NEW Christmas Cookies!!

Keith and I decided to try a new cookie recipe this year.  We searched for Christmas cookies on Epicurious.com, I wanted it to be a cookie that Grady could help us with and it had to sound appetizing to Keith and Me.  We found a couple that we both liked, but had nothing for Grady to do. So we finally decided on Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies. So we ran to the store before Grady's nap and got a couple things that we needed.

While Grady was napping we made the dough since it had to chill for 2 to 3 hours. Then after dinner we had Grady "help" us. Keith and I rolled the dough into balls and then Grady rolled them in the powered sugar. But once Grady figured out that powered sugar tastes good he did not do much rolling but he did do a WHOLE lot of eating.

We had a lot of fun and the cookies taste GREAT!!

Sign the petition!

Handy Grady

This morning I was writing the grocery list for Grady and my weekly trip to "make" groceries.   Grady comes over to me with a tape measure and starts "measuring" things.   I hear him in the desk drawer but think nothing of it since he love to up the tape measure when he is done.  Well a couple minutes later Grady comes and sits down on the floor near me with a screwdriver, the extra bits and his MP3 player.  He puts the extra bits on the floor and scoots them out of his way.  Then he turns over the MP3 player to the place you have to unscrew to put the batteries in and uses the screwdriver to try to unscrew it.  Then Winston walks up and starts to smell the extra bits on the floor in front of Grady.  Grady stops and takes the bits away from Winston and says "No, No, No."  Then when Winston walks away Grady scoots the bits out of his way and starts to work again.  

I am not sure if he started doing this because of seeing Keith work around the house or because he has been watching Handy Manny (A cartoon repairman who has living, talking tools).

The Hoffman Elf Dance!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Let it Snow, Let it Snow ... in Louisiana??

Keith woke me up at 5:40am to let me know that it was snowing.  So I took some pictures and thought it would all be melted by the time the sun came out.  I uploaded the pictures and went back to bed then my brother called me to let me know it was snowing in Hammond and Mandeville.  Then I tried to go back to sleep again and my mom called me.  So I got up while I was talking to her and there was so much more snow I could not believe it.

It really snowed here today... We had about 2 -4 in of snow.  They said the last time it snowed like this in Baton Rouge was 1988.  

So I got dressed and went and woke up Grady at 7:30am so we could go play in the snow.  We went out to the front yard first, but Grady would not get off the driveway and right before we were headed to the back yard Grady fell on his belly into the slushy snow.  I had to then get him a different pair of gloves (since we don't need water proof gloves here in LA) and we went to the back yard.  

We let Winston out and he loved the snow.. but really had a hard time figuring out where to go to the bathroom.  Grady mostly just stayed on the patio.  I had him walk out in the yard with me and then he was DONE!!

East Baton Rouge Parish schools are closed today, and both bridges going across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge are closed because of icy conditions.

We were planning on going to get Grady's picture with Santa today, but it looks like we will have to stay home and play.  

Winter Wonderland!!

I took this picture at 6am!

Then this one at 7:30am.

And this one at 3:30pm.

Christmas Stocking & pajamas!!

All the Grand-children and now Great-Grand-child from my moms side each have a handmade Christmas stocking.  My mom's Aunt Fran made a stocking for my cousin Paul and me before she died. Then my Aunt Sharon took over the tradition and has made 12 more stockings for the rest of 

the Grand-children.  They are all the same design and color with their name on top.  I am so happy to say that yesterday Grady got his handmade

 Christmas Stocking from my Aunt Sharon. She decided to use new design and color for the Great-Grand-Children.  It looks wonderful!

THANK YOU SO MUCH AUNT SHARON!! We LOVE it!!  We also want to say THANKS to THE ARNOLD'S (especially David) for cute footed pajamas that Grady is wearing in the pictures.  

Big Boy Cup!

This week we started to give Grady a cup to drink from with dinner. We only pour about 1oz at a time.  But he is very excited about drinking from a cup, he goes to the drawer gets his cup and puts it on the table.  He is very careful about holding it and drinking from it.  When he finishes he puts the cup on the table and says "Please" so we will give him some more. 

Today I am ...

THANKFUL!!!

Turkey Shirt

I found this super cute idea today on this blog One more Moore.  It is a 'reverse applique' turkey shirt made with Grady's handprint.  It was super easy to make and I think it turned out really cute.  All the directions are on her blog.

