Happy Birthday, my little girl

Wow, five years already. It is really hard to imagine that five years ago, I was in labor with you. Daddy and I were so excited and so nervous about having our first baby, yet so anxious to know who you were and what you would look like, and of course if you were a boy or girl. That moment when they laid you on my chest and someone said "It's a girl!" will be forever ingrained into my memory. Emerson Blake entered our lives.

Now five years later, here we are and I wonder where the time has gone. It really seems like just yesterday we were driving home from the hospital with you snug in your seat. Just yesterday daddy and I sat on the couch, with you, wondering, "now what?". Just yesterday that you were 8 months old and taking your first steps. Just yesterday that you started to talk, later than all your friends, and I was worried that something was wrong...now I can't get you to stop!

You have always had this amazing smile that lights up a room. You have turned in a beautiful little girl, who loves to sing and dance. A little girl who enjoys playing with her friends every chance she gets. A little girl who loves her brother so much, and will stop playing with something to help him. A caring, considerate little person who genuinely loves others.

I know that I can't blink for even one second...because if I do, you will already be going on your first date, or graduating from high school or even getting married. Emerson, I don't know where the last five years have gone, but I do know that I wouldn't trade one moment of them for anything. I cherish every day I have with you and look forward to all the memories that are ready to be made.

I love you more than words, baby girl. Happy Birthday.

Twin Update

I had the privilege of visiting with Temma and Dror and baby Asher this past Sunday. Jeff and I made a trip out to Santa Monica for a training class for Jeff, and while he attended his class I hung out with the new family. Coleman is still hanging out in the NICU trying to "bulk up" before coming home to join his brother. I am amazed at how great they all are. The boys are literally half the size of my babies when they were born, and yet they don't appear all the small to me. Asher makes the cutest little squeaking sounds and is becoming quite the little eater too.
Oh and now I can share their full names!

Asher Dylan Nanas
and
Coleman Samuel Nanas

Congrats, again, Nanas Family!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Like new (at least to us!)

So Jeff and I did a little work on our master bathroom this past weekend. Just a few minor changes that make a world of difference for us! Check it out!

BEFORE

AFTER (tada!)

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Double Excitement!

My best friend from college, Temma, and her husband Dror, welcomed two beautiful, healthy baby boys this afternoon into their lives. Temma has been on bedrest for over a month now and successfully made it to 35 weeks before delivery. Asher and Coleman Nanas weighed in at 4lbs 12ozs, 4 lbs 5 ozs respectively. Mom and babies are doing great!

I will share pictures when I get them....I can't wait to see the little guys!

Congrats Nanas Family!!!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Boot Camp

So for the past four weeks, Jeff and I have been getting up, on alternating days, at 4:45am to go to Boot Camp. Yes, you read that right, Boot Camp. We had read about it in paper, heard about it from others, and finally looked it up online. It is called Desert Adventure Boot Camp. It is a exercise regime that goes three days a week from 5:30-6:30am. It started as a woman's camp designed to jump start a workout routine, but has exploded into 2 woman's camps and a men's camp.

A day at camp resembles something like this: Running anywhere from 1-4 miles, squats, lunges, weight training, squats, sit ups, push ups, squats, jumping rope, squats (did I already mention those?) and everything in between. It is like nothing either of us have ever done before. At first I thought I was crazy, and yes other's called me crazy. But, after about 2 sessions, I was addicted and couldn't wait to go back. Each night Jeff and I talk about how great we have felt that day, because of the good workout in the morning. Both of our energy levels have increased throughout the day.

Part of camp is a pre and post evaluation of your body, weight, body fat %, measurements, etc. I just did my post evaluation last Friday and if I wasn't convinced of the health benefits before, I sure am now. I have gained 8 pounds of muscle and lost 6 pounds of fat (how gross is that!?!). I have lowered my body fat % by 8% points. And I have lost 1 1/2 inches to my waist! Amazing.

And the craziest part about all of this....we are signing up for the next session! It starts this coming Monday after Thanksgiving, and I can't wait!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

A "hoppy" visitor

Emerson came home from school with a little stuffed friend on Friday. Each student has a turn in taking home the class "pet" Froggy for the weekend. You are supposed to take Froggy with you everywhere you go and take photos of your time spent with him. At the end of the weekend are supposed to journal about your experience with Froggy and add pictures to show to the class.

We had a great time including Froggy into our weekend, until of course I had to get the pictures for the journal pages. After three stores and finally a cooperative computer at Walgreen's we finished the journal and Emerson can share her adventures tomorrow in class.

