generations

The Fulton Family

When I was little (well actually, not just when I was little, but my entire life!) we spent Christmas Eve night at my house. My parents didn't want us to have to travel somewhere and pack up all our stuff, but instead, to sleep in our own beds and wake up at OUR house on Christmas morning. I love that tradition! Josh did the same thing when he was growing up, so we wanted Grady to start that tradition of spending Christmas at his own house and Santa visiting him there. Last year he was too young to know what Christmas was all about, and we spent the night in Yazoo. But this year, we came home for Santa. We said goodbye to Buddy, our elf. We wrote Santa a letter...(okay, so I wrote the letter this year...but one day, Grady will write his own! It's a Fulton tradition to write letters to Santa on Christmas Eve of course!) And we got ready to leave Santa's snack. That's when things got ugly. Ha ha!

Here's Grady putting his letter to Santa on the chair by the fireplace...

And here's Grady when he found out that the cookies weren't for HIM!
Who the heck is Santa????

Okay, so Mom had to give in and let the screamer have a bite...

And then we had to adjust the letter to apologize to Santa for the bites that were missing.

Christmas Day

2010-12-28T12:56:00.004-06:00

Grady's big present from Santa was a Kettler Trike! He wasn't too thrilled about it when he first woke up and saw it. (Hence the reason for no photos on the trike from Christmas morning...ha!) He actually cried when we tried to put him on it. ANYWAY, he did warm up to it and now LOVES to go for a "ride!" So I will have to post some pictures of him on it soon!

"Hey! Where did those cookies go? I put three on this plate last night before I went to bed!"

"Ohhhhhh! Santa ate them! And he wrote me back!"

Here's Grady's letter to Santa and his response. I LOVE this tradition!

"Hmmmm, Dad! I believe Santa left this car-car for ME, not YOU!"

"Santa must know that my mom and Pete expect me to play baseball for the Bulldogs one day! Man he really DOES know everything!"

checking out the stocking loot

Surprise, Surprise! Grady's favorite thing of ALL was a bubble wand in the shape of a candy cane that Santa left in his stocking. He immediately went to the door and starting chanting "bub-buh, bub-buh!" The kid is obsessed with blowing bubbles...even if it is snowing and 25 degrees outside! Who cares about a tricycle when you've got candy-cane bubbles!?

Grana and Pops came over to join us for Christmas lunch. They brought Grady a HUGE box! He enjoyed tearing all of that paper off!

After an hour or so, Dad got it all put together... Grady has a new slide/play fort! Since it's so cold outside, it's just occupying our living room for the time being! Grady LOVES this thing! Between this and the tricycle, looks like we will be spending a lot of time outdoors now!

Growing Little Elf

2010-12-27T22:03:00.005-06:00

I found this Christmas pajama outfit for Grady that came with a matching hat. Grady isn't much on hats, period. It's a miracle if I can even get him to keep a hood on his head on cold days. So getting him to WEAR this hat was not something I thought would really happen. At my parents' house when he didn't pull it off right away, I brought out the camera and snapped LOTS of pics!

These pictures reminded me of last Christmas and his little Santa hat (which will not even begin to fit on his large head this year!) When I looked back at last year's pics, I realized just how much the little guy has grown in only a year!

More Christmas pics to follow soon! :)

"Buddy"

2010-12-27T15:27:00.004-06:00

In early December, we had a house guest arrive and stay with us for about a month! His name was Buddy. Buddy is one of Santa's special elves. He lives at the North Pole, but came to stay with us for a while to keep an eye on us and make sure we were deserving of a visit from Santa Claus. We had so much fun looking for Buddy every day in all of his hiding places! At first, Grady was a bit shy and didn't really want to open up to Buddy. He warmed up quickly though, and soon, it was a daily routine to search the house for Buddy. He would walk around the house, calling out "Buuuuuh-deeeeeee!" until we found him. It was too cute!

Buddy first arrived on our mantle, sitting with all of our nutcrackers!

an unsure Grady-man

Buddy even brought us a book so that we'd know all the rules about kids and elves being friends!

Grady had to keep an eye on Buddy the WHOLE time we were reading the book! ha ha!

still staring Buddy down during the story

On Christmas Eve, all of Santa's elves have to go back to the North Pole to stay until they come for visits in kids' houses next December. So we were kind of sad to see Buddy go. When we came home from Grana's house the day after Christmas, Grady immediately came in the house and started calling out "Buuuuuh-deeeeeeee!" SO sweet! Not sure he understood that he's gone. Hopefully he'll remember him next December!

Christmas in Canton

2010-12-05T15:21:00.000-06:00

We began the tradition of taking Grady to Canton to the square to see the lights last year. We went again this year and he had a ball! Thanks to Grana, DeeDee, and Pete for going with us and making Grady smile long enough to get a Christmas card photo! Man, was that work or WHAT!?

