The DeZago Family

Greyson's Turn

2012-02-12T15:26:00.000-08:00

Greyson turned 2 1/2 in the middle of January. I've been saying he's 2 1/2 for a few months now, but its actually official and it seems totally crazy. The kid is A.W.E.S.O.M.E. He has personality bursting from every pore. He is energy, energy, energy all the time. Some highlights of his life right now:

*He is playing pretend all the time. I love watching him play. His cars, trains, trucks, and helicopters are his favorite toys and they all talk to one another. All of his cars have names, even if its just "blue car" or "yellow car." Each one of us has a car assigned to us as well. His toys have conversations like,
"Hi blue car how are you?"
"I'm good. I'm going to Best Buy. See-ya in 2 days!"

*We have groupings and lines of cars literally all over the house. On every surface, floor space, wherever. I sit on the couch, there is a car poking my butt. I pull back the covers for bed, a car stabs me in the knee. They. Are. Everywhere. And they are lined up in particular orders only known to him. He drives them on every surface possible as he walks all over the house. They make up his own little world and I love it. Every night we line up like 10 cars along the edge of his bed in a very specific order. Sometimes when we go somewhere, I will discover that he's stashed like 6 cars in his pants pockets. The kid is a nut for cars.

*His vocabulary is skyrocketing. There isn't a word he won't at least try to say, and his conversation skills are awesome. He can put three or four sentences together at a time to tell a story or get a point across. And his sense of humor is so great. He cracks me up all day long. I wanted to write a bunch of funny phrases that he says, but I can't think of any right now. So, I'm going to come back to this post and add to it as I think of them. Check back :)

*He loves his daddy oh so much. Dan is off on Fridays, so he tries to have a morning out with Greyson each week if they can. If you ask Greyson what they do when they go out, he gets so excited, jumping up and down, and says, "We go to the coffee store (Sbux), then Best Buy, then the Apple Store!" They pretty much do the same 3 things each week, which Greyson loves. This week, they went to the bank too, and Greyson said, "We're gonna get some money!"

*He is starting to come out of his shell socially, which is a relief to me. He loves hanging out at church with daddy and loves seeing all the people he knows there. He talks to them and even gives hugs. He has also started responding to strangers when they ask him how he's doing, how old he is, who his little brother is, etc. This is totally new territory for Greyson because he is usually super shy.

*He is learning so much. He has been able to name all the letters of the alphabet since maybe September or October. He is working on their sounds as well. He can tell you words that start with most of the letters. He can count to maybe 13 or 14 (sometimes 16) by himself, but often makes up numbers. My favorite ones are eleven-teen and five-teen.

*We got him a puzzle of the Unites States for Christmas, and he has been learning the names and locations of some of the states. He knows Arizona, California, Ohio, and Tennessee (where our families live) and can locate them on the map. He knows other states by the picture that's on their puzzle pieces and can place them in the correct spots on an empty map, i.e. the fish state (Washington), the car state (Michigan), the big rock state (Utah), etc.

*He knows concepts like opposites and can identify tons of them. He also understands when something is too big or too small and can tell you why it doesn't fit.

*He is learning the sting of discipline and the importance of apologies. He says sorry to us and to God for whatever he has done when he has a time-out or spanking. He loves reading books about God and he tries to figure out which guy in the picture is God. Its important to him to pick one, no matter how many times we try and explain that its not God on earth. Whatever, he's 2 and he loves learning about Him. That's what's important.

*He is such a great big brother. He loves Sawyer and has so much fun playing with him. He tells me all the time that "Sower" is getting "bigger and bigger and bigger!" and will soon be able to play too.

We are having so much fun watching Greyson grow and learn every day. He is such a special little guy and our lives are so blessed by him!

3 Months!

2012-02-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

Wow, time is flying by. I can't believe the little guy is three months old already. He is getting to be so much fun and has such a great personality. He is pretty laid back and go-with-the-flow unless he is being left alone for some reason. Then, he will certainly let you know he's not happy! He has started playing in his bouncy seats. We have one for the doorway that I keep upstairs and we just got a new one that is stand-alone for downstairs. He loves the independence they give him and he us (usually) all smiles while playing in them. He still only has eyes for Greyson and absolutely loves watching him play. He could lay next to Greyson all day and be happy. Too bad Greyson can only stay in one spot for like 30 seconds. :) We are still struggling with a schedule and with sleeping (last night he was up 5 times) but we will get there. Here are some pics of the cuties from the last couple of weeks or so.

Sawyer is 2 Months Already!

2012-01-18T17:23:00.000-08:00

I know I STILL haven't finished posting about Christmas, but I can't wait any longer to post about how big our little S-man is getting. I mean, he's already been 2 months for over 2 weeks now. I have found that becoming a mom of 2 has just meant that I am always behind or late or something like that. Oh. Well.

Anyway, we had his 2 month appointment last week and saw percentile numbers that we've never seen in this family! Way to go Sawyer, for introducing us to new things! Sawyer weighs an even 12 pounds, which is the 50th %tile. Yep, none of this 99+ for this kid. :) AND, he is 22.75 inches long (25th %tile!!) and has a head circumference of 39cm (also 25th). But, no worries, doc said he is growing great.

His personality grows every day, too. He is so sweet, calm, and cuddly. He smiles spontaneously, and in response to playing. He talks constantly, even in his sleep. He is happy and content most of the time, except when he needs to eat. And that's still more often than I'd like it to be. Unfortunately, he still eats 3-4 times during the night. I know it will get better sometime...hopefully.

What he loves: eating (!), being held all the time. all. the. time., watching his brother do just about anything, laying next to his brother in bed, being naked, talking, being held, bath time, motion, sleeping with mommy, riding in the car, eating, sitting in the bumbo, oh and did i mention being held?

What he hates: not being held, sleeping on his back, having anything touch his face (he gasps and acts like he's drowning), being still, being left out, being alone...basically anything that's not in the middle of the action.

Today, both boys were so cute and in great moods (for about 10 minutes). So, what do I do with coinciding good moods, cute clothes, yummy light, and a fun lens? Have an impromptu photo shoot, of course! I took like 50-something shots in about 10 minutes, but here are the best ones. :)

Sawyer: 2 months, Greyson: 2 1/2 yrs.

I love my boys!!

Wrapping Up Christmas Part 1

2012-01-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

We had a Christmas full of ups and downs! Gearing up for the holiday was great. Dan's work schedule was WAY lighter than expected, which, of course, put Greyson and I in much better moods and gave us the opportunity to have fun family time. Here are some shots of Christmas cookie night. :)

Here are the boys posing for Christmas gifts for our dads one morning. Greyson earned a candy cane!

THEN, on the night of the 23rd, we were grocery shopping and Greyson fell out of the cart head-first onto the tile floor. Ouch. A couple of hours later, he started puking his guts up. It was really bad. At midnight, Dan took him to the ER in case he had a concussion. Poor guy had a CAT scan and everything. Turned out to be just an unfortunate coincidence and he just had a bug.

So, we spent Christmas Eve recovering. We missed the service at church, and instead stayed home and did laundry. Not the Christmas Eve I had been hoping for. Here was the one photo I did take:

Part 2, including Christmas morning and the day after with my family is coming soon. We've been busy over the last few weeks!

Christmastime!

2011-12-18T15:53:00.000-08:00

This is going to be our best Christmas yet, I just know it. Regardless of where we go, who comes here, or whatever our plans end up being, I know we have reached the "fun" age for Christmas with Greyson. He is loving everything about our Christmas tree, Christmas lights, Baby Jesus, our advent calendar, snowmen, making cookies, and, of course, the promise of presents. I'm so excited to celebrate with him. Here are some pictures of some of our Christmas celebrating so far.

Our advent calendar. Every night Greyson picks the next number and inside the bag is a piece of candy and a mini ornament that he gets to hang on his own mini tree. Some ornaments are nativity, some are pretty words, and some are snowflakes. Greyson LOVES doing the "numbers" each night and asks all day to do another one. :)

Decorating the tree. He was totally into it this year. :)

What I found one day after 20 minutes of silence...

A couple nights ago we made Christmas cookies with frosting and sprinkles, but once I get all the sprinkles swept up I will have time to upload and edit those pics :) Merry Christmas week!!

Master of Negotiation & Imagination

2011-12-02T13:38:00.001-08:00

Greyson has been cracking me up lately. Like, all the time. He is talking so well now and understands waaay more than I think he should. So, he comes up with the most grown-up things to say. And he also comes up with the most hilarious things to say. I love his sense of humor, I can tell its going to be dry and intellectual, like his daddy's. He has also started exploring the art of negotiation. SUCH a first-born thing to do. He has to have his way snuck in there any way he can. Here are a couple of recent conversations I want to remember.

Last night at bedtime:
Me: Ok, Greyson we can read one book.
G: How about three books?
Me: One book.
G: Two books?
Me: No books?
G: One book.

Today after a quick trip to Ikea that ended with a $1 ice cream cone:
Me: You can have two big licks of ice cream and then you need to eat some hot dog.
G: How about.... ten licks?!
Me: TEN?!
G: How about... eight?
Me: Two licks.
He looks at me smiling and sneakily took a third lick. :)

He has also been becoming so much more imaginative lately. I love watching him play. He loves racing cars, building train tracks, "cooking" dinner, and dreaming up all sorts of new games. I think Santa is going to have to bring him some imaginative toys this Christmas. He has names for all his cars and says they are all his friends and they are friends with each other. Girls have dolls and animals, apparently boys befriend their cars and trains.

He has also really started liking Sawyer. Which makes it so fun to watch them interact. He likes to show Sawyer his cars and read to him and teach him about matching (his other favorite pastime). Here is a sweet sweet video of Greyson reading to Sawyer, which was entirely his idea. I love this!

iPhone on The Brain

2011-11-29T08:23:00.001-08:00

Ok, just had to post this real quick. Yesterday morning, Greyson woke up crying at about 5am. This isn't unusual, I guess sometimes he has bad dreams or something. One of us just goes in and lays him back down and he's fine. Anyway, yesterday Dan went in to comfort him and came back to tell me that he was crying out, "iPhone! iPhone!" in his sleep. Dude, I love that kid. :)

Thankful

2011-11-26T09:10:00.001-08:00

We have soooo incredibly much to be thankful for this year! What a blessed year we've had, and especially a blessed November! Here's a quick update on my "thankful list" just for the month of November.
-Sweet Sawyer complied with our wishes and waited to be born until 12:00am on November 1st! What a great start to the month!
-Greyson is LOVING being a big brother, and is growing so much.
-My parents were able to come down right after Sawyer's birth and my mom has been here for over 2 weeks helping SOOO much with all the little things that pile up when you have a newborn (+ a toddler).
-Greyson is speaking in full sentences, is using more big boy words, can identify all the letters of the alphabet and most of their sounds, loves learning, has recently discovered how to jump, and is just an all-around amazing little dude!
-Out of the blue, Dan was offered a position as the Video Arts Director at Sun Valley Community Church, our church home for the last 6 years. This is a position we have been wanting and praying for for literally YEARS, and we are beyond thrilled that this is now happening!! Dan starts at SVCC on December 5th. What an incredible blessing!!!!
-My dad, sister, and brother-in-law were able to come down for Thanksgiving weekend to hang with us and the boys for a few days. How cool that they were able to take some time to meet Sawyer and just be together as a family.
-I am so excited for December, to watch our family fall into a bit of a routine, for Dan to start his new job, for Greyson to experience the excitement of Christmas, and just for sweet time as a family.

What a great month this has been!

And, just to satisfy any "baby cravings" you may be having, here are some of the shots from Sawyer's little "newborn session."

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Welcome Sawyer William!

2011-11-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

Surprise! Sweet little Sawyer decided to make an early appearance and we couldn't be more thrilled!! Before I get into all the exciting details, here are the basics: Sawyer William DeZago was born at 12:00 am on Tuesday, November 1st. He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. We are so in love.

Now, for the long story. Please feel free to skim these next paragraphs because they will probably be long and wordy. I just want to remember every blessing of the day, so I am writing it out here. God just truly blessed us in so many unexpected ways and I believe it is such an awesome birth story!

Now, I will just begin by stating (for like the millionth time) that Dan and I are planners. Especially me. We like to know how, when, where, what, etc etc all before things happen and we like to be prepared. Having just turned our lives upside-down by moving during my 37th week, I was extremely grateful to still have about 2 weeks until Sawyer's scheduled c-section on Friday November 11th. I had a (LONG) list of things I wanted to accomplish in those 2 weeks. When I was pregnant with Greyson, I had tons of painful contractions starting at about 37 weeks, and lasting until he was born at nearly 41 weeks. This time around, I hadn't had any excessive contractions and I was actually feeling pretty good. SO, I assumed I had plenty of time. On the evening of October 30th, we were hanging out with some friends and were all talking about how great and stress-free it was that we knew exactly when Sawyer was coming and how to prepare for his arrival.

