Congrats!

We would like to congratulate our good friends, The Butier's on their newest arrival!

Maggie Jordan Butier was born this morning at 11:11 am in Sacramento, CA. She was 9 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing wonderful!

Congrats Michael, Aimee, and big brother, Mason!!!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

They just grow up TOO fast!

So after on our trip to Catalina, Emerson was complaining that her two lower teeth were bothering. Upon further inspection, I discovered that BOTH of them were loose. So once we were back I took her to the dentist, who took some x-rays. Low and behold, those two teeth were loose, not because she bumped them, but because her permanent teeth are right below them pushing them out! Can you believe our little girl is already losing her teeth???

Well, this past weekend she lost the first of them. So now our little girl is looking so grownup! Two teeth gone, and one more soon to follow.

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Love is in the Air!

Have you ever seen a real life fairy tale? Well, I can say I saw one this past weekend. My friend, since 4th grade, Stacy, married her perfect other half this weekend in Sacramento, CA. I was honored to be a part of their day and the beginning of their lives together.

I flew up to Sacramento on Thursday to give her hand with the last minute details of a wedding. Everything from getting nails done to buying some last minute honeymoon clothes to packing up everything. We had some great laughs, a few tears, and an all around amazing time getting her ready for that amazing day.

The wedding was held at the Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg, right in the middle of lush vineyards. The ceremony was performed by her dad, the honorable Rodney Melville. He did an amazing job of combining his own heartfelt feelings into a gorgeous story of what marriage is. The ceremony was followed by a reception with great food, lots of smiles, and plenty of dancing.

I would like to thank Stacy and Scott, for letting me be a part of your gorgeous love story. Love you both!

Lots of the love,

The Grady's

Good Times Club Part 3

How is it that a week of vacation feels like such little time? Our 7 days in Catalina were fantastic, the perfect combination of rest, relaxation, and fun!

We arrived in Long Beach, Sunday morning, The Black's and the four of us. We meet up with Amy and Eric for lunch at our usual stop of Island's restaurant. We then made our way over to the Catalina Landing to wait for the boat to come in. After a longer than usual wait and a screaming toddler (yep, Brennan was DONE with the wait), we finally boarded and set across the ocean. Soon to find out that our normal 50 trip would take closer to an hour and a half this time because one of the boat's engines wasn't working at full power. Not a problem, made it to Catalina by 4ish, got our keys to the office and settled ourselves in. We had a mellow night at home, eating dinner, playing games, and hanging out.

The week continued with everyday spent at the beach lounging, playing in the sand with the kids, and some (Tif and Tad and Kaitlyn) being brave enough to jump in the cold waters of the ocean (can you tell I am used to our 90 degree swimming pool?). On Wednesday our awesome babysitter/nanny Brittany arrived to give us a helping hand. The kids were SO excited to see her and it seemed that one of them was always seeking her out. She gave us the opportunity to head out to a very nice adult dinner one night, and even just sneak away for an evening cocktail while she entertained the kids. She even gave us an kid free afternoon on Decanso Beach, our favorite "resorty" beach on the island. The kids were tired so she took all FOUR of them back to house on her own while we read books and had frosty beverages. What a treat it was to have her around!!!!

Jeff and Tad decided to take advantage of one of the many tours that the island has available. They headed out on a 4 hour tour of the inland island. They were able to see many of the badly burned spots. the other side of the island, and learn an incredible amount of island facts. The shared these with us for the rest of that night!

Sad to say, we did not reserve a house in Catalina for next year...thought we might try something new for one year. But I have a funny feeling we may just end up back there in the summer of '09...we just love it!

So here is an overload of pictures for you! Enjoy!

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Vacation Bound!

Well, tomorrow morning at 9am our vacation officially starts!!!!

We are off to Catalina for 7 days!

Relaxing, swimming, laying on the beach, and basically doing nothing more than hanging out...really looking forward to it! I am sure I will have some great pictures and stories to share when we come back.

Have a great week!