Tis the Season for Greetings!

2010-12-04T08:46:00.005-06:00

It's Christmas card time again! I have been using Shutterfly for the past several years for my Christmas photo cards, but also for so many other things as well! Shutterfly is doing a GREAT promotion that I heard about from reading friends' blogs. By doing a little "advertisement" for them like this on a blog post, you can get 50 free Holiday photo cards! Please see the link below to take part in this great offer!

Shutterfly Promotion

Every time we've ordered from Shutterfly, we've been so pleased with the product! If you haven't ordered from them in the past, check out their website and see what all they have to offer. SO much more than just cards!

Papaw is in the nursing home and it's always hard to think of a gift idea for a person in a nursing home with little hobbies and not much mobility. He is absolutely in love with his little great grandson, so we started the tradition of making him a "Grady Calendar" last year. He LOVED it! We are making the second addition this Christmas so he'll have another year in pictures to enjoy throughout the coming year! Get started on your 2011 Calendar with the link below:

Shutterfly calendars

I've also used Shutterfly for birth announcements and invitations. Check out this link if you are hosting a holiday party and need invitations:

Christmas Invitations

Hope you'll take advantage of this great website AND their wonderful holiday card promotion! Stay tuned for this year's Hammer Family Christmas Card...

Christmas 2009

O Christmas Tree

2010-12-01T17:57:00.001-06:00

Grady was a little more into decorating the tree than he was last year! Our tree looks a bit funny this year. We had to kind of leave a bunch of blank space around the bottom because he likes to grab the ornaments and yank them off, yanking on the tree with each tug!

So when your mom has on obsession with Nutcrackers, I guess it can rub off... Grady now LOVES Nutcrackers as much as I do...probably because I have so many of them for him to look at. They are all on my mantle. He'll look up at them and say "Quack-er"
We get a new Nutcracker each year to add to our collection. Grady helped pick out this year's nutcracker! :) Here he is, pulling some of the old ones out of their boxes.

While We Were Away...

2010-11-30T22:22:00.003-06:00

OH MY GOODNESS, did I miss this handsome little man last week!!! Longest I've been away from him! He had a ball staying with Grana & Pops part of the week, and DeeDee & Pete the other half of the week.

What Grady learned to do while we were gone....

NYC!

2010-11-30T21:50:00.002-06:00

Last week Josh and I took a trip that I have wanted to take for a very long time! We spent the week of Thanksgiving in New York! This was my 5th trip to the Big Apple, but it was Josh's first. I had been trying to talk him into going for the past 5 years. Finally he consented and off we went. We had a blast! Josh loved it as much as I did. Though I've been before, it was a whole new experience for me to see New York at Christmas time. The tree at Rockefeller, the lights and the store windows, and of course, the PARADE!

Probably the highlight of the trip for me was getting to see the Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular show at Radio City. OH MY GOSH! It was so incredible! We also went to see The Lion King...and it was magnificent! Best show I've ever seen period! I cried as soon as the first song started... (OK, so if you can't tell, we had a ball!)

Here are some pictures...

Times Square

view of the skyline from Fulton Landing
(hmmm...one of my favorite views...appropriate name maybe????)

and of course we had to have ice cream at the best ice cream place in the world... it's just something about eating that icecream under the Brooklyn Bridge!

My first time to visit the Top of the Rock... I'd always gone to the Empire State Building. In my opinion, Top of the Rock was 10 times better! It was also my first time to go at night. Completely amazing to see all of this around you. It makes me feel so small.

Something Josh and I hoped to do was walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. The weather at the beginning of the week was AWESOME! Completely unusual for late November in NY. So we were able to do it. SO NEAT!

Central Park...
this view always reminds me of Home Alone 2... It has come on tv twice since I've been home and I've watched it twice. ha!

And the tree at Rockefeller Center. I just had chills! Yes, it wasn't lit yet, but just seeing it in person was so great to me! I am such a kid at Christmas time!

The Parade!!!

2010-11-30T21:24:00.002-06:00

I decided that this event deserved a post all of its own. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has been something that I have wanted to see in person for my entire LIFE. We grew up watching the whole thing every Thanksgiving morning at my house when I was a kid... well, not just a kid... every year since birth! I guess this was kind of the big "finale" of our trip. Josh and I were both like little kids, just in awe of it all. It was truly amazing and larger than life! We took over 100 pictures...but don't worry...I didn't include them all in this post. Just a few to show you a glimpse of what we enjoyed on Thanksgiving morning.

