16 Months

Grant turned 16 months in May!  I can't believe he is almost a year and a half.  He amazes me with how smart he is and how quickly he can learn things (all kids are amazing in how they learn!).

A few things he has been doing lately:

• Will use a fork to pick up food and eat it
• Going through a picky eater phase.  He doesn't want to eat a lot of the time and will throw all his food on the floor or spit it all out.  It takes forever to feed him and we still worry he isn't getting enough food.  He has gotten small obsessions with junk food that we are trying to phase out (goldfish crackers, french fries, etc...when he sees them, he will scream till he gets it and won't eat anything else...oops!).

• Shake his head back and forth and say no, no, no ("N-n-n!")
• Shake his finger back and forth and say no, no, no ("N-n-n!")
• Loves playing with cars.  He will carry them around all day, placing them on different surfaces, lining them up, and pushing them around.  He loves them so much that he won't let go of them at night, so often he goes to sleep clutching a little car in his arms.  Instead of a blanky or lovey, he clings to his cars (PS ignore the dirty outfit, lol).

• Likes to put things on his head.  He like to put toys on his head like hats and put shirts or fabric on top of his head.  It is very funny.  He also loves to steal Daddy's hats and put them on.  He gets the hugest grin on his face when he has accomplished getting a "hat."

Here is is getting upset when his "hat" won't stay on. 

• Likes to put things on his arms.  He wants to wear things as "bracelets."  Here he is wearing mine.  He also has rings that stack and he puts them on his arms a lot, too.

• Says dad, dog, duck, no, and light, and will point to many other objects that he can identify
• Runs everywhere!  He love to get where he's going fast 

• Laughs a lot and often copies when people are laughing or clapping (even on TV)
• Loves being outside.  Here he is begging me to let him out on the porch (I was doing laundry).

• Will talk to himself while playing with his cars and reading his books.  It is very sweet.
• Getting a little bit of separation anxiety.  He gets very upset when we leave the room, especially with James.  James calls Grant his "shadow" because he follows him everywhere.

• He LOVES his shoes and often brings them to us to ask us to put them on.  He loves wearing shoes!!! He will stare and study them and pull at them. He will often walk around with one pair of shoes in his hand while wearing another pair, giggling in delight while running around with them.

•   We started taking Grant to nursery at Church (they start attending at 18 months) to get him used to it. James will stay in there and watch him.  They blew bubbles one Sunday and Grant went crazy, he LOVED it!  It was too cute to watch.  I wish bubbles brought me that much excitement!

 My love for him grows every day.  I am just amazed by this kid.  Even though he is getting bigger, he is still my little baby and I love those moments when he will slow down and let us cuddle together (getting rarer and rarer).  Usually I am home with him at night when James is at class so Grant and I have a pretty good routine down, so I put him to bed most nights.  I really love putting him to bed and having that quiet time together.  We have had a much better bedtime routine since we moved into our townhouse, since the bedroom is upstairs.  It is much quieter.  I will bring him upstairs, let him play with his toys for a little while, then turn off the lights and rock him in the glider and nurse him to sleep while singing to him.  He cuddles so close and I love looking at his sweet peaceful little face.  He's just so precious.  It makes the exhaustion of being a parent so worth it.  Each new phase brings new adventures and although it's never easy, we are loving it.  :)

The Busiest Month of the Year!

Where do I even start with the month of May? There are 7 family birthdays in that month, including both mine and James'. Other activites included Mother's Day, a trip to San Antonio, a trip to the ER, running in my first relay marathon, reaching a new weight loss milestone, and as usual watching Grant learn new things. It was probably one of the busiest months we've had lately.


Mother's Day we enjoyed a quiet afternoon together and James made a pot roast for a nice dinner for us to have together. It made me feel very special and loved.  Grant loves to play with the balloon that they got me (it still hasn't completely deflated yet!).  He just stares at it all the time and point to it.  He loves to pull the ribbon to move it around and will often hug it and press it against his face.  It is pretty funny.

Later that week James turned 26! James had been wanting to go to PF Chang's for a long time and I usually never want to go there, so I thought it would be the perfect place to take him for his birthday. His parents met us there and the food was great. Grant was not very happy though so we had to take turns taking him outside.

