House Stuff + A Fancy Car

Even though we've been super busy around here lately, things have been good. We finally found a house that we think is going to be perfect for our little family for the foreseeable future, and it actually looks like things are good to go! And, now we're in the final countdown for being out of our current place - one month! It's so bittersweet. I absolutely love this house and it will always be so incredibly special to our family. But I do love starting fresh in a new house. My emotions are all over the place!

One of the best things that went on lately - aside from finally finding a house!-  is actually thanks to this little ole' blog, actually. We have been driving all over the north part of the Dallas area looking for a house for what, almost two months now? And I won't lie, it was starting to get super old. But luckily, I was contacted a little while ago by GM to see if I'd be interested in participating in a vehicle loan program that they offer - umm, are you kidding? So for an entire week I got to drive around in a brand new GMC Terrain Denali. That certainly made me a little happier to be driving all over the place.

It. Was. Incredible. We've been talking about getting an SUV lately, so this was seriously perfect timing. But, I may have been a little spoiled. This car was seriously amazing. Not only was it nice to look at, but it was super fancy on the inside. The number one thing I care about in my car is if it has navigation, because I like to be able to just get in and go...no planning my route out beforehand. My current car has a nice little navigation system, but this thing takes it to a new level. If there's a McDonalds or a CVS or whatever on your route, the little logo will pop up on the screen showing you where it's at. I don't know why, but I thought this was the coolest thing ever. Maybe I'm easily impressed?

A loved it because it had a super smooth ride and all kinds of horespower or something like that....I can't remember exactly what he said, you know all that "manly" talk. The backseat was super roomy, plenty of room for Grayson's "big boy" carseat we recently bought, and when we went to get groceries A was impressed because there was a little net thing where we could put the eggs. Haha, now that I'm writing this, apparently we're both easily impressed!

So now I really really want to buy a brand new SUV , and since I'm getting a new house I kind of have a feeling I won't be getting one anytime soon. Oh well, I felt pretty fancy for the week I drove it around!

Other than that, honestly not too much excitement in our lives. Grayson is being adorable and hilarious and precious basically 24/7, A is working like crazy, and I'm trying to keep everything straight with all of the house insanity. I'm crossing my fingers that soon we will be settled in a new place, everything will be all nice and neat and organized like I like it, and I'll be back to blogging and working and being a mama like usual, and not too much else.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. This is the first weekend in a looooong time that we WON'T be house hunting, and I am beyond relieved. I can't wait to just do a whole lot of nothing. It sounds so glorious.

10 Months.

Even though I'm taking a bit of a break from regular blogging at the moment until we get this whole house situation figured out, I couldn't let Grayson's "birthday" go by without recognizing it. It's so hard to believe that he's already been here for 10 months...time is going by in a flash these days. I can honestly say it's been the best 10 months of my life, by far. It's amazing how much joy this little guy brings to the lives of everyone around him. He's such a blessing! 

Oh. And it literally is impossible to get him to sit still for a photos now. I was getting frustrated, but this is just such a great idea of what he's like these days.
My baby boy,

Here we are again celebrating another month of life for you. The past month has been my favorite, just like I've said every single month before. The older you get the more fun you are - I seriously can't get enough of your crazy little personality. I just sit around and laugh at you all day. And you're getting to the age where you think it's hilarious to make people laugh, so we're having a fabulous time these days. So adorable.

You suddenly seem to have crossed over into big boy territory in the past few weeks. I feel like my little baby has almost totally grown up on me and has been replaced by this adorable boy with a silly personality. You giggle and laugh at the funniest things, and you are happy almost all day every day - unless I'm changing your diaper or making you get in the carseat, that is. 

You are crawling around like a crazy man these days, and if anyone comes to get you and you don't want to be got you are a quick little guy. You're also walking around holding on to things constantly, and you're one-handing things a lot of the time. You've let go and stood for a couple of seconds unassisted before you realize what you're doing...I'm thinking standing and walking won't be too far away. 

You still haven't technically said anything, but your baby talk is hilarious. It's becoming much more defined, and it sounds like you're speaking a foreign language. You still do a lot of "mamamama" "dadada", and I swear you know what you're saying, you're just too stubborn to actually say it on command. You're also a big fan of squealing and screaming - you like to have contests with your dad to see who can yell the loudest. When you yell you do a full body shake with your hands balled in little fists. One thing we've known about you from day one is that you are intense. 

Just in the last week or so you've started doing a couple of fun new things that everyone thinks are so adorable. You will now wave "hi" or "bye bye". Especially to yourself in the mirror. Pretty much anytime we walk by a mirror now you smile so big and wave your little hand up and down. You also will slap our hands when we say "give me five!". You can make the clapping sound every once in awhile and think it is so much fun. 