Though the weather had been really nice at the beginning of the week, it was rather CHILLY on Thanksgiving morning! We left our hotel at around 6:00. We had gotten advice to try to see the parade near the point that it begins...closer to Central Park than Macy's. We ended up having an AWESOME spot to see it all...right at the corner of 7th Ave. and Central Park South. We were right on a corner, so we could see all the balloons as they turned the corner. We arrived at our "great spot" along with the other 3 million people 2 hours prior to the parade. So by the time it began, we were pretty cold! But when it started finally, the excitement made us forget the chill!

Okay, enough rambling...here are some pictures!
soooo excited to see that the Smurfs are back! They were all over Macy's when we shopped on Wednesday! I used to LOVE the Smurfs when I was a kid!
a few pics of celebs on the floats...

Jimmy Fallon

Jessica Simpson
(**Note: Josh had the camera at this point and took like 52 pictures of her. I deleted about 49 of them...ha!)

Joan Rivers

and of course...Mr. CLAUS!!!!

the two giddy kids at the end of the parade!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Trick-or-Treat!

2010-10-31T21:31:00.005-05:00

Ok, so I guess I am a mean mom... According to my dad, Grady will be SO embarrassed one day when he sees these pictures. And according to Josh, I am never allowed to pick out Grady's Halloween costume again. Oh well, I personally thought it was hilarious and he was so cute! But I am a bit biased, I guess. (Side note...NO, he is NOT a chicken... he's a baby DUCK!)

Rewind to last year...I had the flu and missed Grady's first Halloween. He was a scarecrow, but we didn't go trick-or-treating because I was sick.

So this year was technically his SECOND Halloween, but the first "real experience" of it! I was seriously doubting that he would trick-or-treat, considering the way he acted with Bully in Starkville last weekend. Josh has been telling me for MONTHS that there is no way that Grady is going to put on the costume that I picked out for him. WELL, he proved us both wrong! He wore the costume and trick-or-treated like a little pro! We had so much fun watching him have fun!

Ok, so I put the candy in HERE????

I'm all ready! Are you guys coming?

First, Grady practiced on Grandmother... "Trick-or-Treat!"

Seriously Mom, do I HAVE to wear this hat? Dad says it makes me look like a chicken!

Hey Mackenzie, I've got a GREAT idea! Let's put the chicken suit on Putt-Putt!

Mackenzie told me all I need to know about trick-or-treating!

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, of course you silly people are grinning! Y'all have on normal clothes! Chicken Little says that if he doesn't get some candy soon, he's going to ditch this costume!

OOh, a pumpkin with lights!

"Quack, Quack!" I mean, Trick-or-Treat!

Happy Halloween!

Afternoon at the Park

2010-10-27T21:34:00.003-05:00

Homecoming

2010-10-26T19:24:00.003-05:00

We spent Saturday in Starkville for MSU Homecoming. Grady-man and "Fan-Fare" didn't go as I had hoped. He HATED Bully. He sat in his lap all of about 1.5 seconds before screaming and reaching for me to grab him So no picture with Bully....

On to face-painting. Um, let's just say that wasn't much better. I think we got one maroon dot (one "toe" of the puppy paw print) on Grady's cheek and then he was DONE and let us all know it. Poor girl who was attempting to paint his face! :(

It was just too hot and too crowded at the players' walk-through thing, so we headed back to the tailgate. I think Grady would be happy to play there all day long!

However, much to our surprise, he did VERY well at the game. It was his very first game. All the other times, I've just stayed with him at the tailgate. But Saturday, he went into the stadium! We only stayed until half-time, but he did great. I think he was just in awe of all the people, the lights, and especially the jumbotron. He squealed and clapped and rang his little cowbell.

Here are a few pictures!

somebody get me AWAY from this dog!

my ticket! FINALLY these people are letting me have my own ticket!

Yeaaaa, Bulldogs!

That is the BIGGEST TV I have ever seen! Dad, can't we get one like that at home?

Go Dawgs!!!

The Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-09T15:34:00.007-05:00

Grady's new favorite word/object is PUMPKIN! He LOVES them! I have lots in all different sizes at home and he just carries them around (or tries to if they are too heavy...and it's funny to watch)! We took a "family field trip" to the pumpkin patch this morning and he loved it! I had always taken my Kindergarten classes to the pumpkin patch every year, so it was not a new thing for me, but for Grady, Josh, and Grana, it was a first! We had so much fun!

waiting patiently for our turn on the hayride

cheeeeeese!

"Mom, what exactly is this stuff we are sitting in?"

Grady LOVED the cows! He kept saying "Mooo" (well, his version of "moo" sounded a bit different, but that's what he was saying! ha!)

And finally, we made it to the pumpkin patch! Grady was in awe of all the pumpkins!

He wasn't so sure about playing in the corn...

...but the hay-bale maze was okay!

What a chubby little pumpkin!

checking out the goats

Wish DaddyBill could see me on this tractor!

HAPPY FALL!

Puzzles

2010-10-03T17:10:00.002-05:00

Back to Starkville We Go...

