Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving, we loaded up the car and headed to Memphis to see Brian, Robin and the new baby girls.  Dad and Charlotte were there as well.  I was freaking out just a little nervous about how Grady would behave in the car for 7 hours (which turned into 9), but he was GREAT!  Those of you that have spent any time with him know that he is not one to sit still for longer than 5 seconds.  So we packed every small toy we could, juice, goldfish, bottles, pacifiers, and a dvd player.  All I can say is thank the Lord for Baby Einstein!  I'm not one to put the tv on for Grady, but in the car, it is a life saver. 

We were so glad to get there and see everyone, especially the twins!  I couldn't wait to hold them.  They are so sweet and tiny!  When I wasn't chasing Grady around the house, I was just sitting and holding those sweet girls.  At first I didn't think they were identical, but after spending more time with them and looking at them in person, I thought they might be.  It's still hard to tell.  All I know is that they are just so cute!  My favorite is to see them lying side by side together in their crib.  I have a special bond with my sisters, and I know these girls will, too.  They make the cutest little sounds and are really good babies.  I know Brian and Robin don't get much sleep during the night, but I think that's mostly because it's a long process to feed two babies, not so much that they are crying.  Of course, I wasn't up in the middle of the night with them, so I could be wrong!

I was however, up in the middle of the night with my own child!  That child is SO routine and schedule oriented it's not even funny.  Are we sure Grady isn't Katie's baby??? Just kidding, sis!  No matter what time he goes to bed, he is still up BY seven.  He does not do well "out of his element".  He went to sleep pretty easily, but when he woke up in the middle of the night and didn't know where he was, it was GAME OVER.  After an hour or so, I ended up on the floor with him next to his pack and play trying to grab a few more hours of sleep before he woke up again.  The next night, Dad and Charlotte were gone, so when he woke up in the middle of the night, I took him in the guest bed and slept with him there.  And then again last night.  Let's hope now that we are back home he will be back into his routine.  I do not want to be up at 4 am tonight trying to sleep next to a baby that is playing with my face and my hair!

Here are a couple of pics of Chief and Bailey who I'm pretty sure Mikey wanted to steal. Can you imagine us riding home in the Malibu with Ellie, Chief, Bailey, and Grady all in the back seat?  They are pretty dogs, but I think they'd rather stay in Memphis!

We had a delicous Thanksgiving feast on Thursday... all Hatcher family favorites... fried turkey, hashbrown casserole, corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, cornbread dressing, sweet rolls, crockpot macaroni and cheese, and turnip greens.  We have a lot to be thankful for the past 12 months... 1 marriage (another one soon!), and FOUR babies!!!!  The Lord has blessed us this year!

Recipes

Several of you have asked for the coleslaw and grape salad recipes....

Grape Salad

1 block cream cheese (8 ounces)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
1 bunch grapes (a BIG bunch)
1 bag chopped pecans

Wash and dry the grapes thoroughly.  Pull all the stems off.  Beat the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar with a hand mixer.  Then add the grapes and mix.  Sprinkle pecans on top.  Chill.

Oriental Coleslaw

DRESSING:


4 1/2 tbsp. vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar, but distilled white works fine)
3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. oil
Salt and pepper
Flavor packet from Top Ramen noodles (chicken flavor)

SALAD:


1 pkg. cole slaw mix
1/2 c. toasted almonds
1/2 c. green onions
3 tbsp. sesame seeds
1 pkg. dry Top Ramen noodles, crushed

This salad needs to be put together at the last minute to make sure that everything is crunchy. Toss the salad ingredients first and then toss with the dressing. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Pics

Here are a few pics that I have taken the past few days, but none from the baptism.... (don't forget to send me some, everybody!)

Gifts from Aunt Sam... she is soooo good!

Eating a handful of dirt from the plant when no one was looking....

Football star already....

Cleaned out his PJ drawer and then climbed in it (as I am putting clothes AWAY!)

And a few random pics...

Baptism Weekend

What a great weekend we had with family and friends!  Jenine and Phil arrived on Friday night, and we saw them first thing on Saturday morning.  Later that day, we went to the "Oyster and Beer Festival" in downtown Pensacola which pretty much consisted of two booths and a dozen people.  I expected more of a crowd, but this was it's first running in Pensacola, so maybe next year they will vamp it up a little more. We ended up leaving there and going to Sam's Seafood across from Joe Patti's for lunch.  We then walked over to Joe Patti's after lunch to browse around and look at all their wonderful seafood. 