Oh while I was working on this... Keith was playing with our Christmas gift to each other, a new MAC Book!! We are really excited to have a new laptop but we have a little learning to do with the switch from PC to Mac, I am sure we will get the hang of it soon. 

Blow your nose, Grady!

Grady now blows his nose when you ask him too and sometimes when you don't ask him too (he was blowing his nose in his hand Monday during music).  

Pee pee on the Potty

About 2 weeks ago Keith and I decided to start putting Grady on the potty at night before his bath.  He has gone pee pee in the potty only twice but hey its a start.  

Winston is 6 Years Old!!

I can not believe Winston is already 6 years old. It seems like it was just yesterday when Keith and I drove to Mississippi on New Years Eve 2002 to pick up Winston. We had just got engaged on Dec 23, 2002.

Winston only weighed 4.8 pounds when we got him. He now weighs 60 pounds. Keith and I got married in June 2004. Then we bought our 1st house in June 2005. Then we had Grady in March 2007. Man how time flies!! The Life Expectancy for English Bulldogs is only 8 to 10 Years, so Winston is really getting old.

We love you Chunk!! You are one sweet lazy dog!

Visiting Family

This weekend we decided to go to Mandeville to see our family since this was the only weekend in a long time that Keith has not had a soccer game.

Keith was going to try to leave work a little early so we would not have to drive though the 5-6pm traffic. Well his meeting ran late and he did not get home till almost 6pm. Well the one good thing about that is I was able to watch the news and see that they had CLOSED I-12 East because of a bad accident. So I got the GPS out and routed us around the closed interstate. Well after being in traffic for 2 HOURS and not getting out if Baton Rouge. We decided to go home and leave for Mandeville in the morning.

Once we got the Mandeville we had a really nice weekend. We were able to go swimming in my Parent's new pool. It was only 78 degrees outside but the pool is heated (88 degrees in the pool). Then we went to Adam (Keith's brother) and Rachel's House to watch the LSU football game and Keith's sister Katie came over also.

Halloween and Ear Infection

Sorry it has taken me so long to update, but I have been spending my free time finishing Grady's 1st year photo book. I placed the ordered for the photo book last night on Blurb. It is a hardcover book that has 136 pages and it only cost me $52. I will let know how it looks one it arrives.

So Back to Halloween.... Well Keith & I already had plans to go to a Halloween party that night and my mom was coming in town to watch Grady. With Grady not feeling well I had pretty much already decided that we would not go Trick or Treating. But while we were eating dinner Grady started to get really excited when the Trick or Treaters started knocking on the door. So we dressed Grady up and went Treat or Treating. Grady cried at every house we went to (we only went to 4 friend's houses). But when we got back home he started to get the hang of it ... he started to take candy from our bucket and put it in his bag.

Well this was not how I pictured his 1st Trick or Treating to go. But I guess that is life.

Here is a picture of the family before Keith and I left for our Halloween party!!

So then Saturday morning after our late night Halloween Party. We had to bring Grady back to the Dr so she could check his ear. Well she said his ear looked REALLY bad so he had to get another antibiotic injection and he had would have to get another one Sunday too. Thank goodness his ear looked great when we went in on Sunday.

Another Update:

Grady was very grumpy and clingy all day yesterday and he did not eat much. Well this morning he woke up with a 103 fever. So I called the dr to see if she thought the fall and the fever were related and if i should bring him in. He has been on antibiotics since Monday for sinus infection so its kind of weird that he would get sick.

Well the nurse called while I was showering a GROSS diarrhea diaper off Grady. She said I should come in. Grady laid on the couch for about an hour (we normally can not get him to sit still for 5 mins) and then had another diarrhea diaper.

We had go see a different Dr (Dr Franz) since Friday is Dr. Hart's day off. We had a appt at 11:20am, after one hour we finally went back to the room and waited more in there. I told the Dr what has been going on and she seemed a little worried. She did a full body exam and then lucky she found an ear infection. She said that if they have a really bad ear infection with the antibiotics he is on it will start to look better then about 4 -5 days later it will get worse. So she gave him an antibiotic injection and we have to go back tomorrow to see how things look.

She had a 4 year med student in the room with us and after she gave me the diagnosis and treatment. She started to tell the med student that if she had not found the ear infection that we would have to do a CAT scan, test his liver and on and on. Oh Man I have never been so glad that Grady has an Ear Infection. She did give me a couple things to look out for in case it is an internal injury.