THEN, the very next morning I woke up at about 6am feeling some pretty painful contractions. I didn't think much of it, as this was pretty normal for me. I went to the bathroom at about 7 and noticed that I was bleeding a little. That was when I started to get nervous. I didn't have blood with Greyson until the morning I went into labor. I waited a bit and called the doctor to see what they thought. The nurse in triage said that since I was scheduled to have a repeat c-section they didn't really want me to go into labor so I needed to go to the hospital OB unit and have them check me for dilation. UGH. I did that several times before having Greyson, and was always told it was a false alarm. So, I put off going in until about 10am or so. All the while, I was still having consistent contractions and definitely feeling "off." At the hospital, the nurse (Joanie) checked me and told me I was already 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. WHAT?! I was shocked. That was not what I was expecting to hear! She told me she was pretty sure I was having a baby "today." We also talked about a possible VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian) which was something I hadn't even considered. More on that later. She had me walk the halls for an hour and then come back to be re-checked for progress. During this hour, I frantically called Dan and told him the news. We didn't have ANYTHING ready. I gave him lists over the phone and he packed bags for us and for Greyson, installed the carseat, and did any other odds and ends left to do. I went back to triage to be checked again. No progress, still a 3. Contractions were still consistently coming every 6 minutes and lasting about a minute each. Joanie sent me home and told me to come back when contractions were getting a lot worse, which would probably just be in a few hours. I left the hospital at 1:00.

By 2:00 at home, I knew we were going back. They were getting BAD. I did the dishes and put some laundry away so at least we wouldn't have to come home to that. Contractions were now about 3-4 min apart and I couldn't do anything through them except stand and lean against the wall. Dan kept asking me, "Was that a bad one?" Haha, at one point I just looked at him and said, "Stop asking me that! Just know that they are ALL bad!!" We dropped Greyson off at Mike & Cindy's house and headed to the hospital. Joanie was happy to see me again! At that point I was at 4 1/2 cm and 90% effaced. Progress!

Now, for a little side note. While I was at home, Dan and I talked through the option of having a VBAC. I was so nervous. My birthing experience with Greyson was FULL of really terrible experiences and I just didn't want to experience those again. But, with Sawyer coming a full 3 weeks before Greyson did, chances were great that he was significantly smaller. Meaning, I could probably birth him. And, chances of me having 3 failed epidurals again were pretty slim. In the back of my mind, I had always really wished I could deliver vaginally, I was just pretty freaked out by it all. So, we decided to talk to the Dr at the hospital, but to go for it.

Ok, back to labor. Once I was admitted and in a room (maybe around 5:00), we were able to discuss a VBAC with Dr Peatross and she was very reassuring that it would most likely go well. Joanie was all for it too, so I felt like we were in good hands. Then, I got to talk to the anesthesiologist who was also very reassuring! He told me that basically what had happened with Greyson was a fluke that is so rare the chances were extremely slim of it happening again. So, I said we should go for it and got the epidural at about 5 cm. Finally, RELIEF! Here's me in my hospital bed, with the blessed epidural pump behind me:

They laid me in the bed on my side with a giant peanut-shaped inflatable "ball" between my knees. That thing was awesome. They would have me flip every hour or so, which definitely helped labor progress. At about 7:30pm, I was 7cm dilated so the Dr decided to break my water. I didn't seem to have a problem dilating, but Sawyer was still sitting pretty high. Waiting for him to descend took quite awhile. By 9:00 I was already 10 cm, but he needed to come down more. The new nurse (Susan) had me push a couple of times at that point, but it was still too early.

By 10:00 or 10:30, I started pushing again. I pushed for a good 45 min+ and got him really low. At about 11:15 I said, "Man, we are so close to November, maybe he won't have to be a Halloween baby!" Sweet Susan then asked me if we wanted to hold off on pushing until just before midnight so he could be born November 1st. I felt so silly, but Dan and I looked at each other and said, "Yes!" Susan said I could push one more time and he would be on his way out, or we could wait about 30 min and try again. We decided to wait :) At about 11:45 I started pushing again and got him low enough that it was time to call Dr Peatross in. She came in, along with the nursery nurses and they got all prepped for Sawyer's arrival. I pushed a couple more times and Dr Peatross asked me if I wanted to touch my baby's head. That was incredible!! I was so pumped because these were all experiences I totally missed with Greyson's birth. His head was half way out at 11:58. Susan told Dr Peatross to wait a minute so he would be born on the 1st. So we waited. And Susan watched the clock for what seemed like the longest minute of all time. Then, at 12:00 on the dot I pushed a couple more big pushes and there was our sweet baby Sawyer! I can't even describe to you the intense feelings of joy, peace, accomplishment, and just gratitude that overflowed at that moment. He was here! He was healthy, beautiful, perfect, and his birth was successful!! There are no words.

I held him on my chest with all the blood, goop, and slime and just fell in love. Dan got to cut the cord and they wiped him off and brought him right back to me. Then, the most amazing thing happened. He nursed! I was so relieved, as this was one more thing that never worked with Greyson. It was awesome.

I just kept saying, "I did it! It worked! I can't believe how great it went!" I was so beyond happy. What a sweet angel baby we had.

In the moments following his birth, Dr Peatross just sat "down there" and stared at me with a very concerned look on her face. Not really what I wanted to see. She was very thoughtful and concentrating. "How bad?" I asked. "I'm trying to decide if its a 3rd or 4th degree tear," She replied. GULP. Not really what any girl wants to hear. I will spare you dear readers the details, but she did spend about an hour stitching me up. And we will just leave it at that.

Back to the cute pictures :)

I LOVE this one of his inked foot, and love how it looks in b&w:

Dan was amazing through it all. He held my leg and coached me through pushing. He told me I was beautiful. He stayed with Sawyer through everything and was such a great daddy all over again. I love my husband.

Later Tuesday morning Dan picked Greyson up from the Brantons and brought him back to meet his little brother. He knew he was going to see baby Sawyer, so when he came into the room, he pointed to my stomach and said, "Baby Sawyer." So then I picked up Sawyer from his bed and we explained to Greyson that now Sawyer was outside mommy's tummy and he was going to live with us. He wasn't super excited, and then discovered the remote on my bed that made it go up and down. That was way more awesome than a sleeping baby. Greyson got to stay in the hospital with us until about 4pm that day, which was so great. We watched movies, took naps, and just enjoyed our first hours together as a family of four. Greyson loves talking about Sawyer and always wants to know where he is, but still won't touch him or hold him. All in due time :)

Wednesday morning we had Sawyer circumcised and then started getting ready to go home. I was still in a lot of pain, but being home definitely seemed more desirable.

Here we are, all dressed and ready for our new life with sweet Sawyer!

God was able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine! What a huge lesson in letting go and letting Him, and his perfect will, take over. Here are some specific worries/desires/prayers that were answered that day:

-That Sawyer would be smaller than Greyson's 9+ lbs --> He was 7-12!

-That his birth would be uneventful --> It was perfect!

-That somehow, someday I would get to experience a vaginal delivery -->if Sawyer hadn't come early, he would've been too big and we would've gone with the c/section as scheduled.

-That the epidural would work (I had 3 separate ones that all failed with Greyson) --> It was beautiful!

-That Sawyer would breastfeed without issue --> Check!

Thank you to all our friends and family who have been praying for items on the above list. Your diligence has made a difference, and we are so grateful. And thank you so much Brantons and Roberts who so willingly took Greyson into your homes with hardly any notice. You are true friends.

Welcome to the world, sweet baby Sawyer! You are loved more than you'll ever know!

Welp, It's Done! (ish)

2011-10-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

We moved! Yep, that's right, we did it. It could be the hormones raging through my VERY pregnant body, but I definitely feel a giant mix of emotions. Definitely sadness mixed with frustration and nostalgia about leaving our house. It definitely wasn't ideal. We walked through with the realtor today and seeing Greyson's room all empty was really hard. But, I also feel relief. That mortgage was such a point of stress in our marriage, finances, and just every day life. It was always in the back of our heads. I'm glad to finally be free of it. (Although, there was a slight pit in my stomach today when we saw the listing price written on the contract, of about $130k LESS that what we got it for. Ouch). I also feel excitement and anticipation. With this new house comes a blank slate. A new beginning. Fun new projects (even though its a rental) and the opportunity to freely dream about what the future may hold. Who knows? We aren't tied down to that other mortgage anymore, so really, the sky's the limit.

I also feel an immense gratitude. So grateful that this worked so quickly. That we were blessed with a new rental that fit our physical and budgetary needs the same weekend we decided to do this. Grateful that everything is IN our new house and I haven't gone into labor yet. And SO incredibly grateful for the help Dan's mom gave us last week. She was here for 8 days packing, lifting, unpacking, more lifting, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning... She was awesome and there is absolutely NO way I could have taken care of all (or any) of that myself. And, it just so happened that Dan worked like 300 hours (well almost) last week, so her being here was truly priceless. THANK YOU MARI!!!

On another note, I had my 37 week (!!!) appointment yesterday and everything looks awesome. This was about the time I started feeling really bad with Greyson (swelling beyond recognition, seeing spots, having constant contractions, etc) but I am still feeling awesome. Blood pressure looks great, and no swelling! Woo hoo! Also, she was feeling around on my belly and I asked her if she could tell if he felt big. She said that he felt really good and if we make it to delivery date she would expect him to be in the 7lb range! Now, I realize that they can't tell much just by feel, but it was so encouraging to hear that! (In case you don't know, Greyson was 9lbs 4oz). Yesterday marked exactly 2 weeks until said delivery date, so we will definitely have our sweet Sawyer on (or before) the 11th. And aside from the boxes piled all over our house, last minute laundry to be done, and a few projects I'm hoping to complete, I am ready! Photos to come soon, I still have to locate all my memory cards... :)

Really? 2 Months?? What is wrong with me?!

2011-10-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

Lots of people stop posting on their blogs or "take a break" when life gets slow. Like, nothing's going on so there's not much to post about. On the contrary, I seem to "take a break" when life gets nuts!! My oh my, we've been busy. I (again) don't have a ton of time this morning to post, but I just wanted to give a quick list of the major highlights. I will (TRY) to post pictures soon. I've been formulating many posts in my head, why can't you all be mind readers?! Ok, the quick list:

-At the beginning of September, we took yet ANOTHER trip to the ER. Greyson fell into a toy box at a friend's house and needed three stitches in his forehead!

-Right after that, Greyson and I spent 8 days in California visiting my family. He had a blast playing at Aunt Mimi's house, visiting the zoo, petting baby sheep and goats at the barns, playing with Gra-mama and Papa, and just being loved on. I had a great time too, it was so nice to be back home! I also had a couple photo shoots that week, so that was fun too.

-After getting back, Dan and I had several long conversations about our current financial situation. Based on a number of factors, we decided to put our house up for short sale and move into a rental. All-in-all it will save us about $700 a month, and return to us a priceless amount of peace of mind. Its sad, but the right thing to do for our family. We will definitely miss our home of 4 1/2 years, but I'm excited to get settled in a new place. We actually move this week!

-I started a new "branch" of my photography business, which has kept me pretty busy! I opened an etsy shop, and I'm selling digital copies of customized invitations, birth announcements, holiday cards, etc. The url to my shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/erindezago. And, actually, I've been averaging one new order per day, so that has monopolized my computer time!

-I will be 36 weeks pregnant tomorrow. WOW. I feel gigantic, exhausted, in pain, and just plain ready to meet this sweet little boy! Each day, I can feel him wiggling around inside of me and I am just so ready to hold him in my arms! It was so strange last week, because I was packing everything in their bedroom. I had been ambitious and hung things on the wall, gotten the crib ready, put his name up, etc. Then I took it all down. That was kind of sad. But, I am ready to put it all back up again and get this show on the road! We have my c-section scheduled for 39 1/2 weeks and we are hoping he follows in his brother's footsteps and decides to cook at least until then. I thing Greyson was 6 days LATE, so hopefully we won't be facing any early labor this time around either.

-Dan's Dad just spent 3 days with us after a conference he had in Phoenix. It was a great visit, and he got some quality time with Greyson, which was awesome. The boy had so much fun with Papa. Dan's mom is coming tomorrow for a week to help with the move. I am so thankful to have her help because I have pretty much reached my limit of what I can do. Moving is a lot of work!

Hopefully that brings us up-to-date (sort of). I will try and get some pictures up soon, but with our house upside-down right now, its hard to get anything done!

I HATE SCORPIONS!!

