7 Month Old Foodie!!!!

Yes!!!!!!!!! Michael IS a foodie at 7 months old.  I use to think our boys as babies were the exception because they would eat ANYTHING we put in front of them.  Even as young children they would eat vegetables and salads.  But, I guess they were not as exceptional as I thought....This brings me to Michael......HE EATS EVERYTHING!!!!  Brandon and Katie feed him off of the family dinner table which is fresh foods and all organic. His favorite foods are greek yogurt, avocados, blueberries,  sweet potatoes and anything else you put in front of him.  So thankful he loves GOOD food.  Sorry they're blurry.....feeding and taking photos all at the same time on IPhone :-)

Please feel free to leave comments or advice...I can use all I can get :-)

Little Boy Teething = Alot Of Cuddle Time For Gigi

I have had the pleasure of staying this week with our daughter-in-law to help her care for Michael while Brandon, our son is out of town.  I will be going back home (30 miles away) Thursday night which is when Brandon gets back in town.  I keep Michael every Tuesday and Thursday but being he didnt feel well Katie didnt want to send him to daycare.  She is really lucky that the school she teaches at has on sight daycare.
Michael is trying to cut his second tooth.  His nose is running like a faucet and his head is stuffy so therefore he is not sleeping very well and is a little cranky.  So, it's Gigi to the rescue!!!  Ok...maybe not rescue but certainly Gigi is ready to give alot of cuddle time.
I know I have spoken on it before but, I am so thankful that Katie and I have such a relaxed relationship that she nor I even think twice about spending time together without Brandon. Who knows.... it's probably not unusual for mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws to really get along great, it's just the media that likes to portray it as a bad mixture so it's the image we all tend to think of.
So...last night was.....our girls night without the men, which  = watching some show she watches called "Catfish" on MTV, The Bachelor and JUNK FOOD.  I have to say I didnt know what to expect from a show called "Catfish" but OMG!!!!!  I feel so sad for the guy that was featured in the episode we watched.  We ate chicken salad with cheese puffs and fresh baked cookies with a tall glass or two of milk and a large dose of giving our opinion on each of the girls bidding for the bachelor's love (ok more like lust)......can you say HEAVEN?!? Such a fun and relaxing night.
I am just hoping that tooth breaks through soon so this little man can feel better.  I have to say though, I will take a runny nose over a screaming teething baby any day!
I snapped a photo of Jager and Michael at Michael's bedroom window this morning.  I think it is so sweet what great buds these two already are.

Michael is 7 months old and is already starting to walk up and down furniture.  He sometimes forgets to hold on and will actually balance himself.

Michael and Jager plotting their next adventure.

Who Wants A Quickie???

I thought that might get your attention!!!!!! What I meant to say, well not meant but "should" have said was.....

Here's a quick peek at a great photo of Michael playing with his daddy.
Katie posted this photo of Michael and Brandon playing and laughing today. Today was Brandon's day to keep Michael while Katie worked. She teaches 4th grade and Brandon is a firefighter. He watches him on his days off. Tomorrow is my day to keep him. My days are the days they BOTH work.
Katie's caption on Facebook under this picture said "There's nothing better than hearing your two favorite boys laugh and play together!"
Well.....I have to disagree......for me.....I say "There's nothing better than hearing your son play and laugh with his son just like his daddy use to do with him!" When I watch Brandon as a father to Michael it is like re-living when our boys were babies. I see so much of James (my husband) in Brandon and the way he loves, acts, cares for and plays with Michael and that warms my heart. I think James was training our boys to be dare devils and Brandon is following in the same training for Michael :-)
I loved this picture so much I just had to share.
What is your "There's nothing better than?" I cant wait to read them......
Blessings,
Gina

Gigi's FIRST Grandparents Day!

Last Sunday was my first Grandparents Day and Michael's first time to our church....Both of those first I loved celebrating.  Katie, Brandon, Michael, Katie's parents, her grandma and of course James and myself all went to Sunday service.  As I was sitting there during praise and worship I couldn't help but to smile.  Just having the family together and  worshiping together completely filled my heart.  I stood there wishing it could be this way every week but know it cant.  Each person there has their own church that they love. I just really appreciate Katie working the day out and suggesting everyone spending the day together and going to church together.    This was the gift she gave to the grandparents.  I could not have loved anything any more!!!  Precious.. I truly appreciate her and feel very thankful Brandon chose her to become part of our family.

