Busy Days

September has sure come in with a bang! The last two weeks really seem like a blur to me. We have all been really busy getting back into our routines.

I seem to have a nice class this year, a little lower academically than I would like coming into 3rd grade, but we will see what I can do about that. We have a lot to live up to this year, in terms of CST scores, so it should be quite a challenge.

Jeff is as busy as usual. Especially with the season starting back up again, business always gets busier too. And with his new daddy drop-off duties he is going to be really busy.

Emerson is doing SO much better at school....I should rephrase that...getting to school. She has never had trouble AT school, more like leaving mommy, then daddy to get into school. But we have had a few mornings now with NO tears. Yippee! She also started a dance class on Monday. It is a jazz and tap combo class, once a week. And of course our little dancer LOVES it.

Brennan has become quite his own little person the last few weeks. I really think he has matured worlds since going back to Patty's and doing it without his sister. He is so happy and willing to help at daycare, I LOVE it!

Well, just wanted to update everyone on all of us. In case you were wondering what happened to my weekly post...this is where we have been!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Back to School

Well, it is that time of the year again. Emerson and Brennan have already headed back to school and now it is my turn. I have been working hard in my classroom for about two weeks now and I "think" I am all ready, although I am not sure I could ever be perfectly ready. Anyway, the little kiddos start with me at 8:15 am tomorrow, hopefully excited about starting the 3rd grade.
Wish me luck!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Where does the time go?

Once upon a time, not so long ago, we were blessed with a beautiful little girl. After 9 months and an anxious wait, we saw her sweet little face.



Little did I know how quickly the time would go....learning to walk, learning to talk, and now here we are, her first day of preschool!



Emerson started Sacred Heart Preschool this morning, with a few tears from her (actually more like sobs) and some tears from mommy. Jeff took her to school, which will be their morning routine each day. She cried the whole way there and then walked in with her teacher to the playground. I picked her up this afternoon at 330pm and you would never have known that she was scared or nervous this morning. She had a huge smile on her face and actually asked if she could stay and play a bit more. So hopefully tomorrow morning there will be less tears from the both of us.

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Another Milestone

From this....

To THIS....

Brennan has been climbing out of his crib for about 2 months now. He has gotten so good at it that he can climb IN and OUT without us even hearing him do so, no crashing or falling at all. But even with that, we thought it was about time we got the little guy a real big boy bed. As you can see he loves it!

Lots of love,

The Grady's

One, Two, Three Strikes!

Nothing really beats watching a baseball game live. We had tickets to see the San Diego Padres play the Houston Astros this past Saturday night. We had been wanting to see the new ballpark in the Gaslamp area of downtown San Diego. Well, it surely did not disappoint! That park is really amazing!!! Tad, Tiffany, Eric, and Amy, joined Jeff and I for a fun filled day/night to just hang out, sans kids, and enjoy an all-American tradition. Our hotel was literally 2 blocks from the park and just blocks from all the restaurants and nightlife. The game was a blast, complete with hot dogs, beer, and popcorn. Too bad the Padre's didn't win...but we can't wait to go again!

Another surgery?

Yes, you read that right....our little man has to have another surgery in a couple of weeks. Two heart surgeries as a baby and now one to put tubes in his ears. Yeah, I know, it is minor, but hey it is still surgery. Stinks! But what can we do. Poor little guy can't hear like he should, has too much fluid on the backside of his eardrum. I spent over 2 hours with him at the ENT Dr. today, running different hearing tests, looking in his ears, and chatting with the Dr. This is after spending over 8 weeks on a high dose of antibiotics to try to clear the fluid. Jeff and I didn't want to jump right into surgery and neither did the Dr., until we tried everything else. But to no avail. Surgery it is. I will update when I know more when it will take place.

***UPDATE*** Surgery is scheduled for Tues., September 25th

Lots of love,
The Grady's

One more vacation!

Can you believe we just got back from another trip? That concludes all 9 of the plane flights I have taken this summer! WOW! My parents have a boat docked on Lake Union in Seattle. So we decided this would be a great time of year to escape the desert heat and head north for some cooler temperatures.

The kids and I left with my parents on Aug. 1st for Seattle. The flight up there was relatively easy, both kids slept. We got our rental car, and headed over to the boat. The kids were in heaven, they had their very own room with a bunk bed! We spent the next three days touring Seattle. We went to Pike's Place Market, The Aquarium, shopping downtown, and cruising around the historic area of Seattle. Such a cool city!