2011-08-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

So, lately, we have been finding more and more scorpions in (yes IN) our house. I don't know if its the weather, new construction in our area, or just that all the scorpions like our house, but its getting really old. So, they bug guy has been scheduled to come tomorrow afternoon.

THEN, last night just before 10pm, we heard Greyson wake up screaming. That's not abnormal, because sometimes he has bad dreams and wakes up crying. So, I went in there and he was rolling on his bed grabbing his neck and screaming. I picked him up to comfort him and something that felt like a stick fell on my hand. Then said "stick" stung my thumb. And I immediately knew what it was. "Turn on the light!!! Scorpion!!!" I screamed to Dan as I jumped off Greyson's bed and waved my hand in the air. The light went on, scorpion flew on the floor, and Dan crushed it all in one big motion. Praise God he was home, because it was his late night and had just gotten home at about 9.

Anyway, so poor Greyson is still screaming about his neck sting, and I'm in pain and freaking out about BOTH my babies at one time. I frantically called my dear friend Cindy thinking that between her Google skills and his AZ experience she or Mike had to know what to do. Hey, at least I didn't call 911! Sweet Mike calmly said to take Greyson to the ER. So, I threw some pj's on him and Dan loaded him up. We were checking in less than 10 min later (thank goodness we live so close to the hospital!). They got us right back to see the Dr and were so calm and sweet to us. Greyson was screaming his brains out because he was so scared of the Dr's and nurses and all their gadgets. Hey, if you were woken in the middle of the night by an intense pain and then rushed to the hospital just to be poked, prodded, and have medicine forced down your throat, you might scream your brains out too. Then they made us stick around for 2 hours or so because they said that the toxin takes about 2 hours to really take effect if it was going to. We were to watch for uncontrolled muscle movements, tongue twitches, excess saliva, and his eyes rolling around in his head. Praise Jesus, because none of that ever happened. If it had, I don't think I could have handled seeing my sweet boy go through that. Ugh. Once we were hanging out in an ER room, Greyson was having a great time playing with the TV, the remote, and our phones. Of course. And I was fine too. The Dr said that if I didn't have any symptoms that Sawyer would be fine too.

At a little after midnight we got the ok to head back home. Greyson was more than ready to climb right back in his bed and go to sleep. I think I was less ready than he was! He woke up at a wonderful 8:15 this morning, ready to go for the day. Like nothing ever happened. Thank you, Lord, for protecting our sweet boys. It was definitely a little miracle.

Moral: the bug guy is spraying extra tomorrow, both inside and outside. For FREE!

Greyson's 2 Year Shoot

2011-07-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

Our Baby is 2!!

2011-07-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Greyson when he was about 7 weeks old. Can you believe it?? On Sunday our baby turned 2! Its insane. We have a 2-year-old. Its incredible how much he's grown and changed and turned our world upside down. I never knew my life could be so emotional, exhausting, fulfilling, and fun since he came into it. Here's another shot of him at about 7 weeks, and this was definitely prophetic of things to come!

Oh, my tiny little boy, how you've grown! This was Greyson around the time of his birthday last year. He wasn't even walking yet!

So, here's a bit about what he can do and where he's at. We haven't had his 2 year check-up yet so I'm not super sure on height and weight and all that. I think he weighs about 28-29 lbs or so. He wears a size 2T.

Talking: He's surprising us with new words every day! I would guesstimate that he can say at least 200 words and can comprehend hundreds more. He is starting to put 2- and 3-word sentences together. Today he said "butterfly." I didn't even know he knew that word. He is doing so great! He sings songs, and likes Old MacDonald, Wheels on the Bus, and If You're Happy and You Know It.

Playing: Greyson can throw, kick, and (sometimes) hit a ball. He runs, climbs, "jumps" on the bed, and loves falling off the backs of the couches. He is getting into pretend play, and loves cooking his food (and cars and balls) in his play microwave, driving cars and trains anywhere he can, playing outside, etc.

Tech: It makes me laugh that I'm even putting this as a category, but Greyson totally needs it! He can completely navigate through both of our iPhones all by himself and knows which games he likes to play, how to play them, and how to switch what he's doing. I don't worry about him calling China anymore because he knows what he can and can't do on there. He can also figure out his way around the computer pretty well. He knows how to move the mouse on the laptop and click on things he wants. He can click a movie he wants to watch, make it go full-screen, and press play. He also loves Dan's Xbox. He knows which games he likes, how to take them out of their cases, replace the previous game to its correct case, put the disc in the Xbox, close it, switch inputs on the monitor screen so he can see the game, and even use some basic controls on the controller. Yikes!!

Favorite Phrases: "Ready, Set, GO!" "Me oh my" "Chachacha Beep Beep!" (train sounds)

Favorite Toys: race cars, trains, Mr Potato Head, balls, outside car, Mater, Buzz

Favorite Movies: Cars, Toy Story (1, 2, & 3), Baby Einstein

Favorite Books: Punk Farm & Punk Farm on Tour, Old Hat New Hat, Count Worm

Favorite Activities: swimming, playing with Java, playing with cars, playing xbox with Daddy, riding in the car

Favorite Foods: cheese, strawberries, tacos, pizza, fruit snacks

I think that might sum up the life of our 2-year-old! He is quite the busy boy and I can't wait to see what this year brings him! Here are some pics of how we celebrated his special day.

Greyson is so blessed to have such involved family, even though everyone lives so far away. All four of his grandparents were here for his birthday, and he had such a blast! We took him to see Cars 2 in the theater and he did really well! He loved the movie and seemed to have a great time. Then he got to open presents, eat cake and homemade ice cream, and play with all his new toys! What a great day!

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!!

San Diego Trip

2011-07-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in the last week and a half! We went to San Diego with my parents, celebrated our 7th anniversary, have been hosting my parents and Dan's parents, celebrated Greyson's 2nd birthday (wow!), and have just been having an all-around good time. This post is about our trip to San Diego, and I will post more soon.

Last Wednesday (the 6th) we headed out to San Diego in the evening to spend some time as a family. We met my parents there and then all headed to the zoo on Thursday. That was awesome. Neither of us had ever been there, so we had a blast. Greyson loved seeing all the animals too, especially the elephants, which were definitely his favorite. I was able to borrow an awesome zoom lens (thanks, Uncle Gary!) and so got some awesome shots of the animals. So, be prepared for an overload of cool animal shots, haha. On Friday, my parents headed to Gilbert with Greyson and we stayed another night without them. That was even MORE awesome!! Our anniversary was Sunday the 10th, so we decided we needed a little R&R before we add another member to our family in a few months. So Friday we went to an antique mall by the beach, ate at a seafood bar, drove around and up to La Jolla, relaxed on the beach and played in the waves in La Jolla, watched the sunset, and had an awesome dinner overlooking the water. Then on Saturday we hung out at Seaport Village for a bit before heading back to reality. The weather was perfect and we just had a great time. Here are ~~some~~ a lot of pictures from our little mini-vacation!

Greyson was playing with his food and started smashing yogurt chips on his nose :)

notice a resemblance???

After the zoo we headed to the beach on Coronado Island to give Greyson a little taste of the water. He wasn't too thrilled about the icy waves, but did love throwing shells and rocks, and running after the seagulls. :)

Couldn't leave Sawyer out of the photos!!

Our attempt at a family beach pic

We (surprisingly) didn't take any while at the beach on Friday, probably because we were covered in sand. These are from Friday night watching the sunset in La Jolla. So breathtaking.

And one last shot from Saturday in Seaport Village.

We had such a great time!! Thanks so much, mom and dad, for taking care of The Boy while we had some time off, and for joining us at the zoo! And, thank you, my sweet Dan, for being willing to take a day off work and drive lots of hours to spend these days with us. These past 7 years have been full of so many ups and downs, but I can't imaging having gone through them with anyone else but you. I love you and look forward to many more!

A Name!

2011-07-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Sweet Baby Boy,
Your daddy, brother, and I are so excited for your arrival in just a few short months! This pregnancy seems to be going so much quicker than with your brother's and I'm so thankful for that! You are a wiggle worm, especially at night and in the early morning, which probably means you'll be ready to party when we want to sleep. That's ok, I will cuddle you anytime :)

We've decided on a name for you, and we LOVE calling you by it. We've decided to name you Sawyer William. Sawyer is just a name we love (it means "lumberjack," by the way) and William is after your Grandpa Hunter's Dad (my Grandpa). Greyson's middle name is Vincent (after Daddy's Dad's Dad) so you are after Mommy's Dad's Dad. Pretty cool, huh?

So, my dear, sweet Sawyer, we just can't wait to meet you. Your brother loves you so much already. He gives you hugs and kisses all the time. When we talk about who is in the car or the house or wherever, he always includes "Baby Saaawer" in the list. Your crib is set up in your room, which you will share with Greyson, and it is just waiting for you to join your brother for "night-night."

We love you, Sawyer William, and we are so glad you are going to join our family!
love,
Mommy, Daddy, and Greyson

Happy 4th!

2011-07-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July, but just stayed home and had a family day. It was a welcomed rest because Dan is now in full-force with Scottsdale Bible and he had spent a week at 5th/6th Grade camp with Mike at Sun Valley. We just went swimming, grilled out in the backyard, and grabbed some cheapie fireworks so Greyson could experience them. He wasn't too sure about them, but did stay outside to watch all of them! We just got back from 4 days in San Diego, so I will be posting more about that soon. It was an awesome trip, and definitely brought much-needed relaxation.

It's A.....

2011-06-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Healthy little baby! :) Ok, ok, I won't tease you too much. It's a BOY!!!! That's right, the DeZago house is now gearing up for another little man and we couldn't be more excited. The moment the ultrasound tech put the wand on my belly and the image came on the screen, Greyson said, "baby!" and knew exactly what it was. :) So sweet, right? We have a first name all picked out, but I'll wait to post it until we've decided on a middle name. So, besides the "boy parts" being obvious and lookin' good (!) everything else looks awesome too. Baby's heart, brain, limbs, and other organs all look awesome. I was hoping for a 3D peek, but the tech said they don't do those til 28 weeks, which I'm not even sure if we'll get one then or not. Oh well. I don't care, our baby is a perfect little boy!!! Here are some shots, although they are pretty blurry since he is already quite the wiggle worm!

I actually think he looks kind of like Greyson in this one...

And in case you had any doubts.... ;)

Oh, our sweet baby boy, we can't wait to welcome you into our family. How you will change our lives! Praise God for this miracle!!

Tomorrow...

2011-06-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

Is the big day! We have our big mid-pregnancy ultrasound at 8:30... eeeee!! I know God has been taking care of our little peanut, and I know he won't give us what we together can't handle. But, I still have a twinge of worry that something might be not-perfect. Ya know? Anyway, check back tomorrow for an update. We can't wait to see you, sweet baby, and find out if Greyson is getting a brother or a sister!! Yay!! Here's a quick shot of the baby belly as it looks today, at exactly 19 weeks. :)

Amy's Wedding Weekend

2011-06-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to write a long post, because I wrote about the wedding in the last gigantic post and you are probably tired of reading by now :) But I wanted to dedicate a special posting to my sis Amy, my new bro Chris, and their wedding. I didn't do a lot of picture-taking that weekend because I was on other duties, so I am borrowing from their sweet and super-talented photographer, Jocelyn, as well.

The rehearsal...didn't they pick such a pretty spot for the wedding??

Ok, the wedding day... I edited these to make them more pretty :)

Getting ready at the salon.

...and at the hotel. Amy doesn't wear earrings very often. This is one of the bridesmaids, Tori, cramming her earring into the hole. Not for the faint of heart, people.

stunning

For some reason, the limo had the best light. These are the best shots I got all day. Go figure. :)

Waiting for people to arrive, namely Chris

Our Momma

Turned out pretty cute, right? :)

This is the best shot I have right now of Greyson in his outfit. You can barely see the bow tie and suspenders, but the wranglers and boots are pretty stinkin' cute.

These are the ones Jocelyn got. Stellar!

And some more of mine...

The next day, we hung out at their house while they opened their gifts.

Then the three of us headed south. On our way back home, we stopped in Ventura beach for the night. It was SUPER cold and windy, but we had some yummy seafood and Greyson got to see the water, at least for a bit. Oh how I miss California.

It was such a fun weekend!! Congratulations, Amy and Chris!! Love you guys!!

I Promise, We're Alive!!

2011-06-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, its been over 3 months since I last posted. Ooops. I think, now, that I definitely just needed a break. I could give you all the excuses about being tired, overwhelmed, busy, computer issues, etc, but none of that really matters, right? Right. Because it is June, and what's done is done. :)

So, how 'bout I fill you in on the major points of the last three months. There have been some big ones! (So, get ready for a long one, friends.)