The end of the week turned sour when I started getting pain in my ear. I get ear infections often so I knew what was coming. I left work early on a Thursday and went to a clinic to get checked out. It took me a few hours to finally get seen and the doctor wrote me a prescription. By Saturday things were much worse and I kept hoping things would improve but they went downhill instead. On Sunday I made the decision to go to the ER. I was in excruciating pain and I did not want to go back to the same clinic that did not prescribe me effective medication. I went to Bay Area and was the only person in the entire ER so I got seen right away and the doctor knew exactly what to do for me. I was so grateful! I was in and out of the ER in less than an hour. The only bad part is that I just got the bill in the mail!!! Yikes!!!

I reached some new fitness goals in May. I reached the 30 pounds milestone in weight loss! It felt so great to reach that accomplishment and to feel more confident and healthy. I have so much more energy and I feel like I am able to do so many more things. One of those things is running. I have never been a runner (and still am not) but I made a goal to run in a race and kept training for it. I feel very happy that I reached that goal when I ran in the Beach to Bay relay marathon on May 21st. My leg was about 4.5 miles and I ran a little over 3 miles and walked the rest. I wanted to run the entire thing but getting sick and the heat made things difficult for me. But I am still happy with all of the progress I made and I accomplished what I set out to do.

My teammates were such an inspiration to me. They did awesome and I'm glad that we could all support each other. I loved our shirts, we got several compliments on them. They said: Team MST-We're not slow, we're on Mormon Standard Time! LOL. We came in 149th place out of 351 women's teams.

I was surprised on my birthday to see my office decorated by my coworkers when I got there. We all had cupcakes later on, too. I turned 27 this year and James, Grant, and I celebrated my birthday by going to lunch together to Olive Garden. It had been forever since we had gone there due to dieting, so this was a special yummy treat. It was so nice seeing my family in the middle of the day. It is wonderful to celebrate occasions together. Seeing Grant just lights up my day. My birthday present from James was a nice, LONG, backrub which was heavenly and EXACTLY what I wanted!

James finished the Spring semester with great grades and shortly after started his Maymester class (rapid course). It was a rough 2.5 weeks since he had class and/or group meetings and homework every single night. But the good part is it's over now and he has another class complete that is helping him to finish his degree faster. I'm proud of him! He will be taking three more summer classes in the next two months.

We had a nice trip to San Antonio at the end of the month to visit family and to see our friends get sealed to their little boy.  They adopted him last year and now since everything has been finalized we were able to witness him be welcomed into their eternal family.  It was a beautiful ceremony and the look of pure joy on their faces was very touching.

Every year that passes by, I just can't believe all that has happened. I love my family and our life together, and it just keeps getting better. :) The rest of the summer will be crazy busy, so stay tuned!

April Happenings

We have been so busy!  April included quite a bit of change for us.  First of all, we MOVED!  We have been in our apartment for over 3 years and finally have relocated to a townhouse which has more space and accommodates our needs better.  It was hard to say goodbye to the place where so many new things happened, especially bringing baby Grant into our family.  I know it's silly, but I get sentimental about making changes like this.  It was the first home that our sweet little boy has ever known and where he learned to do everything that he now knows how to do, the scene of so many memories.  I will miss it for that reason.

But...we LOVE our new place!  The living space is much bigger and more open so that you can see around the whole downstairs wherever you are, and I love that aspect.  We have a garage and a porch with a tiny patch of yard.  We also have a front yard with a cool tree that maybe we can teach Grant to climb, haha.  It's nice to have a little more privacy and a more quiet place...and especially more KITCHEN storage, finally!  :)  I will take some pictures and post them later...for now, here's the outside, according to Google Maps:

Moving took us about two weeks.  A lot of our friends and both sides of the family came to help out, which we were so grateful for!  Here are some of the cousins taking a break from all their hard work:

Fittingly, we are right behind a Whataburger!  So we have taken a walk with Grant in his stroller over there several times already to enjoy some fresh air and a snack/drink.  I love feeling like we are in a little neighborhood.  Grant actually had his FIRST Whataburger Jr. all to himself.  :)  He was acting very hungry one day, so we got one just for him to see how he would react:

This is the first thing he did when he saw it, was put his mouth right on it!

 He got a small bite and evaluated how he liked it

Then he went back for more!

The bun is usually his favorite part...and most of it really wasn't eaten, lol.

Of course, he loved it!!!

 We've kept ourselves busy by enjoying the nice weather (not extremely hot yet!) and going to the park and watching the birds (and Grant finally didn't cry in the swing!)...

...by going Putt-Putt golfing (got to go for FREE through my work)

...shopping on the beach

...and by playing on our back porch, including Grant's first Easter egg hunt!