We all went and filled our bellies for lunch and then headed back to our house for family pictures to celebrate  the first Grandparents Day for us and Katie's parents.  

Here are just a few of the 60+ pictures taken that day....Yes, I am the Gigi with the camera in hand ALWAYS....Trust me, I catch alot of flack.  I often remind them "someday" they will be glad they have all of the pictures.  

Can you see the JOY in my face?????

They had no clue I was taking this picture of them looking at each other

This is Katie's family...her dad, mom and Bunny (her grandma)

LOVE this picture......Me (Gigi), Sheri (She-She) and of course Michael.  I am so thankful Michael will see that we are truly ONE family.  I feel bad for those that don't have this kind of relationship with their Daughter-in-laws or her family.  I hope Michael sees it as a blessing.

Another exciting weekend coming up....My parents are coming into town and will be seeing Michael for the first time since he was 1 day old.  They are beside themselves with excitement.  Mom has already told us all "hand off" when it comes to Michael.  She is refusing to share!!!

I cant wait to share the visit with you all.

Labor Day....No Labor Involved

What a great weekend! No, we did not spend it with blood family, but chose to spend it with friends that are chosen family. We went to a great water hole here in the Austin area. We started out on the motorcycles not knowing exactly where we would end up but chose to pack the swim suites just in case it included water. Being that it was over 100 degrees, we knew there would be a pretty good chance of getting wet somewhere.

This swimming hole had rope swings, cliff jumping, a water cave for exploring and of course just relaxing. The water was so refreshing being that it is spring fed. We are planning a trip for later in the month to celebrate my birthday but this time include more friends and family. It is such a great place to make memories. We spoke with some that have been going to this area for generations. I am thinking it will be once of our new places to be able to make that claim also.
It was a great time with friends but James and I kept finding ourselves talking about how much fun the kids would be having if they were there with us. 

Yes, we love our times alone and without the kids and new grandbaby but we also LOVE sharing fun, new and exciting things we find with them. I have to say we are both at our happiest when we are surrounded by our family.
Dont get me wrong... we also manage to sneak away for our private moments and times together, but the glory in it is that we can then in a flash be right back with everyone and enjoying the laughter that seems to always fill the air when we are all together.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

To Sew....Not To Sew?!?!?

So, when I found out that Katie and Brandon were giving us our first grand baby I thought...."OH NO, I dont know how to sew!"  All grandma's (Gigi's) know how to sew, right????  I mean I had sewn before but nothing straight and nothing that I did not have to rig and hide oopps on. In comes Pinterest and my life has never been the same.  Addiction!!!  If anyone knows of a Pinterest Anonymous in Austin area please let me know.  I have stayed up until 5:00AM looking, planning, becoming VERY ambitious and getting excited over all the fun stuff.  I found myself say..."puhhh, that cant be that hard."  Well, let's just say..I have had alot of items not come out looking like they did on my board I pinned the idea to.  What I have started becoming pretty successful at is machine embroidering.  Yes, I went and bought a new machine because I keep thinking how much money I was going to be able to save on gifts and stuff for the baby.  WRONG!!!!!  The supplies are not cheap and again....I became addicted to all of the designs and ideas I kept coming across.

I decided to start of small and so burp cloths.  I mean, how hard could that really be??? Well let me just say the first one from start to finish took about 7 HOURS!  I was up until 4 in the morning finishing it.  When I finally finish I have to say I loved it. The next morning I began working on the rests I would give Katie as a shower gift.  And here is what I ended up with..... 

I have gone completely crazy!!!!  Since then I have made him several onsies and blankets.  Not to mention gifts for other babies coming soon.  I am actually thinking of making them for a little extra money on a small scale.  I am hoping to start taking sewing classes....notice I said "thinking"?

Here are a few of the other project I have completed since May.                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Katie our daughter in law had asked for me to make these for a shower she was going to for a friend.

These are just 2 of the shirts out of several that I had made for Michael.  I also made the blankets.
The one picture cracks me up....He looks like he had had enough of the picture taking......