# 1. Numero Uno. THE BIG ONE. :: We got pregnant!! Ironically, we found out on March 4th, just 3 days after I wrote my last post, complaining about being tired and frustrated. Haha. We couldn't be more excited, although I'm sure its tough to tell by the lack of posting :) Baby is due to be here around Nov 15th, which means I am now 18 weeks and counting, and I can't believe how fast its gone. When I was pregnant with Greyson, time seemed to drag on and on. It felt like I was sick forever. This one has seemed so much quicker, but I'm sure that's because I'm now chasing around an almost-two-year-old! I was pretty tired and nauseous for about 12-13 weeks or so, which is much better than the 16 weeks I spent with Greyson. So, now I've got a definite baby bump, I'm wearing maternity clothes, and I am now feeling this sweet sweet movement inside my belly. Finally!! Having a baby develop inside of you, because of nothing you're doing, can do, or will ever be able to do (well, except for....you know) is nothing short of a miracle. Right now, at 18 weeks, baby is around 5 1/2 inches (crown to rump) and about 7 ounces. He/she is moving arms and legs so much and looks like a mini baby. All "the goods" are in place, so we head in for our big ultrasound in the middle of next week! Yay!!! Little baby, we can't wait to welcome you into our family. Your big brother is so excited you are coming!

# 2 :: Speaking of big brother, Greyson is doing awesome. Really. Really. Awesome. He loves talking about the baby, reading books about the baby, and looking at pictures of what the baby looks like. He is going to make such a great big brother, and I can't wait to see that happen. Aside from baby news, Greyson is all boy, all the time. He is in love with cars, trucks, trains, really anything with wheels. His favorite movies are Cars and any Toy Story movie and would probably watch a combination of those all day if we let him. He also loves playing Beatles Rock Band with Daddy, and prefers listening to The Beatles to other music. Yes, Dan is proud. :) Over the past weekend, we got Greyson his Big-Boy Bed (BBB), and he loves it. Right away he told us cribs are for babies. Right now, the crib and BBB are both in his room. If Baby is a boy, its going to stay that way. If Baby is a girl, well, the jury is still out. :)

# 3 :: My sister got married!! Amy and Chris have been dating for, like, a million years (kidding!) and got engaged on Christmas Eve. So, this spring has been filled with lots and lots of wedding planning! Maybe that's another reason the blog has been on the back burner. I made 6 bridesmaid dresses, threw a shower, designed the invitations, made suspenders and bow ties for the little boys, and probably some other little things here and there. :) But it was so much fun. So, on May 14th Amy Hunter became Amy Coolidge and Chris officially joined our family. They live on a farm in Fresno, CA and are having fun (so far!) fixing up their little farm house. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was such a fun night and Amy was gorgeous. Stay tuned for more pics, as I didn't take a whole lot that day. I was the MOH, not the photographer, and it was kind of nice! :)

# 4 :: I quit my job. WOW. This was a big one for me. I was a social worker in Gilbert Public Schools for four years, and I LOVED it. Really. When Greyson was born, I went down to part time, but with a new baby coming in November, staying home full time is the absolute right decision for our family. And, so far, its great! I always have the summer off, though, so I know that around August it will really set in that that's not my gig anymore. And I will miss it. But, there's nothing like being a mommy and I know these years are oh so precious. So, bottom line, it was a no brainer. God is good, and he will take care of us. Which brings me to #5.

# 5 :: Dan got a new job!! This JUST happened. Like, JUST. And it was completely unexpected. For the last year, Dan has been working from home, developing his own business and just being plain awesome. He's been working his butt off and, I would say, he's been successful. But, the issue was the irregularity of income. So, with me losing my "back-up paycheck" this new venture couldn't have come at a better time. Randomly, one day out of the blue, the new Weekend Media Coordinator from Scottsdale Bible Church called Dan and asked if he'd be interested in an interview for their newly-available Video Production Engineer. A mutual friend had given him Dan's name. So, over the course of the next few weeks, Dan had some interviews, did a couple of projects for them, and we checked out their weekend services. It soon became clear that they wanted Dan for the job, and eventually we were sold on it too. This was totally and completely orchestrated by the Lord. Over the last 7 years we've been married, Dan has interviewed for countless jobs. And yet, in the last year or so, through none of our own efforts, he has finally be able to do what he's always loved. (And, its probably the hormones raging through my body, but just typing this makes me well up). Dan accepted their official offer this week and starts "for reals" on Monday. Some of you Sun Valley friends might be wondering what this means. And let me tell you, we did not come to this decision lightly. Dan's new position is a weekend position, so he is expected to be there helping to coordinate all of their 6 (yes, SIX) Sunday services. So, we will be attending SBC on Sundays. And we love their strong Bible teaching, their great kids programs, and the general atmosphere is beginning to grow on us :) Its a BIG change from SVCC, which we love dearly. For countless and hopefully obvious reasons, we are still (as of now) going to be a part of our Sun Valley small group. I just can't imagine leaving that now. We've grown together, our families have grown together, and I am just not willing to walk away from that (especially when that walk is a 40 min drive to Scottsdale). Basically, that was a super long paragraph just to say we are excited about a regular paycheck, about Dan being in the ministry, and especially about discovering God's blessings and plans for this new part of our life. If you think of it, please pray for Dan as he starts his new job next week, and for Greyson and I as we adjust to "regular" life at home together.

First of all, thank you for making it through all that if you actually read it! I'm impressed! That was way too long, but, hey, its been way too long since I've been on here. So, you will be rewarded with some pictures. :) Here you go...

Goofing around in early spring and a visit from Nana...

Playing piano with his cousin Sean at Amy's shower in March

Easter Egg hunt at church. This shot cracks me up!

Easter at our house

A trip to McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale so Greyson could see and ride all the "beep-beeps" :) He had a blast!

And, then, over the weekend we went up to Oak Creek (just past Sedona) for a quick day trip to picnic and play in the water. Definitely a good day.

If you are looking for wedding photos, that's my next post. Thanks for coming back after 3 months, and for making it through this mammoth post. You are the best!!

Good Riddance, February!

2011-03-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

So, I know February is supposed to be the month of L.O.V.E. But, for some reason it kind of sucked around here! Work was constantly hectic, Dan was overbooked (which, I know, is also a blessing), Greyson was sick (twice), we were sick, the house hasn't been cleaning itself, and I am just tired! Ya know? Anyway, sorry about the complaining. I am definitely happy that today is March First. The sun is shining. The weather is warm. And I get to take sweet pics of a new baby girl in just over an hour. Can't wait!
Here are some Valentine's shots of the boy that I never posted. I was trying to think of a cute shirt to make for him that didn't have hearts or anything girly :) This is what I came up with.

And, because he's a boy...

Lately, Greyson has realized that the park we drive by to go almost anywhere has ducks at it. He's been asking to go feed the ducks for a few weeks now. So, this morning we took Dan's bout with the stomach bug as a good excuse to go feed the ducks. :) Here is a video of the ducks eating crackers off of Greyson's shoe :) Good times, people, good times.

I hope you have a good start to your March!

My Favorite

2011-01-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

We have been though countless phases with Greyson over the last year and a half. And each time we enter a new one, I think "THIS is definitely my favorite! This is the best!" Every single time. Well, there were a few exceptions. Like the first 4 months of colic. But I digress. Anyway, my point is that this stage, where Greyson is right now, does not disappoint. DEFINITELY, this is my favorite stage. :) Here are a few of the things he is doing right now that make me say this:

*He says "thank you" and "you're welcome" at appropriate times. Nearly every time. It definitely comes out like "tay-too" and "elcom" but he totally know what he's saying. And I don't remind him. He just knows when to say them and says them. Now "please" always needs a reminder. We'll keep working. :)

*He can tell us why he's upset. Thank you, Jesus! They told me this day would come!! It takes a little coaxing, especially if he's really mad, but if we ask him what he wants, he will usually tell us or point or something. Its a beautiful thing.

*He is constantly making connections and loves that he is learning things. He recognizes sounds he hears even that are outside the house: dog barking, bird singing, airplane, truck, etc and can identify them. He understands that he isn't the only one with a nose, mouth, eyes, etc and points to matching body parts on others and himself. I read the other day that from birth to age 3, babies develop 1000 trillion nerve connections in the brain. Amazing, and I can totally see it happening! (I know, I know, nerdy science factoid)

*He recognizes himself in photos and says "shay-shan" (his name for himself, no laughing!) and gets excited and points to himself.

*He can recognize and name all of our extended family members when looking at photos. I am so proud of this and so happy he loves doing this just because we don't get to see our family as much as we (or they) would like. It doesn't seem to stop those connections :)

*The other day he was playing games with my parents through the computer. He was trying to feed grapes to my mom and playing peek-a-boo with my dad. It was so sweet. And then he gave them kisses through the screen (don't tell Dan!). So the other night we were looking at a picture book with our family's photos in it and he stopped on Grandma's page, got really excited, and gave her picture kisses. It was so so sweet. :)

*He LOVES reading books. This has been a slow one coming because he is just a busy boy. But now he gets so excited to read them and identify what he sees. This morning I was getting ready for work and he kept bringing me books and showing me the pictures he was excited about. He is getting to be such a big boy!

*Dan has started having logical conversations with Greyson, and it cracks me up. But, he totally gets it. Here is their going-to-bed routine conversation.
Dan: "Ok, Buddy, its time for night-night. Are you ready to go in your bed?"
Greyson: "Yeah"
Dan: "Ok, lets get in your bed. Do you have your blankies?"
Greyson: "Yeah."
Dan puts him in bed. Greyson starts fussing.
Dan: "Now remember, its bedtime, and we don't cry. How about I leave the door open for you? Will that make it better?"
Greyson: "Yeah. Doh (door). Doh."
Dan: "Ok, I will leave it open. Good night."
Greyson (nodding): "Yeah."
Its seriously the best part of my night.

*One more: Greyson is starting to pretend play. I LOVE this! I really didn't think this would happen so early, but it totally cracks me up. Its just little things, but they totally make my day. Like yesterday I was doing something in the kitchen and Greyson got into the pantry and started pulling out soup cans and pretending to drink them. He was making slurping sounds while "drinking" and then would pull the can down and say "ahhh" like he does after a drink of water. Or the other day he saw a picture of grapes on the iPod and made chomping noises and pretended to eat them. Hilarious, I tell you. He also pushes his cars around while making engine noises and then crashes them and makes crashing noises! I love it so much. And he knows he's being funny, because he laughs at himself too.

Ok, so I know that was a long, wordy list. And I know that this stuff is probably all pretty normal for any other mom out there, but I am just having so much fun with him right now that I had to write it down. Seriously, this is THE BEST stage ever (so far)!

Operation Binks Removal: Night...?

2011-01-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd give a little update on how the boy is doing without his binks. It has actually gone really well, surprisingly. Dan and I were talking tonight that it has seemed relatively easy so far (knock on wood!) Since my last post, we did have one bad night when he just wouldn't go to sleep, but overall I feel like the transition is mostly complete. He is going to bed (and nap) without even seeing binks at all, which is an accomplishment in and of itself! But, he sometimes wants to be rocked, and always wants us to leave the door open, which is a new development. Anyway, just a quick recap. I am really proud of us and proud of Greyson for doing such a great job. And thank you God for helping it go so smoothly!

Operation Binks Removal: Night 3

2011-01-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

Not much to report today, actually. For naptime, he did ok, but wouldn't fall asleep unless his door was open. So random. Tonight we came back from a meeting at church and sat down with pizza and Dinner For Schmucks. His usual bed time is 7:30, and he was asleep on my lap on the couch at 7:40. He stayed there for an hour, and when the movie was over at 8:40 I laid him in his crib, jeans and all. Not rockin' that boat, people. :) Here's hoping for a good morning.

Operation Binks Removal: Night 2

2011-01-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

Well, this morning started off EARLY. And cranky. He has been waking up at 4:00 or so, and we've just been giving him binks and laying him back down. Well, this morning he woke up at 4:30 and, of course, we didn't have a binks to give to him. He SCREAMED, again, for an hour. Finally at 5:30 we were both about to do something insane, so we let him get up. (You thought I was going to say we let him have binks, didn't you?) We stayed strong. But he didn't want to come to bed with us or watch tv or anything. He just wandered around crying, looking for binks. We both went out and laid on the couches and put tv on in the dark, hoping to get a few extra winks before the sun came up. I found one of the broken binks and he finally calmed down when I let him carry it around. That's all he wanted was to hold it. But, it was up, down, happy, sad, snack, milk, poke in the eyes, up, down, etc etc so while Dan slept soundly on the couch I dealt with the boy. :)

Anyway, nap time went ok. I only let Greyson scream for about 5-10 minutes before I went in and rocked him again. He went right to sleep, binks in hand. Seriously, its the sweetest thing.

Same thing tonight at bed time. No crying. At. All. I just rocked him and he went right to sleep even before seahorse stopped singing. Binks in hand.

