gracie bell: 8 months

i can't believe my teeny tiny newborn is EIGHT months old!

you are the sweetest bundle of joy and a total mama's girl!

you are all over the place now and so busy, so much busier than your brother ever was!

i love comparing/contrasting the two of yall because yall are so similar, yet so different.

you are looking more and more like him everyday. most people think you always have, but i don't see it that often.

you recently have turned into quite the screech owl. it is piercing and for some reason you love to "screech" mostly out in public! oh joy!

you refuse to eat any baby food, although i still try quite often. i couldn't pry your lips open to save my life, if i wanted to.

on the other hand, you LOVE any other food, other than baby food. you love yogurt melts and puffs. and i have let you eat a few things here and there that we eat, that is bland and i can turn into mush.... you have loved everything you've tried.

you still have just your 6 teeth but you are working on quite a few more. your first six all came in at 5 months and within 2 weeks of eachother, so you must be getting ready to have a new "batch!"

on the subject of teeth, you are still only breast fed, but that might be changing soon because you bite like a pirranha! i want to do everything the same as i did with your brother, so im trying my hardest to tough it out til you are the least 10 1/2 months old. you also refuse to take a bottle, so that will be another challenge in itself.

you are a typical girl with mood swings.... mostly when it comes to your brother. most of the time you are beyond tolerant of him and how rough he is with you, and you think he is THE funniest person on the planet, but some days, all he has to do is look at you and you start screaming. haha! yall both just idolize eachother and i could sit and watch yall forever!

your favorite time of day, hands down, is bath time. you could not be cuter if you tried when you take a bath. you can make an insanely huge mess for such a petite young lady! you splash just like shamu and think it's the funniest thing ever!

happy eight months my angel! im so glad God picked me you be your and grayson's mommy!

i attempted to feed gracie yet again today. she hated it (shocker) so i just let her play!

this stuff is gross mom!

LOVE this precious baby girl!

clean-up time

splash zone!

love you grace kampbell. you're my favorite girl in the world.

for your viewing pleasure:

(and bc we can't have a post without joe cool!)

could not love them more if i tried!

happy girl

p.s. im thinking i might make three of these for the babes playroom. i have this one blank wall that needs something, and i thought they could be cute there, done in their playroom colors, obviously! OR i might make the letter canvases, since they have the same initials! not sure. i love the idea of the stripes on the canvases either way!

p.p.s. grayson peed in the big boy potty for the first time last night!!!!! WOOHOO!!! but wasn't interested at all today. potty training....what a joy!

2011 resolutions

both of my babies are down for a nap at the same time (HEAVEN!), so im going to use my quiet time to blog about what my new year's resolutions are! im hoping that if i take the time to sit down, write them out for others to see, then maybe i will hold myself more accountable! with that said.....

1. i want to read my Bible cover to cover this year. i have started a plan via an ipod app that maps out a reading schedule for me, daily. i don't have to follow the schedule exactly, but it keeps me somewhat on track. i need/like schedule in my life!

2. im not even going to say, lose weight, bc we all know, that goes out the window within a couple weeks or so... or in my case on thursday, when i go have sprinkles with some lovely mamas! so my goal is to be healthier this year!

3. with that said, i want to cook more this year. i dont cook that often, because for 6 months of the year my husband is gone and i hate cooking big meals for just me and gray, bc i dont really eat leftovers. i feel like so much is wasted.... not to mention cooking and cleaning dishes is a lot of work with two kids and no hubby around! but this year i am going to try harder bc soon gracie will be eating too! so im excited to try lots of new recipes.... any yummy ones yall have, please send my way!!!

4. work on my patience. until i had grayson, i had absolutely no patience, so i have come leaps and bounds since, but im still not all that wonderful, all the time. travis is currently working 3 weeks on, 3 weeks off and by about mid-week 2, my patience reallys starts wearing down, bc im ready for a break, need a break! so, to my precious babies, i will try my hardest everyday to be the most patient i can be!