You're getting really good at doing things when I show you...but a lot of the time you would rather just learn things on your own. Two of your personality traits that seem to be shining through already are independence and impatience. I'm hoping we can figure out how to work on the patience thing soon, because your daddy and I neither one have much, and we definitely hope you don't follow in our foot steps on that one! But we're also pretty independent, so I'm glad you've inherited that one. 

You understand the word "no" for sure now. We're about 50/50 on whether you listen to it. Sometimes you immediately stop what you're doing - draw your hand back quick or drop whatever you have. And sometimes you bounce up and down really fast and then keep doing it. It seems like anytime you're doing anything "bad" you bounce up and down really hard. Not sure what that is, but it's pretty cute. Makes it more difficult to be upset with you.

Right now you are loving food. You completely and totally refused anything pureed, pretty much from day one, and really didn't have a ton of interest in eating for the most part. But oh my goodness, the last few weeks you suddenly seem to be starving. You went from wanting just a couple of bites of whatever it might be and being done to absolutely devouring whatever we give you. We pretty much give you whatever we're having, as long as it's baby-friendly. A few things you've really enjoyed lately are rice, edamame, sweet potato fries, and beans. And you love to drink water. I'm pretty careful about only giving you healthy things, but you do get the occasional french fry or hamburger if it's what we're having. I'm wondering if you'll be weaning yourself from breastfeeding soon, because you're showing less interest all the time, unless you're really hungry or sleepy. 

You still do so many things that melt my heart. You love my hair - I think it's your security blanket - and if you start twisting your little fingers in it and laying your head on my shoulder I know you are about ready to drift off. You've also started holding on to my fingers and hand more often, like when we're in the car. You actually linked your fingers through mine like we were actually holding hands a couple of days ago and I swear it was the cutest thing I've ever seen. You climb all over me all day long like I'm a jungle gym. About 90% of the time that I'm on the floor you are on my lap, wrapping your arms around my neck, twisting and turning. You give me open mouth kisses all the time and it is so adorably sweet. I remember seeing babies do that in past and thinking it was kind of gross, but I swear it's the most precious thing ever when you do it. 

This month you got FIVE teeth, all within a few days, and you handled it like a champ! There were just a couple of days where you had a little fever and were fussy, but for the most part you were your happy self. It's been probably three weeks since they started popping through, and you still seem to be having a lot of pain. We don't like to give you much medicine, so you get the homeopathic teething gel a few times a day and tyelenol if you really seem to be in pain. You bite EVERYTHING right now though, and I can't blame you. I can't imagine how bad it must hurt to have all those tiny teeth attacking your mouth at once!

Your favorite things are playing tug of war with Addie (she actually plays with you sometimes now!), getting into everything you can get your hands on, opening and closing things (toys, drawers, lids, etc.), eating, taking a bath, wrestling around and goofing off with Daddy, making silly noises and making us laugh, and being a daredevil. You still hate diaper changes and having your clothes changed, and you especially hate your carseat right now since you've spent so much time in it going to look at houses!

You are an absolute doll of a baby, and you make me happy all day every day. I think you are seriously the cutest, sweetest, funniest baby in the world, and I absolutely love the little boy you're becoming. I'm trying my best to cherish every single second with you, because I can already see how fast it's all going to go. You are my favorite. I love you more than you'll ever know.

Mama

I'm Still Here!

I haven't abandoned the blog world altogether, I swear. Just A LOT going on in my little world at the moment. The house search thing is about to blow my freaking mind…we have now put an offer on three homes, and not gotten a single one of them. I'm telling you, the market around here is NUTS.

So basically my days consist of taking care of Grayson, working a little on my writing gig, looking online for new houses to pop up on the market, and going to look at houses when A gets done working for the day. That's it, that's all, there's nothing else in my life right now. But there is about to be a loooooot of packing thrown into the mix, because it looks like our house is sold! So to say that blogging has been a bit of an afterthought is an understatement.

I love you all dearly and absolutely love blogging, but right now it's just going to have to take a backseat :( My poor little brain simply can't come up with anything fun or creative that isn't house-related. So until we find something and have it under contract, I'm making no promises for anything too exciting around here.

So pleasepleaseplease wish us luck! We have a fourth offer in and I am hoping and praying and crossing my fingers and toes that this is the one. Unfortunately I just found out today that my absolute dream home went with another offer, so this one really needs to work out or I might just lose it. The good news is this one is apparently A 's dream home, and I really love it, too. I'm just still pretty devastated about losing out on the other one.

So Happy Friday! I miss you all and hope to be back full force soon!

My favorite Instagram pics from the week - if you aren't following me, do it here!