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Girl's Weekend

It all started three years ago, the girls wanting a weekend to get away and get some uninterrupted scrapbooking time. We searched online and found this amazing ranch in the Santa Ynez foothills. Now, three years later we continue to head up to "Ree's House" to enjoy being pampered. YOu can check out her place at www.cricketcanyonranch.com. Ree is so wonderful to us each year, cooking great meals and just making us feel comfortable and relaxed. This year, some of the usual group was unable to make it. So it was myself, my mom, my sister, Tif, and her mom. After a bit of a long drive up there (took 1 hour longer than usual) we settled in nicely and had a fantastic weekend.
We had massages, went wine tasting, and of course, scrapbooked. I actually completed 32 pages! A record for me, but a good thing since I was so far behind and now feel a bit more caught up. Once again Ree did not disappoint and the trip rejuvenated all of us.
Pictures to come soon....they are on Tif's camera since I forgot mine...yep that's right, I forgot mine and Tif had hers (I will NEVER live that one down!)

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Ghosts and Witches and Fairies and Pirates

Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine. Not sure if it is the whole scary factor, or the fact that you have to dress up (really not a fan), or something else, but I really have never loved the holiday. Well, I think that might be starting to change...having kids does that to a person. The kids were so excited about Halloween and trick-o-treating and dressing up in their costumes.


I decided to put on my "Mom" hat for the day, and volunteer at Emerson's school. Which of course means that I had to call in "sick" at work, but it was well worth it. With both kids dressed, we dropped Brennan off at Patty's and headed to school. The kids began their day as normal with their flag salute and prayer and then inside their classrooms. Myself and the parents who were there to volunteer began to set up their own preschool carnival. We walked all 4 preschool classes through the carnival games. Then I went into Emerson's classroom to pass out snacks and help the teachers get ready for the school parade. The preschool and Kinder classes parade through the rest of the school showing off their great costumes. Then back to Em's classroom. It is now 11:30 am and I am reminded once again why I teach 8-9 year olds and not 4 year olds. Phew, I was exhausted!


Trick or treating that night was an experience all in itself. We were invited to our good friend's house for their annual Halloween dinner and trick or treating adventure. Turned out to be about 40 adults and almost an equal number of kids. Picture this, 30ish kids walking up to your door, all dressed, buckets ready for that yummy candy....yep, did that for about 12-15 houses! The looks on some people's faces were classic. The kids scored on buckets of candy (great, just what we need at home!) and plenty of great Halloween memories too.

Our Fairy Butterfly

Our Pirate

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Smoke filled sky

Last Thursday, the blue sky began to fade and as the sun set, this was our view outside. Friday, we awoke to the horrible smell of smoke in the air. The Santa Ana winds died down, thank goodness for the firefighters, which enabled the smoke to come inland and invade our sky.

I can only imagine how terrible their air is in San Diego and the rest of So Cal. Her's praying the worst is over.

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Sacred Heart Fall Carnival

On Sunday afternoon we took Emerson and Brennan to Em's school carnival. They loved it! The school did a great job putting it all together. It was complete with a pumpkin patch, carnival games, food, and even real carnival rides.

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Another Parrothead Party

Yes, I know we are a bit crazy...but we like that about ourselves! We headed to Vegas this past weekend for our 2nd Buffett show in two months. Some people might find that a bit over-the-top or even weird, but if you have ever been to a Jimmy Buffett concert (including pre-party) then you will understand.

We made the drive Friday night after work and after the kiddos were safely taken care of. We met up with a group of friends from all over, at a great dueling piano bar in NYNY hotel. Had a great time there, and even stayed up way past my normal bedtime! Slept in on Saturday (yes, past 7am!) and relaxed most of the day. Saturday night was the concert at the MGM Grand. Being that that was my 5th concert, my first Jimmy concert indoors, I knew it was going to be great. But, I didn't realize it was going to be that great!!! He put on an awesome 2 1/2 hour show! The whole weekend was a lot of fun and my lack of voice today is certainly tribute to that.

Yes, People do dress this way!

Enjoy the silly pictures!!!

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Pumpkin Season

Tis, the season for the pumpkin patch. This past Saturday, I took our kiddos and The Black's little ladies, with Jeff's parents to the pumpkin patch. Phew! This is why I choose not to have anymore kids, I already have four of them on occasion and it reminds me each time, why two children are plenty!

We had a great time exploring the pumpkin patch, looking for pumpkins that were just right. We also went in the petting zoo, a couple jumpy houses, and of course bought some kettle corn. What a great way to start the season!

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Mom...SERIOUSLY!

So this is what has been happening in our house lately....a long process that is still in the making. This potty training business is NOT easy!

Lots of love,

The Grady's

p.s. don't mind the dorky hair, straight out of the bathtub here!

just a regular weekend...

Sometimes it is so nice to have just a regular weekend at home. Not having to go anywhere in particular, or run to meet someone, or attend some event, or anything else. Emma asked on Saturday morning "Where are we going today?" and for once I said, "No where." She replied, "Well, who is coming over?" and I said "No one"...and she was baffled. But for once it was so nice to be able to get some things done and accomplished around the house.