Then we had to wait for the shot and since this is the 1st time Grady has had antibiotic injection we had to wait 15 mins to make sure he did not have an allergic reaction. We got in the car at 1pm. Well Grady is napping now I hope that he will feel better when he wakes up.

Sweet Boy!!

From 2008 - 10-5 Portrait Innovations

Today after I changed Grady's diaper I gave him a kiss on the check. As I was going to pick him up to take off the changing table, Grady maked the sign for "more." "More" I say, "You want more kisses?" So I gave him another kiss. Look up and he signs "more" again. He did this about 20 times. Then I picked him up and he gave a big hug. He leans back and signs "more," then gives me another hug. This just melted my heart. What did I do to deserve such a sweet & loving boy? I am soo Lucky!!

Update after fall:

Grady woke up 2 times last night at 3am, 4am, and was up for good at 5am. We got to eat breakfast with Keith which was nice. Grady took a hour nap at 8, then we went to music class. He has been acting a little grumpy all day. I think his body is sore from the fall. I gave him some Motrin when we got home from music. He is napping now.

Chef Grady

From 2008 - 10

Last night I had Grady “help” me make ham & cheese turnovers for dinner. It was not really helpful but at least me was not fussing at my legs like he normally does while I am cooking dinner. He did take a couple bites to make sure it was safe and gave a couple to Winston too :)

From 2008 - 10

"Fall" day at the Park

Well Grady and I meet some friends at City Park today. It was the first time we have been to the park since they finished the improvements. The temp was in the upper 50's it was a prefect day to be at the park. The kids were having a wonderful time.

Then Grady started playing with an older boy (about 4 years old) he was walking Grady around and Grady loved following him. They went to over to the older kids playground and climbed up the steps to the slide. I saw a fireman pole right next to the slide so I while I was walking over there to make sure Grady did not fall down, I was asking Grady to go down the slide. Then all of a sudden the boy pushed Grady really hard towards the fireman pole. Grady was pushed off the 4ft platform and land on his side. He started to cry right away (which people say is a good thing) and cried for quite awhile. The mother of the older boy tried to get her son to apologize about 5 times all while Grady is crying.

Another mother at the playground came over to me and told me that she thought I should bring him to the Dr to make sure that he was ok. She said it was a really big fall and I really should get him check out. So I called the Dr and they could not get me in till 1:30pm(the first appt after lunch), it was 11am right now. So we ate lunch at the park and the continued to play (Grady was acting completely normal).

We saw the Dr right away she asked me a couple questions about the fall and how he was acting after. Then she felt his head, spine, stomach and moved his arm around. She also listened to chest and stomach. She said that he looked good and was not worried. I feel a lot better knowing that he has been checked out.

He is napping now!! Man that was a scary fall, but I am sure we will have many more bumps, bruises, and falls to come.

Pumpkin Head

From 2008 - 10

We decided to carve our pumpkin tonight. Grady was really interested in playing with the caving tools and imitating Keith. He did not want to touch the guts of the pumpkin but once he saw Keith using the scoop to get out the guts he got a scoop and pretended to do it.

From 2008 - 10

After we had cleaned out the pumpkin, I drew 3 shapes and asked Grady to point to the one he wanted for the eyes on the pumpkin, he pointed to the square. Then I drew 3 more shapes and asked him which one he wanted for the nose, he picked a rectangle. So then Keith decided that we would make a rectangle mouth. While Keith carved our pumpkin I drew a picture of our pumpkin for Grady to color.

From 2008 - 10

We have been reading Halloween and Fall stories at bedtime for about 2 weeks now, so tonight we read Pumpkin Head again. Which says, "On Halloween, every pumpkin becomes a pumpkin head." Our Pumpkin Head is ready for Halloween and so are we :)

From 2008 - 10

Moms Group Halloween Party!

From 2008 - 10

On Friday one of our Moms Groups had a Halloween Party. Grady is the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. We had a wonderful time. Grady loved the space walk and Chick Fil A.

From 2008 - 10

Here we are trying to get a group picture... Yeah Right!!

From 2008 - 10

Photo Shoot

From 2008 - 10

My friend Jen gave Grady this cute outfit a long time ago... I was so excited that it was cool enough today that he could wear it. I thought he looked extra cute so we had a little "Photo Shoot" in the side yard.

From 2008 - 10

From 2008 - 10