I thought I could leave without crying. . .

and I almost did.

Until we pulled into the gas station on Wadsworth Road. Music from Bella's TinkerBell movie was just enough to push me over.

We enjoyed a wonderful week with family.

More photos from our trip to Wisconsin coming soon!

These three kids. . .

Tears flowed from Bella last week when the rainbow painted on her cheek smeared off on the ride home. Not so this time. She went to the zoo with a family from church and got her whole face done. She even convinced me to let her sleep with it on. Silly girl.

Climbing up onto the counter to grab a banana. Proof. Graydon is truly my Monkey-Boy.

Ten months old! And he just cut his first tooth. Curtis is getting so big!!!

Tomorrow is packing day. We're heading out to Wisconsin on Tuesday morning for some fun family time. I can't wait!!!

Easter

Easter Week:

Bella and Graydon picked up some branches from the yard and we worked on a little project. Easter egg nests! (I saw it in Family Fun magazine.) Lots of great ideas there.

On Saturday, we dyed our eggs.

I wrote our names on the boiled eggs with clear crayon just prior to dyeing them. Bella was amazed when her name magically appeared on an egg.

Our colorful eggs in their little homes.

Easter day:

Our church had its annual Sunday School program and Easter bonnet contest. I didn't get any photos from this since my hands were pretty full with Curtis. Here are their hats:

Bella's bonnet- she designed and made this herself. The only thing I did was hot glue some of the elements in the places where she told me to.

Graydon's crown - I envisioned him having a bigger role in the making of this, but after doing the tissue paper grass with me, he was done. So I got to put the foam stickers wherever I wanted.

And then he wouldn't wear it. I ended up giving it to another little boy who didn't have a hat to wear.

Curtis wore bunny ears.

Here's Bella and Curtis all dressed up.

I did not ignore my middle child. But an overly bright sun and uncooperative two-year-old made this the only photo I got of just him.

After our church service, we got a photo of the whole family.

And I couldn't let the day go by without a photo of the kids all dressed up. Ideally, I would have gotten these in the morning before church and before shirts got untucked and hair lost its curl. But I'm on my own on Sunday mornings and I barely got out the door in time as it was.

If you'll notice, Graydon has another owie. This time on his lip. His bump/bruise finally cleared up on his forehead and then he fell on the concrete while chasing a ball and scraped his lip. We had a few days for it to clear up a little.

I'm always happy to get a shot of smiling children, but I love the candid photos we took even more. They are so playful with each other.

After being such great kids, we went home, got comfortable and searched for Easter baskets. Bella found hers right away - in the bathtub. And she helped her brothers find theirs too.

We followed that up with a delicious lunch at the home of one of our church family's. It was a beautiful day to celebrate the greatest victory this world has ever seen.

He is risen!!!

Doctor appointments

Graydon had a weight check. Normally, he shouldn't have to go back for a check-up until he turns three. But our little guy is a little guy and they want to monitor his weight. Unfortunately, he didn't gain any weight. In fact, he actually lost half a pound. I'm pretty sure that the weight loss was due to a stomach bug that he had last week and the subsequent loss of appetite that followed it. Still, we have to bring him back again in one month. If he fails to gain weight, then they're going to have to run a bunch of tests. I'm thinking that Andy should be at the next appointment. That way the docs can see the gene pool that we're working with here. Operation Beef-up Graydon has officially begun!

On another note, it turns out that Graydon has an infection in his left ear. That definitely explains a lot of the crankiness this week. He has been a bear. Amoxicillin to the rescue.

Curtis had a regular check-up. His stats are:

Weight: 19 lbs. 1 oz. (25th percentile)
Height: 29 and 1/8 inches (75-90th percentile)
Head circumference: 18.5 inches (90th percentile)

So it really is Curtis's big head that makes him look like a big baby. As you can see by his percentages, he is not tipping the scales too high either. But he is very healthy and developing just as he should. Two shots later (polio and hepatitis B) and we were out of there.

Bath time for Curtis!

Curtis usually gets his baths in the tub, but I thought a sink bath might deter Bella and Graydon from wanting a bath too. I still bathe Curtis separately from Bella and Graydon because:

1. between the two of them and their toys, I'm not sure where Curtis would even fit 
2. I can bathe Curtis in 10 miniutes whereas Bella and Graydon like to be in there for at least an hour (about 10 minutes for cleaning and the rest for playing).

Whenever I give Curtis a bath, I ALWAYS have two big kids whining and complaining that they want a bath too. This night was no exception even though we were at the kitchen sink. Bella quickly moved on, but Graydon was VERY unhappy that he couldn't get a bath.

And apparently the fact that Curtis was in the sink was not going to stop him. In true Graydon form, he pushed a chair up to the kitchen counter and climbed up.

First in were his hands.   

And then his feet.

At least the whining and complaining had stopped. There's been a LOT of that from him this week.

He is a very determined little boy.

Here comes the sun!

The weather is warming up.

It's nice to be outside to throw the ball around.

And go exploring in the yard.

Welcome Spring!

We are so ready for you.

It's all fun until someone gets hurt

Bella and Graydon's new thing is dancing in the living room. They put in their Worship Jamz cd, grab hands, and begin their hyped-up version of ring-around-the-rosie. This always ends with them purposefully falling to the ground, laughing hysterically.

One time, however, it didn't end that way.

Graydon ended up falling to the ground and smacking his head on the radiator. Within seconds, a goose-egg appeared on his forehead. It looked to me like a tumor coming out of his head. He, of course, was crying hysterically.

Most of the swelling is down now. This is how it looks a few days later. I really don't think that the camera does justice to how truly gnarly it looks.

But I guess he's not too worse for wear.

Nine months in. . .

nine months out!

Curtis's biggest news is that he's starting to scoot all over the place. I'll try to get some video up soon. It's too cute. (At least this momma thinks so).

Somebody had a birthday this week!

We celebrated Andy's 31 years of life and are 

thankful for each day with him. 

Happy Birthday to an a wonderful husband and father.

As promised. . .

I took some pictures of Curtis!

Eight months seems to be my magic age to get nice portraits of my kids.

It was a warm afternoon, Graydon was sleeping, Bella wanted to play outside, Curtis was in a good mood, etc. I decided to go for it. If this had been more planned, Curtis would have been wearing a nicer outfit. But since this was spontaneous and all of Curtis's clothes were in the bedroom where Graydon was sleeping, we had to make do. Such is the life of the third child.

I'm hoping to open up an Etsy shop in the next few months to sell crochet hats that I make. The money I make will go into our Disney World fund. Anyway, I wanted to get some photos of a couple of the hats. They are actually more Graydon-size hats, but he is less than cooperative with the camera lately (always).

Curtis isn't exactly mobile yet, so he really doesn't have a choice.

Doesn't he look like he's about to jump out from behind the tree to sneak attack someone with that stick.

You wouldn't believe the time I had trying to keep grass/dirt/twigs out of his mouth.

Two days later, I put up a black sheet in the kitchen to get these shots.

And here are my other two babies when they were eight months old.

Bella's was taken at JC Penney and Graydon at Portrait Innovations. 

I'm just as pleased with mine. 

And I love how much money I saved!

Artists at work

This is all I have for photos this week. Sorry. I seem to have gotten out of the habit. I'll try to do better. I really want to get some nice photos taken of Curtis. Now that I've said it here, hopefully that will help keep me accountable to actually doing it.