    

A Family Grows By One....

This is Michael's Nursery.  I had so much fun working on it with Katie and Brandon.  Katie asked me to make the curtains, wall information board and to help decorate and hang stuff on the wall.  She, Brandon and I spent a day hanging all the pictures and trying to get everything just right for Michael.  She and Brandon did a great job on painting the walls one afternoon.  They went with a light gray and one accent wall is a darker gray.  The two of them LOVE Yankee Baseball.  I know...they both were born and raised in Texas..go figure.  Brandon and Katie actually go to New York to go to the games and are VERY excited about Michael's first Yankee game live.  So needless to say when it came time to decorate Michael's room, there was no question what theme they would draw off of.......Vintage Baseball....
I think Katie and Brandon did such a great job in picking out everything.  I especially love the word wall.  We all decided that since they will be moving to a new home soon that they wanted to be able to take the word wall with them.  We put our heads together and decided that we would put the vinyl letters on a painted canvas to match the rest of the nursery.  We LOVE the fact that it is now able to travel with them unlike when you put the wording or letters directly on the wall.  This can now be a forever keepsake.
It is so fun....when Michael is in his room he just smiles and looks at everything....I think he approves :-)
Blessings, 

Michael's Gigi

Proof this sweet boy LOVES his room 

Playing Catch up... and making a confession....

So, you all saw my update on the baby shower and the birth of our first Grand baby Michael..
I have to say that I never expected to feel some of the feelings that I have experienced.  Some good and honestly some not so good.  Let me just get honest for a minute.  You see, we all live including Katie's parents within 20 miles of each other and to be honest I struggled in the beginning with jealousy... I had a fear that Katie's family would get alot more time with Michael and get to be more involved in his life than we would.  Just from the aspect of girls usually stay really close to their families even after getting married.  Katie is no except to that...she is very close to her family, they talk daily and usually when Brandon is at work she goes and stays with them (before Michael).  I honestly wouldnt have wanted a girl in my son's life that wasnt close to her family being that we too are very close to our boys.  In fact....that is exactly what I prayed for for many years.  I early on (first 2 weeks) worried that Michael would know them better and be closer to them.  I worried that he would be spending all of the special holidays with them and we would get the left overs.  I KNOW IM CRAZY, RIGHT......  But like I said, I was experiencing a jealousy I didnt see coming especially since we are all very close.  Well, let me just clear it up right now....it has NOT happened.  I got myself all worked up for NOTHING.  I hate when I do that.  Katie has done a GREAT job keeping everyone really involved.  I think it really helps that we all get along so well so therefore we celebrate and spend many weekends together.  It has nothing to do with me getting "my" time or even holding him, it is really just about getting to share his life.
As I sit here I keep thinking about deleting this post because I feel so ashamed and ugly that I could have even allowed myself to go there.
I guess why I am wanting to write about it is because I want to remind myself and maybe even help someone else to realize not to get mad or emotional over the "what if's".  Relationships can be damaged by this action.  Words that can never be taken back can be said and wounds are
 I have found that 90% of the time the "what if" never even happens or if it does it's not in a negative way.

I have to remind myself that God did give the ability to exercise self control and I can choose how or when I react to a situation.
Michael is actually VERY BLESSED due to the fact he is VERY loved and we as a family (both sides) adore him AND each other.  I honestly would not want it any other way than the way it is and will be.
Can I have permission to chucking all those feelings up to menopause?????  Hormones???? Ok....just please give me grace and a pass.....(as I chuckle out loud!!!)

Here are a few of Michael's 1st so far..

Brandon & Michael's 1st Father's Day - Brandon & Katie's house for a cookout...Both sides of the family were able to celebrate together.

Michael's 1st Swim Party

Michael's 1st 4th of July - Katie's mom and dad's house

A few pictures from Michael's new born picture session

Feel free to leave your comments or wisdom below.....