My thought at this point is that if I can get him to fall asleep without binks, even if that means rocking him, we can wean the rocking off a little later. Everything in stages, people, everything in stages.

Operation Binks Removal: Night 1

2011-01-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Well, folks, this is it. We have decided that 18 months is long enough for Greyson to hang on to his pacifier (or lovingly referred to in our house as "Binks.") You have to understand how insanely addicted he is. Its a bit ridiculous. Binks is only for bedtime and naptime, but he still can't live without it at those times. Anyway, since we are done with family visits for awhile, we deemed this weekend to be THE ONE. So tonight, we snipped the tips of of his binks' so when he sucks on them all he gets is a mouthful of air. Yeah, we know, we're super mean. Here's how the night went:

7:25: Bedtime routine. We read a book in his rocker. He always gets binks during the book reading, so tonight was no different. He put it in his mouth, promptly removed it, and studied it, confused. "Uh oh!" he said and continued to study it with a worried look. "Looks like Binks is broken. Oh well," I responded. We read the book and gave kisses and hugs.

7:30: Laid in his crib with blanket, seahorse, and broken binks. He realized that he wasn't getting a real binks. Thats when the screams began. And I mean SCREAMING. We left.

7:45: Still SCREAMING. Dan went in to try and help. Immediate quiet. He pointed to all the items he had thrown out of his crib. Dan picked up blanket, seahorse, and binks. Reality set in. More SCREAMING.

8:00: Still SCREAMING. This time I went in to see what I could do. Immediate quiet. I picked up Greyson, his blanket, and turned on seahorse. I tried rocking him. He would have none of that. He wanted to pick up binks too. So we did. **this is the best part** He didn't try to put binks in his mouth. He just held it in his hand against his chest while we rocked. Like a pet that had died or something. And we rocked to sleep.

8:10: Asleep.

Not too bad for the first night. We are hoping that it only takes a few nights of screaming before he can sleep without it. We will see. I'll keep you updated. :)

Our Christmas(es) Part 2

2011-01-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

If you haven't read Part 1, scroll on down and do that first, then come back up.

We made it to CA in 12 hours, which was less than we were planning on. Greyson did so great the entire trip, with just a little impatience at about hour 10. I was impatient too. :) We had such a great time with my family, and they blessed us so much. We are so thankful to have such great families. We got there late the 23rd, and Amy and Chris arrived on Christmas Eve to announce they had just gotten engaged! Yay!! They were so excited and her ring is beautiful!

Greyson just wanted to play the piano. :)

We had a great time on Christmas day with just my immediate family. It was so chill and just nice to enjoy each other (and make wedding plans, haha). This is my dad reading the Christmas story and Greyson listening intently and nodding in agreement.

The next day we celebrated with my mom's side of the family. It was so fun to see everyone. All the cousins were together for the first time in several years, so it was really great. This is Greyson playing the piano with my sweet cousin Garrett.

We had such a great Christmas and were definitely reminded of what's important. We hope your family had a great time too. Dan's parents are here this week for his birthday and New Year's so there will be more photos coming soon. Happy New Year everyone!

Our Christmas(es) Part 1

2011-01-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Christmas this year! It was busy, but we were definitely reminded of how blessed we are and how loved we are by our family. This year, Greyson is at such a fun age so it was such a great time opening gifts, baking cookies, and just enjoying one another. This year we headed up to CA to visit my family for actual Christmas, so we faked Christmas morning down here in AZ a couple of days early. Here are some shots of our Christmas and then I will post another one of our trip to CA.

One of my favorite memories of Christmas growing up was baking treats with my sister and mom. We always made so much yummy stuff to take to neighbors and parties. I wanted to continue that tradition with our family, even though Greyson is still young. Here are some shots of that fun few minutes that his attention held. We did make an entire batch of Magic Cookies together and he LOVED eating the chocolate chips (duh!)

Helping me wrap gifts....Well, maybe not really HELPING...

We worked it out with Santa that he would come on the night of Tuesday the 21st so we could have Christmas morning on the 22nd at our house. He was happy to check one house off his list early, and Greyson was not disappointed! Here he is with his stocking...

And the amazing photo that he actually let me pose him for. I couldn't believe it!

Playing with his new cars:

I am so proud of this, I might just make another post all about the car play mat so you can see it better :) I sewed this for Greyson's cars and it has a house for each of our family members so he can drive to Grandma's house, etc. I have since put pictures in all of the houses so he can see everyone's faces. It was a ton of work, but I love it. And most importantly, so does Greyson!

Greyson also loves his cute rocking moose! Thanks "super elf" for putting it together!

All in all, we had a great time as just our little family. It was so much fun this year. The next day we piled in the car and made the 12-hour trek to Modesto. More to come...

A Glimpse

2010-12-02T20:45:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd give you a stinkin' hilarious glimpse into Greyson's usual MO. Pajamas, as many of my necklaces as he can find, and Dan's xbox head set. Such a silly boy!

15 Month Update

2010-11-30T20:49:00.000-08:00

...Even though he's already older than 16 months. Oh well. I have tried to keep this blog as a baby book of sorts so that I can go back and remember what he was doing at certain points. Lately I've been kind of sucking at that. It has nothing to do with the fact that he hasn't been doing anything cool...because he's doing tons of awesome stuff. It's just that life with a toddler gets BEYOND busy. Anyway, enough with the excuses.
Okiedokie, so we went to the doctor a few weeks ago and here's what he said:
Weight: 26 lbs (75th percentile)
Height: 33.5 inches (90th percentile)
Head circumference was 75th as well, not sure on the measurement.
Has 12 teeth (4 top front, 4 bottom front, and all 4 1st molars)

We counted and Greyson knows 20+ words, which the Dr. said was developmentally in the 18-24 month range, so we were happy. Same thing with his gross and fine motor (can walk backwards and sideways, stacks 5 blocks, screws and unscrews lids, throws balls, etc.) He also knows how to kick, hit, scream, spit, and arch his back in a fierce tantrum. We are so proud!

I haven't yet actually written down all the words he says, so I'm going to do that here. Please don't feel like you have to read through them, I just want to have them to look back on. :) As of today (16 months old) he can appropriately say
1. mama
2. dada
3. java
4. ball
5. dog
6. baba (drink)
7. snack
8. nana (banana or Nana)
9. night-night
10. duck
11. bath
12. milk
13. uh-oh
14. "side" (outside)
15. papa
16. hi
17. bye-bye
18. "pu" (computer)
19. yeah
20. wow
21. thank you
22. welcome (you're welcome)
23. please
24. book
25. baby
26. cat (sometimes)
27. car (sometimes)
28. shoe
29. sock
30. down
31. up
32. door
33. off
34. on
35. hot
36. hat

We both have been so overwhelmed lately with how much he is looking like a little boy and less and less like our baby. Moving into toddler-dom has (so far) been chock full of fun, energy, exhaustion, learning, frustration, fears, and so much more. He is changing every day and every day we fall more and more in love with his growing personality. We are so blessed and so thankful!

Phew, November Was Crazy!

2010-11-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

I realize I haven't posted on here since Halloween, and now November is already over. Not sure when that happened. It's been a crazy month for us here at the DeZago house, but we made it through. We had visits from Dan's mom and my parents, within a week of each other, so that pretty much took most of the month. In between those, we had his 15 month check-up, lots of trips to the park, some decorating projects going on and probably a ton of other stuff. Here's November in photos:

This is a dresser we found on someone's curb just waiting for someone to come and give it new life. Major Ugly...

And, here is its new life! The color is bad because I took the pic at night with just the flash, but the dark is a medium gray and the yellow is a mustard color. All distressed and pretty :) Amazing what a little TLC can do. Is there a life lesson in this??

Dan's mom came for a week and even let us get away to Flagstaff for a night without the boy! It was so great. We stayed at the Hilton and literally did almost NOTHING the entire time. We ate food, hung out in the hot tub, and sat at Barnes & Noble. We felt so old, but we were so happy to have nothing on the agenda! We took no pictures, mostly because we did nothing. :) Here are some cute shots of Mari's visit.

First bites of Nana's pumpkin pie

Not too much later, my parents came down for Thanksgiving. It was a great weekend. Greyson is getting to where he knows people in his life, so he loved hanging out with Nana and loved spending time with Grandma and "Papa" too. Its so cute. Here are some shots of us at the zoo...

And just being silly

We are so blessed to have family that will travel hundreds and hundreds of miles and give up vacation time just to be a part of Greyson's life. These moments are so priceless! Thank you!

Have A Happy Halloween, You Must!

2010-10-31T13:08:00.000-07:00

Well, Dan won out this year on the Halloween costume debate! Actually, it was more of a compromise, because he wanted Greyson to be something from Halo. But, I draw the line when I don't know what the heck it is. :) I do think Greyson makes a pretty stinkin' cute Yoda. :) I realized that I made the ears like 2 or 3 times bigger than they really should have been, and I was going to change them, but then I just kinda fell in love with how amazingly cartoon-y they look on him.

On Friday we went out to a pumpkin patch after the Halloween parade at my school. Here are some shots we took like 30 seconds to get before Greyson was too annoyed by the straw. We will be carving our pumpkin this afternoon, so stay tuned for some funny shots of that. :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

California

2010-10-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

The week of fall break was emotionally draining and fairly stressful for me due to a tragedy at work, but I got through it and took Greyson home to visit the family! We were there for 5 days and had a great time. Greyson wasn't shy at all and just jumped right in to being at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He slept great, although Aunt Amy (his roomie for the week) didn't! :) We spent a lot of time visiting family in the area and hanging out at home. On Saturday we went to the coast and visited Uncle Jim and Aunt Wilda while they were camping. Although a bit on the chilly side, the day was beautiful and it was so nice to see the ocean again! This was Greyson's first real trip to the beach. He loved the sand and the seaweed, but wasn't to excited about the cold waves. We will have to try again when the weather is warmer. :) As usual, I wasn't too great at taking a lot of photos of us just hanging out. I really need to get better at that! Here are some shots that I did get, mostly of the beach day.

This is Greyson at my Grandma & Grandpa Hartman's house (mom's side) riding the same tractor we used to play on as kids. :)

Hanging out with Uncle Jim by the campfire

I love being up on Grandpa's shoulders!

NO WAY am I touching that water!!

Thanks for such a great week, we had a wonderful time!

Buddies

2010-10-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a whirlwind trip to CA for a fun family visit, but until I upload and sift through those photos, I am posting this sweet girl's mug instead!

Since before birth, Greyson and Brielle have had a special relationship: their parents have arranged (and have been planning) their inevitable marriage! But, our hopes aside, these two are great buddies. One day, a couple of weeks ago, we took advantage of a cool afternoon and played at the park! We love you, Elle!

This is their Abercrombie-"I'm-way-too-awesome-to-smile" shot (hence the b/w)

Silly girl!

Also, just a brief update on The Boy. He has been learning and growing so much lately! He is talking almost constantly, and we are always trying to figure out what he's saying. He can appropriately say mama, dada, dog, milk, duck, bath, ball, uh-oh and probably a couple others I'm forgetting right now. He also says "na" for food, "ba" for drink, "da" for outside, and stands at the glass door calling "daaa da, daaaa da" which we interpret to mean "Java." We are so proud of all the new things he is learning!

Wow...Its Been Awhile!

2010-09-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

I've definitely been on a blogging hiatus for the last month or so, and I'm sorry for the lack of updates! Really, there hasn't been much to report. The last few weeks have been busy, but with non-blog-worthy stuff. Work and chasing Greyson are pretty much how we spend our days. :) I did have a birthday (27-ugh) which was definitely a good time. We actually went out on a real date! Then the next week we packed up and went to Ohio for 5 days for Mari's 60th birthday party. It was definitely a great weekend, and so nice to be in cooler weather!

Dan's work is going better than we could have ever imagined. Right now he is booked into November with solid work and solid income. Praise Jesus! Definitely an answer to prayer and so much fun. Having him work from home is a HUGE adjustment for all of us, but we are getting more into a groove every day.

For my birthday I got myself a sewing machine, and I am so in love with it! I spend waaay too much time surfing "crafty" blogs storing up ideas in my head of things I want to make. So the last few days I have been spitting them out :) I have created a little backpack for Greyson, a pillow from an old pair of sweatpants and a sweet hat for Greyson out of old t-shirts. Thank you Goodwill 50% off days! Also, this morning we went browsing at Stardust Building Supplies, our favorite place to find re-usable treasures and found components to make/refinish a jewelry "vanity" for me in our bedroom. The word vanity sounds so formal, but I'm just creating a space for me to keep all my accessories and stuff because our bathroom is so lacking in storage.

Anyway, that's a basic update on our life right now. I am getting ready for the busy photo season, so October is going to be a packed month.