5. pray more. i pray alot, but there are times when a few days and, even a couple times, a week or so slip by me, without praying. it is important to me to pray more, count my blessings, and thank God for everything he has done in my life!

6. i need to make more of an effort to dedicate more alone time/date nights with my sweet husband. for some reason i feel guilty wanting to steal him away for some alone time bc he is away from the kids so much already, but i also know it is important for our marriage and relationship to have that time. starting in february travis will be going to libya to work for the next 1-2 years, with a month on, a month off schedule, so i know it is more important than ever that i get good quality time with him when he's home.

7. potty train gray. prayers are appreciated... haha! not looking forward to tackling this obstacle!

8. be more punctual. since i have had grayson, i am consistantly a good 10 mins late for everything. even if i try leaving 10 mins early, i still manage to be 10 mins late. i dont like it about myself and it irritates the hubby. so i am going to focus on that!

9. be better about my blogging. im going to try really hard on that, solely for the fact of documenting moments with my lovies.

10. go to bed earlier at night. im a night owl and a morning hater, always have been. i tend to stay up WAY too late and then wake up when the kids get up, so i think i could be a better mom with more sleep.... and it will probably help my patience too!

11. soak up every single second of my little angels because they are growing up so riduculously fast, i can't stand it!

here's to hoping i can keep all my resolutions til 2012! what were some of yall's new year's resolutions?

2010: glover style

we started off 2010 with grayson looking like this:

and gracie looking like this:

2010 was a wonderful year for our family, started off a little rough, but ended so great! God definitely reminded me many times this year that He is in control, not me. And what a good reminder that is!



JANUARY

i was put on strict bedrest at 26 weeks for the remainder of my pregnancy. travis was sent to korea for six weeks. my mom and mother-in-law helped take care of gray and i had to learn how to ask for help and be dependent on others (not a fan.) most of our days were spent like this:



FEBRUARY & MARCH

spent mostly in bed. grayson became the biggest daddy's boy imaginable and it's stayed the same ever since.



APRIL

celebrated Easter. started getting out of bed a little more, bc i was almost full-term.

MAY

my brother married his best friend.

God gave us, yet again, another perfect blessing!

our Grace Kampbell was born may 4th.

precious, perfect, and adored.

i wondered how on earth i would ever be able to love anything the way i love grayson, but when i looked at her for the first time it was like God opened my heart and just kept pouring more and more love in!

i had the best mother's day ever adoring my two precious gifts from God.

the rest of may was spent adjusting to being a family of four. bliss.

JUNE

june was mostly spent outside in the pool, staying cool. we celebrated my niece's birthday, my MIL's birthday, and my 24th birthday. we also celebrated travis's first father's day as a daddy of two! my in-laws moved to singapore.

JULY

a virus hit our house and made the rounds.

spent Gracie's first holiday, 4th of July (and her 2nd month birthday), hooked up to IV's at TX Childrens, praying to God every second that she didn't have viral meningitis. thank God she was only diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, but it still scared me to death. God is good!

AUGUST

nothing too note-worthy happened in august.

SEPTEMBER

sept 4th was travis and i's first wedding anniversary. he was at work, so it was spent showering one of my best friends, Haley and angel baby Owen!

haley and her mom suprised me with this cake, even though we were supposed to be celebrating her! sweetest friend ever!!!! haley sturgeon, i am so blessed to have you in my life! i love you!
showering haley. celebrating owen.

my baby boy got his first haircut and in just a few snips, grew up before my very eyes!looking like such a big boy now!OCTOBER

october is always an awesome month!

haley and jeremy became the proud parents to the precious and perfect, Owen Ross!! (aka my future son-in-law!)

my hubby turned 25, but he was at work. we didn't get to celebrate properly bc by the time he got home, we were in full swing 2nd birthday party mode!

my first baby turned TWO! i still can't believe he is a toddler! how did time fly by so quickly without me even realizing!

gracie celebrated her first halloween as the cutest and chubbiest little lamb i ever did see!!!
cowboy grayson made a pit stop at mimi's while trick-or-treating, for a drink and some kisses!

