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7 months and wanting to move!

I know I have a lot of updating to do, but the thought of trying to post everything we've done this summer is a little overwhelming!  So, these are from today.  I finally got my camera to upload my pics on the computer - all 610 of them. So, I have a little organizing to do!

Grady is 7 months old already - he is getting up on his hands and knees and scooting around on his butt!  He trys to play with everything that he is not supposed to, but Gavin is really good at keeping an eye out for him - he lets us know right away if Grady has something of his!  Gavin loves being a brother.  He takes his job very seriously!  Just yesterday, I overheard Gavin talking to Grady - he was saying "Grade, I need to teach you things... first lesson, never point a laser in your eye."  Good thing Gav is there to teach him all the important things in life!  We cannot believe how fast both of them are growing.  Gavin starts Kindergarten in just a couple of weeks!  We are busy trying to sell our house, get things ready to move and start anew in Waconia.  Its kind of crazy at our house, but we are enjoying all of our blessings!

getting ready!

I know it has been forever since I have blogged!  I need to get my pictures of Grady downloaded on my computer, so I can get them on here.  Looking back at those one month pics makes me realize how big my baby is getting!  And speaking of big, we are busy getting Gavin ready for Kindergarten!  I can't believe in just a few weeks, I am going to be sending my baby off on a bus to go to school all day!  Yesterday, Gavin and I spent the day planning his birthday party.  It took him forever to decide what he wanted the theme to be.  It was close between angry birds, star wars, mario and the avengers, but in the end, the super heros won out and we had a lot of fun picking out supplies for his party!  We have been having such a fun summer, but more on that later... now if I could only get those pictures downloaded... I'll try not to be such a stranger to this site!

March of Dimes

It's that time of year again! Time for the March of Dimes, March for babies! We all know this is something near and dear to my heart - and like last year, I'm walking for my nephew Landen! He has had an amazing year, and because of the work the march of dimes does, Landen is a perfectly, healthy one year old! Also, because of research the march of dimes supports, I was able to prevent a preterm delivery and carried Grady past 37 weeks. If you'd like to donate to this wonderful organization, simply click on the march of dimes button on the side of my blog. Here's to happy, healthy babies!!!

One month!

On Valentine's day, Grady turned one month old! It's hard for me to believe that he has

been here for a whole month, and at the same time, it feels like he has been a part of our family for so much longer than that! We feel so blessed to have him in our lives!

God Bless Samuel

Last weekend we celebrated Sam's baptism! It was such a nice weekend, getting to spend time with my family. It was fun to take a picture of all of the boys together - they are going to have so much fun growing up and making all sorts of trouble together!! The picture of Landen with the two little babies, makes me laugh every time I look at it!!

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Grady's newborn photoshoot

One of the biggest regrets I had with Gavin was that we never got newborn photos taken. The first professional photos we had taken were at 3 months - and they change so much those first months! I'm really happy with how our pictures of Grady turned out!

Welcome Grady!

Grady and Sam... just 3 weeks apart!

Grady Brandon made his grand, and much anticipated entrance into our family on Saturday, January 14 at 6:41 PM. He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and was 19.5 in long! Gavin is so thrilled that his little brother is here and has been more patient and understanding this last week and a half than I could have ever dreamed of! He is loving his role of big brother and is immensly in love with Grady! We are loving all of the visitors we have had and could not feel more blessed. We cant wait to watch Grady grow and discover this great big beautiful world!

welcome Sam!

On December 23rd, the Strey family welcomed a new little miracle into our lives! We are so thrilled that Samuel Eric is here and happy and healthy! Owen is going to make such a great big brother, and Gavin is absolutly in love with his new cousin. Right after seeing him for the first time, he told me that we had to text Laurie and tell her that "if they every go anywhere, where there are no babies allowed, that we would love to babsit Sam!" We cannot wait to watch him learn and grow and help him to discover this great big world! Love you Sammy - you are so perfect!

a very merry christmas...

