Happy 9 months Gray!!!!!

Gray you are 9 months old!!!!

So hard to believe... here is what you have been up to lately...

• You are now on 4 ounces of whole milk to 3 ounces of breast milk every bottle (3 a day).  The doctor gave you the ALL CLEAR for whole milk and you have had no issues with digesting it SO FAR! :)
• Speaking of the doctor... at your 9 month visit your measurements were as follows:
• 28.5 inches long - 75%
• 18.5 lbs - 50%
• Your favorite foods are:
• Carrots & barley
• Strawberry and banana yogurt
• Whole wheat garden veggies
• And anything Mommy and Daddy have on their plate!
• Your least favorite foods are:
• Peaches
• Apples
• And... apple juice - which is frustrating because you need hydration!!!!!
• One of my favorite things that you do is when you eat... you say "Ummmmmmm" after EVERY bite... no seriously... EVERY bite.  It is the cutest thing.  It's like you are saying yum!
• You still love to kiss Mikey Poo but have recently sparked interesting is kissing Toot Toot... and Toot doesn't mind it one bit... see:

• You love love love to read!  Your favorite books are "Brown Bear Brown Bear"(thanks Aunt Courtnie!!!!) and a children's bible story book that Aunt Ashley, Uncle Justin, and cousin Brooke got you
• You had your first play date this month at Aunt KK's house!  You played with a sweet and very handsome young man named Turner.  Turner and you became fast friends.  Yall would just smile and laugh and flirt with each other.  It was so neat to observe the interaction between you too.  Too bad Turner lives in D.C. or else we would play together again soon!

• Your daddy is still your best friend!!!  When you get your night time lotion after your bath you get a "Mr. Miagi" massage.  You just laugh and laugh... you think he is the greatest... shhssshhh don't tell him but I do too ;)

Please excuse the mound of clothes behind Jeremy

• I am TRYING to get you to take a sippy cup... you DO NOT like this...  so we haven't been very successful 
• Sometimes when you have woken up from a nap...I can hear you back in your room playing.  It is the cutest thing.  You love to play with the stuffed animals sitting in your crib... they are currently a pink hippo, your glow sea horse, and my personal fav... a Notre Dame teddy bear.  It is so funny to walk in and see you sitting down talking to them!  I can only imagine the conversation!

• Mommy took her first sewing class this month... and here you are... modeling the dress (as you can tell...you are not that enthused!)

• You are the cutest thing ever... here you are on your 9 month bday!!!

WE LOVE YOU GRAY!!!!

Shivers Family Garden 2012

So the garden this year was a huge success... we had so much fun as a family.   It wasn't easy taking on a garden this big, but thanks to Jeremy and his parents... we were able to harvest a great crop.  Here are some pictures for all of you who would like to see how it progressed over the summer.  

We planted shortly before easter

You can really see everything popping up in this pic

Growing even more

Let the harvest begin!!!!!!

Here are a couple of shots of the workers...

Cuddles loved it!

More random shots of the garden... it was so pretty.  I loved going out there in the mornings and going through the corn and peas... it was so peaceful.

And lastly... here are some shots of the best little gardener I know...

We put up hundreds of bags of corn (field and yellow), peas (purple hull and zipper cream), cabbage, butter beans, squash, zucchini, okra, bell pepper and banana pepper.  We also canned tomatoes, 2 different kinds of green beans, jalapenos and candied jalapenos, and pickles.  We had cantaloupes and even planted several varieties of beans (red beans, dark and light, pinto, and larger red bean, and edamame).  

We are about to bush hog the garden and plant a SMALL fall garden just to get seed and experiment.  I cannot wait!

Much needed update...

My goodness!!!!!!!  It has been a WHILE since I have posted... much much much has been going on including graduation and many other things that I will eventually blog about but do not have the mindset to blog about them at the moment... this blog is strictly dedicated to update my followers... bahahahaaa all 2 of you... about what is going on with Gray.  I mainly want to do this for my memory as well. A couple of blogs that I follow are of mothers around the same age as me and they do a great job of blogging about the little things their children are doing at their current age... so I decided that I am going to try and start doing that for Gray. Since she is almost 9 months old... I am way behind.  But I figure... it is NEVER too late to start!

Let's start with a recent picture of the chunky monkey...

I mean... could she be any cuter?????

It is so hard for me to believe that she is almost 9 months old!!! Can time please stand still? puhllleeeze????  On a side note... please look at how much my child has changed in her looks...

She went from this... (3 days old)

To this... almost a month old

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

Still 5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

So... I have an almost 9 month old and here are some of the things you (Gray) are up to:

• You are down to 3 bottles a day... and a whole container of yogurt and jar of baby food at lunch!!!! Momma is no longer breast feeding... whoooo hooooo!!!!  And you are taking 6-7 ounces of soy/breast milk with each bottle.  You LOVE LOVE LOVE yogurt and bananas... here is a pic of you eating bananas...

 

• You are a TOTAL Daddy's girl... which melts my heart of course and your daddy is EATING IT UP!!!

• You say ba ba ba ba ba and ummmphhhh ummmphhh ummmmpphhh... but your favorite word is DA DA DA DA DA.  And you know who your daddy is... sometimes when you see him you say "DA DA" and it melts my heart all over again.
• You love your Nana and Paw Paw and Coach and Nonna... For example...
• When you see your Nana... you smile, kick your feet, and immediately reach for her.  She still holds you every Sunday morning during church and watches you most Thursdays while Mommy and Daddy are at Praise & Worship team practice.
• You love to play on the floor with Paw Paw... and you blink those big blue eyes at him because you know you have him wrapped!!!
• When we visit "Coach's" house... you like to play like you are shy at first, but you love to visit him and B and look at all of his pictures and trophies on the wall.  You and him play, "ah 1, ah 2, ah 3, 4, 5."
• When we Face time with Nonna... you touch the screen because you are trying to touch her face... it is so sweet.
• You can pull up, cruise around the furniture, sit down, and pretty much get wherever you want to go.  This makes it hard on Mommy to keep up with you... but we have so much fun!

• Your favorite "no no" is to pull up on the TV stand.  We have recently started to "spank" you and tell you "NO."  You of course do not like this word and you pout and fuss occasionally when we tell you.  You have to learn Gray :).
• You are such a well behaved baby... you honestly don't fuss or cry much unless you are hungry or tired.  When we went on our trip to Chicago in June... you slept the whole 12 hours! :)
• You like to make growling noises... sometimes during church... which gets interesting, but I love it.
• You are scared of new people and new places... you will hide your face or sometimes even cry.  It's ok though... 
• Toot toot sometimes scares you when she barks, but you love to find her in the mornings when you wake up.
• Mike is your best friend.  You hug him several times a day and give him oh so many kisses.
• Speaking of kisses... you have learned how to kiss and it is the sweetest thing.  See...

• Our favorite time of day with you is in the mornings when you first wake up... you smile so big and jump up and down in your bed.  It is the cutest thing!
• You love to read books... sometimes you will sit for 30 to 45 mins in our lap and just turn the pages over and over again.
• Whenever momma takes a picture of you with her phone... this is the face you make:

You are truly a blessing from God... and we thank him daily for you.  You are such a good baby and we are amazed at how smart you are and how fast you are growing!