"Baby, it's cold outside."


When we all woke up on the morning of November 24, 2008, we could not believe our eyes! There was snow covering the ground! We quickly ate breakfast, changed into our winter clothes and went outside to play. Grant’s cousin, Samantha, gave him her old blue sled and Matt and I pulled him around the backyard. We even tied the sled up to Oscar’s leash and had Oscar pull him around a little bit (until we pictured Oscar taking off after a squirrel or something and taking poor Grant and a wild goose chase)…so we unlatched them.

Seven months old


Grant is 7 months old already! This month was filled with lots of fun things for Grant to do! He was very busy celebrating his Grandma Gestl, Aunt Rachel and friend, Logan’s birthdays, trick-or-treating, voting in the presidential election, swimming with Aunt Mary Kay and watching lots of Packer’s games! He even went down to Gurnee, IL to visit Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jon in their new apartment. He loves to travel.

This month also brought on his first diaper rash experience which was brought on by the wonderful teething stage. That resulted in a few days of pure hell for Matt and me, but thanks to Grandma Gestl (and triple paste)…we had some much needed help!

Michael Phelps in the making...


It was a cold Monday morning, and since Matt and I both have off of work on Mondays…we decided to take Grant swimming with his Great Aunt Mary Kay at the YMCA. He absolutely loved it! He kind of just “goes with the flow” with pretty much everything that we make him do, and this was no exception. Great Aunt Mary Kay taught him how to kick in the water and he even went completely under twice! I’m signing him up for “Little Dipper” classes that start in January…so we’ll see if his excitement for the water continues! : )

Mini-Matt


As it becomes increasingly apparent as Grant gets older that he looks like an identical mini-image of Matt…I sometimes find myself starring at him hoping to see a glimpse of a trait that resembles something from my side of the gene pool. Then, just as I took the above picture…it hit me like a ton of bricks. The lucky little guy inherited my wonderful “one eye closes more than the other when smiling hard” characteristic. As if that wasn’t one of the sole characteristics of mine that I always tried to ignore/pretend didn’t exist…there it is smiling right back at me! Somehow he makes it look so cute, though.

My Little Cowboy


So, I was at a loss for a “cute” outfit for Grant’s six month pictures (that I get taken at JC Pennys), and I think my solution is going to cost me counseling dollars down the road. Instead of wasting time trying to put an outfit together, I just took everything off of him except his overalls and magically a little cowboy appeared. Yee haw!

Election Day


Well, Grant survived his very first presidential election day. We woke up bright and early in order to walk to the polls before I had to go to work for the day. It was a beautiful morning, and everyone working at the polls fell in love with Grant. He went into the booth with me to help me vote, however, Barack Obama/Joe Biden won the election. Though I don’t believe in the same ideologies as Obama, I am very pleased that America has elected our first African American for President. He has big shoes to fill, and I hope he does a wonderful job. After all, it is my baby’s future!

Happy Halloween!



Grant celebrated his very first Halloween! : ) He went trick-or-treating at our next door neighbor’s house and his grandparent’s houses. He was the cutest little pumpkin ever, and he scored lots of squash! We also took him to a Halloween party at the Lindner’s, and he had a blast in his pea pod costume. He kept trying to eat the “peas” off of his “pod”!