I was in heaven with how adorable my little guy looked on Easter. This picture was taken at the end of the day, so you will have to forgive all the wrinkles.

I decided to go with a non-traditional Easter basket for Grayson. I found these adorable little pales at Target and picked up a large one for Gray and two small ones for Mommy and Daddy. Gray’s is hiding behind the book. I was kind of hoping to get a Circut for Mother’s Day so I could add his name to the pale next year, but since we are officially in “saving” mode around here, due to all the expensive disasters we have been through lately, I have a very strong feeling a kiss and some flowers may be the only gifts I get this year. I’m not complaining, I love kisses and flowers from my boys…they are all I need, I’m just being a realist.

The Easter Bunny really loaded up this little boy on his 1st Easter. The Easter Bunny shops a lot in the $1 section at Target. There was no candy in his basket, but he received a couple of books, some bubbles, a bright and fun sprinkler for summertime fun, a beach ball for the pool, a bath toy, and something called a Zhu Zhu pet. It’s that little raccoon looking thing. It makes noises and zips around the room on it’s own. I thought it would be fun for him to chase once he starts crawling. Which looks like it may happen any day now. I’m so not ready for that.

The Easter Bunny stopped by the grandparent’s houses too. This is the basket he left at Derek’s parent’s house. I didn’t get a shot of the basket at my parent’s house.

Uncle Davis helped Gray tear into his 1st Easter basket.

At my parent’s house we took pictures of all three grandkids since everyone was so dressed up. Grayson was a ham for the camera, as usual.

Gray will only give kisses to me, his stuffed animals, and other kids. It’s so weird. He just will not kiss other adults. Derek has only received one kiss so far. I asked him to give the baby a kiss and he had no trouble laying one on him. The baby, John, did not enjoy the kiss. Can you tell?

So that was our first Easter as a family of three. I hope all of your Easters were just as wonderful.

Well, Squishy’s 1st Christmas has come and gone, but I want to share some of the highlights with you.

Now, this year’s highlights aren’t quite the high level of excitement as last year’s. Last year we gave both of our parents small gifts to open with onesies to reveal that we were pregnant.

Since both mine and Derek’s parents live in Memphis we had to figure out how to maximize baby time with each set of grandparents. This year we decided to spend all of Christmas Eve with Derek’s parents and Christmas Day with mine. It worked out smashingly.

Christmas Eve morning we woke up and took out time getting ready. Since we were spending the entire day over there it made no sense to arrive at the butt crack of dawn. Which was nice, because the past few Christmas mornings we were up at 6:30am. We didn’t even have a kid then….no fair! So, this year we took our time in the AM. We woke around 9am showered and then Derek gave me my gift. People, I got me a new camera. A Canon EOS 60D.

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Now, by no means is this the camera of the pros, but for the shooting I do…it’s a beast. My new little nephew is due this March and I can’t wait to shoot his teeny tiny adorable newborn pics with this bad boy.

We ate lunch at my in-laws and then dove into a pile of presents.

Here is my lovely hubby attempting to open a gift with his new ski gloves on. Oh, and see the pants he’s wearing. Yup, those are ski pants. Can you guess what type of vacation we are about to take. Go ahead guess. I bet you’ll never get it.

(Side Note: I can not wait to go on this ski trip. We are going with 2 other couples in just a few short months. We had intended to go to Whistler this month, but I got knocked up and we had to call off that trip, but now there is a new vacation planned. A vacation to Utah! Real snow here I come.)

This was Derek’s big Xmas gift. A Boxee Box. For those of you who aren’t quite the major geeks me and the hubs are I will be posting an unboxing and and overview post of what this little black box does.

This kid was over the moon about this gift. Yes, I just used the phrase “Over the Moon”. Cuz, I’m old school like that. BOOM!

Me and my bro-in-law Davis

We had to take a break from the gift opening to change a dirty diaper. Babies….sheesh!

Grayson seemed to love the ornaments on the tree. Many of them ended up in his mouth. Looks like we may have a little issue next year with a 1 year old and ornaments. I have a feeling it will be very much like having cats and a Christmas tree.

After all that excitement it was time for a nap…

Later in the evening we sat down to a delicious steak dinner. Yum.

The next day, Christmas Day, we headed over to my folk’s house for presents and food.

Oh, the presents. We are so blessed.

The little dude was kind of the center of attention…this year.