2010-10-02T22:46:00.003-05:00

I just realized that it's been a whole month since my last post and the last post was from our first trip to Starkville. Fast forward one month and here we are again. It was the most beautiful day! And the dawgs won! YEA! Grady was MUCH more mobile this time. Last trip, he had just begun to wander around on his own and he had some trouble walking through the grass and up and down the hills by our tailgate. Today was a different story. Mom and I spent the day chasing him all over campus! He carried his cowbell with him all afternoon and was really on the move! He wears me out! But I love that he is becoming so much more independent!

Our friends Emily and Michael were at the game with their little bulldog, Fisher! Grady and Fisher hadn't met yet and so today was their first "play date." We had so much fun watching them together. I think we have two future offensive lineman on our hands! Ha! Happy early 1st birthday, Fisher! We SOOO enjoyed seeing you today, little man!

This is the ONLY picture I got today with both of them looking semi-towards the camera! They were SOOOO busy!

Grady-man was a bit jealous when we first walked up to the tailgate and Aunt Sue was playing with Fisher. So funny! He is definitely attached to Susan. She gives him more attention than anyone and spoils him ROTTEN!

LOVE this pic! Bubbles are such a hit with Grady. He had a melt-down just before we got in the car to leave for Starkville this morning. He saw me hand the bottle of bubbles to Josh to put in the car and wanted to have them immediately. He started saying "Bubba, Bubba, Bubba!" Once we get them out, he doesn't want to put them up!

Much to my mom's delight, Grady has learned to say "Dee-Dee!" In perfect pronunciation! It is too cute!

Here are some more pics from the day!

Grady's 1st Tailgate

2010-09-06T21:02:00.003-05:00

My dad would call Saturday a "Red-Letter Day." MSU had an overwhelming victory in their first game of the season, we had PERFECT football weather, and Grady made it to his first tailgate! Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend!
GO DAWGS!!!!

Back in the Routine

2010-08-28T13:41:00.002-05:00

er,...three weeks after the fact... (and hence the reason for no posts in forever!!!)
It was bittersweet to start back to school at the end of the summer. I enjoyed being with Grady so much this summer and doing not much of anything else! It was much needed and he and I had fun! I was worried he would be rotten when he went back to Gail's in August, but she said he was fine and acted like he'd never had a summer break! (on a side note though, I went to pick him up one day this week and he had been put in "time-out" for hitting people with a truck...ha! yeah, we're working on the no-hitting thing at home!)
But also, the start of school always excites me so much...all the "newness" of another year beginning and new students to teach. It's hard to explain, but usually I am not ready for summer to end, but at the same time, kind of excited about school beginning. This year was no exception. I LOVE my class this year! They are wonderful and I am so excited about the year ahead!
We took pictures of Grady-man the first morning of "school" starting again!

All ready to go...

DeeDee got Grady a new big-boy backpack! He loves tractors and anything to do with a farm!

I told one of my friends at school the other day that they need to start a club for husbands of teachers. Poor Josh! Did he even know what he was getting in to!!!?? I am still learning not to be a work-a-holic. He is so great to get Grady ready in the mornings and take him to Gail's. Usually, I am gone before Grady even wakes up! Josh does so much to help out! I am so lucky! Of course, Grady doesn't even care that I'm gone...Dad is pretty entertaining!

Enough Said...

2010-08-28T13:37:00.002-05:00

Yes, Daddy is the super hero around here! I thought this picture was worth a thousand words. Grady grins and squeals every afternoon when Josh gets home! On this day, he decided to wear Daddy's shoes!

Late Mother's Day Treat!

2010-08-28T13:30:00.002-05:00

Susan and I had been wanting to try out the painting class/studio, Easely Amused. We got Mom a gift certificate for Mother's Day and we just all were busy over the summer and didn't get around to scheduling a class until the end of the summer. We finally found a time we could all go and we had a BALL! If you haven't been, you need to grab a friend and schedule a class! I cannot wait to go back! We plan to do it again really soon!

Hammer Family Visit

2010-08-28T13:19:00.002-05:00

Paw-Paw and Aunt Autumn came to visit us in late July. Grady LOVES his Aunt Autumn.
Paw-Paw surprised Grady-man with a new "Cracker Barrell" rocking chair that's just right for him! He LOVES this chair and can now crawl in and out of it himself!
It is for sure his new favorite place to read books! Josh is worried that Grady is turning into a book-worm like his mom! Of course this child must love to read if he belongs to me! :)
Thanks for the chair, Paw-Paw!!!

FINALLY!!!

