Gray-THREE

Dear Gray Christopher,

Oh my sweet, sweet boy! I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it has been three years since you made me a mama. You are such a unique, special, smart, silly, precious boy and I don't think we could love you more if we tried.

You are such a tall boy. At your three year well visit you were 39.5 inches tall, which was in the 91st percentile. Dr. Bill said you are as tall as most four year old boys. You weigh 33 pounds, which puts you in the 57th percentile for weight. You'd be perfect to us no matter what those numbers were. You wear a size three in t-shirts and shorts but for a year or so now we've had to go up a size in most pants and pajamas.

Though we have plenty of challenging times, you have one of the sweetest spirits of any child I've ever been around.

You have an incredible memory. You randomly tell us about things that happened a year or more ago that we haven't mentioned since and it just blows us away. You are very observant, noticing many details about people and things, especially when we are in there car. I think you might already be better with directions than Daddy ;) We will be driving somewhere and pass by a road you've been to once in your life and you will say, "There is where 'so-and-so' lives" or "There's the 'so-and so' store." You also memorize things very well. You can recite the entire Lord's prayer and know many books word for word.

You have known your ABCs, how to spell your name, and your shapes and colors for a long time now. Several months ago I had a storage tub in the living room that I was using to pack away some of Walker's baby clothes. After Daddy took it to the garage you came running in the kitchen and said, "Mommy, Mommy come see! There is a rectangle in the living room!" And sure enough, there was a rectangle indention in the carpet from the tub. You amaze us daily with those kinds of things. You can recognize some letters but we haven't worked on it too much yet.

You talk like such a big boy. Your vocabulary is amazing and you crack me up using big words in exactly the right way a lot of the time. Just one example... "Actually Mommy, I think I'd rather have a pancake for breakfast."

Your love for tractors is still going strong. You can name everyone and LOVE going to watch construction sites. You tell us that you want you and Walker to be construction site workers when you grow up.

You are a Mama's boy if you are hurt or extremely exhausted but otherwise your Daddy is your most favorite person on the planet. He's mine too, buddy!

Things that you love the most in life are: Walker (though you don't show it 100% of the time;), tractors, Sophie, animals, music, playing outside, riding your motorized John Deere Gator, being tickled, ice cream, cheese quesadillas, mowing the yard with Daddy, Curious George, the beach, mascots/anything in costume, and for people to come over to our house, just to name a few.

You like to watch Curious George and a few Disney movies sometimes but would much rather be outside playing. You go nonstop all day, every day.

You are fearless and tough. I'm pretty sure you will be the kid with a broken bone for days because you won't be making a big deal about it. Your sweet little shins are constantly bruised and scraped up.

Speaking of going non-stop, you dropped a consistent nap shortly after you turned two. You usually only fall asleep once every week or two. I still make you go in your room every day for at least 45 minutes because it's good and necessary for both of us.

You aren't potty trained yet. Your strong will comes in to play here big time. You've been going pee-pee on the potty every night for well over a year. You understand and know all about timing things and the other details that go along with being potty trained but you just aren't willing yet. Dr. Bill says we need to wait on you, so for now that's what we will do. You are showing more and more signs of being ready and like to wear your Paw Patrol big boy underwear sometimes. 

You are becoming a lot more interested in soccer and t-ball and I can't wait for you to play on your first "real" team in September!

You will also be starting pre-school this fall and I just know you're going to love it!

I can't wait to see how God continues to grow you and shape you in this next year of life. You make our hearts so full.

I love you to the moon and back again my sweet love,
Mommy 

Walker-ONE

Dear Walker,

You, my sweet, precious boy are one year old (plus two weeks ;)! It's been the busiest, craziest, best, most joy filled year of our lives. How did we ever even live without you?! 

We had your well check up on Monday and I am just so thankful that you are a healthy boy. You weighed 21 pounds, 1 ounce (44th percentile) and were 30 and 1/4 inches long (61st percentile). Your noggin was a whopping 47 centimeters (75th percentile)! Dr. Bill was very pleased with your growth and said we could officially say you have outgrown your swallowing dysfunction and acid reflux-praise the Lord! You've been off your medicine for a month now and are doing great. 

You wear size three shoes, size four diapers and mostly 12 month clothes.

You have finally gotten to where you take a bottle like a champ and are even a little attached to it, which figures now that it's time to wean you off of it. We have started whole milk but you aren't a big fan yet so we are mixing it with formula to get you more used to it and hope to ditch the bottle soon. 

You continue to be an amazing eater, gladly gobbling up any and everything we put in front of you. 

You have eight teeth-four on the top and four on the bottom. You've had some rough days and nights here and there recently so I would expect more teeth anytime.

