Bye Crib, bye. Bye Binky, bye.

Mac is binkiless and in a big boy bed!! YAY.Saturday we decided to get bunk beds for the boys. I have been looking for months and finally found one cheap enough, sturdy enough and cute enough for Mac and G. As we were setting up half of the bunk (we only set up the top part of the bunk, for the railing) I thought this might be a good time to take away Mac's binky. We have tried before, cold turkey and cutting the tip off, neither worked for us.
So Mac and I collected all the binkies in a basket. I told him that other babies needed his binkies cause they were sad and that he wasn't a baby anymore. Then WE decided to throw them all out the window. So we did...
Later that night as we got him ready for bed he asked for his binky. I reminded him that he threw them out the window for the crying babies. Then he did this...

"Oh no!" He's quite dramatic.

Then he got up, waved to the window and said "bye binky, bye!" and that was that. Yes, he asks for his binkies at night and at nap time and either Drew or I, have slept in the bed with Mac every night. Not great, but we will slowly ween him from that too. Naps are rough but we are just glad he is sleeping without that binky!
I will say, that doing all this over the weekend was a little emotional for me. I was telling Drew, the realization that Mac is not a baby anymore and he's growing up way too fast, makes me sad. All Drew said was, "Well, it's a good thing we have a baby too." He's so sensitive. No, this was great. We have been wanting to get Mac a bed and off the binky since Gray was born and it does feel good to get it over with. Next step...bedding.
Wrestling in Mac's new bed.

7 months and counting

I've been bad, I haven't taken any pictures of the boys since Christmas. Because Gray turned 7 months old yesterday I thought I better take a few pictures and jot down some funny things the boys are doing.

The poor thing is cutting his top front teeth and is getting his fourth tooth on the bottom. Have I mentioned I hate teething!
Today I took Gray in for his 6 month check up (just a month behind). It's always interesting when we go to the doctor's office. Mac hates it!!! When it's Mac's turn to go, Drew comes along and we literally have to hold him down just so the doctor can listen to his chest or check his ears. It's a nightmare when he gets shots.
This time when we walked into the room Mac covered his ears and said,"No, hurt ears, shots hurt." I explained that it's GG's appointment not his and we would need to cheer for GG. From then on Mac encouraged Gray saying "Good job GG. YAY GG. It's ok GG," and clapping after every exam. He was trying to be brave:) It was pretty cute. To top it off he kept calling the nurse Grandma and the doctor Grandpa. I think Mac is needing to see his own grandparents again.
Gray weighs 19 lbs. 12 oz.(70%), he's 29.6 inches long(95%) head circumference was 90%. PS I love how they call it "brain growth". It makes me feel better about having big headed babies:)

Showin some skin...

Gray now can sit by himself and is eating solids like a champ. We are in the process of getting him to sleep through the night. The last two nights we have let him cry. Last night was better, he only cried once for 2 1/2 hours. It's terrible but I couldn't take another night of multiple feedings and waking up between feedings to give him his binky and rocking him back to sleep. We are hoping for a peaceful night tonight. fingers crossed.
Mac update... He loves nursery now and asks to go daily. Which is the total opposite of just three weeks ago. I have been working out at the gym three times a week. Mac calls it church and the day care, nursery. It's a little confusing for the sitters. He is talking up a storm and has started tattling on me to Drew and vice versa. He started praying which melts my heart and even helps me with grocery shopping and putting away laundry. Well, kind of helps, lets just say he loves to throw:) We love our boys. Oh and I don't have any pictures of Mac cause he refuses to look at the camera. So all the pictures I have are of the back of his head.

Solids?

We finally did it. We were planning on waiting to give Gray solids until he was six months but when that came around he was sick so we held off a week until the fam was in town.

G wasn't the biggest fan of rice cereal and nothing has changed since. I thought he would love it and want to nurse less but the exact opposite has happened.

Uncle Jed did a great job

Happy to be done!

Christmas Vacation

Another great visit has come and gone:( These past eight days have flown. We have loved having Grandpa, Grandma, Jed, Annie and Maggie all to ourselves. Here's a little of what we've been up to...

Turfway Race Track

Saturday, after a long and successful trip to the Gap clearance center, we hit the track outside of Cincinnati. Highlight: Annie asking if the jockeys were real people.

Monday we went to the Henry Clay Estate. The whole weekend we had amazingly nice weather so we planned to meet Drew downtown at his office and go to the Estate for a picnic. Well, the weather wasn't so perfect (chilly) but we had fun being outside, reading all the plaques and next time we go we'll make sure the house is open.

