Our Valentine's 2017

In the past, we have celebrated some special Valentine's that included snow.  Now that our chances of snow are just about zero, I thought we should start a new tradition and have a beachy Valentine's celebration.  February gave us many nice, warm days in our new town so it was a very pleasant day for a beach outing to Tybee Island.  Although the water was chilly, the boys were still able to enjoy getting their feet wet without getting hypothermia.  We weren't the only ones enjoying the beach on this day, but it definitely wasn't crowded and was just so nice and quiet and peaceful.  It was a fun day, and we got some nice pictures to remember it.

Our first family beach pictures with baby Grayson. 

A few decent shots considering my kids hate the sun in their eyes.

And some silly ones too!

Baby Grayson's first Valentine's and first time at the beach. 

This is love!

I included these because I loved Mattox's face and how it shows that he can't stop showing his baby brother love. 

My sweet Brody.  He just can't resist trying to chase the seagulls. 

Hanging out on the beach with my babies.  Daddy doesn't love the beach as much as we do and didn't want to get wet so he just took pictures of us.  Evan was shading baby Grayson from the sun. 

My silly, sweet, cute Mattox.  I just love him so much and this stage he is in. 

Brothers looking out for one another, and Mommy and her sweet littlest baby. 

Oh, I just love those faces!

These two will have so many adventures together with Evan always being the sensible one to keep them from harm. 

Brody teaching Mattox to play in the dirt. 

Evan encourages Brody to get more exercise. 

This kid is always running. 

Tybee Island will be our main beach although if it is too crowded in the summer, we will venture down to Jekyll Island or up to Hilton Head.  The boys found this poor jellyfish on the beach.  These are unusual jellyfish without the long tentacles that sting.  

Some of our special Valentine's decor with my pretty red roses from Daddy, cards, and balloons for the boys. 

Grayson's 2nd Month

Well, I am way behind as usual, but we are just having so much fun raising these four little men, and it is hard to keep up with everything.  I am just loving my precious time with my littlest man before he becomes a big guy.  It is all going way too fast.  Here are the highlights from Grayson's second month:

He does love his daddy and showed it in his special shirt for Daddy's birthday. He makes lots of cute and expressive faces. 

And some pretty funny mad faces.  He doesn't get mad often, but he'll definitely let you know when he isn't happy. 

Obviously, he wasn't too pleased during this photo session.  I didn't purchase too many new outfits for Grayson although I did get a few more warm outfits for the winter months.  I couldn't resist this little tree themed one piece from Old Navy which went along perfectly with the tree cookie numbers I found at Hobby Lobby on major sale.  I am planning to hang those numbers in his room and am gradually working on a more woodland themed room. 

Sweet baby working on his tummy time exercises and trying to hold his head up.   Do any babies really enjoy tummy time?  

He did have really strong neck muscles and could lift his head up pretty well at 6 weeks old. 

Showing us who the boss was!  Those faces just make me laugh. 

And telling big brother Evan he is the boss!

We don't mind being bossed around by this cute baby. 

Poor baby had to do too much car seat riding that month on his trips between North Carolina and Georgia. 

So cute at 7 weeks old. 

I love baby outfits with cute animals, especially on the bootie.  I can't resist taking a picture of the bootie shot.  Haha!  I also couldn't resist this awesome pillow that I found while looking for new sheets for us at Belk during after Christmas sales.  I price checked it on a whim and was expecting it to still cost over $20 but was pleasantly surprised when it was only about $7.  I had to have it for one of the boys' rooms.  I think it will go great in the nursery for now.  It is a really plump and soft pillow with a nice heavy cover material.  

Ugh, mean mommy making me do more tummy time exercises. 

Sweet faces. 

Cute little puckered lips and serious face. 

Starting to get smiley.  I loved this little sleeper with foxes on the feet.  

Pretty baby. 

One last NC visit from Grandma and Aunt Naomi and cousin Grady before the big move.  Grady says we live too far away now.  He misses his baby. 

Sweet little brother. 

Some sweet little smiles to end a sweet month with our littlest man.  I already miss him like this.  Why do the first months and years of a baby's life go so fast?  

Health Update:  So far, there are really no concerns with Mr. Grayson.  He has been growing well and eating well.  He is still breastfeeding solely.  I did try to give him a little formula to supplement, but he didn't really want it and still seems to be getting what he needs from me so we are just waiting a little longer.  His reflux issues did seem to have subsided this month so we stopped taking the zantac.  He does still seem to get gassy, but it doesn't usually make him too fussy.  The moving business did make this a more chaotic and crazy month, but it didn't seem to affect Grayson too much.  We just didn't get him to his 2 month well check up so he had to wait until 3 months.  I wasn't too worried as I could tell he was filling out nicely and seemed to be gaining weight.  I suspect he weighed about 10 lbs. at 2 months as he was about 12 and a half pounds at his 3 month check up which put him in the 10th to 25th percentile range.  He really started smiling at us all a lot this month.  He still resembles Brody a lot in looks and personality.  Grayson seems to like to be tickled and just loves being talked to.  He also started trying to sleep through the night by six weeks old and has been steadily doing so ever since.  He normally goes to sleep between 9:30 and 10:00 after a final feeding, and I usually have to wake him up by 5:00 or 6:00 to pump and/or feed him.  He goes back to sleep after and will sleep a couple more hours if we don't have to get up.  Since big brothers have to be at school very early, Daddy usually takes them so we don't all have to get out of the house that early.  He has also been nursing well and frequently during the day to make up for sleeping all night.  Grayson is just such a joy to our family, and I love watching his big brothers, especially Mattox, love on him.  Mattox gives him lots of "bah" (special Mattox kisses) and comes running to comfort him if he cries.  I can't wait to watch their relationship grow as I know it will be special.  We just love this baby to pieces.  