NOVEMBER

we celebrated thanksgiving. so thankful for my angel babies, my husband, my family, my friends, our health, Jesus and a million other things. God has blessed us beyond belief! travis was at work and my in-laws were in singapore, so for the first time in 9 years, i only had one place to be on thanksgiving. AHHH heaven!!! my brother and sister-in-law hosted thanksgiving at their new house and both my mom and dad and stepmom and all our other family members were all under the same roof! it was SOOO nice! we had the best time enjoying everybody's company and i was able to relax and not have to worry about getting to two other thanksgiving feasts!

grayson had a blast playing with my bro and SIL's new dogs, hank and mimi!

DECEMBER

december was all about celebrating Jesus's birthday! it really is the most wonderful time of year! it is so fun celebrating with the kids and starting new traditions and keeping up with old traditions. however, Christmas felt a little off this year, because travis had to leave to go back to work the day before Christmas eve, so we celebrated early! (if you've been keeping track, travis has pretty much been gone for every holiday this year! it sucks so bad! im just so thankful he was here for Gracie's birth and Grayson's bday!) i was sad he missed gracie's first Christmas, but good thing santa brought me a new video camera so i got everything on tape! now i can document all the precious moments he doesnt get to be here for!

2010 has been a truly incredible year. i can't even imagine what 2011 has in store, but im looking forward to all it has to bring!

weeds.

the only thing growing faster than my kids these days are weeds! i mean, what the heck, in two months grayson will be TWO and gracie is already almost 4 months. i know ive said it a million times, but i wish time would just slow down before my babies are teenagers in need of an attitude adjustment!

gracie is really coming into her own little personality, laughing and smiling all the time. she is such a happy baby! ive been so blessed to have two very easy going children, that are both awesome sleepers! she is busting out of all her 3-6 months clothes. i put her in some jammies last night that were 6-12 months and they fit her jsut fine. SERIOUSLY gracie, slow down!!! gracie started rolling over yesterday. i knew it was coming soon. it's so weird bc she has been slightly early or right on time for everything developmentally for age... grayson was so behind on everything he did, so it's definitely change for me!

everytime grayson wakes up from a nap or in the mornings i swear he looks older and grows more hair...haha! hes starting to get taller and thin out. before i know it im going to have a lean two year old! he has mastered swimming this summer and loves the water and has NO fear, AT ALL which is good and bad. he would rather be in the pool than do anything at all. he is OBSESSED with a few certain foods: peanut butter, hot sauce, fruit (esp. grapes) and chips of any kind. peanut butter takes the cake for him though. EVERY single day, multiple times a day, he heads for the pantry to get the jar of peanut butter and wants to eat it by the spoonful. i wonder if his love of peanut butter has anything to do with the fact i craved (and therefore satisfied my cravings) peanut butter sandwiches every day i was preggers with him?! he is so in to the mechanics of how everything works, and it takes him no time at all to figure it out. he definitely gets that from his daddy and his grandfathers! he's really starting to grow up and help me with things around the house. it's so weird! its so insane to me how absorbant their little brains are and how it only takes seeing something one time to learn it.

here's a few pictures of my babies while they are still babies!

grayson smothering his sister and gracie having to take charge of the situation

grayson thinks he is too cool for school with his new shades

gracie bell and her cousin, taylor kay

slumber party at grayson's with his cousins

grayson and his best friend

(travis had to go back to work last night and grayson already is missing him. it breaks my heart)

my little fish! such a good little swimmer!

my pride and joys

grayson got his first job: the new pool boy

my beautiful blue-eyed girl after a swim

grayson or gracie? i normally dont think my babies even look related, but i know this picture is one we will look back and wonder which kid it is..... she looks just like grayson as a baby here.

i know when gracie gets older shell kill me for showing this pic to the public, but it cracks me up. she is SUCH a girl. grayson was all over her (as usual) and she was getting so pissed. you could totally tell. and this picture simply proves how aggravated she was with her brother...haha!

grayson just hanging out in one of his drawers from his playroom

sweet girl, literally one second before she rolled over for the first time