Horse farms
You can't come to Kentucky and not see a horse farm. With our friends' connections we got to go to two horse farms. Adena Springs and Elmendorf.

When we weren't site seeing or shopping we put our guests to work. Rita made me curtains, pillows and a giraffe blanket for Mac. Jed and Bret fixed every possible thing in our house, helped put away Christmas and Jed finished my magnet board. THANK YOU!!! Not to mention all the entertaining everyone did for Mac and Gray. It was a great break for me and the help with the cooking and cleaning was priceless. I don't know what we'll do tomorrow.
This week was amazing, we tried to soak up as much family time as possible. We got our fill of board games, junk food and countless episodes of The Office and 30 Rock, but we weren't ready to say goodbye but we never are. Thanks again for coming to Kentucky and making our first Kentucky Christmas absolutely perfect!! Love you. Come back soon!!

Merry Christmas

This year we had a wonderful Christmas. Since Drew's family came into town late Christmas Eve, we did things a little different this year. Instead of doing a big Christmas Eve dinner we went out to dinner and then went over to a friend's house to watch their kids do the nativity. After, we came home to open a few presents and get the house ready for our visitors.
Our attempts at a cute brother picture...




That night Mac opened up his presents from Grandpa and Grandma McAllister. He LOVED his rocking horse.

ChRiStMaS DaY...

When anyone asked Mac who was coming Christmas Eve, expecting him to say Santa, he would say "Grandpa." It was the best Christmas present to wake up to Grandma and Grandpa Millar, uncle Jed, and aunt Annie and Maggie.
Grandma made Mac a "Super Mac" cape. He spent the whole day running around "fast" saying "superman Mac."
Maggie got Mac a doctor kit. Jed checking out Mac's ears
Later we made sugar cookies. I ruined the first batch by putting 1 lb of butter instead of the cup it called for. Mac and Annie decorated all the cookies. Well, Annie decorated while Mac imitated the Cookie Monster. We couldn't even get him to stop eating them for the picture.

It's Christmas time

For me Christmas time means Family. So in order to make this time of year feel "Christmasy" we usually go home to Utah and be with our family. Join in our family's traditions and soak up all the memories. Well, this year we are not going home so I have been trying to get that Christmas spirit other ways.
This was our first year to wrap presents here in K-tuck. I loved doing this. Before I would stay up Christmas eve night with my sister and mom and wrap presents and watch Christmas movies.Even though I will really miss that, I have to say I really enjoyed wrapping presents with Mac this week. He was such a help. Drew and I will do the rest Christmas Eve night before he picks up his family.

Last night we went to Southern Lights at the Kentucky horse park with some friends. I guess this is similar to Thanksgiving point(I've never been). We drove through the fields of animated lights. Mac loved it!! We will definantly do this every year.
Mac started in his car seat and ended up...

on Drew's lap.
At the horse park they had a petting zoo. But not a normal petting zoo. There were deer, a Camel, donkeys, a kangaroo, porcupines, goats, a yak and some weird little goat like animals. It was really cool. This is me and Mac feeding the camel. Mac screamed and yelled "No Camel!!!" For a kid who loves animals so much he really hates them up close.

Geeg just chillin
After we went into the Horse museum, where they have stuffed horses everywhere and other cool displays.


what boy doesn't like blocks?

The nutcracker entertained Geeg while Mac played
Kev kept building this huge tower and then some kid would knock it down on themselves. I got a good laugh out of it.

Even though we would love to be around family this time of year, we are loving the time we get to spend with just the four of us and not flying is a huge plus too. I'm sure it would be harder but the fact that we have two very special grandparents, one uncle and two aunts coming in five days, helps a whole lot. Thanks Katie and Amy for letting us have them for our first Kentucky Christmas.

6 months, already?

These past 6 months have gone so fast! We couldn't imagine life without our little GG. Gray's 6th month of life hasn't been easy. He got his first double ear infection. His first 2 teeth at once, and has had a cold for most of it. Even with all this going on I can still get him to smile.

He's also found his feet!
Gray loves to rub his tongue over his teeth, so getting a picture of them was tough.
Since Gray has been sick, he's wanted to be held constantly. Which means I get little done and I have to be creative when I really do need to put him down. Which led to this picture. Gray loves to sit in the sink. It's been great. I have been able to bath Mac without Gray screaming the whole time. It's these little things that give me sanity:)
One night after putting Gray to sleep, Mac came to me with his "baby" (teddy bear) and my Bjorn and insisted I put it on him. All night he wore the bjorn picking up things, mimicking what I do when I'm carrying Gray.

Gray's Stats:
weight: 18.11 lbs
length: 29"