Sunday morning, Grady took a 45 minute nap which REALLY stressed me out because it was his big day and I did not want a fussy baby.  Then to make matters worse, Samantha (Grady's godmother and my best friend) calls me and says she is stuck in ATL and won't make it here in time for the baptism.  I was so upset!!!!  And she was too.  I threw a small temper tantrum about how things just never work out for me and then I realized it was Samantha who was sitting in an airport for an additional 6 hours and I felt selfish! 

We had a lot of family and friends meet us at the church.... my dad, Nancy, Russell, Cathy, Carol, Elaine, Jenine, Phil, Jerry, Sara, Mike, Jeremy, Kristin, Brannon, Matt, Noah, Angela... I sure hope I am not leaving anyone off the list!  In fact, the pastor even made a comment about how we brought half of Pensacola with us!  Grady is loved!  Unfortunately, our senior pastor was out on Sunday and the minister of missions is the person who baptized Grady.  I was really expecting Dr. Wachob to do it and was sad that he wasn't there, but it was ok.  Grady was a good boy and it was a special time for us.

We all came back to the house afterwards for good fellowship and food.  We had baked ziti, subway sandwiches, oriental salad, grape salad, greek salad, chips, stuffed mushrooms, chicken pinwheels, and cake (thank you to all who contributed!!!).  Grady fell asleep as soon as everyone left, and I even had to wake him up for dinner!  Samantha arrived at about 3 pm and although she missed the party, we enjoyed our visit together (she left this morning).

On a frustrating note... I ended up with NO pictures!  I am always wrapped up with Grady and taking care of him that I never get to take any pictures or be in any pictures with him.  I am very upset that we didn't get a family picture outside of the church on Sunday.  That was the ONE picture I wanted to get, and I forgot.  If any of you took pictures, please send them to me.  I will post them on the blog when I get them. 

Mikey and I want to say thank you to everyone who came!  We love you all couldn't ask for better friends and family to be in Grady's and our lives! 

Confession

Ok, I feel stupid admitting this, but I just have to.  Macey, you're comment on my facebook about Clinton, Iowa visiting your blog as well is leading me to this confession.  As it turns out, Clinton, Iowa is ME!!!  I am retarded.  Somehow, my internet service does not have me located in Milton, FL (as it once did), so now I show up as Clinton, Iowa.  I must admit, I was getting a little concerned about this stalker who visited my blog like 500 times a day.  I just kept imagining them staring at pictures of my baby and planning some kidnapping or something.  Then I realized that Milton, FL was not ever showing up as visiting the blog.  And Katie mentioned how often they visited her blog, too.  And then it hit me.  I feel like a total doofus, but now at least I can rest at night knowing that no one is that obsessed with me.  I should have known that from the beginning!!!!

So, hello Clinton, Iowa, it's ME!

Blue Angels

Today we took Grady to see the Blue Angels Homecoming show.  We got VIP passes to watch from the flight line, thanks to Jeremy's (Mikey's best friend) mom.  We were just about as close as you can get to the show.  They have tables and chairs set up in that area, along with free food, beer, wine, etc.  It really is a treat to be able to see the show from that angle.  It was a beautiful, clear day today and the weather was perfect for an air show.  Grady did not really like the loud noises, and he hated wearing his ear muffs.  Too bad he's too young to make the connection between the loud noise and the ear muffs!  He's also not feeling well, has a cold and now an eye infection, and to top it all off he didn't sleep well last night, so he was very tired today.  But, he was a trooper and did not fuss too much.  I think he'll enjoy it much more next year.  He did like watching the planes and waved as they flew by.  He was exhausted by the time we got to the car, fell asleep on the way home, and slept for another 2 hours when we got home.  He woke up 20 minutes before bedtime, so we're a little off schedule, but I've really tried to lighten up about the schedule.  A little.  Ok, maybe a tiny bit. 

Here are some pics from the day: 

Watching the Planes

Waving "Bye-Bye"

Hanging with Uncle Jeremy

Took his headphones off and got scared by the noise!

Sleepy Head

The Blues

Covering his ears when a plane flew overhead on the way home! His eyes are red from his eye infection, and he's covered in milk. What a mess!

