Illinois Recap #2

Traveling for Christmas can be stressful... Walking into the airport Thursday after work I was blown away at how crowded it was a whole week before Christmas! The last time we flew with Grayson he was 9mo old; so I was a little nervous how he would do this time around being an active almost 2 year old! I was prepared with a backpack full of suckers (to help his ears), books, stickers and an ipad of his favorite movies.

 

I wasn't prepared for delays at the airport for the flight there, but we had fun running up and down the airport and putting stickers on everything! 

The flight to Illinois was completely full - so we had a big guy sitting next to us and Grayson on my lap... it was a tight squeeze. The fight home wasn't as full and we got all three seats to ourselves! It didn't last long, but Grayson had his own seat for a while before passing out.

 

 

 

We were really hoping for snow while we were in Illinois. We were all so excited and ready to take Grayson sledding and play in the snow... Sadly, nothing accumulated. BUT, snow did fall one morning and Grayson got to experience his FIRST snow fall!

 

 

 

I am treasuring these sweet moments! He is such a joy and the light of our world!!

 

 

We were also spoiled with getting to have 2 date nights in one week!... Say what!?

 

 

We even found time to meet with sweet friends that we miss!!

 

Lunch with BFF

 

 

Grayson and Ellis play date!! These two boys are ALL BOY and have soo much fun!!! 

We went to this new place called Ergadoozy - so much fun for the kiddos!!!

 

I cannot help but feel overwhelmingly blessed by my sweet Father who gives me all of this! What sweet moments and memories He has given us... Praying I don't take one second for granted.

Illinois Christmas recap

We have been home for less than 48 hours and I am still reflecting on our days in Illinois with family and friends and thinking how blessed we are!! We had such a sweet time with our family and got to sprinkle some time with sweet friends too.  We took SO many pictures and packed in so much fun and memories that I'll have to break it up into a couple of posts...

I'll start with Christmas...
I was really excited for Christmas this year as Grayson has grown and understand more. He is so much fun and gets so excited and expressive!

What a difference a year makes!!!

 Christmas 2012 (Grayson 9mo old) - Christmas 2013 (Grayson 21mo old)

 

Every year Santa visits the Bianco's Christmas Eve party with a bag of gifts for all the kiddos! I was unsure how Grayson would react to Santa bounding through the door, as he wasn't a fan last year. But to my amazement - Santa came in and Grayson had a look of pure joy! Pointing to him and making a bee-line for Santa! I wish I had a pic/video, but it was priceless!! He went right to him for a high-five! 

The only time he cried - was when he wasn't the first child called to sit on Santa's lap! It was adorable! Not too much of a difference from last year....

Crying on Santa's lap v. crying to be on Santa's lap!

 

 

Grayson had soo many presents! He is definitely the spoiled first grandkid on the Bianco side! ;) We are soo blessed to have such loving family and friends! He did a great job opening his presents and was SO excited!

 

But he eventually got bored opening gifts and took a break to watch some cartoons.

 Tony and I were spoiled all week with Nana and Papa getting up with Grayson most every morning while we got to snooze a little while longer!

 Merry Christmas!

 Thankful for how good our God is to us!

It's almost here

All last week we were home with Grayson while he was sick... He made a full recovery this weekend and now we our in our last days in Texas before going to Illinois for Christmas!

This weekend Tony and I were able to go to Celebration (our church's Christmas production) - and it was WONDERFUL! Such a great show and time alone together after nursing a sick kid all week!

Unfortunately, with Grayson being sick all week, we had to cancel our Christmas Party that we had planned on Friday. And by Sunday night I had started not feeling well. Caring for a sickly all week finally caught up to me (Tony never gets sick). So I've spent most the week taking Nyquil and going to bed by 8:30 with lots of Airborne and hot tea during the work day. I haven't gotten to do nearly as much as I would have liked during our last week before Christmas; but I guess God was telling me I needed to rest before the craziness of traveling and family this weekend.

Having a week of school Grayson has had a hard time transitioning back to it this week -- not looking forward to the first week back to school after being spoiled by family all Christmas. :/

But he still loves school and his teachers and friends! I'm excited to give his teachers their Christmas gifts tomorrow. We got some soap and sanitizers from Bath n Body and put cute tags on them that say "Thank you for your helping hands." Grayson also got his 2nd haircut this week! We thought we'd give him a trim, since the first haircut really just took care of the mullet in the back, he needed a trim on the top. :) He doesn't love it... He starts fussing as soon as I sit him in the chair... So it's lots of distraction with toys and suckers.

 

 

We hop on a plane tomorrow evening and will get to spend 9 days in Illinois. It snowed there last week, so we are all really excited to take Grayson sledding and teach him to make and throw snowballs. Nana and Papa went and got him a snow suit and boots.... they are really excited! I'm excited to see him open presents this year, and how much more he interacts with everyone. It's so fun to watch him grow and develop. He's teaching me to slow down and enjoy the moments.