We celebrated a little family christmas, the weekend before Christmas. I was feeling pretty good, but we were not going to go anywhere, so we had a nice dinner together and opened gifts. As you can tell, Gav was a little excited to open his Wii and his new lego set!

still growing!

This picture was taken at 35 weeks. I am currently 36 weeks and 2 days I have now surpassed Gavin's gestational age of 35 and 6. It has been a long, and strenuous journey, I'm pretty uncomfortable most days, but I know that this precious little baby boy is all worth it!

annual cookie baking day!

One of my favorite days of the year, is our annual cookie baking day! It's just a day full of family time and lots of goodies! The kids always put together a gingerbread house, and each year it gets more and more detailed and well done! We also got to spend lots of quality time with Landen, including going to meet santa and do a little shopping! It's a great way to kick off the holiday season. This year, Shane helped Bryan deck the house out with lots of fun Christmas lights and made our home look very festive. I can't wait to do it again next year!

ugh!

I'm just frustrated! I can't get my pictures downloaded on my computer! I know there are 60 pictures on my card, but the computer tells me there are 1300 and they are all from when Gavin was 1 - so I don't know how to fix that or get my pictures downloaded so I can finally update my blog! I have some new belly pics - we made it to 34 weeks today! I started bedrest this week for the next 3 weeks. The plan is to make it to 37 weeks, then resume activity as normal and see what happens. I only have 2 more of my progesterone shots left - I will be happy when that is over. 20 shots with a big needle in your bum is not what I call a good time. So for the next few weeks, me and my baby bump are just going to be hanging out doing nothing. We also celebrated our Christmas last weekend. We didn't have anything going on, and thought it would be nice to have a little celebration for the 3 of us. I'm looking forward to receiving my wine of the month from the membership Bryan gave me. Bryan has a new wedding band, and Gavin has been having a blast with his Wii! We had such a nice evening together! We are anxiously awaiting baby news from the Strey household! This morning as soon as Gavin got up, he told me I had to check to see if Auntie Laurie had her baby yet! We are all so excited! I'll have to keep working on my computer and hopefully I can figure it out soon. Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and a great new year! We are definitly looking forward to the new and exciting things in store for us in 2012!

Halloween

Gavin had a blast this year dressing up like a Vikings player for Halloween! I'm not sure if he enjoyed the trick or treating, or handing out the candy more! He loved seeing all the other kids come to our door in their costumes! Luckily, we didn't run out of candy this year! Our neighborhood is a busy place at Halloween, which made it even more fun!

growing belly!

I'm actually going on 27 weeks, but we took these at 25 weeks... as you can tell, someone is very excited to be a big brother!

Pumpkin patch!

We had a lot of fun going to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard with Krista and Landen! We just can't get enough of that little munchkin!

If you scroll down past the family pictures post, you will find our vacation pictures - I published it late, so it goes to the bottom - we had so much fun, looking at the pictures makes me want to go back!!!

family pics

I've been having lots of issues uploading my posts to blogger, so hopefully this works! We had our family pictures done last week, and I'm so happy how they turned out! Gavin was such a ham, striking his own poses and making picture suggestions!

Now for some updated baby news... the little stinker has been causing me some discomfort! Last night I had to leave work early because I was cramping and contracting - seriously, though, I have some amazing coworkers - we really do take care of one another! I still didn't feel quite right this morning, so I called the clinic to be seen. When the Dr checked me, he said that my cervix is closed, but that it is thinning and shortened. He put me on modified bedrest just for the weekend, and then we will re-evaluate on monday. I'm hoping that a weekend of rest will help to settle things down and then I can go back to normal activity. I feel a lot better even today after just resting all day. I worry what long term bedrest would mean for Gavin - he kind of likes his mama to hang out with him! Tonight, after Bryan picked him up from school, he just crawled into bed with me to snuggle!I'm thankful for all of the support that we have - but really, don't worry yet - we are doing fine!