2010-08-28T12:55:00.002-05:00

Better late than never....
Long time, no posts! But Grady-man's latest milestone requires posting! Grady is FINALLY walking! WHOO HOO! Late bloomer maybe, but better late than never I guess. He's been walking with one of us holding his hand for a really long time, but he wouldn't get the confidence to let go of someone's hand or a couch, wall, chair, etc. and just go on his own. Just this past week, he's started to get a little more confident. Gail told me on Monday at daycare that he has been walking a good bit with her. Last night, Josh and I were watching a football game on tv, not really paying attention to Grady all that much. He was just in the floor playing and we were in the floor too, but watching the game. All of a sudden, we see this little blonde head streaking across the living room to get another toy and we were like OH MY GOSH! He had never been more than a few steps at a time and all of a sudden, he crossed the living room in a flash! It was too funny! Now he's walking all over the house. I am so proud of my little late bloomer! ha! Here's a video from this morning.

The 4th

2010-07-06T13:49:00.005-05:00

Happy Belated 4th of July! We didn't take a vacation, but instead just hung out at home. We took Grady to the Balloon Glow in Ridgeland on Friday. He loved the balloons, but slept through the concert and fireworks! We hung out at the pool and cooked out with Grana and Pops on Saturday. After church Sunday, we spent the day playing outside. How blessed we are to live in such a great country! Hope you all had a happy 4th! Here are a few pics from our weekend.

Grady and Aubrey

2010-06-24T14:51:00.004-05:00

Josh's family had their summer picnic last weekend and Grady got to meet his little cousin Aubrey for the first time. Aubrey was born exactly a week after Grady was born, so they are just about the same age! They were so cute to watch together. Here are a few pictures that Faye took of them playing.

Advertisement for Pampers!

2010-06-17T13:54:00.008-05:00

WE ARE BOTTLE-FREE! WHOO HOO!
Thanks to these new sippy-transition-cups that I found. Who knew??? Pampers makes sippy cups! I saw them advertised in a BabiesRUs catalog I got in the mail. They are a new item, I think. They are called Pampers Natural Stages Bottle and SippyCups. Supposedly the stage 4 is a transition type cup and there is supposed to be a stage 5 after this one, but I have yet to find it anywhere online or in a store. Anyway though, if your child has trouble letting go of his bottle like mine did, these are wonderful and I highly recommend them! Grady LOVES them and we have been bottle-free now for 5 days! YEA for Pampers! So eventually we will work our way to a "real" sippycup! ha!

Yea for "big boy cups!!!"

And now...on to the next summer-time battle of mom v.s. son: "BIG BOY FOOD!!!"

**side note...I feel like a terrible mom at times because I hear of other people's children doing things faster than Grady is doing them, or doing them with more ease, I guess. I have decided not to worry about any of it anymore. He will learn when I have time and when he gets ready! And now that I am off this summer to spend more time on these mom v.s. son battles, I think we will start to make progress. Just since I have been home for the summer, we have accomplished these: we have gotten rid of the bedtime bottle/feeding, gotten rid of bottles altogether, AND transitioned to only one nap a day (he was napping 2-3 times when I was at school). Now, on to big boy food... YIKES!

So when we went to the doctor for his 12-month visit, I was so sad to find out that the doctor doesn't give a suggested feeding schedule/menu to you anymore after 12 months! Josh and I are such by-the-book parents, this being the first time around! (Poor Grady!) So what on earth is a poor first-time mom supposed to do without a suggested feeding schedule??? My child, unlike many others apparently, does not jump at the chance to eat table food or eat off our plates. In fact, he loves his baby food so much that I think he'd continue to scarf it down until he is 18 if I was okay with it. ha!

WELL, anyway, after researching online yesterday for ideas and what to feed a picky little 1 year old who doesn't chew all that well, AND talking on the phone to mom for an hour, I made a huge grocery list and Grady-man and I set out to find something that he will possibly eat! Yesterday's attempt is pictured below... He is SUCH a typical kid! I put carrots, green beans, and diced apples on his plate, along with a few of those Gerber "crunchies" that are basically toddler cheese-puffs. He immediately went for the crunchies and scarfed them all down, then just stared at me like "Ok, can I have some more of those?"
Today's attempt went somewhat better. For lunch we tried Ritz crackers with torn up cheese slices, diced carrots, asparagus spears, applesauce, and Gerber "chicken sticks." AND I didn't get anything spit back at me for once! Whoo hoo!

Stay tuned for the latest adventures in mom v.s. son!

And feel free to give me your suggestions for little picky eaters...

Swing

2010-06-14T13:53:00.002-05:00

If you can't tell from the pictures, Grady-man LOVES his new swing! (Thanks, DeeDee and Pete!) It cracks me up how he grabs on to the ropes to "hold on." Reminds me of the "swings" at Opryland! That used to be my favorite ride when I was a kid!

Four Years Ago Today...

2010-06-10T10:13:00.003-05:00

...the beginning of the Hammer Family!

HELP!