Overall, we had a great day.  We are all exhausted though!  Tomorrow we'll go to church and then spend the day at home relaxing. We have a very busy weekend next weekend because Grady is getting baptized on Sunday. Jenine and Phil are coming on Friday night, Samantha is coming on Sunday morning, Nancy and Cathy are coming on Sunday as well, and about 15 people are coming over for lunch after church.  I guess I'd better rest up this week!

Farewell Bleach Blonde

I have fought it for some time now, but the time has come to say goodbye to my super blonde hair and gradually go darker.  I know this is of no importance or interest to most readers, but I have to discuss it so that I can feel better about my choice!  And for some reason Mikey doesn't want to talk about it for the umpteenth time.  I've had some major two-toned (or maybe three/four-toned) hair lately and also it has been TOO LONG and stringy.  This hair style is also known as the "trailer park trash" look.  It was long overdue, but after much distress and resitance, I finally decided to get some low lights and cut off about 6 inches.  At the next appointment, I will get more low lights until I am back at my natural color (whatever that is, it's been disguised for about 10 years!).... What do you think?

Well we survived Tropical Storm Ida with just some wind and rain.  Many areas got heavy flooding, and some areas on the beach had storm surges that caused damage.  Nor Mikey or myself had to go to work yesterday, and today is Veteran's Day, so we've had 2 days off!  It's a good thing, because I was whooped from my travels to New Orleans this weekend for Emily's bachelorette party...

Speaking of that, I had a great time with my sisters and really did not worry much about Grady. Of course I wasn't worried at all about leaving him with Mikey, I was just worried about being away from him in general.  I have always been a worry wart and a very anxious person, so I was really feeling nervous as the trip got closer.  But when it came time to leave, I was just fine and was actually kind of looking forward to getting away for the night.  We got to Nola around 3 pm, picked Katie up from the airport (yay!), and went to the hotel to meet up with Emily (another yay!).  We did some touring around for just a couple hours and then it was time to go to the hotel to get ready for the big night out.  I called Mikey just to check in when we got back to the hotel and guess where they were???  HOOTERS!  Who takes a baby to Hooters????  Oh well, he was having fun eating his hot dog and mac and cheese, so I guess it's ok with me! 

Meanwhile, back in New Orleans, we headed out to dinner, then went to Harrah's casino, and then onto Bourbon Street.... I have discovered that Bourbon Street is just not for me.  I have been a couple of times before, but this time I was really grossed out by the smells, the people, the dirty street, etc.  And there was a lady there WITH HER BABY (it was almost midnight!).  I wanted to yell at her so bad!  That poor baby.  We were home pretty early, around 1 am, but Katie had to be at the airport by 6, so it was more like nap before we were up again.  I can't believe on my one night away from Grady (who wakes up with the roosters), I had to wake up earlier than ever!  Oh well, I did not want Katie taking a cab to the airport all by herself.

When I got back home, Grady wanted nothing to do with me.  All he wanted was his daddy.  I guess he was mad at me for leaving, or either just had so much fun with Daddy that he wanted him back!  Maybe he really enjoyed Hooters! 

In other news, we finally broke down and bought Grady his forward facing car seat. Technically it's best to wait until he is 1, but we are about to take a long trip to Tennessee for Thanksgiving and also to Texas next month, so we really wanted him to be comfortable.  I'll post some pics in his new seat later on.

He's also started brushing his teeth (all 6 of them).  We thought it was probably a good idea to do this since he drinks juice now and has solid foods.  He LOVES to brush his teeth!

Hey You!

Hello Clinton, Iowa.... who are you?  I see you visit frequently... both me and Katie.  Are we friends?  It's a mystery we want to solve!!!  Leave me a comment so I know!

Halloween Part 2

We took Grady trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.... I say trick or treating, but really we just walked around the neighborhood with him and stopped a few select houses.  We visitied Jackie next door for some M and M's and a Milky Way.  He loved both of those, but chewing the wrapper got old.

So I ran home for a pickle and let him chew on that while we continued our walk. 

We stopped at three more houses before coming back home for dinner, bath, and bed.  His first Halloween wasn't too thrilling, but I think he may enjoy more next year!   I did give him one sucker and he did like it, but that ended up being one. huge. sticky. mess.

Mikey and I used the fire pit that Brian and Robin gave us for our wedding.  This is the first time we've used it and we really like it.  We set it out in the driveway, invited the neighbors over and passed out candy to the trick or treaters.  It was a very chilly night!