Grant followed dying & hunting eggs with devouring a chocolate bunny!  He took a lot of pleasure in us letting him eat it however he wanted, and not trying so much to contain the mess.  Playing with his food is one of his most fun hobbies (for  him, not for us).  :)

Grant also turned 15 months!!!

He loves to feed himself, drink through straws, try to steal mom and dad's drinks, LOVES cars and trucks, and to push things around.  He loves to drag around stuffed animals and pillows and then run and jump on them, he has now said "hey," "da da," and "duck."  He also thinks it's funny to shake his head and roll his eyes around.  He loves to listen to you sing songs, as well.

He is completely OBSESSED with books!  That's a good thing to be obsessed with.  :)  He wants you to read to him over and over and over, and will spend hours flipping through pages of books, commenting to himself and pointing to various objects.  He will pull out every single one of his books that he can find and go through every one.  James got some kid's books on the iPad, including a book with Grover in it, and he absolutely loves it!  He will want you to play the book over and over and will cry when you turn it off.  It's very funny and cute.  He has also got his first molar in April and is now working on number 3!  This has made him like eating meat a lot more, his personal favorite being chicken.

We love our little man and all the new things he is doing.  I feel like I can't remember all of the cute things he does and it is probably not interesting to anyone else, but I really really want to remember all of these little things. :)

Update: 101 Goals in 1001 Days----5K's & More!

You all may remember a while back, I posted my 101 Goals in 1001 days.  This is a list of things I want to accomplish, some big, some small.  I decided to write a little update on how I've been doing!  I have fully completed 3 goals and there are a lot "in progress."  I will highlight a few things here, but the full updates & notes have been made on the original post.


Goals #1, 2, & 4 (These go hand in hand, and are all "in progress"):
1. Exercise 3 times per week for six months 
2. Run a 5K  
4. Lose 15 more pounds 


I started running about 3 times per week in March, after I had an idea to run in the Beach to Bay relay Marathon.  A group of great girls that I know from Church formed a team and we are running together every Saturday morning in preparation for the race.


I really, really struggled with this at first.  I used to be an athlete, so I thought it would be relatively easy to get in shape if I really put my mind to it.  Well, it wasn't like that.  Pregnancy really changes your body (or at least, it did for me).  Hormones and pressure on your joints mess with your ligaments and things just aren't the same.  I had not exercised like this in almost 2 years.  I wanted to give up, but then something amazing happened.


I figured out that an essential part of any kind of success in MY life, is prayer.  It may sound silly to pray for help or success with fitness goals, but lately I have really felt the power from it.  A few weeks ago, I could barely run for more than 5 minutes without stopping.  I was so discouraged.  So before my run last Tuesday, I prayed for help.  I prayed that the Lord would help me accomplish my goals because I know that this is a good thing for me to do and my intentions are good.  I prayed for the determination and strength to complete them.  I prayed for the will to continue and to not give up.


I really felt that as I worked out that day.  I felt an inner strength that I hadn't felt before.  I wanted to keep going.  Although it was hard, I kept running for 15 minutes without stopping.  It felt amazing.  I pushed through a barrier that I haven't been able to do since before I was pregnant.  Thursday, same thing--I was able to go for 23 minutes.


Saturday, when I ran with my team, was even better.  We have a route that increases each week and that day was 3 miles.  I was determined to finish with running and walking.  I was able to run for 35 minutes without stopping!  I just couldn't believe it.  I know that the Lord was helping me.  I never would have thought that I could do this!


Why would the Lord help us with goals that don't seem all that important on the surface?  Because we learn about ourselves and the strength of our character and a potential as a son or daughter of God.  Because when our physical bodies are healthy, we can be more in tune with our spiritual side.  I am seeing the parallels between reaching goals and my testimony has grown that the Lord WILL help us with our righteous desires.  When we don't have the strength to continue on, somehow we find a way to keep going and the Lord helps sustain us.  He is aware of our struggles.  Just as physical endurance takes time to develop, and a LOT of work, so does spiritual endurance.  I want to continue to develop the attributes of dedication and commitment in all parts of my life, and I feel like this experience is really contributing to that!


As of the beginning of April, I have lost 25 pounds!  I only have 5 more left to meet Goal #4 and only 5 more after that to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, which I am very excited about!  


