Ornaments

It's beginning to look like Christmas at the McGrew home. We put up our decorations a few days ago! One of my favorite parts of decorating the house when I was growing up was putting the ornaments on the tree. Although our tree was always beautiful, it was never decorated strictly for aesthetics. Most all the ornaments that went on the tree held personal meaning or relevance to our family. I'll never forget the little care bear ornaments my grandma Muddy sewed, or the ornaments with our baby pictures in it, or the ones we made at church each year. We also had collected many ornaments from various places we had gone on vacation. Every year, it was so much fun to reminisce over these ornaments and then add a couple of new ones to our collection. In our 4 short years together, Aaron and I have started this tradition for our family. I'm so excited to add more vacation ornaments, and those that my children will make with their own hands. Our ornament tradition is just one of many that we hope to have for our growing family.

Thankful

I'm thankful that even though I'm the only girl in this crazy crew, I get to share my life with these 3 precious fellas! Love you boys to the moon and back!

Thanksgiving Day 2009

My Office

We've recently expanded the playroom and made the whole room just for the boys and their toys. For over a year we used 1/4 of the room for our computer desk. We have now moved that into our bedroom. I thought that with Landon getting more active and Reid just moments away from crawling and walking, we could really use the space. I appreciate Aaron humoring me in the organization of this room. He's always been wonderful about it, but one day I still explained to him that since our home is where I work, that makes our playroom like my office, or classroom. One of my favorite things to do when I taught was decorate and organize my classroom at the beginning of the year. The other day while in the midst of our playroom expansion, Aaron looked at me and said, "Can't you wait until we have all this room for our office?" Actually, yes, I can absolutely wait. Don't misunderstand. Aaron is certainly loving this time with our boys and is excited that we have this room for them. But I love the playroom. I think I could stay there most of the day. Not only does it give my boys a place to just have fun and be kids, but it gives me a sense of purpose and also allows me to feel like a kid again at times. I love my job. I know what you're thinking, but I'm really not that obsessed with germs. I would just like to think we can have one half-way sanitary room in the house in which our kids can play on the floor. Here are some things you might see going on in my office with my two favorite employees! We're all team players.....we help each other out with tasks. There's always somebody trying to brighten our day with a little office humor. But we know when it's time to get serious for an important meeting.

Little Wonder

The best part of our special day with Landon was seeing how every little thing excited him! He is such an inquisitive little guy and it’s such a blessing to be able to watch him explore and enjoy the world around him! I often see pictures like these and become overwhelmed with how much love I have for my two boys. I’ll sit down at the computer and want to write a post about it, but the same things always happens….I just can’t put it into words.

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.
~Walt Streightiff

Landon's Special Day

Yesterday was a "Just for Landon" day! Reid stayed at MiMi's for the day, while Aaron, Landon and I headed to Tyler for some fun! We started off by going to the Caldwell Zoo. Even though we had just recently been to a zoo, we figured it wouldn’t bother Landon too much to go again. :) After the zoo, we drove around for about 30 minutes so Landon could take a little cat-nap. He was already worn out! Then, since we had about 3 hours of free time before our big event of the day started, we found a mall to peruse. We perused a little too much though, because we spent more money than we should have! After leaving the mall, we headed to The Oil Palace to watch Sesame Street Live! It was such a cute show and Landon really enjoyed seeing all the characters! After the show, we stopped for a yummy dinner at Cracker Barrel and then headed back home! It was a great day and we look forward to planning more special days for our sweet boys!

Landon standing in an elephant footprint
Eating lunch with the giraffes

Modeling some sunglasses from the gift shop

P.S. Happy Birthday Uncle Matthew!!

Praise!

Reid's pediatrician called this morning with results from his x-ray. Everything looks good and the bones are still nice and open to allow his brain to grow. He just has an abnormally small soft spot. I tend to be a worry wart and had already started thinking something would be terribly wrong with my sweet baby! Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

123 Days

Today Reid is 123 days old, or 4 months. I can’t believe how much he has grown and changed over these last 2, 952 hours. Ok, I’m done with the math. A couple of days ago while I was looking for a newborn picture to compare to Reid’s current picture, I became overwhelmed at how amazing the miracle of life is. I can’t believe that in only 403,200 minutes (Ok, for real this time) God can form a whole new human being with one-of-a-kind characteristics and features. When you think about it, he could actually do it in the blink of an eye, but either way it’s pretty amazing! I stopped right there at the computer and thanked Him for two beautiful and healthy little miracles of life! Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Psalm 127:3

I think we chose the right son to name after his Daddy!

4 Month Stats:
Weight: 14 lbs. 11 oz. (50th percentile)

Height: 25 ¾ inches (90th percentile)
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At Reid's check-up this morning, the doctor noticed the soft spot on top of his head is smaller than it should be for his age. We had a skull x-ray done just to make sure the bones aren't fusing together too soon and will still allow room for his brain to grow. Hopefully everything will come back OK, but of course she gave me a scare by saying, “Worst case scenario will be skull surgery.” WHAT? (Pause here for mommy to freak out a little!) We're praying that everything is normal.

I Heart Target

May I just say that Target is the best place ever?! Especially Super Target! I’ve known this for a while, but I thought I would devote a whole post to it. Today, while Landon was playing at MiMi's house, Aaron, Reid and I went to eat lunch and then headed to the new Super Target in Wylie. In the car on our way there, Aaron looked back at Reid and said, “Get ready for a ride! This trip to Target is like going to Six Flags for your mom!” How true, how true! But then he said, “The ticket to get in is free, but I have a feeling it’s going to cost us to get out!” What can I say? He’s right! But that’s where the dollar section comes in! Those of us who can’t help but buy fun things for our sweet kiddos can always rely on this wonderful little area of Target for a more frugal way to spoil them! Let me show you what I have recently found for a mere $10...

A cute little Santa hat which Reid was so excited to model for you!

A fun fruit, vegetable and meat basket full of colorful little plastic foods for pretend play.
Now we just have to work on pretend eating!
Three books which are all applicable to Landon's current life status!
He chose to read the potty book first....I hope he starts putting it into practice soon! :)
Two adorable little buckets....which will be good for holding books, crayons, blocks, etc.
These fun Cars Crayons!
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Of course, every now and then I wander away from the dollar section and find other (more expensive) things in which to fill my red Target basket. But, since a trip to Target is like therapy for me, I think of it as an investment in my emotional well-being. Thank you Target, for always being there....and for always having fun new things to spend my extra cash on!

Why Bother?

Why bother paying big bucks for TWO super comfy Pottery Barn kid chairs, when your child just wants to use this instead? This is how we found Landon watching TV this morning!