2016 in Review and Our Special Calendars

In the past, I have done a big and intense review of our year.  With so much going on right now, I just don't have the energy to add any more on my plate, but I wanted to share some special pictures.  In recent years since having kids, I have abandoned my old hobby of scrapbooking.  I do create digital photobook scrapbooks of some big events in our lives because I still love preserving memories this way.  I also like to prepare a yearly calendar from Shutterfly for us to look at through the year, and I utilize this calendar as a yearly scrapbook of the highlights of our year.  When the year is complete, I cut the pages out and put them in our family scrapbook.  This method just works for me and is a fairly quick and inexpensive way to catalog our memories aside from here on the blog.  I do like to have something tangible for us to look back on although I still hope to one day catch up on printing this old blog.  I loved this year's calendar, and I think it does a good job of summarizing our year.

Of course, my favorite family picture of the year included my beautiful Mattie. 

We loved celebrating the New Year together and getting a little snow. 

Valentine's Day has become a special holiday for us to show our love to one another.  Plus, I just love dressing my littlest Valentine's up and taking their picture.  We also enjoyed our little trip to the mountains to play in the snow. 

March is a big birthday month for us, and we loved celebrating Mattox's first birthday. 

I love Spring and Easter and dressing up for pictures.  We also celebrated Evan's 9th birthday and Brody's 5th birthday.  

Mother's Day was extra sweet this year with Mattox's dedication ceremony. 

We celebrated Father's Day, went to the beach, and celebrated our beautiful Mattie's 3rd birthday. 

We continued our tour of North Carolina with Daddy and visited Biltmore Estate again and explored Atlantic Beach. 

The boys actually started school in the beginning of July.  They have both had a great school year so far. 

Lots of big family moments happened.  Brody started losing his teeth, Mattox got his first haircut, Evan advanced to Webelo in Cub Scouts, and we got to see our precious baby Grayson. 

The Fall is always a fun time, and we enjoyed dressing up for Halloween together and visiting a corn maze. 

Family is so important, and we enjoy getting together with our extended family for special holidays like Thanksgiving.  We are thankful!  The boys also finished up a year of soccer and football. 

Christmas was extra sweet with our precious Grayson joining us.  

In addition to our Shutterfly calendar, we also received a special present from Brody for Christmas that he made at school.  This little calendar he created will truly be treasured forever.  He is becoming a wonderful little artist, and I hope I can nuture his abilities as he grows.  His class worked on these all year and were able to incorporate so many lessons.  They learned about holidays and seasons and months of the year and shapes and colors.  If you are a preschool or kindergarten teacher, you may be interested in a project like this one.  I can't imagine another project that incorporates so many of these core lessons.

What a perfect snow day with a snowman and sledding down some hills. 

A special Valentine. 

A beautiful rainbow for March. 

A rainy day in April. 

A picture of Mommy and Brody for Mother's Day.  This may be a picture of Evan since he has red hair. 

Brothers playing ball together in the summer. 

The flag and some fireworks for July. 

Summer isn't complete without the beach. 

Apple picking is fun in September. 

Watching the leaves change colors and picking pumpkins in October. 

A Thanksgiving turkey. 

A beautiful Christmas tree and presents and even some snow falling outside the window. 

Grayson's 1st Month

What a month!  Although Grayson's first month may not have been as busy as Mattox's, his second month shaped up to be just as rough.  We were definitely thankful to enjoy a relatively peaceful first month and first Christmas at home with baby Grayson before some big changes occurred.   Instead of writing a book to explain every detail of this wonderful month, I will let a few pictures tell the story.

Grandma enjoyed some more snuggles with her newest grandbaby and big cousin Grady was in love too.  He is positive baby Grayson is his baby. 

It was a bit chaotic trying to get a picture of Grandma with her five grandsons.  Mattox was the least cooperative. 

Grayson enjoyed many naps. 

I finally got the first pictures of the boys all together.  It was too crazy to attempt it at the hospital. 

Grayson enjoyed snuggling up by the Christmas tree and in his cozy warm blanket. 

Big brother Mattox takes his new role quite seriously and gives lots of "love."  Ha!

More love from big brother. 

First pictures wearing the Santa hat mommy made and his special shirt to match big brothers'.

2 weeks old already.  It really did go fast!

I have wanted to take a picture of a baby in a Christmas stocking for so long.  It has been on my pinterest for years.  I finally got the chance since Grayson was small enough.  I also loved this little chalkboard I found at Target's Dollar Spot.  Yes, Grayson's list was quite simple this year.  He only wanted milk. 

He is Daddy's mini man, but Mommy's baby. 

First bath is always a must once the belly button stump falls off. He loved it as well as his brothers. 

Big brother Mattox said it was his turn to help. 

Baby's first Christmas meant first presents to open.  He received his first Bible from his Great-Aunt Dava. 

Little Santa Baby is 3 weeks old for his first Christmas. Mommy attempted crocheting a Santa outfit for him. 

Our little New Year's baby! 

I can't believe how fast that first month went! 

So expressive and full of personality at 1 month old. 

Comparisons:  

Let's play the comparison game to see who baby Grayson looks like:

1.

2.

3.

So I am going with option number 2.  What do you think?

Health Status:  Grayson did well with breastfeeding and getting on a good schedule his first month, but I have always been happy to have easy babies.  They learn to sleep at night easily and start sleeping through the night by 8 weeks old.  Grayson was still eating about every 2 to 3 hours but started lasting about 4 hours at night by the end of the month.  At two weeks old, he weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. which meant he had surpassed his birth weight and had put on exactly the amount the pediatricians want to see (an ounce a day gained in 12 days).  He was only 8th percentile but on track for his birth weight.  He was still pretty long in the 83rd percentile although they measured him differently at only 21.25 inches.  His head circumference was in the 58th percentile so maybe not quite as large as big brother Mattox's.  At his one month visit on January 3rd, he weighed 8 lbs. 2.5 oz. which wasn't even as much as big brother Brody weighed at birth, but in my experience, smaller birth weight babies do take longer to catch up, especially when breastfed exclusively.  We weren't too worried because he was still eating great, and I felt he was getting a good amount at each feeding.  They measured him at 22 inches long so he was down to the 67th percentile there.  His head growth had also slowed so he was only in the 42nd percentile.  We were only slightly worried about some spitting up issues and acid reflux as we knew that could inhibit his growth.  We were already using gripe water for the spitting up and gassiness, but we decided to try some zantac for a few weeks to see if it helped. Over all, we couldn't complain about our sweet little guy.  We just loved him to pieces!