Party Weekend!

We had Gradyn's first birthday party this weekend! It was a lot of fun! We hosted about 30 people, including 5 one-year-olds and 2 two-year-olds. The kids were the most fun to watch!
We had a baseball theme and everything matched the theme. All "ballpark food", hotdogs, brats, chili cheese fries, chili dogs, nachos, peanuts, cracker jacks, popcorn. And, of course a baseball cake and baseball cupcakes! We played several baseball games too, a Trivia game on Gradyn's baseball history, relay races holding a baseball on a spoon, and Pin the Ball on the Field. Gradyn got lots of great gifts that he will have fun playing with or wearing! We also played lots of card games and Catch Phrase! Quite a busy day! I will post pictures soon! Unfortunately I was too busy to take many pictures and then my memory card filled up, so I didn't get a chance to take many pictures on my own camera. I need to get some pictures from other family members!

In other news: Gradyn is walking all over the place!!!! All of a sudden tonight he decided he can walk and walks all over the house!
Also, he has been loving his new slide toy. He goes crazy for it and it was also a very big hit this weekend with all of the kids! It was a great alternative to not being able to go outside because it was too cold.

We are looking forward to the next birthday party in 2 weeks for our nephew Luke who will be 1. Birthday season is definately in full swing! :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Gradyn Joseph! We had a fun day with Gradyn on his birthday! I was able to take him to daycare (Paul usually does) because I had meetings in Ogallala, so we had fun with our extra time in the morning opening a present (a puzzle) and playing with it for a little bit. Then when we got to daycare the girls there were waiting at the door to yell Happy Birthday to him because they were so excited for it! They were also excited for the treats we brought! :)

We went to Applebees for a birthday dinner and Gradyn had mac and cheese and really liked it. We then went home and his other birthday present from us was on our door step waiting for us! We got him a slide/gym type thing because he loves to climb and he loves slides. And, YES, he definately loves it! I couldn't believe how fast he figured it all out! It took him 1 time of climbing up the rock climbing part to figure out how to do that. Then he gets to the top of the slide and turns himself around so he can go down backwards, feet first. We are always so shocked that he turns himself around to go down stairs and get down from tall things. He figured that out about a month ago and is awesome at it. We are so glad we have a safety conscious baby! :)

This is a video of him on his new toy. He isn't wearing pants because I wanted to make it not as slick for him because I was afraid he wouldn't be able to climb up the climbing part with his pajama pants on, but don't worry he can, he did it numerous times after we put his pants on! ha!

I have more pictures I'll post soon! :)

The little boy so far...

A look back at the life of our precious little blessing from God, Gradyn Joseph.
Happy First Birthday! We love you so much!

In Mommy's Tummy

2 weeks before you were born! (34 weeks)

Around 1 week old

3 weeks old




6 weeks old

2 months old

4 months old

5 months old

6 months old

7 months old

8 months old

10 months old

10 months old

11 months old

Video 2nd Try!

For some reason the video in the last blog post is not working, so I thought I would try to post it again to see if it will work now!

New Trick!

Gradyn's new trick is that when you ask him, "How old are you?" He will hold up his finger to show you 1! He learned it so fast we couldn't believe it! We were recording him in his new rocking chair because he was going crazy rocking in it. (Until we turned on the video and then of course he stopped...) At the end I asked him how old he is and he throws out his hand to show #1!!!

Among his other tricks are: waving bye-bye and saying bye (not every time), saying daddy when Paul comes in the door after work, saying "AAH" after he takes a drink, waving bye-bye when he is ready to go, and he is starting to put his hands up for "all done" when he is done eating. There are probably lots of other things he does that I can't think of right now too! He is starting to get so vocal and learns new things so quickly! I guess we have a smart little cookie on our hands.

However, with his new tricks and new vocabulary, also comes a very strong personality. He has quite the temper and can throw quite the temper tantrums. He is still a drama king and freaks out very easily. He knows what he wants and he wants it NOW! His parents just can't wait for when he really gets into his toddler years....

1 Year Pics

Here are a few of my favorite of Gradyn's 1 Year Pictures we had taken a couple of weeks ago in Lincoln.

This is the Facebook link to more of them:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2275168&id=17214806&l=074ad875e8

Playing in the Park!

This weekend we had such nice weather that we went on a couple walks and stopped at the park to play. Grady LOVES the slide and swings, but especially the slide. He just squeals and screams when he goes down and has his wide open mouth grin the whole time! We can't wait for spring and summer when we can go to the park every day!

Playing with Dominic

The Deaver's came over to play and Dominic and Gradyn (mostly Gradyn) had fun playing together! Dominic gave Grady a ride on the train for as long as he could, the extra 20 pounds was a little bit too much! But, Grady LOVED it!

These pictures show the progression from the start of the ride to when D realized he couldn't quite move very fast to after D rolled them over to the side to get Grady off!

Grady with the twins, Patrick and Jackson. He kept rocking them!

Gradyn's favorite toy!

The dishwasher! As soon as I put down the dishwasher Grady crawls over as fast as he can to crawl up inside of it. He loves to crawl around on it and stand up on it. He has now started to try to step to the side off of it and hang from the counter.....quite the little monkey!

Apparently he thought his toy needed washed....

Madison's First Birthday Party!

It's the start of the birthday party season! Madison Muller had her First Birthday Party on January 9th in Lincoln. She is the first of all of the babies we know that were born last year at this time, including our own Gradyn! So, we will have lots of celebrating to do these next few months as all the first birthdays come up! :) I thought everyone I know was pregnant last year, but I also know a ton of people that are pregnant right now and due within the next couple months, so it must be something about this time of year!

Here are some pictures from Madison's pink princess party!

Madison on Gradyn's lap. So funny!

Trying to get away from him!

He LOVES to hug her (and everyone)!

Madison with her cake!

The cowgirl hat we gave her!

Madison and Aunt Shari!

Other Christmas Pictures

Here are some other pictures from our Christmas. Ashley and I took Gradyn swimming on New Year's Eve and he loved it! We then went to Lincoln for NYE night and to do a "make-up" Christmas with some of the Luehring family. Then on New Year's Day we went to Ruskin to do a "make-up" Christmas with the Houtwed family. Then we went back to Lincoln so we could go to Omaha on Saturday to take Isaac to Sesame Strett Live. All was very fun! Good to see everyone!