Here are some fun shots of our Ohio trip. There were a lot more, but these summed it up. Enjoy and thanks for being patient!!

At Mari's party...

On Monday, I wanted to get some shots of the Boy in the fall leaves, so we went to this great park and walked around for awhile. Ahhh I can't wait til AZ is like this in a couple months...

$#!* My Kid Ruined

2010-08-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

So there is this blog called $#!* My Kid Ruined...except you have to actually type the bad word into the url. Don't go there if you are easily offended, they do seem to have potty mouths, but it it hilarious. :) Anyway, we just spent the last two hours creating material for that blog right here at our house. We were cleaning out the cupboards in the front room to finally make them functional, and one of them had all the used paint cans half full of paint. You can see where this is going... One can was red paint we had used for the stitches in Greyson's baseball room. All of a sudden, I turned around and Greyson was playing in a giant puddle of red paint! It was EVERYWHERE. Not to mention a giant pool of it splashing on our light grey carpet. I screamed for Dan and he ran out there and saw all the red and thought Greyson was about to die from blood loss. He would have too, if Dan hadn't taken him from me, because I was so freaking mad! I wish we would have paused long enough to snap a picture, but we were running around like crazy trying to get all the paint sopped up. I then called Stanley Steamer's emergency line and they came out pretty quick and got most of it out. But, sadly, there is still a little pink tinge to the corner of our room. Sigh...so $96 later we join the ranks of parents who can say they have $#!* their kid ruined. :/

Ba Ba, Na Na And Other Misc Stuff

2010-08-19T22:24:00.000-07:00

Greyson has been getting pretty verbal over the last week or so, and is getting much better at his manners. :) He has two very specific "words" that he uses almost constantly. "Ba" is Greyson's word for drink, it is leftover from when we were trying to teach him to say "bottle." A week or two ago, I was trying to teach him to say "banana," but it came out like "na" instead. So, now he says "na" for any food he wants. So, first thing out of bed in the morning he is signing "please" and saying "ba, na, ba, na, na..." It sounds like "banana" but really he just wants food and milk. And it continues all day. He has been a hungry boy lately! Or, at least he knows he is saying something that is meaningful, so he keeps saying it. Either way, it works. But, he knows he gets nothing until he signs please, so he always just keeps rubbing his chest while he is saying "ba, na." It cracks me up, but at least he is learning his manners!

Also, he is revealing more of his OCD side. Ok, not really, but he is pretty anal! If you know my husband, this comes as no surprise. :) He is very particular about getting all bits of food off his high chair when he is done eating, or knocking over all stacks of blocks that he did not stack himself. He is constantly opening and closing everything, including lids, doors, books, drawers. He doesn't like to be near a door that is open, and will immediately close it if he can. He eats his food in groups. Like, all the tomatoes, then all the cheese, etc. Silly boy!

Ok one more thing. He is becoming really good at following simple directions. This may all be lame and normal for me to write about, but I've never had a kid before, so I don't know when these things start happening. Anyway, I can tell him, "Greyson, take your binks out of your mouth and put it in your bed. Binks is for bedtime." And he will do it. Or, "Greyson, can you give that block to mommy?" And he gives it to me. Or, "Greyson, go get your drink and give it to Daddy." Yep, can do that too. He also loves the dog, and any other dog he sees. So, he has this book with tons of animals in it (thanks, Aunt Amy!). One of the pages has this huge photo of a dog. He turns to that page and I say, "Where's the dog?" And he points to it. He can find the dog on other pages too. Cool right? Tonight we were working on the cat and duck, too, but he is really partial to the dog. Maybe he needs a trip to the zoo or farm or someplace where he can experience other animals. :) Ugh...when it cools off.

Yesterday we had a mommy-Greyson date to the mall and splash pad. It was his first trip to the splash pad because I wanted to wait til he was at least walking a little bit. Definitely fun! He LOVED it. It took him a minute to warm up to the idea, but once he understood what the other kids were doing, he got right in there and had a blast. I have photos, but I am editing a senior shoot right now, so when that's done I will post some of him.

Ok, I think that's all for tonight. Tomorrow is Friday of the 2nd week back to school/crazy schedule/adapting to both being home. Thanks for checking in!

Funny Dinner + Backyard Splash Pad

2010-08-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

Not sure why, but dinner was super funny last night. Greyson was cracking me up. I was so relieved, because he loved his minestrone soup (even all the veggies!) and kept asking for more. :)

Please??

Then, after dinner we briefly talked about heading over to the mall for the splash pad, but weren't sure how late they kept it running. So, we went outside and made use of the hose and an ice chest and created our own impromptu splash pad! Greyson loved it!

This one's a little blurry but it makes me laugh out loud!

Hey ladies!

Happy weekend everyone!

Greyson's "Walking!"

2010-08-14T22:03:00.001-07:00

Well, Greyson is taking some steps now! It's been a fun week, but I will let the video do the talking. I asked Dan if I could just have raw video straight from the camera and onto my blog, no crazy editing business. This is what I got. I guess he just can't help himself. :)

201008 - Greyson Walking from Daniel DeZago on Vimeo.

C'mon, God, Why Won't You Fit in This Cute Little Box I've Made For You?

2010-08-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry in advance for the long-winded post, just a lot on my heart lately!

The past few weeks have been faith-stretching. Big time. I'm not sure I like faith-stretching times (just being honest, folks). But I do know its worth it in the end. Big time. Most of you know that Dan was laid off about a month ago. This is the third job in three years he's been laid off from. Talk about a kick in the gut. If you don't know my husband, you don't know that he is the smartest, most technologically talented person I know. And he is great at puzzles. Like, figuring out solutions to tough problems (although he is good at the piece-together puzzles also :) ) Anyway, if you do know him, you already know all that. So, its been SUPER frustrating for the last several years to watch him try so hard and never catch a break.

Over the past 6-8 months or so, we've had countless conversations about what he wants to do. Let's be honest, running a telemarketing room is not a life commitment. Obviously. And I think he came to the conclusion that he wants to help organizations succeed. And he wants to serve Jesus by doing that. He wants to help organizations that serve Jesus be successful. Flash forward to last week. He was offered a job with a collections company working on the phone. For a whopping $9.50 an hour. Yikes. And he was pursuing a great lead with the University of Phoenix, but they've been seriously dragging their feet. So, it seems his options were, yet again, to settle for a crap job so we can pay the bills. And look forward to being in this same spot yet again in however many months.

See, God will provide what we need to survive. He's given us what it takes to pay our bills and to barely keep our heads above water. But, is that what living life with Jesus is about? Just keeping our heads above water? Just living a life that is barely good enough? We've both been reflecting on this thought and God seems to be using Dan's job situation to prove to us that living life with Jesus is about trusting when it doesn't seem logical, obeying when you can't see the end, and reaping the unbelievable rewards of a sold-out faith in Him. See, God can give us a job we need to get by. But, if we wait and trust and wait some more, I believe he will give us "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."

Dan was supposed to start that collections job on Monday (like 3 days ago). Sunday night we went for a walk (yay cooler weather!) and had a long talk. He was totally convinced that he wasn't supposed to take that job. And I knew it too, because he had been a total crank all weekend, which only happens when something is really bothering him. :) He said, "What if God's been trying to get us to take this leap of faith for three years, and we have been so blinded by what we need RIGHT NOW that we haven't given Him the chance to give us something better? What if I was supposed to do this three years ago?" So, I relented, and this week has been awesome.

Every day since Sunday, Dan has received a paycheck of some kind for video work he's been doing. He's also been landing new jobs and has been working his butt off. Which, equals more checks in the mail. It also equals more jobs coming in. So, for now, we are treading lightly and believing that God has a plan that is bigger than our own. If you think of it, please pray for us. Please pray that we will keep being faithful and obedient. That we will be wise with the money we are given, and that whatever God has planned for us will be revealed in His timing.

Now, Greyson is screaming, so I need to go be obedient to the plan God has for me TODAY. :) Thanks for listening!

Naps and Bottles and Binks, Oh My!

2010-07-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, since we now have a 1-year-old in our house, we have begun making some of the changes in routine that you are "supposed" to do at this point. First up was the bottle. I was READY for this change! The week before Greyson's birthday, we started switching him to cow's milk slowly from formula, and he transitioned great. No stomach issues at all. Then we started slowly replacing bottles with sippie cups and snacks or meals. Gradually, over the last two weeks he has slowly reduced down to just his bedtime bottle! I am soooo glad we are done buying formula and almost done washing those stinkin' bottles! I know the bedtime one is going to be a bit of a stretch, just because it is definitely his routine. But, he is slowing down on how much he even wants to drink of it, so I am hoping he will just transition himself off of it pretty soon.

Next up is naps. I am NOT ready for this one, and I have to admit I didn't think it would come this soon! We are definitely in a nap transition time right now. Some days he gets up late and isn't ready for a nap until 10 or 11. Those days he definitely doesn't need an afternoon nap. Other days he gets up really early and needs a nap by 9:30 or so. Then by 3, I am ready for him to lay down again, but he doesn't seem to want to! So, I can foresee a once-a-day napper in our near future. Ugh. I know, I know, its bound to happen sometime.

Third is the pacifier, or as we have dubbed it, "binks." Don't ask me, it just stuck. Before Greyson was born, I was one of those "My kids will never use a pacifier!" people. But then Greyson had colic. And eventually we came to where we are now: the kid won't go to sleep without it. Double Ugh. We haven't tackled this battle yet, but it is coming soon. Not sure yet how to do it or when, but I don't want to wait too long. Sigh...we shall just see, I guess.

Also, I forgot to post this before. We took a 3 generation Yankee photo when Greyson was a newborn, so we did another one for his b-day. I can't seem to find the one from last year (its on Dan's computer), so here's the one from last week. So sweet!

Whew!

2010-07-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

We made it! Greyson turned ONE year on Saturday the 17th and we couldn't have had a better time celebrating it. We are fortunate enough to have parents with flexible summer schedules so we spent the last two weeks with visiting family who all want nothing more than to celebrate Greyson's awesome 1st year. Thank you Mom, Dad, Amy, Mari & Ed for being such great and loving family for our little boy to grow up with. He is truly blessed (as are we!)

We can hardly believe he is already 1. I can hardly find the words to express what this past year has been for Dan and I. How two became three. How our world has been turned upside down, and how that seems like how it always should have been. How the ups and downs have been the most rewarding experiences of our life and how we wouldn't trade one moment. We are so proud of our big man and all he is. Here is a little 1-year update:

Height: 30 1/2 inches (75th percentile)
Weight: 23 lbs 15 oz (75th percentile)
Physical Abilities: pulling up on all furniture, standing on his own, stacking 3 or 4 blocks, turning pages in books, putting lids on and off, eating all finger foods, crawling everywhere, imitates basic tasks (cleaning, putting objects away, talking on phone, etc).
Language Abilities: signs the words for more, please, all done, water and says "mama," "dada," "dog," "ball," "bye," "all done," and can sometimes say "more."
Favorite Pastimes: looking at books, banging blocks together, playing with the tupperware cupboard, opening and closing doors, calling Java to the back door, talking on the phone, pushing buttons, watching mommy and daddy on their computers, swimming, riding in his wagon, and figuring out how things work.
Favorite Books: Dog, Peek-A-Zoo, My First Book of Animals
Favorite Song: If You're Happy And You Know It
Favorite Foods: yogurt, cheese, beans, tomatoes, and most fruit

Not sure what else to add, other than he is growing and learning by leaps and bounds. Every day there is something new. He is waving bye-bye all the time, and loves to communicate. The signing has really given him the ability to have his voice heard and he LOVES it. He comprehension is way beyond what I thought it would be and it blows me away to watch him do what I ask him to do.

Here are some photos of the past couple of weeks (warning: there are a lot).

The "official" 1-year photo :)

Opening presents from family

Grandpa Ed handmade this awesome car carrier truck for him

Talking on his cell phone while working on his laptop being chauffeured in his "red convertible" :)

I love my new clothes!

Blocks from Aunt Amy

Putting together the wagon from Grandpa & Grandma Hunter

Maybe the box is more fun!

Oh my...

Birthday breakfast. "More chocolate chip pancakes, please!"

Party time!

Beautiful and yummy cake made by our talented friend, Jihae!

Hmmm....what IS this deliciousness??

I don't know and I don't care!! Its amazing!!

All good things must come to an "end." :)

Thanks all who made Greyson's birthday so memorable! Here's to another great year! We love you Greyson!

Oh Yeah...

2010-07-07T00:25:00.000-07:00

Also, I thought maybe I should update you on Greyson's new skills of the week. One of the reasons I keep this blog is so that I can look back and see where he was each month. So, bear with my proud-mommy updates!