2010-06-09T13:18:00.004-05:00

Grady's 12-month checkup was this morning. Here are his stats:

Weight: 24 lbs. 13 oz. (80th Percentile)
Height: 31 3/4 in. (95th Percentile)
Head Circumference: 19 1/4 in. (greater than 95th Percentile...which is "off the charts" ha...thanks, Dad!)

Everything was fine and he is a growing little man... BUT Dr. Flowers said it is time to get rid of the bottle! We have had a struggle with this lately... it's time to go into "Bottle De-tox Mode," I'm afraid! Grady, for some reason, refuses to drink from a sippy cup. We have tried 4 different kinds of sippy cups. We've put all different kinds of liquid in them and even given one to him empty just to play with, but the child will not drink out of it. And what's even worse,... he throws a temper tantrum every time you try to give it to him. I'm not talking about a little cry or whimper... but a full-blown FIT! AGH! I know this is going to make me pull every strand of my hair from my head before the summer is over... SO, if you have any suggestions of what I can do as we are entering Bottle-Breaking-BootCamp, PLEASE leave me a comment and tell me what to do and what I've done wrong!
Thanks!

Easily Entertained

2010-06-09T13:11:00.002-05:00

Just give the boy a balloon and he's occupied until you decide to take it away! :)

Grady is ONE!

2010-06-08T13:37:00.002-05:00

So hard to believe that Grady is ONE today! This past year has flown by (well... I'm sure if you'd asked me if time was flying when he was 2 months old, I'd have told you NO WAY, but thankfully we started figuring things out as parents tend to do I guess, and it got a little easier as time went on.)
I thank God every single day for blessing us with such a perfect little miracle! He brings such a smile to my face and has turned out to be such a happy little kiddo! This smile melts my heart!

At 12 months, Grady is all OVER the place! Not yet walking, but he is pulling up on everything and you can't let him out of your sight. He will walk down the length of the couch as he holds on to the sides. I know he is getting close. His favorite toys are balls and cars and anything that rolls. He is finally learning to play with toys that have little chutes and ramps for you to "drop" a ball into. He's getting good at "shooting baskets" into his goal also! :)

He talks incessantly at times... (well, in his own language, that is...) He will get so tickled at random things and just squeals with delight! Those moments make my day! He cracks me up!

My, how fast they grow up! I catch myself saying things like, "I wish he could just walk." Or Josh's favorite thing to say..."I wish he was just potty trained!" (HA!)... But then I remind myself not to wish away one moment! He will be grown too quickly and I love the age he is right now!

Happy 1st birthday, sweet Grady-man!

Happy Birthday, Dear Grady!

2010-06-08T13:14:00.004-05:00

hmmm...I wonder why all these people are staring at me? Haven't they ever seen a boy eat?

Hey, what's this? Where are the peas? Where are the bananas?

Happy Birthday, Dear Grady...Happy Birthday to you!

This does not taste like my normal food!

hmmm...Mom said I should dig in, so maybe I will give it a try!

not bad, not bad at all... what's Dad doing sticking his hands in my new food?

Seriously, Dad??? I know you just didn't do that in front of all these people!!!
We love you more than words can describe!!! Happy birthday to our growing little man!

Testing the Waters...

2010-05-31T22:36:00.004-05:00

Yesterday after church, we packed up a LOAD of gear and took Grady for his first swim! Grana had a new float waiting for him to try out in the pool! He didn't act at ALL like we thought he would. Grady LOVES taking a bath in the bathtub and splashing/playing with all of his toys. We thought he'd have a ball in the "big bathtub"... but he was surprisingly quiet and motionless! ha! He had this odd look on his face the whole time and seemed as if he were at peace enough to fall asleep. Probably because we went straight from church, to lunch, to the pool and he didn't get a nap except for the car ride... Anyway though, he has been introduced to the pool. Maybe next time he'll have more fun splashing! Thanks to Grana for the float and Aunt Jen for the cute swimsuit! They were both perfect! Here are a few pictures...

"Pops, what are we doing in this cold water? This does not feel like my bathtub at home!!!"

"I'm not so sure about all of this..."

"Maybe if I give them a half-smile, they'll let me out of this frog cage and let me get warm again!"

"Still not sure why Mom and Dad are smiling so much! My toes are getting wrinkled!"

FINALLY!

2010-05-31T22:33:00.003-05:00

YEAAAA!!!! We finally turned Grady's car seat around this weekend! He was excited to see the world from a new perspective! :)

Spring Photo Shoot

2010-05-19T20:49:00.002-05:00

We recently had Grady's first photo shoot. I know most people do this with their kids a lot earlier than 11 months, but...
1. We were saving money.
2. Grady was a spitter-upper for so long...doesn't make great pics! ha!
3. I guess I'm just a bad mom!
Anyway, we finally got around to having his pictures made. My friend Monique did them and she did a fantastic job! She took pictures of Grady for a solid hour and he was so well behaved! I was so proud of him! Here are some of my favorites...