Saturday, Jeff and Tad went to the USC-Arizona game in LA. Our great neighbor gave us her two tickets, as she was unable to go. Tiffany and I got a sitter for the kiddos for a few hours, so we could get some painting done on their new house. So for a little over 6 hours we painted and painted. We accomplished a lot more than we thought we could and felt really great about the job we got done. My mom and Scott came over to relieve the sitter and give us a hand. They stayed and we all had a nice relaxing dinner.

Sunday Jeff and I did yard work, and more yard work, and more yard work! PHEW! I hate weeds more than anything! We were able to get the lawn scalped, the courtyard trimmed and weeded, the outside toys cleaned up, and everything hosed off!

All in all, a very productive weekend and one that provided quite a workout for me! I am still a little beat and sore from all the work! Now onto another week!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Brennan's Post-Op

So today Brennan and I went to see Dr. Gebhart for his post-op appointment. After the usual wait we finally got in a room and saw the Dr. He looked in his ears and said the tubes look great. We can stop using the ear drops (hooray!) and we should notice a big improvement in speech in the months to follow. He already seems to be improving on what he says and how he says it. He also showed me a picture of his adenoids. Apparently, they are always sent in for a biopsy, to make sure there is no bacteria/infection/strange cells/etc. to be found. Brennan were clean, but extremely enlarged, so it is a good thing we removed them.
I talked to him about ear plugs for bath time and we are clear for those now. If the tubes are still in place come next summer, we can talk to him about special plugs for swimming.
But for now....we are all set!

Lots of love,
The Grady's

The Moak's (i love saying that!)

We had a great visit from Stacy and Scott this past weekend! They flew all the way down here from Sacramento, just to visit with us. It was so nice to see them and just hang out. Saturday, Stacy and I took Em, Bren, and Lauren, and Kaitlyn to the Living Desert. The weather was just beautiful and the kids loved being outside. Jeff and Scott were able to wnjoy the great weather too, they played 18 holes of golf. Saturday night we were able to get together with Tad and Tif and have a great dinner and a rousing game of Balderdash. Sunday came all too fast, and Stacy and Scott had to catch their flight back home.

I really hope we get to see them again soon....or the kids are going to kill me....("Mama...where's "tacy" and Scott?").

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Fins Up!

We are the people your parents warned you about...classic lyrics from a legend. This year's Jimmy Buffett concert was just as good as the 3 I have been to previously. We actually had a conversation on the way to the concert, wondering what # Buffett concert this was for each of us. Jeff ranked it at #3, myself #4, Tiffany #8, and Tad, the winner with 13! Seeing a Buffett concert is nothing short of a great time!

We travelled to Irvine, Saturday morning, met up with our friends Cindy and Stephen, picked up Tad's brother Eric and our good friend Amy. We had a nice relaxing lunch and then started our preparations for the tailgate party at Irvine Meadows.

We arrived in the parking lot about 4pm, set up "camp" and the fun began. I am not sure there is any other tailgate like this one in Irvine. Walking through the RV's is definitely something you have to see to believe. The outfits, the beach scenes, the games, the people...everything you see just shows Jimmy's huge fan base.

My friend Paige, met up with us a little before the concert began. It was SO great seeing her and hanging out during the whole concert. I haven't seen her since her wedding this past January, and what better place than a Buffett concert to see a great friend.

Jimmy started right on time and played, nonstop, for over two hours. He commented to the crowd (which was HUGE!), how he was so lucky to have this job. He thanked the crowd for letting him entertain us for the past 40 years...here's hoping he is singing and entertaining us for many more years ahead.

Lots of love,

The Grady's

Surgery Day

What a long, long day. I know that we will all be in bed early tonight! I am not sure how much Jeff and I slept last night, anticipating today. We finally just got up about 515am, got showered and dressed and were at the hospital at 630am this morning. We waited for a bit, then we were called in about 715am. We got Brennan dressed in this cute little pj outfit, with pants and a little shirt that tied in the back. I should have brought my camera for that one! We answered numerous questions from nurses, Drs., anesthesiologists, etc. regarding medical history and such. Then finally at 815 am we were able to walk him back to the operating room doors, they let you go right up to the doors. I remember doing this with him on his first heart surgery, although it was a much longer walk and much harder to leave him then. They told us it would be about 30-40 minutes until they were done. And of course at 30 minutes we were watching the clock, but it wasn't until an hour and 15 minutes later that they finally came to get us. The Dr. apologized for taking so long, but it turns out that poor Brennan has terrible veins for getting an IV started. They worked for over 30 minutes and had to poke him 20+ times to get the IV running, finally in his foot (poor baby!). Thank goodness he was mildly sedated at that point, thanks to the gas mask they give right when they come in the OR. Then after the IV was started they had to start the antibiotics he needs for his heart condition, and let those get running before they could start the procedure.