This week Greyson is standing on his own more than ever, but our cautious boy refuses to try and take any steps, even when holding our hands. He knows he can crawl super fast, so why try anything new? Also, recently tooth number 8 has poked through, giving us all some relief from the pain. :) It is bottom left (i think). Greyson can also sign "more," "all done," and "ball," and we are working on "please." He also can SAY "all done." Yep, that's right. :) We ask him if he's all done, and he says, "all duh." Pretty good if you ask me. He loves swimming, and jumps off the side of the pool, under the water, and into our arms. He loves it and I think we might have a budding fish on our hands! Alright, I think that might be it for now. But only a week and a half left until his BIRTHDAY, so stay tuned!! I really cannot believe its already here!

Happy 3rd and 5th of July!

2010-07-07T00:15:00.000-07:00

Well Greyson had kind of an uneventful first fourth. His third and fifth were great, though! On Saturday (the 3rd) we went to the Diamondbacks game (for free!) and Greyson loved it. He did so awesome all through the game and even stayed awake for the fireworks spectacular at the end. Seriously, it was like 10:30 by the time it was all over (thanks to a horribly long game) and he still was clapping and pointing at the fireworks, which was super-fun. On Sunday we went to church and just hung out, which was great. Then, on Monday (the 5th) we had our small group peeps over for a fun bbq. It was great to finally have other people using our backyard after all that work we put into in this spring! I stole the photos from Cindy's blog because she (or Mike) actually took some. I, the photographer, tend to forget to snap shots of the normal stuff you are supposed to take pictures of. Anyway, here are some fun photos of last night :)

The amazing flying Braden King

Sweet little Brielle :)

Camping - Part 2

2010-06-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, part 2. If you haven't read "camping - part 1" scroll down and read that post first. This is Saturday and Sunday...

On Saturday, we drove back up to Big Lake, this time with sunny weather and a Forest Service map in hand. We trekked back on some dirt roads and found a 6-mile round trip trail that lead to a river at the bottom of a canyon. It was a GREAT hike! Such beautiful country and hardly anyone around! Java especially had a great time. And Greyson loved his pack. Here he is getting a snack on the trail :)

On the way down to the bottom of the canyon...

Enjoying the water

So pretty, and so worth the climb

On Sunday we packed up camp and headed home. It was time. We were tired. We were dirty. But, it was such a great time. Here are some shots we stopped on the side of the road to get.

Thanks for reading! :)

Camping - Part 1

2010-06-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well hello out there...its been awhile! Sorry about that...we've had a crazy busy June, which I totally wasn't expecting. This is my first real summer off with a baby. Last year, Greyson waited until the end of summer to be born, and then it was the whirlwind of having a newborn. But this summer, its non-stop going going going, and I realize how much I loved being able to work a few mornings a week and let someone else take him for a few hours! (haha does that make me a bad mom?!) Anyway, this month I've been super busy with photo shoots and we shot a wedding a couple of weeks ago, so that editing has been consuming me since. Also, I am completely re-doing my website because I am really frustrated and disappointed with the site I currently have. Its going to be awesome when its done, but its taking time, time, time! Also, two weeks ago, Dan was laid off and had his last day last Tuesday. Big time bummer. But, for some reason, this time, both of us have this strange peace about it. I think Dan was relieved because of how much he hated his job. And for some reason, I just know things are going to work out. God has always provided for us in the past, and He's not going to stop now. ANYWAY, so that's been our June. And then, hence the title of this post, we took off and went camping for 5 days last week! It was so great to just get away and have family time together and it turned out really great. We went up to Springerville/Eagar and it was beautiful the entire time (well except for the torrential downpours on Friday). We took so many pictures that I decided to break them up into two posts. So here we go with the first bunch...

On the way up...we were wondering if there would ever be any trees...

But we found them! Our campsite was beautiful, the best one in the whole campground. There was tons of woods around it and a creek running through. This is Greyson trying out his new backpack and going to find some firewood with Daddy.

Studying their handiwork...

Hiking our 6-mile hike on Thursday. The trail left from our campground and followed the creek. We enjoyed the COLD water too!

Chillin' like a big boy

Making dinner

Thursday evening was kind of drizzly, so we ate in the van :)

After dinner Thursday, we were a little stir crazy from being cooped up in the tent all afternoon, so we took a drive. Thanks for the beautiful rain, God, it was awesome!

And beautiful rain clouds make for amazing sunsets!

Pancakes Friday morning :)

Greyson and Dan played in the creek by our site, throwing rocks like all good little boys should do :)

Then Friday morning we drove up to Big Lake hoping for a picnic and hike.

Once we got there, the downpours started. Let's just say that thunder, lightning, hail, and rain don't make for the best lake picnic day ever...Here's our view of Big Lake:

Cows crossing the road on the way back down the hill

After spending the afternoon in our tent, sopping up puddles, the rain finally stopped and we had a great evening. Greyson loved hanging out by the fire.

And of course, his first taste of roasted marshmallow :)

Stay tuned for Saturday and Sunday!

Milestone Update

2010-06-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

I realized its been a really long time since I've posted an update on how the boy is developing, and my oh my has he been changing! He is definitely keeping us on our toes!

Physical Milestons: As of 9 months, Greyson weighed 22 lbs 9 oz and was 29.25 inches (both 75th percentile). Now, he is 10 1/2 months and I'm guessing he weighs around 24 lbs and probably is closer to 30 or 31 inches by now. He is growing so fast! He has 7 teeth, 4 on top and 3 below. I think he's getting another one, just not sure where yet.

New Skills: waving hi and bye-bye to everyone (even in the stores), saying "words" (mama, dada, dog, and ball), crawling everywhere, pulling himself up with no problem, deliberately putting objects in containers or on shelves, choosing favorite toys and books against other ones, eating finger foods for pretty much every meal, drinking from a straw, and probably tons of other things that I'm forgetting right now.

Likes: bananas, tomatoes from the garden, playing peek-a-boo, reading books, watching the dog from the window, going swimming, cheese, taking showers, anything that has buttons and lights up, when daddy gets home, playing outside, and just life. Seriously, he is such a happy, easy baby! I can't complain!

Dislikes: being left alone, the snot sucker, being still, waiting too long to eat, and the hot car.

I have to tell you a story about last night. We decided to eat outside since it was a nice evening and we had grilled some chicken. Greyson was sitting in his chair and a bird in the neighbor's tree caught his eye. He stared at it for quite awhile and you could see the wheels turning in his head. "Look, Greyson, its a bird. Do you see the bird?" More wheels turning. Then he says, "Daw!" (That means dog). "No, Greyson, that's a bird. Not a dog. A BIRD." Wheels turning again, still staring at the bird. "Bir!" "Yes! Good job! A bird!" "Bir!" We were so proud. :)

Tonight we had some fun trying out a new photo prop I got at Goodwill a few weeks ago. Pretty darn cute, right?

Road Trip!

2010-06-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

Greyson (and us) made it through his first road trip over the weekend when we drove back and forth to Modesto (12 hrs each way) for my sister's graduation party. We are so proud of you, Amy! And, thankfully, Greyson did pretty awesome. We split the trip over two days each way and stayed overnight in Bakersfield Thursday and Sunday nights. That definitely helped, and made the trip much more do-able. It was so much fun to see my family again, and Greyson definitely had a good time! Here are some shots of him enjoying the family...

Thanks for such a great weekend!

Sweet Hubs & Fun Weekend!

2010-05-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

So, before I post pics about our weekend, I have to make a shout out to Dan. I forgot to post about this before, so its a little late in coming, but it definitely deserves its spot on the blog. You see, recently our small group has switched things up a bit. Every other week we decided to have "family night" where we meet in a park or someplace fun for dinner and hang out with the kiddos. The other weeks, we meet in a home and have Bible study and there is a babysitting rotation. Yep, us parents have agreed (sigh) to rotate watching all the kids. This saves everyone $$ and the stress of bringing the little tykes along to Bible study nights. Sooo, this past Monday was our turn in the rotation. And might I say that really we had the first real turn. Mike & Cindy got the first week, but Greyson was the only one that showed up. (He was definitely happy about having some alone time with sweet Brielle haha). Anyway, apparently all the other kids heard that Brielle got Greyson all to herself and they wanted a piece of the dude. Because on our night, we had all SEVEN kids. Yes, SEVEN. Ages 4 and under. Most of the time I was running around like a crazy person, but I did manage to snap this sweet shot of my husband tending to four of them. I love that he is feeding Colbie with one hand and has someone's sippie in the other hand. Sweet Caleb (in the green) wouldn't leave Dan's side all night. And there is Cambry making sure her sis is ok. Seriously people, it was a crazy night. We made it out alive and now Christin and Drew are prepping for their turn. Muahaha. :)

Ok, on to our weekend. Well, Friday and Saturday weren't actually all that awesome. I mean, I had 3 shoots in two days, which was great, just super busy. But, today we got to hang out and spend some time together as a family. It was a fun day. Greyson took TWO 2+ hour naps. I joined him for one of them, since I seem to have come down with a cold. Then, we went to Costco to buy the ginormous box of diapers and then got their cheap pizza for lunch. Then we came home and hung out around the house and went swimming for a bit. Greyson loves the pool. It is finally warm enough to jump in without losing your breath. :) After swimming and a rinse-off shower, Greyson took another 2+ hour nap and Dan went to church, so I vegged out in front of the computer/TV. Probably the first time I've done that in weeks. Then once Dan came home we had dinner and then went for a walk around the neighborhood. Greyson loves the swings. And now he is asleep and I am blogging. For fun. I like fun blogging :) So, that was our day. Thanks for pretending to be interested. Haha. Alrighty, here are some fun photos mostly of the boy:

These are from a couple of days ago...notice the "I'm causing mischief" face

And now apparently Greyson's new thing is to bite on objects and the crawl around like a puppy dog (see my last post). Today it was a water bottle. I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

And this is our swimming/back yard adventure from this afternoon. He's sporting his new super cool skull swim outfit from Aunt Amy. Thanks Amy!!

And, for some more laughs, check out this post our dear friend Cindy made that's all about Greyson & Brielle's budding relationship :) I love it! Have a great week everyone!

Our Goofball

2010-05-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is a snippit of Greyson's goofball side. He cracks me up at least 10 times a day, so I thought I would share the joy. :) He has this baseball/bat set that was a Christmas gift from my sweet Aunt Susan and Uncle Gary (die-hard SF Giants fans!) and he LOVES the ball. It is soft and squishy and just his size. So, lately he has started sticking it in his mouth, biting down, and then just going about his business like nothing. Like, crawling around with it in his mouth like a funny puppy dog. What a goof! Haha, enjoy :)

I know the color/lighting is off on this one, but I love that he is just chillin' looking around the corner like nothing is amiss. :) Silly boy.

More Nana, Mother's Day Dedication, & Swimming!

2010-05-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy few days! Friday, Dan's mom left after a week of hanging out with us and having her fill of the boy. :) And then Sunday was my first Mother's Day! We had a great day. Our church had a special baby dedication service for Mother's Day, so we were able to dedicate Greyson. In the class we had to take before the dedication, we were encouraged to choose a life verse for Greyson. We chose Proverbs 3:5-6, which is "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." We thought that would be appropriate for Greyson, just knowing what little we know about him already. Also on Sunday, Greyson took a dip in the pool with daddy. He went with me on Saturday, but we didn't get any pictures. So, here is our weekend...

These three were dedicated together! Brielle, Greyson, and Colbie. Big sis Camby is along for the ride :) These are our attempts to get a pic of all four of them...

Swimming!

Zoo Fun

2010-05-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went to the zoo for the day. It was a beautiful day, and Greyson did awesome. It was his first official trip to the zoo during the day (we went to zoo lights last fall) and I think he liked it! He did look at the animals a little bit and seemed to have fun :) Here are the shots...

He loved petting the goats, which was super fun :)

Life

2010-05-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

...is busy! When I realized that I hadn't posted on my photography blog in over two weeks, I knew it was bad. Lately, I've been working 7 days a week, we've been re-doing our entire backyard, Greyson is crawling, and Dan has been doing tons at work and church (and home). This past week, Mari (Dan's mom) has been here, which has been a HUGE help, but still we've just been swamped. On Saturday we went to the Zoo (for free!) which was fun, and we've been landscaping and photo-editing and playing and walking and, and, and... for weeks now! So, I promise I have pictures coming, but right now my photoshop is batch editing a bunch of beautiful senior girls, so I've got to get those done before I can get Greyson pics up. But, they're coming, I promise :)

Greyson Crawling

2010-04-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the video Dan made of the little monkey. Yes, I know it has a crazy intro graphic. Dan just can't help himself. :)

Greyson Crawling from Daniel DeZago on Vimeo.