We had to bring along the cowbell to keep him occupied! He LOVES ringing it! (I am not kidding! He is a true little bulldog fan!)

A "YES-answered" Prayer!

2010-05-13T16:24:00.002-05:00

Great news from the Hammer family! This past Friday, Josh was offered a job as a program analyst with a company called Enterprise Corporation of the Delta! YEA! He will start on Monday, May 17th! He's been going through the interview process with them for the past month or so and has been through several rounds of interviews and completed a case study for them as well. Every meeting he had went really well and he always kind of felt like this might be the one! HE is so excited, I am so excited, and Grady is excited because the stress-level at our house will decrease hopefully now! ha!
Josh and I were talking about all of this the other night and Josh made the comment that this past year has been quite a year for us! That is so true! Josh's company closed their doors in March of 2009. Having a baby on the way and losing your job is a scary thing. I know that I have handled it more like a roller-coaster than Josh has. There have been periods of time when I've totally trusted God to take care of us and give me patience and peace. But to be honest, there have also been times that my patience and faith have been tested and I haven't been so faithful to trust, but instead have worried and stressed over the situation. It can be so hard when you can't look into the future and see what's ahead, but have to just trust that it is going to be okay. JOSH, on the other hand, has handled this whole thing so great! He has truly been a picture of patience! He's been so calm about it and has totally trusted that God was going to provide the job that He wanted him to have. For that, I am so thankful! Imagine two of us being stressed and worried! ha!
Through everything that's happened this past year, God has been so good to us and blessed us in so many BIG ways, but also the little, unexpected ones, too! The other day after Josh got the job offer, I was thinking about all of that and how God is so faithful to us...even to worrisome people like me. A good friend of mine once told me that he hated the Garth Brooks song, "Unanswered Prayers." He said that it was all wrong because the words in the song and the title make it seem as if God ignores our prayers. "Unanswered" isn't the right word. God either answers our prayers with a YES or a NO...the no may mean NO, or it may mean "no, for right now." We have had SO many people praying for us this past year during the job search process! Every time an interview didn't work out, it was easy to get frustrated and down, but it was just God's "NO for right now" answer. There was something else for Josh and we just didn't know what it was. This job with ECD/Hope is so perfect for him and I just know in my heart that God had it picked out a long time ago. That's why all of the other "doors" were closed. So this is the "YES-answered" prayer! I know that there have been so many prayers offered up by our friends and family and for that, we are truly grateful. They were not "ignored," but rather answered with a "not right now" answer! Now, God has given a "YES" and we are so excited and thankful for this answer to prayer! THANK YOU for your prayers for our family!
Love,
Julie

Why Highchairs Have Wheels. . .

2010-04-22T16:13:00.003-05:00

Little Bulldog

2010-04-21T20:07:00.005-05:00

WELL, Mr. Grady has had his first trip to Starkville! We went for Super Bulldog Weekend this past Saturday and had a blast! It was the perfect day, weather-wise, to make his first visit.

Think Josh is a little hopeful??? HA! When we passed the "prospect gate," we had to get a picture... would have been better if we'd have taken Grady-man out of the stroller I guess, but we were trying to get into the stadium.

taking it all in at Scott Field...
(We went to the sidelines to get his picture with Bully...and of course as soon as we walked up, Bully left the sidelines and went back onto the field. Oh well... Grady probably would have cried anyway because he was SO tired at this point!)

Marooooooon....... Whiiiiiiite! Grady is getting so good at ringing a cowbell! He's a natural!

Of course the highlight of MY day was getting to take my child to Dudy Noble for the first time! It made my day! Grady was such a little trooper at the baseball game. We didn't get there until the 2nd inning. He lasted until the bottom of the 7th, which I think was pretty good for his first game! We won the game... so of course, it must have been Grady-man's good luck!

My favorite picture of the day. I'm not sure who had more fun...Grady or my dad! I don't know of a bigger bulldog fan and being there for his grandson's first trip to Starkville definitely made my dad's day! He was all smiles!

So, it was a success! Grady has been introduced to the place where he will spend 4-6 years of his life. ha! Brainwashed a bit??? Nahhhhh!

GO DAWGS!

10 Months

2010-04-08T21:55:00.003-05:00

SO hard to believe... Where does the time go?

Happy 36th Anniversary...

2010-04-07T18:28:00.002-05:00

...to my mom and Dad! What a great pair they are! I hope y'all have had a great one and will have many, many more to enjoy! We love y'all!

Dear John Hinton...