I don't have any overall pictures to show the difference, but I think these show a difference in my face:

Other completed goals:
10. Do my hair and makeup every day for one week
75. Donate clothes I no longer need


#10 seems easy, but I always seem to neglect this due to lack of time in the mornings.  Well, I did it, and it felt great!  It's not the most important thing in the world, but I felt more upbeat and productive when I felt like I was "put together."


#75 was a hard one for me.  I tend to kind of be a pack rat, which can drive James nuts!  I have a completely full closet, though the majority of the clothes don't actually FIT me.  They are in about 4 categories:  Skinny day clothes (high school/college), pre-pregnancy clothes (bigger, but still small), maternity clothes, and "bigger" clothes.  I carefully sorted through every.single.item. in my closet and filled up two trash bags full of stuff.  I probably could have done more, but that will come at another time.  Many things had a lot of sentimental value and that I had owned for so long.  Some high school clothes, even...had some great memories wearing some of them on fun trips or events.  But, the reality is, most of them will NEVER fit again (unless I lose another 30-40 pounds ON TOP OF what I've already lost, but that's not going to happen), or they are too worn out to look good.  So, I mourn the loss of my cute skinny clothes.  I feel great giving up those things, and hopefully someone else can use the ones that are still in excellent condition.  It is freeing to get rid of clutter.  I am getting better at letting go of things.  All I have to do is watch that show, "Hoarders," and then I get afraid I will become that person, and then I am motivated to get rid of stuff!  haha.


So, that's it!  More updates will come in the coming months!

Whataburger Family Convention

At the beginning of April, we were priviledged to be invited to attend the Whataburger Family Convention in Dallas, TX to accept our award for winning second place in the Whataburger's Biggest Fan contest!  All of our expenses were paid which made it a wonderful mini-vacation for us.  This trip far exceeded any expectations that I had.  The conference and all the activities were very over the top and it for sure was a once in a lifetime experience.

There were Whataburger banners everywhere! We stayed at the Gaylord Resort and it was amazing! It had a huge atrium in the center of the hotel that made you feel like you were really outside and there were several restaurants and shops along the indoor riverwalk.  I couldn't stop staring at everything!  You had all the benefits of being outside without any of the yucky parts (heat & humidity).  It was beautiful.

 The view from our balcony

 Grant really loved the hotel room and was excited to explore everything.  He was going nonstop like a crazy man, running everywhere!

 Of course the first thing he did was go straight to check out the bathroom and stuck his hand in the toilet before we could catch him!  haha.

Another funny story is that they provided a small crib, on wheels, for us to use.  Grant apparently thought this was for him to play with, not to sleep in.  He kept pushing it around the entire room.  It was funny to see him walking around pushing an entire crib.

 We received a gift bag upon arrival with lots of delicious treats!  We enjoyed double chocolate chip cookies, cinammon rolls, jalepeno cheese biscuits, and brownies!  We also got a few goodies like our Whataburger cups and our gift card prize.

 When we went to dinner the first night, we couldn't believe how huge the event was!  There were over 2000 people there, with a big decorated stage with a full array of lights, sound, and smoke on the stage that almost made you feel like you were at a concert or something.  They played the videos that they made of each of the winners, including pictures of us from our video submission and also when the videographer came to interview us, and pictures of us from our photoshoot.  It was so strange watching ourselves on the screen.  It was a little embarrassing because when we were being interviewed, they said that they would focus on the one person who was talking, so James and I both were fidgeting and doing random stuff while the other was talking.  Well apparently they had us both in the shot at the same time!  Oh well.

  The meals were super fancy. We had salad, chicken, veggies, lasagna, and the yummiest dessert I've ever had! Of course I had to cheat on my diet during this trip.

Grant liked the food, too.  Of course he tried to grab and throw everything on the table, which included fancy plates and glasses, and a million pieces of silverware.  It was a battle keeping everything away from him, lol, but luckily everyone just thought it was cute!

 Grant really enjoyed all the festivities and interacting with all the people.  He would stare at everyone nearby and try to talk to them and get their attention.  He was being such a ham!  Many people already knew who the "Whatababy" was and several people came up and talked to us.  I have to say, it was weird feeling like everyone "knows" who you are and is staring at you.  In the world of Whataburger, we were treated like celebrities.  On the one hand, it was really fun, but on the other hand, it can be overwhelming.

 They had a musical performance to kick off the event.

After dinner Gen. Colin Powell spoke! What a surprise! We really enjoyed that; it was a special treat! He spoke about focusing on your core strengths as an organization, about how every person and every function are important, and the importance of education. He had some really awesome stories to tell.  It was an inspirational speech.