PS - It is 8:39 am and Greyson is still sleeping!!! That is 2 hrs and counting past his normal wake-up time! (Yes, he's still breathing :))

I'm A Big Boy Now

2010-04-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

Well Greyson's had a big couple of weeks. Its amazing how fast things change. His development has skyrocketed recently, and we can hardly keep up! Here is a look at what he's been up to:

This is what I walked in on one day after a nap...time to lower the mattress!!

Much better!

This is breakfast with daddy last week...

And this is him playing in the new pool floatie toy he got. :)

In other, more major news, Greyson started crawling tonight! Dan is working on the video and when its done, I will post it. But, it was hilarious. We opened up the laptop to video chat with Amy, and he just started crawling toward it! It was like he'd known how to all along, but was just waiting for the computer to come out to give him enough reason to put forth the effort! The little stinker :)

My Neglectful Mom

2010-04-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I have to take it into my own hands to actually post to this blog, since I am almost 9 months now and my mom's last post was from when I turned 8 months. Jeez. So much has happened since then, and she has neglected to share. I mean, I guess its not that important to her that I can totally scoot around the room on my butt now, AND army crawl backwards. Since that didn't seem to impress her, I've even started pulling myself up to a sit from laying down and up to a stand too! I even freaked her out by standing up all by myself in my crib the other day after a nap, but still no blogging! Plus, we even celebrated Easter and I learned all about Jesus dying for our sins and coming back alive again, AND I even wore the cutest outfit EVER, and still nothing. Easter was awesome because my Grandpa and Grandma came to visit me and we had tons of fun all week! They even brought me an Easter basket with a bubble gun, which I totally LOVE! I've also been trying to impress my mom and dad by feeding myself with a spoon and eating all kinds of food just like they do. But, they just get annoyed that I don't want to eat my mashed vegetables anymore. After you've tried chicken, would YOU want to eat pureed green beans anymore?? I didn't think so. Anyway, I just thought you all should know I'm pretty much a big boy now.

My mom says that she hasn't blogged in awhile because she's been super busy. Which is true. I guess. She has had TONS of photo sessions lately. And, her and dad have been working a ton on the new patio outside. That's pretty cool because I get to go out there too, and sneak a rock in my mouth every once in awhile. Mom usually goes crazy and gets it out, but there is definitely some bonus sand that always stays in my mouth no matter how hard she tries. :) Yum. Alright, well, here are some cute shots of me being me lately. And I promise to make my mom post more often. Or else I will just get back on here again. :)

My super cool Easter outfit...

Opening my baskets...

The yummy cupcakes mommy made...

Bubbles!

See? I told you I can eat all by myself!

Loving daddy's hat...

And the reason mommy's been pretty excited around here...

Thanks for reading!
love,
Greyson

8 months??!

2010-03-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

Also last week, on St Patrick's Day, Greyson turned 8 months. I CANNOT believe it. Its insane. He is so big now and I can see the little boy coming out in him more and more every day. Only 4 short months until he is 1 year, and I am not ready for that!! Right now, I'm pretty sure he weighs about 22 lbs or so. He eats everything he can get his hands on...pears, oranges, crackers, dog hair, rocks. You know, whatever. He loves peek-a-boo and being tickled. He LOVES his daddy. Greyson can say mama, dada, baba, and gaga. And we're pretty sure he knows what he's saying. PRETTY sure. No crawling yet, but he rocks back and forth a lot and really tries to reach as far as he can before face-planting. He is very cautious and doesn't seem to want to mess up, so I think he doesn't like the idea of taking the crawling risk (nothing like his parents, I know). Anyway, he'll get it when he's ready. Which will probably be before I'm ready. Here is a fun shot of his personality, taking it all in at the ocean in CA. We love you buddy :)

California!!

2010-03-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

For spring break last week, Greyson and I made the trek to CA to visit my family. It was such a great time and I KNOW they loved seeing the boy :) We saw all the extended family, I had a photo session, we went to the mall (stay tuned to see Greyson's Easter outfit from H&M), and made it to Monterey for the day. It was a jam-packed 5 days, but it was well worth it. Greyson did awesome, taking it all in even without several much-needed naps. Here are some fun family pics, for pretty ocean shots, head over to my Photography Blog.

Greyson and Grandpa...

and Grandma...

and Great-Grandma Hunter...

and eating breakfast with Aunt Amy

Taking a bath in the sink...

Being silly...

Our day in Monterey. This is at the Wharf.

And at the beach...Greyson wasn't too interested. :)

These cutie pies belong to my best friend all growing up, Lindsey. She and I have been buds since kindergarten and so its pretty cool to now have pics of our kids together. This is Cadence and Ansel posing with Greyson. Can you tell it was St Patty's day? Too cute! :)

Thanks for such a great week!! It was a blast!!

Cutie Pics

2010-03-07T14:32:00.000-08:00

Not much new around here...hence the lack of blog updates. But, here are some cute shots from this week. :) Happy Sunday!

A Big Help

2010-02-23T15:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was packaging some photos for some clients (you can see my new packaging here) and Greyson was "helping" me! :)

Nana + More Sickness

2010-02-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry its been so long since I've posted, but its been crazy around here! Dan's mom was here for a week, and it was great to have her visiting. She was such a help watching Greyson and I think she had fun spending quality time with him in the super warm weather! Here are a couple of shots of her feeding him one morning at breakfast.

And then for the "sickness" part of this post. I don't think Greyson ever really got over the ear infection he had a couple of weeks ago, and it turned into a cough that rattles his chest pretty bad. So, at the Dr this week, instead of getting his shots he got a diagnosis of "bronchiolitis" and a prescription for a breathing treatment. So, we have to do the breathing treatment every 4 hours while he is awake, and hopefully that will clear up his lungs. Here are some of him getting his treatment.

And this is him from tonight...he was really tired :)

etc etc

2010-02-04T19:10:00.000-08:00

This post is kind of a mish mash of what we've been up to the last few days/weeks. Besides being sick, we've been pretty "business as usual" with nothing exciting to report. Here are a few photos of the latest...

Dave Ramsey told us that we need to get rid of debt and if we can't afford to pay for a nice car we shouldn't be paying for a nice car. Well, if we squeezed every drop out of our paychecks, we could have kept paying for the wonderful Accord that I loved so much, but we decided it was more important for me to be home with Greyson and for us to get rid of our debt. SO, we sold the Honda. sigh...That was such a great car. We bought it with our future family in mind. We brought Greyson home from the hospital in it. We took so many great trips in that car. But, now we are not paying for it anymore! And, we were totally blessed with a great little civic that Dan can drive back and forth to work and it only has 57k miles on it! Yay! So, here are some photos of the cute little guy...

Next up are some photos of the boy trying to eat bananas and blueberries with his hands. He's not too great at finger foods just yet, and bananas were kind of an unintentional mean trick on my part. Every time he grabbed them they would just smash in his fingers and fall all over his shirt. Made for some pretty great pictures though :)

oh mom why are you so mean?!

These are some funny shots I snapped of Greyson and Dan sleeping while they were sick. Like father, like son...

Greyson helping me with the laundry the other day...now only if he could help fold and put away!!

And these are from today when we went to the park to enjoy the sunshine :)

Also today, Greyson had his 6-month well baby check. No shots because his ears are still red and infected, but the Dr. said he looks awesome and is doing great on all his milestones! We are so proud of him! He weighed in at a whopping 19 lbs 5 oz (85th %tile) and measured 25.5" (83rd %tile). We are slowly moving down in the charts, but still a really big boy!

Thanks for checking in!

sickies

2010-02-01T10:39:00.000-08:00

So we have a house full of sickies this week. Dan has had the flu (we think) on and off for about 2 weeks now. Its been really special. We thought we kept him far enough away from Greyson to prevent the boy from getting sick, but Friday Greyson's runny nose turned into a hacking cough and by Saturday afternoon/evening his fever peaked at 103.7. That freaked me out a little so I called the Dr. who said to take him in if it didn't go down. We gave him a cool bath & tylenol, and tried to get him to eat, but by 11:00 it was still above 103. So we took him to the overnight urgent care and they got us in and out pretty quick. By 12:45 we were on our way home with a diagnosis of an ear infection and a prescription for amoxocillin. Greyson's first real sickness. Poor baby. Sunday he seemed to be feeling better and finally took a real nap Sunday afternoon. This morning he seems better and is sleeping as I type. However, Dan is on his way back from work again because his fever is back and he feels terrible. In all of this I came down with a sore throat and body aches yesterday, but I seem to be doing better today. I suppose God knows that the sicky boys need someone to take care of them... *sigh*

look who's old!

2010-01-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

Wow! Can you believe that Greyson is already 6 months old? Greyson "celebrated" his half-birthday on Sunday and we can barely believe that 6 months have passed already. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that he was born and I look at him and I have no idea how he got so big. And other times it feels like he's always been in our life. Alright, enough of the sappy stuff :) This is what we know about Greyson so far...

Likes: eating yummy food, chewing on everything, making a horrible high-pitched screeching sound, swinging in the park, hanging upside-down, playing peek-a-boo, bath time, doing things himself, getting licked by Java, playing with toys, and spending time with people who love him.

Dislikes: eating gross food, being ignored, avocados, laying on the changing table, socks, tummy time, grass.

Milestones he's hit: rolled over (3 1/2 months), eating solid food (4 months), first two teeth (4 1/2 months), sitting up (5 months), playing with & reaching for toys (5 months), drinking from sippy cup (5 1/2 months). I'm sure there are more, but its late and that's what I can think of right now.

We are so proud of our little guy and so amazed at the joy he has brought to our lives. God is teaching us so much about His love for us through this miracle. We love you, Monkey!

Hey Ladies!

2010-01-18T13:38:00.001-08:00

I'm too sexy for my pants, too sexy for my pants, too sexy...

I couldn't stop laughing out loud! And to see what we did yesterday, head on over to my photography blog...

my life this week

2010-01-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Well, this is my first post ever on mommy's blog, and I am going to show you what I've been up to this week! It has been a very busy week for me with mommy going back to work and everything, but somehow we still managed to do all this stuff too...

This is me swinging on the swing at the park! I had so much fun and I LOVED flying through the air!

See? Thumbs up!

My favorite part was when daddy was pushing me higher and higher :)

This is me hanging out with my friend Brielle while our mommies got their hair done by Christin. My other friends were there too, but Cambry was running around and Colbie was sleeping.

This is me trying out my new sippie cup. I love water!

This is me playing my new favorite game, called "hanging upside-down from daddy's hands." Its super fun!

And these are from today when daddy buzzed my hair. Now it looks really handsome!

Thanks for reading my blog post! I hope you have a great weekend! I'm sure I will be busy napping, playing, and eating lots of food!

love,

Greyson

lots o' christmas cheer

2010-01-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

We had a GREAT Christmas with Greyson. He had such a fun time, and it was so relaxing and enjoyable. Thanks so much to all our incredible family for making Greyson's first Christmas so awesome. There is no doubt in our minds that he is loved beyond measure!

Christmas is always a crazy time of year in our house. This year was no exception. In fact, it was crazy times 10. School was busy, photos were coming out my ears, Greyson always keeps us on our toes, we were in Chicago for 3 days, and then, of course, there was actual Christmas. But, amidst all the insanity, I couldn't help but be totally blown away by all the blessings God has just poured on us this year. Our whole world has changed with just one tiny gift. (Well, tiny isn't quite the right word...) But this is the first year I have cared about nothing else other than the little person that now consumes our life. And that shift has been the most incredible blessing. Everything else about life is fading in importance. And isn't that what Christmas truly is all about? Letting all the craziness of life go and instead welcoming a gift, a beautiful little boy, into the center of our lives? I hope your holiday was merry and you were able to relax, to enjoy friends and family, and most of all, to ponder the true gift of Chrismas.

OK, now onto the photos of Greyson's first Christmas. :)

I'll start with our trip to Chicago on Dec 10-13 because I forgot to blog about it before. We went there for Dan's uncle's wedding. Uncle Dan and Terry were married on the 12th, and it was so fun to see everyone and spend time with that side of the family. Terry, we LOVED meeting you and we are so thankful you are a part of our family! Here are some highlights:

Nana showing off at the reception:

Grandpa Ed playing...

Dan & Terry

And this shot cracks me up. Greyson looks so freaked out that this scary man with the black gloves is holding him! He and Grandpa were having fun, but its just a funny shot :)

Ok, on to actual Christmas. This was Christmas morning at our house, with just us...

Under the branches with his new lizard towel :)

And this one turned out a little underexposed, so I tried some fun processing on it and I really like it :)

My parents and sister came in that night:

And then this is Christmas with my family...

"Mmmm, presents are yummy!"

"See? I ate ALL my dinner!"

Thanks for such a great Christmas. Happy New Year!