Saturday morning we set off through the famous locks that separate Lake Union from the Pacific Ocean. I have been through the locks a few times when I was younger, but it is always an interesting experience. Then we boated to Anacortes, WA to meet up with Jeff, who flew in that morning. We spent the night in Anacortes and then set off for Victoria, British Colombia. Victoria is a beautiful city with a lot to see. We went to the BC Museum, The Empress Hotel, on a carriage ride, and we were even treated to fireworks on our first night there in celebration of BC Day. On Wednesday, we set off for Friday Harbor, WA in the San Juan Islands. I used to spend most summers up in Friday Harbor at the condo that Mom and Scott used to have there. So it was so fun to see the cute, little town again. Not too much has changed:)

Thursday, we left for Rosario Resort, on Orcas Island. There is a small marina in front of a historic resort, which resembles something out of the movie Dirty Dancing. And finally, Friday night, we were back in Anacortes for our last night on the boat. We left early (4am!) Saturday morning for Seattle airport for our flight home.

I was so impressed with how the kids were for 10 days on a boat! They had a ball, playing games, watching movies, and actually driving the boat themselves.

We really enjoyed the beautiful scenery and cooler weather, we even had to wear our sweatshirts and long pants sometimes!!!

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Personality Test

Nothing really family related....just wanted to share this interesting personality test I found on another friend's blog site....pretty accurate I think..

You Are An ESFJ

The Caregiver You are sympathetic and caring, putting friends and family first.A creature of habit, you prefer routines and have trouble with change.You love being in groups - whether you're helping people or working on a project.You are good at listening, laughing, and bringing out the best in people. In love, you value harmony and mutual understanding.You will apologize or give someone the benefit of the doubt, if it means getting over a fight sooner. At work, you are good at building relationships and connecting with people.You would make a great nurse, social worker, or teacher. How you see yourself: Organized, dependable, co-operative When other people don't get you, they see you as: Opinionated, critical, and know-it-all

What's" Your Personality Type?

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

Happiest Place on Earth

Hello everyone!

Well summer has officially started in our household and we have been busy ever since! We started our summer off by heading to Santa Barbara for Father's Day to visit Jeff's dad, Kathy, and Grandma Graf. It was a great visit, so excited we had the chance to see Grandma all the way from Ohio.

Then the following Tuesday, Tiffany and I had planned a trip for our oldest girls to Disneyland. The best part, they had NO idea we were going. So Emerson woke up Tuesday and we went about our normal morning routine...cartoons, juice, breakfast. Then I suggested she hop in the bath because Mickey Mouse doesn't like it when we are dirty. And she looked at me funny, and I asked her if she would like to go to Disneyland today? LOL! She of course responded with an overwhelming YES! Tiffany picked us up about 1/2 hour later and we were on our way for two fun filled days in Anaheim. We spent all day at Disneyland on Tuesday, riding just about every ride imaginable, watching the parade, Fantasmic, and even catching some of the late night fireworks as we were heading out for the night. On Wednesday we headed back to Disneyland for a quick (yeah right!) stop off at the new Finding Nemo right, waited just over an hour (better than the 5 hour wait for some the day before!) and then spent the rest of our day at CA Adventure Park seeing the Playhouse Disney show, riding some fun rides, and just having a great time. The weather couldn't have been better, maybe just a little bit warm. But overall the girls had a fantastic time and so did we.

This past weekend Tiffany and I jetted off to Sacramento for a good friend, Aimee's baby shower. It was great to see friends and have a fun girl's weekend.

Now we are back to the craziness of summer at home, swim lessons, daycare coop, and just fun in the HOT sun!

Here are some Disney pictures!

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Graduation Time...

Who would have guessed when I first walked into Patty's house back in the summer of '03 that we would spend so many great years there? Emerson has been under Patty's amazing care for 4 fabulous years. And tonight was her graduation.

It is hard to imagine what it will be like, come Fall, when I don't drive to Patty's with both kids in their car seats and walk them in, hand them over, and kiss them both goodbye. Hard to believe the Em is really growing up. She is on her way to Sacred Heart Preschool in the Fall. I know she will love it there, but the comfort and care of Patty's is going to be hard to beat. The silver lining of all of this though, is I still get to see Patty everyday, as I will be walking Brennan up that walk each morning in the Fall...and I look forward to it!

Tonight Patty and company put together the cutest graduation ceremony. They sang, danced, and received their diplomas. It was really sweet, even made this mom shed a few tears. Em has been with most of these kidsfor years, and a few of them for all 4 of those special years.

So here are some pictures of the Graduate!

Lots of Love,
The Grady Family

4 more days!!!!

I can't even believe it....4 more days and school is out and summer really begins! The kids are done with daycare on Friday as well. Emerson will actually be "graduating" from Patty's Thursday night, complete with a little ceremony and dinner. I promise to take lots of pictures of the event. We actually have our 2nd set of swimming lessons on Thursday afternoon as well, so we will be running around crazy that day.

Once summer is officially here I am sure I will be on more to update with all the exciting things that we are doing.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Lots of love,
The Grady's