We had fun after that exploring the hotel and looking around.  There was so much to do there and it was so beautiful!  Here we found a water fountain that sprayed water at least 20 feet in the air.

 When we got back to our room, we found another special treat.  There was a duffel bag with a Whataburger blanket and some t-shirts left for us!  I was so excited to even see my name on the t-shirt. :)

 The next morning, we attended the Dobson family chat.  The Dobsons (family owners of Whataburger) discussed the Whataburger family history and the legacy of their parents in founding and running the organization. There were some wonderful heartfelt stories and values that they shared with us. It made me love Whataburger even more!

We also had a personal meet and greet with them and got to talk to them individually. They each spoke with us and highlighted the points of our story that they liked the most, while also telling us a little about themselves and the company and how they appreciated us.  They presented us with a Whataburger history book and all of the winners, including us, were in the book!  So cool and pretty much fulfilled one of my dreams!

 Next we were off to watch the WHATAGAMES!  This is like the Whataburger Olympics. Months and months of competitions between Whataburger stores over policies, procedures,and history of WB came down to 15 teams in the final round. It was sooooo cool, like a real game show.  James and I remembered a lot of the answers and thought it would have been fun to participate ourselves.

We didn't realize what an intense event it was, though.  Everyone took it VERY seriously.  Later we found out one of the reasons.  Each member of the winning team won $5,000 EACH!  Whataburger had many other prizes to award to employees, franchisees, and others as well (including 25K to the general manager of the year), which made me realize what a generous and successful company they really are.

 This was the other part of the competition: the restaurant operations competition. Each team had half an hour in the store to take orders, make, and hand out $500 of custom orders (that is very busy, like Aggie game day busy!). They even had judges requesting orders in the drive through. It was amazing all the detail that went into the competition. Oh, and we got to eat the orders!!!

Grant was very social during the Whatagames and wanted to play with everyone. Here he is with Karl and Carol, the first place winners.  They are from Rockport, TX and very nice.  They eat at Whataburger every single day, sometimes 2-3 times per day!  They now have a goal to eat at every single Whataburger in the Corpus Christi area (there are TONS!).

Grant playing with his buddy Micah. He was the 3rd place winner. Grant took a warm liking to him and always wanted to play with him.  He is always very interested in kids and they can really get him to laugh a lot!



Taking home a souvineer!

We went swimming in the indoor pool. It took Grant a while to remember what swimming is all about. There were two pools, one indoor and one outdoor.  We went with the indoor pool because we thought the outside water would probably be too cold.  Inside was VERY nice!  Grant seemed a little scared at first, but once he started getting used to it, he started kicking around and getting excited.  Then he was shivering cold, lol. He was very cute!

Accepting our award at dinner. This was the one part of the trip where I got really nervous.  They had a specific order and instructions for us backstage on what we were to do and when, etc.  I kept worrying that I would trip or do something dumb in front of everyone, but of course everything went great.  Grant did surprisingly well on stage! I have to say it was a very strange feeling standing in bright lights in front of 2,000 people who are all clapping for you. Very fun, though!

We then watched the rest of the Whatagames awards.  The teams who competed were so happy and very proud of the good jobs that they had done.

Our happy family enjoyed the trip of a lifetime!  Everyone loved Grant and he took pictures with lots of people who already knew who the "Whatababy" was.  We were also so happy that he was VERY well behaved and mostly enjoyed every minute of the trip!  He didn't cry on the flights and was a happy and laid back baby during the activities.  However, Grant was passed out by the time the awards were over! There were several after parties, including a performance by the Spazmatics, but we took sleepy Grant back to the hotel room, lol.

The last morning was the farewell breakfast. By far the best Breakfast buffet I have EVER had! Sooooo goooooood.  We wished we could have stayed longer, but it was time to go home.  Before we left, we got to spend a $150 gift card that they gave us to use at the hotel.  Since we didn't get to go to the spa or anything like that, we hit the many gift shops that they had there.  We bought a baby outfit and some baby cowboy boots that were ADORABLE!  I also got a few random souvineers and other things for us.  We also got to hang out with our college friends, Heather & Jake, who lived near the area, and catch up a little bit.  It's so crazy to realize all that has happened and all that has changed since our college days.

We had a blast on our trip and will never forget it!!!  Now we get to enjoy our Whataburger yummyness!