They ended up removing his adenoids and placing ear tubes in both ears. He had a fair amount of fluid that had built up in both ears and his adenoids were almost completely blocking his nasal passage. So I am glad that had both taken care of.

When we saw him afterwards he was thrashing around, coming out of the anesthesia. He had a difficult time with that, and they were ready to sedate him again, when he finally settled down in my arms. He rested on and off for about 45 minutes. Then they finally removed his IV and had him drink a bit of apple juice and we were finally able to head home.

The recovery time isn't bad, just today and possibly tomorrow, with him out of sorts. The hardest part of this whole process is that now we need to be extra cautious with him in any sort of water. He cannot get his ears wet at all, so bath time should be interesting!

Thank you for all the positive thoughts and prayers. It really keep us calm knowing that so many people were thinking of all of us today.

Lots of love,
The Grady's

Jimmy Buffett - Irvine - Can't Wait

Hello World - Here is my first try at "blogging".

We are preparing for a weekend that will be a party to write about. Yes, Jimmy Buffett is returning to the So Cal area for what will be an experience. We will be heading over to the coast, with a few fellow desert rats, to experience 5 hours of tailgating and 3 hours of music. Wish us luck as we break in quite a few virgin Parrot Heads. All I can hope is that it is half as fun as our experience two years ago with the Butiers... then we have reached our goal.
This is the setup party to an RV trip from La Quinta to Vegas in a RV road trip coming in October....Jimmy Buffett at the MGM.

Stay tuned for what I am sure will be some great pics to come.

By the way ----- part of what inspired me to partake in the blog experience has been reading Paige's blog (The Rober's). http://pkrobers.blogspot.com/
In line with how Paige ends her updates.........Grady's out!

Jeff

What a weekend!

So weekends are supposed to be restful, right? We were looking forward to a relaxing weekend and a fun visit with our friends Connie and Andrew and Hayden, visiting from Arizona. They arrived Friday night and we were able to visit a bit before heading to bed. About 4am Emerson wakes me up (totally not unusual for her), but this time she is crying and saying her leg hurts. I chalk it up to growing pains and lay with her for a bit rubbing her leg. We fall back asleep only to have Brennan to decide that he would like his morning to start at 515am. So I get up with him and hope that he will be quiet enough to not wake Em since she has fallen back to sleep. Well, she wakes at 6am screaming in pain. Her leg is hurting again, so I decide to give her some Motrin, rub her leg some more, then have her rest while watching cartoons. Meanwhile, Jeff is getting ready to go play golf with Andrew in a little golf tournament. So they leave about 730am. Emerson is still laying down and resting and by this time Connie and Hayden are up too.

Emerson starts complaining about her leg again and now she won't even move it. I truly think she is milking it, but as an hour of this continues and she won't even stand on, I begin to worry. My mom comes over and takes Brennan, Connie, and Hayden to her house, because I have decided to take Em to the Urgent Care. The next 3 hours were spent in the urgent care. Poor Em was in so much pain. The Dr. suggested we take some x-rays to see if we can see anything. And suggests that there is a possibility of some terrible bone disorder and if not that, then the pain could be caused by a mass of some sort (aka: tumor). NICE. Thanks for the freakin' reassurance. So we do the x-rays and Em is screaming in pain as they have to move the leg in a certain direction to take the picture. Then we sit, and sit, and sit. And finally the x-ray tech comes back to the exam room and says, "sorry it is taking so long, but we had to send the x-rays for a 2nd opinion at the hospital". Are you freaking kidding me????? So, I sat there trying to keep Em entertained and meanwhile my stomach is upside down in panic. Finally about 45 minutes of waiting the Dr. comes back to tell me they don't see anything that she suspected. And in fact they don't see anything abnormal at ALL! She seems to think, now, that Em must have really strained a muscle in her upper leg and that is what is causing the pain. She told me to keep the Motrin flowing and to just let her rest for the remainder of the weekend. Finally, after 3+ hours we finally left, at least knowing that it was most likely nothing to be super concerned about.

I finally made it back to visit with Connie and Hayden at my parent's house. I decided I should finally call Jeff to tell him about our morning, I hadn't called earlier, because I didn't wan to worry him unless something was truly wrong. Good thing I didn't because as it was, they cut their game short and came home. We had a nice dinner at home with the Black family joining us. Made for an exhausting day, starting that way, but at least we were able to end it on a mellow note.

Emerson is back on two feet today, a little limp and she seems to be cautious on putting too much of her weight on it, but all in all, the strained muscle diagnosis seems to be the correct one. Thank goodness!

So, onto our week ahead! Surgery for Brennan on Tuesday...let's pray that that is less eventful than our Saturday with Emerson!

Lots of love,
The Grady's