 

 

I'm going to absorb every moment with our family in Illinois and will update the blog come the first of the year!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Sick Day ramblings

Monday afternoon Grayson's school called that he had a fever - so I left and rescued my little sickly and have been home til today.... I used to be home all day every day with him, but for some reason either having been working full time or that it was sick days or that Tony was gone the whole time, they days seemed forever long. These are my many random ramblings from my brain the last couple of days....

Grayson almost always only gets sick when Tony is out of town... no fair.

I'm so thankful he is sick this week and not next week when we leave town for Christmas in Illinois... oh, I hope me and Tony don't get it next week now...

 

This momma stuff is hard! It is hard watching you're little one not feel good and feel hopeless. It is hard hearing them cough and struggle to sleep through the monitor. It is hard seeing your little sickly not have an appetite. Hard watching your sickly throw tantrum after tantrum b/c they are sick and tired and cannot communicate that.

 

 

Two words... Daniel Tiger. Grayson has just recently discovered this show... and it is adorable! I really like some of their parenting methods... lol (but seriously.)

 

Have you noticed the cat and the owl family are single families? And that Daniel doesn't wear pants!? Except when wearing pjs...?

 

I think G's new attachment to his teddy bear (which is Duffy from Disney World) is adorable...

 

 

 

How do kids/babies know the moment you sit down to eat or nap during their naptime!? It's like some 5th sense they have.

 

I would not make a very good single parent. Need. Tony.

 

When did this kid get SO big and such a TODDLER!?

12 months

 9 months and 21 months

 

 

We've watched "choo-choo" (The Little Engine That Could) 10 times in 2 days.... dear Lord.

 

I miss all these snuggles!

 

When Grayson stands next to me and hugs my legs... it's kind of my favorite. He squeezes so tight, I love it!

 

I think it's adorable that the ottoman is now his fort! We even refer to it... as his fort now...

 

 

 

What's with Handy Manny and Kelli? Pretty sure there is an underlying relationship there. And why is it completely normal that tools talk.. but no other random items do.... hmm.

 

I would much rather be watching Princess movies all day... please God give me a girl one day!

 

 

How in the world did we go to this many toys...

 

To this.... (and this is only have the room)

 

 Totally lost my cool last night... one too many tantrums than I could handle. Made up for it with a huge dance party in the living room to Christmas music! He loved it. I loved it! Can we do this everyday?

 

I forgot how many times a day I do dishes when I'm home all day and night with no help.

 

Wished my momma lived closer.

 

Thank God for facetime! We got to facetime with daddy everyday.

 

 

I have the cutest sickly ever! 

Wintery Weekend - part 2

Sunday was our Christmaspalooza for our students at church and it was SOO much fun!!  We started in the morning and all went and saw the movie Frozen (oh my word - so cute!! Cannot wait to buy it!). Tony and the student staff team has been planning and working so much for this event - it was so great to see it end successfully!! And what a load off now that it is over! :)

We ended the event with some snow and sledding! The students went crazy over snow and it was soo funny to watch them all play in... shaved ice!

While we were off with big kids playing all day, my sweet friend watched my sweet boy all day for us! I think he had as much fun as we did playing big brother to baby Josiah! So thankful for sweet friends that are Framily here in Houston!

Wintery weekend

This weekend was a whirlwind!! I don't even know how we packed so much into the weekend and had so much fun... and actually had a great time and not stressed ... mostly.




Nana and Papa were back in town for 2 more days before hopping on a plan to Illinois. It was such a treat to have them almost 2 full weekends in a row. Grayson was completely spoiled and did not want them to leave! LOL.

He got to spend all of Friday with daddy and Nana and Papa while I had to work. :(  But it ended up being a great time for them and they visited me at the office and I got to get out and have my lunch break with them. :) Tony, more like Grayson, took them on a tour of our church and they even got to take a few pics in front of the giant Christmas tree together! I'm so glad they were able to visit this time of year and see our little world in Houston all lit up and festive!
 




Did I mention that Grayson was spoiled!? Not only did he get that fabulous tool bench the last weekend for an early Christmas present, but this weekend Nana and Papa got him his first train set! Have I told you how much this kid LOVES choo-choo's!? Oh my word! He could play with this thing for hours! It was adorable to watch the three Bianco boys put together the train set and play with it! My heart was so full! (Notice G is even wearing a choo-choo shirt!)

Speaking of Grayson's love for trains - After nana and papa left Saturday morning and we rested most the day, we went out to Christmas Train in Alvin, TX. It was so much fun! I was hoping Grayson would like it because of his love for trains and I thought he'd enjoy seeing the lights - but I didn't expect him to be so enthralled by it all!! It was so sweet to see my little boy (big boy!) get so engrossed in it all! We rode the "choo-choo" through lots of lights, then went inside to get warm for cookies and cocoa and looked at all the trains and train sets!

 

 

 It was SUPER cold here (for Houston, that is), so I bundled us up! I even whipped up a little Grayson-sized scarf!!

 

He was not thrilled about it!... LOL.... But as soon as his coat was on he quickly forgot. 

 

We gave Grayson a cookie and a sip of my hot cocoa.... and he was really happy and energetic! Here he is dancing to the Christmas music before we headed home....