Trip to the Shore and a Surprise Visit!

Andy's annual Pastor's Retreat at the shore was this week. Families were invited, so the kids and I tagged along. We are slowly turning our kids into beach bums. Bella could live at the beach - she loves it! Her little feet don't sit still for a minute. The crashing waves produce such a thrill in her that she wants to spend every minute playing in the water.
Graydon was happy in the sand. . . . . . until he proved that he couldn't be trusted to not eat it. Andy and Bella ran down the beach. Even with my zoom as far as it could go, they were tiny. This photo reminds me how little we are in this big world. During one of the meeting times, the kids and I hung out downstairs. Big Sister Bella wanted to snuggle with Little Brother Graydon. I couldn't ask for a better big sis for Grady. She is so attentive and gentle. She tries so hard to make him happy and is often successful. She also keeps him in line with a gentle, "no, no Graydon" when he's trying to get at something that he shouldn't have. And she's always happy to get some extra snuggle time with him. Not to mention she has lots of patience for his hair pulling, face grabbing, and sloppy kissing.There's a happy boy! Back at home. . . he is a difficult boy to feed cereal/pureed food to. He's always grabbing for the spoon. He could have one spoon in each hand and will still let go of one to grab the spoon that we're using. Such a stinker. A fun package from Grandma Debbie arrived this week! Here's Bella sporting one of her new outfits and new pom poms. Graydon got a new cowboy outfit. Here's the hat. He kept trying to take it off, so I needed to keep his hands occupied. That's where the tag comes into play.Still grabbing for it anyway. I love this one. And it was just begging to be tampered with. When we got back from the shore, there was a surprise waiting for Andy. He headed through the dining room, ready for relaxation after our car trip. The room was dark, very unassuming. Then just as he headed through the opening towards the living room. . .WELCOME HOME PASTOR ANDY!!!!!!!!!!! Josh jumped up from the couch and surprised Andy. Here's a reenactment of their reunion. Josh and Andy became friends while we were in college. They still keep in touch as often as they can, which can be a little difficult since Josh and his family live overseas. Andy hadn't seen Josh in over two years. He and his family are back in Wisconsin for a short break before they return again at the end of the year. Andy was pretty disappointed because, though Josh was back in the states, he was in Wisconsin and we were in New Jersey. Our next trip to Wisconsin won't be until after they leave. Little did he know that Josh and I have been conspiring for the past few weeks for a surprise visit. The surprise went off without a hitch and the two had some great hang-out time.

Here are the BFFs: Josh and Andy
Thanks for the visit Josh!!!

A couple more scrapbook pages:
Something I don't want to forget: Bella has been into role-reversing with me lately. She is "The Mommy" and I am "The Bella". Today was Rally Day at church with a lunch to follow. Before I even realized it, Bella had gone through the line and got my lunch: a hotdog, potato chips, and macaroni salad. She then went on to get her and Daddy's plates. "Because I'm the Mommy." she said. Such a sweet girl.

Do you see those two little teeth. . . ?

Graydon's bottom teeth are finally grown in enough to be visible. Don't get too used to this look though, his upper teeth are not far behind.

Something must have been funny here - but I've already forgotten what it was.There has been a lot of U.S. Open coverage going on in our house this week, which inspired both Andy and Bella to want to get out and play a little. Bella genuinely enjoys playing tennis with Daddy. Graydon watching from the sidelines. Mary! This is for you! I couldn't get him to smile as he was so focused on that toy, but here he is in the "Grandpa Chris" had. He always gets good comments whenever he wears it. Lots of scrapping has been going on. When my computer crashed, I also lost a handful of pages that I'd done for Graydon. This event lit my fire. In the past two weeks, I completed 19 pages! (which are all safely uploaded to my printing site in the event of another computer malfunction). Here are a few of them.

Graydon's Portraits

I wasn't too optimistic about how these photos would turn out. Graydon was incredibly fussy that morning (his top two teeth are just about to poke through). He struggled going down for his morning nap and was woken up after only a half hour by Bella, who went into his room to get her baby (that didn't even end up being there). I couldn't get him back to sleep and he was sooooo crabby. The appointment had already been made so we just decided to go and see what would happen. The new environment must have helped. He was quite serious for many of the photos, but also let loose some nice smiles that we managed to catch.

This is one of the serious ones - but I thought that this photo was precious. I love the lighting. . . and this is a very common expression on Graydon's face when he is examining something new or just concentrating really hard. And for fun, here is one of Bella - also at 8 months.

Do you think they're related?

Lots of pictures!

My computer is up and running again. I am slowly adding software, installing programs, and regaining as many files as I can. What a pain it has been. We are definitely in pursuit of an external hard drive. Due to my recent loss of a few weeks worth of pictures, I've been a photo-taking maniac these past couple of days. Must be my way of compensating. So get ready for lots of photos. First off - Graydon's 8 month picture. He was so smiley on this day and I have a ton of photos with big smiles like this. Love this boy! Bella has been feeding Graydon quite a bit lately. I'll tell you - he doesn't make it easy. He is always grabbing for the spoon that he's being fed with. He could have one spoon in each hand and will then let go of one of them to grab the one you're using. Definitely wants to do it himself.My little loves.
Again, I'll remind you that I was in a photo taking mood - which is why I have this one of Graydon, even though he's crying. I was feeling sentimental and thought, "I may want to remember what he looked like when upset." Bella got her first helmet. We tried on this princess one, but it was a bit snug. She opted for a pink and white flowered Hawaiian style. The first day she had the helmet, it was the coolest thing. Now she has already started to protest about wearing it. I think I remember her saying something like, "I don't like pink and white flowers ANYMORE!" She'll probably like them again tomorrow. That's how things roll around here. Here's a few of Graydon in his room prior to bedtime one evening. . . a little n.a.k.e.d. time
And we can't forget about Miss BellaBella has a whole hamper full of dress-up clothes. This ballerina outfit is becoming pretty popular. There are also little slippers that go with it, but we couldn't find one of them. A lightbulb went on in my head and I remembered my old ballet shoes that were in the attic. I brought them down for Bella and she LOVED wearing them. I got my own little recital that morning.

A little room to grow.Brother/sister bonding time. Now that Graydon is mobile, he's starting to get into Bella's stuff - which she doesn't like. I can see the rivalry beginning. But then there are sweet moments when all she wants to do is snuggle with him.
It's even sweeter when he wants to snuggle too.
Bathtime! This is the first time that I bathed the two of them together. What a time saver! Bella insisted on getting in the little tub with Graydon. They both had fun with it.
A clean, happy baby!
We took Graydon in for his pictures today. Got some really cute ones. Stay tuned!