Opa

Oma

Gray’s Great Grandma

His cousin Jerry

Aunt Toof

Notice how I said this year? That’s because in March my SIL is expecting. See that baby bump in the picture below?

Not that you were wondering or anything, but yes that is a bottle in my son’s mouth, and yes I am still nursing. Yet, my kid seemed to get hungry right in the middle of gift opening time so to the bottle we went. I didn’t want to miss out on all of the merriment, and no one really wanted me whipping out the ole’ breastages in the middle of everyone.

Like much of the South we too received snow on Christmas day. However, our Christmas was not quite white. It snowed all day, but nothing ever stuck. Boo. That’s pretty typical of Memphis….a big weather tease. I know it looks more like the trees have dandruff, but that’s snow…I promise.

My grandmother made all of our stockings, but no longer can do the extensive stichwork she use to. That meant my mom had to find Grayson a stocking. She found the cutest stocking for Gray at LL Bean.

Then it was present time….

Gray did really well with this. I was quite surprised that he was able to rip the paper off of a few gifts. I think it was more that he wanted to eat the paper rather than see what was inside.

His favorite toy of the day (besides the paper)…

My favorite gift I gave was to my little brother, Michael. While checking my email I came across a brother Xmas gift suggestion on Cool Mom Picks. It was for a personalized ornament. I mean super personalized! The ornament is made to look like anyone you want. My brother is hard to buy for and I didn’t want to go the gift card route again this year so I sprang for this bad boy. I found it at the Sklep Etsy Shop. I sent her a picture of my bro and she did the rest.

That was Squishy’s 1st Christmas. Not very eventful, but full of family and fun.

Wait!

I forget to show you his Christmas outfit. It was my brother’s when he was a baby. I swapped out the shirt for a long sleeve white onesie because it was a tad bit 80′s and because polyester should never be put on a baby. The red overall portion of the outfit was velvet. “What is that, velvet?!?”

The outfit is supposed to be worn with little white knee socks, but I didn’t have any. We just went with our church socks. It worked.

I myself am not an Arkansas fan, but Derek’s side of the family is from that neck of the woods and they are HUGE fans. Late one evening a special little outfit was dropped off at our door from Derek’s aunt and uncle.

Sunday was my mother-in-law’s birthday, so we invited them over to eat some BBQ and watch the Arkansas game. (We did not realize all the irony going on until after we decided on BBQ for dinner….Hogs, BBQ, baby hog outfit….geez!)  Since the game was on, we dressed Squishy up in his super adorable outfit to root on the Razorbacks. Even if you hate Arkansas, you gotta admit this outfit is outrageously adorable.

Since Derek’s aunt and uncle requested photos of the little dude sporting his hog outfit I snapped a few way too many photos during the game.

Last weekend my baby bro got hitched!

Friday night, of course, was the rehearsal dinner.  Katie’s mom thought it would be cool for the out of town guest to get a little taste of Memphis BBQ while in town, so my dad got us hooked up at one of the best little BBQ joints in Memphis….The Commissary.  Let’s just say that their food’s so good you’ll slap yo’ momma.

We had a great time stuffing our faces with “fall off the bone” ribs, and BBQ sandwiches.  Then to top dinner off we chowed down on a few of their famous chocolate pies, and strawberry cakes.  OMG!!!  Derek was hurting, by the end of dinner, he ate so much.

And of course for all of the out of town family there was a LOT of the PASS THE BABY game.  I don’t think I saw my baby until we walked out the door to go home.

It was a great time.

The next day was the big one.  I still can’t believe that my baby bro is married.  Freaky.  It was a beautiful day, and Katie made a beautiful bride.

Like that veil?  It’s mine.  I know, I know.   I’m so generous.  I wore it a bit different.  It’s great that she was able to place it the way she wanted.

The ceremony was outdoors, and it was a bit of a sunny day.  When I saw my mom walking up the isle with her sunglasses on I didn’t think anything of it.  I guess she meant to take those bad boys off before she was escorted up to the front, because she was mortified when she realized that she wore them up the isle.  Silly Becca.

I thought she looked quite fancy.

Here’s my grandpa and nephew.  Isn’t this just the sweetest photo ever.  He looks so cute with that bright red hair.

Here’s my two favorite dudes waiting for the big show.

I asked Derek to snap a shot of me and Gray, because I don’t want to end up being one of those moms who is always behind the camera and never in any of the photos.  So, I am trying real hard to make and effort to be in some photos.  Well, I may need to rethink who I hand the camera to next time.  This is the shot Derek got on the 1st try….