Lots of Love,
The Grady's

Little man's heart

Brennan and I took our biannual trip to see our favorite heart doctor, Dr. Hashmi in Palm Springs today. I am always a bit apprehensive leading up to these appts. with the fear that we won't get the green light. They took us right in today and we headed straight for the EKG. Now usually Brennan is not super happy about being there, but today he did remarkably well. He fussed a bit during the EKG, but held super still. I think I might fuss too if you stuck 12 super sticky tabs no my chest and then ripped them off! Next onto blood pressures, height, and weight. He weighed in at 31 pounds! Then for the tough one, the echocradiogram, essentially an ultrasound of his heart. It is always a scary thing for him because the room is dark, he has to lay on the darn crinkly paper on the table and they move the wand over his chest for about 15 minutes. He did really well, fussing, but not moving much. Finally we saw Dr. Hashmi to go over all the results...his pulse rates, blood pressure, and EKG looked great. He didn't like the view he got during the echo of his actual aortic arch so he wanted to scan him again to get a better look. So back down to the echo room for a quick peek. Dr. Hashmi took all of 30 seconds to get a perfect picture of his arch and even I could see how wide open it was! He said his heart has not changed at all in the last year (no thickening of the archway) and his aortic valve is leaking a bit, but nothing to be concerned about. He said we will continue to watch both areas and worst case scenario, he will need a balloon catheterization when he grows bigger (5-10 years) and possibly some exercise limitations if his valve begins to leak more, no bodybuilding for our little man!

So the bottom line...we have one HEALTHY heart over here...so much so, that we don't have to go back for 9 more months!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Farm Life

Emerson and I just got back from a great trip to visit my friend, Christa, in Iowa. Having never been to the Midwest, I can only picture in my head what I see on the news or on TV. Well, in person is much better, as you can imagine.

Em and I flew into Omaha, Nebraska, courtesy of two free Southwest airline tickets. We met up with my other good friend Carrie and her son Cameron. We rented our minivan and drove the next two hours through the Iowa countryside. Iowa is a beautiful state, much greener and hillier than I had imagined.

We got to Christa's house, right about dinner time. Christa, her husband Greg, and kids Caleb, and Lucas live on 10 acres of beautiful land in the middle of many corn fields. They have everything from bunnies, baby chicks, full grown chickens, cattle, and of course a black lab dog, Cy.

Emma on Little Britches

Emerson had a ball seeing the animals, feeding them, climbing in the barn on hay bales and just running around outside. You see, living in the desert like we do doesn't really enable us to run around outside much in July. So we spent a lot of time enjoying their temps, even though they were in the 90's and warm to them. But to us, it was a cold spell.

We had many fun adventures at the new Iowa Science Center, the local park (more like a national park with beautiful Lyme rocks, creek, and huge trees), and a local aquatic center complete with water slides. The kids all got along really well and enjoyed playing from the time they woke up until they crashed hard at night.

Luke, Cameron, Caleb, and Emerson

The plane flights going there were quite easy, coming home was a bit of a different story. Delays and rude people made for an interesting trip home. But we are back safe and sound.

Lots of love,

The Grady's

In case anyone was wondering...

We certainly have a little guy over here who is ALL BOY, 110%!

Last night he was swimming in the pool with us and showing off his skills by putting his head under the water. Well he got a little carried away and slammed his head onto the step, thus biting his lip with his upper teeth. And his streak continues...

Brennan who seems to think he is indestructible!

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Cookie Reach, Banana Peel, Scoopers, Slap!

You are probably wondering what in the world a title like this one could mean...well it is all about swim lessons of course! We are are fully involved in our swim lessons for the summer. I signed the kids up for the usual 12 lessons with the lady we have been working with for the past two years. So Em has started her 3rd year and Brennan his first. And just in case you were wondering cookie reaches are what your arms do during a freestlye stroke, banana peels are what you do with your hands when you go to the bottom of the pool, scoopers are a little warmup exercise, and Slap is the sound you should hear when you are kicking well.

Em is doing really well and starting to learn about all the different strokes, dives, and even beginning to be timed. She swam the full length of the pool (25 yds.) last week and attempted to make it back across, but lost her steam about halfway back. But throw in a flip turn at the end and a racing dive to start and I would call that success. She has learned SO much in the past two years, that now we get to really strengthen her skills.

Now Brennan, well being as it is his first year...you never know what to expect. He spent the first 4 lessons screaming from the moment he left my side until the moment he was back in my lap. Then miraculously lesson 5, he didn't even whimper! Now it is the occasional whimper when he swallows too much water (we keep telling him not to drink the water!). But he is learning all the basics and has been swimming from his teacher (Miss Dylan) to the wall and has learned to reach up and pull himself out of the water. He has also done well grabbing a ring off the bottom of the deep end of the pool. Have to start somewhere right?

We have about 5 lessons left and then we can just practice on our own for the rest of this ridiculously hot summer. Did I mention it is supposed to be 117 on the 4th of July? Who needs Fireworks when you have temps like that?

Lots of love,
The Grady's