2010-04-06T18:15:00.003-05:00

Dear John Hinton,
I read your post about getting a new tooth in. Man, let me tell you...I FEEL your pain! I've been cutting my front two teeth on the top and it's not a fun experience. Our friend Gage shared something new with me the other night at dinner...It's even better than a "puff". Mom says they're called pinwheels... You should try them. Even if you have to gum it, it's so much better than all that mushed up junk our moms give us everyday! Let me know what you think. Happy teething!
Your Buddy,
Grady

Happy Birthday Susan!

2010-04-06T18:11:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to Aunt Sue, my biggest fan! I enjoyed eating dinner with you last night!

Love,
Grady

Easter Sunday

2010-04-06T17:57:00.003-05:00

"I'm not sure who this Easter Bunny Guy is, but I sure like the goods!"
"Easter Eggs! My FAVORITE! They fit in my mouth perfectly!"

"Ok, Dad...nice book, but could you hurry up so I can look at the rest of my prizes?"

"Mom must have told the Easter Bunny that I am going to the beach soon!"

Hunting for more eggs at Aunt Vonnie's house

Grana had to help me alot! I get distracted easily...

Our attempt at a family picture...and it only took 43 tries to get one with all three family members looking at the camera...(somewhat looking at the camera, I guess! ha!)

Grady and his great-grandmother, chilling out inside

Happy Easter!

Good Good Friday

2010-04-05T17:51:00.003-05:00

What a great Easter weekend! Finally, a holiday weekend in which NONE of the Hammer family members were sick! Whoo Hoo! We had a fun day on Friday. We took Grady to the reservoir and hung out outside, enjoying this great spring weather! He and Josh have matching shades, now...thanks to Grana! He actually wore them for a while without trying to take them off!
Friday night, we dyed Easter eggs! Grady was a trooper...he was so tired, but was such a good sport!

"But I don't LIKE Humpty Dumpty!

...and our finished products!

.....More Easter pics to follow soon! :)

So that's what teeth are for!

2010-03-25T21:26:00.004-05:00

Learning to use that mouthful of teeth...we're up to 6 teeth, now! He still doesn't have the front top two teeth, so as he's trying to learn to chew, he tends to move the little cereal puffs over to the side to his eye teeth! ha...

"Showing Some Leg"

2010-03-25T20:40:00.004-05:00

I went to pick up Grady after school yesterday and found him in shorts. (Josh gets him ready in the mornings because I have to be at work so early... so I usually don't know what he has on!) I know this sounds weird, but to me...it was strange to see my little man in SHORTS! I have probably only seen him wear shorts a few times... He was so little during the summer last year that he mainly wore onesies and sleeper-kind of outfits. And then it was Fall... so it was weird to see him all "grown-up" and wearing shorts. He looked so big! Gail said that when Josh brought him in that morning, he said Grady was "showing some leg"... ha! Sounds like a Josh comment, huh? Anyway, I just thought he looked so grown-up, and so I had to take some pictures!
Somehow the chick ends up in all of the pictures lately... Grady LOVES this thing!

"Baby Chick and Baby Duck"

2010-03-21T19:20:00.002-05:00

Jenny has been home from Louisville this week while Grady and I had Spring Break! She brought him an Easter basket with lots of goodies... my personal favorites are these little wind-up Easter toys. One is a chick and the other is a rabbit. You wind them up and they hop all over the place. Grady LOVES them! I think I love them even more! For some reason, they make me think about the Friends episode when Chandler and Joey have a baby chick and a baby duck and they get stuck in the Foosball table. One of my favorite episodes!

What Can I Tear Up?

2010-03-17T17:28:00.001-05:00

So far, this is my favorite video. Grady is starting to get into EVERYTHING! Today, I was checking my email in our third bedroom/office, and Grady was playing with a few toys on the floor. He just isn't that interested in toys at times and looks for other things that he can destruct or rearrange... ha! Today, he found the door stopper. I got the camera out and here's what happened next. . . .

Happy Birthday, Pops!

2010-03-16T14:49:00.003-05:00

9 Months!

2010-03-10T19:48:00.002-06:00

Random Pics

2010-03-10T19:29:00.004-06:00

Grady's sweet little cousin, Mackenzie, gave him some of her old toys since she is such a big girl now. Grady LOVES the little car. Thanks, Mackenzie!

Tracy, for some reason, I think he looks just like Joseph in this picture above.

We had Grady's nine-month check-up today. He's sporting his "good patient" sticker in the picture above. The best news in the whole world: GRADY IS READY FOR REAL MILK! YAHOOOOOOO!!! With the Hammer family being on "major saving mode" these days, we realized that it is going to save us $100.00 a month to not have to buy any more formula! YIPPEE!! He got a great report as usual. Dr. Flowers thought he looked like he was 2 years old instead of nine months! He weighed 21 lb. 15 oz and was 31 inches long. His height is still "off the charts"...

I am such a little ham!