You have such a funny personality. From a tiny baby, you've scrunched your eyebrows up and made such a serious face. Daddy says you're a "tough crowd" because you definitely don't just go around smiling all the time and it often takes a lot to make you laugh. But then you can be so silly at times too, cracking us up like you wouldn't believe. You almost always start this fake laugh when you hear someone else laughing and it is hilarious. You are quite the social butterfly when we are out and about. You wave to everyone who walks by, often helping to put a smile on some sweet old lady's face. You love to do anything to get a laugh or a clap out of someone. While you are a little more laid back and go with the flow than your brother was at your age, you have just as strong of a personality as he does. You know what you want, when you want it and you're not afraid to let somebody know about it. That strong personality is getting you thisclose to being disciplined, but only because we love you too much not to. Strong willed and all, you are fearfully and wonderfully made and are such a precious gift from God!

Things you love most about life right now are: Sophie, any kind of animal but especially dogs, being outside, cars, trucks and tractors, your puppy toy that you push around, food, balls, and anything that has a button you can push that lights up and/or makes noise. You adore your big brother 90% of the time. You also love music and the second you hear any kind of musical book or toy or song on the radio start playing, you start shaking your little booty and bouncing up and down. It is one of my most favorite things! Daddy and I have cried from laughing so hard watching you dance when we're in the car. You'll be bustin a move like none other, all the while never hardly cracking a smile.

Sophie and brother-two of your most favorite things in life.

You are talking SO much! You have grown to love books over the past two months (thank God!!!) and you also hear brother say approximately 8,427 words per day so that helps your speech and vocabulary a lot too. Your favorite things to say are "uh-oh" and "gog" (for dog). Recently you have started saying "amen", plain as day after our prayers at meal times. And then every single time you say it, you start clapping because you know I'm about to squeal and tell you how sweet it was.

You are walking quite a bit but haven't decided to make that your main form of mobility yet. Right before you start walking to someone or something, you open your mouth real big and grin from ear to ear, like you're already so proud of yourself. You are a big time climber and there is never a time that I can turn my back on you anymore, unless you are strapped into your high chair or car seat. You seem to be fearless, just like your big brother.

You've had a few firsts lately-first time in a pool (you love the water but also spend a good deal of time wanting to climb out, and then back in), first trip to Lazy 5 Ranch, and first hair cut.

I am so glad you decided to start loving books. You're favorite ones are animal books and you try to say "dog", "cat", "cow", "duck", "pig" and "goat" consistently. You love to turn the pages over and over again, finding your favorite pictures of dogs. You also love finding and saying "truck", which you say very clear. Every night when we put you to bed you say "book, book, book" over and over again hoping we will read just one more.

You take two naps a day most days. You can't hang much past 7:00 at night no matter how long your afternoon nap was and you are up by 6:45 most every morning. You sleep with a little green lovey blanket that you seem to love in your bed but aren't too attached to (yet). You still suck your thumb while you are sleeping, which is pretty much the only time that you do but it is so sweet. I may not be saying that in a year when we're trying to break the habit, but for now I think it is one of the most precious things about you.

I think that about sums you up my sweet boy. And don't ever forget-as long as you're living, my baby you'll be!

Daddy and I love you to the moon and back!

Mommy

Walker is ONE, Gray is THREE-photo shoot

Lindsey took some pictures of Walker a couple weeks ago at her house. I am so pleased with how they turned out considering that Walker pitched a down right fit about wearing shoes so he was in a pretty foul mood the whole time. And when he was happy, the back drop wasn't what we had planned for. It is what it is y'all-life with yougins, that is. And it's so good for a type A, "I want everything to be perfect" personality. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything. Of course I had outfit changes and poses that we never even thought about getting to and I am super bummed that we didn't get any good ones with both Gray and Walker, but there's always next time-right?!

I have a few family members not on social media who are anxious to see these so for the rest of you, sorry for another photo overload.

I got the outfit idea from Pinterest and The Littlest Gentleman on Etsy made the bow tie and suspenders (and another shout out to my blogger friend, Lindsay, for telling me about TLG on Etsy!!).

Fun fact: I had this exact same gap in my teeth when I was Walker's age until the rest of my baby teeth came in, and then I had very straight baby teeth. However, this gap also runs in Paul's dad's side of the family, so it could be there to stay until he gets braces one day. I think it gives Walker even more character and I just love it!

One of Walker's many mad faces.

Sweet, teary lashes.

Still mad guys.

This boy tore up his cake y'all!

There are only a few pictures of Gray because we have sooooo many more of him and I told Lindsey to focus mostly on Walker. Also, he was very busy playing with Lindsey's boys and it wasn't worth the battle of making him pose for too long. But I LOVE the few that she did get of our sweet three year old!

That face gets me every time!

Looking more like 13 than 3 here. Not cool buddy, not cool.

Not the perfect family shot for several reasons, but again it's a great picture of real life. And I am SO blessed to do life with these guys!