I don’t know why most of the pictures Derek takes of my end up looking something like this, but they do.  He did better on the second go round.

See the wet spot on my dad’s back?  That’s not sweat. It’s champagne.

Just before the toast my sister was passing out glasses to toast with, and she thought that carring a tray of drinks was a good idea, with her zero year of experience in doing so.  Let’s just say….there was a crash, and someone yelling “Oh $#!+”.  My dad’s back ended up getting soaked by champagne.  Poor guy.

Other than the champagne disaster of ’98, the wedding was perfect.  The food was yummy (catered by Owen Brennan’s).  I’m so happy I got to see my little bro get to marry the girl of his dreams.

Congrats Mike & Katie.

My baby bro is getting married tomorrow.  :: tear ::   It’s weird, in a way, to think of him as my “younger” brother considering that my husband is the same age as baby bro.  Yep, this chicca is a cougar.  RAAAAAARRR!

(Mikey is the one in the middle...in case you were confused)

I can’t believe it’s really happening. Mikey is marrying a wonderfully sweet girl named Katie, and I can’t wait to call her a sister.  She’s been around so long it feels like she already is.  I just LOVE how happy they seem to make each other.  I’ve never seen my brother so happy.

I was hoping Grayson could be the ring bearer, but alas he is not walking yet.  Seriously kid you are 5 weeks old…walk already!

I’ll post pictures soon.

Congrats Mike & Katie!

We went to my in-laws last night to celebrate me turning into a dinosaur, and while we were there Grayson’s uncle, Davis, had some baby time.  Grayson’s middle name is Davis.  Can you guess where we got that name from?  You’re so smart!

Davis is 17 and a senior in high school.  There are many things that could easily have grabbed his attention last night, but instead he was enamored by his nephew.  After we celebrated my birthday Davis asked if he could play with, and feed the baby.  So, I took the opportunity to snap a few.

Davis pretty much gushed the entire time he was feeding Grayson.  I recall him saying “Awww, I want one.”  Referring to the baby.  His mom jumped in and said, “Please, please wait a few years before you even think about having a baby.”

Derek showed Davis a few burping techniques.

Before the night was over I found these two boys napping on the floor.  How cute are they?

I had to throw this last one of him yawning, because he is so freggin’ cute.  I mean. Come. On.

Yesterday was the big day.  Baby Sex Day, as Derek likes to call it.  He thinks the shock of the wording is funny.  I think so too.  So, Derek went with me to the doctor yesterday to find out what we were having.  They called us right back for the ultrasound.  We were taken a little off guard that we were doing that 1st thing, but we were still very excited.  The technician scanned the baby’s head, kidneys, bladder, and limbs, and then she moved on to the moment of truth. IT’S A BOY!  Just as she said those three little words a tear ran down my cheek.

We invited close friends and family over for the big reveal last night.  I thought it would be fun to reveal the baby’s gender to everyone by having everyone bite into a “baby” sized cupcake and finding either pink or blue on the inside.  We also picked up some BBQ sandwiches from a local BBQ joint, Central BBQ.  It was so yummy.

Once we got home from the doctor’s office I began adding the blue icing to the cupcakes and then topping them with vanilla to mask the inserted color.

People began arriving around 6:30pm.  We dug into some BBQ and then around 7:20pm the big cupcake reveal happened.  Everyone was extremely excited.  Including little Sophie you see in the picture below, we had a grand total of 17 people partaking in the big reveal.  And they all were able to fit inside of our teeny tiny house!

I think my mom and sister were hoping for a girl…maybe next time.  My mom even brought a present for a little girl.  It was the sweetest little blue and white cotton dress you’ve ever seen.  Sorry mom.  

Since most of you reading this weren’t in attendance….here is a video of how it all went down.

It’s a boy!

Our friends Ryan and Sarah arrived just a few short minutes after the reveal so I pulled them aside, and gave them each a cupcake.  They each bit in and saw the blue.  However, Ryan yells out IT’S A GIRL!  We all began to laugh because we thought he was just kidding…like he always does.  Come to find out he was serious.  He told us later in the evening that he was expecting it to be a girl, and didn’t register the color.  He just saw “a color” and shouted from the roof tops that we were having a girl.  That guy cracks me up.

In all, it was a great day ( and night ).  I’m so thankful that we have friends and family that love us so much that they chose to share this special day with us.  Thanks to all of you who made it.