Blessing,
Gina

I know....Once again I say it.....Wow time has flown by

So I had promised during my last post I was going to do better about staying on top of my blog.....as you can see, I failed miserably!!!!
I have no clue where to even begin.......Grab a cup of coffee this is going to take awhile....A lot has happened with a ton of pictures......
My last post spoke of planning our son and daughter-in-laws baby shower for Michael, let me just say it was a HUGE success!!! We had so much fun! It was a baseball theme couples shower. All decorations were home made and we had approximately 50 people. Some of the games were bottle chug'n contest....lets just say we were in the presence of a lot of cheater!!! How fair is it when you bite the nipple off?!?!? May not have been fair but it was still fun. We also did a neighborhood scavenger hunt, we live in the historic downtown area of Georgetown. I have to say that all of our neighbors were so good and helpful with this game. Who seriously has a gas receipt for .50 ????? We also played a game where you had to partner up with you significant other, both be blind folded and dress each other in baby items....Now this was a blast to watch!!!!!! Brandon & Katie, the new parents to be came in last place...yes, we were all a little worried about their parenthood success :-)
I have to say I have NEVER seen such generosity from a group of 20 year old's including the single men. Some of the gifts they received completely overwhelmed both me and them. They are truly a blessed couple.

  

 

  

This couple is now engaged!!!!!!!!

   Yes above is te new momma and daddy to be......they were struggling......

This is left to right...Kevin (my brother), Jennifer (someday sister-in-law), Whitney (Blake's GF), Blake (our youngest son), Katie (our daughter-in-law) and Brandon (oldest son)

Gigi (me) & She-she (Katie's mom)

Great-Grandmas

 
   
Jamie and I in our new Paw-Paw & Gigi shirts....

                                    
                                              AND............This couple is now engaged!!!!!!

                                                Great Grandpa & soon to be Uncle Blake

                                                       LOVED their new BOB stroller.....

Now we come to the best announcement to date......MICHAEL FINALLY ARRIVED!!!
Katie was scheduled for an induction.  We all arrived at the hospital by 7:00am 12 hours later we still had no baby and things were not progressing.  The Dr decided to go ahead and do a C-Section....We were all a ball of nerves but in the end we were so glad that decisions was made.  Mr Michael was not coming on his own.  Once in there it was discovered that he was facing the wrong direction.  It really didnt matter how he got here, just that he did!!!!  He was and is absolutely perfect!!!!!
He was born on May 29th weighing in at 7lb 12.5 oz and 19 1/2" long.
I have to say it was ONE of the best days of my life next to my own children being born.  It is really cool though watching your child become a dad.  My heart could not have been any fuller.

 Yep....at this point we were STILL waiting

 Labor just exhausted Brandon :-)

 Yes....My boys and husband have always had to mess with "everything" while in Dr office or hospital....Did I mention Brandon is a Firefighter / EMT......

He contractions early on

 Katie wanted all of us in her labor room with her so she would not feel left out miss out on the fun.  Blake (our youngest son) and I are playing war and he thinks he is winning

 Da (Kaite's dad) and PawPaw James evaluating the monitor....Trust me they "thought" they knew what they were doing....NOT

 Now it is Uncle Blake and Great Grandpa Roy giving their 2 cents worth of opinion

 Blake giving Katie an update, did I mention he has never been married or had a child??? lol

 The news came that a C Section had to be done

 Here we all are waiting..........

OUR FIRST LOOK AT MICHAEL!!!!!

 Brandon in the nursery holding Michael right after he was born.

 Sweet momma Katie....She did such a GREAT job delivering our precious gift.

 My  (Gigi) first time to hold him.....Heaven......absolutely in Heaven!

 Pawpaw James' first time to hold him.  Didnt think he was ever going to give him up.

 Next morning....Pawpaw James and Brandon changing a diaper

 Brandon acted as if he had years of experience.  I am so proud of him.

 Yep you guessed it.....PawPaw James got pee'd on....He was the first of many :-)

 Michael - a little less than 24 hours old...Can you all see just how perfect he is?

 This is such a sweet picture of Brandon and Katie love'n on their new baby boy.

Katie and Brandon came to visit when.  Michael at this point is 1 week old....She was one tired momma.

I will continue updating  tomorrow.  Im sure you all are absolutely bored by now...

Oh..... I have learned to machine embroidery and sew.  I will be adding some of my creations also.... I am seriously  considering making a little extra money selling custom items.  Here's a sneak preview:

Thanks for taking the time to share in our family....

Blessings, 

Gina