Jammed January {2017}

Whoa, January!  You were a bit crazy with preparing for our big move.  Surprisingly, this post and its pictures won't really reflect too much of that craziness.  I guess I don't really like to document the less pleasant parts of life in pictures because I took 0 pictures of the moving process.  Not the stacks of boxes I packed up during the month or the crazy full day the movers spent loading it all in the truck.  To be fair, Eddie had to deal with most of that business while I got to have fun going with Brody on his school field trip.  I did handle most of the packing though.  This post is really making me nostalgic already since it was our last month in North Carolina in the only real home Mattox has known and the home where we first brought baby Grayson.  We will always have a special place in our hearts for that house and the town of Holly Springs and the friends we made.  Evan will particularly miss his school, Cub Scout, and neighborhood friends.  Thankfully, it didn't take that social butterfly long to make new friends at school and in our neighborhood, and we are so thankful to have so many kids his age on our street.  We have also found a nice church where the boys can be involved in lots of activities spiritually and socially.  So this post is the last post in the era of our North Carolina lives, but it ushered in a whole new era of life in coastal Georgia.

Starting out the New Year with a special New Year's lunch together.  I love drinking sweet tea from Mason jars. The boys enjoyed their hot chocolate.

Lots and lots of snuggling. 

We hit the road for our first trip down to Georgia to find a new home. 

After we got back to NC and had an unexpected snow break from school, we took the opportunity to go see Star Wars:  The Force Awakens. Yes, all of us!

Oh, Mattox!  You find the strangest places to fall asleep, and you pull all my clothes out of my drawers.  Sweet little Grayson just loves sleeping. 

Yay for ice cream from the ice cream truck on a "snow day."  The snow was all gone and temperatures were in the 70's again.  Welcome to North Carolina!  Sometimes I find sweet notes from Brody.  "I like to play wii.  Love mommy.  love Brody"  

Big brother love is the best!

Oh this kid!  He is the silliest!  He took the whole hand under the bathroom door up a notch and passed me a washcloth.  I guess he thought I would need it.  Bahaha!  He also passed me one of my bras he had pulled out of my drawer.  My reward for locking him out was a mess he left for me. And I know I am going to get so many laughs from these pictures one day down the road. 

And Brody is equally silly and funny.  He picked a "treasure" from his school treasure box for good behavior and brought home this "stink bug."  Haha!  He also drew a sweet picture of him and Cocoa and enjoyed his last days playing with his neighbor friend, Katherine.  

Lots of brotherly love going on. 

Yummy lunch time for this kid. 

He loves getting to eat lunch with Daddy sometimes.  He may not get these opportunities much anymore because Daddy works so far away in an area with very few restaurants.  

We enjoyed some time outside, and Mattox found a new favorite nap place...under the laundry basket.  Sigh. 

Brody brought home a snowman from school, and I just liked the tire cover on the back of this Jeep and thought Evan would like it too.  I seriously stalked that car to get this picture.  Haha!  We do love Jeeps so he may end up with a Jeep Wrangler one day. 

Awww, the boys sleeping in their old NC home for the last time.  We had to sleep on the floor the last night.  Evan and Brody slept in sleeping bags in their room, Mattox slept on an air mattress with Mommy and Daddy, and Grayson slept in the pack and play. 

And the boys wake up for the first time in their new Georgia home. 

And it doesn't look like it took too long to get moved in.  The movers arrived the day after we arrived and moved all the furniture in, but there was still a lot of unpacking to do.  Eddie had one week to help us before he had to start work. 

But we enjoyed ending our month playing outside in our new yard.  Don't you just love the Spanish moss dripping from that tree in our front yard and that our azaleas were blooming in January?  Evan was riding his old toddler bike because his other one that is also too small for him has a flat tire that needs fixing.  He should be getting a new bike for his birthday. 

I thought this one was funny, but I mostly just liked how it took my profile picture and made it like a pencil drawing.  I think that child does look a little like my oldest niece. 

And what I will look like in my future apparently.  Ha!

And I did Grayson just for fun.  Haha!  The second picture looks like a friend of mine from high school.  

Yay!  I still got it.  One of my pet peeves is when auto-correct on my phone changes something I type when I send it out and makes me look dumb.  Sigh.  You would think they would get better at making auto-correct work properly after all these years.